Green is often associated with nature, healing, and abundance. It symbolizes balance, equilibrium, youth, and fertility. But when it spins dark, it can also represent envy and jealousy.
In all forms of art, the color green has been used to indicate these emotions and feelings—and anime is no exception. In anime, this color is most commonly expressed in a character's hair color. Green hair is rare to see in real life, but not in anime.
Here are my picks for the best anime characters with green hair, whether there's a hidden meaning in the color, and why they're great.
15. Envy (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)
In Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the homunculus named Envy represents Father's envy. He's an evil being who uses his shape-shifting ability to spark hatred and mistrust in his victims, to point where he even caused the large-scale Ishval Civil War.
Despite his wicked personality, Envy is oftentimes seen joking around and acting silly around his fellow homunculi. While he resembles a teen in his human form, he can assume a monstrous form that presents as a huge reptile-like creature with several pairs of legs.
14. Kaede Kayano (Assassination Classroom)
In Assassination Classroom, Kaede Kayano is a Class 3-E student, the very class tasked with assassinating the invincible Korosensei.
She's appears as a sweet and cute young lady who's kind to everyone around her, especially her classmates. However, that's not who she really is deep down beneath the surface.
Out of revenge, she gets herself into the sinister tentacle-augmentation experiment. Then, later on, she reveals her true intentions: to kill Korosensei on her own to avenge her sister's death.
13. Senku Ishigami (Dr. Stone)
In Dr. Stone, Senku Ishigami is the hope of humanity in the post-apocalyptic Stone Age. His knowledge and skills are essential to rebuilding the world through the power of science.
Most impressively, he was able to create the revival fluid from scratch using nothing but his critical thinking ability and the resources available in the environment—and he accomplished all of this right after he was miraculously broken free from his own petrification.
With the help of his friends, little by little they start to bring back the lost technologies of the past, including antibiotics and electricity.
12. Tatsumaki (One Punch Man)
Tatsumaki is a female esper as well as an S-Rank Hero in the One Punch Man series. Though she has pretty annoying childish antics, she's still revered as one of humanity's best heroes.
She can send huge boulders and buildings up into the air with ease as if she were tossing pebbles. She also has telekinetic powers, which cause a green aura to envelope her, matching her green hair and outfit.
11. Maki Zenin (Jujutsu Kaisen)
Despite lacking the ability to see Curses, Maki Zenin is still a formidable fighter in Jujutsu Kaisen thanks to her undying will, her weapon expertise, and her special eyeglasses that let her see her targets.
She comes from the Zenin clan, which is one of the noble sorcerer clans in the series. However, she left that clan because she wanted to be more than what the clan wanted her to be.
She vowed to return back one day and become the next clan head. Until then, she's one of the best side characters in Jujutsu Kaisen!
10. Spike Spiegel (Cowboy Bebop)
Spike Spiegel is always seen as a lazy guy. He seems to be bored with almost everything around him.
However, his skills and experience make him an effective bounty hunter. Whenever he's on a mission that forces him to show us his true potential, you know it's going to be an action-packed sequence full of gunslinging, hand-to-hand combat, and more.
Spike happens to dislike dogs, kids, and women who have rude attitudes. Unfortunately, he's got all of those with him aboard the Bebop!
9. Gyutaro (Demon Slayer)
Gyutaro shares the rank of Upper Moon Six Demon with his sister Daki. He isn't present in the early parts of Demon Slayer, only showing himself after Daki gets decapitated (which was a total surprise for us viewers).
What makes Gyutaro so special is that he and his sister are immune to death by decapitation unless both of their heads are cut off. This turns the battle in the Entertainment District truly in their favor.
Gyutaro can protect his sister and fight alongside her by transferring one of his eyes into her forehead, allowing him to connect with Daki and coordinate their attacks.
When they were humans, Gyutaro vowed to protect his sister with his life. Now that they're demons, he still lives by that vow.
8. Eto (Tokyo Ghoul)
Eto is the first One-Eyed Ghoul and is the true Owl, born to a human mother (Ukina) and a ghoul father (Yoshimura). She's the founder and leader of Aogiri Tree, a terrorist organization of ghouls.
She's a powerful ghoul who has more than one "kakuhou" (a sac-like organ that only ghouls have) and her "kakuja" form is a terrifying monster with a vicious grin.
