- "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 Friens Supercute Adventure.
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 animation 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 a Japanese as well as an English 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 though initially released for Japan, have an English dub version.
Personality
Altough Kuromi may look and act tought and punk, she is actually girly and is attracted to good-looking guys. Kuromi is mostly into food and even cooks. She can be called a rowdy free spirit.Kuromi is the "punk" tomboy counterpart to My Melody. Altough My Melody can get along with Kuromi, the latter's feeling 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" (although they do not ride motorcycles but actually only tricycles with some modifications). 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 tricycles and causing havoc or mischief 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
The Kuromi Family
Onegai My Melody and Kuromi's Pretty Journey reveal that Kuromi has a family. In the former, when Kuromi was imprisoned for her crimes - stealing bread to simply feed Baku's family who are in desperate need of food, her parents attempted to see her in the royal castle, but the prison guards won't allow them, causing Kuromi to believe they do not love their own daughter anymore, but it is actually a misunderstanding. When she escapes and tries to reunite with her Mother and Father they get into an argument because Kuromi is still a criminal, before furiously storming off declaring she will never see them again. Despite this, her parents still wrote emotional emails to their daughter, wishing for her safe return (which made Kuromi regret what she had done). They even attempted to help save Kuromi from the Spirit of the Dark Power's possession at the final battle. Alongside having the same "devil" tail, Kuromi's parents share a nearly identical black jester hat as herself.
In the latter show, Kuromi also has a courageous and helpful older sister named Romina, whom Kuromi strongly looks up to. Although they don't look alike or are just like each other, they still love each other. At some time when Kuromi was younger, Romina left home to defeat an evil organization, which prompts Kuromi in a quest to search for her. She soon meets and befriend a young wolf girl named Gureco and a "bat" named Callimo who helps her and Baku along the way, alongside an alien baby named Koni. Eventually, after finding Romina in a building where a brief confrontation with Guresuke (Gureco's older brother) takes place, it is ultimately revealed that Romina is not a born individual, but actually an illusion from the wishing stone Guresuke and Gureco planned to use, but Kuromi's wish of having a loving older sister came to first and the wish itself does not last very long, as she will sadly disappear from existence. After an emotional goodbye with Kuromi, Romina's body vanishes and the stone returns to its original form, and everyone's memories about her are also immediately forgotten. Romina herself slightly resembles Kuromi but has her ears always pointed upwards and wears a scarf. She also has the ability to transform into multiple powerful forms, which humorously defeats foes solely from her beautiful looks.
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 musical 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 diary to wipe My Sweet Piano's nose from a sneeze, making Kuromi record every single mishap moments she caused her since (even though most 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 completely 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 hopelessly in love with a young man named Keiichi Hiiragi, a coldhearted bishōnen violinist (he is quickly revealed to be simply using her as a puppet in spite of her attraction). 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 her respective 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 climax battle against the Spirit of 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 Adventure
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 that sells clothes in Sanrio Town and lives next to My Melody, who in this ongoing series, is her friend rather than her rival, which heavily suggests 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 airship shaped like herself, which can transform into a giant robot in her likeness, and she 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.
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