Tsundere

"Tsundere" is a term for a character who can't be honest with their feelings of love towards their love interest so they act distant, standoffish, and stuck-up to conceal them. They can't be honest with the person they like so they will pretend not to be interested in them at first and act distant to hide their embarrassment. However, after becoming closer to their love interest and falling in love to the point that they can no longer deny their feelings, they will start to show a more honest and openly loving deredere side towards them. They will start behaving in cute ways and wanting their love interest to be intimate with them or tell them that they love them, actively seeking their affection.
== Etymology ==
=== Meaning of the Term ===
Tsundere (ツンデレ) is a combination of the words "tsuntsun" (ツンツン), an onomatopoeia for "turning away (to turn one's back on someone, to ignore someone, or to refuse to accept)" which describes an attitude that is "aloof (distant), standoffish (somewhat cold), and stuck-up (high-and-mighty)", and "deredere" (デレデレ), a mimetic word for "being lovestruck" which describes an attitude that is "infatuated (fawning over their love interest), affectionate (desiring close contact), and cute (having qualities that attract affection)".
A close approximation to the meaning of "tsuntsun" might be the English onomatopoeia "hmph" which is a sound that expresses "annoyance, disapproval, or indignation" and is usually followed by the person sticking their nose up to suggest they're too good for the other person and turning their head away. This can be seen when a tsundere makes their trademark pose of turning their head away from their love interest and goes "hmph" to show they don't like them. When applied to a person, tsuntsun refers to "being cold (intentionally) to someone you have feelings for", "keeping someone at a distance", "being dishonest with your feelings", "turning away in disgust", "giving someone the cold shoulder", "acting pretentious (attempting to impress by affecting greater importance than is actually possessed), or "being hard to handle".
To be tsundere is to act distant to hide one's embarrassment, even though one is secretly in love.
=== Origin ===
The term "tsundere" was created to describe the character Ayu Daikuuji from the 2001 video game Kimi ga Nozomu Eien . The term was first coined on August 29, 2002, when a user on the Japanese forum site Suspicious World made a post referring to Ayu's personality as being "tsuntsunderedere" (ツンツンデレデレ) due to the constant switching been her personality. The term tsuntsunderedere began circulating on the site as a popular term and many people on Suspicious World started using the term to refer to her. Eventually, the term spread to another Japanese forum site 2channel where it was soon after shortened to simply "tsundere" (ツンデレ).
=== Alternate Spelling ===
Although tsundere is almost always written in Japanese with katakana as "ツンデレ" it is occasionally written as with the "dere" written in hiragana.
It is also sometimes written as "" using hiragana for "tsun" instead, but this is much less common.
=== Localization ===
While the term is almost always romanized in English as "tsundere", it is also sometimes romanized as "tundere".
The reason for this is that the Japanese kana "ツ" is written as "tu" when using the traditional Japanese method of romanization, but written as "tsu" when using the American Hepburn method of romanization. In both cases, the pronunciation is still "tsu" which is why it's written as such in English, but in Japanese the "s" sound is simply implied.
=== Useage ===
Originally the term "tsundere" referred exclusively to female characters (and this is largely still true). This can be seen in the Imidas Dictionary entry for the term "tsundere" published by Shueisha, the largest manga and anime publishing company in Japan: "A girl who acts tsuntsun towards a boy she likes in public, but becomes deredere when they are alone." This also established the definition of a tsundere being someone who acts cold specifically because they have feelings for someone, as opposed to just being someone who acts cold to anyone or for any other reason. When an anime or manga company decides to create a "tsundere character" this is the formula they follow.
A male tsundere character is referred to as an "oranyan" (オラニャン). This can be seen in its dictionary entry in the same Imidas Dictionary: "This term refers to a man who usually acts strong-willed and manly, but meows and acts amae like a cat when he's alone with his girlfriend. The male version of tsundere." The Weblio dictionary similarly states: "A male version of tsundere, who usually shows a strong-willed attitude (oraora), but becomes amae when he is alone with his lover (nyannyan)". It refers to the fact that even though they usually put up a false front they show their amae side in front of you in private and desire to be spoiled with affection in a way that stimulates your maternal instinct. Which is why oranyan characters are said to be popular with women.
