The romance options in Persona 5 are pretty varied in background and personality, so every player will probably have at least one waifu that calls to them. Some are fellow Phantom Thieves and, therefore, have more in-depth characterization, but even the side confidants tend to be well fleshed out and interesting. There is the weird matter of a couple of the being actual adults, when you're playing a high school student, but y'know, JRPGs!

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Every confidant gives you benefits if you take the time to deepen your bond with that person, and the perks lean into the characters' strengths. However, not every romance option is on a level playing field when it comes to straight up intelligence. If your protagonist is the kind of person who wants an intellectual conversation or needs to be seen with the smartest person in the room, here are all romanceable characters ranked by intelligence.

9 9. Chihaya Mifune

Chihaya is one of the more minor confidants when it comes to characterization, even though she has some of the most useful abilities in the game. She's a fortune teller that's been roped into a predatory New Age scam, selling useless trinkets to desperate people.

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However, it turns out she really can tell the future, and the fact that yours keeps changing helps her believe she can also change her circumstances. She doesn't come off as having a lot of book smarts or world experience, since she comes from a rural town and gets suckered into a bad situation almost immediately.

8 8. Ann Takamaki

Ann is not only one of the Phantom Thieves, but is almost the very first person you recruit to your cause. She joins your gang during the first palace and so you have a big chunk of time to get to know her. And while Ann has a lot going for her—beautiful, compassionate, determined—she definitely isn't the most intelligent of the romance options. She sometimes gets strange ideas in her head, like when she wants your help "strengthening her heart" by saying mean things to her. She also doesn't do well in her classes, except for English (though even she isn't as bad as Ryuji!)

7 7. Haru Okumura

Haru is another of the Phantom Thieves, but she's also one of the last you'll add to your team. A lot of players probably didn't see her confidant through to the end unless they specifically wanted to romance her. We don't know much about her grades, and her strengths mostly lie in her kind heart and her idealistic resolve to fix her father's corrupt company. However, she does turn her hobby vegetable garden into the beginnings of  a legitimate business and voices her intention to go to college and develop the skills she needs to make her dream café a reality. She might not be a natural genius, but her hard work more than makes up for it.

6 6. Sadayo Kawakami

Kawakami is probably the most ethically uncomfortable romance option, since not only is she adult but she's also your teacher. But that's not what this list is about! By virtue of her being a teacher, she has a base level of intelligence. You need it to get a degree, and teaching in Japan is a relatively respected and competitive job.

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So Kawakami knows her stuff, even if life has beaten her down into the cynical woman you first meet. She isn't any higher on the list because she displays a stunning ability to make dumb decisions, not the least of which is potentially entering into a romantic relationship with a student.

5 5. Ichiko Ohya

Ohya is one of those characters you love or you hate. She's a down-and-out journalist, forced to write soulless entertainment pieces by her boss. She's cynical and paranoid, having turned to alcohol to dull what she perceives as the crushing pointlessness of her life. When you first meet her, she definitely doesn't scream intelligence. However, if you pursue her confidant you help reawaken her passion for investigative journalism. She really has a talent for tracking down leads and exposing scandals, which requires a certain amount of logical problem-solving and quick thinking.

4 4. Makoto Niijima

Makoto in Persona 5

After recruiting Makoto to the Phantom Thieves, she supposedly becomes the team's strategist. She's able to look at a problem logically and think through threats to plan the best avenue of attack. She doesn't always follow the plans she makes, because she has a fiery temper and very little patience for injustice. But she does dedicate a lot of her time to analyzing and memorizing data about their enemies. She's also a perfectionist in school, being one of the best students in her class as well as student council president. She is often disappointed in her friends' lackadaisical attitude toward school work and will even help tutor the protagonist.

3 3. Hifumi Togo

You meet Hifumi after hearing about her reputation as a champion shogi player, making her a master of complex strategy games and reading her opponents. She was originally meant to factor into the main storyline before it was cut for time, and the role of strategist was probably merged into Makoto's character. One of her greatest skills is not only having a great knowledge of strategy, but also constantly working to develop new, innovative moves. She's absolutely one of the smartest characters in the game. She even requires the protagonist to have maxed their Knowledge stat to even proceed beyond rank 8 with her.

2 2. Tae Takemi

Takemi is literally a doctor. Like, there are a lot of pretty intelligent characters in the game, whether its book smarts or street smarts, but when one of them is literally an accredited doctor, she has to be near the top of the list.

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She's suffered from bad PR lately because a patient in one of her clinical trials supposedly died, and she's more than willing to sell the protagonist a whole host of drugs—maybe she isn't the best doctor in the world. But her ability to design and produce useful pharmaceuticals in her tiny, back alley office speaks not only to her technical knowledge but also to her deeply understanding the practical applications.

1 1. Futaba Sakura

Futaba ranks number one, even above a literal doctor, because she's already a world renowned hacker at the age of 15. She's the youngest member of the Phantom Thieves, but because of her prolonged isolation and interest in technology she was able to form the notorious hacker group Medjed. She shares a lot of traits with a stereotypical super nerd, but if she's accomplished enough for a book to have been written about the worldwide effect of her Anonymous-esque group of hackers, she's probably pretty smart. And just think what she might go on to accomplish as she grows up and gains more skills and knowledge. Futaba is a force to be reckoned with.

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