Just a friendly reminder that UR WAIFU IS SHIT.
I freely admit it: I’m biased. There are certain types of anime girls which I like and certain types of anime girls which I hate.
It’s a lot like anime in general. Theoretically, every genre has the same potential to be good. In practice, it rarely ever works out like that.
Still, the most important thing is how the character is written, not necessarily their type. So there are lots of exceptions to this list. But this should give you a general indication of what I think is attractive in 2D women.
(Disclaimer: These preferences do not extend to the 3D world.)
Let me begin with my SHIT LIST of anime girls that I hate.
5) MEGANEKKO
Just can’t get into glasses. Sorry.
4) LOLIS
Flawfinder seems to be labouring under the assumption that I am a slimy pedophile. I won’t deny the slimy part, but I can say with confidence that little girls just don’t do it for me. I would say it’s because I prefer someone closer to my own age, but perhaps the big reason for this is that lolis don’t have tits (well, except for that one girl in Ro Kyu Bu…) Mind you, I can still like the character’s personality, but this is rare, since lolis usually act like little shits.
My hatred extends to high school girls who look, act and think like six-year-olds. This is the main reason why Lucky Star pisses me off.
3) WIMPY SHOJO HEROINES
GROW A PAIR, SAWAKO
The main reason why shojo manga irks me is because the heroine usually has no capacity to think for herself. I like to believe in this concept called “feminism”, and it is strangely disorienting to watch characters whose only ambition in life is to become a housewife. With an abusive hubby, no less.
There are good shojo heroines, of course, like Risa from Lovely Complex and Yukino from Kare Kano, but they are sadly few and far between. Reverse harem leads are the worst of the lot.
2) SENJOUGAHARA CLONES
I never really bought into the whole “Senjougahara Fascination” thing. She’s a well-written character, but I would shudder to be in a relationship with her. What made her so compelling, though, was her inner insecurity and how she genuinely did her best to overcome that. Her behaviour was explained but never excused.
Unsurprisingly, characters who try to be like Senjougahara but forget what made her such a great character end up sucking and coming across as insufferable twats. Masuzu a shit.
1) ABUSIVE TSUNDERE
The “tsundere” archetype has evolved to such a degree that there are now an endless amount of variations and spins on the tsundere concept. (In fact, Senjougahara referred to herself as a tsundere in one of the early episodes of Bakemonogatari.)
But basically, most tsunderes can be sorted into two types: abusive and non-abusive.
The type of tsundere which I hate and despise is the abusive kind. I don’t know about anyone else, but I cringe whenever I see girls hitting boys, only for the whole thing to get played off as a joke or that “he deserved it because he’s a pervert LOL”. It’s double standards, plain and simple.
Louise has to be the worst tsundere of all time, or at least pretty high up there on the list of suckiness. The only thing that is worse than a tsundere is a loli tsundere. Why is your taste so shit Saito.
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Now with all the negativity out of the way, let’s get to my five favourite types of anime girls.
5) YANDERE
When I was first getting into otakudom, I was really into the ideal ~PURE PURE~ kind of anime girl. (Lacus Clyne from Gundam Seed was my very first waifu.) Since then, I’ve gotten a bit disillusioned with that archetype; I think pure girls tend to have boring personalities because they’re too perfect.
The yandere is a really fascinating spin on the pure girl concept. Yandere girls are almost always sexually pure, saving themselves for that one boy they’re interested in. And by holding so fast to their notion of pure love, they become distorted, corrupted. What makes them so scary is that their basic intentions aren’t so bad. They just take it much too far.
If nothing else, watching yandere characters gives me an adrenaline rush.
4) IMOUTOS
I didn’t always like imoutos very much, but they’ve grown on me a lot. This is admittedly a character type that is really hit-and-miss (mostly miss), but when they get to me, they get to me. HRRRNNNNGGGHHHH
Rin from Little Busters! is probably one of the best imouto characters I’ve ever seen. She acts like a real little sister and yet still manages to be charming.
3) TOMBOYS / GIRLS WHO LOOK LIKE DUDES
I don’t think these types of characters actually challenge gender roles in a meaningful way. But that doesn’t stop them from being mother-effing adorable. There’s something about a girl who’s awkward about expressing her femininity that’s really cute. Bonus points if other girls think of the tomboy girl as the pinnacle of masculinity.
Pretty redundant opinion, but yeah, Charlotte was the Best Girl in Infinite Stratos. Pity she was broken in S2, just like everybody else.