There have since been a few instances of the term "tsundere" being used in official media to refer to a male character, since this term became more popular than "oranyan" did, but this is not very common.
=== Misuse ===
In the Western anime community there is a popular idea online that the meaning of "tsundere" has somehow changed over time resulting in the creation of two distinct character archetypes: "classic tsundere" and "modern tsundere". It is said that originally the term "tsundere" referred to a gradual and permanent change from "tsun" to "dere" but after becoming popular came to mean someone who quickly switches back and forth between "tsun" and "dere". However, this is not true and there is no such evidence of this phenomenon existing. This belief has even lead to some interesting contradictions such as the character Ayu Daikuuji from Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, the progenitor of the tsundere archetype, being labeled as a "modern tsundere heroine" on the Visual Novel Database despite being the most "classic" tsundere there could possibly be as she created the archetype. This is further contradicted by the Imidas dictionary entry on tsundere which came out in 2006 before the terms rise to mainstream popularity and defined it as a girl who switches back and forth between "tsun" and "dere" depending on whether or not they were in public which caused her to become embarrassed and act "tsun".
Another very common misconception is that tsundere characters are violent towards their love interest, when this is not actually true either. Instead, characters who act violent towards their love interest to hide their feelings and embarrassement fall under the archetype of "tsungire", a term for "a character who is quick to get angry and pushes others away when they try to be affectionate with them". While a tsundere pushes their love interest away by acting standoffish, stuck-up, or ignoring them to hide their feelings, a tsungire pushes them away in a harsh and ruthlessly direct way, even resorting to literally pushing them away, but there is often a misconception that these types of aggressive and violent moments fall under the umbrella of "tsundere".
This is not actually the case and a character who is purely "tsundere" and no other archetype will not act in a violent manner since neither the term "tsun" (standoffish) nor "dere" (lovestruck) encompass that behavior. That behavior actually falls under the term "gire", which refers to "becoming extremely angry and aggressive". However, many of the more extreme tsundere (such as Taiga Aisaka) do end up being "both" types (tsundere and tsungire) so they end up following a development pattern of "tsun → gire → dere". Tsundere characters who are also tsungire might punch the person they like and say they won't go out with them even though they like them, while a tsundere would go "hmph" and make a snarky or stuck-up comment while they walk away. However, because the term "tsungire" is not well known in the Western community these characters are often grouped together under simply "tsundere", even if not technically accurate.
== History ==
=== Early Inspirations ===
Although the opinion of who the "original tsundere character" is differs depending on the source, Excite News in Japan claims that the character of Ataru Moroboshi from the 1978 manga Urusei Yatsura is rumored to be the first tsundere character. Although he clearly has feelings for his love interest Lum, he cannot admit it and treats her very coldly. As the story goes on he can be seen getting worried when she disappears, getting jealous when she's with other guys, and blushing when she gets close to him, showing that he clearly cares deeply for her even if he won't admit it. He even goes out of his way to protect the timeline where him and Lum get married after getting a glimpse into the future.
Another character considered to possibly be the first tsundere by Japanese fans is the character of Akane Tendo from the 1987 manga series Ranma ½ (from the same author as Urusei Yatsura) who was told by her father to become engaged to her eventual love interest Ranma Saotome. Although as the story goes on she starts to develop feelings for him she struggles to admit them so she hides it by acting cold towards him instead.
Meanwhile, American manga critic Jason Thompson cited the character Madoka Ayukawa from the 1984 manga Kimagure Orange☆Road as being the root of the tsundere archetype.
=== Widespread Recognition ===
Although the term "tsundere" had been semi-popular on the internet since 2002, it was not until 2006 that it began to gain widespread popularity as a recognized term in the entertainment industry. It perhaps reached its peak in recognition when it was included as a new term in the 2006 edition of the Imidas dictionary released by the largest manga publishing company in the world, Shueisha. It was also nominated for the Ryukougo Taisho (Buzzword of the Year) award later that same year.
