The Most Twisted Dark Anime Series

The darkest anime series have some of the greatest character arcs and mind-blowing storylines that make fans want more after every episode. While there are plenty of dark horror anime fans can choose from, there are also surprisingly dark psychological shows that are truly binge-worthy anime series one can finish in a single day or weekend.

These shows can give fans cruel but smart anime characters whose twisted and brilliant ideas made their series unforgettable experiences. They can be gory and messed up, but some of them are capable of being terrifying and mind-bending without blood or violence. While these anime shows can scare viewers and make them think about uncomfortable issues, some of them appreciate that creators are willing to make stories that confront the harsher side of life. Like these great examples.

Updated December 25, 2024, by Mark Sammut: The holidays might not seem like the ideal setting to throw on a dark anime filled with tragedy, black humor, and gore. That said, it is also never a bad time to watch a great series, regardless of its content (within reason). In celebration of the end of the year, two awesome but challenging anime have been added to this article. Maybe don't watch them with the rest of the family.

19 Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories

Scary But Not Too Intense

Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories is perfect for those fans who love Japanese myths and all kinds of terrifying urban legends. The show follows an old man who wears a spooky yellow mask and appears at a playground to tell scary stories to the kids using his kamishibai, a form of traditional Japanese paper theater. They used to be commonplace in Japan before the rise of comics and cinema.

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This creepy anime is perfect for viewers who prefer short, classic horror stories, as it plays out like a Japanese take on Tales from the Crypt. Each short is related to either ancient folklore or relatively modern horror figures like Hasshaku-sama, the inspiration behind Resident Evil 8's Lady Dimitrescu. Either way, it provides bite-sized chunks of horror that each have a twist in their tails.

18 Corpse Party: Tortured Souls

Gore Horror

Corpse Party: Tortured Souls is a divisive show, as those who liked it tended to love it, while those who didn't absolutely hated it. While it's based on the Corpse Party series of horror games, the franchise has received various manga and anime adaptations. Each comes with its own differences, with some things being better in the original source material.

Nevertheless, Tortured Souls still sticks to Corpse Party's premise. It follows a group of high school friends who perform a charm that should help them become better friends. Instead, though, it transports them into the spooky Heavenly Host Elementary School. There they are attacked by the murderous ghosts of the school's students, who each died gruesome deaths, and are happy to share that experience with the living. While the concept is not extremely original, Tortured Souls doubles down on the gore, which is visceral, uncomfortable, and grotesque.

17 Bokurano

Survival Is Not An Option

Neon Genesis Evangelion is the go-to dark mecha anime, and that reputation is well-earned by the original series and The End of Evangelion movie. However, NGE is hardly the only show to take this genre in a mature and depressing direction; heck, the average Gundam story is fairly dark compared to most other anime. While not nearly as well-known as either of those properties, Bokurano presents a strong case for being the darkest mecha series of all time, one that maintains a relentlessly distressing tone throughout nearly its entire runtime.

The premise is somewhat straightforward: a group of kids are chosen to fight off aliens to protect Earth. That setup is almost cliché, but Bokurano introduces a few wrinkles. For one, the characters are tricked into accepting this responsibility. Even when they realize that everything is legit, they are way too immature to process what is genuinely going on. Unlike so many mecha anime with kid protagonists, Bokurano's characters mostly act their age and are extremely vulnerable. There are no heroes and survival is not guaranteed.

16 Deadman Wonderland

Violent, With A Particularly Graphic Hook For The Story

Deadman Wonderland certainly gets off to a start. Set in a dystopian future, Ganta and his class go on a field trip to an amusement park-cum-prison called 'Deadman Wonderland'. But when all his classmates are killed by a mystery man in red, Ganta is framed for the crime and imprisoned in the 'park'. Soon, he discovers that this place is not like any other prison, as the convicts are forced to participate in deadly games for the amusement of the public.

While most people preferred the manga, the anime is still a thrilling show. It keeps its viewers engaged from beginning to end. While it's notorious for its graphic violence and intense action sequences, it offers more than that. The story goes into the reasons behind the violence, as well as corruption, and the dehumanization of prisoners. They're not performing in bloodsports in real life, but there are places worldwide using the law to exploit them in other ways.

15 Elfen Lied

Crude, Edgy, & Shocking

While Elfen Lied has mostly bright visuals and cute characters, it's not a show for the faint of heart. It's easily one of the darkest sci-fi anime around, with gore, nudity, and a lot of violent deaths. That's on top of cheery themes like domestic abuse, mental illness, discrimination, forbidden love, and the value of humanity, as the anime's story follows a race of mutants called Diclonii.

