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* SenpaiKohai: She's Elma's sempai at work, and is responsible for teaching her how to do her job (such as how to turn on the computer).
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Gag Boobs isn't a synonym for "big breasts".
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* SingleTargetSexuality: Maids. She has a thing for maids and ''only'' maids. For Kobayashi, it isn't a matter of being interested in men or women. It's about whether or not you're a maid. Trying to seduce her if you're not dressed like a maid will not work no matter how large your GagBoobs are, and Tohru's attempt to sleep with Kobayashi [[spoiler:during the time when [[GenderBender the latter had a male body]]]] would've ''worked'' if she hadn't taken off her maid uniform beforehand to do it.
to:
* SingleTargetSexuality: Maids. She has a thing for maids and ''only'' maids. For Kobayashi, it isn't a matter of being interested in men or women. It's about whether or not you're a maid. Trying to seduce her if you're not dressed like a maid will not work no matter how large your GagBoobs boobs are, and Tohru's attempt to sleep with Kobayashi [[spoiler:during the time when [[GenderBender the latter had a male body]]]] would've ''worked'' if she hadn't taken off her maid uniform beforehand to do it.
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Senpai Kohai is the name of the trope
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* SempaiKohai: She's Elma's sempai at work, and is responsible for teaching her how to do her job (such as how to turn on the computer).
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* SempaiKohai: SenpaiKohai: She's Elma's sempai at work, and is responsible for teaching her how to do her job (such as how to turn on the computer).
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Buxom Is Better has been renamed.
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* AmbiguouslyBi: Although she hasn't shown any obvious interest in any male character, she does seem to have a basic interest in men, as she remarks in an annoyed way that she didn't expect her own ding-dong to be the next penis she saw,[[note]]The first being her father's.[[/note]] implying that she ''wanted'' to see a penis in more proper conditions at some point in the future. She also envies any dragon with huge [[BuxomIsBetter "flame-sacs"]] and the attention they receive from men. However, her relationship with Tohru is full of both subtext and intimacy, and it [[spoiler:eventually progresses towards romantic reciprocation, with Kobayashi confessing to Tohru in chapter 97 that she does like her romantically.]]
to:
* AmbiguouslyBi: Although she hasn't shown any obvious interest in any male character, she does seem to have a basic interest in men, as she remarks in an annoyed way that she didn't expect her own ding-dong to be the next penis she saw,[[note]]The first being her father's.[[/note]] implying that she ''wanted'' to see a penis in more proper conditions at some point in the future. She also envies any dragon with huge [[BuxomIsBetter [[BuxomBeautyStandard "flame-sacs"]] and the attention they receive from men. However, her relationship with Tohru is full of both subtext and intimacy, and it [[spoiler:eventually progresses towards romantic reciprocation, with Kobayashi confessing to Tohru in chapter 97 that she does like her romantically.]]
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** Kobayashi is flat-chested to the point where a RunningGag is her being mistaken for a man, and she is intensely jealous over Tohru's, Elma's, Lucoa's, and Ilulu's enormous bust sizes. This reaches its zenith in Chapter 104, where all the discussions and comparisons involving the massive chests on Ilulu and Lucoa put her in a majorly foul mood, and she exhibits a DeathGlare towards Taketo and Shouta when they're able to easily maintain eye-contact towards her without getting "distracted".
to:
** Kobayashi is flat-chested to the point where a RunningGag is her being mistaken for a man, and she is intensely jealous over Tohru's, Elma's, Lucoa's, and Ilulu's the dragon girls' enormous bust sizes. This reaches its zenith in Chapter 104, where all the discussions and comparisons involving the massive chests on Ilulu and Lucoa put her in a majorly foul mood, and she exhibits a DeathGlare towards Taketo and Shouta when they're able to easily maintain eye-contact towards her without getting "distracted".
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* BadassPacifist: In the anime, she manages to drive Tohru's father away by giving him a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech for not respecting his daughter's wishes. Does this again in chapter 69 with [[spoiler: Kanna’s father for seeing his daughter as nothing but a potential weapon.]]
* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:She organizes the downfall of the Dragon Slayer subgroup just by having Tohru falsely claim to be one of the weaker members of the Chaos Faction while rescuing Elma from her ArrangedMarriage. Since most dragons wouldn't be caught dead downplaying their own strength and are very gullible by nature, the fact that they're unable to subdue her would make them look worthless as an ally in the eyes of the other subgroups and they'd be subsumed in order to survive.]]
* BeadyEyedLoser: She's an alcoholic loner with a FriendlessBackground and a (relatively speaking) frumpy appearance. She also has beady eyes that do much to show how apathetic she is about the above.
* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:She organizes the downfall of the Dragon Slayer subgroup just by having Tohru falsely claim to be one of the weaker members of the Chaos Faction while rescuing Elma from her ArrangedMarriage. Since most dragons wouldn't be caught dead downplaying their own strength and are very gullible by nature, the fact that they're unable to subdue her would make them look worthless as an ally in the eyes of the other subgroups and they'd be subsumed in order to survive.]]
* BeadyEyedLoser: She's an alcoholic loner with a FriendlessBackground and a (relatively speaking) frumpy appearance. She also has beady eyes that do much to show how apathetic she is about the above.
to:
* BadassPacifist: In the anime, she manages to drive Tohru's father away by giving him a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech for not respecting his daughter's wishes. Does wishes; this was all after he nearly blasted her head off with magic and scared her straight. She does this again in chapter 69 with [[spoiler: Kanna’s father for seeing treating his daughter as nothing but a potential weapon.]]
* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:She organizes the downfall of the Dragon Slayer subgroup just by having Tohru falsely claim to be one of the weaker members of the ChaosFaction Faction, all while rescuing Elma from her ArrangedMarriage. Since most dragons wouldn't be caught dead downplaying their own strength and are very gullible by nature, the fact that they're unable to subdue her would make them look worthless as an ally in the eyes of the other subgroups and they'd be subsumed in order to survive.]]
* BeadyEyedLoser: She's an alcoholic loner with a FriendlessBackground and a (relatively speaking) frumpy appearance.She also has Her beady eyes that do much to show just how apathetic she is about the above.
* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:She organizes the downfall of the Dragon Slayer subgroup just by having Tohru falsely claim to be one of the weaker members of the Chaos
* BeadyEyedLoser: She's an alcoholic loner with a FriendlessBackground and a (relatively speaking) frumpy appearance.
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** As much as she gets annoyed with Tohru, Kobayashi treats her very nicely and views her as one of her greatest friends.
** She's very patient with Elma who's still learning to handle office and programming tasks when they meet.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: She got her boss fired for abuse of power by secretly recording him foisting his work on everyone and sending it to the company president.
** She's very patient with Elma who's still learning to handle office and programming tasks when they meet.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: She got her boss fired for abuse of power by secretly recording him foisting his work on everyone and sending it to the company president.
to:
** As much as she gets annoyed with Tohru, Kobayashi treats her very nicely and views her as one of her greatest friends.
companions.
** She's very patient with Elma who's still learning to handle office and programming tasks when theymeet.
meet. Elma develops a deep respect for Kobayashi because of this.
*BewareTheNiceOnes: BewareTheNiceOnes:
** She got her boss fired for abuse of power by secretly recording him foisting his work on everyone and sending it to the companypresident.president.
** She's musters the courage to talk down Tohru's father, an ancient dragon that could evaporate her on sight, and breaks through to him to call off his seizing of Tohru.
** She's very patient with Elma who's still learning to handle office and programming tasks when they
*
** She got her boss fired for abuse of power by secretly recording him foisting his work on everyone and sending it to the company
** She's musters the courage to talk down Tohru's father, an ancient dragon that could evaporate her on sight, and breaks through to him to call off his seizing of Tohru.
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* ButchLesbian: Or rather butch bi. Her personality, attitude and interests resemble that of stereotypical Japanese men, her appearance is rather mannish, [[spoiler:and chapter 97, she confesses to Tohru that she likes her romantically]], although she seems to be open to males too.
to:
* ButchLesbian: Or rather (Or butch bi. [[AmbiguouslyBi bi]]?) Her personality, attitude and interests resemble that of stereotypical Japanese men, male otaku, and her appearance is rather mannish, [[spoiler:and masculine relative to the cute and feminine dragons. [[spoiler:The kicker comes in chapter 97, 97 when she confesses to Tohru that she likes her romantically]], although she seems to be open to males too.romantically]].
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* CelibateHero: She isn't really interested in romance, at least towards any of the characters shown. Nor is she sexually attracted to anyone. [[spoiler:Though she does eventually admit to developing romantic feelings towards Tohru in chapter 97.]]
to:
* CelibateHero: She isn't really interested in romance, at least towards any of the characters shown. Nor is she sexually attracted to anyone. [[spoiler:Though she does eventually admit to this slowly changes, culminating in her revealing that she's developing romantic feelings towards Tohru in chapter 97.]]
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* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Her inability to reject the promise she made to Tohru after seeing her misery ultimately kicks off the plot. In general, she seems to always go out of her way to help those around her when they need it, even at her own inconvenience.
to:
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: In spite of her [[TheStoic stoic behavior]], she cannot bear to see someone in need if she can do anything about it and she'll put in every effort she can possibly muster to help. Her inability to reject the promise she made to Tohru after seeing her misery ultimately kicks off the plot. In general, she seems to always go out of her way to help those around her when they need it, even at her own inconvenience.
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* DeathGlare: On occasion whenever she wants a point to be made, and it's made very effective by her dead-fish eyes. Even Tohru, who finds Kobayashi's eyes to be one of many traits she finds attractive about her to the point of fetishism, admits that her glare is unsettling.
to:
* DeathGlare: On occasion whenever she wants a point to be made, and it's made very effective by her dead-fish eyes. Even Tohru, who finds Kobayashi's eyes to be one of her many traits she finds attractive about her to the point of fetishism, traits, admits that her glare is unsettling.
