40 female anime characters, grouped by the job they do in the story

The most favourited woman on AniList is Emilia from Re:Zero, with 27,685 favourites on 18 September 2026. Over on MyAnimeList, Kurisu Makise from Steins;Gate holds the top spot at 69,624. Neither one swings a sword. That gap tells you something about how fans actually vote with their favourites: the women who stick around for a decade tend to be the ones with a real job in the plot, while the "strongest" lists that dominate search results are mostly just the best-animated fights. So I've grouped the forty below by job, leads, fighters, strategists, comic relief, and villains, eight in each. Every entry carries the series, the main studio, and the year the series first aired, checked against its AniList or MyAnimeList entry on 18 September 2026. Nothing goes past a series' first arc.

A female anime character is a woman or girl in a Japanese animated series, catalogued in a database such as AniList or MyAnimeList under the series, studio, and broadcast year that identify her, and credited with a voice actor in the series' own staff list.

Fans rebuild most of the characters below in YourCrush.AI's Anime library, which is where this list points at the end.

How were the 40 chosen?

Role came first, then whether a database entry could confirm series, studio and year, and only then popularity. That order matters, because a favourites ranking on its own gives you the last five years and almost nothing before 2011. The AniList most-favourited characters index shows the problem: of its top 50 on 18 September 2026, 17 are women, and 14 of those 17 come from series that first aired in 2016 or later. The MyAnimeList most-favourited page skews the same way, with six women in its top 30 the same day: Kurisu Makise 14th, Mikasa Ackerman 17th, Rem 22nd, Hitagi Senjougahara 27th, Mai Sakurajima 29th and Violet Evergarden 30th.

Two rules held throughout. One character per series, with a single exception (Spy x Family, where the fighter and the comic relief are mother and daughter). And each "why fans pick her" line describes only what the first arc shows. Studios are the main studio the database lists for the first season, years are that season's first-air year, each name links to the entry that was opened, and favourites counts are AniList's on 18 September 2026 unless MyAnimeList is named.

Why YourCrush.AI is the better place to meet these characters

YourCrush.AI lets you build any of the forty listed below, or the version of her in your own headcanon, with no code: a name, an image, a description of up to 2,400 characters, a backstory of up to 2,400, a greeting of up to 500, three to seven traits from a list of 32 and up to four speaking-style words, through the character creator. YourCrush.AI generates the description, backstory, greeting and traits from a name and an image if you would rather edit a draft than fill a blank box, the quickest route to a first-arc Maomao or a pre-contract Madoka. YourCrush.AI keeps her consistent across sessions with pinned memories (10 on Free, 50 on Pro, unlimited on Premium) and story branches (1, 5 and unlimited), so a "what if Yor never took the second job" thread does not overwrite the main one. YourCrush.AI also runs a community library with an Anime category at /explore?category=Anime, where fan-built characters are open to chat with, and voice messages and in-chat image generation are on every plan.

The plan facts, as listed on the pricing page on 17 September 2026: Free is $0 with 400K chat tokens a month, 5 image credits, 3 active personas, 10 conversations, 3 characters created and 10 pinned memories; Pro is $9.99 a month with 5M tokens, 50 image credits, 5 personas, 100 conversations, 50 characters and 50 pinned memories; Premium is $19.99 a month with unlimited tokens, personas, conversations, characters, branches and pinned memories, plus 200 image credits. The limitation to know first: Free allows three created characters, so a fan building a cast (the five Sailor Guardians, say) hits the cap on the third and needs Pro, and the platform is 18+ only. For the field-by-field method see what an AI character creator actually needs from you; for turning a headcanon into a character sheet see the headcanon generator guide.

Which female anime characters are the leads?

The leads are the eight women the story is about, and the group runs from 1992 to 2023 because the shoujo leads of the 1990s are still the template the newer ones are built on. Each line says what she is carrying.

