Glasses are always considered a sign of intelligence whether in real life or in anime and manga. In anime, a character wearing glasses generally implies that they are nerdy and smart. You will often see such characters push up their glasses with the light shining over in a crucial moment as they burst out some witty lines.
However, depending on the context and the styling, you will also find anime characters who wear glasses purely for fashion reasons. These are some badass characters whose coolness vastly increases with their choice of eyewear.
It is, thus, indisputable that glasses in anime indicate that a character is smart, confident and stylish. There are several anime characters with glasses who have attained iconic status in the eyes of fans.
Let us look at some such popular anime characters with glasses including male anime characters with glasses and female anime characters with glasses.
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Contents
9 Anime Characters with Glasses Male
Kabuto Yakushi
Series: Naruto
Number of Episodes: 220
Created By: Masashi Kishimoto
Voice Artist: Nobutoshi Canna(Japanese); Henry Dittman(English)
As a whole, the Naruto franchise has some great heroes as well as villains. One such villain is Kabuto whom everyone had dismissed as a simple lackey in the beginning. And, boy, were they proved wrong.
Kabuto was taken in by Orochimaru as a young child because of his talent in medicine and intelligence-gathering. He soon became his right-hand man and spent most of his life as a spy for various organizations, individuals and countries.
He went on to become a major factor in the Fourth Shinobi War and one of the best villains in Naruto in his quest for power. Kabuto is depicted as having ash-gray hair and onyx eyes but his most distinct feature is his round black-rimmed glasses.
Shiroe
Series: Log Horizon
Number of Episodes: 62
Created By: Mamare Touno
Voice Artist: Takuma Terashima(Japanese); Mike Yager(English)
Log Horizon’s Shiroe or Kei Shirogane is another popular male anime character with glasses. In the real world, he was a socially awkward engineering graduate and a veteran player of the MMORPG game Elder Tale. He ends up becoming the founding guild master of Log Horizon after being sucked into the game world.
Shiroe was an introvert who preferred exploring virtual worlds indoors rather than playing outside before the Apocalypse. However, he is also fiercely independent and while he may be wary of people approaching him with ulterior motives, he does help those who genuinely need his help.
Shiroe also has a soft spot for beginners and is quite protective of the people he cares about.
Kei Tsukishima
Series: Haikyu!!
Number of Episodes: 85+ 5 OVAs
Created By: Haruichi Furudate
Voice Artist: Koki Uchiyama, Tomo Muranaka(Japanese); Leraldo Anzaldua(English)
Kei Tsukishima is a first-year student and a middle blocker in Karasuno High School’s team. He is the tallest player in the volleyball team and an important part of its defense because of his calm and clever demeanor on the court.
Outside of it though, Kei has a simultaneously polite and condescending attitude that often gets him in trouble with opposing teams as well as his own teammates.
It later turns out that he has an inferiority complex and deliberately mocks Kageyama to anger him. Kei is also the only Karasuno player who actively questioned his devotion to volleyball due to past experiences.
Conan Edogawa
Series: Case Closed/Detective Conan
Number of Episodes: 1,105(as of November 2023)
Created By: Gosho Aoyama
Voice Artist: Kappei Yamaguchi, Minami Takayama(Japanese); Jerry Jewell, Griffin Burns, Alison Viktorin, Wendee Lee(English)
Conan Edogawa aka Shinichi Kudo is the protagonist of Gosho Aoyama’s long-running manga Case Closed and its anime adaptation. He used to be a high school detective who turned into an elementary school-age child after he was forcefully fed a lethal poison.
Does Shinichi let this small setback stop him from solving cases? Nah. He adopts the pseudonym of Conan Edogawa to hide from the people who poisoned him and starts living with his childhood friend and her father.
Shinichi was already a smart kid and his intelligence remains intact even after being shrunk in size. Thus, Conan has an extraordinarily broad knowledge of various subjects that helps him escape tricky situations. He actively tries to behave childlike in front of adults but often ends up speaking like an adult or using reasoning too complex for a young child.
Uryu Ishida
Series: Bleach
Number of Episodes: 366
Created By: Tite Kubo
Voice Artist: Noriaki Sugiyama(Japanese); Derek Stephen Prince(English)
Uryu Ishida from Bleach is a descendant of a line of near-extinct hollow-hunting archers called the Quincy. They are historical enemies of the Soul Reapers and, hence, Uryu too bears a huge grudge against them. Thus, he was an antagonist early on in the series before eventually allying himself with Ichigo.
Uryu has the power to gather invisible spirit particles called reishi from the atmosphere. He can then shape these reishi into spirit energy constructs to augment magical spells and superhuman abilities.
