Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid (2015)

[小林さんちのメイドラゴン]

Volume 3

Author/Artist: Coolkyousinnjya
Publisher: Action Comics

Synopsis:
Saikawa challenges a group of high schooler to a dodgeball match for rights to the playground and Kanna enlists the help of her dragon friends.

Story/Characters:
Dragon dodgeball. Saikawa gets quickly established for being as nuts for Kanna as Tohru is for Kobayashi. I guess this is considered a yuri series, after all, even though such elements are kept relatively restrained. Tohru then learns about a more human style of conflict management when dealing with noise from the neighbors, then Tohru and Kobayashi throw down in a cooking contest. Next we have the introduction of Elma, Tohru's rival from the Order Faction. We then have Elma be our latest edition to the town and Tohru's jealousy flares up. Next we kick off Quetzalcoatl's relationship with Shouta. Yes, the name is very much deliberate on the author's part and some people take offense to the Shouta-con shenanigans that are going to be a big part of Lucoa's screentime from now on. As with the yuri elements of the series, it's fairly restrained and played for laughs, so I don't see too much reason to get overly bent out of shape over it. We then have a brief aside for Tohru's first positive encounter with a human prior to Kobayashi and then we go to Saikawa's for a play-date and meet her sister 'Josie', who's even more of a maid otaku than Kobayashi. Lastly we have the mystery of a half-destroyed mountain, leading us to our cliffhanger.

Art:
We get some dragon closeups that look quite sinister. I do like Elma's design quite a bit. Then we have Ilulu, who I'd narrowly say is more bonkers than Lucoa just because she's so tiny. If you enjoy flustered Saikawa, you'll be getting a lot of that, especially in the play-date chapter.

Other:
This time the afterword talks about Tohru's routine.

Conclusion:
There are plenty of good stories to be had here and I'd say Elma is the best addition to the cast since Kanna. As always, definitely give this one a read.

Rating:
Read It