6 Best Female Tsundere Characters In Manhwa, Ranked

Highlights

• Tsundere characters are popular in comics, manhwa, and manhua, with male tsunderes being more common in Korean comics.
• Female tsundere characters in manhwa are refreshing, showcasing powerful positions and adorable personalities.
• These female characters go through significant character development, showing that even tsunderes have growth potential.

The tsundere character archetype is one of the most common in comics. Whether it’s manga, manhwa, or manhua, every reader loves a character who is cold on the outside and soft on the inside. Tsundere characters are seen in many instances, but they are most popularly seen as romantic interests.

A majority of the tsundere characters in Korean comics- manhwa tend to be males. This can be seen with more popular character tropes, like “the cold duke of the north” or the “tyrant emperor,” who are usually matched with the “sunshine” female characters. Audiences rarely see female tsundere in manhwa and when they do, it’s a pleasant breath of fresh air. This is because tsunderes can sometimes come off as frustrating with how annoying their actions can be, but the following females are far from that. These women hold powerful positions and know exactly how to command themselves, and their tsundere personalities come off as adorable rather than exhausting.

6 Miso Lee (My Boyfriend Is A God)

A Girl Scared Of Love, Loss, And Life

Life has just been one disaster after the next and Miso Lee is on her last thread. As a college student working three jobs whilst taking care of her eight-year-old nephew, she has not been dealt the best cards in life. She’s lost her parents and sister, and just when she asks for a little reprise in her life, a literal God falls at her feet. Loka has been sent from the God Realm, down to the Mortal Realm with his brother Vero, to fight for the position of the new Sun God. The twist here is that Miso is the reincarnation of the Fire Goddess – the very being who is responsible for choosing the next Sun God. My Boyfriend Is A God takes the classic tale of age-old love, sacrifice, and new beginnings and adds a bit of chaos and magic to it.

Miso can hardly believe how much her life has turned upside down ever since she met Loka, and now that her life is also on the line, there hasn’t been a break since. After the loss of her parents and sister, Miso has been living in guilt, shutting herself off from the world and only focusing on making sure Seojin (her nephew) has the best things available to him. She’s awkward, loud, brash, and has a bit of a temper, which is also why she finds it very hard to convey her true feelings. It’s only when she gets closer to Loka does she then, in fact, approach situations calmly and truthfully. It takes a lot for her to get to this position and shows readers that even the most tsundere of girls have the potential for character development.

5 Clete (The Tyrant’s Guardian Is An Evil Witch)

A 400-Year-Old Witch That Is As Cold As Ice

Clete was an ordinary girl from Korea who died in a car accident. When she got reincarnated into the body of the evil witch from a novel she was reading, she knew her life had taken a drastic turn. Clete enters the novel at a good time, far ahead of her prophesied death, and so she spends the next 200 years lazing around until the so-called “tyrant” Alpen shows up at her door. But, the minute he does, Clete is absolutely lost for words because she now has the Emperor’s child to take care of, in a world she has barely learned anything about. Her only choice is to help raise him and imbue him with traits that will prevent him from killing her in the future.

A lot of readers may find The Tyrant’s Guardian Is An Evil Witch to be slightly controversial. When looking at this story from a modern view, the development of Clete’s and Alpen’s relationship can be a little weird. Clete initially begins her role as a motherly figure rather awkwardly, leaving most of Alpen’s upbringing to her butler, Edmund. It’s only when Alpen reaches maturity and expresses himself that he never views Clete as his mother, does things change. Clete has always been a tsundere, finding it extremely hard to truly express her feelings as even a simple smile can come off as terrifying. She has no idea how to regulate her emotions properly and, despite being alive for 200 years, each time she’s rendered speechless, her immediate reaction is to do the opposite of what she’s feeling.

