Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. In the world of anime there are many types of deres. There’s the classic tsundere, dandere, kuudere, deredere, and of course, yandere. Over the years, the yandere has become everyone’s favorite dere out there for reasons I have no idea why. I guess there’s something cute and romantic about someone loving you to the point that they’re borderline obsessed with you and are ready to kill anyone or anything that gets between them and you. Anime has had some great yandere characters over the years and since it’s Ani-ween I’m honoring these scary individuals by naming my top 11 yandere characters. These are the characters that love us so much that we’re scared of what they’ll do to us and have us checking are backs every 10 seconds. I’m Nitsuj and these are my picks for the top 11 Yandere Characters.
#11. Kotonoha Katsura from School Days
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You never forget your first yandere and for a lot of people Kotonoha was their first yandere. When you really think about it, she’s quite the tragic character. She really didn’t have that many friends, was alone, and always got picked on at school by other girls. Then, all of sudden she gets a boyfriend, someone for her and her alone. Unfortunately, that said boyfriend turned out to be an asshole who sleeps around with everyone, dumps her in horrific fashion, and to top it all off she gets raped by her boyfriend’s best friend. However, she still loves Makoto and believes that they’re still dating even after all the horrible things he’s done to her and others. For Kotonoha, Makoto was the first person to accept her and she didn’t want to lose that no matter what. When Makoto finally gets his justice at the hands of his other girlfriend Sekai, Kotonoha goes off the deep end and kills her as well as cutting open her stomach to see if she was really pregnant. Our last image of Kotonoha is of her on a nice boat cuddling the decapitated head of Makoto. She’s my first yandere and showed me just how dark and twisted one’s love can really go.
#10. Shouko Kirishima from Baka and Test
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At first glance Shouko seems like the perfect girl. She’s cute, well-mannered, and is at the top of her class. However, she’s secretly crazy about her Yuuji. Childhood friends who grew up with each other, Shouko makes it quite obvious to everyone around her that she loves Yuuji and that he belongs to her. While everyone respects this, Yuuji doesn’t and finds himself at the mercy of her antics. She forces him on dates in handcuffs, hits him with a stun gun when she’s angry, pokes him in the eyes so he doesn’t stare at other girls, tried to drown him just so she could kiss him, tried to force herself on him on a school trip, and has a marriage certificate on hand at all times for him to sign. Shouko’s love for Yuuji is strong and she won’t let anybody not even Yuuji get in the way.
#9. Anna Nishikinomiya from Shimoneta
In the world where sex education is abandoned, Anna serves as the perfect example of how important it is to explain the birds and bees to children. After Tanukichi accidently kisses her, Anna becomes awakened with lust and confuses it for love. Because she was given no proper education about sex and was taught that love was the purest emotion in the world, Anna believes that everything she does is okay and right. Anna soon becomes obsessed with Tanukichi feeding him her “love nectar”, attempting to steal his underwear, forcing herself upon him in the hopes of getting his “love nectar”, and breaking and entering his house to sexually assault him. As for other girls who are close to Tanukichi, Anna has shown no hesitation in being ready to kill them if she feels they pose a threat to their “pure love”. Anna is a yandere who has no idea that she’s a yandere and serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of sex education in the world.
#8. Akane Hiyama from Love Tyrant
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This romcom added something new to the genre by making one of the main love interests a yandere. When we first meet Akane we’re given the impression that she’s a sweet and innocent girl only to find out that she’s a yandere who’s obsessed with Seiji that the idea of him being with a girl that isn’t her is enough to kill her, literally. Akane’s love for Seiji knows no bounds and has sent her into fits of rage where she’s ready to kill any girl that gets close to him and even harm him for even talking to other girls. She of course has her cute and innocent moments such as being happy when Seiji starts to call her by her first name or having a complete joy after receiving her kiss from him. If she would tone it down a little bit on her obsession I think she would be serious girlfriend material but then she wouldn’t be such a fun and interesting character as well as one of the greatest yanderes out there, so don’t change Akane. You do you.
#7. Yuka Minase from 11eyes
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This is a prime example of the anime actually making a character better. An obscured visual novel that feels like a knock off of the SMT universe. At first glance Yuka is a quiet and gentle girl who does her best to get along and befriend everyone around her. However, this all changes when her childhood friend and love interest Kakeru starts becoming closer to other girls and her jealousy causes her to go a little crazy to the point that she tries to create a world where Kakeru thinks about no one but her. If you can believe it, the anime actually made her even crazier. In the anime, she wanted Kakeru to look at nobody but her and even went as far as putting razors in the tea of her senpai who was developing feelings for Kakeru. Hell, she even attempted to get rid of others whether they be friend or foe just to be alone with Kakeru and even freed the main villain of the series just so she could have Kakeru all to herself. A girl who was insecure about her relationship with the boy she liked, Yuka is often regarded as one of the most hated anime girls out there but at the same time one of the best yanderes who sold out the world for the man she loved to live happily ever after.
