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The story
On 5ch’s Nanademo Jikkyo G board, a thread went up featuring a homemade ranking of anime and manga characters by “intelligence.” Tier 4 (ranks 76-100) was defined as “localized tactics and narrowly specialized expertise,” Tier 3 (ranks 51-75) as “situational dominance and clutch performance,” and Tier 2 (ranks 26-50) as “world-class big-picture thinking and refined specialized reasoning,” with characters like Dr. Gero, Piccolo, Sōsuke Aizen, Osamu Dazai, Meruem, and Shogo Makishima making the list. Debate broke out over how fair the rankings were, including a reply pushing back on Dr. Gero’s placement by pointing to Bulma’s inventions, with opinions split on how to judge each character’s intelligence.
What people said
These characters are world-class at localized mind games or specific skills, but land in the lower tier due to narrow general intelligence, heavy reliance on special abilities, or superintelligence played up for narrative effect (gags included).
Hajime-chan (Tensai Bakabon)
Senbei Norimaki (Dr. Slump)
Dr. Gero (Dragon Ball)
Lloyd Asplund (Code Geass)
Piccolo (Dragon Ball)
Dietrich (Monster)
Makoto Shishio (Rurouni Kenshin)
Kazutaka Hyodo (Kaiji)
Asirpa (Golden Kamuy)
Hange Zoë (Attack on Titan)
Toshizo Hijikata (Golden Kamuy)
Takanori Usami (ACMA:GAME)
These characters have outstanding clutch performance and breakthrough ability in the moment, but lose points because their whole scheme collapses under an "ability-removed" test, or because excessive after-the-fact reveals chip away at how objectively sound their logic really is.
Itachi Uchiha (Naruto)
Black Jack (Black Jack)
Kabuto Yakushi (Naruto)
Mello (Death Note)
Sōsuke Aizen (Bleach)
Kaito Kid (Detective Conan / Magic Kaito)
Killua Zoldyck (Hunter x Hunter)
Terutomo Oda (ACMA:GAME)
Near (Death Note)
Ray (The Promised Neverland)
Shikaku Nara (Naruto)
Lieutenant Tsurumi (Golden Kamuy)
Toru Amuro / Rei Furuya (Detective Conan)
Shikamaru Nara (Naruto)
Yukio Tonegawa (Kaiji)
These are powerhouses who've reached the top of their specific field, but fall one step short of the very highest tier due to emotional volatility, slight reliance on special abilities, or after-the-fact reveals.
Fyodor Dostoevsky (Bungo Stray Dogs)
Osamu Dazai (Bungo Stray Dogs)
Meruem (Hunter x Hunter)
Shogo Makishima (Psycho-Pass)
Zeke Yeager (Attack on Titan)
Armin Arlert (Attack on Titan)
Yoichi Takato (The Kindaichi Case Files)
William James Moriarty (Moriarty the Patriot)
Professor James Moriarty (from the original Arthur Conan Doyle novels)
Background and Talking Points
This kind of “stat debate” is one of 5ch’s long-running genres. Unlike a plain strength argument, it stands out for trying to put hard-to-measure qualities like intelligence and strategic thinking into words using an original tier system. This poster, too, set up deduction criteria like “schemes that collapse under an ability-removed test” and “excessive after-the-fact reveals,” building the ranking with a pseudo-academic structure. That said, this excerpt only covers Tier 4 through Tier 2 (ranks 100 to 39) and doesn’t include the top 25, so it’s easy to mistakenly assume characters like Osamu Dazai and Meruem “didn’t make the top tier” — they simply aren’t shown here. It’s also worth keeping in mind that a ranking like this rests entirely on one person’s subjective criteria, and since there’s plenty of room to interpret a character’s canon settings and feats differently, it’s not unusual for the criteria themselves to be questioned, as with the pushback over Dr. Gero’s ranking.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyo G) thread “All-Time Fictional Intelligence Rankings.”
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