7 Psychological Anime like Perfect Blue to Watch Out! [2023]

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Anime like Perfect Blue: Have you always been interested in some psychological, fantasy, or horror-type anime with exciting stories and amazing characters? If yes, then we are assuming you know how hard it is to find such rare animes or movies like Perfect Blue. 

About Perfect Blue

Perfect Blue is about a J-pop idol group called CHAM which has been successful in entertaining its fans for about two years. But, unfortunately, one of the group members named Mima Kirigoe has to quit the group to focus on her acting profession. 

Wanting to entirely leave the pop-idol image behind, she signs a role in a crime drama which lead her acting career gain fame. But, with continuous uneasiness, she also gains a stalker who is unable to accept the truth that she’s no more an idol and her group seems to be doing better in her absence. All this strikes an impact on her health, making her unable to differentiate reality from fantasy.

Perfect Blue sounds like the perfect movie to watch when you are in the mood for suspenseful mysteries. However, is it the only anime with a good plot and psychological experiences? Certainly not! And to prove that – in the article below we are going to give you a list of 7 amazing psychological anime like Perfect Blue to watch out for!

Ghost in the Shell 

• Duration: 1 hour 22 minutes
• Premiered: 18 November 1995
• Genre: Action, Mystery, Suspense, and Sci-Fi
• IMDB: 7.9/10
• Where to watch: Netflix and Amazon prime video

Ghost in the Shell speaks about 2029 when Niihama city has progressed dramatically into a technologically top-most metropolis. Due to its major improvements in cybernetics, people are capable of replacing their legs with robotic parts. The world is more active and the city’s Public Security Section 9 is given the responsibility for terrorism, battling corruption and different dangerous hazards invading the peaceful city.

One of the majors of Section 9 is Motoko Kusanagi who has been in charge of a case involving ’Puppet Master’ the hacker. He is said to leave a trail of people stripped of their memories. Like the majority of people, even his body is almost filled with robot parts – automatically giving him more power.

The story follows Motoko along with her coworkers as she follows the psychotic criminal and how other sections of the public security guards get involved in the case – forcing her to face the cruel nature of the case. 

Paprika 

• Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Premiered: 25 November 2006
• Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, and Adventure 
• IMDB: 7.7/10
• Where to watch: Netflix, Vudu, and Amazon prime video

Paprika talks about how dreams can show the hidden identity and desires of an individual and for the same reasons, a tech lab is inventing a device called ‘DC Mini’ – which will delve into the dreams of people. 

Atsuko Chiba and Kosaku Tokita, the two main people for this project have been working mercilessly on that device to help patients with psychological disorders. But, they are somewhat unaware of the fact that getting access to the deepest corners of someone’s mind can be a bad idea.

If dropped in the wrong hands, the device can be used for psychological terrorism and can cause mental breakdown for people. Unfortunately, the device is soon stolen and when people around the two scientists start acting strange; they know they have made a huge mistake.

With the help of Officer Konakawa, who has been a part of the experimental therapy of the device, the two scientists search both the real and dream worlds to catch the mental terrorist.

This dreamy anime shows a good set of scenes and scenarios of psychic people and thus, is one of the must-watch anime like Perfect Blue.

Serial Experiments Lain 

• Episodes: 13 
• Premiered: 6 July 1998
• Genre: Horror, Mystery, Psychological Fiction, and Thriller
• IMDB: 8.1/10
• Where to watch: Funimation

Serial Experiments Lain says the story of Lain Iwakura, a 14-year-old introverted girl who, along with many girls from high school, receives a weird email from Chisa Yomoda, her classmate who recently committed suicide. 

Lain is nowhere interested and educated to handle even basic technology but when she opens the email – she is transported into a new world, a wired and virtual place consisting networks that we call internet. Her life changes drastically as she encounters mysteries one by one. And strange men in black appear wherever she goes, asking her questions and knowing more about her than herself.

Lain is now stuck between the virtual and real world with the boundaries steadily blurring when concepts like consciousness, perception, and identity gain a new meaning. 

