#fukusuke | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

violetosprey · 2 years

Note

Everyone talks so much about female yanderes but who's your favorite male yandere(s) and why do you like him/them?

Hello there! What a wonderful question. Well the simple answer is, “whoever I am currently obsessing over,” haha. Whether that’s a yandere in a manga or webcomic I’m currently reading, or even just the aesthetic of a character who is NOT canonically yandere (the reimagining can be fun). Anime might not have the greatest roster of male yandere in my opinion, but I think there’s plenty in comic format to choose from nowadays.

But that’s also a boring answer and doesn’t say too much if I just am picking said favorite because it’s what’s “new and shiny.” So I tried to really think about some of the ones I’ve liked in the past. Nostalgia could be at fault here, but I figured maybe I could find one that also stood the test of time.

I’m going to go with Fukusuke from the BL manga “Color Recipe.”

(non-spoiler TLDR list is at the top; Major spoiler explanations below)

I made sure to go back and reread the manga before this just to see if things went down the way I remember. Not only did several things still hold up from memory, but I got refreshed with a couple of things I had forgotten. Like how much I actually love the S/O, Shoukichi, in this story. He’s a lot better than just a typical hot-head lead.

But anyway, there are several reasons why I think Fukusuke holds up really well as a yandere. Some of these reasons even lead into others:

Semi-original concept

Disguise too good

Equal footing with the S/O

One of the BEST yandere “snaps”

Displays the difference between lust, control and love

Best of both worlds and a yandere to the end

1. Semi-original concept

Personality wise, a yandere who’s outwardly chatty and social but inwardly doesn’t care for anyone but their S/O isn’t really new. But most of the time I expect to see said yandere being especially flattering to their S/O to get in their good graces. So what’s Fukusuke’s first plan of action? Act like an a$$ towards the S/O. Not…exactly what you expect. But not only does our yandere have reasoning behind this, it’s integral to the plot. And of course, it comes back to bite him later.

I’d also say he’s kind of a mix with how he clearly doesn’t feel the same way most people feel (the author makes it clear he’s no saint), but he’s not a complete monster either (we’ll get to that later). He does get called a psychopath by another character in the story, but I really couldn’t tell you if he fits any mold exactly.

Him being a beautician/stylist is also a nice touch. I don’t recall a ton of yandere with this profession, but it adds a unique flavor to the setting. Especially since the S/O is very work-oriented, so the setting and line-of-work come into play a lot here.

Just a personal note, this is probably one of the few yandere where I’m not swooning over their appearance. There are plenty of yandere I drool over, but this is one I strictly love for their character and not their looks.

There’s a bit of a “love at first sight” kind of deal here, but I’ll give it a passing grade. It’s not just the S/O being a pretty face that starts the obsession. It’s a combo of the S/O’s work ethic AND their teary eyed face, haha.

2. Disguise too good

This yandere is so good at working behind the scenes, that the author felt the need to actually have another character point out the machinations of the yandere. I love Riku by the way <3 He’s odd and teeters on the neutral line, but I think he does a good job both letting the story be mainly about the yandere and S/O, but interjecting when he needs to. He might not be to everyone’s taste though. I could definitely understand if someone said they hated the handholding the author is doing here, or just hate how Riku doesn’t do more if they are aware of what’s happening. I wouldn’t say Riku’s exactly pure.

Still, if you even look at just the first few chapters, I could see a viewer might get fooled into thinking that the yandere is a much purer guy than he is. There are a few moments or scenes that make you wary of Fukusuke in the first few chapters, but there are also scenes that put him in a more generous light. I feel like he even was genuinely honest with some of his complements or advice towards Shoukichi. If the entire manga kept going like this, slowly the audience might start to doubt themselves or forget that there’s anything abnormal about this man. So the author has another character come and point out EXACTLY what the yandere is doing. And you quickly realize that Fukusuke is an extremely manipulative type of yandere.

3. Equal footing with the S/O

A lot of yanderes you’ll notice in stories have some kind of position of power. They might be a duke, a king, a ceo, etc. To be clear, I have no problem with this! I certainly love these types myself. The reason you probably see a lot of them though is because they fulfill two roles: the “Cinderella” fantasy, and easier writing. Let’s face it, lots of people love the idea of getting swept off their feet or chosen by someone of considerable status. It’s a mood booster, and a big part of fiction is escapism. Not only that, but a yandere in a power position has two advantages that can both make them more appealing for the S/O or terrifying. They can solve all the S/O’s problems more easily or give them anything they want with their status and money. OR they could push the S/O into a corner easily if they resist. The S/O could be strong-willed as hell, but they don’t have to be portrayed as a complete idiot for not being able to escape the yandere if said yandere, I don’t know, owns the entire police force for example.

