First Impressions / Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon

「カンナ、学校に行く！（その必要はないんですが）」 (Kanna, Gakkou ni Iku! (Sono Hitsuyou wa Naindesuga))
“Kanna Goes to School! (Not That She Needs To)”

Damn it Kyoani! Stop sneaking powerful emotions into my anime!

Kanna Goes to School!

Even though I realized it as a kid, I don’t think I ever truly understood the cost of getting me and my younger brother ready for each new school year. From the notebooks to reams of college ruled paper all the way to those stupid 0.5mm mechanical pencils that had the twisty top erasers that everyone wanted, I can’t imagine how much it must have sucked for my parents to account for a yearly expense that never got any better. But just like how Kobayashi took things in stride, I think there’s something to be said about the selflessness and devotion a parent has for their kids when it comes to things like this. Sure, Kobayashi may not necessarily be Kanna’s “parent” but in my eyes she’s fulfilling the role of a mom quite spectacularly.

Honestly, I’m surprised her face didn’t show a bit more stress as the purchases started to rack up. Starting at roughly $100 USD which probably wasn’t that bad, I probably would have been a bit more expressive if someone told me a backpack was going to around $330 USD! I guess when you amortize the cost over six years it’s not that bad but boy do kids in Japan get some nice stuff! Anyways, what probably hit me harder than the surprise of spending a ton of money on school supplies was the moment Kanna realized just how expensive things were. Because if there’s something that’ll always get me, it’s intimate moments between parents and kids where they understand what’s going on simply by paying attention. And boy was I proud of both Kanna and Kobayashi for their actions this week. Kanna probably could have gotten way with asking for a cheap $5 USD charm, but the way she exercised restraint started to tear my heart apart. And as if that wasn’t enough, I nearly lost it when Kobayashi pulled out that gift after Kanna’s first day.

All-in-all, not a bad way for Kanna’s first day of school, am I right?

Quick Question on Money

I remember someone in the comments mentioning something about Kobayashi and money and I thought this episode did a great job at showing us she’s probably financially stable but not the type of person to live lavishly. That and who knows — maybe the new mansion that Kobayashi moved into is actually cheaper because of the area or what not! (マンション = Mansion = Condo)

Dragons Having Fun and Looking Ahead

After getting my emotions all worked up, I have to hand it to Kyoani for making a sharp 180 and diving straight into comedic territory. Not missing a single beat as the dodgeball match came to a start, I nearly spit out my drink when Kobayashi went and said “Don’t Kill Them.” That and there was something really appealing about watching Tooru and the gang beat down bullies at their own game especially with those epic sound effects that were thrown in.

Anyways, let me bring this post to a close before it gets too long. I hope you enjoyed this fourth episode as much as me and I can’t wait to see more dragon antics in the future. See you next week!

P.S. I want to know more about Unicorn-san…..

P.P.S. Kanna has tiny feet — dawwww

 

Preview

76 Comments

  1. >Stop sneaking powerful emotions into my anime!

    For real? Just from them mentioning that “things cost money”? I honestly wish I could be so easily swayed. Then again, I’m glad someone enjoyed this more than I did. I was ready to nap after that glacial first half, and they completely ruined Saikawa’s character for me compared to the manga.

    El Goopo
    Reply

  2. https://randomc.net/image/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2016.jpg

    Japan, are you trying to make me a lolicon?! You’re doing a mighty fine job you bastards!

    https://randomc.net/image/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2039.jpg

    A shame Takaii didnt include the pic of Quetzalcoatl’s bouncing tits… i would have commented “Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha”

    Ginobi47
    Reply

  3. wew…from cute scene
    https://randomc.net/image/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2003.jpg

    to emotional scene
    https://randomc.net/image/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon%20-%2004%20-%2024.jpg

    then to comedic scene
    https://randomc.net/image/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon%20-%2004%20-%2033.jpg

    and the last the action scene it’s wonderful
    https://randomc.net/image/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon%20-%2004%20-%2037.jpg

    kurt
    Reply

  5. This episode covered some of my favorite chapters in the manga, and on the whole did a pretty good job with that – particularly the second half. The first part, minus the intro before the OP, was all anime only. That fit well enough & had a couple good LOL-worthy jokes (always appreciated), but one thing I don’t get is why the anime excluded like all of 3 panels in the manga where Kobayashi notes some RL issues with Kanna attending school – no family registry, resident card, education certificate and textbook grant certificate. While she’s listing off those items, Tooru is nonchalantly *poof* “Done” magically creating them one by one (even with the watermark). It’s not ROFLMAO funny, but it IS a good “dotting i and crossing t” kind of detail and also sets up something later. There was certainly plenty of time to fit that into the first half.

