Top 15 Best Samurai Anime Girls [2024]

Anime is full of amazing swordsmen and samurai warriors, but rarely are these characters women.

We thought we’d remedy that and give the spotlight to the best of the best samurai anime girls!

With their impressive sword skills and dedication to their craft, these anime gals can hack and slash their way with their Bushido code.

Brace yourselves—beauty and blades are a-coming!

Best Samurai Anime Girls

15. Chifusa Manyuu (Manyuu Hikencho)

In the world of Manyuu Hikencho, breasts are power. The fuller they are, the more status and wealth they denote (bizarre and par for the course for anime, but bear with us for a moment).

In the midst of this breast-ly craziness is Chifusa, the successor of the Manyuu samurai clan. But unlike others, she rejects her breast-obsessed clan.

She leaves them, but not before stealing her clan’s sacred scroll on breast-related swordfighting. Now, she travels the land, hoping to give justice and equality to all breasts.

We salute her for that noble cause.

14. Juubei Yagyu (Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls)

When a surprise attack suddenly threatens the safety of everyone, a young man awakens his ability to summon special samurai warriors called Master Samurai.

However, the anime twist is they’re in the form of pretty anime girls.

The mightiest of them all is Jubei Yagyu. She can be an airhead and child-like, but when she’s on the battlefield, she shows her honorable-yet-sadistic samurai side.

Her character is actually based on a real samurai, the great Yagyu Jubei Mitsuyoshi!

13. Oda Nobunaga / Oda Nobuna (Battle Girls: Time Paradox / The Ambition of Oda Nobuna

This next entry is a two-for-one!

There are a lot of anime versions of the legendary samurai and daimyo Oda Nobunaga, but most of them aren’t like these two. These Oda Nobunagas are samurai anime girls.

In Battle Girls: Time Paradox, their Oda Nobunaga is a strong, confident, and driven samurai who can control fire. She wants to gather all Crimson Armor to unite Japan.

Oda Nobuna shows the same driven and dedicated personality but with a huge heaping of ambition and a slight streak of tsundereness. Just like the real Oda Nobunaga, she also aims to conquer and unify Japan.

Quite a moe Obunaga, don’t you think?

12. Tsugumi Hattori (Orient)

In Orient, the Oni fought the samurai away and became humanity’s “saviors.” In reality, they’re demons in disguise and have enslaved people to mine rocks for them.

Together with the main character, Tsugumi Hattori fights to reveal the truth about the Oni and to reestablish the way of the samurai. She aims to be strong like her friends.

Unlike other samurai girls, Tsugumi fights with twin tonfa blades instead of the usual katana.

11. Raimei Shimizu (Nabari no Ou)

Nabari no Ou is filled with ninja warriors and secret ninja techniques. However, Raimei rejects the ninja life and would rather fight with a good old-fashioned samurai sword!

She strongly identifies as a samurai despite not coming from a samurai clan or being trained by a renowned master. What makes her a true-blue samurai is her dedication to the way of the samurai.

Now that’s commendable!

10. Tsukiyomi (Inuyasha)

In Inuyasha, Tsukiyomi was a samurai woman who hunted and exterminated demon beasts called yokai.

But because of her mortal limits, her strength and spiritual power slowly drained the more she fought against her enemies.

Her lover and beast-fighting partner gave her a powerful weapon to aid her. This weapon, a Naginata, possessed her lover instead. Tsukiyomi had to seal him away and separate the Naginata into two swords.

Kagome and Inuyasha later stumble upon the two’s tragic love story.

9. Akira (Shine On! Bakumatsu Bad Boys)

When the Shinsengumi’s entire Eighth Division gets totally wiped out, bar one, by an evil criminal gang, the sole survivor has to come up with replacements to fight back.

One of these Shinsengumi captain substitutes is Akira, a highly skilled swordswoman who has to pretend to be a man and take Soji Okita’s role.

Not only is she excellent in sword-fighting, but she excels in academics and even trains the new Shinsengumi in kenjutsu.

Her beauty shines through her manly disguise, and she even becomes the poster girl of the group.

8. Nanao Hibiya (Reign of the Seven Spellblades)

Honorable and won’t turn down a good fight, Nanao is a formidable samurai warrior hailing from the renowned samurai warrior family Tourikueisen.

