Top 10 Yandere Characters in Anime [Updated]

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Bakemonogatari-Hitagi-crunchyroll Top 10 Yandere Characters in Anime [Updated]

Welcome to this new installment of Top 10 yandere characters, where we’ll further explore the minds of these madly in love girls (we’ll leave yandere boys for some other time). We have already presented a list of yandere girls last year –which you can check out right below this one- but with this dere type becoming increasingly more specifically defined from other stereotypical classifications (mainly from yangire) it becomes necessary to update this list every now and then. Plus, with the rising popularity of this archetype, we’re getting new yandere characters each year!

Of course, we love that. Most anime fans nowadays got the bug for yandere characters. And, why not? These characters are quite unique, psychologically intriguing and they always have a way to surprise us. So, come join us on a tour of the most obsessively in love psycho girls! This is the Top 10 yandere characters in anime, version 2.0! 😉


10. Shouko Kirishima (Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu / Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts)

  • Episodes: 13
  • Aired: Jan 2010 – Apr 2010

Shouko Kirishima is the top student of her level and Yuuji Sakamoto’s childhood friend. She’s madly and disturbingly attracted to Yuuji and she’s not afraid of expressing her love for him. Still, Shouko’s ways of getting Yuuji’s attention can be a little too rough and fit right into the realm of yandere-esque.

Shouko is permanently all over Yuuji. For real; she can go as far as getting into his room, tying him up, drugging him and beating the crap out of him, all out of her deep love for him, of course. As a good yandere girl, Shouko is extremely possessive of her beloved Yuuji, although she doesn’t really do any harm to anyone but him (she may be freaking scary but this anime is still a comedy). She even plans to marry Yuuji, and I don’t mean just in her head, I mean that she really carries out those plans.


9. Megumi Shimizu (Shiki)

  • Episodes: 22
  • Aired: Jul 2010 – Dec 2010

Let’s see, what could be even creepier than being stalked by a potentially dangerous psycho girl? That’s right, having a vicious blood-sucking demon as your stalker! Megumi Shimizu is a 15 year old vampire girl who’s got a big crush on the city-boy, Natsuno Yuuki.

Apparently, Megumi loves freaking Yuuki out by getting into his room in the middle of the night and popping out from under the bed, which would already be creepy enough even if she weren’t a disturbingly contorted demon with black eyes. Plus, if it wasn’t traumatic enough, there’s a lot of her that reminds us of Gasai Yuno, mainly her pink hair and the fact that her beloved is called Yuuki (although Shiki was released before Mirai Nikki). Unlike some other yanderes out there though, Megumi cannot succeed in her romantic advances, probably because she’s just a bit too startling.


8. Yuka Minase (11eyes)

  • Episodes: 12
  • Aired: Oct 2009 – Dec 2009

Yuka Minase gives us a whole new level of creepiness. She’s madly in love with Kakeru and she excels at being dramatically jealous. Yuka expects Kakeru to not look at any other girl apart from her, and she’s dead serious.

Yuka is definitely not a girl to be taken lightly, especially taking into account that she can go as far as putting razors in other women’s tea just to make a point. She’s capable of getting rid of people just to be alone with Kakeru. Besides, her fondness for romantic fairy tales is quite unsettling.


7. Shirayuki Hotogi (Hidan no Aria / Aria the Scarlet Ammo)

  • Episodes: 12
  • Aired: Apr 2011 – Jun 2011

Just like most yandere girls, Shirayuki Hotogi appears as the perfect girl who’s not only beautiful and smart but also can do everything well. Even to Kinji, whom Shirayuki’s obsessively in love with, she’s a real catch; well, except for the fact that she’s insanely jealous!

Shirayuki goes completely berserk every time another girl gets near her beloved Kinji. She seriously has some yandere killer instincts in her. And of course, as a good yandere, Shirayuki needs to stalk Kinji all the time, which she does mainly by texting him a lot (it could be worse, right?).


6. Nadeko Sengoku (Bakemonogatari)

  • Episodes: 15
  • Aired: Jul 2009 – Jun 2010

Nadeko Sengoku is the perfect example of a good girl gone mad out of love. She used to be a regular girl (okay, not so much, but this is Monogatari, everyone’s peculiar here) until she fell deeply in love with Koyomi. Nadeko confessed to be jealous of Hitagi but she didn’t try anything yandere at the time.

