Animes are a familiar term nowadays. Some watch anime to timepass, and some think Animes are fun. It is true that animes can depict the roller coaster of emotion and make you cry and laugh simultaneously. Animes help you to recover from drama block, art block, and reading block. Sometimes, Anime About Depression helps you to reduce mental stress.
Creative people always go through these phases. Sometimes you watch something and feel that is so close to your heart. Then after finishing watching that, you go through loneliness and depression. Some feel like they miss something, something that is close to their heart. Overcoming this block isn’t easy, but depressing animes can help you to recover from those phases.
Best Anime About Depression And Loneliness
There are famous anime that is praised and appreciated by many movie critics worldwide. People who never watch anime should try watching some of these anime. Like in “I want to eat your pancreas,” the FL of the story already knows she will die after some time. Despite knowing that, she never gave up on her life. She enjoyed her life to the fullest, lest she should regret it before dying. We sometimes give up if life gets a little tricky. Also, the suicide rate is the highest these days. But this can’t be a solution to your problems.
Another one is hyped among anime watchers, and every anime episode will make sense to you. A silent voice is a famous anime in which our ML suffers from anxiety and disorder, and he envisions X mark instead of people’s faces. Another anime will make you cry, but at the same time, you will be glad for the male protagonist. These animes will make you cry and laugh concomitantly. If you are feeling down or can’t concentrate on your work, you should start by watching a depressing anime.
1. A Silent Voice
A silent voice depicts its name quite well. This anime movie is about a school bully whose life changed after a memorized incident. From Self-harm and hallucination to the school bully, this movie got it all. The story starts with a boy whose name is shoya Ishida, who intends to suicide because he suffers from a disease. His symptoms are he can’t see his classmates’ faces. Instead, it seems like a cross mark in place on their faces. He is treated as a total outcast in his class. On the verge of his death, he remembers his classmate named Shoko Nishimiya is attached to him, and to solve this last business, and he retrieved from his suicidal move.
Back in his middle school days, Shoyo joined Shoya’s middle school. Nishimiya was a deaf girl, making it easy for Shoya and their friend to bully Nishimiya. But when the truth is revealed, his friends blame Shoya for bullying. As a result, Shoya became a total outcast in middle and high school. Everybody avoids him. Shoko was also known as a bully then, and this incident made Shoko see cross marks on people’s faces.
But somehow, Nishimiya left a notebook, and Shoko had it. To return that notebook, Shoko returned to Nishimiya. If you want to know what happens next, you have to watch this movie. This movie makes you feel Shoko’s emotions and how he overcomes his shortcomings with Nishimiya’s help. This movie will make you realize the importance of our closest persons and their emphasis on our life.
2. Your Lie in April
“Your Lie in April” is also known as “Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso”. It is still known as the heart-touching anime in anime history. Because of its plot and cinematography, everything will touch your heart. It will teach you how to be free-spirited and spontaneous no matter what you do. It can be your work or hobby. This anime series also gives you a hint of friendship and sacrifice, and respect toward your partner.
The story starts with a boy named Kosei Arima, a piano prodigy. He has owned an enormous number of awards and has been successful at the age of 14. But his life turned into a new dimension after his mother’s death. After his mother died, Kosei couldn’t his piano ringing but hearing the rest was fine. It happened from the shock of his mother’s death. Two years have passed this way. Kosei couldn’t go back to his usual self. In the meantime, he met with a girl named Kaori Miyazono. Kaori was a violin player. But her playing style was a bit different than Kosei’s.
She was free-spirited, spontaneous, and joyous and her violin also sounded just how she behaved after meeting Kosei fall in love with her. Somehow Kaori convinced Kosei to play with her in the Piano competition. Some Incidents happened after that. If you want to know if Kosei would be able to play the piano or if he became like before or if he could play with Kaori? Then you have to watch this series. This anime series has a total of 22 episodes. Each episode’s duration is approximate 23 minutes.
3. Welcome to the N.H.K.
Welcome to the N.H.K. is derived from a Japanese novel. Eventually, it was adapted into Manga first, and then it came to anime in 2006. But the plot changed according to the audiences in the manga, novel, and anime. Still, the moral of Welcome to the N.H.K. remained the same. This anime depicts depression, anxiety, loneliness, exclusion from social gatherings, hardship in life, and isolation. It also shows how an individual can overcome these situations.
