The word “yandere” has its origin in mainly Japanese fiction, mostly anime and manga. It is an adjective that is used to describe a certain archetype of characters. The word is a portmanteau of two Japanese words and can be broken down into yanderu, meaning to be sick or mentally ill, and deredere, meaning deeply infatuated, head-over-heels, or lovestruck, which fits the bill perfectly.
Yandere characters are loving and romantic, sweet, gentle, and caring to their objects of interest; however, at the same time, they have a hidden dark side. The dark side of their personality takes life in the form of brutal, psychotic, and deranged behavior, sometimes even murderous, literally.
The term originated from another word, “tsundere,” which means going back and forth between being hot and cold, especially targeted toward their love interest, having a tough and moody exterior only to hide the love and affection on the inside.
However, yanderes have no problem showing their love. Infact, they show too much of it sometimes, which becomes a problem. There is initial kindness, with a friendly and caring demeanor so nobody, even the receiver, suspects the mental instability and violence and aggression lying underneath all the obsessive love.
Yandere, as a genre, contains dark elements such as obsession, manipulation, violence and gore, stalking, murder, betrayal, abuse, psychological trauma, you just name it. It is mostly classified as a psychological thriller with romance as a subgenre.
However, in most cases, the main theme is still the extreme love and obsession one character feels towards the other, an obsession stemming from the love, which leads to entitlement, that their love interest is supposed to belong to them exclusively.
Here is a list of`12 Yandere Anime To Watch:
1. Mirai Nikki
The epitome of the word and probably the poster child of this genre, Mirai Nikki has it all. Yukiteru Amano is a shy middle schooler who is weirder than it seems on the surface. He has a digital diary which is basically a journal, where he keeps track of his daily life.
Having no friends whatsoever, he is seen talking to thin air, which is his imaginary friends, Deus Ex Machina, the god of time and space, and his servant, Mur Mur.
Waking up one day, Yukiteru realizes that some of the daily life events are already there in his digital diary, but he brushes them off as a coincidence. However, the signs get harder to ignore as his day takes place exactly as written in the near future. He has an advantage, but he is not the only one.
Yuno Gasai is another classmate of Yukiteru and the owner of a similar diary and the awaited yandere element of the plot. Machina, one of Yukiteru’s imaginary friends, explains what is going on when the two of them team up to shake off a suspicious pursuer. They are now competing with ten other contestants in a survival game to become the successor of God with their Future Diary.
- Released Date: 2011
- IMDB: 7.5
- Genre: Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Romance
- Episodes: Season 1: Episodes 26
- Director: Naoto Hosoda
- Status: Finished
- Where To Watch: Hulu
Also Read: Watch Order Guide of Mirai Nikki, How To Watch?
2. Higurashi: When They Cry
Higurashi is another spine-chilling thriller anime. In the summer of 1983, Keiichi Maebara moves to the sleepy little village of Hinamizawa with his family. He becomes close friends with the four girls of the school’s game club, and they become practically inseparable.
However, there is more to the girls than what meets the eye, as well as the quiet, unassuming village, as there is darkness brewing deep in the shadows.
While the village is preparing for its annual festival, the local legends go around, and they are horrifying. There have been multiple murders and disappearances in the past years, and all of them have one connection, the festival and their God.
When inquired by Keiichi, all four girls are suspiciously quiet about the incidents, which makes Keiichi paranoid, wondering if they are hiding some dark secret from him. He starts questioning everything and has a hard time trusting anyone as more and more bizarre things continue to happen.
Heart filling with madness and paranoia, Keiichi stumbles into the center of all the chaos and mysteries at play. Murders, revelations, and mysteries piling up, a tale through multiple eyes. How will it end?
- Released Date: 2006
- IMDB: 7.8
- Genre: Murder mystery, Psychological Horror, Supernatural Horror
- Episodes: Season 1: Episodes 26
- Director: Chiaki Kon
- Status: Finished
- Where To Watch: Crunchyroll
3. School Days
Based on a dating sim game, the anime is all about obsessive love and the ugliest form it can take. Makoto Itou is a high schooler who becomes aware of his classmate Kotonoha Katsura halfway through his freshman year.
It is basically love at first sight because he is bewitched by her beauty, but he is too shy and bashful to ever make a move, even when they take the same train to the school every day. However, he does take her picture and sets it as his wallpaper, which is supposed to work like a charm in winning him his love.
When seats are rearranged, he meets Sainoji Sekai, who spots the wallpaper, but instead of snitching, she decides to help him. Their lives take a turn when Sekai decides to play Cupid. She befriends them both and then starts a story of three lives suddenly entangled.
The story follows the three teenagers and their high school lives, with romance and hardships. It is a tale that will burn itself in memory even after it is over.
- Released Date: 2007
- IMDB: 5.9
- Genre: Harem, Romance, Slice of Life
- Episodes: Season 1: Episodes 12
- Director: Keitaro Motonaga
- Status: Finished
- Where To Watch: Crunchyroll
Also Read: 50 Strongest Swordsmen In Anime Of All Time
4. Happy Sugar Life
High schooler Satou Matsuzaka is a beautiful girl with an infamous reputation that she is too permissive with men. Satou has never experienced any form of love before. However, a run-in with a girl named Shio Koube gives Satou a new feeling.
