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Quotation HeartsHello... beautiful woman.Quotation Hearts R
Sai after first meeting Ino, from Naruto: Shippuden

"Sunao Cool" (JP) is a term for a character who expresses their love and affection honestly and straightforwardly, but is always cool in their behavior because of their calm and expressionless personality. At first glance you can't tell how they feel because they don't show much emotion, but their expression of love is very straightforward and even embarrassing romantic things are said with a straight face. They are someone who loves their lover wholeheartedly and are always honest with their feelings towards them, and are always cool in their behavior. On rare occasions they may express calm displays of emotions towards their love interest, such as giving them a loving smile, but unlike a kuudere character they do not possess a distinctive deredere side that is cutesy and very emotional, and they do not change the way they behave for other people. They are someone who shows their deredere in a cool way, as opposed to a cute lovey-dovey way like a kuudere character.

Etymology

Meaning of the Term

Sunao cool (素直クール) comes from the words "sunao" (素直), meaning "honest" or "straightforward (upfront about one's feelings)", and "kuuru" (クール), meaning "cool (calm and unemotional)". The word "sunao" (素直) itself comes from the word "su" (素), meaning "real feelings" and "nao" (直), meaning "direct or bluntly (being straight to the point)".[3][4][5][6]

  • Sunao = Honestly expressing feelings of love
  • Kuuru = Cool and expressionless behavior

Origin

The archetype originated in 2005 on the Japanese forum 2channel as an archetype created to be the opposite of tsundere. It was said that if tsundere is an abbreviation of "tsuntsunderedere" (ツンツンデレデレ), then the opposite of "tsuntsun" (ツンツン) is "honest" (素直), and the opposite of "deredere" (デレデレ) is "cool" (クール), and thus the archetype of "honest cool" (素直クール) was created. Rather than someone who let their emotions get the better of them and was dishonest with their feelings like a tsundere, a sunao cool was always cool and always honest with their feelings.[3][4][7]

Alternate Name

The archetype is sometimes abbreviated as "su-cool" (Su-Kuuru).[4][3]

History

Official Media

The archetype of sunao cool has been used in several romance manga and visual novels.[1][8]

The most notable instance is the 2009 harem romance visual novel titled simply Sunao Cool (JP). The story follows Tomoya Kizuka who reunites with his childhood friend Midori Takaoka, and is joined by his senpai Azami Azusagawa, and his kohai Mizuki Kamihara. All three girls are honest and cool. They are unphased by anything he says and express their affection and love straightforwardly and love him single-mindedly[2]

Characteristics

Moe Factor

Noel Niihashi from Burn the Witch 2

Noel Niihashi loving on a pet from Burn the Witch

To put it simply, the difference between the two types is that kuudere is an attribute that is excited by the gap in "state" (i.e, the way they behave), while sunao cool is an attribute that is excited by the gap in "perception". At first glance, you can't tell how they feel, but they express their love openly and honestly. While you're at the mercy of that, you're also touched by their single-minded feelings. Therein lies the supreme moe of sunao cool.[5]

Personality

General Behavior

Kokuyou Anime Portrait V2

Kokuyo's usual expression from Tsugumomo

A sunao cool character is always calm and composed and does not show much emotion. On the other hand, the expression of love is very straightforward and even embarrassing romantic things are said with a straight face. They will call their love interest cute or say lovey-dovey things while not understanding why their love interest is suddenly embarrassed.[3]

A sunao cool character behaves the opposite of a tsundere character as a principle, which means that generally speaking:[4][2][6]

  • They are always calm and collected and are generally not emotional. They do not lose their cool because they're embarrassed by their loving feelings.
  • They think and act on their own without relying too much on others.
  • Their expressions of love and affection are always straightforward and they will never act dishonest and hide their feelings. They will even say embarrassing romantic things with a straight face.
  • They love their lover single-mindedly and wholeheartedly.
  • Emotional expression is rare, but it can happen.

