Anime Swordswoman: 15 Best Sword-Wielding Women Ranked

Anime loves a woman with a sword, and honestly, so do I. Some of the most iconic characters in the entire medium are women who let the blade do the talking. Samurai, knights, assassins, cyborgs, and at least one pirate who wrings the juice out of her enemies and drinks it.

I tried to go past the usual one-line descriptions and dig into the actual weapons, the voice actors, and the lore most lists skip, including a couple of reveals that completely change how you see these characters. From skilled samurai to magical warriors, let’s get into it.

The Best Swordswomen in Anime

Anime has been obsessed with the sword for a very long time, probably because the samurai looms so large in Japanese history. That gave us an endless run of fast, lethal, blade-wielding characters. The women on this list cover every flavor of that, from noble heroes to cold-blooded killers. Cross any of them and you are in serious trouble.

Erza Scarlet (Fairy Tail)

Erza Scarlet (Fairy Tail) - Swordswoman Anime

Series: Fairy Tail. Weapon: Requip magic (over 100 armors and 200 weapons). Voice: Sayaka Ohara (JP), Colleen Clinkenbeard (EN).

Few swordswomen are as versatile as Erza. She is an S-Class Fairy Tail mage who can swap armor and weapons mid-fight, so she basically brings a whole arsenal to every battle. She is strict and a little scary, but underneath she is fiercely loyal, which makes her an unforgettable character.

The red-haired queen: if you ever searched “red haired swordswoman anime,” Erza is your answer. She is nicknamed Titania, Queen of the Fairies. Even her surname has a story: her friend Jellal gave her the name “Scarlet,” after her hair, so she would always have something to remember him by.

Saber (Fate/stay night)

Saber (Fatestay night) - anime swordswoman

Series: Fate/stay night. Weapon: Excalibur. Voice: Ayako Kawasumi (JP), Kari Wahlgren (EN).

The King of Knights is one of the most iconic swordswomen in anime, full stop. Saber is a stoic, chivalrous warrior summoned to fight in the Holy Grail War, and she is widely considered the strongest of her Servant class. Tough on the outside, quietly carrying a lot of regret underneath.

She is literally King Arthur: Saber’s true identity is Artoria Pendragon, a gender-flipped King Arthur, sword-in-the-stone legend and all. Great trivia: the creator originally wrote Fate as a reverse-harem with a female lead and a male Arthur, then flipped the genders before release. A legend, and an icon, was born.

Mikasa Ackerman (Attack on Titan)

Mikasa Ackerman (Attack on Titan) - swordswomen in anime

Series: Attack on Titan. Weapon: dual blades plus ODM gear. Voice: Yui Ishikawa (JP), Trina Nishimura (EN).

Fearless, stoic, relentless. Mikasa graduated top of her training class and became the single deadliest soldier in the Survey Corps. Watching her zip through the air on ODM gear and carve up Titans never gets old. Behind the cold exterior is a fiercely protective heart, especially when it comes to Eren.

Her power is in her blood: Mikasa is one of the last of the Ackerman bloodline, which can “awaken” sudden superhuman strength and combat instinct. She is also among the last people of Asian descent inside the walls, a quiet detail that ends up mattering to the larger story.

Clare (Claymore)

Clare (Claymore) - anime female swordsman

Series: Claymore. Weapon: a massive claymore greatsword. Voice: Houko Kuwashima (JP).

Clare is the protagonist of one of the darkest fantasy series on this list. She is a Claymore, a part-human, part-Yoma warrior who hunts the monsters that prey on people. She started out as the weakest of her group and clawed her way up through sheer stubbornness.

She is only one-quarter monster: most Claymores are half human and half Yoma. Clare is unique because she received her Yoma flesh as a human first, leaving her three-quarters human. She turned that supposed weakness into a weapon, focusing her power into her limbs to outrun fully-realized Yoma. Her entire drive traces back to one person, Teresa, who shows up later on this list.

Asuna Yuuki (Sword Art Online)

Asuna Yuuki (Sword Art Online) - anime girls with swords

Series: Sword Art Online. Weapon: a rapier. Voice: Haruka Tomatsu (JP), Cherami Leigh (EN).