    Second half was quite fun. Did a nice job visually from the start with the black & white desolation for the intro into the flashback. Some good attention to detail as well. LOL at the one kid’s combination reaction face of “I’m scared but also turned on” as Quetzalcoatl was slowly, bouncily approached with the ball to hit him out. Riko’s reaction faces during the whole thing were quite amusing as well. All in all, good job.

    Kanna. Again, have to say that the anime just nailed her character to perfection from design & facial expressions to voicing. I think it’s fair to say that Kanna’s character is important to the show. She’s not just mountain sized piles of moe (oh God, the moe! So… much… moe *dies from moe overdose*), but also an emotional foundation as the dragons learn to co-exist with humans in this world.

    Ho…ly…crap! 38,000 yen for a kid’s backpack!? For that much I think I’d rather it be magically cursed just to feel some sense of value for the price. At least throw in a personal Sherpa for a day or two. Wow. OTOH, I guess the price prepares parents for college expenses. :/

    — “Quick Question on Money…”

    *raises hand* I was one who commented about how the new place seemed to be pricey given Kobayashi’s job. For me at least, it’s something that did cross my mind, but this isn’t a super serious show so, eh, whatever. Not like she bought a huge mansion or something. OTOH, that’s potentially a risk with anime only stuff if it’s not thought through thoroughly. Not an issue in the manga because it doesn’t happen. Omission rather than addition, but the same for what I mentioned above about the family registry and such. Some viewers may not have thought about that, but again it’s a nice bit of attention to detail. No reason to omit that IMO.

    As for doing “a great job” at showing Kobayashi being frugal, honestly I didn’t get that from this episode, but I think one could get that impression from sum total of what we see about Kobayashi. In the end, she put it on a credit card which I assume she’ll pay off at some point. Wasn’t an issue for me (beyond 38 freaking thousand yen for a simple backpack!)

    daikama
    Reply

      1. @Takaii: There was plenty of time to put in the *poof* documents during the first half. Just drop one joke. How long could it take? 30 seconds (if that)? I think they just didn’t feel it was important and/or wanted to go with more jokes. YMMV on whether that’s the right call.

        Yes, I’m sure they had fun with the war dodge ball scene. 😀

        daikama
        Reply

      2. 30 seconds of animation is a long time dude. I used to do stick figure stuff in just flash and reaching 20 seconds was a paaaaaaaaaain.

        But yeah, I’m sure the director has certain priorities and I guess that real life bureaucracy might not necessarily be there.

        Takaii
        Reply

      3. @Takaii: Yeah, 30 seconds isn’t that short, but as I noted “if even that”. It’s like 3 panels in the anime so how long would that take? 15 seconds then out of around 20 minutes of show? The time required is de minimis = could have easily been done, just didn’t do it for whatever reason. Personally, I would have included it because I think it has value and is nice attention to detail. Anyway, it’s not a big issue and like said, whether that’s the right call or not – YMMV.

        daikama
        Reply

      2. @Sv: Agree with Aex. Kobayashi wouldn’t like illegal counterfeiting. Then again, could *poof* pile of gold (though Fafnir would take it all LOL). As I noted the whole shopping trip was anime only. Theoretically at least, Tooru could, for example, *poof* backpack (that Kobayashi may very well be OK with). The “magic system” isn’t explained in any detail, but the dragons can do some pretty amazing stuff with *poof* magic (older ones being better). There are (I guess) some limitations. Kanna notes the relative lack of mana in this world. Don’t have a definitive answer here.

        daikama
        Reply

      4. @Takaii: Fair point on *poof* treasure. As I noted, the dragons’ magic power isn’t well defined. Still, Lucoa notes how she’ll just “poof” fix the playground. Seem to recall another instance of Tooru over-cleaning, and “poof” furniture/possessions back. There is definitely a theme of some dragons being about to do magic which others can’t so maybe Fafnir can’t *poof* things well?

        daikama
        Reply

  6. Wow. Are those schoolbags normally that expensive in Japan? It seems commonplace for schoolchildren to use but that’s quite the hefty price. I thought that those were the prices for the bags people bought to use fashionably (at least outside of Japan).

