To put it bluntly, horror anime hasn’t been historically great. Fans will get the odd classic like Higurashi When They Cry, but they are usually uneventful and boring. There are many reasons for this, mainly because jumpscares are almost non-existent in anime because they would be ineffective in the manga. This leaves many horror anime to be either unsettling/disturbing or extremely gory and macabre.
However, just because horror anime isn’t the best doesn’t mean there aren’t any scary episodes. Whether these episodes are bonafide horrors like Shiki or a suspenseful thriller like Monster, they all have the same effect. To get on this list, an episode needs to be scary by either providing gory content, disturbing moments, or horrific story elements. These ten shows prove to have the frights in anime, making them the scariest episodes.
10 ‘Another’ (2012)
Episode 3: Bone Work
Another is one of the most popular horror anime. It follows a class investigating a curse set upon them. After his one-month absence, Kouichi befriends a mysterious girl, much to the other classmates’ dismay. However, he soon learns the truth about a curse on the class, with him and his new friend investigating the grisly mystery. Another might not be the scariest anime, but it is one of the most disturbing, almost the anime equivalent of Final Destination.
As a full-fledged horror anime, Another heavily leans on the gore, as the show is known for its countless gruesome kills. However, its scaryness depends entirely on the viewer. Some may find it utterly horrific, while others might view it as comical and over-the-top. After a couple of episodes of tense build-up, episode three was when all hell broke loose with the first death. The iconic show of gore came from a student impaling herself on an umbrella, providing a frightening image and a shocking moment.
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9 ‘Berserk’ (1997)
Episode 25: Perpetual Time
With many fans claiming Berserk to be the greatest manga of all time, the only good adaptation is the 1997 version. The anime follows Guts’ life, from abandonment to fighting as a child soldier and, eventually, his time with the Band of the Hawk. This season serves as his origin story, setting his connection with Griffith and Casca, bringing fans on an intense journey in one of the greatest fantasy anime.
While Berserk technically isn’t a horror anime, it features enough gore and monstrous creatures to make any fan’s skin crawl. Perpetual Time is the final episode of the season and concludes one of the greatest arcs in anime. While the entire season was depressing, the final episode will have fans quaking in fear and sulking in sadness. The episode forces fans to watch with Guts as their favorite characters get ripped to shreds in a gruesome display of violence.
Berserk (1997)
- Release Date
- October 7, 1997
- Cast
- Marc Diraison , Kevin T. Collins , Carrie Keranen , Michelle Newman , Christopher Kromer , Jeff Ward , Mark Sebastian , J , David Brimmer , Sean Schemmel
- Seasons
- 1
- Writers
- Yasuhiro Imagawa
- Franchise(s)
- Berserk
- Directors
- Naohito Takahashi
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8 ‘JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable’ (2016)
Episode 21: Yoshikage Kira Just Wants to Live Quietly, Part 1
Like Berserk, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure isn’t a horror anime; for the most part, it has no horrific content. Each season, the show features a new part, taking place at a different time and location with a new cast and villain. Diamond is Unbreakable is the fourth part and features Josuke living in a small town until they learn of a serial killer disturbing the peace. Yoshikage Kira Just Want to Live Quietly, Part 1, is the main villain’s chilling introduction.
JoJo’s is undoubtedly a suspenseful anime, but this episode takes it to the next level, making it borderline horror. With a reasonably standard introduction, it isn’t until fans learn of the severed hand the villain carries that things become disturbing. The whole episode is about getting to know the villain, an unsettling showcase of psychopathy as his terrifying mentality is on full display, helping make Diamond is Unbreakable one of the best arcs in anime.
- Release Date
- October 4, 2012
- Cast
- David Vincent , Matthew Mercer , Daisuke Ono , Unshô Ishizuka , Tôru Ohkawa
- Seasons
- 5
7 ‘Happy Sugar Life’ (2018)
Episode 9: Dissolving Rain
Fans shouldn’t let the title deceive them; Happy Sugar Life is anything but. The anime follows Satou, a high school girl known to date a new boy every few days. However, she experiences love for the first time when meeting the young girl, Shio. Satou is blindly obsessed and will do anything to protect this perfect life. Episode nine is the season’s climax, with Satou murdering one of her closest friends when she learns the truth.
