Top 30 Lovably Shy Dandere Girls in Anime

Their voices are as soft as a whisper, they blush at just a glance, but deep down, they have a lot of love to give – they are dandere. Unlike tsundere or yandere, dandere anime girls lack violent tendencies or flair. Always caring and occasionally with some unique hidden talents kept secret due to their sheer humbleness, danderes are indeed the sweetest of anime girls, but often the easiest to overlook.

Best Dandere Anime Girls

What is a Dandere?

Chances are that if you are here, you came here looking for a dandere girl to fall in love with and already know what one is. However, if nothing else, knowing what we think defines a dandere character can help you be more familiar with our criteria for choosing them.

“Dandere,” by definition, is a portmanteau of “danmari,” meaning silence, and “deredere,” meaning loving. It means they are quiet, but full of love.

Often and easily confused with kuudere, dandere characters are quiet, but lack the iciness or overt bluntness of their kuudere counterparts. The long and short of it is that they are just shy! When put with the right person or become comfortable enough with a person, emotions just come pouring out as if they were waiting forever to express them.

Miku Nakano from The Quintessential Quintuplets

Oh, you know how it is when you have a set of quintuplets, each one has to be distinctly different in personality because they can’t be too different in appearance. For Miku, she drew the dandere straw.

All the sisters are sweet, but Miku is really the only one that is shy. Due to that, she is often vastly overshadowed by her sisters, but its is kind of like a nice protective shell, too.

Hitori Gotou from Bocchi the Rock

Socially anxious danderes are one of the hot things in anime right now. Now the twist that Bocchi the Rock explores is putting them in a band where they will frequently be in front of a crowd and daring her to not have a panic attack.

Spurred on by her desire to keep her newfound friends and not disappoint them, Hitori handles it – well, not like a champ, but she does her best. Part of the charm of her character is watching her try so hard and try so sweetly.

Hitori Bocchi from Hitori Bocchi’s Lifestyle

One more socially anxious dandere. This time, she isn’t in a band, but just trying her make friends the best she can between crippling shyness and anxiety.

Of course, when you have “ultra dandere” level of shyness, being nice to people can only go so far lest your silent actions come off as creepy.

Shouko Komi from Komi-san Can’t Communicate

One last socially anxious character, I promise.

Komi is put in a unique situation. She is so painfully socially anxious that she is non-verbal. She is still beloved by her classmates, but being placed on a pedestal is a lonely place.

She also happens to love a dandere boy. Two dandere characters in a romance means that romantic progression is something that happens molasses-drippingly slow.

Saya Endou from Dagashi Kashi

Say has the look. Not the dandere look, no. She has the tsundere look to her.

However, that’s not who she is. Certainly she can have violent tendencies, but only to her brother. Instead of hiding kindness behind a wall of violence like you might expect, Saya is always ready to give it. However, her feelings aren’t in the open either, she just isn’t hostile about it.

Hitomi Tsukishiro from Iroduku: The World in Colors

While Hitomi isn’t the sweetest of characters initially, she is never not nice. She is just a bit drab.

Without the ability to see colors, Hitomi’s world has been grey in every respect, even emotionally. However, when something happens that gives her a glimpse of color and she starts to grow, she doesn’t quite grow out of being a dandere. She is more outwardly friendly, but never not shy. Even being honest with her feelings is a task sometimes.

Sumi Sakurasawa from Rent-a-Girlfriend

While being a dandere and a rental girlfriend isn’t probably the most harmonious experience for her, who wouldn’t want to rent a dandere for a little while?

Sumi is the quintessential shy girlfriend. She is nervous and fumbling, but never not adorable in her efforts to be a good girlfriend for her clients. It is what makes her charming.

Megumi Tadokoro from Food Wars

Being a dandere and a chef is much like being a dandere in a band – It’s not something that works well. Chefs are leaders and require strong personalities. Megumi often lacks that for much of the series, but that’s how her character grows. She grows into a leader that, while still shy and reserved, doesn’t sacrifice kindness for results.

