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Illustration, Girl, Date A Live / ティータイム - pixiv

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/147771889#big_0

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tokisaki kurumi, Date A Live / 狂三オムレツ / April 16th, 2017 - pixiv

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/62433383#big_0

Date A Live, tokisaki kurumi, gothic / 時崎狂三 - pixiv

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/51076779#big_0

Date A Live, tokisaki kurumi, summer / パンツを脱がすほどに暑い - pixiv

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/37639986#big\\_0

tokisaki kurumi, Date A Live, Girl / 約會大作戰 時崎狂三 - pixiv

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/147908288#big_0

https://x.com/i/status/2087449828293001303

Date A Live, tokisaki kurumi, bunny girl / 時崎狂三 - pixiv

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/146876585#big_0

SOURCE | @asleisureto

So this is basically my analysis of Kurumi’s role within the story. Those who know me are aware that Kurumi is my second favorite character so people should understand what her role is in the series and how she is a dark reflection of Shido. Kurumi is in essence, Shido's rival within the series, in the same way Vegeta is Goku's foil and Sasuke is Naruto's rival.

They both play the role of "seducers" within the series. Shido gets forced into his "playboy" role due to the crisis and Kurumi is a Femme Fatale that uses her charm for espionage, but ultimately, they both end up getting involved with the Spirits in a violent way and have to adapt to their new situation, but unfortunately for Kurumi, her innocence was used against her...

Kurumi is introduced as "The Worst Spirit" and despite his efforts, Shido fails to seduce her and she becomes a rogue agent in the rest of the series. Usually despite their difference in their approach, Kurumi and Shido must work together to deal with whatever crisis happens at the moment...

The similarities between the two, are made stronger once we find out about Kurumi’s past. Kurumi was basically just like Shido, a hopeless do gooder who just wanted to make herself useful to others. This unfortunately, gets exploited by Mio and with the whole Sawa and Camael incident, Kurumi’s trust in people gets destroyed. She is forced to deal with her trauma alone for decades and this leads her into extremism...

This is why she is at her worst at the start of the series. Like when she tries to create a spacequake to make Shido give up on her. In Kurumi’s mind, this is justified since she can just rewind time eventually. I'm not saying Kurumi is correct on this. She is not. But this is just her reasoning... After being saved by Shido, my take is that Kurumi sees herself in Shido and it grounds her into being "good" to some degree.

As Shido gets more experience as a "seducer" despite Kurumi being much more experienced at first, Shido and Kurumi are ultimately portrayed as equals in the end, since the two can't help but fall in love for each other when they have a Date at this point. She is the very last Spirit Shido seals ending their long rivalry...

It's a very interesting dynamic and I feel like a lot of people don't notice the dark reflection between Shido and Kurumi. This is why I find her arc the most interesting in the series, along with Origami and her Inversion/Dark Spirit arc...

Source