Anime characters wield an astonishing variety of superpowers and magical weapons, ranging from cutting-edge ninjutsu to bankai and Quirks. Many of these superpowers echo those found in American superhero comics, with telepathy being a notable example. It's a fairly rare power, but mind-reading can make all the difference in a battle, as Professor X shows in X-Men.
A handful of anime characters can use special techniques or their natural gifts to sense the emotions, thoughts, or memories of other people, often to give them the edge in a battle scene or to collect vital intel from an enemy who refuses to talk. With that in mind, anime has some of the smartest, coolest, and most gifted mind readers.
10 Anya Forger Can Hear Loid & Yor's Thoughts (Spy X Family)
One of the most recent and popular examples of an anime telepath is the pink-haired Anya Forger, an unusually gifted little girl who can hear everyone's thoughts, whether she likes it or not. Anya was once experimented upon and then ended up at an orphanage, but her life changed for the better when the Westalis spy Loid Forger/Twilight adopted her.
Now Anya is much happier as Loid and Yor's foster daughter, and she puts her telepathic gifts to good use to help Loid or cheat on tests at Eden academy. But she's more than a mind-reader – Anya is also a kind, caring, and brave child who will always stand up for what's right.
9 Puck Can Sense Guts' Emotions (Berserk)
Berserk has a brutal and dark tone as a seinen classic, but it also has room for more cheerful or charming characters such as the punkish Isidro, the young witch Schierke, and the little fairy boy Puck. Chronologically. Puck has been with Guts since the Black Swordsman arc's events, and he can sense Guts' mental state, too.
Puck cannot read the words in someone's mind, but he can easily sense another being's emotions, a milder form of telepathy. He is often overwhelmed by the grief and rage found in Guts' mind, but he eventually got used to it. He also has mild healing powers with his fairy dust.
8 Puck Is A Telepathic Cat (Re:Zero)
There are actually two mind-reading Pucks in the anime world, and the Re:Zero Puck has many more abilities than the Berserk one. This Puck can read a person's thoughts more thoroughly than just sensing emotions. He's able to read surface thoughts and even telepathically communicate with some people.
Rather than being a fairy, this Puck is an ancient spirit cat who can assume a massive form from time to time. He can also use magic in battle to help defend his friend Emilia, and he can even drain mana from other living things, setting him apart from other spirits.
7 Goshinki Could Read Minds In Battle (InuYasha)
The villain Naraku created quite a few demons to fight InuYasha's party, with Kagura the wind witch and Kanna the mirror user being two prominent examples. A short-lived but terrifying third minion named Goshinki was also made, a creature whom Kagura once saw as her brother.
Goshinki was a horned ogre-demon that could read minds in battle, allowing him to predict and thus nullify his foes' moves, even Miroku's wind tunnel. Soon, though, InuYasha slew Goshinki in his demon form, and a little later, Sesshoumaru forged the Tokijin sword from one of Goshinki's fangs to compete with the Tetsusaiga.
6 Ino Yamanaka's Jutsu Works On Minds (Naruto)
Ino Yamanaka the kunoichi is an expert with her family's hidden jutsu, which is based primarily on the mind. She can use the mind transfer jutsu to place her consciousness into another person, as she demonstrated against Sakura Haruno during the chunin exam. But Ino can do more than that.
Like her father Inoichi, Ino can use her genjutsu-based abilities to dive right into another person's mind and prove their thoughts for much-needed intel. This is highly effective for when a captured shinobi refuses to talk, even if Ibiki tortures them. Some intel simply cannot be tortured out of a person.
5 Mao Read Too Many Minds (Code Geass)
While Lelouch Lamperouge the schemer could use his geass to command other people verbally, he soon learned that other geass models had totally different powers. Lelouch saw this for himself when he met the minor villain Mao, a Chinese young man whose geass allowed him to read other people's mind.
However, this telepathic gift from C.C. came at a cost. Mao couldn't shut off his powers, and was soon overwhelmed in a sea of other people's thoughts. So, he listened to recordings of C.C.'s voice to help him focus. It wasn't easy for Lelouch to figure out a countermeasure to this telepathic geass.
4 Nodoka Miyazaki Could Read Minds With A Book (Mahou Sensei Negima!/UQ Holder)
At first, the timid Nodoka Miyazaki was just the token dandere library girl, a book lover who couldn't assert herself at all. Then she met her kind teacher Negi Springfield, and she even formed a pact with him to gain a magical artifact – in this case, a telepathic book.
Nodoka put that book to use, clearly reading the thoughts of anyone if she knew their name. She often did this to analyze a powerful foe's weaknesses or intentions, but he also used it on her classmates and friends. She often got flustered by what her book showed her.
3 Terrence D'Arby Can Sense People's Intentions (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
The Stands in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure are capable of a dazzling variety of effects, and that includes telepathy. In the Stardust Crusaders story arc, Jotaro and his friends went up against Terrence D'Arby, the game-loving younger brother of Daniel J. D'Arby the gambler. Terrence's Stand, Atum, can read minds to an extent.
Terrence uses Atum's mind-reading to cheat at video games, and it totally worked on Kakyoin. Terrence also used his Stand's power on Jotaro until the latter cheated back with Joseph's Stand to win at a baseball video game. Mind-reading is powerful, but there are ways to beat it.
2 Piccolo Has Token Mind-Reading Powers (Dragon Ball Z)
While the famed Namekian Piccolo isn't primarily known as a telepath, he does have some minor telepathic abilities, and he can use them to sense another person's thoughts or communicate directly with them. He sometimes does this with Trunks and Gohan.
That's not all he can do. Piccolo is also capable of flight, performing fusion with other Namekians, regenerating his flesh and even conjuring items such as swords or his cape. Most of all, though, Dragon Ball fans often view him as Gohan's true father in spirit. He just might be best dad after all.
1 Mewtwo Has Immense Psychic Powers (Pokémon)
The legendary psychic Pokémon known as Mewtwo has many powers and abilities, from telekinesis to conjuring barriers to mind control, not to mention reading those minds to gain new information. In fact, reading people's minds is one of the first things Mewtwo ever did while being created in a Team Rocket lab.
Mewtwo sensed fear and ambition in humans, and thus learned to fear them right back. This inspired Mewtwo to break away from its human creators and create an island where Pokémon, including cloned ones, can live independently and not suffer from the ambitions and cruelty of the human race. Hence, the first Pokémon movie.