The Best Female Anti-Heroes in Anime

Key takeaways

• Female antiheroes in anime make bold choices and have multifaceted, challenging traditional portrayals, such as Menu in “The Executioner and Her Way of Life.”
• Unconventional female characters like Re-L from “Ergo Proxy” and Coco from “Jormungand” break stereotypes and exhibit complex, dark and manipulative traits.
• Characters like Enma Ai from “Hell Girl” and Sir Integra Hellsing from “Hellsing Ultimate” exhibit a different kind of anti-heroism, with a restless calmness and moral ambiguity.

The internet often highlights male characters in morally ambiguous – or downright flawed – anime. Take Irene Yeager for example. He wasn't really a standard “true” hero, especially in the latter half Attack on Titan. His circumstances pushed him away from being a traditional hero and into what one might call a monster. Nevertheless, he remains the central figure of the story. Similarly, many other anime explore versions of male antiheroes with characters such as Light Yagami. Death noteFrom Lelouch Code GuessFrom Ainz overlordAnd even from the relatively tame Shinya Kogami Psycho-pass Fitting the bill.

However, the internet doesn't talk nearly enough about this exact trope being extended to female characters. There are tons of anime with incredibly multifaceted female antiheroes who make bold, often outlandish choices that don't paint them as good people—but that's exactly the point. They're weird, flawed, and definitely not the best role models, but their complexity is what makes them so unique.

7 menu

The executioner and his way of life

The executioner and his way of life A yuri action anime set in a world with one of the most innovative and unconventional settings in anime. The story unfolds in a parallel world that has merged almost unrecognizably with human culture, the “lost people” – people from Japan who have supernatural powers and accidentally stumble into this world. However, their presence has brought more harm than good and triggered many disasters.

This forces the people of this world to use ruthless, cold-blooded killers to kill the lost. The main character, Menu, is an assassin tasked with killing missing persons before they do more harm. She is cold, emotionless, and single-minded, and sees her work as necessary, even noble. While she sometimes feels bad for killing them, Menu ultimately doesn't care if the missing people she kills are innocent. He knows that their existence is a threat, and nothing matters more than eradicating it.

6 R. L. Meyer

Ergo Proxy

The cyberpunk-themed post-apocalypse is a very niche trope, hard to find not only in anime but in all forms of entertainment in general. but, Ergo Proxy Of course, it became famous not only for the previously mentioned setting, but also for the way it tackled its complex premise with heavy philosophical themes regarding human nature and emotions. It is set in a world where normal survival is impossible and people live and work in huge domed cities that isolate them from the ruined outside world. Humans, along with robots known as AutoReivs, survive only to ensure a healthy human existence.

The main character, Re-l Mayer, is a 19-year-old secret agent who is known as the most unconventional hero in anime. She is cold, aloof, and has a superiority complex that makes her quite annoying at times. He's not the strongest person in the anime but he has a way with himself that makes him manipulate certain situations to his advantage. She is also very controlling and a perfectionist, which drives her crazy over the smallest details of her life – and sometimes the lives of others.

5 Revy

black lagoon

black lagoon is a 2008 crime anime following a group of pirates notorious for smuggling in Southeast Asia. They do most of their work on a PT boat called the Black Lagoon and have ties to all kinds of crime syndicates around the area related to their illegal jobs. The group consists of four members, including Rebecca Lee, the team's loose-armed weapon.

Rebecca Lee, or Revy, is a Chinese-American character who is marked by being overly loud, arrogant, ruthless, and sometimes almost sadistic when she needs to be. Despite initially coming off as a typical “crazy character who loves unpredictable rampages,” Revy has a very complex and multifaceted personality that goes layers deep. His obsession with power and destructive tendencies is rooted in a traumatic past, which fuels his violent rampage. Beneath her tough, deadly exterior, she struggles with deep-seated confidence issues and positively hates what she is and what she has become.

4 Coco Hekmatyar

Jormungand

Jormungand is a crime thriller that follows a large crime syndicate and/or group of mercenaries who travel around the world to sell and smuggle illegal weapons into countries. The show's main character, Koko Hekmatyar, is an arms dealer who works under a large shipping corporation that essentially deals and smuggles arms as an illegal side business.

Koko Hekmatyar, for lack of a better comparison, can be considered somewhat of a female version of Gozo Satoru — not just because of the way she looks (white hair, bright eyes) but also because of her behavior. She is outwardly a tireless PP woman whose childish activities border on the hideous. She is loud, immature, and annoying to her team, and is sometimes treated like a child. However, this is just a front she puts up to make her enemies appear meek and non-threatening. Coco is actually a very level-headed, mysterious, and ruthlessly cruel person who works hard no matter how difficult it is. She's smart to a fault and has been shown to manipulate her way into some pretty serious deals. She is completely unconcerned about dying herself or even about death in general.

3 Enma Ai

hell girl

As the previous entries illustrate, a character is usually considered an anti-hero if they are cruel, eccentric, loud, and short-tempered. However, from A in n hell girl Not a traditional anti-hero if the above qualities are taken as a description. She emerges as a different kind of anti-hero, defined by instability rather than chaotic intensity.

hell girl is a dark fantasy anime with an episodic format that often ends in a single episode. The story revolves around the cost of seeking revenge – individuals can send their oppressors to Hell, but only by sealing their own fate to follow after death.

Enma Ai, the hero of the story, helps the mistreated and oppressed people to get revenge on their oppressors by sending them to hell – only on the condition that the person who initiated the deal also goes to hell after death. Enma's work is not for the faint of heart, yet even the most brutal acts completely surprise her – her indifference is absolutely horrifying to the audience. She is cold, silent, and completely emotionless even in dire situations and has canonically shut down her emotions for her work. The only emotion he sometimes uses is hatred, which he uses as fuel to continue his work.

2 Sir Integra Hellsing

Hellsing & Hellsing Ultimate

The Hellsing The manga, which spawned the anime and OVA episodes of the same name, can easily be regarded as one of the darkest action fantasy shows to ever hit the entertainment world. The premise follows Count Dracula's defeat at the hands of humans and the forced loyalty to family of those who follow him as they work to eliminate other inevitable threats invading their world. The leader of this human organization, Helsing, is Sir Integra Helsing, the granddaughter of the infamous Abraham Van Helsing.

Sir Integra Hellsing is very different from a traditional hero, especially considering his ability to control and manipulate Alucard – the King of the Vampires. Given how malevolent and diabolical Alucard himself is, he needs a certain moral ambiguity from his master to keep him under control, and Integra has that. She is a beautiful, rational, and extremely smart person who plays her cards almost perfectly. She is obedient, intimidating, ruthless, and willing to do anything to prove her loyalty to the crown.

1 Yume's Jabami

Kakegurui

Leave it to anime to come up with some of the most unconventional world-building and storylines. For the uninitiated, Kakegurui It is a psychological thriller set in a high school where students are categorized based on their gambling ability. The entire power dynamic of this elite academy is shifted when a seemingly ordinary newcomer, Yumeko Jabami, enrolls.

But Yumeko Jabami is far from normal. At first, she seems friendly, cheerful, kind and a bit slow, leading to the impression that she is just another normal high schooler. However, that is only the mask he wears. In reality, Yumeko is a talented, compulsive gambler, driven by the thrill of the game. Her true nature is only revealed when she gambles, and it is anything but conventionally beautiful. She is merciless to her opponents and takes every opportunity to raise the stakes, only for the rush she gives. She is completely unrecognizable and not bound by any rules or regulations, and clearly doesn't care – which makes her the biggest threat to the school and its administration.