Over 600 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The 20 Best Shojo Anime Heroines Of All Time, Ranked
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Vote up your favorite heroines in shojo anime.
Shojo anime doesn't usually rely on flashy fights or impressive powers to tell the story. Instead, shojo anime tends to focus on character growth and relationships. Since that's the main attraction, the best shojo anime has interesting, well-developed heroines as the protagonist or deuteroganist. Let's count down some of the greatest shojo heroines out there.
Tohru Honda of Fruits Basket seemssimple on the outside, but she's a complex, well-rendered character whose history explains her personality. Nana Osaki and Nana Komatsu of NANA are similarly well-written and layered characters. But not every shojo heroine needs to be complicated to be interesting. Catarina Claes from My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! is lovable because she's so simple. Whether they're serious or hilarious, these shojo protagonists carry their respective shows.
After becoming homeless due to her father's poor financial decisions, Nanami Momozono has nowhere to go. After much convincing, she ends up living at a local shrine and becoming its god - but not everyone at the shrine is happy about her new gig.
Life has never been easy for Nanami, but she's a scrappy, resourceful person who works hard and sticks up for herself.
When the crown prince Raji tries to force Shirayuki to become his concubine, she runs away and is ultimately rescued by Zen Wistaria. She soon moves to the Kingdom of Clarines with him and becomes an herbalist.
Shirayuki is a strong-willed, independent person who refuses to let anyone mess with her. But she's also deeply empathetic and kind, and tends to make sacrifices for others that she probably shouldn't make.
After her father abandons the family, Misaki Ayuzawa develops a negative opinion of boys and men. The rowdy behavior of the boys at her school doesn't exactly help matters. Neither does Takumi Usui, her obnoxious but oddly attractive classmate who finds out that she's working at a maid cafe - something that's totally against school rules.
Can she actually open her heart to a boy without compromising who she is and what she believes in?
After her cousin slays her father, Princess Yona is forced to leave her life of royal luxury behind and go on the run. At first, she has no idea what to do and is forced to rely on others for protection.
But as she learns more about the kingdom she once reigned over, she realizes that she can't let her people continue to suffer. She decides to step up and become a true leader.
After losing her mother, Tohru Honda ends up staying with the troubled and mysterious Sohma family. As she learns more about the family's secrets, she gets invested in trying to help them.
Tohru is a deeply empathetic person who cares so much about others that she often forgets to care for herself. It's interesting to see extreme empathy portrayed as both a positive and negative trait, especially when it's so often seen as completely positive in female characters.
When Haruhi Fujioka accidentally breaks a vase at her super wealthy school, she ends up having to join the "Host Club" to pay off her debts. This means pretending to be a boy, something that's easy enough given her ambiguous gender presentation.
Haruhi is one of the few shojo heroines who don't subscribe to traditional gender roles.
