Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A Lonely Dragon Wants to be Loved

Dragon Maid movie ✅ 10/10 absolute cinema. Kyoani have done it again. The best Dragon Maid has ever looked and the best story arc so far imo. Perfect mix of action and heartfelt storytelling. Got teary eyed several times, Azad is a generic antagonist, but his conflict gives us some of the best character moments in the entire franchise. It feels like a really nice culmination of all the character development for the dragons to this point. They’ve all come so far thanks to Kobayashi, but the film also shows how far she’s come thanks to them. Really beautiful story. Ilulu vs Azad, Kobayashi’s genki damaand Kana’s “I was so lonely” are gonna be with me for a while. This also had the most action I’ve seen from a Kyoani project in a long time and is a nice reminder they might be a character driven story studio, but they can hang with any studio in terms of big action set pieces. Kuwahara Yuki, Tamura Mutsumi and Naganawa Maria were all amazing, their performances made for so many special moments!! Great film and here’s to even more Dragon Maid!

For context, I'm a pretty big fan of the parent show. The snappy comedy, great animation, and occasional surprisingly heavy hitting drama just works for me. I really wanted to love this movie as well, and while it wasn't a disappointment, it also didn't have quite the same charm. Comparisons are inevitable, but I'll start with what this movie did well. The writer(s) took the worldbuilding seriously in a satisfying way, specifically in exploring the relationship between these ultra-powerful dragons and us weak mortals. The cultural and moral differences are front and center, yes, but fans of xenofiction will appreciate that the psychological differences between speciesalso get nuanced attention—something only hinted at in the original series. This context helps elevate what might otherwise be a fairly generic plot to something that rewards additional thinking. (Unfortunately, that's a bit of a double edged sword—those ideas might not occur to you until afterwards, leaving you with the generic drama and unsurprising plot twists while watching.) Another positive: despite its focus on drama and action, the humor that is there works well! This includes something quite remarkable (to me, at least)—the scenes with Saikawa for once made me laugh instead of cringe so hard I want to die. Maybe that was partly the experience of seeing it in a theater with other people laughing too, but maybe the writer is finally learning how to use her effectively? Now onto a few criticisms. It’s true that many elements received special theatrical-release level attention to look beautiful. However, I found a distracting level of inconsistency between those elements. Even between assets within the same shot, the clashing art styles were jarring enough that I actually had to double check there wasn't a second studio that helped in the production. I’ll also note that the usual (and amazingly good) BGM was largely absent due to the more serious tone of the story, and what replaced it felt lacking in comparison. I thought the plotting was well set up to get us to that finale, but there was also a good amount of fluff in the middle section that should have been cut or handled in a more meaningful way. This could have freed up more runtime for comedy or slice-of-life moments, like what makes the tv episodes so good! Specifically, Ilulu and Fafnir both got short scenes that didn't seem to serve much of a function to the story, making it feel like they were shoehorned in. I have more thoughts on Ilulu’s part, but that would stray into spoiler territory. Finally, this is going to be subjective from person to person, but while I intellectually appreciated the movie’s messages and themes, it didn't connect with me emotionally very well. That’s disappointing, because I know the author can deliver powerful emotional beats—like those beautiful moments between Tohru and Elma, or Kanna’s incredible journey with her friend from America in Season 2. Here, though, everything hinges on Kanna’s character, and I was put off by how infantile she was portrayed—seemingly for plot convenience or cheap pathos. In the past, the series made pains to emphasize that she isn't really a kid in the same way human children are, but that idea was mostly abandoned in this story. Our cute, bug-eating dragon girl has always been something of a cypher, so her performance here felt a little too one-note. Overall, I'm glad I watched it, especially since it was pure happenstance that I checked for a US theatrical release the night before its one-day showing. I'm happy to support the franchise even if this movie only half worked for me. People who are more lukewarm on the series might not get much out of it, but who knows? Its more story-focused and serious tone might actually work better for them, instead.

