One of the most common settings to have the main character of an anime exist in isan academic one, whether it be university, or more typically, during the midst of high school. It’s a perfect way to frame a young protagonist’s life and show either the struggles between them and their peers, or act as a reprieve from when they are doing more dangerous things on a grander scale, such as planning to conquer the world.
Some of the best protagonists also happen to be some of the smartest students around, their academic talents translating into the aforementioned grander scale plans. Here are 5 of the most intelligent student characters in anime.
5Lelouch vi Brittania
Zero
At the start of Lelouch’s series, we see that he is an unfocused but undoubtedly intelligent student. He skips lessons to play chess against rich elites, sometimes gambling on the matches for fun simply because he is so confident in his ability to beat them. It’s not completely shocking that a person like this is given the ability to convince anyone to do it once in their lifetime, he was always going to change the very world that he knew.Throughout Code Geass, we see Lelouch use his Geass ability to manipulate minds and have them do his bidding, all in the name of achieving his goal in crushing the Britannian Empire.
But it’s not just the superhuman ability he was granted that helps him.It’s his intelligence. At multiple points, Lelouch is able to use a recording to fool an opponent that he was presently talking to them, predicting everything they might say and timing responses, distracting with the video as the real him enacts another plan. One time this was against a mind reader, and another time against his brother, who could be considered an improved version of him, two incredibly impressive opponents.
In a final gambit at the end of the series, Lelouch fools the world into thinking he was a horrible dictator who was ripped off of the throne, creating a temporary world peace and a brighter world for his little sister in his best plan of them all.
4Yuichi Katagiri
The Tomodachi Game Master
Before the main plot of Tomodachi Game kicks in, Yuichi Katagiri seems like an average, if not mediocre, student. He is shown to be struggling to even stay awake in class, his grades slipping due to how much he has to work out of school just to earn money.
But when he and his schoolmates find themselves in a debt game that pits friend against friend at the risk of losing a lot of money, Yuichi’s true nature comes out. His true nature is that of amanipulative machiavellian menacewho can scheme with the best of them and has an endless supply of mental tricks and traps to spring upon anyone who tests him and his friends. His main goal is to win all the Tomodachi Games, climb his way to the top, and destroy the system itself. And throughout the anime and manga, he seems to be capable of doing just that, never seeming to be on the backfoot for too long, no matter who he comes up against.
It doesn’t matter if you are an expert swindler, a young genius, or a monster of a person with exceptional instincts, Yuichi will use his natural intelligence and the skills he learnt from his dark past to outplay you every single time.
3Light Yagami
Kira
Potentially the first character that comes to mind when thinking about an incredibly intelligent student character in anime. Before Light had access to the Death Note where he could write down the names of criminals and clean up a world he wanted to become the god of, he was stilla person with exceptional potential.
Light wasn’t exaggerating when he called himself one of Japan’s best and brightest. He was always at the top of his class at high school, and when he entered university he was the freshman representative, having scored perfectly on the entrance exams. Light is such a smart student that he is not only able to evade police capture, but he is actively able to infiltrate their ranks and manipulate them throughout the series, even with the world’s greatest detective constantly breathing down his neck. As smart as L Lawliet was, and as sure as he was that Light was Kira, he could not prove it nor convince anyone else of that fact before his death, because Light was simply too good.
If it wasn’t for Light’s ego getting in the way,he might have gotten away with it allby the series' end.
2Saiki K
The Stoic Psychic
Although Saiki K is somewhat of a gag character, he deserves to be discussed among the smartest anime students by nature of his being. The humor of the plot at the heart of the Disastrous Life of Saiki K is how unfathomably bored he is due to beinga powerful psychic, and how his friends who he won’t admit to himself he truly loves won’t stop bothering him, with the pink-haired stoic always having to fix their messes.
Saiki K’s brain allows him to do and know absolutely anything, seeing as how he can read anyone’s mind. As long as they don’t think too fast or happen to have a brain empty of thoughts at all, as is the case with his slow-witted ‘best buddy’ Nendou Riki. With this ability, Saiki K may not be able to enjoy watching movies at the cinema due to constantly being spoiled, but he is able to get whatever grade he wants to get on a test.
Unfortunately, Saiki K doesn’t seem to have any grand ambitions. Most of the intelligence he has as a result of his psychic powers is used to either avoid his friends when they are annoying him or fixing whatever hilariously inane problem they seem to have in that episode. Still, he’s a clever young man.
1Kiyotaka Ayanokoji
The White Room Prodigy
The name Ayanokoji of Kiyotaka Ayanokojiroughly translates to a small road of exquisite design, a fitting name for this type of character. Because Ayanokoji was designed with many intricacies, that’s what makes him such an intelligent character. He was part of a system known as the White Room intended to take children who have average genetics and turn them into exceptionally competent future leaders of Japan.
But despite both of his parents being seemingly average, Ayanokoji was a sort of anomaly. A genetic anomaly in which he was born with perfect memory and retention, allowing him to learn and improve in any field he puts his mind to. Ayanokoji was a legend of the White Room, one of, if not the best ever students to be a part of it. After escaping the White Room, he ends up in Advanced Nurturing High School, an environment just as competitive that we see him dominate throughout the story of Classroom of the Elite whilst barely trying.
Some intelligent anime characters have a plan for everything. But Ayanokoji has a plan B for his plan A, a Plan C.1 and C.2 for both and on and on, his mind and body being an endless well of potential that allows him to beat everyone that stands in the way of his goals. Throughout the series, he proves to be the perfect player.
