My first instinct was to call Maidragon "offensively bad", but it's much more of a "mindnumbingly bad"-type of anime. There's nothing there. Watching it is no different than staring at a blank screen for twenty minutes; you get the same boring effect and feeling that you've wasted some, if not all, of your time.
Let me set aside all of my moral issues with the show, because if they haven't bugged you already, you likely don't care. I also don't wish to offend fans of the show when I say that I simply don't get it. Even after giving it a shot, I have no clue why this anime is so popular in both the West and Japan (though Kemono Friends beats it out in the latter area). Anyway, let's move on.
Maidragon focuses on the comedic mishaps of a group of dragon girls when they find their way to an ordinary woman's apartment. It's presented in a series of sketches which all rely on the viewer to elicit at least one of two reactions: 'this is funny' or 'this is cute'. If you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of not experiencing them, everything falls apart pretty quickly. You start finding plotholes that haven't been addressed and likely never will be: Why would an adult woman let all of these people into her house, especially so quickly, and then get a new apartment just for them? Why isn't anyone suspicious of the numerous people, some of them children, that suddenly appeared in her home? Why are the dragons magical? There's no interest in answering such questions, only finding ways to brush them off with a one-liner or some other sort of joke. Sure, you aren't supposed to pay that much attention to the details, but where is the base of the material? Why should you care, other than through two of the most basic methods of emotional manipulation? You shouldn't. It needs you to be non-inquisitive and readily consumerist to enjoy what little is laid out. It's OK if that much works for you, but it's not quite enough to satisfy me.
Another thing that's likely worth noting is the relentless amount of Shoujo-Ai in the series. There is some vaguely sexual thing between women that happens or is hinted towards at least once every five minutes. As a lesbian myself, I normally wouldn't mind, but this element feels awfully shoehorned in and designed to pander to the (predominately male) otaku audience of the show—like mass-produced lesbian pornography, its existence doesn't do much other than serving an extremely basic 'girls are hot' point of view. If I were still 12, maybe it would seem more realistic or more compatible with my point of view. To pretend that it's some sort of feminist, pro-LGBTQ statement is to ignore literally every other theme within the show itself to reinforce your own beliefs. And that's a story for another post.
That's basically the entire show. I don't think its art or music are worth mentioning (depressingly unusual for a KyoAni show), so there's no point in devoting paragraphs to what I can say nothing about. Regardless, if you're looking for something basic and cute and are less picky about what you watch, it might be for you. Want a bit more to think about or care too much about slice of life shows? Here may not be the best place to start.
Mar 30, 2017
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