INFP Anime Characters That Are So INFP It Hurts

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INFP anime characters are a little harder to identify compared to other MBTI types. While it’s obviously hard to say with absolute certainty what MBTI type an anime character is, there’s also the fact that some types are rarely portrayed as leads compared to others.

We tend to remember gregarious and outgoing or cool and calculating leads more compared to quiet, moody, and tender-hearted INFPs. These qualities also mean they’re often portrayed as side characters rather than main protagonists.

That said, INFP anime characters stand out no matter their role or temperament. Because this type leads with Fi (Introverted Feeling), INFP characters tend to have a strong sense of self. Underneath their typically unassuming demeanor is someone who’s sure of what they believe in and their self-concept.

6 INFP Anime Characters From Animated Shows and Movies

1. Zuko From Avatar: The Last Airbender

Okay, maybe Avatar: The Last Airbender isn’t your idea of an anime. Let’s not get into the what makes an anime discourse because what really matters here is Zuko.

Prince Zuko is born to the Fire Nation royal family and grows up being taught to deny his natural sense for what is right and good. His father, Fire Lord Ozai, teaches him that the only way to be a worthy prince is to be brutal and cruel towards others.

His upbringing results in a trauma that sticks with him for most of the series, forcing him to grapple with the parts of his identity that were forced on him as a child. Even though Ozai raises him to be merciless, Zuko still finds it in him to resist his father’s influence and the twisted values of the Fire Nation’s most powerful officials.

This isn’t a small feat given that Zuko was practically a child when he spoke up against an experienced general during a war meeting to object to the sacrifice of the Fire Nation’s soldiers for the sake of a tactical maneuver.

With the help of his Uncle Iroh and Aang, two other characters who exhibit strong Fi, he learns to accept his gentler side and his strong innate sense of justice in a way that’s healthy rather than vengeful.

2. Alphonse Elric From Full Metal Alchemist

Full Metal Alchemist‘s Alphonse Elric fits the more tender side of INFP that we usually imagine when we think of that MBTI type. Soft-spoken, gentle, and deeply compassionate, Alphonse serves as a foil to his brother Edward’s brash and temperamental personality.

His childlike innocence stands in sharp contrast to his intimidating appearance owing to the massive suit of armor that Edward bound his soul to during their failed attempt to resurrect their mother.

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Though he and Edward go through difficult experiences together and he’s often held by others at a distance, Alphonse has managed to keep his sensitive and caring self undamaged by the roughness of life.

He often cares for stray cats and does not hesitate to put himself in harm’s way to protect his friends and Edward.

Alphonse’s surprising gentleness allows him to quickly forge deep connections with others, a gift that sets IXFPs apart from their extroverted feeling (Fe) counterparts. This and their shared past is ultimately what drives Scar to sacrifice his own arm to save Alphonse in the 2003 adaptation of the FMA manga.

3. Son Gohan From Dragon Ball Z

If you can’t tell already, INFP anime characters have a lot of range and manage to be very distinct from each other despite sharing the same underlying cognitive stack. Son Gohan, the son of the legendary Son Goku, is an example of the more outgoing and extroverted variant of INFP.

Though he’s born powerful, due to his half-Saiyan heritage, Gohan isn’t a big fan of fighting and doesn’t have the war-mongering streak that other full Saiyans tend to have.

For all his friendliness, though, Gohan still leads with an introverted dominant function so he’s usually more withdrawn compared to true extroverts. He’s a bit of an intellectual and is deeply curious about the world around him, owing to auxiliary extroverted intuition (Ne).

Though Gohan isn’t cruel nor easily angered by nature, he isn’t a stranger to the explosive bursts of anger that people with Fi tend to have.

This usually comes out when he feels that the people he cares about are threatened or that the values he holds are being violated. Ultimately, he’s committed to making the world a better place.

4. Mob From Mob Psycho

Shigeo Kageyama a.k.a “Mob” is a protagonist of the anime Mob Psycho.

The show makes a point of Mob being unassuming to the point of making him look like a background character of an anime rather than its protagonist. This is even more obvious when you look at his design next to his fellow protagonists.

While this might seem contradictory to the INFP’s strong sense of self, the truth is that INFPs do tend toward a more passive and relaxed way of life as they prefer their creature comforts (Introverted Sensing) and inner worlds (Introverted Feeling) to dealing directly with the world.

