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I had never heard the word "oranyan" before reading this question. The question made it sound like the term referred to a male tsundere.

I searched this site for more mentions of "oranyan", but only found the linked question. I Googled for more info, but the only results I found aside from this TV Tropes page on tsundere and the question I linked above referred to the mythical founder of the Oyo Empire of Yoruba, which I'm pretty sure has nothing to do with the anime meaning of this term. The TV Tropes page just says "oranyan" is another word for "tsundere" which "is sometimes used to refer to a male tsundere character—incorrectly since it means the complete opposite".

TV Tropes's reputation for accuracy aside, the linguist in me wants to nitpick that statement because of its implicit prescriptivist assumptions about "correct" use of language; for this question, I'm going to ask that answers take the linguist's viewpoint and define "oranyan" as whatever the majority of people think "oranyan" means, and to please explain the situation if no majority definition exists, or if the majority definition differs between Japanese and Western fans.

So, here's what I'm curious about:

  • What's the etymology of the term "oranyan"?
  • Is there any basis to TV Tropes's claim that it means the exact opposite of 'male tsundere'?
  • In the common usage of the term, is there some difference in meaning from 'tsundere' aside from the sex of the character?
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Torisuda
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2 Answers2

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I don't know how accurate my answer is because the content described below are taken from discussion and some source.

Source 1 post#422937.

Oranyan is a term used to describe male characters that are rude to everyone, but can be kind to those he loves. The word is derived from "ora" which is supposed to sound like shouting and "nyan" which is equivalent to "meow."

Source 2

Tsukimori Ren in Kin-iro no Corda or Wolfram in Kyou kara maou could be. But is there any other saying? Yes…that is オラニャン[oranyan].

In fact, this was not born in the otaku society, but kogals’ circles. To get to the point, オラニャン is an abbreviation form of オラオラニャンニャン[ora-ora nyan-nyan]. I can’t translate it! オラオラ[ora-ora] sounds like a rude guy’s shouting. Maybe you could hear this in such a delinquent boys’ story like Gokusen, Bebop High-School or something like that. Well, how can I put it…sounds like “Oi! Oi!”?? They would say like 行くぜオラァ！[ikuze, oraa!, let's go, guys!]. オラオラ金出せや！[ora-ora, kane dase ya!, Oi oi, give fucking money, eh?].

Meanwhile, ニャンニャン[nyan-nyan] is actually a cat’s mew-mew. Caught on, haven’t you? Although he is so cheeky and rude in front of everybody else, he would be very sweet to a girl who he loves. Probably he could be still sweet even when others are there. In this case, it might be called as オラデレ[oradere].

Source 3

Contrary to what some may think, there are male tsunderes. Inuyasha, Kyo (Fruits Basket), Shaoran (Cardcaptor Sakura), and Ed (Fullmetal Alchemist) are some examples. They’re sometimes called “Oranyan,” and though not as famous as the female types, they’re certainly there.

Some other character are Len Tsukimori from La Corda d'Oro, Wolfram von Bielefelt from Kyo Kara Maoh!. And if you try to Google like Oranyan anime term, you will see most of the link containing term Male Tsundere (Oranyan).

This justify that the term Oranyan as synonyms of Tsundere for male characters. Since it comes from "ora ora" and "nyan nyan", there's nothing to the claim that it means the opposite of "male tsundere".

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mirroroftruth
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  • A good answer overall, +1 from me. I guess I don't watch enough shoujo since I don't know any of the characters mentioned in the answer, but the two characters from your source do sound just like male tsunderes from their Wikipedia descriptions. Could you possibly edit in at least one other corroborating source? – Torisuda Sep 17 '14 at 07:22
  • @Torisuda sorry but i did not get it, what you want me to do. – mirroroftruth Sep 17 '14 at 07:37
  • I'd like another source that gives the same information as your first source, to help confirm the accuracy. I'm asking because I made a big deal in the question about how I wanted a majority definition of "oranyan", so I'd like a little more evidence that this is how most people would understand the word. After making such a big deal about that, I would feel weird accepting an answer that only gives one source. – Torisuda Sep 17 '14 at 07:44
  • there are two but one is from discussion so if you don't count then it is one. I will try to find and add another source. – mirroroftruth Sep 17 '14 at 07:49
  • Ah, sorry, I didn't notice the blog link because the two sources ended up in the same quote block. I'm satisfied with the blog link as a primary source and the discussion forum as a corroborating source. – Torisuda Sep 17 '14 at 07:54
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    Sorry about that, thanks for your hard work. – Torisuda Sep 17 '14 at 08:07
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It is derived from ora, which is to shout or roar, and Nyan, which is a cats meow. It is the male version of a tsundere, where someone is at first confrontational and off putting, but slowly warms up to them. Just like how Tsundere is derived from tsun tsun (turn away in disgust) and dere dere (to show affection). It’s an analogy of a lion turning into a kitten.

Jeremy B
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