Shout Out / Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

Manga

Main Series

• Tohru mentions The Matrix in chapter 9. And during their roughhousing, Tohru and Kanna perform a Tailed Beast Ball and Kamehameha respectively.
• Kanna was watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in chapter 10.
• In chapter 11, Kobayashi compares Tohru's inability to live in one place for too long to a Legendary Pokémon.
• Tohru mentions having read Dragon Zakura in chapter 13.
• One of the cosplayers at Comiket is dressed like Crayon Shin-chan.
• Chapter 21 reveals Fafnir has played at least one of the Honoo no Toukyuuji Dodge Danpei games.
• There's a reference to the Japanese Twitter meme "they had lots of sex afterwards" (link to an SFW article on a NSFW site) at the end of chapter 35.
• In Chapter 37, the Kobayashi household watches Samurai Sentai Shinkenger (as evidenced by Tohru cheering for the Big Bad Dokoku Chimatsuri).
• Takiya mentions Ant-Man in the English translation of chapter 42 when suggesting that Tohru could cure Kobayashi's illness with a "Fantastic Voyage" Plot.
• In chapter 63, Ilulu does a happy version of the "Angry Dog Noise" face.
• The comment on the magazine version of the title page of chapter 116 references the Street Fighter series by pointing out it's about a literal "ryu (dragon)" and "ken (sword)".

Kanna's Daily Life

• Saikawa imitates Raoh's famous scene.
  Saikawa: Not one ounce of regret in thy life!!!
• In chapter 11, Fafnir returned a copy of Nier that he borrowed from Kobayashi.
• In "Magical Girl Time", Fafnir is shown watching "Prepure Alala Mode".
• During "Time for Death Metal", Kanna, on a microphone, gives a Dragon Shout that sends Yana and Saikawa flying across the room. Also, the name of the page it's on is DragonForce.
• In one chapter, Kanna and Saikawa are playing the Dragon Maid universe's version of Minecraft.

Lucoa Is My Xx

• Chapter 16 has Shouta and Lucoa going to Mexico for a wizard tournament, which involves Lucoa (A.K.A. Quetzalcoatl) and another girl fighting in lucha libre tag-matches.

Fafnir the Recluse

• One of the games Fafnir comes across in Chapter 2 is Torneko's Great Adventure.

Anime

Season 1

• The river seen in the opening credits looks remarkably like the very polluted river in the opening of the first episode of the OVA of Bubblegum Crisis. It's a lot cleaner looking in Dragon Maid though.
• In episode 2, Tohru is shown holding a copy of Tsuru no Ongaeshi, which is a story about a crane that takes on a human form to serve an elderly couple after they save her life. She even tells Kobayashi not to come into the kitchen while she makes dinner as a reference to the fact that the crane told the couple to never enter her room as she made cloth for them to sell.
• In the dub, Kobayashi quips this after flicking treats for Kanna...
  Kobayashi: How to tame your dragon!
• Also in the dub...
  Tohru: Fafnir does have a slight dislike for humans. We're talking about an ancient cursed dragon that has been guarding his treasure in a cave for, like, ever.
  Kobayashi: You mean "hobbit style"?
• Again in the dub, after Kobayashi explains the concept of "magic tricks"...
  Tohru: I've heard of this before. There's a should-be-forgettable movie that talks about it. About how humans only use approximately 10% of their brain capacity.
• One more little gem from the dub—a totally wasted software engineer blunders into a huge dragon's snout in the gloom...
  Kobayashi (after picking herself up): "You shall not pass!"
• Fafnir and Makoto are seen playing a Dark Souls expy during the party in Episode 3. At the end of the episode, Kanna plays something that bears a suspicious resemblance to Mario Kart.
• In episode 6, Kanna plays the suspiciously Mario Kart-like game at Saikawa's house, and Fafnir and Makoto decide who gets to wash the dishes by playing the Spy vs. Spy video game.
• In episode 9, when Shouta reveals what was written on his slip during the scavenger hunt portion of the sports festival, a coin grabbing sound effect from the Super Mario Bros. series plays.
• In Episode 11, when once again Tohru is trying to get Kobayashi to eat her tail meat, she says in a Green Eggs and Ham-style, "Could you? Would you for the new year?" to which Kobayashi replies, "I could not. Would not."
• During the "Miss Kobayashi's RPG Dragon" segment in the fourth DVD special, Tohru, Elma, Fafnir and Makoto take part in a Final Fantasy battle.

Season 2

• The opening starts off with shots of zooming on the various characters in what appears to be a Homage Shot to the first opening of Nichijou.
• Tohru's realization that she's working as a chef and not a maid at the maid cafe has her briefly imitate Edvard Munch's "The Scream".