Top 35 Lovably Feisty Tsundere Girls in Anime

They are the type of girl that is prickly like a cactus on the outside, but as sweet as sugar deep inside – Everyone loves a tsundere. Well, everyone loves a well-written tsundere.

We cultured modern anime fans are starting to move past the era where tsunderes were beloved for their physical violence. However, a tsundere doesn’t need to speak with their fists. Some of the best tsunderes these days are simply just deeply withholding about their feelings they are dishonestly hiding.

Best Tsundere Anime Girls

What is a Tsundere?

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

“Tsundere,” by definition, is a portmanteau of the mimetic word “tsuntsun,” meaning irritable, and “deredere,” meaning loving. It means they are loving, but boy, do they not show it easily.

By far the most popular and possibly the most beloved dere type, the tsundere is all about being dishonest with their feelings. They cover up doing nice things with an excuse or an insult in order to not let the sheer act of being nice to someone wound their pride. Those in a relationship with a tsundere really need to put the time in at chipping off that hard exterior, but the gooey insides are always very rewarding.

Mine from Akame ga Kill

Mine really is the standard issue tsundere girl. She teased the main character when he first joined and maintained a cold attitude towards him, with her temperamental nature meaning she is lightning fast to go from cold indifference to liquid hot rage.

And like a tsundere, you get to see that soft side more often when she is with members she has known longer. However, when your friends frequently die in battle, it is understandable to put up a wall when meeting new people.

Casca from Berserk

Casca, from the Golden Age of Berserk, was a woman warrior in a world where that was not exceptionally common. When this is the case, you kind of need to be a hardass to survive, so a hardass she became. Still, they remember to show you moments of weakness, and it is often at times when both parties need support.

Noelle Silva from Black Clover

Being from nobility, Noelle has that ingrained air of superiority about her, but with practically being disowned from her prestigious family for her lack of magic control, she also has a massive inferiority complex.

That is one potent recipe for a tsundere, but you know what happens? Well, someone, a person who will become her love interest, helps her with her biggest problem. That’s often how you win a tsundere’s heart.

Revy from Black Lagoon

Black Lagoon isn’t really a show where you get a lot of “dere,” but that aside, Revy is a classic tsundere in her attitude. She is a talented mercenary and seems to revel in murder, but through her interactions with the idealistic Rock, you see a softer side start to appear sometimes.

Even the hardest tsundere was a normal girl once upon a time. Life just hardens you up real good.

Kyou from Clannad

It is just one of those things when you have twins in anime. They are simply required to have vastly different personalities. For female twins, usually one is a sweet dandere and the other is a tsundere that keeps her safe. This is the case with Kyou. She is the tsundere to Ryou’s dandere, and does indeed serve as her protector.

However, Clannad doesn’t let you forget that tsunderes have feelings too, and shows you that those feelings can be hurt.

Yuri Amagake from Battle Game in 5 Seconds

Tsunderes are often known for their violence. The age of slapstick comedy in anime gave older tsunderes like Naru in Love Hina or Akane in Ranma 1/2 the ability to send men flying. I feel like Yuri’s whole character is a bit of an homage to that.

In Battle Game in 5 Seconds, she has the ability to multiply her physical strength, which means her punches have a legitimate reason to send people flying outside of comedy. Given that she is a pretty classic tsundere, though this time one shaped by her rough upbringing, her violence is pretty effective.

Tamaki Kotatsu from Fire Force

There is nothing more dangerous than a tsundere with an embarrassing quirk. For Tamaki, she is a bit of a lewd magnet. What that means is she trips and ends up in compromising positions frequently. There is just no helping it.

A seasoned anime fan can guess the result of such things. The main character ends up involved and he’s for sure getting a slap. However, of course because he is super heroic, she ends up having soft, gooey feelings for him too.

Emi Yusa from The Devil is a Part-Timer

The Devil is a Part-Timer is all about subversion. The Demon Lord is a McDonald’s worker, and the hero, Emi, is an office lady keeping tabs on him. However, like many a woman warrior in anime, Emi is they type of woman that doesn’t admit growing emotions easily. She is hardened by years of battle previously, and finds growing feelings difficult to handle.

Kyouko Hori from Horimiya

Hori is a bit of a unique tsundere that you see on occasion. She is often pretty nice and even pretty honest with her feelings, but she has a short fuse. If you hit some hidden landmine, she has all the spark of a tsundere to her.

While usually confident in most respects, when it comes to romance, Hori is on the clingy side as well as a bit jealous. Everyone has a little insecurity, and it turns out that deep relationships trigger hers.

Hayase Nagatoro from Please Don’t Bully Me, Miss Nagatoro

Nagatoro gets a big kick out of teasing her senpai, but like any tsundere, she can dish it out, but definitely can not take it. This means if she feels a little bit embarrassed, she may respond with violence. That said, she doesn’t want anyone taking her target away or him looking at anyone else. It’s that tsundere jealousy that is actually her cutest side.