Itsuki Inubouzaki from Yuna Yuki is a Hero

Whenever you have two sisters in an anime, you can be damn sure one of them is going to be a dandere. And you can be pretty sure it will be the little sister.

Such is the case with Itsuki. She is the younger sister to older and more outgoing Fuu, and as her older sister has been taking care of her after the death of their parents, she cherishes her deeply.

Mio Akiyama from K-on

A dandere girl in a band is kind like putting oil in water. They don’t seem to work, but if you shake it vigorously enough, they mix for awhile.

Like other dandere girls in bands, Mio doesn’t like to sing due to her shyness. She does, however, thrive when writing songs. You give a shy person a pen and the feelings tend to start spilling out on the page.

Hagumi Hagumoto from Honey and Clover

There is a line that needs to be observed when creating a dandere. That line is between sweet dandere and person that acts like an infant. Hagu is pretty close to being so dandere that she is off-puttingly infantile.

She is small, beautiful like a doll, and so shy that she boarders on non-verbal at moments. However, she is a sweet girl, and as a gifted artist, she is afforded some quirks.

Shiro from No Game No Life

You can’t create a super genius without some serious flaws to even them out. For young genius Shiro, those flaws would have to be crippling shyness and a crippling attachment to her stepbrother.

She can move worlds, but only as long as her brother is by her side. When he is there, she is a silent, but still sweet girl. When without him, she collapses into a hot mess.

Kou Sakuragi from Wotakoi: Love is Difficult for an Otaku

While Kou is part of one of Wotakoi’s side couples, she is a charming addition. Mistaken for a boy at first, she is so crippled by anxiety and shyness that she simply doesn’t correct people. She is just happy to have friends.

Although being an anxious gamer won’t win her many friends, it is her kind actions that end up winning the heart of her non-gaming genki boy love interest.

Shihoru from Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash

Shihoru is the mage of this little party of weak, rejected misfits. Unfortunately, as a mage, her timid demeanor gets in the way of her actually helping people fight. As a dandere, speaking spells clearly and calmly is not one of her strong suits.

However, as the series goes on, she gains more confidence in magic and becomes more helpful.

Anri Sonohara from Durarara!

Durarara has a lot of characters, so naturally one dandere is tucked in with them. However, Anri comes off as a dandere initially, but her situation is far more complicated, what with a demon sword possessing her body and all. It is something that can make her quiet demeanor change to something else quite rapidly.

Izumi Sakurai from Nichijou

Izumi is the teacher in Nichijou. She tries to play strict in order to become a good role model for her students, but her shyness often gets the better of her. While she tries to speak her mind and be authoritative, her clumsy habit of choosing the wrong words completely disarms her.

Hotaru Ichijou from Non Non Biyori

Hotaru is actually a bit of a dere hybrid. She can be as cold as a kuudere and her obsession with Komari can bring out a little yandere in her. However, she is still, at heart, that awkward transfer student and it it is her friendships that allowed all her other sides to come out as she gets comfortable with those people.

Tsukasa Hiiragi from Lucky Star

Tsukasa is the natural dandere counter to her twin Kagami’s tsundere personality. While Tsukasa is sweet, klutzy, and caring, she is ultimately someone that needs to be taken care of by a stronger personality so as to not get taken advantage of.

Nodaka Miyazaki from Mahou Sensei Negima!

Nodaka is a rare breed of dandere. With a crush on her teacher, she managed to somewhat overcome her shyness and confess to him. Although shot down, she still persisted in her love. As you might not know, a girl in love can overcome anything.

Tsukimi Kurashita from Princess Jellyfish

It is Tsukimi’s unique mix of jellyfish obsession and fear of stylish people that makes her such an interesting character. She is sweet and simple under an exterior of your average female nerd, and probably the closest thing to a real life dandere because she just can’t comprehend how great she actually is due to dismal self-esteem.