Welcome to the N.H.K. also shows a common syndrome known as HIkikomori which is common in japan. People who suffer from this syndrome can’t easily be social butterflies. They always feel lonely and exclude themselves from social gatherings. Precisely otakus are suffering from this syndrome. The anime has 24 episodes. The whole plot has a synchronized way of resolving depression, loneliness, and the Hikikomori syndrome.
The plot starts with the main protagonist, Tatsuhiro Satō, a university student who dropped out before finishing his degree. The anime is not about the story of the main protagonists. Moreover, it depicts several people, their lifestyles, and the hardship in their position. At one point, Tatsuhiro met a girl named Misaki Nakahara, who somehow offered to help him overcome Hikikomori syndrome. What happens after that, whether Tatsuhiro has recovered from his syndrome, is all you can know after watching this anime.
4. I want to eat your pancreas
“I want to eat your pancreas” is an anime adapted from a novel with the same title. This anime was released in 2018 and was famous for its plot and cinematography. The videography and screening were praised by movie critics and audiences worldwide.
This anime is precisely a coming-age-of drama that evolved around some high school students. This movie is animated from their point of view. How pitiful must it have felt for that person after knowing her limited time? Despite knowing that she intends to spend her school time without having any regrets. How does a high school student who doesn’t care about anything get attached to her classmate? So that she becomes an integral part of his life?
The plot begins with the Ml of this anime. He was in a hospital and found a diary of our FL, who is very popular in their class. In her diary, the boy found her last wishes as she has some pancreas disease. She doesn’t have much time left. But nobody in their class knew she was ill and going to die soon. After finding out the boy was unfazed about her death and not interested in her life, the girl started hanging around the boy.
They hung out and did many memorable deeds in that short period. But their fate wasn’t on their side, and some tragic incident happened. To know the whole story, you can watch this movie. This movie will cheer you up and give you courage from the dying girl.
5. Colorful Anime About Depression
Colorful is an animated film based on a novel of the same name. This film is kind of a fantasy film. People who enjoy fantasy films can watch this movie. The duration of this movie is 2 hours and 6 minutes. This movie can be an excellent deal to cheer up your mood on some depressing weekdays or weekends. The movie starts with a living soul who gets a second chance to live his life again. He got incarnated into a fourteen-year-old boy’s body. After being reincarnated, he got a request to find out the truth about who he was and what was his greatest sin in his lifetime.
The soul is reincarnated in the body of a boy named Makoto Kobayashi. He had committed suicide because he hated his family. His father was working hard and not caring about his family, and his mother was having an affair with some other guy. His brother wasn’t very helpful to Makoto. At some point, he met a friend with whom he got his first bit of friendship. Makoto wanted to attend the same school as his friend. But he has got six months to live. If he couldn’t find those truths, he couldn’t get to live. To know the rest, you can watch this movie. This movie is worth your time.
6. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
“Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei” is a manga-based anime that is fun to watch. Because the students’ words and way of resolving the matter are fun to watch. But if you think this anime is Disney and there is nothing that makes sense, then you are wrong. This anime is one of the best anime about depression and loneliness. The ML of this anime is Nozomu Itoshiki. He is a high school teacher and a pessimistic person who always finds a pessimistic meaning in everything.
The plot starts with Nozumo trying to hang himself in a sakura tree. But he was saved by one of his students named Kafuka Fuura. She asked himself why he wanted to die in such lovely weather and amongst these beautiful trees.
Nozumo was a person who thought money could solve everything. She also named Nozumo “pink supervisor” and gave him 50 yen for this name. In this anime, you will learn many things about Taiso Dynasty about Japanese culture and also get to know Japanese literature.
7. March Comes In like a Lion
“March Comes in Like a Lion” is a manga-based anime series. This anime was released between 2017 and 2018. This anime has a total of two seasons, and each season has 22 episodes. “March Comes In like a Lion” is a wholesome anime, and it is the best anime about depression. This anime depicts how a 17-year-old feels and faces without his parents and any close relatives.
The protagonist of this anime is a 17-year-old shogi player, Rei Kiriyama, whose parents had died in a car accident. Thus, he has left no blood relative in this world. He temporarily lived with his father’s friend but left them at seventeen. Rei Kiriyama then faced several problems, including the financial crisis, loneliness, and depression, and eventually became apathetic towards the world. But then he met the Kawamoto sisters. Those sisters help him to change his interpretation of life.
