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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 norms 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, a badly used gimmick or merely a coincidence. 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:
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Anime & Manga
- Pictured above: From Mahou Sensei Negima, we have secondary villain Tsukuyomi. She starts as a mere
Punch Clock Villain with shades of Psychopathic Manchild and a crush on her ex-sempai Setsuna Sakurazaki, but as time passes, she becomes really, *really*, creepily obsessed with Setsuna. And also seems to derive sexual pleasure from murder. And... well, just LOOK.
- In the previous chapter was a more, obvious example (where her left hand is halfway down the page doesn't help her case any either): here.
- Good catch. I never even noticed where the off hand was until you pointed it out.
- More to the point, she's also probably the only villain in the series who's totally evil with no Anti Villain tendencies or Freudian Excuse for her actions, which just makes her even more creepy than most other bad guys.
- Chloe from Noir, contrasted with Mireille's protective relationship with Kirika.
- Another interpretation views Mireille and Kirika's relationship as a more positive form of homoerotiscism, thus as a pendant to Chloe's behaviour.
- Dark Action Girl Rimelda Jorg 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, though she can also be seen as a female Depraved Bisexual.
- 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 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-haired princess using the edge of a table. After Euphemia's death., the girl really becomes unhinged, enough to let Prince Schneizel recruit her into becoming a part of a research project that creates a nuclear weapon to wipe the Japanese Race from existence. She gets over her madness and her racism, though. Not that the Unpleasable Fanbase (or at least a part of it) aknowledges it. And not before having another Freak Out as she sees what her bomb can do...
- B-Ko Daitokuji 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. By the last two movies in the original setting, though, she could be called a "Psycho Bisexual", as she immediately "falls in love" with the same handsome biker that A-ko has her heart set on. Of course, that could just be her taking rivalry to the extreme, and/or reflect her intense envy of A-ko. Ironically, her dimensional counterpart in the "Vs." OA Vs is nothing like her, and is even on fairly good terms with her dimension's version of A-ko.
- 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 Himemiya 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.
- In Suzumiya Haruhi (As always, spoilered..) the Asakura Ryoko of the Alternate Universe seems to have somewhat Psycho Lesbian tendencies towards Yuki. Given to that she's a normal human, yet still ends up stabbing Kyon to protect Yuki. This Troper didn't notice it the first time, but when you get down to it, it's kinda there.
- Kasumi Kisaragi, the vice-president in the 2006 version of Kujibiki Unbalance, especially in the manga adaptation, where she tries to kill Chihiro when a love potion causes her to be attracted to him.
- Rio in Gamerz Heaven ...she doesn't seem to have any sanity whatsoever when it comes to Kyouko.
- Yui from Fushigi Yuugi is speculated to be one of these for Miaka. "I couldn't find a place between you and Tamahome!", indeed!
- Played for laughs mostly with Chizuru Honshou of Bleach.
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.
- The Daughters of the Amazon in Y: The Last Man are frequently branded psycho lesbians by other women (they're certainly psycho, and have little use for men). Subverted in that a) we never see any lesbian behaviour among the Amazons and b) discreet lesbianism (especially with male impersonators) quickly becomes the norm in a world deprived of men. One of the few openly lesbian characters simply describes the Amazons as "nutters who cut off their norks".
- Diane Di Massa's Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist. The name says it all.
Film
- The evil Queen Gedrin from Red Sonja seemed visibly attracted to the titular character, before said character disfigured her.
- Marie from High Tension.
- Eve Harrington from All About Eve. Not outright stated, but quite explicit for the era, including a one-scene Spear Carrier whose presence is all but impossible to explain any other way.
- Hedy Carlson from Single White Female.
- This isn't necessarily a case of wanting to be with her. It's more like wanting to BE her.
- The main characters from Michael Winterbottom's Butterfly Kiss.
- Roxy from Basic Instinct.
