Atsundereis a character archetypethat commonly appears in anime and manga. The term describes a character who starts cold and temperamental but slowly becomes warm and affectionate over time. While tsundere characters can appear in any context, they most often appear in romance stories as potential love interests.
Tsundere heroines are a common sight in anime nowadays, but they’ve been around since the early ’80s with characters like Lum fromUrusei Yatsura. Therefore, anime has a long, storied history of tsundere heroines and love interests. Here are thebest female tsundere anime characters.
Updated on July 11, 2025, by Mark Sammut:Tsundere anime girlshave received some love during theWinter 2025 season. Consequently, one newcomer has been added to the full discussion, along with an update section for 100 Girlfriends' Karane.
I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class' Akane is unapologetically tsundere, in a way that most modern anime seem to try to avoid. Due to their awful grandparents, Akane and Saito are forced to marry, a situation worsened by the fact that they hate each other. While keeping their relationship a secret at school, they try to make things work at home, at least for the time being, as neither of them plans to stay together long-term. However, unsurprisingly, some real feelings start to develop.
Akane shouts the majority of her dialogue, and her target is exclusively Saito. Even when their relationship softens, Akane still tends to erupt whenever she starts to feel anything positive towards her partner, and she does not hold back. Now, to be fair,I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Classis mostly played for laughs, and it is a better comedy than a romance. Akane will make or break the show for most viewers as she is the primary source of humor.
Saki Saki is the childhood friend of Naoya Mukai, who has doggedly pursued a relationship with her for quite a while. At the beginning of the series, she has finally begun dating him, only for him to suddenly suggest adding a third person to their relationship.
While Saki is open about her feelings for Naoya, her shyness and exasperation at his antics lead her to act cold and prickly at times. Despite all this, she does love Naoya and wants to continue being in a relationship with him, regardless of how he acts.
Aoba Tsukishima and her older sister Wakaba were inseparable, which is why she always hated it when Wakaba spent time with their neighbor, Koh Kitamura. The two of them never got along, and when Wakaba died in an accident, the two of them drifted apart for several years.
When their paths cross again later in life, Aoba and Koh’s relationship remains frosty. However, as Koh starts to take baseball seriously and become a proper pitcher, Aoba can’t help but respect him. Their initially antagonistic relationship slowly turns into a romantic one.
While easily one of the most iconic anime female characters of all time,Code Geass' Kallen only occasionally shows tsundere traits, so she is not that synonymous with the archetype. Still, she acts antagonistically to Lelouch during most of the first season, all the while being enamored by Zero, his alter-ego.
However, their relationship grows far more complex once Kallen learns thatLelouch is Zero, and she struggles to come to terms with her opposing feelings. At best, Kallen goes through a passing tsundere phase that never defines her, and her circumstances justify her tendency to be resistant to developing romances or even fostering friendships.
Ami Kurimoto is the childhood friend of Junta Mochizuki, a boy with a bizarre allergy to girls that causes him to vomit whenever he is attracted to one. Despite this, Ami is an exception to this allergy, likelybecause Junta sees Ami as a sister more than a woman.
Regardless of Junta’s feelings, Ami does feel affection for him, though she is not honest about it. Because she knows Junta only sees her as a friend at best, she does her best to act out the role of a feisty childhood friend while keeping her feelings hidden.
Maki Shijo is the best friend of Nagisa Kashiwagi, a fact that becomes complicated when Nagisa starts dating Maki’s crush, Tsubasa Tanuma. She initially liked Tsubasa first, but due to being overly prideful, refused to actually confess, leading to the situation as it is now.
Even now, Maki refuses to admit that she likes Tsubasa, despite occasionally attempting to get in between him and Nagisa in the hopes that they’ll break up. Despite being a potential spark for drama, Maki is surprisingly thoughtful and kind, though she certainly has an obvious tsundere streak that only makes her situation worse.
The Student Council President of Hakuo Academy, Hinagiku Katsura is an incredibly competent young woman who is skilled with swords. She meets Hayate when he enrolls in her school to accompany his master Nagi Sanzen’in, and slowly falls in love with him as they continue to encounter each other.
For Hinagiku, her love for Hayate causes complications due to her friendship with Ayumu, who has also been in love with Hayate for a long time. While Hinagiku finally manages to be honest about her feelings for Ayumu, it takes a bit longer for her to reveal them to Hayate.
Risa Koizumi is tall for a girl, a fact that she hates. She constantly butts heads with the shortest guy in class, Atsushi Otani, but the two decide to work together when they learn that the other is interested in their friend.
Unfortunately, things don’t work out as their respective crushes start dating each other instead, but Risa finds that instead of feeling sad, she finds herself seeing a new side to Atsushi. As time passes and the two remain friends, she starts noticing that they have a lot in common and pair well together. Though she is initially unwilling to admit it, she soon realizes that she has fallen in love with him.
Blue Exorcisthas a pretty great cast of characters, most of whom are given time to shine. WhileRin and Yukiotake center stage, the rest of Class 1A’s students are nearly always in the thick of things, and they have developed a strong bond throughout the seasons.
Compared to some other characters, Izumo takes ook way longer to embrace her classmates. She is, at times, straight-up awful to them during the first two and a half seasons, not only pushing them away but also seemingly getting some joy from seeing them fail. Her traumatic family life goes some ways to explain her personality, but she is also just a pure tsundere.
Like most great characters, Revy does not neatly slot into any single archetype. If someone were to describe a mercenary who has so much blood on her hands that the thought of death does not faze her anymore, one might assume she is some sort of yandere; however, while she does seem to get some pleasure out of wiping out her enemies, Revy’s dynamic with Rook makes her a better fit for tsundere than any other archetype.
Leading a very hard life that has forced her to constantly fight for survival or risk a violent demise, Revy never lets her guard down, be it physically, mentally, or emotionally. This extends to her relationship with Rook, as she is not willing to admit that she is developing feelings for him. It is a vulnerability that she cannot have.
