Deredere Meaning: What Is a Deredere?

The word every dere type starts from

In everyday Japanese, deredere (デレデレ) is a mimetic word, the kind that describes a manner rather than naming a thing. Someone who goes deredere over a crush is fawning, beaming and mushy, and their friends roll their eyes. It can be teasing: a person "acting all deredere" is being a bit soppy in public.

Anime and manga fans clipped it to dere and used it as the building block for a whole family of archetypes. Tsundere is tsun plus dere; yandere, kuudere and dandere follow the same pattern. So when fans call a character a deredere, they mean the pure version: all dere, nothing added.

Signs you're talking to a deredere

• They tell you they missed you, and they mean it.
• They're happy to see you every single time, and it shows on their face.
• Compliments come easily and often, without any embarrassment.
• They're cheerful and kind to everyone, but you're clearly their favorite.
• If they're ever cold, something is badly wrong, and it's a plot point.

In their own words

Deredere dialogue is bright, warm and direct. These are lines we wrote to show the voice:

• "You came! I've been saving up things to tell you all day."
• "I made two lunches. Obviously one of them is yours."
• "Your laugh is my favorite sound. That's not a line, it's just true."

There's no subtext to decode. What makes a deredere scene interesting is how you respond to being adored so openly.

Deredere characters

• Tohru Honda (Fruits Basket): relentlessly kind and warm, the heroine who brightens every room she walks into.
• Orihime Inoue (Bleach): sweet, cheerful and wholehearted, with a crush the whole cast can see.

Romance fiction loves the male deredere as a twist: the cold, commanding executive who turns soft and pouty the second he's alone with you is deredere toward one person only.

Deredere vs tsundere, yandere and undere

A deredere is the opposite of a tsundere: same feelings, no armor. A yandere starts out looking like a deredere, which is part of why the yandere reveal works. An undere, a rarer fan term from un, a casual "yeah," says yes to everything; a deredere has opinions and shares them happily.

Playing a deredere Story

A love interest who adores you puts you in an unusual spot: you're the one deciding how fast things go. On Teasa, Stories with a deredere lead are gathered in the Doting collection. Try The Chairman Who Asks You to Marry, where Chairman Jin Badeun runs his company with total authority and turns soft, pouty and openly desperate for your yes the moment it's just the two of you.

Ways to play it:

• Match the energy. Two people openly delighted with each other makes for a sweet, funny Story.
• Be the flustered one. Let your character be the one who can't handle the compliments.
• Make them earn it. Play hard to get and see how long the sunshine lasts.

To write your own deredere, give them a life beyond the crush, with friends, ambitions and bad days, so the affection reads as a choice, not a setting. With a free account you can DM any Character too, from the web or Teasa's apps on iPhone, Android and Windows.

FAQ

What does deredere mean?

Deredere means openly lovestruck. A deredere character is cheerful and affectionate toward the person they love from the start, with no cold act to see through.

Is deredere a real Japanese word?

Yes. Deredere (デレデレ) is an everyday mimetic word for acting fawning or mushy over someone, and it's where every other dere type gets its second half.

How do you pronounce deredere?

DEH-reh-DEH-reh, four short syllables, like the same two-syllable word said twice.

What is the opposite of deredere?

Tsundere, who has the same feelings but hides them behind irritation and denial. Some fans also name the kuudere, who feels deeply and shows very little.

Keep going

See every type in the dere types guide, take the dere type quiz to find the one you fall for, or look up other fan vocabulary in the fandom terms glossary. Teasa's Stories come in seven languages.