Character Rant: Ume Kumurizawa

September 6th, 2013 in Anime, Rants by

ume-kimi

In the last few weeks I’ve noticed that due to my own set of values I have a serious problem with female characters that try to steal the male protagonist from their female counterpart .Ume Kumurizawa, (image above) is one of those characters. Hailing from the anime/manga Kimi Ni Todoke, she shows herself to be a “Kikyo” type character and if you saw my first post ever, you know about my intense dislike for her. Ume tends to have an “I’m the most perfect person in the world” attitude because of her beauty and is extremely irritating. She even stoops so low as to manipulate everyone into thinking she’s the perfect angel when she’s everything but that.

Now most anime characters are beautiful; it’s just a fact you have to accept. It’s when the character knows that they are beautiful, and unscrupulously uses it as a way to entice and deceive people that it gets on my nerves. While its true most characters who are aware of their beauty don’t so this (Tamaki Suoh from OHSHC, Kyohei Takano from The Wallflower, etc.) Often enough you get that particular character who uses their beauty as a weapon, and Ume is that character. For instance, she has convinced all of Kazehaya’s followers (Protagonist who she madly falls in love with) that he was made for everyone (i.e, share him), so that she could have a chance to get closer and clutch him into her grasps. It’s this type of manipulation places her at the top of my ‘anime characters i despise’ list.

To be fair, if Ume wasn’t in love with the male protagonist, I would probably like her a whole lot more. The fact that she’s in love with Kazehaya immediately makes me dislike her; For some reason I tend to loathe any female characters opposing the one that has my vote. Sigh, It really bothers me that Ume is a rival of Sawako (female protagonist), especially as Sawako views her as a friend. Ume honestly needs to find someone else to direct her affections towards.

There is one more attribute of her personality that fuels my passion of dislike towards Ume; she’s the queen bee of their school, and she knows it. Now being a geek almost all of my life, I tend to be very attentive to these things and have discovered there are two types of ‘queen bees’. 1. The Nice Girl and 2. The Mean Girl. Ume, somehow found herself lodged between these two classifications. While she definitely is nice to most individuals, anyone she sees as a threat (i.e Sawako and her friends) gets her mean side. Of course, this only happens when her beloved Kazehaya is not around, when he is, then not even the most sugar filled ice cream can compare to her sweetness.

To sum it all up, Ume is just another one of those characters that I want to strangle. In her own way she almost rivals Light Yagomi with her manipulation, in her mind she just has to be in love with the male protagonist, takes whole ‘Queen of the School’ thing to a whole different level and uses her beauty as a weapon instead of a gift. She aggravates me past the point that I thought was humanly possible. Ume Kumurizawa…… is one of those characters I would love to write in a death note.


4 responses to “Character Rant: Ume Kumurizawa”

  1. Cely belly says:

    I remember I felt a very strong dislike towards Kurumi as well when I first watched Kimi ni Todoke. But I also loved the the romantic notion that underlies behind Kurumi’s actions, that “all is fair in love and war,” and my strong dislike towards her eventually faded. I really like Kurumi now, actually. I wish I had the same courage to fight for the things I wanted, back in high school. But that’s just one of the sides I admired about her. Then again, I never felt like she was stealing Sawako’s love interest lol. Sure, there are better ways she could have dealt with her situation, without manipulating those around her. Although, in some occasions, it was really the other party’s self consciousness that impaired their actions(Sawako on Valentine’s day for example). At least that’s what my experiences lead me to believe. In the end, I thought her relationship with Sawako concluded quite nicely. I doubt that their prior circumstances would allow them to stay friends. In time, maybe. Who knows? The manga hasn’t ended yet! XD. Thanks for sharing!

    • Rae Boss says:

      I pretty much have a problem with anyone who interrupts the shipping I go for. I would have probably liked her if it weren’t for the fact she went for Kazehaya. With that being said I do admire her ability to know what she wants when she’s in high school however her way of going after what she wants really irritates me. It may have to do with the fact that I have to deal with people like this in my every day life, or it could be that I’m simply not a fan of most people. Whichever reason it’s more of her motive that throws me off rather than her in reality. How ever nine times out of ten I agree with her, but it irritates me that she pretty much played Sawako. I guess you could say that I have a love hate relationship with her.

      • Cely belly says:

        I guess I feel the same way too, with anyone who interrupts my bias. Arata in Chihayafuru, for example, has messed with my ship long enough…even though he hasn’t really done anything but be himself lol. I can relate. And I am sorry to hear that you have to deal with people like that in your daily life. I wouldn’t consider myself a fan of Kurumi’s way of doing things either. But hey, in the end, she didn’t win. And Sawako never gave up. 🙂

  2. julsca says:

    I felt the same!

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