Despite animation’s reputation of being for kids, some of the best anime are also the goriest. It might not be for everyone, but for those who are interested in blood and viscera, few mediums can beat anime. Without the limitations of gore in live-action, anime is free to be incredibly creative, and incredibly detailed, with its extreme level of violence.
However, rather than just being used for shock value, gore also becomes a driving plot point in some cases, especially with anime that focus on cannibalistic creatures, anomalies of nature, and other monstrous creatures. The imaginative scope that anime provides further allows anime studios to get creative with their hyperviolent content. The best gory anime use the medium’s inherent strengths to create scenes that wouldn’t be possible in any other medium.
The Future Diary
Anime Series By Asread; Based On The Manga by Sakae Esuno
The Future Diary, also known as Mirai Nikki, is a psychological thriller that follows Yukiteru Amano, who is suddenly a participant in a type of battle royale game with special diaries on cellphones that predict the future where he must fight for his life against the owners of other diaries. This deadly game becomes more complicated, creating new mysteries while introducing new characters, each one more crazy and interesting with their own conflicts, who create moments of action.
Yukiteru evolves like the rest of the players, but the charming and unpredictable Yuno Gasai is the one who steals the spotlight in the series. With scenes of dismembered people, different types of deaths, abuse, and toxic and obsessive relationships, The Future Diary is somber and entertaining with thrilling moments full of tension and twists that will shock viewers.
Dororo
Anime Series By Tezuka Productions & MAPPA; Based On The Manga by Osamu Tezuka
Dororo is a masterful anime by the same author of Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka, set in a historical Japanese period where the protagonist Hyakkimaru is in search of his body and has to face demonic entities to recover it. The anime stands out thanks to its stunning animation and battle choreography, but also due to its ruthless representation of the worst part of human beings and the suffering and tragic consequences of war.
The anime isn’t the typical hero’s journey as it has a great amount of graphic violence, dismemberments, and death, which serve to highlight the loss of humanity and also the search for meaning and beauty behind it. This way, viewers looking for a dark anime with characters who evolved, exciting combat scenes, drama, and sad moments that touch the heart will find Dororo more than enjoyable.
Re:Zero, Starting Life In Another World
Anime Series By White Fox; Based On The Light Novel By Tappei Nagatsuki
Subaru Natsuki is definitely one of the saddest anime protagonists given how he has to go through multiple deaths and carry the memories of each lifetime. After being teleported to an alternate fantasy dimension and getting brutally killed right away, he discovers that he has the power to turn back time before dying. What follows is a tragic series of events with the bloodshed increasing especially after Natsuki encounters a murderous cult.
The receivers of the violence have no age limit with even children getting severely dismembered. However, the show still doesn’t go all out with the violence as thankfully, some of the more brutal deaths happen offscreen. Even if blood is shed, the explicit impact on each dismembered organ is also not put in full focus. Still though, Re:Zero’s implied violence is more than enough for it to rank among the goriest anime.
Tokyo Ghoul
Anime Series By Studio Pierrot; Based On The Manga By Sui Ishida
The titular ghouls in Tokyo Ghoul refer to zombie-like creatures that feed on human flesh. As a young man named Ken Kaneki gets attacked by one such ghoul, he turns into a superpowered ghoul-human hybrid who must run from the law to survive.
Tokyo Ghoul is arguably brutal in its depiction of prolonged violence and torture, but it makes smart use of other visual elements to hide the true extent of violence. For instance, in a scene where a female ghoul is feasting on multiple bodies, the bodies are hidden within dark shadows. Similarly, a torture scene finds the character’s fingers and toes being chopped off, but audiences only catch a glimpse of the blood-stained tools. All in all, Tokyo Ghoul is fear-inducing, but its violence is relatively low when compared to other anime series of the era.
Vinland Saga
Anime Series By Wit Studio & MAPPA; Based On The Manga By Makoto Yukimura
Vinland Saga is a fictional account of the life of Thorfinn Karlsefni, the first viking to form a major settlement in North America i.e. Vinland. After watching his father die before his eyes, Thorfinn devotes his life to getting revenge on his murderer, with Thorfinn becoming a brutal killer in the process, himself, but it’s not long before Thorfinn is completely broken and forced to question what the right thing for him to do is.
