Emo was a worldwide youth culture and fad of the 2000s. The origins of the scene were in the USA in the 1990s and the music genre Emotional Hardcore; the culture found its greatest spread from around 2000 to 2015. Emo was fashionably associated with black hair and clothing, skinny jeans, plaids, and studded belts in particular. This was accompanied by an attitude to life in which feelings, Weltschmerz, and friendship played a major role and were not hidden. Like many other cultural phenomena, emo has found its way into the world of anime as well.
In this article, we are going to bring you a list of the 20 best emo anime girls you can find. They are not going to be ranked in any particular order, so you can just enjoy the list as it is. We are going to tell you which franchise they belong to and a bit about them and their roles in their respective stories.
1. Tōka Kirishima
Franchise: Tokyo Ghoul
The female protagonist of Tokyo Ghoul, Tōka is a winged ghoul possessing a Kagune capable of changing shape at will. During her fight against Shu Tsukiyama, Tōka formed a unique wing and controlled her Kagune with ease. Over time, Tōka gained a second wing with much larger projectiles. Additionally, her Kagune stopped projectiles from Kiyoko Aura’s Zebizu and Morgan Tanakamaru’s Higher Mind upon emergence, even negating the attack for a brief moment.
In use, Tōka’s Kagune is surrounded by a lightning-like aura capable of generating electricity that can be used offensively and destructively. During her fight against Shu, she moved at a high enough speed that Shu didn’t know where she was for a short period of time. When fighting Ayato Kirishima during the Battle of the 11th Ward, Tōka was able to remain conscious, even after having the Kagune eaten by her brother.
2. Mikasa Ackerman
Franchise: Attack on Titan
Mikasa was the ward of Eren’s parents, Grisha and Carla, and is one of the main protagonists of the series, alongside Armin. After her biological parents were murdered by human traffickers, Mikasa was rescued by Eren and lived with the Yeager family until Wall Maria fell. She is the last descendant of the Shogun clan who remained on Paradis Island, therefore related to the Azumabito family, and is, therefore, a high personality of Heazul. Although she only wants to lead a peaceful life alongside those she loves, most notably Eren, Mikasa has entered the Walls Army.
Later, she enlists in the exploration battalion to track and protect Eren. A combat genius, “worth more than 100 officers”, she becomes one of the Army’s greatest assets after Livai. She also participates in the Battle of Revelio in an attempt to recover Eren. Following this battle, her true feelings are denounced by Eren who does not share them and rejects her with very heavy words. But when Eren triggered the great earthmoving she was unable to let him live and before killing him, he exchanged a tender kiss with him.
3. Lucy
Franchise: Elfen Lied
Kaede / Lucy / Nyu is a young diclonius of around 17 with dark pink hair and dark pink eyes who is tall and thin who was abandoned in an orphanage when she was born. During these first years of life, she did not exhibit the homicidal tendency characteristic of her species. But, after being subjected to various traumas during her childhood, her murderous instinct was unleashed and she became sadistic and cruel.
She was captured and then locked up in research facilities located near the coast of Kamakura. Several years later, she managed to escape, but during her flight, she suffered a head injury and developed a split personality, Nyu. Nyu is childish, innocent, gentle, and harmless. At first, she doesn’t know what to say “Nyu”, but she gradually acquires the language and manages to say Kōta’s name.
4. Nana Osaki
Franchise: Nana
Nana Ōsaki is the vocalist of the band Black Stones. She considers the Trapnest gang to be her rival, probably due to Ren deciding to leave Blast for Trapnest and her roommate eventually marrying Trapnest leader Takumi Ichinose. Although Nana looks like a tough punk rocker, she has a good heart and is a devoted friend. However, she can be possessive and manipulative. She is easily excited to the point of having trouble breathing.
She is particularly insecure and fearful of losing those close to her, readily admitting that she uses means such as bringing Nobuo Terashima and Nana Komatsu together in order to keep Hachi close to her. Abandoned by her mother and raised by her grandmother, Nana never knew the identity of her biological father. Nana was expelled from high school after being falsely accused of prostitution. In future scenes (chapter 58), Nana fled Japan and cut all ties with her friends. This may be triggered by Ren’s death.
5. Rei Ayanami
Franchise: Neon Genesis Evangelion
She is designated as the First Children 9, pilot of EVA-0017. Her date of birth is unknown. Rei Ayanami is a very introverted, taciturn, and shy girl. Hideaki Anno describes Rei as a girl who is aware that in the event of her death someone else will replace her, and therefore does not particularly appreciate her life. According to Anno, “her presence, her existence – ostensible existence – is fleeting. She is a very sad young girl.” Living poorly, she believes that she “does not need friends”.
