Ume Kurumizawa

Name
Japanese	胡桃沢 梅
Rōmaji	Kurumizawa Ume
English	Ume Kurumizawa
Alias	Kurumi
Personal Information
Birthday	September 16
Sign	Virgo
Age	15 (Debut)
Gender	Female
Height	156 cm (5'1)
Weight	45 kg (99 lbs)
Blood Type	AB
Professional Status
Occupation	Student
Affiliation	Kitahoro High School
First Appearance
Manga	Volume 1 Chapter 1
Anime	Episode 2 Seating Change
Voiced by
Japanese	Aya Hirano
English	Kayli Mills
French	Sandra Vandroux (Black Box), Ludivine Maffren (Netflix)
Latin-American Spanish	Azul Valadez
Portrayed by
Movie	Mirei Kiritani

"I like people who are the exact opposite of me. Straightforward people."

- Kurumi to Sawako Kuronuma's parents

Ume Kurumizawa (胡桃沢 梅 Kurumizawa Ume), nicknamed Kurumi (くるみ), is a character in the series Kimi ni Todoke. She is a girl who appears friendly and sweet to everyone around her and she has had a huge crush on Shouta Kazehaya since their first year of middle school.

Appearance

Kurumi in the manga.

Kurumi is a very cute girl with wavy waist-length coffee-brown hair that she usually ties back in a braided bun on the right side with bangs hanging over her forehead and chocolate-brown eyes.

Although she mostly has her hair tied in a half side bun, she ties her hair into any type of style like:

• A Ponytail
• Low twin pigtails
• Leaving it completely down

Personality

Earlier in the Kimi ni Todoke manga, Kurumi initially shows herself as a very cute and nice girl who was constantly smiling, and Sawako admired her and looked up to her as her role model. She later sheds her fake personality and shows that she can be aggressive and manipulative when it comes to Kazehaya. Kurumi is very honest and upfront about her feelings, later showing that she lacks self-esteem and considers herself to have a "bad personality", something that Sawako vehemently denies. Kurumi is very ambitious and driven no matter what her goal, and is shown to be stressed own and deprived of sleep when studying to become a teacher. As she matures, she becomes more accepting of others' help, such as Sawako's. In the end, she herself ends up helping Sawako, which consisted of defending her against bullies after Kazehaya's confession.

Background

A girl who appears friendly and sweet to everyone around her, she has had a huge crush on Kazehaya since their first year of middle school. She dislikes her given name, Ume, because it sounds old-fashioned and prefers to be called "Kurumi." When she was in middle school, many of the girls hung around her to get attention from other boys who found Kurumi attractive and began to see her as a "boyfriend stealer" since many of the boys they liked would only ask her out. Kurumi was deeply hurt and saddened by this and one day, while crying alone in the classroom, Kazehaya came and comforted her, leading to her developing feelings for him. It is possible that her fake personality comes from the pain she received from the people who she thought were her "friends", who turned out to only use her and that she feels she can't trust others. She is extremely jealous of Sawako , which led her to spread fake rumors of Sawako's only friends at the time, Yoshida and Yano , using Sawako's name. Kurumi does not attend the same class as Sawako or Kazehaya. She eventually confesses her love to Kazehaya, but receives an expected rejection. Because she is always surprised with Sawako's naivete, Kurumi is able to be her true self in front of Sawako and regards her as a rival for Kazehaya's affection. Following Kazehaya's rejection, she becomes colder to her classmates, but is able to finally express her feelings and personality, which makes them respect her more.

After Kazehaya and Sawako become a couple in chapter 42, Kurumi disappears from the series until chapter 83, revealing that she wishes to study to become a teacher, which is Sawako's goal as well. She and Sawako thus form more of a friendship as they agree to help each other do the best they can in pursuing their mutual dream.

Relationships

Shouta Kazehaya

Kurumi was initially in love with Kazehaya, but her confession of love was rejected by him. Eventually, she accepted him as just a friend.