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* DragonRider: She rides Tohru on several occasions (and has ridden on Kanna in the anime when [[spoiler: she confronts Tohru's father]]), though she refuses to use her to commute to work (because it's uncomfortable).
to:
* DragonRider: She rides Tohru on several occasions (and has ridden on Kanna in the anime when [[spoiler: she confronts Tohru's father]]), though she refuses to use her to commute to work (because it's uncomfortable).uncomfortable and would destroy her back).
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* ForcedTransformation: [[spoiler:Some medicine that Tohru gives Kobayashi causes cat ears and a tail to sprout from the latter, due to the medicine being designed for beast-folk. Kobayashi is not thrilled having to miss work because of this.]]
to:
* ForcedTransformation: ForcedTransformation:
** Her first interaction with Ilulu ends with the latter using magic to give Kobayashi a penis.
** [[spoiler:Some medicine that Tohru gives Kobayashi causes cat ears and a tail to sprout from the latter, due to the medicine being designed for beast-folk. Kobayashi is not thrilled having to miss work because of this.]]]]
* FriendToAllChildren: Her first interactions with Kanna establish a gentler and maternal side to Kobayashi that shows around other kids. It also lets her bond with Ilulu even after their hectic first meeting.
** Her first interaction with Ilulu ends with the latter using magic to give Kobayashi a penis.
** [[spoiler:Some medicine that Tohru gives Kobayashi causes cat ears and a tail to sprout from the latter, due to the medicine being designed for beast-folk. Kobayashi is not thrilled having to miss work because of this.
* FriendToAllChildren: Her first interactions with Kanna establish a gentler and maternal side to Kobayashi that shows around other kids. It also lets her bond with Ilulu even after their hectic first meeting.
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* FunctionalAddict: She might drink a lot, but she still manages to be a highly competent programmer and act as Kanna's ParentalSubstitute.
* GamerChick: She owns several game consoles (though she's never shown playing any of them). She also mentioned that she spent most of her childhood playing video games.
* GenderBender: Ilulu gives her a male body in chapter 36 of the manga, although she's already so androgynous that nobody (save Tohru) could tell the difference. She changes back at the end of the next chapter. [[note]]Kobayashi's temporary penis is called 'that' by her and 'one of those' by Tohru.[[/note]]
* GamerChick: She owns several game consoles (though she's never shown playing any of them). She also mentioned that she spent most of her childhood playing video games.
* GenderBender: Ilulu gives her a male body in chapter 36 of the manga, although she's already so androgynous that nobody (save Tohru) could tell the difference. She changes back at the end of the next chapter. [[note]]Kobayashi's temporary penis is called 'that' by her and 'one of those' by Tohru.[[/note]]
to:
* FunctionalAddict: She might drink a lot, but she still manages to be a highly competent programmer and act as Kanna's ParentalSubstitute.
a caring [[ParentalSubstitute guardian]] for Kanna.
* GamerChick: She owns several game consoles (though she's never shown playing any of them). She also mentioned that she spent most of her childhood playingvideo games.
* GenderBender: Ilulu gives her a male body in chapter 36 of the manga, although she's already so androgynous that nobody (save Tohru) could tell the difference. She changes back at the end of the next chapter.[[note]]Kobayashi's temporary penis is called Humorously, nobody ever actually calls her new genitals as they are; Kobayashi just refers to it as 'that' by her and Tohru just says 'one of those' by Tohru.[[/note]]those'.
* GamerChick: She owns several game consoles (though she's never shown playing any of them). She also mentioned that she spent most of her childhood playing
* GenderBender: Ilulu gives her a male body in chapter 36 of the manga, although she's already so androgynous that nobody (save Tohru) could tell the difference. She changes back at the end of the next chapter.
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* GoodParents: Actually a parental figure, but she is certainly this to Kanna by providing her with parental guidance and affection. Just being present in Kanna's life made the latter better than Kanna's birth parents.
to:
* GoodParents: Actually a parental figure, They may not be [[ParentalSubsitute related by blood]], but she Kobayashi is certainly this a loving caregiver to Kanna by Kanna, providing her with parental the guidance and affection. affection that's been missing her entire life. Just being present ''present'' in Kanna's life made the latter makes her better than Kanna's birth parents.
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* HiddenDepths: In spite of her stoic behavior, she cannot bear to see someone in need if she can do anything about it and she'll put in every effort she can possibly muster to help.
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* InterspeciesAdoption: She acts as a mother figure for the young dragon Kanna and (to a lesser extent) Ilulu.
to:
* InterspeciesAdoption: She acts as a mother figure for the young dragon Kanna Kanna, and (to a lesser extent) Ilulu.
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* InVinoVeritas: Reveals her true personality when drunk (which [[CantHoldHerLiquor happens rather easily]]). Her maid otaku nature comes out, she becomes very loud, often strips Tohru naked, and argues about nerd things.
to:
* InVinoVeritas: Reveals her true true, rambunctious personality when drunk (which [[CantHoldHerLiquor happens rather easily]]). Her maid otaku nature comes out, she becomes very loud, often strips Tohru naked, gets really horny around Tohru, and argues about nerd things.
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* MaamShock: She doesn't like being referred to as Kanna's mother since it makes her feel old, especially given that her age and that of Kanna's human form (26 and 8-9 respectively) don't quite add up to it.
* {{Magitek}}: Jigokumeguri's programming runs on a magical syntax, meaning she regularly works with this.
* {{Magitek}}: Jigokumeguri's programming runs on a magical syntax, meaning she regularly works with this.
to:
* MaamShock: She doesn't like being referred to as Kanna's mother since it makes her feel old, especially given that her age and that of Kanna's human form (26 and 8-9 respectively) (A 16-year difference) don't quite add up to it.
* {{Magitek}}: Jigokumeguri's programming runs on a magical syntax, meaning she regularly works withthis.and is adapt with a magic coding language.
* {{Magitek}}: Jigokumeguri's programming runs on a magical syntax, meaning she regularly works with
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!!Kobayashi
!!Kobayashi
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!!Kobayashi
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!!Kobayashi
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MutsumiTamura (Japanese), Creator/LeahClark (English), Lourdes Arruti (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chara_kobayashi_pc.png]]
A tomboyish otaku computer programmer for [[Manga/{{Ojojojo}} Jigokumeguri]].[[note]]Her office is located in either Kitasenju or Takinokuchi, depending on whether you're following the manga or the anime.[[/note]] Due to [[WhatDidIDoLastNight a hilarious chance meeting,]] she ends up getting herself a dragon for a maid, opening up for more dragons to begin to move into her life.
----
* ACupAngst:
** Kobayashi is flat-chested to the point where a RunningGag is her being mistaken for a man, and she is intensely jealous over Tohru's, Elma's, Lucoa's, and Ilulu's enormous bust sizes. This reaches its zenith in Chapter 104, where all the discussions and comparisons involving the massive chests on Ilulu and Lucoa put her in a majorly foul mood, and she exhibits a DeathGlare towards Taketo and Shouta when they're able to easily maintain eye-contact towards her without getting "distracted".
** In the anime version, after finding out that Ilulu's bust size is the '''smallest''' it can be, she makes a face and verbally expresses her desire to have a portion of that.
* AdoptivePeerParent: She's 25 while Kanna and Ilulu are (physically and mentally) 9 and 16 respectively.
* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: A {{Flashback}} in episode 12/chapter 32, shows a drunk Kobayashi ignoring a [[BearsAreBadNews watch out for bears sign]], then running into an extremely deadly dragon, then climbing on the dragon's back, and finally pulling an extremely dangerous sword out of the dragon's back.
* TheAlcoholic: Frequently drinking beer or sake, or suffering from a hangover as a result. She even met Tohru [[WhatDidIDoLastNight after a night of hard drinking]].
* AlcoholicParent: She's a ParentalSubstitute to Kanna and likes to get drunk after work, but her drinking doesn't negatively impact her parenting because of how high-functioning she is.
* AmbiguouslyBi: Although she hasn't shown any obvious interest in any male character, she does seem to have a basic interest in men, as she remarks in an annoyed way that she didn't expect her own ding-dong to be the next penis she saw,[[note]]The first being her father's.[[/note]] implying that she ''wanted'' to see a penis in more proper conditions at some point in the future. She also envies any dragon with huge [[BuxomIsBetter "flame-sacs"]] and the attention they receive from men. However, her relationship with Tohru is full of both subtext and intimacy, and it [[spoiler:eventually progresses towards romantic reciprocation, with Kobayashi confessing to Tohru in chapter 97 that she does like her romantically.]]
* BadassOnPaper: Over the course of the series she has safely handled a weapon that {{Mind Rape}}s anyone that touches it, made a violent dragon her personal servant who works for no pay, talked down beings infinitely more powerful than her, and aced a high ranking mage exam. Despite this, she is a completely ordinary computer programmer with no special abilities or magical power to speak of.
* BadassPacifist: In the anime, she manages to drive Tohru's father away by giving him a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech for not respecting his daughter's wishes. Does this again in chapter 69 with [[spoiler: Kanna’s father for seeing his daughter as nothing but a potential weapon.]]
* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:She organizes the downfall of the Dragon Slayer subgroup just by having Tohru falsely claim to be one of the weaker members of the Chaos Faction while rescuing Elma from her ArrangedMarriage. Since most dragons wouldn't be caught dead downplaying their own strength and are very gullible by nature, the fact that they're unable to subdue her would make them look worthless as an ally in the eyes of the other subgroups and they'd be subsumed in order to survive.]]
* BeadyEyedLoser: She's an alcoholic loner with a FriendlessBackground and a (relatively speaking) frumpy appearance. She also has beady eyes that do much to show how apathetic she is about the above.
