Badass Bookworm/Anime and Manga

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Badass Bookworms in Anime and Manga include:

Bleach

  • Uryu Ishida, The Archer—masterful and top of his school class.
  • Nanao Ise, Shingami lieutenant and member of a famous reading club in Soul Society as well as the Shinigami Women's Association. Clearly a Bookworm, her 'badass' status is Informed Ability due to her rank. Although one must have the patience of a saint to have Kyoraku as one's captain.
  • Also, Risa Yadomaru from the Vizard group who was both Nanao's lieutenant * and* reading buddy before leaving Soul Society
  • Momo Hinamori, known as an artist and bookworm inside of the Shinigami circles, and pretty capable as an Action Girl whenever she manages to pull herself out of her (pretty understandable) Heroic BSODs.
  • Eccentric inventor/businessman Kisuke Urahara, who (it turns out) used to be third in command of what amounts to Soul Society's Special Forces. Additionally, he was able to master Bankai, a devastatingly powerful attack which usually takes years of study to learn, in a record shattering three days. He has also been known to pitch his numerous inventions in the midst of battle.
  • Not to mention the other geeky-looking inventor Aizen Sousuke.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha

  • Yuuno Scrya is a mage, an Adventurer Archaeologist, a librarian, and a scholar -- at age 9. In a library practically infinite in size, he can use magic to locate and decipher world-savingly critical information in a matter of hours. In battle, he can hold his own against a powerful ancient Magic Knight armed with a powerful Empathic Weapon, despite having no Empathic Weapon of his own, and he wasn't even giving the fight his undivided attention. Unfortunately, he is still a guy in a Magical Girl show.
  • Vivio, who became a librarian in the Infinity Library in third grade, begins showing more of her fighting skills in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid, including her skill in the Strike Arts style of martial arts, sparring evenly with Nove. This comes off as a surprise to Rio, who had thought of Vivio and Corona as "more of bookworm types."
  • Nanoha herself qualifies. The reason she's a Person of Mass Destruction at age 9 is that her math skills and intelligence allow her to perform really powerful magics. Out-thinking opponents doesn't hurt, either.

Naruto

  • Shikamaru Nara. What do you get when you give a ninja an over 200 I.Q.? Almost all of his fights involve him showing surprising quickness to dodge his opponent's attacks all the while analyzing their every move. And then deciding always on the correct counter strategy. Characters go through some pretty serious, near-fatal injuries in battle (Naruto even lost a lung), yet to date, Shikamaru's most severe battle-related injury that we know of has been...a self-inflicted broken finger.
  • Pretty much all of the smarter ninja in this world count as this trope; on account of them being, you know, ninjas. Not to mention that learning ninjutsu actually requires a lot of study and intelligence itself. And even Naruto himself, a prototypical dumb hero, demonstrates some pretty decent strategic thinking when the need arises.
    • Sakura was introduced as an actual bookworm, and while one of the weakest of the Rookie 9, she is still a trained killing machine who demonstrates Improbable Aiming Skills and can kick a normal persons ass, not to mention she once let herself be hit with shuriken to get at an enemy. Post-skip, she has gained Super Strength and is a medical prodigy capable of inventing cures to elaborate poisons on the fly, before helping an old hag nin fight and kill the S-Class criminal who invented it. She is also hinted to have a talent for Genjutsu, which according to Jiraiya is a fairly intellectual branch of the ninja arts.
    • Orochimaru is a Mad Scientist who has pushed the boundaries of Forbidden Jutsu- including achieving a gruesome kind of immortality- and may have been on to the secrets of the Big Bad Uchiha Madara in the process. He is a fairly competent strategist- if Sarutobi didn't have that one jutsu, he probably would have destroyed the Leaf Village after all, one way or another-, has his own village where he conducts numerous horrific human experiments, and probably personally trained most of the younger Sound nin himself, as well as probably "modifying" them too. His Dragon, Kabuto, is a talented medic who has spliced his genes with Orochimarus' DNA.
    • Tsunade is a revolutionary medic-nin who now runs the entire Leaf village. And Jiraiya, arguably the most capable of the Sannin, is a best-selling author as well (of smut, but still...), and seemed pretty knowledgeable of ninja history.
    • Sand puppeteers like Sasori, Kankuro and Chiyo are expected to make and repair their own puppets, which are often elaborate death machines requiring a fair amount of maintenance. Sasori and Chiyo are both master poisoners as the weapons of the puppeteer are usually coated in poison, and Chiyo appears to have some medical knowledge as well. Sasori used to work with Orochimaru and it is implied they performed experiments together. And he's an artist, or regards himself as such at any rate.
    • The Akimichi clan secret jutsu rely on knowledge of special medicines; the Aburame are bug experts who turn their bodies into bug nests; the Inuzuka appear to be decent vets; and the Yamanaka...er, sell flowers.
    • Iruka. Chuunin-level academy teacher. Capable of projecting two sophisticated, all-senses illusions on opposite sides of Konoha. Echolocation (a possible bloodline limit). Can handle repeatedly being kicked in the spine by a beyond-super-strong former best friend. As skillful as Anko. Stood up to Pain.

