Characters
[loved trope] The Tsundere is a genuinely really loving person with a very good reason for acting that way
A lot of the time i find that Tsundere's (or attempts at them) are far, far too mean or act this way for no real reason beyond fitting the archetype. Nagatoro is a good example of what im talking about, and in other cases a character is wrongly labeled a tsundere (Asuka from evangelion).
Toph Beifong: Avatar the Last Airbender
Toph is, by a country mile, the meanest member of her team. She's stubborn, sarcastic, and in classic tsundere style, can never really spit out her feelings. Despite her constant rude behavior and her inferiority complex, she is consistently loyal and honorable. Notably, unlike the rest of the Gaang, she has the least personal stake in actually ending the war. Aang, Katara, Sokka and Zuko all have familial ties binding them to the conflict, while Toph's motivation is largely the selfish (in a good way) desire to self actualize and prove herself more than her disability.
Her more difficult behavior is all coming from a place of needing to be taken seriously, and distancing herself from the image of being a vulnerable little doll her parents have of her. she's been coddled her entire life despite her being (at the time) tied for the greatest earthbender in the world. Her most defining moment of moral fiber, at least in my opinion, is during an event in which she and Appa--the groups flying bison and Aang's beloved pet, remain aboveground so that Toph can keep an underground library from collapsing on the group.
During this time, poachers attack the pair with the intent of kidnapping Appa. Toph responds by trying her absolute heart out to fight them off with TWO handicaps. First, shes spending an immense amount of effort protecting the library, and second, she's standing on sand, thus disrupting her Tremorsense abilities and rendering her even more blind than usual. Protecting both is clearly impossible, but she still digs her heels in and fights until it becomes clear that in order to save Appa she'd have to drop the library. She has to let him go, and spends a large chunk of the following episodes trying to atone for something that wasnt even her fault to begin with.
Toph is a fairly static character, but even she gets growth revolving around her learning to both rely on others and view her own internal strength in a heroic light... still picks on Sokka because she likes him though.
As a final tidbit, when describing one of her kid's fathers in the sequel series, Toph only offers him praise--specifically for his kindness, and the other male characters she crushes on she does so largely because they're kind as well. Despite her struggles to act on it herself, she values kindness (so long as its not condescending) incredibly highly.
Natsuki: Doki Doki Literature Club
Natsuki is first introduced as a stereotypical tsundere. She cant spit out anything nice without getting embarrassed, calls people mean names she clearly doesnt mean, and is all around kind of rude to the unnamed player character. Similar to toph, a lot of this comes from a place of being seen as childish and patronized. Her more simplistic style of poetry (i personally think shes the best poet in the group but i digress) and perceivably childish love of manga have left her very insecure. On a much darker note, her father is abusive and regularly starves her, resulting in her being underweight and (its implied) having a delayed puberty as well, so she looks even younger than she is.
Alongside her desire to be taken seriously, Natsuki heavily values authenticity and sincerity in how she and others present themselves... and the PC is lying about his intentions in joining the club--which Natsuki suspects. He's there to hang out with cute girls and possibly find a girlfriend, and any rudeness she shows to him beyond her baseline insecurity is completely justified.
Despite this, Natsuki is the most authentic member of the group, and is actually incredibly reasonable. As Monika (who is insane for plot reasons) gradually drives the other two girls, Sayori and Yuri increasingly insane by cranking up the dial on their worst traits (Sayori's clinical depression and Yuri's obsessiveness and inclination towards self harm), Natsuki remains relatively stable. She becomes far more cruel in her comments and insults, but even at the group's absolute worst, she desperately pleads with the PC--who she doesnt even trust--to do whatever he can to help Yuri, who at this point has been told Natsuki to off herself to her face. Even when Yuri is at her most hostile and Monika is acting like a psychopath, Natsuki is empathetic enough to know that this isnt who either of them are and that they need help--which displays a staggering amount of maturity from the character who initially seemed the least mature.
Si: Arknights Endfield
Si is effectively an immortal demigod... who happens to be only "well over a century" years old, making her the youngest of her kind by a longshot. the 13th of 12 (dont ask) VERY old siblings, Si is in a very weird place. She's described as a weird mix of a bratty teen and a cranky old lady, which makes a lot of sense in context.
See, Si is too told and too powerful to connect with most normal people, as anyone her mental age will grow out of it almost immediately, and she's already outlived many of her friends. She's also too young to truly relate and connect with other immortals, including her siblings who left her largely to her own devices, leaving her feeling incredibly lonely.
