There are many male geniuses in manga. I'm looking for a female genius - a brilliant scientist, ground-breaking archaeologist, award-winning literary author, extraordinary painter, super-skilled surgeon, musical maestro, leading lawyer, political prodigy, gifted chess-player or something of that sort. Basically, a female character with a VERY high I.Q. and accomplishments to match (or, if still young, with definite potential for such accomplishments in the future).

Please, no ecchi. Emphasis on SMARTS, kthx.

Any ideas?

The lead female in ES is definitely smart, but the story isn't about her.

The only other one I can think of is Urumi from GTO, but it's not like the whole series focuses on her.

I can't think of any direct hits, so will take near things:

Saki

Shion no Ou

Nodame Cantabile

Versailles no Bara (doesn't fit well)

Princess (doesn't fit well)

Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou

Glass Mask <---- Fits very well

xxxHoLic

Hatsukanezumi no Jikan (not read)

Fate/stay night

Full metal Panic!

Saiunkoku Monogatari <---- Fits very well

Out of ideas...

@Sossres, you're right about Nodame and Shion, definitely! Will check out the others...

@YukiYuri, I've read ES and loved it, esp. because of Mine. 🙂 Thanks, though!

Doesn't everyone think it's weird that there are so few female geniuses in manga? What does that say about manga (or about Japanese culture)? Then again, are there comparatively many female geniuses in Western comics? If not, then it's quite distressing to think that comic artists from all cultures seem to think that women can't be too smart. 🙁 What's up with that, anyway?

Btw, this is just a question to stir up debate... Please feel free not to answer and continue with the recs alone, if that suits you better. Thanks!

Well, Kurokami Medaka from Medaka Box fits that description...she is supposed to be the best at everything she does. The only problem is that it is an ecchi manga. Also, the story is shounen, so the main protagonist is her best friend. Sorry that I cannot help out more. The female genius seems to be severely lacking in manga...

Cant believe you guys missed Haruno Sakura from Naruto !!!

She's well known for her intelligence and always the know-how character in the manga.

Maybe Tsunade can be included as well as she is already considered a genius (among other geniuses).

Yerright, orpheus17... It's difficult to find non-ecchi smart women protagonists. Let alone geniuses...

But! Thanks to TV Tropes (Gadgeteer Genius and Mad Scientist), I've managed to find a few minor characters at least... Again, sadly, many of them are ecchi.

Nina Einstein from Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. Helpfully named character, huh?

Grace O'Connor from Macross Frontier, apparently.

Washuu from Tenchi Muyo!.

Rin-Rin from Sister Princess (bold because no link available).

Li Kohran from Sakura Taisen.

Kaolla Suu from Love Hina.

Nanoca Flanka from Aoi Umi no Tristia (Tristia of the Deep Blue Sea).

Rika Domeki from Dai Guard.

Satomi Hakase in Mahou Sensei Negima!.

Ed from Cowboy Bebop.

Niea from NieA7.

Irina Woods from Mai-Otome.

Shari from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

Chie from Hyakko.

Winry Rockbell from Full Metal Alchemist.

These are just concentrating on the science side of things, and most are side-characters or ecchi characters. And as a result, I frankly haven't read most of these stories (the word "echhi" turns me off like a tubelight in a snowstorm), but I thought I should list them for those who are interested even in minor characters.

As for me, I'll hold out for a main female character who is a bonafide genius, preferably without the ecchi... 🙂

"or about Japanese culture"

as long as I know, traditional japanese women are working hard to educate themselves so that they can educate their children well once they became mothers. It means, japanese women are as educated as their men. It's just they don't strive to shine in their career, but, well, you know what I mean.

That makes, since manga almost always put career as the base for their plot, ingenuity among womenkind are hard to find. (I personally long to find manga that picture the cleverness of womenkind as a mother, but I haven't found any, do you know, by any chance?)

