Best Yandere Boys in Anime

Male yandere characters 101! Heathcliff move aside, these guys will go to whole new lengths to prove their love and devotion, something that, in the context of a gripping anime, we can't get enough of. Yandere characters are intense characters often found entirely dedicated to one particular obsession of theirs, whether that is a person, object or concept. They can be portrayed as the romantic hero in anime shows, as a villain, or even both at the same time  Their dedication and devotion dictates they will not stop until the object of their obsession is theirs to own, contain and control. Unlike yandere girls who tend to be a bit more explosively violent in their rage, yandere boys might burn at a low smolder. Often composed in their stalking and their violence coming off as “just being over protective,” they can be just as prolific killers when it comes to their love.

Best Yandere Guys in Anime Shows

20. Akito Sohma from Fruits Basket

Akito could also belong in our Best Gender Change Manga Series and maybe our Best Trap Characters in Anime list as she is biologically male in the anime series - born a girl in the manga but raised as a boy - but presents as an androgenous character in the anime. A dry, brittle character, she rarely shows any sympathy and is extremely misogynistic, showing little to no trust or respect for other women. This is evident through her behaviour towards Kana, Tohru, Rin, and her mother, Ren. she gets very jealous of women who "steal" the male Zodiacs' attention. Notable examples are when she threw Rin out of a window because she was dating Hatsuharu, beating Kisa bloody because Hiro is in love with her, and guilt-tripping Kana for wanting to marry Hatori by practically blinding him in one eye. Akito is actually extremely insecure. Ren's biting words and treatment towards her really had a strong impact on her mind when she was a child, and it can be seen that even as an adult, Akito is still intimidated by her words. Let us count her here for her male identities and she/he is easily one of the more famous yandere boys out there. 

19. Clear from DRAMAtical Murder

A strange man who falls from the sky in front of Aoba, he continues to claim that Aoba is his master even though Aoba cannot recall ever meeting him before. He always wears a gas mask and can pull random objects from his pockets. Clear is a strange man, as his gas mask might suggest. A very formal person, he speaks in a very polite manner, often using "desu/desu ka" at the end of his sentences and tagging on the "-san" honorific to everyone he meets. He uses the term "boku" to refer to himself, a form of "I" usually used by younger boys in Japan. Usually, he is extremely cheerful, rarely ever getting angry, and harbors a childish and energetic personality, but he quickly becomes obsessive and deeply devoted towards Aoba, watching him sleep and exhibiting some strange other behaviours towards him.

18. Tyki Mikk from D. Gray Man

Tyki Mikk is the definition of being two-faced. His “light side” is a goofy and chilled out character who likes to gamble while his “dark side” is sadistic, obsessive and incredibly intense with a lust for blood. However, as one of the villains of the series he doesn’t show much of a love for anything, making him not quite as yandere as he is a psychopath.

17. Suboshi from Fushigi Yuugi

A Seiryuu warrior and the twin brother of Amiboshi. He is also the wielder of the secret Ryuseisui, an incredibly destructive weapon. Suboshi is very different from his twin brother. He can be cruel and sadistic, but he has developed an affectionate relationship with Yui. He expresses his love for her as the priestess of Seiryuu, and goes to any length to protect her-which can result in relentless punishment of those he believes have caused her harm. He is extremely stubborn and refuses to listen to reasons once he decides to do something. Because he loves Yui, he develops a deep hatred toward Miaka, who Yui has expressed as her enemy.

16. Light Yagami from Death Note

Exhibiting an evolution from a noble extremist into a sociopathic mass murderer in the anime, Light is the subject of much debate in terms of his yandere status. Some say that without his death note, he was a fine young man, making his transformation that of a yandere. Others say it just fed his sleeping psychopath and that he is in fact just crazy. The jury is still out on if one can be both psychopathic and yandere, since psychopaths can’t love. One thing is for sure, there is no lengths Light won't go to, having become fully obsessed with his goal and seeing it as his sole purpose to control life and death. We see him unravelling throughout the anime and driven lovesick by his sole ambition, by which everything else pales in comparison and fades in to background noise.

