On the night of May 23, 2019, 21-year-old hostess Yuka Takaoka stabbed her boyfriend Phoenix Luna in the stomach with a kitchen knife inside their apartment in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Then she sat beside his bleeding body, lit a cigarette, and waited for police—smiling. The image of her blood-smeared face and calm demeanor went viral, earning her the nickname “real-life yandere,” a term from anime describing obsessive, violent lovers. Yuka and Phoenix had been living together for just three weeks. Acco