Everyone has different ways of expressing their love, and anime has some characters that express it in particularly weird ways. Some of them have even become tropes over time or ‘dere’ types. Coming from the Japanese term for ‘affectionate,’ there are the psychotically obsessed ‘yandere,’ the shy and withdrawn ‘dandere,’ and the straightforward ‘deredere’ types.
The most famous, or infamous, ones are the ‘tsundere’ types; the ones that act hateful towards their interest but actually like them. In the right hands, they can be part of a gradual romance story. Then, in the wrong hands, they could come off tired, typical, or extremely worrying.
8 Chitoge Kirisaki from Nisekoi
Nisekoi offers a pretty simple and standard tsundere setup. Chitoge was just an ordinary girl returning from America to Japan and ended up stuck in an arranged relationship with the series’ protagonist Raku Ichijō. Getting paired up with a stranger soon after emigrating would get anyone in a tizzy, but the two of them are stuck like that until their families can settle down. Of course, the two eventually warm up to each other and start going out for real.
She also likes to lash out at anyone who annoys her, from friends to passers-by. If they’re not getting struck by her verbal barbs, she’s all too willing to make them physical if pressed. As a result, most people would rather not get on either side of her, good or bad. Though eventually for Raku, he finds he’d prefer her mock hatred to her cold shoulder.
7 Wolfram von Bielefelt from Kyō Kara Maō
Most ‘dere’ types, in general, tend to be women, and this list won’t be an exception. Still, male tsunderes are a thing, and Wolfram is a classic example. After all, he is Kyō Kara Maō’s ‘Selfish Prince,’ or ‘Little Lord Brat.’ Of all the titles he has as the old Demon King’s youngest son, those are the two he lives up to the most.
As a ‘Mazoku’ (essentially demons, though they look and act more like elves), he takes pride in his heritage. He detests humans, despite being half-human himself. He’s spiteful towards Conrad, his half-brother, and insults the new Demon King Yuri Shibuya almost as soon as they meet. Granted, he warms to Yuri over time, as tsunderes do, though it’s not every day one literally stands up and kicks them out of bed.
6 Mio Isurugi from MM!
When trying to cure someone of their masochism, beating them up probably isn’t going to do the trick. Yet that’s the method Mio Isurugi goes with when dealing with MM!’s hero Tarō Sado. But then she’s also dealing with a superiority complex of her own, which she often uses to show Tarō who’s boss.
She beats him pretty much as she fancies, whether he’s done something wrong or not. Then, if another girl dares to show her own appreciation for him, she beats him even harder. Try as she might, she ultimately has to admit she has a thing for her pain-loving junior. It’s a match made in heaven. A weird, mildly S&M-themed, dodgy heaven, but one that fits them like a glove.
5 Taiga Aisaka from Toradora
With her small height and childish look, others would often call Taiga cute. Then she’d open her mouth and spoil their illusion. The ‘Palmtop Tiger’ has a fierce glare and words to match. Her mood can switch in a click, especially when she overhears others talking about her being short or clumsy. Only her friend Minori, and crush Yusaku, can soothe the wild beast inside.
So, it’s no surprise she gets her claws into hero Ryūji Takasu. At best, she makes him do the cooking and cleaning for her. At worst, she’s assaulting him in his own home. Then, when her class thinks she’s going out with him instead of her crush, he smashes the place up. Habits die hard as, even when her feelings eased up over time, she wanted to win the boy over by challenging him to an MMA match. She’s a bundle of rage in a tiny frame.
4 Naru from Love Hina
On the surface, Ken Akamatsu’s Love Hina is a sweet story about a boy called Keitarō who wants to fulfill a childhood promise to his friend Naru to enter Tokyo University with her. Its combo of rom and com made it really popular back in the day, and it’s still regarded as a staple of the harem genre. However, it hasn’t aged as well as rival series like Tenchi Muyo.
That’s likely due to Naru, who’s written as a particularly harsh and vengeful love interest. If Keitarō dares to express mild interest in another girl, she’s socking him up to the sky. Or, if he’s caught in awkward predicaments with her, he’s getting smashed through a wall. It’s the aggressive girl-passive boy pairing taken to the extreme, as it comes off less funny and more abusive nowadays.
3 Louise Francoise Le Blanc de la Valliere from Zero no Tsukaima
Louise is perhaps the most famous example of a violent tsundere character. If her frowning face isn’t what greets searchers googling her online, it’ll be pics of her punishing main character Saito Hiraga in one way or another. He was supposed to be living an ordinary life back in Japan. Instead, he gets the isekai treatment and becomes her familiar.
It would be more accurate to call him her punching bag, though, as she looks down on him for being a commoner, swatting him with her crop, calling him a dog, doing everything that most people would call social services over. Still, she does worry about getting too violent and driving him away, especially when she gets jealous of other girls easily. With partners like Louise, who needs enemies? Still, there are two others who are more violent.
2 Misato Tachibana from Nichijou
Sure, Louise likes to turn her love interest into a literal whipping boy. But she doesn’t break out the firepower like Misato does in Nichijou. Whenever she has to deal with lead star Kojirō in any way, she’ll whip out the heavy artillery from out of nowhere. If someone just mentions his name, she’ll almost burst a blood vessel and pull out a gun. Except she’s usually the one bringing him up or tying whatever the topic of conversation was back to him.
The only thing that keeps him coming back is that her weaponry tends to be armed with blanks and flour. As a result, he usually looks like he had a bad encounter at a bakery than being ready for the morgue. Misato’s penchant for pistols and other weapons has led fans to call her the ‘gundere.’
1 Dokuro-chan from Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan
How can one top actual guns and physical assault? Enter Dokuro-chan, the Bludgeoning Angel. To prevent lead character Sakura Kusasabe from making humanity immortal via a machine he’ll invent, God sends Dokuro-chan back into the past to kill him. Only she thinks there’s another way and tries to find ways to occupy him long enough to forget about his future immortality machine. The issue is that she usually ends up killing him anyway, either by carelessly swinging her spiked club Excalibolg about or purposefully swinging it at him when he annoys her.
Each time he dies, she resurrects him for one more misadventure or another. She’s his protector and his curse, to the point where Sakura wishes he could be killed for good to end the misery. Considering his machine was originally meant to stop women aging at 12 years old to create his ‘Lolicon’s World,’ people can see why reviewers on MyAnimeList called it “one of the most infamously stupid anime of the 2000s.”