In anime, telekinetic powers are one of those abilities that always feel unfair in the best way. Telekinesis (moving objects with your mind) can be used for flashy combat—ripping up the environment, pinning enemies in mid-air, crushing buildings—but it can also be used in smaller, scarier ways: a quiet choke, a weapon hovering behind someone’s head, or a door locking itself when it shouldn’t.
I’ve always liked how anime treats telekinesis as part of a broader “psychic” toolkit too. In a lot of psychic anime, telekinesis shows up alongside telepathy, clairvoyance, and full-on esper abilities—basically, the character becomes a walking “do not approach” sign.
If you’re into darker series, these telekinetic scenes also overlap with horror vibes. A calm character lifting debris with a finger can feel more unsettling than any jump scare. If you want to keep that creepy energy going after this list, check out:
anime characters with scary smiles,
scariest anime laughs,
and horror anime with the creepiest monsters.
For more psychic-heavy shows, anime about ghosts and the supernatural and anime that explores anxiety also pair surprisingly well with “esper” stories.
12 Strong Anime Characters With Telekinetic Powers
Telekinesis can be innate, trained, or boosted by science/artifacts depending on the world. Either way, it’s one of the most versatile powers in anime: offense, defense, mobility, crowd control—telekinesis can do it all.
This time I’m doing a true countdown: #12 starts here, and #1 is at the very bottom.
12. Yuu Otosaka – Charlotte
🧠 Ability Style: Power theft / ability hijacking (a psychic-style ability system)
✨ Vibe: “The scariest person is the one who can take your advantage away.”
🧠 My Take: Not classic telekinesis, but he belongs in “anime about powers” lists because he can turn other people’s telekinetic gifts into his own toolset.
Yuu’s ability isn’t pure telekinesis, but it fits the same psychic anime ecosystem: abilities that break the rules. His threat level comes from adaptability. If the world around him contains espers and telekinetic users, he becomes the guy who can steal the advantage and weaponize it.
11. Gilgamesh – Fate/Stay Night
🗝️ Ability Style: Weapon control and projectile barrages (telekinetic-style combat)
✨ Vibe: “You’re not fighting a person—you’re fighting an armory.”
🧠 My Take: It’s not “mind power” telekinesis, but the way he controls weapons mid-air scratches the same itch as psychic weapon manipulation.
Gilgamesh’s fighting style looks like telekinesis from the outside: weapons appear, hover, and fire like a psychic firing squad. It’s the kind of overwhelming, unfair pressure that telekinesis users are famous for—just expressed through Fate’s rules.
10. Erza Scarlet – Fairy Tail
⚔️ Ability Style: Weapon telekinesis (remote sword control)
✨ Vibe: “Even if you close the distance, the blades don’t.”
🧠 My Take: I love telekinesis that feels tactical—controlling multiple weapons at once is a nightmare for any opponent.
Erza’s telekinetic moments aren’t “esper” telekinesis, but the effect is the same: she can control weapons remotely, turning the battlefield into a moving trap. It’s not the biggest-scale telekinesis on this list, but it’s one of the cleanest “combat utility” examples.
9. Hina – Hinamatsuri
🌀 Ability Style: Pure psychokinesis / esper-style telekinesis
✨ Vibe: “Comedic tone, terrifying power.”
🧠 My Take: Hinamatsuri is funny, but Hina’s powers are the kind that would be horror if the show played it straight.
Hina’s telekinesis is casually overwhelming. She can flatten threats quickly, and the contrast between her attitude and her power is what makes it memorable.
8. Frieza – Dragon Ball
🧨 Ability Style: Combat telekinesis (lifting enemies, terrain manipulation)
✨ Vibe: “Mocking control—telekinesis as humiliation.”
🧠 My Take: Frieza’s telekinesis always felt cruel, like he uses it to prove you’re helpless.
Frieza doesn’t need telekinesis to be terrifying, which is exactly why it lands: it’s an extra layer of control. Lifting opponents, throwing terrain, pinning someone mid-air—telekinesis becomes psychological dominance, not just damage.
7. Mewtwo – Pokémon
🔮 Ability Style: Psychic telekinesis + telepathy + force barriers
✨ Vibe: “Legendary psychic pressure.”
🧠 My Take: Mewtwo is peak “psychic character” energy—telekinesis that feels clean, controlled, and overwhelming.
Mewtwo is a textbook example of why people search for anime with telekinesis and psychic characters. Telekinesis isn’t just an attack—it’s movement, barriers, control, and intimidation.
6. Lucy – Elfen Lied
🩸 Ability Style: Vectors (invisible telekinetic arms)
✨ Vibe: “Horror telekinesis.”
🧠 My Take: If you’ve ever wanted telekinesis to feel like a horror weapon, Lucy is the poster character.
