I wasn't under the impression that he meant that Ataru was a genius, just

t>hat the other characters (and most fans) seriously underestimate Ataru. 

To which point I agree.  In fact, I've come to the conclusion (based on the
manga, haven't seen enough of the anime to form any conclusions, and
besides which I am an avowed manga-nazi) that Ataru is not merely the
"main character", but he is also (except when Ryoko is around) the
dominant character.  I realize that, on the face of it, this is a pretty wild
claim, but look at it:  during the last half of the series or so, Ataru is
constantly focusing attention onto himself, and he generally controls the
action by constantly forcing the other characters to react to him.  Now,
the patterns of his doing so are usually fairly predictable, but then, it
seems to me that he's pretty much scoped everyone else out, and he
does the things he does because he likes to get a rise out of them. 

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        OTOH, "getting a rise" tends to take a pretty brutal form.  (Azusa is 
the best example.  He's not even getting a rise out of her that no other guy can
get (like he does with Lum); he just gets kicked to the moon.  Also, every time 
he does have any sort of plan, it always backfires.

For example, you can see how much his "girl hunts" are just a matter of
going through the motions when, in one story (the electric forest story),
he asks a girl out for tea and is completely at a loss when she accepts. 

I just figured it was because he was so used to being rejected.  (That is, he 
keeps trying, on the hopes he'll be accepted, but doesn't really believe that it
will happen.  Sort of like the kind of person who keeps telling stupid jokes 
even though nobody ever laughs at them).  It was a funny bit, though :-).

There is, I should note, one other character who has this kind of effect on
the other characters, and is in fact better at it than Ataru:  Mendo's sister,
Ryoko.  

Well, Ryoko is the past master at this stuff.  I think her plans only failed 
once (that story with the hypnosis potion that she made incorrectly).

Gavin