Of course, Nadeko remained non-obsessive only until Shinobu’s provocation caused her to have an emotional breakdown. That’s when she thought it would be a good idea to eat a charm, which turned her into a psychotic oddity. Nadeko’s love for Koyomi then became a dangerous obsession. As her true nature is revealed, Nadeko proves to be an authentic yandere goddess.



5. Amane Misa (Death Note)

  • Episodes: 37
  • Aired: Oct 2006 – Jun 2007

The lovely (yet annoying, nerve-racking, and even loathful) Amane Misa, or Misa Misa for her fans, is among the first and definitely among the most popular yandere girls ever. From the very beginning, she is shockingly devoted to Light after finding out he’s the real Kira. Misa is always happy to do Light’s dirty work in order to be with him, even if it means killing people.

Misa displays a very typical yandere-like bipolarity by being extremely affectionate and loving towards Light, yet awfully cold when it comes to writing names on her Death Note. Misa is overly possessive of her man and madly jealous, which ends up causing Light a snowball of difficulties. If she weren’t such a drawback to Light’s plans, she’d be infinitely easier to love.


4. Anna Nishikinomiya (Shimoneta to iu Gainen ga Sonzai Shinai Taikutsu na Sekai / SHIMONETA: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn't Exist)

  • Episodes: 12
  • Aired: Jul 2015 – Sep 2015

Our beloved Anna Nishikinomiya is one of the latest additions to the yandere club. She's an absolute beauty who has very deep and dirty feelings for Tanukichi. As the good crazy yandere girl she is, Anna loves threatening Tanukichi with knives and potentially harmful objects when she gets jealous of other women.

What’s more, Anna goes further beyond the stereotypical yandere behavior. She’s not just another dangerous stalker who gets jealous extremely easily. Anna is so insanely interested in Tanukichi that she loves experimenting weird things with (and on) him. She can go as far as baking cookies with her very special “love nectar” for him. That’s definitely a whole new playfield for yandere characters.


3. Kaede Fuyou (Shuffle!)

  • Episodes: 24
  • Aired: Jul 2005 – Jan 2006

Kaede Fuyou is a pioneer when it comes to freaking guys out with her obsessive love. She has actually become one of the most popular faces for yandere characters. I mean, who can forget Kaede´s psycho face in that scene when she was cooking?

Kaede is very likely the first yandere ever or, at the very least, one of the first to really exhibit the traits of an emotionally unstable girl turned into a dangerous psychopath out of a love fixation. Kaede just has to be among the top three of this list simply because she was yandere before it was cool. She’s the main reason why every now and then we find anime girls stalking their senpais and acting a bit cuckoo around them.


2. Kotonoha Katsura (School Days)

  • Episodes: 12
  • Aired: Jul 2007 – Sep 2007

It gets pretty tough to decide who’s the craziest yandere in School Days. On the one hand, you have Sekai Saionji who can get disturbingly obsessive, manipulative and extremely volatile. On the other hand, there’s Kotonoha Katsura who, despite being shy and awkward around men, uses sex to manipulate Makoto and to make Sekai jealous.

Kotonoha can be just as much yandere as Sekai and at some points even more, especially when we consider that what Kotonoha did with Makoto in the end was even more twisted and creepy than what Sekai had done. Since we picked Sekai on the previous list of yandere girls, it felt right to put Kotonoha in the spotlight this time. Her messed up romantic ways (twisted as may be, she remains romantic until the very end) have definitely earned her that much.


1. Gasai Yuno from Mirai Nikki / Future Diary

  • Episodes: 26
  • Aired: Oct 2011 – Apr 2012

What can we say? Gasai Yuno is, simply put, THE yandere queen (in more than one way actually). She constantly displays every single characteristic of this dere stereotype. In fact, Yuno has become so popular by now that she’s pretty much the embodiment and definition of yandere. From her unforgettable voice, to her beautiful hair and her psycho look, Yuno is the model for all yandere girls in anime (from Mirai Nikki onwards).

Even though yanderes were already out there in the world of anime before Mirai Nikki, Yuno definitely marked a milestone in yandere history. No other yandere girls were able to portray such an extreme obsessive love as Yuno did. She definitely set the yandere bar really high for future psychotic lovers to come, which of course doesn’t mean we are done with yanderes at all. We’re not expecting for another Yuno to come along; we enjoy all yandere girls and hope they keep coming.


