The world of Japanese animation has characters of all sorts, from adventurers and heroes to model students and everything in between. Some anime characters don’t have the patience or the literacy to read a book, but other characters take great pride in their academic prowess and their personal libraries.
Books, both fiction and nonfiction, can open someone up to whole new worlds of thought, and some anime characters are noted for always carrying books around or reciting passages from their favorite volumes. Some of these characters embody the classic “shy library girl” anime tropes, while other anime bookworms are totally different. One way or another, these characters are always known for keeping literature close to their heart.
10 Levy McGarden Has A Huge Libary To Browse (Fairy Tail)
Levy McGarden is a support wizard in the esteemed Fairy Tail guild, and she has a good reputation for her sharp wits and her love of reading. Levy loves spending time in the guildhall’s vast underground library, and she has helped Natsu and Lucy research all kinds of things in there.
Levy’s Solid Script magical style is a clear allusion to her love of literature, and Levy even has enchanted glasses that allow her to read at incredible speeds to research something during a battle. She sometimes lends spare readers to Lucy if she needs a little backup.
9 Miyuki Shirogane Always Hits The Books (Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War)
The student council president, Miyuki Shirogane, probably isn’t planning on a career as a librarian or an author, but he does appreciate the power of nonfiction and studying all the same. He is sometimes seen with a small book in hand, so he can get a little extra studying done in between classes.
Miyuki is a fanatical student, eagerly studying anything and everything to get perfect grades and maintain his good reputation at school. He’s not a library lover, but he does respect literature greatly, and he’ll read anything if it keeps his grades up …or if it gives him an idea on how to outwit Kaguya Shinomiya.
8 Wan Shi Tong Owns A Massive Library (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
Wan Shi Tong is a massive owl-like spirit who claims to know ten thousand things, and in traditional Chinese culture, “ten thousand” is a way of saying “everything.” Judging by the size of Wan Shi Tong’s library, this stern spirit really does know everything …except for how radios work, based on his conversation with Jinora.
Wan Shi Tong takes great pride in that massive library of his, and he demands that all guests pay a toll not with money or blood but with knowledge of their own, such as textbooks or scrolls. However, Wan Shi Tong has noted that humans such as Admiral Zhao tend to use his library to wage war, not benefit the world.
7 Edward Elric often Seeks Out Libraries (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)
Edward Elric is a state alchemist, and he gets grant money so he can conduct his own research. Like Miyuki Shirogane, Ed tends to study not because it’s a hobby, but because it’s a good way to keep his mind sharp and prepare him for whatever lays ahead. Ed has great respect for literature and scholars.
Edward tends to visit libraries in any city or town he visits, so he can keep researching the Philosopher’s Stone, history, transmutation circles, and other topics, and Alphonse usually tags along. He also studied Shou Tucker’s personal library exhaustively, and he once complained that his hometown, Resembool, didn’t have his own library.
6 Tenya Iida Has Hundreds Of Volumes In His Dorm (My Hero Academia)
Momo Yaoyrozu has the distinction of being class 1-A’s smartest student overall, but not even she takes books as seriously as her friend Tenya Iida does. Tenya is very smart too, as his glasses and his disciplined attitude suggest. And he’s got the books to prove it.
Tenya showed off the dozens of hardcover books in his bedroom, neatly organized on some shelves. Ochaco was actually rather intimidated by this, but Tenya thought it was no big deal, and he stated that he wanted to keep his mind sharp. And books are the key.
5 Lieutenant Nanao Ise Carries A Huge Book Around (Bleach)
Lieutenant Nanao Ise belonged to squad 8 for a time, serving under Captain Shunsui Kyoraku until the two of them switched to squad 1 in the wake of Yamamoto’s death. Nanao is content to blend into the background, but if people are misbehaving, such as Kyoraku, she’ll rap their knuckles, pretty much literally.
Nanao doesn’t carry a zanpakuto around, but she does have a thick book, which she usually tucks under an arm or holds close to her chest. She’s not afraid to whack people on the head with it, but otherwise, she is a studious and smart person who lets her paperwork do the talking.
4 Gorimi Guards The School Library (Komi Can’t Communicate)
Gorimi is a minor character in the charming slice-of-life series Komi Can’t Communicate, and she has appeared a few more times in the original manga. Gorimi is by far the series’ biggest and strongest character, and she completely turns the “shy library girl” trope on her head.
Rather than being a shy wallflower, Gorimi is a stern and humorless character who will whack anyone on the head if they disturb the sacred silence of the school library. The general rule is “three strikes and you’re out,” and Najimi has struck out more than once. Even Tadano and Komi have felt the wrath of Gorimi and her love of the library.
3 Zenji Marui Studies Cuisine All Day Long (Food Wars!)
Many student chefs in the series Food Wars! have their own style or gimmick, from gastronomy to spices and wild game, and Zenji Marui’s cooking style is based on, of all things, books. His technique is average at most, but he has studied cuisine more than almost any other student at Totsuki.
Zenji has studied just about everything about cooking and ingredients, and with that huge body of knowledge, he can adjust his mind to any challenge and cook something to please the judges. Academically, Zenji has no blind spots at all.
2 Shigure Sohma Reads & Writes All Kinds Of Things (Fruits Basket)
Shigure Sohma is known for a number of things, from being the Dog of the Sohma family zodiac curse to being unexpectedly shrewd and well-informed when it comes to the family’s internal politics and affairs. He is also quite active in the literary world.
Shigure’s room is packed with books and manuscripts, and he no doubt reads a lot so he can fuel his literary career and find inspiration. Amusingly, he tends to frazzle and annoy his poor editor, and Tohru Honda, the heroine, feels bad for her. That poor editor just wants to get Shigure’s manuscript on time.
1 Shiori Shinomiya Is A Classic Library Girl (The World God Only Knows)
While Gorimi humorously subverts the “shy library girl” trope in Komi Can’t Communicate, Shiori Shinomiya embodies the classic trope, and that made her a unique challenge for the hero Keima Katsuragi. Keima had to charm this girl and win her heart, right there in her literary home turf.
Shiori has some social anxiety and cannot easily hold a conversation. So, she spends her spare time in the school library and loses herself in literature, and she always feels relaxed when connecting with those books and their contents. After Keima completed his quest with her and restored her soul, Shiori gained some much-needed confidence.
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