Yandere

She loves you, and she'll do anything to have you. ANYTHING.

"You'd actually be attractive if you didn't have crazy eyes."

— Dilbert, Dilbert

"Yandere" is derived from the Japanese words yamu, meaning to be sick (mentally or physically), and deredere, meaning affectionate or loving. Simply put, a yandere is someone who is lovesick, someone who has been driven to insanity by extreme obsession or love, thus resulting in abnormal behavior if not violence. Take the Tropes Love Makes You Crazy, Love Makes You Evil, Love Hungry, and Stalker with a Crush, and condense everything into a singular personified character archetype.

The word "yandere", a term that blossomed in moe fandom, refers to a character who is crazy about someone else... often literally and violently. Yanderes are usually identifiable by their blank eyes when they go crazy, blood being soaked on them for the majority of their screentime, carrying at least one signature weapon that they use to kill and/or attack others for the majority of their screentime, a mostly Moe appearance or at least an appearance that will deceive others, psychotic behavior, and a tendency to attack and/or kill people who would get in the way of their love. Many of them are Ax-Crazy. "Benign" cases don't even need to bring weapons or violence into the mix: just a well-established aura of menace and the feeling of dread if you step out of line is enough. When on the Good Guys' team, they are often the Token Evil Teammate (or at least the fourth type of the Anti-Hero).

The character almost always appears perfectly cute and harmless on the surface... but underneath they may be obsessive, controlling, and sometimes just plain insane. This is bad news for anyone unfortunate enough to be the object of a Yandere's obsession, as nothing will dissuade the Yandere from the notion that they are theirs and theirs alone. But even more pity should be saved for anyone who gets in the way, as this psycho-obsessive is amazingly unwilling to put up with any rivals to their often genuine affection. Most Yanderes have a history of mental instability, but some have always been just a little bit "off", perhaps the product of a Dark and Troubled Past and a good round or more of Break the Cutie. If a Yandere ever goes off the deep end, they are likely to go Ax-Crazy, taking up the psycho weapon of their choice and doing things to people straight out of a horror movie. Sometimes, they're also going to be revealed as a Psychopathic Manchild (or womanchild if the Yandere is female). Usually their target is whoever they perceive to be in the way, but if the person they love rejects them or leaves them, they may well decide that they would rather see the person dead than with another or themself because they're nothing without them, which may well lead to tragedy.

Interestingly, while Yanderes are usually villains by dint of their psycho and murderous nature, they can still be perceived as Moe if they manage to gain enough tragic audience sympathy. A sympathetic Yandere often has the person they love as a Living Emotional Crutch, and goes completely crazy and murderous at the thought of losing them, either romantically or otherwise. Worst case scenario, they'll go into a Never My Fault fueled Villainous Breakdown, at which point they lose the sympathy points.

Their insanity may also add to their sexual appeal in a perverse way, verging into the territory of Fetishized Abuser and Power Dynamics Kink.

Their Stock Phrase will be "If I Can't Have You… no one will!"

Part of the dere family along with Tsundere (cranky outside, sweet inside), or sub-groups; Kuudere (cold outside, sweet inside), and Dandere (asocial outside, sweet inside). However, those are all sweet inside, while the Yandere is sweet outside, crazy inside. While a Sweet Tsundere may have some similarities with a Yandere (especially if jealousy is one of their vices), the Yandere will often patiently endure things that will send any Tsundere utterly bonkers, but the Yandere's jealous, possessive and obsessive nature won't let them accept the possibility that the person they love can be happy without them. Unlike most Tsunderes, including sweet Tsunderes, a Yandere is usually a Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak, or even a Girly Bruiser, since she is girly and lovey dovey outside, but violent inside.

Such characters are mostly female, but male examples exist. Compare with the Violently Protective Girlfriend, who can become Ax-Crazy when the love interest is in danger, but is otherwise much more stable mentally. At the very least she's more likely to keep her uses of force proportionate to the situation: someone flirting with you will be more likely to cause her to react with a Death Glare instead of a chainsaw. If the admirer is crazy, but tends to be the one who gets violently abused by their affection, then this is Mad Love.

When two Yanderes form a relationship, they are a Yandere Couple.

See also Clingy Jealous Girl, Crazy Jealous Guy, Love Makes You Evil, Love Makes You Crazy, Stalker with a Crush, Stalker Shrine, Domestic Abuse, Violently Protective Girlfriend, Villainous Crush, Always Save the Girl, and If I Can't Have You…. Compare Stepford Smiler, Psycho Supporter, and I Have You Now, My Pretty. May God have mercy on you if you are caught in a Psychotic Love Triangle (a love triangle with two members being Yanderes). Contrast with Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, in which a character is consciously using the illusion of purity and niceness to cover up a sadistic true nature (though a BISC can become a Yandere if we add obsession and mental instability to the mix). At the extreme, A Love to Dismember can occur. Due to their often violent nature, they are likely to be The Unfettered. The more savage examples are also very likely to be Faux Affably Evil. Don't confuse with Yandere Kanojo, a manga which surprisingly doesn't involve actual yandere (except for one case, in which the victim had it coming. It ends well, though). Also contrast Cute and Psycho a.k.a. Yangire, who is also sweet and crazy, but whose craziness isn't tied to love, and Lacerating Love Language, if the character's violent tendencies are restricted to their object of affection and not perceived threats to their relationship. Pretty much every single character that can be considered a Yandere is also a Memetic Molester, as that’s when a character is portrayed as a Yandere by fans, canon or not.

More details are available on the Analysis page, such as its history and its appeal.

If you still don't get it… well, why don't we have a self-demonstrating version for you to understand better, dear? Tee-hee!

It should be noted that while many below listed examples are drama and horror ones, this trope is not exclusively Played for Drama. It might just as well be Played for Laughs through Comedic Sociopathy and/or Black Comedy as it is for drama or horror. Almost all the examples listed below are spoilers, so read at your own risk!