* BenevolentBoss:
** As much as she gets annoyed with Tohru, Kobayashi treats her very nicely and views her as one of her greatest friends.
** She's very patient with Elma who's still learning to handle office and programming tasks when they meet.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: She got her boss fired for abuse of power by secretly recording him foisting his work on everyone and sending it to the company president.
* BosssUnfavoriteEmployee: Kobayashi's superior would often hoist all his work on her and yell at her for the slightest mistake despite her being the most competent person in their department [[StrawMisogynist due to his sexist views on women in the workplace]]. [[BewareTheNiceOnes She got him fired by recording his rants and sending them to the company president]].
* BroughtDownToNormal: [[spoiler:She used her own magic potential to channel all of Kanna's stored power into a new dragon ball to defeat Azad in battle, something that he notes would forever remove her ability to perform magic. Given that she had only ever used one spell beforehand and didn't have any use for it in her daily life, she didn't consider it to be much of a loss. Ends up being subverted when Chapter 112 reveals that losing her magic potential allowed her to absorb the superior power of the Holy Sword.]]
* ButchLesbian: Or rather butch bi. Her personality, attitude and interests resemble that of stereotypical Japanese men, her appearance is rather mannish, [[spoiler:and chapter 97, she confesses to Tohru that she likes her romantically]], although she seems to be open to males too.
* CantHoldHerLiquor: She gets drunk very easily, which often results in maid-related rants. Her tolerance for alcohol is so low that any magical potion containing alcohol will have its effects nullified since Kobayashi will be too drunk for it to work. In ''Elma's Office Lady Diary'', Tohru mentions that it's taking a toll on her health... ''girl's just not built for liquor''.
* CatGirl: Due to some special medicine that Tohru got for her when she had a fever, she ends up sprouting cat ears and whiskers. They go away after about half a day.
* CelibateHero: She isn't really interested in romance, at least towards any of the characters shown. Nor is she sexually attracted to anyone. [[spoiler:Though she does eventually admit to developing romantic feelings towards Tohru in chapter 97.]]
* CharacterTitle: "Miss '''Kobayashi''''s Dragon Maid".
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Her inability to reject the promise she made to Tohru after seeing her misery ultimately kicks off the plot. In general, she seems to always go out of her way to help those around her when they need it, even at her own inconvenience.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Inverted - when she finds Tohru for the first time, she's been pierced by a holy sword which will destroy the mind of a mortal who touches it. However, Kobayashi's lack of faith (and maybe helped by her drunk mindset) allows her to draw the huge sword with no harm.
* ClosetGeek: She hides her {{otaku}}-level love of maids from most of her coworkers, aside from her friend and fellow otaku Takiya.
* {{Cosplay}}: She very much likes cosplay, but never did so herself as she felt she wasn't attractive enough to make the costumes work. Which like with feminine clothing is why she wears only men's clothing.
* CovertPervert: When drunk, Kobayashi will often make Tohru strip (or forcefully strip her). In their first meeting, she even asked if she could fondle Tohru's breast.
* CrackOhMyBack: Due to her {{Workaholic}} mentality and frequent experiences with being swamped in excess work, she's developed chronic back pain from sitting in a crappy office chair without getting up for hours on end, with Elma eventually noticing that she has bad sitting posture that makes it even worse. Plenty of gags and scenarios revolve around said pain, such as learning that [[DragonRider riding a dragon-form Tohru]] without any support is a bad idea, trying to stretch and doubling over, or looking for various cures for relieving said problem.
* CursedWithAwesome: [[spoiler:Losing all of her magic abilities is revealed to be this in Chapter 112. While she may never be able to use traditional magic again, Telne surmises that when she dried her magic abilities the Sword's essence took its place and even changed its divine essence to that of Kobayashi's own essence. So not only does she has access to all the power of a God's weapon that grants her superhuman abilities, but it even bypaces the resistances of divine beings like Telne since it's no longer divine power. Losing her magic potential is a pretty minor trade-off to have over ownership over god-level power.]]
* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: Kobayashi has matching reddish-pink hair and eyes.
* DeadpanSnarker: The deadpan part is prominent all the time, though she will snark from time to time (usually in regards to Tohru).
* DeathGlare: On occasion whenever she wants a point to be made, and it's made very effective by her dead-fish eyes. Even Tohru, who finds Kobayashi's eyes to be one of many traits she finds attractive about her to the point of fetishism, admits that her glare is unsettling.
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: She taunts Tohru's father with the fact that [[AlienNonInterferenceClause he can't kill her]] when she tries to stop him from taking Tohru home. It nearly turns into a case of DoNotTauntCthulhu, but Tohru intervenes when her father tries to attack. She would later repeat this with Kanna's father, cursing him out for how horrible of a parent he was.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[spoiler:She ends up knocking out Kanna's father with a massive energy ball attack in chapter 77.]]
* DistractedByTheSexy: She'll normally IgnoreTheFanservice, but [[GenderBender getting her sex swapped]] suddenly makes Kobayashi ultra-sensitive to the overt displays of freedom her roommates take for granted. [[spoiler:[[NotDistractedByTheSexy Returns with a vengeance]] when [[SeriousBusiness Tohru takes the maid uniform off]] when trying to take advantage of Kobayashi's thingy.]]
* DoNotTauntCthulhu: Kobayashi has a bad habit of antagonizing powerful dragons like Tohru's father and Clemene, assuming that they won't retaliate because there's a law forbidding them from interfering with humans on Earth. She's been proven wrong both times, and would have been killed both times had Tohru not intervened.
* DopeSlap: She flicks Elma on the forehead for becoming competitive with her at work, as a misguided attempt to save her due to misinterpreting the meaning of "pillar of the office" (Elma thought pillar as in [[HumanSacrifice hitobashira]] ("human-pillar"), rather than support as Takiya meant).[[note]]This mistake in definition was lost a little in the Seven Seas release as Takiya called Kobayashi a "martyr" in that one, which ''can'' mean "constant sufferer", but that isn't the first definition most people think of for the word.[[/note]]
* DragonRider: She rides Tohru on several occasions (and has ridden on Kanna in the anime when [[spoiler: she confronts Tohru's father]]), though she refuses to use her to commute to work (because it's uncomfortable).
* FantasticallyIndifferent: She doesn't even blink when Elma comes bursting through the wall of her apartment since she's fully adapted to the whole "dragons from another world" thing by that point.
* FieryRedhead: {{Zigzagged|Trope}}. When she's sober, Kobayashi is a sane, emotionally reserved, but friendly person. Once she's drunk, she shows her true personality, where she becomes ''very'' passionate about maids, talks very loudly and about nerd things, and has a tendency to strip Tohru naked.
* ForcedTransformation: [[spoiler:Some medicine that Tohru gives Kobayashi causes cat ears and a tail to sprout from the latter, due to the medicine being designed for beast-folk. Kobayashi is not thrilled having to miss work because of this.]]
* FriendlessBackground: She grew up staying at home playing video games, while her parents were always busy working. As an adult, she used to live alone with only one friend she spent evenings getting drunk with. While she never resents her life, it took Tohru's arrival for her to realize how empty it was before.
* FrozenDinnerOfLoneliness: She lived alone, usually prepared frozen food and had a bored life until Tohru appeared. This trait repeats when Tohru leaves her and Kanna, so Kobayashi has to prepare frozen food since she can't prepare food like Tohru until the latter returns.
* FunctionalAddict: She might drink a lot, but she still manages to be a highly competent programmer and act as Kanna's ParentalSubstitute.
* GamerChick: She owns several game consoles (though she's never shown playing any of them). She also mentioned that she spent most of her childhood playing video games.
* GenderBender: Ilulu gives her a male body in chapter 36 of the manga, although she's already so androgynous that nobody (save Tohru) could tell the difference. She changes back at the end of the next chapter. [[note]]Kobayashi's temporary penis is called 'that' by her and 'one of those' by Tohru.[[/note]]
* GenderIsNoObject: The fact that Kobayashi is female has little incidence on the plot other than for gags or preference. When [[GenderBender Ilulu switches her sex]], the ''only'' thing that accompanies the genital change is that her hip measurements get smaller. Literally nothing else changes physically, and ''no one'' else, aside from Tohru eventually, notices anything is off. [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody Her mind is a different matter,]] but Kobayashi has enough self control to outlast the spell.
* GoodParents: Actually a parental figure, but she is certainly this to Kanna by providing her with parental guidance and affection. Just being present in Kanna's life made the latter better than Kanna's birth parents.
* GrinOfAudacity: Gives one right before she verbally flips off Tohru's father. Doubles as OOCIsSeriousBusiness since she's normally TheStoic.
* GuileHeroine: A combination of this and IndyPloy but she has had a few times of mediating a dangerous situation such as [[spoiler:during the Dragon Ball arc where she is able to stop the two dragon armies from fighting long enough for Kanna to get Azad to admit his plans, or later during the Arranged Marriage arc where she convinces Telne to let her, or more specifically Tohru, do a DeathOrGlory attack that led to Telne's defeat]].
* HiddenDepths: In spite of her stoic behavior, she cannot bear to see someone in need if she can do anything about it and she'll put in every effort she can possibly muster to help.
* HorrifyingTheHorror: A [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] but [[PlayedForLaughs humorous]] example; Tohru seeing how Kobayashi acts while [[InVinoVeritas drunk]] prompted her to call humans "terrifying".
* IJustWantToHaveFriends: When she first met Tohru, [[InVinoVeritas in a drunken stupor]], she wonders to Tohru why she lives alone.