The Garden of Sinners: Future Gospel

• Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Premiered: 28 September 2013
• Genre: Dark Fantasy, Supernatural, Drama, and Mystery
• IMDB: 7.2/10
• Where to watch: Crunchyroll

The Garden of Sinners begins with Shiki Ryougi, Mikiya Kokutou, and Touko Aozaki investigating a bomb and its bomber after they experience an explosion. The same night, Shiki gets a sneak peek of the bomber, and the bomber, since then, keeps a track of Shiki. To lure her in, he sets a trap. Successful in his plan, Shiki finds herself surrounded by bombs, and to her surprise, he can also see the future. 

A few days before the incident, a student named Shizune Seo from the Reien Girls’ Academy plans to head home for the holidays but while exiting a bus, she gets a glance of the future which included a stranger’s death. While trying to inform the stranger, she bumps into Mikiya who succeeds in understanding Shizune’s power. 

Elsewhere, an employee is sent on an important job with his employer’s daughter. But, the topic of his investigation further seems to include a ghost from both of their pasts. 

If you love watching true psychic people and scenes in anime,then The Garden of Sinners is one of the must-watch anime like Perfect Blue.

Millennium Actress

• Duration: 1 hour 27 minutes
• Premiered: 14 September 2002
• Genre: Fantasy, Drama, and Animation
• IMDB: 7.8/10
• Where to watch: Tubi TV, Vudu, Netflix, and Amazon prime video

Millennium Actress starts with Ginei Studio’s old buildings being demolished and Genya Tachibana, the ex-employer and filmmaker of the studio decides to honor this moment with a documentary about the studio’s most popular actress Chiyoko Fujiwara. To interview the sweetheart of Shouwa Era Cinema, he along with the cameraman Kyouji Ida meets her – all set to put her lifelong idol journey back under the spotlight.

Although stays hidden in a secluded mountain – she narrates the story of thousands of years of history in one lifetime including her collections of an imaginary journey around Japanese cinematic history invading the boundaries of reality. The actress may have quit about 30 years ago, but the curtain to her real-life movie is yet to fall. 

Paranoia Agent 

• Episodes: 13
• Premiered: To February 2004
• Genre: Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Drama, and Horror
• IMDB: 8/10
• Where to watch: Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Netflix

Paranoia Agent begins with the popular shounen bat – Lil Slugger threatening the city of Musashino. The boy is hard to understand, and he is mercilessly beating people with his golden basketball bat, flying around in the skies with his rollerblades – entirely impossible to catch.

His first victim, a popular designer named Tsukiko Sagi is suspected to be the mastermind behind these attacks but in the end, Tsukiko is just a victim. Ahead of this, the boy continues to assault the townspeople while detectives – Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa are appointed to investigate his identity.

Further in the story, no one succeeds in catching the attacker and he continues to spread paranoia across the town with rumors spreading at the speed of light among people.

Paranoia Agent is one of the best animes like Perfect Blue for you if you want some extreme psychological scenes with gore, mysteries, and action. 

Ergo Proxy 

• Episodes: 23
• Premiered: 25 February 2006
• Genre: Adventure, Mystery, and Sci-Fi
• IMDB: 7.9/10
• Where to watch: Netflix, Tubi TV, and Hulu

Ergo Proxy includes the ruined city of Romdo that has the only human civilization on earth surviving. It has been over a thousand years since a global ecological catastrophe ruined the entire planet – making it impossible for people to leave out of these dooms. To help people in their regular lives and fasten mankind’s recovery, ‘AutoReivs’ – human-like robots are created.

But, these robots soon get a disease called ‘Cogito Virus’ that gives them self-awareness. Re-I Mayer, the ruler’s granddaughter alongside Iggy, her AutoReiv partner is given a task to investigate this disease. However, the investigation is soon transferred into a conspiracy when Re-I face humanity’s deepest corruptions. 

On the other hand, Vincent Law, an AutoReiv expert is also facing his demons when the people around him start to act strange. Vincent Law, Re-I Mayer, Iggy with an AutoReiv child named Pino becomes an alliance to unfold the darkest mysteries of Romdo and discover the meaning of ‘Proxies’. 

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