Women’s Day Special: 5 Animes To Watch For Well-Written, Badass Female Characters

Women’s Day Special: 5 Animes To Watch For Well-Written, Badass Female Characters

One of the main criticisms that I believe anime tends to receive is that the female characters tend to be objectified and overly sexualised. Many of the popular animes usually revolve around a male protagonist and the female characters hold little to no importance in the plot. Now, as an ardent female lover of anime, I do agree with these criticisms. 

Anime does have a serious lack of well written female characters. However, that does not take away from how brilliant anime is as a form of entertainment. And there are many animes that have brilliantly written women who are badass in their own right. Here are 5 which I seriously think you need to watch if you haven’t already,

1. Jujutsu Kaisen 

Be it the detailed plotline, brilliant animation or extremely simp-worthy characters, Jujutsu Kaisen or JJK has it all. However, what sets JJK apart as compared to a lot of other shōnen animes is the brilliantly written, strong and badass female characters. 

https://youtu.be/Vt7b09qgEvM

With characters like Nobara Kugisaki, Maki Zenin, Mai Zenin and many more, we have extremely simp-worthy female characters who know exactly who they are and don’t take shit from anyone.

Also Read: 10 Romance Animes That Should Be On Your Anime List To Binge Next

2. Princess Mononoke (Mononoke- hime)

Hayao Miyazaki’s Ghibli is an ode to well written and well-portrayed women and I want to talk about all of their movies here. However, I will try to control my enthusiasm about this and stick to Princess Mononoke. The story is filled with strong female characters: from the protagonist, San to the antagonist, Lady Eboshi; brilliant characters paired with the masterful storytelling and beautiful animations, Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke (and other movies) are bound to capture your attention and heart.

3.  Violet Evergarden (Vaioretto Evāgāden)

Firstly, watch this 13 episode mini-series for the absolutely beautiful animations. However, don’t be fooled by the ethereal art and the adorable looking protagonist, Violet Evergarden. She was a powerful weapon in The Great War and is now trying to get accustomed to normalcy. Her story (and fight scenes) will have your eyes glued to the screen for sure.

Also Read: 6 Female K-Pop Idols Who’re Breaking The Rigid Korean Beauty Norms. More Power To Them!

4. Nana

The story essentially revolves around 2 women who share the same first name, Nana. They both have very different personalities but somehow end up sharing an apartment. The story shows how they support each other through thick and thin. The story is a refreshing breath of fresh air where most of the time, animes do not represent female friendships well.

5. Attack On Titans (Shingeki no Kyojin)

Okay, similar to JJK, Attack On Titans or AOT has a lot of female characters, and pretty badass ones at that. Characters like Mikasa Ackerman, Historia Reiss, Sasha Braus, Annie Leonhart and many more female characters have pivotal roles in the anime and hold the viewer’s attention without sexualising the characters in any way. This along with the crazy action scenes, animations and absolutely mind-blowing storytelling by Hajime Isayama will have you at the edge of your seats for this dark fantasy.

While there are many more animes with good female characters, these are the 5 I suggest you give a watch to. They will be a change from the typical anime trope of female characters just being there to aid the men and will change your perspective on animes as a whole.

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Priyadarshini Malavia

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