8. The Garden of Sinners
The Garden of Sinners is also known as Kara no Kyoukai. This anime was taken from a Japanese light novel with the same name. This anime contains depression art, suicidal moves, and mysterious, dark themes. However, this anime is perfect for violent death lovers. Moreover, the garden of sinners is related to fate. If you want to watch something out of the basket, you can try watching this series.
9. Aoi Bungaku
Aoi Bungaku is considered a great series that contains six short stories. This anime series has a total of twelve episodes, and it is made based on Japanese novels and literature. The stories contain different situations and feeling concerned it’s surrounding. Among the six stories, the most famous story of Aoi Bungaku is “No longer Human”. This story is based on an alienated boy who faces social apathy. His numb feeling is not only towards society but also humanity. There are several people like this around us, but we somehow never see them. The rest stories of this series are worth watching.
10. Rainbow: Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin
If you ask me which one of these animes made me melancholy, then I would say it’s Rainbow. This anime made me unhappy and trenched my heart whenever I remember the plot of this anime. This anime depicts the actual picture of our society. The people with power abuse it towards those with the least power. And they can’t raise their voice against the powerful ones.
The story is based on a manga series with a similar title. The story is about six delinquents and their preceptor facing problems after the Japanese war ended. They were tortured and also came back in life like normal. This story feels so realistic yet heartbroken at the same time.
11. ReLIFE Anime About Depression
ReLIFE anime is made based on most of our dreams that we want to return back again at some point in our life. Have you ever thought of getting your high school life back when life became hard? Or some of us might think if we studied and tried hard, then we must be in a different place from now. Almost all of us have thought once or twice like this in our lifetime, like our protagonist Arata Kaizaki. He was 27 years old and worked in a convenience store as a part-timer. Arata had failed several times to get a good job because he got nervous when the recruiter asked him why he had left the previous job in a short time.
Anyhow he met Ryō Yoake, who was then improvising a ReLIFE project. In that project, anyone can go in their youth and remend their mistake. Arata took the project and went to enjoy his Youth again. After going to the past, something also happened that made him sad, depressed, and apathetic to the world. How Arata got the courage and got himself back on track can motivate you. To know Arata’s story, you can watch this anime.
12. Violet Evergarden
Violet Evergarden is a sad and depressing anime. You must need to watch this anime when you are feeling down. The main protagonist of this anime, “Violet,” is hopeless and depressing as it is. She was not even treated as a human being but like a tool. After Dietfried gives her to his brother, he addresses “Violet” as a “tool” and tells him to use her as a tool.
But Gilbert Didn’t use her as a tool. Instead, he taught her how to read and write. Still, they couldn’t live together. War had separated them, and she had left to find the meaning of Gilbert’s last word. That was” I Love You”. This anime is so sad and downcast that you must feel down for violet.
13. The Flowers of Evil
“The flowers of evil” has released in 2013. This anime has made based on a manga series with the same Japanese name Aku no Hana. This anime reveals the psychological phase of several students from their middle school days until university levels. How they changed and how their psychology works. All these emotions and feelings are depicted in this anime. This anime brings some genuine feelings of teenagers like sadness, loneliness, disconsolation, downcast, disheartened, and so many others.
Our protagonist boy is a teenager, Takao Kasuga, who can not fix his heart with one girl. First, he fancied her classmate named Saeki and stole her gym clothes. After his other classmate, Nakamura, spotted him stealing and blackmailed him that she would tell everyone. After some days, when he became Saeki’s boyfriend and also engaged himself with Nakamura, he fell for both girls. He couldn’t decide for any of them. This anime will make you frustrated after watching out protagonists. This anime is hopeless and will give you anxiety. Still, it is a good catch for breaking your movie taste.
14. Serial Experiments Lain
Serial Experiments Lain is an anime with a great plot and exciting cliffhangers. Once you start to watch it, you will become restless unless you finish this. The storyline is flawless without unnecessary loopholes, and the characters have developed gingerly. The main protagonist of this anime, Lain Iwakura, has grown up in a disenchanting atmosphere. People around her are awkward. In her family, nobody cared about her. As a result, she became stiff and awkward and couldn’t socialize normally.
But her awkward life had taken a turn after an incident. Lain heard that a dead classmate named Chisa Yomoda had mailed their classmates. She also checked and found out that Chisa also mailed her and told her that she hadn’t died. She was stuck in a place. The real twist starts here. If you find the story fascinating, you can check the rest.