A fierce and unstoppable force trapped in a deadly video game, Asuna pairs lightning-fast sword skills with real tactical smarts. As vice-commander of Aincrad’s strongest guild, she was one of very few players who could keep pace with Kirito.

Her real nickname is “Lightning Flash”: plenty of sites shorten it to “the Flash,” but her actual title in Aincrad is Lightning Flash, earned from the blinding speed of her rapier. When your weapon is fast enough to get you a nickname in a death game full of expert players, you are doing something right.

Charlotte Smoothie (One Piece)

Charlotte Smoothie (One Piece) - best anime swordswoman

Series: One Piece. Weapon: a giant sword plus a Devil Fruit. Bounty: 932,000,000 Berries. Voice: Masako Katsuki (JP), Dawn M. Bennett (EN).

One of Big Mom’s Three Sweet Commanders and a towering Longleg Tribe fighter, Smoothie is no joke. Her swordsmanship and raw physical power let her keep up with the fastest pirates in the New World.

She wrings people out like wet laundry: Smoothie’s Devil Fruit lets her squeeze the liquid out of anything, living or not, then drink it. She has juiced a person, a giraffe, and even a chunk of volcanic rock for a “lava drink.” Her 932 million bounty is the highest of any woman in One Piece other than Big Mom herself. Genuinely one of the most unsettling power sets in the series.

Satsuki Kiryuin (Kill la Kill)

Series: Kill la Kill. Weapon: Bakuzan, a katana. Voice: Ryoka Yuzuki (JP), Carrie Keranen (EN).

Bold, stylish, and absolutely commanding, Satsuki rules Honnouji Academy as its iron-fisted student council president. Every time she draws her blade, the whole scene tightens up.

Her sword cuts the uncuttable: Bakuzan slices clean through Goku Uniforms, the super-powered outfits almost nothing else can touch. And the cold-tyrant act is a long con. Satsuki spends the series secretly building toward a rebellion against her own mother, and the moment you realize whose side she is really on is one of the best turns in the show.

Motoko Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell)

Motoko Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell) - Swordswoman Anime

Series: Ghost in the Shell. Role: leader of Section 9. Voice: Atsuko Tanaka (JP), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (EN).

I will be honest, the Major is the odd one out here. She is far better known for her sidearms, her hacking, and her thermoptic camo than for a blade. But as the leader of an elite counter-cyberterror unit, she can absolutely end a fight up close, and she is too iconic to leave off.

She is almost entirely machine: Motoko is a full-body cyborg, just a human “ghost,” her consciousness, housed in a synthetic shell. That is the whole engine of the franchise, which keeps asking what is left of your humanity when every part of you can be swapped out. Heavy, philosophical stuff wrapped in a sleek action shell.

Tomoe (Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal)

Tomoe (Rurouni Kenshin Trust & Betrayal)

Series: Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal. Role: Kenshin’s first wife.

I will level with you, Tomoe is not really a swordswoman. She is the quiet, devastating emotional core of the darkest and arguably best chapter of Kenshin’s story, set during his days as the feared assassin Battousai. I am including her because her impact on the blade-heavy world of Kenshin is bigger than almost anyone’s.

She is the origin of Kenshin’s scar: that famous cross-shaped scar is actually two separate cuts, and both trace back to Tomoe. The first came from the fiance Kenshin killed; the second from Tomoe herself, at the tragic end of this story. Her arc is what turns the cold assassin into the gentle wanderer fans love. Trust & Betrayal is regularly called one of the greatest anime OVAs ever made.

Tae Shimura (Gintama)

Series: Gintama. Weapon: a naginata.

Not a conventional swordswoman, but you cross Otae at your own risk. As Shinpachi’s older sister, she favors a naginata and is not remotely afraid to use it. Fierce, funny, and unshakably loyal to the people she cares about.

Her cooking is the real weapon: Gintama runs a long-running gag that Otae’s homemade food, lovingly nicknamed “Dark Matter,” is more lethal than any blade in the entire series. She is all sweetness on the surface and pure menace underneath, which is exactly the joke.