Satou now has someone she likes, the first, only, and true feeling of love in her life. Satou starts a whole new life together with Shio in an apartment. She experiences a sweet feeling when she sleeps with her, and in order to protect this feeling, she is willing to go to any lengths.
Everything and anything goes if it is to protect this precious feeling. No matter how innocent Satou looks, she will not hesitate to resort to trickery, crimes, and theft, and not only that, Satou does not care if she has to go as far as threatening and confining someone or, worse, killing them.
Satou will make sure her happy sugar life stays just like that and won’t let anyone endanger it ever.
- Released Date: 2018
- IMDB: 6.4
- Genre: Psychological horror, Psychological thriller, Yuri
- Episodes: Season 1: Episodes 12
- Director: Keizō Kusakawa
- Status: Finished
- Where To Watch: Prime Video
5. Elfen Lied
The Diclonius are a special breed of mutated homosapiens that were said to be the chosen ones by God and are destined to bring destruction to mankind. They are born with a short pair of horns on their heads and have a “sixth sense,” which gives them telekinetic powers.
Due to being born with these dangerous powers, they are captured by the government and isolated in laboratories. Lucy, a young Diclonius, is a victim of inhumane experiments conducted by the government.
There is a possibility of escape, and Lucy takes it. However, now psychotic because of the torture, Lucy escapes her confines and brutally murders every guard she encounters, leaving bloodshed in her wake as she escapes.
Her escape is not as easy because she is shot in the head. She survives, however, and ends up in the care of two teenagers, Kouta and Yuka. She does not remember anything and has lost basic human speech.
Kouta and Yuka unknowingly harbor a fugitive, and they are also blissfully unaware of her murderous tendencies, but their kindness would not go for granted. Lucy will make sure of that. The psychotic side is not forgotten just yet.
- Released Date: 2004
- IMDB: 7.9
- Genre: Dark Fantasy, Science Fiction
- Episodes: Season 1: Episodes 13
- Director: Mamoru Kanbe
- Status: Finished
- Where To Watch: Prime Video
Also Read: 5 Anime Similar To Elfen Lied That You Should Check Out
6. Love Tyrant
You have heard of Death Note, now get ready to hear about Kiss Note. A Kiss Note is a powerful tool in which the two people whose names are written down will undoubtedly fall in love if they are to kiss each other under any circumstance.
Guri is an angel and the owner of the Kiss Note. While playing Cupid, she accidentally writes down the name of Seiji Aino but does not pair him up with anyone. She goes knocking at Seiji’s door, who opens it only to stumble into a world of romance, and not only the good kind.
He somehow ends up in a situation where unless he kisses someone, Guri will die, and he will remain a virgin forever. He needs to find himself a soulmate, and he needs to find them as soon as possible.
Hiyama Akane is a beautiful and popular girl and the perfect choice, but there is more that lies under the surface. Seiji finds out that Akane not only has romantic feelings for him, but they are also borderline obsessive and psychotic.
Guri pairs them both in a temporary solution but not without realizing her own feelings for Seiji. Everything gets more complicated as what is possibly heaven for most guys turns out to be the worst turn of events for Seiji.
- Released Date: 2017
- IMDB: 6.3
- Genre: Harem, Romantic Comedy, Supernatural
- Episodes: Season 1: Episodes 12
- Director: Atsushi Nigorikawa
- Status: Finished
- Where To Watch: Crunchyroll
7. Aria: The Scarlet Ammo
The crime rate in Japan is increasing at an alarming rate, and something needs to be done to handle it. Countermeasures are taken, and Japan builds a special school.
Tokyo Butei High is an academy of the elite, where armed detectives called “Butei” are trained to use weapons. They hone their skills and polish deadly precision in handling the weapons in order to become the bringers of justice.
Kinji Tooyama is a second-year, socially reclusive dropout who used to be a student of the Assault Division, which was purely combat-centric, but after dropping out, he is now living a normal life while studying logistics.
There is a reason behind this, though. Kinji has a powerful special ability that he needs to keep a secret to ensure his ordinary life. However, their peaceful life comes to an end when he gets caught up in a bombing and becomes the target of the “Butei Killer.”
He also encounters the strongest “S-Rank” student Aria H. Kanzaki, who saves his life and demands that he team up with her. Follow how thier story ends in the anime Aria: The Scarlet Ammo.
- Released Date: 2011
- IMDB: 6.5
- Genre: Girls With Guns, Romantic Comedy
- Episodes: Season 1: Episodes 12
- Director: Takashi Watanabe
- Status: Finished
- Where To Watch: Crunchyroll
8. Durarara!!
Durarara is as strange as it gets. It has not one but two Yandere characters, and they both have quite an impact on the plot. Mikado Ryuugamine has always yearned for an exciting happening life in a big city. To his absolute delight, there is an invitation from his childhood friend, and there is no reason to say no as Mikado transfers to a school in the downtown district of Ikebukuro in Tokyo and moves to live there.