Getting back on topic, Fukusuke is NOT in a position of power. He’s not even the manager of the beauty salon, he’s just the S/O’s coworker. The only thing he has over the S/O is the skill to socialize better with customers (ironically). But he uses this one skill to its FULL extent. He also relies on manipulation a lot more as a result. A yandere without power who wants absolute control needs to be VERY smart.

He’s not invincible though and is completely capable of failing. That’s why he has to be careful and why he’s a more interesting character. Other characters can see through him and ruin his plans, or completely accidental discoveries show his lies. Also, he still gets punched many times by the S/O. I also completely forgot that he got bitten during a BJ once (Ouch! But S/O clearly wasn’t into it).

He doesn’t rush either. He works over the S/O for an entire year before…

4. One of the best yandere “snaps”

For those unaware, a “snap” is essentially the breaking point of the yandere. They stop playing nice. You see these plenty of times, even in one-shots. They’re fun, but sometimes they can definitely feel really rushed or sloppy. This one is beautifully done. This snap doesn’t actually occur until after a year has passed of the yandere and S/O working together. He’s been playing a VERY long game and still isn’t quite in the position he wants to be. He wants to be Shoukichi’s #1. He wants to further monopolize him, but the S/O’s personality and priorities kind of stunt him.

It’s not just this frustration building up though that pushes the yandere over. Through a series of events, the S/O finally catches on to what the Fukusuke has been doing. Shoukichi even asks if Fukusuke HATES him. We as the audience know it’s the actually the opposite, but I completely understand how the S/O came to that conclusion. Shoukichi has a lot of morals and speaks the truth several times about what it means to love someone. Also, Fukusuke's explanation does not help his case.

When Shoukichi gets angry at our yandere, I really love how we FIRST see Fukusuke mull over in his head what his options are. It’s only after he concludes that there’s no means to make a recovery out of this, that he resorts to extreme measures: brief confinement, electrocution torture and blackmail.

5. Displays the difference between lust, control and love

Does Fukusuke lust after Shoukichi? Yes he does. He gets horny a lot and even admits he’s a rather perverted guy who would love to do all kinds of things with his S/O. Shoukichi’s not into the more perverted stuff, but that doesn’t stop the yandere one bit from wanting him. He’d have sex everyday with Shoukichi if he could. Does Fukusuke want control? Yes he does. Both due to his natural personality and obsession with the S/O, Fukusuke wants to possess Shoukichi completely. Even when he’s in a rather good spot I’d say after a year working with Shoukichi, Fukusuke still isn’t satisfied since he doesn’t consider himself the S/O’s #1. Shoukichi’s job, manager and customers always come first. Fukusuke keeps trying to encourage him to start up a business with him, but Shoukichi refuses. Even with them sleeping together and having an amicable relationship, it’s not enough.

Does Fukusuke love Shoukichi? YES he does. Here’s the thing about yanderes. It’s easy to love them for their lustful, controlling sides that really get things going. But I think some writers get a little too caught up with these sides that they start to neglect what makes a yandere a yandere: love. They forget to make it clear that the yandere doesn’t want the S/O as just a sex slave or some kind of personal toy/object for only their eyes. Maybe authors THINK they’re portraying a twisted display of love, but it just comes out wrong on paper.

But how do I know Fukusuke is different and is actually in love with Shoukichi then? Because he’ll actually do things or react in ways that show he’s NOT looking to just keep the S/O tied up in his apartment for his own amusement. That “snap” I mentioned earlier? The confinement period is very brief. It’s nothing like the stories that revolve around the S/O being held captive for an indefinite amount of time. Fukusuke only resorted to more extreme measures when his previous plans fell apart. He only wanted to push the S/O far enough back into a corner to finally pull him away from the shop.

After he gets Shoukichi to promise him to leave the shop and start a business with him, Fukusuke tries to have some celebratory sex with him and takes his S/O’s blindfold off. The author then gives us one of the best facial depictions of someone who is TRAUMATIZED that I have ever seen. Dubcon is a term that pops up a lot in BLs (I’m not here to talk about that), but I don’t think there’s anyone who would assume dubcon is present in this scene. Not even Fukusuke, at least not subconsciously because Fukusuke becomes very confused when he can’t get himself hard. He even mentions he thought the S/O’s teary face was cute in the past, but he knows this is different.