* IncompatibleOrientation: Tohru and Ilulu are in love with Kobayashi, while Elma admits she wouldn't be opposed to a relationship. That said, Kobayashi herself has indicated she doesn't swing that way. That said, in the dub, she explicitly says she's not into girls, but [[ExactWords only tells Tohru that she's a girl]] in the subs, so [[AmbiguouslyGay the jury's still out on how accurate this one is]]. [[spoiler:Turns out the orientation isn't so incompatible after all, as Kobayashi tells Tohru in chapter 97 that she does or at least has come to like her romantically.]]
* IneffectualLoner: While she isn't any ineffectual (in fact, it's quite the opposite as it's her workforce that's reliant on her as she's the most capable one), meeting Tohru made her realize how empty her life was before they met. Played straight in the household when Tohru was taken back to the other world, forcing her to take care of the household by herself on top of working full time, leading to the house becoming messier, making her realize that she does need Tohru.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: She's 26 and Georgie is in her teens, yet the two of them are "comrades" due to their shared love of maids.
* InterspeciesAdoption: She acts as a mother figure for the young dragon Kanna and (to a lesser extent) Ilulu.
* InkSuitActor: Creator/MutsumiTamura on her own already resembles Kobayashi to an uncanny degree, right down to ''[[ACupAngst that]]'' department, and can [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrFYVd8BiL8 basically pass for a live-action version when she's in costume]].
* InVinoVeritas: Reveals her true personality when drunk (which [[CantHoldHerLiquor happens rather easily]]). Her maid otaku nature comes out, she becomes very loud, often strips Tohru naked, and argues about nerd things.
* ItBeganWithATwistOfFate: Her life changed forever, when she drunkenly came across a dragon impaled with a sword that was still sticking out of her back, and pulled the sword out of the dragon's back.
* KirkSummation: After [[FantasticRacism Azad]] says that there's nothing wrong with [[spoiler:forcing a brainwashed Kimun to attack Kanna]] since dragons don't understand affection, she points out the obvious: that he's in denial since his plan hinged on [[WellDoneSonGuy Kanna's desire for affection from her father]].
* TheLadette: She not only looks that way physically, but her personality and interests are much more stereotypical of Japanese men.
* LadyLooksLikeADude: Both Tohru and Ilulu mistook her for a man when they first meet. Her lack of noticeable breasts and androgynous style of dress, not to mention her attitude and (in the anime) a rather deep-sounding voice, are the reasons for this.
* LastNameBasis: She is only ever referred to by her surname. Although, if the text on her business card from Chapter 8 is accurate, her given name is written with characters that can be read "Meiko".
* LikeADaughterToMe: She develops this kind of relationship with Kanna in spite of being decades (if not centuries) younger than the diminutive girl dragon. In formal terms, she's Kanna's legal guardian, and to simplify things, she's Kanna's mom to their friends and acquaintances.
* MaamShock: She doesn't like being referred to as Kanna's mother since it makes her feel old, especially given that her age and that of Kanna's human form (26 and 8-9 respectively) don't quite add up to it.
* {{Magitek}}: Jigokumeguri's programming runs on a magical syntax, meaning she regularly works with this.
* MamaBear: Having come to view Kanna as her own child, she's furious when she finds out that Kimun merely views her as a war asset instead of a daughter.
* MistakenForBadass: All the mages at Shouta's exam end up mistaking her for being some kind of archmage due to the fact that she got first place in both the written and practical parts of the test (the former part because [[WaxOnWaxOff the coding language she uses at work is based off of the series' magic system]], and the latter because she had [[PersonOfMassDestruction Tohru]] pretending to be her familiar). And when they tried to sense her magical powers, they ended up sensing Tohru instead, furthering the misconception.
* MoralityPet: For Tohru. While not much is seen of what Tohru was like prior to them meeting, it's clear that she was nowhere near as nice as she is in the present.
* MuggleFosterParents: She fills this role for Kanna and (to a lesser extent) Ilulu, filling the void of a stable parental figure that they lost ([[OrphansOrdeal for Ilulu]]) or never had ([[ParentalNeglect for Kanna]]).
* MuggleWithADegreeInMagic: While she never personally studied magic, Kobayashi demonstrated herself to be a master of magical theory in chapter 65 when she got first place on a high ranking magic exam. This is due to the fact that the magic system is almost identical to the programming languages she uses at her job (the former having been used as the basis for the latter InUniverse).
* NiceGirl: She's a freakin' treasure, one of the nicest, even-minded and friendliest people you'll find in an anime... when she's sober; when she's not, her voice goes a couple of decibels up and she gets aggressively talkative and pushy about maids in particular.
* NoJustNoReaction: Tohru does things that Kobayashi has to shut down immediately. These include trying to feed Kobayashi meat from her own tail and asking to be branded as Kobayashi's slave.
* NonStandardCharacterDesign: She has much smaller irises than the rest of the cast.
* NoodleIncident: She and Kanna get into some kind of fight offscreen, and the details of how and why are never clarified other than it causing Kanna to run away in anger. The two of them do show regret over how they acted though; Kanna in particular feels bad for running away to another country instead of properly resolving the issue with Kobayashi.
* ObliviousToLove: Invoked. She argues that she doesn't quite know how to respond to being loved or wanted, as she'd never experienced such a thing before Tohru came into her life; still, she reassures Tohru that she's both willing and receptive to the maid dragon's affections.
* OhCrap: This happens a few times with Kobayashi:
** Upon realizing that the chocolate that Kanna offered her a piece of is the Valentine's chocolate that Tohru laced with a LovePotion. [[spoiler:Though it turns out to have actually been some liquor chocolates that made her drunk.]]
** After discovering that the big guy that shared a drink with her is actually [[spoiler: Kanna's father]].
** [[http://i.imgur.com/1k6ab4j.png Her reaction]] to seeing Tohru in dragon form [[http://i.imgur.com/OFNZCNY.png staring back at her]], while [[http://i.imgur.com/FmTO1Rz.png baring her teeth]] in the first episode, before Tohru transforms into a human form.
* OneOfTheBoys: According to Takiya, she's just one of the guys around the office.
* OnlyHasSameSexAdmirers: Tohru is obviously in love with her, but Elma is completely open to a relationship with her, and even Ilulu begins to fall for her as well. Her male friend, Takiya, is just her [[PlatonicLifePartners platonic best friend]], nothing more.
* OnlySaneMan: By virtue of being a human living with two [[spoiler:and later three]] dragons in her house. She often has to reign in the dragon characters' destructive tendencies and obliviousness to human customs.
* {{Otaku}}:
** While she has an especially deep interest in maids, she has elements of the typical manga and video game otaku as well. She's got firm ideas on the {{Tsundere}} archetype, a good amount of manga on her bookshelf, and a ton of video games to play.
** In the manga Tohru offers to play outside with Kanna since she's a kid. Kobayashi notes to herself in response to this that when she was a kid she just sat around and played ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' all the time. The anime repeats the same line in spirit, albeit without the ''Harvest Moon'' reference.
* OtakuSurrogate: She's the female lead of a male-oriented manga who's obsessed with maids (though she prefers real maids over [[{{Meido}} the kind typically seen in anime]], as she drunkenly derides the latter as "just cosplay"). Kobayashi also has many traits you'd expect from a male protagonist ([[LadyLooksLikeADude masculine looks]], [[TheLadette stoic but hard-drinking personality]], high career status [[OneOfTheGuys in a male-dominated work environment]], [[OnlyHasSameSexAdmirers female admirers]]), likely to make her more relatable to male readers in general.
* ParentalSubstitute: She acts as Kanna's legal guardian despite Kanna being far older than her. Chapter 34/Episode 9 goes into this relationship in depth, explaining that Kanna fully views her as a mother. [[spoiler:Later on, she also takes in Ilulu.]]
* ParentsAsPeople: Opting into the role of Kanna's guardian puts her in a number of situations that she's not fully equipped for. Part of this stems from her and Kanna both having vastly different upbringings, both personality-wise and as a human and dragon respectively.
** When shopping for Kanna's school supplies, it takes a bit for Kobayashi to realize that Kanna wants something cute and personable compared to the very textbook-style supplies Kobayashi used as a kid. She even notes with Tohru that she's more used to conforming to school customs than the kids Kanna's age.
** In the weeks leading up Kanna's Sports Festival, Kobayashi tells Kanna that work wouldn't allow her to make it, something she has experience in with her own parents. However, when she remembers the reason Kanna is in her world in the first place --which was acting out in a bid for attention from her own neglectful family--, she pulls off consecutive all-nighters in order to be ahead of her work so that she can make it to the festival.
* PlatonicLifePartners: Her relationship with Takiya is that of a co-worker, drinking buddy, way to vent her ClosetGeek tendencies, and, for a long time, OnlyFriend. Their relationship ends there, no fraternization.
* {{Protectorate}}: Kobayashi is probably the single safest person on Earth, given that she has high ranking dragons from both factions that value her safety (primarily Tohru and Elma). This even gets played for laughs in ''Elma's Office Lady Diary'' when Elma "protects" her during a mixer she didn't want to be at by preventing any of the guys from interacting with her directly.
* RefusalOfTheCall: She eventually finds herself meeting with [[spoiler:the holy sword that pierced Tohru, which took residence in her soul and gained sentience]], with said entity offering the chance for her to [[spoiler:become an incredibly powerful dragon-slaying hero]]. Her response to the offer was instant refusal, each time it was offered, as becoming powerful or special isn't something she cares for.
* TheReliableOne: Pretty much her entire department at work relies on her, whether it be helping them with their projects or covering for the work they're unable to do. She even bears the weight of covering for and training the newcomer Elma all on her own.
* RoseHairedSweetie: A NiceGirl with reddish pink hair.
* {{Salaryman}}: She works as a computer programmer, and dresses more like a male officer worker rather than a typical OfficeLady.
* SeenItAll: Living with dragons completely numbs her to the more outlandish incidents of her daily life. Elma bursting through her wall for example elicits nothing more than DullSurprise and an exasperated look.