=== Tsundere Maid Cafes ===
One of the first instance of the entertainment capitalizing on the popularity of tsundere was when a maid cafe known as Nagomi starting to have tsundere events in March 2006, along with the release of several tsundere-themed products. Over the years the concept of a tsundere maid cafe continued to grow in popularity with even more being created.
=== Official Media ===
Anime companies also soon capitalized on this popularity, with the first known use of the term being used in an anime found in episode 10 of the 2007 series Lucky☆Star during the "Lucky Channel" segment at the end of the episode. In the segment, the character Kagami Hiiragi is introduced as a "tsundere" by Akira Kogami which prompts a discussion and explanation of the definition of "tsundere" by Minoru Shiraishi. During his discussion he passionately exclaims that the definition of a tsundere is someone who starts tsuntsun and then becomes deredere and therefore Kagami is 'not' a tsundere. After being prompted with the question "then what term is she?" he begins thinking and suggests "deretsun" as a possible term to describe characters who start deredere and then become tsuntsun.
Since then the archetype of tsundere has become extremely popular and has been used in many anime and manga series.
== Characteristics ==
Tsundere characters are almost always depicted as being female since the term was originally defined as such with male characters having a different term, but there are still some male examples of the type as well.
=== Moe Factor ===
Manga artist Ken Akamatsu says that tsundere is a unique case for moe characters, or characters who make the reader feel affection and adoration towards them. In his article, he defines three conditions for moe:
# No suggestive actions or messages.
# The person feeling moe must be stronger.
# The moe feeling must make the current state desirable.
While at first the definition of tsundere might seem to be at odds with moe due to tsundere characters almost always being in a position where they are seen as "stronger" than their love interest, the moe traits come when they start to enter their dere period. A tsundere character's tendency to switch between moods is often an expression of internal turmoil and most people have a natural tendency to feel sorry for those who are insecure, which instills the "protection" feeling of moe toward these characters. The development of a tsundere also acts as a source of wish fulfillment. The idea of a character who seems very cold at first but becomes affectionate and loving when you manage to crack their shell can make someone feel satisfied as if they had a hand in their personality change.
The attractiveness of a tsundere has two sides to its appeal. On one side, they are strong and independent characters who refuse to back down while on the other side, they are awkward and insecure about their relationship, hiding any weakness with aggressive language and actions. Tsundere shows that even the toughest characters have a soft side.
In harem media, the author wants to include as many types of moe characters as possible to widen the scope of their audience. Tsundere girls are among the typical lineup of these characters since the conflicts that arise from their arrogance are good proponents for both comedic and dramatic moments.
== Personality ==
=== General Behavior ===
Tsundere are characters who have an antagonistic and defiant attitude toward a specific person (tsun), but take a pampered or favorable behavior (dere) after a certain trigger. The key point here is that it is "only for a specific person". Tsundere always smile at their classmates or friends, however, they can't be honest with the person they are interested in. They're a little embarrassed about their feelings and they take it out on their love interest. They will pretend not to be interested in them at first and try to push them away, even though their liking is obvious.
Tsundere are not characters who play hard to get. Characters who act like that deliberately 'choose' not to get with their love interest until they know for sure that they love them, whereas a tsundere is simply in denial. They are not honest with themselves and will hide their already existing feelings to protect their pride. This often plays out in the form of the tsundere acting defiantly towards their love interest and being overcritical of them to hide their romantic feelings towards them. However, when they eventually fall in love to the point they are unable to deny their feelings, they will start acting affectionately with them.
=== Development ===
A way to show that a tsundere has accepted their feelings despite their pride is to have them shift from acting tsuntsun to acting deredere. They may still retain many of their typical tsuntsun traits, such as acting evasive about their newfound relationship with others, but it will be in a more mellow and infrequent way. As they start trying to come to terms with their feelings they will go through a process that changes their personality from "tsun" to "dere".
Their character development has four main steps:
# Tsuntsun () - Their default personality. They will act distant and standoffish towards their love interest, completely denying any feelings they have for them.
