Anime is filled to the brim with tropes, many of which it invented or popularized. While the trope of the child genius isn’t an anime original, it has been employed in many series over the years.
As the name implies, child geniuses are children who are far smarter than their age would have anyone assume. Often this will mean they are even smarter than the adults around them. What exactly these kids are considered geniuses in varies from combat to cooking. For this list though, the focus is on kids who have more general, widely applicable intelligence on a range of topics.
8 Kid-Gohan – Dragon Ball Z
Considering how dense his father Goku is, it’s quite shocking how intelligent Gohan was, even from an early age. Partly due to the encouragement of his mother Chi-Chi, Gohan was extremely smart for his age, able to study advanced biology as young as four years old.
Sadly, due to the series he exists in, Gohan’s intelligence mostly gets put in the backseat in exchange for his abilities in combat. His latent power is constantly brought up, and he is able to defeat Cell at a young age. However, once he starts to neglect his training to focus on his career, he ends up losing screen time.
7 Norman – The Promised Neverland
In The Promised Neverland, human children are raised for consumption by demons, with their brains being by far the most prized delicacy. This means intelligence is prized amongst the children, and the trio of Emma, Norman, and Ray are the smartest the farms have ever produced.
While all three have outsmarted adults and demons alike, Norman has the rawest intelligence among them. Not only was he spared from being eaten due to his potential, but he also created and executed a perfect plan to exterminate all the demons at only the age of fifteen.
6 Shinichi Kudo – Case Closed
Shinichi is mentally a lot older than he looks. He is sixteen at the start of Case Closed, and is already a famous detective, having solved cases even full-grown professionals couldn’t handle.
After an attempt on his life, however, an experimental drug de-ages his body, making him appear more like a six-year-old than a sixteen-year-old. With his new body, his genius detective work becomes even harder to believe, resulting in him often letting someone else take the credit for his deductions.
5 Near – Death Note
As the protege and one of the successors of the great detective L, Near was raised in similar conditions to him. Specifically, he was raised in the same orphanage as L, which was built in order to foster child geniuses.
Near was already an accomplished detective in his own right, but after L’s death, he took over his predecessor’s role, and eventually brought down Light Yagami, revealing him as Kira. Although, he only manages this at the age of seventeen, and with the help of his fellow successor Mello.
4 Senku – Dr.Stone
When Senku was only fifteen, the entirety of humanity was frozen in stone. Despite how sudden this was, Senku was able to retain his consciousness for thousands of years, until he was accidentally freed.
Following this, his quest to rebuild civilization shows off just how smart he can be. He is able to recall vast quantities of scientific information, from biology to chemistry and even engineering, and has the smarts to adapt this knowledge to his limited resources, taking humanity from the stone age to the industrial revolution in only a few years.
3 Manish Boy – Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders
As smart as the others on this list are, they are all at least several years into their lives. Manish Boy is still a baby, incapable of even eating solid food yet. Despite this, he has the willpower to wield a stand, and the intelligence to almost defeat five full-grown stand users.
It is unknown where he came from or how he got in contact with Dio, but somehow Manish Boy was hired to attack the Joestars and even orchestrated a scenario to get himself put into their care. While he can’t talk yet, in his thoughts and via his stand, he is able to speak in full sentences, indistinguishable from the speech of an adult.
2 Edward – Cowboy Bebop
Few people are able to get one over on the crew of the Bebop. Spike, Jet, and Faye are all experienced bounty hunters with a lot of technical knowledge between them. Despite this, they were strongarmed into letting a thirteen-year-old join their crew.
Wildly eccentric and intelligent, Edward lived most of her life wandering around doing whatever she wanted. This included various hacking exploits that made her famous throughout the galaxy. Once she was begrudgingly allowed into the Bebop, she became their go-to techie, capable of matching supercomputers with her hacking ability.
1 Child Emperor – One Punch Man
Being the parody series that it is, One Punch Man introduces a lot of heroes who are walking tropes. Amongst the S-class heroes, one such hero is Child Emperor, a complete manifestation of the child genius trope most of this list employs.
At only age ten, he’s not only an S-class hero but also the unofficial leader of the group, due in large part to his intelligence. He’s able to create highly advanced technology and effective battle strategies, allowing him to take down some of the most powerful beings in One Punch Man all by himself.