Best Yandere Male Anime Characters

There is a thin line between sweet and psychotic, and Yandere characters often switch between these two polarities. In anime, every one of these characters at first introduces themselves as shy and weak. However, if the person they’re interested in is approached by anyone, they will transform into a sadistic and extremely violent person.

Typically, a Yandere adopts this character for two reasons; either they were born with mental instability, or they were changed by a traumatic experience. When it comes to the best Yandere characters, it’s hard to top the people on this list.

Updated on October 15, 2024, by Mark Sammut: The article has been updated with specs for each anime, along with a new addition highlighting a popular anime villain who showcases Yandere traits.

11 Rolo Lamperouge (Code Geass: Lelouch Of The Rebellion R2)

The One Brother For Lelouch

Rolo is the antagonist and half-brother of Lelouch Lamperouge in Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2. Like a typical Yandere, Rolo Lamperouge seems like a nice and innocent boy. However, it is only a facade to hide his true personality, which is cold and ruthless. At first, he pretends to like his brother but later starts to care about Lelouch to the point of obsession.

Rolo got so possessive that he wanted to eliminate the rest of Lelouch’s siblings so he could be his only brother. To make his point clear, he cold-heartedly murders Shirley just because the girl wanted to help Nunnally reunite with Lelouch.

10 Toma (Amnesia)

Heroine In A Cage

Toma is usually a calm and collected character in Amnesia. He often treats the heroine and Shin as his family and deeply cares about them. But in reality, like any Yandere, he has a very dark side. At some point, Toma lied about being the heroine’s boyfriend and even drugged her to make her sleep for the majority of the day to keep her with him.

When she found out about the drugging, Toma locked her up in a cage and insisted that it was for her own good. He also has the audacity to fill the cage with stuffed toys, so she can feel more at ‘home’. The character also shows some type of masochism, as he agrees to let the heroine chain him and lock him up in a cage as revenge.

9 Mao (Code Geass)

Pleasure In Causing Pain

Mao is one of the main villains in Code Geass. At six years old, he is given the mind-reading Geass by C.C. As a result of the continuous mind-reading he endures; Mao becomes mentally unstable. However, because he’s unable to read C2’s mind, he starts developing a deep attachment to her, to the extent of obsession.

Mao uses his Geass to manipulate his victims by exploiting their insecurities. Mao enjoys watching people suffer and would brainwash them to kill each other. Additionally, he likes to torment people with inhumane methods. He completely snaps when C.C. rejects him, even though he relentlessly tries to win her affection. This refusal causes Mao to shoot C2 multiple times to make sure she’s dead and that no one gets to have her.

8 Shinkawa Kyouji (Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online)

Not Great At Handling Rejection

Shinkawa is the antagonist known as Spigel (German for mirror) in Gun Gale Online (GGO). Shinkawa Kyouji is the second son of a hospital director, so he’s heavily pressured by his parents to be the successor. The school further ruined his mental state as the students would bully him often. However, instead of coping with reality, Shinkawa turns to the virtual world. He believes that being strong in the digital world will cover up his weaknesses in the real one.

One day, Shinkawa saves Asada Shino from a group of bullies and introduces her to GGO to help with her fear of guns. He seems normal at first, but all hell breaks loose after the Bullet to Bullet tournament. Spigel visits Asada to congratulate her on her win, and he confesses his feelings. Unsurprisingly, she rejects him.

This rejection causes him to attack Asada with a syringe filled with a drug that will paralyze her muscles (and eventually stop her heart). Shinkawa claims that Asada belongs to him, so she’s not allowed to get attached to other guys. Fortunately, Kirigaya Kazuto, her crush, saves her before the Yandere injects the drug.

7 Alois Trancy (Black Butler II)

Obsession & A Taste For Blood

His real name is Jim Macken, the head of the Trancy household in Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler). His younger brother was killed in a mysterious catastrophe, and because of that, Jim and the other kids are taken away as slaves for the late Trancy Earl. After a while, he makes a contract with the Spider Demon, Claude, and seduces the Earl so that he will give Jim all his properties, thus becoming Alois Trancy.

It’s hard to predict Alois’s emotions; he might be cheerful one moment and sadist the next. His butler, Claude, is the one Jim looks up to the most. This Yandere will harm anyone who steals the butler’s attention away from him, and his sick side can easily be seen when he accidentally tastes Ciel Phantomhive’s blood in a duel. Instead of feeling disgusted, Alois was drowning in ecstasy.