Yukika Amami from My Love Story!

Yukika is a dandere girl in love. Unfortunately, it is not just her timid nature that prevents her from confessing it, but it is also because she is in love with a guy way above her pay grade.

To the surprise of My Love Story audiences, when Yukika did get up the courage to confess, they broke the trope and had her get shot down. Dandere girls rarely win, though.

Sunako Nakahara from The Wallflower

Sunako isn’t your typical dandere trope. Yes, she is quiet and sweet, but she is also a huge weirdo. With a passion for horror movies and the macabre, she separates herself from the beautiful world to dwell in darkness. However, that didn’t taint the caring girl that is inside, it just warped her a little.

Ito Hikiotani from Punch Line

Ito prefers to be alone. She avoids going out and doesn’t like to be around a lot of people, but at heart, this hikkikomori is a sweet girl. She lives in her room with a pet bear cub that later turns out to be the catalyst between her and other people. As it turns out, she does like being around her apartment fellows, but her shyness gets in the way.

Mikuru Asahina from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Mikuru is the ultimate dandere girl. She hits all the staples – being shy, easily embarrassed, clumsy, and naïve. However, because she is the ultimate stereotype, this often involves her being harassed by some of the stronger personality types in the series. Danderes are easy targets.

Kosaki Onodera from Nisekoi

Being a member of a harem is an unfortuante fate for a dandere girl. They rarely win. While the other girls actively vie for his affections, Kosaki is content to just be by his side and talking to him. Typically she is too timid to put herself into the game and thus her affections go unnoticed.

Shiori Shinomiya from The World God Only Knows

As she has trouble speaking and most often keeps her thoughts to herself, Shiori is one of those dandere types that ends up with no friends. Because of this, she escapes from reality into various books. While her shyness made her hard for Keima to initially talk to, her lack of friends also made her eager to talk to him.

Hina Kubota from Barakamon

Hina is so timid that in Barakamon it is almost used as a parody of this type of character. Honestly, if she isn’t hiding behind Naru, she is crying her eyes out over some such thing. She is approaching that line a dandere shouldn’t cross into being infantile, but she is also very young compared to other dandere girls so she can get away with it.

Hinata Hyuuga from Naruto

Hinata was likely the dandere that introduced you to danderes. She is so timid that it often gets in the way of her combat potential, thus despite being born into a prestigious ninja family, she squanders her potential.

However, despite this, she quietly watches her crush, Naruto, from a distance. And you know what? She gets him. I’ve said several times that danderes rarely win, and she is one of the reasons why I said “rarely” and not “never.”

Sawako Kuronuma from Kimi Ni Todoke

Sawako from Kimi No Todoke is a lot like Sunako from The Wallflower. I mean, so similar that it is almost approaching copyright territory in some respects. If you removed Sunako’s oddness, you’d have Sawako. It is just that simple.

She is a girl that is shy and sweet, but her classmates mistake it for malicious behavior. This has prevented her from making friends at school, but she still tries her very best. Sometimes all a dandere needs is a little push.

Nagisa Furukawa from Clannad

Clannad is actually home to quite a few danderes that I could have used to pad out this list, but one entry per series is really enough, you know?

As Nagisa is they main love interest in Clannad, she gets the spotlight. Being a sickly child, she hasn’t had the opportunity to grow out of her shyness or make many friends. However, this causes her to cherish the people that do take the time to get to know her and find out that underneath her shell is a bit of a fiery passionate side.

If you are curious as to the other danderes in Clannad, Fuuko, Kotomi, and Ryou are all right there with Nagisa in sweet, shy personality. Either the creator loved dandere girls or danderes just naturally attract more danderes, who can be sure.

Did we forget to include your favorite dandere girl from anime? Tell us all about that lovingly shy lass in the comments section below.