Chiyuki already is in an interesting setting. Death Parade takes place a new take on the concept of purgatory, the place your soul goes for judgement before you die. There, your soul is judged to see if it is worthy of reincarnation in a new life. But how is that judgement determined? By playing a game, with everything on the line and the stakes being raised higher and higher to put the pressure on and bring out your true character. And Chiyuki is one of the people that helps do just that. Or is she?

Chiyuki starts out as a bit of a quiet side character, simply helping Decim run the games in his bar and learning how he judges people's souls. But while Decim is seemingly emotionless and doesn't care about the struggles the humans go through, Chiyuki becomes very invested in each person that comes to the bar. And the more she learns about these people, the more she learns about herself, the place she is, and where she has come from. She brings a whole new perspective into the judgement and shakes a system that has been unshakable for who knows how long. She's the only one of her kind in that environment (not to give away too many spoilers!) and stays strong, and sees in other people what no one else can. And that makes her cool - her inner strength, perseverance, slowly revealed backstory and perspective. She's a fresh idea, and that is really cool.

One Punch Man is a story about superheroes, but it's delivered in a fresh new way. In a world where monsters and bad guys constantly threaten the public, the Hero Association has been created to allow people with extraordinary abilities make a living as heroes to protect the common people. Like any job, being a certified hero requires and application and interview process, and heroes can then become promoted within to different ranks that come with rules, status, and varying pay grades as well. But more like rock stars than businessmen, these heroes also gain (or lose) public followings and support depending on their attitudes and appearances - and of course, how they are in a battle!

In the top hero ranking of S, sitting at rank number 2 is our next cool anime girl Tatsumaki. And she certainly didn't get to this high position by being uncool - exactly the opposite of course! Tatsumaki is a powerful esper, with incredible psychological powers. She may look young, but she's in her late 20s and is the most powerful esper alive. She knows she is cool too, and it shows in her icy, take-no-prisoners attitude that she shows towards allies and enemies alike. While the main character of the show is shown to be unimaginably strong, Tatsumaki's little sister doesn't believe even he is as strong as Tatsumaki is. Her telepathic fighting style is really cool for sure, and she is usually shown annihilating her enemies and showing that she deserves her rank. And to add in a little extra cool factor, she has awesome green hair!

Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid is a show full of girls - and full of cool ones, at that. Two young, beautiful girls have found themselves as mysterious castaways on the island of Mermaid, a land full of hostile women, danger, and scandal. The only way for the girls to survive their time there is to work together! Conveniently, by sharing a passionate kiss one is able to unlock the other's powerful transformation ability, turning her into a great fighter powered by her own arousal.

The girl who is able to unleash this power in her new friend is Mirei, our cool anime girl in question. While it's hard to decide just which awesome girl from Valkyrie Drive:Mermaid is the coolest, we settled on Mirei in the end. She is a Liberator and a powerful one at that, with a mysterious past that few know much about. She is already sounding pretty cool. Mirei often throws up a false front of being a cold and stoic person, but in reality, she is actually a lover of cute things and has a very kind and pure heart. That doesn't stop her from helping her friend Mamori fight against their enemies to ensure that the two survive, though! Her strong friendship and loyalty, abilities as a Liberator, and intriguing personality are what land her on our list of the coolest girls in anime. She does what she has to do to do what she feels is right and won't let anything stop her, and that is incredibly cool.

Seisen Cerberus Ryuukoku no Fatalités takes place in a medieval fantasy world complete with Knights, magic, dragons, and creatures of all kinds of fantasy-esque varieties. One of the main characters is a small talking humanoid lizard after all, so there aren't a lot of limits on the imagination. While the story follows Hiiro, a young swordsman bent on gaining revenge for his murdered parents by an evil and powerful dragon, it turns out Hiiro isn't much of a hero at all. Actually, he's quite bad at sword fighting, irrational at making decisions, and very impatient. To succeed, he will definitely need a strong group of allies behind him, and that is where our next cool anime girl comes in.

