Best Anime Girls With Blue Hair

Summary

• Anime girls with blue hair are iconic to Japanese animation studios. Kaname Chidori, Esdeath, and Ayanami Rei are examples of famous blue-haired characters.
• “Bluenette” refers to any character with unnatural hair color, including green and purple. However, this term typically connotes blue hair and is used to describe characters like Shino Asada and Wendy Marvell.
• Blue-haired anime girls come from a variety of genres and can possess unique powers and personalities. They can range from secret agents like Kaname Chidori to magical girls like Sailor Mercury, showcasing the diversity of blue-haired characters in anime.

Anime used to be a word that only referred to cartoons from Japan. Today, it can mean almost any kind of serialized anime regardless of the country of origin, but the iconic image of the anime girl with blue hair still seems to be confined to cartoons from Japanese animation studios.

The term “bluenette” is part of the anime lexicon, and it actually refers to any character with hair that’s not a natural color. That means even characters with green or purple hair can be referred to by this term. However, the anime girls featured here literally do have blue hair and are famous for it.

Updated on December 25, 2024 by Mark Sammut: Well, the year is almost over, and it has been a fun enough ride. The holidays are in full swing, so there might not be much desire to watch anime shows at this point. Still, there is always time for a few more blue-haired anime girls; consequently, this article has been updated with two more series. One of the new arrivals featured in the Fall 2024 anime season.

24

Index

Divisive But Iconic

OK, this one might be controversial. As one of the most recognizable light novel characters, Index’s anime version is also very well-known, even if A Certain Magical Index‘s adaptation leaves something to be desired. However, she is not universally beloved and might be regarded as one of the show’s weakest elements, overstaying her welcome after the opening arc. Index does not always treat Touma well, and she is certainly not as adored as Misaka Mikoto.

That said, Index is among the best-designed blue-haired female anime characters of all time, arguably perfecting the look of the “priestess” archetype. Love or hate her, there is no forgetting Index.

23

Konan

Uses Unique Origami Jutsu To Battle Against Her Opponents

Naruto may have many strengths, but one area where it wholeheartedly fails is in its depiction of women. Most females in Naruto end up playing second fiddle to their male teammates and partners, which is a shame given the sheer influence this series has.

A blue-haired character in Naruto who plays a fairly central role in the grand scheme of things is Konan, a unique ninja who uses jutsu related to origami and paper. Unfortunately, barring one fight against Obito where she shows the full extent of these powers, Konan doesn’t really do anything major aside from being a steadfast companion to Yahiko and Nagato.

22

Sayaka Maizono

One Of The First Friends Makoto Naegi Makes In Danganronpa

Danganronpa loves to subvert expectations, with the anime adaptation being a decent, if somewhat rushed, way to enjoy this mind-bending story. The protagonist, Makoto, is one of many high school students caught in a twisted killing game.

Things feel slightly better when he becomes friends with Sayaka, only for this character to be the first person to be killed by a student. What makes things worse is that everyone deduces that she was actually planning to kill Makoto, only for it to be revealed later on that she decided not to go through such a heartless act with the one person she became close friends with in the short time she was alive.

21

Kaname Chidori

The Secret Agent Known As Mithril

A 16-year-old high school student who has equal experience living in both Japan and the United States as the daughter of a UN ambassador, Kaname Chidori is also one of the main characters of both the anime and light-novel versions of Full Metal Panic! Part of the drama of this story is why several different intelligence organizations seem so interested in this blue-haired anime girl.

Sousuke Sagara is an agent for one of these organizations, known as Mithril, one that happens to be tasked with protecting Kaname. He enrolls in the same high school as her, and a complex plot unfolds.

20

Shino Asada

From Gun Shy To Lethal Sniper

This part of the series brings the vast universe of SAO to Story Arc 3 and a new FPS MMO called Gun Gale Online. Shino doesn’t star in the arc, but in literary terms, this blue-haired anime girl is the deuteragonist of the story. This means she’s as important to the plot as the main protagonist and can even switch places with him.

Shino started playing Gun Gale Online to get over her own fear of guns, and the result is that she becomes one of the most lethal snipers in GGO. This continues in other games featured in the popular isekai franchise including ALfheim Online, in which she plays a Cait Sith archer.