15. Kyouji “Spiegel” Shinkawa from Sword Art Online S2

Kyouji's yandere tendencies may stem as a result of his troubled backstory... a combination of a yandere type personality, plus a backstory filled with abuse, bullying and growing up in a pressure cooker environment of parental expectations. As a result he retreats into Gale Gun Online where he covers for his real life weakness with virtual strength. It is there he meets Shino and forms a stalker-like attachment to her, which ultimately culminates in an attempted murder-suicide...

14. Creed Diskenth from Black Cat

A deeply broken anime character with a troubled backstory, he forms a deeply disturbing attachment to Train in the anime, culminating in grisly events when Creed suspects anyone else to be having power or influence over Train, or getting in the way. He is shown to be detached from reality in the anime, convinced that Train is his ruthless partner in crime and that they were always meant to be together, and he pursues these delusions obsessively throughout the anime. He focuses on Train alone, while everything and everyone else fades in to the background and he is happy to use others as pawns in order to influence how Train sees him.

13. Grell Sutcliff from Black Butler

Like Thanos said, it is all about balance. So on the one hand you have a shy, clumsy butler. And on the other a raging Shinigami with a knack for murder. That is balanced, right? This androgenous red haired anime character is very extroverted at least, so there is little of the shy, quiet, will-never-confess-my-feelings trope present in his/her personality. I mean, they blatantly scream their love for Sebastian every chance they get. So even if you might think that they are otherwise insane, you can’t deny they have good taste in men.

12. Mikaela Hyakuya from Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign

Due to Ferid Bathory, he would witness those he cared about be systematically slaughtered before he was forcibly turned into a vampire by Krul Tepes. His thoughts of finding Yu again would sustain him over years and in the anime we see him do anything to protect him, keeping watch over him and even accessing his memories; protecting Yu becoming his sole purpose and reason for being. Although sweet and kind as a human, Mikaela became a different sort as a vampire. While primarily self-loathing and particularly brooding, there is nothing he won't do for Yu. In shielding Yu from Guren's strike, Mika could weather an amplified sword fuelled by two demons and sapped power from people, where such assaults before obliterated other vampires and generated explosive collateral damage in the vicinity.

11. Mitsuhide Akechi from Samurai Kings

Unlike other representations where Mitsuhide is cold, calculating, and dignified, in Samurai Kings he is shown as a sadistic psychopath. He is impeccably loyal to his lord Nobunaga, but is shown to possibly be the greater evil as he revels in the suffering of the people.

10. Izaya Orihara from Durarara!!

A powerful and skilled underground information broker, he usually gives information for his own enjoyment, and he claims to love the entire human race, excluding Shizuo Heiwajima. Deeply manipulative, he adores tricking others for his own entertainment and there is no limit to how far he will go. His deeds range from trolling the show's heroes online, to refusing to answer Masaomi Kida's calls after tricking Masaomi's girlfriend into getting kidnapped, and even convinced a teenage girl to try to kill herself (which she attempted, but failed because Celty rescued her and the girl lived and moved on). Izaya prefers not to do the dirty work himself, but instead likes to manipulate others into doing terrible things, often just to see what would happen.

Originally he went through life in a withdrawn state and, despite being on good terms with his peers, spent most of his time alone in the library. He preferred to be 'neither too close nor too far' from everyone around him and simply liked observing people from a distance. Things changed after Izaya became acquainted with Shinra, who invited him to start a biology club in order to appease Celty but was immediately rejected. However, it soon became apparent that Izaya had developed a certain curiosity with Shinra. He went around asking about him and soon came to the conclusion that the two were exact opposites, sparking his interest. It is events with Shinra that first inspire or trigger his manipulative and destructive nature.

9. Toma from Amnesia

Toma presents as a typical Yandere, pretty laid back and chilled, caring for both Shin and Heroine like siblings. However, when it comes to Heroine, he has a bit of a dark spot worthy of Joe Goldberg in You. At one point, his obsession boils over with him keeping her locked in his home. At first, he drugs her to get her to sleep most days away, and then when she confronts him, he keeps her locked in a cage.