Development

Tomoyo Sakagami with Tomoya Okazaki from Clannad

Tomoyo Sakagami being affectionate with Tomoya Okazaki from Clannad Another World: Tomoyo Chapter

Quotation HeartsI'll make you happy, let's get married!Quotation Hearts R
Kadokura honestly expressing his love to Mai Fugawa, from Yowasarete Idakareru Kojirase Onna: Shinshi na Kare wa Sunao Cool

Sunao cool means "always honest and always cool", so they do not change their attitude depending on the timeline or a specific person. However, because they are always honest and speak straightforwardly, they are extremely destructive to the person they have a crush on.[5][6]

A sunao cool character does not "become deredere" in the dictionary sense, but rather expresses their affection for their lover directly while maintaining their normal "cool" state.[9] They are a character without two sides, so their development is one of perception. At first they seem like a cold and unapproachable character, but the reality is they they are surprisingly sweet and affectionate on the inside. They are someone who loves their lover wholeheartedly and are "dere" from the start while maintaining a cool personality.[2][6]

While they may blush slightly when showing affection or give their love interest a loving smile every once in a while, they will continue keeping a cool, mostly expressionless, face that is unphased by embarrassing things until the end and never develop a cutesy and very emotional normal deredere personality. In other words, they are a cool character who honestly expresses love and affection. They are a character who shows their amae side in a cool way.[6][7]

Derivatives

Over time this archetype grew and led to the creation of "Kuudere" (JP) as a derivative, for characters who start out acting sunao cool but eventually become deredere for a certain person. The difference between the two archetypes is that a sunao cool character does not change their attitude for another person and is always cool with no gap in personality, whereas a kuudere character loses their cool attitude and becomes cute and loving when around a certain person.[10][11] They are different things except that they have in common that they are cool, and kuudere is incompatible with referring to sunao cool characters, and vice versa.[4]

Differences From Other Archetypes

Shizuka Mikazuki from Zom 100

Shizuka Mikazuki's "cool" facade breaking after being called cute from Zom 100

Although kuudere is a variation of sunao cool the two types are also quite different and are incompatible with referring to the same character. When a kuudere character falls in love their love interest will crack their cool exterior causing them to become cute and flustered, having a clearly distinct "cool" side and a clearly distinct "deredere" side. In comparison, a sunao cool character will continue to maintain their cool composure even after falling in love. This does not mean that a sunao cool character does not show emotion, but rather that they show emotion with the same calm and controlled demeanor as before, such as a loving controlled smile. They will also say romantic or embarrassing things to their love interest without also becoming embarrassed themselves, in contrast to a kuudere character who will become incredibly flustered.

A sunao cool character could be thought of as someone whose "cool" and "dere" sides occur simultaneously rather than having a distinct gap in personality. They also do not show nearly as much emotion or lack of control as a kuudere character does when being "dere". It could be said that they act "deredere" in a cool way, by keeping a straight expression while showing their amae side and being affectionate with their love interest.

If they show their affection in a "cool" way, they are sunao cool. If they show their affection in a normal deredere way (cute, emotional, lots of blushing) they are kuudere. A kuudere character has a very noticeable difference when switching between their two vastly different personalities, while a sunao cool character remains relatively the same when being "cool" or when being "dere". In the image of Shizuka Mikazuki from Zom 100, you can clearly see her shoulders and face loosen up from her tense "cool" facade and then suddenly burst into uncontrollable blushing after being called cute by her love interest. If Shizuka Mikazuki were sunao cool instead of kuudere she either wouldn't have reacted, or would have at most gave him a controlled calm smile.[12]

An easy to understand comparison can be seen by looking at the manga series Bleach. When comparing the Kuchiki siblings, the difference between sunao cool and kuudere can be easily seen. While at the start of the series both characters appear cold and expressionless, remain calm even in dangerous situations, speak in a monotone voice, don't waste time on meaningless activities, keep their emotions locked away, keep others at a distance, act independent and self-reliant, and scold others in blunt ways (kuu), when Rukia is around her friends/love interest her personality completely changes and she starts acting cute, blushing, showing lots of emotions, being affectionate, letting others get close to her emotionally, and depending on others when she needs help (dere). In comparison, even though Byakuya has already been married to a woman he truly loves and also cares deeply for his wife's younger sister Rukia, he still remains as stiff and stoic as ever. Even when expressing his affection for his wife or Rukia, he does it a calm way and at most will give her a slight smile to let her know he loves her. This does not mean that Byakuya never shows emotions, he just rarely does, and when he does he shows them in a calm and cool way meaning he will never start acting all cutesy and lovey-dovey. In other words, Byakuya is not kuudere and Rukia is.

