Sometimes the stories audiences are given isn't the true one. Depending on the credibility of their narrator, it can be difficult to discern what is real and what is nothing but lies. The traditional definition of an unreliable narrator is that the character directly telling the story cannot be trusted to tell it truthfully, such as Yuki in School-Live! or the narrator of The Tatami Galaxy.
However, there are also characters whose unreliability affects the story and the viewer's interpretation of it, such as Jack Vessalius of Pandora Hearts. It makes for a surprising and impactful twist when audiences learn that they have also been deceived by the character onscreen.
Yuki Takeya (School-Live!)
In the first episode of School-Live!, "Beginning," protagonist Yuki excitedly narrates how wonderful her life in the School Living Club is. They get to live at their beloved school day and night, eat from its rooftop garden, and dash around the halls with their dog Taromaru, one of the best dogs in anime.
Her joyful energy is brought to a crashing halt when the truth is revealed: they are in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, trapped in their ruined school and struggling to survive, and the way Yuki sees the world is the result of a traumatic breakdown. The other girls' efforts to maintain the delusion for Yuki is not only to protect her fragile sanity but to help themselves keep their hopes up.
Reiner Braun (Attack on Titan)
The unfolding plot of Attack on Titan is revealed mostly through Eren, who knows only as much as he is told, venturing further into the world and meeting the people who have known its secrets all along. Like the viewers themselves, he sometimes gets his information from less than reliable sources.
As revealed in the bombshell episode "Warrior," Reiner Braun is the Armored Titan, one of the pair that destroyed Shiganshina on the orders of his superiors. Being coerced to kill so many people left Reiner so traumatized that he suffered a breakdown. He has lapses in memory and temporary breaks with reality, trying to escape the guilt of what he did by escaping into a different persona.
Jack Vessalius (Pandora Hearts)
Pandora Hearts presents Jack Vessalius as not only the noble hero of the Tragedy of Sablier but as the primary source of information about the event. The story as he gives it is that he stopped the Baskerville Clan from usurping the throne by killing their leader, Glen Baskerville.
However, the truth is that Jack killed him because Glen was trying to prevent him from plunging their world into the Abyss, the plane of dead souls because he believed it was the wish of the girl he was obsessed with. Not only is he unreliable regarding the story, but his character as well. His obsession is the only thing that gives him a clear sense of identity, and without it even he doesn't know exactly who he is.
Sousuke Aizen (Bleach)
Who could be a more unreliable narrator than a man who holds the power to control the way others interpret reality? His Zanpakuto, Kyoka Suigetsu, allows him to control his victims' every sense, forcing them to see, hear, taste, smell, and touch whatever he decides they should.
Using this ability, Aizen takes control of the narrative itself. He makes it so events presented as objective reality have actually been manipulated by him. When he's around, not even the audience can be sure that what they're seeing and hearing is real.
Narrator (The Tatami Galaxy)
The unnamed narrator of The Tatami Galaxy, one of the best anime characters who time travels, would have his audience believe that he is trapped in a hellish time loop, unable to reach the "rose-colored campus life" he wants so badly through no fault of his own. He only fails because of all the malicious people blocking his way, especially his impish companion Ozu.
His character arc over the show's eleven episodes shows his eventual realization that he has been lying to both himself and the audience. His dissatisfaction is his fault, the result of disdaining and pushing away the people who were only ever trying to help him, and only by embracing them can he be truly happy.
Yuuri Katsuki (Yuuri on Ice!!!)
Anxiety disorders can make a person their own worst critic. In the first episode "Easy as Pirozhki!! The Grand Prix Final of Tears," Yuuri introduces himself in the narration as a "dime-a-dozen skater" who isn't worth much consideration and whose career isn't going anywhere. Thrown off after getting the news that his dog just died, he finishes dead last in his first Grand Prix Final.
However, it becomes clearer as the show goes on that this isn't at all Yuuri's usual standard, just a very low point in his career. He is an extremely talented figure skater who is admired by his peers. Subsequently, he goes on to break world records and win silver in his next Grand Prix Final after having his confidence restored by Viktor's coaching.
Mirai Onozawa (Tokyo Magnitude 8.0)
As it states at the beginning of every episode, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 delivers as realistic a take as possible on a major earthquake hitting a Tokyo metropolitan area. Mirai Onozawa and her little brother Yuuki are caught in the quake far from home, and must find their way back to their parents through the disaster area.
In the episode "Summer's Dusk", Yuuki collapses and must be taken to the hospital. He appears to make a full recovery, traveling back home with Mirai. But in the final episodes, it's revealed that Yuuki really did die. Mirai has been hallucinating him making it the rest of the way with her out of denial.
Mima Kirigoe (Perfect Blue)
Perfect Blue is a perfect surreal nightmare of a film, one of many anime that inspired Hollywood movies. Idol singer Mima leaves her pop group to pursue a career as an actress, but an obsessed fan outraged over her new image is convinced she's an imposter, and people around her begin to be murdered.
From there, Mima enters a downward spiral which calls into question not only the identity of the killer but Mima's own identity as well. Because Mima is never sure what is real, neither is the audience, and viewers are left unable to fully believe she is who she says she is right up until the shocking last line of the film.
Johan Liebert (Monster)
The show often grapples with the nature vs. nurture question of why its main villain, manipulative serial killer Johan Liebert, is the way he is. His monstrous ways are one thing, but his issues regarding his identity and his relationship with his twin sister Nina almost certainly come from their childhood trauma.
Johan professes that when he was separated from Nina as a child, he was taken to the Red Rose Mansion, psychologically tortured, and escaped after witnessing the massacre of everyone there. However, Nina eventually realizes to her horror that those aren't Johan's memories, but her own. Johan is so dedicated to the idea of them being two halves of the same being that he convinced himself her trauma happened to him.
Lain Iwakura (Serial Experiments Lain)
An anime that must be watched twice to be fully understood, Serial Experiments Lain boasts not only a unique visual style but a deeply complex and dense narrative. Though every episode opens with a declaration that it takes place in the "present day, present time," its clear near-future setting indicates immediately that the viewer cannot trust everything they're told.
Seen through the eyes of Lain, the show's paranoid and perpetually online protagonist, it is increasingly hard to tell whether the events occurring are real or just all in Lain's mind. Making this even more difficult is the show also questioning whether there even is any one concrete reality.