Sometimes watching a fantasy anime with a leisurely journey, low-stakes dungeon crawls, and whimsical creatures can be a good little escape from reality — not these ones. Well, perhaps they’re more of incentives to appreciate reality in the sense the audience can thank their lucky stars they don’t live in these absolutely heinous universes, even if they are fantastical. No, these fantastical worlds are ones full of suffering, carnage, moral quandaries, and eldritch horrors.
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From hellish, powerful beasts and demons to oppressive autocracies, perilous terrain to savage societies, brutal truths to grim realities, these dark fantasy anime don’t shy away from hard-hitting themes and premises. In fact, they tackle them head-on as their moldy bread and spoilt butter, creating worlds that are far more infernal than anything reality could vomit from its own heinous nature. So, if you’re looking for such series to add to your watchlist, these ones are definitely some of the best.
10) Vampire in the Garden
As near-immortal vampires began plaguing humanity since long ago, the remaining humans had since been forced to retreat into a small city with towering walls in their desperation to avoid extinction. Subsequently, the humans retaliated, warring against the vampires for years to come. One human soldier, Momo, after encountering the queen of their enemies, Fiine, and witnessing the vampire try to save Momo’s best friend from a fellow vampire, decides to abandon her people and resolves to follow Fiine back to her house. As the two form a connection, they decide to journey to a paradise where humans and vampires coexist, though unconfirmed to actually exist, all the while being hunted by each of their respective enemy race.
With more political strife, conflicts with monsters, and journeys to find common ground between the two, Vampire in the Garden is a short five-episode series that’s sure to satisfy a relatively quick binge for a dark fantasy. Especially if you’re looking for a tale involving the enduring, classical theme of vampires.
Vampire in the Garden can be streamed on Netflix.
9) The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep
Geralt of Rivia, a mutated monster hunter known as a witcher, sets out on his next contract at the seaside village of Bremervoord. Hired to investigate a series of attacks the villagers suspect are caused by an allamorax or the vodnik, Geralt finds himself caught in the midst of an age old conflict between the humans and merpeople. Along with Jaskier and Essi “Little Eye” Daven, the witcher must solve the mystery before tensions between the two kingdoms snap and the hostility gives way to war and bloodshed.
Created by Netflix in collaboration with South Korean animation Studio Mir, Studio IAM, Platige Image, and Hivemind, this anime-styled film is a loose adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s short story “A Little Sacrifice”. While some may turn their noses up at the prospect, frankly, an anime adaptation of one of The Witcher stories is arguably better than how Netflix managed to butcher the live action progression of the Butcher of Blaviken.
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep can be streamed on Netflix.
8) Drifters
One moment, Toyohisa Shimazu is critically wounded in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and the next, he finds himself in an otherworldly white hallway lined with hundreds of doors standing in front of a mysterious man named Murasaki. And the next moment still, Toyohisa is pulled into one of said doors to a further fantastical world where he meets other warriors like infamous warlord Nobunaga Oda and ancient archer hero Yoichi Suketaka Nasu who had gone through similar experiences to end up in their current fantastical realm. Learning of the political unrest between the Orte Empire created by those known as the Ends and their persecution of non-humans, the summoned Drifters like Toyohisa rise up against the Ends, living for the fight.
While some may think the premise isn’t as overt as the inclusion of literal nazis, Kouta Hirano, the same mangaka who brought anime and manga fans Hellsing, didn’t hold back with creating Drifters, either. With blood and brutality as this series’ bread and butter (gross), these warriors live to fight, whatever world they’re plopped in.
7) Claymore
When Raki’s village is plagued by a shapeshifting, bloodthirsty demon known as a youma, a lone swordswoman arrives to vanquish it. But she’s no ordinary knight; she’s what’s known as a Claymore: a half-human, half-youma being whose purpose in life is to exterminate such monsters. When Raki is spared from the demonic fate that killed his family, he’s subsequently banished by his own village in fear of him being inflicted as a youma himself. Deciding to accompany the Claymore woman, Clare, the two travel together to defeat youma, the mysteries of the Claymore, while Clare’s own motives begin to unravel.
A lone knight character armed with nothing but a sword and traveling around as a mercenary defeating demons is a premise all too familiar to dark fantasy series. Even so, you’ll be pleased to find a wholly different story experience with Claymore, one with its own set of disturbingly gritty, violent challenges.
Claymore can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
6) Clevatess
Alicia, though she’d only dreamed of becoming a hero since she was a young girl, her dreams had finally come to fruition when the king at last chose her to be a hero. Wielding a legendary sword, she joins the other chosen twelve heroes in their endeavor to defeat Demon King Clevatess. But their hasty overconfidence leads to devastation as they face the harsh reality of both their comrades’ demises and the sheer power of their foe. As a terrible crisis surfaces that could decimate the entirety of humanity, the fate of the continent of Edsea lies with a mere baby entrusted to the very Demon King set on destroying them.
Starting out incredibly bleak with devastation absolutely demolishing the land and its inhabitants, Clevatess gives an interesting twist to dark fantasy. As the all-powerful Demon King, set on destroying humanity, is subdued as an infant’s caretaker, Clevatess sets on a journey of the harsh realities of the human experience — including the challenges of changing diapers.
