22 Mindfuck Anime Designed to Leave You Ponderous

Mindfuckery – You’re supposed to avoid swearing in articles you are writing. It’s not professional. However, there is no better way describe some anime that is so bent on violating your mind with its penetrating plot points. While there are anime series that explore a linear plot with rather obvious themes, there are other series that lean more experimental in their storytelling and stuff those themes into subtext. Whether you want an anime series so laden with symbolism that is has become a symbol or a series specifically designed to be absurd in all respects, get ready to formulate you own improbable theories about the endings of these mindfuck anime recommendations.

Best Mindfuck Anime

Serial Experiments Lain

If you want mindfucking, if you want something excessively thought-provoking, if you want something interpretive – You want Serial Experiments Lain. It’s first on the list because it is the very definition of “mindfuck”. It is a series that has a bar of being labeled “boring” by less determined anime fans, and now maybe “not good looking” by others – this keeps more casual watchers out. It is a series that is experiential with its storytelling, but successful in highlighting its major themes of communication and loneliness.

Monster

Monster takes on a more common appearance as a thriller. It features a doctor chasing after a serial killer that framed him for murder. However, it ends up as a series that will test your morals. Every ounce of it, right from the initial premise, is a thought-provoking adventure in moral ethics. It’s like The Good Place, but anime and with more murder.

Haibane Renmei

Haibane Renmei is a master of keeping you intrigued enough to watch what would otherwise be a very boring situation. If follows girls with halos and angel wings that are spontaneously born as young women from a cocoon randomly. They then spend their time under strict rules and waiting for their day of flight, when they will disappear. It’s symbolism is the dangling carrot to keep you watching, intriguing you to see what reveal will come next while simultaneously being pretty easy to grasp by the end. The only real problem with it is how good it is at smearing its melancholic feel onto you like butter onto so much bread.

The Tatami Galaxy

Out of many of the series here, The Tatami Galaxy is actually pretty easy to grasp, plot-wise. It is about a guy going back in time over and over again trying to have a better school life and often failing because of his own poor social skills. However, what elevates that to the realms of a lofty skull-fucking is its penchant to use visuals and symbolism to to tell you about the characters rather than exposition.

Kaiba

It really wouldn’t be a Masaaki Yuasa anime if his unique art style wasn’t augmenting the innate weirdness in the story. Even in his normal ones, like Japan Sinks 2020 or The Tatami Galaxy above, the art lets the weird in. Kaiba is the pinnacle of his artistic creativity in which the story heavily relies on you being able to spot and unravel the symbolism and how it relates to the themes that the story is trying to display without outright telling you. It’s a story that demands your attention, and will forever be difficult to explain. However, if your passion is abstract art and plot that doesn’t hand-hold, Kaiba is among the very best.

Texhnolyze

Like many mindfuck series, Texhnolyze keeps more casual viewers away with a painfully slow pace, but there is meat buried under those peas. Interestingly enough, the anime itself is thoughtful, but its themes are less interpretive and made more clear through the use of allegories in the show. This allows more time to ponder its thoughts on the meaning of life and what it means to be free on your own time after you finish the show, though sadly not without some questions whose answers remain unclear at the end.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Ghost in the Shell could have easily stayed a cop drama about augmented police chasing down terrorists and cyber criminals. Would it still be considered a classic if it had? Perhaps. The mysteries in that obvious plot were good enough, but what elevated them was the often thought-provoking turn they took as you explore a world where the concept of humanity isn’t quite as clear as it is today.

Sonny Boy

Mindfucking anime has fallen a bit out of style in recent years, but among the 500^th isekai show with the same plot, Sonny Boy shines a ray of hope. It is a series where even the ending is left up to interpretation, and that means you theoretically can have two people that could think it meant completely opposite things. The series, like an isekai might, takes its characters to other worlds in which they confront themselves and their feelings in situations that seem strange and intriguing, if not symbolic.

Mawaru Penguindrum

I’ve said it before, and I will say it once more. Mawaru Penguindrum looks as though it is randomness, but much of its themes and symbolism aren’t comprehended simply because we are not Japanese enough. In some anime series, like this one, there is a cultural ignorance, but that doesn’t mean you are barred from it completely. It just may not be as easy to grasp. Regardless, if you want yourself a series that is still analyzed to this day, this is it.

Boogiepop Phantom

Boogiepop Phantom is given a pretty easy to grasp basis. It sets itself up as a mystery surrounding people who meet the Boogiepop Phantom at night and then disappear. However, this sinister urban legend which turns into something else is made difficult to follow with its non-linear storytelling and stories surrounding a variety of characters that raise questions and deign to leave the answers up to interpretation. Unfortunately, clarity in this series lies in its girthy light novels.

