The 10 Best Female Characters in All of Anime

I’ve been wanting to put this out for AGES. When I say AGES, I don’t mean a few months. I probably started this list sometime when I discovered the first season of Hayate no Gotoku. You could say that it was inspired by Maria. Then again, perhaps it was even farther back, around the time when I discovered Revy and Black Lagoon. It’s only been recently where I’ve had time to write some new posts and watch some new anime, which I have been doing to my heart’s content.

Fact is, I have loads of different “Top Ten” lists in draft form. Does anyone else have a list of “Top Ten Senseis In All Of Anime?” I think not. I should probably put that out soon so that no one steals that awesome idea. Anyway. Top ten female characters. Here we go:

#10 – Suzuma Saotome – Hyakko

What do you expect from this list? A whole bunch of Rie Kugimiya characters? A bunch of bad ass fighting babes? Well, there are several bad ass chicks, but there’s only one Rie Kugimiya character (maybe not the one you’d think either). And so, we have Suzume coming in at perhaps a surprising #1.

Hyakko, I feel, is a show that was kind of underrated, or at least deserving of another season. It was filled with great characters, and for a 4-koma, was actually pretty good. Damn good in fact. Unlike most other 4-koma. Why was she awesome?

Well, she had the personality of a character that doesn’t show much expression, but unlike Yuki from Haruhi (who may or my not have made this list), Suzu actually talks. She also has a voracious appetite and is generally awesome at everything. Just look at the passion burning behind those eyes! The fire! The heart! What power! What splendor!

Also, despite being awesome at everything, she still followed Torako loyally, which for some reason, I loved watching. I mean, how many people will drop what they’re doing and run away with someone else at the drop of a hat? i just love that for some reason.

#9 – Konata Izumi – Lucky Star

I’ve been wanting to use that picture for GOD KNOWS how long. I didn’t think I’d ever get the chance to, but to my surprise, and probably yours, we’ve got another 4-koma star coming in at #9.

Lucky Star is kind of similar to Hyakko in that I hated it after two episodes. However, While Hyakko got awesome, Lucky Star kind of was just….there. I never really thought it was that great, but I still loved the shit out of it. I finished it in one sitting. ONE SITTING. It was awesome for NOT REASON. Was it funny? It was okay. Did it have a good plot? No, it was a 4-koma based anime. What made it good then?

I discovered that, besides the awesome OP/EDs, Konata was just too much awesome to be contained in a crappy anime, and therefore, her simple appearance made the anime 104893 times better than it should have been.

I could write a whole section about this, but I ALREADY FUCKING DID. Wanna know why Konata’s #9?

READ THIS

#8 – Caska – Berserk

At first, I didn’t really like the ending of Berserk. But then, after thinking about it, I realized that it was perfect. It made me hate Griffith, because he raped the shit out of Caska, fucking up her whole brain.

For those of you who don’t know, Caska is the most bad ass awesome babe on the face of the planet.

There’s not really any special reason as to why I like her. She’s a tomboy through and through, except she’s hot as fuck. Even with muscles. She’s just awesome.

Just try and watch/read Berserk and not like Caska. It’s impossible.

#7 – Celty Sturluson – Durarara!

Durarara, just like Baccano, had one of the best cast I’ve ever seen. The casts were one of the major reasons why I liked both of these shows as much as I did, and I must say, I think that Durarara surpassed Baccano in terms of both characters, and my personal level of enjoyment.There were more awesome characters in Durarara any other show I can recall watching.

I knew that I liked Celty from the second I first saw her. Her outfit is undeniably awesome as fuck. I mean, it wasn’t anything too intricate and complex, it’s just a black bodysuit with a unique helmet. Yet, it’s just…perfect.

But that’s not why she made my list at #7.

Celty has what I consider to be one of the coolest backstories I’ve seen. As a dullahan, she’s made her way to Japan from Ireland in search of her head, which was stolen. But to make things more interesting, she has no memory. Her motorcycle is also none other than her horse, and as such, it doesn’t have an engine, but instead neighs and whatnot.

I was pumped as FUCK to see that this show is now on Adult Swim. The dubs are actually well done too, which is nice to see. I’ve been coming around to dubs as of late. Back on track.

Celty’s personality is MINT. Fantastic. She isn’t human, but she doesn’t act like there’s much different about her compared to other people around her, which I like to see. Idk. I probably don’t have to explain how awesome she is.

#6 – Lt. Riza Hawkeye – Fullmetal Alchemist

If this pick surprises you, then you clearly haven’t been a reader here very long. I mean, every FMA post I did had her involved in some way I’d like to think. There were a LOT of awesome female characters from FMA, which had a FANTASTIC character cast, but Hawkeye takes the cake.

