It is no secret to fans of Eromanga-sensei that Elf Yamada is arrogant. It is a little more than evident the moment Elf Yamada debuts in the anime. Heck, Elf Yamada has that oujo-sama appearance, which only adds to the idea that she is arrogant. However, we cannot deny how much we appreciate her self-confidence and how much of a comedic relief it is in Eromanga-sensei.

Much of Elf Yamada’s arrogance allows her to steal the show when she steps into a scene and pretty much cause a scene. It also allows Elf Yamada to be utilized better than even Sagiri herself in Eromanga-sensei. She’s able to help Masamune with his writing skills. Elf Yamada shows us how she becomes inspired. She helps Masamune find motivation to beat Muramasa. Despite her arrogance, Elf Yamada does a lot with it.

Elf Yamada may gloat about her sales and fame, but she is one of the few characters who back up what she boasts about—even when she is no longer the #1 selling light novelist. She actually has the numbers and the talent to back everything up. And really, despite being arrogant and boasting, Elf Yamada doesn’t really spend her time showing off but rather helping other characters. Even when she takes the crew to her home, Elf Yamada does not even seem to be showing off her gross wealth. It’s not something relevant to her, which is actually surprising for someone who tries to show off her accomplishments at every corner.

Elf Yamada is absolutely shameless in Eromanga-sensei as she has been caught doing a number of shameless things. First off, aside from all of her bragging, Elf Yamada plays piano completely naked in her house with the windows open for all to see. This helps motivate and inspire her to write and a lot of her writing has women who strip clothes.

Then Elf Yamada will continually say misleading things about Masamune about how they are living together or how they are on a date when they are merely together. This may be Elf Yamada’s indirect way of showing her feelings for Masamune, or it could be her mischievousness trying to make things difficult for Masamune. Still, Masamune is as dense as ever and never even realizes Elf Yamada’s own feelings for him through all of her shamelessness.

To top it off, Elf Yamada even requests that Masamune put sunscreen on her and strips her bikini top off. While we applaud her boldness and would never argue that a woman should be shamed into always being dressed or behave a certain way, Elf Yamada has no qualms about using all at her disposal to tempt Masamune. She even goes as far as to take away all the towels and Muramasa’s clothes, and leaving her a skimpy bikini to ensure that Muramasa would be unable to join them in their beach adventures. Whether it’s shamelessness or mischievousness, Elf Yamada is sure a character.

Even with Elf Yamada’s talent in writing, she also has many talents due to her upbringing (as revealed in episode 9). She excels in many traditional things such as flower arrangement as Elf Yamada did all she could to appease her mother and her expectations. As such, it should be no surprise that Elf Yamada has quite a lot of feminine charm—something that even her brother boasts about and tries to convey to Masamune.

Elf Yamada has a great amount of talent in the kitchen, even though many might wish to call her lazy due to the fact that she has to be forced to work by her brother and usually seems to be goofing around. She has all of these feminine traits that make her seem actually down to earth—if you can ignore the arrogant parts about her. The mere fact that Elf Yamada can go through the trouble to do all of these trainings for someone other than herself makes her just a little bit more endearing.

Although Elf Yamada can, at times, be seen as a denpa idiot, she is actually much more intelligent than many of her actions let on. Especially considering her young age. In episode 3 of Eromanga-sensei, Elf Yamada goes through the trouble of trying to track down Eromanga-sensei using merely just the details from Eromanga-sensei’s blog. Using the somewhat vague details of the blog, Elf Yamada discovers the neighborhood where Eromanga-sensei lives and is able to deduce everything to the finite detail.

Elf Yamada is also able to figure out that Eromanga-sensei has one family member (Masamune), has no social life at all, and all of Eromanga-sensei’s habits. All from just a blog! How many of us are able to deduce anything finite about someone’s life through a blog?
Not only that, Elf Yamada clearly knew why Muramasa Senju had a hang up with Masamune—who clearly had no idea what was going on. Some might call it women’s intuition—although Elf Yamada is far from being called a “woman”—but you cannot refute how refreshing it is to finally have a female who has some intellect without having to be the nerdy megane character.

Episode 9 has to be that pivotal moment that actually made us here at Honey’s Anime actually fall in love with Elf Yamada. She takes the crew to her private island and we begin to learn more about her from her very strange brother to her family background. Yes, she looks like an oujo-sama, but Elf Yamada seems almost down to earth in this episode—Of course, if we don’t include that part where she calls all of her friends her servants.

However, the moment we want to go over is that moment when Elf Yamada and Masamune are talking. Elf Yamada does not just confess her feelings like anyone else does and waits for a response. No. Elf Yamada declares that Masamune is a marriage candidate and that she will make him fall in love with her, however that is not a proposal. Elf Yamada tells Masamune that he will propose to her when he falls in love with her instead. And, to top it off, Elf Yamada tells him her real name—Emily— and declares that Masamune will use it when he proposes to her.

This moment is so perfect! Some may argue that Elf Yamada is being pushy and doesn’t seem to care what Masamune thinks, but if you really look into this, you can tell that it is Elf Yamada’s way of confessing her feelings to Masamune and boldly declaring to him her intentions. This is in juxtaposition to Sagiri who does none of these things but constantly asks Masamune to confess to her, all while acting completely tsun tsun (even though Elf Yamada is technically the tsundere). You can feel all of Elf Yamada’s hope in this scene and you can’t help but want to root for her. She may have been annoying as heck before episode 9, but Elf Yamada managed to turn the tides and hopefully soon, Masamune’s heart. This has caused a huge shift in Eromanga-sensei’s plot which seemed focused solely on Sagiri and Masamune. It’s almost reminiscent of Kuroneko and Kyousuke from OreImo, isn’t it?