The 20 Best Horror Anime of All Time

When I hear “horror,” I’m envisioning Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, and all the classic monsters. So, it’s no wonder that one of the most popular anime of the 21st century—based off one of the most popular video games of all time—centers around the famous Transylvanian vampire and the hunters who want him dead. Alongside clever names such as Alucard (Dracula, backwards), Castlevania features several noteworthy voice actors including Jason isaacs, Theo James, Bill Nighy, and the late Lance Reddick.

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If you’ve ever read one of Junji Ito’s short stories, then you understand that the horror writer is simply on another level. I don’t even want to know how he conjures images that scare me right off the page, let alone when they’re animated in this anthology series. I highly suggest you read a few—"The Hanging Balloons," especially—but luckily that story is adapted in episode 3 of this Netflix series for anime fans as well.

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You won't exactly lose sleep over Devil May Cry. It's a show that puts a premium on stylish action over scares. But this slick adaptation of the Capcom video game franchise still puts demon hunter-for-hire Dante (Johnny Young Bosch) up against the forces of the underworld, led by an enigmatic inter-dimensional terrorist White Rabbit (Hoon Lee) who seeks to kickstart the apocalypse. The only thing scary about Devil May Cry is the realization that "Rollin'" by Limp Bizkit has been a banger all along.

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Devilman Crybaby is another hit anime from Netflix, following two high school students who learns that the government is hiding knowledge of demons from the public. Partnering up by becoming possessed by demons themselves, the two friends set out to recruit even more empowered team members to their rebel squad and reveal the truth to the world.

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Teenagers fighting ghosts and aliens has never been funnier, or surreal, than in Dandadan. Easily one of the most popular anime shows airing today, the madcap series tells of a high school girl who believes in ghosts and a fellow student who believes in aliens who together discover that all the paranormal phenomena they obsess over are real. Bursting with a punk rock spirit and animation that feels as if the staff at studio Science Saru were given permission to go buck wild, Dan da Dan might not scare you, but it's sure to freak you out.

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Monster contains one of the best premises to a series that I’ve ever heard. (And no, it’s not an anime remake of Netflix’s Jeffrey Dahmer series—thankfully). Monster follows Dr. Kenzo Tenma, a gifted neurosurgeon who saves the life of a child that grows up to become a serial killer. Feeling guilty following a string of murders, Tenma leaves the hospital and sets out to bring his former patient to justice.

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Often hailed as among the greatest fantasy anime of all time, Berserk doesn't look like a show that would scare you silly. But like a swinging blade from an expert swordsman, Berserk can leave you unnerved when you least expect it. Set in a dark medieval world, Berserk tells the journey of Guts, a lone warrior with a gigantic sword who joins a mercenary group, the Band of the Hawks, and shortly after becomes a hunted outlaw in the kingdom. From the monsters who prowl the land or phantasmagoric nightmares that represent Guts' haunted past, Berserk is a saga in which a giant weapon doesn't feel big enough.

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Spinning off from the 2005 live-action series Garo, Garo: The Animation isn't just one series, but an anthology of three TV miniseries and two features. While each installment takes place in a different time and setting, from medieval Spain to 21st century New York City (or at least, a version of it) they all inhabit the world introduced in Garo, where one person serves as the Makai Knight, an armored protector of humanity against demons called "Horrors." Garo: The Animation is an impressively seamless blend of superhero action and dark fantasy storytelling, with just enough spooky things that go bump in the knight.

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If Battle Royale were a supernatural horror, it might look like Another. Based on the 2009 novel by Yukito Ayatsuji, Another tells the story of a haunted class of high school students; each year, an extra student joins the roster, who is dead but doesn't know it. To break the curse, the students must identify and kill their already-dead peer, or else they all die too. With gruesome deaths that would make the producers of Final Destination wince, Another is an overlooked piece of gory horror that—dare we say it?—has all the makings for a killer American remake.

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Although it ran for a short 13 episodes in 2003, Requiem From the Darkness is a sublime early 2000s horror anime that explores the dark depths of making art. Based on the short story collections by Natsuhiko Kyogoku, Requiem From the Darkness takes place at the tail end of the Edo period to follow an aspiring writer whose research into myths brings him up close with the Ongyou, a trio of detectives. Together, they investigate cases of the supernatural. The series serves as a stylish metaphor about the tensions between old superstitions and a rapidly modernizing world.

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Every time I feel like I’ve experienced everything the Resident Evil series has to offer; I find out there’s something like a handful of Japanese animated CGI movies that I haven’t seen yet. Resident Evil: Damnation is the second animated film in the series, but it’s undoubtedly the best. The story follows agent Leon Kennedy as he seeks to stop biologically enhanced monsters from causing a civil war in Europe.

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American horror films have their tropes: creepy smiles, little dolls, demonic possessions. But what about a cursed notebook? In Death Note, an emo teenager finds a notebook that kills anyone whose name you write into it. It’s an impressive power—and now it’s in the dangerous hands of a Hot Topic–shopping narcissist. Can the greatest detective in the world stop him before everyone ends up dead?

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In an alternate-history version of post–World War II England, vampires run amok. The Hellsing organization—run by a descendant of the famous vampire hunter Van Helsing—is the only line of defense. Partnering with a powerful vampire named Alucard (yes, read that backward), the Hellsings may finally curb the bloodsucking menace once and for all.

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One fateful night, tiny aliens invade Japan and latch onto their human hosts by infecting their brains. High schooler Shinichi Izumi wakes up in time to stop an alien from crawling up his nose, but the creature burrows itself into his hand instead. Since both beings maintain their sentience, Izumi and his new parasite work together to survive a crazy new world.

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More like a fever dream than a comprehensible narrative, Mononoke is an experimental twelve-episode series that takes its inspiration from old Japanese folklore paintings. Focusing on a creepy “medicine seller” who feeds off others’ negative energy, the colorful and uniquely animated series is certainly unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.

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Much like Blade, Vampire Hunter D is a half-human/half-vampire dhampir who retains all the powers of a vampire but none of the weaknesses. He is the perfect vampire hunter—and one of the coolest protagonists in late-eighties anime. Oh, and he also rides a cybernetic horse.

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Directed by the late Satoshi Kon, Perfect Blue follows a Japanese pop star who slowly loses her mind after she is stalked by an obsessive fan. The 1998 film often tops lists as one of the greatest Japanese animated films of all time—and its horrifying bathtub scene was even re-created in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. Though Aronofsky only publicly recognized the similarities between those two films, Perfect Blue likely also inspired his 2010 hit thriller, Black Swan.

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The newest entry on the list is a fantasy series that dives as deeply into war and politics as it does giant monsters. In the wake of a massive attack, humans are forced to build massive walls around their cities to keep out fifty-foot-tall cannibals called Titans. No one knows where they came from or what they want, but the young Eren Yeager is determined to put an end to the tragedy. Regardless of how you feel about the series’ controversial politics, there’s no denying the chokehold that Attack on Titan’s horrifying imagery has had on anime for the past decade.

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Junji Ito, Japan’s celebrated master of horror, finally saw his 1998 series, Uzumaki, adapted into an anime in late 2024. With animation that looks like the manga pages are literally moving before our eyes, it’s no wonder that the production has been heavily delayed over the past five years in the pursuit of perfection. But trust us, this adaptation about a town that becomes obsessed with spirals is nothing short of amazing.

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