Looking for a story about an incredibly smart kid, smart enough be called a genius or a prodigy. Not just a quick-minded or clever kid - I mean a real bonafide GENIUS. The kind that would have a humongous IQ score and could attend university as a pre-teen if s/he wanted to. The kind of intelligence that adults notice and immediately label as being of a genius level, no matter how young the child is. That order of intelligence.

Please ONLY recommend manga where:

-| The main character is a kid under 16.

-| The kid is a genius/prodigy but NOT just a sports prodigy. (Sorry!) Has to be really smart in a NERDY way. (The only exceptions would be nerdy sports, like chess or something that emphasizes mental prowess only.)

-| The kid is either a one-subject genius (e.g. specialized in music or maths or science or art), or an all-round genius-at-everything kid. There should be at least one area where the kid is super-gifted or in the top 1% or something.

-| The main plot/story is inspired by, based on is only made possible by this kid's immense intelligence. So it should NOT be a manga where the genius of the kid plays a side role - it has to be the main force behind the plot.

-| The kid is a genuine kid, not an adult-becomes-child scenario or an alien-child-that-is-really-400-years-old scenario or child-demon scenario or child-angel scenario or vampire-child-that-lives-forever kind of scenario. Nope! Just a plain little kid. Who happens to be a massive genius.

-| One-shots are ok. Doesn't have to be a whole manga or a whole series.

-| Any genre except hentai is ok. Ecchi manga or lightly shota-ish/loli-ish romances are actually ok, but NO HENTAI plz. The only reason I'm even allowing ecchi at all is because child geniuses are so hard to find in manga... Seriously, where the heck are they? Maybe I haven't been able to find them because I haven't been looking for the perverted or "precocious" ones? Lol.

I'm very excited about this! Let's see what people suggest!

Historie: highly recommend this one.
Dr. Rabbit: oneshot.

I would add Pani Poni, but I'm not sure if she's actually under 16 or just looks that young. O_O And the plot doesn't really focus on her being a genius...

Edit~ I might as well add Mahou Sensei Negima! since I know someone else will mention it eventually. XD

Last edited by BaeSooky at 3:13 am, Oct 7 2009

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Monkeys, always at your service.

Old: Hikaru no go... Well a genius ghost did help him out. But somewhere in the end the ghost finally realise how genius the kid is... And theres another kid that is just plain genius
new: the world god only know... Pure genius
i hope these help
sorry no link im using my phone.

uhm she might be around 16 acctually anyway because i wanna help:

medaka box

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Aha! I was right - it was because I was avoiding ecchi that I wasn't finding many child geniuses.

Thank you so much, everyone. Still favoring the non-ecchi ones, here, but will read anything with a child genius in it at this point. EDIT: As long as the main plot is focused on the genius nature of the kid and the things s/he achieves with it! Would Mahou Sensei Negima still count? Am curious, because I always thought the kid's "intelligence" was just an excuse to have a boy in the middle of a lot of attractive older women... Not so much a thing of worth in and of itself. But I'd be very happy if my first impression was wrong! Plz to be correcting me.

EDIT #2: I think "Hikaru no Go" doesn't actually have a genius protagonist of the kind I'm looking for (as you said, he had supernatural assistance), but since the other main chara is a bonafide kid genius (Akira), that'll still fly. Thanks!

Last edited by tartufo at 3:35 am, Oct 7 2009

Yasha. Though when he's young he kinda hid the fact that he's a genius.

The World God Only Knows (TWGOK). Hosts an intelligent main character with a specialty in gaming.

Q.E.D., but the main chara is in high school, even though he graduated from M.I.T. So I think he's around 16 year old (I never paid attention how old Touma is ) .

C.M.B. suits more, but it's not yet scanlated into english (the raws are floating on eMule, btw).

Last edited by yuuri097 at 7:57 am, Oct 7 2009

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Spiral: Suiri no Kizuna

Give Gash Bell! a chance maybe. The genius main character grows physically and mentally after some volumes and continues the trend.

Then I don't think you would like Negima so much, since that's exactly what it is. Granted, I did drop the series, but from where I left off his "geniusness" wasn't pointed out that much. It is kind of similar to Pani Poni in that aspect since her child-prodigy self was basically an excuse to have her in the middle of such a chaotic classroom; the mangaka didn't really focus much on her being a prodigy, neither for character or plot development.

And I would suggest both Tensai Family Company and Grand Sun, but I think both geniuses are 17 years old. O_o

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Monkeys, always at your service.

piano no mori - beautiful story about child pianists

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♪MONSTARR~ will eat all your cookies and steal your bishies~♪ Φ_Φ

^ that's what i said b4. The main character become a genius even more than the ghost, which was totally awsome and sad somehow.

Hatsumei Princess should classify cos she's a prodigal inventor who's 16?
And..Shion no Ou probably. She's pretty darn good at Shougi anyway. No idea how old she is but I'm guessing it's under 16.

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"If it's bitter at the start, then it's sweeter in the end.."