Everybody needs a little help sometimes. Even the most plot-armored shounen hero needs to get into a sticky situation they may need saving from every now and then to keep things interesting. However, for these professional damsels in distress, they don’t need saving “every now and then,” but instead likely need saving every week. Kidnapping, assault, being tripped by some kid and not being able to get up – whatever it may be, these anime damsels need all the helping hands they can get.
Damsels in distress is still a pretty popular trope, and if it is something you want in your anime, we think that you’ll like these characters.
Best Anime Damsels in Distress
Kagome from Inuyasha
If there were perhaps some sort of weeb dictionary where things were defined via anime references, and you looked up damsel in distress, it would show a picture of Kagome. So much of Inuyasha was dedicated to rescuing Kagome from whatever danger she got herself into that week.
It isn’t that she was a magnet for problems, it is that even when others start the problems, she somehow finds a way to get kidnapped during it. Inuyasha is a show of old school shoujo tropes, and damsels in distress are a staple in old school shoujo.
Isanami from Brave 10
It can be said that any series where a girl requires or acquires a number of handsome male guardians means that the female character in question is is going to be frequently stolen. This gives each and every handsome man their moment to swoop in, save her, and allow her to see their best side. Brave 10 is that with samurai and ninja.
Miaka from Fushigi Yuugi
Like Kagome in Inuyasha, Miaka is a shoujo protagonist with a persistent target on her back. However, whereas Kagome often just ends up in trouble, Miaka ends up in trouble AND, as the priestess of Suzaku, is an actual target for a group of people. Much of her companions are just there to save her.
Tachibana from Life with and Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated Into a Total Fantasy Knockout
This comedy isekai is all about various sort of subversions to the overcrowded isekai genre that is rapidly becoming stale. Once such subversion is that one main character is genderbent into a cute girl in their new world. The joke of that being that their best friend is a big woman-hater, but also is still their best friend.
His confliction is made comedic because the genderbent Tachibana is near powerless and constantly getting into trouble. This means that opportunities to swoop in and save the damsel in distress all heroically are myriad.
Yoko from Bastard
Yoko only exists in Bastard as motivation for Dark Schneider to do something helpful rather than evil. That’s it. Bastard is a short experience, but that just makes the frequent kidnapping and danger of Yoko more noticeable.
Fuu from Samurai Champloo
As the most sheltered tritagonist of Samurai Champloo, much of Fuu’s character centers around her getting lost, getting into accidents, getting kidnapped, or otherwise just finding random trouble. This serves to not only highlight her naivety that she often tries to hide in front of her more experienced bodyguards, but it helps show their growing relationship.
As they are bodyguards, Mugen and Jin are expected to save her, but over time you start seeing them help even when they didn’t technically need to.
Casca from Berserk
Casca was a female character that started off strong. She was a female knight in a male-dominated society. She was strong and smart, but even before the great cataclysm that rends Berserk into a whole different type of series, she was a victim that often needed assistance if not outright saving.
It only grows worse after the aforementioned apocalypse. As she loses her mind, is prone to wander, and is utterly defenseless, much of her caretaker’s job is saving her from further horrible fates.
Arslan from The Heroic Legend of Arslan
Listen, it’s 2022, men can be damsels in distress too. Arslan may be the titular character in a series supposedly documenting his heroic legend, but he sure does need help like, all the time. The actually wonderful thing that Arslan does compared to every other anime about war is emphasize how new and incompetent the main character is in battle when compared to experience.
He is betrayed in what is his very first battle resulting in him losing his home kingdom. Of course he needs constantly saving by his bodyguard and allies when he is faced with literal veteran soldiers who lived a life on the battlefield.
Akane from Ranma ½
As Ranma ½ shares an author with Inuyasha, you can expect the same tropes to leak on in. One that is less obvious, but still very prevalent in Ranma ½ is that the love interest to the main character, in this case Akane, being kidnapped or imperiled all the time.
However, whereas Kagome was just a high school girl in a dangerous land, Akane is supposed to be a martial arts expert, which makes her frequent damsel in distress status a bit insulting.
Anzu and Mokuba from Yugioh
For much of the series, Anzu fills the role as the “girl” in the shounen group and the maybe love interest for Yugi. As such, she also fulfills her only destiny of being frequently kidnapped and used as bait.
