# Manga with highly intelligent/genius characters?



## Saphira (Jan 10, 2014)

I need a manga with a genius type main character; actually, it doesn't even have to be the main character himself, as long as it belongs to the main cast. And when I say 'genius', I don't mean shitty characters like Shikamaru (who is all talk and no feats whatsoever), but rather someone like Koon form TOG, Yagami Light, L, etc.  

The problem with genius type characters, in my opinion, is that the character  itself can only be as intelligent as the author is. For example, SIU is a genius, he can develop intricate plots and strategies, whereas someone like Kishimoto would never be able to pull it off, that's why his so called genius characters fall short.

So, what I actually want, is a manga that focuses more on mind games, strategies, interwoven plots, and less on the action aspect; basically, I want characters that would use their brains over brawn.

I don't really care what genre it is, it can be shonen, seinen, shojo, anything, as long as it has highly intelligent characters and elaborate, complex plots that blow off your mind.


----------



## lazorwalrus (Jan 10, 2014)

Aizen lol.


----------



## Saphira (Jan 10, 2014)

thanks. very helpful


----------



## PPsycho (Jan 10, 2014)

In Ravages of Time there's more genius-level characters than I can remember  And seeing their plots uncover in action is always impressive - Sima Yi, the 8 geniuses and several other military advisors are all serious business.


----------



## Samavarti (Jan 10, 2014)

The Ravages of Time is fully of genius strategists.
JJBA specially parts 2,4,5 and Six also come to mind.
Recently began to read Song of the Long March so far the main character seems quite intelligent.


----------



## Rica_Patin (Jan 10, 2014)

Here are some currently running series that have (or at least try to have) intelligent plots and characters.
Historie
Hunter x Hunter
Berserk
Spirit Circle
Uchuu Kyoudai
Billy Bat
Aku no Hana
Vinland Saga 
Destroy and Revolution
Sakamoto desu ga?
Saiki Kusuo no Nan
Kingdom


----------



## Justice (Jan 10, 2014)

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Hunter x Hunter.

Toriko has some intelligent characters as well.


----------



## martryn (Jan 10, 2014)

The bad guy from Battle Royale.


----------



## Saphira (Jan 10, 2014)

I have read HxH and Berserk, and I've been meaning to read JJBA for a long time, but it's so long, I just don't find the time. 'The ravages of time' also sounds promising, but it's got 400+ chapters too...maybe after the finals.


----------



## Freddy Mercury (Jan 10, 2014)

JJBA without question.

Tower of God as well, although its technically a webcomic.


----------



## Bruce Wayne (Jan 10, 2014)

No such manga exists.


----------



## Mizura (Jan 10, 2014)

^ Wut?

I was about to say Koon from Tower of God, but you already mentioned that one. x'D 

These series have genius main characters, great settings/stories to display their intellects, and great art too:
- Balzer from Gunka no Baltzar: the protagonist is extremely knowledgeable about every aspect of war, including technology, psychology, training, economics, social image, diplomacy and politics. And he knows how to use them, while being completely shameless while doing so. It's funny too.
- Li Chang Ge from Song of the Long March: One of the best female protagonists I've read anywhere. Smart, witty, with a good grasp on both military tactics and diplomacy, and yet the protagonist is still a child, and slowly grows in wisdom and maturity as well.
I haven't fully caught up on Historie, Shoukoku no Altair and a bunch of other historical series (despite my above two recs, I am -usually- not that into historical series), but check them out as well.

These series are a bit beneath the above, but still address many aspects:
- Maoyuu Maou Yuusha - "Kono Watashi no Mono Tonare, Yuusha yo" "Kotowaru!": the genius Demon Queen and the Hero work together with an extended cast to bring peace to the two races through cover economic reform. The author tends to solve issues too easily though, a bit like with Shounen except with crops and technologies. Still interesting though.
- Gate - Thus the JSDF Fought There: a gate opens in modern Japan. On the other side is a medieval/fantasy world that wastes no time in attacking. After the initial shock, modern Japan rape-stomps it, then being civilized proceeds to attempt to establish diplomatic relations. The main protagonist plays stupid but is actually smarter than he looks.
- Sanctuary: Two friends, one in politics, one in the mafia, working together and in parallel to change Japan. The power struggles are quite interesting, though at times the victories seem too easy. Great moments though.

These focus on mindgames, though I personally never really got into them for one reason or another:
- Liar Game: the main protagonist male is a genius, I can't stand the female protagonist though
- Usogui and Gamble Fish: high-stakes gambling with genius protagonists. I haven't read them in a long time so I can't give a more thorough review, just check them out to see if you're interested.

