Best Horror Anime

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 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.

20 Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales

MyAnimeList: 7.39

Utterly overshadowed by its successor, the vastly superior Mononoke, Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror is an anthology series consisting of three storylines: Yotsuya Ghost Story, Goddess of the Dark Tower, and the Medicine Seller. The latter introduces Mononoke‘s protagonist and is a must-watch for anyone who loves the sequel series since it is essentially another arc. It is also Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales‘ strongest story and arguably the only reason to seek out this compilation.

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That’s not to say that the other arcs have nothing to offer, as they both feature occasional moments of brilliance; however, they are let down by uninteresting characters and a severe lack of notable surprises. They are also not really all that scary, despite being based on classic Japanese horror stories. Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales is serviceable but nothing more.

19 Zom 100: Bucket List Of The Dead

MyAnimeList: 8.03

In truth, it is a stretch to describe Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead as horror since it does not try to be scary at all. Nevertheless, the show is still a great pick for fans of the genre, particularly if they are into zombie apocalypses. While oversaturated in Western cultures, the same cannot be said for anime. Sure, the industry has produced zombie stories like Highschool of the Dead and Zombie Land Saga, but they are infrequent enough to still seem fresh when they do appear. And, they tend to be diverse too, ranging from action-romps like Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress to romps like Is This a Zombie?

Zom 100 does not fit neatly into any one genre. The anime has humor but is not a comedy, and while most episodes have some action, these sequences are rarely the story’s focus. Similarly, the show gets gory and dark at times, but these moments flirt with horror without fully embracing it. Ultimately, Zom 100 is about life, reflected by the protagonist’s drive to make the most out of his remaining days after he is freed from the shackles of employment thanks to an outbreak. Weirdly enough, this zombie anime is rather uplifting.

18 Pet Shop Of Horrors

MyAnimeList: 7.24

Pet Shop of Horrors is a hard-to-find 4-part OVA series that aired over two months in 1999. The show works well enough as a teaser for Matsuri Akino’s manga, which has received a few sequels since its original incarnation ended in 1998. Although not completely devoid of an overarching narrative, each episode generally focuses on a self-contained story as the audience follows a character who purchases a unique pet from a shop run by Count D. These strange creatures can change somebody’s life for the better, but they are also high maintenance, to put it lightly; more importantly, if their owner fails to treat them right, they will face dire consequences.

Pet Shop of Horrors has an awesome concept with a lot of room for expansion, as can be seen in the source material. While the anime does not fully capture the manga’s appeal and ends too quickly to build any significant momentum, it is still a decent watch when viewed in a vacuum. Count D is a fascinating and complex character, and the individual stories produce their share of uncomfortable moments. The show looks like a horror production, although it does not produce all that many legitimate scares.

17 Mieruko-chan

MyAnimeList: 7.41

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.

16 Happy Sugar Life

MyAnimeList: 6.78

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.

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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. This horror anime needs to be experienced blind and preferably binge-watched over a weekend.

15 School-Live!

MyAnimeList: 7.62

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.

14 Ajin: Demi-Human

MyAnimeList: 7.39 (Season 1)

Look past Ajin‘s uneven CG animation to 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.

13 Elfen Lied

MyAnimeList: 7.48

Elfen Lied is a twisted and more modern take on a monster girl trope in horror. Instead of being a vampire or werewolf, however, the main monster human in Elfen Lied is a Diclonius – a powerful being that has become the subject of experiments in the anime until she decides that she cannot take it anymore and breaks free in the bloodiest way possible.

As the said monster girl escapes captivity and tries to live normally among human beings, certain circumstances will force her to unleash her true potential and nature. The amount of blood and violence in Elfen Lied tends to overshadow the rest of the content, including themes of human experimentation and cruelty, but the show has a few genuinely uncomfortable and disconcerting moments that will leave an impression on most viewers. While it has not aged extremely well, especially its “romance,” Elfen Lied is still one of the more popular horror-leaning anime of all time.

12 Cat Soup

MyAnimeList: 7.32

A short film released in the early 2000s, Cat Soup is far from a mainstream name, although it has acquired some notoriety over the years. Cut from the same bizarre cloth as Angel’s Egg, Cat Soup is a surreal trip that is light on story and heavy on atmosphere. After Nyatto’s soul is confiscated by Death, she and her brother go on a hellish journey to try and recover it. Along the way, they traverse unfathomable landscapes rich in beauty and dread, all the while running across larger-than-life figures that are not even human-adjacent.

