Anime and manga have a storied history going back over half a century, andmany different varieties of stories, characters, and tropeshave appeared in scenes and pages during that time. One of the most famous anime and manga archetypes is that of the tsundere character, someone who is cold outwardly but hides a gentler, more loving inner self.
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Tsunderes have appeared in countless anime, and the character archetype has become a classic aspect of the anime world. Some anime have even taken to parodying the trope outright due to its constant use and popularity.
This list contains some minor spoilers
8Fairy Tail
WhileFairy Tailis primarily a fantasy battle shonen manga, it also has many moments of comic relief, which it achieves through its large variety of quirky and kooky characters. Every character has some odd personality trait that often gets used for comedic effect, such as Gray’s unconscious stripping or Loki’s constant womanizing.
As for Blue Pegasus member Ren Akatsuki, his odd personality trait is that he tends to use his tsundere personality to attract women. This comes to a head when he encounters Lamia Scale member Sherry Blendy. Though the two start to have feelings for each other, their tsundere tendencies keep them from acknowledging them. While it makes for a good one-off joke, these tendencies eventually wear off, and they get married in the future.
7Love Hina
Love Hinais one of themost famous romance anime series from the 2000s, and its heroine Naru Narusegawa is one of the most iconic tsunderes. While Naru certainly fits the bill of the classic tsundere character, she often takes the archetype’s personality traits to absurd levels.
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The manga version of Naru Narusegawa is actually a much more reasonable tsundere character, with her violent tendencies disappearing with time. However, the anime version pumps the violence up to eleven and keeps it there even when she realizes her feelings for the main character, Keitaro Urashima.
6Naruto
Naruto’s eternal rival, Sasuke Uchiha, has a penchant for being unbelievably popular with the ladies. This popularity continues even when he leaves the Hidden Leaf Village and joins Orochimaru, with the sole female member of his new team, Karin, being madly in love with him.
Karin isobsessively in love with Sasuke, but she tends to hide this fact while in the presence of others. The result is rather hilarious as Karin swivels wildly between openly denouncing Sasuke and inwardly blushing with glee over anything he does.
5Lucky Star
As a series that often discusses meta concepts and plays with anime tropes and conventions, it’s no surprise thatLucky Starhas played with the tsundere archetypebefore. Kagami Hiiragi is generally considered a tsundere by Konata due to her twintails and general personality.
In another segment of the show called Lucky Channel, the hosts actually go as far as to discuss whether Kagami is truly a tsundere. Whether they never really come up with a concrete answer, it’s clear that the series takes the usage of the term tsundere pretty seriously.
4Sket Dance
As a comedy anime, it’s natural thatSket Dancemakes fun of a variety of character tropes, archetypes, and clichés. The character Saaya Agata was initially introduced as a hardcore tsundere archetype, complete with twintails and an incredibly spiky exterior. Through interaction with the main trio, Saaya learns to let down her guard a bit, but she still retains much of her tsundere tendencies.
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3The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K.
As yet another gag manga filled with obtuse characters, it’s only natural that the tsundere archetype would eventually be parodied inThe Disastrous Life of Saiki K. This time, however, the parody is not as conventional as other series might have done, as the big tsundere character is Saiki’s elderly grandfather.
Saiki’s grandpa is a man who loves his grandchildren but prefers to uphold the image of a stern, taciturn old man rather than be the doting old man he really is. His posturing is meaningless since Saiki can easily read his mind, but it is funny to see the contrast between his words and actions.
2Uncle From Another World
Uncle from Another Worldisa fairly recent isekai seriesabout an old man returning after seventeen years of adventures in another world. During his adventures, he met an elf his nephew Takafumi easily recognized as a classic tsundere character, a fact that would be obvious to everyone.
Everyone except his uncle, who went to the other world several years before the tsundere character gained popularity. Because of that, he never noticed the cues that would have told anyone else that she was actually furiously in love with him, leaving their relationship awkward and in question.
1One Piece
With a massive story amassing over a thousand episodes,One Piecehas slowly accumulated one of the largest casts in anime and manga, with a slew of characters being introduced with every major arc. With so many characters, it’s only natural that one of them would eventually exhibit the usual tsundere character traits.
The character comes in the form of Charlotte Pudding,one of Big Mom’s many daughters. A two-faced woman who planned to betray Sanji, his earnest love causes her to fall in love with him for real. This leads to an odd situation where Pudding ends up constantly switching between lovestruck and villainous, making for one of the most hilarious examples of a tsundere in recent years.
