From the same creators of Monster, Death Note is without a doubt, the first thing on most anime lovers mind when it comes to the psychological genre.

The battle of two geniuses of the mind is what kept the audience on the edge of the seats in this psychological masterpiece. On the side of the dark, Light Yagami (ironic) aka Kira believes that he can purge society's evilest of Men by using the Death Note, a mystical notebook that grants its user to command the death of others simply by writing their names and nature of death in the book. On the side of light and of law and order, the mysterious individual only known to most as 'L' is the world's leading detective who is committed to apprehending Kira as he find his methods misaligned.

What captivates me and audience alike is the unpredictable situations that arise and the ingenuity of these two men to constantly find each other. There are a couple of close brushes, but who am I to spoil you.

Between these two geniuses, there are no clear winners.

The mysterious death of a student 23 years ago. A town that is the embodiment of fear itself. Who is the girl donning the eye-patch? Koichi Sakakibara transferred into Yomiyama North. He will soon realise the dark secret haunting the community. To add to the suspense, the students of Yomiyama are dying off in gruesome deaths one-by-one.

He will need to uncover the truth behind those deaths and the secret of the town as well.

Yet another anime that compels you to watch just that one more episode. Another places more emphasis on the mystery. However, that is not to say that the psychological theme has been downplayed. Fans are still left to guess who the perpetrator of the mystery is. The series did great in portraying the protagonist thoughts brilliantly as well which makes viewer connect with the character even more. This is an anime that leaves anime lovers hungering for more until the mystery is solved.

Set in the town of Hinamizawa, Maebara Keiichi realises that the peaceful life that he presumably thought will not last. Just like Another, this village held its own dark secret. Separated into different arcs, the story presents itself in the viewpoint of the different characters. This serves to unfold the relations that each character have in relation to a murder in the village.

The story starts out very sweet and pleasant almost kind of like the starting to any good slice of life/harem show. It is only towards the middle where the story gets progressively darker and the intentions of the characters start to show themselves. Did I mention that there will be more blood and killings? The title art may fool anyone into believing this to be a moe harem show but be warned, this show gives due credit to the psychological thriller genre.

Shinjurou Yuuki, also known as the Defeated Detective. Aided by his partner, an oddball only known as Inga, both of them tackle cases that baffled even the police.

A well-written piece of work, it borders on the psychological genre as the story progresses along. Inga happens to also be a supernatural entity who allows Yuuki to force the suspect to answer a single question.

This anime is filled with twists and it never fails to stimulate your mind as to how it can progress from thereon. Each episode is separated into different unique cases and along the way; Yuuki will also start to discover more about his strange partner and their encounter.

Shiki is a series about vampires in a rural town. It sounds cliché but what made it one of the better anime is the infusion of psychological traits in the series. Set in the village of Sotoba, the legend works the same way, get bitten by a vampire and you will turn into one too.

Dr Toshio Ozaki is adamant on stamping out the epidemic only to soon realise that it is borders more on the supernatural than medical science. The next protagonist, Natsuno Yuuki came from the city and it wasn't long before he is left to wonder about the recent deaths occurring in the village. Both have to deal with uncovering the truth on the cause of the mysterious deaths, the revivals of supposed dead villagers as well as cope with the panic and mania as it ensues the village.

Shiki is one of the more beloved anime of the genre. What is particular unique and poignant is that it takes an unorthodox route of story presentation and portrays the side of the 'antagonists' as well. The story is split between the humans and vampires with the humans fighting against the vampires and the vampire's own struggle to survive.

This anime has a more endearing aspect to it despite its horror category in the way that it makes you sympathize with the supposed antagonist. It begs the question in the whole series - who are the true villains and are humans the biggest antagonists?. Vampires were not given a chance to decide their lives after all.

For enthusiasts of Monster, this anime has the same level of thought provoking concepts and ideals and worthy of the psychological genre in anime.

Psycho-pass is set in a world where the culpability of committing crimes can be measured. Known as the Sibyl System, humans are measured based on their Crime Coefficient. In an almost dystopian future, where humanity is controlled by the Sibyl System, strict conformance to the system is mandatory.

The story of Psycho Pass revolves around police work. These inspectors are aided by Enforcers who are individuals with a Crime Coefficient deemed too high by the system and as such, labeled latent criminals with the Sibyl System using them in order to apprehend more criminals.

Shinya Kogami is an Enforcer and throughout the story, he is keen to arrest an enigmatic shadow who apparently, cannot be judged by the Sibyl System. The story places great emphasis on the apprehension of the mysterious individual whose identity is not revealed until the middle of the series with the story in suspense until its ultimate conclusion befitting the genre. Aiding Inspector Akane Tsunemori, both of them will work hand in hand to solve multiple cases while closing in on the mastermind of the crimes and the true nature of the Sibyl System.

Viewers will be shown the thought processes of someone who is deemed as a latent criminal and someone deemed to be pure with both pondering the question of whether the Sibyl system is really a perfect system after all.

An original anime, this is yet another masterfully crafted original from Gen Urobuchi who is well-renowned for his dark and mature style of anime.