Erodere

"Erodere" is a term for a character who acts very erotic at first and tries to seduce their love interest by causing sexual arousal in them, but after falling in love starts to have a more pure, innocent, and romantic deredere love. At first they will perform different actions to cause arousal and elicit sexual desires in their love interest, from tempting them with their exposed naked body, letting them grope their body, to even outright giving them more tame sexual acts. They will pretend to be very erotic people and start aggressively seducing their love interest to win over their heart thinking it is what their love interest wants, but the reality is they are a lot more vulnerable and innocent than they let on. While they like to act like they are "experienced" and push themselves to do sexual acts to make their love interest fall in love with them, the truth is that they almost always have no experience whatsoever and the moment they truly fall in love will mark a sudden change in their behavior. They will begin feeling ashamed of their seductive behavior and will regain their innocent attitude. They will start behaving in cute ways and doting on their love interest with a pure and innocent kind of love.
== Etymology ==
=== Meaning of the Term ===
Erodere (エロデレ) is a combination of "eroi" (エロい), meaning "erotic (to arouse sexual desire or excitement in others)", and "deredere" (デレデレ), a mimetic word for "being lovestruck".
It is used for characters who at the start make it seem like they are very seductive and erotic (), but in actuality desire a pure love (), or "an innocent love without any ulterior motives or selfish desires, often associated with a sense of sincerity, selflessness, and purity in love". After falling in love, they will begin to act cute and doting around their love interest.
=== Origin ===
The origin of the archetypes comes from 2010-2013 erotic romance light novel series Erodere . It was described as a reverse romance story where instead of being "dere" (lovestruck) making someone "ero" (erotic), being "ero" (erotic) makes someone "dere" (lovestruck). There are 6 light novels in the series with each following a different girl who tries aggressively seducing the guy she wants to be with and in the process of doing so develops true feelings of love for them. They start to feel ashamed of their more seductive erotic behavior and develop a more cute and innocent deredere behavior.
==History==
=== Early Influences ===
Although she has never been officially referred to as an erodere, one of the best early examples of this archetype is the character of Akeno Himejima from the 2008 harem romance light novel series High School D×D . At the start of the series, Akeno can be seen taking an immediate infatuation with Issei Hyoudou despite having seemingly no interest in boys or romance prior to this. Although she did not truly love him, she would actively try to make him fall in love with her by seducing him in erotic ways by making him touch her breasts, sucking on his fingers, or even stripping down and seducing him with her body. Her reasons for doing this were a combination of two things: one because of her S tendencies she wanted to toy with her best friend Rias Gremory by seducing the boy she liked, and two because she wanted to try to drown out her sadness and family trauma with sex. However, this all changed when she fell in love with Issei. Akeno had developed a sense of hatred and self-loathing for becoming a Fallen Angel because of the wrongdoings that her kind has done to other people, including her love interest Issei. She was worried that Issei would dislike her due to her Fallen Angel nature, however, after he told her that he still liked her she fell in love with him, and with Issei's help she was able to overcome the sadness of her family trauma. From this point onward Akeno's demeanor and attitude towards Issei completely changed. Rather than her typical overbearing seductive attitude, she began becoming more shy and timid. She could even be seen dressing up very cutely and acting shy about going on her first date with Issei. Because she truly had genuine feelings of love for him she wanted to do things right and make him like her by showing him a cuter side of herself.
=== Official Media ===
The most notable examples of this archetype in official media come from the titular origin Erodere series of erotic romance light novels. There are a total of 6 books in the series, with each one having a different set of characters who start out seductive before falling in love and having a pure love.
#Erodere: Yuwaku Ojou-sama ga Hajirau Toki - The story follows Akari Nanami, an intelligent and beautiful young lady, who decides to enter into a relationship with Takuya Yuki. Takuya is the son of one of Japan's leading conglomerates so in order to have his child Akari begins aggressively seducing him. When she meets him in the student council room after school she tries all sorts of naughty things to seduce Takuya, from pleasuring him, dressing up in a sexy dress, to even begging him for sexual acts. However, as she continues to seduce him she begins to fall in love with him for real and her attitude starts to change completely. She begins to start showing innocent reactions and a more cute and shy demeanor, becoming ashamed of her erotic seductions. This leads to Takuya being the one to take the initiative which leads to a more romantic deredere love. She decides to give him her virginity and the two have a very loving experience.