However, just as Anzu is the damsel in distress for Yugi, Mokuba is the same to Yugi’s rival, Kaiba. As he is also just a little boy and not a dick like his brother, he has also been used to incense Yugi at times as well.
Naru from Sailor Moon
Much of Sailor Moon is about the Sailor Scouts and them saving the world. However, just as you can be sure that they will eventually prevail, you can also be sure that Naru is going to get captured and put in danger first.
You see, Naru is one of the rare characters in the show that isn’t a Sailor Scout or a villain. As she is classmate to the main character, she is an easy damsel to distress in order to get to the main character. Thankfully, as the threats in Sailor Moon grow greater, Naru actually ends up being safer.
Nene from Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun
Nene exists in Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun as more of a framing device than a main character. She acts as an assistant to Hanako as they investigate supernatural going-ons in the school, more so as a way of showcasing his story so they can keep his character mysterious all while having minimal story of her own to distract from that.
Those goings-on usually end up with her, inept at anything spiritual as she is, in danger and Hanako-kun or sometimes his rival Kou having to save her.
Shiraiyuki from Snow White With the Red Hair
Snow White With the Red Hair is notable as a shoujo romance in that the main character has hopes and dreams outside of just falling in love. She just happens to fall in love with a prince. While she is going about following her non-romantic dreams, she is also falling in love with him.
While it subverts fairy tales in not being solely about a lovesick girl, it also keeps the trope of having a main character that frequently finds herself in distress and needs saving by a man. Apparently, there is no other way to set up tender moments.
Natsume in Natsume’s Book of Friends
He may be the main character, but this spiritual slice of life about solving spirit problems and freeing them isn’t a shounen anime. Natsume isn’t especially powerful in any way despite his ability to see spirits. As such, he is constantly targeted by malicious spirits after his grandmother’s book of controlled spirits that he inherited.
The funny thing is that, while some spirits want the book to control other spirits, many just want their name removed from the book, something Natsume happily does if they just ask him normally instead of just kidnapping or threatening him as they often do.
Yona from Yona of the Dawn
While Snow White With The Red Hair is a shoujo romance adventure that tries to subvert some fairy trope, Yona of the Dawn is a shoujo adventure with hints of romance that just dwells happily in beloved tropes. That’s a fine way to be sometimes, though.
The entire series is about her gathering guardians to help her regain her throne after her king father was overthrown in a coup. Of course, these guardians of legend, as well as her bodyguard, are tasked with constantly saving her as her life is threatened or her lack of world wisdom due to being raised in a sheltered palace gets her in trouble.
Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul
It is understandable that since Kaneki was thrust into a new breed of demi-humans very suddenly that there would be some adjustment. Furthermore, since he was a rather demure human to begin with, being around human flesh eaters seems rather rife with potential danger.
However, even after his adjustment period, Kaneki is a constant magnet for trouble throughout Tokyo Ghoul. If it isn’t ghouls that want to devour him for his power, it is ghoul hunters that want to do what ghoul hunters do – hunt ghouls.
Ciel from Black Butler
Ciel may have earned admiration from audiences by being the puppet master of many intricate plans, but he is still just a young boy. His brain may help him plan, but he is not perfect, and when things go badly, he is also very vulnerable.
Thankfully, when he does get in trouble, his bodyguard is a demon that protects him due to having dibs on his soul when his vengeance is carried out.
Eiji from Banana Fish
Eiji is an excellent example of how a character who grew up in normal safe society should be acclimating when introduced into a dangerous underworld of crime. Alternative to Ash, a man that grew up in the gritty underworld of crime, Eiji is a normal guy lacking in street smarts who wants to support Ash.
Unfortunately, the closer they grow, the more of a target he becomes. Furthermore, since Eiji is a normal guy, he has little in the way of defending himself from the constant peril he ends up in.
Eren from Attack on Titan
There was awhile there in Attack on Titan where main character Eren was starting to give Inuyasha’s Kagome a run for her money when it comes to needing rescue. It very much seemed that whenever Eren was without Mikasa or even Armin to keep an eye on him, he was about to be kidnapped. Or eaten. Or both.
Luckily, he grew out of his damsel in distress phase into, well, you’ll see.
Do you know more damsel in distress-type anime characters that seem in constantly need rescue from chronic peril? Let fans know in the comments section below.
