31+ Sad Anime/Movies About Depression!

Updated on: July 25, 2022
by Ernie

The subject of depression has a stigma on it. Society considers it Taboo and not to be mentioned on the false pretense that it is better for the one affected to ignore his situation.

Those anime are all covering different kinds of depression, trauma and mental issues. We have protagonists that are struggling to get through the day, but we also see their fight against their illness and the importance of family and friends around them.

It is somehow reassuring, even if they are fictional characters, to see them overcome the dark patches of their lives. If they can do it then surely so could we!

Please understand that this list is completely subjective, and this is just my version of the Sad Anime/Movies About Depression. Now, let’s jump right into it!

32. Honey and Clover

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
8	5	5	18/40

Yuuta Takemoto is an ordinary adolescent. He is studying at an art college and sharing a room with two peculiar seniors. The first one is Shinobu Morita, an eccentric character who is failing most of his classes because of a lack of attendance.

The second is Takumi Mayama, a level-headed and kind individual who believes it’s one of his responsibilities as a senior to take care of his Kohai.

Their peaceful life starts to get complicated when Takemoto falls in love with the talented and timid Hagumi Hanamoto. As she enters their lives, she brings with her friend, Ayumi Yamada, a pottery student who already has feelings for one member of the trio.

This anime is the story of five young students who are struggling to figure out their feelings, their priorities, and their futures.

31. The Tale Of Princess Kaguya

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
9	6	5	20/40

Okina works deep inside the forest. He is a bamboo cutter, and has been all his life. His uneventful days disappear when he finds inside a glowing bamboo, a minuscule baby.

Convincing himself that she is a divine being, a gift sent by the heavens, a princess, he takes her back with him to his house.He and his wife raised her as if she was their real child and gave her the name Kaguya. They watched her grow into a beautiful and powerful lady surrounded by friends and love.

Kaguya’s world shatters when her adoptive father finds a mountain of gold hidden in that insignificant little forest. Convinced it was another gift from the Gods and that Kaguya was destined for greater things than a pitiful life in the countryside, he decides to make her a real princess.

They moved to the capital and bought a mansion. They left everything behind to start a life of luxury among the nobles. But what is Kaguya’s real purpose? Why was she sent to Earth? Is she a gift from the Gods or the Devil?

30. WataMote

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
11	5	7	23/40

Tomoko Kuroki is plain weird and an introvert to boot. She will now be facing the biggest, most challenging trial of her life, HIGH SCHOOL.

She prepared herself thoroughly by playing more than 50 high school life simulations and dating more than 100 virtual boys, there is no way she can mess up! Well, that’s what she thinks. The problem is that Tomoko hasn’t realized yet that she’s not a typical girl, and you can’t really fix a problem you don’t know about right?

Luckily, she has the support of her best friend Yuu Naruse and her brother, Tomoki. Will the socially bizarre and loner Otaku manage to destroy her defensive barriers and let people into her life?

29. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
10	6	7	23/40

Your thoughts have power, your negative energy can bring misfortune and karma does really exist. Mirai Onozawa, in a fit of rage against her family, wished with all her might that everything just breaks apart. At that very instant, Japan had to face the most destructive and devastating magnitude 8.0 earthquake.

Mirai cursed the heavens and the earth since she was not here on her own accord. She was forced by her parents to take her brother to Odaiba to attend a robot exhibition. And right there, in front of her eyes, the world just seemed to have collapsed.

Alone and in panic mode, Mari Kusakabe, a single mother, came to their rescue. Having to finish what she started, the three of them try to make their way into the devastated city so the siblings can reunite with their parents.

28. Scum’s Wish

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
9	6	8	23/40

Trying to keep up appearances is a nerve-racking thing. Trying to act and look happy when you are not, only pushes you further into depression. Hanabi Yasuraoka and Mugi Awaya have been acting like a perfect couple for a while now. But both of them hide the fact that they are in love with people they can never have.

Hanabi grew up with her neighbor and soon to become best friend Narumi Kanai. She has been in love with him since the moment their eyes met. She was devastated after he became the homeroom teacher of her class.

