The 17 Best Anime That Tackle Bullying

Anna Lindwasser
Updated April 16, 2024 17 items
Ranked By
625 votes
271 voters
Voting Rules

Vote up the anime that best handles the topic of bullying.

Bullying is a serious problem all over the world, and Japan is no exception. Naturally, this issue has found its way into the world of anime. 

March Comes in Like a Lion is lauded for its realistic and nuanced portrayal of bullying and its impact on the victims. The protagonist, Rei Kiriyama, has experienced bullying in multiple forms, which puts him in a good position to help his friend Hina when her classmates target her for standing up for a friend. In other anime, the bullying is approached in a more fantastical way. In Hell Girl, bullied students send their tormentors to Hell at the expense of their own souls. 

Which anime that addresses bullying do you think has the best approach?

Latest additions: My Clueless First Friend, Oshi no Ko
Over 200 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The 17 Best Anime That Tackle Bullying
  • 1
    245 votes

    A Silent Voice

    A Silent Voice
    Photo: A Silent Voice / Kyoto Animation

    In A Silent Voice, Shoya Ishida bullies Shoko Nishimiya for her deafness not because he truly has a problem with her, but because it helped him get along with his classmates. As a child, he didn't really know better, and he got carried away. He ended up shouldering the blame for the bullying completely, and was punished and ostracized by the same people who egged him on before. This helped him understand what it was like to be bullied, and made him desperately want to make up for what he did to Shoko - either that, or take his own life.

    Meanwhile, Shoko has her own struggles. While she's been able to make friends and lead a positive life, she still carries the scars from the ableist bullying she experienced. 

    As teenagers, the two of them meet again and form a bond. For some viewers, the very idea of a bully reconciling with their victim can be triggering - if that's you, you should watch this movie with caution. But for others, the positive message that wrongdoing can be overcome is inspiring.

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  • 2
    43 votes

    Oshi no Ko

    Oshi no Ko
    Photo: Oshi no Ko / Doga Kobo

    Oshi no Ko is about idols, but unlike a lot of idol anime, it doesn't present an idealized version of the idol career. Instead, it focuses on the human cost of fame. 

    Bullying crops up several times, but the most prominent example involves Akane Kurokawa, an actress participating in a reality dating show. After being pressured by her manager and the staff to be more exciting and create some conflict, she slaps a fellow actress for getting too close to a guy. The show airs the clip, and generally edits her to make her look like a villain. 

    She's soon subjected to a flurry of online harassment. Thousands of people are talking about how horrible she is and suggesting that she take her own life. It's a rough example of the dark side of being in the spotlight. 

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  • 3
    36 votes

    My Clueless First Friend

    My Clueless First Friend
    Photo: My Clueless First Friend / Studio Signpost

    Because she's quiet and has some intense facial expressions, Akane Nishimura's classmates find her unsettling and creepy, and they tell her so, relentlessly. With a reputation as the “Grim Reaper” it's pretty hard for her to make any friends. In fact, her classmates straight up bully her.

    Luckily for Akane, she soon meets a new friend, transfer student Taiyou Takada. Taiyou doesn't seem to care that she allegedly has cursed powers - in fact, he hardly seems aware of it. He's more focused on becoming best pals. Akane is skeptical at first, but his kindness and optimism eventually win her over.

  • 4
    72 votes

    Fruits Basket

    Fruits Basket
    Photo: Fruits Basket / TMS Entertainment

    Bullying shows up a lot in Fruits Basket. Tohru is harrassed by her classmates for her unusually ditzy demeanor, and then for her friendship with Yuki, who many of her female classmates think is too good for her. Kisa is bullied for her unusual hair color and quiet personality, and Saki is bullied for her psychic powers. 

    But it's not just bullying at school. The entire Sohma family is being physically and psychologically terrorized by Akito Sohma, the head of the family. Akito's behavior was instigated by their abusive mother, and many of the other characters face various forms of familial abuse. 

    Ultimately, the message of Fruits Basket is that it's possible to heal from trauma through your bonds with others. Forgiveness can be helpful in healing, but it isn't necessary or helpful for everyone involved. That's an excellent message.  

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  • 5
    21 votes

    Great Teacher Onizuka

    Great Teacher Onizuka
    Photo: Great Teacher Onizuka / Pierrot

    Great Teacher Onizuka takes on bullying from the teacher's point of view - a rare concept in the anime world. 22-year-old Eikichi Onizuka is a former delinquent who became a teacher for one reason - to hook up with teenage girls. This is obviously not a great motive, but at 22 his adult brain hasn't fully kicked in yet.

    Once he starts doing the job, he realizes that it's a lot more complicated than he bargained for. One of the biggest problems he has to deal with is bullying. In one incident, a male student is being bullied by two girls - and it's serious. They strip him naked, tie him up, beat him, and take nude photographs of him. This leads to the boy wanting to take his own life. Onizuka has to figure out how to help the kid while still keeping his job. His methods are unconventional, but at least the kid knows that he cares.

