Best Horror Anime

It might not look like it, but making an anime that’s pure horror isn’t that simple. For one, hand-drawn animations can’t quite capture the frame-by-frame tension and shock value of the horror media. That’s why scary horror anime are rare. Consequently, the few true horror anime in existence hold a special place in everyone’s hearts.

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Every New Horror Anime Announced For 2025 (So Far)

2025 should be a great year for anime, but will it be a great year for horror? So far, a few horror anime have been confirmed for 2025.

The best horror anime give goosebumps, a feeling of dread, and unsettling scenery that utilizes the medium in ways that live-action films cannot. If that’s what viewers are looking for, the upcoming shows are among the freakiest, scariest, and most horrific to ever come out of the industry.

Updated on June 5, 2025, by Mark Sammut: As 2025 has yet to produce any scary anime, a section dedicated to Summer 2025’s upcoming shows has been added. Fortunately, the season should feature horror relatively prominently.

20

Gantz

MyAnimeList: 6.98 (Season 1)

Gantz

Release Date

2004 – 2004

Network

Fuji TV, AT-X

Directors

Atsushi Nigorikawa, Hirotaka Endo

While Hiroya Oku’s manga is relatively highly regarded, the same cannot be said about Gonzo’s adaptation of Gantz. Celebrating gore, the anime is a relentless exercise in excess, to the point of diminishing returns as shocking sequences clump together and gradually form a frustrating blob. To put it plainly, Gantz is not particularly good or particularly entertaining, largely thanks to a roster of one-note or annoying characters (Kei, the protagonist, is just the worst).

Still, the anime deserves a quick mention for a few reasons. Firstly, while exhausting after a while, the gore is visceral enough to get a reaction. All these years later, Gantz still manages to be unsettling through its gratuitous violence, even if genuine scares are few and far in-between. The concept is strong as well, and there is a reason the manga has a very long and successful run. Finally, Gantz:O is a pretty good CGI movie that is arguably superior to the series.

19

Zom 100: Bucket List Of The Dead

MyAnimeList: 7.77

In truth, it is a stretch to describe Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead as horror since it does not try to be scary at all. Nevertheless, the show is still a great pick for fans of the genre, particularly if they are into zombie apocalypses. While oversaturated in Western cultures, the same cannot be said for anime. Sure, the industry has produced zombie stories like Highschool of the Dead and Zombie Land Saga, but they are infrequent enough to still seem fresh when they do appear. And, they tend to be diverse too, ranging from action-romps like Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress to romps like Is This a Zombie?

Zom 100 does not fit neatly into any one genre. The anime has humor but is not a comedy, and while most episodes have some action, these sequences are rarely the story’s focus. Similarly, the show gets gory and dark at times, but these moments flirt with horror without fully embracing it. Ultimately, Zom 100 is about life, reflected by the protagonist’s drive to make the most out of his remaining days after he is freed from the shackles of employment thanks to an outbreak. Weirdly enough, this zombie anime is rather uplifting.

18

Pet Shop Of Horrors

MyAnimeList: 7.24

Pet Shop of Horrors is a hard-to-find 4-part OVA series that aired over two months in 1999. The show works well enough as a teaser for Matsuri Akino’s manga, which has received a few sequels since its original incarnation ended in 1998. Although not completely devoid of an overarching narrative, each episode generally focuses on a self-contained story as the audience follows a character who purchases a unique pet from a shop run by Count D. These strange creatures can change somebody’s life for the better, but they are also high maintenance, to put it lightly; more importantly, if their owner fails to treat them right, they will face dire consequences.

Pet Shop of Horrors has an awesome concept with a lot of room for expansion, as can be seen in the source material. While the anime does not fully capture the manga’s appeal and ends too quickly to build any significant momentum, it is still a decent watch when viewed in a vacuum. Count D is a fascinating and complex character, and the individual stories produce their share of uncomfortable moments. The show looks like a horror production, although it does not produce all that many legitimate scares.

17

Mieruko-chan

MyAnimeList: 7.40

Mieruko-chan

Release Date

2021 – 2020

Directors

Yuki Ogawa

Writers

Kenta Ihara

Horror anime are so rare that whenever one shows up that is actually decent, it tends to attract quite a bit of attention. Mieruko-chan‘s eponymous schoolgirl has the unfortunate ability to see ghosts, and these spirits are ripped right out of nightmares. As she is generally the only person who can witness these terrifying entities, Mieruko has to pretend they do not exist, something that often proves rather difficult.

Mieruko-chan is almost like a slice of life horror anime, in the sense that most of the episodes simply follow the protagonist during her everyday life. This repetition does hurt the show’s fear factor to an extent, but the designs of the ghosts are genuinely scary.