19

Esdeath

The Strong Survive, And The Weak Die

Esdeath is most recognizable in her General’s uniform and is one of the Empire’s highest-ranking officers. She’s known for her cruelty and lust for power, which contradicts her love for Tatsumi. On the other hand, any affection she has for the main character might be just another sadistic obsession.

Her long blue hair is one of her most beautiful features, and her charisma inspires a close to fanatical loyalty in her supporters. However, Esdeath isn’t completely without heart or empathy. Despite her love for Tatsumi, she has given her subordinates clear orders to destroy him should he endanger their lives.

18

Nefertari Vivi

A Royal Bounty Hunter

Nefertari Vivi is the Princess of Arabasta, but she’s not exactly a stereotypical princess and the kingdom operates more like a crime family than a political entity. She has several aliases that are as interesting as her character and reflect her importance to the overall plot of one of the longest-running shows in anime history.

An antagonist initially, Nefertari is referred to simply as a Bounty Hunter when she is introduced. This blue-haired anime girl appears again under the code name of Miss Wednesday when she aligns with the Straw Hats to undermine a rival gang, the Baroque Works, that is threatening Arabasta. After she retires to her home country to live the life of a royal, she’s simply known as Princess Vivi.

17

Sailor Mercury

The Computer Is Mightier Than The Sword

Sailor Mercury, whose real name is Ami Mizuno, sometimes gets overlooked as part of a team of superheroes that have the power to destroy planets and stop time. She’s the brains of the operation, quietly doing the research and making the plans, and although she’s the quietest, this blue-haired anime girl might be the most important.

Sailor Mercury was the very first soldier to join Sailor Moon. Between Mars and Moon fighting for most of the first season over who got to be the group leader, she was the only reason they didn’t get killed before Jupiter showed up.

16

Ami Kawashima

Manipulative Charm

Toradora‘s main female characters are pretty much all iconic, even if they can be somewhat divisive. Despite coming into the picture later than Taiga or Minori, Ami is almost as popular as both of them, and she tends to be less polarizing as well.

Now, like most of the anime’s characters, this model does not start as a purely great person as she tends to rely on manipulation, something she learned through her career. However, as the series progresses, Ami gradually lets down her guard and builds proper friendships with the rest of the characters. More than anything, she is just a fun personality to have around.

15

Megumi Tadokoro

A Delightful And Warm Presence

Due to losing a lot of momentum during its final two seasons, Food Wars‘ early success can be somewhat easy to overlook in hindsight. Before going completely off the boil, the series was a (relatively) simple show about elite wannabe cooks perfecting their craft in a cutthroat academic environment. Excuse the pun, but Food Wars had all the right ingredients during its first season, and Souma’s rivalry with Erina was the definite highlight.

While overshadowed by the anime’s many, many loud personalities, Megumi was arguably central to Food Wars‘ brilliance. Although a very talented chef in her own right, she is presented as being considerably more “ordinary” than most of her peers, arguably making her the most relatable character. Although ambitious and driven, she is also quite subdued and realistic.

14

Akane

An All-Time Great Female Lead

After a few decades, Ranma ½ made its glorious return in the Fall 2024 season, with MAPPA releasing a reboot series that captures the magic of Rumiko Takahashi’s eternal manga. The humor is still as great as ever, and the same can be said for the characters. Ranma is, obviously, the star of the show, but he only works as well as he does because of his dynamic with Akane. Just as headstrong and willing to get violent, Akane is a force of nature with an endearing personality, particularly once she starts to warm up to Ranma and the two develop a cute love/hate relationship.

In lesser hands, Akane would be reduced to the straight (wo)man to the rest of the cast’s antics, complementing the jokes but rarely supplying the punchline. Fortunately, Akane is not burdened by convention and is allowed to show all her dimensions, and she is quite a well-rounded character.

Akane is ranked a bit low as she has a history of being depicted with black rather than blue hair, so she is not necessarily associated with the latter.

13

Wendy Marvell

A Vulnerable But Powerful Magic User

Wendy Marvell is one of the Sky Dragon Slayers, and it’s obvious from the start that she didn’t choose this life for herself. It’s a complex selection process, but certain orphans are chosen to be Slayers based more on chance than aptitude.

Wendy’s character arc is that she has to become a decent Sky Dragon Slayer even though she’s petite, shy, hates fighting, and gets motion sickness, iconic character tropes that appear in many anime girls. Her power comes from her abilities as a magic user, with the ability to manipulate air for a variety of purposes. That includes offensive spells like Dragon’s Roar along with some handy healing spells.

