It’s been a fairly long wait, but the fifth dragon finally makes her debut in the eighth episode of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid.
Tohru and Miss Kobayashi have a friendly competition
The episode begins with Kanna telling Miss Kobayashi that her school has arranged a field trip and asking for a boxed lunch. Since both Miss Kobayashi and Tohru are eager to make lunch for Kanna, they decide to set up a competition to see who can make the best one.
Lucoa is the commentator, Fafnir is a judge and Kanna is the head judge
With the rules laid out, the competition begins. First up, salad. Tohru goes all out whilst Miss Kobayashi keeps things simple.
Miss Kobayashi claims victory in the first round
The second round involves creating something with meat. Tohru opts for hamburgers, whilst Miss Kobayashi goes with bacon and eggs.
Tohru’s hamburgers win the second round
The third round is dessert. Lucoa also notes how that Miss Kobayashi and Tohru have grown close enough to fight. Miss Kobayashi is fine with it every now and then – Tohru may be her maid, but she can be a friend as well. After a while, Tohru returns with her dessert.
Tohru’s dessert is interesting, to say the least
Tohru’s dessert is from the other world, which happens to be against the rules of the competition. I guess that means Miss Kobayashi is the winner, though nobody ever explicitly states that. Besides, Tohru unwittingly brought something – or rather, someone – else back from the other world.
Here she is at last: the dragon Elma
Elma’s entry causes quite a lot of damage, though Miss Kobayashi seems pretty nonchalant about it. Tohru and Elma despise each other, as Kanna makes clear to Miss Kobayashi.
Look how happy she is
Apparently the last time that Tohru and Elma fought, three islands ended up disappearing. Elma talks a tough game about being equal in power to Tohru, but is cut off by her own stomach growling.
I already really like Elma
Miss Kobayashi ends up scolding Elma, even getting an apology from her for the destruction of her home. It turns out that Tohru and Elma are so at odds because they are with different factions – Elma is with the harmony faction, whilst Tohru is on the side of chaos. Before Tohru and Elma can get into a full-blown fight, Miss Kobayashi tells them to take it elsewhere.
Tohru opens a portal to the field that she and Kanna played in before
Rather than fighting Elma, Tohru takes a more passive approach to dealing with her. Still, Elma ends up finding her way back to Miss Kobayashi’s place once more and accuses Tohru of plotting to take over the world. All Tohru wants to do is live quietly as a maid.
Elma’s hunger gets the better of her
Kanna grabs a pack of cream bread and Miss Kobayashi offers some to Elma. She accepts and is surprised to discover how good it tastes. Tohru offers the remaining cream bread to Elma as an incentive for her to leave – Elma is all too happy to comply.
Miss Kobayashi finds herself with a new colleague
Elma starts working at Miss Kobayashi’s place, though it’s quickly evident that she has no idea what she is doing. Being the helpful person is, Miss Kobayashi more or less takes Elma under her wing whilst she adjusts to working life. Miss Kobayashi decides to not tell Tohru about Elma.
Tohru can detect the smell of another dragon on Miss Kobayashi
Here’s Kanna recharging
After smelling another dragon on Miss Kobayashi, Tohru ends up reverting back to the way she was when they first met.
Miss Kobayashi checks for Tohru’s tail
Miss Kobayashi wonders what has caused Tohru to become like this. A knock at the door soon allows Miss Kobayashi to realise what’s going on.
Elma offers Miss Kobayashi a protective charm as thanks for helping her at work
Elma doesn’t stay long, mostly because Tohru blasts her away. After that, Tohru tells Miss Kobayashi that she wants to be praised for her hard work. Miss Kobayashi says that she isn’t used to being wanted, and has never had a close friend.
Miss Kobayashi makes her feelings clear
That’s it for this episode – you’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned the small segments featuring Lucoa and Shouta. The reason for that is because I really don’t care for them. All of the other dragon and human relationships are amazing, but this one really lacks heart.
Regardless, this was another great episode. Seeing Miss Kobayashi getting fired up to beat Tohru in their competition was a lot of fun, whilst showing us that the relationship between the two characters has continued to advance.
Without a doubt, however, the highlight of the episode has to be Elma. I can happily say that she’s a great addition to the cast. Elma is a whole lot of fun to watch, and any scene that involved her left me smiling. Elma’s human form looks pretty good as well.
Whilst Elma was a joy whenever she was present, that last scene with Miss Kobayashi petting Tohru was incredibly heart-warming.
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid continues to be an incredibly great series, and the addition of new character Elma only makes it better.
Rory Muses 