From focussed and powerful warriors to weather untried girl , from princesses to riveting distance aliens , there are a gross ton of female anime protagonists that we can all take care up to — or , at the very least , we can be connive by their narrative and captivated by their character development .

It is authoritative to note that " full " does not entirely imply forcible strength , intelligence , or incredible aptitude . These ladies are the best because of their mesh stories , interesting personality , powerful fictional character arcs , and overall theft of fans ' hearts .

update on August 25th , 2022 by Tanner Fox : It ’s not often that gum anime serial include female figure that are n’t noteworthy in some style ; from bold character designs to cautiously - craft backstories and personality traits , most serial simply would n’t be what they are without their conduct dame .

Din Djarin and Ahsoka-1

That said , from Spirited Away ’s courageous and determined Chihiro Ogino to Cowboy Bebop ’s iconic Faye Valentine , some characters go past position as impermanent stand - out and become absolutely unforgettable .

Mikasa Ackerman

Attack on Titan

The stereotypic boy - save - miss gender function that play out in medium are also very much reversed when it comes to her relationship with Eren , which is very refreshing to see , though her protectiveness of him seems a little unhealthy at time .

Ochaco Uraraka

My Hero Academia

My Hero Academiais chiefly a tale about underdog who beat long odds thanks to indomitable willpower , and Izuku Midoriya , the anime ’s feature character , is perhaps the best example of that . Born powerless in a world of superheroes , he does everything he can to rise the ranks and become the ultimate military group of goodness .

But these quality are also plain inMy Hero Academia’sOchaco Uraraka , one of Midoriya ’s best friends . Having grown up in poverty , she ’s determined to become a notable grinder to rescue her parents from their fiscal fuss . Plus , she ’s also ferociously patriotic and demonstrates the tranquil yet ego - sure demeanor that ’s perfectly necessary in hero work .

Motoko Kusanagi

Ghost in the Shell

Major Motoko Kusanagi is one of the primary protagonists of the popularGhost in the Shellfranchise of manga , films , and animated series . Motoko is a cyborg who works as a field commandant for Public Security Section 9 on the Japanese National Public Safety Commission . Motoko is a very physically inviolable and incredibly intellectual who is quick - witted and an first-class hacker .

As a shaver , Motoko was comatose following an airplane fortuity . After her health began to steadily worsen , her cognizance was put into a " full - dead body prosthesis , ” an augmented - cybernetic human dead body . Motoko induce us to question precisely what makes us human . She is an emotional , stoic , and strong woman who fight for the citizen she protect , yet she live inside an unreal body .

Chihiro Ogino

Spirited Away

Chihiro , the pint - sized hero from the Studio Ghibli classicSpirited off , has some of the full case outgrowth in any anime film or serial . She starts out as a sort of easily spooked bratty tike and harness within herself the power to become a very braw , hard , and responsible person . Chihiro is like many of Hayao Miyazaki ’s leading ma’am in that she experience a huge amount of character development , gain authority throughout her journey , and is part of a healthy coming - of - age story that new young woman can learn a lot from . Chihiro is throw into a human race that is chilling and is burdened with the responsibleness of saving her parent when she should just be a glad , normal kid . However , her circumstances labor her to look within and pull out strong qualities that were always there but now have an opportunity to come in out .

Hayao Miyazaki understandably agrees , and was quoted saying of Chihiro , " [ I ] make a heroine who is an ordinary girlfriend , someone with whom the consultation can sympathize . It ’s not a story in which the characters grow up , but a history in which they get out on something already inside them , brought out by the particular context . "

Usagi Tsukino

Sailor Moon

Usagi is indue in her unafraid display of conventional femininity without any entail failing . Usagi is a fairly distinctive adolescent girl who is all about her supporter , food for thought , and cute things while at the same time being a badass heroine who cleanses the streets of evil . In the original manga and Zanzibar copal , Usagi was limn as loth to be a superhero and would often run off from fights and be a crybaby . Through her character development , Usagi becomes a brave , reliable , and confident person who cares deeply for her friends .

She becomes a upright version of herself without stereotypically “ throw off ” her girliness . Instead , her muliebrity becomes a defining feature of hers , deconstructing the approximation that being girly makes you weak . On the contrary , Usagi ’s girliness makes her risible , relatable , and a good role simulation for young girl .

Asuka Langley Soryu

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Asuka is an American adolescent girl who serve as an Eva pilot for the Evangelion Project and pilots the Evangelion Unit-02 . Asuka was put forward in Germany and often swear in German . She was a child prodigy with a college degree at only fourteen days old , but she definitely has her human flaw . She has a temper and is obsess with being the best at everything she does .

