10 Amazing ESFP Anime Characters
Have you ever found yourself watching an anime and wondering whether any of the characters have your Myers-Briggs® personality type? Today we’re taking a look at ten of the most prominent ESFP anime characters of all time. I hope you enjoy this article and maybe even find some new shows to try out!
Disclaimer: As an MBTI® practitioner, I can’t exactly sit down with these characters and give them a thorough typing consultation. These typings are based on information I gathered from the TV series and/or mangas, but, as with all fictional typings, they can never be perfect. If you have an alternate suggestion let me know in the comments!
Table of contents
- 10 Amazing ESFP Anime Characters
- #1 – Naruto Uzumaki from Naruto
- #2 – Sasha Braus from Attack on Titan
- #3 – Shoyo Hinata from Haikyuu!!
- #4 – Yuji Itadori from Jujutsu Kaisen
- #5 – Mina Ashido from My Hero Academia
- #6 – Don from The Promised Neverland
- #7 – Gon Freecss from Hunter X Hunter
- #8 – Ejiro Kirishima from My Hero Academia
- #9 – Son Goku from Dragon Ball Z
- #10 – Inosuke Hashibira from Demon Slayer
- Other Articles You Might Enjoy:
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
10 Amazing ESFP Anime Characters
#1 – Naruto Uzumaki from Naruto
“If you don’t like your destiny, don’t accept it. Instead, have the courage to change it the way you want it to be.” – Naruto Uzumaki
Easy-going and cheerful, Naruto has the impulsive, fun-loving energy that often surrounds ESFPs. Like many ESFPs, in early life Naruto is often driven by his impulses – grabbing opportunities in the moment and rushing into things without a lot of forethought. But as the series progresses, so does his personality. With age and maturity, Naruto starts to become more serious, reflective, and wise. This aligns with the ESFP’s journey. ESFPs develop their Extraverted Sensation side early in life, seeing opportunities, responding to their environment, and noticing details quickly. As they enter their teens they start to develop their Introverted Feeling side which means that they think more before acting and take more time to decide whether their actions align with their values. Overall, Naruto is probably the most famous ESFP anime character you’ll ever come across.
#2 – Sasha Braus from Attack on Titan
“You seriously don’t know why human beings eat potatoes?”– Sasha Braus
Friendly, fun-loving, and….hungry. Sasha brings humor, quirkiness, and fun into an otherwise serious, intense, and melancholy series. Even though much is made of her impulsive, food-loving nature, she’s also clever, quick to respond to a crisis, and grounded in the reality of the world around her. Even when times get hard she’s thinking about the next opportunity she can enjoy, even if it just means having a delicious slab of meat. She embodies the “champion” ESFP well, risking her life to protect others on many occasions.
#3 – Shoyo Hinata from Haikyuu!!
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Shoyo Hinata
Every team underestimates Hinata, considering him too short to be a threat. Yet his athletic prowess and passion make him a shockingly intimidating opponent. Everything Hinata does comes from a place of pure emotional intensity and physical awareness. He craves the thrill and challenge of the game and rather than getting depressed by the “powerhouse” players, he gets excited by seeing them. He never wants to get bored, he always wants to try something new, push himself further, and prove to the world that his short stature won’t stop him from being the best.
#4 – Yuji Itadori from Jujutsu Kaisen
“I don’t know how I’ll feel when I’m dead, but I don’t want to regret the way I lived.” – Yuji Itadori
Full of energy and enthusiasm, Yuji Itadori captures all the charisma and friendliness of the ESFP type. Like most Se-dominant types, he’s quick to jump into action in make-or-break situations. He responds rapidly to any incoming changes or surprises, doing whatever it takes to protect his friends. Itadori was like this even before he harnessed cursed energy, so it’s not a purely supernatural ability. He is also deeply curious about Jujutsu sorcery and is a quick physical learner, gaining knowledge through real-world experience and trial-and-error. Like most ESFPs, he is in touch with his environment and knows how to manipulate it to his advantage during hand-to-hand combat situations. Also like most ESFPs, he has a strong need to stay aligned to his ideals and sense of right or wrong. To Itadori giving people the opportunities to have “proper deaths” is a crucial part of his mission.
