strong female characters in anime - suggestions

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I am studying Japanese and I have been thinking about watching some anime to practice it. I am actually not really into anime, I used to when I was young and later got more and more disappointed. Part of it was because of the ridiculous female character roles.
so, I wanted some suggestion on anime that are not too long, with fantasy, adventure, with interesting and possibly complex themes, not silly or repetitive, that had strong and interesting female characters! Doesn't have to be the protagonist but has to have great participation in quality and quantity. Any suggestions? Anime I like with those characteristics are inuyasha, mimi wo sumaseba and chihiro to sen.

Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell.
I haven't seen much of it, but I find Motoko more interesting than most female anime characters. Ghost in the Shell also has complex themes to muse over.

Balsa the warrior woman in Seirei no Moribito .. also called Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, but I think she might be the only strong female in it.

Dyunan Nattsyu (Deunan Knute), an ESWAT responder member in the Appleseed series which has a more classic style anime OVA, and several CGI movies.. Episodes here

The girl traveling on a motorcycle and calling herself Kino in Kino's Journey: the Beautiful World. The motorcycle can talk.

Kurau Amami in Kurau Phantom Memory.

The Knight Sabers team in The Bubblegum Crisis.

The police officer team in Silent Mobius.

Some of the characters in Canaan.


Most of these are sci-fi, and the characters might be too 'masculine', you might not like the shows. Being a girly girl isn't part of my repertoire, and I like the action warrior chick characters, yea I'm uncool.

Last edited by stabilator on 06 Apr 2014, 9:12 am, edited 6 times in total.

It sounds like you'd enjoy Seirei no Moribito it has solid animation and a strong female lead it's also action and fantasy.

There is also the Kara no Kyoukai movies they are also very good with a solid female lead. If you don't mind blood and stuff there are shows like Black Lagoon, Jormungand and Canaan.

Also Fate/zero and Claymore which you might like for the female leads.
I'd also second Ghost in the shell if you haven't seen it already.

Hope this helps ^_^

Thanks for the suggestions! I made a little research
ghost in the shield - sounds interesting but I don't like sci-fi much
seirei no moribito - may be the kind I like
Kara no kyoukai - this male and female Shiki thing sounds weird. Probably reinforcing gender roles as the male one would be more aggressive etc etc is it so?

fate/zero and cleymore - seems great but a little dark. I don't like horror stuff because I am easily impressed and scared are they too dark with blood and stuff?

Kino no tabi - this may be the kind I like! Based on the description she travels around seeing different places and cultures and this is exactly my special interest! Are the places she visits more like fantastic real life places or Sci fi or completely made up kind of nonsensical?
I noticed by kino's picture on Wikipedia that she seems kind of masculine by her clothes and pose. I don't know if that's so but it is common to associate strong females with being masculine. That sucks. That's why I think Rachel from animorphs is so interesting and revolutionary; she is a fashion girl but she is brave and aggressive. Rarely if ever we see a girly girl being also the bravest. Interesting blend, really. Why is it to be strong or/and powerful a female has to act like a male?

If your not really into blood/death I wouldn't recommend Claymore or Fate/zero as for with Kara no Kyoukai it's a bit hard to explain but no I wouldn't really say Shiki conforms to any sort of male-female gender roles though if you dislike things that are a bit scary perhaps Kara no Kyoukai is'nt so great either. I personally love action and fighting so the most the stuff I watch is geared towards that

But if you like travelling stories maybe Ookami to Koushinryou the main character is male and Holo is a little girly but the calm travelling aspect of it was certainly interesting. It may be a little of topic but one of my favorite travelling stories is Mushishi the main is male but the show is beautiful and certainly doesn't use the female side-character's for fan-service so I'll still recommend it here.

Also if you haven't already have you watched some of the Studio Ghibi movies? The females in those are well developed and interesting and most of them are lighthearted.

Last edited by MikaNeko on 06 Apr 2014, 11:42 am, edited 3 times in total.

There are plenty out there. It really depends on what you consider 'strong female role'. I take that as the female being the lead or one of the primary characters that moves the plot along and is not there for comic relief or fan-service (ecchi).

Seirei no Moribito is a very good one.

Other ones:

Tactical Roar: Main characters all female crewing a naval warship. Lots of male-dominated world issues with them here. Its rather well done.

