Anime characters are known to have all sorts of wild hair colours. While there are characters who have naturally occurring hair colors like black and brown, a good number of them have vibrantly coloured hair colors that don’t occur naturally in real life.
You can find many examples of anime characters with blue, orange or purple hair. Out of these, purple is a color that symbolises ambition and luxury. Therefore, you bet that any anime character with purple hair would be special.
You will notice that purple-haired anime characters, whether men or women, tend to be powerful and mysterious. They are usually privileged and yearn for material possessions. At the same time, they can be alluring, elegant, noble and intriguing.
There have been many such iconic anime characters with purple hair over the years. Check out our list of the most popular anime characters with purple hair to learn more about the top male anime characters with purple hair and the top women anime characters with purple hair.
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Contents
6 Anime male Characters with Purple Hair
Trunks
Series: Dragon Ball
Number of Episodes: 153
Created By: Akira Toriyama
Voice Artist: Takeshi Kusao(Japanese); Eric Vale, Laura Bailey, Alexis Tipton(English)
Who doesn’t know Trunks? This half-human half-Saiyan son of Vegeta and Bulma captured the audience’s heart right from his debut. He is perhaps the most recognizable male anime character with purple hair and is a badass in a franchise full of badasses.
Trunks possesses superhuman strength, speed and reflexes which he utilizes by the use of ki. He can also produce energy blasts and has achieved Super Saiyan transformation. His signature moves are the Burning Attack and the Super Buster Cannon.
Trunks also carries a longsword with him and gains the ability to fly with a technique called Buku-jutsu.
Atsushi Murasakibara
Series: Kuroko’s Basketball
Number of Episodes: 75+ 3 OVA
Created By: Tadatoshi Fujimaki
Voice Artist: Kenichi Suzumura(Japanese); Robbie Daymond(English)
Look, when we say that the purple-haired Atsushi Murasakibara is hot, we mean it. Just look at him. That glorious hair, that commendable build, the awe-inspiring height of 208 cm and basketball talent…he is the whole package. He is one of the best players in Kuroko’s Basketball even among the “Generation of Miracles.”
Atsushi’s Thor’s Hammer dunk is infamous for being unstoppable and knocking down multiple defenders in the paint. He is usually lazy and unmotivated but occasionally shows a competitive side too.
Atsushi can often be immature and absent-minded especially when he falls for obvious taunts. His one love is snacks especially different flavors of Maiubo.
James
Series: Pokemon
Number of Episodes: 1,265(as of November 2023)
Created By: Satoshi Tajiri
Voice Artist: Shin-ichiro Miki(Japanese); Ted Lewis, Eric Stuart, Jimmy Zoppi(English)
Pokemon is such a global phenomenon that its characters can be recognized by people who are not even remotely into anime. James who is a part of Team Rocket along with Jessie and Meowth is one such character.
He came from a wealthy family and had to endure formal society while growing up. Growing weary of the ever-present rules and standards of the aristocratic class, he eventually left to avoid a marriage with a domineering girl and the suffocating protocols of the upper class.
James then went to school to study Pokemon along with Jessie where they both got catastrophic grades. He then joined a bicycle gang before eventually becoming a part of Team Rocket.
James has a rather odd and submissive personality as he regularly ends up complying with Meowth and Jessie’s schemes which often do not end in his favor.
He is also perhaps the only Team Rocket member who genuinely cares about Pokemon. James shares a close bond with his Pokemon as is evidenced by Victreebel and Mareanie’s displays of affection.
Shuu Tsukiyama
Series: Tokyo Ghoul
Number of Episodes: 48
Created By: Sui Ishida
Voice Artist: Mamoru Miyano(Japanese); J. Michael Tatum(English)
The purple-haired Shuu Tsukiyama may look like a gentleman at first glance but you couldn’t be more wrong. A ghoul of the 20th ward, he has such a reputation that even other ghouls don’t get involved with him.
He is considered to be one of the most difficult ghouls to capture because of his rich and powerful family. Shuu is fashionable, cunning, powerful and smart and often displays psychopathic tendencies. He also develops an obsession with Ken due to the latter’s unique human and ghoul identity.
In short, Shuu is dangerous and would kill anyone who becomes an obstacle in his path. And this is exactly why he is such a famous anime character.
Ayato Kirishima
Series: Tokyo Ghoul
Number of Episodes: 48
Created By: Sui Ishida
Voice Artist: Yuuki Kaji(Japanese); Todd Haberkorn(English)
Like Shuu Tsukiyama, Ayato Kirishima is also a character from the series Tokyo Ghoul. He is Touka’s younger brother and an executive in Aogiri. A teenager going through a rebellious phase, he resents his sister’s decision to live among humans. Thus, he is quite arrogant, cynical and aggressive i.e. the complete opposite of Touka.