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  • 6
    64 votes

    Jujutsu Kaisen

    Jujutsu Kaisen
    Photo: Jujutsu Kaisen / MAPPA

    Jujutsu Kaisen isn't about bullying, but it does have a major arc that focuses on it. A teenage boy named Junpei is being bullied in school. At first, his main solace lies in going to the movies and mentally escaping from the pain. He soon starts getting harassed at the movies too, but there's a solution - a Curse named Mahito who can give him the power he needs to handle his enemies. This turns out to be a trap - Mahito has no intention of actually helping Junpei and is only using him. 

    Just as he makes friends with Itadori and starts to see hope for his future, he ends up being destroyed by Mahito. It's one of the most emotionally devastating parts of the series, and that's saying something giving how painful the rest of it is. 

  • 7
    67 votes

    Another

    Another
    Photo: Another / P.A. Works

    Another has a unique take on bullying that you won't see in many other anime. Class 3-3 of Yomiyama North Junior High intentionally isolates and ignores a girl named Mei Misaki - but they aren't doing it to hurt her. They're doing it because there's a curse on their class that is triggered whenever there is an “extra” student. In order to avoid triggering the curse, Misaki is labeled the “extra.” This is hard for her to endure, but she's willing to do it… that is, until the curse is triggered anyway. 

    When that happens, the students lose their composure and start trying to take each other down in the hopes of figuring out who the real extra is and ending the curse. This is no longer targeted, it's a desperate attempt to survive.

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  • 8
    57 votes

    Kotoura-san

    Kotoura-san
    Photo: Kotoura-san / AIC Classic

    Kotoura-san is a slice of life anime about a girl who can read minds. She goes through a lot of hardship because of her power, including abuse by her parents and bullying at school. As a little girl, she doesn't understand that what she hears in peoples' heads isn't the same as what they say out loud, and that by responding to those things she reveals secrets that others want kept. 

    The way she's treated makes it hard for her to speak to anyone at all. When other people try to befriend her, she doesn't trust their intentions. 

    The series has a lot of weird moments that might not appeal to everyone - anything involving Kotoura's grandfather is pretty off-putting - but the way the series handles her journey from miserable outcast to person with a solid group of friends who she trusts is great. 

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  • 9
    47 votes

    March Comes in Like A Lion

    March Comes in Like A Lion
    Photo: March Comes in Like A Lion / Shaft

     March Comes in Like A Lion might feature some of the most realistic bullying in the anime world. The protagonist, Rei Kiriyama, spends most of his childhood being harassed by classmates because of his introverted personality and exceptional intelligence. But he's also being bullied at home - his adoptive sister hates him because their father ignores her in favor of him due to his shogi skills. 

    Rei becomes depressed and isolated, but eventually finds solace with the Kawamoto sisters, neighbors who look out for him and frequently have him over for dinner. They aren't the only ones helping him out - he has teachers and mentors, and a very enthusiastic fellow shogi player to keep him on track. 

    As he starts overcoming his own issues, he's able to help Hina Kawamoto, the middle sister. She's also being bullied at school because she stood up for a friend experiencing the same thing. Because the bullying was so bad, the friend actually had to leave school and go to a therapeutic farm community. While Hina's experience being bullied was miserable, she had no regrets about doing the right thing.

    Another interesting element was how the school tried to handle the situation. When the teachers talked to the bully's parents, the mother defended her daughter while blaming and threatening the teacher. Despite good intentions, the problem isn't solved. Sadly, that's a lot like how it is in the real world.

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  • 10
    46 votes

    Kimi ni Todoke

    Kimi ni Todoke
    Photo: Kimi ni Todoke / Production I.G.

    Kimi ni Todoke follows a girl named Sawako Kuronuma who doesn't fit in with her classmates. She's bullied for her introverted personality and for her appearance, which her classmates compare to Sadako from The Ring. She's also bullied for her closeness to Kazehaya, who is a lot more popular than she is.

    Though not always flawless, the depiction of bullying in this series is generally pretty successful. The bullies often have backstories that don't excuse their behavior, but do explain it. They aren't one-dimensionally evil, they're people who behave in less than ideal ways and can change. Meanwhile, the friends Sawako makes over the course of the series defend her to others, even when she isn't around to see them do it. 

  • 11
    65 votes

    Wonder Egg Priority

    Wonder Egg Priority
    Photo: Wonder Egg Priority / CloverWorks

    Wonder Egg Priority follows a group of girls who are charged with conquering “Wonder Eggs” - that is, gachapon eggs that contain people who must be protected from “Wonder Killers” - fantastical representations of the thing they feared the most before they took their own lives.

