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Akogare ("longing" or "yearning") is a Japanese term for pure affection between two young female characters. Occasionally, one side is denied and takes it badly. As a result, they'll hound an innocent or the hero until they need to be dealt with, or else insanity will just "happen" when they make their preferences more obvious. They might be redeemed in the end and sometimes even retain their romantic feelings, but it seems the overall message is that their unconventional love causes more trouble than it's worth, no matter how one may sympathize.
In anime this can be jarring, since fans perceive this as writers promoting a romantic outcome then trying to get out of it via this character. Sometimes the easy way out is simply to have the entire cast be female, or make this an overall character trait in a character who's already nuts. Other times it's simply rolled into the yandere personality type, which can be serious or comedic. Interestingly, this character can still be extremely popular with fandom if they hit the right sympathy buttons, if only for the same reasons a BL-friendly White Haired Pretty Boy can be with fangirls.
The trope also turns up, in an almost identical form, in Western storytelling, especially films, where it has a long history. For years censorship and societal homophobia combined to mean that lesbian characters on screen were most likely to be psychotic and villainous. In this form of the trope, the death of a lover is a common trigger for the Psycho Lesbian character to go extravagantly insane. Hays Code era requirements that villainous and controversial characters be suitably punished meant that such characters would almost inevitably be toast before the credits rolled - and this convention has persisted long after the demise of the Code itself.
The problem with the Psycho Lesbian is that it carries an ugly history, long enough that fans will complain no matter whether it's an author's rant against homosexuality or merely a (badly used) dramatic gimmick. It also carries an uncomfortable conformist subtext: go straight or go crazy.
May or may not be undead. See Depraved Homosexual for the male equivalent.
Examples:
Anime
- Chloe from Noir, contrasted with Mirelle's protective relationship with Kirika.
- Rimelda from Madlax.
- The results of Mai-HiME's Wham Episode deconstructed many characterizations, including the kind and serene Shizuru who went a bit nuts near the end. Fans argue whether this derailed her crush on Natsuki, although most related material for the series ignores the former. Shizuru's popularity among the fanbase helped boost her to major supporting character status alongside Natsuki in Mai-Otome.
- Mai-Otome itself had one in Tomoe. While most of the Coral Otomes loved Shizuru and looked up to her as a heroic figure, Tomoe was actually in love with her, and at one point attempted to kidnap and seduce her (in a decidedly creepy fashion). This, coupled with her mean-spirited attitude toward some of the other characters had turned fan support against her, though an attempt at a comedic makeover of her character in Zwei (similar to the one Shiho received in her transition from Mai-HiME) tried to soften the blow somewhat.
- Kaname and Momomi from Strawberry Panic, essentially fanservicey villains as per the skewed demographic of the show. They get redeemed later on, though.
- Rei Asaka/Hana no Saint-Just from Oniisama E.
- Ryofu Housen from Ikkitousen skirts this trope.
- Mylanda Arker Walder from Battle Athletes.
- Ran Asuka from Devilman Lady, who discovers and largely manipulates the lead character Jun Fudou, seems to be attracted to her, or at least her superpowers.
- Goldie Musou from Gunsmith Cats.
- Yoko from Hana no Asuka-gumi.
- Mika from Kyoshiro To Towa No Sora.
- Ophelia from Claymore.
- Nina Einstein of Code Geass, the cast's resident Meganekko and unapologetic racist who instantly falls head over heels in love with Eupehemia after her life is saved by the princess, so much so that she masturbates to pictures of the pink-haird princess using the edge of a table. After Euphemia's death., she really becomes unhinged, enough to head the research of creating a nuclear weapon to wipe the Japanese Race from existence.
- B-Ko from Project A Ko is a textbook example. While she is never explicitly called a lesbian, her affection for C-Ko clearly goes way beyond "pure affection," and sends her into increasingly over-the-top jealous rages against A-Ko, eventually involving military-grade weaponry and an invading alien armada (even though A-Ko and C-Ko's friendship is clearly only platonic, a point which is utterly lost on B-Ko.) For their part, A-Ko and C-Ko's relentless failure to acknowledge or even notice B-Ko's crush is probably a contributing factor in B-Ko's rage spiral.
- Magic Knight Rayearth II has the delightfully bipolar (dementedly schizo might be a better descriptor) and certifiably psychotic Nova, whose switch every few moments from sweet and childish declarations of affection to a raving engine of powerful magical destruction can be a bit jarring. Although the circumstances of her consuming longing for Hikaru and the origin of both her and her madness are rather unique and in her own case most likely constitute use of this trope as a justified one.
- Asami Hoshino from Myself;Yourself, who was so in love with Shuri that she ended up causing the very object of her affection to leave. Though not before defending her from an Ax Crazy old lady.
- Shiori in Witch Blade, although her Phlebotinum Breakdown may have helped. Then again, she was a bit messed up to begin with.
- Chikane in the Kannazuki No Miko manga. The anime version subverts this when it's revealed to be an act to fool the Orochi so she can destroy his support from within and manipulate Himeko to kill her, so they can activate the sacificial ritual to save the world without removing her beloved Himeko from existence.
- Subverted to a point in Cynthia The Mission. Big Bad Cybele is a cruel, evil sociopath who will has a tendency for cutesyness and being generally cheery and nice when she's not killing. She's also a lesbian, but there's nothing psycho about it.
