#kotonoha katsura | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

moenonsense · 4 months

Text

Yandere Rant.

What Is A Yandere.

—The "yan" in "yandere" comes from the verb "yanderu", which means "to be mentally sick."

"Dere" is an abbreviation of "deredere", which means "lovey-dovey." —

[A Yandere is a character who seems sweet and innocent on the outside, while on the inside they're obsessive and aggressive.]

We all know this, right?

Is the most basic and common definition of a Yandere, cute and innocent.

Some examples of this type are characters like;

Yuno Gasai from Mirai Nikki, the most known Yandere and who made the trope popular in it's early days, earning her the name of the 'Queen of Yanderes', at least in the side of the fandom I was in at the time, as Mirai Nikki was one of the first animes I've ever watched.

Kotonoha Katsura and Sekai Saionji from School Days, an anime that caused shock at the time due it's ending, coming from a visual novel (and a saga) that has a whole lot of another endings that show their Yandere behavior.

Misa Amane from Death Note, most popular although we're not fully able to see her in proper Yandere behavior aside from her.. devotion, to the main protagonist.

And one of my personal favorites, although kinda problematic? But I'll use her as an example on how a Yandere character can see love.

Satou Matsuzaka, from Happy Sugar Life.

I'll be talking about my personal take of the characters, the trope, and in general how I see these type of characters I'll be talking about.

I'm not an expert, I watched Mirai Nikki when I was 7, watched a review of the whole School Days visual novel and it's ending, and the only manga I've take the time to read it's Happy Sugar Life, so I might be biased, and probably totally romanticizing this but i'm writing this because it's a bit tiring seeing the 'Yandere' characters being written down to just "I'll KILL whoever DARES to BREATH the same air as my beloved!" Instead of the original 'two-faced' character that it was supposed to be, and also just for fun.

I'll call Yanderes only the characters that are explicitly driven by love. Not just killing because they're evil or for fun.. kinda.

Spoilers under the cut.

Let's start with Gasai Yuno.

She was my first introduction to the Yandere Trope, and the hold it had on me for my whole teen years.

She's first shown as.. I think a popular classmate? of the protagonist, Yukiteru Amano, pretty, mysterious, and she's quick to claim her love for the protagonist when she tells him how to survive the serial killer after him.

Then she pretty much carries him the whole anime, for no other reason than "I love you, Yukki!" Which makes the moment of "You can use me, I don't mind" a mess.

But, personally, she's not that 'baseless', at least in her love for Yukiteru, since there's a small scene in the anime's background that indicates that things happened differently in the first world.

The second world, the one the anime sets in and where we follow Yukiteru's point of view. We're we don't know why she's so insistent to protect and do anything for him.

I don't remember correctly, but if Yuno had time traveled or not by the time she made the promise with Yukki to marry, it still works.

If not, she's still that innocent girl who maybe has a crush on her classmate and has something to look forward to, despite having to bear her home life.

If yes, she just came back from a whole timeline where he was the one who protected and helped her survive the killing game, only for him to commit and leave her alone again.

Wether it was her survival instinct or her having seconds thoughts and thinking he wouldn't actually die for her. She was already at a point where she loved him, she was vulnerable, and was just handed the power to become a God, and she sure was willing to change the curse of time if it meant to be with him again.

She wanted to protect him, just like he protected her in the first world, not matter what she had to do.

Kotonoha Katsura + Sekai Saionji.

She's presented as a shy girl who's disliked by her female classmates and chased by her male classmates by her big breasts since she developed earlier.

As far as I remember, her situation at home isn't great either, she doesn't have any friends, and struggles in her love life due being unable to interact with men properly.

That is, until Sekai Saionji becomes her friend.

Sekai, unlike Kotonoha, is popular among their classmates and is the one who introduced Kotonoha to Makoto, and the one helping him to win Kotonoha's heart, telling him what to do when he messes up to win her over again, and ultimately, the one who ruins it all.

Kotonoha decides to let herself give in and becomes Makoto's girlfriend, even kissing him, which for her was a huge step, but for Makoto.. the relationship wasn't going as fast as he would like to.

And Sekai had also developed feelings for Makoto at one point, kissing him as a 'reward' for her help in pairing him with Kotonoha, which just gave Makoto another option to do when he was bored of his girlfriend.

Now, I fully condone cheating, under no excuse, it's the worst thing someone could do, in my eyes.

