Heh!? What the hell did you say!? Do you think I’m going to accept that as an excuse!? We were supposed to celebrate the anniversary of our first trip together! Is your job more important to you than me?



“Himedere” (JP) is a term for a female character of nobility who starts out wanting their love interest to constantly give them lots of attention and affection, but adopts a deredere attitude and starts fawning over their love interest and doing loving things to make them also feel taken care of. They are very prim, proper, and ladylike due to their status as a noblelady which makes them feel like they deserve to always be the center of their love interest’s attention. At first, they will be very demanding and selfish, wanting their love interest to devote themselves and do things that make them feel loved, not considering how their love interest might feel. However, they will start to realize that are being too hard on their love interest and will feel a powerful desire to do affectionate in return to show them that they are loved back also. They will start behaving in cute ways and showing a more considerate and intimate side to their love interest, realizing that it doesn’t matter where they go or what they do as long as the two of them are together.

Etymology
Meaning of the Term

Himedere (姫デレ) is a combination of “hime-sama” (姫様), meaning “young lady of noble birth”, and “deredere” (デレデレ), a mimetic word for “being lovestruck (overly affectionate, lovey-dovey, not hiding one’s romantic feelings)”.

The term “hime-sama” is often translated into English as “princess”, however, it is actually an honorific used as a sign of respect to address all young ladies of nobility (including the princess, but additionally daughters of dukes, barons, etc.) so a more accurate translation would be “noble lady”. The Japanese word for a princess specifically is “oujo” (王女), with the “oujo” being a higher social status than “hime”.

Origin

The first use of the term in official media comes from the 2008 romance manga series Iinari☆Princess (JP), also known in English as I am a princess of the North European small country. You who watched my secret must become my lover., to describe the character Princess Lena Reena Rene Risheranto. The term was used when the manga was sold at the Comic ZIN Akihabara store where the author enlarged the manga’s cover featuring Princess Lena and added the caption, “Himedere… so good!! This gap is too destructive!!”.[1]

Lena is the first princess in line to the throne of the Principality of Rivetaria, a small country in Europe. One day as part of a program she transfers into a Japanese school, where she is immediately praised and fawned over because of her elegant and ladylike perfect princess nature. That is, until she thinks she is alone and accidentally does something embarrassing in front of another student named Hyuuga Nobuyuki. In her moment of defenselessness, she ruined her dignity so the only thing left for her to do was to make Hyuuga form a devotion pact to become her lover, which she haughtily stated should be an honor for him. Hyuuga then agreed to devote himself to Lena by kissing her leg, after which she told him they were now officially lovers.

Because of her naivety, Lena doesn’t truly understand what it means to be a “lover” with someone and tries to treat Hyuuga more like one of her typical servants. When she eats dinner with him and his parents, she tries to make him feed her (though this was mostly because she didn’t know how to use chopsticks) and then she tried feeding him back. When the subject of kissing was brought up Lena asked Hyuuga to kiss her feet, as is customary of servants, however, when Hyuuga explained to her that lovers don’t kiss on the feet they kiss on the lips she immediately becomes flustered. Wanting to show she truly loves him, she puts her embarrassment aside and kisses him on the lips as a sign of her love for him. Throughout their time together, Hyuuga slowly teaches Lena what it means to truly be lovers and she starts to show a more cute and unselfish deredere side.

Localization

The term has been romanized as both “hime dere” and “himedere”.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

History
Early Influences

Before the creation of the term “himedere” the concept first became popular in the Hatsune Miku song World Is Mine (JP) in May 2008. The song followed Miku on her romantic journey to get a boy she likes to notice her. In the song, Miku is presented as a selfish hime-sama who expects her love interest to always notice how she looks and admire her adorableness, saying things such as “It’s not like it’s selfish to want you to believe from the bottom of your heart that I’m adorable”. She expects him to hold her hand any time she wants it and she gets upset when she’s kept waiting. However, when that fails to work and the boy she likes is unable to understand her true feelings, Miku starts to become more honest and kisses him directly.

