Top 25 Violently Possessive Yandere Boys in Anime

Unlike yandere girls in anime, which are a dime a dozen by comparison, yandere male characters in anime are a little more elusive. In many cases, male characters are made more violent in nature, so if you throw just a little bit of possessiveness in there too, it becomes a potent yandere combination.

While “possessiveness” is a trait that has kind of fallen out of style when it comes to crafting a male anime character these days, there are still a few yandere boys out there for those that enjoy the archetype.

Best Yandere Anime Boys

What is a Yandere?

Chances are that if you are here, you came here looking for a yandere boy to fall in love with and already know what one is. However, if nothing else, knowing what we think defines a yandere character can help you be more familiar with our criteria for choosing them.

“Yandere,” by definition, is a portmanteau of “yanderu,” meaning insane, and “deredere,” meaning loving. You could say it means that a character is lovesick, but it is much more than that. It is more like love with a side dish of psychopathy. A yandere is a character that is so in love that they are willing to do anything for that person or to them if it means they remain theirs.

They will do absolutely anything.

If this means killing themselves to save their beloved. They’d gladly die. If this means killing all that person’s friends so they won’t be taken away from them, then yup, those people are gonna die. If it means killing the person they love because a corpse can never leave them, then oh boy, their lover is about to be hardcore murdered.

If this is your archetype, you’ll find a woeful shortage of yandere boys in actual anime series. However, hopefully you can find one in this collection that catches your interest.

Akito from Air Gear

This character in Air Gear has two sides to him, brought out by the ol’ switching of the eye patch. First is Akito who is kind and non-violent. The other side is Agito who is pure bloodlust.

Of course the yandere side is the innocent one.

He grows so attached to Ikki after being recruited that he shows that even the innocent side can have a little bloodlust when his favorite possession is threatened. Of course, this bloodlust threatens people that Ikki actually likes too on occasion.

Urie and Shiki From Dance With Devils

You could make a very solid argument that all the members of the student council are a little yandere for the main character in this otome game-based anime. However, Urie and Shiki are two more notable examples.

Urie frequently claims possession of her and says things like wanting to hold her until she shatters. Shiki, on the other hand, has a whole song of thinly veiled rape metaphors while also threatening to kill her if she leave him.

Ryo from Devilman

The yandere nature of Ryo is on a spectrum throughout the Devilman series. Depending on the adaptation of this long-beloved franchise that you watch, he goes from overly clingy friend to full on murder hobo for Akira.

In Devilman Crybaby, the most recent adaptation that current anime fans are most likely to be familiar with, he remains rather possessive but pragmatic throughout, but you still get that good yandere taste right at the end in his fight for the world with Akira.

Clear from DRAMAtical Murder

Clear is a strange man, as his gas mask might suggest. Despite Aoba not knowing him at all, Clear insists that he is his master. As such, Clear will do anything for him.

Anything.

A special addendum, in the actual anime series, Clear isn’t a yandere. You only get to see his yandere side in the Dramatical Murder OVA which details all the various Bad Endings from the visual novel it is based on. They are all very graphic.

Shin from Fist of the North Star

Fist of the North Star is not the first series one thinks of when it comes to yandere characters, male or female. However, a goodly number of antagonists in the series have some serious yandere tendencies. While Raoh has his streak, most notable is Shin. He was once Kenshiro’s friend and friendly rival until he began to fall in love with Kenshiro’s lover, Yuria.

The feelings became so intense that he was able to be corrupted and manipulated enough to betray Kenshiro, steal Yuria, and shoving his fingers into Kenshiro’s chest until Yuria admitted that she loved him more.

Arima from His and Her Circumstances

While His and Her Circumstances is pretty wholesome much on the time, you get a little taste that the male end of that main romance is not as wholesome as the mask he wears. As the series explores his dark side, you get a little taste of his wrath and his possessiveness for Yukino.

