Most yangire characters can be divided into two categories: yangire with one personality and yangire with two personalities. The first group includes all characters who - you guessed it - only have one personality, meaning that they are fully aware of all of their actions. They know exactly how psychotic they are and yet don’t really seem to care. One of these characters is Rena Ryuuguu from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.

When They Cry is a thriller with psychological and mystery elements set in a quiet Japanese town. Since the story is based on a mystery game it is told in the form of different story arcs all revolving around Keiichi Maebara. He lives the life of a normal school boy, but as it usually goes in anime this soon is about to change. He gets involved in a mysterious murder that not only turns his world upside down, but also makes him question the true identity of his closest friends.

Even though Rena is not the main hero of the story, she is easily one of the most well-known characters in the series. Her appearance and behavior perfectly match the sweetheart stereotype. She is a kind girl who loves treasure hunting and collecting everything small and cute. But we wouldn’t mention her right now if that was all, right?

Without giving too much away of the storyline, let’s just say that Rena has a traumatic past which caused her to discover a darker side of herself. And when we say “darker” we mean “more psychotic and clearly ready to kill you”. She is highly unstable and can turn into a killer within seconds if someone crosses her path. If you want to see a yangire girl in full action, definitely check out When They Cry.

What is better than a person with a psychotic personality? A person with two psychotic personalities of course! That’s not really how it goes, but you get the point. This group includes all characters with a split personality, mostly due to a traumatic experience. They usually don’t know that they have an alter ego and are genuinely harmless people. But when their second personality comes out you’d better run, because these characters are not known to be forgiving. Just like Mahiru “Shinya” Banba from Akuma no Riddle.

Akuma no Riddle is an anime for all fans of Battle Royale and similar murderous games. Thirteen girls enroll in Class Black of the prestigious Myoujou Academy, but they are not here to learn algebra nor grammar. Their mission is to assassinate one of their classmates and whoever succeeds in doing so will get one wish granted. Sounds like the place to be for a yangire character.

Mahiru or Shinya is one of the school girls and the very definition of a split personality. Her two names can be translated to “midday” and “full night” and that is exactly how much her two sides differ from each other. Mahiru is a shy girl who struggles at standing up for herself and usually walks away from confrontations. Her other side, Shinya, has a different way of solving problems and let’s just say it involves lots of cursing and the use of a giant sledgehammer.

Her split personality is also reflected in her clothing since she wears both a white and a black sock on her legs. Even though Mahiru knows of Shinya’s existence, she treats her like a different person and talks to her more like a friend than to herself. Once again, a traumatic past was the cause for Mahiru losing her mind and creating Shinya as a coping mechanism.

You didn’t think only anime girls could be this crazy, did you? The most famous yangire characters might be girls, but there are more than enough male counterparts out there to keep you up at night. Just take a look at your favorite anime psychopaths and chances are high that they are at least to some part yangire characters. But there is one man who all of you know, but probably weren’t aware that he is yangire. We are talking about no one else than Light Yagami from Death Note.

Death Note is easily one of the most famous anime out there and of those shows that you recommend to your friends who say “anime are only for kids”. The mystery thriller revolves around Light Yagami who stumbles across the Death Note, a notebook with the power to kill anyone whose name is written inside of it. What comes next is a head-to-head between Light and the police force as well as his restless pursuit of becoming a god.

Light shows all the yangire characteristics. He is a sweet boy and ace student on the outside, loved by everyone and role model to his peers. But what no one knows is that he hides a darker personality on the inside. He might be fueled by a strong sense of justice, but his way of fighting for it is more than questionable.

What is also debatable is what actually causes Light to create Kira as a second identity. Some might say he was just born this way and already had an almost psychotic side. It’s also possible that Light couldn’t handle the power the Death Note gave him and slowly lost his mind. But whether the Death Note is the actual cause of his madness or simply brought out a side of him that was already sick before doesn’t really matter. What’s important is that as the story continues Light slowly but surely grows insane and doesn’t back away from killing anyone standing in his way.