I love yandere characters and I want to love the series that they are in too but it has been hard to find one that I feel isn't written too over powered with plot armor. All the yandere characters I've seen in anime and manga have been written badly but I still stick with the whole series because of the little moments that shine.
And then I found my favorite yandere in the show called, YOU! It has both a male and female yandere and I love how careful they both have to be vs yandere in anime are hardly ever challenged with jail time or losing a fight.
In anime, we all know nothing is going to stop the yandere but in the show (and the book), YOU, the yandere has to be more creative with their kills because they aren't big and strong vs in anime where they're just suddenly skilled with any weapon they hold or having all the time in the world to stalk and kill. In YOU, they have to work around their life schedules to plan kills and not look suspicious to others.
I like the writing of the yandere better in YOU but I like the look of Japanese anime and would love if these two things can come together.
So, I thought a fun way for anime to still stay in their box of clichés without annoying me is to just simply have their yandere characters be robots.
Viewers wont question why AIs are written to be powerful because it makes sense with everything being electronic, it would be easy for an artificial intelligence to take control of everything digital around you.
Viewers wont question if a robot can win a fist fight ( I know some sci-fi series make their robots with cheaper materials like in Detroit: Become Human or made with organic bodies like in Westworld but for most series, robots are metal).
Viewers wont question how a Synthetic always has perfect aim or how they can know how to use any weapon with no military training. Because all they have to do is look up how to do something and then they can imitate the movement perfectly. Humans need to practice to be perfect. Robots do not. People try to not do the same mistake twice, synthetics can actually live by that.
Writing a over powered main yandere character is tolerable with an AI character vs a young teen human.
I'm not saying every series HAS to be believable to be fun but I do like it more when a series puts in the effort to be believable. I'll still check out a yandere series no matter what but I've never rewatched/reread any until I found the series, YOU. And I want more yandere stories that I can come back to again and again.
I get annoyed when a small teen girl wins every fight with every character in their world. I'm tired of anime making me roll my eyes but I wouldn't if that teenage girl was a robot instead. Explaining how she keeps winning and outsmarting everyone would be a dream for me. If a character is going to have so much plot armor, I want them to actually have the skills to earn that plot armor so it can be fun watching this yandere destroy anyone who gets in their way.
When a robot becomes obsessed with someone it would be easy for them to find out all the information they can on the person. AI's think (and communicate) at the speed of light so it takes them less than a second to look up everything you've ever posted online. Plus, robots are all by default, hacking experts. So, viewers wont question how they got certain information about their victim, it'll just make sense.
Meanwhile in anime, the teenager just has hacking abilities or was lucky enough to know a hacking expert that will help them out... Please, I need writers to stop being so lazy with how human yandere's get shit done. Maybe step one should be to not have the yandere be a teenager if you want them to have all these skills!
Another thing that comes up with an anime yandere being obsessed with a person is they will question why they feel a certain way then they are around the person.
Stuff like:
Stuff like:
"What is this feeling?"
"What is this new emotion?"
"Is this love?"
"I've never known love."
All that coming from a human always makes me laugh or cringe because in real life, people don't go all "a new emotion has been unlocked inside me!" It's like they are robots SO why not actually make those characters robots? Then it wouldn't be so stupid hearing them talk like that.
I know people do question if their love is real, in real life, but not like how anime portrays it. The way anime does it would work better coming from robots.
Human character: "Why did you use my armor to fix yourself?"
AI character: "....no data available."
(from Mass Effect 2)
Human character: "Since when do you rely on luck?"
AI character: "I'm...not sure."
(from Mass Effect: Andromeda)
I find it understandable when robots are confused when they suddenly act on emotion instead of logic. When human anime characters are confused, I find myself wishing they would get over it and move on with the plot. It's normal for people to think "Why was I so stupid?" or "Why the fuck did I do that?" but anime will have their character waste so much time thinking about it!
Anime just has their characters over analyzing their actions ALL THE TIME like a robot. Might as well just make them a robot! Robots over analyze everything and it's okay with me because it's what they do. AIs "grow" by learning as much as they can. They work out different simulations to see the best outcome for every situation they can think of.
So, when robots are met with an outcome they never came across in their simulations, their confusion fits their character so well. When they try to think about what went "wrong" it's not stupid because it fits for them to react that way.
Instead of trying to get the viewers to relate with an awkward human character (outcasts are overdone) who tries to connect with other people. It would feel easier to understand why a robot would have lots of awkward moments trying to connect with someone and fit in with people.
In most sci-fi series, AIs have no emotion, they imitate emotion to relate with the person they are talking to or develop real emotion slowly over time. When they communicate with humans, they have to get used to idioms, sarcasm and rhetorical questions. Because they are so matter of factly, it makes sense for them to have many awkward moments with people.
While anime is still trying to push the "this yandere character has no parents to teach them life skills" or "they have really bad parents so that's why they don't know how to deal with people!"
Mood changes visible with eyes that anime loves to do, would work nicely with robotic characters. Now, these are just a tiny extra reason why robots would work better. I have no problem with anime changing animation on the characters eyes to show their different moods. It's the reason I like anime. It's something live dramas/live actions can't do.
But an AI having obvious different "modes" for moods would work both in anime and live action.
Another thing I want to rant about is how the police are hardly used in anime stories. In one anime, it seems like the cops would be an issue for a yandere but the show made them so gullible and cowardly that they never showed up in the story again. It was really frustrating because I thought it was going to get exciting with the cops being an extra enemy but then they just weren't a problem anymore after 10 minutes...
