Female characters take on a wide variety of roles in the anime world, from eye candy to royalty. They’re not just beautiful props, though; they often play a key role in shaping and changing their worlds.
These female anime characters made it to this list by excelling at their jobs, vocations, and life’s work. Some have magical and superhuman powers, while others are armed with nothing but their sharp wits. These women cut a path of success in their worlds.
10 Holo Takes Her Wisdom On The Road When The Villagers Forget Her (Spice and Wolf)
Holo is also known as the Wisewolf or Sage Wolf of Yoitsu. She’s a wolf goddess who’s taken a human form, and her ears and tail might look super cute, but she’s got the wisdom of five centuries at her disposal.
When the villagers start to forget about their wolf goddess of wheat, she teams up with Lawrence, a traveling merchant, and helps his profits soar. Sometimes, she even mocks his negotiating skills... and then shows him how it’s done.
9 Yuuko Shionji (Alice) Is A Brilliant Detective & Genius Hacker (Heaven's Memo Pad)
Yuuko Shionji or Alice is a mysterious character in Heaven’s Memo Pad. She seems to be about 12 years old and lives above a ramen shop. With a bad case of insomnia, she’s pretty much a recluse who keeps to her room.
She’s a stalwart member of the Neet Detectives, and with her genius-level hacking abilities, is the proverbial brains of the organization. It’s true that her social skills could use some work, but when it comes to computers, she’s a whiz.
8 Kurisu Makise Is A Smart Sci-Fi Sweetheart Who's Saved By Her Own Time Travel Phenomenon (Steins;Gate)
A brilliant neuroscientist and researcher, Kurisu is actually dead in Steins;Gate's main universe. But, she’s saved by the ingenious time travel device, which sends memories through time via a microwave, and which she helps develop herself (in the future).
She graduated from university at only 17 years old, and is a member of the highly regarded Brain Science Institute. She can be stern or smiling, but she’s usually calm, cool, and collected as she approaches problems or makes decisions. Kurisu is pragmatic and a realist.
7 Eto Yoshimura Hides Her Identity As Bestselling Author Sen Takatsuki (Tokyo Ghoul √A)
Eto Yoshimura is the One-Eyed Owl, a half-human, half-ghoul in the world of Tokyo Ghoul. She has a human identity as the successful and bestselling horror novelist under the name Sen Takatsuki. She tends to hide her formidable intellect under a playful, even ditzy, persona.
She acts human and manages to fool almost everyone, as she secretly leads the organization she founded called Aogiri Tree. Even as a ghoul, she's more skilled with her kagune and other powers than others, and has superhuman regeneration and other abilities.
6 Charlotte Hélène d'Orléans (Tabitha) Hides Her Magical Abilities Behind An Unassuming Personality (The Familiar of Zero)
Charlotte Hélène d'Orléans tends to be mistaken for a quiet, unassuming book lover. Despite her soft features, though, she’s a powerful magic user, and she’s super intelligent too. She goes by the name Tabitha, and her father, the king's brother, was murdered, while her mother was driven insane by poison that was meant for her.
While self-absorbed protagonist Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière struggles with using magic, Tabitha/Charlotte begins as a triangle mage, and levels to a Water/Wind mage, and has Sylphid, a nature dragon, as her familiar.
5 Motoko Kusanagi (Major) Combines Expert Battle & Hacker Skills (Ghost in the Shell)
There’s a reason why Major leads Public Security Section 9. She’s not only a badass fighter, she can hack her way into and out of anything in the dystopian future world of Ghost in the Shell.
She’s a brilliant tactician and leads her team to success in spite of the odds. Beyond the role of a highly effective operative, she knows there are larger issues at stake in a world where humans and machines increasingly intersect, and she’s not afraid to tackle them.
4 Olivier Mira Armstrong Can Succeed Without Alchemical Skills (Fullmetal Alchemist)
Olivier Mira Armstrong is a Major General in the cold North of the country in Fullmetal Alchemist. She has no alchemy skills, but she doesn’t need them to succeed and defeat her enemies. She does it with sheer intelligence and tactical skills that are second to none.
Through her ingenuity, she was able to lead her entire battalion into Central in secret, launching a full-on assault on the government that came right out of the blue. Olivier is very brave as well as strong.
3 Shiro Can Beat AI At Games With Just Her Intellect (No Game No Life)
Along with her step-sibling Sora, Shiro is famous in their world because of their ability to play games, so much so that they are challenged to a game of chess by an interdimensional god. He takes them to his world, where games determine life, and Shiro shines.
While Shiro may have trouble with human emotions in No Game No Life, when it comes to gaming, including coming up with brilliant strategies, executing them, and problem-solving, she’s amazing.
2 Yuki Nagato Easily Cleans Up Supernatural Messes (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
High school student Haruhi Suzumiya is completely unaware that she's got enormous supernatural powers that let her warp reality itself. Bookworm Yuki Nagato is actually an extremely intelligent alien. She's been sent by a secret organization to keep an eye on Haruhi.
Yuki spends a lot of her time keeping Haruhi happy and distracted, along with cleaning up the messes she creates inadvertently, all of which she does efficiently. Yuki can memorize music by looking at it only once, among many other impressive gifts.
1 Hange Zoe Is A Brilliant & Courageous Scientist Who Pioneered The Study Of Titan Anatomy (Attack On Titan)
Humanity would know very little about Titan anatomy if it weren’t for Hange Zoe. The courageous scientist will join her comrades to fight Titans out in the field, and then bring them back to experiment on them and reveal the secrets of their anatomy.
She was the first one to give what seemed like a very risky idea a try. In the end, it was her research that became key to defeating the Titans and finding out about their origins. A genius and a hero.