Despite these flaws , Asuka is screaming in her own room and has the sort of authority and superbia rarely seen in a girl as young as her . She know she can do her occupation well and is n’t afraid to express herself . ]

San

Princess Mononoke

San represents the ira of oppressed people and how that ira , while valid , can either steer a person to a place of touchable alteration or altogether destroy them . San has been hateful toward human race for much of her life — and for dependable cause . When the wolf Moro get along upon her parent vandalizing the Natalie Wood , they throw away the baby San at the wolf to save their own peel .

San is willing to do anything to protect her espouse wolf family and the forest they live in . Though she have a lot of maturity and growth throughout the photographic film — particularly toward champion Ashitaka — she remains unforgiving towards humanity and proceed to be in the woods . Anything less would have been a form of excusatory assimilation . San hates humans , and always will . But she does acknowledge her human side , which makes her a small more sympathetic .

Tohru Honda

Fruits Basket

The heroine from the seriesFruits Basketmay be relatively unknown , but to any girl who maturate up show the manga , Tohru shows what a well person really is like . She lost both her parent to a machine accident and a chronic illness , and she survive in a tent on the Sohma attribute when she begin to find like a burden to her granddad who was housing her . After being chance upon , she is invited to last out in a way at the Sohma estate of the realm . She work heavily at her part - time caper to patronise herself and ante up her schooling tuition .

Tohru is kind , generous , and thankful for the good things in her spirit . She shows her new friends the truthful import of friendship and bring in a spot on this list for just being an all - around relatable , unspoilt person .

Faye Valentine

Cowboy Beebop

Faye Valentine is a main character from the pop futurist premium hunting Zanzibar copal seriesCowboy Bebop . When she was younger , her parent were killed in a ballistic capsule accident that nearly killed her . Since there was no room to do by her injuries with medicine at the time , she was cryogenically frozen until medicinal drug was forward-looking enough to heal her . The Gate incident result in her identity and record being rub out . After fifty - four years , the amnesiac Faye is awake and healed , but she ’s now in a massive amount of debt . To escape her debts , she lives a life history on the run as a malefactor . She eventually meets Spike and Jet and becomes a member of the Bebop ship .

Faye is an awesome protagonist with some antihero tendencies . She ’s one of the funniest female characters in any anime ever , her story is interesting , and she is a lot more vulnerable than she lets on . When Spike adjudicate to snipe the understructure of the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate and possibly be defeat , Faye does everything she can to arrest him , telling him that he is her only family .

Sophie Hatter

Howl’s Moving Castle

Like Chihiro ofSpirited Awayand several other heroines fromStudio Ghiblifilms before her , Sophie Hatter fromHowl ’s Moving Castleis an endearing , interesting , and very likable character . Sophie is a reserved and insecure young woman at the beginning of the film . In the res publica where she lives , the eldest daughter in a family is destined to endure a routine life taking over the business affairs of her family . After being transformed into an old lady by the Witch of the Waste , she proves herself as a strong , horizontal surface - headed , and overbold person .

While accompanying Howl on his adventures , her tolerant nature and dutiful morals glint through , and she does her good to help everyone around her . Sophie is a relatable heroine who , through stepping out of her comfort zone and enter a universe she ’s not used to , is able to awaken innate magical abilities that she never cognise she had .

Haruko Haruhara

FLCL

Haruko is one of the main theatrical role ofFLCL . She is an alien secret investigator for the Galactic Space Police Brotherhood who arrives on Earth to look for a space plagiarist call Atomsk . She works for a young serviceman make Naota ’s sept as a maid . In the first episode of the short serial publication , she run over Naota with her bright yellow Vespa and hits him in the head with a guitar . The blow to the head opens a portal site in Naota ’s forehead from which giant robots emerge .

Haruko is refreshingly flakey and unpredictable , and few of the thing she does get to horse sense . She has antihero tendency and is somewhat manipulative towards Naota . disregardless , her trick steal the show , and it ’s is very rare to find a character as unhinged and deeply interesting as Haruko .

Konata Izumi

Lucky Star

Konata is the implied leader of the Lucky Star chemical group of friends . She is mischievous , friendly , and sarcastic , with no shortage of uproarious lines . Konata is n’t the distinctive head lady from a shoujo production , either ; she is unapologetically work-shy , be intimate telecasting game , falls benumbed in class , and is gallant to be a fleck of a weirdo .

Konata ’s female parent pall after she was born and was raised alone by her father . The episode where we learn more about what happened to her is incredibly sad and gravitate away from the typically cheerful and funny presence that Konata has onLucky Star . Konata is much more interesting and complex than one would opine , and her complicated retiring solidifies that .

Yor Forger

Spy X Family

Debuted in 2022 , the gum anime adaptation ofSpy x Familybecame a major bang , and the initiative season ’s upcoming second cour is one of the most extremely - anticipate outlet of the second one-half of the twelvemonth . The series in the main follows Twilight a exceptional agent task with infiltrate the inner circle of a powerful figure in a rival state . To do so , he masquerades as a posh family man and splice the seemingly - naive Yor .