Spirited Away
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Howl's Moving Castle

(...actually, almost all of Miyazaki's work where the female is the lead character qualify).

Sora no Woto: Inspired by the female soldier who rescued her as a child – and haunted by the refrain the young woman played on her trumpet – Kanata joins the military, determined to become a bugler. She still has much to learn though and she is assigned to a remote outpost at the edge of the war-torn landscape. Although a ceasefire has been declared, the women of the 1121st Platoon are charged with both maintaining the Clocktower Fortress and defending the town where it is located from enemy attack. (info from the anilinkz site) - A very human story.

Shikebane Hime : She's dead...re-animated. Very upset.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: I can't explain this one without spoiling the core of the story. All I will say is read the wikipedia 'chronological order' of episodes and watch them in that order.

Banner of the Stars/Battle of the Stars (its long since its a space opera but its really good).

Stellvia of the Universe: The year is 2356 A.D. - 189 years after a distant supernova caused a global catastrophe that wiped out 99% of the world population. To keep track on all space activities, mankind has built colossal space stations called "foundations" all over the Solar System. After passing the Space Academy entrance exams, Shima Katase embarks to the Earth-based foundation Stellvia to fulfill her dream of seeing the galaxy and to prevent another interstellar catastrophe from destroying Earth. - info from anilinkz site. Its a rather girly anime but the background story is rather good.

edit: came to this thread from the RSS list... just noticed its on Woman's forum. Still, its on topic... forgive the intrusion

Last edited by Dantac on 06 Apr 2014, 10:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I like fights, but not gore, if you know what I mean. But probably those ones are not for me.


by sen to chihiro in the introductory post I meant spirited away yeah. I like those kinds of movies. I didn't like Howl's moving castle though, but probably because I read the book first and it is much better.


welcome! This is not one of those delicate women's only topics so don't worry.


I am not exigent, really. I just want females as human beings, with interesting personalities and stories and goals and being an active part of the plot and not reinforcing gender roles. And preferably with 1:1 gender ratio and importance. This is not asking much. Unfortunately when it comes to anime, movies, series... It seems it IS asking too much. I am so fed up of those big boobs useless dumb male-helper dramatic needed-to-be-saved annoying side female charactes grrrrr just stop it. And just the idea of including a female character for being a male interest or for sex makes me wanna throw up.

I just watched first episode of kino no tabi. A few observations I would like to share:
- it is very reflexive, just like me. it is actually like I wrote it myself
- before I watched it I thought the idea of a talking motorcycle was not a good one; but when I watched it I actually think it is a good representation because that is exactly what a lonely traveler would do: share his thoughts in endless conversations with the motorcycle.
- they speak slower than average anime so I understand most of what they say. That is good.
- she does wear masculine clothes
- it always strikes me japanese people being so cold. it is soo different than what I am used to. hoping he understood what she meant by her goodbye look (japan) vs. giving him a tight hug and sharing their feelings directly (brazil)

hope you girls don't mind me sharing those thoughts. If no one is interested I respect that and stop.

one last thing, how do they make this demographic division? I mean, what in this anime makes it targeted at a male audience? I don't get it.

The no reinforcing gender roles is something that is hard to find in anime since Japanese culture has deeply rooted and ingrained gender roles. Its a very hierarchical society. When you do find one that is not reinforcing the gender role she's usually a comic relief or a weird alien or a 'foreigner'. You will generally find that almost all female lead characters will have at least one gender role reinforcing quality to them.. usually cooking or something related to the home.

Adding to the list:

Watamote (doesn't get any more human than this!): A first year high schooler with severe social anxiety.

Read or Die: Difficult to explain.. the main character can control paper. Think Warehouse 13 tv show but anime-like with powers.

Library War: main character is a recruit in a world where libraries have their own defense forces to defend the books inside from govs. that supress knowledge by burning books. I know, weird..its Japan.

A Certain Scientific Railgun: Main characters all female... a college set up for young people with supernatural abilities..thats the size of a mega-city.

Flag: A reporter who takes a very powerful photo during a revolution and she's now on the run for it.

Toradora: Just watch it. Its good.

I'll add a small description of each on my previous post. I watch my stuff at www.anilinkz.com