In the past, we’ve offered a variety of definitions for things on this blog, and we decided it’s about time we return to the world of dere. Today we’re going to be breaking down one of the most (disturbingly) popular dere’s: the yandere. Because there is nothing better for Valentine’s Day, than a love that you’d kill for.
To start off this post, I’d like to begin by quoting one of the best authorities on the internet: Urban Dictionary. And yes, I am being sarcastic when I say best but yes I am also fully planning on continuing to use it as our basis anyway. So according to urban dictionary, a yandere is:
“A term for a person who is loving and caring to someone they like until their love, admiration and devotion becomes feisty and mentally destructive in nature through over protectiveness, violence, brutality or all three combined. Yandere is mentally unstable and uses extreme violence or brutality as an outlet for their emotions.
Simply put, a yandere is lovesick; someone who has been driven to insanity by extreme obsession or love, thus resulting in abnormal behaviour if not violence. Take the tropes “Love Makes You Crazy”, “Love Makes You Evil”, “Love Hungry” and “Stalker with a Crush”, turn them all up to eleven, and condense everything into a singular personified character archetype”
Given that definition, I think we can all agree we are familiar with this archetype. There’s a (disturbingly) large amount of yandere-focused content. Okay, perhaps disturbingly is too harsh of a word. There’s just a lot of it out there. Which, on one level I totally get. Romance is popular. Bloody action is popular. That would state to reason yandere type characters who are literally willing to kill for love, are just as popular. Whether they are depicted as entirely unhinged, such as Yuno Gasai from Future Diary, or somewhat relatable like Himiko Toga from My Hero Academia, or even flying under the radar because they don’t enact violence (but still definitely on the yandere spectrum) Akane Kurokawa from Oshi no Ko — there is a vast spectrum of yandere.
If you’re familiar with the first two on the list, they are certainly more of the “I will kill, happily, for you”. Meanwhile, the last on the list, Akane has shown absolutely 0 bloodlust. But if we look again to our definition of yandere, we’ll notice that that second paragraph notates “someone who has been drive to insanity by extreme obsession or love, thus resulting in abnormal behavior if not violence”. Which is exactly what Akane did–once she decided she liked Aqua, she went out of her way to figure out his perfect girl and then began mimicking said perfect girl in a crazy psychological warfare move. A move that, is undoubtedly unhinged, landing her on the softer end of the yandere scale.
Now, the thing about yandere that I believe makes them so popular–is actually that even when they’re doing something wrong, we’ll still find a way to justify them to some degree. Or something like that. Take Yuno Gasai for instance–people find her incredibly hot which occasionally outweighs her crazy. Or even look at things outside of anime–like that popular netflix TV show You. The main character Joe is a total yandere, but sometimes he tricks the viewer into thinking he’s really doing it all for the sake of love and that justifies his insane actions. He may not have the same hot scale as Yuno, but he does have her devotion. Where she is violence most of the time, Joe hides it with sweetness. And you know, saying the word devotion might also be a factor in why people are drawn to yandere characters. Because in a world of liars, cheaters, and unfaithful people–I can see how having someone so deathly devoted to you could be appealing. The most extreme of yandere will really take the “till death do we part” to heart. So I guess, people’s obsessions with yandere sort of makes sense–especially if we use the hot/crazy scale to measure them.
But of course, aside from the typically depicted yandere, there are many different types of yandere and tropes associated with them. Some are self-sacrificing, others violent, some sweet, others not. Just like the many varieties of people there are in the world, so too are there just as many yandere’s. Each is unique, and each bring their own traits and personalities that win over the fans and have them looking past their yandere tendencies to the person that they can grow to love.
Thanks so much for joining us for Doki Doki Days 2024! Whether you’re celebrating today alone, with someone(s), or not even celebrating at all, we really hope you enjoyed our romantic anime/manga related posts these past few days!
AishteLOVEru
xoxo
Star and Luna
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