It’s been nearly 2 years since the launch of Yanderes and Obsession. We have finally come to the 100th post!

So far, all the posts I have made were reviews on yando characters and their respective media. I think that it is a good time now to be a little more personal and share with you the reasons that I started this site. Of course, one big reason is that I am a hardcore yando lover. But there are also other motivations which pressed me to create a site instead of simply enjoying the contents. These reasons are:

1. There are too little male yando contents, and even lesser English and English-translated ones.
2. There are too many miscategorized characters on the internet.
3. Most reviews and recommendations I read does not explore or evaluate the yando characters.

The first reason is very straight forward. There are really too little male yandere characters out there. In Japanese media, you have other types like tsundere, kuudere, dandere, and so forth. In general media, love interests can have character archetypes like the bad boy, the outgoing and kind one, the prince charming, and more. In comparison, yandere characters seems underexplored despite having a category of their own.

One reason I can think of is that yandere characters are in the more extreme end of love interest character types. Their personality makes any relationships they are in unhealthy. The fact that they can resort to violence and manipulation also leave an unpleasant taste in many people’s mouth. These contents may be upsetting to some, so it may be a reason why creators and consumers do not favor yanderes.

Still, female yanderes can be spotted around, especially in Japanese media for their sometimes comedic, often horrific, yet romantic aspects. On the other hand, male yanderes suffers greatly in their numbers. I am guessing their lack of popularity has got to do with how things are in real life. Certainly, there are a sizeable number of toxic girlfriends in reality. But truthfully, you can see many more male aggressors and abusers in relationships (I think this is especially true in some Asian countries) than females. By promoting male yandere contents in media, I can see how the people who connect what they see in entertainment and media to real life may find it triggering. This further discourages male yando content in media.

Even worse, the little amount of yandere content I can find are mostly not in English or at least English translated. As the concept of yandere originated from Japan, I saw the most amount of yando contents in Japanese in the early years. Nowadays, I see more of these content in Korean and Chinese. Some English yando has been made as well, but their volume is still relatively small. As an English speaker, I am quite sad that English male yando content is so extremely uncommon.

It is getting better now though, as more people are aware of this character archetype and are willing to explore it. Yandos are certainly not role models that we should live up to. But as long as we are aware that their content are 100% fictional and have no intention to connect them in any way to our real lives, I think it’s alright. Just like how we enjoy gruesome horror movies, violent games centered around killing, and stories glorifying villains and anti-heroes, our enjoyment of these contents does not mean we approve of them in real life. As long as we realize this, we will be fine.

For now, as it is still very hard to find male yando content, especially good quality ones, I want to record down a list of what I had came across. In this way, I can keep track of these content and come back to it in the future should I want to revisit them. Also, I believe that just like me, there are yando fans out there that have a hard time searching for these content. I hope that this site that I made can be useful to them somehow.

The second reason for starting this site is that many recommendations I found on the internet did not align with my expectations of a yando character. I can think of two explanations for this: 1) As the definition of yandos are highly subjective, what others perceive as yandos may not be the same as me. 2) Due to the rarity of these characters, reviewers ended up pulling in characters which barely fit the descriptions to buff up their lists.

If you have seen my post on my own perceptions of yando characters, you will probably understand what I mean. Briefly, I think that both yandere and obsessive characters love their love interests to an unhealthy extent. Both of their drastic actions are motivated by love. However, while the yanderes usually lack empathy, are self-serving, and mostly focuses on possessing the other party, obsessive characters are usually capable of empathy. They may be hopeful for their love to be reciprocated, or may even be extremely self-sacrificing for the sake of their love interests in some cases. Roughly, these characteristics are what I factor in when determining whether the characters are yandos.

So when I browse the web, there are bound to be some character recommendations that I do not agree with. Here, I would like to bring out some examples, so please beware of spoilers. Firstly, if you have played a good amount of otome games, you would have came across Amnesia: Memories. In this game, Toma is 100% a yandere, and I think Ikki may be considered a minor one in one of his bad ends. However, Ukyo, whom many people consider as a yandere, does not classify as one in my book. Sure, he loved the heroine so much that he is willing to die for her, multiple times. However, his crazed actions later were a result of hate, not love, for the heroine. Because of this mismatch in his intentions, which I think are the main basis for considering one a yandere, he did not pass as one for me. However, some people may have different criteria than me. I definitely understand. Still, because I want to maintain a record of yandos base on my own perceptions, it resulted in my starting of this site.

The other explanation aforementioned is that reviewers just cannot find enough quality yandos, and ends up just pulling in unfitting characters to make up the numbers. This statement may seem crude, and reflects badly on said reviewers, but unfortunately I do think it happens. I am guessing that this is more likely to happen for bigger sites that hires paid writers to do up the posts. Said writer will be under pressure to produce huge quantity of content within limited amount of time. Worse, the topics of such posts may not be within their field of knowledge. Under such circumstances, they may not have sufficient time to do enough research to write up quality posts and accurate recommendations. If you just look up “Top 10 Male Yandere Characters” or something along these lines, you will see what I mean. For example (again, spoilers ahead), some famous character recommendations that I find ridiculous are Akashi Seijuro from Kuroko no Basuke, Shuu Tsukiyama from Tokyo Ghoul, and Izaya Orihara from Durarara!!. Sure, these guy are unhinged to varying extents. But there’s certainly no element of love for them to be a yandere. So what gives?? Again, another motivator to start my own site.

The third reason for starting this site is linked to the previous one. Because many recommendations that I have read ended up being unreliable, or have different definitions of yando than mine, I prefer reviews to not just state the character, but also explore and evaluate them. This way, I can know exactly what the characters have done for them to be classified as yandos. I can also know if the yandere is the type that I prefer, or if it is worth my time before checking them out. Sadly, many reviews and recommendations that I have came across does not encompass these information. As a result, time was wasted when I ended up checking out unsatisfactory contents.

Because of all of these reasons, I have decided to make a website collating all of the yando characters that I have came across, and along with it all of the information that I would prefer in a yando review.

That being said, it has certainly been quite a journey to my 100th post. It felt like I had only created the site just recently, so I was surprised when I checked and realized it had been almost 2 years since the creation of this site.

There was a period of time that I lacked motivation to continue with the posts. As I became caught up with my work, with my hobbies, and with being lazy (this is definitely the main cause), I began posting infrequently. There was a time where I hardly post anything for a month or two, and the site was hardly alive. Truthfully, I did not know if I wanted to continue to maintain the site with its monthly cost when I did not know what will become of the site.

Ultimately, it was my undying interest in yando characters, my interest in sharing these characters with you, and the interests I had received in my posts that kept me going. I am really glad that the site continued and I was able to reach the 100th post. This milestone is an evidence of my effort, if nothing else.

Thank you for viewing the site. Thank you so much.

I have started my site mainly because of the three reasons explained in the beginning. But what keeps me going is the knowledge that there are people out there who share the same interests as me, and that my content is helpful to them.

I used to followed many male yandere sites myself. There used to be some good ones with regular posts and good recommendations, and I really enjoyed them. Over the years, many of them had became inactive. I hope that with my site, the interest can be continued for many years to come.

Phew! When I first started writing this post, I was expecting a short one. It turned out to be an essay.

Thanks again for the support.

Cheers to the many years to come for Yanderes and Obsession!