16

Happy Sugar Life

MyAnimeList: 6.78

Happy Sugar Life

Release Date

2018 – 2018

Network

TBS, MBS

Directors

Ryosuke Shibuya, Fumihiro Ueno

Happy Sugar Life is a trip that starts messed up and just keeps on finding new ways to get messier. While there are some folks with decent intentions, there are no traditionally “good” characters, and that extends to the main girl, Satou.

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The anime is filled with violent deaths, depressing themes, tragic moments, and uncomfortable scenes. While not often terrifying, Happy Sugar Life is nearly always suspenseful. This horror anime needs to be experienced blind and preferably binge-watched over a weekend.

15

School-Live!

MyAnimeList: 7.62

School-Live!

Release Date

July 9, 2015

Network

AT-X

Directors

Fumio Itou, Yuu Kinome, Takanori Yano, Hitomi Ezoe

School-live! is often compared to Puella Magi Madoka Magica, an anime famous for turning the magical girl genre on its head. School-live! does something similar with the “cute girls doing cute things” subgenre by throwing a zombie apocalypse into the mix. These two wildly different worlds collide to form the anime’s protagonist, a girl who is in serious denial about her situation.

While not lacking in dark and intense moments, School-Live! also tries to cater to standard moe conventions as well. Consequently, the show is not that tonally consistent since it only seems to have one foot rooted in horror. Despite these points, Lerche’s anime is still enjoyable and relatively clever.

14

Ajin: Demi-Human

MyAnimeList: 7.39 (Season 1)

Look past Ajin‘s uneven CG animation to find a fast-paced action horror series with a strong premise soaked in moral ambiguity. In this world, “Ajin” is a species that cannot be killed, and if a human turns into one, they are immediately arrested for a future filled with pain. Kei Nagai learns this the hard way and quickly finds himself on the run.

Available on Netflix, Ajin succeeds because it doesn’t present either side – the Ajin or humans – are pure evil or good. It adds an element of intrigue to each situation, some of which are graphic and intense.

13

Elfen Lied

MyAnimeList: 7.48

Elfen Lied

Release Date

2004 – 2004

Network

AT-X

Directors

Keizo Kusakawa

Elfen Lied is a twisted and more modern take on a monster girl trope in horror. Instead of being a vampire or werewolf, however, the main monster human in Elfen Lied is a Diclonius – a powerful being that has become the subject of experiments in the anime until she decides that she cannot take it anymore and breaks free in the bloodiest way possible.

As the said monster girl escapes captivity and tries to live normally among human beings, certain circumstances will force her to unleash her true potential and nature. The amount of blood and violence in Elfen Lied tends to overshadow the rest of the content, including themes of human experimentation and cruelty, but the show has a few genuinely uncomfortable and disconcerting moments that will leave an impression on most viewers. While it has not aged extremely well, especially its “romance,” Elfen Lied is still one of the more popular horror-leaning anime of all time.

12

Cat Soup

MyAnimeList: 7.32

Cat Soup

Release Date

February 21, 2001

Runtime

33 minutes

Director

Tatsuo Sato

A short film released in the early 2000s, Cat Soup is far from a mainstream name, although it has acquired some notoriety over the years. Cut from the same bizarre cloth as Angel’s Egg, Cat Soup is a surreal trip that is light on story and heavy on atmosphere. After Nyatto’s soul is confiscated by Death, she and her brother go on a hellish journey to try and recover it. Along the way, they traverse unfathomable landscapes rich in beauty and dread, all the while running across larger-than-life figures that are not even human-adjacent.

Cat Soup is not a traditional horror anime nor does it constantly attempt to horrify audiences. However, the film’s nightmarish creativity is not only a sight to behold but also punctuated with chilling imagery. While not scary, it is unnerving.

11

Hell Girl

MyAnimeList: 7.60 (Season 1)

Considering the rarity of horror anime in general, a show lasting four seasons and 90 episodes is pretty much one-of-a-kind. Despite its longevity, Hell Girl is not quite as synonymous with the genre as a few other series, for a couple of reasons. For one, the full series is not that accessible nowadays, at least not legally. More importantly, the anime gets repetitive quickly, with most of the early segments being essentially the same thing. The later seasons shake up the formula and start to emphasize the eponymous Hell Girl’s backstory, but most people might not stick around for dozens of episodes that mostly consist of the same type of story.

That said, even during its early days, Hell Girl is an entertaining episodic series that can be relied upon to deliver a few mild frights. The storylines revolve around revenge, with Ai Enma showing up whenever someone types a target into a website. The twist is that the person seeking vengeance will also have to damn themselves to hell, adding a psychological element that forces people to reexamine their hatred. While periodically intense, Hell Girl is more atmospheric than downright scary, although it is still very much horror.