    Why did these girls do that? Well, there are a lot of reasons. In many cases, it's because they were bullied, either by classmates or by adults in their lives. 

    The main quartet also deals with bullying. Ai Ohto is bullied because of her heterochromia, and ends up almost dropping out of school as a result. Meanwhile, idol Rika Kawai dealt with an obsessive fan named Chiemi by insulting her for her weight, which triggered an eating disorder and eventually caused her demise.

    It can be kind of hard to process all of these stories, since they occur in rapid succession and often don't spend much time on any of them. Most are well-constructed but aren't as nuanced as they could be. But that's not the biggest problem - the biggest problem is that most of the messages about bullying and other serious problems were bulldozed over by a bizarre sci-fi plot about a murderous AI. 

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  • 12
    34 votes

    Hell Girl

    Hell Girl
    Photo: Hell Girl / Studio Deen

    Hell Girl is an episodic supernatural anime about a website where people write down the names of someone who they want taken to Hell. Of course, there's a cost - when that person passes away, they will also go to Hell. 

    While the characters have a wide range of reasons for using this service, many of them are victims of bullying who either need their suffering to end right then and there, or who aren't in immediate danger but desperately crave revenge. The severe punishment incurred by using this service implies that vengeance isn't a great way to deal with one's problems. While that's true, the series can sometimes be a little insensitive to the anguish of its bullied characters. 

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  • 13
    39 votes

    Stars Align

    Stars Align
    Photo: Stars Align / 8bit

    Stars Align is a sports anime, but it deals with much more than just sports. One of the subplots involves a non-binary character named Yuu who is targeted for their atypical gender presentation. Their classmates say that they don't want to get too close or else they'll “catch the gay.” Not only that, but they physically attack them.

    Fortunately, Yuu has friends who accept them for who they are and help guide them toward an understanding of their own identity. The harassment is unpleasant, but it doesn't define Yuu's experience at school. 

    Queerphobia is a very real problem, but it's not one that's often addressed in anime. As upsetting as it is, it's important for media that reflects reality to exist.

  • 14
    26 votes

    Dance Dance Danseur

    Dance Dance Danseur
    Photo: Dance Dance Danseur / MAPPA

    Dance Dance Danseur features a male protagonist named Junpei who loves ballet with every fiber of his being, but refuses to actually let himself engage with it. Why? Because ballet isn't considered masculine enough, and he's scared that he'll be ostracized by his peers if he pursues it. 

    Junpei isn't the only one dealing with social judgement. There's also Luou Mori, whose odd behavior earns him open ridicule. His behavior stems from a lack of social experience due to being abused and isolated as a child.

    Both of these concerns are fairly realistic. It's not at all uncommon for people to stifle their true selves in order to avoid ridicule, nor is it uncommon for people who have experienced trauma to behave in ways that other people don't understand, which can compound the trauma they've already experienced.  

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  • 15
    17 votes

    Hajime no Ippo

    Hajime no Ippo
    Photo: Hajime no Ippo / Madhouse

    At the start of Hajime no Ippo, Ippo Makunouchi is leading a pretty tough life. After his dad abandoned the family, Ippo not only needs to go to school, he also needs to help his mother run their fishing boat rental business. He comes to school exhausted and smelling like fish. That plus the fact that he already has a timid personality makes him a target for beatings at school.

    It turns out that his years of hard labor with the fishing boats has primed him to be an excellent boxer. At first, he's really only interested in the sport to gain the skills and confidence he needs to defend himself against bullies, but he soon sees that boxing has intrinsic value of its own.

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  • 16
    24 votes

    Big Windup!

    Big Windup!
    Photo: Big Windup! / A-1 Pictures

    In middle school, Ren Mihashi was the ace of his school baseball team. Why? Well, it might be because of his passion for the sport, but it might also be because his grandfather owns the school. The latter is what his teammates seem to think. They might have been okay with this if his skills matched the role, but unfortunately, they don't. 

    This leads to the team bullying him, and as a result his self-esteem takes a nosedive. He desperately wants to play baseball, but he doesn't feel like he deserves to. This makes it really difficult for him to integrate into a new team in high school.

    We have to hand it to this show for depicting how bullying can impact a person long after it's over.

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  • 17
    15 votes

    Dear Brother

    Dear Brother
    Photo: Dear Brother / Tezuka Productions

    While some of the anime on this list handle bullying in a realistic and sensitive way, Dear Brother handles it with pure '70s drama and flair. 

    When Nanako Misonoo starts high school, she is unexpectedly inducted into a prestigious sorority. This gives her privilege and clout that she's ill-prepared for, but also exposes her to some serious problems. From classmates who didn't get picked for the sorority and are so jealous that they physically attack her to the cruel and mysterious leader who wants something from her and is willing to terrorize her to get it, Nanako's life at school is a cavalcade of social problems. Can she survive long enough to figure out the secrets behind the sorority?