Who says being quiet and sweet is just for cute girls? Anime boys can be just as alluring when they take on some of the trademark traits that herald a dandere. Often overcome by shyness, dandere boys have a great heart below the surface that takes a lot of coaxing to get out. They may not be the coolest of men, but they reward effort with loyalty and kindness.
Best Dandere Anime Boys
What is a Dandere?
Chances are that if you are here, you came here looking for a dandere boy to fall in love with and already know what one is. However, if nothing else, knowing what we think defines a dandere character can help you be more familiar with our criteria for choosing them.
“Dandere,” by definition, is a portmanteau of “danmari,” meaning silence, and “deredere,” meaning loving. It means they are quiet, but full of love.
Often and easily confused with kuudere, dandere characters are quiet, but lack the iciness or overt bluntness of their kuudere counterparts. The long and short of it is that they are just shy! When put with the right person or become comfortable enough with a person, emotions just come pouring out as if they were waiting forever to express them.
Looking For More Dere?
Legoshi from Beastars
What could be more ironic than a wolf is as dandere as can be. Legoshi lacks the aggression and predatory nature of a wolf in attitude, but instincts can’t be suppressed forever.
It is really what makes his character interesting and complex. A wolf that isn’t aggressive and wishes people wouldn’t judge him to be just because of what they think he should be.
Tamaki Amajiki from My Hero Academia
In a world of super heroes, where super heroism is ranked and often idolized, it doesn’t seem like an area where a dandere would thrive. Amajiki has magnificent powers, but the personality of a dormouse. He wishes to save others, but would probably prefer they didn’t make eye contact with him while doing it.
Still, not all heroes need to be attention-seekers, and the world of My Hero Academia might be a different place if they weren’t.
Also worth noting is Kouji Koda, a character so underwhelming in power and overwhelming in dandere-ness that he’s barely a character in the show. He’s more the standard fate of dandere super heroes if they don’t have stunning powers like Amajiki.
Deku gets pretty close to being a dandere, too. But he lacks shyness after the first few days at school.
Mafuyu Sato from Given
Boy’s love has a long love affair with more aggressive tops and shy, sweet bottoms. However, not all of the latter are dandere boys. They are often just normal characters that lack the same disturbing aggression.
Given, a show that is part of the newer boy’s love wave of anime where one character isn’t pretty much a rapist, features Sato as the more demure side of the main pairing. Instead of focusing on just romance, the plot and main relationship is driven by music. Sato becomes attached to and joins the band of a guy that offered to fix his guitar. As a normally shy and introverted character, you see Sato’s emotions more easily expressed via song.
Izumi Miyamura from Horimiya
It is not very common for the male part of a romance series to be a dandere unless accompanied by a similarly dandere female. In Horimiya, you see that sometimes a dandere boy just needs a strong personality to help build their confidence and drag them out of their shy bubble.
Frequently bullied in his school life, Miyamura learned that it is just easier to shut down. Better to be overlooked than looked at. For this dandere, he comes with his fair share of emotional baggage, but is still just a sweet guy underneath everything.
Yukiteru Amano from Future Diary
Put a dandere in a killing game, and they are immediately labeled the biggest wuss in anime. In any other type of series, Yukiteru would be a fine character. However, when you lack the gall to express your feelings and stand up to your feverishly yandere stalker/guardian/”girlfriend,” well, it turns out you aren’t so well loved.
But everyone has their breaking point, and he finds his eventually. However, even after a period of edginess, the dandere is still there.
Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama from Mob Psycho 100
There seems to be some debate as to whether Mob is a kuudere or just a standard dandere. Well, this is the side I come down on, though characters can indeed be called both. In fact, being hard to quantify just means a complexly written character, and that is a great thing.
Mob is certainly shy and certainly a very sweet kid. While he does have some very cool moments, being “cool” really isn’t his personality like it is a kuudere. In fact, much of his story is him being paralyzed in his endeavors by shyness. That’s all dandere territory.
Wakana Gojou from my Dress-Up Darling
Gojou has pretty standard dandere male character problems. He is a sweet guy, but his shyness and embarrassment for his passion serve has a huge gate that prevents him from making any friends.
However, what every shy dandere guy needs is a more aggressive friend to kick the door in on his life and open it up.
Takashi Kosuda from Yamada’s First Time
What better type of character to put beside a hyper, horned up girl trying to lost her virginity but suddenly becoming so shy about it than a normal dandere man like Kosuda? A more aggressive character archetype would have taken advantage of her and the series would be more drama than the raunchy comedy that it is.
Instead, Kosuda puts up with her constant advances, then her constantly backing out of those advances. Neither innocent heart is ready to take the big step, but both still enjoy a building love story of their own.
Tatsuhiro Satou from Welcome to the NHK
This one is a bit difficult. Being NEET is an innately selfish way of life in which you have to live off others. Being selfish isn’t typically in a dandere’s wheelhouse. However, Tatsuhiro, a man paralyzed by his own anxiety in so many ways, shows his dandere side by at least feeling bad about his way of life.
He is a sweet guy in how he interacts with others, and that’s what counts here.
Haru Yoshida from My Little Monster
Haru is kind of an odd duck for a dandere. While he can be loud and occasionally violent, traits more akin to tsundere-ism, he displays a lot of dandere traits as well.