A comparison of Byakuya Kuchiki (top) and Rukia Kuchiki (bottom) from Bleach
Archetype Before After
Sunao Cool Kuu Kuu
Cool-Dere
(Kuudere)
Kuu Dere

Similar Japanese Archetypes

  • Cool Beauty: A term for a beautiful female character who has a calm, dignified, elegant, and confident aura. It does not simply mean a beautiful woman, but also a woman who is independent and has her own strong opinions.
  • Dandere: A term for a character who is silent and expressionless most of the time, but will suddenly become cute, talkative, and deredere when they are alone with their love interest.
  • Kuudere: A term for a character who appears expressionless and unapproachable at first glance, but becomes cute, loving, and deredere around their love interest.
  • Rindere: A term for a mature and dignified female character who normally has a cool reserved exterior, but becomes cute, loving, and deredere after getting closer to their love interest.
  • Sunao Heat: A term for a character who expresses their love and affection honestly and straightforwardly with an intense passion.
  • Sunao Surreal: A term for a character who expresses their love and affection honestly and straightforwardly, but is seen as surreal because of their strange and unusual behavior.

List of Characters

Gallery

To view all images see the full gallery

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Sunao Cool Princess Sayaka to Nangoku Oukyuu Kozukuri. Getchu (2009/12/18). “The protagonist, Yuichi Sato, is an ordinary college student. One day, he is suddenly abducted by someone and finds himself in a luxurious royal palace, surrounded by three beautiful women. In fact, they are three princess sisters from a southern country, who had promised to marry Yuichi when he was a child. When pressed by them, the protagonist chooses Princess Sayaka, who is cool but loves him single-mindedly. Thus, his life of procreation with the princesses in the tropics begins abruptly!”
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Sunao Cool (2009/05/29). “Concept: The ultimate in sunao cool. His childhood friend is honest and cool, his senpai is honest and cool, and his kohai is also honest and cool. For some reason, the protagonist, who is liked only by girls who are cool and don't care about their surroundings, has no place to rest. In many ways, the protagonist is pushed around by these cool and honest girls who don't care about their surroundings and are unmoved by anything he says. What is his fate? What is sunao cool? Sunao cool is a word that originated on the Internet. Briefly, it refers to a type of character who expresses their thoughts honestly but is always cool. They are straightforward in their expression of affection and love their lover single-mindedly. If they are all "honest and cool," won't they all be the same character? Even if they are all "honest cool", their personalities are subdivided into maternal honest cool (senpai), intelligent honest cool (childhood friend), and lewd honest cool (kohai), so their characters will not be the same at all.”
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Sunao Cool. Numan (2021/06/06). “It refers to a character who is always calm and composed and does not have much emotion. On the other hand, the expression of love is very straightforward, and even embarrassing things are said with a straight face. What is the difference between "sunao cool" and "kuudere"? A similar word is "kuudere", which refers to being usually cool but only dere at certain times, but "sunao cool" is said to have almost no dere aspect.”
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 What is Sunao Cool. Pixiv Encyclopedia (2011/04/29). “It is often confused with kuudere, who is a cool character who starts out cold and becomes dere under certain conditions, but sunao cool is a character who says what they think, doesn't become dere much, and stays cool until the end. In addition, it is easy to confuse it with a kuudere character who has a nonchalant attitude at first and becomes a dere in a certain state, but honest cool is a character who says what they think, but stays cool until the end without being too dere.”
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 What is Sunao Cool. Nico Nico Pedia (2009/01/14). “Sunao cool is an adjective used to describe a character. A person who expresses their thoughts honestly, but is considered cool because of their way of speaking and attitude. Or a personality or appearance that is like that. It is said to be the antonym of tsundere. Sunao cool is "always honest and always cool", so they do not change their attitude depending on the timeline or a specific person. However, because they are always honest and speak straightforwardly, they are extremely destructive to the person they have a crush on.”
