Yandere
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Yandere (ヤンデレ?) is a Japanese term for a personality that is initially extremely loving and gentle, then at one point becomes deranged or psychotic, often brutally so. Yandere is a combination of the two words yanderu (病んでる?), meaning to be sick, and deredere (デレデレ?), which is defined as exhausted or lovestruck.[1] Much like the tsundere term, there is also the related noun yanderekko which refers to a girl with a yandere personality, much like how a meganekko is a girl with glasses.
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[edit] Origins
The term is not very well-known compared to tsundere simply because it is a much newer term that has arisen in order to classify girls in recent anime, manga and visual novel video games that have this personality. Usually these girls are first presented as timid, shy and weak in varying degrees, which are more or less traits that stereotypically describe young Japanese girls. Additionally, these yandere girls have darker aspects of their personality that, as noted above, often goes beyond simply being cold and can turn very violent, even leading to the girl committing murder or suicide. This dark side is most of the time kept to herself and is usually the product of traumatic psychological stress experienced by the girl in her past. Also, the yanderekko will often be paired with the male main character of the series she is in and due to events involving him in the plot, will cause her to turn extremely aggressive, violent, and psychotic.[citation needed] Besides the general aggressiveness of their darker sides, the yanderekko may also display an occasional psychotic episode or behavior related to their specific form of psychological illness.
In order to keep the original definition intact, another term has arisen to describe girls who exhibit yandere traits but do not fit the true definition of what a yanderekko entails. This term, known as yangire (ヤンギレ?), refers to characters who snap all a sudden out of jealousy or irritation or something similar.
Yangire is a combination of the two words yanderu (病んでる?), meaning to be sick, and kire or gire (切れ?), meaning to cut, slice, or "to snap". This behavior is different from that of a yandere character in regard to the motivation that sparked the change in the character. The yanderekko is motivated through her love for the male protagonist, while a yangire character is motivated through other characters and will not be connected with emotions of love or attraction. Like yandere, the related noun yangirekko can be used to describe a female character with a yangire personality trait.
[edit] Examples
[edit] Yandere
One example of the yanderekko is Kotonoha Katsura from the adult visual novel School Days. After becoming Makoto Ito's girlfriend early on in the story, Makoto is later stolen from her by Sekai Saionji, Makoto's friend who had initially been their matchmaker. One of the bad endings in the game involves Kotonoha murdering Sekai by slicing open her throat with a saw in broad daylight, and another has Kotonoha throwing herself from a ledge and dying in front of Makoto and Sekai, traumatizing them forever. In the anime version of School Days, the stealing of Makoto is followed by lots of misfortune that eventually makes her break down. After Sekai kills Makoto, Kotonoha kills Sekai and opens a hole in her body to see if she was pregnant or not; she then escapes in her family's yacht, carrying Makoto's severed head with her.
Another example in a similar situation is Kaede Fuyou in the anime version of Shuffle! where, after falling in love with her best friend Rin Tsuchimi, the male protagonist, turned unexpectedly cold towards her friend and senpai Asa Shigure who was receiving most of Rin's affections. Ultimately, she experienced a psychotic episode where she expressed the desire for Asa's death and tried to kill her with a box cutter. It is revealed later that her psychological problems actually come from her childhood — ten years ago, when her mother died and a grief-stricken Kaede blamed Rin. Later, with help of Asa and others, Kaede slowly starts to recover.
From Higurashi no Naku Koro ni there is Shion Sonozaki. Shion turned psychotic in the Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen story arcs after her love interest taken from her: first Satoshi Hojo and then watching her sister fall in love with Keiichi Maebara, the male protagonist. Shion ended up brutally murdering three of Keiichi's close friends (including her own twin sister, Mion), a family friend, and even her own grandmother before attempting to kill Keiichi himself; though he initially survived, the game's TIPS states he died three days later in the hospital due to heart failure brought on by hallucinations.
Yuno Gasai of Mirai Nikki has been considered as an example of a yanderekko, as this cute, but psychotic, girl is also extremely cold-blooded when committing the act of murder. Kirino Konosaka in the anime version of Gift suffers a breakdown after being rejected by the protagonist Haruhiko Amami, and ends up doing much harm to him and his love interest, Riko Fukamine. Another possible example of a yandere is Nena Trinity in Mobile Suit Gundam 00, who after being rejected by the protagonist Setsuna F Seiei, goes on to shoot an innocent wedding out of boredom, causing the deaths of many innocents. This is rather doubtable, however, as her motivation was purely boredom and she is a spoiled little girl who frowns because she is not getting what she wants, rather than exclusively due to Setsuna's refusal alone.
[edit] Yangire
Possibly one of the better-known examples of a yangirekko is Rena Ryugu from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. First in the Onikakushi-hen story arc where she is first shown as a nice, sweet girl, but later becomes intimidating and violent towards Keiichi Maebara (although it is later hinted that Keiichi imagines the entire thing). In the Tsumihoroboshi-hen story arc, Rena is shown possessing a strong intent to kill several people, even managing to kill two persons: one in self-defense and the other in cold blood to protect her father.
Another example is Sekai Saionji from the anime version of School Days. While initially portrayed as cheerful, tomboyish and normal, in the final episode she snaps when Makoto attempts to dump her after she reveals that she is pregnant, and then stabs him to death with a kitchen knife. This scene comes from one of the bad endings of the original game, where she also stabs Makoto to death, but under somewhat different circumstances.
Another possible yangirekko is Hermione di Borromeo from Romeo x Juliet. A gentle and naïve young girl who suffers from unrequited love for her arranged fiancé Romeo, after she breaks off their engagement upon learning he is in love with someone else (Juliet), her pent-up frustration and her misunderstanding of Juliet's intentions towards Romeo (she believes that Juliet is using his love for her own purposes) make Hermione snap in episode sixteen, attempting to kill Juliet twice in a row. Once it is all cleared up, though, Hermione recovers and steps aside.
[edit] References
- ^ csse.monash.edu.au on the definition of deredere. Retrieved on 2006-12-22.
