Shindere

"Shindere" is a term for a character who has died but becomes finds a love interest and becomes deredere after coming back to life. This can either be in the form of coming back as a ghost or coming back as an immortal human who revives every time they are killed. Regardless of the form, "death" plays a huge role in their love life and is an obstacle they need to overcome to truly fall in love with their love interest.
== Etymology ==
=== Meaning of the Term ===
Shindere (死ンデレ) comes from the words "shindara" (死んだら), meaning "death; to pass away", and "deredere" (デレデレ), a mimetic word for "being lovestruck".
=== Origin ===
The first use of the term was in the 2010 romance comedy manga series Ushiro no Shindere-san , which was described as "the reader's first experience of slapstick comedy × head over heels love × horror".
The series follows the character of Tora Karugasaki who is forced to repeat a year after becoming a delinquent to try to get popular. Although everyone ignores him, he develops a crush on the girl sitting next to him in class who also had to repeat a year like him. He starts to feel bad for her because everyone ignores her when suddenly she kicks him and throws him out the window. Later that day he notices the girl standing in the middle of the road and quickly rushes out in front of an uncoming truck to save her. This incident causes the mysterous girl to develop a crush on him, but she tries everything she can to make him hate her. However, when Tora stands up to her to the rest of the class for treating her so poorly and compliments her she falls deeply in love with him which triggers the hourglass on her necklace to shatter. She then quickly drags Tora to the roof to confess that she is in love with him, where she then reveals that she signed a contract with a death god and was forced to play a game: if the person she falls in love with returns her feelings she was will be given a new body, but if he doesn't then both her and the human she falls in love with will be killed by giant scythes and dragged to Hell. She confesses to him this was the reason she was avoiding him and trying to make him hate her, but she could no longer deny her feelings for him which activated the game. After Tora confesses that he likes her back and ends the first round of the death game, she also reveals that she is a ghost and that no one other than him can see her and that she has no memory of her life as a human. She doesn't know why she's wondering, who her family and friends are, or even what her own name is. After hearing this Tora feels bad for her and decides to give her the name Miki, which causes her to start blushing. Following this incident, at random increments the death game would activate causing one of them to have to make another confession.
Later on they another ghost girl named Kozonoi Kuro-Tama shows up and it's revealed that she is doppelganger ghost of a living girl named Kozonoi Shiro-Tama. Kuro-Tama appeared when Shiro-Tama had a near-death experience because of her frail constitution and illness, which seemed to grant Shiro-Tama another chance at life. After noticing that Tora can see her, Kuro-Tama immediately falls in love with him which activates her own death game leading to a love triangle where Tora must confess his love to both girls or be dragged to Hell.
However, the series was cancelled in 2011 after releasing only one volume so it's unlikely to ever reach a conclusion.
== History ==
=== Official Media ===
A more popular series that used the archetyped is the 2012 romance manga series Shindere Shoujo to Kodoku na Shinigami . In this series, Akira Wakanae gets a transfer student in her class who claims to be a shinigami and warns everyone to stay away from him or they will die. However, the two of them end up becoming the class presidents together so they are forced to interact. At first, she doesn't like him since he threatened her friend, but she feels sorry for him after she hears of the people who have died in front of him. They both go to a shrine to get some food and after an altercation, the boy accidentally pushes her off the railing killing her. Her ghost stays around for a moment in the physical world and she sees him despair over her death, blaming himself because he developed a crush on her. She is taken to the god of the island, who gives her a choice: she can either die, or she can be revived but her soul will shatter if she ever leaves the island, since the god's powers cannot extend past the island's radius. She chooses to come back to life, inhabiting her body once more. In the next chapter, she is killed again, but learns that the god is able to revive her as many times as she wishes, making her effectively immortal.
Another popular series that used the archetype is the 2018 romance manga series Dancin' Respawn , which was described as "a shindere romantic comedy ♡ about a boy who dies but comes back to life and a girl who kills". In this series, the character Choushi Dannoura is a "respawn", like the protagonist of an RPG, where even if he dies he comes back to life in the place where he last slept. Choushi goes about his life nonchalantly being killed in gruesome ways every single day until one day when he saves a girl named Ann Yamazaki from a falling construction part and dies in the process. At first, Ann is devasted but when she sees Choushi alive and well the next day and learns of his condition she becomes fascinated and falls madly in love with him. From keeping his past lives' corpses, to carrying his heart around as a memento, Ann will go to any lengths to charm the immortal boy and spends all of her time trying to make Choushi fall for her—even carrying a knife on her at all times and resolving to kill him herself before anyone else can harm him. And so begins the unusual love story of an immortal shindere boy and a crazy yandere girl.