#5 – Mina Ashido from My Hero Academia
“The old you is not going anywhere with that emo look on your face! If you overcome that gloomy self of yours…let me know!” – Mina Ashido
Enthusiastic and playful, Mina Ashido loves to dance, shop, spend time with her friends, and protect the world from villains. While she may seem all fun and games with her friends, she can be an intimidating foe on the battlefield and a surprisingly courageous hero. Like most ESFPs, she has a strong sense of right and wrong and will put her life on the line to do what she feels is right. She can react quickly to incoming information, take in a lot of detailed information, and assess situations on the spot to use her acid quirk to its best advantage.
#6 – Don from The Promised Neverland
“Emma and Norman, you both tried to trick us and take us out into a world full of enemies? You’re kidding me! Are we that much of a burden? Are we that weak and useless to us that you feel the need to protect us? That time, when you asked us to help you, I thought you were relying on us. Was that a lie? We’re not as smart as you three. We’re not, but still aren’t we family? Aren’t we siblings? I just want you to have a little faith in us!” – Don
Energetic and devoted, Don will do whatever it takes to keep his younger siblings safe at Grace Field House and beyond. Of course, he can sometimes be too reckless and impulsive, but his heart is in the right place as he struggles to contain his growing feelings of helplessness and despair. More than anything, he wants his family to be safe and he wants there to be no secrets between him and Emma, Norman, and Ray. As the series progresses, we see Don become more in touch with his inferior intuition and tertiary thinking sides – thinking of the long-term implications, taking charge, and leading in difficult situations.
#7 – Gon Freecss from Hunter X Hunter
“If you want to get to know someone, find out what makes them angry.” – Gon Freecss
Determined and friendly, Gon is driven by a determination to find his father and understand his motivations. In typical ESFP fashion, Gon is willing to take risks in support of his cause. Even when facing much more powerful villains, he maintains his confidence, knowing that there’s no point in shirking back when he has even the slightest chance to win. Gon also has some of the weaknesses of the younger ESFP, impulsively acting on his feelings without thinking through the long-term consequences of what he’s about to do. When he’s calm, Gon can think very creatively and respond rationally to what he’s facing. His ability to think clearly under stress is something that Sensing-Perceiving types are famous for.
#8 – Ejiro Kirishima from My Hero Academia
“Yo, you there!! You bullying an underclassman for cheap change?! And you call yourselves men!?” – Ejiro Kirishima
My personal favorite MHA character, Eijiro is a supportive and enthusiastic friend to everyone at UA High. Quick to take action and defend his classmates, he’s willing to go to extremes to stand up for what he believes in. It’s especially important to Eijiro to be noble, brave, dauntless, and selfless. He tailors his life around these things, often being moved to tears when he can see people demonstrating such traits. As a healthy ESFP, Eijiro strives to be honest and kind, defending others and trying as hard as possible to be like his personal hero, Red Riot.
#9 – Son Goku from Dragon Ball Z
“When I see somebody who’s that strong, my heart starts racing because I realize I still have farther to go. It makes me want to train myself even harder, to push myself to their level.” – Son Goku
Like most ESFPs, Goku lives in the moment without theorizing or speculating about what could happen in the future. Staying in the present so he can keep his wits about him is vital to his skill as a warrior. He loves a challenge, quickly getting bored if there isn’t one in his life. That said, he has very particular ethics that he adheres to – avoiding killing his opponents if at all possible and trying to avoid hurting anyone by using only the necessary amount of strength. He has a sense of righteous indignation when people violate his core values, vowing to never forgive those who have crossed a line. His Fi is evident in his self-awareness, yet he tends to be less immediately responsive to the more overt feelings of others.
