There are quite a few strange male characters in anime, but there isn’t quite as much gender equality when it comes to oddness. Anime often lives and dies by how marketable its female characters are, after all. As such, you don’t actually see too many weird female characters in anime.
However, when you see a weird anime girl out in the wild, they tend to stick out. You tend to not forget them as a character, and if weird anime girls are your kind of thing, then we’ve rounded up the most unusual.
Weird Anime Girls
Nakamura from The Flowers of Evil
It is a shame that Flowers of Evil didn’t get to do its full run because you never really unravel or even understand the mysterious raging torrent of teenage rebellion that is Nakamura.
You see her manipulate and blackmail a somewhat normal if wildly pretentious teenage boy after catching him being a degenerate, and then eventually molds him until they are like kindred souls together. It all culminates in them trashing public property, imploding relationships, and running away from home with all the planning of an eight-year-old.
It is Nakamura and the uniquely uncanny art style choice in Flowers of Evil that makes the series such an experience. Although, to this day no one can quite agree as to if that experience is good or not.
Urabe from Mysterious Girlfriend X
Mysterious Girlfriend X is likely the weirdest romance anime you will ever watch. The female love interest is Urabe. The main character samples some of her drool on a whim, and they become linked together from it.
Of course, her drool-based power isn’t the only oddity about her, so also keeps a pair of scissors in her panties that she uses as a weapon.
I’d like to be able to explain this all logically, but I really don’t think anyone can.
Tomoko from Watamote
While being a female otaku isn’t that weird, Tomoko makes it weird. Or rather, she makes it really awkward to watch.
That is Watamote in a shell – a cringe comedy anime that is almost painful to watch at times. Tomoko is one compulsory education graduation from being a shut-in, and has the lacking social skills of someone who has never dealt with an actual human being. It’s played for comedy, but for all the other introverted, semi-shut-ins out there, it can hit too close to home to be enjoyable comedy.
Rikka from Love, Chunibyou, and Other Delusions
Similar to Tomoko above, Rikka is a girl that is occasionally so cringe-worthy that she can be hard to watch. However, unlike Watamote that portrays that in the harsh light of day, Love, Chunibyou, and Other Delusions paints a rather cute veneer over it.
Rikka isn’t an otaku though, she is a chunibyou – a term specific to Japan that quantifies the wild delusions of grandeur that come from adolescence and usually pass with further age. You know, where you imagine that you have some great power or are somehow magically special – that sort of thing. While the actual main character of Love, Chunibyou, and Other Delusions is growing out of that phase, as kids do, and looking back with a cringe, Rikka is still firmly in the throes of it even as a high schooler.
Nino from Arakawa Under The Bridge
Arakawa Under the Bridge is one of those series built on strange characters. You have one normal guy who finds himself surrounded by weird homeless people that live under the city bridge. Nino being the one that brought him there.
Unlike the mayor that dresses like a kappa or the guy with a star for a head, Nino doesn’t actually look weird. She just claims to be from Venus and sleeps in the drawer of a lavish bed inside her cardboard house. The interesting thing is that the series really keeps you wondering if what she says is actually true, and keeping the mystery going is quite a feat when it frequently explains the other oddness with realistic explanations.
She is actually one of the least weird characters in Arakawa Under the Bridge, but that doesn’t exactly make her normal either.
Ame from Electromagnetic Girlfriend
While Ame in Electromagnetic Girlfriend starts out in a very normal-for-anime vein of Ame approaching the main character and claiming he was her knight in a previous life, this series is actually much darker than you expect. In fact, the oddness to Ame is actually a kind of thought-provoking meditation on how she is rationalizing some trauma.
Her attachment, her odd behavior, and stalker-like appearance all sort of serve a purpose, making her one of the sadder weird girls in anime.
Yuno from Future Diary
Who doesn’t want a girlfriend that will murder obsessively for them? That’s the dream, right?
Well, dreams made true in reality are often disappointing, like when your crazy murder girlfriend tries to murder your friends or brain-deadens you and cares for you like a living doll that can’t escape.
Yuno is exactly that kind of crazy, though at least Future Diary does give you a reason for her particular brand of malicious oddness.
Haruko from FLCL
Haruko is still one of the better representations of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl in anime, and likely and introduction to the archetype for more than a few anime fans.
She blows into town like a typhoon, runs the main character down with a Vespa, smacks him with her guitar, and robots start popping out of his forehead.
Of course, unlike most manic pixie dream girls who are a catalyst to a coming-of-age story, which Haruko still is, she also has her own reasons for her manipulation.
Yoshiko from Aho Girl
When you call a girl an idiot and have a male main character frequently punching her right in the face, it isn’t exactly a good look for you as an anime. However, Aho Girl is one of the rare times where you could say that Yoshiko, that strange idiot, deserves it.
Now, to preface things, Aho Girl is a comedy anime and the violence is for laughs. Yoshiko is, in every sense, a lovable idiot who is too forward with everyone she meets, doesn’t comprehend the meaning of no, and is undeterred by any insult. Her weirdness isn’t something you can really explain, it is best experienced.
Suruga Kanbaru from The Monogatari Franchise
Everyone in the Monogatari franchise is weird. It’s a weird anime about a weird guy and his even weirder harem and their weird problems. However, if I had to pick the strangest of the lot, it would be Kanbaru.
To say everything that makes her weird would be spoilers, but she is a lesbian that enjoys boy’s love. She’s a nudist. She’s a lolicon. She’s got a demon hand. And the weirdest part? The series makes her an entirely lovable character despite some wildly unlikable aspects.
Ed from Cowboy Bebop
Perhaps what makes Ed one on the weirder anime girls is that first-time Cowboy Bebop watchers spend a decent amount of time not realizing that she actually is, in fact, a girl.
This super hacker extraordinary acts as eccentric as they do genderless, and the far flung reaches of space seems about as good a place as any to just be who you want to be.
Ueno from How Clumsy You Are, Miss Ueno
For a while, teasing romance anime where a girl kind of bullies the guy she likes were a little popular. How Clumsy You Are, Miss Ueno was part of that phase. The near-criminal behavior part.
The entire premise of How Clumsy You Are, Miss Ueno is about the titular Ueno trying to… flirt(?), I guess, with her science clubmate. In her endless crusade, she tries to get him to do questionable things like drink her purified urine and sexually harass her. She does this to try to get him to realize she likes him or realize that he likes her. Less beings would use their words, but whatever.
Power from Chainsaw Man
I am convinced that people who make Power their anime ‘waifu’ just want a man with a set of tits for a girlfriend. And that’s fine. No judgment.
Anyway, that is pretty much what Power is. She is a demon that possessed the corpse of a girl, and certainly acts doesn’t act like a girl. She acts like a demon with delusions of grandeur who is a huge slob with a foul mouth. Yet, as she is so unlike every other anime girl ever created, it makes Power so lovable.
I have assuredly missed some more great weird anime girls, I only picked the weirdest of the weirdies. Furthermore, weirdness is quite subjective. Did we leave out another good weird anime girl? Let fans know in the comments section below.