What’s even more painful is that as soon as he entered the school, the music teacher Akane Minagawa had her eyes on Narumi. Their relationship developed and grew very fast to the despair of Hanabi who can’t even confess her feelings to the one she cherishes most.

On the other hand, Mugi has been in love with Akame after she became his private tutor in middle school. Both protagonists realized that they are in the same boat. In order to lick each other’s wounds, they start spending all their time together. In an attempt to forget their loneliness they decide to use each other as a substitute. They start to intertwine emotionally and physically in a fake act of love.

This anime is all about unrequited love and the pain felt by a void in your heart that cannot be filled.

27. Paranoia Agent

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
10	6	7	23/40

Armed with a golden baseball bat and rollerblades, Shounen Bat or Lil’ Slugger has been beating up the occupants of Musashino City, filling their daily life with terror and feelings of insecurity.

Roaming around the city and committing crimes at incredible speed and swiftness, he is impossible to arrest. No one knows his motive, no one understands his mind. His targets are all random, it seems he is just angry against the word and is lashing out at its population to vent out his anger.

Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa are the recent detectives assigned to his case. They start by investigating his first victims to discover his identity. Their job becomes all the more difficult when new assailants start appearing in town engulfing the city in paranoia.

26. Golden Time

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
11	6	6	23/40

Let’s start by clarifying what’s a Traumatic Brain Injury. Simply put, it’s a very hard chock to the head. The repercussions can be devastating. It can manifest in the form of dizziness and escalate to concussions and it can even alter your personality or damage your memories.

Banri Tada, the protagonist of this anime suffers from a Traumatic Brain Injury because of some awful accident. The side effects were amnesia and bipolarity. Knowing nothing of his past, he decides to rebuild his life. He enrolls at a law school in Tokyo where he meets the dazzling melodramatic Kouko Kaga. This was the turning point of his whole world.

Discovering everything as if it was the first time, every experience was an adventure. Venturing into a new world, he can be reshaped into a new person, a better person. As time passes, he starts to discover who he was. Terrified to regress to the stranger he once was, he struggles along with his new friends on a road filled with sadness and anxiety.

25. Grave of The Fireflies

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
15	5	4	24/40

World War II, 1945. Japan is in a devastated state. Engulfed in flame and in ruins, the Americans bombed the entire country, leaving only despair and terror in their wake.

Seita and his sister Setsuko, to young children, have the misfortune to be born at the wrong time. Living in a world deprived of any sign of kindness and with no one but themselves, their supposedly bright future met a tragic turn.

Their house was destroyed, their parents were killed, every day became a fight against starvation, cold, attacks and diseases. Holding on to a small glitter of hope that one day things will go back to how they were, they desperately try to survive. Finding shelter in a cave, lighting it with fireflies, working day and night for a couple of coins, will the two children manage to hold on until the end?

24. Terror In Resonance

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
12	6	6	24/40

Terrorists successfully managed to destroy a nuclear facility located in Japan. The only clue left behind was the word “VON” painted in a bright red color. The government couldn’t do a thing, the police were completely useless and couldn’t even determine who the attackers were. Refusing to divulge any kind of information to the public, they were left in the dark.

Six months after the incident, a video was uploaded on the internet. It showed two boys who called themselves “Sphinx” and they addressed their message to the police. They challenged them to try and stop them before they destroy Tokyo.

Panic quickly spread, the citizens who had absolutely no faith in the ones who are supposed to protect them decided to find ways to guarantee their safety. The police, in a battle against the clock, struggle to find any kind of clue in the mayhem that is now Tokyo.

Deception, conspiracy and secrets are the foundation of the anime where the cruelty of the world, of the people living in it, finally comes to light.

23. Narutaru

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
10	6	7	24/40

Tamai Shiina, a beautiful and energetic young girl, spent the summer holidays with her grandparents. There, she gets acquainted with a “Thing” or a creature. Weirdly, she befriends it and even gives it a name, “Hoshimaru: The Round Star”.

When she returns home, she finds out that other kids like herself became friends with strange beings similar to Hoshimaru. She discovers that these creatures have masters and that not all of them are harmless.

Hoshimaru was one in a million but will he be able to go against his own king for her sake? What is the purpose of their appearance on earth? What are they planning to do with the humans‘ inhabitants?

