Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

Episode 9

Gird yourselves, fellow viewers, for the sweetest damn episode of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid to date. While it's always nice to see the building relationship between Kobayashi and Tohru, the show's really at its finest when it's just exploring what makes a family unit, which we previously saw when Kobayashi and Tohru took Kanna school shopping. Now it's time for Kanna's school sports festival, and when she hears that parents and guardians come to watch, she fixates on the idea of Kobayashi attending in the role of her mother. It makes sense, even before Tohru explains it to a baffled Kobayashi. If you remember back to episode two when Kanna appeared on the scene, it was revealed that her parents had basically banished her for making trouble. This week, Tohru explains that this was pretty typical of their parenting style – Kanna's a dragon, and therefore she must be strong and self-sufficient regardless of her young age. But she is a child, so she wants to be taken care of. Tohru tries in her own way, but as Kanna tells her, she's more like an older sister. It's Kobayashi who reads as an “adult” to Kanna, so she's the one she wants to parent her.

This is news to Kobayashi. At first, she has no idea why it's so important to the little dragon that she show up at the sports festival – despite the school shopping trip, there's still a sense that she sees Kanna as more of a (beloved) pet than a child in her care. And besides, Kobayashi's own parents never came to any of her school functions and she turned out fine, so why won't Kanna be okay? This seems to cut directly to the heart of the show: Kobayashi is as much in need of the family that the dragons provide as Kanna. She started to realize this when she bought Kanna the backpack charm she didn't want to ask for, and again when she knew Tohru was watching over her at work, but this week is the clincher. When she admits, with Makoto's gentle urging, that she really does want and need to go to Kanna's event, she seems to suddenly come to the conclusion that she is basically Kanna's mother – and that's not a bad thing in the least.

Of course, this comes with some touching scenes of Kanna throwing herself at Kobayashi for hugs and other physical reassurances. She's typically so self-contained (the better to serve as a foil for Tohru) that seeing her try to control her yearning for Kobayashi to come to the festival is even more heart-wrenching than usual. After we see her spying on Kobayashi at work in an effort to understand why her “mom” won't come watch her compete, the scene where Kanna tries her hardest to tell her that it's okay if she can't make it while clenching her fist in her skirt is especially touching, and the blissful, moments-from-tears look on her face when she realizes that Kobayashi will be there as her parent is beautifully done. While Kobayashi isn't prone to physical expressions of emotion, her slowly growing understanding of Kanna's feelings culminating in smiles and cheers at the festival are equally important. Tohru and Kanna may have come to the human world for their own reasons, but it's really Kobayashi who reaps the most benefits in her life emotionally, even if she doesn't always know it.

Even with all of this emotional content, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid still manages to keep things funny. In one of the best uses of Lucoa's bountiful bosoms yet, when Shouta has to find something “world class” for his scavenger hunt, he presents his dragon to the judge. The guy looks at his paper, zeroes in on Lucoa, and just checks the item off, forced to acknowledge the dragon's amazing assets. The whole thing is so deadpan that it not only works, but it also plays a good counterpoint to the stunned faces of all the other fifth-grade boys as they congratulate Shouta on his impressive “sister.”

On the other end of the romance spectrum, Saikawa can barely contain herself whenever she gets to touch Kanna on the playing field – that three-legged race was doomed the minute their torsos made contact. But there's also a really lovely friendship going on between the two girls, with Saikawa terrified that she's going to let Kanna down somehow and Kanna determined not to allow her friend to be upset. How you interpret the weird face-licking toward the end – and I maintain that dragons have enough dog-like behaviors to make it strictly non-romantic on Kanna's part, though I could be wrong – may change your view of their relationship, but no matter how you see it, it's just as important as Kobayashi's rapport with Tohru.

At the end of the day, this series is really about relationships – friends, family, and romantic partners. This episode touches on all of these while still fitting in humor and a typical sports festival vibe. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Rating: A

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.