Why the Abusive Tsundere and Yandere Trope Sucks
If you’ve been a long time anime fan (or just generally been watching anime for a long time), then you’ve probably seen your fair share of romance anime. Whether its shoujo or shounen, ecchi or sfw, a single hero/heroine or harem, or any mix of these genres, you’ve probably seen several of these. And if you’ve seen more than several romance animes, you’d have come across one of those characters that you just can’t stand. That’s right, I’m talking about those over-the-top “tsundere/yandere” characters that became a common trope in anime.
Time to hit da husbando
Before I start going on a rant about them, let me just be clear that I have nothing against all the tsundere/yandere characters in anime. I’ve grown fond of several of them actually. Some of them actually end up being the most interesting characters in their respective series as far as I’m concerned. They add a necessary spice to the elements of the show, making watching the entire show that much more fun.
Kurumi best grill
Going back to the topic, it seems that for some reason, there just exists in certain anime series that one person who is so openly abusive of others (usually the main character) and doesn’t seem to care about the consequences of their actions. They get jealous over characters that aren’t their boyfriend/girlfriend, get mad for no justifiable reason, and are sometimes enough of a reason to ruin an episode just because they show up in them and do exactly what I said just now. Now normally this would be considered a toxic personality in relationships, but in the anime world, it’s considered cute.
If you’re a male main character of an anime series and you’ve been unlucky enough to have charmed one such character, I feel for you, cause you’ll always be wrong in their eyes and are always one friendly banter with a female classmate away from getting your face punched in.
The funny thing is, until most recently, a lot of these characters have a similar character type: small (causing a height complex), flat-chested (even more complex), and a short temper – basically lolis which for some reason, a lot of the people around them find cute or attractive.
You can argue that their purpose in the story is to show their character development into someone who is “less abusive” than they were at the start of the show, but in reality, they usually don’t improve by that much at the end of it all.
To add to all that, the worst thing about them is that for some reason, authors like to make them the “main girl” of the series, meaning that the “best girl” or the love interest that seems to care most for the main character’s well-being doesn’t end up with the main character.
I don’t know about you guys, but I wish this kind of character would be less frequent in any upcoming series. I hate them just as much as I hate seeing that annoying lesbian character who goes all “onee-sama” and hates the main character’s guts for minor reasons.
What about you guys? Do you have that one type of character you hate seeing?
