Which Detective Conan character is the smartest?

[Whiskey]

Just out of curiosity, who do you think is the smartest? You could easily say Conan is, since he is the main character and still holds to his claim of being the unbeaten great detective, but we have seen him outdone on a few occasions. Although Conan generally wins out over Heiji, they seem to be of roughly equal intelligence. During the Clash of Red and Black series, Conan came up with the strategy of dipping Kusuda Rikumichi's phone in water so that they could monitor him and stay in contact with the BO, which was something Akai overlooked. Ever since that arc ended and Akai took on the Subaru disguise, he seems to be a step ahead of Conan. As Subaru, he solved a few cases at the exact same speed as Conan, without being as actively involved in the case as Conan was. He also found out Conan's identity in the Yusaku cold case and solved the case itself before Conan did. As for Sera, she seems to be at the "high school detective" level of intelligence, and very possibly already knows Conan's identity. In the case she appeared in, she seemed to deliberately fail to finish solving the case in order to let Conan do so, possibly to confirm her suspicion about his identity.

Then we have the BO members. Starting with Amuro, he definitely seems to be around Conan and Akai's level of intelligence. His deduction about Akai being Subaru was spot on, even though they were able to keep it a secret by tricking him. He also seems to be aware that Conan is the mastermind behind sleeping Kogoro. Gin is as of this moment the only character on the antagonists side to be revealed that is also potentially above Conan's level of intelligence. He has also yet to be bested by Conan in a direct confrontation, and he is good at making connections like noticing the similarities in the wiretap on Kir's shoe and the one he found in his car. Vermouth is also at or slightly above Conan's level of intelligence, but because her true allegiance is unknown, she has not made any moves against Conan that would be dangerous to him or those around him. Last up is the boss, who we know nothing about but I decided to include him (or her) on the list anyway. All we know is that Haibara warned Conan not to get involved with the boss and that she said the bosses number is Pandora's Box. Gin also mentioned that the boss is the kind of person who might ruin a plan by overthinking things.

Finally, I included the two father characters for the reason that they both seem to be more intelligent than their children. We have not really seen a true test of Heizo's intelligence yet, but Yusaku has gotten involved on a few occasions and has been shown to solve cases much faster than Conan can.

[Wakarimashita]

Yusaku

[Nemomon]

Yusaku

Ditto.

[Smitty]

Gin is definitely smarter than Conan at the current moment, but Conan can outsmart him due to Gin's lack of knowledge of the effects of APTX, and doesn't know about #TeamConan. This, along with the fact, Conan can now manipulate him, gives Conan a fighting chance. In the Itakura case, Gin deduced several of Conan's strategies just by Vodka's situation, and even deduced someone was present, Conan was able to get away because Gin doubted an adult could fit in a locker.

Yusaku is smarter than Conan as shown in practically every case Yusaku has solved.

Anokata, from what we know, is paranoid, but evidently has good reason to when he called Vermouth to retreat after the Halloween Case, and when he allowed Bourbon to run around as Akai. I don't remember the circumstances with Kir, but it seems either Gin or Anokata made Kir test her loyalty. Haibara likely knows who Anokata is, and as such, will probably in the climax in the series, will be able to overthrow #TeamConan's strategies, with little to no clues.

[Silverbullet96]

Yuusaku maybe. Now if I think about it, why doesn't he help Conan in taking down the BO ?

[Uchiha Shadow]

Yusaku and Heizo, would love to see those two go at it like Heji and Conan sometimes do. Akai and Conan are about equals but Akai has more experience than Conan, also, if you think about it, Conan could come up with the fake death plan while Akai couldn't because he had knowledge of things Akai didn't, one of them is Agasa's inventions and Yukiko's disguises, the other one is Gin preferring to shoot someone in the head to finish them off, but you could say that Akai might know that from being in the BO, regardless of that, if he already knew of Agasa's inventions and Yukiko's disguises, he could've just came up with the same plan. Another character I think is smarter than Conan but is below Yusaku and Heizo level is Shuukichi, he was a step ahead of Conan in the first case, but it was weird how he and Conan were on the same level in the second one.

[Jecka]

Yuusaku then Akai. Heizo we don't see enough for me to actually give an opinion :V

[Raiden]

Yuusaku then Akai. Heizo we don't see enough for me to actually give an opinion :V

Cue for Gosho to write a childhood arc about Yuusaku and Heizo. Because we can never have enough childhood friend story arcs!

...
...
...
Yeah, I'll let myself out now. V:
On the topic though, Yuusaku and Akai's up there for me as well.

[k11chi]

I think Shukichi is supposed to be smarter than Akai.

[DCUniverseAficionado]

I think Shukichi is supposed to be smarter than Akai.

Let's hold off on that until the middle brother question is resolved, huh?

[MoonRaven]

I voted Heizo. Just because I could. He is cool and I want to see him more.

[Whiskey]

Yuusaku then Akai. Heizo we don't see enough for me to actually give an opinion :V

Cue for Gosho to write a childhood arc about Yuusaku and Heizo. Because we can never have enough childhood friend story arcs!

...
...
...
Yeah, I'll let myself out now. V:
On the topic though, Yuusaku and Akai's up there for me as well.

That would be pretty awesome. There really doesn't seem to be any character in the series other than Heizo that might be a match for Yusaku. He even beat Toichi and it was implied that he even figured out that he was the original Kaito Kid. Conan has beaten Kid, but he hasn't figured out his identity yet. It is kind of sad that Conan pretty much has Kaito Kid under his thumb these days. I remember the first appearance of Kaito Kid way back when and he was like the coolest villain in the series. Now, Conan can make him do whatever he wants and he doesn't show up anymore without Sonoko's uncle

[DCUniverseAficionado]

It is kind of sad that Conan pretty much has Kaito Kid under his thumb these days. I remember the first appearance of Kaito Kid way back when and he was like the coolest villain in the series. Now, Conan can make him do whatever he wants and he doesn't show up anymore without Sonoko's uncle

First, he's not a villain—even if Shinichi/Conan is a protagonist, so is Kid... they're just rivals. Shinichi/Conan is willing to knock people out to get at him.

Second, I get that people don't like Mystery Train, but I'd hardly call that "under his thumb;" the claim that Shinichi/Conan can "make him do whatever he wants" is an exaggeration.

Third, it is true that the Jirokichi and Kid formula is getting old for a lot of readers.

The issues, here, seem to stem from the Bourbon arc Kid cases... yeesh, that Bourbon arc again...

[Christcc9]

Why Kogoro isn't he in the list? He can be very smart if he gives a 100%

[DCUniverseAficionado]

Why Kogoro isn't he in the list? He can be very smart if he gives a 100%

That, in itself, is the reason—he's lazy so often, and since he's lazy so often, he can't figure things out. Yusaku, on the other hand, can be lazy, but it doesn't stop him from figuring things out.