- Barbara from Notes On A Scandal. So much that this troper shouted out "Mrs. Danvers!".
- Andrea Glassen from Windows.
- In the Spanish horror film The Blood Spattered Bride, Lesbian Vampire Carmilla transfers her murderous hatred of men to the young newlywed woman she seduces, with violent results.
- Diane from Mulholland Drive is a lesbian, and definitely doesn't have both oars in the water. Interestingly, she's the main character.
- Serial killer Catherine in Black Widow (1987). Though she seduces, marries and murders wealthy men (ostensibly for their money, but long past the point where she would already be rich) there's a definite lesbian subtext with the female Justice agent pursuing her.
- Parodied in D.E.B.S. The villainess Lucy Diamond is more than willing to sink the entire continent of Australia in frustration over not being able to form an emotionally satisfying lesbian relationship. Fortunately she is redeemed by the love of an incredibly hot secret agent in a plaid skirt.
- The Maids is all about this. Well, it has just three main characters: two are psycho lesbian Meido sisters, and the third is their mistress who doesn't look very straight or very sane.
Literature
- Mrs. Danvers from Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.
- Irene (and, to a lesser extent, Clare) from Nella Larsen's Passing are strongly implied to be this.
- Mary Whitaker from the Lord Peter Wimsey books.
- One of these features as a villainess in the Judge Dee novel The Chinese Maze Murders.
- Andrea from The Zone series of World War III novels by James Rouch, is certainly psychopathic (if not psychotic) and is widely assumed to be a lesbian by the other soldiers because of her contempt for men. Eventually however she forms a sexual relationship with Major Revell.
- Two notable examples from Sarah Waters:
- Diana Lethaby of Tipping The Velvet. A cruel, predatory dominatrix, physically abusive to her 'tart' Nan.
- Ruth Vigers of Affinity. An Evil Mastermind con artist who gets her jollies preying on young girls while dressed as a male spirit. It's implied she's something of a control freak with her girlfriend, femme moll Selina.
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.
- In Babylon 5, after Ivanova spends the night with Talia, Talia turns out to be The Mole, 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.
- To be fair, she asked him to the second time around, as part of a plot to save their daughter.
- Good call on the psycho and lesbian bits having little to do with each other. The extended DVD version of Razor reveals that Cain is a psycho because of her Dead Little Sister.
- 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.
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.
- A really good example of this is the antagonist Wendy from Rule Of Rose. She made the other children torture Jennifer. Similar to the L Word example above though (only reversed), it’s hard to call foul when pretty much everyone in that orphanage was nuts.
- Hirasaka Hatsune from Atlach Nacha absorbs energy by having sexual intercourse. She prefers females for sex and males for eating. If you piss her off, she will tear you apart before devouring you...all with a smile, too.
- Claudia Wolf of Silent Hill 3, possibly. She seems to be obsessed with Heather in more ways than one.
- Amongst the Ax Crazy bosses of Dead Rising, Jo Slade stands as a prime source of Nightmare Fuel. A sadistic police officer who brutalizes young women, she was one of the creepiest enemies in the game.
Webcomic
Web Original
Western Animation
- Fans will have you believe that Shego and Azula fall into this category for the respective series.
- Of course in both cases it's only the lesbian part that's in doubt.
Music
Real Life
- Serial killer couple Cathy Brown and Gwen Graham.
- Likewise, real life multiple murderess Aileen Wuornos, to some extent.
- Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme, 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.
- Melinda Loveless, ringleader of the group of teenage girls that tortured and murdered 13-year-old Shanda Sharer, fits this trope. Loveless managed to convince the others to help her kidnap Sharer after discovering she was dating her ex-girlfriend. Read the story, and prepare to pick up your jaw.
- The Papin sisters: After being threatened by their employer, went into such a rage that neither the employer or her daughterwere recognizable.. And gouged out eyeballs, anyone? Guess what?
- http://www.demon-sushi.com/warning/index2.html
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