22. From The New World

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
11	6	7	24/40

Sage Academy is a private school for special children, more precisely psychics. Saki Watanabe at the age of 12 awakened her ability and rejoiced at the idea of reuniting with her friend at that academy.

But Saki has a bad feeling about all of this. While those who are deemed to be special are living the dream life, what happens to those without power? As she and her friends start to investigate the matter, they hear a story, a rumor about Tainted Cats that kidnaps children.

Through the eyes of Saki, we will experience a world where the powerful have their lives already painted for them, a life in a supposed utopia where all they have to do is take on the role that has been assigned to them.

On the other hand, the weak will be discarded and treated like useless animals with no purpose. In this dark world, it is in the hands of pure and innocent children to fix society and rewrite his messed up new world.

21. Plastic Memories

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
12	6	7	25/40

After failing his entrance exam to attend college, Tsukasa Mizugaki makes a deal under the table to become an employee at the Sion Artificial Intelligence Corporation, SAI Corp for short. This corporation created a new form of technology called “Giftias”.

Giftias are androids so ahead of their time that you cannot distinguish the difference between them and real humans. They only function or live if you want for 81,920 hours which is equivalent to 9 months approximately.

Tsukasa’s job consists of collecting Giftias before the end of their life. An important job because in the end, Giftias start to lose their memories and become violent.

The first Giftias he was in charge of is the stunning Isla, the best Giftias yet created. As he spends more time with her, he starts developing romantic feelings towards his partner. Knowing that his time with her will be short he tries his best not to get attached, but his efforts were all in vain.

Watching your first love lose herself, forget you and all the perfect moments you spent together is a shattering thing. How will Tsukasa manage to get over this traumatic yet beautiful experience?

20. Violet Evergarden

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
13	6	8	27/40

Violet Evergarden is a killing machine. All she ever knew and experienced was war. She doesn’t know what emotions are, she doesn’t know what relationships are like, she doesn’t know what love is.

When The Great War finally met its conclusion after four interminable years, the continent that became a battlefield started to heal and blossom.

Violet participated in that war. This is where she lost the only human connection she ever had. She watched Major Gilbert Bougainvillea fade away. In his last breath, he manages to convey his last word to the one he loves. He tells her “I love you” and succumbs to his injuries.

When Violet wakes up in the hospital, she doesn’t care that she lost her two hands, all she cares about is discovering the meaning of the Major’s words. After recovering, she finds a job as an Auto Memory Doll. Her job consists of putting into letters the feelings of people. A job that will help her understand emotions and the true meaning of love and its importance.

Watchers stated that that anime left them devastated. It was a story so moving that they couldn’t stop the tears from falling.

19. Elfen Lied

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
14	7	8	29/40

Lucy is a “Diclonius“, a rare type of mutant human. You can distinguish her by her horn and invisible telekinetic hands. She became a guinea pig for unimaginable and cruel scientific experiments held by the government. They cut her up, isolated her, tortured her for years but one day a ray of hope finally appeared.

She found a chance to escape. Unleashing all her powers with all her strength she killed every living being in the Laboratory. It was a massacre but a well-deserved one. During the attempt, she was injured.

Due to an extremely violent blow to the head, she was left with a split personality. The first personality is that of a kind person with a speech disability, the other, a ruthless murderer with an insatiable thirst for blood.

On the run from the government, Kouta and his cousin Yuka take her in, ignorant of all the danger she brings with her.

With the traumatizing scenes, the inhuman abuse, the fear, this anime is an extremely depressing story that will break your heart.

18. March Comes In Like a Lion

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
14	7	8	29/40

Rei Kiriyama has one talent and one talent only, Shogi. He became a professional player in Middle school. Because of this, he has to shoulder tremendous pressure from his foster family who always expect more from him. They adopted him after he lost his parents and little sister in a horrible accident. The game that was his escape, his moment of solace became an obligation, a duty.

Seeking freedom from his past and his present life, he leaves and finds shelter in Tokyo. Alone for the first time in his life, he doesn’t really know how to properly take care of himself. His school day is also a challenge. Excluded by his comrades because of his introverted personality, even at the shogi hall, the situation is actually better.

