The Best Horror Anime to Scare You Out of Your Comfort Zone
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In the '90s, any anime fan who fell asleep to Toonami probably remembers jolting awake to the sound of Goku yelling at the top of his lungs in Dragon Ball Z. But as popular as the macho action series was (and still is!), this era of animation was also full of jaw-dropping horror. Whether born out of a reaction to the cutesy side of the genre or just an experiment to find out what they could get away with, animators flocked to horrific monstrosities, ghost stories, demons, vampires, and the kind of gore that you were scared to find in the back of a Blockbuster video store. Today, you’ll find a more palatable mix of the two genres in popular anime series, including Attack on Titan, Death Note, Hellsing, and Maniac. But for the best horror anime of all time, there’s no beating our eight picks below.
Death Note
American horror films have their tropes: creepy smiles, little dolls, demonic possessions. But what about a cursed notebook? In Death Note, an emo teenager finds a notebook that kills anyone whose name you write into it. It’s an impressive power—and now, it’s in the dangerous hands of a Hot Topic-shopping narcissist. Can the greatest detective in the world work to stop him before everyone ends up dead?
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Hellsing
In an alternate history version of post-World War II England, vampires run amok. The Hellsing organization—run by a descendent of the famous vampire hunter Van Helsing—is the only line of defense. Partnering with a powerful vampire named Alucard (yes, read that backwards), the Hellsings may finally curb the bloodsucking menace once and for all.
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Tokyo Ghoul
In this dark horror series by Sui Ishida, Tokyo is overrun with flesh-eating humans named Ghouls. When a horrific accident transforms college student Ken Kaneki into a half-human/half-ghoul, he sets out to curb his hunger and resist becoming a monster.
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Parasyte
One fateful night, tiny aliens invade Japan and latch onto their human hosts by infecting their brains. When high schooler Shinichi Izumi wakes up in time to stop the alien from crawling up his nose, the creature burrows itself in his hand instead. Since both beings maintain their sentience, Izumi and his new parasite work together to survive a crazy new world.
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Mononoke
More like a fever dream than a comprehensible narrative, Mononoke is an experimental 12-episode series that takes its inspiration from old Japanese folklore paintings. Focusing on a creepy “medicine seller” who feeds off others’ negative energies, the colorful and uniquely animated miniseries is certainly unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.
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Vampire Hunter D
Much like Blade, Vampire Hunter D is a half-human/half-vampire dhampir that retains all the powers of a vampire, but none of its weaknesses. He is the perfect vampire hunter—and one of the coolest protagonists in late-'80s anime. Oh, and he also rides a cybernetic horse.
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Perfect Blue
Directed by the late Satoshi Kon, Perfect Blue follows a Japanese pop star who slowly loses her mind after she is stalked by an obsessive fan. The 1998 film often tops lists as one of the greatest Japanese animated films of all time—and its horrifying bathtub scene was even recreated in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. Though Aronofsky only publicly recognized the similarities between the two films, Perfect Blue likely also inspired his 2010 hit thriller, Black Swan.
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Attack on Titan
The newest entry on the list, Attack on Titan, is a fantasy series that dives as deeply into war and politics as it does giant monsters. Following a massive attack, humans are forced to build massive walls around their cities to keep out 50-foot-tall cannibals called Titans. No one knows where they came from or what they want, but the young Eren Yeager is determined to put an end to the tragedy. Regardless of how you feel about the series' controversial politics, there’s no denying the chokehold that Attack on Titan’s horrifying imagery has had on anime for the past decade.
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Honorable Mention: Uzumaki
Junji Ito, Japan’s celebrated master of horror, will finally see his 1998 series Uzumaki adapted into an anime later this year. With animation that looks like the manga pages are literally moving before our eyes, it’s no wonder that the production has been heavily delayed over the last five years in the pursuit of a perfect project. After seeing the first trailer last year, I’m certain that this adaptation about a town that becomes obsessed with spirals is nothing short of amazing.
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