# Confused () - As they start to fall in love they will begin to act kinder towards their love interest but will still try and hide their true intent, possibly even trying to convince themselves that they don't really feel that way.
# Embarrassed () - Eventually their feelings will become so strong that they start to break through their harsh shell. They will start to worry about their love interest more openly if they don't show up for class or try their best to do something nice for their love interest. They will continue to deny their feelings for their love interest, but it won't be to the same level of harshness as before.
# Deredere () - Once their feelings of love have become too strong to contain their feelings towards their love interest will start to mean more to them than their pride and they will come to accept their feelings. If their love interest says something romantic to them, they will be too overwhelmed by the feeling of being loved by someone who means so much to them to hide their feelings any longer. They will start openly blushing, telling their love interest how much they mean to them or even saying romantic things back, though they will often quickly revert to hiding their feelings once they realize what they were doing since this is still new to them. As time progresses, they will start caring less and less about keeping up the ruse and will just be honest with their feelings all the time.
When their development is first happening a tsundere might temporarily regress to previous steps, but they will always get back on track and eventually become deredere.
=== Tsun Period ===
At first tsundere will refuse to be honest with their love interest. They will refuse to hear what their love interest has to say often saying things like "hmph!" or "tch!" and turning away to hide their feelings, but they will eventually turn back out of love for the other person. This behavior is what is known as their "tsun-ki" (ツン期), or "tsun period".
Tsundere are very prideful, carrying themselves with a stuck-up attitude towards their love interest at most times. They might act like this because they come from a legitimate place of power, such as being a part of a rich family or the student council, but many of them do not have a good reason for their ego aside from simply being unable to be honest with their feelings.
When a tsundere is first starting to develop feelings for their love interest, they will often do things such as:
* Cold Shoulder: They will act very cold towards their love interest, ignoring what they have to say or only talking in short snappy sentences to make them feel unwanted and unloved. This is usually followed by them going "hmph!" and then turning their head away in disgust.
* Self-Denial: They will deny their feelings and tell their love interest they don't like them even when they do. They often say things like "It's not like I ___ because I like you!" or "Don't get the wrong idea!" to hide their feelings.
* Superiority: They will act superior and stuck-up toward their love interest. They will put down their love interest to make themselves feel like they are above them. This may stem from them wanting to rid themselves of their feelings, believing they shouldn't be in love with someone who is beneath them.
* Taunting: They will hurl insults at their love interest, usually when they become embarrassed, such as calling them a "dummy" or telling them to "shut up" to enunciate their point.
As they become even more fond of their love interest, these tactics will start to be used less often and be replaced by their derekake period.
=== Dere-kake Period ===
As they fall more and more in love a tsundere will start wanting to be affectionate and do something nice for their love interest, allowing their deredere to start to peak out. This is a period that is known as "dere-kake" (デレかけ), meaning "almost dere" or "becoming dere".
Even though their deredere is starting to peak out, they are still often too embarrassed or prideful to be outright with their feelings so they will instead try to hide them. They will do things for their love interest, but will insist that they don't still like them and make up cheap excuses to try to save face.
* Defending: They will help their love interest out if they are in a dangerous situation and defend them. Even though it's obvious they did this purely out of a genuine concern for the well-being of their love interest, they will often deny any real involvement such as claiming they "just happened to be passing through".
* Gifts: They will give their love interest a gift, such as chocolate on Valentine's Day or White Day, but will often claim that they only did it because they "felt sorry for them" or "they happened to have extra and didn't want it to go to waste", desperately trying to deny any romantic undertones. In reality, they feel incredibly happy when their love interest says they loved the gift and may even start blushing when they are next in private.
* Helping: They will help if their love interest is struggling with something, such as homework or cooking, but will often try to justify it by saying things like "If you're going to be around me anyways then I might as well help you, so you don't embarrass me". Secretly, they love helping their love interest but would never dare to admit it.
