Forum - View topicTsunderekko, as popular with girls as with boys?
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Boomerang Flash
 Posts: 1021 |
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Before anything else, I want to make it clear that I am talking about female characters with the tsundere character type, not the male counterpart. Having said that, I'm just going to use "tsundere" from now on.
The tsundere is not merely a moe stereotype. It is used as such, but it's far from being its only appeal. I suspect that one reason it is popular is because the characterization allows the author to introduce conflicts within the relationship more easily without having to involve external elements that are too serious. Another reason might be that it's easier to write an interesting relationship development than a more smooth and normal romance. Some examples: 1. Type 1: Maid-sama!, Special A, His and Her Circumstances These anime follow roughly the same dynamic for the lead characters: The female protagonist is an ambitious, hard-working, and high-achieving girl. The male protagonist is an apparent slacker who somehow always does better than her. Her competitive nature supplies the initial conflict, and his teasing demeanor does not help. The romance is roughly overcoming this barrier. 2. Type 2: Marmalade Boy, Boys Over Flowers, Gakuen Alice, Kodocha These differ from set 1 in that the girl is not obviously competitive. Thus, it is not because of her generally abrasive personality for the tsundere behavior. The tension comes partly from the male lead's abrasiveness and partly from the female leader's reluctance to recognize that she likes such an annoying person. 3. Type 3: Lovely Complex This is an example where the female lead's tsundere behavior comes from a simple inability or reluctance to recognize that she has feelings for the boy that everyone likes to assume she likes. Unlike types 1 and 2, there's no particularly abrasive behavior from the male lead to elicit such behavior, certainly not because the female lead is naturally abrasive like in type 1 or because the male lead has some deep and dark secret to trouble the female lead like in type 2. 4. Type 4: Aishiteruze Baby This one deserves special mention: Unlike all the other examples, the story is told from the male lead's point of view. He is the protagonist, while the female lead is at most the deuteragonist and possibly the tritagonist. They are relatively normal students, but the female lead's tsundere behavior is entirely her fault--much like in the shounen/seinen series, it's the male lead's role to help her out of her shell. So yes, tsundere--popular in general, not just as the leading moe stereotype in shounen/seinen harem series. There are actually differences in how shoujo series characterizes tsunderes compared to shounen/seinen series, but as whole, the character type is quite common. |
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TheSwedishElf
Posts: 300 |
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If you ask me, it's all one big load of bad lessons.
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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So, if I am understand correctly, you are asking if female Tsundere characters are as popular in female-orientated shows as with male-orientated works?
Hmm. Certainly the Tsundere archetype is everywhere in male-orientated shows, but I'm not so sure about female-oriented ones. Though to be perfectly fair, I don't watch a lot of Shoujo or Josei (I probably watch more than I think I watch, but still not a lot). I commend the number of examples that Boomerang Flash has provided. But when I think of Tsundere I think of a very specific personality set. I wonder if many of the examples listed are actually not evidence of Tsunderes but rather just products of more general character writing. You know, of characters that may share some traits with Tsunderes but do not actually cross the line. In my opinion, not every love-hate relationship has a Tsundere and not every hot-cold girl is a Tsundere. |
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