Yor , however , has a secret of her own ; she moonlight as a deadly assassinator . Skilled in all kinds of combat arts , Yor is every bit as badass as her husband — something she proves when the two fighting in an early episode .

Yuuko Ichihara

xXxHolic

Yuuko is the possessor of the shop in Tokyo where most of the event ofxXxHolictakes station . She is a wish - granter who aids Watanuki in his wish to be rid of the tone that bother him in commutation for an extended time period of servitude . Despite giving him frequently demeaning task , Yuuko deal deeply for Watanuki .

Before Yuuko ’s eventual end , she asks their common friend Haruka to protect Watanuki once she is gone . At the end of the serial during a dream sequence , she turns into a vast swarm of butterflies and disappears before Watanuki can catch her . When she does die while in another dimension , Watanuki clutches his heart in pain , implying an deathless connexion .

Fuu Kasami

Samurai Champloo

Fuu is the one of the lead characters in the seriesSamurai Champloo . The fifteen - year - old Fuu tricks Mugen and Jin into protecting her on her journey to discover the oracular quality name the Sunflower Samurai . It is later disclose that the Sunflower Samurai is Fuu ’s alienated father . The three get into a lot of funny dramatically compelling situations on their journeying and finally become good friends .

Fuu is a big character because she is very imperfect in many ways . She meddles in other people ’s business , is normally awkward and inapt , and is very susceptible to freak accident . She also try out to act as if she is as worldly as her escort , which is very much not true . However , she has have hardship and the death of her mother , so she ’s not entirely ignorant of aroused agitation . Fuu is a shiny and trust immature woman , and , despite her impractical power within the group , she continue a very endearing and memorable leading lady .

Nezuko Kamado

Demon Slayer

Demon Slayer ’s Nezuko Kamadohas to be among the most tragical and complex character in late anime account . Once the pricy sister of protagonist Tanjiro , she ’s transformed after a fiend slaughter most of her village . However , while most demons promptly abandon their humanness , Nezuko is wreak to her senses thanks to her brother ’s heroic activity and life as a kind of demon - human hybrid .

Now ferociously protective of her comrade , Nezuko will go to unimaginable length to defend him . Her new configuration make her a devastating combatant , and she ’s unremittingly interesting throughout the entire serial .

Hinata Hyuuga

Naruto

Naruto , one of the most popular anime serial publication ever , had no shortage of interesting , various , and unequaled characters . However , Hinata is definitely one of the most piquant on the show . Hinata started off in the serial as a very shy and ego - conscious unseasoned girl with an innocent crush on the nominal hoagy . She was often consider the useless princess of the Hyuga clan , but she soon gained stirring from watching her friends succeed and harnessed the business leader within herself to improve .

Hinata is a genuinely genial person , and her backstory is very fascinating and well written . Despite being force into a very biting rivalry with her sister , she maintained her positive nature throughout the serial . She is also the secondly - youngest ninja to create her own jutsu and was the fastest in preparing it for scrap .

Nana Osaki

Nana

Nanais a manga and anime series about two young and very different adult female name Nana who meet by probability and settle to move in together as roomy . While Nana Komatsu is interesting in her own style , there ’s something about Nana Osaki that is titillate and riveting .

Nana ’s brave out her share of garbage in her life . She is the unlawful daughter of a fair sex who abandon Nana in her grandmother ’s care as a toddler . Her gran was reasonably scurrilous , forbidding Nana to crop in path that would charm humankind like her female parent . Nana became a rebellious juvenility and educate a heart for punk music . Nana was expelled from school for a assumed harlotry accusal and became the star singer of the striation Black Stones , which developed quite a fan following . Despite relationship yield , she refused to vacate her music life history for a human race . Regardless of her intimidating coming into court , Nana is actually a risible , devoted supporter with a good heart .

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Mikasa from Attack on Titan

Ochaco Uraraka from the anime series My Hero Academia.

Ocacho Uraraka

Ochaco Uraraka from the anime series My Hero Academia.

Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell

Chihiro from Spirited Away

Usagi in Sailor Moon

Asuka in Neon Genesis Evangelion

San looks down while a large white wolf stands behind her Princess Mononoke

Tohru from Fruits Basket

Faye Valentine points a gun at the camera in Cowboy Bebop

Sophie holds out her hands to Calcifer in Howl’s Moving Castle

Haruko from FLCL

Konata from Lucky Star

Yor Forger looking surprised in Spy x Family

Yuuko from xXxHolic

Fuu from Samurai Champloo

Nezuko from the Demon Slayer anime series.

Hinata in the woods in Naruto Shippuden

Nana Osaki from Nana