#6. Kaede Fuyou from Shuffle
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Who the first yandere was remains a mystery, but more often than not it’s usually Kaede who receives the honors. Based off the visual novel under the same name, Kaede lost her mom in a car accident at a young age blaming her childhood friend Rin for the accident and acted violently towards him whenever her dad wasn’t around. She even went as far as dropping a box cutter on him from the stairwell, and this was when she just a kid. She of course realized her mistakes and in order to atone for them became Rin’s personal slave doing all the housework and cooking his meals. While Rin doesn’t like this, he allows this to go on out of fear that she’ll relapse, and boy does she relapse. Once Rin starts to earn the attention of other girls Kaede’s violent nature begins to resurface and when Rin brings home a girl for dinner that he’s become close to, she straight up attacks the girl all while telling her to leave and never come back. Even though Kaede thinks she’s unworthy of Rin’s love, her obsession and love for him is real and to lose him to someone else is something she won’t accept. I don’t know if Kaede was the first yandere or not but I’m totally okay with her being the first one and setting the groundwork for this dere to grow.
#5. Shirayuki Hotogi from Hidan no Aria
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An ideal Japanese beauty who was trained to kill. Hopelessly infatuated with Kinji since they were children, Shirayuki has made it her goal in life to marry Kinji and conceive his children. Her obsession is straight up scary as she does his laundry, cooks his meals, will dislike the same things he dislikes, will text him on a regular basis, her phone’s wallpaper is a picture of Kinji, and she has a planner where she has already planned out her life with Kinji and everything (FYI, she wants 6 or 7 children). Much like the other girls on this list, Shirayuki is hostile to any girl close to Kinji as shown with Aria as the first time they met, she attempted to kill Aria and even tried to assassinate her on more than one occasion. Even in the spinoff of the series, she teaches a junior student how to properly stalk and spy on her love interest and everything. Cute and obsessive, she’s one of the few yanderes I wouldn’t be afraid to date.
#4. Yukako Yamagashi from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable
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It’s hard to believe that in an anime that features men so manly that you’ll automatically grow chest hair from watching them, that the one who would get the pretty girl’s attention would be the small, weak, and innocent-looking Koichi. For some strange reason Koichi’s innocent nature struck a chord with Yukako that she becomes obsessed with him and vowed to do anything to make him love her even if it meant by force. Why? I really have no idea. Maybe it’s possible that Yukako knows she’s a messed-up girl and believed that Koichi’s innocence could balance her out. Along with her bitter jealousy and possessive nature, Yukako is a modern day yandere girl who won’t accept no for an answer and never knows when to quit. Under normal circumstances I would say congrats to Koichi, but in this case, I give him my condolences.
#3. Esdeath from Akame ga Kill
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Esdeath is easily one if not the strongest character in Akame ga Kill. A sadistic individual who gets off on belittling everyone around her, turning them into her slave and taking what she wants because she is the strongest and as the strongest it’s her right to have it. However, she still has the heart of a maiden and when she sees Takumi she instantly falls for him and claims him as her own not even considering his feelings. Despite knowing the evils of the kingdom and how Tatsumi is fighting against it, Esdeath refuses to switch sides for the one she loves and instead wants Tatsumi to conform to her ideas and beliefs. Naturally, she’s ready to kill anyone or anything that comes between her and Tatsumi, and won’t hesitate to kill him if it means she can’t have him. Esdeath is a yandere who refuses to listen to anyone but herself and believes that the person she loves should conform to what she wants and nothing else or death.
#2. Sato Matsuzaka from Happy Sugar Life
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Probably the latest yandere to pop up in recent years but she made one hell of an impact. Being raised by her deranged aunt, Sato came to see love in a different light. She falls in love with a little girl named Shio who she kidnaps and keeps in her apartment in secret from everyone. Sato will go to any lengths necessary to protect her happy sugar life for Sato as she’s shown to kill the landlord of her apartment complex and will break anyone because of their warped view of love all while trying to take the high road even though her view of love is even more warped than their view. It’s really hard to put Sato’s yandere into the words as everyone in this anime is terrible, selfish, and has a warped view on what love is.
And number one. . .
#1. Yuno Gasai from Future Dairy
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It was obviously going to be her. This is the perfect embodiment of a yandere. Yuno took the whole concept of a yandere and bought it to a whole new level. Yuno’s very meaning of existence is to make Yuki fall for her and you can bet she’s ready to kill to make sure no one gets her way. What makes her such a great yandere is that she has the brains and beauty to stay under the radar and pull Yuki to her side all while taking out everyone who poses a threat to her relationship with Yuki. From her look to her voice to her actions, she displays every trait a yandere should have and managed to take it up to a level I didn’t think possible when I first watched the anime. While Kotonoha was my first and Kaede may be possibly be the first yandere, Yuno was the one who perfected what a yandere is and if it wasn’t for her I doubt this dere would still be around today and I doubt anybody can topple her. All hail the queen and may her reign of love and yandereness never end.
So that’s list, I hope you all enjoyed. If I left anybody out let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj where I review a show I’ve been waiting a whole to review. MUHAHAHAHAHA-
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(Nitsuj): AHHHHH!
*Johnny tackles Nitsuj to the ground*
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