2) NON-ABUSIVE TSUNDERE
Despite my hatred of abusive tsunderes, I really like the idea behind the archetype. After all, everyone struggles to admit they want love and affection to a degree, because it makes us feel vulnerable. I feel as if this archetype is misrepresented as a cynical invention designed to appeal to the otaku’s masochistic fetish. That’s not the only dimension to the tsundere character, though. Sometimes, when the tsundere is well-written, I can really connect to her emotional struggles.
The best tsunderes are drawn from life. In fact, most of my absolute favourite fictional characters (inside and outside of anime) are tsuns. They’re great.
1) GENKI GIRLS
What can I say? I love cheerful, hyper girls, especially if they have pink hair!
Sometimes, there’s more to a genki girl than you might assume at first glance. Maybe her energy is a front to hide away the sad feelings locked up inside of her, or sometimes it’s a defence that she puts up so that she doesn’t have to deal with difficult relationships. I really enjoy stories which explore the genki girl through this angle. (Minori from Toradora! comes to mind.)
Actually, my initial inspiration for this post was the latest episode of Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga Shitai! Ren. When I saw it, I thought to myself, “Man, Satone is such a GREAT character!” I knew from the moment I first laid eyes on her that she would become mai waifu and she did NOT disappoint.
Like with the well-written tsundere, I can relate to a well-written genki girl on a really profound level, so perhaps calling these characters my “waifu” is the wrong term here.
But if Yuuta rejects Satone it’s okay I’ll marry Satone so she really will be mai waifu
Final Thoughts
I know what you’re thinking. You’re about to tell me that my waifu isn’t real. Why are you such a dick? :(
I think my expectation for 2D girls is very similar to my expectation for 2D boys. I like characters I can relate to and whom I feel are drawn from life. There are exceptions, though. I’ve never met a yandere, and hopefully never will. That doesn’t stop me from thinking it’s one of the more interesting tropes out there.
The big appeal of anime girls is that they’re not real and therefore “superior” to 3D girls. I can’t say the things I look for in a 2D girl are the same things I’d look for in a real girl. Common decency and respect for other human beings is high up on the list for both, though.
(Oh, and as for other character types like the childhood friend, ojousama, kuudere, etc. they’re on my “Okay Tier” list. I’d elaborate, but this post has gone on for too long already.)
Feel free to bash me for my tastes and/or ask me for my opinions on certain fictional characters. Or you can tell me what kind of anime girls you like or hate!
Frog-kun's Blog 
I don’t care what the official definition of “pedophile” is. None of the girls you praise on here are grown women (most of them are in middle school too) and they sure don’t “act” like they’ve hit puberty. Saying “you don’t love lolis” but “you love imoutos” is not helping your cause.
Tsk, tsk, tsk http://i.minus.com/icQ0FoYVjUoDK.png
Considering I’m still a teenager myself, it’s probably neither a surprise nor exactly problematic that I would like teenage girls lolol.
Anime can be creepy with the way it sexualise almost every female characters without any thoughts about their age or personality.
The whole 2D better than 3D debate is cringy to me, just by its simple existence. Seems to be the product of fear and social anxiety even though it probably started has a joke.
I agree on most of your opinions here. Though imoutos are still a weird concept to me since I have a little sister that is anything but cute in attitude, and seems to be the norm irl, but I understand that the idea of a girl linked to you by an unbreakable link can be appealing to some..
And I have nothing against girl wanting to become housewives (has I wouldn’t mind being a househusband living through the graces of a rich girl)(though the way its presented in most cases can be really wrong) but I agree that crying heroines that never learn to grow are annoying.
Loli are a problem for my not because of their breast (I love me some flat breast at times) but their mental state and often their age just make the whole thing comes off as abuse.
I try not to think too hard about the creepiness of 2D girl fandom. I basically use the word ‘waifu’ interchangeably with ‘favourite female character’. So I guess I’m a bit tongue in cheek about it. But I definitely am more comfortable with sexualising an anime character than, say, a Disney character. I guess anime fandom just desensitises you towards that sort of thing.
I hate anime girls with enormous breasts (Senran Kagura, Queen’s Blade, etc.). That’s not attractive, that’s just gross. Sometimes I’ll like them despite their chest size due to their personalities, like in High School DxD, but that is in spite of the chest size not because of it. Bigger is not always better.
Also genki girls are shit you have awful taste in 2D girls. And meganekko are the best. Only if they’re nerdy though so yeah Mirai is shit. Smart girls are the best but they always lose in anime to some idiot who’s “cute” because she’s dumb enough to trip over her own feet and fall on top of the main character.