#10 – Inosuke Hashibira from Demon Slayer
“We’re comrades…and like brothers. So if someone starts to stray from the path, we all stop him. No matter how hard or painful it is, we walk the right path.” – Inosuke Hashibira
If I were to judge purely by appearances, it would be easy for me to think that Inosuke is an ESTP. He’s spontaneous, blunt, and quick to act. That said, when one looks closer at his motivations and convictions (particularly in the manga series) it’s easy to see more Introverted Feeling and Extraverted Thinking than Introverted Thinking and Extraverted Feeling (what you’d find with an ESTP). Inosuke has an intense, passionate personality and, especially early on, is ready to pick a fight with just about anyone. This is to be expected since he was literally raised in the wild. Rather than the more detached, logical approach of the ESTP, Inosuke acts on his feelings, determined to live up to his internal views of himself as the strongest and best demon slayer of all. Fearless and strong, he’ll do anything to prove himself to others – even when it hurts. For Inosuke, his objective is to be recognized for his individual skills and abilities while simultaneously fighting the demons who murdered his mother.
Other Articles You Might Enjoy:
10 Amazing ENFP Anime Characters
10 Amazing ESTP Anime Characters
10 Amazing ISFP Anime Characters
Here’s the Anime Character You’d Be, Based On Your Myers-Briggs® Personality Type
What Are Your Thoughts?
Do you agree with these typings or have any alternate perspectives? Let us (and other readers) know in the comments! Find out more about your personality type in our eBooks, Discovering You: Unlocking the Power of Personality Type, The INFJ – Understanding the Mystic, and The INFP – Understanding the Dreamer. You can also connect with me via Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Want to discover more about personality type? Get the inside scoop with Susan Storm on all things typological, along with special subscriber freebies, and discounts on new eBooks and courses! Join our newsletter today!
Most of these are mistypes. Goku, Naruto and Gon Freecss are all ENFPs and Ne dom. Read my post here why, some better ESFP examples are Brook, Joey Wheeler, Knuckle Bine, and Kuwabara. Check out my ENFP anime characters post here why for my arguments:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ENFP/comments/osv9u4/ochaco_uraraka_enfp_the_bubbly_airheaded_innocent/
I sent the wrong link, my bad. Here’s my ENFP Anime characters post here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ENFP/comments/hdakhy/enfp_anime_characters/
I wanna say I think Naruto is ENFP instead of ESFP which means Ne dom instead of Se dom.
I can understand people are confusing Ne and Se because they are looking at online descriptions of Ne and Se. However there are a lot of misconceptions online… On the original book Psychological Types created by Carl Jung we can see the clear difference between Ne and Se and I will make my argument based on the original text.
Ne and Se can look alike one another, because both of them are extraverted perception functions, so they love to interact with the external world, the world around them. Characteristics like impulsivity or reckless can be applied to both Ne and Se, both of them are avid explorers, be either of sensations (Se) or possibilities (Ne). That’s why a lot of Ne doms usually are eneagrams 7, which constantly seek new experiences, challenges and can have problems with impatience and impulsiveness.The main difference between Ne and Se is that:
1. Se looks at the external objects as what it is, concretely, realistically.
2. Ne looks at the external object as what it could be, as what it could become, expectancy, potentials, possibilities.
That main difference between Se and Ne makes Ne more Idealistic and Se more Realistic by consequence.And before people start to say that “it is just a stereotype”, let’s take a look at what Carl Jung says in his original book: Psychological Types.
Extraverted Sensation) “No other human type can equal the extraverted sensation type in realism.”~ Carl Jung
Extraverted Intuition) “He actually has sensations, but he is not guided by them per se, merely using them as directing-points for his distant vision.”~ Carl Jung
ℹ️ The question is pretty simple: Is Naruto a Realist or he is a person that uses the world around him as directing-points for his distant vision?