But, being the devil's advocate, they were teens, right? since the anime literally sets in a school, teens aren't that mature to think how to deal with a relationship, worse if it's their first one, and what boundaries they should put, they don't know how to communicate.

I don't even remember the reason why Makoto liked Kotonoha aside from the fact that.. they used the same train everyday.

While Kotonoha liked Makoto because it was probably the first boy who showed some interest in her and was good enough to hide his true intentions, having not much experience and no other friends to refer to other than Sekai (who was biased) she clinged to their relationship the most she could. (And this is speaking about the anime)

In some of the endings of the visual novel, Kotonoha goes as far as to:

Delude herself into thinking Makoto is still her boyfriend after they break up in some routes.

Coerce Makoto into sleeping with her, then makes him promise that if she's able to make Sekai leave him, he'll get back with her.

Trick Sekai into breaking up with Makoto showing her a picture of herself and Makoto that she took without him knowing, telling Sekai that he's just using her.

Lie(? To Makoto, telling him that the father of the baby Sekai's carrying is not him, making him abandon her while pregnant, that can lead to Sekai killing Makoto, or killing Kotonoha.

And even commit in order to keep Makoto to herself, saying that she'll never let him and Sekai be together, jumping from the building in front of them, making them unable to stay together without remembering her face before she died.

Along with the many endings where she kills. She kills Sekai once the other is in a official relationship with Makoto.

The extra of an ending where wether intentional or not she causes Sekai's death by pushing her down to the train racks after Sekai pushed her first.

Killing Makoto unintentionally when she pushed Sekai to the train racks and the other helped Sekai out, but was unable to get himself out in time.

As far as I know, in the whole Saga she has a kill count of 5 (+2 non-confirmed deaths), plus her own.

Kotonoha always obsesses over Makoto, refusing to believe their relationship is over in repeated occasions, and often trying to get him to take her back, by any means, no matter what he does, as it's shown in the anime.

Now, I focused too much in Kotonoha, but she's mostly seen as a victim of the circumstances, unlike Sekai, who.. pretty much caused all the shit she got.

Sekai paired Makoto with Kotonoha, then prompted him cheat, not only with her but with many other girls, although unintentionally as she didn't thought Makoto would sleep with anyone else but her while he was in a relationship with Kotonoha.

And while Sekai has a kill count of 4 (one from the manga), it's done more because of 'desperate circumstances require desperate measures'.

She pushed Kotonoha in the train racks after Makoto broke up with her because of Kotonoha, leaving Sekai pregnant and blaming the Kotonoha for how everything turned out.

Kills Makoto after both her and Kotonoha get pregnant by Makoto, but in this ending Makoto is dating Kotonoha, and Sekai is angry of their happiness, although she quickly regrets it.

It's not shown directly, but in one ending it implies that she (with Makoto's help) killed Kotonoha so the two of them could be together.

Satou Matsuzaka

Now, with Satou were clear with what's her backstory, and what she does, and how she views her actions, as she's one of the protagonist of her anime and manga.

Satou's parent are absent in her life, it's not said why but we can assume that they either died or abandoned her, since Satou lives with her aunt.

Aunt, who.. doesn't show Satou the healthiest depiction of love.. basically teaching her that,

Love = Sex.

That's why Satou is said to be an easy girl among her classmates, that she changes boyfriend's every week after sleeping with them even if she doesn't feel anything for them, slightly hoping that one of them will make her feel different.

That is, until she meets Shio. An abandoned little girl who's still too young to understand all that's wrong with the world, still pure.

Satou immediately feels the need to protect her, resorting to killing the guy the moment she saw him hurting Shio, just so Satou would remain empty (the guy who's the actual owner of the department Satou lives in, I think? and the one who painted her portrait), and I think it's the first time she ever kills someone, so it could be seen as a desperate measure too.

Satou knew about the concept of friends, but she didn't seemed to know until the end of her life that you could love someone platonically, when her and Shio jump from their burning building, and Satou shields Shio from the fall, making the little girl live while Satou died, realizing she loved Shio as if she was her mother.

Now, there's a whole dilemma about her relationship with Shio but I want to prioritize how Satou views love.

“You taught that kid the wrong idea about love. That’s why you have a responsibility to pay me back. A responsibility to help me. Take responsibility for doing this to me.” (Satou to her Aunt.)