#Erodere 2: Kanpeki Ojou-sama ga Tokimeku Toki - To be added.
#Erodere 3: Hatsukoi Onee-chan ga Koisuru Toki - To be added.
#Shin Erodere: Sexy Hime Aina no Baai - The story follows Aina, the princess of a small country, who gets introduced to Prince Shar by his brothers after seeing him spend all his time painting alone in his villa. Wanting to make the marriage a success for the sake of her mother's country, which needs the backing of a larger power, Aina begins aggressively seducing Shar with her erotic charms! She comes to visit him in his room at night, when he's drawing on a hill, and even in the bath, and begins pleasuring him in various erotic ways. While Shar is physically attracted to her he refuses to marry her. One day after Aina went to go picking wild plants in the mountains she was caught in a sudden downpour making her unable to return home and causing her to instead be forced to take shelter in a cave. Prince Shar who become very worried about her came to pick her up despite the dangerous conditions of being in the rainy mountains. Following this point Aina falls in love Shar and her erotic attitude completely changes. She begins showing her innocent side and decides to give her virginity to Shar.
#Shin Erodere: Koakuma JK Jurina no Baai - The story follows Jurina Kawasumi, the most beautiful girl in school, who is rumored to have had many romantic relationships. She is also known as the "Sexy Queen", but in reality she is a virgin and was just talking big to her friends. When her friend asks her "show me how you seduce a man" she begins to seduce her classmate Takatsuji Sota in an erotic way by making him her pet, just like the "Sexy Queen" she is. When Sota is approached by the girl he has a secret crush on who suddenly pushes him down and passionately pleasures him he is very surprised. Jurina tells him "If you become my pet, I'll make you feel even better.", but Sota rejects her because he wants to be her lover. Despite having been rejected, Jurina still wants to show off to her friends so she can't back down and starts seducing him even more. She pleasures him by rubbing various parts of her body against him and her seduction knows no bounds. One day while Jurina was trying to find Sota to seduce him outside of school, she ended up getting into a fight with a group of delinquents and it was none other than Sota who saved her from that predicament. Seeing him fight so hard to protect her despite his injuries and learning how worried he was about her caused her to fall in love with the man she had thought of as a pet. It was at that moment that Jurina becomes ashamed about her previous erotic seductions and regains her innocent attitude. She accepts Sota's feelings and they become true lovers in mutual love. She gives her virginity to Sota and they spend the rest of their days in love.
#Shin Erodere: Gokujou go Houshi Maid Mahiru no Baai - The story follows Hinata Mahiru, a newly appointed maid who is incredibly beautiful. When Aonagi Yusuke returns to his family home for the first time in a long time, he is greeted by Mahiru. Having spent her childhood in poverty, Mahiru is hoping to marry a wealthy man so she begins to seduce him in sexy ways using the erotic seductions techniques she learned from the senior maids. At night she barges into his rooms and begins pleasuring him, in the morning she crawls into him bed to pleasure him as he wakes up, and she even barges into his bath to wash his body with hers. One day, Mahiru makes a big mistake but Yusuke covers for her and she falls in love with him. After that her attitude suddenly changes and she starts acting all cute and doting towards Yusuke, even feeling ashamed of her erotic seductions. She decides to give him her virginity, which she had been told she should not give up until marriage, and the two have their first sexual experience together.
== Characteristics ==
Erodere characters in official media are always female, but male characters could fall under this too. However, male characters tend to just be perverted sukebe characters.
== Personality ==
Erodere characters act very erotic at first and try to seduce their love interest by causing sexual arousal in them (ero), but after truly falling in love start to have a more pure and innocent romantic love (deredere). It is an archetype that goes from "seduction" to "pure love".
=== Ero Period ===
Erodere characters will try to seduce and make their love interest fall in love with them by acting extremely erotic and trying to tempt them by eliciting sexual desires in them.