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 What is Sunao Cool. Hatena. “One of the moe attributes, a characteristic of characters found mainly in light novels and romance adventure games. It refers to characters who "express their thoughts honestly, but are always cool". It often refers to female characters, but can also be used to refer to male characters. It is usually abbreviated as su-cool. Personality traits: Always calm and collected, and does not appear emotional. They express their affection straightforwardly and are devoted to love. They think for themselves and act on their own. They do not generally rely on others. They have a blank or expressionless face. They do not seem to be shy at all. Sunao Cool was named as the opposite of tsundere. Does Sunao cool blush? "They're not emotionless, and there are physiological changes that come with love, so it's natural for them to blush." Honest Cool and Kuudere: Since sunao cool was once lumped together under the term kuudere during its development, it is often considered a subspecies of Tsundere that transitions from "cool to dere" over time. However, the sunao cool personality does not have the dynamic nature of tsundere's "tsun to dere", and its attitude is not affected by the time axis. In other words, it is fully dere (honest) from the beginning, but its attitude is cool.”
  7. 7.0 7.1 What is Sunao Cool?. Weblio (According to the description in "Basic Knowledge of Modern Terms 2007", "Sunao cool was named as the polar opposite of tsundere. In other words, "sunao cool" means "a cool character who expresses affection honestly.).
  8. Kossetsu Shita Sunao Cool na Kanojo no Sewa o Suru Hanashi. YM Gal. “A story about taking care of a cool and honest girl who has a broken leg.”
  9. What is Dere. Nico Nico Pedia (2008/05/22). “Dere refers to a deredere attitude in romantic relationships. This word is rarely used on its own, and a compound word in the form of ○○dere is made to refer to "at first (or usually), at least in appearance, a state of unfavorability or non-romanticism for some protagonist, but as time passes or some situation occurs, they become lovey-dovey". Usually, the initial ○○ state is over time, and the dere can be glimpsed for just a moment in the process of opening up, or in the usual ○○, which increases the value of the dere. That said, there are almost no people who are madly in love with someone from the start, and not many people who can honestly show their feelings of love in front of others. For that reason, there is another attribute called sunao ○○, which does not "become deredere" in the dictionary sense, but rather expresses its affection for the other person directly while maintaining a normal ○○ state.”
  10. What is Kuudere. Hatena. “A subtype of "tsundere" that means "a cool personality, but shows a cute side (dere) when you get close to them." It is often thought of as an abbreviation of "Sunao Cool", but it is something completely different. It started in the "Sunao Cool Girl" thread on the "News Flash (VIP)" board of the "2channel" message board. Did it become more well-known because kuudere was introduced instead of sunao cool on the NHK radio program "Today is All About Anime Songs" broadcast on 2006-05-03?”
  11. How did "Kuudere" Stop Being Sunao Cool and Become a Normal Dere?. Hatena (2021/12/26). “It is no exaggeration to say that the greatest invention in the otaku industry in the 2000s was "tsundere". This is because it did not simply give a name to a character attribute, but created a boom in various tsundere-derived moe attributes, so-called "new genres". "New genres" are those that create new moe attributes that did not exist before and turn them into short SS stories. Basically, there were many "○○dere", which was a play on "tsundere". And the original of this "new genre" was, without a doubt, "Sunao Cool". Sunao Cool was not derived from any existing character, but was a moe attribute created from the idea of "tsun → sunao" and "dere → cool" when trying to think of an antonym for "tsundere". In other words, if tsundere is "being embarrassed to express affection and unable to be honest", then being sunao cool is "expressing affection honestly and without embarrassment."”
  12. What is the difference between kuudere and sunao cool. Yahoo Japan (2012/06/01). “Sunao cool was conceived as the exact opposite attribute of tsundere, which is "a character who always expresses his feelings of liking the other person in a cool and dignified manner." They don't care about what people think, and don't know know what their embarrassed about. Rather, it makes those around them feel surprised and embarrassed. Cool and Deredere live together without contradiction, and there are no two sides to it. Contrary to the fact that tsundere fascinates the duality of tsuntsun and deredere, sunao cool is something that makes you feel moe at the abnormality of the character who has no two sides of the same coin. Kuudere's representative characters are Saber from Fate and Yukihime Kuroyuki from Accel World. Sunao cool is Tomoyo from Clannad After Tomoyo. It is often misunderstood, but Rei Ayanami and Yuki Nagato are not kuudere. Rather, if you are "deredere" like Ayanami in the new movie version, you will be close to sunao cool.”
veJapanese Archetypes
Standalone