His life brightens a bit after he gets acquainted with three sisters Akari, Hinata, and Momo Kawamoto. After witnessing the poor lifestyle of Rei, Akari is determined to change his ways by taking on the role of a mother. The sisters who are also trying to overcome past trauma rapidly create a strong bond with Rei who never really experienced what a true family is.

Together they fight to grow and mature, they fight to overcome their respective complexes and to create a future they can look forward to.

It’s a sad and depressing anime about insecurities and a lack of love and connection. You will feel utterly lonely after watching it even if you are not.

17. Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
12	9	8	29/40

Nozomu Itoshiki is a fragile individual, the slightest misfortune can literally shatter his world. He is pessimistic and gloomy and during every fit of despair, his only solution is suicide.

Now you may find it perfectly weird that a person with his mindset is a high school teacher.

Depressing his students instead of making them look forward to their future, he makes them see the world in black. But even through all his problems, he keeps on fighting and clinging on to dear life for the sake of his beloved students who have their own problems to overcome, problems that he can relate with. He becomes their lifeline but will he stick with them till the end?

16. Clannad

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
14	7	8	29/40

Tomoya Okazaki hates his current life. He finds that everything is utterly meaningless. He acts like a delinquent, skips classes and ignores all kinds of extracurricular activities.

On a day like all the others, he passes by a girl from his school that he never saw before on campus. She was mumbling to herself and out of nowhere shouts “Anpan” and startles Tomoya. Her name is Nagisa Furukawa and she will be the one to change Tomoya’s boring life.

She explains to him that she screams the name of things she likes to motivate herself in order to get through her day. She also adds that from now on she decides that the two of them will be friends. Trying to ignore her weirdness, Tomoya acts as if nothing happened and forgets their meeting.

From this moment forth, the girl he never noticed before keeps on appearing around him everywhere he goes. Finding it impossible to avoid her, he gives in and becomes her friend. In an attempt to learn more about each other, Nagisa reveals that she has an incurable illness and was held back because of it.

But before her time comes, she wishes to resuscitate the school’s drama club. Touched by her story, Tomoya offers his help giving her the excuse that he has nothing better to do anyway.

When their mission begins, they meet strange girls who are each facing a specific problem and all of them decide to enter the club with them. Spending all their time together, Tomoya learns about the girls’ struggle and tries to help them through it all.

Finally, a new feeling will start to grow in Tomoya’s heart, a feeling toward Nagisa, a feeling that can only be love. Getting attached to the peculiar girl more than he desires the thought of losing her along the way terrifies him.

15. Monster

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
13	8	8	29/40

Dr. Kenzou Tenma is a neurosurgeon and he is one of the best. Climbing the ranks at the hospital he works at, he is on his way to becoming the new chairman after his engagement with the hospital director’s daughter. But one little event will turn his life around.

He was preparing for an operation when he gets a call from the director telling him that he needs him to perform brain surgery on a famous actor instead. His current patient ends up dead due to his decision to abandon him. Overwhelmed by guilt and questioning everything he has achieved so far he enters a state of mental crisis.

Someday later, he was faced with the same dilemma. He was scheduled to operate on a young boy by the name of Johan Liebert and was asked to stop and switch patients to take on the surgery of the town mayor. But this time, Dr. Kenzou stands his ground and proceeds with Johan’s surgery.

The consequences of his choice were severe. He loses his privileges, his prestige and his social standing in the hospital. He is miraculously saved and gains back what he lost when the director and two other doctors are found dead. Their death was shrouded in mystery, not one piece of evidence was left behind and due to the lack of leads, the case was closed. Dr. Kenzou takes the position of director and his life is back on track.

Nine years have passed since the incident. Dr. Kenzou agreed to perform surgery on a criminal and thus saved his life. From this point on, his past comes crashing down on him. The monster he saved is now on a killing spree and he takes it upon himself to right his wrong and stop his rampage.

14. Aoi Bungaku Series

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
15	6	8	29/40

This anime is a collection of small stories, let’s go over them one by one.

Ningen Shikkaku

Drug addict high schooler who fights against depression. We will experience alongside him the difference of addiction till he hits the point of no return.

Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita

This story is a depiction of Stockholm syndrome. A woman gets abducted by a bandit and falls in love with him.

Kokoro

A university student who is living life with the constant feeling that something is missing. He meets a man that he will call “Sensei”. That man will become a guide, a life coach. However, he is reluctant to share his personal experience which will feed the curiosity of the student leading him to question his relationship with his family and his purpose in the world.

Hashire, Melos!

Melos and Selinuntius are two inseparable friends. They trust and stand by each other through every experience without realizing that they are dragging each other down in a pit of despair and misery.

Kumo no Ito

After death, Kandata has been sent to hell to answer for the crimes he committed during his time on earth. He caught the eye of Buddha Shakyamuni because of one miserable act of kindness he fulfilled among all the other atrocities. He once saved a spider, that’s it, so Buddha sends him a spider thread in the pit he is rotting in. The thread is a lifeline, a chance that he will try to seize.

Jigokuhen

Yoshihide lives in a territory governed by tyrant Horikawa. He is a virtuoso with a brush and is known as a gem among all the elite painters. Lord Horikawa commissioned him to bring to life the “Buddhist Hell” on a canvas.

The painter declines the command giving as an excuse that he cannot paint something he hasn’t witnessed. For his request to be fulfilled the Lord starts torturing all his subjects in order for the painter to experience it. He turns his land into a massive blood field of despair and terror.

13. Neon Genesis Evangelion

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
13	8	8	30/40

The Earth is in danger. Beings known as Angel are threatening to destroy it. Our only hope lies in the hands of three teenagers capable of piloting, synchronizing with “Evangelions”. Evangelions are giant machine armor created by “Nerv”, an agency under the direction of the United Nations.

The head of the institution Gendou Ikari asks his 14-year-old son, Shinji Ikari, whom he hasn’t spoken to in years to become the pilot of Evangelion Unit-01. And thus the faith of all humans on earth is now in his hands.

Shinji will have to fight the tremendous pressure put on him by his cruel and emotionless father. He will have to overcome the guilt of the people who he will not be able to save. He will have to live up to the immense expectation that the entire world has of him. Psychological traumas will make him give up, wish he was dead and in the end, the boy will become a legend.

12. Casshern Sins

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
15	7	8	30/40

Now let’s travel to the future, the earth is the earth we know. It became a wasteland and humanity is almost extinct. All that is left behind are AI’s, robots who are supposed to be immortal. That was a fact until one of them died and with its death put in motion “The Ruin”.

Impossible to fix them, all robots are now just waiting for their time to go. They have only one hope, a rumor started going around saying that if they consume the one who goes by the name Casshern they will gain an unending life.

Casshern woke up in this hopeless world with no memories of his past, no purpose, just questions. He woke up in a world alone surrounded by enemies. Hunted day and night, he cannot rest nor enjoy a single second for himself.

Now you may ask if this kind of life is really worth living? But Casshern doesn’t want to just disappear without having at least left proof of his existence. He wants the answers to his questions, he wants to know why he is alive and he will face this hellish life for it.

11. A Silent Voice

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
14	8	8	30/40

Shouya Ishida is a bully. It’s his very harsh way of fighting boredom. When Shouko Nishimiya transfers to his school and he learns that she’s deaf, she becomes the target of his and her other classmates’ cruelty. When her mother notices what was happening to her daughter, she immediately takes action and notifies the director.

She put all the blame on one person, Shouya. Shouko leaves the school right after the incident and Shouya becomes the new target of the school’s bully. But his situation is even worse because even the teachers ignore his situation.

Elementary school became hell. But this hell taught him the importance of kindness. As he grew up, he decided to right his wrongs. The first step is to find Shouko and earn her forgiveness.

His journey for redemption won’t be an easy one and not everybody has the will to pardon those who wrong them in the most horrifying ways.

10. 5 Centimeters Per Second

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
14	9	8	31/40

This anime is about the difficulty of maintaining long-distance relationships. Toono and Akari Shinohara love each other but due to their respective situation, they are torn apart. They did their best to try and maintain constant contact but it was all in vain. As time passes and they grow more distant, only their memory of each other keeps them attached.