While the series ends happily, it is pretty hard to forget Arima imagining chaining Yukino up at one point in order to keep her as his.

Naraku from Inuyasha

This is a complicated case. One side of Naruku, the Onigumo side, wants to make Kikyo his for taking tender care of him. The other side, the Naraku side that was formed from absorbing many demons, wants to kill Kikyo. Those two sides also want to kill each other for their ideals.

Regardless, both agree that Inuyasha should die, which is generally why anything at all gets done in his evil schemes.

Naoe from Mirage of Blaze

Boy’s love is a good breeding ground for yandere tendencies. While Naoe seems pretty normal with Ougi, he was a bit more heavy-handed when it came to Ougi’s former incarnation, Kagetora.

He became so enamored with Kagetora that he was prepared to end his life so that he couldn’t leave him. He also takes out Kagetora’s lover to get rid of that pesky third wheel.

Haru from My Little Monster

While a pretty cute little romance series, there are some very questionable things said off-handedly in it. While not the worst thing that Haru said, in his enamored phase, he admits to a friend that he would like to break Shizuku’s legs just so she couldn’t leave him.

Considering he has hidden ape-like strength in his small frame, it seems pretty feasible that he could too.

Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion

Imagine loving your dead wife so much that you try to end the world a few times in an attempt to get her back. Furthermore, as part of that plan, you get your young son to ride inside the reason she is dead, and also get uncomfortably close with the clone you made of her.

Gendo is real low-key about it, but he has some yandere to him.

Shion from No. 6

The yandere in No. 6 is not who you expect. You might expect that it is Nezumi, the experienced assassin and the emotional cold part of this pairing. Nope, instead is it the positive and friendly Shion.

Only a god can help anyone that even gives Nezumi a paper cut, because Shion is likely to have a mental breakdown and murder them slowly.

Shikijou from Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It

While not the first pleasant rom-com to throw in a yandere character, Shikijou wasn’t a character used for comedy as is per usual. He was used from some really unexpectedly and thematically out of place drama.

In the second season, Shikijou serves as a nice, normal guy (compared to the odd science people of the lab) to be Kanade’s love interest. She dates him causally and realizes she’s not really into him before breaking it off.

His reaction to being broken up with? Being utterly baffled about why she doesn’t love him then kidnaps her with his friends, and attempts some rape in order to make her “normal” because a “normal” girl would love him.

Suboshi from Fushigi Yuugi

While not the most chipper character in the series, Suboshi is fierce, impulsive, and stubborn, but not immediately yandere. His violent nature only appears when his younger twin brother Amiboshi is in danger. If it means protecting Amiboshi, he will kill anyone, even his fellow Seiryu warriors.

Kyouji “Spiegel” Shinkawa from Sword Art Online S2

After being bullied at school and pressured by his parents to succeed, Shinkawa retreated into Gale Gun Online where he covered for his real life weakness with virtual strength, for awhile, anyway. There within he met Shino and formed a stalker-like attachment to her. This ultimately culminated in the attempted murder-suicide that was foiled by Kirito.

Creed Diskenth from Black Cat

It is always a lot of fun when the antagonist of your series takes a break from evil deeds specifically because they are so enamored with the main character. That is the case here.

Up until anything even remotely related to the main character Train comes up, Creed is clever and full of evil schemes. However, once Train comes up, he is all about him and likely making a bee-line to his side.

Watch out anyone in his way, including Train himself, he’s likely to try and kill you.

Mikaela Hyakuya from Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign

Although sweet and kind as a human, Mikaela became a different sort as a vampire. As he was turned against his will, Mika comes to hate both vampires and humans. Well, except for one.

Mika, having grown up with him, loves Yuu. While being on different sides leads them to clash, Yuu is never in danger from him. Furthermore, Mika actively betrays his vampire brethren to keep Yuu specifically safe. As for Yuu’s friends though, they can go die for all he cares.

Izaya Orihara from Durarara!