Lucy’s vectors turn telekinesis into a nightmare. Because you can’t always see what’s moving, it adds a layer of dread that fits right beside the darkest horror anime monsters.
5. Accelerator – A Certain Magical Index
📐 Ability Style: Vector control (esper power that mimics extreme telekinesis)
✨ Vibe: “Physics as a weapon.”
🧠 My Take: Telekinesis is scary—telekinesis with math is worse.
Accelerator’s ability isn’t “lift object with mind” in the simplest sense, but the battlefield result is even more dangerous: direction, force, and motion become his tools. In the broader category of anime with espers, he’s one of the most terrifying.
4. Shigeo Kageyama (Mob) – Mob Psycho 100
🌪️ Ability Style: Esper telekinesis tied to emotion
✨ Vibe: “He’s gentle… until he isn’t.”
🧠 My Take: Mob is one of my favorite psychic characters because his telekinesis feels like pressure building, not just a special effect.
Mob’s telekinesis is massive, precise, and emotionally fueled. He can reconstruct, repair, rip apart, and overwhelm—yet the real tension is that he’s always trying to hold himself back.
3. Tetsuo Shima – Akira
💥 Ability Style: Unstable psychic telekinesis
✨ Vibe: “Power you can’t control becomes body horror.”
🧠 My Take: Akira is the reminder that telekinesis isn’t always a gift—it can be an apocalypse.
Tetsuo’s psychic power is legendary because it’s not clean or heroic—it’s destructive and escalating. He’s a perfect example of why “anime about telekinesis” often becomes “anime about consequences.”
2. Saiki Kusuo – The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.
🧠 Ability Style: Telekinesis + a full psychic ability suite
✨ Vibe: “God-tier power trapped in a guy who wants peace and quiet.”
🧠 My Take: Saiki is absurdly strong, and that’s exactly why he’s funny—his biggest enemy is inconvenience.
Even though Saiki K. leans comedy, Saiki’s powers are on a completely different level. If you’re looking for psychic characters who feel unstoppable, he’s one of the clearest examples.
(And if you like psychic characters who also have insane movement options, you’ll probably enjoy anime characters with teleportation powers too.)
1. Tatsumaki – One Punch Man
🌪️ Ability Style: Elite esper telekinesis (large-scale battlefield control)
✨ Vibe: “Natural disaster in human form.”
🧠 My Take: Tatsumaki is the telekinesis benchmark for me—when she gets serious, the environment stops being the setting and becomes the weapon.
Tatsumaki doesn’t just lift objects—she controls the entire fight space. Debris, enemies, structures, and distance all become her tools. For anyone searching for anime with telekinetic powers or anime with espers, she’s one of the most iconic answers.
My Picks: The 3 Telekinesis Moments I Never Get Tired Of
- Tatsumaki: When telekinesis becomes full battlefield control.
- Mob: Because the power is terrifying, but the person using it is trying to stay gentle.
- Lucy: The most “horror” version of telekinesis—silent, invisible, and brutal.
If you want more “creepy power” lists next, I’d go with scary anime smiles and scary anime laughs—those two pair perfectly with psychic/telekinetic characters.
1 comment
I couldn’t agree more with your assessment that telekinesis is one of the strongest abilities when used on a large scale. While elemental powers (like fire or ice) or super strength are common in shonen anime, true telekinesis basically makes a character a god. It bypasses the laws of physics in a way that is terrifyingly effective in battle.
You mentioned the range from “moving small swords” to “lifting large masses of land,” and that immediately brings to mind two very different but iconic examples of how this power has evolved in the medium.
First, you have the “Grandfather” of anime telekinesis: Tetsuo Shima from Akira. I think any list of iconic telekinetics has to pay respect to him. His power wasn’t just about moving objects; it was about raw, uncontrollable destruction. The way the animation depicted his powers—crushing tanks, exploding bodies, and eventually rewriting reality—set the standard for what “psychic power” looks like. It showed that telekinesis isn’t just magic; it’s a force of nature that can consume the user.
On the modern end of the spectrum, you have characters like Tatsumaki (Tornado of Terror) from One Punch Man. She perfectly embodies your point about “lifting large masses of land.” What I love about her portrayal is that it shows the sheer tactical advantage of telekinesis. She doesn’t need to get close to you. She doesn’t need to touch you. She can just drop a meteor on you or twist an entire city into a pretzel. In terms of anime power scaling, a high-level telekinetic user is almost unbeatable unless their opponent has a specific anti-magic counter or overwhelming speed.
I also appreciate that you mentioned the use of swords and small objects. This reminds me of more tactical users, perhaps like Erza Scarlet (who technically uses magic to levitate swords, but the visual is similar) or characters from the Fate series. Using telekinesis to control multiple weapons at once turns a single fighter into a one-man army. It creates such visually stunning fight choreography because the attacks can come from any direction.
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