Brocon Burikko Charao Chuunibyou Dojikko Donkan Fukou Taishitsu Gag Character Genkikko Gyaru Hanahaki Disease Hetare Hikikomori Idol Ijimekko Ikemen Itazurakko Itome Character Kaiju Kitsuensha Kuishinbou Kyouai Mahou Shoujo Megane (Meganekko) Menhera (Fashion) Miko Moe Nakimushi Nijikon Ojou-sama Osananajimi Otaku Sentou Kyou Shigoto Ningen Siscon Sukebe Tennen S Yamato Nadeshiko

Androgynous

Bishounen Bokukko Dansou no Reijin Futanari Ikemen Joshi Josou Danshi Nantaika Nekama Nyotaika Okama Orekko Otenba Musume Otoko Masari Otokonoko

Criminal

Sukeban Yakuza Yankii

Dere

Bakadere Biridere Bokodere Butsudere Dandere Darudere Deredere Dorodere Erodere Gandere Goudere Gundere Hajidere Himedere Hinedere Kamidere Kichidere Kiridere Kuudere M Dere Nyandere Onidere Osadere Rindere Roshidere S Dere Shindere Shundere Sunao Cool Sunao Heat Sunao Surreal Tsundere (Deretsun Tsun-Aho Tsun-Ama Tsunbaka Tsundora Tsunneko Tsun-Pure Tsunpuri Tsunshun Tsuntere) Tsuyodere Undere Usodere Utsudere Uzadere Wandere Yandere (Yanderu) Yandere (Yankee) Yoidere Zondere

Gire

Buchigire Majigire Tsungire Yangire

Hybrid

Igyoto Juujin Kemono Kemonomimi Mecha Monster Musume (Danshi)

Other

Western Unofficial

veDere Types
Overview

Dere Types

Japanese Standard

Bakadere Biridere Bokodere Butsudere Dandere Darudere Deredere Dorodere Erodere Gandere Goudere Gundere Hajidere Himedere Hinedere Kamidere Kichidere Kiridere Kuudere M Dere Nyandere Onidere Osadere Rindere Roshidere S Dere Shindere Shundere Sunao Cool Sunao Heat Sunao Surreal Tsundere Tsuyodere Undere Usodere Utsudere Uzadere Wandere Yandere (Yanderu) Yandere (Yankii) Yoidere Zondere

Variations

Deretsun Tsun-Aho Tsun-Ama Tsunbaka Tsundora Tsunneko Tsun-Pure Tsunpuri Tsunshun Tsuntere

Related

Tsungire

Western Standard

Bocchandere Byoukidere Kanedere Kekkondere Nemuidere Oujidere Oujodere Smugdere Teasedere Thugdere

Variations

Ahodere (Western) Kamidere (Western) Kidere Mayadere (Western) Megadere (Western)

Other

Unofficial Dere Types

veSunao Archetypes
Japanese

Sunao Cool Sunao Heat Sunao Surreal

Unofficial

Unofficial Sunao Archetypes

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