In this article:
- Kagome, C.C., and other anime girls from older shows always make the list but newer shows deserve some attention, too.
- This list includes some of the coolest anime girls from the most recent shows like Demon Slayer and Tower of God.
- There are a few spoilers here and there, especially if the listed character is from an older show.
There’s a philosophical question that’s existed on the forefront of anime fans’ minds since the early days of anime: “Who is the best anime girl?”
Top picks for best waifu showdowns are often female characters from older shows like Inuyasha‘s Kagome or Code Geass‘s C.C. And I get it. Not only are they memorable characters from some of the most well-known anime series of all time, but they’ve also had years to gain popularity within the community.
There’s rarely a spotlight on newer characters.
The increasing popularity of the isekai genre, whose female characters could barely pass the Bechdel test, isn’t helping either. But cool anime girls still abound, whether they’re sword-wielding badasses or academic geniuses.
Here are a few of the coolest anime girls we’ve seen in the past couple of years.
1. Shinobu Kocho From Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba (2019)
Shinobu Kocho is part of the main cast of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and is one of the show’s hashira, making her one of the highest-ranking members of the Demon Slayer Corps. With such an impressive title, it’s easy to think of Shinobu as a strong character.
After all, how else would an anime girl be lauded as a skilled combatant? This may come as a surprise, but Shinobu is actually the only hashira who isn’t strong enough to decapitate a demon.
Standing at just 4’11, Shinobu’s petite size makes her the smallest and weakest of the hashira, but it doesn’t mean she’s not powerful.
In a fight with the Spider Demon, Shibonu’s enemy makes the mistake of underestimating her after realizing that the woman didn’t decapitate her. That is until she feels the poison on Shinobu’s blade take effect. The poisonous blade gimmick fits nicely with Shinobu’s overall butterfly theme and polite personality, making her seem non-threatening when she’s anything but.
Aside from her combat abilities, Shinobu also has a sarcastic sense of humor. We often see her teasing her opponents and even her fellow hashira. Giyuu is often the butt of Shinobu’s jokes as she often snidely says that the other hashira don’t like him.
2. Nobara Kugisaki From Jujutsu Kaisen (2020)
Nobari Kugisaki is another cool anime girl from a shounen series called Jujutsu Kaisen which you definitely should watch if you liked Hunter x Hunter.
Anyway, what makes Nobari so cool is how rare her personality is in anime. Sure, there’s going to be a character from an anime who also has the same brutish personality, but they’re rarely female and rarely featured in popular anime. Even in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, noted for its interesting female characters, the female hashira have conventionally pretty themes: butterflies, flowers, love.
Nobari has no problem with getting ugly, though she doesn’t go the “not like other girls” tomboy route. She’s often brash and is shown to have unshakable confidence, taking decisive action when everyone else wants to be more cautious. When she isn’t performing exorcisms, Nobari’s out shopping, her favorite hobby.
Overall, she’s such a breath of fresh air considering that these types of headstrong characters are often men in anime.
Personality aside, Nobari is a strong fighter in her own right. In the show, she wields a hammer and nails as her primary weapons which are used to perform exorcisms. In the rare case that she has to fight a human, she switches to a less deadly rubber mallet. There’s no guarantee she won’t swing it just as hard, though.
3. Miko Iino From Kaguya Sama: Love Is War (2019)
Miko Iino may not have started out as a fan favorite, but she’s grown into one of the most interesting characters in Kaguya Sama: Love Is War.
Unlike the earlier characters on this list, this anime girl isn’t a fighter in the literal sense but her determination makes her just as formidable. When we first meet Miko in the anime series, she’s an abrasive killjoy who advocates for stricter school regulations.
Naturally, this made everyone else hate her or see her as an annoying child. But Miko wasn’t fazed by this, going as far as to challenge Shirogane for the title of president in the student council elections.
Anyone who’s ever been in high school knows how much guts it takes not to give in to peer pressure.
It’s later revealed that Miko gets her strong sense of justice from her parents. Miko’s mother is part of a humanitarian group while her father is a judge in the Supreme Court. Their busy schedules meant they rarely had time for Miko so she began to think that if she could solve the moral problems of the world, there wouldn’t be so many bad people keeping them busy. Over time, Miko learns to be an advocate of justice for its own sake.
Honestly? It sounds like Miko Iino will make a great judge. It’s just a question of whether she’ll learn the difference between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law.
4. Endorsi Jahad From Tower of God (2020)
This anime girl might not count depending on who you ask. As with any hobby, there are purists who won’t count animation that isn’t made in Japan as anime even if it uses a recognizable anime art style and shares many of the same tropes. In this case, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck. Just scroll past this one if it’s going to make you pop a vein.