Tsunderes (the good kind of course) are probably my most favorite anime character archetype. I even wrote a post a while back all about them: http://animeyume.com/blog/2011/10/23/my-favorite-anime-character-trope/
But like you, I much prefer Type Bs. There are some Type As I like as long as they’re well written, i.e,. there’s reasons for their abusive personality and they develop (usually into Type Bs) over time. I always use Shana and Taiga as examples of Type As I like.
Also agree with you about wimpy shojo heroines, lolis, and Senjougahara clones. Besides those I don’t particularly like or dislike any of the others on your list…just depends on the individual character.
>likes imouto characters
>doesn’t like lolis or type A tsunderes
u wot m8
I mean, I’m not a fan at all of the abusive tsundere either (actually, I pretty much always despise them), but it seems to me that with very few exceptions, imoutos tend to either come in that flavor, or in the loli flavor. Or (dear god how horrifying) both.
Also, I definitely see the appeal in glasses for a variety of reasons (I wear them myself; they tend to signify intelligence, nerdiness, etc.; sometimes they really look good to me on people both 2D and 3D), but I’m not gonna dispute your choice there, since I feel like a lot of meganekko characters are pretty much just there to wear the glasses. The glasses tend to come packaged with some rather boring character traits, is what I’m saying.
As for the others: reverse traps are indeed the best (my pet theory is that the only reason Charlotte was written out of that role was that it made her too obviously the best girl), I don’t care about lolis or childhood friends either way, genki girls annoy me (sorry!), I like kuudere much more often than not, I used to be unable to stand the ojousama type but it’s been growing on me lately (dear god), I decline to comment on yandere characters, and the thing about a good tsundere is that she’ll either have the tsundere element downplayed (or made subtler) or it’ll be less of a character trait and more of an arc, and the problem with the abusive jerks and the Senjougahara clones is that they tend to reify one stage of the development of a (holistic) character and to turn it into a character’s defining attribute, and fuck that shit; also the top image is only half-true (they’re both best girls, as is the sister), and you’re waifu a shit.
Imoutos are horrible. Prefer Onee-chans. Onii-chans are alright, though. It’s a matter of perspective and where the blandness lies. I prefer Yandere on guys more than girls. I don’t know why. Thinking logically, some of my favourite yandere guys take it about as far as yandere girls, but yandere girls strike me as creepy while guys don’t. Though one of my favourite character types for both genders are characters that slowly get corrupted (in a good or a bad way) by love until you hit a point where they do something that they would never have done at the beginning and you can only think about how far love has brought them! I also have a weakness for knights when it comes to guys that doesn’t translate to girls. Other than that, a lot of my preferences are constant between genders.
Wimpy shoujo heroines is, as a shoujo reader, something I’m used to. However, I have to say that I don’t think Sawako applies to the same extent as some of them because Kazehaya is actually a Nice Guy, and everyone has nothing better to think about than love and making friends and being friendly. It’s got a fuwa fuwa feel (also shy girls are one of my types)~ But yeah, the first step towards an enjoyable piece of media is an enjoyable protagonist.
I have to say, your Type A/B categorization doesn’t appear to be consistent with the TV Tropes description (that page hasn’t really changed in years wow). Both, in theory, are abusive. It’s just whether they’re tsun towards everyone or one person. In that respect, I enjoy tsunderes that don’t physically abuse the lead, too. I find the rareness of their blushing makes it cuter~
I also enjoy shy girls~ and happy confident girls (and really confident smiling girls who could go toe-to-toe with their male counterparts either through physical, intellectual or emotional means and act!) – although just plain ‘confident’ girls are great, too. And I like career women who make necessary sacrifices to do their jobs but they aren’t bad people (it’d be more accurate to say I admire this type). Also your first picture is incredibly accurate. Yui must feel excellent. She is Best Girl, after all.
Oh, come to think of it, it is a little different from how I interpreted it. I thought it was saying Type Bs were more dere than Type As and therefore less abusive. But going from the TV Tropes definition, Type As would have to be pretty rare. I actually can’t think of a single tsundere besides Asuka from Evangelion who is hateful towards everyone.
Funnily enough, I always thought yandere females were written to seem less creepy than yandere males. They both take it as far, but there’s this perception male stalkers are more dangerous than female stalkers which is definitely played up in media.
But in any case, yanderes of both genders take it to such ridiculous proportions that it’s impossible to take their actions fully seriously.