Negima

  • Negima plays this by translating the Library girls' abilities into battle magic. Given that said Library is filled with death traps to the point where the ground floor is off limits to Jr. high students and below the 3rd sub-basement is off-limits to the university students, rock climbing gear is needed to get to some parts of the Library that is open to the public, one of the librarians is a top class mage, and there is a dragon in the basement, a case can be made that they were fairly badass even before starting to learn magic.
    • Even without that Teen Genius Yue was already clever enough to begin with to qualify. She actually manages to defeats a dragon/griffin hybrid after saving two classmates by leaping in front of them to block an attack,using her artifact to look it up, determine its weaknesses, and coming up with a plan that involved her stabbing a spot a few centimeters square with a small knife while dodging friendly fire.
  • And also, Albireo "Ku:nel Sanders" Imma, who qualifies as a badass librarian.
  • Negi himself qualifies, although his scholarly abilities aren't emphasized. However, in the first chapter he responded to one of his new students questions "I'm fluent in English to a university graduate level." This from a ten year old (though one would think that his knowledge of Japanese would be the more impressive feat seeing as he is from Wales and all). And he's referred to as a genius more than once, by people familiar with his true background.
  • Nodoka Miyazaki is taking this trope and running with it in the last arcs with the way she is Min-Maxing her artifact. She is scary. According to Nodoka, ancient crypts and ruins in the Magic World are no match for Library Island. And, of course, Nodoka's artifact is absolutely no help in dealing with traps, locks, or natural hazards - it's all her.

One Piece

  • Nico Robin, a Tall, Dark and Bishoujo Hot Librarian and a former Dark Magical Girl who now uses her considerable smarts and fighting skills for the sake of her True Companions.
  • Usopp has created the Clima-Tact, apparently from scraps lying on the ship, as well as its second, more powerful incarnation. The true feat is the original, however, because he created a weather manipulating tool without Dial shells. Basically, he invented a metal stick that can control the weather. There is also the fact that, until the stronger members get or get control of any form of "Ambition", which has been proven by now to allow physical attacks to hit Logia users, Usopp with his dials is the only one in the crew aside from Luffy, and maybe Zoro, who could conceivably take on most fruit users. Think about it. If he had better physical training, like with his reflexes, and physical resistance, what do you think he could do against Ace with a flame dial or Kizaru or Eneru with a flash dial?
  • Nami, the cartographer/meteorologist who's also the Action Girl who actually uses the Clima-Tact created by Usopp. She uses it's ability to generate heat, cold, and mild electricity to cause powerful localized storms, or even to create mirages, due to her extensive knowledge of geography and weather physics. Even without the Clima-Tact she's formidable. In her first appearance she steals a ship from some pirates, timing the weather perfectly so that the oncoming storm sinks the little ship she left them in without sinking her new (only slightly larger) ship.
  • Klahadore/Kurahadol is introduced as Miss Kaya's unassuming, well-dressed butler. Early on he's shown to be incredily gentle and possibly bookish, as he constantly has to adjust his glasses. Of course, he's secretly a massive badass named Captain Kuro, who to his credit, still wears those damn glasses and was pretty well-dressed when he was a pirate. Acknowledged as the third smartest character from East Blue by the series' creator, he's a genius whose nickname is "Kuro of the Thousand Plans." And besides being a mastermind when the gloves come on (his Freddy Krueger-sque clawed gloves) he's also an incredibly powerful pirate who can move fast enough to vanish in front of people. Oh yeah, plus he zero respect for human life and plans on murdering his entire crew after his latest plan, a pirate attack on the village culminating in the death of Miss Kaya so he can inherit her fortune), is completed. He also faked his death by framing a look-a-like via hypnosis