Akame (Akame ga Kill!)

Akame (Akame ga Kill!) - anime swordswoman

Series: Akame ga Kill! Weapon: Murasame. Voice: Sora Amamiya (JP).

The deadly, stoic assassin the show is literally named after. As a member of the rebel group Night Raid, Akame is quiet, focused, and utterly lethal, with a tragic past driving her hunt against a corrupt empire.

One scratch and you are finished: Akame’s katana Murasame carries a curse-poison so deadly that a single cut, even a tiny nick, kills within seconds. There is no antidote. That makes her one of the scariest fighters in anime on a pure “do not let her touch you” basis, because she does not need a clean hit, just any hit.

Retsu Unohana (Bleach)

Retsu Unohana (Bleach) - anime female swordsman

Series: Bleach. Weapon: her zanpakuto, Minazuki. Voice: Aya Hisakawa (JP), Kate Higgins (EN).

On the surface, Unohana is the gentle, motherly captain of Squad 4 and Soul Society’s finest healer. Underneath is the single best reveal on this entire list, and the reason most casual fans massively underrate her.

She was the very first Kenpachi: long ago she was Yachiru Unohana, the original holder of the title Kenpachi, given only to the strongest swordsman in Soul Society, and its most feared criminal. She gave Kenpachi Zaraki his scar, she is the one opponent he could never beat, and she later lets him kill her on purpose to unlock his true power. The kindly nurse was the deadliest blade in the setting all along.

Ryuko Matoi (Kill la Kill)

Ryuko Matoi Anime Girls With Swords

Series: Kill la Kill. Weapon: the Scissor Blade. Voice: Ami Koshimizu (JP), Erica Mendez (EN).

Kill la Kill’s hot-headed protagonist often acts like a typical angst-ridden student, right up until she is provoked and levels a building with one swing. Technically her weapon is not a sword, but the speed and edge on it more than qualify her here.

Her weapon is half of a giant scissors: Ryuko fights with one blade of an enormous scissor, and the missing half drives the whole plot, since it is tied to her father’s death. Pair that with Senketsu, her sentient sailor uniform, and you get one of the most chaotic, purely fun fighters of the 2010s.

Teresa of the Faint Smile (Claymore)

Teresa of the Faint Smile (Claymore) - anime girl blonde hair swordswoman

Series: Claymore. Weapon: a claymore greatsword. Known as: Teresa of the Faint Smile.

A blonde, half-Yoma warrior who was so far above her peers that she could clear a battlefield while barely changing expression, hence the nickname. She is calm, kind to the weak, and carries one of the better tragic arcs in the series.

She literally became Clare: Teresa was the Number 1 ranked Claymore of her generation, the strongest of them all. After her death, her flesh was implanted into the young human Clare. That is exactly why Clare is only one-quarter Yoma instead of half, and why she stands apart from every other warrior. Their bond is the emotional spine of the whole story.

Tashigi (One Piece)

Tashigi (One Piece) - anime girl swordswoman

Series: One Piece. Weapon: the katana Shigure. Voice: Junko Noda (JP), Monica Rial (EN).

A clumsy but genuinely skilled Marine swordswoman serving under Smoker, Tashigi is a sword nerd at heart, on a personal mission to take famous blades out of the hands of people who misuse them. She grows from Ensign to Captain over the series.

She is the spitting image of a ghost: Tashigi looks almost exactly like Kuina, the childhood friend and rival of Zoro who died young. Zoro is so rattled by the resemblance that he refuses to cut her down in their fights, which she misreads as him not respecting her as a swordswoman. The manga has never explained the resemblance, which somehow makes it even better.

So Who Is the Strongest Swordswoman in Anime?

If you came here from searching “strongest swordswoman in anime,” my honest take is that Unohana at full power tops the pure skill list, with Saber and Mikasa right behind her. But strongest and most beloved are not always the same thing, and arguing about that gap is half the fun.

So now I want to hear from you. Who is your favorite anime swordswoman, and would you put anyone above Erza? Let me know in the comments.