Following the popularity of this song, some Japanese users began creating fan art of the song and including the label “himedere” as early as June 2008.[9] While sporadic mentions of the term could be seen, the only notable instance is a fan doujin sequel titled Himedere. (JP) released by Igarashi Natsume in August 2008. The doujin continued the original storyline from the song and explored the relationship after the two began officially dating. Miku starts off with her usual selfish attitude and asks her boyfriend to go buy her some pudding. When he takes a long time to get back she initially starts to reprimand him for being slow, but after noticing how out of breath he was she starts to get worried instead. When he explains that the store he usually goes to was closed so he biked 5 kilometers to find another store, Miku starts to cry. Realizing that she’s been too hard on him and puts too much expectations on him, she tells him “I’m selfish I understand but, I’m not looking for that much!” and tells him to not do it if it’s too much because she doesn’t want it if it means troubling the person she loves. However, when he explains that he enjoys doing these things for her because he loves seeing the look on her face when she is happy she becomes so lovestruck that she starts blushing uncontrollably and immediately runs over to kiss him. Following this interaction, Miku is shown being less selfish and more openly deredere towards him.[10]

Official Media

The most notable usage of the term comes from the erotic romance manga series My Sweet♡Devil (JP) which contained a collection of short stories by Emi Hinahara, with the third story titled Himedere♡ (JP) being released in June 2016.[11][2][12] The term was used to describe the character Shoko Saionji, a noble lady who was dating a man named Satoshi. The story starts with her getting upset and yelling at Satoshi over the phone for missing their first anniversary and thinking his job was more important than her. Her friends then tell her that she will lose him if she doesn’t show him her cute side. They then mocked her for making Satoshi be the one to ask her out even though she liked him because she was too prideful to ask him first.

When Satoshi apologizes and tries to make up for it by taking her out to eat at her favorite place or offering to buy her new shoes, Shoko asks for nothing more than a makeup kiss. She realizes at that moment that he has always devoted himself to her, that she was always the one who got angry or recommended places to go, and the thought started to make her cry. She then told him “Because you usually devote yourself to me… sometimes I’ll give you a reward.” and then she started to get intimate with him. Afterward, when he tries to apologize again and asks her where she wants to go, she tells him “Anywhere is fine… If you stay with me.” showing that she has changed.

Characteristics
Nobility


As for Shoko… She’s beautiful, a young lady, and a noble…



Himedere characters are of noble status and are very important members of society. They are the daughters of noble families, such as barons, viscounts, earls, marquess’, dukes, or even the daughter of a king.[2]

Design

Most typically himedere characters are presented as having blonde hair with curls at the bottom. The curls in their hair are inspired by the hairstyle of British princesses and are a sign of nobility. This may be the reason why they are typically designed with blonde hair as well, as opposed to the more traditionally black hair of Japanese people. They are also generally exceptionally beautiful, being described as a bishoujo.[2]

Personality

Himedere characters start out wanting their love interest to constantly give them attention and spoil them (hime), but eventually start fawning over them as well and doing nice things to make them also feel taken care of (deredere). They will go from demanding attention from their love interest and wanting to feel loved, to giving their love interest all ‘their’ attention and making ‘them’ feel loved. This creates a gap in their personality leading to strong amounts of affection for the character.[2]

Hime Period


There’s something you want to say to me!! Hurry, tell me. …Excuse me!?



