While many of us enjoy watching anime for the simple joy of having good defeating evil or experiencing a high school romance or simply for the great art, many titles actually have deeper meanings woven within the stories they tell.
Here are some great anime that are not only entertaining, but also help us open our eyes to the wide range of mental issues.
Psycho-Pass (2012-2019), 3 Seasons | 41 Episodes
Set around 200 years in the future, humanity has found a way to monitor its inhabitants’ mental states through a system of ‘Psycho-Pass’ scoring – it reveals their risk of violent or latent criminal tendencies – in order to prevent future/possible crimes by arresting those who are mentally unstable before any crime can be committed. While many citizens benefit from this rule of law, it can be compared to China’s social credit scoring, with Minority Report vibes.
The anime follows Akane Tsunemori, a novice Inspector who enforces the law with her Criminal Investigation Division team which includes Enforcer Shinya Kougami, a latent criminal ex-cop with a complicated past tainted by his Psycho-Pass score.
This thriller challenges perceptions on the link between criminal activity and mental health, showing us the myriad ways people can become mentally ill. It also highlights how people who aren’t within mental “norms” are often stigmatised and scorned.
March Comes in Like a Lion / 3-gatsu no Lion (2017) | 22 Episodes
Rei Kiriyama is a shogi prodigy, but he can’t actually enjoy the game. He gets little joy from anything in life and he’s also a social recluse who isolates himself because he doesn’t believe he’s worthy of anyone’s kindness. This is partly thanks to his adoptive father who cared more about Rei’s skill than about Rei as a person.
The anime focuses on its Rei’s mental health and emotional journey as he struggles with trauma from his past – from his parents’ death to the unrelenting expectations placed on him by his adoptive family and community. Beneath his calm mask, he struggles with depression from his past, and anxiety for his future.
Through his inner monologues, we experience his roller coaster ride of emotions as he overcomes his struggles and finds solace through the support of his sisters and the local shogi community.
Clean Freak! Aoyama-kun / Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun (2017) | 11 Episodes
Unlike hidden mental issues, Clean Freak! Aoyama-kun follows the life of Aoyama who suffers from mysophobia. Petrified of germs, he’s constantly wearing gloves to touch people, and as part of the soccer team, he even acts as an unofficial janitor – he scrubs down the lockers, deep cleans the soccer balls, and disinfects his teammates’ uniforms.
What makes him unique is that he isn’t shunned by his schoolmates – in fact, he’s widely adored thanks to his soccer talent and his dedication to cleanliness. The series glorifies Aoyama’s obsessive-compulsive need to be clean, but despite that, this is light-hearted series shows that he’s not well-loved in spite of his mysophobia, but because of it.
Orange (2016) | 12 episodes
High school student Naho Takamiya finds mysterious letters from herself 10 years in the future. The letters mention a fellow student named Kakeru Naruse who, unbeknownst to her, is suffering from guilt over the death of his mother.
As a single parent, Kakeru’s mother often relied on him to help manage her mental illness, but when he began spending more time with his friends than with his mom, her deteriorating mental state drove her to suicide. After that, he starts isolating himself and ultimately tries to end his own life – in one timeline.
In another timeline, his friends succeed at sending messages back in time to their past selves, with instructions on how to help Kakeru survive to adulthood. Can Naho and her friends succeed in their self-appointed quest from the future?
ReLIFE (2016) | 13 Episodes
Considered a failure by those in his life, Arata Kaizaki – unemployed and down on his luck at 27 after leaving his job – comes across Ryou Yoake, an employee at the ReLIFE Research Institute which seeks to help the unemployed. Arata accepts a mysterious pill from Ryou and awakens to find that he’s reverted to a 17-year-old boy. If he survives after a year as a high school student, he would be offered employment and a chance to turn his life around.
Though he initially believes the experiment to be easy due to his life experience, Arata is proven horribly wrong: he struggles to adjust to his hectic new lifestyle and avoid repeating his past mistakes, all the while being assessed by Ryou.
ReLIFE shows us how our mental health is affected by our own our self-doubt and sense of failure, and has us exploring what contributes to the definition of self worth. Arata’s perception is fueled by the great expectations which he and society have placed on him to be a positive working member of society. Will he stay true to himself to redeem his self worth?
Noragami (2014-2016), 2 Seasons | 25 Episodes
Noragami is about a God called Yato who yearns for a shrine in his name. It cleverly ties in Japanese spirituality with mental health issues – here, humans fall prey to dark emotions masquerading as menacing spirits that are vanquished by Gods like Yato.
Yato’s weapon comes in the form of a spirit of a dead teen named Yukine, an orphan with abandonment issues and a habit of stealing stuff to cope. Yukine doesn’t respect Yato, so he often acts out – and every bad act gives Yato physical pain. But Yato has demons of his own: as a child, he reluctantly killed innocent people at his abusive father’s bidding – all because he desired his father’s approval.
Noragami shows that what young people want is an adult they trust who can provide guidance. A lot of soul searching happens in this anime, and both Yato and Yukine find hope when they realise that can rely each other – and Hiyori, a schoolgirl somehow bound to Yato, is always there to help them.
Welcome to Irabu’s Office / Kuuchuu Buranko (2009) | 11 Episodes
Taking place in a psychiatric ward, this unusual anime features a large cast of characters with mental illnesses who are the patients of the eccentric Dr. Irabu, son of the hospital director. It’s an artistic, psychedelic expression of problems or doubts we have and getting through them.
The patients are as varied as their psychiatric problems, ranging from psychologically-induced erectile dysfunction to a fear of knives. Each episode condenses a widespread problem into a character’s mental disorder, and slowly provides perspective and insight into the problem, and ends on a satisfying manner. Dr. Irabu’s treatment invariably involves a vitamin injection.
The dark nature of mental health is contrasted by the anime’s distinctive art style which uses a combination of animation, live-action, and rotoscopy, with vibrant colours that bring the doctor’s wry sense of humour to the table.
Welcome to the NHK (Jul-Dec 2006) | 24 episodes
Tatsuhiro Satou is a hikikomori, an antisocial shut-in who hardly leaves the house, and as such, he hardly interacts with others and only ventures out for food and essentials. Shut out from the world and with no formal education beyond high school, he’s driven into seclusion by conspiracy theories in his head. He’s convinced that NHK – the national broadcaster – is conspiring to keep young people like him addicted to anime and games.
When there seemed to be no clear life path for him, a quirky young woman named Misaki Nakahara appears in his life. She wants to help him live again, and creates a journey of everyday things we take for granted to get him out of his shell. In 2020, this story is one that is painfully relatable.