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Example subpages:

• Anime & Manga
• Comic Books
• Fan Works
• Films — Live-Action
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Music
• Video Games
• Visual Novels
• Webcomics
• Western Animation

Other examples:

Advertising

• These commercials from Virgin Mobile actually advertise from a Yandere's point of view. She's seen sitting in a tree outside his house on a stormy night and talking about how they just had the best first date ever and she can use her phone to check on whether he's mentioned her yet and if his exes are hotter than her and that she can "check his Four Square profile for patterns." "And it's only $25 a month! That's crazy right!?" (horror lightning) Then there's a sequel to this ad featuring the same girl in another guy's closet.

Asian Animation

• Ouyang Xueli from Cupid's Chocolates is a terrifying one that was main character Jiang Haoyi's Childhood Friend before she turned into a Jerkass Tsundere obsessed with beating Haoyi at anything that could be a competition after being convinced by her mother that it was the best way to gain Haoyi's heart, only for this to backfire when he only distanced himself from her. Her Establishing Character Moment is to blast the door to Haoyi's classroom, throw several blades that nearly hit him and then give him a deep-tongue Forced Kiss while telling Xia Zitong (who had just asked him out on a date) that he's taken, while Haoyi begs for help before she tries to rape him. Her obsession began when, after an attempt to do Operation: Jealousy on him became a humiliating failure (as the involved guy not only dumped her in public, but did so because he was marrying another girl), she decided Haoyi was the only good thing in her life and desperately do everything in her hand to prevent him from leaving her.

Audio Plays

• Similar to Tsundere CDs is the Yandere no Onna no Ko series, which puts the listener in the role of the brother of a Clingy Jealous Girl. And by "Clingy Jealous Girl" we mean "girl who goes well off the hook because her brother has been spending time with women besides her."
• In the vein of the Yandere no Onna no Ko dramas, listed above, there are also Yandere Heaven dramas, which set the (presumably female) listener in various situations (friend, assistant in a hospital, sister, etc) with two male yanderes vying for your/her affection. An English translation is here.
  • There is also a Yaoi Genre spin-off called Yandere Heaven BLack where the female lead has been replaced with another boy. An English translation can be found here.
• The Yandere archetype is a common staple of ASMR roleplay videos on sites such as Youtube, where a Voice Actor (can be either gender) reads a script wherein the listener takes the role of the Main Character, and the VA pretends to have a conversation or interaction with them. Because of the varied scripts used, there is a lot of different ways these turn out. Some sub-categories even include ones where the Yandere's behavior is treated positively by the MC, or the "Recovering/Rehabilitated Yandere" subgenre about Yandere's who are seeking therapy for their condition to act less violent and possessive with... mixed results depending on the roleplay.
  • one such example includes the story of a "recovering" Yandere who has booked an anniversary dinner. The anniversary is of the date of her kidnapping of her significant other (the Main Character) whose voicemail is used as the story vector. The entire narrative is told be a series of voicemails left by the Yandere who starts off somewhat possessive, but is treated as simply being excited. As the MC fails to respond to texts or calls, the Yandere begins to become more unhinged and begins panicking, begging them to call back. Once work ends and they still fail to get ahold of the MC, the Yandere begins to become subtly threatening, demanding they answer the phone. The story then takes a turn when the Yandere arrives to the MC's workplace and is handed a baggy of items left by the MC. This includes numerous objects with tracking chips inside (including one the MC apparently removed from their arm). The Yandere completely loses it at this point, becoming overtly threatening and refusing to let the MC break up with them (going so far as to say they will find the MC and likely torture them for their betrayal). They come across a car wreck that involved the MC's car, but assumes it to be a weak attempt at faking their death. Just for sake of argument, the Yandere then goes to the local hospital to see if the MC is actually injured (fully expecting them not to be there), leaving one last highly threatening voicemail. Upon entering the hospital and getting to the MC's supposed room, the Yandere is shocked to see the MC is actually injured. The MC then explains that while everything looks like a breakup, there is an explanation. Didn't respond to texts and calls during work? MC left work early to get a wedding ring polished and didn't want the Yandere to spoil the plan. Removed all the trackers? MC knew that Yandere would know what they did and ruin the surprise. Car wreck? It was real, the MC got into the wreck after leaving/going to the jeweler. Not answering the MC's phone? The MC's phone was destroyed in the crash. At this point the Yandere snaps back, apologizes for their behavior, and focuses on taking care of the MC.

Comedy

• Margaret Cho plays one of these for laughs in her comedy song ''I'm Sorry'' . Ironically, this was based on a Real Life male example.

Eastern European Animation

• Gypsy Tales: In "The Gypsy Woman and the Devil", the devil grows possessive of Vunida once she refuses to marry him. He refuses to let her go to see her starving children and, when she escapes his palace, turns her into a cherry tree so "[they] will eat of [her] flesh and drink of [her] blood."

Fairy Tales

• In "The Elf Maiden", a fisherman gets his friend marooned on a desert island when he realizes his love interest is falling for said friend.

Films — Animation

• In The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina the Mole King goes Ax-Crazy when Thumbelina rejects him and chooses Tom instead.

• The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Frollo is a strange one. It's certainly not love, for obvious reasons. It's also not just the desire for sex, because then any woman would suffice. It's more like an unhealthy obsession. Which, of course, fits the definition of Yandere to a tee. Now throw in a ridiculously rigid version of Catholic sexual morals, and you get one of the greatest Disney villains of all time.
  "Destroy Esmeralda, and let her taste the fires of Hell! Or else let her be mine and mine alone..."
• Bowser from The Super Mario Bros. Movie is madly in love with Peach. His primary goal in the movie is to marry her, but he plans to do so under the threat that he will destroy her kingdom if she doesn’t accept his proposal. Throughout the movie, he comes to despise Mario under the suspicion that the Italian plumber is trying to woo Peach and tries to have Mario killed out of jealousy. Bowser also does try to carry out his threat to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom after Peach rejects him.
• In Megamind, Hal turns into one for Roxanne. He harbored strong possessive feelings for her before he gained his powers. Once he got them, he felt like he finally had a chance with her and showed off his powers to her. Unfortunately, she didn't return his feelings, despite his belief that he should have her since he's a superhero. This leads to him taking his anger out on the city and almost killing her by throwing a bus at her.
• Gabi the Poison Dart Frog from Rio 2 takes a look into the -dere side of this trope. On her own, she's a Genki Girl who is affable to anyone she comes across. However, the reason she's a villain is her love for Nigel the Cockatoo, which is explored in her Villain Song, "Poisonous Love". In short, she's driven to be psychotic due to her love of Nigel, proudly proclaiming that she'd murder any bird for his sake.

