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Content Warning! Content Warnings: Mentions of insanity, mental illness, and violence. Depictions of cartoon blood and suicidal themes. |
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Spoilers Ahead! |
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"Kichidere" (JP) is a term for a character who has gone insane and usually acts like a crazy lunatic, but whose romantic feelings toward their love interest are surprisingly cute and deredere. They have usually experienced some kind of psychological trauma during their childhood which caused them to develop severe mental illnesses and twisted ways of thinking. However, despite this side of them they will show a more loving and overly affectionate side towards their love interest. Often their love interest is the one who shows them happiness for the first time which causes them to fall in love. Their love interest will want to save them and help them to overcome their trauma and insanity. The love they have for their love interest will motivate them to continue improving themselves and slowly over time they will become a better and happier person. In some cases, with the help of their love interest they may even be able to completely overcome the trauma that caused their mental health issues and become a purely deredere and normal cheerful person.
Etymology
Meaning of the Term
Kichidere (キチデレ) is a combination of "kichigai" (キチガイ), meaning "madness, insanity (exhibiting a severely disordered state of mind), mentally ill, or lunatic (mentally ill and dangerous)", and "deredere" (デレデレ), a mimetic word for "being lovestruck (overly affectionate, lovey-dovey, not hiding one's romantic feelings)".[2][3]
While kichigai is usually translated as "lunatic", it is generally a lot more offensive in Japanese, so much so that it was banned from being mentioned on Japanese television because it can be considered discriminatory against people with mental illnesses. The use of this word makes this dere type rarely used and mentioned in Japanese media.
Origin
The term was created on the Japanese internet in 2011 to describe the character Hitagi Senjougahara from the 2006 light novel series Bakemonogatari. At the start of the series Hitagi had a habit of threatening others by using stationary supplies as weapons when feeling endangered or jealous. Hitagi later revealed that she had a close brush with death when an unnamed disease threatened her life, barely surviving the ordeal through an extensive surgery. What happened to her caused her mother to seek refuge in a cult, which eventually initiated the deterioration of the Senjougahara household. Hitagi's mother lost the family's wealth to the cult, and one of the cult's high-ranking members attempted to assault Hitagi. She protected herself by hitting him with a spiked shoe, causing him serious injury. However, Hitagi's mother took the side of the attacker, abandoning the family and leaving them with a large debt. All of these experiences during her childhood left her with a lot of trauma and mental health issues. This all started to change after she met her love interest Koyomi Araragi. After spending time together she eventually falls in love with him and they start dating. While she usually acted a bit crazy, when it came to dating Araragi she showed a surprisingly cute and affectionate side. Later on in the series she overcame all of her trauma and finally became a completely normal and cheerful girl, chuckling at small things and growing out of her habits of threatening people.[2]
History
Official Media
Ryo Yajima from Megumarenai Otonatachi
The first (and currently only) known use of this dere type in official media is the 2013 boy's love romance manga series Megumarenai Otonatachi (JP), which had the tagline "Yandere vs Kichidere: The Ultimate Love Battle, War Begins!!!!". The series follows Masamune Miji, a NEET college student, who reunites with Ryo Yajima, a bishounen he had a crush on in high school. However, Yajima has become a twisted adult (this refers to the phenomenon where a person's thoughts, emotions, or behavior become distorted or twisted due to psychological issues or trauma) due to his unbearable adolescence. Nevertheless, Miji charges forwards, using his preconceptions and momentum as weapons to try to save him with the power of one-sided love.[4][1]
Later Influences
Charlotte Pudding's difference personality when looking at Sanji from ONE PIECE
Although not officially labeled as a kichidere in the series, one of the best examples of this archetype is Charlotte Pudding who was introduced in the manga series ONE PIECE in 2016. Pudding was a hybrid human from the Three-Eye Tribe who was constantly shamed by others while growing up, including by her own mother, for being a disgusting monster. This caused her very early on in her life to develop mental health issues and a severe complex about her third eye, which she would hide away in shame. Later in the story, she is given an arranged political marriage with the character Sanji, a thought she despised. The idea of having to be with someone who would find her repulsive started to drive her insane, to the point she even tried to assassinate him before the wedding. However, when Pudding shows Sanji her third eye and tells him this is the monster he is marrying, to her surprise he calls her eye beautiful which causes her to break down into tears. Following this point, Pudding would start to develop a personality disorder, struggling to maintain control of her feelings. She constantly switched between acting insane (kichi) and extremely cute and lovestruck (dere) over him.
Characteristics
Development
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy from Harley Quinn
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While they will not immediately change after becoming deredere and will continue to act insane to some degree even after falling in love, they will start trying to keep that side of them under control for the sake of their love interest and so they do not hurt them. Their love interest will want to help save them.[4] While they may relapse from time to time, the love they have for their love interest will motivate them to continue improving themselves and slowly over time they will become a better and happier person. In some cases, with the help of their love interest they may even be able to completely overcome the trauma that caused their mental health issues and become a purely deredere and normal cheerful person, while in others cases it will be something they continue to struggle with.[2]
Personality
Kichidere are characters who have gone insane and act like a crazy lunatic (kichi), but whose romantic feelings toward their love interest are surprisingly cute and affectionate (deredere). They are characters who have gone insane but are in a normal and loving relationship.
Kichigai Side
Esdeath from Akame ga Kill!
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Kichidere have usually experienced some kind of psychological trauma during their childhood, such as psychological abuse or bullying, which caused them to develop severe mental illnesses and twisted ways of thinking. These mental health issues cause the kichidere to act insane the majority of the time. They may even display signs of self-hatred or being suicidal as a result of their trauma.[1][2]
They might also suffer from forms of personality disorders and struggle in dealing with this side of them or keeping it under control.
