Adrian Pilanga
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is a fantastic and fun-filled anime about Kobayasahi, a human who unintentionally employs a dragon from a parallel world named Tohru as her maid.
She quickly learns that dragons aren’t exactly subtle creatures, what with their world-ending powers and anti-human nature. Slowly but surely though, Tohru and her other dragon friends learn to adapt to our world… well, it’s still a work in progress but it’s getting there.
One topic that gets brought up every now and then is the concept of dragon scales and how they act as clothing to the dragons whenever they take their human forms.
But how exactly do they work? Are they just an optical illusion like Tohru’s Perception Blocking? Can they change into anything else?
Has The Show Ever Shown How Dragon Scales Work?
They’ve explained it somewhat but we’ve never actually seen Tohru or any of the other dragons actually use scales to morph their clothes. We always see them already with the scales on in human form or even naked like in the special where they went to a hot spring resort.
We have seen that they can take off pieces of clothing. It can even be removed by other people like how Kobayashi took off Tohru’s dress because she was drunk and upset about Tohru’s made outfit. So, it’s not like the clothes are actually attached to their bodies like the way it is when they’re in dragon form.
But that’s just in the anime.
In the manga, we actually get a better look at how it all works. We see Tohru presenting a single dragon scale to offer Kobayashi a maid uniform for her to wear. So, there you have it. Apparently, it only takes a single dragon scale to create an entire outfit for an average-sized human.
Do The Scales Just Create An Illusion Of Clothing?
I think it’s safe to say that no, the scales genuinely transform into wearable clothing rather than just mess with other people’s perceptions.
Otherwise, Kobayashi wouldn’t be able to wear it since it would still physically be a dragon scale if it was just an illusion. And modern statistics tell us that it’s highly improbable that you can wear a single dragon scale like a dress.
Now, whether or not their chemical makeup actually changes or if the clothes are still made of dragon scales is another issue. And well, I don’t really know of any way of figuring that out right now, sorry.
Other Than Clothes, What Else Can Dragon Scales Turn Into?
Dragon scales aren’t restricted to just turning into clothes. They can also turn into other inanimate objects as well… kinda.
The only other purpose we’ve seen them used for is as a chair that’s attached to Tohru’s back so Kobayashi can ride her comfortably since her back pains started flaring up when she first took a ride on Tohru’s back.
Conclusions
So, considering all that, here’s all we know about how exactly dragon scales work in the world of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid:
- The dragon scales actually morph into clothes and are not just visual illusions.
- Only one dragon scale is needed to make an entire outfit fit for a regular human.
- The scales *possibly* need to be “plucked” from the dragon to use (it probably grows back like Tohru’s tail though so no worries!)
- Dragon scales can morph into other objects as well, their limitations are currently unknown.
Curious about other items in Anime? Here’s some information about Rengoku, the flame Hashira’s sword.