8. Griffith from Berserk

Griffith's disturbingly dark character is a hot topic amongst fans, with some having reservations regarding how he is presented and portrayed. He is possessive and incredibly impulsive, leaving behind a grisly trail of carnage in the anime and making bad decisions in order to appease his obsessive nature. He does not like to lose things that he perceives as his. When Guts makes the decision to leave the Band of the Hawk, Griffith easily boils over, his resulting reckless behavior leading to his arrest, imprisonment, and torture. After later being rescued and seeing the affection between Casca and Gutts, he cannot help but literally plunge the whole world into hell.

7. Seiji Yagiri from Durarara!!

This dark anime has many a Yandere anime boy, although Seiji presents a little differently from Izaya in that he is actually capable of love. This only serves to make him more impulsive and dangerous, however. The subject of his obsession is Celty’s head, whom he proclaims to love and has obsessively loved since he was a child. This obsession drives him for most of his early life as he wished for nothing more than to run away with it, intent on finding a way to wake it up somehow. Many of the actions he takes in life are meant as a way to make himself more presentable to "her" for when it finally wakes up and he maintains a constant threat of pain and death to anyone wishing to harm the head.

6. Alois Trancy from Black Butler II

Alois is a yandere character with wildly unstable emotions and dangerous impulses, whatever he feels, he feels incredibly instensely. He is an 'all or nothing' anime character, the subjects he cares about take centre stage at the forefront of his mind, while everything else fades in to the background and bears no importance.   As a result, his behaviours are wildly unpredictable and he moves fast and loses interest quickly. Because of this, he can easily fly in to a violent rage and commit grisly acts with no hesitation.

5. Seijuro Akashi from Kuroko’s Basketball

The point guard and captain of Rakuzan High and later on for Team Vorpal Swords as well, he is the captain and feared leader of the Generation of Miracles and it's fair to say a driving force behind the team. He cares about his team mates to the point of obsession, where he becomes a feared figure and his temperment borders on insanity, to the point where he even once threatened to remove a team mate’s eye. He is a highly volatile figure and cannot stand the thought of being left behind, prepared to go to any measure to protect himself.

4. Rolo Lamperouge from Code Geass

Rolo is a yandere anime character with a powerful obsession revolving around his perceived 'sibling' Lelouch in the show. While Rolo knows full well that he and Lelouch are not real siblings, he clings to the thought with great obsession. If Lelouch orders it, Rolo will do it, even it means endangering his life or mass murdering anyone that would oppose his brother. While that is fine and doesn’t necessarily make him a yandere, the great pleasure he takes killing in the name of love does.

3. Keisuke from Togainu no Chi

In love with his orphanage friend Akira, Keisuke will follow him to the ends of the Earth and beyond. Prepared to stop at nothing to protect his beloved, his weakness turns to uncontrollable violence. His dedication knows no bounds and we see his feelings for Akira only deepen throughout the anime until they are dangerously strong.

2. Vincent Nightray from Pandora Hearts

Although younger than Gilbert by one year and raised apart, Vincent Nightray possesses a singular obsession for his brother, to the point where it can bring out the dark, unstable side hidden behind his smiling facade. At one point, he is seen walking around a battlefield gouging out eyes and cutting intestines with scissors stating that he was doing it all in the name of his brother. Reality blurs in to insanity when it comes to the intensity of feelings he has for his sibling.

1. Shuu Tsukiyama from Tokyo Ghoul

Shuu Tsukiyama might be one of the most famous yandere boys in anime, not only for his role as the Gourmet ghoul, a major antagonist of the supernatural dark fantasy manga/anime series Tokyo Ghoul, scary appearance and episodes of mental illness (depressive and anorexic tendencies), but for his insidious character underneath the dignified and sophisticaed facade he presents to others. In the anime we see him develop a dark obsession with Ken Kaneki’s flesh and blood, even carrying a handkerchief dipped in Ken's blood around with him everywhere. Now that's angsty. After all, there is no closer you can get to someone than consuming their literal fibre of being, right? 

Did we miss your favorite yandere boy from anime on this list? Let us know in the comments below!

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