Shōjo literally means “girl” in Japanese, translated it will be girl’s manga or anime for girls. Shoujo manga is aimed at girl readers and Shoujo is not just a genre but a demographic. Shoujo targets a young female audience, typically female teenagers, and Shonen respectively is aimed at young boys from about 12-18 years old. Many of the most popular animes and mangas fall under this category.
Shoujo is the opposite of shonen. Shoujo places importance on the development of interpersonal relationships, romance, life issues during the story rather than just plain fighting and action. The series tends to be more dramatic, but with the adventure, comedy, and action rivaling that which the shonen genre offers. The Shoujo Genre is typically more appealing to young female audiences but that does not mean men or adult women cannot enjoy a good Shoujo anime or manga.
Here is a list of the top 10 Shoujo anime. The list is not ranked by any means and is just pure personal opinion. Feel free to give your own opinion.
Top 10 Shoujo Anime:
Banana Fish
Genre: Shoujo, Thriller, Crime, BL, Psychological
Banana Fish cover
Fruit Basket
Genre: Shoujo, Romantic, Comedy, Supernatural
Fruit basket- characters
Natsume Yuujinchou (Natsume’s Book of Friends)
Genre: Shoujo, Slice of life, Supernatural, Mystery
Natsume Yuujinchou
Shingeki no Kyojin: Kuinaki Sentaku (Attack on Titan: No Regrets)
Attack on Titan: No Regrets is a spinoff of the popular “ Attack on Titan “.The story focuses on Levi before his time in the survey corps while he was still living in the city’s underground where the crime was rampant. Young Levi tries to survive every day with all that he has along with his two best friends Isabel Magnolia and Farlan Church .
Genre: Shoujo, Dark, Fantasy, Action
Attack on Titans spinoff- Levi along with his best friends
Yona of the dawn
Genre: Shoujo, Adventure, Romance, Fantasy
A determined Yona
Orange
Genre: Drama, Romance, Shoujo, Science fiction
Orange characters
Kamisama Hajimemashita (Kamisama Kiss)
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance, Shoujo
Kamisama Kiss
Ao Haru Ride (Blue Spring Ride)
Genre: Shoujo, Drama, Romance
Blue spring ride – Kou and Futaba
Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun (My Little Monster)
My Little Monster by Robico is the story of Shizuku Mizutani who only cares about her grades and treats her classmates quite coldly. But all that changes when she was tasked with delivering classwork to Haru Yoshida. Rumored to be quite violent Shizuku find out that Haru is nothing like the rumors say and is quite kind. They hit off since neither of them knew how to properly interact with other people. After some time Haru confesses to Shizuku and they both try to understand what they feel for each other.
Genre: Shoujo, Romance, Slice of life
My little monster- Shizuku and Haru
Waiting In The Summer
Genre: Shoujo, Fantasy, Slice of life, Romance, Comedy, Drama, science fiction
Waiting in the summer- Ichika and Kaito
Some other top Shoujo animes include Kodomo No Omocha, Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama, Angel Beats, Bloom Into You, Lovely Complex, Glass Mask. You can watch these anime on Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, and on other official sites.
Days are gone when anime characters only used to show off their powers and strength to be fans’ favorites. Yes, fans still love strong characters, but there’s another way to become popular despite having less power than others, and that is IQ. There are many characters in the anime who became popular characters just on the basis of their intelligence, analytical skills, and highest of IQ. Some of the characters even saved millions of lives just by running their brain. In this article, we will talk about some of the most intelligent anime characters in all of the anime genres.
Back in the day, the criteria of making popular characters were just to become stronger, and fans rarely gave any attention to the high IQ characters, but today, the audience is showing extra love to the characters who use their brain better than other characters and their IQ brings the unexpected twists in between. There are many animes that showcase the battles of brains between two characters, like Death Note. There’s a lot of information hidden in this article. Just make sure to read this till the end.