Manhwa

• Dorothy of Oz: Abee (Codename: Scarecrow) is a sort of subverted example. Anyone who posed the SLIGHTEST threat to Mara was nearly pushed off a cliff, shot at, left to die in a cave, or worse. He would have continued with this, but Mara got upset at all the murder attempts. Not to mention his rivalry with Kamu who wants to protect Mara as well, and his promise to kill him if he gets out of line.
• In Let Dai, Dai Lee will be very violent if you spend too much time around his boyfriend.
• Hyeri from Redrum 327. When Gahui became friends with Taien as a child, Hyeri rounded up the rest of the "crew" to trap Gahui in an isolated safe in a forest. She's found starved, frozen and mentally scarred six days later.
• In Threads of Time, Sali Tayi explicitly tells Atan Hadas that if she runs away with Moon-Bin and doesn't marry him, he'll kill them both.

Myths & Religion

• Pele — the Hawaiian Goddess of Lava is known for her fiery temper. She fell in love often and most of those young men were not fortunate to escape with their lives. The incredible details of some of the stories is what really makes her special.
  • In one story Pele throws lava at her lover, her own favorite little sister, the sister's house (forest, actually), and sister's best friend for good measure. Because she thought the Lover and Sister may like each other, when in reality they were both loyal to Pele. (They bonded because of this trauma and proved Pele right. Irony Burnnn) The Other Wiki tells the tale.
  • In some versions of the story, the sisters end up sharing him, but most hold that he went back home and took Pele's little sister with him.
  • An unfortunate young man that Pele fell in love with was already in a happy relationship, and had no intention of cheating on his girl, even with a Goddess. Pele was not impressed by his moral fibre. Story of Ohia and Lehua
• Dido in The Aeneid. When Aeneas leaves Carthage, Dido curses him and all of the surviving Trojans, then commits suicide. It bears mentioning that said curse involves damning their two future nations to constant savage bloodletting.
• There is a Japanese folktale concerning a woman named Kiyohime who, when rejected by the object of her affections, a monk who took a vow of celibacy, turns into a dragon and incinerates both him and herself when he tried to hide from her underneath a giant bell. More information can be found on The Other Wiki. One of the Kihachirō Kawamoto Shorts reprises this story almost beat for beat.
• The huldra of Scandinavian folklore are a type of fairy who appear as beautiful women with cow or horse tails. Although they are often eager to marry, they are also very strict and demanding, and if you even think of turning one down, she will kill you. This being folklore, this is of course only one version, albeit a common one... though one of the variations is simply to change marriage to being lovers.
• Ishtar (Inanna) of Mesopotamian Mythology. All of her lovers ended up dead, which is why Gilgamesh turns her down when she asks him to marry her. Cue Ishtar running to her daddy, pitching a fit, and threatening to cause a Zombie Apocalypse if he doesn't give her the Bull of Heaven instead (even though doing so will cause a drought.) She later has her husband Tammuz/Dumuzi Dragged Off to Hell for cheating on her while she was off trying to conquer the underworld.
• The story of the 4 winds in Lakota mythology. They were all in love with the goddess Wohpe. She chose the South Wind, because he wasn't so vocal about it. The North Wind tries to steal her away from his younger brother every winter. The North Wind is represented by the color white, and the South Wind is represented by the color red.
• Classical Mythology:
  • Persephone turns a nymph into a mint plant, and then stamps on her, for daring to flirt with her husband Hades. The weird thing is that Persephone originally ended up as Hades' wife when Hades captured her and forced her into marriage, so either Persephone experienced some form of A Match Made in Stockholm that led her to become jealously protective of him, or, as some interpretations of the story state, Persephone always loved Hades and could not act upon her feelings due Demeter's possessiveness of her. Hades has kept faithful to Persephone and seems to treat his wife well.
  • Demeter is a rare motherly-love yandere. It was always implied that she was screwed up in the head like most of the Greek gods, which can be seen as an inciting factor for Persephone sticking with Hades if her kidnapping was indeed staged, but in response to her daughter being kidnapped, Demeter curses the earth to have all of its crops wither away for three months per year, essentially creating winter. In essence, Demeter responds to her beloved daughter being abducted by unleashing her wrath onto everybody who had no involvement in it.
  • Suprisingly Artemis, at least according to Homer's Odyssey. When Calypso was complaining about the Double Standard of male gods being allowed to screw willy-nilly while the female goddesses aren't. She mentions how, Artemis shot Orion in jealousy after seeing him being carry off by Eos, goddess of dawn.
  • Hera, wife of Zeus. Half or more of the myths about her and about the only thing she is remembered for is pursuing horrible vengeance on the lovers of Zeus and their offspring. (Zeus being by far the most powerful of the gods, there was nothing she could do to harm him directly.) The worst acts were probable against Lamia and Hercules. Hera either stole or in the worst stories forced Lamia to kill her own children turning her into a monster. The latter she tormented his entire life in one way or another, but the worst would be inflicting madness on him causing him to murder his own family. The 12 Labors that made him famous were ironically for a crime he arguably had no control over. She seemed tolerant of Ganymede, however. She apparently stops trying to torture Heracles after he dies, ascends to full godhood and marries her daughter, or at least there are no myths telling of it. But would having Hera as a mother-in-law really make things better? Probably not.
  • Ironically, Hera was also the victim of a Yandere in one story, along with Artemis. The story varies Depending on the Writer (Homer, Virgil, and Ovid have all told versions) but the giant brothers Otus and Ephialtes (collectively called the Aloadae) wanted to storm Mt. Olympus and gain Artemis for Otus and Hera for Ephialtes; strange part is, they seemed capable of doing it. One version claims they built a mountain even bigger than Olympus to lay siege to it, most say Zeus' thunderbolts couldn't hurt them, and most also say they were able to capture Ares and stuff him in a jar for thirteen months. Eventually, Artemis either surrendered to Otus or tried to seduce him in order to free Ares (again, depends on the writer) which made his brother jealous because Hera hadn't even noticed him, and the two fought; Artemis changed herself into a doe and jumped between them (possibly her plan or Apollo's plan the whole time); the Aloadae, not wanting her to get away, threw their spears and simultaneously killed each other, not invulnerable to their own powerful blows.
  • The god Zephyros, the West Wind had an obsessive crush on the demigod Spartan Prince Hyacinthus. Hyacinthus however chose Apollo instead. A jealous Zephyros murdered Hyacinthus via a discus to the head.
  • Medea of Greek myth is a scary one: when Jason left her, she burned her rival alive with a fire so intense it set the royal palace on fire, set the city of Corinth on fire for being ruled by the man who got Jason to dump her, and killed her own children to end his line (A Fate Worse Than Death for the ancient Greeks). It was so bad that Hera, who, as Jason's protector, the one who had set him with Medea, and was supposed to be the one to punish Jason for his oathbreaking, couldn't find anything to add onto of what Medea had already done, limiting herself to let him live as he lost all his glory and was reduced to a beggar (basically, letting what Medea had done stand). One of Jason's sons, Thassalus, did survive his mother's attempt on his life, and managed to reclaim the throne of Iolcus.^note Jason had ruled Iolcus for some time after the voyage of the Argonauts, but was driven out by his cousin, who was avenging Jason's Evil Uncle. This led to Jason leaving Medea for a political marriage (he wanted to use Corinth to reclaim Iolcus and the death of all his children save Thassalus.
• Gudrun and Brynhild in the Saga of the Volsungs.
• Some interpretations of Paradise Lost posit that Lucifer is basically the greatest yandere of all times, unable to suffer the knowledge that God would rather be loved by a fallible, mortal, corrupted humanity than by the Morning Star himself.
• Asmodeus is the demon of Lust because he was the Stalker with a Crush on Sarah and killed all of her suitors before being defeated by Tobit.
• According to Islamic interpretations, Lucifer (known as Iblis or Shaytān) was evicted for his pride, but also jealousy - he loved God, but refused to accept Adam, believing him to be an inferior creature that is not worthy of God's love, thus swore revenge by tempting humanity away from God.

