Flame Hazes and misanthropic medics: in defence of the tsundere
I’m not a huge fan of character archetypes at the best of times but if I had to pick one out that offers the most potential the tsundere is possibly the lesser of however many evils there are out there. Unlike the moe personality types and similar stock characters that I’ve grumbled about in months past, the tsundere concept has more going for it than the straightforward aggressive->gentle personality change or sensitivity behind a façade of belligerence. I’ll admit that these two are its main defining features, which is why many of us roll our eyes at yet another convenient blanket term to argue over. Nevertheless, it offers some things that stock characters rarely do: character development and some measure of depth.
You wanna argue with that? I thought as much
The tsundere is an extreme personality type and is somewhat over-used but it brings about effective insight into - and evolution of - a character’s personality when done right. Unfortunately I’ve yet to see the idea used much outside of the teen comedy or harem genres, which is a shame when the possibilities cover a wide range of character backgrounds and storylines (I’m not on about female characters exclusively, either). It’s also a manifestation of a character with depth; someone often suffering from some sort of inner conflict whose thoughts and feelings are, for whatever reason, not reflected in their words and actions. Both of these scenarios are to my mind interesting in themselves, and certainly shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand purely because the tsundere term is used to label a character or fit them into a pigeonhole.
The tsundere as a character evolving
In the course of the Shakugan no Shana movie, Shana begins to understand Yuuji’s way of thinking and grasp the value of human life in the process; the contrast between her reaction to his attitude at the beginning and the slightly more compassionate one at the end is actually part of her personality’s development as a result of her experiences and interaction with him. Her understanding of a Torch for instance is that of an empty shell, stripped of life but Yuuji sees the Torch state from the opposite perspective, as a life disappearing from his world.
Ignoring Yuuji’s status as a Mystes (since I don’t even know what that means) Shana has to alter her perception of what a Torch is and does when she’s confronted with an example that is every bit as human as the others she’s so unused to interacting with, and has to rethink her preconceptions accordingly. Ultimately Shana’s tsundere side is an emotionless, nameless character whose identity is defined by her purpose before turning into a person who has a bit more humanity and even a name. It’s partly a portrayal of someone learning and understanding themselves and the world around them, and also a breaking down of barriers (more on the latter in a bit).
After fruitlessly Googling for the most appropriate/comedic pic of Shana, I opted for the one that looked prettiest instead
A more simple and well-known example of an ‘evolving’ tsundere is that of Naru from Love Hina. With her childhood memory of Keitaro long-forgotten, their relationship is back to square one in that she sees him as a clumsy, perverted loser upon his moving into the same dorm. With time they get to know each other for real but she keeps the belligerent demeanour, even when her opinion for him has mellowed. It’s possibly because her opinion of him has mellowed that she tries to convince herself and her friends otherwise; the problem with Naru’s portrayal is that the insight into her character only goes as far as telling us she’s afraid of showing her feelings - was she hurt in the past, or is it just part of who she is? Vulnerability is a big part of what makes up a tsundere character, which I’ll wager is a big part of their appeal with fans too: for whatever reason, quite a few guys find the ‘playing hard to get’ thing appealing.
The tsundere in breaking down the Wall
Not a Pink Floyd tribute per se, but I had to get a music reference in there somewhere. ^_^ Anyway, Full Metal Panic!’s Kaname is another tsundere-type character whose behaviour can be partly explained by insecurity and reluctance to admit her own feelings for another, even to herself. It’s also partly explained by exasperation at Sousuke’s behaviour and attitude of course: any relationship that may develop between them is being held back by his uber-serious attitude and his knack of ruining the moment by his social awkwardness or deployment of various pieces of military hardware at the most inappropriate times.
Perhaps the most entertaining thing about this particular relationship is that both are fairly similar in that they keep their respective feelings hidden away for various reasons, and would no doubt get on much better if they loosened up a bit. When characters DO loosen up and show the inner feelings, this is where the magic happens, so to speak; a fact borne out by the brilliance of the scenes in which Kaname and Sousuke are actually getting along for a change. Sadly, this wasn’t really explored too well in the first season or FMP? FUMOFFU, although in the latter’s case the characterisation was supposed to take second place to the comedy anyway.
