Monday, September 19, 2011

Tsunderes and their alleged sex appeal

"I don't understand for the life of me why on God's green earth people like Toradora other than the tsundere traits of Taiga and I sure as hell don't understand what the fuck the draws to that one. What is the hell is the draw to these moe tropes anyway? What is the draw to a girl who treats you like crap?" - Professor Otaku from his review of ToraDora.

There's a far too common theme in fiction that is easily exploitable: The tsundere. These bitchy yet soft personalities are considered to be in thing in fiction, but why are they appealing?
I'm getting ahead of myself though, let's backtrack to how this curiosity started.

Last fall I watched a show called Ore no Imouto Can't be This Cute (can't remember the whole title) and looking at all the comments on it people considered it to be the best M to A adaptation for the season... to a certain extent. So much so that it became widely popular. The story revolves around Kyousuke Kousaka, a normal plain high school student who is as average as Nami Hitou... Bazing! His life is turned upside down as he finds a DVD with a secret inside. It's a hentai game, and it's not his. The shocker here is that it's his sister's Kirino and shes a closet otaku! A rare female hentai otaku!

But that's not what I'm talking about here. There could be female otakus out there, but it's the person or their personality that we are glued to. And of course its Kirino who's the one they focused on. For you see, Kirino is called a Tsundere.

For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, and I know a few whom I asked this question to get a wtf answer, a tsundere is basically a person who has a brash yet sweet personality. Like a Sour Patch kid; Sour on the outside, but sweet in the inside. This bittersweet (no pun intended) trait has become a popular trope as it were called and a far too common theme for dominately female roles in anime. But what is it about their brambleberry-ish personality that makes them appealing?

From watching Ore no Imouto, I can see that Kirino is but a 14 year old who's a magazine model who earns money for her perverse and apparently abhorrent hobby of little sister hentai games (imouto), a grade A student and downright normal. It is when she encounters her brother where she treats him like a pile of shit. Their parents don't see it, but Kyousuke is being abused by his sister.

It is then that she sought help because having a hobby is nice, but if there's no one to share similar interests with, it would just be a dirty old man (teenager) collecting porn. So on top of keeping a normal relationship between his friends and helping his beyond selfish sister, Kyousuke has a lot on his plate.

Later on we meet Kirino's online buddies who are also otaku. Kuroneko, a goth loli wearing cosplayer who's surprisingly good at fighters and actually very pleasant if you take away the snark, and Saori a bespectacled giant who acts as a big sister figure to Kuro and Kirino who are at first bearing their fangs over their favorite anime. Ah, anime politics.

Over the course of the show, we see such laws of disbelief being shattered so much it brings a new meaning to the phrase, "whining like a little bitch till you get what you want." Not only does Kirino get a manga published for her sick little self fanfiction story, but also an anime to coincide with it. Normally it would take years and lots of money to even get it off the ground, but in this case, she gets excited, she "negotiates", she fails, she emos about it and it's up to her brother to bail her out. Towards the end, Kyousuke becomes emotionally attached to Kirino. After Kirino shows him her deep dark secret (a picture of her younger self), she starts kicking the shit out of Kyousuke to the point that she just lashes out for no reason. However regardless of the off beat sibling beat down and the "Life Lessons" he gave her for learning how to actually cope and socialize with her online friends, Kyousuke still has feelings for his sister even after trying to develop a relationship with Kuro who she thinks is a replacement for her. Why the hell doesn't he go after Manami who at this point friended the hell out of her zone or Saori because of... I don't know, tall otaku chicks need love to?

Back to the tsundere. What I (and a few I know) don't understand is why the tsundere as a personality is sexually attractive in fiction as a whole. What part of that personality brings us to our knees to the point we have to fawn and fap (in no particular order) over the bitch in sheep's clothing is the big question few ask. Like many mysteries in life, it's not easy to explain about tsundere. But I sure as hell will try.

The tsun and yans have become among the traits and tropes very popular to exploit and use as a character in fiction. For the tsuns people see potential in character development and try to help them break away from their default mood. Over the course of time as the tsun and the person whom they chose to stay with they then develop as characters in the story, the tsun becomes dere and starts to feel something for that person. At first it may seem like a bumpy road for the two, but pacing out the pavement is the reward in itself. Yan are different and opposite of the tsun. Yans feel shy and nice at first, but soon to develop violent tendencies to the point that the character they chose becomes an obsessed object. What yans do to the character are probably something you don't want to know about. Usually the dere part of the yan is shown and they are normally quiet and keep to themselves. As time goes on once they develop as a character with the person of choice, the yan becomes quietly violent and starts stalking and becomes obsessed. To put it simply, yandere is the hard mode. And for most fictional stories, the appeal of the characters are what sell the show.

The best examples of tsunderes off the top of my head would include Aisaka Taiga who is considered the queen of tsunderes. Her bitchy violent exterior lies a gentle soul in which she wishes to bring out. It takes a lot to break her out of her shell and Ryuji is the guy to do that. In her story, she likes Kitamura, and needs his help to hook up with him. Meanwhile, Ryuji likes Taiga's friend Minori who likes him to, but he's seeing Taiga for "life counseling". Then Kawashima comes in and throws a spanner as she develops something for our nice beady little eyed protagonist while egotistically still up her own asshole. It doesn't help for the fact that Voice actress Rie Kugimiya is the person to go to for tsundere roles. Kugimiya seems to always be pigeon holed to play the role. Tsun or otherwise.

Other Tsunderes include Misaka Mikoto, the Railgun from A Certain Scientific Railgun. She has the hots for Touma who is the guy who is always at the short end of the karma stick. Their relationship wouldn't be so bad if Misaka didn't have the POWER OF ELECTRICITY IN HER BODY!! And she has a comedic lesbian friend who is many ways creepy when she thinks dirty thought of Misaka. And yet again, Misaka tsuns over Touma when he's got like 30 other girls that are after his right hand (double entendre). And yes I count the clones of Misaka and the religious girls as well.
Even in real life there are tsundere cafes in which the hostesses treat their customers like shit and apologize for it. And that somehow makes money. If I wanted to be treated like shit and apologized for the food, I would go to Denny's. Tsundere cafes do exist, but are far and between in the states. Last I heard, there was a Chinese tsundere cafe in Vancouver. Lucky bastards.

And finally on the western side of the pond, we have Helga Pataki from Hey Arnold. To best describe her in a nutshell, think of Gollum from Lord of The Rings when he wants the ring of power, but with Arnold. "I hate you, I love you and yet I hate you." yadda yadda yadda, you get the point. There was even an episode that explained the origins about her obsession for the titular football head. The shrine of him that Helga made out of his abc gum that she hides in her closet however... uh... um... *points* What the hell is that?!

Maybe when all it's said and done, there really is no concrete answer to why people like being treated like shit and apologized afterwards for it. Maybe the men (otaku) like to have their balls crushed by over-powering women and feel sorry for them afterwards. As for me, tsunderes are uncommon in my world and the farther away I am from the yandere (except when I actually try and get something out of them with my head still intact), the better. If you know anything or would like to add to the appeal of the tsunderes or yanderes, feel free to email me @rarefindit@gmail.com, or post in the comments below. Now Yangires, I'm staying the crap away. I mean who the hell finds cute crazy and psycho appealing? If you say yes to that, you might want to look down before you do. Something might be missing if you mess with them.