* Nursing: They will get very worried about their love interest when they fall ill or hurt themselves. They will sit by their bedside and help however they can make them recover faster, though they will make cheap attempts to hide their worry, usually by making fun of their love interest for getting hurt or sick in the first place. If their love interest falls asleep while they are helping, they will drop the harsh exterior altogether and express their feelings openly, saying things they couldn't bring themself to say to their love interest's face.
They may even get lost in the moment at times and start fawning over their love interest (dere), but then quickly catch themselves and insult their love interest to act like it never happened (tsun). They are not fully deredere yet, but they are starting to become it.
=== Dere Period ===
Eventually a tsundere will fall in love to the point where they will completely lose their "tsun" behavior entirely and become honest with their feelings. They will no longer feel a need to hide their love and will become a purely deredere and affectionate person. They will let down their harsher walls and let themselves depend on another person for comfort and intimacy. They will start to want their love interest to be intimate with them or tell them that they love them, actively seeking their affection.
There is often a misconception that a tsundere is a character who continuously fluctuates between acting "tsun" and "dere", however, this is not actually the case as those characters are simply still in their dere-kake phase where they have not truly come to terms with their feelings yet. Once a tsundere enters their true deredere phase they do not go back to acting distant. This is what is known as their "dere-ki" (デレ期), or "dere period", and is the final stage in their character development.
== Sub-Types ==
There are several variations of tsundere that have a slightly different formula from the original kind:
=== Default Mood ===
Different characters have different levels of "tsun" and "dere". Characters can be divided into two main types based on their default mood:
Tsundere (): Tsundere are cold by default and are the type described in this article. They will hide their feelings and act distant towards their love interest at first. Only after becoming very close to their love interest and learning to be honest with their feelings will they enter their loving and affectionate dere period.
Deretsun (): Deretsun are affectionate by default and are the exact opposite of tsundere. They will be very affectionate and loving towards their love interest from the start, but have a suppressed tsun side that only comes out when they are embarrassed by their love interest. They sometimes feel awkward around feelings and conversations about love or when receiving compliments, acting self-conscious about their own feelings and denying them.
=== Variations ===
See the main pages for full details.
* Biridere (): A tsundere who shocks their love interest with electricity when being "tsun". This is usually done in a gag comedy manner.
* Gandere (): A tsundere who starts shooting guns at their love interest when being "tsun". This is usually done in a gag comedy manner.
* Gundere (): A tsundere who turns into a drill sergeant and berates their love interest for not being good enough when being "tsun".
* Tsun-aho (): A tsundere who tries so ridiculously hard to act "tsun" towards their love interest that they just end up making themselves look like a fool instead.
* Tsun-ama ( ): A tsundere who acts "tsun" while spoiling and pampering their love interest
* Tsunbaka ( ): A tsundere who is extremely airheaded and forgetful.
* Tsundora (): A tsundere who acts so dry and emotionless when being "tsun" that they make it seem like they are serious, showing a complete rejection of their own feelings.
* Tsunneko (): A tsundere who is a nekomimi and shows their affection in a cat-like way.
* Tsun-pure (): A tsundere who is brutally honest with their love interest when being "tsun" but rarely honest with themself.
* Tsunpuri (): A tsundere who is a princess and acts "tsun" in a dignified and ladylike manner.
* Tsunshun (): A tsundere who acts "tsun" with their love interest and then becomes sad because of their actions caused by it.
* Tsuntere (): A tsundere who becomes embarrassed around their love interest and then acts "tsun" towards them because of it.
=== Common Templates ===
Although not being a variation on the formula, there are several common templates or backstories that tsundere characters often fall into.
* Basic: The most stereotypical and cliched type of tsundere is the one that refuses to be honest about their own feelings. They will judge their love interest over everything and verbally attack them at any provocation. They will call their love a dummy for not being able to understand their feelings even though they aren't honest with them in the first place.
* Disciplinarian: A tsundere who has been put in a position of power, such as becoming the student council president or the assistant to their company's boss. They will be extremely strict about enforcing rules. Whenever their love interest does anything even a little bit wrong, they will be quick to punish them for it. This often makes their love interest feel singled out, causing them to develop a dislike of the tsundere, however, behind the scenes they will protect their love interest when it truly matters. If their love interest gets falsely blamed for something they will go out of their way to stand up for them, revealing their honest and loving side.
