16 Depressed Anime Girl Characters

Anime tackles some dark themes, with some dark and troubled characters too. Something that makes it so easily to get wrapped up in anime is how well we can relate to the characters and how well they relay the many different sides of depression as it can come in many forms. Watching these characters is soothing and therapeutic and makes us feel like we're not alone. This list is for the most depressed or sad anime characters from all kind of different anime shows, depressed anime girl characters we want to reach out to and hug.

16. Yuki Nagato From Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu

Known as the only member of the SOS Brigade that was not "voluntarily arrested," or coerced into joining, by Haruhi Suzumiya, Yuki finds herself taking part involuntarily when Haruhi claims the empty Literature Club as the SOS Brigade's clubroom, a place where she had been discovered there reading. She appeared to be one of the saddest girls in anime. She is the humanoid interface in the series but looks like an ordinary human she has no emotion towards anyone, she rarely speaks with anyone. Well with the reality that she is not a human so how can she show her emotion but later in the series she gains emotion.

15. Mizore Shirayuki From Rosario to Vampire

One of the main protagonists of Rosario+Vampire, she is a Yuki-Onna or snow fairy in the anime. Shown to be a reserved girl with little emotion, she is first portrayed as a lonely, depressed and misunderstood girl, though she is shown to be passionate and loving towards Tsukune, who is her crush in the anime. She resorts to stalking him and hiding in different locations and calling him 'beloved' as a pet name. We also see that in one part of the anime she tries to commit suicide but is helped and comforted greatly by Kurumu. She is a lonely anime girl character who struggles with her emotions and is often impulsive and troubled.

14. Shirahoshi “Mermaid Princess” From One Piece Shirahoshi

Known as the Mermaid Princess, Shirahoshi is the youngest mermaid daughter of King Neptune, but she is in fact a giant! She is a sad, teary and fragile character in the anime and is shown to struggle with her emotions. She is easily hurt and finds it incredibly difficult tolerating others criticism towards her and those close to her. Although she is timid and fragile, she is very kind and polite and is shown to be forgiving in the anime.

13. Yayoi Kise From Smile Pretty Cure!

One of the five main Cures in Smile Pretty Cure, she is shown as a timid and tearful character with low self esteem, but is very in tune with others and a very empathetic, yet nervous and sad anime character. She has a big heart and shy nature, she excels at drawing manga but is too afraid and lacks confidence in herself to be able to show anyone her work.

12. Izumi Takanashi From Working!!

A girl who only wants to stay in her room, she is an author and exists only in her work, with no interest in anything outside of her romance works. She has little energy or interest in anything else and struggles to take on anything else other than her writing. She is such a refreshing and relatable character for those suffering and struggling with depression, who do not have much in common with bouncy bubbly anime girls. She only wishes to wear the colour black and is seen to be tired and lacking energy. She is shown to be quite pale from not wanting to spend any time outside. Our room is our safe cave, right!

11. Hotaru Tomoe From Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon S

Hotaru grew up very much alone, sick, and an outcast, shunned by her classmates who were frightened of her. It was not until she met Chibi-Usa that she at last had a true friend. Her shy character and socially awkward personality mean she is an often lonely character, but is sweet, kind and caring. She is an independent soul and goes on to become the strongest and most feared Sailor Guardian, with dark powers related to death and destruction, silence and ruin themselves. She can easily obliterate entire planets and reduce them and their inhabitants to complete oblivion. If she used her full strength, she would be able to bring ruin to entire worlds. Luckily she has a warm character but carries something of a lonely and melancholy disposition.

10. Tomoko Kuroki From Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!

A girl that is trying to climb out of the rut she is in and become popular like other students, Tomoko finds it incredibly hard to socialise and all she longs to do is stay at home wrapped up in her games and manga. She struggles on many levels, which makes her an incredibly multifaceted and relatable character, especially as her attempts kind of fall flat on their face. Realistically this is often what can happen in real life, if we are trying out something new, yet in anime characters are seen to succeed most of the time, not often to fail. She is so reassuring to watch but we can also emphathise deeply with her aims, goals, yet little patience and interest in certain things and the ultimate longing to just stay in her room, her safe place.

9. Enma Ai From Jigoku Shoujo

A spiritual entity with a tragic past, she is the main protagonist of the series. She is known to live in a world of eternal twilight with her grandmother, and is the one who receives and delivers vengeance on her clients' behalf. She normally wears a black seifuku, or sailor uniform (which is usually worn during winter months), but always wears a kimono with floral designs when delivering the vengeance of a client. She barely talks to anyone, only when necessary. Later in the series, her dark backstory is revealed, where she sacrifices herself by her people of the village to the mountain god. It may explain why she is such a deeply troubled character in the anime, but there are many layers to her character, which is fascinating to see.