Ayato later takes advantage of the fact that he is often confused with his sister who also wears a bunny mask. He adopts the identity of the “Black Rabbit” to take responsibility for her crimes. This troubled teenager also deeply hates humans particularly the CCG whom he holds responsible for his family’s destruction.
Kaname Tosen
Series: Bleach
Number of Episodes: 366
Created By: Tite Kubo
Voice Artist: Toshiyuki Morikawa(Japanese); David Rasner, Brian Palermo(English)
Kaname Tosen is the former 5th Seat officer of Squad 9 and its captain at the beginning of Bleach. He was born blind but uses his spiritual sense to “see” and wears his hair in purple braids. A serious pacifist, he fights only when he believes it is necessary to preserve justice.
Justice is something that Kaname is deeply interested in and is the main reason why he decided to become a Soul Reaper. Once he was modified by Aizen, he gained the powers of a Vizard and could now become an insect-like hollow and get back his sight.
9 Female Anime Characters with Purple Hair
Shinobu Kocho
Series: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
Number of Episodes: 55(as of November 2023)
Created By: Koyoharu Gotouge
Voice Artist: Saori Hayami(Japanese); Erika Harlacher(English)
Shinobu Kocho is a member of the Demon Slayer Corps and the current Insect Hashira succeeding her deceased sister. After losing her parents in a demon attack, she joined the organization to protect others from a similar fate.
As a person, Shinobu is cheerful, intelligent and cool-headed. Behind her constant smile, however, lies a deep rage for demons who took her loved ones away from her. Thus, she can unhesitatingly kill demons without showing any remorse.
She does so by wielding a deadly stinger katana that can inject a wisteria-based lethal poison to kill or incapacitate them.
Shinobu has, however, also shown herself to be capable of compassion when the situation calls for it. She empathized with Nezuko and Tanjiro after hearing their story and even offered to kill Nezuko painlessly with poison.
Kyoka Jiro
Series: My Hero Academia
Number of Episodes: 138+ 9 OVAs(as of March 2023)
Created By: Kouhei Hirokoshi
Voice Artist: Kei Shindo(Japanese); Trina Nishimura(English)
The hermit girl Kyoka Jiro from My Hero Academia is one of the most popular purple-haired anime characters. A student of class 1-A, she is a big fan of heavy metal and rock.
Her Quirk in the series is Earphone Jack which allows her to plug her extremely long earlobes to connect to seemingly anything to hear minuscule sounds and vibrations. She can also use them to channel the sound of her own heartbeat as sonic attacks to stun enemies.
Kyoka is a pragmatic and unenthusiastic person but she has a sarcastic side that only comes out in front of people she finds irritating such as Denki Kaminari. She can also be aggressive in using her Earphone Jack Quirk to punish people who provoke her or to keep them in line.
Though she may come across as indifferent and cold, Kyoka is quite sensitive deep down evidenced by her empathizing with others’ feelings and getting flustered whenever her talents are brought up.
Konan
Series: Naruto
Number of Episodes: 220
Created By: Masahi Kishimoto
Voice Artist: Atsuko Tanaka(Japanese); Dorothy Elias-Fahn(English)
Any list of anime characters with purple hair would be incomplete without Konan- the badass villain from Naruto. She is the only female ninja in the Akatsuki and a pupil of Jiraiya. Orphaned as a young child, she had to fend for herself until she was taken in by Jiraiya.
Under him, Konan learned to incorporate her natural talent with origami in her battle style. She can, thus, divide her body into countless sheets of paper and control and reshape them remotely to scout an area or form weapons for attack.
Konan is also known as “God’s Angel” among the villagers of Amegakure as she is the partner of Pain.
Faye Valentine
Series: Cowboy Bebop
Number of Episodes: 26
Created By: Keiko Nobumoto
Voice Artist: Megumi Hayashibara(Japanese); Wendee Lee(English)
Faye Valentine with her violet hair, bright yellow hot pants and red waistcoat is one of the most memorable female anime characters. She is a member of the bounty hunting crew and is actually 77 years old despite appearing to be in her early 20s.
This is because she was put into a cryogenic freeze after a space shuttle accident and then woke up in 2068 with perfect health but complete amnesia. Adept at flying and packing a powerful punch, Faye is more than capable of taking care of herself.
She is a sarcastic and presumptuous person who never trusts others and cheats and lies her way from one day to another. Beneath the tough exterior, however, lies a more delicate individual who was saddled with massive amounts of debt on waking up from her sleep in a world that she did not understand.
