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Hi all,

I am working on a VN where all the NPCs should get a relatively complex personality. For the moment I am using some of the typical western approaches like the "big five" character traits (OCEAN-model), or the archetypes by C.G. Jung.

Established in the anime-world are the -dere-types (Yandere, Tsundere and all the like). For these I only found descriptions and examples from well known series or movies etc. up to now, but no deeper explanation or reflection from a psychological standpoint.

My guess is, that the -deres are composed of three layers:
1) A common behavoir- or trait-model, similar to the popular psychological pproaches.
2) A layer specific for the Japanese culture (for example with a high acceptance for suicide as a solution strategy).
3) And maybe some aspects specific for media and postmodern pop culture, with a tendency towards extreme and/or ambivalent characters.

But how big are these parts, and how do they interdepend exactly? I am not sure if there is any body of knowledge about this topic, but if anybody knows some relevant websites or texts or research or whatever, I would be grateful for a hint.

Thanks a lot!!

Are you looking for psychological explanations of why people write and enjoy those character types? Or for why someone might act like they do, or both?

For the first one, I think a lot of the "dere" types are just exaggerated versions of traits that a lot of real people have. For instance, a tsundere acting like they hate someone that they secretly really love, or a yandere getting overly jealous and possessive - a lot of people really do act like that sometimes, especially when they're young and immature and don't know how to handle their feelings in a healthier way. So even if they're never as intense about it as the characters are, some readers might be able to see themselves in those types and relate to them. For people who are struggling to overcome some personality traits like that, they might even find it comforting to see their own flaws played out to sometimes absurd extremes, like, "Well I might behave a little bit like that but at least I'm not that bad." Or when those character types are love interests, there might also be some element of fantasy to people's interest in them, like, "I wish that someone loved me so much that they acted totally irrational about it."

For the second one, I would recommend reading The Fruit of Grisaia if you haven't already. It basically establishes most of the love interests as fitting stock anime character types through the comedic common route, and then on each individual route, examines the trauma in the characters' pasts that influenced them to act that way. Some of it gets pretty silly but I think it's generally a pretty good read that would be helpful if you want to explore those types of characters more.

Thanks for these explanations, and for the Grisaia hint. I have heard about it, but not read it. Will do so now.

It seems like my guess about exaggerations was correct. That leads me to the question: if I model my NPCs like normal people, are they able to serve the drama qualities neccessary for plot development? Or is it just easier to make them borderline-like alltogether? A lot of stuff to think about...

gamedriver wrote: ↑

Sun May 31, 2020 6:46 pm

Thanks for these explanations, and for the Grisaia hint. I have heard about it, but not read it. Will do so now.

It seems like my guess about exaggerations was correct. That leads me to the question: if I model my NPCs like normal people, are they able to serve the drama qualities neccessary for plot development? Or is it just easier to make them borderline-like alltogether? A lot of stuff to think about...

I think there are plenty of stories about "normal people" that have good plot development.

If the plot itself is going to be wacky or over-the-top, you'll want over-the-top characters. Like, I would have a hard time suspending disbelief if an otherwise "normal" character surrounded by other "normal" characters did something over-the-top and tropeish. On the other hand, writing a story that could happen to my friends and I, with characters that are based around tropes, would make the characters seem flat.

I'm not sure if I explained this right so let me know if you want me to clarify.