Itsuki Hashima is actually a successful light novel author with a twist: he has a thing for little sisters to the point that they are major roles in all of his stories. A bit of a chuunibyou mixed with eccentric is what he is, and of course, he is surrounded by people who live and care for him like Nayuta, a fellow author and smitten with Itsuki; Haruto, a fellow successful author and resident tsundere; Miyako, a college friend who is sweet; and Chihiro, Itsuki’s “younger brother” who helps take care of him. They spend their days playing lots of board games and talking about ideas for novels.

The tsundere star of this show is Haruto. Or rather, it’s his sister, who is hardcore tsundere towards her brother. Haruto comes at things rather straight-laced, and while he does try his hardest with people including his sister, she pretends to want nothing to do with him while being madly in love with him. Think like Kirino from Oreimo.

With Japan becoming more and more violent, a special school is set up to train students to be Butei or armed detectives. Kinji Tooyama is a dropout student though who has a fantastic ability, but covers it up by attempting to study logistics. When his life and story draws attention of a special Butei killer, he has to be more careful. Then one day, he finds himself with his back against the wall until a short, red-haired girl named Aria Holmes Kanzaki—the best student in the school—saves him and then demands to be his partner?! What is going on?

Aria is a lot like what we have to come to know and expect out of our tsundere characters. Short, angry, and usually a red, or close to red, hair color. She constantly makes demands and is overflowing with propped-up confidence that she can only backup in specific situations. She is very demanding of Kinji and her overall role as main character for the series—as well as the queen of tsundere Rie Kugimiya voicing her—is what earned her her spot here.

Rintarou Okabe is a self-proclaimed mad scientist who is researching future gadgets. Together in his small apartment in Akihabara that he calls a lab, he works with Daru and Mayuri. After a few incidents though, Rintarou manages to not only increase his lab members, he actually creates something unexpected, a microwave that can send things back in the past. Faced with horrible tragedy, Rintarou makes a decision to go back in time to prevent it from happening, but as he goes back, he realizes how hard it will be to circumvent everything.

Steins;Gate, while a dramatic, sad anime, gives us an excellent tsundere in Kurisu aka Christina who—spoiler alert—we wouldn’t have seen here had she not become a massive romantic interest. While failing to be true to herself—even when she does, she fails miserably—Kurisu bursts out almost always at Rintarou lashing him with her tone and words. True, she does have feelings for him, but her explosion of tsundere-characteristic violence as well as how quick she is to accuse him of being a pervert, has landed this amazing show on our list.

Masamune Makabe has got it going on. He has a rocking body, has good looks, is well-to-do, and is all-around a popular guy. He has a dark secret though. Masamune was fat when he was a child. The only person he liked, a rich girl named Aki Adagaki, mocked him and called him “piggy”. Hellbent on revenge, he hatched a plan all while slimming down, and getting good looks and good grades. It all takes a turn though when Aki Adagaki ends up in a situation with him and the maid, Yoshino, finds out all of it. Masamune’s going to make Aki love him and then crush her heart, just like she had done countless times towards others to give her a taste of her own medicine.

Masamune-kun no Revenge actually gives us two tsundere. The main is Aki, who wants nothing to do with Masamune at first. Not only does she turn him down at every pass he makes, she more or less blows him up with her curtness and attitude. As Masamune spends time trying to work his way into her heart though, Aki resists nonstop until the very end being violent and harsh. Masamune, too, lies telling himself that he does not want her, and lies to himself developing his own tsundere complex towards his true feelings as the story goes on. A definite watch for a fun adventure down tsundere lane.

Ryuuji may be a nice guy, but his inability to reconcile with the faces he makes and his overall appearance means that everyone thinks he is some sort of delinquent. When he crosses paths one day with another girl in his school, Taiga Aisaka, it’s on. Taiga is noted for being very violent and is nicknamed the Palmtop Tiger due to her small height but violent attitude. After this odd encounter, both realize that the other has a crush on their best friends. They agree to help each other out, but don’t realize what sort of position it puts them both in.

Toradora is the second and final repeat here from the old list because of how great an example it is of the tsundere character archetype. While the story has a different level of acceptance, a great example of how a tsundere thinks is showcased in Taiga. She is one of those “punch first; ask questions later” violent tsundere who doesn’t really care what others think. And even as she berates and lashes out at Ryuuji, she refuses adamantly to be honest with herself and her own feelings. If you want to see the tsundere archetype play out in perfect stereotypical fashion, Toradora is a must-see.

Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière is a mage at a prestigious academy. However, she has an issue casting magic and can very rarely successfully do it. When it comes time to summon a familiar, her classmates all summon fantastical things, but Louise accidentally somehow summons a human named Saito Hiraga. Furious, Louise decides to make him act like her familiar in this new world to him, and makes him work as her slave doing all her chores and eating off of the ground. Although she is nicknamed “Louise the Zero,” Saito teaches her a lot about what is in her and what she has to offer in this life.

Much like another entry on this list, Louise has that typical reddish hair (pink, but close enough) that we often see with the massive tsundere characters. She is incredibly bossy and has an extremely short temper. It is always her who lashes out in anger over the smallest things. And while she does harbor feelings for Saito, she will fight them nonstop and abuse him physically true to her tsundere roots.

Academy City is made up of 85% students, many of whom are espers. The city is researching espers and the strongest are referred to as “Level 5’s.” Mikoto Misaka is one such user known as “The Railgun”. Together with her roommate Kuroko, who is in love with her; Ruiko, a level zero esper (no powers); and Kazari, a fellow low level esper; the four girls spend their days studying and upholding peace as members of Judgement, a patrol force. Rumors are on the rise of a level-upper system that can make your power develop further. As it is being investigated, more darkness comes to light showing a seedy underbelly within this city. It’s up to these four girls to put a stop to it.

Originally a spin off of To Aru Majutsu no Index (A Certain Magical Index), Railgun focuses on resident tsundere queen Mikoto. Incredibly powerful, she has no issue going headfirst into battle, but seeing or interacting with Touma shuts her down so fast or puts her in a violent rage. The same is true for cute things. The poor girl fails to even be able to enjoy her love of frogs and cute things due to her shyness and tsundere nature. Kuroko’s jealousy also shines through to make poor Mikoto embarrassed further sometimes leading to even funnier outbursts.

Masamune Sagiri takes care of his sister in their home while also going to school and being a light novel author. His sister though, is nothing easy. Even though they met a few years ago, Sagiri has not spoken nor come out of her room in almost a year after their parents died suddenly. He does have something good in his life though, his artist is the amazingly talented Eromanga Sensei. It just so happens too, that this sensei is none other than Sagiri and he never knew about it. She is about to start coming out of her shell, but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t going to be tsundere about it!

Sagiri is our classic tsundere and why she is so high on this list. From her constant yelling of “dame” (that’s wrong/lewd/bad), she makes demands and orders from Masamune constantly who has to be the bigger person all of the time. He’s not even allowed to come into her room unless she allows him—crazy when you realize it’s just the two of them in the house, and her jealousy reaches a boiling point, leading to more outbursts, when she finds out that Masamune is spending time with Elf Yamada, a fellow rival author. Sagiri is such a wonderful example of tsundereism and we had to put this show high enough to reflect that.

Yuuri Katsuki was a rising star in the ice skating world till he was crushed in the Grand Prix. Dejected, he returns home to figure out what to do with his life. He’s now pudgy and unmotivated. That is until a video of him performing a routine by champion Victor Nikiforov blows up. Suddenly, Yuuri is back in the spotlight and Victor himself shows up at Yuuri’s house?!? He offers to mentor Yuuri who accepts almost immediately. However, another fan of Victor’s, a Russian Yuri, is gunning to get Victor to be his own master. Can Japanese Yuuri capture a win on the ice?

And you thought only girls could be tsundere? Tsk, tsk, how little you know. Yuri Plisetsky is our moody male tsundere here on the ice. Yuri will stop at nothing to get the attention and affection from Victor. He is sweet and earnest around Victor while being vicious, cold, and mean towards Yuuri. His harsh berating is somehow not enough to deter Yuuri from not only getting back on the ice, but pushing himself to go beyond his own limits to protect both his role with Victor but his relationship with him as well.

Cult hit Lucky Star follows the lives of four friends; Konata—an otaku—twins Tsukasa and Kagami, and Miyuki. Their daily lives bounce from non-sequiturs about anime and games, to studies, to food, to animals, and then back to anime. While Konata may have a mildly perverted father, he means well and takes care of Konata while she tries to avoid everything related to school and max out her game and anime time.

Kagami is notorious for being a tsundere queen. With her strict tone, she is constantly admonishing Konata for her negligence when it comes to her studies and failure to do her homework. A pure tsundere, Kagami often has issues speaking directly and clearly about how she feels about things and it’s very easy to catch her off guard where her face floods with red, her emotion turns to rage, and she shuts down. A member of the purple-hair masterace, Kagami is the complete opposite of her sister Tsukasa, who means well but is a bit slow on the upswing. Still though, Kagami is almost completely tsundere through the TV anime and she doesn’t turn over a massive leaf until the OVA which you will have to watch to see that comedic scene play out!