Kobayashi

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Kobayashi
Characteristics
Kanji	小林
Rōmaji	Kobayashi
Age	25
Birthday	April 23
Gender	Female
Hair Color	Red
Eye Color	Hazel
Relatives	Unnamed Parents
First Appearance
Manga Debut	Chapter 1
Anime Debut	Episode 1
Portrayal
Seiyū	Mutsumi Tamura
English	Leah Clark

Kobayashi (小林, Kobayashi) is the main protagonist of Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon. She works as a computer programmer in Jigokumeguri System Engineering Inc.

Appearance

Kobayashi in one of her casual outfits.

Kobayashi is a bespectacled young woman with bright red hair that is always tied in a ponytail with some bangs let down and dead fish hazel brown eyes (by Tohru). She is known to be flat-chested, a physical trait that frustrates her to the point of grumbling over the female dragons' ample busts when they are in their human forms. In one of her drunken escapades, she demands that Tohru or Lucoa share some of their "blessing" with her.

Her office attire is a white button-up shirt, a tie, and dark slacks. During her off-duty hours, she puts on either a light blue button-up shirt, a hoodie, a yellow tee or a light-brown cardigan with a white shirt underneath.

Before meeting Tohru, Kobayashi would don a stoic expression on her face. Now, she is more approachable and open to others, often seen smiling contentedly.

Her height is 160cm and her measurements are B70/W60/H70.

Personality

Even though Kobayashi maintains a cool demeanor, she has been regarded as kind-hearted and reliable among her friends and colleagues. Level-headed and pragmatic, she stands as the source of reason when dealing with her dragon friends. Kobayashi usually tends to show little emotion, and acts very lazy when she gets to stay at home.

However, when she is intoxicated, Kobayashi tends to become rowdy and aggressive, especially in her interests in maids and is not above subjecting Tohru to her drunken whims.

Background

Very little has been mentions about Kobayashi's childhood, other than that both her parents worked so she never had either one of her parents come to her schools' sports festivals. That, and when she was in elementary school, she was always asking for burgers.

Plot

She is a 25-year-old normal programmer and office worker who suddenly finds herself living with a dragon named Tohru after removing a divine sword from her body on a drunken night. While typically stoic and kind-hearted, she can get wild when drunk. She will usually get hangovers resulting in the cast having to wait on her hand and foot. She has a particular fascination with maids. She is occasionally mistaken as a boy due to her lack of feminine features—particularly her flat chest—and apparent lack of sexuality. Her first name is unknown.

Relationships

Tohru

Initially, Kobayashi often chastised Tohru for her lack of propriety on human standards like licking her clothes, or describing the human race as inferior. However, as time passes by, she grows accustomed to Tohru's quirks and would sometimes show small signs of affection and gratitude for the dragon, such as holding Tohru's hand or going out of her way to fulfill some of Tohru's wishes to ease her troubles. When Damocles, Tohru's father, demanded that Tohru return home, Kobayashi stood up for Tohru and risked her life for her sake.

In Chapter 48, Kobayashi seemingly began to reciprocate Tohru's feelings, shown when she blushed upon hearing Tohru declare her never-ending love for Kobayashi at the fireworks festival.

As of Chapter 97, Kobayashi has admitted to Tohru that she likes her too, stating that she hadn't told her for some time since she couldn't understand what it meant to be in love with someone. She also explained that she had given up trying to define their relationship a while ago, as she decided that them understanding each other's feelings was good enough.

Kanna Kamui

Kobayashi appears to care a great deal for Kanna, going so far as to work until midnight for an entire week to get a day off to go to her school's sports festival as her guardian. Kobayashi inadvertently becomes Kanna's mother figure, as seen when she looks over Kanna's studies and school activities and praises Kanna by either patting her head or spoiling her with treats and gifts. In the anime, Kobayashi's bond with Kanna enabled the both of them to chase after Tohru and Damocles, with Kobayashi riding on Kanna's back while she was in her dragon form.

Makoto Takiya

Takiya is Kobayashi's male colleague and close friend. The two would often discuss their interests in maids and butlers over drinks, either at a local bar or Kobayashi's apartment. They are close enough to ask each other for help or favors on matters outside of work but still at a platonic level.