The entire anime is extremely disturbing instead of downright scary, with many exaggerated themes. The show is not only upsetting because of the dark themes and murder, but also because of the unsettling age difference, which Satou uses to take advantage of the child she is in love with. Dissolving Rain is when the truth gets out, and Satou brutally murders Shokou, a display of scarring murder that will make any anime fan terrified.
Happy Sugar Life is not available to stream or purchase in the U.S.
6 ‘Boogiepop Phantom’ (2000)
Episode 4: My Fair Lady
While the title may have fans thinking Boogiepop Phantom is a hit 80s song, it is actually a disturbing episodic anime with each episode pertaining to an urban legend. Years after a string of gruesome murders done in dedication to the spirit Boogiepop, students suspect said spirit has made a reappearance. Strange happenings take over the classmates as the fourth episode, My Fair Lady, focuses on a man obsessed with a fictional character in a dating sim.
Fans could pick any episode from the anime, and it would be a valid entry on this list, but My Fair Lady presents an equally disturbing and realistic story. Fans see a character blur the line between reality and fantasy, forcing his subordinate, who resembles the character, to dress skimpy. He tries to take advantage of her, but the scariest part is his descent into madness as the episode touches on a real issue, helping make Boogiepop Phantom an excellent horror anime to binge.
- Release Date
- January 6, 2000
- Cast
- Yuu Asakawa , Kaori Shimizu , Sanae Kobayashi , Kozue Yoshizumi , Mayumi Asano , Kyo Nagasawa , Jun Fukuyama , Rakuto Tochihara , Mamiko Noto , Shizuma Teijima , Ayaka Saito , Chihiro Suzuki , Daiki Ueda , Fumiko Osaka , Fumiko Orikasa , Hirofumi Nojima , Hiroyuki Yoshino , Maiko Itou
- Seasons
- 1
- Creator(s)
- Kouhei Kadono
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5 ‘Mononoke’ (2007)
Episodes 1 and 2: Zashiki-Warashi Part 1 and 2
When fans discuss the greatest horror anime, Mononoke is usually a part of that conversation. The anime isn’t traditionally scary but utilizes dark stories and themes alongside its unique art style and animation. The show is broken down into two to three episode arcs, following a medicine seller as he exorcises the spirits he encounters. The first two episodes see him staying at an inn, which was formerly a brothel, protecting one of the pregnant guests.
This entry includes both the first and second episodes of the series, mainly because the first feeds directly into the second, carrying over the same storyline. Every arc of Mononoke is a hypnotic and captivatingly dark story, but the first one takes the cake because of its uncomfortable subject-matter. The spirits the medicine seller needs to exorcise are the ghosts of the aborted babies from the brothel years ago. These two episodes are incredibly upsetting, but the clever visual style and editing captivate viewers until the end, making Mononoke one of the best anime of the 2000s.
Mononoke
- Release Date
- July 12, 2007
- Cast
- Takahiro Sakurai , Michael C. Pizzuto , Eiji Takemoto , Yukana , Aiko Hibi , Ryûsei Nakao , Daisuke Namikawa , Tomokazu Seki , Daisuke Sakaguchi , Yasuhiro Takato , Aki Sasaki , Sarah Hauser , Yōko Sōmi , Minoru Inaba , Seiji Sasaki
- Seasons
- 1
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4 ‘From the New World’ (2012)
Episodes 18 and 19: Scarlet Flower and Darkness
Shinsekai Yori, known as From the New World in English, is a mystery horror anime. After humans began developing psychic powers, the world a millennium later is full of peace and perfection. However, after a string of disappearances, a group of friends starts investigating and learning about a race called the Monster Rats and a dark past that built the Utopia they live in. Episodes 18 and 19 are the series’ climax, with the Monster Rats executing a sneak attack and the friends encountering an Ogre massacering a hospital.
