Fafnir asks Lucoa for help in making a doujin. Tohru wonders why humans need sleep. Kanna goes ghostbusting with her classmates.
Episode 7 – “Common Sense (It’s Different for Everyone)”
Hmm.
The theme for Dragon Maid S this week is conformity. It’s the beneficial kind of conformity, not the one enforced by social pressure or authoritarianism. Through three parts of the episode, we saw how three dragons experienced following the group and how each circumstance could benefit their self-interests. In the first vignette, Takiya convinces Fafnir to be creative and make his own treasure instead of his usual practice of taking loot from digital monsters and hoarding it in his inventory. Fafnir is also competitive, so he found a way to compete with Takiya by making treasure. He wanted to beat Takiya by selling more books at the next doujinshi exhibition. Here’s where Fafnir realizes he needs to conform to best practices by putting visuals into his project. In the first season, we saw Fafnir made a book for Comiket, but it was an entire block of text with no artwork. He became convinced that was the reason it didn’t sell well. Unfortunately for Fafnir, he protects cursed treasure, and now he makes it.
In Dragon Maid’s second part, Tohru notices dragons in human form now get sleepy. That wasn’t the case in the dragon realm. Tohru thought the change came from boredom because the human world is peaceful compared to the dragon world. Kobayashi thought differently about sleep. There are matters of biology and evolution, but also conformity. Tohru connects being awake at night to loneliness, which is a negative effect of nonconformity. Kobayashi joined her for a late-night drink to take away that loneliness. That was the healing anime moment for the Dragon Maid episode.
Kanna is the last dragon to deal with conformity. The context is group dynamics and how children go with the flow of shifting circumstances during play. There’s peer pressure, negotiation, and self-interest within her group of friends. Everyone got their way by playing together and sharing the fun. We could easily have seen someone sulk or throw a tantrum, but good kids find a way to play together.
Heh.
Ooh, a dramatic prologue for Dragon Maid S. Lucoa has a shady meeting at night. With whom? Ah. Shady Fafnir. What “strength” does Fafnir need from Lucoa? That request made her open both eyes. Fafnir has no sense of humor or play, so Lucoa’s playfulness is a poor fit for this conversation. Oh. Fafnir wants to make a doujin to sell at the next doujinshi convention. I love Lucoa’s reactions here. We never see her so flustered. Fafnir’s last doujin was all text, so he thinks that’s why it didn’t sell well. He means, at all.
Ha! Fafnir wants to make treasure! Interesting how Takiya suggested this meaningful endeavor when he was in “cool adult” mode. He usually wears his nerd glasses at home. Will this work out? Fafnir, the mythical dragon, guarded cursed treasure. Won’t he just make more cursed treasure? Lucoa is all in for creative stuff. Oh yes! Fafnir needs Lucoa to be his model! What story is he going to tell? One with an erotic, vulgar woman! Cute! Lucoa always feigns innocence about her appearance. I’m enjoying this so much. The most adult-like dragons in Dragon Maid have conversations like this.
Ohoho! The story starts out by describing Lucoa and Shouta’s exact circumstances. Lucoa objects. And then… cursed doujin! If Lucoa doesn’t convince Fafnir to rewrite his guro (gore) fetish doujin, he won’t sell any physical copies. Now, if it was on certain kinds of digital sites… Well, Lucoa warned him. First, the sexy poses. Nice Farrah Fawcett homage. Yeargh! She did the guro poses too! These quick cuts to items lying around Takiya’s house are comedy gold. Oh, dear. Fafnir is the R. Crumb of his dragon generation. Hoh! That look on Lucoa’s face. She doesn’t want any of Fafnir’s cursed treasure. Oh! She’ll sell a cosplay photobook! I can see where Dragon Maid is going…
As expected, both Takiya and Lucoa sold out their self-published books. I wonder if Elma knows about Takiya’s Water Dragon Shrine book. Lucoa titled her book Huge Melons, naturally. Fafnir will have more cursed treasure to sit on. Uh oh. What will Shouta think of Fafnir’s book? Eep. What about Lucoa’s photobook? He felt tempted again. Who wouldn’t?
Dragon Maid’s second part is about sleep. The only time Kobayashi looks like a cute girl is when she’s oversleeping. Every day off, she panics. I’m not paying attention to anything except Tohru’s thick tail. Dragons don’t need to sleep, so Fafnir must be cranky after guarding his treasure and missing naptime. Tohru’s been sleeping in Kobayashi’s world, though.
Ha. The dragon maid and Elma still exchange irritated looks at each other. Elma has been sleeping according to human schedules too. Tohru thinks sleepiness comes from boredom. She’s enjoying that boredom because it’s different from how dragons used to fight for years without sleep. Elma doesn’t quite buy it. She hasn’t felt bored while buying all the delicious food in this world. Hoho. Tohru claims Elma is trying to change into a pig instead of a dragon.
What life lesson will Kobayashi offer Tohru? The human thinks it’s not just evolutionary biology for why humans sleep at night but also an issue of conformity. Doing things in the dark is tough, and it’s also lonely when most people are sleeping. KyoAni shows off its animation skills with liquor. Even Tohru succumbed to social pressure, but that was too much pressure for Kobayashi! She overslept!
Part three for the Dragon Maid episode belongs to Kanna’s group of friends. They’re going to be a Scooby Gang, hunting for ghosts! Kanna Kamui remembers her Ainu goddess roots. Riko fears ghosts and spooky monsters, but Kanna provides the pressure to conform for Riko.
Kids being kids. They’re playing random games instead of going straight to where the rumored ghosts are. This is fine, so long as Kanna wins. The other kids notice how to negotiate with Riko. KyoAni makes Dragon Maid show off again! Look at the action sequences in this impromptu soccer game.
So, what’s in the art room? Oh. It’s just an open window. No, it’s not! There’s a fairy in here! A manly fairy… Don’t eat him, Kanna! Nope, too creepy. Eh? Why would a fairy sharpen his nails? Anyway, mystery solved. Ilulu made the portal for the fairy to get back home. Why not Tohru? The kids still need to investigate stories for their newspaper assignment. Space aliens are next! Riko feels the Kanna pressure.
Next time, Shouta tries more magic on Lucoa. Lucoa also takes another turn in the horoscope end card for Aquarius because there are six dragons and twelve episodes, so it’s time for repeats. Don’t spam 腐 (くさ, kusa). That’s online chat speech for “kekeke.”
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S (Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon S) streams on Crunchyroll and VRV.
