Most Powerful Anime Characters Who Rely Solely On Strategy

Summary

• Anime characters like L, Lelouch, and Sailor Mercury are deadly using strategy over weapons.
• Quienella and Chessmaster Hex showcase long-term planning and manipulation as their key skills.
• Project 2501 in Ghost In The Shell demonstrates the power of manipulation through cybernetic hacking.

Anime has a reputation for having a lot of visceral action along with highly mechanized weapons, but that isn’t always the case. There’s a selection of characters from anime shows and movies who never use a weapon and don’t need one because they use strategy or manipulation to achieve their goals instead.

Even though these characters don’t use weapons, or don’t even carry them most of the time, they are some of the deadliest in the anime universe. Even the skills of the most accomplished swordmaster can’t defeat the stunning intellect and precise deductions of these characters that rely solely on strategy.

1

L, Death Note

The Power Of Deduction

The audience never learns his full name, but it is eventually revealed as Lawliet, and he was the only character in Death Note that even came close to defeating the equally voracious intellect of Yagami Light. Unlike the protagonist, however, L was not watched over by a Shinigami who had let him use his supernatural notebook.

Using only his wits, L was able to corner and almost catch Light several times, and it was only because of a second Shinigami that L was finally defeated after a game of cat and mouse that lasted several seasons. Although L was defeated, the legacy he left behind allowed his successors to find and stop Kira.

2

Lelouch Lamperouge, Code Geass: Lelouch Of The Rebellion

A Brilliant Military Tactician

His real name is Lelouch vi Britannia, but since he spends most of his time rebelling against his father’s empire, Britannia, he uses a pseudonym to distance himself from his relatives in the royal family. The holder of the Geass, and already possessing an impressive intellect, Lelouch led the Black Knights into an organized resistance under the name Zero.

There’s still a lot of physical conflict in the Code Geass universe, but the story is really about a battle of ideologies, and the plot culminates in a final battle between two best friends. Lelouch was always destined to lose, but that doesn’t make him any less of a brilliant strategist to the very end.

3

Ritsuko, Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Mind Behind The Magi

Ritsuko is always the one who watches others as they live their lives without really having one of her own. She watches her mother, who constantly chooses her men over her daughter as she grows up, then her friend Misato and her on-and-off boyfriend Kaji, and even Gendo and Yui. Her best friend is always her computer, and even though she has a social life, she seems to choose solitude.

This character’s secret is that they’re playing the long game. Ritsuko was working on the Magi for years, quietly programming the supercomputer her mother built to betray Gendo. Despite her highly analytical mind, however, she missed a crucial detail that eventually led to her heartbreaking defeat.

4

Sailor Mercury, Sailor Moon

Defensive Powers

According to the lore of Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury was the third guardian who was awakened after Sailor Venus and Sailor Moon. By day, she’s super-student and intellectual powerhouse Ami Mizuno, and her powers are mostly defensive and require planning and strategy.

While the other Guardians have weapons like bows or even swords, Ami is armed only with her computer, and her attacks slow or obscure the vision of hostile targets instead of harming them. Sabão Spray, also known as Mercury Bubbles Blast, covers the area in a fog that she and her allies can see through, and an upgraded version of this attack freezes enemies.

5

Quinella, Sword Art Online: Alicization

The Power Of Popularity

It seems strange to have a character in an anime series based on video games who plans instead of fights, but this is what makes Quienella even more unique. As an antagonist, she’s cast in the perfect role, the player who cuts corners to make a game easier. She does fight, but only easy bouts that she knows she can win against much lower-level critters.

“Cheesing” a tough fight is acceptable, even admirable, but nobody likes a cheater. Quienella crosses the line to level up fast and con the humans of the Underworld that she’s special. It’s a clever strategy she uses not only to level up fast but also to not get caught while doing it, and before anyone figures out what’s going on, she’s holding the highest and most powerful position in the Axiom Church.

6

Chessmaster Hex, Cowboy Bebop

The Art Of The Game

Chess is a game that’s often associated with the power of a player’s intellect, which sets the stage for the strategic mastery of Chessmaster Hex. It’s a sad story of a long-range plan for revenge that was 50 years in the making, which gave the authorities plenty of time to slap a bounty on his head and for the crew of the Bebop to follow up on it.

Hex was always notorious for his talent with chess, which is partly why he so meticulously set up the design flaws in the Astral Gates to fail so far in advance. He didn’t take into account the march of time, however, and by the time the plan was set to work, he had grown old, senile, and forgotten the plans he had made.

7

Project 2501, Ghost In The Shell

The Art Of Manipulation

Project 2501, also known as the Puppet Master, is a master hacker who can manipulate the cybernetic implants in people’s brains. It never does the shooting or hacking, but sets up others to do the crimes in their place, a strategy that makes it almost impossible to catch them.

There’s more intrigue under the surface, as the investigation headed up by Section 6 eventually reveals, and the Puppet Master infiltrates certain government agencies at the highest levels. Without revealing the ending, and for those who have seen the sequel, Ghost In The Shell: Innocence, conventional weapons are obsolete compared to the power of an evolved Project 2501.