* SempaiKohai: She's Elma's sempai at work, and is responsible for teaching her how to do her job (such as how to turn on the computer).
* SeriousBusiness:
** [[{{Meido}} Maids]]. It comes out in full when she's drunk, and she gets ''very forceful'' on the topic with Tohru. It's originally what brought her and Takiya together. In fact, it's so serious that [[spoiler:Tohru discarding her uniform completely kills [[GenderBender Kobayashi's hard on]] when the former slips her an aphrodisiac.]]
** She also feels this way about the food service industry, having previously worked in a restaurant before becoming a programmer.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Maids. She has a thing for maids and ''only'' maids. For Kobayashi, it isn't a matter of being interested in men or women. It's about whether or not you're a maid. Trying to seduce her if you're not dressed like a maid will not work no matter how large your GagBoobs are, and Tohru's attempt to sleep with Kobayashi [[spoiler:during the time when [[GenderBender the latter had a male body]]]] would've ''worked'' if she hadn't taken off her maid uniform beforehand to do it.
* SheCleansUpNicely:
** She tries on Tohru's maid outfit at one point, and their friends all agree she actually looks pretty good in it.
** Chapter 21 of ''Elma's Office Lady Diary'' has her look pretty after Wakita fixes her makeup and changes her into more feminine clothes. Of course, Kobayashi prefers her regular look over Wakita's makeover.
** [[spoiler:Tohru tries to trick Kobayashi into marrying her, even having a full bridal dress prepared for the latter. Kobayashi looks pretty good in it too.]]
* ShipTease: She has romantic moments with Tohru in the anime, though it's much less so in the manga.
* ShipperOnDeck:
** Chapter 63 implies that she supports Ilulu's feelings for Taketo.
** Its shown a few times that she wants to see Tohru and Elma become close friends again.
* StandingBetweenTheEnemies: Kobayashi does this in both the anime and the manga, though they are under vastly different circumstances. In the season one finale, she gets between Tohru and her father when they come to blows over whether the latter can stay on Earth. In the manga, she and Tohru arrive in between the Chaos and Harmony factions to reveal the fact that [[spoiler:Azad was manipulating them into killing each other.]]
* TheStoic: Downplayed. She tends to keep her emotions to herself ([[InVinoVeritas as long as she's not drunk]]), but she's far from unflappable. Though she smiles more often [[TookALevelInCheerfulness as the series progresses]].
* StraightManAndWiseGuy: Is the straight man to Tohru's wise guy. Hard not to be given Tohru is a dragon getting used to how things work in the human world.
* StrugglingSingleMother: She was shown to be emotionally drained after [[spoiler:Tohru being taken back to the other world]] forced her to have to take care of Kanna by herself on top of working full time. The apartment also gets progressively messier during the accompanying montage.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. Kobayashi isn't cold, just [[TheStoic emotionally stoic]]. She's actually an ''incredibly'' [[NiceGirl sweet]] and [[TheReliableOne reliable]] person.
* SuperEmpowering: [[spoiler:The holy sword that she saved Tohru from ended up taking residence in her soul, granting her access to its power as well as the ability to perform magic (though she burned through all her magic at once to take down a brainwashed Kimun).]]
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: As stated in ''Elma's Office Lady Diary'', Kobayashi has some levels of hepatic compromise apparently due to her drinking, so Tohru tells Elma that she'll not cook anything that goes with sake for Kobayashi. That means that on top of being bad at drinking, it's actually damaging her health.
* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: She delivers two really good speeches to Damocles in the season 1 finale, with her finally getting through to him with the second speech.
* TeamDad: Despite being a woman, she's this to her household because she is the androgynous bread-winner and the one reining in the dragon-culture-related shenanigans. Kanna even gives her a present on Father's Day instead of Mother's Day in the anime.
* ThatWasNotADream: Chapter 2/episode 1 has Kobayashi recounting a dream, where she climbs a mountain, only to meet and start talking to a dragon, while Tohru reveals that the events really did happen, as she was the dragon.
* ThisIsWrongOnSoManyLevels: When Elma begins trying to get competitive with her at work, Kobayashi quickly kicks her off her high-horse by arguing that first, by doing so, Elma's being disrespectful towards Kobayashi, who is her senior at work and is miles more experienced at their job; second, that Kobayashi has been covering Elma's share of work while she catches up, and by trying to stir competition, Elma is being ungrateful towards Kobayashi's efforts to help her; third, Elma ''is supposed to do her job'' and not try to show off at the expense of Kobayashi, who has been nothing but kind towards her. Plus the whole thing only began when Elma wrongfully assumed Kobayashi was going to end up as a HumanSacrifice if she kept working, despite being in a modern environment where none of that is practiced, as explained by Kobayashi. After being told, Elma profusely apologizes to Kobayashi and begins treating her with her due respect.
* TokenHuman: She's the only bog-standard human in a household of dragons and [[spoiler:a sentient weapon]].
* {{Tomboy}}: According to her, she was always boyish, even when she was a child. She bought a maid costume when she was younger, but thought she looked stupid when she wore it herself.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: The tomboy to Tohru's girly girl, as she looks and sounds androgynous, has much more "guy" interests than girl interests, behaves more like a guy than a girl, likes drinking beer, and is rarely, if at all, seen in feminine clothing.
* TomboyishPonytail: Usually wears a quick-to-do ponytail, which reflects her pragmatic nature.
* TomboyishVoice: In the anime, she has a rather low voice, fitting for someone with a boyish, mature and stoic personality with no time for childish-nonsense.
* TookALevelInCheerfulness: She became more open with her emotions and started smiling more often once she became accustomed to having Tohru around. It's also shown that she used to be more frustrated at her job; to boot, she argues that she can barely remember how she used to be before Tohru.
* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: Discussed. After getting a promotion at work, Mr. Magatsuchi tries to convince her to take on the role as the area's guardian. Part of the reason she doesn't want the job (aside from the increased work load) is because then her title would be '''Jigokumeguri Company Chief and Oborozuka Area Guardian • Kobayashi'''.
* UnfazedEveryman: She takes the mystical dragons wandering around in her life with stride and doesn't really change up her demeanor in response.
* WaxOnWaxOff: Her company's use of magical programming turns out to be training in actual magic. She gets tricked into joining a testing to advance to the fourth highest rank of magicians under the pretense of escorting Shouta to the test and ends up easily placing first in both written and practical portions (though the latter was mostly Tohru's doing).
* WeightWoe: Tohru cooking foods that are high in fat for the cold weather in chapter 51 of ''Kanna's Daily Life'' cause her to put on a bit of weight and leave her unable to fit into her pants. Fortunately, a single day of playing with Kanna in the park proves to be a strenuous enough workout to help her lose all the weight.
* WhatBeautifulEyes: Both an {{Inversion}} and PlayedForLaughs. Tohru is enamored with her "dead-fish eyes". And if Takiya's comment in the preview for episode 8 is to be believed, so is a good chunk of the internet.
* WhatDidIDoLastNight: How the series starts, with her encountering a mortally-wounded Tohru while drunkenly walking around a mountainside.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: In Chapter 42, it's mentioned that she has no interest in living beyond a normal human lifespan, even though Tohru has offered her ([[NoodleIncident on multiple occasions]]) the opportunity.
* WordsDoNotMakeTheMagic: Magic requires mana, so Kobayashi is unable to cast spells even though she has a deep understanding of magical theory from her programming background. [[spoiler:Of course, this changes when she goes to the other world, which has a BackgroundMagicField.]]
* {{Workaholic}}: She gets restless if she hasn't done eight hours of work each day.
* WorkplaceAcquiredAbilities: She is able to ace the written portion of a high ranking mage exam thanks to her experiences as a systems engineer (the programming language her company uses is modeled off of the magic system in question).
* WorthlessForeignDegree: She passes a mage ranking exam with flying colors in chapter 66, but she points out that it isn't something she can put on a resume in the human world.
[[/folder]]
!!Kobayashi
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MutsumiTamura (Japanese), Creator/LeahClark (English), Lourdes Arruti (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chara_kobayashi_pc.png]]
A tomboyish otaku computer programmer for [[Manga/{{Ojojojo}} Jigokumeguri]].[[note]]Her office is located in either Kitasenju or Takinokuchi, depending on whether you're following the manga or the anime.[[/note]] Due to [[WhatDidIDoLastNight a hilarious chance meeting,]] she ends up getting herself a dragon for a maid, opening up for more dragons to begin to move into her life.
----
* ACupAngst:
** Kobayashi is flat-chested to the point where a RunningGag is her being mistaken for a man, and she is intensely jealous over Tohru's, Elma's, Lucoa's, and Ilulu's enormous bust sizes. This reaches its zenith in Chapter 104, where all the discussions and comparisons involving the massive chests on Ilulu and Lucoa put her in a majorly foul mood, and she exhibits a DeathGlare towards Taketo and Shouta when they're able to easily maintain eye-contact towards her without getting "distracted".
** In the anime version, after finding out that Ilulu's bust size is the '''smallest''' it can be, she makes a face and verbally expresses her desire to have a portion of that.
* AdoptivePeerParent: She's 25 while Kanna and Ilulu are (physically and mentally) 9 and 16 respectively.
* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: A {{Flashback}} in episode 12/chapter 32, shows a drunk Kobayashi ignoring a [[BearsAreBadNews watch out for bears sign]], then running into an extremely deadly dragon, then climbing on the dragon's back, and finally pulling an extremely dangerous sword out of the dragon's back.
* TheAlcoholic: Frequently drinking beer or sake, or suffering from a hangover as a result. She even met Tohru [[WhatDidIDoLastNight after a night of hard drinking]].