Roleplay

• Survival of the Fittest:
  • Zachariah Johnston from TV1. He started out as an dorky kid with autism who happened to have a crush on Mae St. Clair. However, he becomes jealous of Shawn Morrison (the other part of the Love Triangle), and has flat out attacked other characters who he thinks will hurt her or steal her away, most notably Harold Smythe.
  • Robin Pounds from Program v2 becomes incensed when Shawn Bowe-Crooke abandons her, and tracks him down specifically to destroy him and everything he loves.
• NoPixel: Four Tee is an aromantic variation by way of having been isolated for most of her life and not having an understanding of how love and romance function. She "loves" everyone on her friends list and is so seemingly whimsical to be disarming and endearing even to folks she's not friends with. However, she's also extraordinarily bonkers, is obsessed with her friends to stalkerish extremes, will not hesitate to go full-tilt psycho to anyone who harms or slights her friends, and has murdered friends for "leaving" her.

Tabletop Games

• Exalted
  • Lilith is a rare sympathetic example. She was normal and sane, but was mentally tortured by her absolute horrifying monster of a "husband" Desus so badly that she shattered into a mental, slightly Ax-Crazy wreck who was a sad little puppet for Desus. By the period the game takes place in, she's recovered - somewhat, and this is after going feral and living in pure chaos for the better part of 2,000 years - although she tends to understandably explode into a frothing rage whenever she sees something related to Desus - which is unfortunate for Desus' reincarnation, Swan, who, while not a hero exactly, is still a lot better person than Desus ever was.
  • Adorjan is a Yozi who's gone seriously yandere. One of the more powerful Charms she offers to her chosen does ridiculous amounts of damage, but has the side effects of a) doing some of that damage to yourself, and b) getting Adorjan "interested" in you if you ever use it on her. As the Quotes page says, her hatred is safer.
  • Also from the Yozi pile is Kimbery, who's a cross between this and every overbearing mother ever. She loves her "children" with all her heart and ladles them with all sorts of gifts... at least, until she thinks that they'll betray her, at which points she drowns them in poison and acid, both literally and metaphorically.
• Legend of the Five Rings allows you to give your character a yandere stalker via the Bad Fortune: Secret Love disadvantage, netting you a few extra Experience Points at the cost of having some unknown Non-Player Character out there in the world who will stop at nothing to have your character all to him- or herself.Like almost all Disadvantages in this particular RPG, it is basically a blank check for the GM to screw you over. Popular Secret Loves include your daimyo or the daimyo's spouse, Scorpion Clan members and insane(r) oni. In modern versions this include Spider Clan members, Tainted individuals or maho-tsukai.
  • Kyoso no Oni, one of the four Oni Lords, is pretty much the patron saint of Yandere and scorned lovers in Rokugan.
• The Deceivers from the Third Edition of Nobilis love everything and think that the best way to express that love is to strip things of the toxic lies that enshroud them and hide their true nature. Lies most people call "existence."
• New World of Darkness:
  • The Galateids from Promethean: The Created tend to have this as their Torment. Seeing as they embody the sanguine humor, their periods of Torment tend to involve giving into murderous obsession over others; the book lists the example of abducting an unrequited lover's girlfriend, holding her at knifepoint, and demanding the lover choose between the two.
  • Princesses of Mirrors from Princess: The Hopeful have the downside of getting insane whenever they abuse their magic. One of the possible insanities they can develop is to become a Yandere, the trope being even referred by name. Since their Charms include powers helping seduction and the ability to literally peel someone's beauty off their face, this is not a good thing.
• In Warhammer 40,000, the Chaos god Nurgle fell in love with Isha, the Eldar goddess of life. After Nurgle rescued Isha from Slaanesh, he expressed his love for her by imprisoning her in a cage and killing any warriors who attempted to rescue her. Now he uses her as a test subject for his plagues.