Well, manga are manga, so I say...
ummm....
I haven't found in my collection manga that features genius woman,
except nodame. (do you read the last chapter? its a wow!)

I recomend ES and the above recommendation of karekano ^^ very smart girls 😉

Reading Love LuckyRecommended B Gata H Kei <3 Conveni-N XD

I think the closest thing to a female genius in Hatsukanezumi no Jikan is probably the female school doctor, also the principal's sister. At least she's done well in her profession and studies, I guess.

Manga (or any medium of other countries) doesn't lack smart women. But smart =/= genius. Or do you think they are the same? By genius I always think of those appearing often in a sports manga, whom other people have to work extremely hard to surpass. So a genius has to be tied with a specialty, like music, science, sports. Maybe you should try female sports manga? For example, aren't the girls in Ginban Kaleidoscope geniuses?

What about all the female scientists in sci-fi mangas, for example, the ones in Variante, Himitsu and Standard Blue. No accomplishments, I think, since they are not main characters or it's not the main point of the mangas. But such characters do exist.

Black Jack and Ray (I think? Haven't read) have achieving female doctors.

Aren't there lots of shoujo mangas about the showbiz (broadway musicals, dance, singing, etc) have successful females in those fields? Maybe shoujo readers will name them for you. Pride has talented classical/opera singers but it's not scanlated yet.

@base_coat, thanks for the AWESOME links! Yes, I'm looking for specialty-oriented geniuses as well. (I mean, it would be great if there were a Renaissance Woman like a female version of Cesare, but specialty geniuses are great too!) I really appreciate your link to Ginban Kaleidoscope; yes, a genius skater certainly counts.

Still, I'd very much like to read a manga where a female genius's intellectual prowess is the highlight. For males, like the ones from Cesare and Historie, the intelligence of these guys is emphasized... and what makes them geniuses is the "wow" factor of their intelligence, i.e. obviously a very high I.Q. as well as mind-boggling problem-solving skills. Are there any such female-centric stories?

Thank you for the many links, which I will certainly be having a look at. 🙂 And yet, it seems that my search for female genius protagonists (as opposed to side-characters) still continues! If you can think of any further recommendations, please do tell. I really appreciate the time you've taken to leave such a detailed response. <3

Although I'm not sure if she's entirely qualified, I'd like to nominate Dr. Katou from Team Medical Dragon. The manga mainly seems to focus on the genius of the male surgeon, Asada, but she is the driving force behind the medical project he works on and is an ace surgeon herself, as well as a capable, smart, ambitious and determined career woman. The story is not female-centric, but she's still a fairly prominent character.

Love your threads, tartufo.

There is a little girl in Tensai Family Company who graduated from Harvard when she was like 12 and is the CEO of her own company.

Kenji's sister in 20th Century Boys is a world-class scientist who successfully creates a vaccine against a virus that nearly wipes out the world.

Shuurei from Saiunkoku Monogatari has the political savvy to compete with Eumenes and Cesare, as her dream is to become prime minister.

Nakia and Nefertiti from Red River could also give Eumenes and Cesare a run for their money.

Avatar by tassyn.livejournal.com

Reading: Kingdom, Sangokushi, Historie

There's a character in Planet Ladder like this, her name was Bambi, or something like that. She's not the main character, though.

And western comics do have genius-type females, but if they're as smart as the men, they're usually evil.

Unfortunatly my two best recommendations are light novels, but they both have manga adaptions.

There's my favorite Suzumiya Haruhi, in which Haruhi, although a bit insane, is indeed a genius and extremely talented. There's also Nagato Yuki who is like the super alien hacked version of your standard glasses girl...except she loses the glasses early on.

Then there's Gosick, which unfortunatly remains mostly untranslated, but it centers around a a tiny blonde lolita girl with a pipe who solves mysteries.

Oh, there's also Special A, which is pretty much all about the insanely talented girl trying to beat her even more insanely talented rival...