Sawako Kuronuma

Formerly rivals in love whom Kurumi greatly mistreated at the start, Kurumi and Sawako became incredibly close after Sawako and Kazehaya officially become a couple, with both of them supporting each other as they enter university life. The guilt Kurumi felt about how she hurt Sawako with the spreading of false rumors became overwhelming, and it took quite some time before she could forgive herself in spite of how much Sawako and her friends reassured her that they had forgiven her. By the end of the manga, Kurumi admits to herself internally that she's become fonder of Sawako than she ever was of Kazehaya.

Ayane Yano

Initially at odds due to how Kurumi treated Sawako, Ayane and Kurumi eventually bond over their numerous similarities. At one point, Ayane says that if she were a boy she would accept Kurumi as a girlfriend, as she can understand and forgive all of her flaws and past mistakes.

Chizuru Yoshida

Chizuru was in the same middle school class as Kurumi and Kazehaya. Chizuru was manipulated by Kurumi during middle school - Kurumi asked her to set girls up to confess to Kazehaya, as Kurumi knew Chizuru had no romantic interest in Kazehaya. This caused Kazehaya to view Chizuru in a poor light. Once Chizuru knew Kurumi was responsible for the rumors being spread about her, she made her disapproval towards Kurumi clear, though eventually came to respect Kurumi for her "true" attitude. However, much later when Kurumi starts being more friendly towards Sawako and Ayane, Chizuru doesn't take this too kindly.

Kento Miura

Kurumi was in Kento's first-year class before Kento was transferred to Class D for the second and third years. Kento had noticed a change in Kurumi's behavior as time went on. During the second year, Kurumi found out from the numerous gossips that Kento had been interfering with Sawako and Kazehaya, so pulled him over to find out the truth. Kurumi was also less than impressed with Kento's proposal to go after Sawako so that Kurumi could get with Kazehaya, as by that time, she knew she had no chance.

Kazuichi "Pin" Arai

Kurumi's plan to "get" Kazehaya during the sports festival was partly foiled by Pin. When Kurumi waited at the school's equipment shed for Kazehaya to return with the key to the shed from the committee, it was instead Pin who came by the shed and unlocked it for her, only to then misinterpret Kurumi's intentions and reject her in front of Kazehaya. Pin then admitted the rejection to his other students, leading them to believe Kurumi liked Pin.

Eiji Akahoshi

Eiji is Sawako's cousin. Later in the manga, Eiji and Kurumi became couples.

Quotes

• "He's different. He's always around the other boys. But he... he sees me for who I am... I'm never going to share these feelings. Not until Kazehaya has feelings for me too." - Kurumi's thoughts on Shouta Kazehaya in chapter 17 (episode 15), before confessing to him
• "Go ahead! If you don't care what Kazehaya will think of you, then go ahead! He'd be like, "Why tell me now?", then he'll find out how sneaky you are. He wouldn't like a girl who snitches to him about someone to get him to like her. If you like him, you know that already. He'll find out about what you did in the girls' restroom our first year. If you don't mind that, then go ahead! Also, Kazehaya won't forgive you, if you do anything to Sawako-chan. He'll never forgive you." - Kurumi towards the girls who bullied Sawako Kuronuma in chapter 43 (season 2 episode 12)
• "You're so determined. So I always envied you, and I was annoyed. I couldn't tell you this for a long time. That time when I... I'm sorry about that time. I'm sorry. I can't call myself your friend. I can't. I will never forget what I did to you. The truth is, I came over to tell you this." - Kurumi's guilt over hurting Sawako, two years after the event, in chapter 106
• "Thanks for asking me to come today. Now I can just talk to you naturally. I guess... I was kind of avoiding you before. When I liked you, there were a lot of things that were bothering me. But now, things are a little clearer. Like things I hated. It could happen again, but this time, I've got Sawako-chan with me! I thought Sawako-chan had taken you away from me, but I was wrong. You gave me Sawako-chan. So thanks. I... I'll still like you forever, even if it's not in a romantic way." - Kurumi's final words to Shouta, chapter 120

Etymology

• The name Ume means "Japanese apricot, plum" (梅), which specifically refers to the species Prunus mume. In Japan, the ume blossom is regarded as a symbol of spring and a ward against evil.
  • Her nickname Kurumi means "walnut" (くるみ) in Hiragana.
• Ume's surname Kurumizawa means "walnut" (胡桃) (kurumi) and "marsh" (沢) (sawa/zawa).