Other works

  • Yoshito Kikuchi and Kanzaki Urumi in Great Teacher Onizuka. Also, Azusa Shiratori's little sister.
  • Professor Gennosuke Yumi from Mazinger Z. He was a quite geeky-looking, Married to the Job scientist, but he could be pretty Badass when he wanted.
  • Aizawa Kouichi from Nabari no Ou is, for all intents and purposes, that one kid with the glasses—smart, somewhat nerdy, nice, and almost boring in the shadow of his weirder friends. Yet he's revealed to be the most professional and capable ninja in his village, and is more than willing to kill/brainwash the influential (including the CEO of a vast, international medicine/defense technology corporation) if the mission calls for it. To be fair, he's actually not exactly human, or a middle schooler, having been created as a living experiment centuries ago.
  • Think twice before attacking Faust VIII, from Shaman King. Enjoy your vivisection if you do. He can operate a bone transplant on himself in the middle of battle. Now that's Badass.
  • Kiyomaro Takamine of Konjiki no Gash Bell, middle school student and master tactician with loads of stamina.
  • Yomiko Readman of Read or Die is a particularly good example, as her extraordinary power stems directly from her love of books. The manga goes even further, with an entire school teaching Awesomeness By Analysis. They are ridiculously good at what they do.
  • Kazuo Kiriyama from the Manga version of Battle Royale is an evil version, a sociopathic genius who spent most of his time quietly reading books and staying out of everyone's way. Due to this their gym teacher, a former Olympic Judo champion, decides to pick on him for a bit of a laugh, failing to notice that he's been reading a book on martial arts and looking remarkably confident... Not to mention Kiriyama's first meeting with the guy who became his lieutenant. A book on anatomy and no human compassion equals the most ridiculously violent high-school beatings ever captured on a page.
  • Yuki Nagato from Suzumiya Haruhi is usually quiet and unassuming, and rarely ever puts down her book, even when everyone else is playing around... or when she's playing around, or even when she is water skiing. However, whenever she's confronted by the weirdness brought about by Haruhi Suzumiya herself and her Reality Warper power, Yuki exhibits surprising battle abilities. Such as the ability to temporarily overwrite reality, or play a bitchin' guitar solo. Her Badass-ness is one of the reasons why she's not creepy. Her fight with Ryouko Asakura was great. Not only was she stabbed straight through by multiple objects, she was able to be graceful while doing it. She won that fight, actually.
  • Gundam has a few:
    • Uso Evin likes to learn as much as he can, and his friends know that is usually near books when he is not piloting Gundam's. If he doesn't have a gundam nearby he just GundamJacks mid-air the nearest mobile suit.
    • Paptimus Scirocco is the poster boy for the villainous Bookworm: an ambitious political mastermind and Ace Pilot to rival Amuro and Char, he disdains social interaction and seems at his most content when he's working on his mobile suits or perusing data in solitude.
    • Flit Asuno completed his mother's mobile suit design, thus building his own gundam. He also didn't intend to pilot it, but did end up being the very first to beat a UE Veigan mobile suit as well as destroying every single Ace Custom in his path, and in the second generation, he may be a fleet commander but his home office is still filled with books.
  • Played around with the Data Tennis players (Sadaharu Inui of Seigaku, Renji Yanagi of Rikkaidai, Hajime Mizuki of Saint Rudolph, Taichi Dan of Yamabuki and Koharu Konjiki of Shitenhouji) from The Prince of Tennis. All of them use the information they collect to further their playing strategies (hence the "Data tennis" name), but the results are different since they have very distinct personalities and methods.
    • Inui and Yanagi also qualify in the Genius Bruiser category, both being over 6 ft. tall.
  • Professor Colbert from The Familiar of Zero. Also qualifies for Retired Badass and Heel Face Turn.
  • Sailor Moon
    • Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury is the smartest junior high/high school student in the whole of Japan and a Sailor Senshi with mastery over water and ice-based attacks. She even has a visor and a special calculator that allows her to analyze the situation and discover the weak spots of their enemies.
