Anko Mitarashi

is a tokubetsu jōnin who teaches at Konohagakure's Academy.

Background
When she was a genin, Anko was on a team led by Orochimaru. Their team took part in the Chūnin Exams; during the second round, they confronted a team consisting of Hayate Gekkō, Ibiki Morino, and Tokara. Orochimaru took a strong interest in Anko, teaching her several of his signature jutsu and, in the anime, what he'd learned about immortality. Orochimaru eventually used Anko as a test subject for his Cursed Seal of Heaven. Of the ten subjects, Anko was the only survivor.

In the anime, Anko refused to continue following Orochimaru after she received her cursed seal. Unwilling to kill her because she was so valuable as a research subject, Orochimaru altered Anko's memory so she would believe she'd been abandoned for lacking the ideal drive to fuel the cursed seal. She ever after held a grudge against Orochimaru for what he did and believed it was her responsibility, as his former student, to stop his criminal actions.

Personality
Anko is noted to be similar to Naruto Uzumaki, both being loud, stubborn, and prone to acting without thinking. Naruto himself is somewhat unsettled by her because, when he mocked her during their first meeting, her immediate response was to throw a kunai at him and lick the blood from his resulting wound. Despite her personality quirks, Anko has a strong commitment to her village and mission, often choosing to face threats alone in order to buy time for her allies to escape or for backup to arrive. This is particularly true in matters relating to Orochimaru: although she admired him when she was a child and aspired to be like him when she was older, she now believes it is her obligation to use the same jutsu he taught her to bring him to justice. The Third Hokage insists that Anko shouldn't blame herself for anything that Orochimaru does.

Appearance
Anko is a fairly tall woman who was of slender frame. She has light brown, pupil-less eyes. Her hair - black with a blue tint in the manga and violet in the anime - is styled in a short, spiky, fanned-ponytail. She usually wears a fitted mesh body suit that covers her from her neck down to her thighs. Over this she typically wears a tan overcoat with a purple in-seam and a pocket on each side, a dark orange mini-skirt, a dark blue belt, and pale grey shin guards. In addition to the typical forehead protector, she also wears a small pendant that looks like a snake fang and a wrist watch.

As a child, Anko wore a sleeveless fishnet mesh shirt, fishnet armbands that reach to her elbows, dark shorts, and knee-length boots. Though during her time as a preteen when following Orochimaru in the anime, she instead wears a brown-red t-shirt with bracelets, white-shorts and fishnet leggings. Years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, she put on a large amount of weight and starts wearing red lipstick. Her mesh body suit is replaced with an orange blouse with a white coat cape over it.

Abilities
Being a tokubetsu jōnin, Anko is indeed a highly skilled kunoichi. Even as a child, her talent gained the attention of Orochimaru who would take her up as his disciple. A decade after the Fourth Shinobi World War, she was considered a legendary kunoichi.

Under Orochimaru's wing, she was taught many of his own abilities, such as summoning snakes, as well as kinjutsu, such as the Twin Snakes Mutual Death Technique, a murder-suicide technique. In the anime, it was stated that she built up an immunity to poisons with Orochimaru's help. She was also the first surviving recipient of his Cursed Seal of Heaven, which appears as three tomoe at the back of her neck. Though it flares up from time to time in its attempt to encourage her to use it, she refrains from doing so. It is eventually removed from her body following the Fourth Shinobi World War.

Anko has rather impressive aim, able to make a perfect Konoha symbol out of dango sticks without even looking. She has excellent tracking skills, being placed in charge of a team tasked with finding Kabuto Yakushi. In the anime, she could also use Fire Release to perform the Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique, and Yin Release for genjutsu to place her targets in a state of confusion.

Chūnin Exams
Anko proctors the second stage of the Chūnin Exams held in Konoha. She breaks into the room where the first stage was held and showily introduces herself to the assembled genin. When she realises that she entered too soon, she tries deflecting blame by instead reprimanding the first stage's proctor, Ibiki Morino, for how many genin were allowed to pass to the second stage. She leads the genin to the Forest of Death where she explains the rules for the second stage and the dangers they'll face in the forest. She attacks Naruto Uzumaki with a kunai when he suggests she's exaggerating, only for the kunai to be returned to her by Shiore, a Kusa-nin.