Himedere characters are very needy when it comes to being loved by their love interest. They will be very demanding at first and want their love interest to pamper and take care of their every need, not considering how their love interest might feel. They want their love interest to always give them lots of attention and constantly tell them that they’re the cutest or do things that make them feel loved, but they are also quite selfish about it and want their love interest to only spoil them. This could include things such as buying new things for them, only going to places they choose, or only doing things they want.[2]

They are also very prideful and will not be the first person to ask their love interest out or admit their feelings, even if they have a huge crush on them. Instead, they will make their love interest ask ‘them’ out saying things like “Ahem, isn’t there something you have to ask me.” and trying to get their love interest to notice them.[2]

Due to their noble status, himedere characters present themselves as very prim, proper, dignified, and ladylike. They enjoy going to high-class establishments, such as drinking tea at fancy restaurants with their other noble friends. However, this noble status also goes to their head causing them to feel like they deserve to always be the center of their love interest’s attention and to get their way. They will demand their love interest pay attention to them and will get angry if they don’t, even if they have legitimate reasons such as having to work at their job. They are far too prideful to entertain any excuses for anything that doesn’t make them feel loved.[2]

Almost Dere Period


I don’t want that… It can only be Satoshi… You always catered to me and fell in love with me…



After getting into a relationship with their love interest they will get intimate with their love interest during this period, but only for the sake of satisfying their own needs and only doing the things they want, not considering the satisfaction of their partner and expecting them to hold back. After all, they are a noble and are too prideful to do undignified things. They want to do more things to show they love their love interest, but they’re too prideful and stubborn to admit it.[2]

However, at the same time, they also have a much softer and cuter side. Eventually, they will realize that they have been being too hard on their love interest and that their love interest has always devoted themselves to them and done everything they could to make them happy. They will realize just how loved they have been and start to feel guilty about their behavior. They will start to get frustrated at their behavior for always causing fights over trivial things even though they don’t want to fight and just want to be with the person they love. They may even start to cry over the thought of their stubborn behavior causing the person they love to leave them and become desperate to keep them so they start trying to do affectionate things back to their love interest.[2]

Dere Period


B-Bride? Me, Claire François? A commoner’s bride? *blushing* Rae’s the one who’ll be the bride.



After realizing just how important their love interest is to them and start showing their amae side to them. They will start to be more honest in telling and showing their love interest how much they genuinely love and appreciate them. They will feel a powerful desire to do affectionate things for their love interest to show them that they are loved also. They will want to do romantic or intimate things that their love interest wants to do or things that they turned down in the past out of selfishness, like going to their love interest’s favorite restaurant instead of theirs. They will also force themselves to do undignified things that hurt their pride as a noble if doing so will please their love interest. They will now care more about the happiness of their love interest than their pride.[2]

They will start behaving in a surprisingly cute way and fawning over their love interest, being more considerate of what they want from this relationship as well. They may start to wonder why their relationship feels different now and realize that it’s because they changed. This feeling will cause them to become completely lovestruck by their love interest and start to like them even more than usual causing them to adopt a deredere attitude towards them. They will realize that it doesn’t matter where they go or what they do as long as the two of them are together. They will become much more considerate of their love interest’s needs and will feel more comfortable letting themselves be vulnerable and openly intimate around their love interest.[2]

Differences From Other Archetypes

This type is most similar to ojoudere since both types involve female characters of high social status who are very ladylike and spoiled, but eventually turn deredere. The biggest difference is that ojoudere characters are simply wealthy while himedere characters are actual nobility, so they are much higher up in the social standing and also tend to be a lot stricter when it comes to their dignified ladylike behavior. A himedere character is also more resistant to doing embarrassing things with their love interest under the notion that they’re “undignified” for a noble lady to do, while an ojoudere character won’t mind. Both types want their love interest to take care of them, but in the case of ojoudere characters its because they’re not able to take care of themselves whereas himedere characters just think they’re self-important and think they’re entitled to their love interest’s attention. An ojoudere character also isn’t embarrassed by their feelings and are more likely to confess, whereas a himedere character is extremely prideful and will make their love interest ask them out. An ojoudere character doesn’t demand constant attention and affection from their love interest like a himedere character, they’re just ignorant to the ways of lower class society so they need someone to take care of them. A himedere character will also generally be more harsh when it comes to bossing their love interest around and getting upset when they don’t get their way, whereas ojoudere characters aren’t as hotheaded. A himedere character also doesn’t make their love interest serve them like a maid, they just want their love interest to constantly be giving them affection and admiration.