4 Sabina De Bonnefit / Bina (Empress Of Another World)

Stuck In An Unknown World With Only Herself To Trust

After dropping into a new world completely different from her own, Sabina is sold off as a concubine to a lecherous seventy-year-old Emperor. She’s just about to be forced into consummating the marriage when the Emperor is assassinated in front of her by his son. Bina recognizes the assassin as the Emperor’s son, Lucretius, who seems to have it out for the entire royal family. She and Lucretius then decide to work together to disguise their alibis, but when the news comes out the next day, Bina is shocked to have been proposed to by Lucretius himself. She pretty much has no choice but to accept him, since he’s the lesser of two evils in the palace and her only hope of getting back to modern-day Korea.

Bina in Empress of Another World is as real as a female lead can get. She’s expressive, aggressive, and extremely smart. All she wants is to survive, and she’s brave enough to do anything to make sure she can. But as readers come to understand her character and see her interactions in the story, there is a lot to unpack in her personality. It’s clear that she’s attracted to Lucretius, but her walls are so high that a majority of the time she hides her feelings from him. Lucretius is quite charming and forthcoming with his attraction towards her, and Bina can be the biggest tsundere each time he tries to woo her. Often blatantly ignoring him, brushing off his comments with an insult, or just pretending to change the topic.

3 Clea Rino (The Villainess’s Days Are Numbered)

She Has To Play The Cold Hearted Villainess To Survive Death

Dying and making a deal with the demon king puts Clea Rino’s life on a spin. She is to live in her body for six months and get married to the original Clea’s first love, Isaac Detroi. But there’s one downside – with every step she takes, she loses HP, and it’s a struggle to maintain her cool facade each time. Clea Rino can easily be described as a stone-cold wall, always hiding her feelings and rage behind her facade of “the villainess”. She has a part to play in The Villainess’s Days Are Numbered, and it’s to make sure Isaac doesn’t find out the real reason why she’s dying.

She’s also naturally closed off and never really expresses her true feelings due to her upbringing in modern-day Korea. It fits that she’s somewhat similar to the real Clea, which is why a lot of people around her do not notice a change in behavior. When it comes to love, she is as tsundere as one can get, only ever showing Isaac small bursts of appreciation and admiration when they’re alone. The same can also be said for her relationship with her brother since the two of them go from estranged to cordial.

2 Tara Elias (I’ll Save This Damned Family)

A Career Focused Secretary Who Doesn’t Care For Romance

Waking up as Tara Elias, our protagonist finds herself in the body of a character from a novel her colleague wrote. Tara is the reclusive fourth daughter of House Elias who has been shunned from her family and society. She’s overweight, clumsy, and known to have a stutter. In addition to that, House Elias is currently set on a path of destruction unless she uses her wits to save them. Her family is far from loving, but if she doesn’t help them, it’s her head on the chopping block as well.

Tara, like every transmigrator, is not the least bit happy about her situation. When she meets Prince Kyle, it somehow gets worse because not only does she have to deal with the sly looks of society, but also combat his wittiness. In the eyes of the reader, the two of them naturally complement each other, and if one looks closer, Tara is portrayed as the most realistic tsundere. She’s brash, aggressive, and can’t help but hide how attracted she is to Kyle. It’s exciting to see the two of them in I’ll Save This Damned Family, compete with each other which brings out versions of herself that make her flustered.

1 Cordelia Chase (Ending Maker)

Romeo x Juliet Trope In A Shounen Set Game World

Cordelia Chase is dropped into the land of Pleiades, an online MMORPG with no way of logging out. She ends up meeting Yuder Baeil, a fellow gaming friend and rival who has also reincarnated into this game world. They are ten years in the past and since they’re in the bodies of their chosen characters, they also live the same lives and have to follow the same customs. Cordelia and Yuder’s houses have them set to marry, but the two of them are focused on making sure the game has a good ending.

Cordelia and Yuder in Ending Maker portray the perfect kind of chemistry between characters who start from being rivals and eventually grow to care for each other. Their banter perfectly surmounts each of their personalities and Cordelia is adorable in everything she does. She’s the type of female lead that readers love to see. She’s strong, independent, and can easily hold her own in a fight. Cordelia’s adorable side comes out during her arguments with Yuder about the most mundane things – always trying to act tough and hiding what she really feels from him. Her tsundere nature isn’t overly annoying and just the right amount for readers to fall in love with!