Japanese anime and dorama about bullying and suicide like 13 Reasons Why

After Netflix released the series 13 Reasons Why, conversations about suicide and bullying spilled far beyond one American high school. Adapted from Jay Asher's novel, the show follows Hannah Baker, a 17-year-old who leaves a box of thirteen cassette tapes naming the people she held responsible for her death. It reached a huge audience—and drew real criticism for how revenge and the portrayal of suicide itself were handled on screen.

The series also digs into sexism, homophobia, sexual abuse, and the pressure cooker of teenage school life. Riding that same hard conversation, here is a selection of Japanese works—anime, dorama, and film—that sit with bullying, depression, social isolation, and related wounds, each with its own tone and angle.

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Life — dorama about bullying

The work Life (ライフ) exists as a manga by Keiko Suenobu and as a television dorama. Beyond bullying, it also touches suicide and sexual violence. It follows Ayumu Shiiba, a girl who works hard to enter high school with a friend; that friend fails the entrance exam, blames Ayumu, and the friendship collapses. The friend attempts suicide, and at the new school Ayumu is crushed by false rumors that turn her into a hated target and make everyday life feel like hell.

“A human being who is cornered has no choice but to be strong. I will not be defeated.” — Ayumu Shiiba

Kara no Kyoukai

Kara no Kyoukai (The Garden of Sinners) began as a light novel series and reached animation as a run of films. The plot involves a string of seemingly motiveless suicides and a protagonist with supernatural abilities drawn into solving them. Even with that fantastical frame, the work digs into depression, loneliness, and stages of denial around self-destruction.

Welcome to the NHK

Although the anime and manga center on the life of a hikikomori, the work keeps brushing against suicide, bullying, and social pressure. It follows a young man isolated in his room—possibly after years of feeling pushed out by peers and by society—and the slow shift when a girl and a few school-era connections try to pull him back into the world. Mature, darkly funny, and heavy when it needs to be, it remains a key seinen for anyone interested in withdrawal and mental health in Japan.

Orange

Based on Ichigo Takano's manga, Orange received both an anime adaptation and a live-action film. A girl receives letters from the future that help her circle of friends try to prevent a tragedy involving a classmate. The story is about living with the suicide of someone close, resisting that same pull, and the weight of school friendships when someone is quietly falling apart.

Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO)

Born from a famous comedy manga, this work also became an anime and two dorama adaptations that handle school darkness surprisingly well. GTO follows Eikichi Onizuka, a former delinquent who becomes a teacher for a class full of troubled students. Without a doubt, one of the strongest school series for stacking bullying, suicide, sexual violence, family breakdown, and classroom power games inside a story that still knows how to be funny.

A Silent Voice (Koe no Katachi)

Koe no Katachi—better known abroad as A Silent Voice—is often the first Japanese title people name when the talk turns to school bullying and what comes after. Yoshitoki Ōima's manga and the Kyoto Animation film follow Shōya Ishida, who once led the bullying of Shōko Nishimiya, a deaf transfer student, and later tries to live with the guilt. The story stays with isolation, regret, and the hard work of friendship under the shadow of past harm, without treating the subject as a cheap shock device.

Other Japanese works

Plenty of movies, dorama, and anime touch suicide or bullying without making them the single main theme. A short extra list for anyone building a longer watch queue:

• Accel World — action series that still spends time on school bullying;
• Gakkou no Kaidan — dorama that shows attempts to push back against bullying;
• Hana yori Dango — hugely popular; bullying appears strongly in the early arcs;
• Aku no Hana — school unease, alienation, and peer cruelty;
• Nagi no Asukara — bullying and discrimination woven into a coming-of-age fantasy;
• Slam Dunk — sports classic where school hierarchy and peer pressure still bite.

There are many more titles that sit in the same emotional neighborhood. If you know one that belongs on this list, leave it in the comments.