This is the end of our selection of yandere girls. If you just can’t get enough of them and you’re still craving for more of these obsessive yandere characters, then take a look at our previous selection of yanderes which is presented below. Also, we’d like to know what you think about this latest selection and which characters you’d like to change if any.

Before we say goodbye, we dare you to think of some other authentic yandere girls who aren’t included in either of these two lists. Are you up to the challenge?

Bakemonogatari-Hitagi-crunchyroll Top 10 Yandere Characters in Anime [Updated]

Translator/Writer

Author: Chanty

My name is Santiago and I'm an aspiring writer and full-time dreamer. I am currently studying English at college to become a teacher. I like playing Heavy Metal on my guitar as much as I like dancing to Trance music, and I love playing Basketball with my friends as much as I love staying home alone watching Anime. Opposite forces are complementary and interdependent; that is the Yin Yang.

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Original Article Below

As an extension to the previously featured What is Yandere anime tips by Nagareboshi, this list will further explore some of the top 10 Yandere characters in anime. Other than the article that you can read here, this list needs no further introduction. Let's get right to it and hope no obsessive psychopaths will kill anybody while you read.

Name10. Amane Misa from Death Note

  • Episodes: 37
  • Aired: October 2006 – June 2007

Misa is probably the second most well known Yandere girl in all of anime fandom despite having more restraint than other recent Yandere characters (probably because the Yandere as an archetype was still a progressing development upon Deathnote’s original broadcast). To the public, she is an upbeat teen idol, but she is a fellow Death Note user and obsessed with the original Kira.

Light, who really doesn't care about Misa as a human being, uses her loyalty to him for his personal gain and she does so without hesitation. She even goes as far as shortening her lifespan by half on two occasions just for him and goes through a small number of difficult ordeals at his expense.


Name9. Asakura Ryoko from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

  • Episodes: 14
  • Aired: April 2006 – July 2006

In an overall mainstream sense outside the Yandere fandom, Ryoko is probably one of the most famous to the entire anime fandom. Ryoko is a popular student at Kyon and Haruhi’s school, and is one of its top students both academically and physically. Though Ryoko is not at all romantically obsessed with anyone, her job in observing Haruhi is something that can nearly equate it in addition to being sweet on the outside, and homicidal on the inside.

Just so she could see how Haruhi’s reactions would affect things, she attempted to kill Kyon, the closest thing to a best friend that Haruhi has.


Name8. Aragaki Ayase from Ore no Imouto Ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake Ga Nai

  • Episodes: 12
  • Aired: October 2010 - December 2010

In a more comedic context there is Aragaki Ayase, the obsessive friend of Kirino, the titled little sister (for those who don’t understand Japanese, imouto means little sister). For the most part, she is rather mellow but some of her dark characteristics are rather relatable. For starters, she gets angry when people lie to her.

Everybody can understand that, right? However, the more disturbing qualities she has are when it comes to Kirino. Seeing Kyousuke, Kirino’s older brother as a nuisance and has openly shared with Kirino that she is willing to take him out of the picture.


Name7. Nina Einstein from Code Geass

  • Episodes: 25
  • Aired: October 2006 – July 2007

Originally just an everyday high school girl, after being rescued by Princess Euphemia in a hostage situation, she develops a very crazy obsession with her. Hell, she goes as far as masturbating to a picture of her!! And after an incident involving Euphie, she tries to nuke Tokyo out of revenge (well, she wasn’t fond of the Japanese to begin with)!!!

Then she continues her obsession as a weapons engineer. Most Yandere may prefer sharp weapons, but Nina goes for the nuclear option.


Name6. Ryuuguu Rena from Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni

  • Episodes: 26
  • Aired: April 2006 – September 2006

If looks could kill or be deceiving, look no further then Ryuuguu Rena. Just like other average Japanese teenagers, she has an obsession with cute objects. Her obsessed crush is Keiichi, her best friend and she is willing to be there for him and his family. When it comes to fighting, her weapon of choice is the classic sharp cleaver (think of it as a mini-sythe) and she goes on the offensive like a female Mike Tyson.

But what tends to set her off is people dismissing the town curse. Like other characters on this list, she has a dark past that perfectly demonstrates her behavior, which you have to see for yourself.


Name5. Takami Minatsuki from Deadman Wonderland

  • Episodes: 12
  • Aired: April 2011 – July 2011

Do you remember pro-wrestler Eddie Guerrero’s old saying if you’re not cheating then you’re not trying? Well, if any character embodies that philosophy, it has to be Takami Minatsuki from Deadman Wonderland. Her innocent and sweet side is all a ruse so she can make her opponent’s lower their guard and then attack them when they least expect it.