Disclaimer aside, Endorsi Jahad (also anglicized as Androssi Zahard) is a character from Tower of God, an anime adaptation of the Korean webtoon or manhwa. As one of the Princesses of Zahard, an elite group of female warriors who serve the King of the Tower, Endorsi is a formidable fighter. In the webtoon, it’s shown how physically fit she is compared to the average person and even the Regulars have a hard time keeping up with her.
Like Nobara Kugisaki, she has a feminine bruiser personality. She’s seen shopping almost as much as she’s seen beating enemies up with her bare fists. Endorsi has a special love for shoes and takes offense when her enemies try to hit her in the face,
5. โOrdinary Personโ a.k.a โThe Swindlerโ From Akudama Drive (2020)
Our next anime girl is Ordinary Person, later known as “The Swindler”. Ordinary Person is from Akudama Drive, a 2020 anime set in cyberpunk Japan. Kansai, the city where the anime takes place, is plagued by criminal fugitives called Akudama. With such an action-packed premise, it’s surprising that the protagonist is an ordinary girl. Pun intended.
Ordinary Person is just a regular girl with no tragic backstory who gets caught in the world of the Akudama and ends up pretending to be one of them. It isn’t just any other Akudama either. Ordinary Person has to take the identity of the Swindler whose ultimate swindle is accidentally making the Kansai police think she’s a powerful Akudama.
It makes her sound incompetent and in a way, she kind of is. Ordinary Person scares easy, is often anxious, and is way too naive to be an actual swindler. That said, she’s a lot like Miko Iino due to her unwavering determination. And really, is there a better time to be brave than when we’re freaking out?
6. Rika Kawai From Wonder Egg Priority (2021)
Rika Kawai’s character design really fit the time the anime she’s from was made in. Everything about it โ the pink hair, choker, varsity jacket, and black high-top All Stars โ is giving 2020s teenager which makes sense since she’s only in her mid-teens.
Rika has a bright and bubbly personality though she can be a bit blunt sometimes which puts off the other people at first. That said, her sense of humor and positive outlook make it hard to hate her for long. Despite her youth and outward behavior, Rika has an intensely dark side to her, especially when you think about how she’s only around 14 years old in the show.
Later, we’re shown that the mean things she says are her way of protecting herself from her own negative thoughts, almost as if she has to harden her heart against people so she doesn’t break.
Rika describes her mother, an alcoholic, as a “tragic heroine with a persecution complex” and holds on to the only thing she remembers from her father: that a pretty girl doesn’t need a wallet because someone else will pay for her.
TLDR: Rika is pretty messed up, but it’s also what makes her a compelling and cool anime girl. Honestly, her struggles with girlhood make her one of the most relatable characters on this list. Her weapons of choice are two scissor-like blades and a box cutter. I’ll let you figure that one out for yourself.
7. Violet Evergarden From Violet Evergarden (2018)
Ever since the first Violet Evergarden anime aired in 2018, Violet Evergarden has been the favorite anime girl among otakus. It’s not hard to see why. Compared to the other shows on this list, Violet Evergarden is an intensely introspective anime that focuses on the connections between its characters and what they teach Violet about the meaning of love.
That doesn’t mean Violet can’t kick ass, though. Before her letter-writing days, the young lady was basically a child soldier raised within the military to become a human weapon. The conditions she grew up in and the things she needed to do to survive made Violet emotionless.
When the war ended, Violet lost her purpose in life and needed to figure out how to become a regular person again. This angle of her story arc has made her a favorite of some war veterans.
As badass as that is, what really makes Violet such an awesome anime girl is the transformation she undergoes throughout the series. We see her grow out of her old wartime persona and into an Auto Memory Doll before slowly becoming her own person with her own feelings that she wants to act on.
Depending on your personal experiences, Violet Evergarden can be a metaphor for your coming of age story, quarter-life crisis, mid-life crisis, PTSD, and everything in between.
8. Kyouko Hori From Horimiya (2021)
Kyouko Hori is a great reminder that you don’t have to be a mecha pilot to be a memorable anime girl. Kyouko is a student at Katagiri Senior High School which she attends alongside the other protagonists. She fits into the popular smart girl archetype we see in a lot of high school-themed anime shows. To some, that makes her boring, but look at it the other way: it’s a classic.
Kyouko is known for two things: her good looks and smarts. Though she has an energetic and friendly personality, Kyouko is anything but laidback. Other characters in the show notice how much of a hard worker she is, always giving her all in every aspect of her life. If that doesn’t make an anime girl one of the best, I don’t know what does.
Anime girls aside, let’s talk about the male anime characters that have been living in our collective consciousness rent-free for the last decade or so. Check out Male Anime Characters We Still Have a Crush On and let us know who your favorite anime guy and anime girl is!