      • Her Badass Bookworm status is lampshaded by Ami herself in the Stars season, when Haruka chides her for prioritizing the analysis of the rival they're fighting over her own safety and Ami replies "This is MY way to fight!"
    • In the manga version Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Mask who graduated at the top of his class, is considered almost as smart as Ami, if not as smart, is an excellent fencer, and is also considered one of the best hand-to-hand combatants in the series. Pity the poor guy is still subjected to The Worf Effect even then...
  • L of Death Note, who is laconic, lazy, a brilliant detective, and quite able to hold his own in the occasional fistfight with Light. Must be all the sweets. In the third live action movie he uses a thrown hammer to knock out a Psycho for Hire.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist
    • Edward Elric to some degree. Without all the angst and dangerous adventures, he's really just a short science geek. Minus of course, the Artificial Limbs and wiry physique.
    • Izumi is another splendid specimen -though it mainly happens offscreen, she must have studied like hell to get her alchemical know-how. But the most obvious case is probably manga Hohenheim: he's shown as a nerd of unspeakable proportions who spends more time in his study than with his family, lives on his own little nerdy planet and hardly ever fights. But when he does, it automatically results in CrowningMomentsOfAwesome.
    • How about we say ALL alchemists fit? Since you know - even if we don't see Roy leafing through books too often he is an expert with his own alchemy, has a vast knowledge about other fields than his fire-thing - oh, and not to mention he is in the army. Which implies he is not only Badass but also anything but Book Dumb .
    • Hell, even Fuery could fit this.
  • Playwright prospect, Kaleido Stage fansite webmistress, very skilled with technical stuff as well as with literature-related knowledge, and a talented acrobat and actress on top of it all... That's Mia Guillem from Kaleido Star to you.
  • Rider in Fate/stay night, when you found out that she actually loves literature, when she is in her Meganekko mode. Of course, combined with her already powerful abilities...
  • Kuroo Hazama aka Dr. Black Jack. Apparently, obtaining his Medical Doctorate has transformed him into some sort of surgery-performing ninja. This is the only way one can explain feats such as using scalpels to deflect bullets, or climbing across the surface of an airplane in mid-flight. Perhaps he wasn't really mentored by Dr. Honma, but by Dr. McNinja.
  • Monster's Inspector Heinrich Lunge. While being a ridiculously intelligent BKA investigator with a photographic memory is impressive, Lunge's real threat is that he's practically a human terminator who doesn't shoot to wound so much as he shoots to cause excruciating pain.
    • Johan himself is a great evil example of this trope. A bona-fide genius- he once posed as a Law student, but legitimately got all A's, in between advising a tycoon on how to run his financial empire whilst the two discussed Latin- who happens to be a super-prolific Serial Killer, a man who amongst other things slaughters entire families off-screen. He has hardened criminals, mad scientists and Neo-Nazis all worshipping the ground he walks on, and the rest of the world p*ssing themselves in his presence because he just oozes evil. He is utterly fearless (even inviting) in the face of death and has been shot in the head twice and survived. His hobby is walking the edges of skyrise rooftops and he is probably The Antichrist. Not known for his fighting skill, but he's pretty familiar with guns and was bred to be The Ubermensch. He is also a Manipulative Bastard of the highest order and seems capable of talking civilization into destroying itself.
  • Isuzu Ayane from Gate Keepers 21 is quiet, ranked third in the second year level of her high school, spends most of her time reading and sitting in front of her laptop, and yet when it comes to her part time job, effortlessly takes down scores of Invaders by throwing cell phones at them.
  • In Ghost in the Shell, Ishikawa gets his Badass Bookworm moments near the conclusion of each season. The first time, he proves that he is definitely not a Technical Pacifist, by blowing up a building with his pursuers in it, and in the next season by bludgeoning a secret agent into unconsciousness with the cast on his broken arm so that he can safely deliver a rod of weapons-grade plutonium.
