Sensate Saturday: Dere

This week for Sensate Saturday I’m doing a quick primer on some stereo types people will find in Japanese romance, and to a lesser extent everywhere else! It’s all about Dere!

What is Dere?: It’s a Japanese onomatopoeia for lovestruck, dere dere.  There are four main types of “Dere”, Tsundere, Dandere, Kuudere, and Yandere.

Tsundere: Someone who runs hot and cold, or aloof but secretly in love. Some great examples of Tsundere characters are, Tohsaka Rin from Fate Stay/Night, Kirisaki Chitoge from Nisekoi and from Western Lit, Princess Ce’Nedra from the Belgariad and Mallorean series.  There’s also a variant where the person is generally sweet, but piss them off and they can become violently cold towards you. A good example of this is Stella Vermillion from Rakudai.

Dandere: Someone who is really shy and sweet, pretty much the exact opposite of Tsundere’s in outward appearance for the most part. Some great examples of Dandere characters are Hyuga Hinata from Naruto, Onodera Kosaki from Nisekoi, are some of the more recent outstanding notables, but there are plenty more.

Kuudere: Kuu, from the English word “Cool”, is someone who is cold and rather emotionless on the outside towards pretty much everyone, but that special someone can melt their heart in a quick second. Examples include Seishirou Tsugumi from Nisekoi, Meng Qing from Peerless Martial God, and Ayanami Rei from Evangelion.

Yandere: Probably the most disturbing personality type of the four, Yandere’s are typically crazy about someone. Literally. They don’t take rejection well at all and become incredibly violent. They might even go down the road “If I can’t have him/her, no one can”. Some notable and famous examples are Yuno Gasai from Mirai Nikki, Vander Decken IX from One Piece (What you expected this to be just a female only trope? Get real.), Harold and Nadine from Stephen King’s The Stand are some Western Literature examples as well.

That’s it for this week’s Sensate Saturday!

Manga Monday: Nisekoi by Naoshi Komi

 

This week on Manga Monday I’m covering Nisekoi by Naoshi Komi.

Plot Synopsis: Nisekoi follows high school students Raku Ichijo, the son of a leader in the yakuza faction Shuei-Gumi, and Chitoge Kirisaki, the daughter of a boss in a rival gang known as Beehive. They unexpectedly meet when Chitoge hops a wall and knees Raku in the face. After she runs off, Raku realizes he has lost his locket which was given to him by his childhood sweetheart with whom he made a secret promise. After discovering Chitoge is a new transfer student in his class, he forces her to help him look for the locket. During the search, they begin to dislike each other.

Plot: The plot is a typical harem romance comedy, and while that seems typical, at least they have each of the main girls getting a shot at getting the guy. Personally I’m rooting for Onodera, cause she doesn’t piss me off nearly as much as Chitoge does, though Tsugumi is a very close second.

Characters: Each of the main girls embodies a different type of romance trope, from Tsundere to Yandere (if you need to understand what each of those means please go look up their respective pages at TvTropes.com as it’s not easily explained and my computer isn’t cooperating at the moment). Like I said I prefer Onodera out of all the girls, because she feels the most natural out of all of them. It also helps that she’s not related at all to any mafia or gangs.

Art: The art for this series is probably what got me interested in the first place, as it’s quite wonderful.

Overall: If you enjoy a good Romance Comedy read this.

For those who like: Rom-Coms, Drama, School Life.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.