Let’s be real for a second. You sit down, tablet pen in hand or a fresh sheet of paper staring you down, and suddenly every single character you’ve ever loved vanishes from your brain. It's the artist's curse. Picking anime characters to draw feels like it should be the easy part, but when you're actually trying to improve your line work or understand how the heck a neck connects to a torso, the choice matters. A lot.
Most people start with something way too hard. They try to sketch Goku in Ultra Instinct mode with seventy-five different energy auras and wonder why it looks like a pile of spiky laundry. Stop doing that to yourself. Honestly, the "best" character isn't just about who is the coolest in the current season of Jujutsu Kaisen. It’s about who matches your current skill level while pushing you just enough to not quit out of frustration.
Drawing is hard. Seriously.
Why Some Characters Are Secretly Teaching You Anatomy
You might think drawing Saitama from One Punch Man is a "cheat" because he's bald. You're wrong. He’s actually one of the most brilliant anime characters to draw if you want to master head shapes and expressions. Without hair to hide behind, you have to get the cranium right. If the skull is off by even a few millimeters, he looks like a thumb. That’s the nuance. Beginners often use big, fluffy hair as a crutch to hide bad proportions, but characters with simpler designs force you to face the music.
Think about Monkey D. Luffy. Early One Piece style is deceptively simple. It’s all circles and rubbery limbs. But if you look at the work of Eiichiro Oda, the way Luffy’s weight shifts when he’s about to throw a punch is a masterclass in "squash and stretch" principles used in professional animation. If you can draw Luffy and make him look like he actually has momentum, you’re ahead of 90% of hobbyists.
Then there’s the detail trap. You see a character like Alucard from Hellsing and think, "Yeah, I want to draw that cool coat." But clothes have physics. Folds in fabric follow gravity and the shape of the body underneath. If you don't understand the "mannequin" underneath the clothes, your character will look like a cardboard cutout. This is why many art teachers, like those at the Tokyo Communication Arts (TCA) vocational school, emphasize drawing the skeletal structure before adding the fancy capes.
Breaking Down the Difficulty Curve
Not all protagonists are created equal. Some are literally designed to be easy for animators to draw thousands of times, while others are a nightmare of over-design.
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The Starter Tier: Getting Your Feet Wet
- Pikachu or Kirby: Don't roll your eyes. These are basically geometric shapes with personalities. If you can't draw a perfect circle or an oval, you can't draw a human face. Start here.
- Anya Forger (Spy x Family): She’s great because her design is centered on "chibi" proportions. Her head is massive compared to her body, which is a great way to practice placing eyes on a face without worrying about complex muscle groups. Plus, her hair ornaments give you specific "anchor points" to practice symmetry.
- L (Death Note): He’s basically a slouching rectangle. Because his clothes are baggy and his hair is messy, you can get away with a lot of mistakes. He’s the ultimate confidence booster for someone who just started a week ago.
The Intermediate Jump: Structure and Flow
Once you’re bored of circles, you need to look at characters like Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist. Why him? Because of the automail. Drawing mechanical parts is a brutal, honest way to learn perspective. If the joints don't line up, the arm won't "work" visually. It teaches you that every part of a character has a purpose.
Naruto Uzumaki is another weirdly specific challenge. Those goggles he wore in the very first chapters? Masashi Kishimoto famously stopped making him wear them because they were too hard to draw repeatedly. If you want to test your patience with perspective and symmetry, try drawing those original goggles at an angle. It’s a rite of passage.
The Problem with "Pretty" Characters
We all want to draw Go-jo or Makima. They’re aesthetic. They look great on Instagram. But there’s a trap here. "Pretty" characters often rely on very subtle facial features. In the art world, this is sometimes called "Same Face Syndrome." If you only practice drawing characters who look like supermodels, you never learn how to draw different ages, weights, or ethnicities.
Try drawing Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop. He has a beard, a scar, a mechanical arm, and a very distinct nose shape. He’s got "character" in his face. Or look at the cast of Golden Kamuy. The creator, Satoru Noda, puts an incredible amount of detail into facial structures that aren't just "generic anime boy." Drawing these kinds of anime characters to draw builds a mental library of features that makes your original art way more interesting later on.
It’s easy to hide a lack of skill behind a cool outfit. It’s much harder to make a face look "real" within an anime style.
Action Poses and the Geometry of Cool
If you want to get those "Discover-worthy" sketches, you have to move away from the static standing pose. Nobody wants to see another drawing of a character standing with their hands in their pockets. Boring.
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Look at Demon Slayer. The "breathing" styles aren't just cool effects; they follow the path of the sword. When you draw Tanjiro performing a Water Surface Slice, the water trail is a guide for the viewer's eye. This is called "Line of Action." If your line of action is a straight vertical, the drawing is stiff. If it’s a dynamic "S" curve, it feels alive.
Reference the work of animator Yoh Yoshinari (of Little Witch Academia fame). His sketches are legendary because they feel like they’re bursting out of the frame. Even if you’re just doing a rough sketch, try to find the "force" in the pose. Where is the weight? If Bakugo is setting off an explosion, his whole body should be recoiling from the blast. His center of gravity needs to be low.
Digital vs. Traditional: Does it Change Who You Should Pick?
If you're on a tablet, you have the luxury of layers. You can trace the basic skeletons of anime characters to draw and then hide that layer. This is a massive advantage for learning. You can literally "see" how a pro artist like Yusuke Murata (One Punch Man manga) builds a torso.
On paper? You have to be more deliberate. There is no Ctrl+Z. If you're drawing traditionally, I actually recommend starting with characters from Studio Ghibli films like Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away. Hayao Miyazaki’s designs are grounded. They feel "heavy." There’s a certain organic quality to his line work that translates beautifully to pencil and ink. You aren't fighting with neon colors or digital gradients; you're just focused on the soul of the character.
Mastering the "Eyes" - The Soul of the Style
You can identify an anime just by the eyes. Clannad eyes look nothing like Attack on Titan eyes. If you’re struggling, do a "style study." Take one character, like Sailor Moon, and try drawing her in five different styles. Draw her in the Dragon Ball Z style. Draw her in the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure style.
This forces you to deconstruct what makes a style work. Is it the heavy ink lines? Is it the way the highlights are placed in the pupils? Most people think "anime" is one single style, but it’s a massive spectrum. Experimenting with these variations is how you eventually find your own "voice" as an artist.
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Practical Steps to Level Up Your Art Today
Don't just read about it. Do it. But do it smartly.
First, pick a character that actually interests you, but look at their "Model Sheet." These are the official turnaround references used by animators. You can find them on sites like Sakugabooru or by searching "settei" (the Japanese word for these design sheets). They show the character from the front, side, and back. This is the holy grail for learning how a character exists in 3D space.
Second, set a timer. Give yourself ten minutes to gesture sketch a character. Don't worry about the face or the fingers. Just get the pose. Then, do a thirty-minute version where you add the clothes. Then, a two-hour version where you do the "final" lines. This "speed training" stops you from obsessing over one eye for four hours while the rest of the body looks like a potato.
Third, use real-life references alongside your anime references. If you're drawing Zoro from One Piece holding a sword, look at a photo of a real person holding a broomstick. See how the wrist bends? The anime might stylize it, but the physics are based on reality.
Lastly, stop comparing your "Day 1" to someone else's "Year 10." Even the creators of the biggest shows started with terrible sketches that they’d probably be embarrassed to show you now. The goal isn't to be perfect; it's to be slightly better than you were yesterday. Pick a character, grab a pen, and just start the first line. The rest will follow as long as you keep the momentum going.