    And I just love the voice actor for Kanna. Her voice is cute and innocent, but not in an obnoxious sort of way.

    This episode was wicked.

    jcoe
    Reply

    1. Randoseru typically range from $180 to $1200. What Kanna got was relatively cheap. But remember that they use it for all six years of their elementary life. You can also use hand-me-downs from older siblings, of course.

      PO
      Reply

      1. That’s a pretty impressive price range, you good easily get a good high quality hiking backpack for that kind of money. Indeed Kanna’s Randoseru is a bit more expensive than the first serious hiking backpack I got for my daugther.

        Gars
        Reply

    3. I really don’t know elementary school life or school life in general but, there are so many different kinds of bags out there with a cheap price why would you go for the expensive one?

      Vaans
      Reply

  7. https://randomc.net/image/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon%20-%2004%20-%2003.jpg
    https://randomc.net/image/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon%20-%2004%20-%2016.jpg
    https://randomc.net/image/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon/Kobayashi-san%20Chi%20no%20Maid%20Dragon%20-%2004%20-%2019.jpg
    Muh heart! Thank you, Kanna. Your weekly dose of diabetes moellitus is wicked!

    One Pinch Man
    Reply

      1. Which is exactly the thing a real kid would end up doing in the the same situation, they may love their new toy, piece of clothing etc a lot but in the end comfort will win the day most of the time. (But only most, kids can be remarkably stubborn in some circumstances…)

        Gars
        Reply

  8. This show doesn’t have any worries at all. They discuss differences, tension on the battlefield, and family, but the show never stops its cheery tone throughout. This show is too precious for me to handle and yet I wanna keep watching!

    Be careful! I wanna kidnap Kanna!!!

    starss
    Reply

  10. Kanna is so adorable it’s almost a crime! Amazing how this show displays a lot of really common things in life a lot of us don’t think about so well.

    Funny how well Kanna is able to make friends simply by being adorable. Also dangerous if that power is misused.

    Roguespirit
    Reply

  12. You can never have enough Kanna in an episode. It never gets tiring watching her. I actually thought that guy wearing the black long sleeves was being sensible in trying to avoid conflict. It’s Kanna’s friend that made it worse by provoking him too.

    Zhinvu
    Reply

    1. Makes you wonder if they can use their magic to bring people back to life…..

      Show Spoiler ▼

      Takaii
      Reply

  17. From watching reactions I get the impression that many interpreted the last scene as Kanna hypnotizing the classroom. The way I saw it, Kanna is one of the ‘cool kids’ so her using wicked so much made it a popular phrase.

    Longhaul
    Reply

    2. Wasn’t that the phrase Tohru taught Kanna on the streets from the man walking by on his phone repeating the same phrase as a response to liferally everything in the conversation? Or was that something different…

      jcoe
      Reply

  18. While I was quite doubtful about this show after ep 2, I kind of warmed to it during the last two episodes, since the premise became clearer and the character interactions more natural. I still have trouble with the pacing of some of the comedic bits, but the slice-of-life elements of the anime are joyous and heartfelt which is a big plus in my book. Last week someone pointed out that it is effectively a family story with Kobayashi and Tohru being the parents, Kanna being their kid and the other dragons are functioning as relatives who drop by usually and after this episode I can see it as a valid premise for this anime. So thinking back it’s a shame that some of those misguided directorial decisions in the first two episodes and in the PVs disheartened some part of the potential viewership, since this show has the charm to became quite popular and the means to tell a story about the importance of family and the ways one can accommodate to society.

    Faolin Eye
    Reply

  19. FYI – In case anyone thought about this since I don’t recall the anime mentioning it. The reason that the dodge ball survived the dragon attacks (when they were going against each other) was that Tooru created an outer magic shell around it. Minor point, but it’s another example of one of those “dotting the i & crossing t” type attention to detail which I appreciated when reading the manga.

    daikama
    Reply

    1. Actually, I thought about the dodge ball explanation as well. It was that one panel after the chapter. At first I questioned why it was excluded, but looking back at the scene, the Anime is pretty explicit in showing the dodge ball covered in magical power “protecting” the ball, so I think most people would not question why the dodge ball survived. However, I understand your sentiment. These sorts of “directorial” changes always leaves me with mixed feelings. On one hand, the purist in me wants to see adaptations as close to the source material as possible with as many details as possible (more episodes please!). I feel like something is missing whenever minor details are cut. On the other hand, I also applaud KyoAni for adding in anime original scenes that have added to the character exposition and for utilizing the anime medium to convey the source material in creative/different ways. In the end it boils down to your source material adaption “philosophy”.