Personally, this movie holds a special place in my heart. I have been waiting a long time to watch it, ever since Season 2 ended in 2021. Since then, I have constantly looked forward to any updates about this series. This anime has become my number one comfort anime, and watching the movie felt both nostalgic and emotionally fulfilling. The music plays a crucial role in this experience, deepening the emotional attachment and making the long wait truly worth it. This piece of music is deeply emotional and heart-touching, perfectly capturing the sadness of the scene when Kanna cries. When Kanna breaks down in tears, Ifound myself crying as well, as the music makes her emotions feel incredibly real and heavy. The soft melody and slow tempo amplify her loneliness, allowing the audience to truly feel the sorrow she has been carrying for so long. Despite being such a small dragon, Kanna is shown bearing an overwhelming emotional burden, as if she is forced to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her tears reflect not just sadness, but deep loneliness and a longing for parental love, especially from her father. The music beautifully conveys this sense of abandonment and emotional vulnerability, making the scene even more painful and touching to watch. What makes the song even more impactful is how it contrasts with the warmth of Kobayashi and Tohru’s presence in her life. While the music expresses grief, it also carries a quiet sense of comfort and hope, reminding the listener that Kanna is no longer alone. Kobayashi’s constant care and Tohru’s companionship provide the affection Kanna desperately needs, and the music reinforces this emotional bond beautifully.

TL;DR This movie brought many threads from the rest of the series together and tied them into a tear-jerker package that really hits home at why this series is so good in the first place, while also building out the world of dragons and magic more in a way that fleshes out the characters we already know and love. I love the Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid series, and a lot of its charm is in how it gives us peeks at this greater world-building with the dragon world, and it dives into it just enough to characterize the dragons in a unique way that makes themdifferent from your typical human characters. Almost reminiscent of the recent hit "Takopii's Original Sin", dragons come view the human world with a very different perspective, weigh their preconceptions resulting from experiences in their world against the ideas of the human world, and in time come to reconcile the two. But in doing so, it sheds light on the nature of humanity, and teaches us what to cherish. As both this movie and the Season 2 OVA point out, in many ways, it's similar to how we interact with cultures unfamiliar to us - maybe, in some way, we are dragons too. This movie delves into this idea more fully by immersing us more heavily in the dragon world, and diving into how different their world is, while showing how surprising similarities arise nonetheless. We get to see more broadly how the dragon world works, and we also see something I've been hoping to see the entire series - how the dragons we know and love interface with the dragon world. We finally get to see a side of many of the dragon cast that we never have seen before, and it really puts into perspective how much weighs on them as they think about their place in dragon society and human society. Even though they had very minor roles, I really liked how the movie characterizes Fafnir, Elma, and Lucoa - finally more than just their gag, we get to see what they really believe for the first time, and that was really powerful. All of this serves to make a commentary about one main thing: bonds. All of these characters' characterizations serve to show how each character's world view defines how they interact with others, from what faction they are a part of in the dragon world to how much power they have as well as their past experiences in the dragon world and in the human world. And the main focus of all of that is, obviously, Kanna. Kanna's story, as much as it is a story about dragons and humans, is also a story about family and how important that is to her. Kanna struggles with her relationship with her father throughout this movie, and the movie handles this serious family theme well. Kobayashi's feelings toward Kanna are explored further, and Kanna spends time considering her relationship with Kobayashi as well, and I'm glad they did not make this exploraton have an obvious simple conclusion. Without spoiling, the conclusion Kanna and Kobayashi both come to are nuanced and really moving, and the movie does well to make these feelings feel very real and relatable. It did not fail to make me cry many times. On top of all of that, this story ties a lot of different plot lines together. The plot of the episode in season 2 that focuses on Kanna and her interactions with her elementary school friends comes back in full force, and Kobayashi's past interactions with the dragon world and magic are made relevant again as well. The writers paid a lot of attention to detail, and it really felt like everything in the past 2 seasons built up to what this movie had to offer. All in all, I really loved this movie. It's the next in the line of more serious arcs in this series, which always manage to leave an impact on me. If there was one gripe I had, it was that at times the emotional scenes were cut off a little too early by a gag, but that too is the nature of this series - as serious as it can be, it's also always bright and light-hearted, as if to say that there is always a bright side in everything, no matter how dark it is. The movie captures everything I love about the series and more, and I would highly recommend.