Dhruv Sharma
When you’ve got huge expressive eyes, how can you hide all the pain with just a simple smile? That right there is the story of all of our sad anime girls. While a cheerful hyper tsundere might be the typical personality of most anime girls, there are others who maintain a cold demeanor towards life and just don’t believe in looking at the world around them with any optimism. Some show such behaviors because of a tragic past event that has left a mark on them, while some are always on the verge of crying because they’re too sensitive to handle rejection. Whatever the reason may be, there is something about these gloomy girls that we really admire.
So keeping all the different reasons in mind, we’ve come up with a compilation of all the depressed anime girls who make our hearts melt. And though you cannot really break the fourth wall and give these cute emo girls a hug, what you can do is learn a lesson or two from their lives and make your own life a little less sorrowful. With all that said, here’s the list of the most depressed anime girls:
9. Mizore Shirayuki (Rosario to Vampire)
Having the ability to manipulate temperature would be a blessing, right? However, in Mizore Shirayuki’s case, because of her lack of control over it, it is more of a curse as it forces her to stay away from people. She is lonely, depressed and often misunderstood by the people of her school. In the first semester, she even tried dating her own teacher who started taking her for granted. She was then forced to use her magical abilities to freeze him. Like many other female characters of the show, she even falls in love with the main male protagonist, Tsukune. But her love remains unrequited, which leaves her heartbroken all over again.
Mizore even reaches a point in life where she contemplates suicide but still somehow manages to live. Later, she just keeps to herself and starts to walk around with a very stoic expression on her face. Because of all the loneliness and depression that she faces, she slowly loses her mind begins to accept that fact that she is destined to be alone forever. Without a doubt, she is the most endearing depressed anime girl of all time.
8. Enma Ai (Jigoku Shoujo)
Ai Enma is the main protagonist of ‘Hell Girl‘ who is a spirit with a sense of sadness on her face all the time. She was not originally this way but now, after being the Hell Girl since ages, she has developed a very cold demeanor towards the world around her. She barely says a word and in the rare situations when she does open her mouth to talk, she only says things that are absolutely necessary. Later in the series, her dark past is revealed where she was sacrificed by the people of her own village to the mountain god. This is one big reason why she has so many emotions trapped inside her. And it this depressing backstory that makes her a worthy mention on this list. You’ll find all other depressed characters smiling from time to time but you’ll be lucky if you even get to see the slightest change in Ai’s expressions.
7. Tsubaki (Mirai Nikki)
In ‘Marai Nikki‘, Tsubaki Kasugano is the owner of the sixth diary known as the “Clairvoyance Diary”. Initially, she is introduced as a very polite girl who has no intentions of killing anyone in the survival game and she even forms a friendship with Yukiteru. But her evil side is revealed when she starts using her powers to harm the other players of the game. But despite all of this, as a viewer, you’ll find yourself sympathizing with her after finding out about her dark past. That’s when it becomes clear that even though she tries to act all normal on the outside, she’s literally dying inside and hates everything about herself.
When she was born, her eyesight was really weak and just to keep her away from the world outside, her parents would leave her in the confinements of a temple of their own religion. They even told the world that she possesses clairvoyant powers and kept up with this act for years. When they finally decided to shut down their religion and get Tsubaki out of there, they were killed by Funatsu who was obsessed with keeping up the fake religion. This is when Tsubaki was left with nothing but a scroll which later became her future diary. Tsubaki may be an evil character but the life she has lived is extremely depressing.
6. Princess Shirahoshi (One Piece)
Princess Shirahoshi from ‘One Piece‘ is a giant mermaid who is the youngest child of King Neptune. But despite being so huge, she is very fragile and even the pettiest of things can make her cry. She has always been pampered by her family and no one has ever raised their voice at her. That’s why one day when Fluffy gets annoyed and yells at her, she bursts out crying.
Even the drop of a pin is enough to scare the living hell out of her and guess what she does when she’s scared? Yes, of course, she cries her eyes out. But her crybaby behavior and emotional sensitivity can be blamed on all the years that she has spent in isolation. Since she did not get enough exposure to the world outside as a child, she has now become extremely emotionally fragile. Although this “shallow” crying does not necessarily make her depressed, as tears are a necessary part of the whole emo anime girl stereotype, she has secured a place on this list.
