Manga Review: Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Elma's Office Lady Diary Vol. 1
The cover basically describes the series. If it made you smile, this manga is probably for you.
The anime of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is a series I have a complicated opinion on. There are aspects of it that are hilarious and touching, but others that I found either distasteful or disappointing. One of those disappointments was the character of Elma. She was introduced in the latter half of the series and seemed like she would be a major character. She was a rival of the titular dragon maid, Tohru, and worked at Kobayashi’s office. I expected her to be trying to compete for Ms. Kobayashi’s affections, or to get into frequent battles with Tohru. Instead, almost every time she appeared after her big introductory episode, the joke was that she loved food. I was let down, since it seemed like a rich vein of material that they could mine that went untapped.
This spinoff manga series was basically everything I wanted. It’s a goofy side story about a dragon out of water adjusting to life working in a modern Japanese workplace. Elma herself is a flighty but sincere character who is easy to like. Sincerity in fiction is something that I miss, when American comic books and TV shows seem to love to write everything at an ironic distance.
This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Some familiarity with the main series would help with understanding who the players are in the story. Don’t go in expecting much of a story or high stakes, and Elma is frequently objectified in the art. If those issues don’t sound like they would get in the way of your enjoyment, then I strongly recommend the series; it’s still delivering the laughs as of Volume 3, which is as far as I have read.
You can pick it up on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3yNGSKZ
Note: The above link is an an Amazon Affiliate link.