What does it mean to be Iron Man? The billion-dollar suit is only part of the job. It's a massive part and probably the coolest, but still only one of many other parts. Tony Stark has piloted the Iron Man armor for decades now, and he's always been more than just a superhero. He's also been a businessman, in charge of millions of people who rely on him to be a steady leader. He's also always been a genius inventor, and after becoming Iron Man, he's been someone who invented things that were designed to aid society. Without all three of these factors, Iron Man isn't really Iron Man.
Having said that, there are actually quite a few anime characters who fall under the same description. Genius inventors who use their impressive technology and obscene wealth to do good in the world would all be characters in the same vein as the armored hero.
10 Roger Smith Is A Rich Guy Who Pilots A Giant Robot (Big O)
The similarities between Roger Smith and Tony Stark are fairly obvious, even if people do tend to conflate Smith and Batman. Like Batman, he’s rich, wears all black, and drives a cool car. But Smith also isn’t that different from Tony Stark as he works to solve crimes as a hero despite not needing to while also having his own giant robot. And while Tony Stark's Iron Man armor isn't a giant robot, that's not something he hasn't turned the Iron Man armor into on multiple occasions.
9 Mei Hatsume Loves Creating Technology That Helps Not Only Others But Herself As Well (My Hero Academia)
Mei Hatsume of My Hero Academia shares Tony Stark's propensity for building and creating things. It’s explained that Mei will build things well into the late hours of the night, eager to continue creating for the sake of improving on her babies. She’s done an excellent job of assisting many of the other heroes at U.A. While she might not have Tony Stark’s ego about everything else, she undeniably believes in her ability to create and her inventions. It's why while she mostly makes items for other people, she also has made plenty of them for herself as well.
8 Gilgamesh Is Capable Of Summoning Weapons & Armor Like Iron Man's Extremis Armor (Fate/Stay Night)
This one might feel like a bit of a stretch. But Gilgamesh ran an entire nation in his time and seemed to believe he deserved it based on his power and his decisions as a leader.
This isn’t entirely unlike Stark believing he deserves all of his power based on his decisions as a businessman, especially when he had been inverted and was in his Superior personality. Taking that to another level, as a Servant, Gilgamesh can summon both weapons and armor from nowhere in the same way that Stark can do so when he’s got the Bleeding Edge or Extremis armor.
7 Kambe Daisuke Solves All His Problems With Money, Intelligence, & Expensive Gadgets (Millionaire Detective)
Daisuke Kambe is the son of a major family in the world of Millionaire Detective. The character is absurdly rich and has no problem using that to his advantage while dealing with crimes as a detective. This money often brings him the usage of advanced technology, and it even gets to the point where people point out that he only knows how to fix a problem by throwing money at it. This is something that Tony Stark has been relying on for decades—rather than trying to fix a problem himself, he’ll throw money at it, where it usually either goes away or is miraculously somehow fixed.
6 Sinbad Split His Time Being Being An Adventuring Hero & Managing A Trade Empire (Magi: The Labyrinth Of Magic)
Sinbad, much like Tony Stark, feels like the chosen one given how often things work out in his favor. Though he might have started out broke unlike Stark, Sinbad came out of the dungeons so obscenely rich he was able to build his own country. By the time Magi begins, he's much like the Tony Stark of the 80's, managing an empire based largely around trade and looking after all of the people in it. He’s so talented it feels like he easily wins every battle, using his own metal vessels that allow him to summon armor to cover himself and fight with.
5 Bulma Is A Genius Whose Inventions Have Revolutionized The World (Dragon Ball)
Bulma is filthy rich and it all comes from her and the rest of the family having invented technologies that were vital to society. From miniaturization tech that worked on everything to creating giant robots and vehicles, Capsule Corps has done it all. Much like Tony Stark’s Stark Industries, though, Capsule Corp is also something created by her father first. She’s still got a habit of making up impossible inventions and created her own time machine, something that Stark has done in the past a few times.
4 Sylia Funded A Group Of Armor-Wearing Superheroes (Bubblegum Crisis)
Sylia is literally Iron Man. She bankrolls the rest of the Knight Sabers as they deal with the dangerous Boomers—out of control androids. The daughter of a genius scientist herself, Sylia created the Hardsuits that the Knight Sabers wear based on data that was sent to her. But sending the Knight Sabers into battle isn’t enough for her—she’s known to suit up and rush headlong into battle herself. This is like Tony Stark creating his own armor and joining the Avengers—if he had also given all the members of the Avengers their own armor.
3 Weisz Is A Scientist Who Invents A Group Of Magitek Armor (Eden's Zero)
Weisz is a young man who starts out incredibly selfish and it’s through hanging out with the people on Eden’s Zero that he begins to find some semblance of a decent person inside of himself. He leans into big, flashy displays when it comes to fighting and inventing.
The character is a genius inventor who usually takes on the role of the tech guy. However, he’s also someone with the ability to summon a suit of armor around him and more easily use his Ether Gear through its creation.
2 Washu Is A Dangerous Genius Who Creates World-Changing Inventions Constantly (Tenchi Muyo)
Washu is way out of Stark’s league in terms of inventions. The Washu from the Tenchi Muyo OVA series was a super-genius and a goddess who helped create the universe. That version of the character is much better as a scientist than Tony Stark. Other versions point out that Washu’s inventions were so incredibly destructive they had to lock her away. In either case, she’s constantly creating improvements to her inventions over time.
1 Dr. Stone Has Rebuilt His World From Literally Less Than Scraps (Dr. Stone)
Senku doesn’t have any magical armor, but what he does have is incredible knowledge as a scientist. Tony Stark built his armor in a cave with a box of scraps, according to Obadiah Stane. But when Dr. Stone begins, Senku Ishigami doesn’t even have access to a box of scraps—society has been inactive for several thousand years and there’s nothing remaining of the old world. Senku has to rebuild society from absolutely nothing, taking them from the Stone Age to the Steam Age, with intentions of escaping the planet and heading off into space.