6. Mei Misaki
Franchise: Another
She is the female lead of the series. She is a mysterious and eccentric young woman who wears an eyepatch over her left eye. Kōichi first meets her at the Yomiyama hospital, when she claimed that she was there to deliver a doll to her “other half” in her basement. Later, it is said that the other half of her was her deceased cousin and it is later revealed that she was actually her twin sister, Misaki Fujioka. At school, Mei is completely ignored by her classmates and even her teachers.
When Kōichi tries to interact with her, Mei warns him not to, but gradually opens up to Kōichi about her situation after Kōichi begins to be ignored by the class as well. Mei reveals to Kōichi that her left eye was removed when she was little due to a tumor and that in its place she now has a doll’s eye. She also tells him that this eye has a special ability, noting later in the story that she is able to see the “color of death”, that is, identify people who are dead and those who are close to death.
7. Clare
Franchise: Claymore
Clare is the protagonist. She lost her entire family as a child at the hands of a Yoma, who decided to take her with him on his wanderings as a cover; continually threatened and beaten by her monster Clare lost the ability to speak, and only Teresa’s intervention saved her from the nightmare of violence into which she had fallen.
Since then he flatly refused to leave the side of the warrior, who willy-nilly ended up becoming attached to her. Upon the death of Teresa, the only one to have ever treated her with humanity after the destruction of her family, she vowed to herself to get revenge on her Priscilla, becoming the first in the history of the Organization to voluntarily become a Claymore. Not only her, but she also asked her to “put Teresa’s flesh and blood into her body”: she was satisfied with her.
Clare is in fact the only one among all the warriors to have had the flesh of a Claymore warrior infused and not of a Yoma. The Organization had immediately agreed to Clare’s request because it was interested in the result of such a procedure, but the experiment had no follow-up: in fact, the girl turned out to be much weaker than the average of the other warriors.
8. Homura Akemi
Franchise: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Homura is a Puella Magi who appears in Madoka’s dream and is subsequently transferred to her college. She is a very beautiful and reserved girl, who has extraordinary intellectual and physical capacities, which makes her popular despite her strange and distant personality. Having seen many Puella Magi die in battle, she tries to protect the other girls from these contracts, especially Madoka. Because of this, she is Mami’s rival, who on the contrary wants Madoka to become a Puella Magi in her turn. She has the ability to control time during a fight and uses many weapons but mainly grenades.
9. Saeko Busujima
Franchise: Highschool of the Dead
Saeko is a senior high school student in grade 3-A, and president of the kendo club very skilled with a bokken as well as hand-to-hand combat. Younger, she seriously injured a man, after voluntarily putting herself in an assault situation to test her skills using her bokken. Calm and confident in her skills, not much is known about her family except that her father went abroad to participate in a martial arts championship, and that he was the master of Saya’s father.
Following the “path of the sword” Saeko possesses a great sense of honor and considers that a promise should be kept even at the expense of his own life. Takashi helped her to accept herself as she is, with her dark side, and as a result their relationship grew closer, revealing to Rei’s dismay a certain “interest” in the young man.
10. Re-l Mayer
Franchise: Ergo Proxy
Re-l Mayer is the female protagonist of the anime Ergo Proxy. Nineteen-year-old inspector of the Intelligence Department of the dome city of Romdo and grandson of Regent Donov Mayer, Re-l runs into Ergo Proxy while carrying out her duties and is so upset that she begins to investigate in order to solve the many mysteries that surround the creature. Her identification number as a citizen is RE-L124C41+.
At first glance, Re-l appears as a detached, cold, insensitive, and almost unpleasant girl; like every citizen of Romdo, since childhood, she was taught a rigid emotional control system aimed at maintaining impassivity, but in reality, the meeting with the Proxy marked her more than she would like to show, so much so that the only occasions in which you see in tears are the memory of that event.
11. Lust
Appears in: Fullmetal Alchemist
Embodying the sin of lust, this homunculus is 250 years old and appears early in the story as one of the main ones, giving orders to Envy and almost always moving with Gluttony. It was she who initially formed plans such as the use of Envy to trigger Lior’s rebellion, the taking of Tim Marcoh hostage or the hunt for Barry the Butcher. At first glance lascivious, she is good at playing roles as well, as when she takes the identity of Solaris to seduce Havoc. However, her plans often have flaws and she tends to underestimate her opponents too much.
12. Hotaru Tomoe / Sailor Saturn
Franchise: Sailor Moon
Sailor Saturn is a Sailor warrior who is not meant to be awakened except in times of serious conflict. Indeed, her powers are immense and she has the power to raze entire planets and solar systems. His awakening then prefigures the time of silence, destruction, then rebirth. Sailor Saturn has a large spear, the Silence Glaive, which she uses to launch her attacks. Until Queen Beryl and Metallia invaded the Silver Millennium 10,000 years ago, Sailor Saturn lay asleep in her castle, the Titan Castle, floating in orbit around her planet, Saturn.
13. Izumi Takanashi
Franchise: Working!!