Kaguya Shinomiya from Kaguya-sama: Love is War

If you ever wanted to see a romance anime play out where the two main leads are the most extreme tsunderes you can make without drifting into other dere types, Kaguya-sama: Love is War is it. Both Kaguya and Shirogane are so tsundere that to admit love for each other would be akin to defeat.

However, because they simply refuse to admit what is so clear to everyone else, it makes the moments when those tsun guards come down be extra rewarding.

Misaki Ayuzawa from Class President is a Maid!

Behind every tsundere girl is a kind girl who was hurt bad enough that they needed to build a wall. For Misaki, she was hurt by her father leaving as a child. It left her distrustful of men and forming a fiery personality to keep them at bay.

It is a weird grudge to have for a girl that also works at a maid cafe, but some people like an aggressive maid.

Eris Greyrat from Jobless Reincarnation

Unlike others, this tsundere gets her attitude from her upbringing. She is the type of child that was told her family was great, and this gave her a sense of pride. As such, she acts a bit like a tempest. She is arrogant and violent, but still quite young.

You watch as age tempers out Eris’ rage over the years, but a tsundere is always gonna tsun.

Rena Karui from ReLife

When you are a tsundere girl who finds it excessively difficult to express honest feelings, and then finds those feelings are aimed at the world’s most dense boy, well, your teen romantic comedy is going to be a rough one.

Luckily for her, she is able to get a little push from people who have had ever so slightly more experience in life and know that each moment is fleeting.

Chris Yukine from Symphogear

Admittedly, Chris and the upbringing she had to endure gave her a pretty good reason to develop into a tsundere. She has a lot of anger and has been through a lot of pain. Many a tsundere is made that way because they need the protective shell around their heart.

In Symphogear, watch Chris grow from not-really-particularly evil antagonist into a rapidly melting tsundere who, even when fully melted, still keeps a bit of that token tsundere sense of superiority.

Erina Nakiri from Food Wars

Raised in wealthy by the world’s most abusive culinary family, Erina was likely twisted into a tsundere by the sense of superiority that her family really hammered into her. Yet, underneath all the snobbery, she is often shown to just want to be a normal girl and do normal fun things. While much of Food Wars is about Yukihira pressing her buttons, the longer things go on, the more of her softer nice side you get to see.

She is a tsundere where the tsun shell dissipates over time.

Yui Kotegawa from To Love-Ru

Yui Kotegawa is on the harsher side of tsundere, leaning dangerously close to being a kuudere. She has a disciplined, cool personality alongside a strict set of rules, something that makes her perfect for the high school disciplinary committee.

Although she is intolerant of any funny, pervy business, there is a small center of softness in there. Unfortunately, you only get to see a lot of the hard shell in To Love-Ru since she is not what you would call a “main” girl in the harem.

Sena Kashiwazaki from Haganai

Busty and blonde when spotted from afar, Sena Kashiwazaki may look like a sweet girl all around, but she has a few fatal flaws. While fabulously rich, she is clueless about most things. In order to hide her own incompetence, she compensates with harsh behavior.

Nagi Sanzenin from Hayate The Combat Butler

Like Sena, Nagi is another blonde rich girl, although she is without a good deal of Sena’s curves. Nagi not only has problems confessing her true feelings, but she also hates to lose or admit any fault. This gives her the perfect excuse for that trademark tsundere behavior – violence.

Kagura from Gintama

Of course, who can forget one of the staple characters on the long-running and beloved Gintama? Kagura is often described as an “over-the-top” example of being tsundere, but that is actually not true. She has her moments of tsun, but they are relatively short. A real tsundere would be majorly tsun and minorly dere.

Louise de la Valliere from The Familiar of Zero

With pink hair and pink eyes, you might expect Louise to have a sweet, bubbly personality to match her bubblegum appearance. Unfortunately, you would be wrong. After accidentally summoning Saito as her familiar, she treats him as a dog, often violently punishing him for his impure thoughts. However, when Saito begins to notice other girls, well, the beatings continue, but a soft side also begins to show.

Maki Nishikino from Love Live!

With some pretty good piano skills, Maki is the composer of the Love Live group. However, she also enjoys photography. As for her personality, she is a pretty standard tsundere who struggles to share her feelings with her peers. However, sometimes you don’t need to break the harsh shell to see that soft side. With a few childish quirks like believing in Santa, we get frequent glances at the dere inside.

Naru Narusegawa from Love Hina

While outwardly focused on her studies with no interest besides the man at the end of her academic goal, Naru is actually a caring friend and surprisingly sensitive about most things. Unfortunately, she compensates for that sensitivity with a knock-you-out-of-this-world right hook that she frequently shows to Keitaro.