Theatre

• Carmen: It starts with Don José going to jail for Carmen — and keeping the flower she gave him the whole time. He comes back and joins her group, but he can't deal with how she flirts with other guys. He picks a knife fight with her new lover — a bullfighter — over her, and when she's sent him away for good, he meets her outside of the arena and kills her.
• Donna Elvira for Don Giovanni. She gets better.
• Brünhilde for Siegfried, in Goetterdaemmerung.
• Canio from Pagliacci learns that his wife Nedda is cheating on him, and loses it. At first, the audience thinks he's giving a very emotional performance, but soon realize this is for real. Canio kills Nedda and Silvano and gives a Bond One-Liner.
• Scarpia from Puccini's Tosca could count, seeing how he doesn't hesitate to endanger Floria Tosca's lover Mario Cavaradossi in order to get her to sleep with him.
• Count di Luna is this towards Leonora in Verdi's Il trovatore. Not only is he furious about Leonora being in love with Manrico, but he chases them down and tries to kill Manrico in order to have Leonora to himself, only to realize that Manrico was his own brother. But by then, both Manrico and Leonora are already dead.
• Prince Golaud from Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande becomes this way after his wife Mélisande falls in love with his half-brother Pélleas and has an affair with him.
• Leos Janácek's opera Jenufa has Laca, who becomes angry with the titular character for loving his brother Steva and not him and even slashes her face in anger when she refuses to return his affections. This leads poor Jenufa to being abandoned by her fiancé, who dumped her in spite of being attacked by his own brother and hooked up with the pretty daughter of the mayor. Even more, Jenufa and Laca become a couple by the end.
• There's also Barnaba from Ponchielli's La Gioconda, who lusts after the titular singer and tries to kill Gioconda's beloved mother and the lovers Laura and Enzo in order to get her, though he fails in killing the lovers thanks to Gioconda's help. However, Gioconda stabs herself before he can have his way with her.
• Abigaille from Verdi's Nabucco is this to a T. She loves Ismaele, but Ismaele is in love with Fenena. Furious, Abigaille threatens to accuse Fenena of treason, but Ismaele refuses to do so, thus leading to Abigaille's plan for revenge.

• In Avenue Q Christmas Eve is usually a Tsundere but in "The more you ruv someone" there are lines which depict her as a possessive type 3.
• Abigail Williams from The Crucible fits this trope like a glove. After her boss John Proctor ends their affair, Abigail jumps at the opportunity to have his wife Elizabeth arrested and executed for witchcraft. It backfires big time. Elizabeth's pregnancy keeps her from being executed; John takes the blame upon himself and chooses execution over admitting witchcraft and losing his land, which would leave his family homeless.
• Hamilton casts King George III of England this way. You'll Be Back could be a yandere anthem:
  I will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love.
• Heathers: The Musical has J.D. to Veronica. They actually managed to ramp it up from the movie. Check out these lyrics from the song "Meant to Be Yours:"
  ''You chucked me out like I was trash,
  for that you should be dead.
  But, but, but!
  Then it hit me like a flash;
  What if high school went away instead?
  Those assholes are the key,
  they're keeping you away from me.
  They made you blind,
  messed up your mind,
  but I can set you free!
• Jackie-O from The House of Yes. She kills her twin brother, whom with she has been having an incestuous relationship for most of their lives, when he attempts to regain a life of normalcy with his utterly average fiancee.

• Nessarose from Wicked is this only for the musical. She developed feelings for Boq when he decided to talk to her during the dance. He certainly didn't help his situation by telling her that she was beautiful in an attempt to make it less obvious that he's there because he felt bad for her. That and he was doing it because Galinda asked him. Over the years, Nessa ruled over the Munchkins and had restricted their rights because of Boq. Once her sister granted her the ability to walk, he thinks that she no longer needs him and decides to try leaving her for Galinda. Her response is to use Elphaba's magic book to try making him hers. Unfortunately, she shrinks his heart and Elphaba is forced to give him a tin form so that he doesn't die.

• The titular character of Miss Julie. She has a destructive crush on her driver, and uses her power to push him about, teasing him, playing with him, until circumstances get out of control.
• Bluebeard, for Judith and all the other women he kills and keeps forever.
• Othello, who smothers his wife to death because he thinks she's been unfaithful. There's also Iago, by way of Alternate Character Interpretation, who may have committed all his acts of villainy out of lust for Othello.
• The Phantom of the Opera: Erik, the eponymous Phantom, towards Christine. Erik captures Christine's lover and gives her the choice of being with Erik forever or watching her lover die. Ultimately subverted as, when Christine does choose Erik, he realizes that he can't force her to love him and lets her go.
  • In the theatrical sequel Love Never Dies, Meg Giry has become one: she has fallen in love with the Phantom, now her employer at a pierside show in Coney Island, New York. When she sees how much he still loves Christine, Meg goes insane and kidnaps Christine's son, leading to a rather ... explosive finale.
• Lucy from 13 is a milder version of this trope. She looks like your Average Self-Concious Teengage Girl, but just mention Brett and she becomes Clingy Manipulative and Bitchy. She may not be willing to murder, but she is willing to ruin a few social lives.
• Depending on the interpretation, The Governess from The Turn of the Screw. This only works in the interpretation where The Governess is insane, the ghosts are not real, and she has the hots for Miles, killing him to protect him from corruption, or for her secretive employer, wanting to dramatically save the children to win his attention and respect.
• Andrea, in one of the skits of Voices from the High School.
  "Yeah, I know. the jerk's waiting. So go. I haven't got a gun. Yet."
• The title character of Wozzeck, for Marie.
• Salome, the Princess of Judea at the time of Jesus, is this toward Jokanaan (John the Baptist) in both Oscar Wilde's play Salome and Richard Strauss's opera adaptation. Whenever she's around Jokanaan she can't stop saying "I want to kiss your lips!" When he, predictably, wants nothing to do with her so long as she remains uninterested in Christianity, she uses a seductive dance to trick her stepfather, Herod, into giving her "anything she wants," which ends up being Jokanaan's severed head on a plate.
• As in the film, Norma in Sunset Boulevard is this towards Joe, effectively keeping him financially dependent on her, emotionally blackmailing and manipulating him, keeping tabs on what he's doing and who he's spending time with (when not with her) and when he finally decides to get out of the relationship she shoots and kills him, citing the parallel relationship between Salome and John the Baptist.
• By golly, Death in Elisabeth. His ideas of things to do to win the titular Empress' love include sabotaging her marriage (or at least gloat in her face as it breaks down), and killing her oldest daughter and only son. There's a reason a fan overlaid You'll Be Back from Hamilton over Death's solo at Elisabeth's wedding and it fits perfectly. I will kill your friends and family... to remind you of my love.