Hirotaka Nifuji
Series: Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku
Number of Episodes: 11
Created By: Fujita
Voice Artist: Kent Ito, Mutsumi Tamura(Japanese)
Hirotaka Nifuji is the cute and handsome secret otaku from Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku. He is depicted as a tall man with bluish-black hair styled with bangs and, of coure, a pair of black high spec glasses. Hirotaka is an unemotional and serious individual and an extremely efficient employee. He is rarely seen smiling and almost always has a deadpan expression on his face.
Unlike his childhood friend and girlfriend Narumi Momose, Hirotaka does not care much about other people finding out that he is an otaku. He does not have any problems with socializing per se but prefers to keep to himself due to a lack of interest in others.
This competitive gamer otaku is considered to be highly attractive by women but he does not care much about them as he has been in love with Narumi since they were kids. Considering Hirotaka’s stoic personality, his indirect confession to Narumi is one of the breakthrough moments of the anime series.
Maes Hughes
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist
Number of Episodes: 51
Created By: Hiromu Arakawa
Voice Artist: Keiji Fujiwara(Japanese); Sonny Strait(English)
Lieutenant Colonal Maes Hughes works in the intelligence division of the Amestrian State Military. He is an old friend of Roy Mustang and the closest supporter for the latter’s secret bid for the position of Fuhrer. Additionally, he is a capable fighter known particularly for his knife throwing skills.
Maes is also a devoted family man and is generally well-liked by others unless he is pushing his love for his wife and daughter on them. He is a friendly and cheerful person whose general understanding of others’ emotions and desire to help them gains the affection of many people.
Despite his over-the-top behavior, Maes is a trustworthy, capable and intelligent military officer.
Yukio Okumura
Series: Blue Exorcist
Number of Episodes: 25+ 1 OVA
Created By: Kazue Kato
Voice Artist: Jun Fukuyama(Japanese); Johnny Yong Bosch(English)
Yukio is the second main character of Blue Exorcist and Rin’s fraternal twin brother. While he was born fully human and did not inherit any of Satan’s powers(unlike Rin), he did receive a spirit wound at birth that allowed him to be aware of demons.
Yukio started training to be an Exorcist from the age of seven to protect Rin. Thus, he became the youngest person ever to pass the Exorcist qualification exam and becoming a teacher at True Cross Academy where he ended up being his older brother’s teacher.
He is a prodigy who has teal eyes and has to wear glasses for his nearsightedness. As a person, he is reserved, studious and professional i.e. the complete opposite of his brother Rin. He is friendly and polite to strangers but can be argumentative with and critical of his friends and family.
Yukio’s cold and threatening side comes out in front of his enemies on whom he often gains upper-hand by using deception. He also has deep self-loathing issues and self-destructive tendencies.
It came to head in a brutal physical fight with Rin but since then Yukio has learned to forgive himself after a hear-to-heart with his brother.
Gowther
Series: The Seven Deadly Sins
Number of Episodes: 96+ 4 SP
Created By: Nakaba Suzuki
Voice Artist: Yuhei Takagi(Japanese); Erik Scott Kimerer(English)
Gowther bears the Sin of Lust in The Seven Deadly Sins which is symbolized by the Goat tattooed above his breast. He has an androgynous appearance and was later revealed to be a doll that was created by a great wizard in the form of his old lover.
Gowther has a very feminine face, dark red-magenta hair and he wears a pair of glasses without which he apparently cannot see anything. He has the ability to change parts of his appearance like his hairstyle and skin color.
Gowther was initially an analytical and stoic person who spoke in an emotionless manner. He did not have much social skills and did not understand the meaning of friendship. As a result, he often did some questionable things such as manipulating the memories of others to understand emotions better.
5 Women Anime Characters with Glasses
Zoe Hange
Series: Attack on Titan
Number of Episodes: 94
Created By: Hajime Isayama
Voice Artist: Romi Park(Japanese); Jessica Calvello(English)
The badass Zoe Hange is the leader of the 4th Squad in Attack on Titan. They are a scientist who study the Titans and is known to barely show any fear while interacting with them. Zoe used to intensely hate the Titans until they discovered Ilse Langnar’s notebook that gave them new insight into the unknown nature of the Titans.
Apart from that, Zoe is also responsible for inventing new weapons for the Scouts to use such as the Thunder Spears and a barrel that can fire multiple grappling hooks to capture Titans alive.
They come across as a freethinking and energetic researcher who even shows great compassion for their test subjects. The lightheartedness took a backseat as the Titan threat got more severe but still Zoe showed empathy for all the dead and suffering.