6 Azusa Mukami (Diabolik Lovers)

Twisted Love

Azusa Mukami is an extreme masochist and sadist who would often project his fears and traumas onto Yui, the Heroine, and simply call it ‘love’. The Yandere would often abuse Yui mentally or physically by strangling her, sucking her blood, or forcing her to eat foods she dislikes. Azusa believes that self-harm is the greatest pleasure anyone could experience and can sometimes force the heroine to participate in these actions.

It is shown later on that the vampire truly loves Yui but doesn’t know how to express his feelings without hurting her. He can portray a very sociopathic personality, which is a deadly combination with his Yandere side.

5 Vincent Nightray (Pandora Hearts)

Brotherly Love

Vince Nightray, short for Vincent, is the villain in Pandora Hearts. Claiming to be Gilbert Nightray’s biological brother since both of them were adopted into the Nightray household at a young age, he is often seen as a sadistic, manipulative character because of his twisted beliefs concerning his brother. Vincent later develops an unhealthy obsession with Gilbert and torments anyone (especially women) who approaches him.

His Yandere personality shines with how he treats his subordinates. Each time one of them performs a slight mistake against Gilbert, Vince would immensely take pleasure in torturing them with disturbing methods. If his sadistic traits aren’t Yandere enough, Vincent is also a masochist. One time, Lottie Baskerville explained how she wants to tear off the antagonist’s fingernails one by one and smear his blood. His reaction was one of excitement.

4 Kanato Sakamaki (Diabolik Lovers)

Do Not Approach Yui

Kanato Sakamaki is probably one of the most disturbing characters in Diabolik Lovers. He’s very childish, to the point where he cries loudly and throws a tantrum until he gets what he wants. Additionally, he is extremely possessive of his stuffed toy, Teddy, because it contains the ashes of his dead mother, whom he burned himself.

Because of his mother’s constant lovers, Kanato starts to perceive women as sexual beings, resulting in him ignoring Yui’s cries when he’s having ‘fun’ with her. His Yandere side usually shines when anyone tries to come close to the heroine as Kanato is willing to brutally kill and torture those who stand in their way.

3 Keisuke (Blood Of The Reprimanded Dog)

Chasing Strength

Keisuke is one of the male protagonists in Togainu no Chi (Blood of the Reprimanded Dog). He is attached to his childhood friend Akira as they grew up together in the same orphanage. Keisuke is usually reserved and fragile, which is why he admires Akira’s strength; however, when he hears about his friend’s situation, he immediately joins Igura, a battle game held in Toshima, despite him being weak.

At the end of the series, Keisuke confronts Akira and drinks two more vials of Line, a type of drug that gives unbelievable physical strength, then attacks him. In the first bad end, Keisuke shoves two screwdrivers into Akira, and the latter dies from severe internal wounds. In the second one, Keisuke injures the friend’s face, drinks his blood, then cuts open his stomach. The Yandere also drags out Akira’s intestines while saying, “I love you.”

2 Shuu Tsukiyama (Tokyo Ghoul)

An Acquired Taste

Shuu is the Gourmet Ghoul of the 20th ward in Tokyo Ghoul. Although he considers himself to be unique and classy, it’s actually messed up and merely serves to highlight his psychotic personality. The fact that he follows Misono Karube (a pretty server) home just to steal her eyeballs to sauté and eat them, proves that he’s a top-tier Yandere.

Upon meeting Kaneki Ken in Anteiku, Shuu Tsukiyama is immediately intrigued. When Kaneki’s hand got injured, Shuu offers his handkerchief to wipe the blood, then keeps it. Afterward, he excuses himself to the bathroom and sniffs Kaneki’s blood repeatedly with a delighted expression. This scene is probably the most disturbing one in the anime.

1 Griffith (Berserk)

The Allure Of Power

Berserk‘s Griffith is way too complex of a character to pigeonhole into one archetype, but he does showcase quite a few Yandere traits, exclusively revolving around Guts. As the legend of the Band of the Falcon, Griffith is motivated solely by power, which is the main thing that attracts him to Guts. At the same time, he quickly grows jealous of his subordinate’s rise in reputation and his relationship with Casca, and he takes drastic steps to regain complete control.

Like most Yandere male anime characters, Griffith is not really capable of experiencing or understanding love. Consequently, he seeks to destroy what he cannot comprehend or dominate, and he takes things quite far by triggering an end-of-the-world scenario.