Yet, if Keitaro does manage to catch her when she is not naked in the bath or taking off her top, she can be surprisingly pleasant.

Tohsaka Rin from Fate / Stay Night

When she first let her tsundere flag fly, Rin became the tsundere face of modern anime in the most adorable way. Utilizing the art of the destructive put down in conversation, Rin makes it apparent that she isn’t interested. However, while she is haughty and arrogant, when faced when even the faintest bit of friendliness, she bursts into vermillion blushes.

Haruhi Suzumiya from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Haruhi brims with confidence and energy, which makes her kind of an attractive friend. However, her shenanigans are ultimately selfish affairs for her own amusement, making her kind of a problematic friend to have.

Like any tsundere, she also has barely any kind of idea as to what to do about the amorous feelings that are welling up inside.

Makise Kurisu from Steins;Gate

High intelligence with a tsundere personality is a unique combination, but a dangerous one. Such is the case with Makise Kurisu.

Eventhough she skipped grades and publishes research to CERN, this cool beauty still blushes when a few playful teases are sent her way. Unfortunately, because she was teased in America, she does not like to show weakness. This has led to her peers calling her a tsundere, something which she continuously refutes.

Shana from Shakugan no Shana

As a Flame Haze, Shana is typically pretty indifferent, even cold to human life. At first, she didn’t even give herself a name as she did not see the point.

Even the main character Yuuji is nothing more than mildly interesting to her. However, as she spends more time with him, she begins to open up, but some human traits continue to baffle her.

Hitagi Senjougahara from Bakemonogatari

Hitagi is one of the more unique tsunderes in anime. It is best to think of her as a tsundere with many layers. While in class she rarely speaks, when Hitagi does speak it is in a highly abusive manner. As a self-proclaimed tsundere, she uses her tsundere-ness to protect a secret. However, she is also highly sexualized and uses her appearance to a distinct advantage.

Kirino Kousaka from Oreimo

A goodly portion of little sister characters in anime are displayed as cute dandere girls that must be protected at all costs. however, there is a growing subset of snarky tsundere younger siblings, and Kirino is part of that.

This wee sister uses her tsundere shell to help protect her dirty otaku secret, but it just makes her cuter.

Chitoge Kirisaki from Nisekoi

As we saw with Love Hina, any proper harem and/or love triangle needs a tsundere in it. In Nisekoi, that tsundere is Chitoge.

However, unlike the other girls in Nisekoi, Chitoge actually comes with a relatively intriguing personality. Due to her own tsundere-ness, Chitoge and her feelings are essentially trapped in her own head, which is really responsible for Nisekoi never getting anywhere quickly.

Since she can’t quite grasp her own feelings, most of what Chitoge does is the result of confusion. It is a cute trait for a tsundere to have, but a frustrating one.

Chidori Kaname from Full Metal Panic

Chidori is one of the older tsunderes on our list. In fact, it was because of her that many anime fans thought whacking your crush with a paper fan was kind of the norm in anime relationships with a tsundere. However, like the fandom for Full Metal Panic, the love for this blue-haired beauty has died down a fair bit.

Asuka Langley from Neon Genesis Evangelion

Like Chidori from Full Metal Panic, Asuka is likely the first tsundere girl that older anime fans fell for. Some argue that she became the template for later tsunderes, but let’s face it, a lot of the early tsunderes were essentially the same.

However, there is just something about a fiery red-head in twintails verbally and physically abusing a wimpy kid that brings back so many fond memories.

Kagami Hiiragi from Lucky Star

As the older of the Hiiragi twins, Kagami is smart, studies hard, and often gets good grades. Unfortunately, even after transferring to humanities to be put in class with her friends, she still winds up in a different class.

She is protective of her cuter, more innocent twin Tsukasa, but is constantly teased by Konata for always seeming angry. While less violent than other tsunderes, she is still a tough nut to crack.

Mikoto Misaka from A Certain Magical Index

As a tsundere, Mikoto is pretty …Shocking. If only because her psychic ability is to generate electricity.

Bad pun aside, to those that don’t know her, Mikoto seems like a proper lady. However, in reality she is a tomboy with a short temper and many insecurities. It is like the perfect storm of tsundere-ness and is pulled off in such a way that it rarely becomes annoying.

In fact, her tsun may just be cuter than her dere. Due to her combat prowess and ability to handle herself well, this is one tsundere that you can root for.

Taiga Aisaka from Toradora

For many tsundere fans, Taiga ranks among their favorites. She is short, she is pretty, she is cute, and she is childish. However, all of that is buried under a violent and easily embarrassed layer of tsun.

Of course, she comes from a wealthy family, the loneliness from which helping form her tsun shell. One of her better qualities is that when she is beating the crap out of someone, she is brutally honest. Honesty is not something tsunderes do very well.

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