Your explanation had better be good
To keep it gender balanced and all, Hugh Laurie’s character in House M.D. is, I suppose, a similar type, albeit outside of the anime examples I’ve used so far. Beneath the sarcastic, arrogant and insensitive exterior of the show’s namesake is a compassionate individual - after all, he wouldn’t be putting his reputation and job on the line repeatedly if, deep down, he didn’t care about the people he was treating. Watching those around him slowly but surely chip away at this façade is half the fun, aside from the witty one-liners and everything else that makes the show outstanding.
The arrogance does of course also drive House to make risky and controversial decisions but when the series is in character drama mode it’s showing a character that’s tough on the outside but as flawed and vulnerable as anyone else on the inside. For the most part we don’t actually know why he threw up this barrier to distance himself away from even his closest friends and co-workers: from what I remember he was a bit of a cantankerous bugger even before his leg went bad.
In closing
When the tsundere thing is done in a sloppy or poorly thought-out fashion, it does come across as just another stock personality type to tick the boxes and get the fanboys queuing up; perhaps Love Hina’s Naru falls into that category but her warming towards Keitaro during the course of the series does actually feel more natural and convincing than some. FMP!’s Kaname and her brash, obnoxious attitude actually grated on my nerves in the first season, partly because the dynamic between her and Sousuke didn’t really change. This is I think an important fact that’s lost on some writers: keeping the character in tsun-tsun mode is good at teasing the viewer but the dere-dere breakdown needs to come sooner or later.
Because the tsundere is an archetype that shares common features with other personality types such as insecurity, inner conflict and so on, it’s not something I can see going out of fashion any time soon because these traits would be placed under the umbrella of another descriptive term instead. The original motives will vary, as will the way in which they manifest themselves, but it will in some form or another will continue to be used - although the commonly accepted examples are found in the zany comedies and bishoujo shows, toned-down expressions of tsundere traits can work just fine in realistic fiction and drama situations. Of course, as long as writers remember why viewers find a character interesting and appealing instead of taking the lazy route and aiming for the lowest common fan service denominator, I won’t mind too much.
Posted on February 16th, 2008 @ 7:13 pm
Hahaha, House is completely tsun-tsun. Well-observed!
Posted on February 17th, 2008 @ 5:29 am
I had a different reaction to Shana and FMP. In the former, I found Shana to be a bore. If she gained any more understanding, she did it in a boring way. I just couldn’t care about it. With FMP I thought Kaname and Sousuke’s adversarial relationship to be the core of the series. Sousuke can beat up or blow up anything he wants to, but he’s utterly helpless when Kaname takes him to task for it. WHACK! They’re a comedy team, and I like their act very much. I frankly don’t care if they take their relationship farther or not.
Posted on February 18th, 2008 @ 2:16 am
Interesting point. Although how do you really get away from archetypes, really? I do agree that they really need to play with a lot of them more. Granted, I’m not sure I agree about the dynamic between Kaname and Sosuke not changing over the course of the series. Unless you’re saying that there was no net gain in their relationship, and on that I definitely agree. I kind of thought overall FMP was one of those shows that was trying to be fresh by combining a lot of different genres, rather than reinventing the archetypes. But that wasn’t your point at all.
I wonder would Kusinagi from GitS: Standalone Complex count as tsundere? Or Balsa from Seirei no Moribito? And for the male side of things, how about Roy Revant from Solty Rei or Saiga from Speed Grapher?
Posted on February 18th, 2008 @ 1:45 pm
Picking up on Cameron’s point, I think one problem is whether or not ‘tsundere’ is purely a moe mode. If it is, then a character who doesn’t provoke moe evidently cannot be considered a tsundere.
But if it isn’t inextricably linked to moe, then I suppose an argument could be made that a number of ‘tough outside, soft inside’ or ‘tough at first, warming later’ characters - particularly older characters - count.
Posted on February 18th, 2008 @ 11:49 pm
@Hige: House rules. Oddly, it’s one of the few US shows that I can really enjoy…which is a shame, but I never really figured out exactly why.
@Peter S: the Kaname/Sousuke dynamic kinda annoyed me in the series but it positively shone in FUMOFFU. Taking the comedy side of FMP and giving it a full series was a wise move!
