Term: Yandere

Yandere
A Japanese term for a person who is initially very loving and gentle to someone before their devotion becomes destructive in nature, often through violence. The term is derived from the words yanderu meaning a mental or emotional illness and deredere meaning to show affection. Yandere characters are mentally unstable, often using extreme violence as an outlet for their emotions. The usage of the character type has led to criticism over the amount of violence in works such as School Days. Although the character type has been used in anime and manga since Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam in 1985, conscious use of the term only began to be around the turn of the millennium. One example could be the VOCALOID song “Uninstall” where VOCALOID KAITO wants all of “Master’s” attention, and uninstalls (or kills) the other VOCALOID programs so that he/she is the only one left to receive attention from “Master”.