* AlcoholicParent: She's a ParentalSubstitute to Kanna and likes to get drunk after work, but her drinking doesn't negatively impact her parenting because of how high-functioning she is.
* AmbiguouslyBi: Although she hasn't shown any obvious interest in any male character, she does seem to have a basic interest in men, as she remarks in an annoyed way that she didn't expect her own ding-dong to be the next penis she saw,[[note]]The first being her father's.[[/note]] implying that she ''wanted'' to see a penis in more proper conditions at some point in the future. She also envies any dragon with huge [[BuxomIsBetter "flame-sacs"]] and the attention they receive from men. However, her relationship with Tohru is full of both subtext and intimacy, and it [[spoiler:eventually progresses towards romantic reciprocation, with Kobayashi confessing to Tohru in chapter 97 that she does like her romantically.]]
* BadassOnPaper: Over the course of the series she has safely handled a weapon that {{Mind Rape}}s anyone that touches it, made a violent dragon her personal servant who works for no pay, talked down beings infinitely more powerful than her, and aced a high ranking mage exam. Despite this, she is a completely ordinary computer programmer with no special abilities or magical power to speak of.
* BadassPacifist: In the anime, she manages to drive Tohru's father away by giving him a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech for not respecting his daughter's wishes. Does this again in chapter 69 with [[spoiler: Kanna’s father for seeing his daughter as nothing but a potential weapon.]]
* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:She organizes the downfall of the Dragon Slayer subgroup just by having Tohru falsely claim to be one of the weaker members of the Chaos Faction while rescuing Elma from her ArrangedMarriage. Since most dragons wouldn't be caught dead downplaying their own strength and are very gullible by nature, the fact that they're unable to subdue her would make them look worthless as an ally in the eyes of the other subgroups and they'd be subsumed in order to survive.]]
* BeadyEyedLoser: She's an alcoholic loner with a FriendlessBackground and a (relatively speaking) frumpy appearance. She also has beady eyes that do much to show how apathetic she is about the above.
* BenevolentBoss:
** As much as she gets annoyed with Tohru, Kobayashi treats her very nicely and views her as one of her greatest friends.
** She's very patient with Elma who's still learning to handle office and programming tasks when they meet.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: She got her boss fired for abuse of power by secretly recording him foisting his work on everyone and sending it to the company president.
* BosssUnfavoriteEmployee: Kobayashi's superior would often hoist all his work on her and yell at her for the slightest mistake despite her being the most competent person in their department [[StrawMisogynist due to his sexist views on women in the workplace]]. [[BewareTheNiceOnes She got him fired by recording his rants and sending them to the company president]].
* BroughtDownToNormal: [[spoiler:She used her own magic potential to channel all of Kanna's stored power into a new dragon ball to defeat Azad in battle, something that he notes would forever remove her ability to perform magic. Given that she had only ever used one spell beforehand and didn't have any use for it in her daily life, she didn't consider it to be much of a loss. Ends up being subverted when Chapter 112 reveals that losing her magic potential allowed her to absorb the superior power of the Holy Sword.]]
* ButchLesbian: Or rather butch bi. Her personality, attitude and interests resemble that of stereotypical Japanese men, her appearance is rather mannish, [[spoiler:and chapter 97, she confesses to Tohru that she likes her romantically]], although she seems to be open to males too.
* CantHoldHerLiquor: She gets drunk very easily, which often results in maid-related rants. Her tolerance for alcohol is so low that any magical potion containing alcohol will have its effects nullified since Kobayashi will be too drunk for it to work. In ''Elma's Office Lady Diary'', Tohru mentions that it's taking a toll on her health... ''girl's just not built for liquor''.
* CatGirl: Due to some special medicine that Tohru got for her when she had a fever, she ends up sprouting cat ears and whiskers. They go away after about half a day.
* CelibateHero: She isn't really interested in romance, at least towards any of the characters shown. Nor is she sexually attracted to anyone. [[spoiler:Though she does eventually admit to developing romantic feelings towards Tohru in chapter 97.]]
* CharacterTitle: "Miss '''Kobayashi''''s Dragon Maid".
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Her inability to reject the promise she made to Tohru after seeing her misery ultimately kicks off the plot. In general, she seems to always go out of her way to help those around her when they need it, even at her own inconvenience.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Inverted - when she finds Tohru for the first time, she's been pierced by a holy sword which will destroy the mind of a mortal who touches it. However, Kobayashi's lack of faith (and maybe helped by her drunk mindset) allows her to draw the huge sword with no harm.
* ClosetGeek: She hides her {{otaku}}-level love of maids from most of her coworkers, aside from her friend and fellow otaku Takiya.
* {{Cosplay}}: She very much likes cosplay, but never did so herself as she felt she wasn't attractive enough to make the costumes work. Which like with feminine clothing is why she wears only men's clothing.
* CovertPervert: When drunk, Kobayashi will often make Tohru strip (or forcefully strip her). In their first meeting, she even asked if she could fondle Tohru's breast.
* CrackOhMyBack: Due to her {{Workaholic}} mentality and frequent experiences with being swamped in excess work, she's developed chronic back pain from sitting in a crappy office chair without getting up for hours on end, with Elma eventually noticing that she has bad sitting posture that makes it even worse. Plenty of gags and scenarios revolve around said pain, such as learning that [[DragonRider riding a dragon-form Tohru]] without any support is a bad idea, trying to stretch and doubling over, or looking for various cures for relieving said problem.
* CursedWithAwesome: [[spoiler:Losing all of her magic abilities is revealed to be this in Chapter 112. While she may never be able to use traditional magic again, Telne surmises that when she dried her magic abilities the Sword's essence took its place and even changed its divine essence to that of Kobayashi's own essence. So not only does she has access to all the power of a God's weapon that grants her superhuman abilities, but it even bypaces the resistances of divine beings like Telne since it's no longer divine power. Losing her magic potential is a pretty minor trade-off to have over ownership over god-level power.]]
* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: Kobayashi has matching reddish-pink hair and eyes.
* DeadpanSnarker: The deadpan part is prominent all the time, though she will snark from time to time (usually in regards to Tohru).
* DeathGlare: On occasion whenever she wants a point to be made, and it's made very effective by her dead-fish eyes. Even Tohru, who finds Kobayashi's eyes to be one of many traits she finds attractive about her to the point of fetishism, admits that her glare is unsettling.
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: She taunts Tohru's father with the fact that [[AlienNonInterferenceClause he can't kill her]] when she tries to stop him from taking Tohru home. It nearly turns into a case of DoNotTauntCthulhu, but Tohru intervenes when her father tries to attack. She would later repeat this with Kanna's father, cursing him out for how horrible of a parent he was.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[spoiler:She ends up knocking out Kanna's father with a massive energy ball attack in chapter 77.]]
* DistractedByTheSexy: She'll normally IgnoreTheFanservice, but [[GenderBender getting her sex swapped]] suddenly makes Kobayashi ultra-sensitive to the overt displays of freedom her roommates take for granted. [[spoiler:[[NotDistractedByTheSexy Returns with a vengeance]] when [[SeriousBusiness Tohru takes the maid uniform off]] when trying to take advantage of Kobayashi's thingy.]]
* DoNotTauntCthulhu: Kobayashi has a bad habit of antagonizing powerful dragons like Tohru's father and Clemene, assuming that they won't retaliate because there's a law forbidding them from interfering with humans on Earth. She's been proven wrong both times, and would have been killed both times had Tohru not intervened.
* DopeSlap: She flicks Elma on the forehead for becoming competitive with her at work, as a misguided attempt to save her due to misinterpreting the meaning of "pillar of the office" (Elma thought pillar as in [[HumanSacrifice hitobashira]] ("human-pillar"), rather than support as Takiya meant).[[note]]This mistake in definition was lost a little in the Seven Seas release as Takiya called Kobayashi a "martyr" in that one, which ''can'' mean "constant sufferer", but that isn't the first definition most people think of for the word.[[/note]]
* DragonRider: She rides Tohru on several occasions (and has ridden on Kanna in the anime when [[spoiler: she confronts Tohru's father]]), though she refuses to use her to commute to work (because it's uncomfortable).
* FantasticallyIndifferent: She doesn't even blink when Elma comes bursting through the wall of her apartment since she's fully adapted to the whole "dragons from another world" thing by that point.
* FieryRedhead: {{Zigzagged|Trope}}. When she's sober, Kobayashi is a sane, emotionally reserved, but friendly person. Once she's drunk, she shows her true personality, where she becomes ''very'' passionate about maids, talks very loudly and about nerd things, and has a tendency to strip Tohru naked.
* ForcedTransformation: [[spoiler:Some medicine that Tohru gives Kobayashi causes cat ears and a tail to sprout from the latter, due to the medicine being designed for beast-folk. Kobayashi is not thrilled having to miss work because of this.]]
* FriendlessBackground: She grew up staying at home playing video games, while her parents were always busy working. As an adult, she used to live alone with only one friend she spent evenings getting drunk with. While she never resents her life, it took Tohru's arrival for her to realize how empty it was before.
* FrozenDinnerOfLoneliness: She lived alone, usually prepared frozen food and had a bored life until Tohru appeared. This trait repeats when Tohru leaves her and Kanna, so Kobayashi has to prepare frozen food since she can't prepare food like Tohru until the latter returns.
* FunctionalAddict: She might drink a lot, but she still manages to be a highly competent programmer and act as Kanna's ParentalSubstitute.
* GamerChick: She owns several game consoles (though she's never shown playing any of them). She also mentioned that she spent most of her childhood playing video games.
