Kuromi

Japanese Name

クロミ

(Kuromi)

Alternate Names

Kurumi Nui (Gijinka)

Birthday

October 31st (Halloween)

Gender

Female

Species

Rabbit

Appearance

Black joker's hat with a pink skull at the center of her forehead; Black devil tail

Personality

Hobbies

Writing in her diary; Cooking; Reading

Likes

Romantic short stories; food, shallots, meat; Black, Hot pink; Making mischief; Attractive men

Dislikes

My Melody (formerly)

Description

Punk, tomboy

Family and Friends

Mother

Kuromi's mother

Father

Kuromi's father

Siblings

Romina (older sister)

Friends

Konmi, Chumi, Nyanmi, Wanmi, Badtz-Maru, Keroppi, Baku, Bako, Gureco, My Melody

Enemies

My Melody (perceived rival during the Onegai My Melody series)

Creation

Debut

2005

Voiced By

Junko Takeuchi (Current, Japanese), Jenny Yokobori (Current, English)

"Say hello to my little friend!"

—Kuromi goes to attack a candy monster during the episode Kuromi's Night of the Living Desserts in Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures.

Kuromi (クロミ, Kuromi) is a character from the My Melody universe. She is My Melody's rival and doppelgänger, and manifests as a white rabbit or imp-like creature wearing a black jester's hat with a pink skull on the front and a black devil's tail. The skull's facial expression on her forehead changes to match Kuromi's mood. Fittingly, her birthday is on Halloween (October 31st). Her name translates from Japanese to English as "black beauty". Her mother and father wears a very similar outfit as herself. Kuromi makes her first appearance in 2005 as an antagonist of Onegai My Melody and is intended to be a mischievous, dark counterpart to My Melody, though in later current series such as Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures, her role is now changed into a more friendly demeanor with Hello Kitty and her friends, including My Melody herself.

Like most other Sanrio characters, Kuromi's appearance is inspired by those of cartoon/anime characters from the early 20th century, as well as the 1990s, specifically Impmon from the Digimon series or Pichu from Nintendo's Pokemon franchise. On her debut, Kuromi took the punk, scene, and goth communities by storm and quickly became highly successful due to her unique, contrasting yet similar appearance and "naughty" personality compared to My Melody (which explains her trademark "angry" eyes), and due to this immense popularity, she since become a major character for Sanrio. True to her rivalry, Kuromi even sometimes surpasses My Melody herself in official Sanrio rankings and official media often has her directly competing against her counterpart.

On October 26th of 2021, a campaign by Sanrio called the "KUROMIfy the World Project" was officially formed. It is a plan to fill the world with everything Kuromi and her “Kuromies”, which is the title bestowed upon her fans. With the campaign came the official Kuromi YouTube, Instagram and Twitter accounts, an ad campaign truck in Japan, and Kuromi‘s own original debut song, Greedy Greedy. The song has both an English and Japanese version, and a dance challenge to both versions was created where fans would be able to submit their own videos of themselves doing a set dance routine for a chance to be featured in a music video for the song. A year and three months later in 2023, the project brought Kuromi her own spin-off anime short called Kuromi’s Pretty Journey, which would also get both an English and a Japanese version.

Personality

Although Kuromi may look and act tough and punk, she is actually very girly and is attracted to good-looking guys! Kuromi enjoys writing in her diary and is hooked on romantic short stories. Her favorite colors are black and hot pink. Her favorite food is shallots, all kinds of meat, and in recent Kuromi merchandise, cherries have been shown. Despite being a villain (in Onegai My Melody), Kuromi is mostly into food and even cooks. You might call her a rowdy free spirit.

Kuromi is the "punk" tomboy counterpart to My Melody. Although My Melody can get along with Kuromi, the latter's feelings are more inclined to rivalry in order to appear tough.

Friends

Kuromi is not only My Melody's rival, but she is also the leader of an all-female notorious biker gang known as "Kuromi's 5." Other members of her group include a purple cat named Nyanmi (Kuromi's best friend and second-in-command), a pale orange dog named Wanmi, a white fox named Konmi, and a grey and white rat named Chumi. Like Kuromi, they all wear black hoods (and sunglasses) and drive around in a menacing fashion. Their matching outfits also share the skull symbol from Kuromi's forehead. They each also love riding their modified tricycles and causing havoc at breakneck speeds, similar to the Yakuza-inspired "bosozoku" girl gang subculture in Japan. As they only made their appearance in Onegal My Melody, so far, it is currently unknown if the members of Kuromi's 5 are reformed as non-antagonists like Kuromi herself.

She also has a tapir henchman named Baku, whom is her sidekick.