To put it simply, himedere is more on the side of “give me attention, praise me, tell me you love me, go on dates with me right now even if you’re busy, give me a kiss when I want a kiss” while ojoudere is more on the side of “go make me tea, cook dinner for me, help me get dressed, help me fix my hair, help me bathe”. A himedere character is a selfish lover who learns to be deredere, while an ojoudere character is a selfish rich girl who learns to be deredere.

Himedere is also similar to tsundere since both types can be harsh towards their love interest, but the main difference is that a tsundere character is someone who can’t be honest with the person they like and will try to push them away, while a himedere character will do the inverse and demand their love interest give them lots of attention. A tsundere character will insult their love interest to make it seem like they don’t like them, while a himedere character will only do it if their love interest doesn’t pay attention to them. Additionally, the superiority complex of a tsundere character is often just a disguise to hide their true feelings, whereas a himedere character genuinely believes they should be the center of attention due to their noble status.

Similar Archetypes Bocchandere: A term for a young male character who is the son of a wealthy and high-class family who at first is very spoiled and entitled, before eventually becoming cute, loving, and deredere for their love interest.
Himekishi: A term for a female character who has the status of a noble lady or princess, but fights by arming herself as a knight.
Oujidere: A term for a male prince character who at first is very selfish and wants to be treated like royalty by their love interest, but after truly falling in love and becoming deredere acts like a selfless and gentlemanly true prince who pampers their love interest. This is an unofficial Western variation of himedere for male characters.
Ojoudere: A term for an ojou-sama character who starts out spoiled and naive but eventually becomes cute, selfless, and deredere for their love interest.
Ojou-sama: A term for a young female character who is the daughter of a wealthy high-class family.
Oujodere: A term for a female character who has a strict dignified exterior and behaves with perfect ladylike manners like a true princess in public but turns cute, lovey-dovey, and deredere when alone with their love interest. List of Characters
Gallery
References ↑ 1.0 1.1 Iinari☆Princess “Himedere… so good!! This gap is too destructive!!”. Akiba Blog (2010/05/30). Archived on 2025/06/03. “At the ZIN Akihabara store, they enlarged the center cover’s colored image of Princess Lena Reena, with the caption, “Himedere… so good!! This gap is too destructive!!””
↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 My Sweet♡Devil – Himedere Part 1. Handy Comic (2016/06/01). Archived on 2025/06/03.
↑ 3.0 3.1 Hime ♡ Dere. HYBRID RAINBOW (2008/08/17).
↑ 4.0 4.1 The Most Unmistakable Signs of a Himedere Character in Anime. CBR (2022/01/31).
↑ The Best Anime Series With Lovable Himedere Characters. CBR (2022/08/13).
↑ 10 Best Himedere Characters In Anime. CBR (2023/01/24).
↑ How A Couple of Cuckoos’ Amano Erika Reinvents the Himedere Archetype. CBR (2022/06/23).
↑ How Trapped in a Dating Sim Makes Good Use of the Himedere Archetype. CBR (2022/05/16).
↑ Himedere. Pixiv (2008/06/03). Archived on 2025/06/03. “Hatsune Miku – The World Is Mine. Himedere is something new. It’s going to be popular…!!”
↑ <<VOCALOID>> Himedere. / Igarashi Natsume. HYBRID RAINBOW (2008/08/17). Archived on 2025/06/03. “…huh? Did you go to the trouble of sweating that much just for this? Why… There’s no need to go to such lengths to get a simple pudding! If it doesn’t exist, just say it doesn’t exist, and if it’s impossible, just say it’s impossible! I’m selfish I understand but, I’m not looking for that much!”
↑ My Sweet♡Devil. Mecha Comic (2016/06/01).
↑ My Sweet♡Devil – Chapters. MyAnimeList (2016/06/01). Archived on 2025/06/03.