They are also a thoughtful commander who takes care of their comrades and easily solves complex problems to create plans that they can carry out. However, underneath all this, Zoe also has a psychotic side as they are often seen going from calm and collected to enraged and threatening.
Mey-Rin
Series: Black Butler
Number of Episodes: 36+ 7 OVA
Created By: Yana Toboso
Voice Artist: Emiri Kato(Japanese); Monica Rial(English)
Mey-Rin is a young woman of Chinese descent who works as a maid in the Pantomhive household. She has hazel eyes and maroon hair that she mostly keeps tied in pigtails. Mey-Rin also wears a pair of thick, round glasses that were a gift from Ciel. She has trouble seeing things in a close range due to her eyesight and, hence, clumsy with her chores.
While she may not be a very good maid, Mey-Rin is invaluable as a professional sniper who does not even need a scope to aid her on missions. She has a crush on Sebastian because he is one of the few people who appreciate her skills as a sniper and who she is as a person.
In terms of personality, Mey-Rin is strong-willed, tenacious and determined to prove her worth to others. She is also the one who acts as the comic relief in the series along with Baldroy and Finnian.
Maki Zen’in
Series: Jujutsu Kaisen
Number of Episodes:
Created By: Gege Akutami
Voice Artist: Mikako Komatsu(Japanese); Allegra Clark(English)
Maki is one of the most badass girls in the Jujutsu Kaisen universe. She is a second-year student at the Tokyo Jujutsu High School and has a twin sister named Mai. Born as a non-sorcerer in a big sorcerer family, she was rejected by the Zen’in clan and aspires to become a great jujutsu sorcerer just to spite her family.
Maki is a bold, fearless and independent girl who serves as an excellent role model for the first-year students. She is also known for sporting different pairs of glasses so that she can properly see curses.
Maki is a very straightforward person with an analytical mind and incredible endurance. She also tends to be hot-tempered and has little patience for people like Satoru Gojo whom she judges to be non-serious.
Maki is someone who is always striving to prove herself and as a result, doesn’t care much about the moral aspects of being a sorcerer. She is more focused on personal goals and does not think about the kind of people she wants to save as a sorcerer.
Mirai Kuriyama
Series: Beyond the Boundary
Number of Episodes: 12
Created By: Nagomu Torii, Tomoyo Kamoi
Voice Artist: Risa Taneda(Japanese); Krystal LaPorte(English)
The pink-haired Mirai Kuriyama is one of the protagonists of the light novel series Beyond the Boundary and its anime adaptation. She is a first-year high school student who is termed as “bespectacled beauty” by Akihito because of her red-rimmed glasses.
Mirai has the ability to manipulate blood but as such abilites are considered heretical by the Spirit World Warrior clans, she is shunned by others. She constantly posts about her misfortunes on her blog and Twitter account, an activity for which she is often ridiculed.
Mirai is clumsy and awkward with an introverted personality. She rarely stands out in school and has a constant fear of encountering a Youmu. This prevents her from income by slaying Youmu even though she struggles to make ends meet.
However, Mirai starts gaining confidence as she starts bonding with others around her and becomes an experienced Spirit World Warrior.
Shizuku Murasaki
Series: Hunter x Hunter
Number of Episodes: 62
Created By: Yoshihiro Togashi
Voice Artist: Atsuko Bungo, Miho Arakawa(Japanese); Emily Bachynski, Janice Roman Roku(English)
When it comes to iconic female anime characters with glasses, we have to mention Shizuku Murasaki from Hunter x Hunter. A member of the Phantom Troupe, she is instantly recognizable because because of her signature black turtleneck and jeans along with her black-framed glasses.
Not much is known about Shizuku’s past but she is characterized as being calm, aloof and callous. She has a habit of offending those around her with her blunt and cold statements.
Shizuku is extremely forgetful almost to the point of being an airhead which causes opponents to underestimate her abilities. However, she is also a person who truly believes in all the Troupe’s rules set by Chrollo and is strongly opposed to members fighting against one another.
Who Wears Glasses in Naruto?
There are many characters in Naruto who wear glasses. Members of the Aburame clan are particularly known for covering their eyes with glasses. Shino and Shibi Aburame are good examples of this.
Apart from this, other characters like Yamashiro Aoba, Karin, Kabuto Yakushi and even Sasuke and Sakura’s daughter Sarada are depicted as wearing glasses.
Who is the One Piece Character with Glasses?
There is no dearth of characters with glasses in One Piece. A lot of them such as Rayleigh, Kureha and Doflamingo wear glasses for fashion reasons. Others like Nami and Sanji have to use them actually to see better. Still, it cannot be denied that One Piece has some of the coolest anime characters with glasses.