Look, the Extroverted Thinking (Te) comes last in the INFP’s stack for a reason.

Underneath his quiet demeanor, though, are unmatched esper powers that are only rivaled by his boundless capacity for compassion and forgiveness.

Though his powers make him relatively unstoppable, Mob refuses to stoop to using his powers to push people around. Plus, unlike other characters with psychic abilities, he also strongly believes that his abilities do not make him better than anyone.

5. Gaara From Naruto

Let’s move away from the gentler and more obviously INFP anime characters on this list with Gaara, the powerful Prince of the Sand Waterfall Gourd who is feared by villagers because of his fearsome personality and unscrupulously self-centered ideals.

The same Introverted Feeling (Fi) that makes the earlier INFPs on this list so kind is the same function that gives Gaara his ruthless edge. Fi users’ compassion for others and their unwillingness to compromise their ideals come from Fi’s gift of keeping IXFPs strongly in tune with themselves and resistant to social pressure.

Unfortunately, it can also make Fi users intensely self-absorbed and willing to sacrifice anyone else to meet their needs.

Gaara begins to exemplify this after he’s abandoned by his parents. He becomes callous and dismissive of others, seeing them either as disposable nobodies or as threats to his survival that need to be erased at all costs.

Later in the series, he learns to reconnect with others and reawaken his inner child. This puts him on the path of becoming Suna village’s Kazekage and fiercest defender.

6. San From Princess Mononoke

Or an ISFP. We really don’t have as much to go off with San compared to other INFP anime characters on this list who we see in series rather than movies. Most arguments for San being an ISFP revolve around her fighting abilities which are taken as a sign of auxiliary Extroverted Sensing (Se).

Regardless, it’s clear that San has the same strong and unbending principles that dominant Fi users tend to have.

Though she’s a lot more short-tempered and brash compared to your average IXFP, San is fiercely protective of the forest and the woodland creatures she considers her home and family.

She’ll do anything to protect them, going as far as to disown her human connections to fully align herself with wolf goddess Moro.

Why Are INFP Anime Characters the Way They Are?

You may have noticed that INFP anime characters, and high Fi characters for that matter, are really difficult to pin down because of how variable this personality type can be.

Unlike high Extroverted Thinking (Te) and Extroverted Feeling (Fe) users whose personalities are more overt and decisive, INFPs differ from each other depending on what they personally value.

This doesn’t mean that other personality types don’t have values on their own, but rather that INFPs have more insular identities that are primarily shaped by their internal compass.

No matter what INFP personally values, though, their line of thinking, way of understanding the world, and interacting with their environment are largely determined by their cognitive stack. Think of it as the software of the INFP brain and the thing that makes INFP, well, INFP.

INFP’s cognitive stack is as follows:

• Introverted Feeling (Dominant Function): INFP is very in tune with their feelings or, at the very least, has a strong sense of what they don’t want. Even the most indecisive INFPs tend to have a stubborn streak as Fi users are quick to identify values they don’t align with. This also leads INFP to feel deeply and strongly about the world around them, even if they don’t outwardly express it.

• Extroverted Intuition (Auxiliary Function): INFP is often stereotyped as a daydreamer. Fi already makes them largely unaware of anything outside of their personal concerns and immediate social circle. Ne further keeps them in their own heads, giving INFP bright ideas and presenting them with possibilities for a course of action. This is also why people around them may experience INFP as indecisive or, to be more accurate, taking forever to make a decision.

• Introverted Sensing (Tertiary Function): INFP may be a bit forgetful, but like their INTP cousins, who also have tertiary Si, they tend to be quite attached to their memories and feelings of familiarity. INFP gravitates towards creature comforts and self-soothing behaviors centered on experiences they know are predictably relaxing based on previous experience. This can also make them very nostalgic people, a quality that sets them apart from their ISFP cousins.

• Extroverted Thinking (Inferior Function): Another contributor to INFP’s reputation for being emotional and indecisive is their inferior Extroverted Thinking. High Extroverted Thinking, as seen in XXTJs, makes for a very action-oriented and practical approach to the world that has little regard for sentimentality. Put it at the fourth and last position and it has the inverse effect on INFP.

There may be a lot of stereotypes about INFPs, but these INFP anime characters prove that even fictional versions of this MBTI type can be surprisingly dynamic and variable. Regardless of what “flavor” of INFP you may be, there’s always something that sets you (and these INFP anime characters) apart from the rest.