10 Second Anime - Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon - Episode 11

The dragons and their companions celebrate the New Year's Holiday.

Episode 11 - "Year End, New Year! (No Comiket Bit This Time)"

Heh.

It's the week of New Year's and that means the most important addition to the show was the kotatsu, the heated table. You can't have lazy New Year's kotatsu jokes without a kotatsu, right? Pretty much everything was a cultural reference joke for the benefit of the dragons learning about this week of no work and NO ANIME! Kobayashi feels your pain, Kanna. The only sentimental moment came from Kobayashi talking to her mom and Touru wistfully remembering her father. It was a nice, short moment showing the divide between family by blood and family you choose.

So! Let's get to all the cute dragons making New Year's jokes!

New Family Member Kotatsu.

I can't stress enough how much a cultural touchstone the electric heated table is to lazy cold Winter days.

Even winning it at the shopping district lottery was one of those anime plots you see all the time. The tissue paper consolation prizes. The top prize of the hot spring vacation. Touru blowing all the free lottery tickets she got because she's "the pride of the market." A high school romance anime would have had us going to the onsen for fanservice and awkward shipping hijinks. Not this show. We need that kotatsu for family time!

Oh, look at how happy Touru was to wear her dragon muffler she got from Kobayashi.

Dragons adapt quick. "Flip that rice cooker switch for me, since you're up." "Pass me the remote control." Piles of books gathered within reach. They became a real modern Japanese household.

Ha! The noisy neighbors came by to take Touru away from her kotatsu time!

This is how well written this show is in regards to continuity. Touru had done a lot of research on the traditional New Year's food, like mochi and soba noodles, which she made in between kotatsu sessions. But the neighbors didn't start coming by offering New Year's gifts until she had a whole bunch of mochi to offer in return.

Gorilla Guy, Mr. Sone, offered his newest carving: a rooster. Why a rooster? The coming year is under the sign of the Rooster in the Chinese Zodiac. The previous year was the Monkey, which is why he was making gorillas all the time! That is a long time to make that punch line from when he was first introduced. I am impressed!

This also places the timeline at 2016 going into 2017. Pretty up to date!

This led to cultural instruction time for the dragons about the order of the animals in the zodiac and how Touru doesn't believe a dragon would let those other animals beat her to God's door.

Better yet, the heavy metal guy gave them a ton of mikan oranges, another staple of the kotatsu. One of the kotatsu arts, just because you spend so much time with one, is learning how to peel those tangerine cousins so there's only one piece of skin. Learning how to toss that piece of skin in the garbage is something else to master.

I'm not sure why Kobayashi remembered the winning draw of the kotatsu when she finally made that mikan peel toss. Just a random connection she made in her head about how good luck works?

Of course, Kanna's calligraphy honored her most precious memory of the New Year holiday break: the kotatsu!

Elma Need Food Badly.

The running side gag of the episode was Elma's need for holiday treats. She started drooling over the idea of regional chocolate. She impressed kids with her candy grabbing skills. And she reluctantly enjoyed Touru's ozouni soup, a traditional mochi and miso based soup served during New Year's.

New Year's Eve.

The New Year's Eve shrine visit is another staple of anime. We got the usual scenes of noticing the girls' kimonos, buying charms and fortunes, cold hands and warm cheeks (Riko so ded), and the final countdown. Nobody got drunk on the sweet sake, but we did get another round of Lucoa getting embarrassed over laying with her sister after drinking too much.

Speaking of kimonos, we got the ogling scenes for all the dragons (I didn't include Fafnir cuz, dude) except for Touru. What was up with that?

She borrowed Kobayashi's kimono and remarked how well it fit because you can adjust the chest area. Kobayashi didn't need to hear that.

Lucoa wore a "traditional" kimono. Traditional in the red lantern district of Edo traditional?

I noticed that Riko doesn't always play along with Georgie's maid cosplay. She still slips a little bit in calling her Big Sister.

Elma said she only came to the Shrine because there was lots of good food to eat. Of course she did. I like how the background in her little kimono scene has random sharks swimming around.

Mages don't need fortunes. They make their own fortunes! Lucoa thought that was adorable.

Fafnir needs mild food for everything. I thought Vikings were made of sterner stuff.

No surprise that Fafnir played video games all night until sunrise.

Fafnir is such a curmudgeon. He remarked that it was just another sunrise. Takiya let him know that the first sunrise of the year is special. Hmmph. I heard that as not a dismissal, but a begrudging acknowledgement. Fafnir is getting soft living among the humans.

Speaking of first things, Shouta wanted to have a good first dream of the year. Considering how Lucoa invaded his dreams earlier this year, it's not surprising that she doesn't even have to suffocate him like a succubus anymore. But what does it mean that Lucoa is Mt. Fuji, a hawk and an eggplant?

Next time, we finally see how Kobayashi and Touru met in the season finale. Also, Lucoa appears to be in a track suit. New Year's resolution to lose weight? Why? She's perfectly thicc where it matters...