Premieres in Japan June 27th. The new PV is here. Check out the ANN article for additional information. Synopsis of the source manga from AniList:
Miss Kobayashi is your average office worker who lives a boring life, alone in her small apartment–until she saves the life of a female dragon in distress. The dragon, named Tohru, has the ability to magically transform into an adorable human girl (albeit with horns and a long tail!), who will do anything to pay off her debt of gratitude, whether Miss Kobayashi likes it or not. With a very persistent and amorous dragon as a roommate, nothing comes easy, and Miss Kobayashi’s normal life is about to go off the deep end!
A normal amount, but I also have a tendency to take things at face value right off the bat.
I did recognize the Shota name thing but at most that seemed like a single playful jab, not the whole thing being satire. And the “lolicon character is actually 943948 years old!” thing is common enough that it just passed me by. I didn’t see enough parody to call this satire. And I have not seen anyone engage with this any differently than they would with non-satire content, so…
Why is it concerning that I didn’t see this as satire? Does it imply low media literacy, or something negative about my morals?
It’s extremely heavy handed about sexualizing the little girls in a way that constantly teases either a romantic or sexual relationship - loli content is very much a commonplace (and tbh pretty gross) thing, but it’s usually the sole focus if its the point. The sheer amount of slice of life tropes that are fit into the show, most if not all of them being taken to an extreme, would be what makes it satire. It’s a common premise, taken to extremes.
My concern with people not recognizing it as satire is a multifaceted thing. The lack of media literacy in culture is a large part of it, the number of people who unquestioningly accept the presentation of women in the show another part, the terrifying loli fans a big big part…
I have no issue with someone not seeing it as satire, I miss things like that all the time, but the sheer number of people who miss it is concerningly indicative of many flaws in society.
I came here for the entire premise of a dragon maid, and stuck around for the found family and the slice of life. The sexualization I just kind of blatantly ignore—kind of helps to be a woman not sexually interested in my own gender, in a world full of sexualizing my gender, so I have a lot of practice with it. (I’ll usually try to avoid sexual fanservice, but if I like something/think I’ll enjoy enough I seem to be really good at just hitting the IGNORE button.) It’s fun to watch. I’m cognizant of the issues but I certainly do not expect everything I watch to be perfect. Also, since you are saying the portrayal of women is an issue… ignoring the fanservice I do not really see anything wrong with the female characters as characters here? Am I just stupid? I especially like Kobayashi. Really not a fan of Lucoa’s entire thing with Shota, but in the end, unfortunately some women are indeed pedophiles. Very realistic character defect.
Not a fan of the loli/shota stuff. However I am more “ehhh, I wish this wasn’t there” than “absolute disgust,” probably because in the end, the characters are pixels, no real kids are coming to harm; so when weighing whether or not to watch I still come down on the watch side.
For what it is worth, the anime’s sexualization and underage sexualization seems to be toned down from the manga.