Be it in armed conflict or a high-stakes battle of wits, there's no better place for an anime strategist to shine. While some of these masterminds can fend for themselves, their true strength is of the mental variety.
More often than not, their genius manifests in a complex strategy that goes exactly according to plan. In other cases, it shows up in improvised moves that predict the unpredictable. Either way, these geniuses won before the game even started.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead.
10 Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex — Daisuke Aramaki Mastered Both Combat & Political Strategy
As deadly as they are on the field, Ghost In The Shell's iconic black ops team, Section 9, would be nothing without their chief, Aramaki. Though his strategic mind proved invaluable during Section 9's missions and emergency situations like a sudden bank robbery, Aramaki's decisive intellect was always used best during political situations.
More than once, Aramaki got Section 9 out of a bureaucratic bind by manipulating the right people and expertly navigating through legal red tape. Despite using the same underhanded tactics that his corrupt colleagues did, Aramaki was willing to get his hands dirty and take the fall for his team, so as long as true societal order was achieved.
9 Legend Of The Galactic Heroes — Reinhard Von Lohengramm & Yang Wen-li Complemented Each Other's Genius
When it comes to Legend Of The Galactic Heroes, it's impossible to declare any one commander as the best. This is why fans considered both Reinhard from The Galactic Empire and Yang from The Free Planets Alliance to be the flipsides of the same coin, Reinhard seeing the war to its bitter end while Yang was assassinated before then.
Both generals showed different forms of strategic genius and complemented their rival's shortcomings. While Reinhard knew how to use his armies' vast resources with terrifying efficiency, Yang was a master of improvisational underdog tactics. The two respected the other deeply, so much so that Reinhard mourned Yang's death.
8 Fate/Zero — Gilgamesh Was His Own Master
When he was summoned by Tokiomi Tohsaka to be his Servant, Gilgamesh couldn't be any less interested. While he obeyed Tokiomi out of obligation, Gilgamesh's true interests lied with his Master's troubled apprentice, Kirei Kotomine. From there, Gilgamesh covertly usurped Tokiomi by seducing Kotomine to the dark side.
Gilgamesh got what he wanted halfway through Fate/Zero, when he convinced Kotomine to kill Tokiomi, become his new Master, and embrace his inner sadism. Gilgamesh accomplished these without Tokiomi noticing and even dominated the Fourth Holy Grail War so much that he was its de facto winner, despite the Grail's destruction.
7 Sword Art Online: Alicization — Quinella Made Herself The Administrator
Originally, Quinella was just a normal noble living in the Underworld. One day, she stumbled onto her reality's gamified rules and realized that killing living beings increased one's power levels and status. Rather than just become a power-hungry killer, Quinella used this breakthrough to amass enough knowledge to rule Underworld.
In a short time, Quinella rewrote Underworld's society into a feudal one with herself on top. Besides reshaping the social order, Quinella achieved immortality, manipulated its populace into loving her, usurped the Cardinal System, and declared herself Administrator. As magically empowered as she was, Quinella's true power as one of Sword Art Online's mightiest villains came from her mind.
6 Bleach — Sosuke Aizen Hid His Conspiracy In Plain Sight
When Aizen realized just how powerful he was, he dedicated his life to achieving the godhood he believed was owed to him. Aizen did this so expertly that he used both Hollow and Shinigami for his own ends while maintaining his reputation as a mild-mannered Gotei 13 captain for more than a century before Bleach even began.
Aizen was such a terrifying mastermind that not only did he fake his own death and get away with it but he pit Shinigami and Hollow against each other without drawing his sword. It's been argued by Bleach fans that Aizen's true power was his plot-breaking omniscience since he could somehow predict and counter everything his opponents did.
5 My Hero Academia — All For One Anticipated Every Win & Loss
Like any true supervillain, All For One lorded over a vast criminal empire and almost brought an entire country to its knees. It took All Might himself to stop him from taking over Japan, but All For One learned from this devastating defeat. After barely surviving, All For One planned for every scenario imaginable - including another defeat.
When All Might and All For One clashed again, All For One welcomed his loss since he successfully eliminated the Symbol of Peace, pushed Japan closer to anarchy, and paved the way for his successor, Tomura Shigaraki, to take over. Even his imprisonment at Tartarus was a part of his mastermind, which is slowly bearing fruit.
4 Code Geass — Lelouch Vi Britannia Won The Very Long Game
As a prodigy honor student, Lelouch was already incredibly smart for someone his age. When his Geass, masked identity as Zero, and bottomless rage against the world's injustices (as embodied by his father, the emperor) are taken into account, though, Lelouch becomes one of the most fearsome masterminds ever seen in anime.
Whether he was acting normal in school or donning Zero's revolutionary persona, Lelouch played both sides of the war for Japan's independence from Britannian rule like a fiddle. Despite the occasional loss, Lelouch manipulated everyone so perfectly that, by the end, he convinced the world to unite under one flag against its worst enemy: himself.
3 Cowboy Bebop — Chessmaster Hex Planned His Revenge 50 Years In Advance
A chess prodigy in his youth, the man who became Chessmaster Hex helped design the Astral Gate. However, after discovering faults in its designs, he was fired and the flaws were covered up, leading to the deadly Astral Gate accident of 2022. Enraged, he took on the name Chessmaster Hex and plotted his revenge against the Gate Corporation.
Chessmaster Hex's plans to expose the cover-up while leaking Gate data to criminals was foolproof, and they would activate automatically in fifty years. However, as the years went by, Chessmaster Hex went senile. Even though he forgot all about it, Chessmaster Hex's revenge was so flawless that it was only discovered at the last minute by Spike Spiegel and the Bebop crew.
2 Death Note — L Lawliet Defeated A God In Death
The only person who could match Light Yagami's genius was the master detective L, another teenage prodigy who conversely used his intellect for good instead of evil. However, even after dying halfway through Death Note, L won the battle of wits. This was thanks to his contingency plans that would activate in the event of his death.
After dying, L's sleeper successors, Mello and Near, were activated and finished his mission to bring the so-called God of the New World to justice. Contrast this with Light, who was so assured of his superiority and victory that he never even humored the need for fail safes. Light may have killed L, but, in the long run, L proved to be the better mastermind.
1 Mobile Suit Gundam 00 — Aeolia Schenberg Predicted Wars That Transpired 200 Years After His Death
The world of Gundam 00 was so close to annihilation that it took the outsider force, Celestial Being, to stop the coming destruction. Celestial Being was founded by Aeolia Schenberg, a philanthropist who foresaw the wars over dwindling resources and made plans to not just end these conflicts but eradicate the concept of war itself.
That said, Aeolia prepared for these in the 2100s - a full 200 years before Gundam 00 began. Though he was long dead, everything occurred as Aeolia hypothesized, and Celestial Being had the advantage as long as they followed his centuries-old designs. He even predicted his own death, which, in turn, only unlocked the Gundams' full potential.