Good day dear readers and welcome back to another edition of Shoot the Rookie. Following last week’s riotously silly post about my top 5 anime boys, you will be glad to know that I’m back with more of the same but this time looking at my top 5 anime girls. Why not join me to find out who makes the cut and see if any of your favourites are in there!
As with the post about the boys (which you can check out here), choosing my top 5 girls was very difficult. I once again started by compiling a long list. This had 18 names on it. All 18 came from different anime’s, and this time 3 of them came from films and the rest from series.
After what must have been several hours playing a fun elimination game devised by my wonderful partner (thank you!), I was left with 6 names. Sadly, 6 is one too many for a top 5 so I had to make a very difficult decision and cut a final name. I can reveal to you now that that name was Edward from Cowboy Bebop, and yes, it still hurts my heart to think she didn’t make this list!
But then if Edward didn’t make it, who did? Well that’s what we’re here to find out so let’s get on with things shall we?
5. Asuna Yuuki (Sword Art Online)
Sword Art was one of the first shows I watched when I first got a Crunchyroll subscription and for better or worse I’ve stuck with it all the way. One of the main reasons for this is Asuna. Even when the storyline is hard to follow, Asuna somehow holds it all together. She is like the heart and the brain of the show and is a character I have deep respect for. She goes through so much bad stuff but somehow remains a wonderfully measured character with a perfect mix of charm, badass fighting skills and determination. If the bit where she shows up to fight in the Alicization arc is the perfect example of how kick-ass she is, then the whole Mother’s Rosario story is a perfect counterpoint, showing both the depth and fragility of her character. She really is quite inspirational and without her strong and sensible presence I’m not even sure I’d still be watching.
4. Chiaki Kurihara (Bodacious Space Pirates)
Poor Chiaki-chan! She has to spend a great deal of time with people who intensely annoy her and who will not listen no matter how many times she tells them just to call her Chiaki. You see that condescending look in her eye? Well that sums her up perfectly. She is the daughter of a space pirate captain and as such has a lot of responsibility, which she understandably takes very seriously. Pretty much everything about her is serious and responsible. Whilst many of the other characters like to mess around having fun, Chiaki very much looks down on that kind of thing and she often rolls her eyes at the main character’s boundless enthusiasm. As things go on though you start to realise that Chiaki really does care for the others and will from time to time engage with their silliness. She may have been brought up as a tough as nails space pirate but she definitely has a softer side (mostly involving an intense love of chocolate parfait), and as much as she may hate me saying it, she is the perfect best friend for the show’s leading character.
3. Yoshiko Tsushima (Love Live! Sunshine!!)
So… Yoshiko YOHANE! She is quite an oddball. Love Live! is a series about school idols and as such features a wide array of teenage girls who all have their own quirks and curious personalities. With Yoshiko though it is tricky to understand how on earth she ended up being a school idol as at my school someone like her would never have gotten into that kind of thing, but then I guess that is what makes her awesome. The thing with Yoshiko is that she believes she is actually a fallen angel called Yohane and that her friends are all ‘little demons’. She shops in goth shops, refuses to answer to her own name and will attempt to indoctrinate anyone who is willing to listen. This really should get old over the course of the series but somehow it doesn’t because there is something so wonderful about her eccentricity and as you get to know her it is difficult not to love her. She doesn’t make friends easily and when she does she certainly doesn’t speak to them in a way that could be considered normal, but she still dreams of finding her own shine and within this struggle is a girl who believes in the identity she has created for herself and isn’t scared to express it. For me that makes her something of an inspiration.
2. Mimi Tachikawa (Digimon)
Digimon was the first anime I ever watched and I am now very much enjoying the reboot. Back when I first watched it as a teenager, me and a friend of mine decided that she would be Sora and I would be Mimi, and this association has stuck with me ever since. The weird thing is that I’m nothing like Mimi, but I still absolutely adore her. She is a real girly girl. She loves pink, loves cute things and often shrieks when danger approaches. None of this in itself is particularly unusual, although I do respect her for embracing a girly identity, however she has other traits which make her a totally awesome and really quite bizarre character. Firstly, she has a bit of an obsession with building little kingdoms for herself to lead. She creates Digimon microcosms where she commands small legions of Digimon and gets them to do thoroughly civilized things like make cups of tea for her. This is really quite an odd trait but I love it because it is so funny. Other times she is just plain odd. The perfect example being a recent episode of the reboot where she takes part in a ridiculous talent contest and gets her Digimon to evolve into something called Ponchomon, and then proceeds to make a series of absurd jokes involving Mexican stereotypes. She is utterly hilarious and I love her! Mimigo Mimigo!!
1. Yona (Yona of the Dawn)
No surprise that Yona is top of this list. I do after all have a big tattoo of her for a reason. For me, Yona has it all. She has determination, a willingness to change and learn, a sense of humour and just the right level of vulnerability. Her life is completely and utterly ripped apart but instead of crumbling she keeps going, determined to win back what is rightfully hers. It could be done in a cheesy, heroic kind of way, but nothing is easy for Yona and she is most certainly not your stereotypical hero. She is weak and frightened, she has to face up to horrible truths, she has to confront a destiny that seems impossible to realise, and yet she never stops. If anything, things get worse rather than better for her as her journey progresses and yet she just keeps learning and getting stronger. She builds great relationships with the bunch of weirdos interesting group of people she ends up with and isn’t afraid to ask them for help when she needs it. I think above all I love Yona because she feels real, her struggles are beyond anything I’ve ever gone through but she muddles through and comes out stronger for it. I just wish they would renew the anime for another series so I could see what happens next!
So there it is! My top 5 anime girls! But what do you make of my choices? Would you pick any of these names in your top 5? Is there someone you feel deserves to be on this list instead? Let me know all below and don’t forget to join me next time for more fun anime and video game chat!
Thanks for reading,
Pix1001 x
Shoot the Rookie 