# The 14 Smartest Anime Characters of All Time

> Tacticians, detectives, scientists and schemers - some famous for a single deduction, others for plans that span decades. Which mind wins?

*By YPB Team · Published July 30, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-14-smartest-anime-characters-of-all-time*

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## Current results (3 votes)

1. **L** — 100% (3 votes · score 1000/1000)
   Death Note's detective, who narrows the world's population down to one suspect from a single televised broadcast.
2. **Lelouch vi Britannia** — 0% (0 votes · score 600/1000)
   Code Geass's exiled prince, who wins battles as a chess problem and treats an empire as the board.
3. **Kiyotaka Ayanokoji** — 0% (0 votes · score 551/1000)
   Classroom of the Elite's protagonist, who hides his ability as carefully as others display theirs.
4. **Armin Arlert** — 0% (0 votes · score 494/1000)
   Attack on Titan's strategist, physically the weakest soldier and repeatedly the decisive one.
5. **Light Yagami** — 0% (0 votes · score 494/1000)
   Death Note's protagonist, who plans several moves ahead and builds contingencies into his own memory loss.
6. **Senku Ishigami** — 0% (0 votes · score 428/1000)
   Dr. Stone's scientist, who rebuilds civilisation from first principles after humanity is petrified.
7. **Sosuke Aizen** — 0% (0 votes · score 350/1000)
   Bleach's captain, who spent a century setting up a deception nobody detected.
8. **Meruem** — 0% (0 votes · score 257/1000)
   Hunter x Hunter's Chimera Ant King, who masters a board game to superhuman level within days.
9. **Near** — 0% (0 votes · score 257/1000)
   Death Note's third great mind, who beats Kira by being patient where L was impulsive.
10. **Johan Liebert** — 0% (0 votes · score 257/1000)
   Monster's antagonist, who manipulates people so precisely he never needs to touch them.
11. **Shikamaru Nara** — 0% (0 votes · score 143/1000)
   Naruto's tactician, an underachiever with a genius IQ who wins by planning ten steps out.
12. **Kurisu Makise** — 0% (0 votes · score 143/1000)
   Steins;Gate's neuroscientist, published at eighteen and the anchor of the series' time-travel logic.
13. **Norman** — 0% (0 votes · score 143/1000)
   The Promised Neverland's strategist, who plans his own escape as a piece of someone else's plan.
14. **Koro-sensei** — 0% (0 votes · score 143/1000)
   Assassination Classroom's tentacled teacher, who out-thinks a class trained specifically to kill him.

Tags: animation, manga, characters