“I didn’t know…what warmth felt like. What kindness was. And more than anything else… I couldn’t understand what love was. It’s all thanks to Shio-chan. It’s because Shio-chan took my hand that one time. Shio-chan led me. I learned what happiness meant for the first time in my life. I never understood love before. But Shio-chan is the one who taught me what love means. I see! This is an even deeper feeling for Shio-chan…. I… finally…. Shio-chan, I hope you still love me when we’re reborn. I’m sorry…and thanks.” (Satou's thoughts just before her death.)

Satou sees/describes her feelings with how, well, how she feels, she feels at peace and warm with Shio, a sweet feeling.

When she's unable to spend time with Shio due the extra hours of her work, or when she forces herself to kiss a coworker so the other wouldn't snoop into her life and discover Shio, she describes it as bitter.

Satou kills around 4 times.

The painter guy.

The two guys who had hit(? Shio in the park.

Her best friend, Shouko Hida. After she takes a picture of Satou and Shio and sends it to Shio's brother, who's been looking for her.

Satou manipulates her way out more often than resorting to killing, keeping up more frequently the innocent persona since she has to hide Shio while Satou continues her normal life as a school girl.

When her boss was giving her more hours out of jealousy and refused to pay her (when Satou was trying to save money so she and Shio could live away.) She threatened her to get her pay, not caring about the boy her boss had kidnapped.

Made her coworker help her (I don't remember in what, but I think it was in escaping?) after taking advantage of her crush on Satou.

Asked her Aunt to help her burn the building so there was no evidence left, telling her she was responsible with how Satou turned out.

Blackmailed her disgusting teacher so he'd burn(? some evidence for her.

Blackmailed the kidnapped (and traumatized) guy so he'd help her hide Shio from her brother.

Almost killed Shio's brother when she heard him say the vows(? her and Shio shared. (And if I remember correctly, she didn't do it just because she was interrupted.)

Make the trauma of the kidnapped boy worse by leaving him with her Aunt..

And at the end, permanently traumatized/influenced Shio to think like her after her death.

Reading about a platonic yandere was a nice change of breath, even if it was weird at first since I had been sell on Satou in some of the anime clips before even knowing about Shio, and having heard that the anime spoiled the ending I decided to read the manga first and.. the surprise I got seeing the little girl.. almost made me drop the manga.

Almost, as I was too curious about how the story would explain this and Satou's yandere tendencies.

It would be nice to see that kind of platonic yandere because of the.. lot, of bro/sis complex in anime..

One of the scenes that stuck the most with me was the breakdown Satou has when Shio says she hates her, when Satou has already done a lot for Shio (moments earlier she had killed her own best friend) and feels abandoned again.

I don't remember how she stabilized herself after, but it's clear that like many Yanderes, her mental stability depends on her beloved, Shio's rejection had quickly made her spiral into despair when Satou had already killed without even blinking, but it was useless if Shio wasn't with her.

Honorary mentions.

Mikan Tsumiki from Danganronpa 2, the infamous fan service character that claims love as her motive, although it was after she was brainwashed..?

Misa Amane from Death Note, aside from her dying devotion to Light, and her jealousy later with his past girlfriend, we don't really see much of Misa as a yandere..? She cut her life-span twice just for him, and literally stalked Light as a way to find and meet him.

Himiko Toga from My Hero Academia was often called a yandere because of saying she liked Deku(? But mostly because of her relationship of Uraraka. I don't know what did that hellhole of a series ended up like, but I thought it was worth mentioning, only heard about it.

Monika from Doki Doki Literature Club, although crude, her actions weren't as bad(? as the other yanderes, as Monika was fully sentient that the other girls were just code and not real, making it easier for her to worsen them just to appeal to the player, and by the end she has a change of heart, and if you take the time to make each happy, the ending of the game is different too. Along with Doki+ showing us more about how she interacted with the girls before the events of the main game take place.

Lucy from Elfen Lied.. honorary mention as I can't really see it, since she has kind of a double personality thing going on, only watched reviews of the anime.

Ren from Re:Zero, although short and sneak, there's hints of it aside from her 'main scene', and it's the only thing I know from that anime.

On characters that I barely know of, or I don't have much to say about them.

Yuka Mikase from 11eyes.

Toma from Amnesia.

Mana Ouma from Guilty Crown.

Kaede Fuyou from Shuffle!

All the guys from Blood Soup.

Homura Akemi from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, there's lot of analysis of her character on YouTube, and she's personally one of my favorites.

Ren Yamai from Komi Can't Communicate.

dishonorable mention

Ayano Aishi.