It’s that time of year again, folks. October is here, and with it people’s desire to immerse themselves in spooks, scares and all the gothic themes and aesthetics we can handle. Anime fans are no different, and luckily there are a plethora of animated shows and films that are perfect for viewing on and around the holiday to put you in the right state of mind. To that end, here are 10 of the scariest anime to get you into the Halloween spirit.
Scariest Anime to get You Into the Halloween Spirit
Gyo
Spawned from the mind of the visionary horror mangaka Junji Ito, Gyo tells the tale of a strange phenomenon where dead sea creatures start to rise up out of the ocean, masked in an ungodly stink of rotten flesh and sewage. Kaori and her friends are unfortunate enough to be in a coastal town when this event occurs, and before long become trapped in their home as the wave of undead creatures sweeps across the land. Their only hope of escape is to make a run for it and hope they aren’t caught, as it quickly becomes clear the creatures have a far worse fate than death in store for those they manage to capture.
Equal parts genuinely terrifying and a laughably corny B-level horror movie, Gyo is perfect when you want to be scared and have fun while you do it. It also helps that the plot takes some genuinely interesting twists and turns along the way that nobody could see coming, and if you’ve never experienced a Junji Ito work before, there’s no better one to start with than this.
Scariest Anime to get You Into the Halloween Spirit
Devilman Crybaby
Akira Fudo is a kind, if overly emotional, high schooler living a normal life when his old friend Ryo Asuka returns in need of help. A seeker of the occult, Ryo has traced an outbreak of demons to a club in Akira’s home town, and by teaming up he hopes to capture proof of the phenomenon on video and expose it to the world.
Eager to help his friend, Akira goes to the club in question, but shortly after they arrive all hell breaks loose and demons start to devour the club goers. This sparks a transformation in Akira, who takes on the form of the fearsome demon Amon and rips everything in his path apart. With this newfound power at his disposal, Akira swears to eliminate the demons that threaten mankind while also seeking out a peaceful alternative for those with abilities similar to his.
A visually breathtaking work from the experimental director Masaaki Yuasa, Devilman Crybaby will more than satisfy anyone who wants to watch an over the top, gory monster flick. Each new foe Akira faces is more twisted and devilish than the last, and paired with the colorful visuals it makes for a show you won’t want to stop watching even at its most gruesome.
Scariest Anime to get You Into the Halloween Spirit
Monster
Dr. Kenzo Tenma is renowned throughout the world as a master surgeon, able to save the lives of patients others would think a lost cause. His life comes crashing down, however, when he is forced to choose whether he will operate on a young boy shot in the head or a wealthy politician after a mass shooting incident. He chooses the young boy, and is chastised by the medical community; that is, until all of his biggest critics start to turn up dead. Though suspicion falls on him at first, the incidents are eventually forgotten and several years pass before the real cause presents itself.
Johan, the young boy Kenzo saved, is actually a psychotic killer, and in addition to his usual targets took out Kenzo’s critics as a thank you to the doctor for saving his life. Filled with guilt and determined to make things right, Kenzo swears to kill Johan and sets out to track his former patient down before he can hurt anyone else.
A psychological thriller on par with the best works of most any other medium, Monster will sink its hooks into most anyone and refuse to let go until the last episode’s credits roll. Each new development, and each new piece of information learned about the characters, weaves an even more complex and terrifying web, and it all leads to a finale that will leave viewers with a begrudging respect for Johan as a psychopathic killer on par with the best in fiction.
Scariest Anime to get You Into the Halloween Spirit
Higurashi When They Cry
In the small, rural town of Hinamizawa, Keiichi Maebara does his best to adapt to his new life in the town and make some new friends over the summer. Things seem to go well and he believes the town to be peaceful until the night of the Wataganashi Festival. Held every year since the town was established, it bears a grim tradition of one person in the town being murdered and another vanishing, never to be seen again.
To his dismay, Keiichi becomes one of the people who is murdered, and by one of his new friends no less. He dies wishing he could have seen it coming, and that he could set things right… only to wake up several days before the events of the festival had occurred. Confused and desperate to survive, Keiichi uses this time loop to uncover the truth of the yearly occurrence and unmask the true perpetrator behind the grisly murders.
A surprisingly gory murder mystery, Higurashi is the kind of show that’s best watched with the lights off in a quiet house. Each new loop Keiichi enters, and the feats he has to go to in order to escape from his murderer, will have you on the edge of your seat, and fans of bloody horror movies will be more than satisfied by the buckets worth spilled over the course of the series.
Scariest Anime to get You Into the Halloween Spirit
D.Gray-man
Allen Walker, a young man with snow white hair and a cursed left arm, wanders 19th century Europe in search of the demonic Akuma and their creator, the Millennium Earl. The Earl is responsible for the death of his father Mana, and Allen’s curse makes him one of the few in the world capable of stopping the enigmatic devil from wreaking havoc upon mankind.
To this end, Allen joins forces with the Exorcists of the Black Order, who have waged a losing war with the Earl for centuries in an attempt to prevent the apocalypse. Allen’s joining them could be the boost they need to turn the tides and save humanity, but first they’ll have to survive an onslaught of new enemies and plots cooked up by the Earl in an attempt to bury Allen once and for all.
