It’s fun to watch anime and pay attention to the various character archetypes that show up. Like the ojosama (rich girl) who is the daughter of an international zaibatsu trading group, who generally comes in “cute and naive” or “laughing evil villain” flavors. Or the good-natured female childhood friend who always comes to wake up the main character every morning. One of the most popular genres of anime characters of the past few years has been tsundere (TSOON-deh-reh), which describes (female) characters who are angry and confrontational one moment, then all sweetness and light the next. (The word comes from tsun-tsun meaning “angry” or “cranky,” and dere-dere meaning “heads-over-heels in love.”) Some of anime’s most popular characters conform to this classic mode, including Taiga Aisaka from Toradora!, Louise from Zero no Tsukaima and Shana from Shana of the Blazing Eyes. The cool thing about these characters is, they’re all voiced by legendary voice actress Rie Kugimiya, who has a huge following by fans around the world. This gave us the idea to honor Ms. Kugimiya with a really cool J-List original T-shirt featuring some of her characters’ most famous lines, like, Urusai! Urusai! Urusai! (“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”) or Damare! Soshite kusare! (“Shut up! And go rot!”) with a cool kanji design. It’s in stock now and ready for you to order.
Taiga from Toradora is my own favorite tsundere-chara. Who’s yours?
