English Dub Review: Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid “Year End, New Year! (No Comiket Bit This Time)”

What? I want some New Years money, too!

Spoilers Below

Well, Christmas is over. Next holiday is New Years. In preparation, the Kobayashi household goes out for some shopping. To celebrate the New Year, one of the stalls is doing a lottery, with the first prize being a trip! Being a regular, Tohru has enough tickets for three spins. Two of them are duds, nothing but tissues. The last one is a winner… Third place. The prize is a Kotatsu, a concept foreign to the dragons. If it’s foreign to you too, let me explain. It gets really cold in the Japanese winters, so they use these special tables, not unlike the Spanish bracero. It is a frame with a built-in heat source, over which a thick blanket and a tabletop are laid. It gets nice and toasty warm under there. Dragons being reptilian creatures the cold isn’t really their thing and this kotatsu is… Well, you can see how much they like it from the picture.

The ladies waste several days just huddled under the kotatsu, keeping warm. This isn’t much of a problem for Kobayashi, as she has off until the third. Takiya is off doing Winter Comiket, selling the new issues of his manga. All the minor characters are off for their own vacations to see family. Tohru is hard at work making all sorts of traditional New Years foods, like home-made mochi! She really goes all-out, borrowing a wooden bucket and mallet to pound out the sticky rice into dumplings. She made a lot, and a good thing too! Once all their neighbors come back, they each have gifts to trade for the mochi. The heavy metal rocker brings them a huge bag of mandarin oranges.

The old man carver brings them a wooden rooster. Though well carved, Kanna feels it’s a bit random as a New Years gift. Kobayashi explains that it is based off the zodiac and that this would be the year of the rooster. Still confused, Tohru tells her the legend of how the Zodiac Animal progression came about. She’s a bit miffed though. No way a Dragon would get beaten in a race by an ox and a tiger. Nuh-uh. Incidentally, since they were on the topic of New Year’s traditions, Tohru bought a pack of postcards for Kobayashi. She looks at them with a bit of conflict.

The day is now New Year’s Eve, and Kanna has been invited to the shrine festival. Kobayashi dresses up the dragons in traditional kimono, and off they trot to meet up with everyone else. Riko is there, alongside her sister-maid Georgie. They are joined shortly thereafter by Shota, a nearly topless Lucoa, Takiya, and Fafnir in a snappy black yukata. We even get to see Elma in a kimono. Yup, that’s cute. I approve. Of course, she’s really only there for the food. Riko, however, is there for the Kanna. The little wyrmling, however, is extremely cold. She puts her hands against Riko’s cheeks for warmth, triggering Riko’s… thing… I don’t really have words for that reaction.

First stop, the Amazaki vendor. Amazake is a sweet and nutritious drink made from fermented rice. This is exactly what the dentist ordered for Elma’s sweet tooth. It also takes Lucoa back. She remembers drinking similar drinks a long time back. Tohru asks if it was back when she got drunk and she and her sister… Lucoa cuts her off. Hmmmmmm….

The crew goes up to the shrine to purchase charms for the new year and draw fortunes. While Riko wants to get matching “Relationship” charms with Kanna, Kobayashi buys the two “Academics” charms instead. Tohru’s fortune is a bit odd. It says “Great Curse”, and predicts that she will not get what she is looking for, and will lose what she holds dear. Well, that isn’t nice. Who writes New Year’s fortunes like that? Maybe it’s a plot point for later. I dunno. No time to worry about it. The countdown has begun! Happy New Year! The festival was a big hit, but all of the gang is still in party mode. Everyone gets invited over to Kobayashi’s place to share in the kotatsu and have a sleepover. They spend the first night of the New Year as a pseudo-family and share the first sunrise together.

Kobayashi only has a couple days of vacation left, and she spends them huddled under the Kotatsu with her dragons. She gets a phone call from her mother. She got the postcard that Kobayashi sent her, and they catch up a bit. Tohru can be heard over the line, shouting as she messes up some calligraphy. This does Mama Kobayashi’s heart some good. Our girl has friends. Our girl also has to go back to work. Before she does, though, she hands out New Years Money envelopes to both Tohru and Kanna. In the teaser for the next episode, we can hear Kanna strong-arm Elma for more New Years Money. But where’s mine? Oh well, I guess I’m a bit old for it…

Man, I enjoyed this episode. Not only is it positively dripping with Japanese culture, it really shows how close the characters have grown. When Tohru asks Fafnir if he understands how good he looks in the yukata, Takiya responds with “Yes, he does.” It was in an interesting tone, suggesting that Takiya was really privy to Fafnir’s inner thoughts. That he knew Fafnir wanted to look good but didn’t want to say it because it would make himself look weak. But it was also reassuring Fafnir. It was a nifty choice, not only in the writing but in the vocal direction. Art was magnificent during and after the festival, and those kimono must have been a pain to animate, as they didn’t opt for a pattern fill like some might. I appreciate that. I give this episode nine mochi out of ten.