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They look and act like other people, but have invisible arms that can eviscerate living beings without breaking a sweat. The government was keeping one Diclonus, Lucy, for experimentation. The result gave her a split personality: one consisting of an innocent, friendly girl who gets looked after by Kouta. The other is a brutal figure willing to murder all of humanity to avenge her suffering.

While its reputation has declined over the years, transforming from a thought-provoking psychological thriller into an over-the-top gore fest with somewhat adolescent writing, Elfen Lied's shocking moments still manage to pack a considerable punch, and they are extremely mean-spirited. Note: A dog is involved.

14 Black Butler

A Slightly Tongue-in-Cheek Gothic Epic

Black Butler is one of the best gothic anime series for adult viewers who love darkly sophisticated humor and anime stories that don't shy away from some of the most taboo subjects. Namely, how a young boy called Ciel sells his soul to the demon Sebastian in return for vengeance on the people who ruined his life.

On the outside, they look like a child prodigy and his faithful butler, but Sebastian is just looking forward to the day he can snack on Ciel's soul. Just as Ciel is waiting to give his nemesis their just desserts as they investigate some of the bloodiest crimes in Victorian London. Though as grisly as it gets, things get complicated as Ciel and Sebastian get to know each other. There's more to the show than animosity and gore.

Black Butler has a twisted premise with characters that delight in the macabre; however, the show also has a dark sense of humor that runs throughout most of its episodes. Still, the anime touches upon quite a few heavy themes.

13 Chainsaw Man

MyAnimeList: 8.52

Chainsaw Man is known for its intense action, gore, and horror elements that make the anime unforgettable. However, this dark anime also has meaningful stories, since it delves into some pretty heavy themes, including death, sacrifice, and existentialism. It follows a young man named Denji, who merges with a chainsaw demon to become a powerful demon hunter.

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To pay back his father's old debts and adjust to his new powers, he embarks on a dangerous journey into the violent world of demon hunting. Chainsaw Man also has stunning animation, as well as well-developed characters who'll make viewers pause for thought one moment, and then make them laugh the next. For example, Denji is a hormonal teen, but he also has emotional needs that aren't being met. Behind the sex jokes is someone being manipulated by his elders, particularly the shapely but evil Makima.

12 Paranoia Agent

Psychological Character Study With Flashy Of Visceral Violence

Given the show was directed by the legendary Satoshi Kon, the man behind Perfect Blue and Paprika, it's no surprise Paranoia Agent is a dark, mind-bending psychological anime about anime that gives its viewers plenty of unforgettable surreal and disturbing moments. It revolves around a series of attacks carried out in Musashino City by a kid in a cap wearing rollerskates and armed with a baseball bat.

The press reporting his incidents call him 'Li'l Slugger', and the series follows everyone who his bat has touched in some way. While there are some violent deaths, it never really gets gory. The series is more about how urban legends and social phenomena occur, and how they affect people. Even in his lightest works, like Tokyo Godfathers, Kon never shied away from the uglier sides of society. So, it's no surprise things can get very ugly when people get possessed by paranoia.

11 Blue Literature

Inspired Takes On Historical Classics

Despite being hard to find, Blue Literature is worth tracking down, since it's a unique series. The show features episodic adaptations of classic Japanese novels, like The Spider's Thread and Hell Screen by Ryunosuke Akutagawa (the writer behind Rashomon), Kokoro by Natsume Soseki, and No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. The latter of these was adapted into a manga by Junji Ito and Furuya Usamaru.

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For the anime, they were adapted with designs by Death Note's Takeshi Obata (for No Longer Human and Kokoro), Bleach's Tite Kubo (Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees, The Spider's Thread, Hell Screen), and Prince of Tennis' Takeshi Konomi (Run, Melos!). They're not fluffy shōnen stories either. Instead, they run the gamut from existentialism and the nature of good and evil to depictions of hell both literal and figurative.

10 Texhnolyze

A Slow & Painful Fall

Some existential stories aim for happy endings, or at least a neutral one. But there's nothing happy in Texhnolyze. It starts simple enough, as the prizefighter Ichise falls afoul of the criminal organizations that run the underground city of Lux. He receives a prosthetic limb through "texhnolyzation," but this is just the start of his troubles as the city is attacked by a mysterious visitor called Kazuho.

As Lux succumbs to his attacks and will, Ichise and his companions try to find help. They even go as far as going back to the surface world, but the people there have long given up their hold on life. The anime shows humanity's fall not as some cataclysmic horror, but as a slow, painful whimper where nothing can be done. Even when the villains fall, the damage is done. Sometimes, all someone needs to feel dark is not gore or horror, but something that makes them abandon all hope.