Welcome back, friends! 👋 This is our fourth journey down the road to discovering the top anime characters born in the month of… series. Specifically, I am identifying the top anime characters born during the month of March. This is a special month as it is an equinox which we can only experience three other months out of the year.
Specifically, this is the month, depending on where you live, where folks begin to experience the crisp nights of fall or begin to welcome the awakening of spring. This month serves as the first month of the hanami or flower viewing season in Japan. In the southern hemisphere, countries like Brazil are wrapping up their carnival festivities. Whether closing out summer or winter, March is the one time of the year when Pisceans and Tauruses share the same month in celebrating their birth anniversary.
According to Western astrology, folks born to these signs are reliable, patient, practical, wise, and intuitive but they can also be a bit stubborn and temperamental. Anime fans can see similar astrological traits in characters with March birthdays. Manga and anime creators instilled these same qualities in their characters’ personalities. Don’t believe me… well, just take a look for yourself as we survey anime’s favorite characters born this month.
As with my previous installments, identifying ten exemplary anime characters born in March was an elephantine task. Just as before, I sifted through various ranking sites and polled friends to define ten characters most of us would agree are outstanding. This was made more difficult as I had to try very hard to curtail my personal biases in order to get a balanced list. With the occasionally heated discussion among friends, I was able to carve out a pretty good list of anime characters born this month. As the prior articles, my list attempts to give equal time to both male and female characters who, according to their creators, have birthdays in March.
As you read this article, I would like to know if I overlooked one of your favorite anime or manga characters born in March. Leave a comment below and let me know your picks.
10. Erina Nakiri (Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma)
- Birthday: March 23
Slice of life and shōnen anime are rife with tsundere waifus and husbandos but rarely do these characters get much agency outside their stereotypical trope. Refreshingly, our tenth entry is the exception rather than the rule in this regard.
Erina Nakiri is a student at the prestigious Tōtsuki Culinary Academy and former 10th seat on the school’s Elite Ten Council. Due to her upbringing and culinary abilities, Erina wears an outward air of superiority resulting in few relationships among her peers. These attributes collide and manifest as anger whenever she receives constructive criticism about her cuisine or personality. In contrast, she is very much a teenage girl who loves reading shōjo manga and who desires to have meaningful friendships whenever away from peers.
Alice Nakiri and Sōma Yukihira serve as a driving force behind Erina’s evolution from an entitled prodigy to a heroine within the Food Wars! saga. With Erina Nakiri, Yūto Tsukuda created a dynamic character enjoyed by manga and anime fans as evidenced by her placement within our top character list.
Fun Fact – MyWaifuList viewer polling identifies Erina Nakiri as the top vote-getter for female anime characters born in March.
9. Kayo Hinazuki (Boku dake ga Inai Machi)
- Birthday: 2 March 1977
In my personal opinion, there are very few anime characters that dig as deep into one’s emotional psyche as much as our ninth entry. Kayo Hinazuki, a disconnected schoolgirl, is one of three victims of a serial killer and serves as the catalyst for Satoru Fujinuma journey to change their fates.
Kayo comes from an abusive single-parent household, leading to self-isolation. This manifests itself in her desire to be people-free and blunt to those she’s forced to interact with. Although she has an abrasive personality, Satoru comes to understand that Kayo’s façade hides some deep emotional scars. With each ‘Revival,” Kayo’s character evolves to trust that the protagonist is someone who is kind and can be an honest friend. Their trusted partnership leads to them ending the cycle of revivals. As the story concludes, we are able to rejoice in the fact that this character was able to finally find contentment in their life.
I believe Kayo Hinazuki is a well-developed character who serves as our emotional hook to one of anime’s best mystery series. Having made it to this list, I’m happy to see that anime and manga fans agree.
Fun Fact – Kayo Hinazuki’s child is named Mirai, which translates to “The Future.”
8. Shiemi Moriyama (Ao no Exorcist)
- Birthday: March 6
Shifting focus away from the tragic girl to dandere, our eighth anime character born in March comes from one of my personal favorite anime series… Ao no Exorcist or Blue Exorcist.
Shiemi Moriyama is a pure-hearted, nature-loving girl who lives a sheltered life. When we first meet Shiemi, she lives with her grandmother and is sheltered from the outside world. She spends her days gardening, brewing tea, and helping around her grandmother’s apothecary. Shiemi has a talent for accurately identifying a person’s illness and blending the appropriate medicinal herbs to treat the inflicted.