Television Appearances

Onegai My Melody

In Onegai My Melody, where she debuted and is her most prominent appearance, Kuromi is depicted as one of the anime series' primary antagonists, and is shown to be lazy, short-tempered, dramatic, proud, and a bit of a glutton, which is the result of her having a grudge against My Melody since an incident when they were younger, where the innocent pink rabbit unknowingly tore a page of her personal notebook to wipe My Sweet Piano's nose from a sneeze, making Kuromi record every single mishap moments she caused her (even though they actually were by accident when some of which where Melody trying to help Kuromi), known as "Kuromi notes", as many as over 3,000 events written - eventually 10,000, which Melody herself is oblivious to, and would also go into a fit of rage whenever her rival upsets her. After fleeing from Mari Land to the human world as an escaped prisoner (though it was revealed she committed crimes like stealing bread in order to feed her henchman Baku's poor family). she meets, partners up with, and falls madly in love with a human named Keiichi Hiiragi, a coldhearted bishōnen violinist (he is quickly revealed to be simply using her as a puppet). After being chosen by the Spirit of the Dark Power to charge Kuromi's weapon, the Melody Key, through his violin playing, Hiiragi assists her in her quest to collect 100 Black Notes before My Melody does with Pink Notes by casting twisted versions of peoples' dreams to summon the Spirit of Dark Power and get revenge on her enemies, especially My Melody. At times, her biker gang, Kuromi's Five, helps in her deeds, as well. She also has a human alter-ego named Kurumi Nui. In this series, Kuromi was a violent individual - often getting into angry tantrums and aggressively attacks Baku when he annoys her or things do not go her way. Despite her abusive behavior and her goal of desperately wanting revenge on Melody, she is not inherently evil, as Kuromi still has a soft, particularly feminine side with a bit of sympathy when in a good mood, and when she was younger, she was actually just as friendly as My Melody, therefore serving as an anti-villain. At the final episode, during the climatic battle against the Dark Power itself, which possessed her body and transforms her into a powerful, gigantic demonic monster to make My Melody learn about all of the agony she put her rival through and tearfully decides to lock herself inside a magical closet forever in apparent suicide, Kuromi herself, with tears in her eyes (yet still competitive), ultimately breaks free from the main antagonist's possession and quickly destroys it just before it fully closes, declaring if Melody dies, she would have no one to fight with, resulting in their hands touching each other and also revealing she truly cares for My Melody in spite of their rivalry.

Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures

In Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures, Kuromi is depicted as a tough and cool tomboy-like character and is now reformed from the previous series she was featured in, as she is no longer a villain, but rather one of the main protagonists. Though Kuromi is a tomboy and doesn’t like to wear anything too cutesy, she does secretly take an interest in a girly book series called “Sugar Sweethearts Forever,” although at first she is worried that the series would cause her to be seen as a laughing stock. She is often seen hanging around with Badtz-Maru, who she is revealed to have a crush on, and Keroppi. She runs a Halloween shop in Sanrio Town and lives next to My Melody, who in this ongoing series, is her friend rather than her rival, which heavily implies the two have patched up their relationship after the events of Onegai My Melody. Her sidekick Baku also makes cameo appearances.

Kuromi’s Pretty Journey

Kuromi’s Pretty Journey is a spin-off anime short released publicly on YouTube in February of 2023, which focuses on Kuromi as she travels the world to find her long-lost older sister, Romina (who is ultimately revealed to be an illusion by a wishing stone), whom she was very close to. Kuromi travels to various countries in her large blimp shaped like herself, which can transform into a giant robot in her likeness, and the meets new characters along the way, such as Gureco, Koni, and Collimo, as well as bringing her old friend Baku from Onegai My Melody along with her. Her behavior in this series is similar to Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures.

Ranking in the Sanrio Character Ranking

In the 2013 Sanrio Character Ranking, if Kuromi beats her rival My Melody, My Melody must look like her. However, she failed to beat her that year. Despite this, Kuromi remains an increasingly popular character among fans in recent years, reaching as high as third place.

2006: 5th place
2007: 6th place
2008: 6th place
2009: 7th place
2010: 5th place
2011: 6th place
2012: 8th place
2013: 10th place
2014: 11th place (3rd place in Group A)
2015: 14th place
2016: 10th place
2017: 11th place
2018: 10th place
2019: 7th place
2020: 7th place
2021: 5th place
2022: 3rd place
2023: 3rd place

