Lists

5 Anime to Watch When You’re Tired of Genius Protagonists

5 Anime to Watch When You’re Tired of Genius Protagonists

We like ‘em dumb sometimes.

Brilliant students and geniuses are always fun to watch and follow, there’s no doubt. But while such smart characters are always entertaining, they are not always relatable and easy to understand.

That’s why we’ve collected a small list of anime characters that are not the brightest among their peers, but who we still love a lot.

  1. Great Teacher Onizuka

 - image 1

Eikichi Onizuka is not your perfect example of a hero: he’s problematic, an ex-biker gang leader, greedy, perverted and a delinquent. And still, he becomes a teacher.

What he doesn’t expect is that his students are even more problematic than him, and, surprisingly, smarter than him, too. Onizuka’s students teach him a lot of things, and he finds another side of himself in the process, an understanding and compassionate one.

  1. Chainsaw Man

 - image 2

We don’t want to insult Denji, but let’s be real: he’s not the smartest guy in the series. He allows Makima to successfully manipulate him, and turns his brain off every time there’s a pretty girl in front of him.

Denji is the epitome of an annoying horny teenager sometimes, but this is exactly why we love him so much. And this is exactly why his future character development hits especially hard.

  1. Overlord

 - image 3

To be fair, fans don’t say that Ainz is stupid in any way, he’s fairly capable of making good and logical plans. But the fact that everyone else in the series is so much more intelligent than him makes him look dumber.

He needs his subordinates to elevate his plans to another level and turn them into master schemes. Ainz is outclassed by them, but that’s why they work so well together.

  1. Rent a Girlfriend (Kanojo, Okarishimasu)

 - image 4

Kazuya Kinoshita has recently been dumped by his girlfriend, and this is what drives him to try out a mobile app, which allows him to rent a girlfriend for some time.

Despite its premise sounding like a fun and comedic series, Rent a Girlfriend has acquired so many haters because of the stupidity of its main character that we lost count long ago.

Fans even go so far as to say that he is so numbingly dumb that it makes you want to scream at the screen in anger.

  1. Mashle: Magic and Muscles

 - image 5

Fans say that Mash is the “muscles” part of the title, and that says a lot. A boy in a fantasy world that has physical strength as his only superpower is far removed from the society that doesn’t like anyone magicless. And that might be the reason for his lack of brilliance.

But we don’t care, because the entire thing provides us with tons of hilarious moments in a world that resembles Harry Potter so much.

We like ‘em dumb sometimes.

Brilliant students and geniuses are always fun to watch and follow, there’s no doubt. But while such smart characters are always entertaining, they are not always relatable and easy to understand.

That’s why we’ve collected a small list of anime characters that are not the brightest among their peers, but who we still love a lot.

  1. Great Teacher Onizuka

5 Anime to Watch When You’re Tired of Genius Protagonists - image 1

Eikichi Onizuka is not your perfect example of a hero: he’s problematic, an ex-biker gang leader, greedy, perverted and a delinquent. And still, he becomes a teacher.

What he doesn’t expect is that his students are even more problematic than him, and, surprisingly, smarter than him, too. Onizuka’s students teach him a lot of things, and he finds another side of himself in the process, an understanding and compassionate one.

  1. Chainsaw Man

5 Anime to Watch When You’re Tired of Genius Protagonists - image 2

We don’t want to insult Denji, but let’s be real: he’s not the smartest guy in the series. He allows Makima to successfully manipulate him, and turns his brain off every time there’s a pretty girl in front of him.

Denji is the epitome of an annoying horny teenager sometimes, but this is exactly why we love him so much. And this is exactly why his future character development hits especially hard.

  1. Overlord

5 Anime to Watch When You’re Tired of Genius Protagonists - image 3

To be fair, fans don’t say that Ainz is stupid in any way, he’s fairly capable of making good and logical plans. But the fact that everyone else in the series is so much more intelligent than him makes him look dumber.

He needs his subordinates to elevate his plans to another level and turn them into master schemes. Ainz is outclassed by them, but that’s why they work so well together.

  1. Rent a Girlfriend (Kanojo, Okarishimasu)

5 Anime to Watch When You’re Tired of Genius Protagonists - image 4

Kazuya Kinoshita has recently been dumped by his girlfriend, and this is what drives him to try out a mobile app, which allows him to rent a girlfriend for some time.

Despite its premise sounding like a fun and comedic series, Rent a Girlfriend has acquired so many haters because of the stupidity of its main character that we lost count long ago.

Fans even go so far as to say that he is so numbingly dumb that it makes you want to scream at the screen in anger.

  1. Mashle: Magic and Muscles

5 Anime to Watch When You’re Tired of Genius Protagonists - image 5

Fans say that Mash is the “muscles” part of the title, and that says a lot. A boy in a fantasy world that has physical strength as his only superpower is far removed from the society that doesn’t like anyone magicless. And that might be the reason for his lack of brilliance.

But we don’t care, because the entire thing provides us with tons of hilarious moments in a world that resembles Harry Potter so much.