That’s okay. Looking at the examples, I honestly think TV Tropes doesn’t know the difference between Type A and Type B. I guess it’s not exactly ‘hateful’, but rather whether they’re prickly on the outside or prickly towards that one special person (wow that makes tsunderes sound horrible).
It’s possible that my perceptions of male vs female yanderes changed based on the first ones that I met. I tend to see males as more super-over the top protective, while females are get rid of the competition types. That’s just the yanderes I saw in anime, although I guess I’m thinking of very specific examples for each gender… (I’m not sure yandere = stalker, either).
Mmm… It’s all about the gap.
>good shojo heroines, of course, like RISA FROM LOVELY COMPLEX
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
With that out of the way,
Meganekkos can be good or bad, I’m neutral on them.
I don’t agree that anyone who likes lolis is a pedo, but I myself don’t find them appealing.
Genki girls are really hit and miss for me. You get some that are completely loveable, some that are unbearable.
Everything else I can pretty much agree with, although I’m not a huge imouto fan.
What’s your opinion on Minori from Toradora (beyond what you said above), Kirino from OreImo, and Haruhi Suzumiya?
You got something against Risa? :(
I don’t really think that liking lolis makes you a pedo, but being called a pedo when you don’t like underage girls in any shape or form is really something lol.
As for my opinions on the girls you ask:
Minori is the Best Girl in Toradora. Ami is overrated. Taiga is fine. I thought Minori had a lot of understated depth to her character. There were times when her characterisation seemed bipolar, especially in the dramatic scenes, but she was hardly the only victim.
I used to hate Kirino from OreImo. Now she’s grown on me a lot. I kind of identify with her a little. I can see why she gets a lot of hate and I wouldn’t want to know her in real life, but she’s a cleverly written character regardless.
I’m ambivalent about Haruhi Suzumiya. I prefer the anime when the focus is not on her. I don’t dislike her personality, although she gets overbearing at times, but I see her as more of a plot device than a person.
Lovecom is my least favorite anime of all time (that’s right, School Days beat it out), I found Risa to be one of the most annoying protagonists of all time, and Otani to be the most unrealistic character I have ever seen in a romance anime. I’m sorry for anyone who liked that show or its characters, but sitting through that entire show was painful. I honestly don’t feel like arguing over that, though, so I’ll leave my rant at that.
I agree with just about everything you had to say on those three, but I wouldn’t call Ami overrated (Toradora rant incoming?). I honestly haven’t seen too many Ami fans, although I’m not quite an expert on the Toradora fanbase either. She went through quite a bit of character development, arguably more than Taiga. Whatever, I think I’m just more attached to Ami and Minori than Taiga because the show’s title made it painfully obvious who would get Ryuji and I didn’t want to accept that. Semi-rant over. Have a nice night, thanks for writing the thing-a-ma-what and responding and being awesome in general.
I like how we dislike the same types :3 but you should check 2 reverse harems for great heroines: saiunkoku monogatari and hanasakeru seishounen -both involving political issues
I just checked out those two anime you mentioned. They look interesting! I’ll definitely watch them both when I have the time!
This post has actually brought up some interesting points for me. While isolated a Best Girl from each story is usually pretty easy, choosing any particular archetypes that I like is really very hard. In fact, it’s much easier to say that I /don’t/ like every type on your dislike list + yanderes and reverse traps (and especially the glasses girls…I just don’t like them at all…).
One thing will always be true, though. Childhood Friend is Best Girl.
Having gotten that part over with, it’s worth mentioning that the choosing of a Waifu and Best Girls is fine by me because it’s all done in the interest of fun. However, the idea that 2D girls that you can never meaningfully interact with could be better than meeting a 3D partner to fall in love with…is one that I will never understand.
Everyone has their own tastes. As for the anime girls that you have mentioned:
– Meganekko: I’m indifferent with them. The designs might be attractive, but that is insufficient for me to like them.
– Lolis: Unless they are engaging in age inappropriate things, I don’t mind their presence, but they are never my favourites.
– Wimpy shojo heroines: The ones that I see on anime do grow out of that quite quickly, but it’s better for them to not become this from the start.
– Senjougahara clones: I don’t know who she is, so no comment.
– Yandere, Type A & B tsundere and imoutos: Cliched as hell and annoying most of the time.
– Genki girls and Tomboys/reverse traps: Pull it well, they are instant favourite. Otherwise, I’ll hate them with a passion.