Web Animation

• Ayasaki-san:
  • Miyu tries to act like one to Chiaki in an attempt to get his attention.
  • A transfer student is one to Chiaki when he and Sana tried to make her stop stalking him, only for her to accuse him of cheating and Sana for being his affair partner, making both of them run away from her.
  • Kaede is Yuki's childhood friend. She loves him to the point where she remembers every detail of their life together. She even goes as far as to handcuff him until he answered questions about their time together.
• Etra chan saw it!: Yuzuriha came out of nowhere and stabbed Tokusa mid-date, causing him to lose control of his legs and his girlfriend Yuri. Her father Hiiragi told him she was stalking a man and mistook Tokusa for him. When he finally recovered, he left Hiiragi's mansion and moved to another city with a new girlfriend. However, said girlfriend turns out to be Yuzuriha.
• ETU - Animated Stories:
  • One story has Skylar who David had a crush on. She rescued him from homelessness and began to date him. Unfortunately it turned into a obsession...
  • One story has the protagonist's childhood crush stalk him at his house in a wedding dress to marry him.
• A gay example in Miller from the third volume of Yotam Perel's Nameless (2005) series, who falls for Chocolate Man.
  "I will murder him with my knives for you."
• One of the newer characters in Happy Tree Friends is Mr. Pickels, who is a platonic yandere for another newer character called Lammy. He does not like her showing affection to anyone other than him.
• The entire point of How to Deal with a Yandere, a step-by-step comedy series in walfas that has to Joey how to deal with his yandere girlfriend, Lily.
• Doki from There she is!! starts as a fairly minor example of this: She does chase Nabi around the city and can't take "No" for an answer, but otherwise doesn't seem to be all that crazy or violent. Her love craziness reaches its apex midway to Step 3, until she becomes saner, but only after Nabi agrees to become her boyfriend. While it could be seen this way, keep in mind, "There She Is" is all about showing Nabi and Doki's relationship in a condensed form. It can also be interpreted that Doki's trying to chain away Nabi's social qualms with their relationship, as can be seen in the later steps.
• RWBY: Adam Taurus can be seen as one, due to his obsession of Blake Belladonna, who left him.
• RWBY Chibi:
  • Nora's obsession with Ren results in her trying to cook Ren into a "love potion" or trying to heal a broken leg with The Power of Love with a bedside manner that is straight out of Misery.
  • Ruby is so obsessed with making Weiss her best friend that she hypnotizes Weiss into becoming her BFF, and even hypnotizes Blake into being her back-up BFF.
• The alternate ending for Scribble Netty's animation of Flowers For My Valentine: A PewDieCry Fanfic has Marzia barging in on the two of them embracing each other, enraged, before pulling out a chainsaw. The screen then cuts to black as Felix and Cry scream out in agony while the chainsaw whirs.
• Gossip City:
  • Misaki was very much in love with Sho. He broke up with her when she got too clingy and she didn't take it very well, even going as far as trying to kill him.
  • Jo's mother was obsessed with Haruto despite the fact that he has a family with Rin and Ayane and kept stalking him. When Haruto rejected her, she tried to run over Rin but ended up hitting her own son instead when he shoved Rin out of the way.
• hololive: Many members have displayed yandere tendencies to varying degrees, but three members in particular have it as a defining personality trait.
  • Korone Inugami from hololive GAMERS is a pretty severe yandere if given the chance, especially in regards to Okayu Nekomata. When Subaru Oozora told her in Minecraft that Okayu was both kissing her and being cute with Kureiji Ollie, Korone responded with a foreboding, "Eh?", before proceeding to beat Okayu up. Other members, including Mio Ookami, have noted that Korone gets absolutely scary when she goes yandere, and even has empty irises◊ for when she becomes a yandere. Even her viewers aren't safe, as when Korone gets messages from them explaining how much her videos mean to them, she'll accept the compliment, but not before making remarks of how they've probably said things like this to other women, and that if she relaxes them so much, they've probably fallen asleep on her.
  • Rushia Uruha from hololive Fantasy isn't as violent of a yandere as Korone, but she's very equal-opportunity about being one. If her chat ever makes references to other members of hololive, she immediately catches on and accuses them of leaving her for other streamers, and whenever other members want to decide where to hang out with her, notably Shion Murasaki, she pressures them into hanging out at her house. She also denies herself being a yandere, as when her chat asked for a yandere ASMR from her, she made sure that they wanted it not because they like yanderes, but because they like her. Rushia even offered to have her viewers partake in a suicide pact the day she inevitably goes down.
  • Ceres Fauna from hololive -Council- is one to humanity as a whole, due to effectively abandoning her by evolving to become part of civilization, leaving their nature roots behind. Fauna insists that she isn't mad, and that she loves humans, but expresses how humanity belongs with her, stating her intentions of winning them back. Either patiently with her streams to change their heart, or forcibly restraining them and turning them into saplings.
• hololive ERROR:
  • Nanase Furukawa is this, though not entirely by choice. Part of the personality shifts caused by the spirits of Aogami Forest was amplifying her attraction towards the New Transfer Student into a full-blown obsession. It gets so bad that she begins seeing other girls, such as Shino Misora, as garbage solely due to being around the transfer more than she is, rubs in Shino's face how they will not be able to go out all together, outright considers killing off her friends solely because one of them told her to stop antagonizing others and she took it as them wanting to stand between her and the transfer, and eventually lashes out at Shino, telling her how she's worthless and that she should just disappear.
  • In a weird twist, Shino Misora turns out to be yandere towards herself... sort of. The blue-eyed other Shino ("other" meaning "not the protagonist") is extremely insistent on the protagonist Shino "going back" with her, not clarifying anything and simply chasing after her when she believed to have been denied. Mind you, she was not denied: the main character version of Shino simply wanted answers, and would've likely gone with the other Shino had she been told the reason why she needed to. She eventually relaxes about it, becoming rather cold and sardonic when her protagonist self continuously refuses to go along. On the other hand, the brown-eyed other Shino is more of the possessive, Homura Akemi-esque type, wanting to keep her protagonist counterpart within the Perfect World - a Lotus-Eater Machine showing a happy idyllic school life where everyone wants nothing more than to be Shino's friend - at all costs and being more than willing to exploit her status as being In the Dreaming Stage of Grief after having realized she was Dead All Along so as to make it happen... all to ensure that Shino remains happy, and on her terms.
• Manga Soprano: Saya kidnapped his ex-girlfriend Asami when he stopped a fire that occurred at her wedding between her and Yuto. He tried to force her to take him back but she resisted and she was rescued by Ram, by calling her yakuza family and Haru who is a hacker.
• This is the premise for a lot of episodes of Reina's room. Many female characters fall madly in love with the main protagonists especially after they did something nice for them.
• Uta's RomCom Manga Dubs: Misono has a crush on her childhood friend Haruto and is obsessive with him, she also scares Saya into leaving her house after the latter claims to be Haruto's girlfriend.