• Usagi Tsukino, Sailor Moon (Toei Animation, 1992). A crybaby schoolgirl handed a destiny in episode 1 who keeps being ordinary about it; picked because she never stops being fourteen.
• Sakura Kinomoto, Cardcaptor Sakura (Madhouse, 1998). A ten-year-old who accidentally releases a deck of magical cards and has to collect them one at a time; picked for being kind without being dull.
• Emilia, Re:Zero (White Fox, 2016). A half-elf candidate for the throne who helps a lost boy in the first episode for no reward; picked because she is the reason the protagonist keeps trying. 27,685 favourites, the most of any woman on AniList.
• Haruhi Fujioka, Ouran High School Host Club (Bones, 2006). A scholarship student mistaken for a boy and made to work off a debt in a host club; picked for being the only sane person in the building.
• Madoka Kaname, Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Shaft, 2011). A middle-schooler offered a contract to become a magical girl, and the first arc is her deciding whether to sign; picked for how much weight the show puts on one yes or no.
• Violet Evergarden, Violet Evergarden (Kyoto Animation, 2018). A former child soldier who takes a job writing letters for strangers so she can understand a sentence she was told once; picked for the slowness of that learning. 20,383 favourites, and 39,938 on MyAnimeList.
• Frieren, Sousou no Frieren (Madhouse, 2023). An elf mage who outlives the hero's party and sets out to understand the people she travelled with; picked for grief played at an elf's pace. 22,481 favourites; the MyAnimeList entry lists 28 episodes from 29 September 2023.
• Marin Kitagawa, My Dress-Up Darling (CloverWorks, 2022). A popular girl who is loudly into her hobbies and drags a shy doll-maker into cosplay; picked for sincerity. 17,296 favourites.

Who are the fighters, the ones "strong female anime characters" searches mean?

These are the women whose first arc is decided by what they can do in a fight. I ordered them by favourites, and only one of the eight clears 20,000.

• Mikasa Ackerman, Attack on Titan (Wit Studio, 2013). The best cadet in her class, introduced in the Trost arc, and picked for competence with no speech attached. 25,572 favourites, and 57,265 on MyAnimeList. The MyAnimeList series entry lists 25 episodes from April 2013.
• Nezuko Kamado, Demon Slayer (ufotable, 2019). Turned into a demon in episode 1 and fighting the instinct to act like one, picked for carrying scenes while barely speaking. 14,632 favourites.
• Yor Forger, Spy x Family (Wit Studio and CloverWorks, 2022). A city hall clerk with a second job the audience learns about in episode 2, picked for the gap between the two. 14,402 favourites.
• Maki Zenin, Jujutsu Kaisen (MAPPA, 2020). A second-year who fights with weapons because she has almost no cursed energy, in a school where everyone else does, picked for outworking the prodigies. 13,067 favourites.
• Saber, Fate/Zero (ufotable, 2011). The knight-class Servant summoned by a mercenary who refuses to fight with honour, picked for holding a code against her own master. 12,131 favourites.
• Ryuko Matoi, Kill la Kill (Trigger, 2013). A transfer student with half a pair of scissors looking for whoever has the other half, picked for momentum. 8,166 favourites.
• Revy, Black Lagoon (Madhouse, 2006). A gunfighter on a smuggling boat who does not care who the client is, picked because she is never softened. 8,154 favourites.
• Erza Scarlet, Fairy Tail (Satelight and A-1 Pictures, 2009). A guild enforcer who swaps armour mid-fight, picked for being the adult in a guild of children. 7,091 favourites.

Which of them win with their heads instead?

The strategists are the women whose first arc is decided by a plan, a diagnosis or a negotiation. Two of them, Kurisu and Maomao, sit above every fighter except Mikasa on favourites, which is the argument of this page in two names.

