The Top 15 Most Powerful Anime and Manga Heroines

While there are tons of tough ladies in Bleach, you gotta note Yoruichi as one of the most powerful ones. She’s known as the “Flash Goddess” thanks to her being the best in all the Soul Society when it comes to speedy plower- she can move so fast she’s essentially in several places at once and can wipe out entire squadrons. She’s a former captain, she’s can use destruction spells expertly, control lightning, shapeshift…and she’s one of the best hand to hand combatants in the series.

When you’re murdering monsters from age nine and then grow up to  command of your own squadron of soldiers, you’re pretty powerful. In fact, Nanoha’s immense magical power and combat skill caused her enemies to once accuse her of being a devil. To which she responded, “I’ll just use my hellish powers to get you to listen.” That’s hardcore.

Ezra is a mage of immense magical power, being one of the highest ranked out there. She’s skilled in telekinesis, sword magic and she’s the only sword mage known to be able to reequip weapons and armor while fighting. On top of all that, she’s amazingly strong and formiddable hand-to-hand combatant and swordswoman.

At what looks to be around 12, May Chang could take on an entire army. She knows long range powerful alchemy that can blow up about anything, she can also reconstruct anything, was successfully able to block an attack from a man who had essentially absorbed God even while seriously wounded and she can heal pretty nasty injuries. On top of all that, she’s proficient enough at martial arts and knife throwing she’s taken on entire zombie armies using that alone. 

Even among transforming superheroes, Hajime’s skill is notable and impressive. She’s able to use all kinds of weapons to beat up aliens and she absorbed the main villain of the series- who nearly destroyed the world- and keeps him trapped inside her singlehandedly. Even more impressively, in a recent season she was able to survive a combined physical attack from her entire team that would have killed anyone else.

She’s a passing housewife….and possibly one of the most terrifyingly powerful women in fiction. Even without her alchemy, Izumi is powerful- she killed a bear with her bare hands when she was 18 and she’s incredibly skilled at martial arts- to the point where she was seen flipping a 700 pound monster over her head.

But on top of all that, she’s an incredibly skilled alchemist capable of deconstructing and reconstructing matter in a snap. She can make amazing weapons and she was skilled enough to attempt to bring back the dead- it didn’t go well for her, but still. On top of that, she taught the protagonists of the series, Ed and Al, most of what they know about alchemy and pretty much all of what they know about fighting. They would have never gotten out the gate without her mentorship and so their many accomplishments owe something to her.

Dragonball Z is infamous for how overpowered its heroes are, so any lady that can go toe to toe with them gets on the list by default. 18 soundly kicked Vegeta’s ass in their first fight and in another timeline, she and her brother singlehandedly drove the world to the brink of destruction. Good thing she decided to side with the good guys in the end.

If you can convince God to change his mind, you’re packing some power. Hikaru has intense magical powers and was also capable of controlling a giant robot- and she was impressive enough that she was chosen as being the “pillar” of the magical world Cephiro, essentially the thing that keeps the world alive through the power of prayer, which is pretty hardcore. However, she rejected that position and convinced the god granting her the power to adopt a different system, which is even more impressive.

Koto is the daughter of a dude with godlike abilities to bring anything he draws to life… and she can kick said dude’s ass. She has the ability to cross between dimensions, runs so fast it looks like she’s teleporting, she has incredible strength and she can beat the crap out of ANYTHING with her magic hammer- even a giant. She was actually offered the position of being god of her world along with her brother, but she turned it down. 

Haruhi possesses the godlike ability to warp reality to her will. She can create, reshape and destroy reality based on her own desires. The only reason she isn’t higher on the list is that she’s pretty much unaware she can do this, so she can’t really utilize her power to its full potential. She’s noted as being an “incomplete god” in this sense, “unable to control the world at will”. However, while her abilities are underdeveloped now, someday she’ll be unstoppable.

Madoka Kaname became a literal goddess, so you have to put her on this list. Madoka made a wish to essentially remake the universe by her own hand and this gave her godlike cosmic powers, meaning she essentially became “hope itself”. She was able to rewrite reality and become completely omniscient, meaning she appears everywhere and anywhere to comfort magical girls when they die and carry their souls away. The only reason she isn’t higher on the list is she didn’t rewrite reality completely- magical girls still had to die- and she was eventually taken down by her friend Homura. Which would put Homura higher on the list, but she’s not exactly a hero these days.

Lina Inverse has masses of people terrified of her for a reason. Her nickname is “the dragon spooker” because even freaking dragons are terrified of this girl- she can kill them in an instant. Lina is the most powerful magic user in her universe- and probably most universes. She knows black magic spells capable of disintegrating cities in the blink of an eye. Her other nicknames include “Enemy of All Who Live” and “Empress of Destruction.”

Despite these monikers, she’s saved the world several times from downright apocalyptic threats. Aside from the city leveling spells, she also has the “ragna blade”, a sword she can summon that can cut through anything, be they dragon, demon or god.

She’s also the only person alive capable of casting the Giga Slave, a spell that can eliminate reality itself, across multiple dimensions. It can also unitentionally turn Lina into a vessel for the Lord of Nightmares, who is staight up the God of the Slayers Universe…and also happens to be female as well. The Lord of Nightmares is not only the one behind the universe’s creation, she can reduce it to nothingness with a snap of her fingers. And Lina channeled her and survived. So yep. Pretty powerful there. 

Sailor Saturn is explicitly stated to have the power to destroy a planet with just a single swing of her magical glaive- and she’s done it, too It doesn’t matter who you are- if she points that glaive at you, you’re dead. No anime villain would stand a chance unless they found a way to disarm her before she swung it. The downside is she tends to die in the process, but still, that power can’t be beat.

In terms of sheer power, Sailor Moon might be the top. In both manga and anime continuities, she basically resurrected the entirety of Planet Earth at one point. When you can bring a planet back to life, you’ve got serious mojo. She’s basically the flipside of Sailor Saturn.

In the manga, she faced down the embodiment of all the evil in the universe and pretty much destroyed it by jumping into the cauldron that is the source of all life and purifying the entire universe with her power. She’s taken down planet destroying monsters with the power of love more times than you can count. On top of that, it’s confirmed she will be powerful enough to rule our entire planet and turn it into a crystal utopia when she grows up. I for one welcome our Moon Kingdom overlord.