Ikebukuro has its own strange rumors, and there are more things to be cautious of than to enjoy. Masaomi, Mikado’s childhood friend, has done his best to inform Mikado not to cross paths with a musclehead fighter, a suspicious informant, and a mysterious gang called “The Dollars.”
However, there is one urban legend that is extraordinary-there exists a headless rider called the “Black Rider” who rides a black motorcycle across the city roads. Funnily enough, Mikado gets to see this mysterious “Black Rider” on his very first day in the city. This is just the beginning as a series of supernatural events go down, and Ikebukuro is pushed to its limit.
- Released Date: 2010
- IMDB: 7.8
- Genre: Action, Suspense, Urban Fantasy
- Episodes: Season 1: Episodes 26
- Director: Takahiro Omori
- Status: Finished
- Where To Watch: Hulu
9. Penguindrum
The Takakura Family has been in a cycle of constant happiness and pain for as long as they remember. After the death of their parents, twin brothers Kanba and Shouma are left alone with their little sister Himari, who has a terminal illness. Her poor health condition can absolutory not worsen any further.
One day, Himari is permitted to leave the hospital for a while, so the twins decide to take her to visit an aquarium to celebrate her temporary freedom, but Himari suddenly collapses and passes away.
However, Himari is soon miraculously revived by a spirit wearing a penguin-shaped hat from the aquarium’s souvenir shop. You cannot have good things without paying the price for them. Himari’s inexplicable revival comes with one too.
There is something new residing in her body, which has its own conditions. In exchange for their sister’s life, the twins must find an item known as the “Penguin Drum” with the help of three penguins only visible to the Takakura Family.
- Released Date: 2011
- IMDB: 7.4
- Genre: Mystery, Psychological, Supernatural
- Episodes: Season 1: Episodes 24
- Director: Kunihiko Ikuhara
- Status: Finished
- Where To Watch: Prime Video
Also Read: Recycle of the Penguindrum Movie Part 2 Announced
10. Baka & Test – Summon the Beasts
Fumizuki Academy is not like your everyday high school. The institute has implemented a new system where the quality of your school life will be determined by one singular test that everyone has to appear for.
The students are sorted into different sections based on a test which determines their classes ranging from A to F and the facilities they will be provided accordingly.
The top scorers are placed in class A and provided with the best facilities possible, and naturally, class F gets the worst of the bunch, alongside bad facilities.
Akihisa Yoshii ends up in class F because his intellect failed him. To everyone’s surprise, Mizuki Himeji, the genius, also ends up in class F due to suffering from a fever on the day of the exam.
However, class F will not settle down for this injustice as they plan on taking down the higher classes using the school’s Examinations Summon Battle system. Will they make it to the top or fail like they are supposedly destined to?
- Released Date: 2010
- IMDB: 7.1
- Genre: Comedy
- Episodes: Season 1: Episodes 13
- Director: Shin Oonuma
- Status: Finished
- Where To Watch: Crunchyroll
11. 11eyes
The story follows the lives of two childhood friends, Satsuki Kakeru and MInase Yuka, who have grown up together. However, their normal ordinary lives take a turn for the worst when they are unexpectedly transferred to a different world.
In this world, when the sky turns red and the moon turns black, there appear monsters who are the only thing they come across. The world feels empty as they try to figure out what is happening. When this “red night” is over, everything goes back to normal. Or does it?
Red Night comes again, and they realize they are in danger. They come across four other people suffering the same fate.
The six of them together team up with each other and try their best to survive this mysterious world, but it is not looking easy at all as six shadows suddenly appear before them.
- Released Date: 2009
- IMDB: 5.7
- Genre: Action, Suspense, Supernatural Horror
- Episodes: Season 1: Episodes 12
- Director: Masami Shimoda
- Status: Finished
- Where To Watch: Crunchyroll
12. Shuffle!
In the present world, the races of Humans, Gods, and demons have come together in the mortal world and are coexisting. Two doors were discovered in the ruins and were opened, and they turned out to be the gateway between these worlds which were all interconnected and now opened.
Tsuchimi Rin is a normal high school boy, or at least was normal, living his ordinary life with his childhood friend Kaede until they got new neighbors and not just normal regular neighbors but a family of the King of Gods and family of the King of Demons just moved in next door.
On the wishes of Sia and Nerine, the daughters of the king of Gods and the king of Demons, respectively, they moved in next to Rin. Both the girls are in love with Rin after having met in the past.
Kaede, too, is in love with Rin. This calls for too much drama in Rin’s life, as it is now filled with love and affection but also despair and jealousy. This is just the beginning.
- Released Date: 2005
- IMDB: 6.8
- Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romantic Comedy
- Episodes: Season 1: Episodes 24
- Director: Naoto Hosoda
- Status: Finished
- Where To Watch: Crunchyroll
Also Read: Best Yandere Girls In Anime Series That Are Worth Watching