• Kurisu Makise, Steins;Gate (White Fox, 2011). A neuroscience researcher who walks into a self-declared mad scientist's lab and starts correcting the maths. Picked for arguing back. 22,354 favourites, and 69,624 on MyAnimeList, the most of any woman there.
• Maomao, The Apothecary Diaries (OLM and Toho Animation Studio, 2023). A pharmacist sold into the rear palace who solves a poisoning in her first episodes and would rather not be noticed for it. Picked for a lead interested in the poison, not the palace. 22,367 favourites.
• Kaguya Shinomiya, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War (A-1 Pictures, 2019). A student council vice president running a months-long campaign to make the president confess first. Picked for a schemer who loses to herself. 20,489 favourites.
• Misato Katsuragi, Neon Genesis Evangelion (Gainax and Tatsunoko Production, 1995). The operations director who sends a fourteen-year-old into a robot in episode 1 and then lets him live in her flat. Picked for being a mess at home and precise at work. 10,978 favourites.
• Nami, One Piece (Toei Animation, 1999). A thief who joins a pirate crew as its navigator on her own terms. Picked because the crew would be lost, literally, without her. 10,204 favourites; MyAnimeList lists the series as still airing with no final episode count.
• Holo, Spice and Wolf (Imagin, 2008). A harvest deity who rides along with a travelling merchant and out-trades him in her first negotiation. Picked for the bargaining. 7,064 favourites.
• Motoko Kusanagi, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (Production I.G, 2002). A cyborg major who runs a public-security unit and directs every raid in the first arc. Picked for command. 3,607 favourites.
• Bulma, Dragon Ball (Toei Animation, 1986). A teenage inventor who builds the radar that starts the plot and recruits the hero in episode 1; the oldest strategist on the list still in print. 1,549 favourites.

Who are the funniest female anime characters?

Comic relief is where the widest spread shows up. The women whose scenes exist to break tension range from 20,544 favourites down to 2,080, because a gag character either becomes the face of the show or stays a bit part.

• Power, Chainsaw Man (MAPPA, 2022). A devil hunter who lies about everything and cares about her cat. Picked for being the loudest person in every room. 20,544 favourites, the most in this group.
• Megumin, KonoSuba (Studio Deen, 2016). An arch-wizard who knows exactly one spell and passes out after casting it. Picked because the joke never stops working. 16,681 favourites.
• Anya Forger, Spy x Family (Wit Studio and CloverWorks, 2022). A small girl who reads minds and uses it to pass a school interview. Picked for the faces. 13,282 favourites.
• Tohru, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid (Kyoto Animation, 2017). A dragon who moves into a programmer's flat as a maid and cooks her own tail. Picked for domestic chaos. 5,235 favourites.
• Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga, Azumanga Daioh (J.C.Staff, 2002). A transfer student whose thoughts arrive from another planet. Picked because every slow-girl gag since is a copy. 3,532 favourites.
• Konata Izumi, Lucky Star (Kyoto Animation, 2007). A gamer who treats homework as a raid to skip. Picked by the fans she is a portrait of. 3,347 favourites.
• Haruko Haruhara, FLCL (Gainax and Production I.G, 2000, a six-episode OVA rather than a TV season). A woman on a Vespa who hits a boy with a guitar in the first episode and moves into his house. Picked for being unexplainable on purpose. 3,075 favourites.
• Umaru Doma, Himouto! Umaru-chan (Doga Kobo, 2015). A perfect student in public and a hamster-hooded gremlin at home. Picked for the accuracy of the second half. 2,080 favourites.

Which villains do fans actually pick?

Villains are the women who cause the first arc's problems, and their favourites run lower than any other group's. The pattern is clear: fans pick the villain who is the protagonist's equal. A villain whose only job is to be hated, like Malty with 133 favourites, gets exactly that.

