12 Spooky Anime Picks Perfect for the Fall Season

While every time of year is perfect for watching all-things horror, nothing quite beats the charm of settling in on a fall night and indulging in the spookiest – and sometimes kookiest – anime. While there are obvious heavy hitting classics like Shiki and Another, there’s plenty of other infamous series and standalone episodes that diehard horror enjoyers should dive into during this year’s spooky season. Whether an anime fan is looking for a long form binge-watching experience, or just a one-off episode in a non-horror series to channel all the charming energy that the fall has to offer.

Hellsing

A classic action-horror series that was originally created by Kouta Hirano, Hellsing is iconic for its gorgeous animated adaptations. The original 2001 anime, which was produced by Gonzo, has only thirteen episodes, making it a relatively easy binge-watch. For those wanting more, the series received an additional OVA in 2006 that ran for ten episodes and was produced in a joint collaboration between three different animation studios: Satelight, Madhouse, and Graphinica. The series follows the Royal Order of Protestant Knights, an elusive group that was originally led by Abraham Van Helsing – also known as the titular Hellsing. The group specializes in hunting down malevolent supernatural beasts and the undead. The most popular character from the series, Alucard, a powerful vampire who has sworn his loyalty to the Helsing family, is infamous for his brutal methods and fighting prowess.

Higurashi When They Cry

For fans of nonstop twists and turns, it’s hard to go wrong with the grim, time-bending masterpiece that is Higurashi When They Cry. Originally a visual novel created by Ryukishi07, the Higurashi franchise is a multimedia masterpiece that takes place in a tiny village that’s allegedly afflicted by some kind of curse known as Hinamizawa Syndrome. The series’ initial protagonist, Keiichi Maebara is something of an everyman who moves into the small town and enrolls in an isolated school that is so small, students of all grade levels are allowed to intermingle with one another. Strange, gruesome events start happening, and right as everything seems to fall apart, Keiichi and his new friends are right back where they started when he first moved in. The series is dark, terrifying, and filled with threats around every turn, making any of its many arcs perfect for Halloween night.

Gantz

While Hiroya Oku’s Gantz definitely isn’t for everyone, there’s no denying the series excels at captivating its audience with its action-packed, horrific first episode. The series follows two high schoolers, Kei Kurono and Masaru Kato after being struck by a train while attempting to rescue a drunk man who had fallen on the tracks. After they die, the pair wake up in a small apartment surrounded by other random people, and find a large sphere known only as “Gantz”. Kei and Masaru, along with the other strangers in the room, are given special suits that heighten their natural strengths as well as high-powered weaponry. The group is tasked with wiping out otherworldly threats in exchange for the chance to return to the land of the living. Gantz is filled with over-the-top violence, gore, and other grotesque events. For any horror fan that likes the outlandish and garish, this is the perfect pick for the season.

Lycoris Recoil

A-1 Picture’s phenomenal action thriller original, Lycoris Recoil, took the world by storm when it dropped, even earning praise from Hideo Kojima for its animation, clever writing, and memorable characters. While much of the series focuses on political intrigue and high stakes battles between young women fighting in a secret service organization, Episode 8 gives its audience a much needed break by giving fans an adorable, relatively low-stakes Halloween special. After discovering that the main character’s home base, Cafe LycoReco is in the deep red, protagonist Takina decides to take matters into her own hands. Armed with their Halloween costumes, Takina and Chisato each embark on their own Halloween misadventures in the first half of the story before reuniting and introducing some bigger plot elements as the episode comes to an end.

Paranoia Agent

Created by the late Satoshi Kon, Paranoia Agent is a creepy thriller set in a modern landscape that captures the same discomfort and fear as Kon’s other works, Perfect Blue and Paprika, but isn’t restricted to feature-length film. Produced by Madhouse, Paranoia Agent has thirteen episodes – the perfect length for a binge-watch – and uses each of them to make its characters, and audience, doubt everything they know about reality. The anime’s abstract visuals and story telling are still important today, and watching as the characters slowly begin to lose themselves in the mass hysteria afflicting Japan makes Paranoia Agent an absolute must-watch.

Parasyte

For those wanting a dose of science fiction with their horror – especially when it involves seeing human bodies getting gooey, gross, and distorted – look no further than Parasyte. Based on the classic manga of the same name, the series follows 17-year old Shinichi Izumi, whose body is taken over by a small, worm-like alien along with an unknown number of other affected people. These parasites typically try to infect their hosts brains, but the creature inhabiting Shinichi was only able to imbed itself into his hand, meaning, Shinichi is still “himself”, just with an unwanted buddy – similar to Yuji and Sukuna in Jujutsu Kaisen. While there’s plenty of alien fighting action, Parasyte also forces its audience to embrace the psychological horrors of what it means to be a human.

Mononoke

Mononoke is expressively unique, and pushes the boundaries of expressiveness in animation. Being a spin-off of an anthology series called Ayakashi, Mononoke expands on one of the shorts from that series to create a televised series with twelve episodes. The series follows the nameless “Medicine Seller” from the original short, and is made up of individual, episodic adventures. While the series isn’t scary in a traditional sense, its unique take on telling supernatural ghost stories and urban legends from Japanese culture.

Boogiepop Phantom

A classic horror series from the early 2000s, Boogiepop Phantom follows a large, ensemble cast of characters that were witnesses to a strange pillar of light. Interestingly, the light appeared almost exactly five years after a string of serial killings – and now that the pillar has appeared, students have begun to go missing again. The blame, of course, is placed on the supernatural, with the main cast blaming what’s going on on “Boogiepop”, an urban legend that’s said to be the literal, physical embodiment of death. The series is incredibly easy to pick up and put down, with each episode following a different member of the cast and their involvement with major plot beats throughout the story.

Attack on Titan

For anime fans looking for an action-packed thriller, one can’t go wrong with everything that Attack on Titan has to offer. With horrific monsters, skin-crawling body horror, beautifully animated action sequences, and a story filled with twists, it’s hard not to get invested in Eren’s quest for revenge. It ticks every box for fans of the genre, and explores a number of psychological and political subjects in grim, hauntingly realistic ways. Plus, Attack on Titan‘s character writing makes it easy to get attached to even the most flawed members of its cast.

The Promised Neverland

With one of the greatest opening episodes in recent history, The Promised Neverland excels in keeping its audience on the edge of their seats while drip-feeding lore about the world in impactful and engaging ways. The series follows a clever group of young children with the peppy Emma acting as leader living in an isolated orphanage, dreaming of someday getting adopted and being a member of a family all to themselves. In truth, the world is run by demons, and the orphanage is a front to farm the children. Emma becomes wise to the truth, and engages in mental warfare with her caregiver and two best friends to find a way for all the children to escape to safety together. The stakes in the first season are kept insanely high, and every moment matters.

Perfect Blue

Perhaps Satoshi Kon’s most beloved film, Perfect Blue is still just as relevant in today’s media climate as it was when it originally released in 1997, perhaps even more now than it did then. The film follows a J-pop idol named Mima, who has decided she wants to transition away from her career in music and instead pursue acting. Fans of the idol group she’s a member of, CHAM!, are devastated by the news, but a particularly obsessive fan begins stalking Mima no matter where she goes, and leaves behind dangerous “gifts” on the set of her upcoming film. What’s worse, a strange blog has appeared that has been impersonating Mima’s day-to-day life. Mima begins to succumb to the stress and madness of her situation, and fights to survive as the pressures of stardom and her parasocial fans begins to close in around her.