Her Tsundere tendencies come from feeling the need to present herself as a benevolent deific figure, while also having a very, VERY strong need for companionship that is going completely unmet. This combo means she often acts like she's stern and disappointed, demanding others be sufficiently courteous as befitting her station while instantly crumbling the nanosecond she actually upsets anyone she cares about... or suspects she did... or is anxious they might leave.
In terms of the player character, the Endmin, they are the one real connection she has. The Endmin often overexerts themselves, leading to them being in a medical coma for long periods of time, meaning the endmin is the closest in age and lived experience to her. theyre both deified figures who are seen as living legends, while still being people who put their connections with others as a primary motivator.
Well... the last said medical coma left Endmin with amnesia, so theyve completely forgotten Si. Whoops. She's obviously very hurt by this, even if she knows its not really our fault. She still voluntarily helps everyone that asks (and a lot of the time she beats them to the punch) and her little mini arc in 1.6 focuses on her taking the Endmin through a sort of spirit-quest (its complicated) to cure a spiritual wound they suffered. The entire time she is manipulative and dishonest, trying to get the Endmin to abandon their quest.
Her motivation for doing so is twofold. First, this quest poses a genuine threat to her friend's wellbeing (the equivalent of running a diagnostic on them nearly fucking kills the Endmin), but also because... well... we fucking asked her to. This entire quest was Pre-amnesia Endmins idea as both a test of your resolve, and as a chance for you to choose a different path if this wasnt what you wanted.
Si didnt want to put you through this, but does so anyways because both past and present you insist on it.
Even outside of the arc, all of her interactions have her being mildly rude or annoying at worst, and reading between the lines on basically... anything she says to you translates as "You're really important to me; i'm still important to you, right?"
When another character offers his assistance in your quest, she rudely brushes him off despite him approaching with perfect etiquette, writing him off as an "unnecessary nuisance" using even a single synapse will decipher that what she really means is "he's interrupting my time with you."
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Si's honestly probably my favorite example of a Tsundere because i never once felt like she went too far or was being that way for no reason. She's an awful liar so no matter what she actually says, the player can always see through her like freshly cleaned glass. It keeps her in the territory the game wants her to be in (endearing). obviously everyone measures these things differently but i found her adorable
That is a core element of the tsundere trope. If a tsundere doesn’t have a reason for initially being cold or defensive towards the protagonist, that character’s either not a tsundere or an extremely watered down version of a tsundere.
I hate this trend of people who don't actually know tropes using their favorite characters as examples of "subverting" the trope just because they want their faves to be unique, even though they're really not.
OP doesn't even know that the original definition of a tsundere was a character who started hostile or mean to the MC but gradually mellowed out over time until they only showed affection and no hostility at all. ALL tsunderes need to be genuinely loving and caring once you get to befriend them. If they aren't, that simply is not a tsundere by definition.
Natsuki is a G she was the only one who was aware something weird was happening during act 2, and actively tried to warn you about Monika. She is also cute
Her family was both demanding and distant at the same time. She was taught to evaluate people for their usefulness and to always consider what others would think. When she falls in love, she's a prideful perfectionist who overthinks everything.
Miles Edgeworth, from Ace Attorney, witnessed his father’s death at a young age and blamed himself for it; his new father instilled in him the idea that he had to be perfect and never show any weakness.
asuka from evangelion - one of the things we see the most with her in the series is that she has a lot of love to give to people she keeps pushing away and doesnt know how to process that, one of the reoccuring parts is that she kinda has a crush on shinji (being the only teenage boy who can possibly understand her situation) causing her to target him specifically.
unfortunately for her, asuka is deeply traumatized due to being the one to find her mother's suicide as a toddler and blaming herself for it since. which is actually a pretty understandable reason for a teenage girl, who is also under literally the most pressure in the world, to not know how to process love correctly considering most teenagers don't know how to process emotions in the first place.
Seriously now, in the original anime she is hands down just as well written as Shinji in my opinion and is the most interesting character there.
Some people argue she isn't a Tsudnere but I would argue she does fit that, just because she never gets a chance to properly open up doesn't change the fact that the point is that deep down she is a loving person who needs help.
In a way... the fact that she doesn't get that chance kind of fits with the Eva theme, if you think about it. All of the characters get cut short, that's part of the horror of it all.
Combine that with her desire for independence (nobody can abandon me like my dead mom if I don't rely on anyone), and a general teenage desire to be a grown-up, and WA LA you've got a perfect explanation for why Asuka acts like that.
