Highlights
- Genius female characters in these manhwa outsmart rivals, survive harsh environments, and train skills to perfection.
- Using modern knowledge and wit, these ladies rise to power, unravel conspiracies, and outsmart their enemies.
- From cunning deception to medical prowess, these female leads are more than just appearances suggest; they’re truly talented.
Ladies of the court, skilled physicians, the best at what they do: Outsmarting every weakling who tries to make a fool out of them. These female lead characters are proof that appearances are deceiving. Men might think they’re beautiful, delicate flowers, but they’re kidding themselves; these women are probably smarter than all of them combined.
This is a list of the best manhwa withgenius female characters, women who often outsmart their rivals, survive the harshest of environments, train their skills to perfection, and beyond. These are all truly talented ladies, and their stories are definitely worth a read.
7 Survive As The Hero’s Wife
Don’t Try To Fool Her, She’s The Smartest Person In The Room
- Genre: Isekai, Drama, Comedy, Romance
- Author: Nokki
- Artist: Nokki
- No. of Chapters: 118
- Status: Ongoing
No one is safe from Truck-Kun’s thirst for Isekai-ing modern people to alternate worlds with aristocratic societies, not even a Korean office worker. When she reincarnated as Carnelia Esther, the wife of a hero and a secondary villainess to boot, she knew she had to use all her wits to survive the onslaught of conspiracies and power plays coming her way.
Using all her modern knowledge and interpersonal skills, she quickly decodes the situation where she is being manipulated by the Empress. To exert pressure on Prince Cesar and prevent his rise to power, the Empress will use Carnelia in the cruelest of ways, trying to mock and bully the Prince until she hates his fianceé. What she didn’t count on was Carnelia slowly but steadily undermining her efforts, and ultimately outsmarting her in a magistral power play.
6 Doctor Elise
This Will Make You Feel Better, Probably
- Genre: Isekai, Drama, Comedy, Romance
- Author: Mini
- Artist: Kidarient, Yui
- No. of Chapters: 143
- Status: Ongoing
Dr. Song Jihyun was a talented Korean surgeon, capable of saving patients on the brink of death. After a plane accident, she suddenly reincarnates as Elise de Clorance, the ill-mannered wife of the emperor, and is sent to a point in that body’s memories where she is destined to become a fallen villainess. Then she vows to use all her knowledge of medicine to help people and clear her tarnished reputation.
Elise proves time and time again that she is a truly genius physician, and even when most of the tools of her trade are not present in this Victorian-esque alternate world, she is quite capable of recreating most of her techniques. Using her wits and talent, she quickly became known for caring for others, implementing revolutionary changes in patient treatment and the healthcare system, and saving countless lives in the process.
5 Crimson Karma
Who Says A Girl Cannot Be A Prince’s Knight?
- Genre: Isekai, Drama, Action, Romance
- Author: LemonFrog
- Artist: LemonFrog
- No. of Chapters: 118
- Status: Complete
Kasia Del Roman was born and raised to be a tool, a weapon. Trained since a tender age as an assassin, she lost her human emotions long ago and lived her life bloodying her hands just so that others could live a comfortable life. Ultimately, she was discarded and killed, but in her final moments, a sliver of humanity pierced her being: Regret. She wanted a second chance, and she was given one.
Reborn into a world of swords and sorcery, in the body of an unknown and wounded female soldier, she is rescued by the forces of the 2nd Imperial Prince, who is currently disputing a fierce battle for succession. She decides to feign amnesia and learns how to adapt to this new world where she was sent. Being a former soldier and assassin, Kasia quickly takes the upper hand and rises in the ranks, until she gains the trust of the Prince and his vassals, becoming his trusted protector. Smart to a scary degree, she is able to analyze her surroundings and pose as the perfect female knight. No one can get between her and her chance to be free of a life of suffering.
4 Roxana
She Was Already Waiting For You, Drinking Tea
- Genre: Isekai, Drama, Gore, Romance
- Author: Kin
- Artist: Kin
- No. of Chapters: 43
- Status: Hiatus (Since April 2023)
When she woke up and discovered herself in the body of Roxana Agrece, and worst of all, in the middle of the “fall of the villainess” trope, she thought it was all over for her. Fortunately, using her wits and knowledge of her past life (and the novel) she manages to survive the worst of the worst, adapting and taming a powerful weapon: The Demonic Poisonous Butterfly.
Roxana is cunning, and probably the smartest member of the Agrece family, able to masterfully manipulate people’s desires by twisting them to achieve her own goals. Vicious and relentless, she is the perfect villainess, and she cannot be threatened by violence, nor fooled with guile. She is always three steps ahead of her enemies.
3 The Lady And The Beast
They Fooled Her Once… Just Once
- Genre: Political Drama, Comedy, Action, Romance
- Author: The Maginot Line
- Artist: The Maginot Line
- No. of Chapters: 150
- Status: Ongoing
After a lifetime of suffering and being constantly betrayed, Empress Martina is reborn as Astina, the daughter of a lesser count’s family. Everything seems fine, and Astina thrives, showing great talent and intelligence, but her father’s county circumstances push her to marry an infamous Archduke from the Atalenta family, known as “Terriod the Beast.”
Due to a family curse, Terriod becomes a monstrous wolf and destroys everything in his path. To everyone’s surprise, Astina quickly dominates and tames the beast, and even breaks the curse by kissing him. Astina now takes over the archdukedom alongside her partner, and together, they will rise to power in a conspiracy-ridden society.
2 Light And Shadow
Everything Is Fair When Survival Is At Stake
- Genre: Political Drama, Tragedy, Romance
- Author: Ryu Hyang
- Artist: Ryu Hyang
- No. of Chapters: 103
- Status: Complete
Edna was a maid in a fallen dukedom’s castle in the midst of turmoil. The order from the Emperor to marry the eldest daughter of the Duke, Elise, to the war hero Eli had been issued. Elise didn’t want to marry Eli due to several bad rumors about him, and because she didn’t want to be “mixed” with a Duke of commoner origins.
Thus, Edna was taken by the Duke and forced to pose as his illegitimate daughter, while Elise faked an infectious disease and secluded herself in a convent. Edna, though compliant with the scheme, holds the bull by the horns, and when she is put in front of Eli, the rough and ill-mannered war hero understands that she is not like any other woman he has ever seen. And so, Edna’s ascension to power as a Duchess begins. Will she be able to keep her secret for her whole life? Or will she be discovered as an impostor and be executed? Time will tell.
1 The Divine Doctor
She Will Heal You, Stitch You Up, But Don’t Try To Cross Her
- Genre: Isekai, Historical Drama, Romance, Shoujo
- Author: Ping Ping Jun
- Artist: Sanfu Comic, Yang Shi Liu
- No. of Chapters: 622
- Status: Ongoing
Feng Yu Heng is sent to an alternate timeline and reincarnated in the body of the 12-year-old daughter of the Emperor’s concubine. Yet Yu Heng has all her knowledge from her past life as a high-ranking officer in the Marines, and a military doctor and master of Western and Chinese medicine. Since her mother is sick in this new life she was catapulted to, she decides to do all she can to heal her.
Yu Heng then begins her rise to power, outsmarting every opponent with her medical prowess. Not yielding to poisoning or assassination attempts, she is soon regarded as the Divine Doctor and becomes the most desired candidate for the position of the prince’s wife. She also uses her medical knowledge to gain the adoration of the masses as the “Saint of the Palace,” who cares for those afflicted by disease, regardless of their standing.
Leave a Reply