@Cameron Probert: character archetypes are funny things. Sometimes you don’t notice them unless they are the character’s principal defining feature. I don’t know really, but it’s certainly worth thinking about. The Major as a tsundere? Yeah, she certainly has that side to her, now you mention it!
@IKnight: I can’t see much of a moe/tsundere connection, although that could be because I’m not familiar with the moe thing to begin with (it’s a poorly-defined and often-misused term, which doesn’t help matters). I suppose there could be some overlap between the soft dere-dere side and the cutesy aspect of moe, but then my own view of moe is that of dependency, clumsiness and similar, which is a separate thing to me. If it is after all separate, there are a lot of other examples - I guess I’m thinking about how tsundere traits can contribute to a character’s overall personality, rather than BE the character’s personality, if that makes any sense at all.
Posted on February 19th, 2008 @ 7:19 am
Yeah, I definitely agree that archetypes are a hard thing to judge. I mean on the one hand you can’t really say that any fiction is truely “original”. I mean it’s going to have some influences from somewhere. Unless they find some kid who’s lived in the forests for the past twenty years or so, who’s managed to develop his own language system and stories… but even then who’s to say that they’re really going to be all that different.
On the other hand, you don’t want the characters to essentially be copies of other characters. But even then I’m not sure how offensive that is. I wonder if it isn’t a question of predictability. Ideally I like watching shows where the characters do stuff that surprises me, but doesn’t seem really out of character.
Posted on February 19th, 2008 @ 3:49 pm
I think followers of the Loli Trinity (Shana, Louise, Nagi) typify the connection in some minds between tsundere and moe. But like yourself, I don’t see a necessary link between tsundere behaviour and the moe urge.
Posted on February 20th, 2008 @ 3:01 am
Tsundere is a just a lazy name for stereotype charactoristics and like most stereotypes its often a clumsy umbrella. It’s quite badly abused since Asuka Langly (NGE) was used as the first rolemodel, so that now I think of it as shorthand to describe tougher, boyish girls. In that respect, boys can’t be Tsundere because they are expected to act tougth.
I think your point that Tsundere facilitates a level of depth in characters is a key point because its downright humanistic for even the most hardnosed tsundere to have a softer, private side. Tsundere are just normal people but with a tougth exterior instead of say, shy (like the contrast between the Clannad Fujibayashi Twins, Ryou and Kyou).
The MOE appeal of this is that everyone wants to become the person who the soft inner side of a Tsundere opens up to. Like if Shana acts tough and rougth around everyone else except she comes crying to your shoulder when the shit hits the fan, wouldn’t you feel special?
Posted on February 20th, 2008 @ 8:03 pm
@Cameron Probert: the question of originality is a good one I think (hell, even Shakespeare borrowed a lot of material from myths, legends and folk stories). I couldn’t agree more on how important it is to keep a character behaving ‘in-character’ without it being predictable; tsunderes by nature have to soften up or chill out sooner or later, which is a bit of a limitation. It’s not a case of if she’ll change, but when.
@IKnight: yep, the moe-tsundere connection still eludes me. I don’t understand the moe fascination, and I’m happy to stay in ignorance! ^_^ Actually, Teeif’s comment explains it quite well…
@Teeif: Well observed - I guess it’s appealing to the ‘playing hard to get’ tactic so thanks for pointing it out. NGE has a lot to answer for in character and plot cliches actually…it pays homage to a lot of the old classic shows but started all too many conventions of its own. I am still following Clannad BTW, but the widescreen versions (which look better on my laptop’s screen) are a few weeks behind! Maybe Kyou’s appeal lies in the fact that she’s the only member of the cast aside from Tomoyo who stands up for herself… :p
Posted on February 21st, 2008 @ 11:08 pm
[...] GAR entry, but in the meantime I was prompted to write this by commenting on concretebadger’s defence of the tsundere. I mentioned the Loli Trinity,¹ and began to cast my mind back to watching Zero no Tsukaima. (I [...]
Posted on April 3rd, 2008 @ 4:58 pm
[...] anime and manga nowadays, for the sum of what she was couldn’t be summed up by merely evoking that T-word, a connotation that implies nothing more than a tendency towards swaying between two emotions [...]