== Personality ==
=== Shin Side ===
Because of the nature of this archetype, a shindere character can have any range of other dere personality types at first (such as tsundere, deredere, utsudere). However, shindere characters also generally fall under the sad and melancholic type. Those who are present as ghosts often have a desire to come back to life, while those who are immortal often wish to die. In both cases, the "shin" side is rather tragic and melancholic and takes the main focus of their personality. They may also have regrets from leaving the one they love behind when they die and have a strong desire to be with them.
=== Dere Side ===
However, despite the sad turn of events surrounding their death, a shindere character eventually finds true love and finds someone who will be with them. For those who are ghosts, this love interest will usually be a human with some kind of special ability that lets them see ghosts, while for those who are immortal in will be someone who accepts them despite their strange condition.
Regardless of which type they fall under, they will eventually develope a cute and doting deredere side where they seek lots of attention of affection from their love interest.
== Sub-Types ==
There are two kinds of shindere characters: those who died and were reanimated as a ghost, and those who continously come back to life after they die. The important distinction here is not how or why they died, just simply that death is a constant presence in their love life, whether that's all the time as a ghost or only some of the time as a respawn.
=== Ghost Type ===
The "Ghost" type of shindere are those who were brought back from the dead as ghosts. Because of this, they are unable to be seen by most living people, and as such live a very sad and lonely life. They will also be able to fly around in the air and pass through solid objects. They will usually wonder aimlessly around the location of their death and may not have any memory of how they died, why they're wondering around, who their family and friends are, or even their own name.
when they finally find someone who can see them they will often follow that person around since they want someone to interact with. Having someone who they can interact with after all this time is often what leads them to falling in love with that person. They can either become fully human again by the end of the story, or continue living as a ghost.
In the case of those who had a love interest prior to dying, often their strong feelings of affection for their love interest and the regret of leaving them alone make them stick around instead of passing onto the afterlife. These characters may also be revived and be given immortality that turns them into the respawn type.
=== Respawn Type ===
The "Respawn" type of shindere are those who can continuously come back to life after being killed. This ability makes them effectively immortal. Additionally, unlike the ghost type who only experienced death once (albeit in a continuous way) the respawn type experience death many, many times. If their love interest is someone with a cursed power that kills others then it's even possible that a respawn type shindere character could experience painful death on a daily basis, however, they are deeply in love with their love interest so that is a sacrifice they are willing to make.
This type may come with drawbacks if the immortality was given to them from someone else, such as having to stay within the range of their power, while those who have this power naturally have no drawbacks regarding this ability working. However, those with no drawbacks often suffer from severe depression as a result of not being able to die and often long for a permanent death prior to meeting and falling in love with their love interest.
== Differences From Other Archetypes ==
Shindere does not include those who die and are sent to another world since they did not return to their own life, rather, they started a new one. Characters who become an "undead" do not count either as they never truly "died" and experienced "death" (shin), however, there is another similar archetype called zondere which focuses on undead zombies. The main difference between the two is that shindere characters are brought back as ghosts or humans, while zondere characters are brought back as zombies.
== Similar Japanese Archetypes ==
* Mayadere: A term for a character who is normally kinda scary, but is deredere when they are alone with their love interest. Shindere can be seen as a sort of supernatural version of this archetype.
* Monster Danshi: A term for a beautiful male character who share traits with a monster, often which is a ghost.
* Monster Musume: A term for a beautiful female character who share traits with a monster, often which is a ghost.
* Zondere: A term for a character who has become a zombie but is still lovey-dovey and overly affectionate.
== List of Characters ==
See Shindere/Japanese Characters to see characters from Japanese media. 
See Shindere/Non-Japanese Characters to see characters from non-Japanese media.
== Gallery ==
Shindere Gallery.png|link=Shindere/Gallery
Yuuna Shine.gif|Yuuna Yunohana from Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san
Yuuna Shin.gif|Yuuna Yunohana from Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san
Makoto Tateuri from Wakaokami wa Shougakusei! (1).gif|Makoto Tateuri from Wakaokami wa Shougakusei!
Menma Shindere.gif|Honma "Menma" Meiko from Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai.
Hanako from Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun.gif|Hanako from Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun
== References ==
Category:Melancholic