Those memories are trapping them in the past, stopping them to enjoy the present moment. They live every day trying to go back without moving forward. They end up hurting themselves and the people who care for them.

9. Anohana

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
15	8	8	31/40

Anohana is a bitter-sweet story about overcoming your past traumas and start moving forward to the future.

Six childhood friends laughed and cried together for as long as they can remember. In a horrifying accident, they lose one of their comrades, Menma Honma. Unable to get over her death, the five remaining members can’t stand the sight of each other anymore as all they see in each other are the memories of the one they lost.

All of them try to heal the open wound in their heart just to realize that nothing is decreasing the pain. The leader of the group was the most affected. Jinta Yadomi was a popular and joyful individual who turned into a reclusive introvert withdrawn from society. Living a lonely and meaningless life it seems that he is trying to punish himself.

Ten years later Menma makes her apparition in the form of a ghost and asks Jinta to grant her last wish so she can finally be at peace. Jinta jumps to the occasion of somehow relieving his tormented heart and accepts to take on the challenge. There is just one little problem, Menma doesn’t remember what is the thing that she desires.

The ex-leader then decides to reunite his old friends believing that their reunion will be the key to solving the mystery. But the answer isn’t as simple as that since hidden feelings will come to light, conflicts will arise and they will inevitably discover that Menma’s parents hold a grudge against the ones who still live.

If you want to cleanse your body of all the tears then please start watching immediately and be ready to cry non-stop for eleven episodes straight.

8. The Tatami Galaxy

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
14	8	9	31/40

On a casual day, near a weird ramen stand, a college student runs into a man. His appearance couldn’t be more peculiar. His head looks like an eggplant and he says that he is a God, a God of marriage to be precise.

His wisdom opens the eyes of the student to the life he has been living. He wasted the most important and what should have been the most fun time of his college years trying to break up couples in the school. His life can only be described as miserable and useless.

It is time for a change, he only has one year left and he is determined to make it a memorable one. He tries to make friends, to build bonds but everybody around him is wary of his reputation. That’s it, this last year will be even worse than the previous ones.

At that moment he is transported back in time. He is back to his very first day at college. He was granted another chance. He will use this chance to redeem his wrongs and live the pink-colored life any student should experience.

This depressing retro anime may not sound awesome, but the surreal and artistic style will make you change your mind for sure.

7. Mushishi

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
15	9	8	32/40

“Mushi” is a strange life form that exists in our world. They are aimless, they just exist. The concepts that guide the universe do not apply to them, they are not bound to or by anything. They have no specific form, they can mimic every natural element.

They can change into a disease, a phenomenon like a hurricane or turn into a living thing like an animal, a plant, or even a human.

Information on Mushi is almost nonexistent. Most people are ignorant about their existence.

But why do they exist? Where do they come from? Those are questions that Ginko will devote his life to answer.

Ginko is a “Mushishi”, a researcher specialized in Mushi’s. He believes that his research on Mushi will reveal the meaning of life itself. The ultimate question asked by humanity.

Mushi’s will turn out to be omens of misfortune and Ginko will be the one to deal with the after-effects of their passage. Depression, despair, terror and fear you will feel, as a “thing” you don’t know is a “thing” enters your life. Those feelings will make you wish you were dead.

6. Colorful

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
16	8	8	32/40

Upon dying, tainted souls find themselves in front of a train station. There, they reincarnate on earth regardless of what they want. They get another shot at life to redeem their past errors.

One of those souls came back in the body of a young boy who just committed suicide. That soul will now start a new life as Makoto Kobayashi. His mission is to find out what is the biggest depravity the boy committed so he can remain in this world. He has six months to do so.

An investigation of the human psyche will reveal the depth of emotion and the importance of choices and actions taken during a lifetime. Analyzing the complex feeling that leads to suicide, the impact of family on a person, the soul will experience all the awful experiences Makoto had to endure before giving up on fighting.

5. Serial Experiments Lain

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
16	9	8	33/40

Lain Iwakura is a middle school student. She’s shy, a bit weird and an introvert. She and many of her classmates got an unsettling E-mail from one of the girls in their school. Her name is Chisa Yomoda. But Chisa Yomoda is dead, she committed suicide not long ago, how is that possible?

