Who's Your Favorite Tsundere?
It's fun to watch anime and pay attention to the various character archetypes that show up. Like the ojosama (rich girl) who is the daughter of an international zaibatsu trading group, who generally comes in "cute and naive" or "laughing evil villain" flavors. Or the good-natured female childhood friend who always comes to wake up the main character every morning. One of the most popular genres of anime characters of the past few years has been tsundere (TSOON-deh-reh), which describes (female) characters who are angry and confrontational one moment, then all sweetness and light the next. (The word comes from tsun-tsun meaning "angry" or "cranky," and dere-dere meaning "heads-over-heels in love.") Some of anime's most popular characters conform to this classic mode, including Taiga Aisaka from Toradora!, Louise from Zero no Tsukaima and Shana from Shana of the Blazing Eyes. The cool thing about these characters is, they're all voiced by legendary voice actress Rie Kugimiya, who has a huge following by fans around the world. This gave us the idea to honor Ms. Kugimiya with a really cool J-List original T-shirt featuring some of her characters' most famous lines, like, Urusai! Urusai! Urusai! ("Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!") or Damare! Soshite kusare! ("Shut up! And go rot!") with a cool kanji design. It's in stock now and ready for you to order.
Taiga from Toradora is my own favorite tsundere-chara. Who's yours?
posted by Peter in Japan at 8:29 PM
15 Comments:
Though I like a lot of shows featuring tsundere characters, I actually dislike tsundere. But if pressed to choose, I guess I'd say Narusegawa Naru of Love Hina voiced by Hoire Yui, though she might not be considered tsundere anymore. I do like Taiga of Toradora as well because she breaks the stereotypical tsundere mold in the sacrifice of her love and her surly, prickly and untrusting behaviour is actually well grounded in her family circumstance.
That being said, I am well chuffed that there seems to be less tsundere floating around these days and more than a little pleased that we are getting more yuri, both of the fan service variety (Kämpfer) but even more the deeper shows like Aoi Hana of last season and Sasameki Koto of this one.
9:05 PM
I'm with you: taiga rocks!
11:04 PM
Ooh, tsundere is my favorite character type so it's hard to pick just one. If I really had to pick just one though I think it'd have to be Rin Tohsaka from Fate/Stay Night. Now that's a tsundere that you take home to meet the family ^_^
2:19 AM
TAIGA! TAIGA! TAIGA! (Taiga is mine, you guys can't have her.)
I really like the new shirt design, i want one :D
3:24 AM
Rune, I think everyone goes through a "I hate tsundere" phase, and then some come out the other end and come to like the genre. It's just too interesting having characters who are so prideful learn to swallow that pride and admit their love for someone. That being said, I am amazed that the Zero no Tsukaima people actually ended the show with "Kono inu!" I mean, closer here? Do you think we want this much TsunTsun and no DereDere? Yes, I do think we're coming up on a Little Yuri Boom which I am totally cool with.
L.B., forgot about Rin. She is a spicy meatball.
Azuma, Taiga is mai waifu! And Kagami, although she's more of a 突っ込み tukkomi rather than a Tsundere. Always delivering hard-hitting lines but not actually bringing anyone down.
10:40 AM
You can have Kagami, but I'll fight you for Taiga :D
11:11 AM
@Peter: Wow, I can't believe that I forgot to mention Kagami! She is certainly another top tsundere pick.
Though, is that the primary difference between tsundere/tukkomi? This is the first I've heard the latter word. Right then... to the google!
12:05 PM
I think Kagami would have to be less calm and more angry all the time to be a true tsundere
Azuma, if you're over 18 and not offended by such things, there are some interesting images out there. Some of them are so good that the original artist, Yasu, has to be behind them, since he is of course an accomplished hentai artist himself.
Reason #442 why I love living a country with more artists than lawyers.
6:52 PM
How could anyone be offended by anything as smokin' hot as Taiga...in the nude no less!
This one is my favourite: http://tinyurl.com/ygl5h97 (very NSFW)
7:21 PM
My favorite tsundere character would be Cloche (yeah, that would be the true spelling, it's french...) from ar tonelico 2... Not an anime, but close enough ^^ Much more feminine than a Taiga or Louise !
12:01 AM
My favorite tsundere character would be Cloche (yeah, that would be the true spelling, it's french...) from ar tonelico 2... Not an anime, but close enough ^^ Much more feminine than a Taiga or Louise !
12:02 AM
I haven't watched a lot of anime recently, so the only other tsundere that stick out in my mind right now are Misty from "Pokémon" and Yoko from "Gurren Lagann."
3:14 PM
Yoko is a she-devil! She killed Kamina-sama! :''''''(
7:32 PM
I'd wondered the meaning behind the song "Tsundere!" by AKB48. Thanks for clearing it up. :)
11:26 AM
The general idea of someone protecting their tender feelings with copious amounts of meanness and/or violence is really only tolerable if it's a female. If a guy was similarly abusive he'd be thrown in jail (if violent) and nobody would like him because he acted that way. So why is it ok for a woman to be that way?
12:42 PM
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