10 Best Isekai Anime With Female Main Characters

Isekai anime with female main characters are hard to come by in this male-dominant market that is oversaturated with shonen-oriented series of all genres, from sci-fi to isekai. However, in the progressively modern day and age, it has become clear that people of all genders, sexual orientations, and walks of life enjoy indulging in a good anime once in a while.

In particular, the isekai, or the “transported to another world” genre, is heavily dominated by series that follow male leads. For a trope that caters closer to the guilty pleasures side of anime, series with female leads are just as worthy of having anime adaptations. Furthermore, of the series that currently exist and fit this mode, there is not nearly enough exposure, as there are wonderful female-led isekai in the market, from insect-transforming adventures to time-traveling growth stories.

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10 Slime 300 Takes Advantage of the New Slime Wave

Based on the Light Novel by Morita Kisetsu and Benio

The isekai anime produced by Studio Revoroot, Slime 300, also known under the full name of I’ve Been Killing Slimes For 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, takes advantage of the recent popularity of the “slime” trope.

Although it is called a trope, it can be used in many different ways, like in That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, with the main character, Rimuru, representing a rejection of the weak slime archetype. Slime 300, on the other hand, simply uses slimes to exaggerate the main female lead, Aizawa Azusa’s road to power in the fantasy world she was reborn in.

Watch On Crunchyroll

9 Next Life as a Villainess Is the Female Take on the Game Isekai

Based on the light novel by Hidaka Nami and Yamaguchi Satoru

Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom is an anime that gets better by the season, as it is a unique take on the video game isekai trope that has long been popularized by anime such as Sword Art Online. However, instead of grounding the game world in an action RPG (role-playing game), Next Life as a Villainess uses the structure of otome games, a Japanese form of video games geared towards romance, storyline, and female leads.

Subsequently, the main character is a girl who has been reborn as Katarina Claes, a pitiful character in the otome game she used to play called Fortune Lover. The series is packed full of drama as Katarina tries to avoid the bad ending that she had originally been slated for.

Watch On Crunchyroll

8 Fushigi Yuugi Is a Classic Isekai Series Period

Based on the manga by Watase Yuu

Also known as Mysterious Play, Fushigi Yuugi is a classic reverse harem isekai anime produced by the renowned Studio Pierrot, which also produced series like Bleach, Naruto, and more. Unlike the later titles, Fushigi Yuugi is a shojo anime through and through, as it follows the teen-aged Yuuki Miaka, as she embarks on a journey through the mysterious world that an old book sucked her into.

Within a world of celestial warriors, war, and magic, Miaka is taken for a legendary priestess, and she embarks on a perilous journey of collecting a dashingly handsome cast of men to fight her battles with her and for her, hoping to find a way back home.

Watch On Crunchyroll

7 BOFURI Is Just About A Curious Girl Who Doesn’t Want to Get Hurt

Based on the light novel by Koin and Yuumikan

Produced by Studio Silver Link, BORFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I Max Out My Defense is an isekai anime in the sense that the video game focus creates the sense that the protagonists have been transported to a new world. BOFURI follows Honjou Kaede, a girl who knows next to nothing about games but is dragged into the popular VRMMO called New World Online by her school friend.

With no knowledge of games or optimization strategies, Kaede relies solely on her curiosity and her fear of pain to progress through the game. Surprisingly, her eccentric out-of-the-box thinking works to her advantage, and she quickly develops a broken, overpowering level of defense.

Watch On Crunchyroll

6 InuYasha Has Demons, Ninjas, and a Modern-day High School Girl

Based on the manga by Takahashi Rumiko

InuYasha is a classic shonen anime that has a strong female lead presence. Although this series produced by Studio Sunrise takes the name of its male lead, half-demon Inuyasha, the modern-day high school girl named Kagome is the real focus point of the story.

Having stumbled upon a strange well, Kagome falls in and is transported to a world resembling feudal Japan, only there is the unexpected addition of demons and other apparitions and phenomena. This is where the isekai trope makes its way in. Kagome quickly meets Inuyasha, releasing him from his seal and embarking on an arduous journey of fighting the evil that inhabits this strange new world.

