Anime girls have accessories and visual effects to give them personality—glasses, cat ears, maid uniforms, pigtails; you name it.
And an eye patch on a girl can mean any number of things. It could mean she is a badass. It could mean she has a traumatic past. Sometimes, they might just wear them because they are odd. But the eye patch is among the most underrated accessories in anime.
But motivations aside, here are the top 10 best anime girls with eye patches – and surprisingly, not a single one is a pirate. Go figure.
Minene Uryuu (Mirai Nikki)
For someone who starts out trying to blow up an entire school full of kids, Minene Uryuu becomes an incredibly sympathetic character as the events of Mirai Nikki unfold.
And unlike many characters on this list, Minene doesn’t start with an eyepatch. You see exactly what happens to her left eye in the series, which makes the eyepatch much more significant as you get to know her.
Not quite a protagonist, not quite an antagonist, Minene acts as sort of a rogue agent throughout the survival game. She will help Yukiteru when it suits her, but she is also prone to freelancing.
Minene has clear, sympathetic motivations but often questionable methods. Those aspects of her personality combine to make her one of the more complex characters you will see. You want to root for her but cringe when she is successful.
Rikka Takanashi (Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!)
Rikka Takanashi is an unusual girl. She wears her eyepatch because she claims her right eye holds a terrible, dark power contained only by her pure maiden’s heart.
So, you know, she keeps the eyepatch on for the good of the world.
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Except that her right eye contains color contact, she is a normal girl, and the eyepatch is unnecessary. There is a reason the English title of this anime is Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! Emphasis on the “delusions.”
Mei Misaki (Another)
So Minene’s eye patch was there to cover a lost eye. Rikka’s was there simply out of delusion. What can we expect from this?
Well, Mei Misaki’s eye patch is covering something special. But the mystery of exactly what is one of the major components of Another.
Just know that she has something to hide under that eyepatch. She is a pretty creepy character known as the one that “does not exist.
Sofia Valmer (Jormungand)
Sofia Valmer, better known as Valmet in the series, is a former Finnish officer who lost her right eye on a peacekeeping mission in Africa. Because of this, she feels extremely uneasy anytime she sets foot in Africa.
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But despite her traumatic past, she tends to keep a pretty upbeat personality. She loves Koko, her boss, and has remained a talented fighter with knives. So she is doing okay.
Jiyu Nanohana (Juubee-chan: Lovely Gantai no Himitsu)
Okay, so what if the eye patch is not hiding anything? What if, instead, the eye patch is a transformation mechanic? And heart-shaped!
Kiyu Nanohana is just a normal, albeit popular, 14-year-old girl. But when she dons the eyepatch, she becomes the reincarnated soul of Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi, one of Japan’s most famed samurai. That is what we have here.
But why would she need to do that? Naturally, there is a rival clan with a centuries-old score to settle with Jubei, and she needs to fight them off regularly.
Duh.
Abiru Kobushi (Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei)
Because she is always heavily bandaged, friends and classmates often fear that Abiru is the subject of domestic violence. She is obsessed with pulling animal tails, leading to situations where she needs bandages, as expected.
Well, that is some of the time. She also admits she often wears bandages for attention.
Hephaistios (Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka)
First, Hephaistios is sporting one of the coolest designs for an eye patch.
And second, she’s a magical blacksmith goddess. She doesn’t have the biggest or most important role in the series but shut up. She’s a magical blacksmith goddess.
She also helps Hestia and Bell by forging a dagger for Bell that grows in strength as he does. And since Bell’s whole thing is a rapid growth rate, she is effectively responsible for destroying the universe’s balance.
So that’s cool.
“Hot Ice” Hilda (Outlaw Star)
Like Minene Uryuu, Hilda spends the entirety of the series popping up at key moments and switching sides. There’s no denying she’s cool, though, as she spends most of the series as a cool rival character.
She isn’t a pirate, but she killed one of the leaders of the Pirate Guild. That’s what cost her an eye – and an arm.
Shimei Ryomou (Ikkitousen)
There’s a lot to Shimei Ryomou. She’s a B-rank fighter in the Ikkitousen universe and has a split personality. Her left eye contains the soul of a dragon, for starters.
One of those personalities is a psychosexual battle freak. The other is a shy, timid girl who wears a heart-shaped eye patch and works at a cat-maid cafe.
Ikkitousen is a weird show.
Kyuubei Yagyuu (Gintama)
The second overt reference to legendary samurai Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi on this list, Kyuubei was raised as a boy to satisfy his family’s need for an heir.
She is androphobic and recoils at even the slightest touch of a man but doesn’t mind touching anybody with her skilled swordsmanship.