There are plenty of yandere out there that will force themselves onto their S/O despite their reluctance. There are also others I’ve seen who do get rattled when they push the S/O a little TOO far, and are then capable of holding themselves back. But it’s both highly impressive (and a little hilarious) to see a yandere straight up admit they can’t get aroused because they hate the sight of their broken S/O.

Again, Fukusuke has plenty of lust and control desires where the author could have written him just “winning” here and doing whatever he wanted with Shoukichi. But our yandere hesitates.

True to being a yandere, Fukusuke does try to convince himself to keep pressuring Shoukichi to listen to him since he’s come this far and this is what he resolved to do. I love also that when he’s talking with Shoukichi about “their future plans,” it’s very realistic. He’s going on and on about the logistics of setting up a beauty salon together, and that he wants it also to be a place they can live in together. This yandere doesn’t desire to keep Shoukichi locked up in a room all day. He literally wants him to be his LIFE PARTNER. This is exactly the type of yandere mindset I adore.

And finally, it eventually does get through our yandere’s head that…he messed up. From the very beginning, he messed up. Both Riku and Shoukichi (separately) point out why he failed. He looks genuinely devastated later. So he relents with the blackmail plans and completely pulls away and gives a damaged Shoukichi his space.

6. Best of both worlds and a yandere to the end

That is not the end of it though. What I’m about to say may be a little polarizing depending on how people viewed the characters overall and the ending: I think Fukusuke both learned a lesson and understood what he did wrong, BUT he also did not give up and just resorted to switching tactics.

I can’t really explain this one well in words I think. Giving the S/O space was probably the best thing a yandere could have done here. Even in the extra chapters, Fukusuke does not purposefully go hunt down Shoukichi. He gives Shoukichi back his freedom. Shoukichi can choose to come to see him of his own volition or stay away. He never contacts Shoukichi directly, but stays in touch with everyone else in the shop.

However, once again Riku points out how he still has not stopped being a manipulator from afar. He manipulates his customers to take advantage of Shoukichi’s good nature and guilt. He confesses in an article (and later in person when Shoukichi visits him in an extra chapter) that he will NOT take anyone but Shoukichi as his partner. No matter how much work he’s overloaded with work.

Shoukichi by the way is very interesting because he has both qualities that protected him from completely submitting to Fukusuke (i.e. job oriented, strong grasp of how you treat loved ones), as well as qualities that make him vulnerable (i.e. too sympathetic to others). Because of this, Fukusuke I’d say didn’t necessarily “win” in the way he wanted by the end of this manga, but he hasn’t exactly lost either.

I’m not entirely sure if I call Fukusuke a redeemed or enlighted yandere. It’s been a long time since I thought of those terms. But I’m happy to say he STAYED a yandere to the entire time. Also, I didn’t know where to mention this, but I do love a lot of his facial expressions.

Overall, I think this character did a really good job portraying the more wicked aspects of yanderes, but also not forgetting to show what a yandere in love is supposed to be like and having them grow for the better. Having two volumes did a lot of good to have the characters work through everything.

I definitely recommend this manga to anyone who even just wanted to do a character study on yanderes. Now there may be some I could see who don’t care for Fukusuke. Maybe he’s seen as “boring” because he doesn’t have as many over-the-top moments as some other yandere, or maybe you thought he went too far and are agitated at the thought that he could eventually win over Shoukichi. To each there own I suppose.

I know that the question asked about if I had several yandere I wanted to talk about but, I overloaded on Fukusuke so I think it’s best not to go into full details on the others here.

I did think about other yandere before writing this. Should I have gone with Kisshu from Tokyo Mew Mew as “baby’s first yandere” kind of deal, with Marcus from “Till Death Do Us Part” (warning: 18+) for basically kickstarting this blog, or with Mandarin Kim from “Cherry Boy That Girl” for making me enjoy a very different type of yandere from I’m used to?

I know I tend to go for the more villainous yanderes too, but a lot of those end up as one-shot villains or brief side-characters. That makes it hard to pick a favorite among those when there’s not as much character to analyze. So I wanted to go with who I thought was a very GOOD representation of a yandere today. I hope everyone enjoyed and I apologize for any grammatical errors along the way.

#yandere #male yandere #analysis #color recipe #answer

67 notes · View notes