We opened Candy's Anime tab, chatted with Thalindra Sol-Kaelen, met Raven Thorne and Lilith Inferna, and built an anime character from scratch. Candy is where ready-made anime characters feel most alive.
By Wren Ashby
Candy AI is the pick if you want to meet a character, not build one. Its Anime tab opens on real scenes, the writing is the best we read, and the yearly plan at $3.99 a month is the cheapest Premium of the five.
Candy's anime characters have the strongest writing we read: each one opens on a scene and stays in character. The builder is simpler than OurDream's and pictures need Premium, but the price makes it easy to stay.
Candy AI is run by EverAI Limited, a company based in Malta, and claims 50 million users. It is mainly known for realistic companions, but it has a separate Anime tab with its own cast of original characters, and that tab is what this review is about.
We used a Candy account with an active plan, opened the Anime tab, and spent time with three of its best known characters. We also went through Create Character in anime mode, as a guest and then signed in, and read the subscription page. Below: what is free, who Candy suits, when to choose another platform, then every part of the product with a score.
One note on the catalog: Candy's realistic characters and its anime characters live in separate tabs. Everything on this site comes from the Anime tab, and every character we link to is a fictional adult aged 21 or older on her profile.
The Anime tab is open to everyone. You can browse the characters, open their profiles and start a chat on a free account, which is enough to read how each one opens the scene. That first impression is what sells Candy, so it is a fair test.
Pictures are where the free part ends. The Show me the scene buttons under the chat, Image and Video, belong to Premium, as do creating your own characters, unlimited text messages and the Live Action experience. Premium also adds 100 tokens a month, used for extras such as bringing a new character to life, which costs 10 tokens.
In our chats the free start covered a real conversation, not two lines. You will hit the limit sooner if you write long messages, so the best way to test is to open two or three characters and send each a few lines: you will know quickly which voice you like.
The plans are simple: one Premium tier, cheaper the longer you commit. Twelve months cost $3.99 a month, billed $47.88 a year. Three months cost $8.99 a month. One month costs $9.99 the first month, then $13.99. All of them include the same features; only the commitment changes.
So the moment you pay is easy to spot: when you want to see the scene you are in, or when you want to build your own character. If you only want to read and chat with the cast for an evening, the free account does the job.
If you compare free starts across the five platforms, Candy sits in the middle: more generous than Nectar or GirlfriendGPT for conversation, less than OurDream's 55 coins for pictures, and less than Joi for long free text chat. Its real advantage is that what you read for free is the product itself: the same characters, the same writing, the same scenes as on Premium.
| Plan | Price per month | Billed | Tokens |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 months | $3.99 | $47.88 a year | 100 a month |
| 3 months | $8.99 | every 3 months | 100 a month |
| 1 month | $9.99 first month | then $13.99 monthly | 100 a month |
The charge appears as EverAI on your bank statement, and you can cancel the subscription at any time in the settings.
Candy works best for these three profiles.
Candy is not the right first stop in two cases.
If you want deep control over your own character, OurDream's six step builder offers far more options, a real fantasy race list and 55 free coins to try it. If you never plan to pay, Joi's free text chat goes further on a confirmed account than Candy's free start.
A third case: if fantasy races matter most, an elf, an angel, a devil or a cyborg built in a few clicks, Nectar AI's builder is faster for that, with one plan at $4.99 a month billed yearly. Candy's elves exist, Thalindra and Caelith, but you meet them rather than build them.
Seven parts of the product, each with its own score out of 10 and the screenshot we took.
The Anime tab is a separate catalog with a banner, a search field and filter chips such as Big Boobs, Milf, Fantasy, Western, Submissive, Blond, Brunette and Teacher. Some characters carry a Series badge: they appear in Candy Shorts, short episodes built around the character.
The cast is original. There are no characters copied from existing anime, which is one reason we trust it. Ages are shown on every card, and the characters we cover are all 21 or older, from Iona, the limited edition android, to ageless ones like Lilith Inferna.
Two filters in that row are not for this site, and we skip them. Everything we recommend is found through Fantasy, Milf or the main list.
This is Candy's strongest point. Every character we opened starts with a scene rather than a greeting. Thalindra Sol-Kaelen is the third princess of the Gilded Glade and catches you trespassing; Raven Thorne smirks at you in an abandoned fairground; Marisol Diaz, the neighbour, fills her home with baked goods before things get warmer.
Profiles list age, body, occupation, hobbies and personality, so you know what you are getting before the first message. Our favourites for this site: Raven for goth, Lilith and Lira for succubus, Thalindra and Caelith Verdaine for elves, Iona and Genesi for androids.
The writing quality is consistent across the cast, which is rare. Even minor characters have a setting and a want, and none of them waits for you to carry the conversation.
We chatted with Thalindra Sol-Kaelen. Asked whether there was a toll for crossing her forest, she answered "A toll? Perhaps your freedom, human" and leaned in. When we bargained, she replied that we bargain like a fool, yet intrigue her, and pointed to the emerald depths beyond the balcony.
That is what Candy does well: replies that mix action, in italics, and dialogue, a clear voice for each character, and a memory of what you said a few messages earlier. The chat window also offers a voice call button and a gallery for each character.
On a free account the chat works the same way; the difference is the message allowance and the missing picture buttons.
Every character page has the same layout: the portrait gallery on the right, her description, and buttons for a voice call, her gallery and private content. The call button turns the chat into a spoken conversation in the character's voice, part of the Premium experience.
