What happens when a child dragon wants to go to school? The results are more wicked than you might think.
What They Say:
Episode 4: “Kanna Goes to School! (Not That She Needs To)”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As Kobayashi sees Kanna looking longingly at the groups of elementary children passing by on the sidewalk below their apartment (immediately recognizable because of the little hats they are required to wear while walking to and from school), she senses that Kanna would like to go to school. (Insert joke here of Tohru misinterpreting Kanna’s desires; the show, of course, does exactly that).
In terms of the balance elements, this episode was more heavily weighted towards longer-running segments than the quick, blink-and-you-miss-it gags, though there are still a couple of those that get thrown at us. With Kanna at the center of things, it was also easy to predict at the start that there would be a higher level of cute and adorable moments. That’s not to say that the show did not poke fun at the entire process of getting a child ready for his or her first day at school, with an ample dose of cynicism involved (we learn that Tohru reads things on the internet and easily buys into false conspiracy narratives such as that all of the school supplies companies work together with schools to force parents to buy a whole lot of unnecessary junk).
The shopping trip for school supplies is a nice segment once again showing that Tohru’s worldly knowledge is not so great as she might think it is. It’s also a chance for Kobayashi to show her softer side as she willingly plunks down a significant amount of money on things for Kanna when Kanna doesn’t even need to go to school.
Once in school, Kanna shows us how she has much more smarts than Tohru. Since Kanna is pretty much the best at anything she tries, the class “queen” (in her own mind), Riko Saikawa, tries to turn the class against Kanna…which was never going to work as Riko is herself not very popular and the other students even shout encouragement to Kanna and advice about facing Riko. Kanna, however, handles the situation in a completely unexpected, but highly effective manner that does not involve violence, which is the route Tohru would have used.
The last major segment of the episode could be titled “When Dodgeball Goes Wrong…Terribly, Terribly Wrong,” starting with what looks like the aftermath of World War III and then having Kobayashi explain to us, through flashback, how things got to this state. It’s mainly a chance to bring in all of the other dragons as Fafnir and Lucoa reappear and play out the roles we can now expect them to play. It’s pretty funny.
That’s about all one can say about the show so far: it’s pretty funny. It’s not exactly a show that’s making me laugh until I can’t breathe, but it’s also not a show where one should be sitting dourly in front of a screen for 24-odd minutes each time as there are parts that are genuinely funny.
In Summary:
Kanna wants to go to school in order to people watch more and Kobayashi helps her achieve that dream (at some expense to her bank account…but Kobayashi doesn’t really have much else to spend her paycheck on). At school, Kanna makes friends and gets to see human society up close. Finally, the episodes ends with dodgeball as it should never, ever be played. A pretty funny show that delivers some good laughs, even if it’s not exactly a laugh a minute. Still very entertaining so far.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 12GB RAM, Mac OS 10.11 El Capitan