10. Sosuke Aizen
Even though Sosuke Aizen made his appearance very soon in the series, he is the major antagonist of the Bleach anime. His IQ is on a great level, and he pretended to be a decent guy just to buy some time for his tactics. Apart from having a great IQ, Sosuke Aizen is a great manipulator. When it comes to strength, he is extremely powerful. Sosuke Aizen is the perfect combination of great power and IQ.
Sosuke Aizen
9. Shikamaru
Shikamaru is one of the most important characters in Naruto and Naruto Shippuden anime. He is probably the smartest and most intelligent shinobi of Konoha. With his great IQ, Shikamaru won many battles and defeated major enemies like Hidan. Shikamaru is also the strategist of the alliance shinobi force. He is currently serving Konoha by being the advisor and the right hand of the Seventh Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki himself.
Shikamaru Talks To Naruto To Become Hokage
8. Eren Yaeger
Eren Yaeger is one of the major protagonists of the famous anime, Attack on Titan. He is also the major antagonist of the series due to changes in ideologies. After Season 3, he is living for only one purpose, and his plan is going according to him. He developed a sense of intellect with time and can be considered as one of the smartest characters now in AOT.
Eren Yaeger
7. Lelouch Lamperouge
Lelouch is the protagonist turned antagonist character of Code Geass. Just like Eren, he too has the motivation to fight, which ultimately ends him in opposite ideologies than his comrades. He wanted to make the ideal world for everyone. However, he chose the wrong way, and he ended up dying by his own friend. Lelouch’s IQ made him different from than rest of the characters. Even though the anime is long gone, Lelouch is still loved by millions of fans.
Lelouch Vi Britannia
6. Winry Rockbell
Winry is a charming and attractive character of Full Metal Alchemist. She is the one who made the modified arm of Edward Elric. These arms helped Edward in many combats. Winry’s IQ helped Edward in many instances. Not only once, but she crafts Edward’s arm many times in the series.
Edward and Winry From Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
5. Bulma
Bulma is one of the major characters in the Dragon Ball series. Bulma is also the wife of the secondary protagonist of the series, Vegeta, and the mother of Trunks. Bulma is highly intelligent and mostly conducts research and invention in the series. Bulma (Future) is the one who crafted the time machine which is used by Future Trunks to travel back in time. The responsibility of keeping Dragon Balls is also on Bulma as her laboratory is quite safe and less prone to invaders.
Dragon Ball Characters, Bulma Then Vs Now
4. Armin Arlert
Armin is one of the intelligent characters in Attack on Titan and currently the strategist of the alliance who is fighting against the Yaegerists. Armin’s IQ helped soldiers analyze the situation, and his decisions are usually well thought out with expected consequences. Apart from having a great IQ, Armin carries the Colossal Titan, which gave him the fighting advantage.
Armin was given Bertolt’s Colossal Titan Power
3. Light Yagami
Light Yagami, aka Kira, is the protagonist turned antagonist in the Death Note series. Even though it is very subjective to consider Light as the antagonist or protagonist because each of his actions makes sense and everything he did was for the sake of society however he chose the wrong way and got corrupted by the power of Death Note. He had a great IQ which helped him to know the names of people whom he wanted to kill. Apart from his IQ, Light was a great manipulator and situation analyst.
Light Yagami
2. L
L was another major character of Death Note. He was the opponent of Light Yagami. L was a great situation analyzer, critical thinker, and tactician. He devoted his everything to figuring out Kira’s real identity, and at certain times, he even surprised Light himself. In the end, he almost figured out Kira’s identity; however, he got killed by Rem at the request of Light.
L from Deathnote
1. Erwin Smith
Erwin Smith is the one who made his whole troop die for humanity. His IQ was on another level, and he was indeed the best manipulator. When he used to give a speech, he caught a lot of attention from soldiers.
Erwin Smith
Erwin’s amazing IQ and analytical skills help scouts regiment to evolve Titans effectively, and they caught Annie’s titan without using Eren’s titan shift. Erwin’s plans are very well executed, and he is even above the level of Armin. Unfortunately, he was killed by Beast Titan in the battle.
