In the world of anime, characters can have power over the mind in different ways. Some can move objects, have visions of the future, read minds, or even start fires just by thinking about it. Some stories even conflate psychic abilities with spiritual powers, allowing them to see or even summon spirits of the dead. And they can be pretty powerful.

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More often than not, when ESP isn't too common in a setting, such powers can be trouble for a character to have. Depending on the setting, people either think they're a witch or they're in danger of being experimented on to find the mysterious source of their powers. That said, plenty of anime show that the characters with psychic powers really are the ones to be feared.

10 Kimagure Orange Road: Kyosuke Once Used His Powers To Make It Christmas Everyday

kimagure orange road kyouske

Ky0suke Kasuga, the main character of Kimagure Orange Road, is a teenage esper. It runs in the family, as his siblings have similar powers. In fact, his family's devotion to keeping their powers a secret has even caused him to relocate at times.

His powers range from teleportation, telekinesis, and mechanical manipulation. He once even used his powers to have Christmas repeat itself. One thing he seems unable to do is read minds, however.

9 Fruits Basket: Saki Hanajima Emits & Manipulates "Waves"

Saki Hanajima from Fruits Basket.

Saki, also called Hanajima or "Hana-chan," of Fruits Basket is known for many things: her stoic behavior, her close friendship with Tohru, and her psychic powers. She can read auras, sense good and evil, and even pick up mental waves. She can also emit dangerous waves. Her powers are mostly limited to the material world, and she doesn't have much control over ghosts, although she admits the dead do have weak waves.

Unfortunately, her powers haven't made life easier for her, as people have been known to think she's a witch. Granted, even Tohru's been called a witch in this series, but this once caused a traumatic experience for Saki: her once wishing a bully dead nearly came true, causing her to fear her own powers.

8 ESPer Mami: Mami Can Teleport & Levitate

ESPer Mami

Mami Sakura of ESPer Mami used to be a normal girl until she obtained strange powers, which she uses to solve mysteries. Her most prominent ability is teleportation, which she accomplishes with a heart-shaped "Teleportation Gun" brooch. She's also capable of levitation and telepathy.

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Her powers are ultimately revealed to be genetic, as her ancestors were once hunted as witches, motivating her to keep her powers a secret. In a prototype of the series, Akage no Anko, though, they actually were witches.

7 Witch Hunter Robin: Robin Is A Pyrokinetic Witch & Hunter

Witch Hunter Robin Sena

Witches in Witch Hunter Robin tend to have powers that are mental in nature; Robin herself is pyrokinetic, having a mental power over fire. Her powers come at the cost of her eyesight, although she gets around this by using a pair of glasses.

Robin's powers increase as the series goes on. Unfortunately, this causes her to be seen as a threat. And in this world, not only are witches hunted down, they're subjected to harvesting and experimentation, too.

6 Yu Yu Hakusho: Kazuma Kuwabara Combines Mental & Spiritual Power

yu yu hakusho kuwabara

In Yu Yu Hakusho, Kuwabara comes off as the most ordinary of Team Urameshi, considering the rest of his teammates are yokai, but even he has some psychic abilities. This prowess is usually dubbed "High Spirit Awareness" or "Spirit Intuition."

His abilities have taken many forms: telepathy, visions of the future, and conjuring a spirit sword made of spiritual energy. It appears these powers run in the family, as his sister Shizuru has similar powers.

5 Sailor Moon: Rei Has A Sixth Sense & Can Exorcise The Forces Of Evil

Rei Hino from Sailor Moon throwing paper talismans

Rei Hino of Sailor Moon is known for her powers over fire as Sailor Mars, but each of the Inner Scouts brings something to the table beyond their elemental powers. Ami is a genius, Mako is a jack-of-all-trades, Minako is the princess' body double, and Rei has psychic powers.

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Throughout the franchise, Rei's powers have been dubbed everything from a sixth sense to ESP and even black magic. This is most prominently seen in her ability to read flames. Added to this, one of her most famous attacks, "Akuryo Taisan," is actually an exorcism chant loosely meaning, "Evil Spirt Begone," although a few adaptations have portrayed it as a fire spell. In the '90s anime, when the Scouts faced off against what appeared to be a ghost, she was able to figure out that things weren't as they appeared.

4 Mob Psycho 100: Mob Kageyama Has Mind Over Matter & Can See Dead People

Shigeo Kageyama using his powers in Mob Psycho 100.

Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama of Mob Psycho 100 is a teenage psychic whose powers are a combination of mental powers and mediumship. Because of this, he uses his powers to fight evil ghosts and people with similar powers to him.

Despite his strong powers, Mob is quite humble and his humility even has a good influence on other psychics, teaching them that such abilities don't make them better than other people.

3 Pokémon: Sabrina Can Literally Turn People Into Dolls

pokemon-sabrina

In the world of Pokémon, "Psychic" is literally a type Pokémon can be, but even a few of the human characters are shown to have powerful psychic abilities, like gym leader Sabrina, who also specializes in psychic Pokémon.

Despite appearances, she's not a villainous character in the original games. Adaptations like the manga, however, tend to make her more sinister. The anime splits the difference by having her initially be controlled by an alter-ego. She can teleport, sense events, and even turn people into dolls and trap them in her dollhouse. Even her own mother wasn't spared this fate. Haunter eventually freed her by getting her to laugh.

2 One-Punch Man: Tatsumaki's Powers Have Practically Made Her The World's Strongest Woman

Tatsumaki (One Punch Man)

Psychic powers aren't too uncommon in the world of One-Punch Man, but the most powerful character with this ability is Tatsumaki. She is capable of flight, controlling the mind, conjuring barriers, impacting people's health, and even summoning meteors. She even appears to have some dominion over other psychics in the series or at least has the power to dispel them.

Like a lot of characters with such powers, it has caused her trouble in the past: she was taken away from her family by scientists who locked her up for experimentation.

1 Akira: Akira Can Destroy Tokyo & Transcend Dimensions

Akira Manga

The titular character of Akira is a powerful psychic, despite being a child, which unfortunately causes him to be the subject of politically motivated government experiments. The anime highlights the horror of the situation by placing him between differing points of life and death.

He's powerful enough to destroy Tokyo, is probably powerful enough to do the same to Neo-Tokyo, and can transcend other dimensions and planes of existence.

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