Being defined as a cute waifu is more than just physical looks and having adorable reactions that may cause you to melt when you hear them. Being a cute waifu means you need to embody the cuteness and truly make an otaku melt from just existing. One girl who specifically does that better than most from the winter 2023 anime season is Mahiru Shiina or better known by her nickname, Angel from The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten. Mahiru is like the perfect anime wife, with her adorable demeanor, the high level of care she delivers—we are so jealous of you Fujimiya—and the all-around desire to be almost like a literal wife! Mahiru herself is so adorable and caring she almost embodies what we want in the perfect woman in the real world and we are sure many of you agree with us out there.

Really, the reason we enjoy The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten so much isn’t for the romance or comedy—though it does those quite well—but because Mahiru is the central girl and she just oozes perfection.

Typically the last type of girl many anime fans think of as cute is the tomboy type or better known as bokukko. These girls can come across as crass, extremely tough, and usually rougher than other girls. Yet, Tomo Aizawa from Tomo-chan Is a Girl! might be a bokukko but that doesn’t mean she isn’t downright cute! Despite her almost guy-like attitude and actions, Tomo has a typical schoolgirl desire to be noticed by her crush—Junichirou Kubota—despite acting as if she’s just another dude. Tomo’s action throughout Tomo-chan Is a Girl! come across as genuinely cute and adorable even when she does have those moments that she acts far from it. For those reasons alone, Tomo is deserving of a high spot on our list, and if you’ve seen Tomo-chan Is a Girl! then you’ll also stand in agreement that we wouldn’t mind having her as our own next anime waifu.

Fans of the first season of The Fruit of Evolution: Before I knew it, My Life Had It Made, know of Saria and her true personality. Yes, Saria is a gorilla woman—literally a gorilla—but when she falls in love with our main “hero” Seiichi Hiragi, and ends up also eating the blessed fruit of Evolution, becomes a woman who is sexy and quite blessed in her ample oppai. Aside from her looks though—and the fact that she was and still is a gorilla—Saria is the definition of cute from how much she dotes on our hero Seiichi to how she rarely acts crazed despite her true form. Saria might share Seiichi with other women but even that doesn’t bother her as she just wants her hubby to be happy and cared for. What else defines the ultimate cute waifu?!

In the original Trigun, Meryl Stryfe wasn’t the definition of waifu despite having several charms we did like about her. In Trigun: Stampede though, Meryl has a bit more going for her that we can’t deny makes her kind of a cute waifu. The first is Meryl is so adorable when she gets overwhelmed or seeks her senpai, Roberto De Niro, and the mannerisms/noises she makes are just awe-inducing! We equally love her new look/design which makes her a bit more womanly and yet gives her a new level of cuteness not seen in the OG Trigun. We do also appreciate that Meryl has retained her toughness when needed but now it feels more genuine oddly enough.

Mysterious and cute don’t seem like the ideal words to pair together, especially on a cute waifu list like ours. Even so, we have found maybe the best cute waifu around if you truly are judging an anime waifu on actions, mannerisms, and attire versus looks. Lena from season 2 of The Misfit of Demon King Academy is a strange entity that Anos Voldigoad runs into and she isn’t the typical girl we’ve seen in the series. Dressed in an odd attire and wearing a mask that masks her face—you can see some facial images but not fully—Lena isn’t outright cute from a first impression.

As we got to see more of Lena and saw her personality through the purple face mask, we really found ourselves kind of falling for this mysterious lady. Lena is really odd and she might not be on everyone’s list of cute waifu but we think that what makes her cute is her different themes rarely seen in anime waifu. Now we can’t wait for her eventual face reveal as we have no doubt she will blow us away with cuteness overloads!