These have pretty smart protagonists in one setting or another:
- Qualia the Purple: a bit different from your usual definition of smart... to try to save her friend, the protagonist starts using up an infinite amount of life/possibilities to find the solution she seeks. It has some interesting theories about quantum physics and such. It's short but pretty intense.
- Gokukoku no Brynhildr: the main protagonist is pretty smart, and must face a race against time to outsmart the ones sent to kill the girls and make full use of their (for the most non-lethal) abilities.
- Iris Zero: the main protagonist is highly observant, so despite his lack of an "iris" (special eye ability), he is able to figure everything out anyway through logic observation.

If you ever feel like a mystery that combines a dozen interwoven plotlines and spans several generations, over half a dozen races, several planets, several realms and so far several world-changing major dates over about a millenia, you can check out Kubera. The author is a total genius, you won't see much at the first read, but you'll discover a whole bunch of things you've missed at Every re-read. Everything, down to the character reactions and the silhouettes at the back of seemingly unimportant flashbacks are important clues to what's going on (and you'll have no idea what's going on, instead be forced to slowly reconstruct the history of what occurred, and there's a lot of things happening). This series is rather tricky to read because not much is happening if you're trying to read it as a typical action/adventure comedy. Eventually you realize that the flashbacks for example are not just there for the mood, but serve several layers of uses including revealing bits of the history and also revealing the bigger picture if you piece them all together (easier said than done, when there are 10 major characters and a dozen major side characters). If you want geniuses, there are several flavors of geniuses in this series. Mostly, the story is being controlled by opposing Gods who can see the future and set their pieces up accordingly.


----------



## Blue (Jan 10, 2014)

Mizura continues to impress with her too awesome; did read posts which totally don't suck at all.

Genius, in fiction as a whole as well as manga, is often portrayed quite awfully. Authors seem to think genius is a magical ability that allows anyone, even children, to enter a situation they know nothing about and come out on top, and to explain this assign them totally nonsensical powers of observation that allow them to come to conclusions that, while completely illogical and ill-fitting of the evidence, are always correct.

But what Mizura mentions contains a lot of good genius. Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, for instance; the queen is a genius, but not a magical one. She locks herself in a room for 3 months to reinvent the... sextant, was it? Not something that most people could do, but not something a sufficiently educated person couldn't, either.

Rica Patin seems to have confused intelligent characters and intelligent plots.


----------



## EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! (Jan 11, 2014)

Keima Katsuragi from *the World God Only Knows*. Dude is a reclusive dweeb, but he is also a genius gamer and is the legendary master of the Dating Simulator genre. He uses his unparalleled knowledge of Dating Sim tactics and tropes to woo real girls into falling in love with him, thereby saving them from evil spirit demons. Evil spirit demons that parasitically feast upon their hosts' insecurities and fears in order to revive themselves and burn the waking world to ashes and take over Hell. 

Best moments are when real world unpredictability clashes with his tightly woven plans and rigid outlook on the world. Its fun to see him work around these newly arisen problems on the spot and it opens the door to some interesting character development. 

And don't be scared off by JJBA's length. It's exactly what you're looking for.


----------



## Mizura (Jan 11, 2014)

Oh yeah, there's the World God Only Knows. It's actually quite original. xD About JJBA: JJBA probably has the smartest one vs one tactical battles in the Shounen genre. That's because the protagonists often have weird abilities that must be used in creative ways, healing for example. That said, the writing differs a lot from arc to arc. Personally I never got into the first two arcs, so despite what the hardcore fans tell you, just start with whatever arc you find most interesting at first. You'll miss some family history, but that's about it.



Blue said:


> Genius, in fiction as a whole as well as manga, is often portrayed quite awfully.


The problem is that genius cannot exist independently of a proper context or challenge to "show" that genius (as opposed to just "telling." Besides, the moment a series "tells" you that a character has over 150 IQ, you can usually bet that he'll be beat up by a dumber character the next moment). In order words, you can't just write a genius. You have to write the whole world in a way that will allow genius to thrive. 

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, Gunka no Baltzar and Song of the Long March can "show" genius because it provides them with a wide variety of tools (technology, economy, crops, tactics, diplomacy etc.) and forces them to confront complex challenges (poverty, governance, education, public opinion management etc.). In Tower of God, the characters must use teamwork involving a variety of skills (including non-offensive ones) to defeat/outmaneuver stronger opponents, and what's more psychology is one of the tools available, and that's why manipulative characters like Koon can play a strong role. By contrast, if the story just requires the protagonists to beat up an evil opponent with a big enough energy ball, it will likely completely fail at producing a well-written genius.