Her limited worldview changes upon meeting Rin Okumura. Shiemi decides to exchange her tranquil home life to attend the chaotic environment at True Cross Academy in order to become an Exorcist. While attending the Academy, she demonstrates exceptionalism by summoning an infant Greenman spirit during her first Taming lesson.
Shiemi Moriyama is a talented asset within the Blue Exorcist’s arsenal and the cutest girl entry for favorite anime characters born this month.
7. Norman (Yakusoku no Neverland)
- Birthday: March 21, 2034
Although this season is turning into a hot mess, The Promised Neverland’s manga and season one of the anime are great suspense adventures. The high point of both mediums is Kaiu Shirai’s character development. This brings me to the seventh celebratory birthday offering for March…
Norman or 22194. Born in 2034, this frail child was sent to Grace Field House as a one-year-old. While at Grace Field, Norman was able to make up for his physical fragility by honing his mental acuity. This would cause his caretakers to classify Norman as “premium quality goods” behind Emma and Ray.
He demonstrates himself to be someone who listens to others and formulates a response to maximize community benefit. This personality trait leads Norman to sacrifice himself so his friends could escape the farm. However, his caretakers have different plans and ship Norman off to facility Λ7214. He would come to understand the purpose of the demons and why the children are important. With this knowledge, Norman leads an uprising and leads to the freedom of his fellow inmates.
Whether the manga or anime, we get to experience Norman’s growth from a passive leader to someone who becomes dynamic. This is why fans have fallen in love with this character and why Norman comfortably rests at number seven on our list.
6. Ryūnosuke Tanaka (Haikyū!!)
- Birthday: March 3, 1996
In the United States, March signifies the start of the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s basketball tournament season, commonly referred to as March Madness. Across the nation, universities come together and compete in order to receive the title of the top collegiate team. Therefore, I find it fitting that our number sixth anime birthday comes from a sports anime whose premise is a team’s race to the top.
Ryūnosuke Tanaka is a wing spiker for the Karasuno High School Men’s Volleyball Team. Although he gives off the appearance of being a delinquent, this is one character who has a heart of gold both on and off the court. Ryūnosuke’s specialized volleyball techniques include the inner cross, straight spike, and jump service. Unsurprisingly, he is the only Karasuno team member to play every match from start to finish.
Upon graduating high school, Ryūnosuke became a personal trainer and married Kiyoko Shimizu. Kaori Nazuka, Kiyoko’s seiyū, counts Tanaka as her personal favorite character and I have to agree. Ryuu-chan is an entertaining, tour de force and a perfect entry for our birthday recognition for the first month of spring or fall… depending on where you live.
5. Sakura Haruno (Naruto)
- Birthday: March 28
Our fifth featured character is one who has polarized the anime community as to her status as a Naruto heroine to include the series production team.
Sakura Haruno, the only child of Mebuki and Kizashi Haruno, grew up in a caring household. However, her home life could not insulate young Sakura from becoming self-conscious about her physical appearance due to the taunting of childhood bullies. She was able to overcome these deep-seated insecurities through friendships and high academic achievement. Even though her ninja skills are average, Sakura’s mental acuity brought her to the doorstep to later become a medical-nin. She would eventually marry Sasuke Uchiha in the series and have a daughter, Sarada. Her personal mantra is “A life with love throughout!” and this is reflected in Sakura’s devotion to family and friends.
On 3 March 2000, the manga Naruto Uzumaki hit the shelves, and the world was introduced to Sakura Haruno. Twenty-one years later, anime and manga fans still care about Sakura regardless of whether or not they feel she’s a heroine. I join with Naruto fans everywhere to wish Sakura Haruno a Happy Birthday!
4. Sanji “Black-Leg” Vinsmoke (One Piece)
- Birthday: March 2, 1503
One Piece, currently, holds the distinction of being the fifth favorite shōnen of all time according to the website Ranker. Therefore, it should come as no surprise if a One Piece character makes it onto someone’s favorites in the anime list. This catalog of March birthdays is no exception as we feature Sanji Vinsmoke of the Straw Hat Pirates.