Izaya often doesn’t like to do the dirty work himself, but instead likes to manipulate others into doing terrible things, often just to see what would happen. However, when confronted, he does have a small knife that he is not afraid to use with great joy.

It can be hard to say that Izaya is a yandere because it is often unclear if he actually loves anything at all. He claims to love all of humanity, with one exception, but it often seems like he has a bigger love affair with manipulative schemes than people.

Perhaps psychopath is a better term for him, but it can be up to you to judge.

Toma from Amnesia

Typically, Toma has a very laid-back personality, and he cares for both Shin and Heroine like siblings. However, when it comes to the nameless amnesiac main character of this series, he has a bit of a dark spot. 

At one point, his obsession boils over with him keeping her locked in his home. At first, he drugs her to get her to sleep most days away, and then when she confronts him, he keeps her locked in a cage.

Griffith from Berserk

Griffith is a man of ambition, not so much a man of love. However, he does not like to lose things that he perceives as his.

When Gutts makes the decision to leave the Band of the Hawk, Griffith kind of “loses his mind. His resulting reckless behavior leads to his arrest, imprisonment, and torture. After later being rescued and seeing the affection between Casca and Gutts, he then literally plunges the world into hell.

Seiji Yagiri from Durarara!

Unlike Durarara’s other yandere, Izaya, Seiji is often more violent in his actions instead of manipulative, for he is actually capable of love.

He is in love with Celty’s head and believes that it was attached to the body of his stalker Mika, who herself is a yandere for Seiji. However, he later finds out that this is a lie, but accepts Mika anyway while still maintaining threat of pain and death to her if she tries to harm the head he is in love with.

It is one more messy storyline in the series of messy, interesting storylines that is the Durarara.

Alois Trancy from Black Butler II

Alois and his emotions are wildly unpredictable, with his only constant being his affection for his butler, Claude. When his mood swings from his cheerful disposition to possessive jealousy, it typically results in brutally violent acts, but while easily angered, he loses interest quickly.

Rolo Lamperouge from Code Geass

While Rolo knows full well that he and Lelouch are not real siblings, he clings to the thought with great obsession. If Lelouch orders it, Rolo will do it, even it means endangering his life or mass murdering anyone that would oppose his brother. While that is fine and doesn’t necessarily make him a yandere, the great pleasure he takes killing in the name of love does.

Keisuke from Togainu no Chi

Despite a particular weakness and lack of fighting skills, Keisuke is incredibly loyal to his orphanage friend Akira. Whenever Akira is involved, Keisuke’s shyness turns to boldness. When Akira is in trouble, his weakness turns to uncontrollable violence.

Vincent Nightray from Pandora Hearts

Although younger than Gilbert by one year and raised apart, Vincent Nightray possesses a singular obsession for his brother, to the point where it can bring out the dark, unstable side hidden beneath his smiling facade. At one point, he is seen walking around a battlefield gouging out eyes and cutting intestines with scissors stating that this was not his fault because he was doing it to save his brother.

That’s just pretty standard antagonist behavior though. What is pretty abnormal for an antagonist is that the accomplishment of his overall goal means he can change the past into one where he himself does not exist, just so Gilbert doesn’t have to suffer being related to him.

Shuu Tsukiyama from Tokyo Ghoul

Like Yuno Gasai did with yandere ladies, when Shuu Tsukiyama appeared in Tokyo Ghoul, he became the definition of a yandere man to many.

As the famous Gourmet ghoul, Shuu acts like a composed intellectual with opulent tastes, but only to mask the disturbed and narcissistic man inside.

In Tokyo Ghoul, we watch as he develops an obsession with Ken Kaneki’s flesh and blood. He even goes so far as to carry a handkerchief covered in Ken’s blood to sate his desire to devour him. What better way to possess someone then to consume them, right?

Did we miss your favorite yandere boys from anime on this list? Let fans of delightfully murderous yandere anime men in the comments know.