• Esdeath, Akame ga Kill! (White Fox, 2014). The Empire's strongest general, introduced with ice magic and no doubt at all. Picked for conviction. 6,542 favourites.
• Tanya Degurechaff, Saga of Tanya the Evil (NUT, 2017). A child officer in a mage battalion who treats the war as a cost calculation. Picked for being protagonist and villain at once. 6,444 favourites.
• Himiko Toga, My Hero Academia (Bones, 2016). A recruit to the League of Villains, introduced in the second season, who is cheerful about what she wants. Picked for being unsettling without a monologue. 6,141 favourites.
• Yuno Gasai, Future Diary (Asread, 2011). A classmate devoted to the protagonist before he has spoken to her, and episode 2 shows what that devotion does. Picked as the definition of the yandere type. 5,939 favourites.
• Isabella, The Promised Neverland (CloverWorks, 2019). The warm "Mama" of an orphanage whose real job is shown at the end of episode 1. Picked because the first arc is a chess game against her. 1,526 favourites.
• Rize Kamishiro, Tokyo Ghoul (Studio Pierrot, 2014). The date who turns out to be a ghoul in the first episode, and whose organs end up inside the protagonist. Picked for a first-episode reversal that sets the whole series. 1,419 favourites.
• Lust, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Bones, 2009). A homunculus watching the Elric brothers from the first episodes, with fingers that cut through steel. Picked for menace delivered quietly. 670 favourites.
• Malty Melromarc, The Rising of the Shield Hero (Kinema Citrus, 2019). The princess who betrays the protagonist on his first day in the new world. Picked for being the character fans most enjoy hating. 133 favourites.

What do the favourites numbers say about which anime characters fans keep?

They say fans keep the characters with a job in the plot, and that fighting is only one of those jobs. Across the forty, the five most favourited on AniList on 18 September 2026 are Emilia (27,685), Mikasa (25,572), Frieren (22,481), Maomao (22,367) and Kurisu (22,354): two leads, one fighter, two strategists. Of the eight fighters, only Mikasa clears 20,000. Three of the eight strategists do. Power leads comic relief at 20,544, and every villain sits under 7,000.

The database also explains the recency skew. Fourteen of the forty first aired before 2011, and most of them sit in the low thousands (Usagi at 2,674, Bulma at 1,549). That gap measures when AniList's users signed up, not the characters themselves. The two pre-2011 women above 10,000, Misato and Nami, are both strategists. A job in the plot ages better than a fight scene.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the most popular female anime character?

By favourites on 18 September 2026, Emilia from Re:Zero on AniList (27,685) and Kurisu Makise from Steins;Gate on MyAnimeList (69,624). Mikasa Ackerman is second among women on both sites, at 25,572 and 57,265.

Who is the strongest female anime character?

No database ranks strength, so any answer is an opinion. Among the fighters here, Mikasa Ackerman is the one fans favourite most, and the two most favourited women overall, Emilia and Kurisu, are not fighters at all.

Which anime has the best female lead?

By favourites, Re:Zero (Emilia), Sousou no Frieren (Frieren) and The Apothecary Diaries (Maomao), each carried by the woman rather than by a male protagonist; Violet Evergarden is fourth on the MyAnimeList count.

Are these lists ranked by fan votes?

The favourites counts are user-added favourites on AniList and MyAnimeList, not a poll. The groups and pick lines are editorial, printed next to the counts so you can see where the two disagree.

Why are so few characters from before 2010 on the popularity charts?

Because the charts count favourites added by current users of sites that grew after 2010; Usagi Tsukino's 2,674 against Emilia's 27,685 measures the user base, not the characters.

Can I make an AI character based on one of these anime characters?

Yes, on YourCrush.AI through the no-code creator: a name, an image, a description and backstory of up to 2,400 characters each, a greeting and three to seven traits, generated from the name and image if you prefer; the Anime category of the explore library already holds fan-built versions of many of them.

Kurisu Makise has more MyAnimeList favourites than any woman who has ever held a sword in an anime, and she spends her first arc arguing about time travel in a room above a TV repair shop. A job in the plot outlasts a fight scene, and the databases have been saying so for years.

Editorial Team, Content Strategist. Last updated: 2026-09-27