From the visceral frights of blood and gore to the more scrupulous mental dread of psychological terror, the genre of horror within anime covers a lot of ground when revealing our deepest fears. Some of these horror anime showcase impressive and imposing monsters, ghosts, and vampires while others leave the viewer guessing who or what the real terror really is. Whatever the case, fans love to get their fix of adrenaline rushes with these suspenseful thrillers.
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But what titles stand out as some must-watch horror anime? Fabled conspiracies, modern paranoid manipulation, vengeful ghosts, some monsters exacting contracts of extermination while others out of love; The realm of horror knows no bounds as to what people can impulsively recoil from. But whether it’s carnage of the body, mind, or even both, no one is free from feeling fear. Some old and some new, these anime have diverse storylines, characters, and themes that are sure to spook you.
Higurashi: When They Cry
Hinamizawa, the summer of ’83. Keiichi Maebara has just moved to the rural village as the residents prepare for the annual festival in honor of the village’s patron god, Oyashiro. Although Keiichi suspects a connection between the festival and the murders and disappearances in recent years, his friends Rena Ryuuguu, Mion Sonozaki, Satoko Houjou, and Rika Furude, stay suspiciously silent about the matter, often warily changing the subject when Keiichi presses for answers, making Keiichi begin to become paranoid and question his trust in his friends as more strange incidents occur.
With elements of gore, mystery, suspense, and psychological horror, Higurashi is a cult classic series in the anime community. The story can be a bit of a slow burn, but it rewards its audience with little nuggets of hints along the way to an impactful climax.
Perfect Blue
As Mima Kirigoe says goodbye to her two years spent in the J-pop group CHAM!, she decides to retire from her life as an idol in favor of pursuing an acting career. Although her fans have mixed feelings on the matter, she lands a role in a crime drama series in order to be taken seriously, but it quickly becomes more mentally taxing than she realized. When one obsessed fan begins stalking her, a new website anonymously begins to impersonate her. With each disturbing detail and development driving Mima to question her sanity, the lines between reality, her role as an actress, and the mysterious impersonator begin to blur.
Fans like those of Oshi no Ko may especially enjoy this psychological horror-mystery film as Perfect Blue explores the terrifying reality of how some fans can push their own dark motives to negatively impact their too dearly beloved idols.
Paranoia Agent
Beating people with a golden baseball bat with unknown motives and impossible to catch by fleeing on rollerblades, a mysterious boy known as Lil’ Slugger terrorizes Musashino City. His first victim: renowned timid character designer Tsukiko Sagi. Suspected of orchestrating the attacks herself, and only Maromi, the anthropomorphic pink stuffed animal she created the character for, believes her innocence. As detectives Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa investigate the Lil’ Slugger cases, paranoia starts to set in as the chilling rumors spread.
Paranoia Agent is a great pick for those looking for a psychological horror. While a bit more on the suspenseful side, this series is a classic for any fan looking for a good mind-bending mystery.
Paranoia Agent can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
School-Live!
The cheerful Yuki Takeya absolutely loves her life at school so much that she enjoys attending the School Living Club. Headed by the supervising teacher, Megumi Sakura, and president Yuuri Wakasa, with members Kurumi Ebisuzawa, Miki Naoki, and club dog Taroumaru, the club strives to make the most out of life at school.
The less said about this anime, the better, as it’s highly advised to simply just jump straight into watching. With highly cute girls going about their lighthearted daily school life, School-Live! may not look like it should be on this list, but trust us, you won’t be disappointed with the even higher stakes.
The Future Diary
Yukiteru Amano tends to keep to himself, spending his time writing in a diary on his phone and consulting his “imaginary” friends. One day, Yukiteru discovers that his digital diary is already preemptively filled with the day’s entries, soon realizing the entries have correctly predicted the day’s events. Deus Ex Machina, the god of time and space Yukiteru initially thought was a figment of his imagination, explains that he and classmate Yuno Gasai, alongside 10 other diary owners, are part of a survival game, and whoever wins will take the deity’s place. As Yukiteru and Yuno retain their duo and use their Future Diaries to survive, Yukiteru begins suspecting that Yuno may have her own underlying motives and secrets.
