Yandere is a Japanese term for a person who is loving, gentle, or at least innocent in his devotion, but who becomes destructive in nature through violence and brutality. Other characters are often psychologically unstable, deranged or even irrational, and use extreme violence or brutality as an outlet for their emotions. The term is derived from the word yanderu (bing nderu), which means mental or emotional illness and was originally intended to show affection. Simply put, a Yandere is someone who has lovesickness and is driven mad by an extreme obsession with love that leads to abnormal behavior, if not violence. Take the trope “Love drives you crazy, love drives you mad, crush love-hungry stalkers” and turn it up to eleven and condense it into a unique, personified character archetype.
The anime-inspired names for these characters are as old as each other, with the earliest examples being the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar (Inanna) and Uruk (Uruk, for example, comes from her cult city of neighbors, Ur-Sumer). The word yother is a term that has blossomed from moe fandom to refer to characters who are just crazy. The term gained popularity along with the term tsundere, which describes a character who acts hard (tsun) but reveals a soft, romantic (dere) side.
Yandere is a term for a person who is loved and cared for because they feel strong affection for their romantic love, admiration or devotion, but becomes lively, destructive in nature, with protectivity, violence or brutality, or all three together. Yandere characters are often psychologically unstable or deranged and use extreme violence and brutality as an outlet for their emotions. The term itself is a combination of the Japanese words yanderu, which means illness, and dere, which means in love or in love.
The biggest difference between the Yandere characters and the two previous tsunamis is that the sweet, nourishing part of them comes out. They start out as sweet, calm and good-natured. There is some kind of interaction with the main character and the other wants to be there for her and protect her. Compared to traditional romantic partners who are waiting for love, the other one is proactive. That’s what makes it so attractive to fans of the idea of being obsessed with them. After all, nobody’s rational mind can relate to Yandere’s grotesque, love-seeking nature.
Over the years, these characters have become increasingly popular as horror animation and psychological thrillers have gained popularity. Other characters are not bound by gender, since the typical protagonist exhibits mere characteristics of femininity. They look normal and play along with their cute appearance.
A 2014 video game called Yandere Simulator, in which the player acts as Yandere to stop someone from killing a rival schoolgirl who falls in love with the same boy, became popular. With a little warning, Yandering characters can have such a crazy personality that their violent side erupts. The “Yandered Face Posing in Trance,” which shows a stylized image of a Yandere figure, is a popular meme in the Japanese anime community.
What seems to have caught the eye of most anime fans is the upcoming game Yandere Simulator, in which you play as a girl who has to wipe out her potential love rival because they are not her beloved sempai. The game was started as a little personal pet project of one person, but it turned out to have a lot of funds thanks to generous donors, and the creators themselves thought it would be great.