Watch On Netflix

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5 So I’m a Spider, So What? Shows That Beautiful Female Leads Aren’t Necessary

Based on the light novel by Kiryuu Tsukasa and Baba Okina

So I’m a Spider, So What?, also called Kumo desu ga, Nani ka?, is an isekai anime that averts all expectations, one after another. Produced by Studio Millepensee, Kumo desu ga starts with the typical isekai framework, only substituting a high school girl for a high school boy. From there, the premise only gets crazier.

The nameless high school girl is transported into the body of a baby spider in a magical world. The story is an inspirational tale of rocky beginnings and acceptance of worldly factors out of one’s control. The optimistic main spider girl quickly adapts, growing into an abnormally strong existence that alters the face of isekai anime with her arthropodal appearance alone.

Watch On Crunchyroll

4 Saga of Tanya the Evil Is a Military Thriller

Based on the light novel by Shinotsuki Shinobu and Carlo Zen

Produced by Studio Nut, Saga of Tanya the Evil is an anime that pushes all boundaries, as the series premise is one that paints the magical world setting as a sideshow. The main character Tanya Degurechaff is one of isekai’s most overpowered protagonists, but is also a little girl’s body that houses the soul of a young man who challenged a god-like being to a high-stakes intellectual battle.

Although Tanya’s gender may be ambiguous, it is undoubtedly a twist on the typical isekai structure, especially with the amount of gruesome details that litter the war field that Tanya traverses in hopes of outsmarting the entity called Being X in a battlefield of their own creation.

Watch On Crunchyroll

3 The Twelve Kingdoms Feels Like An Ancient Isekai

Based on the light novel by Ono Fuyumi and Yamada Akihiro

Also known as Juuni Kokuki, The Twelve Kingdoms is an older retro isekai anime series that has long flown under the radar. It was produced by Studio Pierrot, the same studio that brought about series like Bleach and Naruto, but instead of holding to traditional genre standards like the latter two, they decided to take a leap of variation.

The story of The Twelve Kingdoms follows Nakajima Youko, a seemingly normal girl who only wants to be normal, so all is right with the world. That is, until one day, a strange man who claims to be from another world barges into Youko’s classroom and swears his loyalty to her. Subsequently, the anime enters an era of mysterious beasts, new worlds, and vast kingdoms for Youko to explore.

Watch On Crunchyroll

2 Ascendance of a Bookworm Is the Story of a Reborn Librarian

Based on the light novel by Kazuki Miya and Shiina You

Ascendance of a Bookworm is one of the most original isekai anime that has been produced in recent years, as the genre has been saturated by Rimuru slime rip-offs and goofy inanimate object reincarnations. Ascendance of a Bookworm is not only unique in the fact that it primarily follows a female lead, but it also starts from the early reincarnation of an unlucky librarian all the way through her gradual growth.

Renamed as Myne, the main character embarks on a surprisingly perilous journey of bringing the creation of her beloved books to an antiquated fantasy world that doesn’t have literature available to the masses. Through trials and tribulations, Myne carefully analyzes each step, risk, and compromise she must take in order to achieve her grand goals.

Watch On Crunchyroll

1 Spirited Away Is Miyazaki’s Take On an Isekai

An original film directed by Miyazaki Hayao

Miyazaki Hayao’s Spirited Away which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2022, needs no introduction, as it, as well as all of Studio Ghibli, has clinched a solid standing in the history of animation. However, among all of Spirited Away’s acclaim, there is little mention of the film’s status as an isekai. There is no question that the main character, 10-year-old Ogino Chihiro, is transported to a new world after she steps past the gates of the abandoned amusement park.

In this fresh world of mysterious spirits, yokai, and punishing phenomena, Chihiro is exposed to new sights and new realizations, weaving narratives and themes that dig deeper than any TV anime could possibly produce. Regardless of whether it was Miyazaki’s intention, Spirited Away has long flipped the standards of the isekai genre, even before its classification had time to formulate. All of this adds up to making Spirited Away the best isekai anime with a female protagonist.

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