  • Walter 'Angel of Death' Dornez from Hellsing, a polite elderly monocle-donning butler whose WWII experiences happen to include tearing whole armies to shreds with monofilament. He can still do that, as he eventually proves with spectacular scenes of gore and destruction.
  • Appledelhi, Ed's father, from Cowboy Bebop is a geologist studying and mapping the ruined Earth, and a bit of a Cloudcuckoolander to boot. When he is forced into a confrontation with Spike, he effortlessly beats off all of Spike's attacks, and is well on the way to stomping him good when he's interrupted.
    • The Cloudcuckoolander part? The earth he's mapping is STILL BEING RUINED by rocks falling from the sky. Every time one lands he races off to map the changes. And like Ed, Appledelhi can take somewhat cartoonish amounts of abuse and shrug it off. In a show that, for the most part, obeys all the laws of physics. A show so based on reality that Spike uses a known martial art—Jeet Kune Do, as created by Bruce Lee. Sure, the Bebop crew run into some pretty strange occurrences, but Spike is strictly Badass Normal, ending the episode several times wrapped up as if he were a mummy. He is... outclassed several times.
  • Soul Eater
    • Maka, the protagonist, is a recognized bookworm, a very badass bookworm that will kick your ass with her scythe-partner if you get in her way. She also packs quite the punch, too.
    • Ox Ford would probably count too.
    • Dr. Franken Stein likes to research and experiment, on himself as well as others. He is also the most powerful meister Shibusen has ever produced. His physical skill and soul wavelength abilities make him dangerous enough unarmed. Give him a Weapon, however, and he'll really start having fun.
  • In the 3rd episode of Golgo 13, the titular hitman is in a sniper duel with two mercenaries using advanced rifles superior to his own M16, and modified with a unique electronic "super scope". Based on their firing patterns, he deduces that the scopes have a vulnerability in that they do not take shifts in gradient into account. He then calculates the gradient necessary for their shots to be totally inaccurate, and positions himself in an area of the battlefield with that gradient, easily blowing them away. Duke Togo- international assassin, and math nerd.
  • Hakkai from Saiyuki, the polite and scholarly type in the party heading west. He even wears a monocle (if for different reasons). And then there's the matter of his energy blasts ... His past life Tenpou from Saiyuki Gaiden is actually a bookworm (to the point of being shown literally buried in books) and bespectacled, but people know very well you don't want to get him mad. He also single-handedly does the work of an entire military unit.
  • Tsutomu Tanaka, a minor character from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple. This 18 year old Salaryman with a young daughter first appears as a diminutive wimp who is fairly well whipped by his wife and boss, up until he stabs his index finger into a man several times larger than him without any resistance, KOing him instantly, and outruns a member of YOMI so fast that by the time she turns a corner, he has already disappeared.
  • Don't mess with Akira Shirase. Yes, he does look like a textbook example of computer nerd, who haven't shaved, washed or got enough sleep in three or four days. He also can listen to a song and write a binary of mp3 of it out of his head. He can also hack your PC into going boom using nothing more than a cellphone with internet connection. Or hack and drop a sequence of decommissioned spy satellites on your head. So, yeah, don't mess with Battle Programmer Shirase.
  • Manabu Yukimitsu from Eyeshield 21. Scrawny and weak, the only thing that even lets him join the team is the fact that he's more of a Determinator than the character whose determination is a running gag. However, after finally being put into the game against Shinryuuji, he manages to outsmart gifted Jerk Jock Agon Kongo and score a touchdown.
  • Seto Kaiba of Yu-Gi-Oh! is one of the top two Duel Monsters duelists of all time, a master chess player, CEO of the world's most successful game company, and inventor of the Duel Disk system, among other high tech gaming gadgets. Oh, and he was also apparently trained well in Krav Maga, and can disarm someone with a card fling.
  • Seta Noriyasu of Love Hina is a university archeology professor who is something of a parody of Indiana Jones. He's also a remarkably skilled martial artist and (in the anime, at least) passes on some of this knowledge to Keitaro.