Web Original

• In Alien Abduction Role Play, Acktreal Domma is an alien whose job it is to handle unknown species collected from other planets. She normally approaches her job in a very business-like manner, not making things harder or more for herself or for her subject than it needs to be. So it says a lot when she starts threatening to eat her human subject, but then admits to having feelings for them. She thinks that her desire to eat the human has been replaced by romantic feelings, but later on as she spends more time with them, the two get mixed up in her head, and she has at least two feral episodes wherein she tries to eat the human and her crewmates.
• Ascension Academy features Esmae, a spirit with a poor understanding of social conventions, lacking in empathy almost entirely, and with an unnatural draw and connection to Chipz. All of this mixed together created a potentially dangerous Yandere. During the First Year, Esmae was convinced to stab Chipz in the heart by Victor, claiming it would 'make him love her forever'. Thankfully Chipz is a vampire and survived the incident, though this effectively squashed her chances of actually getting with him as it destroyed his trust in her. Later in the Second Year after Chipz and Vevina became very close following a confession from Vevina, Esmae kidnapped Chipz, held him as sword point, and forced him to promise to stay in her room for the night. Because she is a spirit, it is dangerous to break a promise made to her, so he was forced to do so. Thankfully she slowly lost interest in Chipz over the course of the Second Year as it became apparent he had no romantic interest in her.
• The Pope in Breaking Providence is initially introduced as a Reasonable Authority Figure who sees Marcus as a chance to make up for her greatest failure. She agrees that the excesses of the church and nobility need to be curbed and makes a point of protecting Marcus after he frees a Dark General. However, as the story goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that she doesn't simply want to "make amends for not protecting Marcus's father"; she wants to be with Marcus at any cost and is convinced she should help him conquer the Empire, if not do it herself in his name^note Notably, while others also want to help him conquer the Empire, they know him as the Dark Lord, whereas she knows him as the Destined Hero. Just before the end of the story, she tries to overthrow the Princess, whom Marcus has shown feelings for, just so she can rule in his name. After beng thwarted and imprisoned, she eagerly allows herself to be magically enslaved to him purely because it means she can be by his side, even if it means serving at his feet.
• The Creepypasta Cloak and Dagger, in which a girl (probably) steps out in front of her crush's girlfriend's car, killing her when she swerves out of the road.
• Cracked noted in this article that the behavior of a woman who might follow Cosmo's suggestions on intimate relationships could very well end up acting like this. The suggestions are downright possessive, obsessive, and overall psychotic. Everything from feeding a boyfriend laxative to crushing his testicles... all over perceived and potentially groundless possibilities of infidelity. At no point did any of the suggestions involve leaving the boyfriend; it was all about punishing them.
• The character of Rift from New Vindicators seems like your usual young teacher/superhero until her obsession with Michuru comes out. Then people start dying.
• Obscured Eyes: Played with. Daisy is obsessed with Isabella, and she wants her all to herself, but it's purposefully left unclear if Daisy also has romantic feelings for her.
• RPC Authority: Invoked by Japanese Evil, Inc. Kabushiki Kawaii, who deliberately created a line of Brainwashed and Crazy Cyborg Sex Slaves to sell to men with a yandere fetish. One recovered by the Authority ends up falling for a female researcher, much to her displeasure.
• Shadow Unit: Betty Johnson, the gamma of "Always Crashing in the Same Car." The crazy seems to have started because while she was pregnant, she walked in on her husband raping and killing a woman and subsequently miscarried. The first manifestation of her gamma powers was mind-controlling her husband into killing himself; every year since, she finds a man with the same name and mind-controls him into believing he's her husband. Then she commands him to kill himself on the anniversary of her first husband's death. Most of the episode is from her perspective, through letters she wrote to Reyes; she not only seems to believe that all the Tom Johnsons she married were actually the same man, but she insists to the end, even after being arrested and sent to Idlewood, that "our love is forever".
• SCP Foundation:
  • Taken to extremes with SCP-1805, a sex doll which comes alive when a man has sex with her and which considers the man to be her "husband". On the one hand, she's so devoted to her "husband" that she'll willingly let him mutilate and dismember her. On the other hand, she's so jealous that the man spending too much time with his own children will make her go Axe-Crazy. And to put a final, weird twist to it, she instantly loses all interest in her "husband" the moment he dies, since marriage is, after all, "til death do us part".
  • There's also SCP-1269, a mailbox which sits in front of a house in Massachusetts, USA. If a woman aged 23 or older moves into the house for SCP-1269, mysterious unaddressed letters, which are directed at the woman and highly romantic in nature, manifest inside the mailbox every four days. If you attempt to remove 1269 and replace it with a normal mailbox, both disappear, with 1269 appearing back in its usual spot and the other mailbox appearing in a dumpster 25km away with an extremely hostile and possessive letter inside it. SCP-1269 was recently kicked up to Euclid status when a male D-Class moved into the house with the female D-Class resident only to go missing some weeks later, his battered and mutilated corpse was found in the dumpster. Examples of letters found:
    1) The color of your eyes reminds me of the depth and expanse of the night sky, a vast dazzling macrocosm of soft velvet and glimmering pinpricks of light.
    2) The wind was blowing and I thought it whispered your name sadly because that is what my heart is doing please write back
    3) FUCK YOU YOU PILE OF PLASTIC AND WOOD SHE IS MY EVERYTHING YOU ARE NOTHING TO HER IT WAS A FLING AND I KNOW IT I'M DOING HER A FAVOR
    4) YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A TOOL FOR HER USE BUT I AM MORE I AM HER EVERYTHING AS SHE IS MINE SHE USED YOU SHE USED YOU SHE USED YOU AND NOW YOU'RE WHERE YOU BELONG
    5) WHAT IS A MAN BUT A PILE OF SHIT THAT GETS IN THE WAY OF MY LOVE HOW CAN SHE EVER LOVE YOU WHEN YOU'RE SO EASILY BROKEN SHE NEVER EVEN LET YOU TOUCH HER I SAW THE WAY SHE LOOKED AT YOU WITH HATRED AND NOW SHE WILL LOVE ME FOREVER
  • A less prominent example is told through an experiment log in the SCP-404 document, where a Class-D had a sexual relationship with a girl throughout their teen years, until she moved onto another guy, so he cut the breaks on his car and slit his throat when he crawled out of the wreck, and got arrested for it. The girl was the Class-D's sister by the way.
  • SCP-962 is a giant steel tower that wants to help the "great ones" (humans) by mutilating, enslaving, and/or killing every non-human organism in the area around it. It also sends us "high quality" poetry.
• "I'm sorry to god for what i have done. I love my family so I kill all my family. It's the only thing I can do to stay together with them F O R E V E R!"
• Annabelle Wynters from Under the Van Gogh, though perhaps as a direct cause of Love Makes You Evil, Love Makes You Crazy, and some Manipulative Bastardry.

