These horror anime are sure to send chills down the spines of even the most hardcore fans.
It might not look like it, but making an anime that’s pure horror isn’t that simple. For one, hand-drawn animations can’t quite capture the frame-by-frame tension and shock value of the horror media. That’s why actually scary horror anime are rare. Consequently, the few true horror anime in existence hold a special place in everyone’s hearts.
The best horror anime give goosebumps, a feeling of dread, and unsettling scenery that utilizes the medium in ways that live-action films cannot. If that’s what viewers are looking for, then these titles are among the freakiest, scariest, and most horrific.
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Updated on May 3, 2023 by Mark Sammut: At most, each year produces maybe five horror anime, and adding „good“ in front of that descriptor shrinks the number considerably. So far in 2023, the genre has produced Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre and Make My Day, neither of which are likely to quench someone’s thirst for chilling content. Spring 2023’s anime lineup has no horror representatives either, outside of shows like Hell’s Paradise and Heavenly Delusion that sprinkle in the occasional creepy visual. Consequently, fans will need to look to the past if they yearn for a fright.
Horror anime are so rare that whenever one shows up that is actually decent, it tends to attract quite a bit of attention. Mieruko-chan’s eponymous schoolgirl has the unfortunate ability to see ghosts, and these spirits are ripped right out of nightmares. As she is generally the only person who can witness these terrifying entities, Mieruko has to pretend they do not exist, something that often proves rather difficult.
Mieruko-chan is almost like a slice of life horror anime, in the sense that most of the episodes simply follow the protagonist during her everyday life. This repetition does hurt the show’s fear factor to an extent, but the designs of the ghosts are genuinely scary.
Happy Sugar Life is a trip that starts messed up and just keeps on finding new ways to get messier. While there are some folks with decent intentions, there are no traditionally „good“ characters, and that extends to the main girl, Satou. The anime is filled with violent deaths, depressing themes, tragic moments, and uncomfortable scenes. While not often terrifying, Happy Sugar Life is nearly always suspenseful.
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This horror anime needs to be experienced blind and preferably binge-watched over a weekend.
School-live! is often compared to Puella Magi Madoka Magica, an anime famous for turning the magical girl genre on its head. School-live! does something similar with the „cute girls doing cute things“ subgenre by throwing a zombie apocalypse into the mix. These two wildly different worlds collide to form the anime’s protagonist, a girl who is in serious denial about her situation.
While not lacking in dark and intense moments, School-Live! also tries to cater to standard moe conventions as well. Consequently, the show is not that tonally consistent since it only seems to have one foot rooted in horror. Despite these points, Lerche’s anime is still enjoyable and relatively clever.
Look past Ajin’s uneven CG animation and you’ll find a fast-paced action horror series with a strong premise soaked in moral ambiguity. In this world, „Ajin“ is a species that cannot be killed, and if a human turns into one, they are immediately arrested for a future filled with pain. Kei Nagai learns this the hard way and quickly finds himself on the run.
Available on Netflix, Ajin succeeds because it doesn’t present either side – the Ajin or humans – are pure evil or good. It adds an element of intrigue to each situation, some of which are graphic and intense.
Most horror films and shows tend to come with their own lesson or representation of social issues. Hell Girl has those in spades as it’s quite literally about a demon dishing out punishments to social deviants such as bullies, thieves, and cheaters.
In the anime, anyone with a tormentor can seek help from the enigmatic „Hell Girl“ by seeking out a mysterious website and posting their grudges there. The girl from hell will then dish out her own brand of cruel justice against the wrongdoers. It’s psychologically disturbing and represents the darkest whims of our society, particularly one that deals with vengeance and retaliation.