Some stories try to use contrast, i.e. make everyone else dumb to make the character look smart in comparison. That usually fails horribly, because it makes the whole series look stupid. It's like trying to make a main character look brave and inspiring by making everyone else into a bunch of cowards (*cough*Naruto*cough*). =_=;; On the contrary, a genius shines more when surrounded by or confronted by other geniuses, but of course that involves even more work in terms of writing.

Some authors also seem to think that a character will appear genius-y enough if he easily solves every challenge that is sent his way. It doesn't. All it means is that the author hasn't written hard-enough challenges.


----------



## Saphira (Jan 11, 2014)

Thank you all for your suggestions, especially Mizura. There are a lot of series that intrigue me from your post. Also, you're right about everything you said above; these type of characters do need a proper context to develop in, and we don't need to be reminded constantly that X character is a genius, rather, we have to be shown. The characters and the manga itself can only be as smart as the author is, really. 

I tried giving a chance to ''The world God only knows'' before, but the art is just off-putting for me, I really don't like the moe-ish style. Also, I'm not big on history, but I'm rather curious about some of the series mentioned above, so I'll give them a try.


----------



## Black Mirror (Jan 15, 2014)

Until Death Do Us Apart.


----------



## Morglay (Jan 15, 2014)

As well as the ones mentioned above, City of the Dead Sorcerer has some very intelligent characters if you don't mind webcomics.


----------



## shadowlords (Jan 17, 2014)

Liar Game 
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Akagi
Gamble Fish
Kaiji


----------



## skuka (Feb 12, 2014)

"Pluto" and "Monster" by Naoki Urasawa


----------



## hell no (Feb 12, 2014)

If you're in the States or can read Chinese/Japanese, you should try Kindaichi Case Files. It's an ended classic whodunit manga series that has quite a few genius-level detectives and criminals and they showed their genius through actions. Personally I think it's 3 times as good as the other popular detective manga, Conan.


----------



## egressmadara (Feb 12, 2014)

I consider Jiraishin's protagonist to be highly cunning and a degree of cool-headedness.

Also every Jojo charry and Houshin Engi's characters.


----------



## Rax (Feb 12, 2014)

Mavis?


----------



## Blue (Feb 12, 2014)

Red, plz go


----------



## ThunderCunt (Feb 12, 2014)

Would you guys consider Lelouch(or Zero) from Code Geass as intelligent/genius?
I think Griffith of Berserk is a genius strategist.


----------



## Rax (Feb 12, 2014)

Blue said:


> Red, plz go



Blue.


----------



## Blue (Feb 12, 2014)

> Would you guys consider Lelouch(or Zero) from Code Geass as intelligent/genius?


A poorly written one. Having stupid ass plans that would never work and then being all like THIS GUY IS A GENIUS when they inevitably do work is not a well written genius.


----------



## Malicious Friday (Feb 12, 2014)

There's one character in Apocalypse no Toride who's quite intelligent. It's a zombie/horror manga btw.


----------



## Golden Witch (Feb 12, 2014)

Try Umineko.

A Murder Mystery on Meta,Imaginary and Physical Level using well known classic methods and rules (like Locked Room Murders and Knox Rules), logical argumentation like Devil's Proof,Raven Paradox,Schr?dinger's Cat.And is highly influenced by And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie) and the Divine Comedy.

Story is all about twisted Logic and if the Murders are committed by a Human Genius that can fool even Detectives with Supernatural Abilities or if it was Magic and done by a Witch.

It's a Battle of Logic vs Magic, Battler vs Beatrice in subtle Chess like Manner.

And it has Action as well and most are on Meta Level and can be something like Sword Duel, but each Slash,each Thrust,each Strike represent an Argumentation.You get bested, you get struck conceptually.

Picked out an example that isn't spoilerish.

*Spoiler*: __ 






]


----------



## Succubus (Feb 13, 2014)

No one mentions "One Outs"? wat. its same mangaka who did liar game.. also its better than liar game


----------



## MrCinos (Feb 14, 2014)

I'd recommend *Bokko*: a rare case with ~50 years old (and who looks like it) main character. The guy is pretty strong physically, though his strategic mind play much more important role in the series.


----------



## convict (Mar 4, 2014)

Saphira said:


> I have read HxH and Berserk, and I've been meaning to read JJBA for a long time, but it's so long, I just don't find the time. 'The ravages of time' also sounds promising, but it's got 400+ chapters too...maybe after the finals.



Well the jojo anime mirrors the manga to the bone and goes at a rate of 5 chapters per episode. So finish the first ten episodes to get a firm footing and then start the manga from there. 

Yeah yeah anime sux iluvmanga4realz but its better than nothing and will get the ball rolling.


----------



## rajin (Apr 10, 2014)

thankfully *AKAGI  USOGUI and GAMBLE FISH* were mentioned in comments .
akgai and usogui deserve more audience .


----------