They will do various things to cause sexual arousal in their love interest, from tempting them with their exposed naked body, letting them grope their breasts, to even outright giving them more tame sexual acts. However, these are nothing more than extreme temptations as an erodere character will not go "all the way" with their love interest prior to truly falling in love with them. They simply do these things and pretend to be very erotic people to win over their love interest's heart because they think it is what their love interest wants, even though they are actually a lot more vulnerable and innocent than they let on. In most cases, this is because they feel pushed to win the love interest's affection no matter what, and it may be because they have some selfish motive. This could include wanting to marry a wealthy person because they grew up poor, wanting security in life with someone who could give it to them, to even just simply wanting to prove to their friends that they are experienced.
While erodere characters like to act like they are "experienced" and openly talk about or push themselves to do sexual things to seduce their love interest, the truth is that they almost always have no 'romantic' experience whatsoever, let alone 'sexual' experience. They are characters who simply try way too hard to win the affection of their love interest and push themselves too far, which they become very ashamed of once they fall in love with them.
=== Dere Period ===
However, what happens is that in the process of seducing their love interest at some point they end up genuinely falling in love with them which causes them to regain their innocence. This could be for any number of reasons, such as seeing a different side of their love interest. Maybe the love interest stuck up for the erodere character because they overheard people talking bad about them, or maybe their love interest saved them from an accident and it caused them to fall for them. This key moment where they develop genuine feelings of love is what sparks a change in the erodere character.
While at first they were just trying to seduce their love interest for their own sake, now that they have genuine feelings of love they want their love interest to fall in love with them for who they truly are inside and not the erotic facade they created. They will start to feel ashamed of their seductive behavior and will regain their more innocent attitude. They will start being all cute again and doting on their love interest. Rather than acting sexual and seductive like they were at the start, they will start acting cute and overly affectionate with a pure and innocent kind of love.
While at the start they might have been able to show their exposed body to their love interest because they were not truly in love with them, now that are they will suddenly become too shy to even look their love interest in the face, let alone make sexual advances on them. They can be seen becoming more shy and blushing when around them because they truly care what their love interest thinks, a complete change in their former more selfish behavior. They will start to dress up more cutely to make a different impression on their love interest and make them fall for their cute side too. Although they made it seem like they're a very erotic person who wants that kind of a relationship, the truth is that they actually desire a pure and innocent kind of romantic love.
After falling in love they may even decide to give up their virginity to the one they love, but in a way like mutual lovers instead of aggressive seduction. Any erotic acts they do going forward will be more cute and shy with a more loving feeling.
== Differences From Other Archetypes ==
;Lewd Archetypes
The most similar archetype to erodere is tsundero—a tsundere character who is dishonest with their feelings and acts cold towards their love interest to hide the fact that they are secretly lewd and erotic—but in a sort of reversed order. Instead of starting "ero" but actually being "dere", they start "tsun" but are actually "ero". Since tsundero is a variation of tsundere they will also hide their "ero" desires that they want to do with their love interest as opposed to actively seducing them like erodere characters do. Additionally, unlike an erodere who eventually becomes ashamed by their initial seductive behavior, leaving it behind and adopting a softer more innocent love, a tsundero does not change. While a tsundero will also eventually become deredere for their love interest through having sex with their love interest, their "dere" side will appear alongside "ero" side, instead of in place of it like with erodere. To put it simply an erodere desires a pure love while putting up an "ero" front, while a tsundere desires an erotic love while putting up a "tsun" front.
Erodere is similar sukebe—characters who are very lecherous and perverted—but the biggest difference is where the perverted actions are directed and the fact that sukebe characters do not have a pure and cute deredere side. Erodere characters try to seduce and cause arousal in another person (specifically only their love interest), while a sukebe character is someone who becomes aroused and acts perverted or lustful because they cannot contain their sexual desires. In a way, a sukebe is the perfect counterpart for an erodere character as they would be incredibly easy to seduce. Another huge difference is the fact that an erodere character only behaves this way towards the person they harbor deredere feelings for, while it's not uncommon for a sukebe to lust over nearly every one of the opposite gender who breathes. Additionally, an erodere character changes after experiencing true love and becomes a more shy person who gets embarrassed by erotic things, instead preferring a more cute lovey-dovey kind of relationship, unlike a sukebe character doesn't have to change (though of course they still can but it doesn't have to be in a deredere way). For a more visual example, in the High School D×D image depicted here the character of Akeno Himejima would be the erodere because she's acting seductive and erotic to tempt her love interest, while the character of Issei Hyoudou would be the sukebe because he's making a perverted face and lusting after her.
