As we know there’s manga or anime just about everything, truly everything with things like Chainsaw man, Jujutsu Kaisen, Kamisama Kiss, Cardcaptor Sakura, and the list can go on. The fascinating part about it is how diverse the female characters are. We can go on for days about the different types of female characters their are, or even the (very few) non-binary there are. We are Her Campus are here to encourage to strive for the best improvement in everyone, but right now I do want to focus on the woman and non-binary characters in this article
Lets start off with Power from Chainsaw Man, technically not in no means is a human but represents women who are powerful, childish, and short tempered. One of the things I enjoy about Power is she’s powerful, who doesn’t love a powerful woman. She shows a lot of different emotions, but her short temper does get her into a lot of trouble. Like many of us, she’s still very childish, which helps us learn it’s completely fine to be that way. Who deems us as childish besides society itself. Myself, as an Autistic person, gets told frequently that I’m much too childish or that I act much younger than I am, especially for my age. Which when I get to see a character who is portrayed the way Power is, it helps give me confidence in who I am and where I’m going in life. Despite the tragic events that take place in Chainsaw Man, a long with the amount of gore, it’s still pretty amazing at depicting the different sorts of women, both good and bad.
The next character I want to talk about is Blue Period’s genderfluid character, Ryuuji Ayukawa. Much like Power Ryuuji is a very strong character. Born male, they portray more towards a feminine vibe, but interchanges with masculine to feminine and vs versa sort of style at school. Ryuuji is extremely talent in the aspects of arts much like her counter parts. Who doesn’t love a character who can be creative, but also show how passionate they are towards their passions. It honestly amazes me that they are one the only if not he only genderfluid characters in manga/anime without fetishizing it.
The third character we’ve gotta love is Nobara Kugisaki from Jujutsu Kaisen. She’s aggressive, assertive, beautiful and strong. There’s actually a quote she says that sent chills down my back when I heard it the first time; “I don’t give a damn about “men” this “women” that! You can keep that sh*t to yourselves! I love myself when I’m pretty and all dressed up! And I love myself when I’m being strong!” It’s one of the things that I love about her is she legitimately thinks the way a lot of us should think of ourselves wear we like to dress up or not. Like Power she is short tempered, a bit of an idiot who doesn’t think things through at all. But it reminds us that hard work will get us places, away from the toxicity that a lot of us need out of. and that’s why we love Nobara.
Another woman in the animanga Nene Yashiro from Toilet Bound Hanako-Kun. Unlike the other’s, Nene basically believes in true love and all that. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s actually what makes her so strong, she goes in and out through so many trials to find her true love, only for her true love to not be the person she wanted it to be. The next part does contain spoiler, but her true love is a ghost. She loves herself deeply despite her fears about nobody loving her over her “fat ankles”, and that’s the kind of attitude we need minus the fear of that. She’s funny and silly, but such a brave young girl. Dealing with other worldly fights she shouldn’t have gotten herself into, but she did, and is surviving it. She has amazing chemistry with all the characters in different ways, and that’s all we can strive for. To have people in our lives that give us amazing chemistry! And that’s why we love Nene Yashiro.
Lastly, we have probably the smartest out of this list Michiru Kaiou or as she’s famously known as is Sailor Neptune from Sailor Moon. Michiru is both talented and amazingly smart. It’s something to look up too and strive towards for us. The amazing part about Michiru is that she’s talented in Violin playing. Elegant, sophisticated, though sometimes cold and capable of sharp anger something that reminds me of myself, personally. She’s also the reason for the title. She is patient and caring, almost always offering a smile or laughter to a situation, which is also how I see myself, and wish that more people in my life were like this. While polite and calm to a fault, she is not the most social person, and as mentioned earlier my Autism does create changes like my social behavior and seeming calm when I’m actually overwhelmed to the point of calmness. I, like her, dislikes being patronized and will not indulge others. But like all the other characters on this list, they’re all amazing for their dividual reasons.
I hope you enjoyed this article, and find some characters you might like, relate too, a manga to read, or even a show to watch. Thank you for listening, and I’m hoping all the best when it comes to the traits you might hate now and find them beautiful, in yourselves.