What's even more terrifying is how well she blends into human society. She's known as Sen Takatsuki, a renowned horror novelist who was previously mentioned in the series.
7. Zetsu (Naruto Shippuden)
Every Zetsu character was a victim of Kaguya Otsutsuki's Infinite Tsukuyomi: they were connected to the Divine Tree, which sucked out their life force and turned them into identical white beings.
The most iconic Zetsu of all was a member of the Akatsuki. This Zetsu was the one with whom Madara "infused" his will, turning his other half into what became known as Black Zetsu.
The two halves have different personalities: White Zetsu is jolly and carefree while Black Zetsu is rude and serious.
Though Zetsu lack battle powers, they do have special abilities like merging into the ground to quick-travel long distances and releasing spores that can spawn clones. These abilities come in handy for dirty work, including espionage and assassination.
6. Shintaro Midorima (Kuroko's Basketball)
In Kuroko's Basketball, Shintaro Midorima is one of the Generation of Miracles. He's a long-range shooter who never misses a shot.
His ability to shoot from anywhere on the court allows his team to score baskets without breaking a sweat. On top of his shooting prowess, Shintaro is also well-versed in ball handling and defense, as seen when he was able to block Kagami's shot.
Though he's a calm and serious individual, he believes in horoscopes and has the habit of bringing his "lucky item of the day" with him.
5. Baby Beel (Beelzebub)
Kaiser de Emperana Beelzebub IV (or simply Baby Beel) is the green-haired baby demon under the care of Tatsumi Oga.
Despite being a baby, Baby Beel has shown several powerful feats that are often triggered involuntarily, like when he's in distress. These feats include electrocuting his babysitters and flooding the town with his pee.
Baby Beel may be cute and sweet, but he's still ultimately a demon who's destined to drive humanity to extinction.
4. Izuku Midoriya (My Hero Academia)
Izuku Midoriya had an impossible dream: he wanted to be a hero even though he was born without a Quirk. He has no way to achieve that dream, but he still chases after he as hard as he can.
Fortunately, when a chance incident allows All Might (the world's greatest superhero) to witness his bravery and heroism, Izuku is chosen to be All Might's successor—and he inherits the One for All Quirk, which grants him an immense boost to his power.
Later on, it's revealed that the One for All Quirk has more to it than we first thought: it can store the Quirk Factors of its previous inheritors, which Izuku can tap into and use for himself.
3. Broly (Dragon Ball Z)
Back in the 1990s, there was a trilogy of Dragon Ball Z movies that featured a new antagonist in Broly.
At first glance, Broly looks like any other normal Saiyan. However, when he gets angry and loses control of himself, he turns into his Legendary Super Saiyan form with infinite power.
Unlike the ordinary Super Saiyan forms in Dragon Ball Z, Broly's hair turns green (instead of golden) and his aura is also green (instead of golden).
Furthermore, Broly is so powerful that he surpasses Goku and Vegeta, forcing them to use the Potara Fusion and fight together as Vegito.
2. Gon Freecss (Hunter X Hunter)
Gon Freecss is the protagonist of Hunter X Hunter, a young kid who aspires to become a professional Hunter just like his estranged father.
From the Hunter Exams to Greed Island, we follow his dangerous journey and witness him grow into a fine Hunter indeed.
However, as the series turns dark with the Chimera Ant Arc, so do his character developments. His motivations grow more mature and get mixed in with anger, revenge, and guilt.
Gon even experiences a drastic, sinister change when he surrenders his own life to attain devastating power—instant access to ten years worth of power—just to kill the enemy before him.
1. Zoro Roronoa (One Piece)
Zoro Roronoa is a fascinating character who's known for always getting lost. Due to his poor sense of direction, he gets sidetracked—and he's even made cameo appearances in other animes because of it!
Silliness aside, Zoro is one of the best characters in One Piece, being one of the wings of the future Pirate King, Monkey D. Luffy. He's a swordsman of the Straw Hat Pirates and one of the so-called "Monster Trio" along with Luffy and Sanji.
Not just a powerful character, Zoro is also loyal to his captain—to the point he'd even risk his life for Luffy. This was proven in the iconic scene where he takes all of Luffy's pain during the Thriller Bark Arc.