Despite being quite a beast with her sword, she remains cheerful, friendly, and noble in her actions.

Due to a war, Nanao almost lost her life on the battlefield. Luckily, she was saved by a passing mage and was convinced to enroll in a magic academy.

She quickly became the star of the school due to her skills and experience. But not only did her fame surprise her, Nanao now has to figure out the mysteries of her new school.

7. Chizuru Yukimura (Hakuouki)

While searching for her father, Chizuru ends up joining the Shinsengumi.

It turns out the guys are also searching for her father, so now she has to live and train with them as their aide.

Chizuru might seem timid at first, but her true origins actually hide something sinister in her. She wields a kodachi or a sword short called the Shotsuren, which is an important heirloom in her family.

6. Tomoe (Tsukimichi: Moonlight Fantasy)

Tomoe is a Greater Dragon in the world of Tsukimichi: Moonlight Fantasy. She joins the protagonist, Makoto, after he destroys her shrine gate.

She may not come from a samurai clan, but Tomoe is very eager and quite dedicated to learning the way of the samurai. As payment for the damage, she makes Makoto make a pact with her to help her with her quest.

Together with Makoto and other characters, they traverse the world, hoping to undo the damage done by the Goddess and make the world a better place for all beings.

5. Kikunojo (One Piece)

Renowned as Kikunojo of the Lingering Snow, Kiku is one of the great samurai hailing from Wano Country in One Piece.

She is a loyal retainer of the Kozuki family and serves as one of Kozuki Oden’s Nine Red Scabbards, a group made up of strong samurai and followers of Oden.

She is warm, nurturing, and friendly, and even helped Zoro with his wounds. But on the battlefield, Kiku shows her fierce samurai side, especially when she fights for justice.

Kiku was actually known as a legendary male samurai, but she realized she was a woman at heart, so she has lived as a woman ever since.

4. Ran Tsukikage (Carried by the Wind)

As a wandering ronin, Ran lets the wind take her and her companion Meow wherever, and they often stumble into new adventures and situations that way.

She can be too relaxed and laid-back, but during a fight, she shows why she is unbeatable with her katana, even though she fights with just one hand.

Ran also has an amusing penchant for sake. Luckily, Meow always has a mysterious stash of money to pay their restaurant bills. Ronin work is thirsty work, after all!

3. Sakura Shinguji (Sakura Wars)

Sakura Shinguji is the face of the Sakura Wars franchise.

Spanning multiple games, manga, and animated series with alternate universe stories and scenarios, Sakura is one of the most notable samurai anime girls within the anime community.

What makes her so memorable is her iconic pink kimono, purple gi, and red hakama outfit, as well as her long jet-black hair in a ponytail.

In one of the Sakura Wars series, Sakura becomes a samurai hero even as a child. Not only does she show her samurai side, but she also battles with a giant robot!

2. Natsumaru (Yasuke)

Natsumaru is a character from the anime Yasuke, which is about a historical African samurai who fought under Nobunaga.

On the grand stage of feudal Japan, swords and politics often clash, and everyone has a role to play, be it a warrior, a leader, a secret assassin, or even a peasant.

For Natsumaru, she works for Nobunaga as one of his Seven Samurai. She is his Onna Bugeisha, a female warrior known for their deadly use of swords.

She is fiercely loyal and is willing to risk her life for the people she cares about. However, where that loyalty lies remains a mystery.

1. Kyuubei Yagyuu (Gintama)

And our pick for the best samurai anime girl is none other than Gintama’s Kyubei Yagyuu!

Kyuubei is introduced as Tae’s mysterious friend who shows up asking for her hand in marriage. Quite the introduction, right?

But that’s not the only surprising thing about her. Due to her clan’s strict traditions when it comes to succession, her father raised her as a man to become the next head of the Yagyuu samurai family.

She was trained to become one of the best samurai in the land, but this only made her cold and distant. Her pursuit of total strength didn’t help her disposition either.

When faced with the reality of whether she should live as a man or a woman, Kyuubei eventually decided to live just the way she wanted and rejected masculinity and femininity.

Kyuubei is simply Kyuubei! And that’s why she’s one cool samurai.