In the millions of anime gifs out there, you’ve no doubt seen Natsuo Maki’s strange reactions as she envisions love in her strange head. Love Lab was a pretty hilarious romance comedy thanks in large to the cast of characters—and Maki—but think how the show would have been without them!

Love Lab sans Natsuo Maki would be just like any other romance comedy but with less enjoyment. Seeing Natsuo and her cute reactions made Love Lab so much more appealing and gave the show a more innocent feeling. That’s incredible right? That one cute anime girl could change the whole setup of a show if she was removed from it!

In the newer series, Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, one of the cutest anime girls in recent years, Mismis Klass, got into some big trouble. When Mismis fell into an energy vortex, Iska saved her—who then was saved by Alice in turn—but some interesting side effects hit our captain. Mismis was given a crest that shows she’s a witch now. Panicked, Mismis looks to her team and makes the decision that she will turn herself in to keep them safe but they all decide to hide the fact they know she’s a witch now since they respect their captain so much!

Now, this sounds cheesy in theory but the idea that the team would risk their lives stems from more than just honor and respect. Mismis is easily one of the cutest girls in Our Last Crusade and thus, she needs to be protected! Anime girls who are cute such as Mayuri Shiina (Steins;Gate) and Rikka Takanashi (Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions!) are just a few famous anime girls who you just want to sacrifice everything to save! Cute anime girls need protecting and tough ones…well they can handle anything themselves.

As otaku, we have to admit our weakness in romance anime comes in the form of praying that the cuter girl wins the main man’s heart. Cute anime gals similar to Kosaki Onodera from Nisekoi are girls we doubt will prevail over other female leads, but we truly wish their cuteness prevails. Unfortunately, it usually doesn’t—seeing the results of Nisekoi proves that—but that doesn’t stop us anime fans from continuing our daily prayers for cute anime girl victories.

You can’t consider yourself a true otaku until you understand the meaning behind the word 'moe', that’s just a fact built in our anime guidebooks. Moe is what rules the anime world and this can be seen in everything from cute anime girls to merchandise with that moe theme behind it. Cute anime girls not only save the world of most anime series but even the real world's various merch markets! The power of cuteness knows no limits and that is a beautiful—but terrifying—anime ideal.