Web Videos

• Shannon in the TV Tropes webseries Echo Chamber obsesses over Tom, stalks him, and threatens girls he is seen with. She scares Tom enough that he agreed to propose to her, because he was worried she would severely hurt him if he didn't.
• Ashley and Vanessa in The Fabulous Life of Bratz. Doesn't help that they're going after the same guy either.
• Its Just Some Random Guy: Random Gal, his girlfriend and production designer.. Just... watch.
• BriTANicK shows us how it's done with "The Kiss."
• The Nostalgia Chick is somewhere between Stalker with a Crush and this towards Todd in the Shadows. She's tried to make him "her damsel" before, and in To Boldly Flee, she says she'd be willing to murder people for him. After being friendly with her for most of their crossover review, she tries to stab Obscurus Lupa after she finds out she's the one who Todd in the Shadows has a crush on.
• Hyper Fangirl is this for The Nostalgia Critic. She develops an intense obsession for him and goes through extreme lengths to make him love her. At one point, she forces him to go on a date with her and she tries to manipulate him through his interests in entertainment. It almost works, but the Critic realizes what she's doing and he calls her out on it.
• With just a few simple tips, you too can have a boyfriend! Remember to be persistent!
• Dave from the Dating Dave web series runs into Dymphna in a bar and she seems nice and sweet... until the next day when she's apparently already got a wedding dress sorted and is planning the bridal shower. And when he says no, she leads her friends into an angry mob to chase him down the street.
• Hardly Working: In the surprisingly chilling video "My Bloody Valentine" from this comedy series, Pat sends Sarah increasingly threatening notes demanding that she be his, murders every other guy in the office who showed an interest in her, then stabs her in the stomach.
• The Overly Attached Girlfriend Meme, played by the YouTuber Laina. She was merely menacing in her videos... But when she makes cameo in others YouTubers videos, she becomes outright crazy, such as when Jimmy tries to break up with her. And then, she misunderstood Shane Dawson and believed that he was having an orgy without her... That didn't end well. Though hilariously subverted in another crossover video with Jimmy, where she's just the Normally Attached Girlfriend — not psychotic, just passive-aggressive.
• Many A True Nerd has Jon's playthrough of Stellaris: Apocalypse, in which his Tenets of Tabby, a religious, supposedly-friendly empire, becomes obsessed with another Spiritualist-Xenophile civilization called the Raxar. Jon tries to "take them to prom" by forming a federation with them, but unfortunately, his constant warmongering drives the Raxar into defensive alliances with Jon's other neighbors, leading Jon to attack and destroy those neighbors in order to make the Raxar "single" again so they'd have no choice but to ally with him. When it becomes clear that him and the Raxar are never going to happen, Jon builds a Colossus, moves it over the Raxar homeworld, and declares that it's "prom night."
  [Earth-Shattering Kaboom]
  Jon: [happy sigh] It's been a good prom...
  YouTube comment: Only Jon could take a 4X strategy game in space and make it a dating sim.
• Markiplier acts like this in "Best Friends Forever" for Cinnamon Toast Ken. He tries so desperately to get in his house and makes claims about how close they are. Naturally, Ken is a little freaked out by this and does his best to keep Mark out. ... It doesn't work.
• Yandere High School has a few.
  • Sam tries to court Sookie, but she turns down his advances because of her sexual orientation. Trying to gain a chance with her, he dresses up as a girl and attempts to poison her girlfriend.
  • Yuki is revealed to be one for Taurtis. She killed Gareth's wife and Salex out of jealousy, stalked him and almost became his girlfriend. She later turns her attention to Sam who is forced to go out with her because her father told him to.

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