Trigger Warning: This list deals with topics such as depression, abuse, trauma, and suicide. If you feel you are in need of support, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
Depression has long been stigmatized by society. While in the United States close to 15% of American adults now take anti-depressants, that's not the case worldwide. Until the 1990s, Japan did not widely acknowledge depression on a societal level. Even today, many Japanese people believe mental health should be taken care of privately within the family rather than with a professional.
Despite this — or perhaps because of this — anime series haven't always shied away from addressing mental health issues. While it's difficult to broach these topics in a sensitive manner, dozens of series have skillfully addressed depression and the ways people struggle to cope with trauma. Shows that accurately depict depression can feel priceless to those viewers who can relate.
9 Golden Time Contends With Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injury, or TBI for short, can have devastating repercussions. Usually caused by a violent blow to the head, short-term effects include dizziness, bruising, and hemorrhaging. Long-term effects include cognitive damage and sometimes permanent alterations to a person's mental state or personality. It's these long-term effects that Golden Time focuses on.
The protagonist, Banri, sustains severe amnesia and develops mood swings after a head injury. Thereafter, Banri tries to rebuild his life as a university student, living as though he's a new person and terrified of losing the person he's trying to become to the stranger he once was. Additionally, the female protagonist, Kouko, struggles with obsessive tendencies and possibly bipolar disorder. Golden Time is all too real, and that's why it's essential.
8 Neon Genesis Evangelion Was The First Shonen Series To Encapsulate Depression
Few anime protagonists over the decades have been as divisive as Shinji Nakamura. Evangelion subverts not just shonen tropes but also depicts mental illness in a unique way. The truth is, there's nothing noble about struggling with depression, just as there's nothing noble about forcing children to save the world.
Director Hideaki Anno himself lives with clinical depression and did his best to incorporate psychological elements into his seminal series even as he struggled with his own mental health. Because some viewers still refuse to "get" Shinji or appreciate his failings, the intended allegory becomes only more poignant. In Evangelion as in our world, depression is rarely taken seriously enough. Shinji is exactly the protagonist he needs to be.
7 Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei Makes Light of Serious Issues
In 2019, Japan had the second-highest suicide rate of all G7 developed nations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, far more Japanese citizens have died from suicide than from the deadly virus. While the reasons for this are complex, Japanese culture doesn't disavow suicide in principle as many Western countries do. Given these statistics, a black comedy about a suicidal teacher might seem in poor taste.
And yet, good satire can provide enough distance to approach delicate topics without denying their existence. Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei tells the story of a deeply pessimistic homeroom teacher named Nozomu Itoshiki, who views every aspect of the world through a nihilistic lens. His students also contend with their own unique issues: one has a serotonin imbalance that makes her chronically optimistic, another has obsessive-compulsive disorder, and another is agoraphobic. Though these characters are used primarily to provide commentary on society, that commentary is refreshing given how often media depictions erase these issues rather than addressing them.
6 Your Lie In April Examines The Impact of Child Abuse
Domestic abuse comes in many forms. Those who haven't experienced emotional abuse may not realize the devastating impact it has, unseen but no less damaging for it. In the case of Your Lie in April, protagonist Kosei Arima suffers both physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his mother, who dies before the series begins.
It can be extremely fraught, loving someone who abuses you, and Your Lie in April never shies away from the complexities of Kosei's tragic history with his mother. His mother suffered from a chronic illness and at times was kind to him, too, and coming to terms with their relationship is key to Kosei learning to love music again. While not for the faint of heart, Your Lie in April broaches sensitive topics with grace.
5 March Comes In Like a Lion Treats Apathy With Sensitivity
Sadness is certainly a key aspect of depression, but another prevalent aspect is apathy. Rei Kiriyama is an accomplished shogi player who finds himself isolated from the world after he leaves his foster family to live on his own. Having lost his parents and little sister to a tragic car accident in his youth, Rei has become introverted and apathetic to the world around him.
But he's befriended by the Kawamoto sisters, who refuse to see him as a burden, and gradually learns to value his life and identity over the course of the series. There's no curing depression, but this show goes a long way toward presenting a brighter horizon.
4 Serial Experiments Lain Draws Correlations Between Depression And Technology
The correlation between modern technology and mental illness is a topic that has been explored for decades now. Given the undeniable impact of social media, this seems likely to remain a constant source of discussion. One of the first anime to question the impact of the internet on developing minds was the sci-fi classic Serial Experiments Lain.
Lain, an introverted junior high student, befriends the ghost of a classmate online. The classmate informs Lain that she's not dead, but has merely abandoned her physical form to live digitally. Lain becomes obsessed with this notion, and the lines between reality and technology blur further from there. Conspiracy theories and strange symbolism abound as Lain turns only inward. Decades later, the series remains deeply unsettling.
3 Colorful Addresses Dissociation
At the start of Colorful, a disembodied "soul" is given a second chance at life in the body of Makoto, a 14-year old boy who attempted to commit suicide. In order to keep on living, the soul inside Makoto must uncover Makoto's mistakes and resolve them within six months.
An allegory for dissociation, Colorful encompasses countless struggles faced by young people growing up in the modern world. Makoto's parents are unsympathetic to his struggles, one of his classmates resorts to sex work to meet her needs, and the future seems pointless to him. When he befriends another student and learns to forge his own path, Makoto and the soul within him finally begin to see the point of living again.
2 A Silent Voice Acknowledges Disability And Suicide
Guilt can be a devastating force, and that's certainly the case for Shoya Ishida, a high schooler who intends to kill himself. In his youth, Shoya ruthlessly bullied a Deaf girl named Shoko Nishimiya, and as a result, became the target of school bullies as well. Years later, Shoya resolves to apologize to Shoko before ending his life.
Yet Shoko remains empathetic, willing to befriend Shoya despite it all. While many anime focus on protagonists becoming better people, few do so with as much bittersweet nuance as A Silent Voice, a film that understands the future matters as much as — or more than — the past.
1 Welcome To The NHK! Addresses Everything From Social Anxiety to Suicide
A not-so-modern classic, Welcome To The NHK! focuses on Tatsuhiro Satou, a twenty-something college dropout who struggles with agoraphobia. A hikikomori trapped in his own room, Satou has fallen prey to various conspiracy theories, believing that a secret organization is controlling his life and dooming him to failure.
While not explicitly described as schizophrenic, Satou's mental illness is complex and detrimental, even as the heartfelt show finds humor in his struggles. Satou befriends two neighbors: Kaoru Yamazaki and Misaki Nakahara, who struggles with depression herself. These relationships might help Satou emerge from isolation, but it won't be easy.