Higurashi: When They Cry

If you stick with the Higurashi series long enough, it kind of stops being a mindfuck and starts making sense. I suppose that may take some fun out of it for some while completely selling it to others. Regardless, while the switch Higurashi does from sweet slice of life show to violent moe murder is jarring, what makes it a solid mindfuck story is its form of storytelling. Based on a visual novel, there are several routes, so time is often reset from one episode to the next. This means you were expecting to see the outcome of someone beating their friend with a bat in the next episode, but get happy slice of life moments that happened seemingly way before that. It is confusing at first, but ultimately explained.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Evangelion didn’t start off particularly profound, and as the well-told tale goes, it ended up that way in the end due to the creator’s profound depression at the time. Now, its remakes dive full-on into the psychological and philosophical mental break that the original series had at the end and have made things make a little more sense. While mecha isn’t for everyone, this series melded a melancholy and brooding plot with the typical action in a way that innovated the genre.

Welcome to Irabu’s Office

This series focuses in on a psychiatrist that handles the myriad of problems that his patients have in unique and seemingly insane ways. It doesn’t have an overall plot, but rather focuses on individual stories that occasionally weave together. It is one of those shows where silliness keeps things light, but much more lurks beneath the surface.

Paranoia Agent

Satoshi Kon, legendary film director, is a master of the mindfuck. His movies like Paprika, Perfect Blue, and Millennium Actress are an absolute must for any fan of the genre. Sadly, he only managed one anime series before he died, and it was as good as his films. Paranoia Agent, as you might suspect, focuses on paranoia and delusion, which both spread like a plague washing over a city. There is symbolism abound, even in just analyzing the opening credits.

Steins;Gate

As I see it, any good show about time travel should end up as a mindfuck. Steins;Gate is one such show. It starts off easy to follow and even lovably silly, but by the end, time has become so many frayed threads that it is a thrill to watch the main character try to weave it back together into some sort of half-decent tapestry.

Chaos;Head

While related to Steins;Gate in more than just its predilection for the sultry semi-colon, Chaos;Head is more psychological horror than time travel science fiction. The story follows that of a NEET who becomes involved in a series of serial murders. A major element of the story is delusion, so enjoy this series trying to convince you of what is real and what is not. It is successful at some moments, but less so in others.

FLCL

What even is FLCL about, ultimately? Surely I am but one Google search away from the answer, but that lack of clarity in even the basic essential plot is part of the FLCL charm. This series takes “high energy” and turns that up another notch so that everything it does can reach rapid-fire pace. What’s more, it is a story rich with absurdism, over-exaggeration, and face-smacking symbolism.

From the New World

In From the New World, the series makes it clear that humanity developed psychic powers, then it shows you a post-apocalyptic, more tribal society 1,000 years after that. Immediately, it makes you curious as to what happened. That overall curiosity is satisfied in a plot that follows characters as they essentially grow up in that future world. They initially see their society as a child sees it, but as they grow up, a number of dark answers are given to the myriad of questions that were posed.

Madoka Magica

Initially, Madoka Magica seems like a dark and twisted deconstruction of the magical girl genre- which it is, yes. However, a mindfuck anime simple deconstruction does not make. What pushes Madoka Magica into the realms of pure mindfuckery is the philosophical turn it takes near the end. It goes from being a violent gorefest to a treatise on moral philosophy with moe mouthpieces.

Kyousougiga

Like aforementioned Mawaru Penguindrum, Kyousougiga is an anime that can be bewildering if only because non-Japanese audiences have a certain cultural gap in knowledge. However, unlike Mawaru Penguindrum where the audience benefits from knowledge of more modern Japanese attitudes and events, Kyousougiga is a show where the audience would benefit from the spiritual and mythical knowledge of Japan’s past. Regardless, it is a show you can still enjoy, but with gaps that you will likely need to Google. It remains one of the most high-energy abstract pieces out there, and, if nothing else, is a visual feast for the eyes.

Ergo Proxy

Ergo Proxy starts off akin to series like Ghost in the Shell where it seems much like a police drama, but in a sci-fi society. Also like Ghost in the Shell, its mysteries unravel itself into a bit of a ponderous journey into philosophy about what it means to be human. While its complex way of storytelling makes things difficult to grasp, especially in the second half, it really is a lovely look at how awful humanity is when it comes to how we view the things we create.

Wonder Egg Priority

This series has a kind of abstract plot in the beginning that just sort of asks you to go with it. Many things are explained by the end, and many things are left open to interpretation. Regardless, it is notably interesting for starting off as a seemingly fantasy-infused story akin to Alice in Wonderland only to dive headfirst into science fiction, a turn I couldn’t say I saw coming.

Do you have more mindfuck anime recommendations that will cross the wires in one’s brain? Let fans know in the comments section below.