The answer is pretty obvious if we look at this main difference between Se and Ne. Naruto is not a Realist at all. Naruto is all about believing in possibilities.
Why?
Because
1️⃣ Naruto believes the world will become better even with all of the quintessential war of nations that constantly happen.
2️⃣ Naruto believes potential cold-blooded murderers like Gaara, Pain, Obito, etc will change their behavior and stop to act so badly.
3️⃣ Naruto believes the war will stop to happen.
4️⃣ Naruto believes Sasuke will stop to be so cold and revengeful.
5️⃣ Naruto believes he will take out all the hate inside Kurama as well: “Some day I’ll come after all the hate inside you as well ❤️“
6️⃣ Naruto believes Sasuke will come back to Konoha
7️⃣ Naruto even believes he will change the Hyuuga clan to a better version.
8️⃣ And finally, Naruto believes he will become a Hokage
Like, to name another example… When Naruto was questioned by Pain about how he would end the cycle of hatred, Naruto’s answer was to simply ask him to believe in the fact that he’ll find a way to bring true peace to the world. The history of shinobi shows that the peace they built rested on sacrifices, yet Naruto believed he would achieve peace with nothing more than words. Naruto is overly idealistic.
That’s why we love Naruto, right? He does not accept the world as it is by being a Realist. Naruto is the opposite, he believes in a world with better possibilities.
Naruto absolutely is not a realist (Se), he is a possibility-minded person (Ne) which turns him into that idealistic dreamer personality full of hope of a world better than it is now. What could be > What it is. This is the core of Naruto’s personality and can be shown from Classic to Shippuden.
Also, Carl Jung already explicitly wrote what Se thinks about ideals related to ideas.
Extraverted Sensation) “His ideal is the actual¹; in this respect he is considerate. He has no ideals related to ideas”
~ Carl Jung, Psychological Types
actual¹: “existing in fact; typically as contrasted with what was intended, expected, or believed.”
~ Oxford Languages
It speaks for itself… How could we believe this is the dominating function for Uzumaki Naruto?
No ideals related to ideas?!
Also, some people argue all of this strong idealistic nature of Naruto comes from his Fi aux… well, that’s not how Fi works. It is not the auxiliary Fi the one that makes Naruto idealistic in a way that makes him believe in better possibilities. Yes, Fi has strong authentic opinions and believes in unconscious images, but they keep it for themselves in a silent and cold attitude and has no interest in influencing others regarding his beliefs, like Jung said 👇
Introverted Feeling) “They reveal a delightful repose, a sympathetic parallelism, which has no desire to affect others, either to impress, influence, or change them in any way.”, “They neither shine nor reveal themselves. Since they submit the control of their lives to their subjectively orientated feeling”, “They are mostly silent, inaccessible, and hard to understand”
~ Carl Jung, Psychological Types
It is the dominating Ne that makes the person keeps talking about his ideals, talking about better possibilities and inspiring others in believing in a world with better possibilities. It is the dominating Ne that irradiates the enthusiasm around better possibilities and influence others by the enthusiasm as a consequence. And this is not stereotype. It actually is totally aligned with Carl Jung’s description of Extraverted Intuition👇
Extraverted Intuition) “His capacity to inspire his fellow-men with courage, or to kindle enthusiasm for something new, is unrivalled, although he may have forsworn it by the morrow. The more powerful and vivid his intuition, the more is his subject fused and blended with the divined possibility. He animates it; he presents it in plastic shape and with convincing fire; he almost embodies it. It is not a mere histrionic display, but a fate.”
~ Carl Jung, Psychological Types
👆🏻This is totally Naruto when he starts to think in better possibilities like the 8 examples I showed above… Naruto’s personality is grounded on this characteristic of Ne…
I believe there are a lot of misconceptions online regarding ENFP x ESFP and regarding Ne x Se and I want to point what Carl Jung himself has to say about Ne and Se.
Cheers!