Riza Hawkeye is awesome on more levels than you even know.

I’ve already said before that she’s boss. Her seriously superb sniping skills can slice you up from several miles South. When there’s a fight, she will win, because she’s fucking awesome. She’s also got a serious crush on the Colonel, and likewise, has no problem doing anything, including dying, to see him succeed. I like seeing devotion in a character. I’m a loyal fan of loyalty.

One time, her dog was going to the bathroom inside, and she nearly shot him (shot the wall next to him). Yeah. Tough love = awesome love.

To put it simply, Riza has no faults, and only gets more and more awesome. When it was revealed that she had a completely bad-ass tattoo burned onto her back, I nearly leapt through my ceiling in shear ecstasy. I didn’t think it was possible for her to get any cooler, but then she pulled that shit on me. Martel was awesome, Armstrong was a beast, but Riza was everything and more, and that’s why she get’s my #6 spot.

Intermission

So…what do you think so far? Surprised that there’s no Rie Kugimiya characters? If you ask me, there were quite a lot of surprises, even to me, in those first 5. I mean, Riza wasn’t really a surprise, but if you’ve been following Eye Sedso for a while, then you might realize the only other character I’ve really talked about besides Riza was Konata, and that was ages ago. Anyway, the next 5 are on a different level all together than the previous 5. The shear power their names alone could bring a beast of a man to his knees. Prepare for my top five, starting with…wait……Mizore?

#5 – Mizore Shirayuki – Rosario + Vampire

In what may or may not be the only Rie Kugimiya appearance, Mizore has every possible thing I could ever want in a character:

• Purple hair and an equally awesome fashion sense (love those socks)
• Voiced by Rie Kugimiya
• STALKER SUPREME!

I love stalker characters. Like…I’m literally in love with all stalker characters. Mizore is no exception, but I talk talk for hours about how awesome and good she is at stalking. Very loyal (again, loyalty I like).

Putting her stalking powers and incredibly awesome appearance aside, let’s talk about her fucking awesome power.
As you can tell from the above picture, ice is Mizore’s specialty, and thusly it allows her to do stuff like make fucking awesome beast mode claws that she can use to murder the shit out of your face with……if she wanted that is. But truthfully, she’s too bust stalking the shit out of Tsukune to give a shit.

When it comes down to it, I can’t think of a single moment in Rosario + Vampire (a pretty average show to be honest), where I didn’t enjoy her appearance. In fact, I wish the whole show was just about her.

#4 – Kagura – InuYasha

I was watching InuYasha the other night on Adult Swim, and the episode was the one where Kagura tries to take back Kohaku from the gang, who are trying to keep him with them (they are under the belief that he is no longer under Naraku’s control. However, it was a trap, and Kohaku actually was still under Naraku’s control, and thus tries to kill Kagome. The result was that Sango nearly killed him in a murder/suicide deal.

It reminded me of how much I really liked Sango. Then, it reminded me about how much I liked Kagura, the most tragic of all the InuYasha characters.

It wasn’t because of sympathy, however, that I ended up liking her a lot. She was arguably my favorite character in the entire show, and when she died, it was FUCKING STUPID. She was a character who never really had a side. She wasn’t on the side of the good guys, but she wasn’t really a bad guy either. She was caught in between worlds, fighting for herself to try and escape Naraku’s clutches.

And hey, even though she’s dead, at least I can still always play as her in InuYasha: Feudal Combat!

#3 – Maria – Hayate no Gotoku! (!!)

Well here we go pal. Everyone here should know that if Maria was going to be on this list. If you didn’t, then you’re an idiot. (the number 1 spot might be a surprise though. I’ve said it once, I’ve said it twice…..shit I’ve said it in almost every review on Hayate no Gotoku that I’ve done. Maria is untouchable.

Why?

First, let me rip off what I’ve already said. Rie Tanaka. One of the best seiyuu ever. Without her, Maria is nothing. Now, I will go into bullet form, because hey, you’ve been reading a lot to come this far, and you deserve a bit of a break.

• She’s FUCKING AWESOME at everything she does. Cooking, cleaning, beating the shit out of someone, you name it.
• She’s not one to cross. Seriously, don’t piss her off.
• She’s also slightly dimwitted. Sometimes. In other words, she’s got some humanity.
• She’s fucking awesome. Okay this one isn’t really valid… YES IT IS.
• She knows that Hayate and Nagi’s relationship is a misunderstanding. She’s the only one. This singles her out as unique. Unique = awesome.
• Awesome hair.
• Despite being the most awesome character in the show, she’s sometimes shunted to the side a bit, unjustly and unfairly, by the other characters (who also always think she’s older than she really is)

I don’t know. There’s so much awesome about her, even if I haven’t written much. This might be one of those things that you watch to understand, and even then you might not get it.