Faye learns to value her comrades by the end of the series realizing that Bebop is the only home she has and while her family there may be dysfunctional, it is the place where she will always belong.
Touka Kirishima
Series: Tokyo Ghoul
Number of Episodes: 48
Created By: Sui Ishida
Voice Artist: Sora Amamiya(Japanese); Brina Palencia(English)
Eighteen-year-old Touka Kirishima is a ghoul and a part-time waitress at Anteiku. She also regularly attends high school and is adept at blending in with human society. Mostly a calm person, she can be sometimes rash and aggressive stemming from her days as a fugitive.
Touka is a powerful fighter who becomes Ken’s training partner as well as his guide to the ghoul world. She is nicknamed Rabbit in the series because of her signature mask resembling the head of a white rabbit with pink hair that she always wears in combat.
Despite her hard life and aggression, Touka is a kind and self-aware girl who herself admits that killing people for revenge is wrong.
Yoruichi Shihouin
Series: Bleach
Number of Episodes: 366
Created By: Tite Kubo
Voice Artist: Satsuki Yukino, Shirou Saitou(Japanese); Wendee Lee, Anairis Quinones, Terrence Stone(English)
Yoruichi Shihouin from Bleach is certainly an interesting character. She is a woman who can transform into a black cat and speak with a male voice in that form. She has immense knowledge about the Soul Society and its working and is later revealed to be the former leader of the Stealth Forces and the ex-captain of the 2nd Division.
An intelligent and witty woman, she is the 22nd head of the Shihouin family which is one of the four noble families of the Soul Society. Yoruichi, however, tends to behave differently from other nobles such as preferring to be addressed by her first name and speaking in a dialect that is generally used by elders.
As a character, Yoruichi transgresses gender boundaries and blurs the lines between humans and animals. She is like a rogue hero who is hell-bent on doing the right thing at any cost.
Saeko Busujima
Series: Highschool of the Dead
Number of Episodes: 12+ OVA
Created By: Shouji Sato, Daisuke Sato
Voice Artist: Miyuki Sawashiro(Japanese); Taylor Hannah(English)
Grade 3-A’s Saeko Busujima is easily recognizable with her dark purple hair and blue eyes. She is the president of Fujimi High School’s kendo club and is highly skilled with a bokken as well as in hand-to-hand combat.
A calm and collected person, Saeko has immense confidence in her skills. She also possesses a great sense of honor and believes in keeping a promise even if it costs her life.
Throughout the series, Saeko struggles with her dark side which takes pleasure in inflicting pain on others. As such, she believes that she is no different than the zombies but eventually learns to accept herself the way she is with Takashi’s help.
Ultear Milkovich
Series: Fairy Tail
Number of Episodes: 328
Created By: Hiro Mashima
Voice Artist: Miyuki Sawashiro, Seiro Ogino(Japanese); Lydia Mackay, Kara Edwards, Mark Stoddard(English)
If you’re thinking that Ultear Milkovich is a fairy tale princess, then you couldn’t be more wrong. The daughter of Ur is a wicked witch and used to be a member of the Magic Council. She also used to be a part of the Grimoire Heart where she led the Seven Kin of Purgatory.
Often described in the series as manipulative and ruthless, Ultear is one hell of an ambitious woman. She has no issues with sacrificing lives to get what she wants, even going as far as to control children for her goals.
Ultear does not like her mother who she believes to be a weak woman who abandoned her daughter. Hence, she is determined to find and reawaken Zeref to use his power to travel to the past and take revenge on Ur.
Blair
Series: Soul Eater
Number of Episodes: 51
Created By: Atsushi Ohkubo
Voice Artist: Emiri Kato(Japanese); Leah Clark(English)
Blair from Soul Eater may look like a woman but she is actually a cat! A cat with strong magic power, she can take the form of an alluring woman among other spells.
She was once mistaken for a real witch by Maka and Soul because of her clothing. Blair survived their soul collection attempts thanks to her nine souls and ended up moving in with the duo. She loves to flirt with Soul who often gets nosebleeds due to her antics but he and Maka are generally able to tolerate her presence.
Blair is quite a fun-loving and affable person and not at all what you would expect a cat to be. She is good at understanding other people’s perspectives and shows kindness to those who are troubled.
Who has Purple Hair in Naruto?
Konan has light purple or lavender hair in Naruto. She is a female ninja in the Akatsuki who trained under Jiraiya. She was an antagonist in the series before allying with Naruto.
Apart from her, the Konohagakure Anbu Yugao Uzuki is also depicted as having purple hair. Orochimaru’s student Anko Mitarashi is another purple-haired Naruto character.