It’s often said that nerds rule the world. That saying is definitely true in the world of anime, which is chock-full of characters that anyone could relate to in some way.
The thing about the term “nerd” is that it can have so many different meanings and interpretations. The Dictionary defines the word as “a person considered to be socially awkward, boring, unstylish, etc.” and “an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit.”
The thing is, people don’t have to be socially awkward or be obsessed with a nonsocial hobby to considered a nerd. Take, for example, geniuses like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Elon Musk. These real-life geniuses prove that nerds don’t have to be socially awkward.
There are also people who believe just because a person reads comic books, watches superhero movies, watches science fiction movies or even watches anime, they are a nerd. By that logic, 90% of the world could probably be considered a nerd. If you fall under those categories, embrace your inner nerd, sit back and enjoy this list of the top female nerds in anime. They’re smart, they’re beautiful and they’re sometimes a bit crazy, but that’s why you love them.
7. Kae Serinuma (Kiss Him, Not Me)
Kae Serinuma is the main protagonist of Kiss Him, Not Me, a comical anime about a girl… who is obsessed with anime. She has a fascination with male romantic relationships, so when one of her favorite male anime characters dies, she is devastated. After locking herself in her room for a week, Kae loses a lot of weight and begins catching the eye of several guys at her school. While that would be fine for some girls, Kae wants the attractive boys to fall for each other, not her.
Kae is very passionate about the anime she watches. A girl any anime nerd can relate to and enjoy watching.
6. Tenten (Naruto)
In Naruto, Tenten wants to be a legendary kunoichi like Tsunade, but later discovers a talent for Fūinjutsu – the ability to seal and unseal objects, living beings or chakra.
Tenten loves all things ninja and has an extensive collection of ninja weapons and even opened her own ninja tool shop. She can wield a variety of weapons with great skill, including the manriki-gusari and bō. She can also use the Jidanda and Bashosen, even with no prior knowledge of how they work. As an adult, Tenten becomes Konoha’s top weapon user.
5. Miku Nakano (Quintessential Quintuplets)
Miku is the third sister in the Quintessential Quintuplets, an anime about the Nakano sisters — five identical sisters who are being privately tutored by Fuutarou Uesugi. The anime itself is a flashback to Fuutarou meeting the quintuplet sisters and leading up to him marrying one of the sisters in the future. The big question throughout the series is — who does Fuutarou eventually marry?
Although she isn’t genius-level intelligent, she has an extensive knowledge of Japanese history – especially military history. Unfortunately, her passion for history causes her other studies to take a hit.
4. Winry (Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood)
Winry Rockbell is a teenage mechanic and engineer who likes to build things, but has an extensive knowledge about automail prosthetics. After the Elric brothers’ alchemy accident that caused Ed to lose an arm and a leg, Winry built him a new set of limbs when she was only 11.
She learned everything she knows about automail prosthetics from her grandma Pinako, who is known as the “Pantheress of Resembool.” She surpassed her grandmother’s knowledge and is famous in her own right.
3. Bulma (Dragon Ball)
She’s smart, she’s beautiful, tough as nails, and face it — the tough guys in the Dragon Ball universe would not be able to function without her.
Bulma invented the Dragon Radar after discovering that the Dragon Balls emit energy. The Dragon Radar has helped Goku and company track down Dragon Balls quickly. She also created the Super Dragon Radar to detect Super Dragon Balls throughout the universe.
She creates all kinds of vehicles, including spaceships and even time machines. Her time machine was instrumental during the Cell Saga and her spaceships have allowed the Z Fighters to travel to other planets, such as Namek. She even created the Blutz Wave Generator that allowed Vegeta to reach Super Saiyan 4. That pretty much solidified her as best wife ever.
2. Shiro (No Game No Life)
Shiro from No Game No Life is the quintessential nerd described in the dictionary. She’s social awkward and obsessed with gaming.
With genius-level intellect, Shiro can speak 18 different languages, is a master of Chess, can predict AI behavior and has an eidetic memory. Despite her extreme intelligence, she is a shut-in who cannot function without her step-brother Sora. She is so co-dependent on him that she shuts down if they are not in the same room together.
In the manga, Shiro and Sora remain on video chat when they cannot be physically together. The dynamic brother and sister duo play video games together and created several gamer accounts depicted as『 』. Their user accounts became an urban legend in the real world for holding the top spot in more than 280 games without defeat.
1. Umaru Doma (Himouto! Omaru-chan)
Umaru-Chan is a smart and beautiful high school girl by day, who seems outgoing, but she’s secretively an introvert who likes to get home and do nothing but eat and play video games — pretty much the perfect girl.
Once she’s in the confines of her house, she turns chibi, shrinking down to a cute little ball with an orange hamster hoodie, making her one of the shortest — and cutest — anime characters. She truly is every anime nerd’s spirit animal.
She likes to eat and play video games, while using her cuteness to get whatever she wants from her brother. She was also voted as number one anime nerd by viewers at My Otaku World. With so many nerds in the world of anime, that is quite a feat, which means Umaru deserves the top spot.