Fucking Hinagiku? Who the fuck is that? Favorite? Fuck her.

Okay I like Hinagiku too.

#2 – Revy – Black Lagoon

Arguably the most bad-ass of all female characters. She totes guns, she makes number runs, she give em- oh shit I already wrote that in my review of Black Lagoon, which was kind of a review of Revy. I really really REALLY need to rewatch this show, because from episode one she fucking BROUGHT IT.

Whether it’s shooting up everything in sight, downing a bottle of some type of hard alcohol and THEN shooting up everything in sight, calling Rock a pussy, shooting up everything in sight, getting attached to Rock emotionally, shooting everything up, or smoking a cig while shooting everything up, Revy is always fucking awesome.

Not only that, but she’s got a bad ass tattoo, a bad ass style of dress (Lara Croft-ish), a sense of immense swag, and a backstory that will make a blind man drive a car and a deaf man speak coherently. Oh, and she’s a FUCKING PIRATE.

DUH. WINNING.

Revy is one of those characters that everyone has in their top 10 (unless they’re FUCKS), simply because she’s just THAT bad-ass. I recall she one time muttered such prophetic lines as,

“Don’t cry, dipshit. You’ve got to enjoy life, or you’ll end up wasting it.”

Then she proceeded to kill everyone. With a smile on her face……speaking of pirates……

#1 – Ryoko – Tenchi Muyo

DID I GET YA!?

Did any of you guess that Ryoko would be my favorite female characters?

I’d hazard to say no! But she’s always been my favorite, since way back when Tenchi was on Toonami, and I watched it without really realizing what anime was. I’ve always liked her. Everything about her:

Space Pirate of awesomeness? CHECK

Cool character design who even has that one sharp tooth that appears from time to time? (just look at that bad-ass picture!) CHECK

Cool ass powers and the ability to float around like mother fucking Beetlejuice? CHECK

An aura of bad-assness? CHECK

A complete attitude of not giving a shit about anything, instead just getting wasted and fighting? CHECK

An aura of womanliness displayed by her RETARDEDLY awesome lust for Tenchi’s tiny Asian driftwood? (she got their first too she should have rightful claim) CHECK

Ryoko didn’t just narrowly beat out Revy and company for the top spot in this countdown. No. She won with EASE. You could say she….STOLE the spot. Robbed everyone blind (get it? cuz she’s a space pirate)

But still. Why do I love her so much?

I dunno, she’s just awesome. I loved her seiyuu (both sub and dub) as well. I liked her raspy voice in the dub, thought it suited her better, but still, both were great.

Everything about her I found fascinating. Call me crazy, but that’s just how it is. her attitude was sassy, she was swashbuckling in nature, she was short tempered and really fun to watch. I especially loved her bad attitude. She just got bombed all the time and told everyone else to fuck off. Some might call that a bitch. I call that someone who has a game plan, and can’t be disturbed. One can’t help but love such a perfect character.

And that’s it. My top ten (subject to change….except maybe the top 3. That’ll be tough to crack.

Final Thoughts

Well, you may notice a lot of names missing. Despite how much I loved the characters, there was no Haruhi, no Yuki Nagato, no characters from Neon Genesis Evangelion (and I LOVED those female characters too), as well as a lot of others missing. Here’s a few a left off (besides the aforementioned):

• Rukia (Bleach) – I was shocked that she didn’t make it. She’s probably 11 or maybe a back and forth in and out of the top ten. In fact, she should probably be 8, but in the end, I left all Bleach characters off, because Bleach has a lot of female characters I like, and there’s some other reasons that I can’t list….yet.
• Yuuko (xxxHOLiC) – She’s fucking awesome. Don’t deny it.
• Alice (Pandora Hearts) – Surly you must recall my musings on the subject.
• Horo (Spice and Wolf) – Despite what Baka-Raptor thinks he knows, Horo is fucking awesome. I also resent the name Holo, even if it’s probably the correct spelling.
• Sango and Ayume from InuYasha. YEAH. AYUME KICKED ASS.
• A lot of Rie Kugimiya Characters
• Tsukimi (Kuragehime) – She was awesome to watch. NO LIE.

There’s probably others, but I’m done with this post. BYE.

EDIT (May 20, 2012): I switched Revy with Maria. Sorry Maria, but Revy is too badass NOT to be in the top 2.