Shortly after the second stage gets underway, Anko is alerted to the discovery of three dead Kusa-nin, among them Shiore. From examining the bodies it becomes clear to her that they've been dead for some time and, because they're all missing their faces, she concludes that Orochimaru has infiltrated the Chūnin Exams. She orders that the Third Hokage be informed of what's happened, that two teams of Anbu be deployed, and then goes in to the forest to find Orochimaru on her own. She locates him shortly after nightfall and tries to use the Twin Snakes Mutual Death Technique on him, only to discover at the last moment that she's been attacking a shadow clone. He reactivates her dormant Cursed Seal of Heaven, immobilising her with the pain, and warns her not to cancel the Chūnin Exams before departing.

Despite the pain, Anko is eventually able to reach the centre of the Forest of Death. The Third Hokage treats her cursed seal and, after hearing what's happened, speculates that Orochimaru is after Sasuke Uchiha, who Orochimaru has branded with another Cursed Seal of Heaven. Anko tries to argue that Sasuke be removed from the exams and placed under guard, but the Third insists the exams continue per Orochimaru's instructions. During the preliminary matches, Anko stays by the Third's side, informing him of the participants' particulars; she is amazed by Sasuke's control of his cursed seal during his match.

A month after the preliminaries, as the final round matches near and it becomes increasingly clear that Orochimaru means ill to Konoha, Anko tries to apologise to the Third for her failure to kill him. She also rues over the death of the Fourth Hokage, believing he could have stopped Orochimaru, but the Third tells her to neither blame herself nor to dwell on the dead. In the anime, around the same time, Naruto approaches her while she's at her favourite Dango Shop to ask her about the "Fourth Hokage's legacy". When he eats one of her dango without permission, she attacks him and chases him away.

Konoha Crush
In the anime, Anko assists in the evacuation of Konoha's civilians to the Hokage Rock during the invasion of Konoha. She later attends the Third Hokage's funeral.

Sasuke Recovery Mission
In the anime, Anko attends the Fifth Hokage's inauguration. Shortly after that, she and the other Chūnin Exam proctors are present for Shikamaru Nara's promotion to chūnin.

Kurosuki Family Removal Mission
In the anime, Anko meets with the Fifth Hokage after completing an escort mission in the Land of Swamps. She absent-mindedly eats the Hokage's last dango, frightening Shizune.

Kaima Capture Mission
In the anime, Konoha is hired to protect a shipping convoy in the Land of the Sea. Because this is the same country where Anko received her cursed seal from Orochimaru, the Hokage puts Anko in charge of the mission, hoping it will help her regain her memories of what happened there. After the Kaima Capture Team completes their mission, Anko locates the lab where Orochimaru carried out his experiments and remembers that he didn't abandon her but that rather she left him. She is happy by the truth.

Akatsuki Suppression Mission
In the anime, Anko attends Asuma Sarutobi's funeral.

Itachi Pursuit Mission
In the anime, Anko is on a mission with Mozuku and Iwashi when she senses something behind her. She attacks it with a kunai and finds it's a white snake, giving her an ominous feeling about Orochimaru.

Pain's Assault
Anko leads the Infiltration and Reconnaissance Party, charged with finding Kabuto Yakushi, a former subordinate of Orochimaru. Shortly after Sai is able to locate Kabuto, Yamato is forced to return to Konoha.

Fourth Shinobi World War: Countdown
Although Yamato is gone and Sai also returns to Konoha, a restaffed Reconnaissance Party continues to track Kabuto. They eventually come across three dead Takigakure ninja. From the bite marks on their necks it becomes clear to Anko that Kabuto has gained control of Orochimaru's powers, but she wonders why he's leaving behind bodies for them to find. Wary of a trap, they follow the trail of bodies to the Mountains' Graveyard. Tokuma Hyūga‎ scouts the area with his Byakugan and reports that Kabuto is in the company of Tobi. Believing they have found the Akatsuki base, Anko immediately sends word of their discovery to Konoha, only briefly wondering why Kabuto would lead them there.

Fourth Shinobi World War: Confrontation
Anko and her team continue to monitor the Mountains' Graveyard. When Muta Aburame detects the mobilisation of the White Zetsu Army, Anko instructs her team to inform the Allied Shinobi Forces while she goes after Kabuto. She tries to sneak up on Kabuto and attack him, but is quickly defeated. Tobi orders that Kabuto kill her, but he instead keeps her comatose, siphoning the chakra from her cursed seal to strengthen his Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation.

Fourth Shinobi World War: Climax
After Kabuto is defeated by Sasuke Uchiha, Anko's unconscious body is found by Jūgo. Wishing to speak with Orochimaru, Sasuke uses the Evil Releasing Method to revive Orochimaru from her cursed seal, causing her cursed seal to disappear in the process. Anko remains unconscious throughout the ordeal and they leave her behind.

