Tsundere

A tsundere is hostile in public and fond in private, and the story is the slow leak between the two. She calls the lead an idiot, hits him for existing, and then quietly does the thing that only someone paying close attention would have known to do. The disclaimer attached to the type is quoted everywhere, in and out of Japanese: it's not like I like you or anything.

The name combines two Japanese expressions. Tsuntsun describes a prickly or aloof manner, while deredere describes affectionate, lovestruck behaviour. The contrast gives the character type its name. A story may show both sides from the beginning, or gradually reveal affection beneath a defensive attitude. The label describes that pattern rather than a specific character's age, gender or first appearance.

The characters came first. Asuka Langley Soryu in Neon Genesis Evangelion predates the word by years, as do plenty of romantic comedy leads from the 1980s. Taiga Aisaka in Toradora, adapted in 2008, is the version most often used to explain the type, largely because that series takes the joke seriously and asks what someone would have to be protecting to behave that way.