Erin joins Hiiro's party without an invitation, and against the wishes of most of his traveling companions. Admittedly, though, when she first meets everyone she does swindle them out of a free meal, but a girl has to eat after all, right? Erin is a well-endowed cat girl, complete with the ears and tail, as well as the dexterity and agility that real cats have. Her cool factor comes from her quick wit, sharp tongue, and stubborn disposure that serve her will in a tough world. She doesn't back down and will do whatever she has to, to get what she wants, and isn't afraid to do a bit of manipulating too. Deep down, though, she is a good person and does her best to help her friends, including by adding her skills as an archer to the party's artillery. While Seisen Cerberus is a more lighthearted and funny anime, and Erin is a comedic character on top of offering a bit of fan-service, that doesn't mean she can't be cool as well! And she definitely meets the mark.

There are few anime with a plot harder to describe than Durarara!! and all of its more recent sequel series, and with how many characters it has, there are never-ending arguments about which one is really at the centre. Because of the very nature of the story, so many different plot lines are all happening at once in so many different directions, occasionally crossing over one another, until they all finally come back to one point in the end. In the middle of one of these various plot lines, and one of the pivotal characters of the show is Celty Sturluson. She has been important to the anime since it started in 2010 and has remained a key character ever since then.

Celty isn't your average anime girl; she is far from it, in fact. We’ll begin by telling you what she is – technically, she’s an ancient and mythical Irish fairy called a Dullahan. And while her tight black catsuit certainly leaves little to the imagination about how her body looks, she has another name in modern Ikebukuro - the Headless Rider. And the name is certainly not misplaced, because she is hardly ever seen without her black motorcycle, and she indeed doesn't have a head beneath that cat helmet! Being a fairy has its perks, though, because Celty is able to manipulate shadows to create a powerful, massive scythe that can cut through just about anything. Super cool. Plus her motorcycle isn't actually a bike, it's actually her headless horse from her days in Ireland, and it can do everything from ride straight up the side of buildings to outrunning just about anything that tries to chase her! She helps give Durarara!! its supernatural element which adds some fantastic and unique fight and chase scenes into the show. And she does it all without a head! Celty is definitely cool in our books.

Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu takes the idea of déjà vu and has its own spin on it. When Subaru finds himself suddenly sucked from outside a convenience store in modern Japan into a medieval fantasy world without any explanation, he is already confused enough. But when he ends his first day with being murdered, and then awakening in the fantasy world to start fresh again, things start to get really weird. When all of the same events continue to repeat, well. That's certainly where the mystery deepens.

One of the factors in Subaru's life that keeps repeating is meeting a half-elf named Satella, our next cool anime girl. In fact, Satella saves his life from a group of rough thugs, and when Subaru offers to help her with her quest in return, both of them end up murdered! And then he meets her again when the events repeat. She does eventually reveal that her real name is actually Emilia and that he is actually a candidate in the Royal election. Satella does her best to prove she would be a strong ruler, even though she doesn't always understand the world very well having grown up only with elves, and giving very little attention to her appearance. And that is what makes her part of our coolest girls in anime! She isn't your typical pretty anime girl, super good at everything she does, unbelievably powerful, and arrogantly attractive. Instead, she is a more believable and relatable character (not to mention she is genuinely nice, even though she can't see it herself) while still having fantasy elements like being a half-elf. And we think that makes her pretty cool too.

While clearly, the main character of Arslan Senki is Arslan himself, he is still just a young man, new to trying to command an army and take back his throne from a powerful overlord at the same time. That means he has to have a pretty strong host of advisors and warriors behind him to guide him, keep him safe, and help him make his most important decisions in a war-torn country. One of those advisors is the mysterious Farangis, a priestess from the Temple of Mithra who shows up in the night and declares herself one of Arslan's bodyguards. She vows to protect him as the crown prince and to help him take back this throne despite it not seeming to directly benefit her in any way.

From the moment Farangis appears, she has a cool aura - a beautiful and mysterious, scantily clad woman who arrives in the night on horseback? Cool. A dark and stoic personality, never used for fan-service despite her curves and looks, and who doesn't take nonsense from anyone? Cooler. Add to that the fact that she’s also a fantastic archer and ruthless fighter who is merciless towards her enemies in battle? Coolest. Farangis might not be in the show from the start, but once she does arrive she never fails to leave an awesome impression time and time again. There aren't a lot of women in Arslan Senki, but Farangis is definitely the coolest girl - if not one of the coolest characters, full stop.

Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka, from here on referred to as Danmachi because no one wants to read that title countless times, is where we find our number three coolest anime girl. While Danmachi has no shortage of female characters (no really, there are so many girls in this show!), Ais Wallenstein is definitely the coolest one! She serves as the main love interest for the main character, Bell Cranel, and despite many other girls trying to get his attention throughout the show, he typically remains transfixed on Ais. And who can blame him? We certainly can’t – she is a great choice, and most certainly crush material.

On top of being very beautiful, Ais Wallenstein is incredibly strong. In Danmachi, those who chose to be adventurers make their way each day into the dungeon to slay monsters and earn gems, and Ais is part of one of the strongest guilds in the town – the Loki Familia. She is famous throughout the land, known as the Sword Princess for good reason. She broke records leveling up in the dungeons as she grew up in her guild and remains one of the strongest people in the town today. Everyone knows her when they see her walk past! On top of her strength, Ais is typically very quiet and level-headed, showing no mercy both to the monsters she fights and to men that confess to her or treat her in any perverted way. This cold, mature personality just adds to her intrigue – and of course, to her coolness! A beautiful girl who is good with a sword, obliterates the competition, is famous throughout the land, and has a nonchalant personality? Definitely cool!

Another post-apocalyptic Japan setting leads to another cool anime girl – this time, Alisa Illinichina Amiella, from God Eater. This time, humanity has been forced into a fortress by creatures called Aragami that cannot be killed by conventional weapons, but only by God Arcs. These weapons can only be wielded by people that can bond with an Oracle Cell, and thus, only humans and their families that show this ability are allowed inside the safety of the fortress while everyone else is forced to scrape a living outside the walls at the mercy of the Aragami – and no one lives long outside those walls. Alisa shows up at the Far East Centre, Fenrir, from the Russian one as a loan meant to help them with their struggles there.

From the moment that Alisa shows up in God Eater, she is undeniably cool. Her God Arc itself is already a super cool weapon, being an oversized, amazingly powerful sword that she wields as if it were weightless. She faces the Aragami time and time again without fear, entering directly into head-on confrontations with them despite their terrifying appearance and massive size – and often denies help from others if she thinks she can handle it herself. Sure, Alisa does have some emotional problems from her childhood trauma that come into play, but they simply make her character deeper and more interesting rather than weaker, because as she learns to overcome them, she only becomes stronger and cooler! Throughout the anime, Alisa saves many of her friends and protects a lot of other innocent people, and takes down as many Aragami as she can in an incredibly cool style of fighting.

Koutetsujou no Kabaneri takes place in a Japan that has been taken over by a zombie apocalypse, and the zombies in this story are known as kabane. The setting is unique in that, despite being in a historical Japan, it is a Japan that had open doors during the industrial revolution that has led to it having developments in steam technology. This allows for steam powered weapons like powerful guns, and the massive armoured steam train that the story is centred around. Our number one coolest anime girl Mumei is right in the middle of this awesome steampunk, zombie-overrun Japan – and to make her even cooler, she is what is known as a kabaneri, someone who is half human, half kabane!

Mumei may be small and cute, but she can more than hold her own in a fight which she proves over and over again. She is very agile and dexterous, avoiding her enemies’ strikes with really cool acrobatics and evasive maneuvering. She often uses two pistols that are attached to a device on her back that gives her extra steam-powered abilities to jump higher and move faster, and after taking in how many kabane she has to fight, she will set a personal timer for how long it will take her to destroy them all. Quite often, Mumei is able to do it within the time limit that she sets for herself! Even when she isn’t using her pistols, she can be seen beheading kabane by kicking them with her sandals that contain a hidden blade, and other cool hand-to-hand combat moves. Don’t let Mumei’s cute appearance deceive you – she’s a badass, and definitely one of the coolest girls in recent anime!