15. WataMote Anime About Depression
Watamote is a manga-based anime. This anime has a manga series with the same name WataMote. However, its English name is funny and exciting. The English name of WataMote is “No matter how I look at it, and it’s you guys’ fault that I’m not popular.” This anime is based on a teenage girl and her depression in life. The plot might interest you because you will see how silly things can get on the nerves of a teenage girl. The story starts with a girl named Tomoko Kuroki. She is fifteen years old and believed she would become a popular girl after entering high school. But her dream remained a dream, and she became a loner after entering high school.
Tomoko thought she would become famous because she had become a pro gamer in Otome games. And she believed this could make her a popular girl. But with bags under her eyes and a grimaced expression, she can’t even make a single friend. But she still believes she can become a popular girl. Her endless tactics and theories will make you laugh and guffaw at the same time.
16. Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion is a famous anime series for 90’s kids. The plot of this anime diegesis about a futuristic world. There Tokyo was renamed Tokyo-3. The protagonist of this anime is a Fifteen-year-old boy who is a member of a shadowy organization like his father. After that, he built a bio-machine named Evangelion. That bio-machine was huge and made to protect the world from future cataclysms.
This anime was one of the best anime made in the 90s. It has gained fame at the same time, and it was a controversial issue among movie critics. Many claims that the ending of Neon Genesis Evangelion doesn’t sync with the rest episodes. Some also justified the ending. They have made the ending open and confusing so that watchers can convict the ending.
17. Casshern Sins
“Casshern Sins” is an anime from the 70s. The illustrations and art styles are all different from now. People who precisely watch anime and feel bored with the same art style can try this anime for a different taste. The plot is interesting as well.
The plot starts with a story where robots have conquered the world and enslaved humans after they were aware of themselves. The world was ruled by a robot executive named Braiking Boss. But after some days of robots’ rule, a girl suddenly popped out of nowhere. She was trying to get back humankind’s sovereignty over robots.
The robot ruler considered her a threat and assigned his best corporate warriors to dismiss her. One of his cyborg warriors named Casshern succeeded in tracking her down. But this caused another catastrophe; the world’s air was filled with poison and fatal gases. This incident harmed humankind drastically as well as robots.
The humans couldn’t stand the toxicity, and most lost their lives. The rest of them lost their reproductivity. The same goes for robots. However, the toxic air made their corporate rust and spoil. But there was no news of Casshern, the leading cause of the catastrophe.
18. Scum’s Wish
Scum’s wish is a manga-based anime released in 2017. This anime has a total of 12 episodes. Each episode contains the grief of our main protagonists. Moreover, this anime is a story where our protagonists fall in love with different people. And obviously, it’s an ill-fated love.
Our main protagonist falls in love with her homeroom teacher. He was her older neighbor friend, but her homeroom teacher had fancied her music teacher.
Another classmate of Hanabi Yasuraoka also fell in love with their music teacher. The music teacher was Mugi Awaya’s middle classroom teacher. He fancied his music teacher for a long time.
Both Mugi and Hanabi realized that their crushes had never taken an interest in them. After that, Mugi and Hanabi decided that they would date themselves but won’t fall in love. You can watch this anime to know if they succeed in keeping this relationship.
19. Shadow Star Anime About Depression
Shadow star is one of the depressing anime from 2003. Her classmates bullied the female lead of this anime, and she decided to take her life at some point. But then she met a shadow dragon. She then named the shadow dragon and started to keep company with that baby dragon. Gradually she started to feel better. This anime has taken from a manga series. It has 13 episodes altogether. The charisma of this anime lies in every episode. You won’t feel bored or punctured while watching this.
20. The Tatami Galaxy
The Tatamy Galaxy is not that depressing anime compared to the others. Still, it can impact your vision and broaden your outlook. It also reminds you how a small decision in your life can have a significant impact. The story is composed of some university students. It shows how they are compatible with other students and how their perspectives matter on different decisions.
This anime also has a sequel; you can watch the second part if you find it interesting. The story is not based and focused on a particular protagonist. This anime focuses on several students, and their decisions are taken in life. One of the main protagonists join a group about parallel Universe and loves to think about different point of view in a multiverse. All the students in that group have their personal life histories and make decisions based on their life stories.
Final Thought
The anime about depression can uplift your mood if you’re feeling down. At the same time, some of these also can sour your mood. If you’re a fan of “happily ever after,” some of these animes can irritate you. Still, these masterpieces can never be replaced, and the plots have made them more enchanting.