Deredere Side
Esdeath with Tatsumi from Akame ga Kill!
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While they may act insane towards their love interest at the start, as they do towards everybody else, after falling in love their feelings will completely change. Despite their mental illnessess they will start to show a pure overly affectionate and loving deredere side towards their love interest. Often their love interest is the one who shows them happiness for the first time in their life which causes them to fall in love and show a surprisingly cute side of themselves. Their love interest will help them to overcome their trauma and insanity, which is something they may continue to struggle to keep under control.[2]
Differences From Other Archetypes
Yandere
Yandere is very similar to kichidere since both types are for mentally ill characters who harbor deredere feelings for their love interest, but they are not the same. The main difference is that a yandere character is a completely normal sane person at first who is sweet and affectionate but will turn crazy after falling in love because their love is too strong and slowly eats away at their sanity. This is contrast to a kichidere character who will be crazy from the beginning as a result of childhood trauma or something similar but will develop a surprisingly cute affectionate side after falling in love. A simpler way to think about this is a character falls under the archetype of "kichidere" if they develop a cute and fawning deredere side after developing a mentally ill state, but fall under the archetype of "yandere" if they develop a cute and fawning deredere side before developing a mentally ill state. So in that sense the two types act as inverted developments of each other. A yandere character is "deredere at the start" and "mentally ill by the end", while a kichidere character is "mentally ill at the start" and "deredere by the end".[2]
- Yandere→ At first they start out as a normal deredere character, but then they gradually break down and become insane because of too strong romantic feelings.
- Kichidere→ Insane from the start, but their love feelings are surprisingly normal and deredere.
Kichidere characters also act surprisingly normal in their romantic relationship, unlike a yandere character who is pathologically obsessive towards their love interest and has a very heavy emphasis on the affection given. A kichidere character is also more likely to suffer from more serious mental illnesses, such as being suicidal, which is unlikely to exist for a yandere character unless something were to happen to their love interest.[2]
If we look at Kotonoha Katsura, the representative of yandere, at first she starts out as a normal deredere girl who is in love, but when she loves someone too much, she breaks down. In comparison Hitagi Senjogahara, the representative of kichidere, she's a bit of a crazy and strange girl from the beginning, but when she gets involved with the main character, she falls in love with him and is surprisingly really cute.[2]
Menhera
Kichidere could be seen as a dere type variation of menhera, at least for the more extreme crazy ones, for those who start menhera and later turn deredere. This is because the term "menhera" has largely replaced the word "kichigai" when referring to crazy mentally ill people due to the word's banning from Japanese media. The main difference of course is that not all menhera characters act crazy, they may just be very emotional or isolating.
Utsudere is also somewhat similar to kichidere, but the main difference is that utsudere only suffer from depression and walk around with a gloomy demeanor, while kichidere will also suffer from other psychological disorders and walk around with an insane demeanor.
Hinedere
It is also similar to hinedere in that psychological abuse changed them from a loving person and caused them to develop twisted ways of thinking, but the main difference is that the change is a lot worse in kichidere characters. While hinedere are abused to the point of becoming nihilistic and cynical, hiding their heart away behind a cold-hearted shell, kichidere are abused to the point of insanity. So in that sense, kichidere can be seen as a more extreme version of hinedere.
Similar Archetypes
- Hinedere: A term for a character who has a nihilistic world view and at first appears to have a very negative, apathethic, and cynical personality, but is actually very caring, loving, and deredere on the inside
- Menhera: A term for a character who is suffering from a mental illness.
- Utsudere: A term for who is normally depressed and gloomy all the time but becomes cheerful, loving, and deredere when around their love interest.
- Yandere: A term for a character whose love, admiration, and devotion to their love interest is so strong that it causes them to become mentally unstable.
List of Characters
Gallery
 Esdeath from Akame ga Kill!  Hitagi Senjougahara from Bakemonogatari  Hitagi Senjougahara from Bakemonogatari  Charlotte Pudding from ONE PIECE  Kurozukume with Akita Masamichi from Koroshi to Uso no Marriage  Kurozukume with Akita Masamichi from Koroshi to Uso no Marriage |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Megumarenai Otonatachi "Yandere vs Kichidere" The Ultimate Love Battle, War Begins!!!!. Edge Comix (2013/07/26). Archived on 2025/07/31.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 About Kichidere and Yandere. Ameblo (2011/04/27). Archived on 2025/07/29. “Kichidere is "kichigai-dere". It's a deredere for people who have gone insane. Yandere is also insane and dere, so they are the same, right? But that's not true, it's not the same. Yandere→At first they start out as normal girls, but then they gradually break down and become insane because of romantic feelings. Kichidere→Insane from the start, but their love feelings are surprisingly normal and deredere. In the case of Kotonoha-sama, the representative of yandere, she starts out as a normal girl, but when she loves someone too much, she breaks down. Hitagi Senjogahara, the representative of kichidere, she's a bit crazy and strange from the beginning, but when she gets involved with the main character, she falls in love with him. I think she's cute. She's cute and adorable.”
- ↑ What is Kichidere?. Pixiv Encyclopedia (2014/05/09). Archived on 2025/08/02. “One of the character attributes. A compound word of "kichigai" and "dere". Kichidere may seem similar to yandere, but they are different.”
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Megumarenai Otonatachi "Yandere vs Kichidere" The Ultimate Love Battle, War Begins!!!!. Yamashita Satoshi (2013/07/26). Archived on 2022/04/06.