  • Gen Sakon from the original Gaiking series wasn't only a top mechanic and a great Big Brother Mentor, but a Adventurer Archaeologist and pretty handy in hand-to-hand combat.
  • Kyrie Ushiromiya of Umineko no Naku Koro ni. Sure, she knows her place in the family conferences (near the bottom) and will leave most of the arguing to her husband Rudolf. But stick any kind of demon in front of her and watch it go flying. George may also qualify in the fourth arc, but Kyrie is more consistently this, and her analytical nature is way more played-up.
    • Heck, anyone who does truth duels with any level of skill has to be this by sheer necessity. Battler, for example, refuses to call himself well-read because it would be arrogant due to "only reading about a hundred a year."
  • Dekoppa or Kazuya Idetaro from Majin Devil qualifies. Quote:"...How boring. Solving Fermat's Theorem is more difficult than this." He proceeds to walk away with Badass Longcoat flapping in the breeze of the exploding remains of his opponent,Scary Shiny Glasses glowing doing an Unflinching Walk.
  • Harumi Fujiyoshi of Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei is a Yaoi Fangirl who spends much of her time producing Doujinshi. However, she's also a very competent athlete and the school's sports teams often try to force her to join. One episode indicates that her glasses are a Power Limiter, and she'd be an even more amazing athlete without them.
  • In almost the same exact vein as Harumi, Konata Izumi of Lucky Star is a great athlete to the point of winning the 100m Dash for her school's Athletic Festival....by visualizing herself in the original Track & Field/Hyper Olympic video game. Complete with custom controller and ruler trick. Much the same way, her athletic ability is shelved for her...other interests.
  • Legend of Zelda: Four Swords+: Vio is Link's "smart side" and is often seen reading. And yet, he's still strong and skilled enough to beat the "original" green Link in a sparring match.
  • Manabizaki from SWOT is a person who studies too much (which is what the title means). He's always found with his nose buried in a book. However, he also has a Hair-Trigger Temper and gets really pissed when anything interrupts his study time. This attitude, coupled with his externally nasty behavior, have gotten him into fights with Delinquents... to their detriment.
  • In Durarara!!, Izaya Orihara's primary forte is information dealing and being a manipulative rat bastard of a Troll. However, as he points out to Anri Sonohara, one doesn't make as many enemies as he does (particularly when one of those enemies is Shizuo Heiwajima aka Ikebukuro's God of Wrath) and survive unless they're also damn good in a fight.
  • Dragon Ball
    • Gohan was raised his whole life to become a scholar. Despite being a straight-A student, Gohan is one of the strongest fighters of the show, even having more fighting potential than his father. Even after spending a decade doing no martial arts training and not fighting anybody more formidable than random unpowered criminals, he's still capable of effortlessly kicking the ass of well over 99% of all fighters in the universe, and is literally stronger than God.
    • Trunks, to some extent.
  • Japan, England, and possibly Austria of Axis Powers Hetalia.
  • Black from Pokémon Special totally qualifies. Is he a Large Ham Determinator with Hyper Awareness? Yes, but he actually did some research before he went on his journey, and outright states that he's been spending time reading in libraries ever since he was a little kid so he could learn everything he possibly could.
    • Preceding Black is Platinum Berlitz who reads 10 books a day and knows quite a lot of concrete facts about Sinnoh, and various facts about a wide range of disciplines despite never leaving her mansion.
  • Lucy and Levi from Fairy Tail
  • The Black Swordsman from Kigeki will lend his services only if his employer gives him a book upfront as payment. If he happens to like the book, then you've just secured yourself a Vampire One-Man Army.
  • Yang Wenli, an aspiring historian turned strategist due to various circumstances, of Legend of Galactic Heroes. He has never been defeated in his career, besting even the Empire's brightest star Reinhard von Lohengramm. However, all he ever wants in life is early retirement and a generous pension so that he can pursue his real interest: study history.
  • Library War: Library Defense Force meets this trope thanks to the job.
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