Elma

Elma (エルマ Eruma) is one of supporting characters in the series Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid and the main protagonist of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Elma's Office Lady Diary.

She is a female dragon from the Dragon Faction of Harmony, the opposing faction of Chaos (which Tohru belongs to). She adopts the name Elma Joui (上井 エルマ Jōī Eruma) as her human alias after she finds that she is unable to return to the dragon world.

Appearance
Elma usually takes the form of a human woman with short black hair (which was originally much longer back when she still lived in the other world), large breasts, blue eyes, and a long spiral unicorn-like horn (which she can freely hide). In the anime and Elma OL Nikki, her hair also has purple tips. At work, she wears round glasses. She also wears a business suit which consists of a white shirt, light blue tie, a loose blue sweater, a grey blazer, and a dark grey knee-length skirt with light grey socks and black heels. Her casual attire in the anime consists of olive-green skin-tight trousers, a light blue jacket, a dark blue vest, and a yellow scarf.

Elma's first outfit, which she also wears in her world while in human form, consists of a light tan scarf with a dark blue (sometimes black) leotard. She wears a purple kimono with pink piping, and a dark blue sash over the leotard, with the top pulled down. She has bandages around her legs and sandals. She can be seen with a cobalt blue and turquoise tail (which she can freely hide). Sometimes, she carries around a long, brown trident.

In her dragon form, Elma is a blue sea serpent with a brown horn protruding from her forehead, and her brown trident is her tail. She can freely move around in water due to being a water dragon.

Personality
As evidenced in the manga and anime, Elma is very persistent in that she tries to bring Tohru back to the other world, despite the latter voicing her opinion that she'd rather stay peaceful living with Kobayashi. Even after getting sent to another continent, her persistence shows as she stomps up to Tohru and demands that the other dragon go back to the other world, to which she is then baited off with a bag of cream bread.

Also, despite being just as strong as Tohru, she has admitted that she cannot travel between worlds due to being "born differently." Elma is also very indecisive, as shown in the anime where she struggles to pick one specific food combo, an ice cream combo, and finally to which kind of toothpaste to use.

Elma's most defining personality trait is her gluttonous appetite. Elma has a sweet tooth of sorts, having shown her love of food of all kinds from the cream bread (where she states in the English dub of the anime that she just ate heaven), to after her first day of work, where Kobayashi gives her a piece of hashbrown, in which she screams "YUMMY!!!" afterward, to where she impulsively buys a bag of waffles in episode 13. Because of this side of her, Elma can easily be tempted when presented with food. She is even willing to sometimes go against certain rules by the Harmony Faction despite being a well known member. In some instances her gluttonous appetite is depicted as a borderline addiction, showing instances where she states that she can't even help herself, and that she must eat (until she runs out of savings)

Background
Elma is a member of the Harmony Faction of dragons; she holds a fondness for humans and hates their need to fight amongst themselves. In one case, she assumed the identity of Seikai the Miko to maintain peace within a human city. It was as she was pacifying the populace of the city that she first encountered Tohru. The two would form a truce of sorts to observe the human world together; however, they fell out after Tohru learned the humans under Elma began to worship her as a goddess and wage war on non-believers. Following Tohru destroying the palace built for Elma, they briefly fought and went their separate ways.

After the devastating fight against Tohru, Elma retreats to the Order dragon's base and stays away from humans for some time.

Season 1
At the end of her debut appearance in the anime, Elma visits Kobayashi's apartment to give Kobayashi a protective charm as a token of gratitude. The next instant, she is blasted out of the apartment by Tohru's beam, ending up at the park.

In episode 10, Elma is invited to Kobayashi's apartment while Kobayashi herself is away at work, due to Elma not being required to turn up for duty. She instead agrees to help Tohru put on a show for the retirement home. First, she auditions for the role of The Little Match Girl, but fails. Then she offers to direct the play, first agreeing with Tohru to cast Kanna as the title character. She then casts Tohru as a bystander, Lucoa as the main character's grandmother, Fafnir as the main character's father and Riko Saikawa as a narrator. The first rehearsal fails, so the other dragons agree to improvise the script, casting Elma as Kuranosuke Oishi from the 47 Ronin.

In episode 11, on the last day of work for the year, Elma is seen drooling at the thought of Nama chocolates. She later plays a Candy Grab game at the shopping district, before attending the First Shrine during New Year's Eve after hearing about the food on offer. Elma later joins the post-midnight feast at Kobayashi's apartment before turning up at the rooftop to watch the first sunrise of the year.

In episode 12, Elma is seen at a coffee shop learning object-oriented programming.

In episode 13, Elma, along with Kanna, Fafnir and Lucoa, senses the arrival of Damocles, who takes Tohru home. She overhears Kobayashi and Takiya's conversation while doing an overtime shift a few days later. When Damocles returns to the human world to confront his daughter again, Elma is briefly seen in her first outfit listening to Damocles' prophecy. At the end of the episode, Elma impulsively buys waffles from a stall.

In the OVA, Elma receives some Nama chocolates from Yamashita at work. She is upset at Kobayashi's haul of chocolates offered by her colleagues; Kobayashi makes up for it by giving Elma some of her own. Later, in her own apartment, Elma decides to make chocolate for everyone else, but ends up eating all the raw chocolate that she was supposed to use as an ingredient. Elma later joins Kobayashi, Takiya and the other dragons on a visit to the spa resort.