8. Tsubaki From Mirai Nikki

The High Priestess and Oracle of the Omekata Religion, Tsubaki's true colors are revealed along with her backstory; bitter, angry, and emotional, she despises the world, the Omekata religion, and her life. She deeply desires the power of God in order to destroy the world and recreate it in the way she sees fit. She's quite manipulative, having tricked Yuki, Yuno, Keigo, Minene, and Yomotsu into coming to the temple in order to eliminate all of them easily. She plays the false role of a damsel in distress in order to easily lure in Yuki, mocking his habit to quickly trust people against him. Upon revealing her true self, Tsubaki attempts to quell her own pain by tormenting others, primarily Yuno. Despite this, she is first introduced in the anime as a polite, considerate and friendly girl but, as we later find out, she is deeply troubled underneath. There is so much depth to her character and so many layers, she is such a fascinating character to watch.

7. Mamimi Samejima From FLCL

A lonely and depressed girl, Mamimi is 17- year young character in the series. We see her start to negatively spiral in the anime after going through a breakup, which draws her further and further in to despair. She seems troubled and often confuses fantasy elements for real world ones, drawing her further away from reality and making her an unstable character. She can be found smoking, spending most of her time under a bridge. She struggles to make sense of anything in her life and she deeply lacks the motivation to change it either, which makes her incredibly relatable to viewers struggling with similar depressive symptoms themselves. She likes to adopt vulnerable creatures, because they give her solace and company in her own vulnerability. Throughout the anime, we see her constantly looking to fill the void inside herself, choosing Naota as a beacon of hope and clinging to him.

6. Hayami Kohinata From H20: Footprints in the Sand

A social outcast with a trouble backstory, Hayami is strong, yet a character in turmoil. She once belonged to a prestigious family until the town rioted and burned down their mansion. She was then forced to live in an abandoned bus with very few belongings. Despite being very strong, Hayami refuses to fight back when she is getting beat up. Because her family was prestigious and greedy, the village hated her family for it, and the hatred also stuck with her even long after her family was killed and her house was burned down. Hayami used to be great friends with Hinata (the daughter of a town noble), until Hinata's grandfather stepped in and stopped the relationship out of revenge. With all of her friends, family and belongings gone, she lives a tough life full of anger and resentment towards the town folk. But surprisingly when Takuma begins to be very persistent about involving her in everything, she turns out to be a normal girl, just like all the others, with feelings, hopes and a strong desire for happiness. A character with lots of layers to unravel, possessing a deeply cold, uninterested and distant nature from the outside, but warm and kind from the inside, presenting many different sides to the human nature.

5. Kikyo From Inuyasha

A character faced with an internal struggle with what she has become, not a living woman, nor a dead person, but the walking dead. After being tricked and slain by Naraku, she enters a world of limbo and is somehow alive but only in death. As a result, she is trapped in a deeply troubled state, resurrected by the demon ogress Urasue in a place where time does not carry on and everything is stale and stagnant, which drives her in to despair and a state of depression. Despite her well-known beauty, she regularly bears a gloomy, emotionless or dark expression due to her background and tragic past. In the anime, after solving her death, she resolved to avenge her fate by destroying Naraku and to purge the Shikon Jewel from the world.

4. Iwakura Lain From Serial Experiments Lain

A troubled anime girl character with mental illness, she is shown to struggle with psychosis, often hallucinating and sees things that aren’t real, such as at one point she thinks that steam is coming out of her hands. This makes it even more difficult for her to make friends as she is very detached from the world around her. She is very quiet and has a slumped posture, also being very timid and deeply scared to check her emails. This is an anime that isn't afraid to tackle dark themes like suicide and mental illness, which is refreshing to see and fascinating to watch, as those with similar experiences can find themselves in the characters.

3. Rei Ayanami From Neon Genesis Evangelion

The First Child and pilot of a giant mecha named Evangelion Unit 00, she is a character shrouded in mystery but with a numb and vacant disposition, which is something many can relate to in the throes of depression. In the anime she is socially withdrawn, rarely shows emotion and shies away from human interaction, her only apparent human relationship being with Nerv commander Ikari Gendou. Rei is often known as a “doll” because of her no emotions & no affection of nature towards anyone.

2. Homura Akemi From Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica

A magical girl who first appears in an apocalyptic nightmare of Madoka's, she transfers into her school the day after the dream. She is a beautiful, mysterious individual, very talented, yet seems to be a lone wolf. Her character, in the beginning, is presented in a typical tsundere way, yet later revealed that deep down, she is secretly crying out for help and has been feeling weighed down and deeply troubled. She carries the burden of witnessing so much suffering during her tenure as a Magical Girl, that she has tried to block out for most of her life.

1. LaLa-Ru From Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku

LaLa-Ru our character at first glance, all of her suffering is on the outside. LaLa-Ru barely speaks, and communicate through gestures. She is lonely and incredibly melancholy in the anime, with a depressed outlook on life and others, having witnessed many become violent and angry if they do not get what they want from her in the anime.

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