Vinland Saga is centered around decrying the idea of violence being a necessity, and to help illustrate that point, almost every fight scene in Vinland Saga has highly detailed blood and gore as people are repeatedly killed and dismembered, especially in season 1 when action was still the main focus. Few anime do as good a job of showing how terrifying murder can be as Vinland Saga, and that’s what makes its gore so great.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Anime Series By Studio Khara; Directed by Hideaki Anno
Largely considered one of the most depressing anime of all time, Neon Genesis Evangelion blends mech-violence with deep concepts of religion and philosophy. The central conflict is between human-engineered mech suits called EVAs and gigantic alien creatures known as the Angels.
With even the mech-suits secreting a red blood-like fluid, the battles seem to be extremely bloody with both the EVAs and Angels’ blood and organs spraying everywhere. However, with some deaths happening offscreen and the human severity limited, Neon Genesis Evangelion seems to be way darker in its exploration of human depression and trauma rather than its brutal violence.
Berserk
Anime Series By OLM, INC.; Based On The Manga By Kentaro Miura
Berserk opens on Guts, a one-eyed man with a giant sword comparable to a hunk of iron, fighting a demon in a bloody battle as he looks for relief from an unknown trauma. Everything that follows is an exploration into Guts’ past to show all the trauma and tragedy he and his friends suffered for him to get to where he is, today.
The 1997 adaptation of Berserk has long been one of the most iconic dark fantasy stories in anime, and it’s easy to see why that is. With its stellar direction and gruesome depiction of violence, fantasy or otherwise, the 1997 adaptation of Berserk is a landmark in fantasy action that is still the best adaptation of the original manga after almost 30 years. While the series will probably never receive a complete adaptation, the 1997 one does the best job of capturing the darkness of its story, and that’s plenty worth mentioning.
Terra Formars
Anime Series By Liden Films; Based On The manga By Yū Sasuga & Kenichi Tachibana
In Terra Formars‘ future, six space explorers encounter humanoid bugs on Mars only to be brutally slain by them. This leads to an all-out war between the two races with constant scenes of killing and torture between the creatures and humans.
While the violence would indeed be shocking for some viewers, as is evident from some scenes even being censored on Japanese television, Terra Formars is relatively lighter in comparison as most of the bloodshed takes place in fast fighting sequences, so viewers don’t get much time to process the explicit details.
Another
Anime Series By P.A. Works; Based On the novel by Yukito Ayatsuji
Another is a horror anime whose plot leans closer to the suspense genre, yet it doesn’t fall short of bloody and graphic deaths at any time. The anime revolves around a curse that affects an entire class, which causes the students to suffer horrible incidents one by one and gives the series a similar feeling to the film franchise The Final Destination.
However, Another also explores other aspects of this curse, focusing on how fear affects people and showcasing what people are willing to do to ensure their own survival. A short and intriguing anime, Another is a perfect series to binge-watch as it captivates the viewers and leaves them craving to know the truth behind the school mystery. Additionally, some of the deaths in Another are so shocking that they are just impossible to forget.
Dark Gathering
Anime Series By OLM, Inc.; Based On The Manga By Kenichi Kondo
OLM, Inc.’s Dark Gathering stars Keitaro Gentoga, a college student whose tutoring job brings him into contact with Yayoi Hozuki, a young girl with supernatural abilities who uses them to capture and enslave violent spirits. All of that is so Yayoi can eventually defeat the spirit that stole her mother’s soul, and much to Keitaro’s dismay, he gets dragged into the dangerous and horrifying battles she undergoes for her mission.
Horror anime centered around ghosts and exorcisms have become increasingly common, but what sets Dark Gathering apart is that Dark Gathering always goes as far as possible with its horror to make its ghosts as horrifying as possible, whether that’s through the torment they put the cast through or just from their rich designs. Dark Gathering has largely flown under the radar, but anyone looking for something filled with great horror and gore would be remiss to pass it up.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