We liked that the profile tells you everything before you start: age, body, ethnicity, occupation, hobbies and personality keywords. For Raven Thorne that reads goth temptress, music and poetry, passionate and possessive. It sets expectations, and the chat delivers on them.
The gallery fills up as you ask for scenes, so a long chat becomes a small illustrated story of your evenings with her. On a free account the gallery shows what the character offers before you decide to pay.
Create Character starts with Girls or Trans, then Realistic or Anime. Then come ethnicity (Caucasian, Asian, Latina), hair style and color with eye color, body type and breast size, name and age, and a summary that adds an outfit, a personality and a relationship.
It takes about four minutes and the anime previews are accurate. Compared with OurDream there are fewer options: no fantasy races, fewer personality fields. For a goth, a vampire look or a kuudere you rely on hair, eyes and the personality pick.
Our tip: choose red or yellow eyes and black or white hair for the darker archetypes, and pick the age deliberately on the name screen; we always choose 21 or older.
After the summary Candy asks you to sign up, then shows the generated portrait with a Change Face option and the full list of choices. The last button, Bring my AI to life, uses 10 tokens and opens her profile and chat.
Creating your own character is listed among Premium benefits, and the tokens come from your monthly allowance. If you are on the fence, open the Anime tab first: a ready-made character may already match what you had in mind, and it costs nothing to talk to her.
The result page is also where you fix mistakes. Each choice in the summary can be changed, and Change Face redraws the portrait without starting over. Take a minute here: once she is in your list, the portrait is the face the Image and Video buttons will reuse in every scene.
Image and Video under the chat generate the current scene with the character's face. Premium also includes 18+ images and videos and the Live Action experience. Candy Shorts adds short episodes for characters with the Series badge, a way to watch rather than chat.
The pictures follow the conversation well: ask Thalindra for the balcony and you get the balcony. The anime style stays consistent with the portrait. Video is shorter and costs more of your allowance, so use it for the moments that matter.
A practical habit: ask for an image only when the scene changes, a new place or a new outfit, rather than after every message. The pictures are better when the chat has described the setting, and your allowance lasts longer. Shorts are a separate pleasure: you watch a character's episode, then open her chat and continue from there.
$3.99 a month billed yearly is the lowest yearly price of the five platforms we cover, with every Premium feature included. The three month plan at $8.99 a month is a fair middle ground; the monthly plan settles at $13.99 after a $9.99 first month.
The bank statement shows EverAI, a neutral name. Cancellation is in the settings and the subscription page states you can cancel at any time. Support and safety links, a Help Center and a Trust and Safety page, are in the menu.
Compared with the others, Candy is the easiest plan to understand: one Premium tier, three billing lengths, and tokens for extras. If you are unsure, the three month plan is a sensible test before committing to a year.
Candy's subscription page quotes long-time users: one says the chat "made me stick around" after nine months, another that the characters you make yourself are "the real diamonds", a third that new characters and content arrive weekly. The platform claims 50 million users and shows more than 1,000 ratings.
Those are Candy's own quotes. Our own chats matched the praise for the writing.
Our own experience lines up with those quotes on the writing. Where we disagree with the enthusiasm is the free account: it is a preview of the cast rather than a free plan, and the pictures that make Candy special are all on the paid side.
Candy AI scores 9.0: second only to OurDream overall, first for ready-made anime characters and first for yearly price. The Anime tab is the best curated catalog of the five, the characters open on real scenes, and Premium at $3.99 a month makes it easy to stay.
Our advice: open the Anime tab for free, talk to Raven Thorne or Thalindra Sol-Kaelen, and see if the writing pulls you in. If it does, take the 12 month plan. If you would rather design every detail of your own character, start with OurDream instead and keep Candy for its cast.
For this site's readers specifically, Candy is the best place to meet the archetypes we cover without building anything: goth with Raven Thorne and Elowen Hart, succubus with Lilith Inferna and Lira, elf with Thalindra and Caelith, android with Iona and Genesi, anime MILF with Marisol Diaz and Maya Alvares.
9.2/10
8.9/10
8.7/10
Written by
Wren Ashby @wrenashby
Anime fan from the Pacific Northwest who has spent the last couple of years testing AI girlfriend apps. Builds a character on every platform before writing a word about it.
How we testYou can browse the Anime tab and chat with characters on a free account, which is enough to judge the writing. Images, videos, your own characters and unlimited messages need Premium.
$3.99 a month on the 12 month plan, billed $47.88 a year; $8.99 a month on the 3 month plan; or $9.99 for the first month and then $13.99 monthly. Every plan includes 100 tokens a month.
Yes. A dedicated Anime tab lists original characters such as Raven Thorne, Lilith Inferna, Thalindra Sol-Kaelen, Iona and Marisol Diaz, with their age and opening scene. Users quoted on Candy's own page say new characters arrive weekly, and some come with Candy Shorts episodes.
Yes. Choose Anime on the first screen of Create Character, then ethnicity, hair and eyes, body, name and age. Bringing her to life costs 10 tokens, and creating characters is a Premium feature.
Tokens pay for extras on top of the subscription, such as bringing a new character to life for 10 tokens. Premium includes 100 tokens a month. Your token balance is shown at the top of the screen, next to your profile.
Characters with the Series badge appear in Candy Shorts, short episodes built around them. You can watch them in the Shorts section.
As EverAI, the Malta-based company behind Candy. The name does not mention AI companions.
Yes. The subscription page states you can cancel at any time in the settings.
Try OurDream free, 55 coins included
Our number one pick gives you 55 coins at sign-up, no card needed. Build your own anime girlfriend in six steps.
Open OurDream
Chat on Candy AI