Honestly i love the whole cast of evangelion they’re messed up in so many ways but anno cooked with the writing for each of them and why they act the way they do
Unless its a parody/satire, I feel this is just par for the course of this trope? Down to “dere” essentially meaning their loving side.
Most tsuunderes have some “tragic” backstory or rationale on why they act tsun. Just where that rationale is justifiable or understandable enough, or if the inuniverse reactions to the “tsun” is reasonable usually determines when the trope is done well.
haruka sakura, wind breaker. not only is he a delinquent, but its very clear from the get go to everyone with eyes that this boy suffered a lot, and all he wants to do is be connected to others. hes a good natured, honest kid, and his "harsh" behavior isnt actually all that because he doesnt bluff his way out of... anything. ever.
he doesnt beat any of his friends up, he doesnt insult them at all, not even once. hes just so used to be alone that it quite literally takes a whole town to get him to trust others. hes just a stray little cat who will hiss at you for looking at him but then will get close to you if you offered him a treat or food.
That's how tsundere are. There are not exceptions. The cases of Tsundere being outright assholes are NOT tsundere. That's probably another archetype like Tsuntsun or something like that. Don't get it mixed, a tsundere is a loving person but they seem harsh on the outside.
Your classic foul mouthed tsundere who doesn't let you come close to her until she doesn't try (failing miserably) to punch your guts out. However, She was very shy when she was little and she opened to others thanks to a friend of her... Who got heavily bullied. So she tried to help her only to realize that she was being bullied by the same people she trusted, so she's always been doubtful of others since then. Oh, and she hates dirty jokes.
Her home life sucks, she's insecure about her appearance and abilities, and she's lonely. She loves her best friend Minorin and her crush Kitamura, and as the show goes on, she grows to love Ryuji and to appreciate Ami as well.
nah, shes just an abusive asshole & the one who ruined "tsundere" as an archetype. miss maam's entire existence in the anime can be summarized as beating up the ml for breathing next to her & being a decent guy to her.
i watched the anime, i would Not describe her as a sweetheart. it made me rage quit because nobody took her genuine physical abuse of ryuji seriously. "she loves him!" and yet she treated him like absolute garbage for 99% of the anime, despite him doing nothing to warrant it — he was the one who reached out to her & befriended her first and was genuinely nothing but nice & kind to her throughout the story.
so yeah, sorry but i disagree: shes an abusive dickhead to ryuji & was the one who ruined the entire archetype.
nah, toradora is a great anime, and i say that as someone who doesn't really watch anime all that much. one of my faves, think you just take things too seriously.
sorry i dont like "she hurts him so she must be in love with him" shit. i didnt like it when i was 9 years old, and i certainly dont like it at my current age.
if you like it, you do you. im just saying taiga isnt a tsundere.
Mythra from Xenoblade comes off as kind of a jerk when you first meet her, but she's an absolute softy underneath. She wants to be friendly and clingy with her love interest Rex (though pointing that out to her is how you get this gif) but the last time she opened herself up to people and let herself get close she kind of, uh, accidental nuked a country with her power in a fit of grief fuelled madness and killed them all along with thousands of others. Understandably she's a little traumatised by that and doesn't want to get close to people because she doesn't want to hurt them.
I'm sorry but sometimes I don't understand anime, why do the 3 examples look 12? Are they actually preteen characters? How old are they supposed to be?
toph is a preteen in the example op used, yes; natsuki is a teenager; si just falls into the "anime same face syndrome" curse since arknights endfield is a gacha-factory building game, so its pretty much anime-adjacent.
nobody is allowed to look old in anime, especially women.
well, toph is 12, literally. Natsuki is a teenager with delayed development from malnourishment (technically, she is 18. however, its messy because the metanarrative is that its all a simulation and some real girl is forced into the natsuki character), and Si is, as i said, 100+ by our standards but fairly young for her species
For the majority of the story she is a huge tsundere towards Yu Ishigami because 1. She has unrealistic vision of the world, she's a prude paladin and 2. A long time ago Ishigami seriously hurt her and pushed her away when she wanted to help, so she was bearing a grudge.
But the more time they spend in the student council together, the more Iino is starting to fall for him and let go of her former beliefs.
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u/Familiar-Tomorrow-42 4h ago
That is a core element of the tsundere trope. If a tsundere doesn’t have a reason for initially being cold or defensive towards the protagonist, that character’s either not a tsundere or an extremely watered down version of a tsundere.