Much of the series is about how he stopped going to school after an incident because all his classmates perceived him as a thug. Even when he is coaxed into going back, he remains shy and clinging to the girl who inspired him to return. Still, his innate kindness is in his actions, even if some perceive those actions as threats.
Shouta Kazehaya from Kimi ni Todoke
When you have two dandere characters in a romance, it is undoubtedly about to be the most wholesome experience you will ever watch, but ultimately a terribly paced romance. Danderes are not notable for expressing emotions, and when no one is there to take the first step, movement happens slowly.
While Shouta, a popular and friendly guy, is a little lower on the dandere spectrum than painfully shy Sawako, his emotions are not easily displayed. What he gives to most people is polite friendliness, not honest feelings.
Tadano Hitohito from Komi-san Can’t Communicate
Komi-san Can’t Communicate gets itself stuck in a similar situation to Kimi ni Todoke. Both romantic leads are danderes. You know what that means? Romantic progression is sluggish, at best.
Regardless, if nothing else, dandere friendships are always very supportive and very wholesome while they work up to becoming actual romantic relationships. That’s Tadano’s move – being the most supportive guy to his even more painfully dandere counterpart.
Yuu Kusakabe from Wolf Girl and Black Prince
Yuu is the complete opposite of the aggressive Kyouya, but despite this, he vies for Erika’s affections. Although she ultimately chooses the bad boy, Yuu still steals the scene as a great dandere.
He is so shy that he can barely look people in the eyes and his muttering can make conversation difficult. It makes him an adorable character, but poor romantic rival.
Bols from Akame ga Kill
Like so many dandere men, Bols covers himself up with a mask that hides much of his emotions. Despite his heavily muscled, intimidating appearance, he is particularly shy to people he does not know.
While people are often curious about what is under the mask, he refuses to remove it even though his wife insists it will not trouble people. Unfortunately for this dandere character, he is troubled by the job he is tasked with – burning villages – which causes him a lot of guilt.
Kakashi Hatake from Naruto
While Kakashi has the power behind him to crush his enemies, he is, for the most part, not a vicious person.
In trying to overcome his father’s reputation, he had to work hard, and he has had to make some difficult choices in the past, but he has never not shown kindness to those around him. Whether it was trying to protect his friends or his students, Kakashi is silent and sweet like a real dandere.
Kouta Shinohara from First Love Monster
Like most of the other males in First Love Monster, Kouta is in love with Kaho, but too shy to make his feelings clear. While silent and kind, he often hides himself behind his hair and a scarf. Underneath the bangs is a slightly effeminate face to match his slight build.
Mochizou Ooji from Tamako Market
Mochizou is the literal boy next door in Tamako Market. He is the childhood friend of Tamako and his family runs the mochi shop across from Tama-ya. Although their fathers do not get along due to competition, their children remain friends and Mochizou constantly deals with his crush on Tamako in the most non-assertive way possible.
Ren Mihashi from Big Windup!
As an innately nervous person, Ren has very low confidence in his abilities. His shyness is also compounded by a brief period of bullying in middle school where his teammates believed he was placed on the team due to his father’s past glory. While this makes him not want to play ball anymore, it is revealed that his skill at pitching is top-notch if you can dissipate the dandere-common anxiety.
Tadase Hotori from Shugo Chara!
Although his cute appearance makes him popular, Tadase is extremely shy and not good at speaking in public.
However, deep inside he still wants to rule the world, which spawns his more assertive Guardian character, Kiseki.
While asked out frequently, Tadase always reject the girls for his own sake in order to cover up his own shy shortcomings.
Asahi Kuromine from Actually, I Am
Honest and straightforward, Asashi can’t be trusted to keep a secret, which is basically the entire premise of Actually, I Am. After he finds out his crush is a vampire, he struggles to keep the secret. However, his expressions are easy to read, although his innate shyness does endear him to a lot of people.
Shin-Ah, the Blue Dragon from Yona of the Dawn
Since childhood, all Shin-Ah wanted was a friend, but because of the legend in his village of his cursed eyes turning you to stone (which they don’t), he was shunned by everyone.
Despite this, he protected his village and lived in the deepest shadows of their cave system. After meeting Yona, Shin-Ah takes silent joy in helping her and being around his friends, the other dragons. Despite his lack of talking, his gestures often give away just how kind he is.
Atsushi Murasakibara from Kuroko’s Basketball
Atsushi defines the phrase “never judge a book by its cover”. He is extremely tall and looks pretty fierce, but in reality he a kind man of very few words. While skilled at basketball, off the court he is a gentle giant despite many being intimidated by him.
Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul
You could say Tokyo Ghoul is an exercise in breaking a dandere character and reforming them into something a lot more messed up.
Kaneki starts off as the perfect dandere – shy and bookish – and remains there throughout much of the first season. After a certain event that you definitely won’t forget, the dandere in him is all but gone. He adapts more of a personality fitting for a ghoul that needs to eat human flesh to survive.
Sakamichi Onoda from Yowamushi Pedal
Sakamichi is a shy and sweet boy that was looking to join the anime club at school, but found that it had closed down due to lack of interest. After a twist of fate, he took up cycling, becoming one of the jocks that he once had disdain for.
Like your typical dandere male, he is weak, but he is determined and kind. He is quiet, but willing to work hard for his goals. He is competitive, but never a dick about it.
Did we forget to include your favorite dandere boy from anime? Tell us all about that lovingly shy lad in the comments section below.