Obviously, Cat Soup is not a traditional horror anime nor does it constantly attempt to horrify audiences. However, the film’s nightmarish creativity is not only a sight to behold but also punctuated with chilling imagery. While not scary, it is unnerving.

11 Hell Girl

MyAnimeList: 7.61 (Season 1)

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 society, particularly ones that deal with vengeance and retaliation.

10 Vampire Hunter D & Bloodlust

MyAnimeList: 7 (Vampire Hunter D)

Based on Hideyuki Kikuchi’s novels, Vampire Hunter D is drenched in haunting Gothic imagery. Set thousands of years in the future, humanity is on its last legs, and the few surviving people are largely fighting a losing battle against all sorts of nightmarish entities. Vampires sit at the top of the foot chain, although they do face a threat in the form of a dhampir named D. The series has spawned two anime adaptations: 1985’s Vampire Hunter D OVA and 2000’s Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. Both releases are worth watching in their own right, and they hold up well considering their ages.

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Madhouse’s Bloodlust is reasonably well known, and the movie is one of the studio’s crowning achievements. While the story is decent but nothing too amazing, Bloodlust makes up for it with gorgeous visuals and a tense atmosphere. Although a bit too action-heavy to be genuinely scary, the film’s backdrops and creatures are perfect examples of Gothic horror. Madhouse also frames its environments and structures in a way that makes them feel massive and overwhelming.

While overshadowed by its (far superior) sequel, 1985’s Vampire Hunter D has many of its successor’s strengths. The OVA nails its presentation and tone; even though the animation is dated nowadays, the actual art is still impressive. The film revels in gore in a way that only old-school OVAs seem to do, but these sequences fit the story being told.

9 Another

MyAnimeList: 7.47

It’s horror and anime so if those two were to be made into a Venn diagram, then “school” would probably come out as the most common ground. Sure enough, Yomiyama North Middle School is one of the most haunted institutions in anime ever.

The haunting all began when one student committed suicide in the past and her classmates pretended that she was still alive in order to cope. This inadvertently summoned a malevolent ghost who then started causing even more suicides and deaths not just among the student population but also in the students’ respective families over the course of decades.

8 Devilman Crybaby

MyAnimeList: 7.75

More disturbing than anything else, Devilman Crybaby is quite a handful. Initially, it seems to follow a typical plot where the social outcast protagonist merges with a being in order to become more relevant. However, in the anime’s case, this being is a demon and not those friendly shonen types that are pushovers. No, Devilman Crybaby has hyperviolent and over-sexualized demons, those that the bible warned everyone about.

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As such, Devilman Crybaby isn’t something viewers can watch with their families. As the main protagonist tries to wrestle with his demon host, people around also fall prey to the same affliction until everything in their world goes wrong and becomes a satellite for hell. It’s a complete horror package this one, filled with body horror, satanic imagery, and overt adult content.

7 Dark Gathering

MyAnimeList: 7.45

In a world filled with horrifying ghosts, the scariest entity is a little human girl with unique pupils and a wicked sense of humor. Dark Gathering revels in the macabre and sinister, and it has a blast doing so. Cursed with a spaghetti-esque right hand, Keitaro has the unfortunate ability to attract spirits, which caused him to shut the world off for a number of years. Encouraged by his friend Eiko, he decides to re-enter society, and he even takes on a job as a tutor. One of his first students is Yayoi, the aforementioned little girl. Obsessed with finding the ghost who took her mother’s soul, Yayoi sees Keitaro as the perfect tool for the job, and she is not the type to take no for an answer.

Dark Gathering is simply fun. The show generally follows a monster-of-the-week structure, which can seem a bit antiquated. However, the individual episodes have been all entertaining and even occasionally scary, even if they are unlikely to horrify any horror veterans. All three leads are awesome in their own right, but Yayoi steals every scene she is in.

6 When They Cry

MyAnimeList: 7.88 (Season 1)

Higurashi When They Cry

Japanese Title

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

Release Date

April 5, 2006

Studio

Studio Deen, Passione

Number of Episodes

100

Based On

Visual Novel

Otherwise known as Higurashi, When They Cry wears a deceptively welcoming facade. Most viewers will probably think that it’s a moe and cutesy anime about provincial school life and teen hormones when it’s actually about a murder fest.