* GenderBender: Ilulu gives her a male body in chapter 36 of the manga, although she's already so androgynous that nobody (save Tohru) could tell the difference. She changes back at the end of the next chapter. [[note]]Kobayashi's temporary penis is called 'that' by her and 'one of those' by Tohru.[[/note]]
* GenderIsNoObject: The fact that Kobayashi is female has little incidence on the plot other than for gags or preference. When [[GenderBender Ilulu switches her sex]], the ''only'' thing that accompanies the genital change is that her hip measurements get smaller. Literally nothing else changes physically, and ''no one'' else, aside from Tohru eventually, notices anything is off. [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody Her mind is a different matter,]] but Kobayashi has enough self control to outlast the spell.
* GoodParents: Actually a parental figure, but she is certainly this to Kanna by providing her with parental guidance and affection. Just being present in Kanna's life made the latter better than Kanna's birth parents.
* GrinOfAudacity: Gives one right before she verbally flips off Tohru's father. Doubles as OOCIsSeriousBusiness since she's normally TheStoic.
* GuileHeroine: A combination of this and IndyPloy but she has had a few times of mediating a dangerous situation such as [[spoiler:during the Dragon Ball arc where she is able to stop the two dragon armies from fighting long enough for Kanna to get Azad to admit his plans, or later during the Arranged Marriage arc where she convinces Telne to let her, or more specifically Tohru, do a DeathOrGlory attack that led to Telne's defeat]].
* HiddenDepths: In spite of her stoic behavior, she cannot bear to see someone in need if she can do anything about it and she'll put in every effort she can possibly muster to help.
* HorrifyingTheHorror: A [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] but [[PlayedForLaughs humorous]] example; Tohru seeing how Kobayashi acts while [[InVinoVeritas drunk]] prompted her to call humans "terrifying".
* IJustWantToHaveFriends: When she first met Tohru, [[InVinoVeritas in a drunken stupor]], she wonders to Tohru why she lives alone.
* IncompatibleOrientation: Tohru and Ilulu are in love with Kobayashi, while Elma admits she wouldn't be opposed to a relationship. That said, Kobayashi herself has indicated she doesn't swing that way. That said, in the dub, she explicitly says she's not into girls, but [[ExactWords only tells Tohru that she's a girl]] in the subs, so [[AmbiguouslyGay the jury's still out on how accurate this one is]]. [[spoiler:Turns out the orientation isn't so incompatible after all, as Kobayashi tells Tohru in chapter 97 that she does or at least has come to like her romantically.]]
* IneffectualLoner: While she isn't any ineffectual (in fact, it's quite the opposite as it's her workforce that's reliant on her as she's the most capable one), meeting Tohru made her realize how empty her life was before they met. Played straight in the household when Tohru was taken back to the other world, forcing her to take care of the household by herself on top of working full time, leading to the house becoming messier, making her realize that she does need Tohru.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: She's 26 and Georgie is in her teens, yet the two of them are "comrades" due to their shared love of maids.
* InterspeciesAdoption: She acts as a mother figure for the young dragon Kanna and (to a lesser extent) Ilulu.
* InkSuitActor: Creator/MutsumiTamura on her own already resembles Kobayashi to an uncanny degree, right down to ''[[ACupAngst that]]'' department, and can [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrFYVd8BiL8 basically pass for a live-action version when she's in costume]].
* InVinoVeritas: Reveals her true personality when drunk (which [[CantHoldHerLiquor happens rather easily]]). Her maid otaku nature comes out, she becomes very loud, often strips Tohru naked, and argues about nerd things.
* ItBeganWithATwistOfFate: Her life changed forever, when she drunkenly came across a dragon impaled with a sword that was still sticking out of her back, and pulled the sword out of the dragon's back.
* KirkSummation: After [[FantasticRacism Azad]] says that there's nothing wrong with [[spoiler:forcing a brainwashed Kimun to attack Kanna]] since dragons don't understand affection, she points out the obvious: that he's in denial since his plan hinged on [[WellDoneSonGuy Kanna's desire for affection from her father]].
* TheLadette: She not only looks that way physically, but her personality and interests are much more stereotypical of Japanese men.
* LadyLooksLikeADude: Both Tohru and Ilulu mistook her for a man when they first meet. Her lack of noticeable breasts and androgynous style of dress, not to mention her attitude and (in the anime) a rather deep-sounding voice, are the reasons for this.
* LastNameBasis: She is only ever referred to by her surname. Although, if the text on her business card from Chapter 8 is accurate, her given name is written with characters that can be read "Meiko".
* LikeADaughterToMe: She develops this kind of relationship with Kanna in spite of being decades (if not centuries) younger than the diminutive girl dragon. In formal terms, she's Kanna's legal guardian, and to simplify things, she's Kanna's mom to their friends and acquaintances.
* MaamShock: She doesn't like being referred to as Kanna's mother since it makes her feel old, especially given that her age and that of Kanna's human form (26 and 8-9 respectively) don't quite add up to it.
* {{Magitek}}: Jigokumeguri's programming runs on a magical syntax, meaning she regularly works with this.
* MamaBear: Having come to view Kanna as her own child, she's furious when she finds out that Kimun merely views her as a war asset instead of a daughter.
* MistakenForBadass: All the mages at Shouta's exam end up mistaking her for being some kind of archmage due to the fact that she got first place in both the written and practical parts of the test (the former part because [[WaxOnWaxOff the coding language she uses at work is based off of the series' magic system]], and the latter because she had [[PersonOfMassDestruction Tohru]] pretending to be her familiar). And when they tried to sense her magical powers, they ended up sensing Tohru instead, furthering the misconception.
* MoralityPet: For Tohru. While not much is seen of what Tohru was like prior to them meeting, it's clear that she was nowhere near as nice as she is in the present.
* MuggleFosterParents: She fills this role for Kanna and (to a lesser extent) Ilulu, filling the void of a stable parental figure that they lost ([[OrphansOrdeal for Ilulu]]) or never had ([[ParentalNeglect for Kanna]]).
* MuggleWithADegreeInMagic: While she never personally studied magic, Kobayashi demonstrated herself to be a master of magical theory in chapter 65 when she got first place on a high ranking magic exam. This is due to the fact that the magic system is almost identical to the programming languages she uses at her job (the former having been used as the basis for the latter InUniverse).
* NiceGirl: She's a freakin' treasure, one of the nicest, even-minded and friendliest people you'll find in an anime... when she's sober; when she's not, her voice goes a couple of decibels up and she gets aggressively talkative and pushy about maids in particular.
* NoJustNoReaction: Tohru does things that Kobayashi has to shut down immediately. These include trying to feed Kobayashi meat from her own tail and asking to be branded as Kobayashi's slave.
* NonStandardCharacterDesign: She has much smaller irises than the rest of the cast.
* NoodleIncident: She and Kanna get into some kind of fight offscreen, and the details of how and why are never clarified other than it causing Kanna to run away in anger. The two of them do show regret over how they acted though; Kanna in particular feels bad for running away to another country instead of properly resolving the issue with Kobayashi.
* ObliviousToLove: Invoked. She argues that she doesn't quite know how to respond to being loved or wanted, as she'd never experienced such a thing before Tohru came into her life; still, she reassures Tohru that she's both willing and receptive to the maid dragon's affections.
* OhCrap: This happens a few times with Kobayashi:
** Upon realizing that the chocolate that Kanna offered her a piece of is the Valentine's chocolate that Tohru laced with a LovePotion. [[spoiler:Though it turns out to have actually been some liquor chocolates that made her drunk.]]
** After discovering that the big guy that shared a drink with her is actually [[spoiler: Kanna's father]].
** [[http://i.imgur.com/1k6ab4j.png Her reaction]] to seeing Tohru in dragon form [[http://i.imgur.com/OFNZCNY.png staring back at her]], while [[http://i.imgur.com/FmTO1Rz.png baring her teeth]] in the first episode, before Tohru transforms into a human form.
* OneOfTheBoys: According to Takiya, she's just one of the guys around the office.
* OnlyHasSameSexAdmirers: Tohru is obviously in love with her, but Elma is completely open to a relationship with her, and even Ilulu begins to fall for her as well. Her male friend, Takiya, is just her [[PlatonicLifePartners platonic best friend]], nothing more.
* OnlySaneMan: By virtue of being a human living with two [[spoiler:and later three]] dragons in her house. She often has to reign in the dragon characters' destructive tendencies and obliviousness to human customs.
* {{Otaku}}:
** While she has an especially deep interest in maids, she has elements of the typical manga and video game otaku as well. She's got firm ideas on the {{Tsundere}} archetype, a good amount of manga on her bookshelf, and a ton of video games to play.
** In the manga Tohru offers to play outside with Kanna since she's a kid. Kobayashi notes to herself in response to this that when she was a kid she just sat around and played ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' all the time. The anime repeats the same line in spirit, albeit without the ''Harvest Moon'' reference.
* OtakuSurrogate: She's the female lead of a male-oriented manga who's obsessed with maids (though she prefers real maids over [[{{Meido}} the kind typically seen in anime]], as she drunkenly derides the latter as "just cosplay"). Kobayashi also has many traits you'd expect from a male protagonist ([[LadyLooksLikeADude masculine looks]], [[TheLadette stoic but hard-drinking personality]], high career status [[OneOfTheGuys in a male-dominated work environment]], [[OnlyHasSameSexAdmirers female admirers]]), likely to make her more relatable to male readers in general.
* ParentalSubstitute: She acts as Kanna's legal guardian despite Kanna being far older than her. Chapter 34/Episode 9 goes into this relationship in depth, explaining that Kanna fully views her as a mother. [[spoiler:Later on, she also takes in Ilulu.]]
* ParentsAsPeople: Opting into the role of Kanna's guardian puts her in a number of situations that she's not fully equipped for. Part of this stems from her and Kanna both having vastly different upbringings, both personality-wise and as a human and dragon respectively.
** When shopping for Kanna's school supplies, it takes a bit for Kobayashi to realize that Kanna wants something cute and personable compared to the very textbook-style supplies Kobayashi used as a kid. She even notes with Tohru that she's more used to conforming to school customs than the kids Kanna's age.
