We all expect our main characters to be a certain level of talented and clever, but them playing coy is a common character defense. Maybe they want to be left alone. Maybe they are just waiting for their moment. Maybe they don’t want their peers to be intimidated. Regardless, it is a common set up and one that is as easy for the audience to see through as cling wrap curtains. If you are looking for anime recommendations where the main character plays dumb, we’ve cultivated a fine list.
Best Anime Where The Main Character Plays Dumb
Classroom of the Elite
As far as subterfuge goes on this list Ayanokouji in Classroom of the Elite puts the bare minimum of effort into hiding his intelligence and skills. It isn’t that he is hiding them from his peers really, but rather just not using them as he pursues his ultimate goal. Still, he possesses the sublime ability to subtly manipulate others, which often allows them to take credit for his own work without even noticing so he can keep up the charade.
Trigun
Vash maintains the guise of the silliest outlaw you will ever see, but his long life has been nothing but pain. In his own way, perhaps Vash is trying to forget that himself by playing dumb. However, you can’t be a beacon of positivity trying to preach peace and love if you act like an actual typhoon. Still, while Vash maintains his goofy facade as much as possible, there are times where you glimpse behind the mask when his desire for pacifism fails.
Noragami
The God of Delivery Yato may be silly and keep losing his divine weapons partially due to this silliness, but he wasn’t always like that. What you are seeing when you see him take jobs for a five yen coin is a man that was once a feared God of War that brought nothing but slaughter and calamity. You get a taste for that power and personality in certain circumstances, but that’s not the Yato god that people love.
The Disastrous Life of Saiki K
Imagine, if you can find the energy, that you had magnificent psychic abilities. Us normal people would probably use and abuse them, but Saiki takes the distinct stance that a powerful psychic would just want to live as normally as possible. As such, he goes to great lengths to suppress his abilities and pretend that nothing out of the ordinary is going on. Of course, the comedy often comes from that failing.
Gintama
Like Vash from Trigun, Gintoki in Gintama is yet another silly bastard whose silliness hides immense skill and a clever mind. While Gintama is very much a silly comedy anime, it can be surprisingly adept at action and plot during the times it commits itself to the task.
Talentless Nana
Surprisingly enough, a lot of the anime series on this list are not about blatant murderers. Yet, playing dumb is a key tenant in the serial killer playbook as showcased by the titular Nana in Talentless Nana. She is ditzy and chipper on the outside, but ice cold, manipulative, and deadly underneath that mask.
Bastard Instructor of Akashic Records
Ah, mentors only come in two flavors – stern and diligent or silly and lazy. Glenn Radars is the latter, much to the chagrin of his very diligent students who hope to learn magic from him. Of course, behind every goofball mage is always some enormous power.
Bungou Stray Dogs
While Atsushi is more the main character in Bungou Stray Dogs and does indeed play things rather straight forwardly, if you consider his constant companion Osamu Dazai, he more fits the bill. He is a brilliant detective, yes, but also a silly man in ever respect. This is probably in part to hide his more violent past.
Rurouni Kenshin
Himura Kenshin, in the war, was a brutal assassin. However, he shed that past and dedicated himself to living peacefully. He even uses a blunt sword style technique to avoid taking lives again. Part of this new persona is him acting like a complete goofball in order to prevent others from suspecting what he used to be. However, you can still catch a glimpse of that manslayer when he fights.
Detective Conan
Conan, or rather, Shinichi, is a brilliant teen detective who was drugged and transformed into a small child. No one would believe a small child to be a genius detective, so he often plays dumb and attributes solved mysteries to the average detective father of his girlfriend, whom he is also living with. The series starts to ditch the guise as this epically long series goes on, but much of it is just Conan pretending to be just some dumb kid.
Hyouka
You know what? Being clever must be exhausting. That seems to be the conclusion that Oreki has come to. He spends his days being average and conserving his energy. As we know how these things go, others – particularly a cute girl – drag him into situations that kind of call for a keen intellect. Luckily, his is well above average.
Darker than Black
While a man of many names, Hei takes on the guise of a mild-mannered student by day and works as an infamous assassin by night. However, his guise isn’t quite as detailed as some others on this list. Sure, he’s polite and friendly enough, but you always get that sense of distance that he puts between himself and most others.
Durarara
You could argue that Durarara has a few main characters, and that’d be a fair take. However, it spends a decent amount of focus on establishing Mikaido as the main character. He seems exactly like a normal school boy that is increasingly drawn into the rumors going around Ikebukuro. However, you find out later that he is pretty much just playing dumb to so many of the events going on. It is really rather a clever outcome on their part.
The Legend of Legendary Heroes
Ryner only plays dumb for really the first half of The Legend of Legendary Heroes, because eventually his secret that he was trying to protect gets out. During his schooling years, he goes to great lengths to be an underachiever, but the truth is that the Alpha Stigma eye power that allows him to copy any magic would make him lap every single peer without breaking a sweat.
Do you have more anime recommendations where the main character is very obviously playing dumb for their own reasons? Let fans know in the comments section below.