      To borrow from your analogy, KyoAni didn’t “dot the i’s and cross the t’s”, but they gave us a few extra paragraphs of text, which can perceived as both positive to some and negative to others.

      Aoihoshikage
      Reply

      2. @Aoihoshikage: In terms of the ball – kind of. It goes back and forth between normal and “special attack” glowing yellow or purple (and Kanna’s throw isn’t glowing at all). Like you, it didn’t strike me while watching that was magic shell protection even knowing about that beforehand. One could draw that specific inference, but personally I don’t think it was “obvious”. So while a minor point, for that reason I posted my comment as an FYI. Also a small kudos to the manga for attention to detail similar to what I mentioned in earlier post. If I had to pick between the two (*poof* documents or magic shell), I’d definitely pick the documents part that was left out, but could keep both from my perspective.

        As for directorial changes in general, there’s certainly a subjective element as to whether those are “good” or not. For this show, as you say KyoAni has certainly done a number of things right with the adaptation. Not disputing that. Certainly have seen worse, disappointing adaptations, and overall I think this is a pretty good to good adaptation. That being said, I don’t think this is quite there on the whole. Close, but not quite. It’s a bit frustrating at times because there’s nothing in terms of potential adaptation issues preventing this from where I’d like it to be (whether execution or minor changes/omissions). This isn’t some 500 pages per volume, heavy exposition LN which doesn’t readily adapt to anime, and thus you can see why changes had to be made.

        Just to be clear, for me it’s not so much that the source material is sacrosanct, but rather just simply comparing “A & B” and I find one better than the other. The more I like the source, the more I’ll want the adaptation to follow it for obvious reasons. Usually I do find the source material better, but there are times I consider anime adaptation changes improvements or at least “neutral” (i.e. either version will work).

        daikama
        Reply

  20. The show has improved a lot since the somewhat shaky start and it has become a joy to see Kobayashi and her newfound family develop as they live together. The care and affection Kobayashi gives to Kanna can’t help but bring a big smile to my face, for someone with zero experience she has a real talent as a parent.

    This episode hit a bit harder than expected in the feels department. As a widower raising my daugther money was tight from time to time as a army captain’s salary is hardly anything to brag about. Being a smart girl my daugther caught on to this far sooner than I would have liked and like Kanna she began to show restraint where other kids would probably have asked or nagged for the items in question. While it was more peacefull than the alternative it always pained me to see her grown up so fast and it always stung that I could always give her the extras in life at the time.

    Gars
    Reply

  21. I really like Tooru’s cynical observations about humans. (She really should be kept away from the internet.) Her pointing out the inner vindictiveness/selfishness of humans contrasts with the heart-melting moments, and makes them seem more genuine. (As opposed to just being mindlessly saccharine, like a lot of shows.)

    blargnobia
    Reply

      1. there is a legend in Poland about little smartass shoemaker who stuffed a lamb skin with sulphur and other nastiness and killed the dragon living in cave below Krakow Wawel Castle with poisoning…
        yup, living few hundreds years as dragon is not gonna make a favourable impression of humanity

        ewok40k
        Reply

  22. Rumors of Dragon Blood.

    In the Opera The Ring of the Nibelung, someone bathed in the blood of the slaine dragon and gained an skin of totally invulnerability. Only a small spot covers from an leaf, was his weak spot.. Perhaps she can mention this in an Joke

    Worldwidedepp
    Reply

  24. I loved hopw Kanna managed to get friend in the form of “queen bee” who probably herself was very lonely. It was heart-tugging to see them Kanna conquer her little selfish heart…

    ewok40k
    Reply

  25. Ep 05:

    Mostly i got a feelings that is was a bit dry, only the feelings here was strong. But these feelings do not make it all up for this episode. because this random insert of the School.. i know they use it as breaks… But yes, this episode was a bit dry for me

    Worldwidedepp
    Reply

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