When it comes to female anime characters, tropes like tsundere females (tough with a soft heart), deredere females (kind and sweet), and yandere females (insane and obsessive) are some of the most popular. Then, there’s the femme fatale trope, which can be a tricky one to get right. Femme fatales are known to use seduction to ensnare their targets and are usually as deadly as they are beautiful.
These ladies are comfortable using their seductive appeal to accomplish their tasks. They're confident in their skills and are among the most interesting characters in the anime world. Some don’t even have to use their appeal, managing to be charismatic on their own. They aren’t helpless women (unless they’re pretending) and, when they appear on screen, viewers know that something interesting is about to happen.
10 Lust From Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Lust is a Homunculus created by Father and one of the strongest in the group. She’s beautiful and deadly, and not afraid to use her charm to her advantage outside of battle. While she’s not a lustful woman, she’s well aware of the effect she has on most people and uses this to seduce targets like Jean Havoc.
Lust has no qualms about seducing her targets if it means getting the information that she needs, but is just as likely to trick them or set them up to fight against others. Her name could be more targeted towards her bloodlust, seeing as she’s the most sadistic Homunculus. She enjoys the suffering of others, especially those that she manipulates like Father Cornello.
9 Faye Valentine From Cowboy Bebop
When it comes to femme fatales in anime, Faye Valentine is usually one of the first ladies to come to mind. She’s very comfortable dressing up in revealing outfits, using her looks to get ahead, and is mostly unapologetic when dealing with others. This possibly stemmed from the fact that she was tricked into believing she had huge debt by the people who woke her up from her coma.
As a result of their deception, Faye grew distrustful of others and lived her life on the run from debt collectors. Deep down, she’s not a bad person, but she has no problems doing small schemes and stealing from others, even the Bebop crew. Money matters a lot to her, and she’ll accept most opportunities to get it, using almost any means necessary.
8 Boa Hancock From One Piece
Known as the “Pirate Empress”, Boa Hancock's beauty, strength, and charm that has gotten her far in the One Piece world. She knows she’s a beautiful woman and uses her looks to get whatever she wants. Hancock is able to seduce both men and women, though it could be argued that her Devil Fruit powers are adding to this in some way.
Either way, Boa Hancock is not a pirate to be taken lightly. She was more than okay with the possibility of the Amazon Lily island being destroyed and said she’d be forgiven because she’s beautiful. She loves the attention she receives from people around her and dramatically collapsed when Luffy rejected her.
7 Mireille Bouquet From Noir
A beautiful assassin that relies more on her brains and gut feeling than her looks, Mireille Bouquet was already considered one of the best assassins for hire even before she teamed up with Kirika. Following their partnership though, the pair quickly became one of the deadliest assassin duos in all of anime.
Mireille keeps every assignment given to her professional and sees all of her hits as just business. She keeps her cool through most assignments, but has let this demeanor slip a few times. She can come across as cold and ruthless, but she cares for the people she calls friends and family. However, she’s not afraid to defend herself against them and will even kill them if necessary.
6 Daki From Demon Slayer
Daki might not be the true Upper Six Kizuki, but she is a demon who's not to be taken lightly. She’s lived for over a century along with her brother and true Upper Six, Gyutaro. During her long life, she’s killed and devoured seven Hashira on her own, proving she’s just as deadly as she is beautiful. She’s devoured numerous customers as well thanks to her work as an oiran in the brothels and has gotten much stronger from this.
Knowing that no one will ever be brave enough to stand up to her due to her high-ranking courtesan position, Daki isn't afraid to flaunt her power and is often shown to be abusive to the workers around her. She believes that anyone she deems to be ugly is beneath her and has no right to touch or even talk to her.
5 Kamishiro Rize From Tokyo Ghoul
The woman responsible for exposing Ken Kaneki to the ghoul world, Kamishiro is known as the “Binge Eater” and was once considered a threat to most ghouls in the area in which she lived. She knew that Kaneki had a crush on her and made him her next target to seduce. After their date, she tricked him into escorting her home and then used this opportunity to try and kill him.
Such is her sense of self-importance and lack of self-restraint, Rize didn’t care that her eating habits were causing serious issues in the ghoul community. If she found her victims attractive, she would simply seduce and then devour them without really giving it a second thought.
4 Esdeath From Akame Ga Kill
Manipulative and utterly sadistic, Esdeath is one lady that loves fighting. She firmly believes that only the strong can survive in the world and that the weak are destined to die. Whether physically or emotionally, Esdeath loved torturing her victims and putting them through immense pain. If innocent people got in her way, she had no problem killing them.
Esdeath has even said that she’ll start a war herself if the Empire ever falls, just to satisfy her need for bloodshed. However, though it might not seem like it at first glance, Esdeath does care for her subordinates and her charisma inspires those around her to fight. That's not to say that she isn't above putting them and their families at risk if it means winning the battle against Night Raid though.
3 Tomie Kawakami From Junji Ito Collection
One of the most iconic characters created by Junji Ito, Tomie is a malevolent entity that has the ability to cause men to be instantly attracted to her. She's described as impossibly beautiful and the obsession that those around her feel can either be positive or negative. It usually results in somebody dying though, which can also include her.
Tomie has been killed plenty of times, but is always able to regenerate using a drop of blood or a strand of hair. She views her targets as “accessories” and finds it amusing to seduce them and will resort to cannibalism if hungry enough. To make her even more terrifying, Tomie can also clone herself if any of her cells come into contact with another person.
2 Kuroha Shiratori From Eden Of The East
This is one woman that’s extremely deadly. Kuroha is the president of a model agency during the day, but, at night, she’s a man killer. She seduces men and kidnaps them and then kills them by castrating them. There are rumors that she’s killed up to 1,000 men over the years, though she's yet to be caught.
However, Kuroha's targets aren't just random men. She specifically targets men who have harmed women in the past, making her more of a vigilante than a mindless killer. Plus, showing that she doesn’t hate all men, she helps Akira out throughout the Eden of the East and is even shown to have feelings for him.
1 Fujiko Mine From The Lupin Series
When it comes to famous and iconic femme fatales in anime, Fujiko Mine was arguably the very first one. She’s beautiful, smart, seductive, and is more of a frenemy to the Lupin Gang than anything else. Sometimes she’s an ally to Lupin and the others, and sometimes she’s a rival. No one can ever really tell where she stands, so it’s best to keep an eye on her whenever she’s around.
Either way, Lupin is still head over heels for Fujiko, and she loves the attention. She's known to use Lupin and other men’s desire for her to get an advantage and closer to whatever treasure has caught her eye. She’s just as crafty as Lupin too, and often does her heists alone, though is not afraid to join and help the Lupin Gang when it suits her to do so.