Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Valentine's, and Then Hot Springs! (Please Don't Get Your Hopes Up)
小林さんちのメイドラゴン バレンタイン, そして温泉! (あまり期待しないでください) (Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon: Valentine, Soshite Onsen! - Amari Kitai Shinaide Kudasai)
- Slice of Life
- Supernatural
- Episodes
- 1
- Duration
- 23 min
- Aired
- Sep 20, 2017
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
With Valentine’s Day approaching, Tooru decides it’s time to push her feelings for Kobayashi a little further—armed with a “love potion” she proudly works into a batch of homemade chocolates. Certain her heartfelt surprise will do the trick, she presents her gift… only for Kobayashi to immediately sense something is off and shut the plan down before it can go anywhere.
Even with that setback, the holiday spirit doesn’t end there. Surrounded by the usual lively chaos of Kobayashi’s dragon-filled household, the group continues to enjoy the season’s sweetness, capped off with a relaxing getaway to the hot springs.
Otaku Consensus
Kyoto Animation’s unaired episode lands as a polished fan-facing coda: Yasuhiro Takemoto’s direction keeps the Valentine material from turning into a stock school-romance routine, and the pacing benefits from splitting its energy between domestic comedy and a hot-springs getaway. Critics and viewers have treated it as a solid 7.5-level bonus rather than an essential chapter, with the main complaint being that its BD/DVD-extra format gives it comfort, charm, and fanservice but little lasting narrative weight.
Why You Should Watch
Watch this if you want Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid in its most concentrated OVA form: adult cohabitation comedy, supernatural absurdity, and Kyoto Animation character timing without the commitment of a full arc. It is especially rewarding for viewers who like Valentine episodes but are tired of classroom confession formulas; the humor comes from an office-lady household dynamic and fantasy logic colliding with everyday etiquette. It scratches a similar itch to K-On! in the way small gestures become the joke, while the reverse-isekai setup gives it a stranger texture than a pure cute-girls slice of life. The hot-springs half also makes it a compact showcase for the ensemble’s physical comedy, including the table-tennis detour noted in AniList’s tags.
Key Characters
- KKobayashi
Kobayashi is the dry office-lady center of the episode, making the comedy work by treating dragon magic, maid devotion, and holiday rituals with the same skeptical practicality.
- TTooru
Tooru remains the franchise’s engine of chaos: a dragon whose maid persona turns affection into elaborate domestic theater rather than simple romantic sweetness.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
This is the unaired 14th episode bundled with the 7th BD/DVD volume, not a television-broadcast installment, which explains its self-contained, reward-the-fans structure.
- 2
Kyoto Animation handled the production, with Yasuhiro Takemoto directing and Yuka Yamada credited for series composition, giving the OVA the same controlled comic rhythm as the main 2017 season.
- 3
The Valentine material is notable for avoiding the standard high-school Valentine setup; fan rewatch discussion singled out the Kobayashi chocolate scene for having a different feel from the usual school-romance version of the holiday.
- 4
The episode’s title openly undercuts expectation with “Please Don’t Get Your Hopes Up,” a fitting label for an OVA that sells warmth and timing over major plot movement.
- 5
Reception has been consistently positive but measured: MAL lists it at 7.69 from over 138,000 votes, AniList scores it at 76/100 with 708 favorites, and IMDb’s episode listing sits at 7.5/10.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- The full Japanese title is Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon: Valentine, Soshite Onsen! - Amari Kitai Shinaide Kudasai, making the hot-springs destination part of the official title rather than just a fan label.
- Fun fact 2
- Although first released with the home-video package in 2017, the OVA later appeared as episode 14 on streaming, with web listings noting a January 19, 2022 sub and dub release.
- Fun fact 3
- The credited staff includes Miku Kadowaki on character design, Mikiko Watanabe as art director, Yuuka Yoneda on color design, Akihiro Ura as director of photography, and Naoki Kanazawa on editing.
- Fun fact 4
- AniList’s tag profile is unusually specific for a one-episode special, ranking Female Protagonist, LGBTQ+ Themes, Primarily Female Cast, Dragons, Yuri, Maids, Monster Girl, Urban Fantasy, Reverse Isekai, Cohabitation, and Table Tennis among its identifiers.
- Fun fact 5
- The original creator credit belongs to Cool-kyou Shinja, tying the OVA directly to the manga source rather than presenting it as a detached promotional side story.
Studios
- Kyoto Animation
