Female characters who are intelligent strategists

[pianocello]

While watching shows like Death Note and Code Geass, I have noticed how intelligent the male leads in those two shows are in planning out their strategies and so on.
Are there any female characters in any anime that you think are just as intelligent as these aforementioned male leads in their strategies?

[Sensuifu]

Motoko Kusanagi (GitS)
Balsa (Seirei no Moribito)

[geotrio]

The alcoholic girl in Gundam 00 and the girl with swirly hair in the original Macross.

[Nana_fan]

Sinon Kouzuki from Starship Operators

[Massugu Man]

How about Fuu from Rayearth?

[Quarkboy]

Absolutely none of the characters from Galaxy Angel.

[Draneor]

Absolutely none of the characters from Galaxy Angel.

Actually, Mint Blancmanche is. This may not be as prominent in the anime as the other parts of the franchise, but she certainly makes quite a few calculations.

[Lego]

Integral from Hellsing seems just that. With things like Seras and even when in control of Alucard she is prominently in control and constantly strategic.

[Garasharp K7]

Yurika Misumaru from Nadesico. :)

[Njr Scrawl]

While watching shows like Death Note and Code Geass, I have noticed how intelligent the male leads in those two shows are in planning out their strategies and so on.
Are there any female characters in any anime that you think are just as intelligent as these aforementioned male leads in their strategies?

Balalaika in Black Lagoon
Admiral Spoor in Battle Flag of the Stars

[mitamaking]

Matoko from Ghost in the Shell
Tessa from Full Metal Panic(never said she couldn't be a ditz, anyway she is a tactican which is what you asked)

[Fudce]

Admiral Spoor in Battle Flag of the Stars

Battle Flag?


Sylia Stingray of Bubblegum Crisis is a good strategist..

[HitokiriShadow]

The alcoholic girl in Gundam 00

Her "strategies" typically amount to tossing her horribly overpowered WMDs at the enemy and hoping they'll come out on top due to sheer overwhelming firepower. And she almost always sends her plan to the computer first or gets it from the computer in the first place. When she can't simply overwhelm the enemy, she doesn't do very well. She's supposed to be a strategist/tactician, but she's not a very good one.

[ArcticMech]

Cornelia Li Britannia can't compare to the male lead, but comes off as being pretty good.

[Chuplayer]

How about Fuu from Rayearth?

Yeah, and that one from the Arabian themed world from Rayearth 2.

[Westlo]

Admiral Spoor in Banner of the Stars

Spoor! /worship

Cornelia Li Britannia can't compare to the male lead, but comes off as being pretty good.

I think she compared well to him considering she was up against the 1-2 blow of lolmaincharacter hax and lolgeasshax.

[Yukino Miyazawa]

Temari from Naruto
Shion from Shion no Ou

[Fencedude]

Admiral Spoor in Battle Flag of the Stars

Battle Flag?


"Battle Flag" is a somewhat more literal interpretation of the "Senki" in Seikai no Senki, though its officially the somewhat more elegant Banner of the Stars.

[Mr. Nail Bat]

Absolutely none of the characters from Galaxy Angel.

Actually, Mint Blancmanche is. This may not be as prominent in the anime as the other parts of the franchise, but she certainly makes quite a few calculations.

It seems like Mint's most frequent strategy is...

"Hmm... there's a slight chance of personal embarrassment for me. My only choice is to KILL the other Angel Brigade members with extreme prejudice."

...but that just might be my worship of Evil-Mint talking.

[The Great Bear]

Actually, Mint Blancmanche is. This may not be as prominent in the anime as the other parts of the franchise, but she certainly makes quite a few calculations.It seems like Mint's most frequent strategy is...

"Hmm... there's a slight chance of personal embarrassment for me. My only choice is to KILL the other Angel Brigade members with extreme prejudice."

...but that just might be my worship of Evil-Mint talking.

You do forget her other frequent strategy:

"Hmm... the Brigade is in serious trouble. But I have this cute costume I can hide in which will save me, even if it dooms the rest of them to a painful death. I think I'll try on the costume. It's so cute!"

[pianocello]

Cornelia Li Britannia can't compare to the male lead, but comes off as being pretty good.


Well one of my complaints about Code Geass and Death Note is that most of the female characters there are nowhere in the level or even close in the field of intelligent strategizing as the male leads with too many of them becoming airheaded bimbos. Cornelia is quite capable but I think the strongest of the female characters in the show is definitely C.C. who at least is a reasonably intelligent match for Lelouch.

[zero_chance]

Nanoha Takamachi from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha (and sequels) definitely fits the bill. For proof, check out her spectacular duel with Fate in Episode 11 of the first season. At that point, she's only 8 years old, and yet she's not only defending herself, but like an expert chess player, she's thinking in advance, and setting diversions and traps at the same time. The girl's got an uncanny ability to think on her feet.

And she obviously passed this trait on to her trainees, Subaru Nakajima and Teana Lanster in StrikerS, who displayed similar aptitude for battle tactics (even if their results weren't quite as spectacular).

[vtr9kvictor]

the girl with swirly hair in the original Macross.

NERD RAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGEEEEEE!!!!!!!

HER NAME IS MISA HAYASE. Or if you prefer Robotech: Lisa Hayes.

You make my brain itch with your lack of knowledge. Now go, hang your head in shame.

[Buckeye]

Yuki Nagato is another strategist, though not the kind that comes to mind. She is the brains behind the SOS Brigade that has helped keep Haruhi from imploding.

