Yamato Nadeshiko/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A woman who conforms to classic Japanese ideals of femininity.

  • Straight: Sakura is somewhat pretty and she has a demure personality. She is also devoted to her friends, family and the man she loves. She writes haiku and performs tea ceremonies.
  • Exaggerated: Sakura literally does nothing but bow, smile and serve tea even as a yokai-on-yakuza battle royale erupts around her.
    • Until one of the combatants bumps into the table and knocks one of the teacups off, breaking it. At which point she politely but firmly asks them all to take their fight elsewhere. Which they do.
  • Up to Eleven : She is the daughter of a Big Good mother, who is probably The Chessmaster, and all of her three sisters are members of an action ensemble, so you would think that she would be implicated in public affairs and somehow rebellious against paternal authority when it takes bad decisions. When everyone is this close from a possible dimension-altering incident, she kindly serves tea to Cthulhu and regrets Satan's absence, as her father, an extremely Corrupt Corporate Executive, had cordially invited him. All this while remaining undisputably Lawful and undoubtedly Good. She firmly insists that all the Eldritch Abominations around the tea table remain Affably Evil at least for the duration of her reception.
  • Justified: Sakura is from a traditional Japanese family and thus was raised to have these sort of values.
  • Inverted: Sakura is a ladette.
  • Subverted: Sakura is actually an undercover agent disguised as a girl from a traditional Japanese family and is using the behaviors expected of a young woman of that class so her cover won't be blown.
  • Double Subverted: It turns out she really is a Yamato Nadeshiko outside the agent gig, and felt comfortable and happy in that role. It's the reason she was choosen for it.
  • Zig Zagged: Sakura was undercover as a Yamato Nadeshiko, but is like that in her personal life too, but only to make her parents happy, until it turns into a habit and she does it when they're not around.
  • Parodied: Sakura speaks in flowery haiku that no one understands, but admires for their traditionalness.
  • Deconstructed: Sakura might not show it, but she's got quite a damaged self esteem because she puts others' needs always before her own.
  • Reconstructed: Sakura gets help in regards to her self-esteem problems and learns to take care of herself better. She still acts like a YN sometimes - because she likes it.
  • Averted: Sakura is not particularly demure, domestic, or into Japanese culture.
  • Enforced: Sakura is from a show where the writers are trying to teach about traditional Japanese values, and they want to teach about the traditional Japanese ideal woman.
  • Lampshaded: "It's like you came out of a Japanese show where the women are all sweet and traditional."
  • Invoked: Sakura decides that, in order to be more feminine, she'll have to become a Yamato Nadeshiko.
  • Defied: Sakura is a Straw Feminist.
  • Discussed: "If we were anime characters, Sakura would be the sweet homemaker with a Hime Cut."
  • Conversed: "Man, Sakura must have nerves of steel to deal with that asshole villain's behavior."
  • Played For Laughs: Sakura is trying to be polite as she can be, but when someone makes a snide comment about her weight, she utterly loses her composure and lashes out an acidic insult back.
  • Played For Drama: Sakura is trying to be an ideal woman to her bitchy mother, hoping that she'll finally accept her and love her.

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