Clevatess can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
5) Puella Magi Madoka Magica
When junior high school student Madoka Kaname and her friend Sayaka Miki happen upon the cat-like magical creature Kyuubey, the contract it offers of being able to grant them each a wish in exchange for becoming magical girls to fight witches sounds too good to be true. Homura Akemi, a transfer student who turns out to be one of said magical girls, tries warning them that it is. But Mami Tomoe, an upperclassman who’s also a magical girl, offers to allow Madoka and Sayaka to accompany her on a witch hunt so they can decide for themselves. In battling the surreal evil creatures, Madoka and Sayaka soon learn that the idea of becoming magical girls isn’t as it seems.
Magical Girls isn’t exactly the first thing that tends to come to mind when thinking of dark fantasy anime, and yet this series certainly fits the bill. Puella Magi Madoka Magica, or simply Madoka Magica, may be a magical girl anime, but, with its subversion to the genre, terrifying monsters, and darker themes challenging conventions, it isn’t for the faint of heart.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is available for streaming on Hulu and Crunchyroll.
4) Goblin Slayer
While Goblins cause their own serious problems and damage, they are still somehow seen as a non-threat, raiding towns to kidnap women of any species for breeding purposes, while the problem goes ignored as adventurers turn their noses up at the low-level creatures in favor of larger bounties. When a 15-year-old Priestess joins a team of eager rookies to fight some goblins, the inexperienced team is quickly overtaken by the “low-level” monsters. But when the Silver rank Goblin Slayer swoops in to rescue the Priestess and destroy the entire group of goblins, she decides to accompany him on his goblin-vanquishing endeavor. Along with the Priestess, High Elf, Dwarf, and Lizardman, the Goblin Slayer won’t rest until he puts an end to the overlooked, despicable creatures.
Goblins truly are underrated as a threat in a variety of media, often being considered easy fodder for farming combat experience. Unlike other media that tend to focus on threats typically considered higher-priority or more fearsome, Goblin Slayer brings to light just how many problems ignoring “lesser” threats can give rise to.
Goblin Slayer can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
3) Akame ga Kill!
With the nation suffering poverty, strife, and ruin at the hands of the greedy Prime Minister Honest, who takes advantage of the child emperor’s inexperience, Tatsumi has taken it upon himself to travel to the Capital to raise money for his impoverished village. But the naïve boy from the boondocks comes face to face with just how ruthless and cruel the upper class has become. Being recruited into the Night Raid, the Revolutionary Army’s covert assassination organization, Tatsumi resolves to help bring about political change through force. Together, the group of revolutionary assassins fight to overthrow the Empire’s tyranny, but at the cost of their own morals, values, and possibly lives, and expecting to eventually face retribution themselves.
Many anime, fantasy or otherwise, tend to oddly make light of the prospect of killing so long as it’s against a generally accepted villain, monster, or “bad guy”. Though the autocracy in Akame ga Kill! may consist of genuinely terrible people, the premise doesn’t shy away from acknowledging the consequences, trauma, and moral dilemmas of doling out insurgent justice.
Akame ga Kill! can be streamed on HIDIVE or Hulu where available.
2) Made in Abyss
On a remote island live the citizens of Orth, a city on the edge of a colossal pit known as the Abyss. With otherworldly creatures, ecosystems, and treasures adding to the mystery of this strange vertical landscape, both travelers and locals have spent millennia trying to uncover its secrets. When Riko, a rookie-ranked Red Whistle Delver, happens upon a mysterious robot boy, she becomes inspired to venture to the bottom of the pit in search of her elite White Whistle missing mother. She and her new friends must have the courage to face the dangers of the chasm threatening to swallow them.
Made in Abyss is a great pick for those who want to delve into the unknown. Don’t be fooled by the subversive chibi style — The layer upon layer of questions and trauma only pile up like the increasing number of alien landscapes and creatures as the determined group of friends delve deeper to their unknown fate as the mysteries of the Abyss await them.
Made in Abyss can be streamed on Prime or HIDIVE where available.
1) Berserk
Guts, a wandering mercenary brandishing an immense greatsword, typically prefers to work alone. But when he is surprisingly bested in a duel by Griffith, the beautiful, ambitious leader and founder of the mercenary group known as the Band of the Hawk, he finds himself inducted into the troop. Within three years’ time, Guts has become a commander in the group he’s grown close to. With Guts’s immense strength combined with Griffith’s leadership, the Band of the Hawk becomes renowned for dominating every battle. But with Griffith’s underlying dark, selfish goal, their successes in battle eventually come at great costs.
There’s no sugarcoating it: Berserk is not a feel-good fantasy. In fact, this series tends to be the epitome of what anime fans think of when they think of a dark, especially grimdark, fantasy series. Set in a world slipping into ruin, most anything unfathomably gruesome that can happen, does, be it by brutal monsters or subversive humans.
What’s your favorite dark fantasy anime? Let us know in the comments what we should add to our fantastically bleak watchlist!
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