That’s no joke, in the protagonist’s hometown, there’s an annual provincial festival with a local urban legend surrounding the festivity. To make matters more suspicious, the days leading up to the festival were filled with reports of local murders and disappearances. Producing 100 episodes over more than a decade, When They Cry is a time investment that does not always pay off, and the most recent two seasons (Gou and Sotsu) are particularly divisive. That said, the 2006 original and its sequel, Kai, have a few of the most iconic horror moments in anime, and they tell an overall engaging mystery story.

5 Ghost Hunt

MyAnimeList: 7.76

Ghost Hunt

Release Date

October 3, 2006

Studio

J.C.Staff

Number of Episodes

25

Based On

Light Novel

Creator

Fuyumi Ono

For a horror anime, ghost hunting is as straightforward as it gets and Ghost Hunt revolves around that rather foolish notion. It follows the exploits of a group that calls itself the Shibuya Psychic Research who are mostly just high adventurous high school students.

It’s not as horrific as some other anime but Ghost Hunt tackles several issues such as religion, different cultures, and of course, paranormal events that mostly have tragic origins. For patient viewers, Ghost Hunt can reward its fans with some spine-chilling pay-offs though nothing too hardcore or nightmare-inducing.

4 Theatre Of Darkness: Yamishibai

MyAnimeList: 7 (Season 1)

Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories

Japanese Title

Yami Shibai

Release Date

July 14, 2013

Studio

ILCA

Number of Episodes

130

Depending on how viewers watch their horror, Yami Shibai or Japanese Ghost Stories is like watching a sleep paralysis episode unfold. This anime consists of several short stories or episodes each of which is about particular Japanese urban legends.

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The animation is a little too crude, but it’s usually the storytelling that sells the show instead of the visuals. Each story has its own lesson and narrative rooted in Japanese culture and tradition as well as some hyper-imaginative tales. Make sure to watch this one with the lights off and alone for a better atmosphere.

Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai is great during its first few seasons, which are generally quite consistent. Around season 4, the anime becomes a lot more hit-and-miss, which unfortunately does hurt its overall quality. That said, at its peak, Yamishibai is one of the best horror anime.

3 Mononoke

MyAnimeList: 8.42

Mononoke

Release Date

July 13, 2007

Studio

Toei Animation

Number of Episodes

12

Speaking of atmospheric horror, Mononoke sets the mood commendably without even trying too hard. What it lacks in coherent storytelling, it more than makes up for with its odd art style and visuals. Mononoke draws its style inspiration from old and surreal Japanese erotic paintings — an interesting choice to say the least.

Story-wise, Mononoke is about the adventures of an exorcist who merely calls himself “Medicine Seller.” His exorcism isn’t as straightforward as most media have led us to believe though as he must learn the ins and outs of the spirits he’s exorcising, opening up new creepy windows that let the viewers peer into the odd and alienating world of the otherworldly creatures.

2 Shiki

MyAnimeList: 7.73

Shiki

Release Date

July 8, 2010

Studio

Daume

Number of Episodes

22

Based On

Novel

Creator

Fuyumi Ono

In a nutshell, Shiki is a Japanese take on vampires but words simply can’t describe the way the anime makes its viewers unnerved and horrified. The story begins when a string of bizarre murders starts popping up in a small provincial town.

These murders also coincide with the arrival of an old clan who just moved into a castle near the outskirts of the town. It might sound straightforward but the twists and turns, as well as the pessimistic representation of human behavior in the anime, make it worth watching for any true horror fan.

1 Perfect Blue

MyAnimeList: 8.54

Perfect Blue

Release Date

February 28, 1998

Director

Satoshi Kon

Studio

Madhouse

Based On

Novel by Yoshikazu Takeuchi

An argument can be made that Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue is a psychological thriller similar to The Garden of Sinners rather than a horror film, but the anime has one element that amplifies its fear factor: a truly vulnerable protagonist. After leaving the idol business for acting, Mima Kirigoe is stalked, harassed, and begins to lose her sense of self.

Perfect Blue fragments Mima’s psyche, blurring the line separating reality from fantasy. If the psychological component fails to trigger a shiver or two, Me-Mania should be able to pick up the slack. Perfect Blue creeps under the viewer’s skin from its opening frame, presenting a twisted but familiar world that gradually blends with a nightmare.

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