Lain is a technophobe, she barely knows how to fire up a laptop, but as soon as she opened the mail she was transported to the world of communication, the internet. Mysteries after mysteries keep popping up like viruses and her world turns into utter hell.

Anomalies that are called Man in Black keep following her and asking her questions. Specific questions about herself and her life. It’s as if they know all about her or even maybe they know her more than herself.

Her identity, her consciousness, her everything is slowly getting integrated into that weird cyberspace filled with all her fear and insecurities. With no way to escape and no one to lean on she is heading to depravity.

4. Your Lie in April

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
16	8	9	33/40

This is the story of Kousei Arima. Kousei is a pianist prodigy, his name is right beside all the most famous musicians who ever existed. But he fell into a slump after the death of his mother. Unable to withstand the sound of the instrument he cherished his days in the spotlight were no more.

After two long years passed nothing changed. His life became meaningless, he lost his will and desire to live. Hope comes rushing in when he meets a beautiful violinist, Kaori Miyazono. She makes it her life’s mission to bring him back on a stage. Together they revisit the magical world of music.

But Kaori won’t be here for long, a horrible fate is waiting around the corner. How will Kousei manage to accept the imminent death of the only light in his life?

3. Flowers Of Evil

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
18	9	7	34/40

The protagonist of that series is Takao Kasuga. Takao is an introverted bookworm who despises any kind of social interaction. His favorite book is “Les Fleurs du Mal” written by Charles Baudelaire. His only other interest is the Kawaii and popular Nanako Saeki who he has a major crush on.

Another girl in his class piqued his interest but she is the exact opposite of Nanako. Her name is Sawa Nakamura. She acts and speaks like a delinquent and slacks off in school. She doesn’t give a damn about her future.

Takao was on his way back home when he realized that he forgot his book at school. He goes back to retrieve it and stumbles on the gym clothes of Nanako, the one she just used in PE class. The little guy couldn’t stop himself from stealing them but he was caught red-handed by Sawa.

This act will reveal to be the gravest error of his life. As people search for our weakness to use and manipulate us, Takao is now stuck in the hands of the most deprived and cruel person in school.

2. Rainbow

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
19	9	8	36/40

Shounan Special Reform School is known to be a hell on earth. Mario Minakami and five other delinquents were just arrested and sent there. They all committed grave criminal activities. They are taught, violet and feared by others but in the place, they are heading, they are at the bottom of the food chain.

They all became cellmates along with former boxer Rokurouta Sakuragi. Forced to have each other’s back in order to survive, Rokurouta became their Sensei and started teaching them how to fight. That day, they made a promise, they will one day all get out and meet again on the other side.

They will have to endure the humiliation and pain brought upon them by the abusive guard Ishihara and his psychopathic tendencies. They will have to struggle against the idiot doctor who finds pleasure in defying virgin boys.

And we can’t forget about the other criminals incarcerated who aim for the newcomer’s lives just for the fun of it. Even if they get out, will they manage to live a normal life after dealing with all the stress, tension, fear and the many mental and physical damage they will suffer?

1. Welcome to the N.H.K.

Depression	Storyline	Animation	Total
20	9	9	38/40

Tatsuhiro Satou is 22 years old. He is a jobless college dropout and he is a person who cannot stand the touch of another individual. He avoids social contact like plague. That condition is called hikikomori in Japan.

Due to his forced isolation, conspiracy theories started invading his brain and one of them terrifies him to another level. He firmly believes that a person is behind his situation and that person made him become a NEET. That person is the head of an organization whose sole purpose is to afflict the most people possible with hikikomori.

While Tatsuhiro tries to fight against this origination in order to gain control of his life, the disease will eat him up a bit more every day. His apartment will become his entire world. Consumed by darkness and living in constant fear and stress he will evolve into a schizophrenic. Will he ever manage to heal from all his complex mental illnesses?

Conclusion

Life is Beautiful, Live it To The Fullest!

It may be difficult to keep on fighting, on struggling. It may be easy to just give up on yourself and stagnate in your current state. But please never lose hope, never forget that there are people who support and care about you. If it’s not for you, keep on challenging yourself for them. Just the fact that you still have the will to improve is an amazing achievement in itself.

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