All the horror anime I’ve watched have been sadly pretty lacking; being either not scary at all or purely shock value. I’m looking for something that’s neither of those, I want a genuinely scary narrative that doesn’t rely on jumpscares or gore to be scary (I’m fine with them as long as that’s not the main element of the show.) Any recommendations welcome!
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Shin sekai yori filled me with revulsion, horror, and disgust.
Shinsekai Yori is my all-time favorite anime. Great choice!
It’s also a hauntingly intelligent but gorgeous political anime.
I see this recommended a lot, guess I’ll have to check it out
That’s a horror show? Interesting
gate: thus the jsdf fought there is a horrifying story of imperialist expansion and war against an “inferior” foe. the invading and occupying force engaging in sex trafficking (the ambassador marries a 12 year old and the figurehead of the invasion owns a sex slave), mowing down indigenous forces by the tens of thousands, forcing the government to negotiate at gunpoint and flooding their markets with cheap goods to crush their labor force
the scariest part is the creators think all this stuff is cool and good, and that it was used as a real recruitment ad for the jsdf
Imperial Princess Piña Co Lada
one of her servants is named beefeater
what the fuck
it’s one of those shows where you watch it and think maybe the only way to fix things is with a time machine and a gun
Azumanga Daioh
way too scary for me personally /s
Dat dream sequence ripping her pigtails right off her head… Brrrr
Shinsekai Yori and Higurashi are the only two good horror anime I’ve ever seen.
Saikano: The Last Love Song on This Little Planet isn’t horror, but it was psychologically wrenching and devastated me way more than any anime has the right to.
It’s hopeless and romantic, and cheesy, and sad. I love it so much.
That’s one I haven’t heard of. Looks interesting, thank you!
You’re welcome! and you have been warned lol
Uzumaki would’ve been the goat of horror anime had it been released
That being said, for whatever reason, horror anime really just doesn’t seem to hit the same as live action stuff. Lots of reliance on shock value (esp. gore).
That being said these are the ones I’ve enjoyed in or adjacent to the genre: Shiki, Berserk, Parasyte, Devilman Crybaby, Ghost Hound, From the New World
Wait. Did they cancel that Uzumaki anime ? That seemed to have a really cool artstyle.
It’s just been delayed indefinitely
Devilman crybaby is such a good show, and definitely gets really upsetting and horror-like at points.
I agree! Absolutely love the Uzumaki manga and Junji Ito’s stuff in general. I’ve read Berserk and didn’t enjoy it at all, and I also don’t think of it as horror, the only horror element it has is the gore which you get used to in a couple dozen chapters. Will check the others out though!
Junji Ito’s horror relies too much on his style, which is really hard to animate beause it is so detailed and good. I’m skeptical any adaptation would actually end up a good horror experience
Oh good taste. I feel like Chainsaw Man is close to Devilman Crybaby (and End of Evangelion too) with some really awesome scary or haunting moments
I dont really watch horror anime. I remember thinking the original Higurashi anime was really unsettling back when I was a teenager. Not sure if it holds up…that said the visual novels are quite good. I suffer from schizophrenia and the Higurashi VNs really got the feeling of paranoia down. I will also say the VNs are a lot of slice of life and slowburn stuff until things pop off I do enjoy them a lot though.
I do enjoy VNs from time to time, will check them out. Thank you!
In fact if you are interested the first part “Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.1 Onikakushi” is free to play. The games are kind of standalone but there is an overarching narrative (so it makes sense to play them in order). One thing they all have in common is that they play in the village of Hinamizawa which is based on a real village in Japan they also all play during summer time.
Short write up : June, 1983. The summer heat has arrived earlier than it does most years. By day there are cicadas, and by night, the higurashi.
Hinamizawa, a small village in the Japanese countryside. While there are fewer than two-thousand people there, every year, ‘something’ happens.
For the past 4 years, someone has died, and another has gone missing.
This series of deaths and disappearances is connected to the local resistance against a now-abandoned dam construction project. A murder during the construction, covered up by the local authorities, is being re-enacted year after year.
I dont wanna spoil to much. Its best to go in blind. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Sounds interesting, will check it out. Is the anime adaptation any good?
Uff. So there’s the old anime, which I will fully admit I have no idea if it holds up. Then there’s the new anime… which I think is best watched AFTER you play all the visual novels (in my humble opinion). The new anime does something interesting, but I wouldn’t really call it horror.
Either way, I think the visual novels are better than either. Just as a sidenote, there is basically no input or choices in the VNs. There are some things like news articles you unlock while playing the games. Other than that, it’s just music, text, and characters. As I said I do think they are really good. Currently there are 10 games. Each of them about 10hs in lenght. You dont have to play all 10 of them to get something out of it. For example Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.1 Onikakushi is basically a story in the larger plot. The more chapters you read the more you will know about the mystery of Hinamizawa…what exactly happened and what is real or ficiton. Screenshot below.
I see, thanks! This was really helpful
I tried playing this. I had to mod it to replace the default sprites with the remastered sprites lol
coward, ryukishi sprites are good
Dark Gathering was good horror
It didn’t really “scare” me, but I have to mention Kakurenbo, sometimes listed as Kakurenbo: Hide and Seek. It’s a 3D anime short film from the 2000s that I originally saw on Adult Swim, and I still love the atmosphere and vibe of it. A while ago I was able to just watch it on youtube, and I doubt it’s been taken down.
Psycho-Pass is maybe more of an action-sci-fi, but the whole show, and doubly the first series, has significant horror elements that are focused around a dystopian future where slavery and violent murder is widely supported and done because institutions do it (pretty wild right), and as peoples’ mental stability goes down (how stability is judged is a big plot point), they must submit to increasing punishment/rehabiliation.
To be honest, I find it very horrifying largely because it’s scarily plausible. Nobody (again, at least first series) is like implausibly innately villanous just for plot, and the ambivalence with which the ruling class and cop characters kill is amazingly shown, while the ‘criminals’ are largely just reacting to an insane societal system. It’s too close to reality for me to feel… comfortable, at any stage.
In addition, never watched it, but I heard good stuff of Serial Experiments Lain.
I’ve seen Lain, one of my all time favorites. Ill check out Psycho Pass, thanks!
K-On!
Monster is more of a psychological horror. If you’ve ever seen Hannibal (the show), it’s kind of like that. Maybe it was just because I was young when I first watched it, but the ending credits always freaked me out lol. Especially in the later episodes where the animation would expand and reveal more and the context is explained in the show.
I stopped watching Serial Experiments Lain when I was younger because of the creepy ass, surreal atmosphere. The way the father just is just casually negligent and uninterested already raised some hairs. But then later with the faces of the characters and whatnot creeped me out more.
I’ve seen both Monster and Lain, both are really good
Spooky kitaro
