Usually, the most boring character in any disaster story is the intrepid scientist trying to stop the disaster, but Mei Kamino from Godzilla S.P is genuinely amazing in her own right. She’s a brilliant young graduate student who studies nonexistent phenomena, which makes her perfect for figuring out how to combat the reality-warping kaiju who threaten to destroy the world. Her awkward, but earnest personality (emphasized by the little ponytail on top of her head that keeps her bangs out of her face) is immediately endearing, and her bickering banter with the AI that follows her around never gets old. She may not look like Godzilla’s biggest foe, but she might just be Earth’s last hope of surviving this mess!

Have you ever wanted to be mercilessly bullied by a tan schoolgirl who’s secretly maybe in love with you a little bit but will never admit it? If not, feel free to move on to the next entry. But for those of you with that very specific desire, Hayase Nagatoro is here to serve. She makes it her daily mission to tease her nerdy senpai within an inch of his life because it’s easy to get a rise out of him – this mostly consists of purposefully doing suggestive things around him and then calling him a perverted virgin when he falls for it, but the sheer variety (hula hooping, sucking on a juice box, pretending to be a vampire to have an excuse to bite his neck, etc.) is impressive. Plus, she’s got the best smug face of any anime girl we’ve ever seen!

Yuugiri isn’t exactly a new character for Spring 2021, but now that she’s finally gotten her own focus episodes, we’ve gained a brand-new appreciation for her. It turns out that the laid-back older sister of Franchouchou is actually trained in martial arts and swordplay, was such a popular courtesan that hardly anyone could afford her company, and was even instrumental in saving Saga back in the Meiji era. She’s gone through so much already that of course it doesn’t faze her when she wakes up as a zombie in the 21st century! If you’re a Yuugiri stan like us, be sure to check out the full version of her song “Saga Jihen” when you get the chance. The jazzy number complements her personality and silky-smooth voice perfectly.

Even though Vivy is also an idol singer who’s destined to change the world, the stakes are quite a bit higher for her. She’s a first-of-her-kind humanoid AI whose purpose is to make people happy with her singing, but her simple life changes when she gets caught up in a struggle to prevent an AI apocalypse from happening 100 years in the future. Vivy’s tenacity is nothing to be scoffed at – she goes through hell and back in her mission to save the world, losing parts of her body and mind in the process, and yet she still keeps fighting. Could this be the genesis of a new blue-haired robot idol singer waifu to rival Hatsune Miku...?

When Major Vladilena Milize realizes that the “autonomous drones” her country is using to fight the nigh-invincible Legion are actually piloted by marginalized people who legally don’t count as human, she devotes herself to saving them by any means necessary. While Lena is certainly cute (and the thigh chub caused by her garter-belted socks is worthy of a chef’s kiss all on its own), we love her most for her character arc throughout the series. Through her interactions with the Spearhead Squadron, she slowly evolves from a wide-eyed idealist who thinks passionate speeches will solve everything into a hardened freedom fighter who disobeys her own superiors to help her squadron live another day. What a transformation!