Born a prince of the Germa Kingdom, he would renounce his title and leave to take on the mantle of being a sous chef for “Red-Leg” Zeff. At the conclusion of the Baratie Arc, Sanji joined Monkey D. Luffy and the crew of the Going Merry. He serves as the ship’s cook and is capable of harnessing the “Black Leg Style” of martial arts when combatting enemies. This technique has given him considerable leg strength where his kicks have the force and ability to crush boulders. Sanji’s only major weakness is his nosebleeds whenever he gets around beautiful women like Nami, Robin, and Ishilly.
With our fourth entry being about a cook serving under a captain named Monkey, is surprising that Sanji’s birthday lands on National Banana Crème Pie Day?
3. Eren Yeager (Shingeki no Kyojin)
- Birthday: 30 March 835
Attack on Titan is a popular anime and manga so it should come as no surprise that Eren Yeager is our third entry. Born in the Shiganshina District, Eren is the only son of Dr. Grisha and Carla Yeager in addition to being the brother to his adopted sister Mikasa Ackerman.
His worldview has a childlike simplicity to it which causes his character to be passionately principled. This is evident as he idolizes the Survey Corps as protectors of the people while chastising the Military Police for letting people die. He later comes to understand that life ain’t that simple.
Following the death of his parents, he joins military service as a means to seek revenge against the Titans. Eren would go on to graduate tenth among the cadets in the 104th Training Corps. This achievement does little for his desire to become a member of the Survey Corps as Eren is assigned to clean artillery pieces along the wall. This assignment and its outcomes would turn the world of Attack on Titan along with anime fans on their head as we learn that nothing is as it appears. Currently, Eren has the largest Titan kill record among his peers.
Hajime Isayama created the well-defined protagonist with Eren Yeager listed within the top spots in fan-favorite polls and landing in our top three popular characters with birthdays in March.
2. Alphonse Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist)
- Birthday: March 19, 1900
Alphonse Elric or Al is our first of two entries for the Fullmetal Alchemist series. When the Elric boys were younger, he and his brother Edward attempted a Human Transmutation experiment. This disastrous effort lead Al’s body to evaporate so that he only exists as a soul alchemically bonded to a suit of steel armor.
The brothers travel the country helping people while searching for the Philosopher’s Stone, a magical item that could Al’s body to normal. Through their adventures, anime fans come to witness the yin and yang nature of the brother’s relationship. Edward is the impulsive and quick-to-battle brother while Alphonse is much more thoughtful and kind-hearted.
Al’s childlike wonder and faith in humanity shroud a deeper emotional maturity when contrasted against the act now, think later philosophy of his brother and the other Amestrain State Alchemists. Over the course of the brother’s travels, Alphonse’s caring nature is not strictly for humanity as he continually nurtures stray kittens.
When you consider that the series creators had to rely upon vocal inflection to demonstrate emotion, is it no wonder that anime fans have selected Alphonse Elric as our silver medalist for March.
Fun Fact – Alphonse comes in an episode of Hayate the Combat Butler when he is referenced by Nagi Sazenin, who shares Rie Kugimiya as their seiyū.
1. Roy Mustang (Fullmetal Alchemist)
- Birthday: March 25, 1885
Fullmetal Alchemist’s General Roy Mustang lands on our list at the preeminent position of top anime characters born in March. In the spirit of full disclosure… Roy Mustang is one of my favorite characters from the Fullmetal Alchemist series.
A hero of the Ishval Civil War, Roy commands State Alchemist assigned to the Amestrian State Military. His special skill is the ability to use Flame Alchemy. On the surface, he gives the appearance of being immature, selfish, and a notorious woman chaser. This thinly veiled exterior hides an intellectually reflective individual who is thoughtful and cares very deeply for those under his command and the public.
Roy’s favorite pastime includes playing chess. The General’s love for the game is evident by his referencing of subordinates by using calling them by the names of chess pieces, with a connotation of combat skill, usefulness, and personal links to him. His career objective is to become the Führer of Amestris, which serves as both the head of state as well as commander of the State Military.
General Roy Mustang’s leadership and alchemy skills are reason enough for him to own the top spot on our list.
Fun Fact – MyWaifuList viewer polling identifies Roy Mustang as the top vote-getter for male anime characters born in March.
u forgot about boruto
shut up