It is also similar in behavior to yariman—female characters who sleep with a large number of people—since both tend to act very lewd and seductive. The biggest difference, aside from the obvious lack of a deredere side for yariman, is that an erodere strictly and only acts this way towards their love interest, while a yariman will seduce many people for the sake of sleeping with them. A yariman sleeps around with a large number of men, while erodere only puts up a seductive front but is pure and innocent underneath. So it could be seen as a non-dere version of erodere.
;Gap Moe Archetypes
Erodere is very similar to S dere—characters who gain pleasure by toying with and teasing their love interest but also have a cuter and overly affectionate deredere side—since they both are quite perverted and lewd at first but also have a more cute and innocent deredere side. The main difference is that erodere characters try to seduce their love interest at first, while S dere only do it to toy with them. Erodere characters also don't have to do erotic things in a more dominating fashion like an S dere character does, though they can. Since they both start very lewd and end up being pure and cute, S dere could be seen as a type of erodere but with more of a focus on teasing rather than seduction.
Erodere is somewhat similar to a more extreme and erotic teasedere—characters who flirt with their love interest in a non-serious way to playfully tease them and get a flustered reaction out of them at first but eventually adopt a more serious deredere side that is more open and honest with their true feelings—but the biggest different is the intent. While teasedere characters can sometimes suggest lewd things to cause arousal in their love interest, such as the idea of the two of them having to share a bed, they only do it solely with the intent of teasing their love interest and having fun laughing at their cute flustered reaction. This is in sharp contrast to an erodere character who suggests lewd things to their love interest with the direct intent of causing arousal in them to seduce them and make them fall in love with them.
Erodere is also very closely related to the archetype of shojo bitch (virgin bitch)—female characters who look or act like they're highly promiscuous but are actually pure, naive, and have never been in a serious relationship with a man—since most erodere characters fall under it as well since they act very erotic (bitch), but have no experience (shojo). The main difference is simply that not all shojo bitch characters have to seduce their love interest, they can simply dress in a revealing way like gyaru characters. Also technically speaking it is not a requirement for erodere characters to not have experience with men, but this is the typical formula when used officially since they only act that way towards their love interest who they have not truly fallen in love with yet. Erodere characters typically give up their virginity only after becoming deredere, so it is similar in that way.
== Similar Japanese Archetypes ==
* S Dere: A term for a character who gains pleasure by toying with and teasing their love interest, but also has a cuter and overly affectionate deredere side. Similarly to an erodere they are very perverted and will do intimate acts such as making their love interest lick their feet, using them as a chair, or stepping on them.
* Shojo Bitch: A term for a female character who looks or acts like they're highly promiscuous, but is actually pure, naive, and never been in a serious relationship with a man. Most erodere characters likely fall under this type since they act very erotic, but actually have no experience.
* Sukebe: A term for a character who is very lecherous and perverted.
* Teasedere: A term for a character who flirts with their love interest in a non-serious way to playfully tease them and get a flustered reaction out of them at first, but eventually adopts a more serious deredere side that is more open and honest with their true feelings
* Tsundero: A term for a tsundere character who is dishonest with their feelings and acts cold towards their love interest to hide the fact that they are secretly lewd and erotic. This could be seen as a combination of erodere with tsundere.
* Yarichin: A term for a male character who sleeps with a large number of people.
* Yariman: A term for a female character who sleeps with a large number of people.
== List of Characters ==
See Erodere/Japanese Characters to see characters from anime media
See Erodere/Non-Japanese Characters to see characters from western media
== Gallery ==
Erodere Gallery.png|link=Erodere/Gallery
Akeno Himejima ero from High School D×D 3.jpg|Akeno Himejima from High School D×D
Akeno Himejima ero from High School D×D 11.jpg|Akeno Himejima from High School D×D
Tatenashi Sarashiki from Infinite Stratos2.gif|Tatenashi Sarashiki from Infinite Stratos
Cat Tatenashi Sarashiki from Infinite Stratos9.gif|Tatenashi Sarashiki from Infinite Stratos
Alice Lendrott from Duke of Death and His Maid 2.jpg|Alice Lendrott from Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid
Ayame Kajou from Shimoneta.jpg|Ayame Kajou from Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn't Exist
== References ==
Category:Romantic
Category:Kind
Category:Distant