Kaguya Ōtsutsuki Strikes
In the anime, in the aftermath of the Fourth Shinobi World War, Anko attends the mass funeral held in Konoha.

Academy Arc
Ten years after the Fourth Shinobi World War ends, Anko becomes an instructor at Konoha's Academy. During the entrance ceremony, Anko and the other instructors were left mortified when Boruto Uzumaki crashes a train into the Hokage Rock. Two weeks later, when the students skipped Shino Aburame's class to watch a fight between Iwabee Yuino and Boruto, Anko gave the class a severe scolding afterwards. Later, Anko checked on Shino when he began pouting about how little respect his students seemed to have for him.

Later, when classes ended early because of the Five Kage Summit, she invites Chōchō Akimichi to the dango shop to eat some anmitsu.

School Trip Arc
In the anime, to improve relationships with other villages and symbolically show the warring era was over, the Seventh Hokage set up an official class trip for the Academy to go to Kirigakure. Anko joined Shino to watch over the class. Upon arriving, they were met with Kagura Karatachi, who was appointed by the Mizukage to act as the class' tour guide. The class was later taken to meet Chōjūrō, the Sixth Mizukage.

Later, Anko and Shino met with Mei to discuss the growing conflict between the Land of Water and neighbouring countries. As the Land of Water wishes to expand military power into the bordering seas, Mei feared that this could escalate into war again. Despite this, Mei assured them that Kirigakure was strongly against all this and that she with the Sixth Mizukage would work to prevent it all.

Graduation Arc
During the practical and final test of the graduation exam, the class was brought to the training field. There, the entire class was set up to face Anko, Shino, and Konohamaru for 24 hours. While the teachers would still evaluate the students' respective improvements, the students' true test was against Kakashi Hatake. The Sixth Hokage quickly explained that he would only pass the first student who is able to take the single bell attached to his hip. As the test began, Anko quickly caught many students in a genjutsu. She was then attacked by the Ino–Shika–Chō trio. While questioning their willingness to work together as there could only be one winner in the test, they insisted that it was more practical to work team up for now. Anko smirked at their choice. As she began overwhelming the trio with her snake techniques, they were soon aided by more of their friends to face Anko. Ultimately, Anko defeated and subdued the group of students.

Later that night, following a plan from Boruto, the remaining students rescued their fellow classmates and managed to incapacitate Anko. By the end of the test, despite no one getting the bell from Kakashi, the Sixth Hokage chose to pass everyone as they succeeded in the true goal of the test; team-work and loyalty.

Video Games
In Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations, and Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution, Anko is a support-only character. In the Ultimate Ninja games, Anko has the ability to go into Curse Seal Mode instead of Ultimate Mode when facing Orochimaru. She also makes an appearance as non-playable cameo in the story Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, when her Cursed Seal is used by Sasuke to revive Orochimaru.

Trivia

 * is derived from the sweet red bean paste used in popular Japanese sweets such as dango, while her family name comes from mitarashi syrup that usually goes with dango.
 * In an interview included with Naruto Anime Profiles, Vol. 1, Kishimoto states that Anko is his favourite female character, due to her "relationship with Orochimaru".
 * Anko's highest ranking in the Naruto Character Popularity Polls was eleventh place in the first poll.
 * Studio Pierrot's Settei sheets of Anko show that she was 141 cm at her Chūnin Exams when she was first part of Orochimaru's genin team, 143 cm a year or so later.
 * According to the databook(s):
 * She likes conducting tea ceremonies as a hobby.
 * Anko wishes to fight Orochimaru.
 * Anko's favourite foods are sweet bean soup and dango. Her least favourite type of food is spicy-tasting food.
 * Her favourite phrase is.
 * Anko has completed 647 official missions in total: 72 D-rank, 86 C-rank, 398 B-rank, 89 A-rank, 2 S-rank.
 * In the anime, a dream version of Anko was part of Root and was one of its best members, alongside Yūgao Uzuki, Hayate Gekkō, and Sai. She wore a mixture of her own clothing and the standard-issue Anbu uniform, including a black hooded cloak and an asymmetrical black and white mask.

Quotes

 * (To Naruto) "Tough guys like you usually leave their blood all over this forest."
 * (To Orochimaru, before engaging him) "This is no time to reminisce, you’re an S-class criminal, top of the most wanted list. You've got to be taken down, and it's only fitting that I'm the one to do it. 'Cause after all, you're the one that taught me everything, right, Sensei?"