While including two episodes in a single entry may be unfair, From the New World delivers a double whammy of horror in back-to-back episodes. This anime won’t scare fans out of their seats but instead instills in them a sense of dread and depression at the dark topics and horrific things humans are capable of. Episodes 18 and 19, in particular, shock the viewer with gruesome murders full of suspense and gore, helping make From the New Worldone of the darkest anime ever.
- Release Date
- September 29, 2012
- Cast
- Emily Neves , Greg Ayres , David Wald , John Swasey , Chris Ayres , Monica Rial , David Matranga
- Seasons
- 1
- Creator(s)
- Satoshi Kon
- Writers
- Seishi Minakami , Satoshi Kon
- Streaming Service(s)
- Tubi
- Directors
- Satoshi Kon
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3 ‘The Promised Neverland’ (2019)
Episode 1: 121045
While the first season of The Promised Neverland is phenomenal and an easy anime to binge, the second season is one of the worst ever, with fans better off switching to the manga if they don’t want the story ruined. The anime follows a group of orphans in a specialized center to teach them the proper skills. However, the kids soon discover a traumatic truth: that they are only trained to be eaten by a race of demons that rule life on the outside.
The first episode of a show is usually the slowest, introducing the characters, world, and story. While the first episode of The Promised Neverland does that, it also drops a haunting bombshell, immediately shifting fans’ perception of the show. Finding the lifeless corpse of one of the kids and then trying not to get seen by a brutal creature instantly made this anime one of the scariest, with nothing topping the horrifying introduction.
The Promised Neverland
- Release Date
- January 11, 2019
- Creator
- Kaiu Shirai
- Cast
- Mariya Ise , Lynn , Yoshino Aoyama , Hiyori Kono
- Seasons
- 2
Episode 4: An Alchemist’s Distress
As one of the most popular anime, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has it all. The series follows two brothers on a journey to find the philosopher’s stone in order to revert their bodies to normal in this alchemical fictional world. On their journey, the two encounter a father with a looming deadline to complete his project and his daughter and dog. As soon as fans saw the deformed dog with a human set of hair, they knew what happened, but when the chimera spoke, it sent chills down the spines of even the most seasoned anime horror viewers.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is an anime with many strengths and diverse topics, from action to comedy to drama. However, fans might not think the anime is too scary, that is, until they remember one of the most traumatic moments in anime history and a scene they probably tried to forget. Nina Tucker fusing with her dog has become an iconic anime moment because of its disturbing content and execution, especially in a battle shōnen. While it won’t make fans scream, it is extremely unsettling and nauseating, and one of the reasons why Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is a perfect anime.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- Release Date
- April 9, 2009
- Cast
- Romi Pak , Rie Kugimiya , Shinichirô Miki , Fumiko Orikasa , Hidekatsu Shibata , Mamoru Miyano , Kenji Utsumi , Minami Takayama
- Seasons
- 4
1 ‘Uzumaki’ (2024)
Episode 1
Uzumaki is the latest anime to feature on this list, with one episode left at the time of writing. This recent horror anime takes place in a small town where odd events related to spirals occur throughout. As the town spirals out of control, each of its residents becomes obsessed until their death, causing panic among civilians. The first episode introduces said phenomena through various horrifying events, such as a man breaking his body into a spiral and a girl’s head caving in.
Fans often consider Junji Ito’s works as unadaptable, and while the later episodes of Uzumaki may prove so, the first episode is the perfect adaption. Even if fans are disappointed with the massive dip in quality in episodes 2 and 3, the first episode is a hypnotizing horror that proves to be one of the best anime has to offer. The black and white style is reminiscent of the manga, with the sound and music elevating the horror to new levels. Each twisted event is even more disturbing than the last, creating a perfect horror anime and the scariest anime episode in the must-watch show of Fall 2024.
Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror
- Release Date
- September 29, 2024
- Cast
- Uki Satake , Shin-ichiro Miki , Mariya Ise , Toshio Furukawa , Mika Doi , Takashi Matsuyama , Katsutoshi Matsuzaki , Tatsumaru Tachibana , Kôichi Tôchika , Ami Fukushima , Wataru Hatano
- Seasons
- 1
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