Season 2
In episode 15, Elma is suddenly attacked by Tohru, the latter accusing Elma of causing the landslide that happened the night before. Elma protests that she was also investigating the incident. When the real culprit shows up and attacks Tohru, Elma puts up a barrier to prevent other humans from seeing them clash. She also warns that their clash could destroy the city, and refuses to intervene until one of them is defeated. Kobayashi, fearing for Tohru's safety, bribes Elma with food so that she puts up a newer barrier to protect the buildings.

In episode 17/chapter 53, Takiya invites Elma to Kobayashi's apartment to help with Tohru's errand of designing a new maid outfit for Kobayashi, much to Tohru's dismay. Elma proposes her maid outfit idea first, but Tohru rejects it and sends Elma off to the other room to play with the kids. She joins for a round of Monopoly with Kanna Kamui, Riko Saikawa, Shouta Magatsuchi and Ilulu before returning from said room and asking for Tohru's own maid outfit idea. She finds out that Tohru didn't draw anything; Tohru responds that she wanted Kobayashi to wear her own outfit.

In episode 18, Elma completes an assignment at work for the first time. Impressed with Elma's progress, Kobayashi passes on some of her own assignments to Elma only for her to complain that it is too much. Elma then misunderstands Takiya's use of the word "pillar" to describe Kobayashi, and challenges Kobayashi to a "duel" to see who can get more work done. She even refuses to eat until she wins. Elma continues to work even as other colleagues go for lunch - at that time, she voices her concerns about Kobayashi becoming a pillar - in response, Kobayashi flicks Elma on the forehead and calls off the "duel", reminding Elma that she isn't in the same environment whence she came from. On another day, Elma misunderstands Tohru's neighborhood patrol role and ends up patrolling with Tohru, after original patrol member Sasakibe offers to relinquish her armband. She and Tohru encounter Fafnir during said patrol, and are later surrounded by a whole gang of delinquents that Tohru beats down.

In episode 20, Elma is seen relaxing in the river, specifically at a confluence of two rivers that Riko was dared to visit by a classmate. Elma forgets to perception-block herself, meaning that Riko, who was visiting the area with Kanna, sees Elma in full dragon-form; Kanna is quick to block the full view of Elma from being photographed, in order to buy time for her to disappear. The next day, when Riko talks to her classmates about seeing "a monster", Kanna passes it off as computer-generated imagery.

In episode 21/chapter 41, when Tohru buys groceries while Kobayashi sleeps, she happens to encounter Elma again, who was buying food for herself. They end up having a conversation about sleep; Tohru makes no attempt to hide her contempt for Elma.

In episode 23, Elma goes on strike in an attempt to secure better working conditions. Mr. Magatsuchi eventually summons her to his office along with Kobayashi and Takiya, and puts an end to Elma's strike action. It is eventually revealed that Elma only went on strike for better food. On another day, Elma agrees to go camping with Kanna, Riko and Shouta. Elma panics after the three of them wander off without telling her, and she ends up looking for them all over the woods. While doing so, she transforms into her dragon form to fight off a bear - Shouta puts Riko to sleep in order to stop her from seeing Elma's true form again. After reverting to human form, Elma reprimands Kanna, Riko and Shouta, but they are easily forgiven after Kanna gives Elma a flower with sweet-tasting nectar. Finally, Elma has a grudge rematch with Tohru - under the supervision of Kobayashi and Fafnir. During the fight in their human forms, Elma reveals how hurt she was at seeing Tohru go against her own beliefs to live with a human. The fight concludes with no clear winner, so Kobayashi proposes a different contest - to see how long each one of them can hold their faces while being tickled.

In episode 26, Elma joins Kobayashi and the others, first for the summer festival in which she wears a pink yukata, then for the out-of-season flower viewing and its events, in which she wears her outfit from the other world.

Tohru
Being a dragon of the Harmony faction, she and Tohru are long-time rivals. They regularly bicker with one another, but the two manage to get along without fighting. In one chapter called "Tohru and Elma," it is shown that Elma wants to be friends with Tohru again.

In recent manga-only chapters it has been shown that Elma is in love with Tohru:

In Chapter 96 Elma shows feelings for Tohru making her feel uncomfortable, Tohru even tells her that she has Kobayashi because she suspects that Elma is going to confess to her.

In Chapter 103 when Kobayashi asks her if she is in love with someone, just when she is about to answer her stomach rumbles at the end when Kobayashi suggests her to go on a trip with Tohru because she trusts her, she makes Elma feel guilty and offers her an apology that Kobayashi doesn't hear.

Kobayashi
At first, Elma didn't interact with Kobayashi at their first encounter, but she had told Kobayashi to stay quiet as she was about to compliment her (due to being embarrassed by her rumbling belly). However, as they become office mates, Kobayashi started to help Elma through her work, and the two start to get along to the point that they became friends. Elma was also worried for Kobayashi after misunderstanding her being the 'pillar of the company' and tries her best to 'beat' Kobayashi to 'save her'.

In Chapter 35, Elma makes it known to Kobayashi that if she ever desires more than Tohru, she would not refuse her offer, implying a possible attraction to Kobayashi. This is also displayed in Episode 4 of Season 2.

Trivia

 * Elma is the only dragon of the main cast who lives on her own in the human world.
 * Elma is attractive enough to make other women doubt about her sexuality as shown in Elma Chapter 30.