The second sister in the family, 28 years old. She is tall and slim, but rarely appears standing. She writes romance novels. She loves to wear black and she always wears lace dresses, her hands and face are stained with the ink from her pen, her attitude tries to imitate a helpless and suffering maiden.
She has a weak constitution and often has to be helped by others, although a lot of this is also just laziness, being used to Sota doing her chores and cleaning her room, so she constantly worries that her brother will get a girlfriend and leave her. She is not good at housework and her room is very messy since she doesn’t know or care to learn how to use a computer, so she writes her novels with a pen and all her drafts and mistakes are stacked on the ground.
14. Misa Amane
Franchise: DEATH NOTE
Misa is a girl living in Kanto whose parents were killed by a burglar, himself killed by Kira. The day Misa was to die, she was stopped in an alley by a stranger telling her he loves her and that he wants to kill her before committing suicide, rather than to live without her. Misa was saved by Jeras, a shinigami god who watched her constantly since he fell in love with her, thereby exceeding his rights to prevent Misa from dying by killing her attacker with his Death Note; a god of death does not have the right to kill to lengthen the life of a person who is dear to him.
15. Road Kamelot
Franchise: D.Gray-man
Road is the eldest of the Noah, although she looks like a child and also has ‘childish preferences’, e.g. doing homework, playing games, etc. She can create a space of her own (Noah’s dream) by evoking her victims’ worst memories and bringing them back to them. Although she looks like a little girl, she is the eldest child of Noah and also holds the position of “Player”. This means she can control and reprogram the Ark as she pleases.
Road develops a deep affection and interest for Allen. She sees him as her property and claims to love him herself, but you don’t know if it’s really love, because she doesn’t shy away from hurting everyone physically and mentally. And although she usually doesn’t care much about anything, she puts her family, the Noah, above everything else. She embodies the Noah of dreams.
16. Victorique de Blois
Franchise: Gosick
Because she has blood from Seyrun or the people of the gray wolves, the Marquis of Blois, her father, decided to isolate her in the depths of his mansion so that one day he could use the brilliant minds that the people born there have. When she reached a certain age, she was allowed to stay at Academia Santa Margarita, on the condition that she does not leave the campus unless her father or brother allowed it.
She spends her days in the upper part of the library, which is also a greenhouse; there, Kazuya always finds her reading difficult books and/or in other languages. In addition to her sharp tongue, utter frankness, and eccentric attitude of hers; Victorique also possesses incredible detective skills. According to Grevil of Blois, Kazuya is the first person Victorique is willing to solve police cases for without expecting anything in return (or doing it just for candy).
17. Rinko Ogasawara
Franchise: SHIROBAKO
Rinko Ogasawara is one of the supporting characters in the anime series SHIROBAKO. Rinko is currently working at Musashino Animation as a key animator and the character designer and general animation supervisor for Exodus!. Rinko always wears gothic clothes, also sometimes known as Gothic Lolita. She has cherry-red eyes and long, curly, almost white light blonde hair.
She has a gothic style, and is often seen with her black hair band on top of her head, she has a black dress and a white skirt under it. A little above her chest, she has a ribbon and some buttons. On the edge of her shirt, there are small black ribbons. She wears black stockings and ‘vintage’ red heels.
18. Inori Yuzuriha
Franchise: Guilty Crown
Singer of the EGOIST group, she is in fact a member of another group. Wounded during an operation to deliver the Void Genome to Gai, she donated it to Ouma. We find out later that she spends the night 2 or 3 times a month with Gai. Its Void is a sword, which allows its user to create protective barriers against any attack targeting it and platforms by using it as a staircase. We later discover that she is a receptacle created for the purpose of receiving Eve’s soul (Mana Ouma) and resuscitating her during the said Fourth Apocalypse.
She would then bind to the Adam of her choice and spread the Apocalypse virus around the world to create a new human species. But this project fails because Gai and Shū prevent the programming of the Apocalypse Virus. While Shū will be the new president of the quorum, she will support and support him, believing in him despite everything.
19. Hannah Annafellow
Franchise: Black Butler
Hannah is the maid of the Trancy household and also a demon who even houses the demon sword Laevateinn. She is very loyal to Alois Trancy, but is physically and mentally abused by him. But she seems to be tacitly accepting this, which was nothing unusual at the time. However, towards the end of the anime, one learns that she had a contract with Alois Trancy’s “brother” Luka a long time ago, since he wished for Alois that his dream of the mass deaths of the villagers surrounding them would come true.
20. Kurumi Tokisaki
Franchise: Date A Live
Kurumi is the third spirit encountered by Shido. She is at first glance a very beautiful young girl, attractive and charming but she is in truth a sadistic, mad and twisted person, who is the “most evil” spirit according to Shido. Its code name as such is Nightmare.
She appears invincible since she can regenerate as much as she wishes by going back in time. She gets killed several times and kills a good number of people herself (she would have killed more than 10,000 people according to Mana). She has the power to multiply by invoking her “selves” from the past.