* Shana Clone: Because of the popularity of the character Shana from the 2002 light novel series Shakugan no Shana many subsequent tsundere characters were modeled after her. They are designed as high school girls with child-like bodies, long waist-length hair that is either unkempt or tied into pigtails, who wear gothic lolita dresses and thigh-high leggings. They are quite harsh and bossy with a noticeable temper. If they carry a weapon it will be a katana or another type of sword. They will refer to their love interest without any Japanese honorifics, which is often a sign of superiority and coldness but also might suggest they feel close to their love interest upon initially meeting them.
* Tragic Past: Many tsundere characters act temperamental because of a dark past, which makes it difficult for them to properly express their feelings in an understandable and calm manner. They don't want to get hurt by revealing their vulnerable side so they act harshly, either regretting it terribly afterwards or trying to justify it in their head because of how bad they were treated in the past. As time passes, their hurtful past and romantic feelings will slowly come to the surface after they develop a greater bond and trust with their love interest.
== Differences From Other Archetypes ==
Tsundere served as the basis and inspiration for most future "dere types". Because of this, many dere types have a harsher side that is used to hide their romantic feelings from their deredere side. Although there are many similarities in this fact, there are also quite a few differences in how this harsher side is presented.
Since the tsundere archetype is so recognizable, there are many parodies of their stereotypical attitude and phrases resulting in characters sometimes "acting tsundere". A character might say something like "it's not like I like you or anything!" as a short gag, but the character will not be tsundere outside of that specific moment. These characters are not actually tsundere, they simply parody it for a joke.
Tsundere is similar to himedere since both can be quite arrogant, however, the main difference is himedere want their love interest to pamper them and doing everything they ask. They want their want their love interest to constantly pay attention to them, whereras in contrast, a tsundere often acts like they want nothing to do with their love interest because they don't want it to seem like they want their affection. Himedere also have a very prim and proper ladylike side when they are spending time with people they consider equals. However, it is a fairly popular combination to have a character that is both a tsundere and a himedere.
Tsundere is similar to kamidere as well, but the main difference is kamidere act harsh to their love interest because they think they're superior to them and will also look down on them as a lesser being. They aren't rude because they want to hide their feelings, they are rude because of their ego and massive god complex.
== Similar Japanese Archetypes ==
* Bokodere: A term for a character who gets embarrassed around their love interest and will lash out to hide their feelings.
* Otenba Musume: A term for a female tomboy character who is energetic and has a boyish personality. Many female tsundere fall under this.
* Roshidere: A term for a character who is only deredere when they are speaking Russian to hide their true feelings.
* Hajidere: A character who gets embarrassed around their love interest. Step 3 of a tsundere's character development involves going through the tere stage, though it's usually less pronounced than with hajidere.
* Tsungire: A character who is quick to get angry and pushes others away when they try to be affectionate with them. While a tsundere pushes people away by acting standoffish or ignoring them, a tsungire pushes them away in a harsh and ruthlessly direct way.
== List of Characters ==
See Tsundere/Japanese Characters to see characters from anime media
See Tsundere/Non-Japanese Characters to see characters from western media
== Gallery ==
Tsundere Gallery.png|link=Tsundere/Gallery
Julis Alexia-von Riessfeld from The Asterisk War.gif|Julis Alexia von Riessfeld from Gakusen Toshi Asterisk
Kyou Fujibayashi.gif|Kyou Fujibayashi from CLANNAD
Maki Nishikino Recording.gif|Maki Nishikino from Love Live! School idol project
Mai Kawakami from Musaigen no Phantom World.gif|Mai Kawakami from Musaigen no Phantom World
karane inda tsunaho.gif|Karane Inda from Kimi no Koto ga Daidaidaidaidaisuki na 100-nin no Kanojo
Taiga Aisaka Eating.gif|Taiga Aisaka from Toradora!
== References ==
Category:Arrogant
Category:Distant
Category:Shy