Due to a childhood trauma involving her parents after an earthquake, she really has little to no trust in others upon her introduction, and her personal experiences tend to be a demonstration to what led to her behavior. Thankfully, she does get better from time to time.


Name4. Tokisaki Kurumi from Date A Live

  • Episodes: 12
  • Aired: April 2013- June 2013

By the time Kurumi is introduced, she already had a quite a number of victims and for good reasons which you have to see for yourself. She is interested in Itsuka Shido, the main character, but for more than romantic purposes. She wants his spirit sealing powers as well. However, a percentage of her violent tendencies are not exclusively over her motivations in wanting Shido.

It tends to be because of her love of animals and out of self-defense. Being a spirit, her method of killing is eating people (and that is how she intends on getting Shido’s powers).


Name3. Lucy from Elfen Lied

  • Episodes: 13
  • Aired: July 2005 – October 2005

Lucy is probably one of the original Yandere girls and paved way for it in a modern context. As a victim of discrimination in her childhood and used in military experiments, Lucy’s actions to some extent in its own twisted way, are not really entirely her own doing, and acts purely on instinct based on her upbringing despite the disastrous consequences.

Due to an accident at the beginning of the series, she is found to be in a catatonic state and the only word she can express is Nyu, and Kouta, the boy she falls in love with, names her that. Nyu represents her innocent, or “deredere” side, while Lucy is her “yanderu” half. Lucy would do anything to protect Kouta, but she is capable of showing some restraint for him to some extent.

Despite how far she goes for him, she does come to terms that she has no chance with him.


Name2. Gasai Yuno from Mirai Nikki

  • Episodes: 26
  • Aired: October 2011 – April 2012

Upon publication of this list, Yuno is probably one of the top Yandere girls of modern anime. Her crush is Amano Yukiteru, who has a rather apathetic outlook towards life. Towards Yukiteru she is nice and yet obsessed with him to the point that she keeps a diary of him that provides her information every ten minutes!

She doesn't even let anybody get in her way and was ready to go as far as opposing Yukiteru’s mother if she became an obstacle! But what turned a sweet little thing into an anti-thesis of femme fatale? It turns out she came from a very demanding household to the point they would not feed her if she did not the expectations of her mother.

When she befriended Yukiteru during a stage when she was most emotionally vulnerable, she actually proposed to him and he said yes out of sarcasm and she still seriously believed him!


Name1. Sainoji Sekai from School Days

  • Episodes: 12
  • Aired: July 2007 - September 2007

Sekai (meaning world) is almost unarguably the one who most significantly contributed or even created the whole controversy of Yandere. At first, she is willing to help Makoto, a classmate she likes, set him up with her best friend, Kotonoha, since her likes her. Sekai seems to genuinely care about her friends, but her emotions get the best of her as the series progresses.

Eventually, she hooks up with Makoto, but after some unfortunate incidents due to some spoilers (which would have also been great material for Maury), Sekai goes from nice girl to Lizzie Borden. In later installments of the franchise, more twists and turns follow on the true relationship between Sekai and Makoto.

But when one looks at Sekai’s upbringing, can one argue about nature vs. nurture on what creates Yandere characters?


If there could be one honorable mention, it would be Kanzaki Urumi from GTO. Granted she is rather cruel the whole time, but when it comes to her developed feelings for Onizuka, her way of pay back may not be knives or nukes, but going as far as setting up her classmates who hate Onizuka to be raped can be far lower than directly attacking them.

Now feel free to share your list on the comments. Though Yandere tend to be female, do you think Yandere can be male, too? Males can be psychotic and obsessive too, you know. With the whole ~dere archetype becoming progressively popular, maybe this list will need to be updated sometime between now and maybe six months.

Heck, maybe even tomorrow. We want to see what you guys think.

Bakemonogatari-Hitagi-crunchyroll Top 10 Yandere Characters in Anime [Updated]

Writer

Author: Justin "ParaParaJMo" Moriarty

Hello, I am originally from the states and have lived in Japan since 2009. Though I watched Robotech and Voltron as a child, I officially became an anime fan in 1994 through Dragon Ball Z during a trip to the Philippines. In addition to anime, I also love tokusatsu, video games, music, and martial arts. よろしくお願いします

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