5. Mamimi Samejima (FLCL)
Dealing with a breakup is not easy, especially when you’ve been deeply associated with the friends and family of your ex. So after 17-year-old Mamimi experiences her first break up with Tasuku, it hits her really hard because she not only loses the guy she loves but also his younger brother Naota. Unlike many other girls on this list, Mamimi does not walk around with a cold emotionless demeanor, but becomes utterly depressed. She starts adopting all kinds of weird pets and in the memory of her ex-boyfriend, she names all of them “Ta-kun”. But this never really fills the big dark void inside her.
Mamimi even becomes a chain smoker and on each one of her cigarettes, she writes “Never Knows Best”. She is usually seen walking around Mabase’s largest bridge all by herself. It is also suggested that her parents are divorced and she ran away from home to escape all of that. She is also constantly bullied at school and has absolutely no friends at all. Even her grip on what’s real and what’s fantasized is really weak and all of this causes her to be depressed.
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4. Rei Ayanami (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
The director of ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion‘, Hideaki Anno, had this to say about Rei Ayanami: “Whatever else, she needs to be painted in as a bitterly unhappy young girl with little sense of presence.” This alone tells you how utterly sad and depressed she is as a character. She is often referred to as “doll” because of how emotionless she is all the time. But just because she seems emotionless on the outside, does not really mean that she doesn’t feel anything at all. Rei often struggles to make meaningful social interactions and does not know how to express her emotions to the ones around her. What adds to her depressing persona is the fact that nothing much is revealed about her past, so as viewers, we don’t even know what exactly is the reason behind her mysterious personality. This mysteriousness of her depression makes her one of the most “bitterly unhappy” characters in the world of anime.
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3. Misuzu Kamio (Air)
Misuzu is a cute-looking blond who just comes off as an eccentric character with an inability to makes friends because of how socially awkward she is. She seems to have a goofy personality because of how she keeps tripping over things and says weird things like “Gao” when she’s in trouble. And though it becomes clear that she has a hard time making friends, it never really hits you that she’s sad because of how lively she is all the time.
Later in the series, it is revealed that she actually lives a cursed life and if she ever tries to get close to anyone around her, she will not only end up physically harming herself but will end up hurting the other person as well. This is one big reason why she tries to keep her distance from everyone around her; but for obvious reasons, this leaves her with a feeling of immense loneliness. But despite her condition, she starts getting close to the main male protagonist, Yukito. This again does not end too well because of the eternal pain that has been laid on her and in the end, she is left with nothing but endless depression.
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2. Iwakura Lain (Serial Experiments Lain)
Iwakura Lain is by far one of the most depressed anime characters out there and almost everything about her just screams “emo”. Even performing simple tasks such as checking emails makes her anxious and she often wears a teddy bear suit that helps her cope up with things that intimidate her. She even has other comfort toys and objects that help her feel relaxed when she’s really depressed. The fact that even checking her email scares the hell out of her shows how terrifying socializing can be for her. At school, she barely even makes eye contact with her classmates.
She has a couple of online friends but this just makes her even more depressed as she craves real-life human interactions. She is so insecure that even after knowing that her online friends are not too close to her, she spends a significant amount of time wondering what they think of her. She also gets deeply disturbed when anything bad happens to a person she knows and starts to blame herself for it. Though she is more comfortable when she is all by herself, when left alone for prolonged periods of time, she starts losing her mind and reaches a point where she starts considering suicide as an option to end all her pain. Iwakara’s condition is clearly pretty severe and undeniably, she is one of the most depressed anime characters ever.
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1. Homura Akemi (Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica)
You might initially assume that Homura, from ‘Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica‘, is a typical tsundere who will later get over her aloofness and stop hating the world around her. But she is who she is because the atrocities of the world have forced her to give up on all of her emotions and develop a tough exterior. While it may seem this way in the beginning, it is later revealed that deep down, she is crying for help all the time and has been so weighed down by her own depression that she’s not even afraid of dying anymore.
In the Magika universe, after knowing what a person has to go through after acquiring magical powers from the Messenger of magic, she tries to convince Modaka that all of it is not worth it. This shows how much she hates her life as a magic girl. Considering her normal life when she was not a magic girl, she was often depressed because of how everyone ridiculed her for being tiny. She had this constant feeling of uselessness that drove her into getting depressed. All of this later contributes to her getting manipulated into believing that magic will make her life better. But sadly for her, the light at the end of the tunnel was indeed nothing but an approaching train.
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