A top-notch Shonen series that drips with gothic horror themes, D.Gray-man is a show that will scratch one’s itch for dynamic battle scenes and creepy monster flicks in one fell swoop. It also helps that the series is over 100 episodes long, and could keep viewers occupied the entire Halloween season if they like it enough.
Scariest Anime to get You Into the Halloween Spirit
Hellsing Ultimate
What would happen if Dracula was brought to heel by the head of a secret organization dedicated to running down occult monsters in defense of humankind? Such is the premise of Hellsing Ultimate, an action-packed romp full of blood, gore and oh so many bullets. Several decades after the end of World War II, the titular order of occult hunters finds themselves under attack by Vampiric Nazis, each with their own special abilities capable of tearing through normal humans with little effort.
In response, the order unleashes Alucard, the first vampire with dark and disturbing powers that allow him to sic a pack of demonic dogs on his foes or raise the dead toward his cause. The result is a battle of monsters that will topple cities, raze the earth and very nearly sink the world into a war it will never recover from.
A mash-up of B-movie plots for action horror flicks, Hellsing Ultimate is balls to the wall insanity and all the better for it. With every new character and plot point introduced, it’ll only roll the dial further past 11, all the while remaining endlessly entertaining for anyone who enjoys a modern twist on gothic horror classics.
Scariest Anime to get You Into the Halloween Spirit
Blood-C
Saya lives a quiet life in her lakeside town with her father and her friends from school. She has all the worries of a regular girl, from how to get the attention of a broody boy to how she’ll pass her next exam. At night though, she takes on an entirely different persona, that of a demon hunter armed with an ancient sword and blood that allows her to kill the normally immortal creatures of hell.
Things continue on like this until more and more demons start to appear, some even brazen enough to appear during the day. Eager to return to her normal life and protect those she loves, Saya attempts to discover the cause of the increase in demons, only to unveil a far more sinister plot in the works.
A show that takes some truly terrifying twists and turns, Blood-C drops its viewers into a rabbit hole of blood, gore and malicious intent. It may take a few episodes for the plot to really ramp up, but once it does you’ll be too hooked to stop watching until the final episode delivers its gut punch of a reveal.
Scariest Anime to get You Into the Halloween Spirit
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
On a dark and stormy night in late-19th century England, a grave robber happens upon the wreckage of a carriage that careened off the edge of the road. To his surprise, a young child named Jonathan Joestar and his father survived the crash, and the father mistakes his attempted robbery as a rescue effort. In return for the supposed help, he promises the man a favor in return, which the grave robber uses to grant his son, Dio Brando, a new home shortly before he dies.
Dio’s arrival sparks a rivalry between himself and Jonathan that rages for years, until Dio’s plot to steal Jonathan’s inheritance leads him to discover an ancient mask capable of turning its wearer into a vampire. The two’s rivalry suddenly takes on a much more nefarious air, with Dio intent on using his monstrous new powers to drag Jonathan and the rest of the world under his influence.
While it may not maintain its gothic horror vibes throughout the entire series, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure sets off its strange brand of Shonen with an excellent and corny take on vampire lore. The over the top performances of the voice actors, coupled with the bombastic ways in which the Joestar clan dispatches the evils of the night, serve as the perfect Halloween pallet cleanser for those who want more creativity than gore in their horror-esque viewing experiences.
Scariest Anime to get You Into the Halloween Spirit
Parasyte
One fateful night, as the citizens of Tokyo sleep, alien spores drop down from the sky and litter random parts of the city. For those unlucky enough to come across one, their bodies become forfeit to an alien parasite capable of twisting their flesh into terrifying new shapes, constructs and weapons.
When Shinichi Izumi comes across a spore though, he reacts quickly enough to keep it isolated in his arm. This forces the parasite to coexist with him, share its plans and team up in an effort to stop the invasion of body-snatching creatures, albeit by facing down horrifying monsters unlike anything humankind has ever seen before.
Though some of the music may take you out of the horror mindset, Parasyte is a must-watch for anyone who enjoys a scare from body horror or alien invasions. Each twisted new form the parasites take on will have your skin crawling, and as it becomes clearer that humanity is in no way prepared for it, you’ll be rooting for Shinichi to hold onto his morality long enough to find a countermeasure against them.
Scariest Anime to get You Into the Halloween Spirit
Soul Eater
In a world where witches and undead terrors stalk the streets and threaten regular humans, special individuals able to transform into weapons are wielded by specially trained partners known as meisters in an effort to keep the peace. Maka, one such meister, attends Death Weapon Meister Academy in an attempt to hone her skills and turn her partner, Soul, into a Death weapon capable of felling any and every threat. To this end, she teams up with other meisters against all manner of threats from a mad scientist out to use her son as a weapon to a resurrected witch intent on controlling the world. None of it will be easy, but all of it will be a once in a lifetime experience.
A series literally based around the idea of Halloween, Soul Eater is the series to watch to get into the mood for Halloween. Every character plays off of some sort of scary legend or spooky tradition, and more often than not it’ll put a big, goofy grin on your face at how much it enjoys what it is. If you haven’t seen this series yet, make the time to cross it off your list this Halloween season.
And those are our picks for the scariest anime to watch this month. What anime get you ready for Halloween festivities? Mention them in the comments section below, and check out our recommendation lists for series like Erased and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.
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