Trivia

Kuromi was originally designed to be a villain character; Onegai My Melody is the only media she appeared in where Kuromi is outright depicted as such. However, in Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures and Kuromi's Pretty Journey, she instead since became an anti-hero, where her personality is significantly calmer and more willing to befriend or help others but remains mischievous. Some fans believed this change of alignment from bad to good as well as Kuromi's behavior being more mature was due to Sanrio wanting her to be more kid-friendly to follow the overall theme of those shows and not promote her former antagonistic or violent ways, strongly implying character development.
A likely reason for Kuromi's high popularity apart from being My Melody's opposite reflection (Melody represents light while Kuromi is dark), is she is one of the very few mainline characters created by Sanrio to contrast the standard kawaii theme by using a punk or tomboy personality and likes to do somewhat villainous things but is still quite girly deep inside, giving her a unique feel. Her role as an antagonist in Onegai My Melody is out of of her many mishaps with My Melody, when she ultimately still wants to be her friend (as they actually were before the incidents), as well as a misunderstanding of her parents not loving her when she was in prison because they never visited her but it was actually due to them simply weren't allowed to see her when they attempted everyday, causing many fans to find Kuromi as a relatable and sympathetic character, and therefore a misjudged person.
Kuromi owns a massive robot of herself which she can use for combat. In Kuromi's Pretty Journey, it transforms from her large blimp.
Kuromi's favorite colors are black and hot pink.
Her favorite foods are meat, pickled onions, shallots, and pumpkin-based products.
Kuromi's favorite holiday is unsurprisingly Halloween, as it is also her birthday.
Kuromi's personal goal is to become a pop superstar, and likely prove herself better than My Melody.
In Onegai My Melody, in spite of her tiny size in the human world, Kuromi is shown to be physically strong. When in a fit of rage, she is capable of lifting and throwing a statue made of stone, break through doors with her head, and in one case, can even punch Baku hard enough to send him flying and orbit around the Earth once with a powerful uppercut. This, however, could just be comical relief.
- The episode's scene where she uppercuts Baku to orbit is a homage to the Street Fighter fighting game series based on the iconic Shoryuken special move.
Her "devil" tail is her Achilles' heel; Kuromi would immediately fall unconscious if someone were to step on it or pull it.
Unlike My Melody who has a yellow nose, Kuromi's is pink.
- Also unlike her rival, Kuromi has visible eyelashes while My Melody lacks them.
In Kuromi's Pretty Journey, Kuromi's jester hat has pink dots at the bottom of her ears.
In rare cases, Kuromi's eyes are shown with violet irises rather than plain black.
Kuromi's debut in 2005 is significantly late compared to her counterpart My Melody (and most other iconic Sanrio characters), who herself made her first appearance as far back in 1975 - three decades before.

A Kuromi plushie doll, as seen in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.
Kuromi, along with a handful of other Sanrio characters, makes an appearance as an available shirt, fan, and even a plushie item in the mobile Nintendo video game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp from a special limited-time event in 2021 and 2023 called Pocket Camp X Sanrio. The plushie in particular costs 270 Leaf Tickets and it has her left ear facing down.
Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures is the first time Kuromi is seen in an American-made animated series, while her other appearances by Sanrio are from Japan.
In the Japanese version of Onegai My Melody, Kuromi can sometimes be heard saying minor curse words - specifically "Crap".
As seen in certain media, Kuromi rides modified tricycles with her Kuromi's 5 gang and she also owns a comparatively faster moped, and likes to drive around in a menacing fashion to cause havoc. However, she does have her limits; In one episode of Onegai My Melody, when she regrettably made Uta Yumeno's 73-year old grandfather (who was a worldwide bike rider turned shop owner) 45 years younger with her nightmare wishing magic and he began driving his cruiser motorcycle at a high rate of speed with herself forced to ride with him, Kuromi ironically became terrified, as it is too intense for her comfort. This implies she is not experienced enough to handle daredevil stunts, which she admits in Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures.
- Another piece of irony is in the punk and goth subcultures, which Kuromi clearly represents, cruiser-type motorcycles are commonly used by real-life members of their community.
Kuromi's Japanese voice actress, Junko Takeuchi, is also known to voice Naruto from the series of the same name.
In Onegai My Melody and few offical artwork by Sanrio, it is occassionally revealed Kuromi is capable of moving both her ears into an upright position and uses them as a drill.
As Kuromi strongly likes handsome male characters, in Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures, Kuromi has a crush on Badtz-Maru. Previously, she was deeply in love with Keiichi Hiiragi, as well as Prince Sorara, and a young lion who actually likes My Melody in Onegai My Melody.
In Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures, a picture of Kuromi can be found inside My Melody's house, directly below her own.
Kuromi sometimes call her Kuromi's 5 group her "Mari Land ladies' street gang".
- Interestingly, she is not the founder of the gang. One episode in Onegai My Melody where she steals the Melody Violin for Keiichi Hiiragi within Mari Land's royal castle reveals that at some point in the past, Rumi was the original leader before Kuromi replaced her and having her own members to become Kuromi's 5. Rumi also refers to the gang by this same name.
In the "Kuromi's Night of Living Desserts" episode of Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures, Kuromi makes a reference to the 1983 film Scarface when she turns her vehicle into a gun and tries to attack a candy monster, before saying the infamous line "Say hello to my little friend!" (where her weapon ends up shooting graffiti to her dismay)
Much like My Melody with her pink (or red) hood, as revealed in the "A Star is Born" episode in Kuromi's Pretty Journey, Kuromi herself does not want to be seen in public with her black jester hat removed, as it is her trademark (her brief removal shocks the five women actors, which implies Kuromi may have an unusual appearance for an anthropomorphic rabbit, as suggested by the shape of her ears).

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