** In the weeks leading up Kanna's Sports Festival, Kobayashi tells Kanna that work wouldn't allow her to make it, something she has experience in with her own parents. However, when she remembers the reason Kanna is in her world in the first place --which was acting out in a bid for attention from her own neglectful family--, she pulls off consecutive all-nighters in order to be ahead of her work so that she can make it to the festival.
* PlatonicLifePartners: Her relationship with Takiya is that of a co-worker, drinking buddy, way to vent her ClosetGeek tendencies, and, for a long time, OnlyFriend. Their relationship ends there, no fraternization.
* {{Protectorate}}: Kobayashi is probably the single safest person on Earth, given that she has high ranking dragons from both factions that value her safety (primarily Tohru and Elma). This even gets played for laughs in ''Elma's Office Lady Diary'' when Elma "protects" her during a mixer she didn't want to be at by preventing any of the guys from interacting with her directly.
* RefusalOfTheCall: She eventually finds herself meeting with [[spoiler:the holy sword that pierced Tohru, which took residence in her soul and gained sentience]], with said entity offering the chance for her to [[spoiler:become an incredibly powerful dragon-slaying hero]]. Her response to the offer was instant refusal, each time it was offered, as becoming powerful or special isn't something she cares for.
* TheReliableOne: Pretty much her entire department at work relies on her, whether it be helping them with their projects or covering for the work they're unable to do. She even bears the weight of covering for and training the newcomer Elma all on her own.
* RoseHairedSweetie: A NiceGirl with reddish pink hair.
* {{Salaryman}}: She works as a computer programmer, and dresses more like a male officer worker rather than a typical OfficeLady.
* SeenItAll: Living with dragons completely numbs her to the more outlandish incidents of her daily life. Elma bursting through her wall for example elicits nothing more than DullSurprise and an exasperated look.
* SempaiKohai: She's Elma's sempai at work, and is responsible for teaching her how to do her job (such as how to turn on the computer).
* SeriousBusiness:
** [[{{Meido}} Maids]]. It comes out in full when she's drunk, and she gets ''very forceful'' on the topic with Tohru. It's originally what brought her and Takiya together. In fact, it's so serious that [[spoiler:Tohru discarding her uniform completely kills [[GenderBender Kobayashi's hard on]] when the former slips her an aphrodisiac.]]
** She also feels this way about the food service industry, having previously worked in a restaurant before becoming a programmer.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Maids. She has a thing for maids and ''only'' maids. For Kobayashi, it isn't a matter of being interested in men or women. It's about whether or not you're a maid. Trying to seduce her if you're not dressed like a maid will not work no matter how large your GagBoobs are, and Tohru's attempt to sleep with Kobayashi [[spoiler:during the time when [[GenderBender the latter had a male body]]]] would've ''worked'' if she hadn't taken off her maid uniform beforehand to do it.
* SheCleansUpNicely:
** She tries on Tohru's maid outfit at one point, and their friends all agree she actually looks pretty good in it.
** Chapter 21 of ''Elma's Office Lady Diary'' has her look pretty after Wakita fixes her makeup and changes her into more feminine clothes. Of course, Kobayashi prefers her regular look over Wakita's makeover.
** [[spoiler:Tohru tries to trick Kobayashi into marrying her, even having a full bridal dress prepared for the latter. Kobayashi looks pretty good in it too.]]
* ShipTease: She has romantic moments with Tohru in the anime, though it's much less so in the manga.
* ShipperOnDeck:
** Chapter 63 implies that she supports Ilulu's feelings for Taketo.
** Its shown a few times that she wants to see Tohru and Elma become close friends again.
* StandingBetweenTheEnemies: Kobayashi does this in both the anime and the manga, though they are under vastly different circumstances. In the season one finale, she gets between Tohru and her father when they come to blows over whether the latter can stay on Earth. In the manga, she and Tohru arrive in between the Chaos and Harmony factions to reveal the fact that [[spoiler:Azad was manipulating them into killing each other.]]
* TheStoic: Downplayed. She tends to keep her emotions to herself ([[InVinoVeritas as long as she's not drunk]]), but she's far from unflappable. Though she smiles more often [[TookALevelInCheerfulness as the series progresses]].
* StraightManAndWiseGuy: Is the straight man to Tohru's wise guy. Hard not to be given Tohru is a dragon getting used to how things work in the human world.
* StrugglingSingleMother: She was shown to be emotionally drained after [[spoiler:Tohru being taken back to the other world]] forced her to have to take care of Kanna by herself on top of working full time. The apartment also gets progressively messier during the accompanying montage.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. Kobayashi isn't cold, just [[TheStoic emotionally stoic]]. She's actually an ''incredibly'' [[NiceGirl sweet]] and [[TheReliableOne reliable]] person.
* SuperEmpowering: [[spoiler:The holy sword that she saved Tohru from ended up taking residence in her soul, granting her access to its power as well as the ability to perform magic (though she burned through all her magic at once to take down a brainwashed Kimun).]]
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: As stated in ''Elma's Office Lady Diary'', Kobayashi has some levels of hepatic compromise apparently due to her drinking, so Tohru tells Elma that she'll not cook anything that goes with sake for Kobayashi. That means that on top of being bad at drinking, it's actually damaging her health.
* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: She delivers two really good speeches to Damocles in the season 1 finale, with her finally getting through to him with the second speech.
* TeamDad: Despite being a woman, she's this to her household because she is the androgynous bread-winner and the one reining in the dragon-culture-related shenanigans. Kanna even gives her a present on Father's Day instead of Mother's Day in the anime.
* ThatWasNotADream: Chapter 2/episode 1 has Kobayashi recounting a dream, where she climbs a mountain, only to meet and start talking to a dragon, while Tohru reveals that the events really did happen, as she was the dragon.
* ThisIsWrongOnSoManyLevels: When Elma begins trying to get competitive with her at work, Kobayashi quickly kicks her off her high-horse by arguing that first, by doing so, Elma's being disrespectful towards Kobayashi, who is her senior at work and is miles more experienced at their job; second, that Kobayashi has been covering Elma's share of work while she catches up, and by trying to stir competition, Elma is being ungrateful towards Kobayashi's efforts to help her; third, Elma ''is supposed to do her job'' and not try to show off at the expense of Kobayashi, who has been nothing but kind towards her. Plus the whole thing only began when Elma wrongfully assumed Kobayashi was going to end up as a HumanSacrifice if she kept working, despite being in a modern environment where none of that is practiced, as explained by Kobayashi. After being told, Elma profusely apologizes to Kobayashi and begins treating her with her due respect.
* TokenHuman: She's the only bog-standard human in a household of dragons and [[spoiler:a sentient weapon]].
* {{Tomboy}}: According to her, she was always boyish, even when she was a child. She bought a maid costume when she was younger, but thought she looked stupid when she wore it herself.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: The tomboy to Tohru's girly girl, as she looks and sounds androgynous, has much more "guy" interests than girl interests, behaves more like a guy than a girl, likes drinking beer, and is rarely, if at all, seen in feminine clothing.
* TomboyishPonytail: Usually wears a quick-to-do ponytail, which reflects her pragmatic nature.
* TomboyishVoice: In the anime, she has a rather low voice, fitting for someone with a boyish, mature and stoic personality with no time for childish-nonsense.
* TookALevelInCheerfulness: She became more open with her emotions and started smiling more often once she became accustomed to having Tohru around. It's also shown that she used to be more frustrated at her job; to boot, she argues that she can barely remember how she used to be before Tohru.
* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: Discussed. After getting a promotion at work, Mr. Magatsuchi tries to convince her to take on the role as the area's guardian. Part of the reason she doesn't want the job (aside from the increased work load) is because then her title would be '''Jigokumeguri Company Chief and Oborozuka Area Guardian • Kobayashi'''.
* UnfazedEveryman: She takes the mystical dragons wandering around in her life with stride and doesn't really change up her demeanor in response.
* WaxOnWaxOff: Her company's use of magical programming turns out to be training in actual magic. She gets tricked into joining a testing to advance to the fourth highest rank of magicians under the pretense of escorting Shouta to the test and ends up easily placing first in both written and practical portions (though the latter was mostly Tohru's doing).
* WeightWoe: Tohru cooking foods that are high in fat for the cold weather in chapter 51 of ''Kanna's Daily Life'' cause her to put on a bit of weight and leave her unable to fit into her pants. Fortunately, a single day of playing with Kanna in the park proves to be a strenuous enough workout to help her lose all the weight.
* WhatBeautifulEyes: Both an {{Inversion}} and PlayedForLaughs. Tohru is enamored with her "dead-fish eyes". And if Takiya's comment in the preview for episode 8 is to be believed, so is a good chunk of the internet.
* WhatDidIDoLastNight: How the series starts, with her encountering a mortally-wounded Tohru while drunkenly walking around a mountainside.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: In Chapter 42, it's mentioned that she has no interest in living beyond a normal human lifespan, even though Tohru has offered her ([[NoodleIncident on multiple occasions]]) the opportunity.
* WordsDoNotMakeTheMagic: Magic requires mana, so Kobayashi is unable to cast spells even though she has a deep understanding of magical theory from her programming background. [[spoiler:Of course, this changes when she goes to the other world, which has a BackgroundMagicField.]]
* {{Workaholic}}: She gets restless if she hasn't done eight hours of work each day.
* WorkplaceAcquiredAbilities: She is able to ace the written portion of a high ranking mage exam thanks to her experiences as a systems engineer (the programming language her company uses is modeled off of the magic system in question).
* WorthlessForeignDegree: She passes a mage ranking exam with flying colors in chapter 66, but she points out that it isn't something she can put on a resume in the human world.
[[/folder]]