I want a yandere anime story to have the police being a constant problem after the character has developed a pattern of murders. I want it to make sense why the character keeps getting away with it. I want to like HOW they are avoiding the police. I don't want the reason to be "simple luck" I want anime writers to put more thought into how and why the yandere is outsmarting them.
The best reason a synthetic character can avoid the police and any unwanted attention is because they can easily change "bodies" and forms and the sound of their voice. They can even instantly change locations by dumping their current body and digitally transferring to another that is miles away.
Because AIs can communicate and think at the speed of light they can be in two (or a thousand) places at once. They can be talking to people around them in one area and be killing someone else in another while also looking up online for the best spots to go on dates.
Robots would be the perfect psychopath in anime stories.
But lets say for whatever reason there is a robot character that can't or wont change bodies. If they are questioned by police, they would be calm, collected and have every answer planned out on the spot. Even when robots are on alert, their nervousness doesn't show.
Not that a human character can't be good at having a poker face and quick thinking but when every single anime gives their yandere this skill, it gets lazy. The writers might as well have a good reason for this boring skill and it should be that the character is a robot.
Also, since robots don't need sleep they have so much time to move around and hide their tracks or frame someone else for their crimes.
With anime, I find myself wondering how the hell the yandere found time to get information on someone and still have the energy to carry on their normal day when they were up all night stalking someone too. Make them a robot and I wont have to wonder anymore!
Now lets talk about robots being able to have any shape and size to where there are many possibilities for stories to explore sex with their characters. Like how the show, Black Mirror does it. And the movie, Her. It's no secret that anime can get very perverted and it makes sense for yandere shows to be perverted. A main character being love sick for someone is going to have them thinking about ways to pleasure them.
Having the yandere be a robot in many different forms can be a fun way for the writers to create sexy and perverted situations. Even problematic ones. Which is what I want in a yandere show. I want the show to know it's NOT a love story. It's a twisted story about a character who has an unhealthy way of showing their love. Which is what the show, YOU does!
Anime tires to be both a love story and a twisted story. But I wish they wouldn't do that. Don't try to give people a reason to root for the yandere. People either will root for them to win because they love villains OR they will watch waiting to see their downfall. Like horror movies, people are either watching for everyone to die or they want the killer to be stopped. Don't try to make the killer sympathetic!
It's okay to show us their sad backstory so we know why they are the way they are but don't try to make us feel sorry for them. Just admit when something is problematic and embrace it. It's what I want out of a yandere character. They don't have to be a "good person" for me to like them. It's okay for people to like villains. Villains don't need to be redeemed!
It's fun when yandere characters have multiple personalities because it can add to the tension. There's lots of ways that TV shows will try to explain why the person has multiple personalities and for the most part, it's fine. Writers don't need to try so hard to make us believe it's possible because it's already so rare and hard to believe in real life, that when a show does it, we just let it go without much thought. Like, when characters get amnesia.
But it would be nice if the explanation actually made sense and can be something that is made interesting on why characters have two personalities. AIs can fuse together with other AIs and become one. Instantly gaining each other's memories and experiences. They become "greater" every time they gain more knowledge so fusing (or absorbing) another AI with itself is a fast way to gain so much all at once.
It could be a fun thing for a story to explore for their yandere characters. A way for a robot to get character development. Even a way for the yandere AI character to battle another AI character.
Maybe a twisted, dark ending for a story can be that the AI finds a way to become one with their human obsession. The writers can make it the yandere's goal to fuse with people they consider special. Trying to achieve a final evolution in an aggressive way. Maybe it can be the yandere's last resort when the human character finds out all the robot has done and wants nothing to do with them anymore.
The yandere's way of making the human stay with them forever.
Anyways, this blog post is just me explaining my wish list in full detail for a yandere character to be a robot because it's fucking easy to explain away a lot of bullshit.
(Can hack into accounts for unlimited income to answer questions like, "how can they afford all that stuff?" and "Where did they get that random weapon?")
Many people already get suspicious of AI characters in series for just being on screen.
"Oh no, is that AI going to kill everyone later on?"
"Is that robot going to get hacked or something and go crazy?"
"The machines are taking over and killing all humans! I know it!"
"It's voice sounds so creepy and evil."
So robots may as well be yandere characters and actually earn all that fucking suspicion.
Lastly, I want to talk about why I love the show, YOU so much. The yandere doesn't just stick to one obsession throughout the series, they move to a random one that just happens to be at the right place at the right time for them. And that's something anime doesn't do. I start to think, "is this yandere character actually interesting or is it only because everyone else in this anime are so boring?"
YOU, switches up the characters in the yandere's life every season/book. It keeps it fresh and makes sense why characters haven't caught on to the yandere's crimes.
It's fun to see a character have a pattern in who they "love" and who they kill. It makes it more twisted because we know the character is fooling themselves into thinking they can actually love someone.
While in anime, the story tries to have us believe it's real love just because they only ever had eyes for one person the whole time. And then it turns out the characters were childhood friends.... I'm sick of that being a reveal!
Robot characters would fit right in with the anime world of perfect "Mary Sues".
They can be in a world where everyone thinks they're human and are in for a surprise OR in a world were AIs are normal and they just think this one is friendly.
And my life needs more male yandere characters!
