Shrine maidens, orMiko,are used as a popular trope across a wide variety of anime genres. Sometimes Miko find themselves in that role after a series of turbulent events, like Nanami Momozono inKamisama Kiss, or they are born into it like Mitzuha Miyamizu inYour Name.
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In real life, Miko are priestesses that maintainShintoshrines, performing the well-known Kagura Dance as well as other spiritual and non-spiritual tasks. They often dress in red Hakama and white Haori, and are portrayed as having mystical powers like the sight, or other psychic abilities. This trope is comparable to nun-characters in Western media.
9Rei Hino,Sailor Moon
Rei Hino, also known as Sailor Mars, is one of the most iconic shrine maidens in anime history. She is portrayed as straight-laced and wary of men, which is quite traditional to the Miko trope.
Rei wears ared and white Sailor uniformthat is reminiscent of the traditional red and white Miko uniform that she often wears. When she’s not at school, or protecting the solar system, Rei takes care of the Hikawa shrine with her grandfather.
8Kaede,InuYasha
When Kagome falls through the well she meets an elderly Miko by the name of Kaede. Kaede wears the traditional Miko garb and an eye patch, carrying a bow and arrow when necessary.
Kaede is a special shrine maiden because she doesn’t satisfy the “young and beautiful” cliche that many shrine maiden characters fall into. She is a fierce priestess that fights demons and maintains the shrine that Kagome’s family lives on many years in the future.
7Kaho Mizuki,Cardcaptor Sakura
Kaho Mizuki is a mysterious supporting character in the iconic magical girls animeCarcaptor Sakura.Although she is only in 18 episodes of the 1998-2000 animation, Kaho Mizuki is an iconic Miko through and through.
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She takes on many of the classic Miko abilities such as clairvoyance and aura reading. Her debut is in episode 25, “Two Sakuras,” or chapter 10 in the manga.
6Saya Kisaragi,Blood-C
What do you get when you put together high school girls, monster slaying,shrine maidens and katanas? The answer isBlood-C. Although this is part of theBloodfranchise, includingBlood +, their stories are unrelated.
Kisaragi Saya is a classic high school aged Miko by day, and a badass slayer of “Elder Bairns” by night. Saya isBuffy-esc in her ability to fight blood-sucking monsters and protect her small town, but she also leads a normal school and teenaged life.
5Mitzuha Miyamizu,Your Name
Mitzuha Miyamizu challenges the Miko trope by reluctantly performing her duties and longing for a world outside her small town. When she startsswitching bodies with Taki Tachinbanashe experiences freedom like never before.
Although she is a reluctant Miko, Mitzuha understands the importance of her duties, and how they once tied her family together. Unfortunately, her father doesn’t support the maintenance of the shrine, and her family lives separately with Mitzuha and her sister living with their grandmother at the shrine, and their father living in town.
4Hiro Segawa,A Couple Of Cuckoos
Hiro Segawa is one of the many potential suitors forA Couple of Cuckoosmale leadNagi Umino. She is introduced to the audience as the top student of Megurogawa High School and Nagi’s long time crush.
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While it might seem funny to include Hiro on a list of iconic shrine maidens, it’s important to remember that Hiro marks one of the first miko to play a large role in an anime of the 2020s. She has the potential of being the miko of the decade, depending on what else comes out in the next few years.
3Nanami Momozono,Kamisama Kiss
WhenNanami is left with nothing, she finds herself sitting on a park bench with a mysterious man named Mikage who gives her access to a run down shrine where she can live as long as she maintains the grounds as a Land God.
Although Mikage is technically the Land God, she falls into the trope of a Miko because she is the caretaker of a Shinto shrine. She cleans the grounds, performs the Kagura dance, and takes care of the spirits inhabiting the shrine.
2Miaka Yuki,Fushigi Yuugi
Unlike any other anime on this list (unless you countInuYashaas an isekai)Fushigi Yuugiis an isekai, and a classic one at that. Miaki is thrown into a fantastical world inside a book where she becomes the priestess of Suzaku.
Miaka is somewhat atypical in her portrayal of a Miko. She is a priestess to Suzaku, the God of Love, instead of to a traditional Shinto shrine. While this makes her different from other Miko characters, she is a young priestess nonetheless.
1Kikyou,InuYasha
Dressed in red hakama and white haori throughout the majority of the anime, Kikyou is the peak image of a Miko. Fromerly the guardian ofthe Sacred Jewel, Kikyou lived a complicated life prior to her death and resurrection. Although Kikyou makes her debut in a flashback during the first episode, it is not until episode 15 that her resurrection is attempted.
