After four years, Coolkyousinnjya's fantasy comedy Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is getting a second season from Kyoto Animation. Here's everything you need to know about the upcoming season, including the trailer, new visuals, release date and more.
The Story so Far
Season 1 of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid follows Kobayashi, a young woman who has an uneventful life as a computer programmer. When she's not at the office, Kobayashi keeps to herself and has a knack for drinking with her coworkers. However, this boring routine is jostled when Kobayashi drunkenly saves an injured female dragon one night, and wakes to a hangover and said dragon outside her door. Her disbelief only continues as it transforms into an energetic girl with horns and a tail.
Comedy ensues as Kobayashi navigates life with dragon girl Tohru who insists on working as her live-in maid to repay her debt. Despite the shenanigans that come with Tohru and her other dragon friends, Kobayashi enjoys her life with Tohru and Kanna, the childlike dragon who comes to live with them. Kobayashi comes to see their group as a mixed-species family (particularly since they are now putting a dragon child through elementary school).
The season ends as Tohru is about to do battle with her powerful dragon father who doesn’t believe humans and dragons should mix. But right as their fight is to begin Kobayashi convinces him to let Tohru live her life in the human world. With that, Kobayashi thinks that it's time to introduce Tohru and Kanna to her parents.
Trailer & Title
Kyoto Animation, also known as KyoAni, released four character recap trailers in December 2020 where Tohru, Kanna, Elma and Lucoa recount their lives in the human world. The official trailer for the new season was released on Februrary 23 via the studio's Twitter and YouTube accounts. It's an energetic two-minute video as Tohru and the rest of the characters do an impressive freestyle rap announcing that they're back for Season 2: Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S. The video continues as Kobayashi, Kanna, Lucoa and Elma each try to guess what the 'S' stands for in the title. The rap is then picked up by a mysterious new dragon crouched on a telephone pole who says she will explain. The 'S' stands for "Super Supreme Second Life Start."
This new dragon introduces herself as Ilulu, a pink-haired dragon in a black cape and a bikini whose reason for arriving is a secret. The trailer depicts a faceoff between Ilulu and Tohru, but also shows Ilulu in her human form presumably in Kobayashi's apartment. It seems that there is a new dragon that will join the group of monster girls in Kobayashi's life. However, the trailer only seems to feature all the female members of the cast. Fafnir and Kobayashi's coworker Takiya aren't included.
Release Date
The new season is set to premiere in July 2021, as stated in the official trailer. There is no news yet of when an English dub of the show will be available, or if Funimation will do a simultaneous dub (when episodes are dubbed as soon as they premiere in Japan) as they did for the first season. Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S should be available on Crunchyroll with subtitled episodes releasing the same day as they premiere in Japan.
New Visuals
New visual images have also been released for the series, including a socially distanced version that plays off of the 'S' in the season's title.
Plot
No official synopsis has been released yet, but this season appears to align with Ilulu's introduction in Volume 4 of the manga. Here's its official summary:
"Tohru's just trying to enjoy life with her beloved Miss Kobayashi, but that's not so easy to do with Ilulu wreaking havoc around every corner! Though Tohru fights to protect Miss Kobayashi from the chaos dragon's destructive desires, Ilulu has been raised with the belief that all humans are enemies -- and doesn't believe their bond can be real...! It's dragon maid vs. dragon fiend in the latest volume of this super-popular, monstrously funny comedy!"
Staff News
Along with the new season trailer, the staff and cast were also announced. There will be a new director for this season, Tatsuya Ishihara (Sound! Euphonium). This staff change at KyoAni is a solemn one, as the first season director Yasuhiro Takemoto and art director Mikko Watanabe both passed due to the arson attack on the studio in July 2019. KyoAni had just started production on the second season when the incident occurred. Takemoto was promoted to series director posthumously and Shoko Ochiai will be the new art director.
On the Maid Dragon official website, Ishihara posted a statement about being the director of the new season: "It is very difficult to take over the work created by other directors, but I think that there is no other person than me if I can take over this work, so this time I will be involved in the production as a director." He continues by describing the series as "a comedy work with cute characters, but in reality, I think that the strength of the message, such as cutting into the deep parts of human and society, is also attractive... the piercing part is the fun of this work, and it is also consistent throughout the series. It doesn't change even if the director changes."
Mr. Ishihara seems to state that he will continue the message the late Takemoto had for the show in exploring the tricky relationship that exists between humans and dragons as the two groups learn to live together. Overall, it appears that Mr. Ishihara is confident he can continue the series and plans to keep the show as the "fun and bright comedy" fans have come to love.
