Anime is full of characters who are genius strategists or are just generally smarter than everyone around them. Series like Phi Brain make revolve around people who solve mental puzzles the fastest, while Yu-Gi-Oh!, even though Yugi does manage to solve the Millennium Puzzle, is technically about people who are the smartest with card games.

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But being the best scientist is a different sort of challenge. In shows where people have made giant robots practical and time travel possible, being the smartest scientist in anime would take achieving the impossible so regularly that everyone around them begins to take it for granted.

10 Metal Knight Creates Powerful Suits Of Armor He Can Pilot From Large Distances Away (One Punch Man)

Metal Knight S-Class OPM

Metal Knight is a legendary S-class hero who attained his level of power entirely from his intelligence. He’s best known for having created a giant mecha that is beyond the level of most solo heroes. He’s also capable of using remote-controlled robots which aren’t as powerful, which he’ll often send into battle instead of going himself. Equally impressive is that he constructed the Hero Association’s headquarters in only a few days, proving his genius engineering skills.

9 Leon Lau Created A Stable Quantum Reactor To Help Protect Humanity (Last Hope)

Leon Lau Last Hope

Leon Lau is the protagonist of the anime series Last Hope. Though he’s a genius, his intelligence is part of what caused the destruction of his world. He was one of several scientists working on a quantum reactor that exploded and caused something known as the Xianglong Crisis. The Crisis eventually caused animals to hyper evolve into enemies that attacked humanity. But while Leon is responsible for that, he’s also the person who created the first stable quantum reactor, giving humanity a weapon to fight back and protect themselves.

8 Senku Ishigami Uses His Knowledge Of Science To Help Rebuild Humanity (Dr. Stone)

Dr. Stone Senku Ishigami Cropped

Senku Ishigami doesn’t create anything that can’t be created in real life. He’s not a super scientist, at least not as of the end of Stone Wars. However, what Senku does have is a mastery of all disciplines of science. He knows enough to rebuild society from stone tools back up to modern tech, though it might take some time.

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Most people master only a single area, but Senku seemingly decided to master everything in an attempt to build a rocket that could carry him into space. His only limitation is that he needs the help of others to acquire materials.

7 Ai Haibara Is A Master Of Biochemistry (Case Closed)

Ai Haibara

Ai Haibara is one of Conan’s closest allies and the reason he’s the size he is to begin with. She’s responsible for creating the ATX 4869 pill, which transformed Shinichi into Conan. Her own behavior resulted in the Black Organization using the same pill on her. Ai is a genius who started working as a scientist in her early teen years. Her field is biochemistry, but, as a genius, she’s also an ace with computers too.

6 Tem Ray Was Responsible For Creating The First Gundam (Mobile Suit Gundam)

Mobile Suit Gundam Tem Ray

Tem Ray was the lead scientist for the Earth Federation's secret Project V, which would result in the creation of the RX-78-2 Gundam. Moreover, it was Tem who was responsible for convincing the Earth Federation that they needed to build the Gundam in the first place. Tem's pretty important, considering the fact that mobile suits would become the primary method of waging war. His role as an engineer made him into a vital figure in the original Gundam and the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin series.

5 Mayuri Kurotsuchi Can Create Entire Fake Versions Of Cities (Bleach)

mayuri zanpakuto bleach

Mayuri is the main scientist for the Soul Society. He’s a scientist without any scruples or morals, which means he frequently operates on his own subordinates within Squad 12. This research has allowed him to create a number of key inventions over the course of Bleach.

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He’s made bombs that he can implant into people without them knowing, he’s created a serum that can enhance one’s reaction time one hundred times over. He’s even capable of repairing Zanpakuto, something that’s nearly impossible, and at one point, he even created an entire fake version of Karakura Town for everyone to fight in.

4 Orochimaru Is A Master Of Cloning And Can Copy Nearly Any Jutsu (Naruto)

Orochimaru smirks while wearing the leaf village headband

Orochimaru was an evil scientist who was left to his own devices for too long. His goal was to figure out immortality, and effectively he did that. First, he began taking the bodies of other ninja, then eventually he figured out how to clone himself. His skill with modification is so great that it’s impossible to harm him because he can regenerate from anything. He’s also managed to crack the secret of other jutsu that are specific to certain ninja or their family. He can copy the first Hokage’s Wood Release, and he made Mitsuki capable of performing a Sage Mode transformation.

3 Aeolia Schenberg Created Mobile Suits Centuries Ahead Of Their Time (Mobile Suit Gundam 00)

Aeolia Schenberg Makes His Declaration In Gundam 00

Aeolia Schenberg was a genius who was literally centuries ahead of his time. In Gundam 00, Aeolia helped build the organization that would become Celestial Being, a group that would seek to create peace across the planet. Aeolia’s work was responsible for the invention of the orbital elevator and entirely new energy systems. Not only that, but he created the concept of the GN Drive after realizing how GN Particles would work, creating technology that would allow for highly advanced mobile suits. He also helped create Veda, the computer that gives Celestial Being most of its advanced tactical information and allows them to continuously out-think all of their enemies.

2 Bulma Briefs Invented Her Own Time Machine (Dragon Ball Z)

Bulma smoking a cigarette

Bulma Briefs is the daughter of one of the most successful men on Earth. Her dad invented the incredible capsule technology that allows anything to be stored inside of a capsule from cars to houses. However, Bulma has long surpassed her father with her own inventions. She was able to reverse-engineer the scouter so anyone could sense power levels. Later, she was able to help reverse-engineer the Saiyan pods to create a space ship. Her most impressive invention, though, is a time machine that she can use to travel back and forth in time.

1 Washu Hakubi Is A Master Of Space And Time And Has A Lab In A Pocket Dimension (Tenchi Muyo)

Washu is the interstellar inventor of Tenchi Muyo

Washu was a scientist so ahead of her time she spent thousands of years sealed off and still emerged ahead of every other living scientist. Her crowning adchievement is creating Ryoko, the legendary space pirate, and her ship the Ryo-Ohki. But she frequently creates other inventions as well. One of her least impressive inventions is a pocket dimension attached to a door that activates only when women in Tenchi’s house touch it, taking them to a hot spring that she built for their use. That’s just the very tip of the iceberg of what she can do, since she’s an immortal goddess with limitless power.

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