- Also a subversion from the same manga, Takaya Kanae is a sweet, kind, gentle schoolgirl who has kissed more then a few girls in her day. Not psycho at all by any means... until you get to her alternate personality, Shii, who is a psychotic, evil man who will do anything to protect the innocent Takaya, while leaving her mostly unaware of his protection.
Live Action TV
- Smallville: Tina Greer, Lana's only lesbian Stalker With A Crush Of The Week.
- Mickie James from WWE started out as Trish Stratus' psychotic lesbian stalker.
- Jenny on The L Word - although given that nearly all the major characters on this show are lesbians, this is possibly coincidental and certainly has fewer homophobic implications than a Psycho Lesbian on a show full of sane heterosexuals.
- Willow in season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Willow's insanity is temporary, and the character is ultimately redeemed rather than slaughtered, making for a more benign than usual use of the trope. Willow's descent into gothy, ranting villainy is motivated by one of the Psycho Lesbian classics, her girlfriend Tara's death.
- The Dark Magics she used to get her revenge just exacerbated it all and muddled her original motivation as well.
- In Babylon 5, after Ivanova spends the night with Talia, Talia turns out to be TheMole, and begins screaming evilly before being hauled off, her original, non-evil personality completely destroyed.
- It is worth noticing that this was going to be reversed if the actress playing Talia didn't quit. There's even a unused Chekhovs Gun in an earlier episode.
- Possible example: Admiral Cain from the new Battlestar Galactica. Cain is very much psychotic, and also lesbian; however, the two have very little to do with one another. The one exception being that Cain's harsh treatment of Gina (ordering/allowing some crew to gang rape her) may be linked to Gina's betrayal of their relationship. Another less glaring example, since their relationship, amazingly, is only about averagely dysfunctional by Galactica standards, especially given that Gina's a Number Six Cylon. The least dysfunctional Cylon-human couple on the show are Helo and Athena - and he's shot her in the chest. On two occasions.
- Mary, Toshiko Sato's girlfriend on Torchwood. Granted, she was psycho before she met Tosh.
- Several characters of Cutie Honey The Live. The title character, Honey, is lusted after by another female main character, Yuki. Yuki gets extremely jealous and posessive although they never develop a romance, her insanity builds up to the point where she becomes the main villain. Additionally, another main character, Miki, initially appears to be somewhat insane (introduced in a prison, then slaughters a bunch of men attacking the prisoners; proceding to become a hero until her death, only to be brought back to life, only to be merged (in the midst of a lot of lesbian subtext) with Honey to help her defeat the Psycho Lesbian villain Yuki. That's not all, however; Mayumi, a sadist teacher who likes to perform an ambiguous lesbian sex act involving raw eggs on her students, develops a passionate attraction towards Miki, whilst fighting the heroes throughout the series. In the end, in Miki's last moments, she finally shares a kiss with her.
Film
Real Life
- Serial killer couple Cathy Brown and Gwen Graham.
- Likewise, real life multiple murderess Aileen Wuornos, to some extent.
- Pauline Parker and Juliet Hume, the latter of whom is better known as Anne Perry. Thought it's worth mentioning that it's more likely the two were just in girl-love and very, very devoted, at least according to Juliet.
- Possibly, the one and only Lizzie Borden.
Literature
- Mrs. Danvers from Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.
- Irene (and, to a lesser extent, Clare) from Nella Larson's Passing.
- Mary Whitaker from the Lord Peter Wimsey books.
- The Red Adept from Piers Anthony's Aprentice Adept books. Though Word Of God says Red is a rabid misandrist, not a lesbian. Of course, since that word came years after Red had been Put On A Bus (And he'd just revealed Brown to be a lesbian), few buy that explanation.
- This troper does, but more because Anthony has a very, very old-fashioned view of the world and the thing about "outing" Brown, and the way he did it, seems like exactly the sort of thing he'd do to correct the false impression from earlier.
- This troper is inclined to agree, seeing as Red never gave any indication of being attracted to women. Or being attracted to anyone, for that matter.
- Ditto. Quite simply, [[This Troper]] doesn't think that the idea of having a gay character of any kind even occurred to Piers Anthony when he was writing the original Apprentice Adept trilogy. Never having read Xanth, the first time I can remember him mentioning homosexuality was in And Eternity.
- One of these features as a villainess in the Judge Dee novel The Chinese Maze Murders.
Comic Books
- Darcy Parker in Strangers In Paradise operates a prostitution/spy ring and is the former lover of the protagonist, Katchoo. Darcy is prone to violent rages and is responsible for multiple murders and kidnappings.
- Purgatori, the lesbian vampire demon originally created by Brian Pulido as an antagonist for his main Stripperiffic heroine, Lady Death. She may actually be a Depraved Bisexual, having once been Satan's concubine, but all of the (semi-)consensual relationships we've seen have had her with women.
Video Games
- Both averted and played straight in Knights of the Old Republic. A female character can romance Juhani but only if she plays through the light side storyline and solves her sub quest with the light side method. If a character (likely dark side) kills Juhani, Belaya, a female Jedi she has had a relationship with some months ago, goes to the dark side to take revenge for Juhani.
Web Original
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