12

Konata Izumi

The Otaku Blueprint

Lucky Star helped set the standard for Cute Girls Doing Cute Things anime, spawning plenty of copycats in its wake. While all four main girls are great in their own right, Konata Izumi is comfortably the show’s poster child, and she is also the quintessential otaku.

Konata’s playful nature constantly brings out the best in the other characters, particularly Kagami. Funny, charismatic, and relatable, this blue-haired anime girl is a cult-classic icon who casts a shadow over the entire slice of life genre.

11

Umi Ryuuzaki

An Early Incarnation Of The Water Mage

Considered by some to be one of the greatest magical girl anime series of all time, Magic Knight Rayearth made the genre cool years before Cardcaptor Sakura and Sailor Moon appeared. Umi is one of the show’s three main characters, and her powers focus on the element of water.

Her attacks have names like Water Dragon and Icicle Blades. Umi Ryuuzaki is often pictured in clothing that mirrors the blue spectrum, especially when in Magical Knight form, so it’s not a surprise that her hair is also blue.

10

Stocking Anarchy

The Power Of Swords In Her Stockings

Here’s a great example of a parody anime that’s not for kids. The characters in this show aren’t conventional human beings, but supernatural creatures that are hundreds of years old, which explains why they can take different forms and have so many wacky powers. That’s a real anime title and a real anime character name, and when the context is explained, the Panty & Stocking characters make perfect sense.

Stocking Anarchy is the youngest of the Anarchy sisters, which also include Panty and Garterbelt, and like her older sisters, she is named after the article of clothing she uses as a weapon. Her striped stockings actually turn into katanas when she takes them off, just to be clear about how this works.

9

Mabel Rayveil

Winter Is Coming

Mabel’s background has a lot to do with the color palette the artists chose for her, including her blue hair. She also has blue eyes and is usually shown wearing a white and blue dress.

As the last surviving member of the Ice Clan, which explains some of her powers, Mabel is also the keeper of a legendary ice sword, and any negative feelings she has cause nearby things and people around her to freeze. On the other hand, when she has positive feelings, which include love, they cause things to melt, which creates some awkward moments when anyone she likes is nearby.

8

Shiro

A Genius That Never Misses

Shiro’s hair color includes several colors, but she tends to be blue more than pink or purple. There are two main characters in No Game No Life, Shiro and her step-brother, Sora. She’s the calm, calculated of the two but tends to have a lower level of emotional intelligence and needs her brother’s help to beat games with that angle.

Shiro’s limitations when it comes to emotions are one of her few weaknesses. Other than that, this anime girl is a veritable genius, with an ability to recall virtually any information she’s seen previously, and a superhuman level of hand-eye coordination, which probably has something to do with her incredible marksmanship skills.

7

Juvia Loxar

From Enemy To Friend And Love Interest

A powerful water mage, Juvia is among Fairy Tail‘s best female characters, which says a lot. Initially, she was introduced as a member of the Phantom Lord guild, meaning she directly faced off against Fairy Tail; however, she eventually joined the latter. Crucially, Juvia falls madly in love with Gray, to the point that this infatuation grows into her defining trait in later arcs.

Although occasionally sidelined due to not being a core member of Team Natsu, Juvia is still a prominent part of Fairy Tail who often gets highlighted in showcase fights or comedy sequences.

6

Touka Kirishima

A Captivating Contradiction

As with everything relating to Tokyo Ghoul, if someone wants to experience Touka’s story in all of its brilliance, they will need to seek out Sui Ishida’s manga rather than stick solely to Pierrot’s anime. Nevertheless, the latter highlights why the character is generally so well-liked.

As a ghoul, Touka is protective of her own, and she feels plenty of anger towards the world for its cruel treatment of her brethren. At the same time, she is a fairly kind person, creating a dichotomy that she regularly struggles to reconcile.

5

Blue Rose

Only Becomes An Icy “Bluenette” For Superhero Activities

Blue Rose, the superhero, uses a design that consists of a few different shades of green and blue and wears a hairstyle and makeup to match it. Her NEXT power is specifically ice manipulation, so naturally, her look and costume have to match.

When she’s not being a superhero, however, Blue Rose loses the hair color along with the rest of the superhero personae. Her name in civilian life is Karina Lyle, and she’s a high-school student who lives at home and has a normal job at a bar along with caramel-colored hair.