This suspenseful psychological horror series with a tinge of romance is sure to keep you on your toes just as the characters are kept on theirs fighting for both survival and love.
The Future Diary can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
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Mieruko-chan
Miko Yotsuya tries to go about her life as normal. But that can be challenging when horrific ghosts no one else can see stare her right in the face. Trying her best to not acknowledge the monsters and unwilling to let them know she can see them is hard to do when she constantly witnesses how they go about upsetting not just her own emotions, but the lives of those around her. Even though she’s scared herself, Miko does her best to protect her best friend Hana Yurikawa from the invisible nuisances while unacknowledging their existence.
With Miko trying to maintain being stone-faced in the face of horrific spectres, Mieruko-chan puts a twist on horror with a splash of comedy.
Mieruko-chan can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
Corpse Party: Tortured Souls
As nine students gather in their high school at night to bid farewell to their friend Mayu Suzumoto, who will be transferring to a new school, they customarily perform a ritual using paper dolls to remain friends forever. But, unfortunately, they don’t realize that these charms are connected to the Heavenly Host Academy, the previous elementary school that their current school, Kisaragi Academy, took the place of. The elementary school had been destroyed years ago following a series of gruesome murders. Becoming trapped in an alternate dimension of the school, the students must work together to escape the vengeful ghosts.
Based on the 2010 PSP remake of the 1996 RPG survival horror game Corpse Party, Corpse Party: Tortured Souls has even been banned in Russia and China due to its horrific content and graphic violence.
Dark Gathering
Keitarou Gentouga, a college freshman, has a knack for attracting spirits. After having an especially bad run-in at one point, his hand had been left cursed. At encouragement of his childhood friend Eiko Houzuki, he becomes a private tutor, only to find that his first client is Yayoi Houzuki, Eiko’s cousin. Since a car accident took both her parents, her mother’s soul being kidnapped by a spirit in the process, Yayoi developed two pupils in each of her eyes allowing her to see the spirit realm alongside reality. Noticing how Keitarou attracts spirits, she ropes him into assisting her to collect spirits for future use against the one that spirited away her mother.
Crawling with gore and the supernatural, Dark Gathering has its own unique take on ghost-hunting horror. It boasts a distinctly Pokemon-like premise, so how perfect is it that it’s adapted under the same umbrella of OLM, the long-serving Pokemon studio?
Dark Gathering can be streamed on HIDIVE and Hulu.
Hellsing
Hellsing, headed by Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, is an organization that specializes in supernatural extermination. When the villagers of Cheddar are plagued by a vampire turning the villagers into a horde of ghouls, the vampire Alucard is dispatched to exterminate the threat. Armed with only a handgun, Alucard has no issue in absolutely decimating the monsters. But when the enemy vampire holds young police officer Seras Victoria hostage and leaves Alucard no choice but to shoot straight through her, Alucard poses a choice to her: either die as a human or become a vampire. Seras accepts and becomes the newest vampiric member of Hellsing, struggling with her new immortal life as non-human.
Turning the horror genre on its head, Hellsing follows one of the very monsters the supernatural extermination organization intends to eliminate.
Hellsing can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
Mononoke
In search of malevolent spirits called mononoke, a man known as the Medicine Seller travels all across feudal Japan in an endeavor to slay these monsters. But when he finds such spirits, it takes more than just coming in with guns blazing for even this deadly and mysterious master of the occult to exorcise them. First, he must learn about the mononoke through psychological analysis and careful investigative work to learn its Form, its Truth, and its Reason in order to wield the mighty Exorcism Sword to slay these creatures.
Mononoke is a very textured, colorfully unique take on the genre of horror. While there are monsters aplenty, the distinct storytelling and visuals are where this series really shines.
Mononoke can be streamed on Netflix and Crunchyroll.
What’s your favorite horror anime? Let us know in the comments if you prefer suspense, psychological thrills, or bloody gore in your horror picks!
