Ren Yamai

Ren Yamai Don't let this facial expression fool you that she is a great character. The slice of life anime just featured a YANDERE character in the show. Right? RIGHT?!?! Gender: Female Type: Obsessed Stalker Perverted Yandere Age: 17 Species: Human Portrayed by: Rina Hidaka (Japanese) Cristina Vee (English) Status: Alive Media of origin: Komi Can't Communicate

Ren Yamai (in Japanese: 山井れん, Yamai Ren) is a secondary character of the romantic comedy anime/manga series Komi Can't Communicate. She is one of Shouko Komi's classmates from Class 1-1 and her stalker. In her main arc in Volume 2 (Komi Can't Communicate, Vol 2.), her obsession with Shouko Komi led her to kidnap Hitohito Tadano and threaten to kill him. She is voiced by Rina Hadaka in the Japanese dub, and Cristina Vee in the American dub.

Why She (Intentionally?) Deserves to Be in a Horror Manga and/or Anime

1. To get things out of the bag, Ren has the most insanely unhealthy obsession with Komi. And not just in a sexual but perverted way, but as much as she wants to hurt herself for Komi's sake (as if she says this like she wants to kill herself). Does this ring a bell?
2. Most of her screen time consists of her scheming to sexually harass Komi, by making her stand near a puddle to take an upskirt photo, make her change into a new pair of stockings to keep her old ones, forces her to wear a skimpy swimsuit to the local pool even when she is visibly uncomfortable, etc. Doesn't that sound familiar and ring a bell?
   • Even if Komi didn't have social anxiety, anyone would be uncomfortable with the lewd situations that Ren would put someone through.
3. Her introduction didn't start out pretty well and left horrible tastes in everyone's mouths: From talking rudely to Tadano (by calling him a "piece of trash" or "pure rotten scum") and Naijimi just for being nice to Komi, kidnapping and taking Tadano as a hostage, having plenty of pictures with Komi in her room, and threatening to Komi or kill herself to become her lover with a knife, in which that she is known as a pure psychopath, of all characters. Though, in the anime, she has chopsticks as weapons to kill Komi. Again, does this ring a bell?
   • Worse, when she tries to "justify" to Komi her kidnapping of Tadano, Komi shuts her down with the simple and brief declaration that she "will decide her friends". Ren is left completely frozen while everyone leaves her apartment, and then she slowly falls to her knees the floor while crying over the realization that she screwed things up royally, having now driven the one she loves into hating her.
   • Sometimes, she even treats Tadano like crap for seemingly no reason other than the fact that the writers clearly wanted it to happen.
4. And thanks to her, Komi nearly ended her friendship with Tadano to make sure that nobody can get hurt.
5. Both of her actions and her character seem to be 100% out of place, as Ren should have been in a horror manga and anime rather than in a slice-of-life manga and anime.
6. Ren had received undeserving forgiveness at the end, when she could've been arrested for committing attempted murder, stalking, and kidnapping, but sadly, she got away scot-free, thus making her a karma houdini, and can count as a half-baked redemption for a lot of people.
7. She can make a lot of faces that are creepy and unappealing to look at, especially in episode 2.
8. Even though her being part of Komi's list of one-hundred friends, Ren still does to plenty of perverted things and has extreme lengths to become her love interest, which will most likely make you wonder why Komi chose to befriend her in the first place:
   • Licking the same cup that Komi used, which you can get sick with the bad bacteria by the way in real-life, and will most likely be seen as completely disgusting.
   • In episode 4, she also licked a single strand of Komi's hair, which is very disgusting of her yandere nature.
   • Offering Komi a hot dog in a lewd way, which almost became NSFW (thankfully, Najimi thwarted her attempts to do so).
   • In episode 20, she flat-out asks Komi if she can touch her breasts and somehow doesn't face any sexual harassment charges.
   • Wearing Komi's used stockings over her face, as seen in episode 23.
   • Wanting to see Komi's underwear during a game of Twister.
9. She is the anime and female of Joey Caruso. Both are antagonists and treating bad for protagonists.
10. When the story doesn't progress, she sometimes gets too much screen time in later chapters and doesn't seem to show signs of improving or growing any character development at all, which will most likely make you think she is a creator's pet. It's also really frustrating because you can tell it was the writers keeping a status quo with her just because she's the way she is.
11. She constantly butts into Komi's, Tadano's, and Naijimi's rides even when they haven't invited her, which becomes quite annoying and is also pure proof that she is a stalker than a so-called friend.
12. Even after joining Komi's circle of friends, none of them seem to be particularly fond of her, especially Tadano and Nakanaka.
13. She is also a classist as she regards Tadano as an inferior human being just for not being as popular as her.
14. She is a hypocrite, as she criticizes Nakanaka for being into video games and manga and not being very feminine when Ren isn't very ladylike herself.
15. Due to all of the reasons as mentioned above, Ren can be considered a plot device in the Komi Can't Communicate franchise.

(Intentional?) Redeeming Qualities

1. Ren does have her fair share of funny moments.
2. There are times where Ren gets her comeuppances for being a loathsome yandere:
   • Such as Najimi inviting her to visit the New Year's shrine with Komi while the former is on vacation in Hawaii, much to her desperation (even with what WS(I?)DTBIAHMA/OA#6 says in the pointer) in episode 8.
   • In Chapter 270, Ren hosts and wins a Numabros tournament, that was rigged by her, with the winner receiving a slap by Komi, befitting Ren's masochism. Though she did receive a soft one from Komi, she also receives another PAINFUL one from Najime.
   • In Chapter 302, she asks Tadano if they're going out and he confirms such, she takes out a sharpened fish snack to kill Tadano. Fortunately, Komi stands up in front of him, and Ren runs away crying, unable to accept it.
   • Any time Komi chooses Tadano over Ren can be rather satisfying as the latter often can't do anything to get back at him because she's aware that it'll get on Komi's bad side.
3. Setting her creepy, yandere-like facial expressions aside, Ren's character design is still cute.
4. Most of the time, Rina Hidaka (in the Japanese dub) and Cristina Vee (in the American dub), respectively, did a passable job voicing her.
5. She gets less screen time as the manga goes on. After they're assigned to different classes on their second year of high school, Ren doesn't interact with Komi as much, so she rarely appears in the manga anymore. She is also dropped from their inner circle of friends, which now include Manbagi and Ase instead.
6. Due to the yandere, stalker, and the classist she is, it is highly likely that Ren is made to be hated.
7. Despite her rivalry with Nakanaka, she does feel bad for her not having any friends. She later tries to help her make new friends, and even includes her in her friend group, although she doesn't see her as a friend.

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