I personally prefer meido and onee-chan because they are very good at taking care of people gently. Before you ask, I apply standards of 3D women on 2D women.
Oh man, if you apply 3D standards to 2D women, 99.95% of them would be undateable XD
One does not simply apply standards of 3D women on 2D women. What are you trying to do with that? Destroying the world?
This is why you choose a husbando instead.
Too true
“There are good shojo heroines, of course, like Risa from Lovely Complex and Yukino from Kare Kano”
Misaki from Kaichou wa Maid-sama takes the cake for me though, definitely unlike your typical wimpy shoujo heroines, strong, awesome, badass and… IS A MEIDO!
“Rin from Little Busters! is probably one of the best imouto characters I’ve ever seen. She acts like a real little sister and yet still manages to be charming.”
No. Kirino is BEST IMOUTO.
Reblogged this on Anime Geekly.
I’m curious if there’s an upper limit on the oppai for you (although OOKI OPPAI > loli anyday). I think I reached mine at Maken-Ki!, Eiken, and Seikon no Qwaser.
Also, am I hearing a Chitoge > Onodera right there? :p
Yeah, there’s an upper limit on oppai for me. I despise hentai breasts (they look like freaking BASKETBALLS liek wot). All the shows you mentioned were also off-putting, character design-wise. I think any bigger than the ones in High School DxD are no goes for me.
I have this strange relationship with the Nisekoi girls. I prefer Chitoge as a character, but I’m on the Onodera ship :P Mayhaps there’s a difference between BEST GIRL and best girl for the MC-kun?
ribbit-kun, I find it extremely hilarious that you hate lolis and yet translate henneko. Also yanderes are a serious nope.avi.
P.S. ojou-sama + playful S > this list
Ojousama is probably my sixth favourite anime girl trope. Hence why Azuki Azusa best girl ;) Tsundere ojousama = win.
Seeing these huge discussions about what female archetype attracts them the most is kind of silly, but I digress.
As for me, the only archetype that I consistently love is tomboys/reverse traps, but not because I find their inability to be feminine merely “cute”. Rather, I admire their often down-to-earth (Haruhi Fujioka) or non-squeaky excitable behavior (fuck I can’t think of an example) of which I can comfortably relate to. Cute/sexiness is never left out of the question though :P
Regarding Louise’s character, although abusive humor like you described is horribly overdone and aggravating, I can sympathize with her for the first season. She was mocked constantly for her failures, and her permanently conjured up familiar was someone who resembled a “peasant”, which the nobles had the dislike of hammered into their brains. Her insecurity followed by the belief of Saito as merely being a “pet” since he was summoned, lead to his mistreating. Unfortunately the writer refused to treat this like a real problem and kept it going for the laughs despite Louise getting her magical shit together and becoming intimate with Saito.
I always did find Louise insufferable (bear in mind I’ve only seen one season of Zero no Tsukaima) but hearing your take on her character, some of her behaviour actually does make a bit of sense! Thanks for the insight there. It is a shame that her character went even more downhill in subsequent seasons, though…
[…] into the otome gaming scene, and also I think it’s awfully unfair to have a post about the best and worst types of anime girls but nothing about cute anime […]
Louise has nothing on Shana, the original and best Tsundere!
I’d hesitate to call Shana the “original” tsundere or even the “best”, but she’s definitely a mile ahead of Louise, I agree!
You’ve actually changed my perspectives on tsunderes a bit. I’ve always disliked them and I think it’s because you so often see type A’s more than type B’s since they are used for ‘comedic purposes’ (I just can’t get behind that kind of abusive humor). But if I saw more type B’s I think I’d like them since they are more often written a little more realistically. Plus I think their shyness is adorable (when it doesn’t result in the male protagonist getting a black eye).
My favorite archetypes I guess though are yanderes and funny ‘onee-chan’ types. Like you said I think yandere are good deconstruction of the ‘pure and in love type’. I also just have a thing for psycho characters in general since their craziness is so fun to watch. And I think onee-chan’s who like to fuck with their siblings are not used enough (I’m an older sibling so I guess I can just understand wanting to tease your siblings in a lovable way thing).
I agree with this list. Not really sure about Number 1 for enjoyable ones. But still there are way too many Senjougahara Clones out there.
Mmm I definitely wouldn’t classify Saber as a Genki Girl lol. Glad you agree with me about Senjougahara Clones, though! It’s a trend that’ll pass, though.
Yeah it will pass. Tsudere ones, I labeled as one group, but looking how you pointed out I definitely lean towards the Misaka ones.