[jojo_home]

I wonder what people here think of Yoko from Twelve Kingdoms. She made a helluva lot of mistakes to start off, but there is a growing sense late in the series that she may turn out to be a cunning political strategist in the future, while knowing when to lean on her hand picked advisors for military matters.

[Kellory]

While I cant say I've seen all the characters mentioned, I think folks are generally confusing tactics for strategy. Although similar, they are not the same. Tactics typically deal with short term immediate positioning and fighting. Strategy takes a more long term view, days, weeks, months, years on down. Strategy is less about fighting and more about maneuver.

Nanoha, for example, is a tactics person. Her general thing is to simply go all out and beat her target into submission. She typically focuses on the fight at hand, and leaves the larger picture to others. As such Hayate is actually a better example of a strategist. She is much more focused on the larger picture.

When looking at Death Note L is a tactician, whereas Light is a strategist. The problem Light has is that he is a relatively poor tactician himself, and thus finds himself at a disadvantage when having to think quickly on his feet. Of course, he is also highly intelligent and thus able to think quickly on his feet generally, but when pitted in a tactical situation against L he finds himself at the disadvantage quickly. The problem being that he needs time to come up with strategies and is not as comfortable at doing things on the fly. When he does so his plans do tend to work, but they leave loose ends that someone like L can come and pick up on. As long as Light was able to keep things on a larger strategic stage, he was able to foil L. But once L was able to narrow the focus of his search down and bring things down to a tactical level, Light found himself at the disadvantage.

Both Go and Chess are examples of strategic games. They focus on focusing an opponent to react to your moves. This is why among masters often a game is concluded with relatively few moves played. Both sides recognize when one side has lost the initiative and is now reacting to the moves of the other rather than forcing them to react to them. And among masters the chance of regaining the initiative is difficult to impossible once you have lost it. Thus one side generally concedes once this happens. These games are less about the individual moves than creating a situation through your moves that gains you the initiative and forces your opponent into reacting to you.

In terms of strategy, Satoko from Higurashi is a decent strategist as her nickname of the master of traps shows. She is quite capable of thinking several steps ahead and planning for and countering the moves of her opponent. The watergun fight was a classic example. Of course, it's also a classic example of superior tactics overwhelming strategy due to a hole in Satoko's strategy.

In general one rarely sees much in the way of strategy in Anime because it's rather boring. Strategy is generally the realm of the old men and women who spend their time in dark back rooms plotting and manipulating people. Tactics are where the action is and is the domain of the younger people.

Kusanagi from GitS:SAC is a rare example of a tactician who is also a good strategist, although for the most part not at the same time. Throughout GitS:SAC she is mostly a tactical personality. She is focused on the problem of the moment and generally is focused on reacting to her current opponent and trying to predict what they are going to do. This is probably mainly due to the fact that she has a competent strategist to do her long term thinking and maneuvering for her. In Solid State Society, however, we see her as a strategist in her own right as she works to maneuver her opponent into doing what she wants them to do. She starts to force her opponent to react to her, rather than the other way around.

[Fencedude]

I'd like to point out that many people are....

While I cant say I've seen all the characters mentioned, I think folks are generally confusing tactics for strategy. Although similar, they are not the same.

...and Kellory beat me to it, and then some.

Here's another good example, Code Geass.

Lelouch is a strategist, he plans ahead, tries to force others to react to his initiatives, this is why he's always shown as a chess player. However when things happen unexpectedly and he's forced to improvise, he generally does ok (see Kellory's comments about Light) but he's more likely to mess up or just get caught off guard, because he tries to think through everything, and you can't do that in a tactical situation

On the other hand, Suzaku is, essentially, a tactician. Now no one is placing him on the same level as L intellectually, he's very good on his feet, generally finding the best way to take down his opponents quickly and efficiently. However Suzaku has little desire to plan for the long term battle, he faces life as one little battle after another.

[mandisaw]

How 'bout Shuurei from Saiunkoku? While she has an open and honest nature that precludes her from manipulating people in a negative way, she's pretty deft at directing people and situations in a way that suits her objectives.

Ditto: B'T from .hack//SIGN, Rio the bomber-girl from Spiral, and (old school alert!) Chief Rally from Silent Mobius. Maybe Yuuko from xxxHolic, too, unless you count all her right-place-right-time moments as "hitsuzen". :sdsmiley:

[JYao]

I'd like to point out that many people are....

While I cant say I've seen all the characters mentioned, I think folks are generally confusing tactics for strategy. Although similar, they are not the same.

...and Kellory beat me to it, and then some.

Here's another good example, Code Geass.

~Cut~

Or another example is from Ranma ½. Cologne and Nabiki are very good strategist and Shampoo is a tactician by the fact she usually does not plan the long term consequences of her plans. Although, if we incluled his female side, Ranma is the texbook example of a great tactician and a person that could not form a strategy if his life depended on it, and it has before.

...I could be completely wrong on my analysis thought.

[Njr Scrawl]

Admiral Lindy in Nanoha/& A's (more).

[Yukino Miyazawa]

Both Go and Chess are examples of strategic games. They focus on focusing an opponent to react to your moves. This is why among masters often a game is concluded with relatively few moves played. Both sides recognize when one side has lost the initiative and is now reacting to the moves of the other rather than forcing them to react to them. And among masters the chance of regaining the initiative is difficult to impossible once you have lost it. Thus one side generally concedes once this happens. These games are less about the individual moves than creating a situation through your moves that gains you the initiative and forces your opponent into reacting to you.
Then I guess Shion in Shion no Oh (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=8138) definitely counts, since Shougi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shougi) (Japanese chess) seems to be a strategic game.