Ilulu

Ilulu originally appeared as an adversary of Tohru's and by extension, Kobayashi. This hostility came from how Tohru became close to humans (Kobayashi in particular) which contradicted Ilulu's upbringing. When the two first met, Kobayashi was originally a bit distressed by Ilulu's destructive behavior. However, when Kobayashi and Tohru help save Ilulu from Clemene and learn about her past, the two become closer and motivates Ilulu to seek redemption. Kobayashi currently lets Ilulu live her, Tohru, and Kanna. Kobayashi tries to treat Ilulu similarly to how she treats Kanna, but is often annoyed by Ilulu's behavior and figure. Ilulu is very fond and curious of Kobayashi after getting to know her, and even expressed a desire to have children with her, much to Tohru's objection.

Quetzalcoatl

Quetzalcoatl and Kobayashi show minimal interest in each other, however, upon first meeting, it is apparent that Kobayashi is unintentionally rude to Quetzalcoatl, by describing her outfit as "slutty" and asking "what the hell" she is. However, they do become more open to conversation as the story progresses.

Elma

Since Elma's introduction, she has become Kobayashi's colleague. Kobayashi seeks to help out Elma whenever she faces difficulties at work or otherwise and in return she shows gratitude in various ways.

Shouta Magatsuchi

Kobayashi looks after Shouta whenever her manager, Mr. Magatsuchi, asks her to do so.

Fafnir

There is a general distrust whenever Fafnir is in question as Kobayashi perceives him as a dangerous figure, but if they only discuss regular matters, the two don't seem to mind each other's company.

Kimun Kamui

Kobayashi first met Kanna's father in her own world without knowing who he was. They shared a drink together, and Kimun was able to follow Kobayashi back to her apartment. However, after learning of his relationship with Kanna, Kobayashi's opinion of Kimun turned, believing him to be a dangerous figure who only wanted to claim Kanna back in order to use her powers. After Kanna's sudden departure, Kobayashi had enough determination to ask Tohru to accompany her to the dragon world, not only to save Kanna, but also to confront Kimun. Kimun is redeemed in Kobayashi's eyes after he lets his daughter choose where she wants to live.

Holy Sword

The Holy Sword materialized itself inside of Kobayashi's mind when, in a drunken rage, she pulled the sword from Tohru's back, leading to them merging with Kobayashi's soul and gaining sentience. They view Kobayashi as their mother due to their conception being the result of her actions that day.

Etymology

• The surname Kobayashi means "small" (小, ko) and "forest" (林, hayashi/bayashi).

Trivia

• Either by coincidence or design, Kobayashi also shares a name with Takeru Kobayashi, a real-world competitive eater.
• A recurring gag in the show is that Kobayashi appears to experience chronic pain in her lower back.
  • It is later revealed her terrible posture is in part caused by her working.
• Kobayashi "can't do" Hijiki or eggplant, suggesting either that she dislikes them or is allergic (likely the former).
• Kobayashi enjoys a brand of alcohol known as Dragonslayer, a bottle of which she shared with Tohru when they first met.
• Kobayashi was able to remove the Holy Sword from Tohru's back despite warnings that touching the sword would be incredibly harmful. It's implied that this was due to show Kobayashi lacking religious faith.
• Although Kobayashi is on good terms with her family, she does not visit or speak to them often.
• Kobayashi can be a little mischievous, as seen when she manipulates Tohru's feelings for her to get her to clean more.
• Kobayashi's character falls into the "Kuudere" character archetype.
• In Chapter 47, Kobayashi states that when she used to live with her parents, she worked at a restaurant. However, she becomes quite frightening when she tells Tohru about her experience with the service industry.
• Kobayashi typically sleeps from 11PM-7AM according to her alarm clock in the scenes where she is shown waking up/about to go to sleep, placing her chronotype as bear.
• Kobayashi and her workmates are programming in an Object-Oriented Programming language, more specifically in Python.
• In Chapter 56, Kobayashi's monitor displayed an HTML code format, so Kobayashi's real job might be to work on websites as a front-end web developer.
• Kobayashi is embarrassed to show affection to other people, even more so if it is someone she is attracted to like Tohru, so she needs alcohol to do so, as shown in Chapter 132.
• With the exception of the logo, Kobayashi's phone greatly resembles the iPhone 5S/SE in color and flat edges, yet otherwise resembles an iPhone from the 6 line, based on the antenna strips, size and dimensions.
• Mutsumi Tamura, Kobayashi's voice actor, has been thought by many to resemble her character's appearance.
• Kobayashi appearance is frequently compared to that of Makima's from the Chainsaw Man manga series. Both are redheads, have a ponytail, and wear white button-ups with ties.
• In Chapter 9 of Kanna's Daily Life, it is shown that Kobayashi and Tohru do sleep together.
• Despite being the titular character, Kobayashi's official given name has not been revealed.