Horror Anime for Halloween 2015

In a nice little diversion from our usual reviews and ramblings, we’d like to share a few of our top horror-themed anime to watch this Halloween. Check out the list below!

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

This beautifully animated film is a ton of fun to watch for its gorgeous visuals and insane Gothic aesthetic. It falls firmly under the action-horror heading, and offers several exciting battles throughout an extended chase between the titular hunter, a team of monster-killing mercenaries, and their vampiric quarry.

Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales

This series is a collection of three horror tales, including a classic Japanese ghost story, an adaptation of a supernatural play, and an original monster mystery. Ranging from horrifying to bizarre, each story offers a unique experience in a wildly different style. It’s a fairly obscure example of classic horror through the lens of anime that is worth checking out.

Mononoke

A spin-off from the last story of Ayakashi, this show follows a mysterious medicine seller as he travels through Edo period Japan confronting supernatural horrors. Worth seeing for the art style alone, it also gives some excellent mysteries to puzzle through. It’s definitely worth a look if you have an interest in Japanese folklore and history.

Watch Mononoke on Crunchyroll

Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories

Yamishibai is a show with 5 minute long episodes where all the stories are based off of Japanese folk lore or urban legend. The stories themselves are little more than creepy tales but the entire show is done in a popup book style way and the unsettling movements of the characters in addition to the cliffhanger endings make this show really eerie. It’ll definitely give you nightmares.

Watch Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories on Crunchyroll

Monster

More thriller than horror, Monster boasts one of the best stories in all of anime. Years after Dr. Tenma saves the life of a young boy, he learns there is far more to the youth that he originally thought, and sets out across Europe to discover the disturbing truth about the life he rescued. While its length may seem intimidating, it will keep you on the edge of your seat all the way through with tense plotlines and fantastic characterization.

Perfect Blue

This riveting psychological thriller follows an aspiring actress as she begins to break down from stresses of her work and the actions of an unseen stalker. The film focuses on the darker side of the relationships between actors, producers, writers and fans, and has some shockingly brutal moments that might just put you in the fetal position.

Alien Nine

This bizarre mini-series follows an ordinary sixth-grader who is assigned against her will to a team of students whose duty is to hunt invasive alien animals with the aid of intelligent alien symbionts. As she struggles to come to grips with her situation, the show touches on themes of isolation, manipulation, PTSD, and body horror. It’s a heavy watch that will leave you with a crushing, hopeless pit in your stomach.

We hope you get a chance to check out some of these fun, scary, and downright unsettling shows. Let us know what you think of them in the comments or on Facebook. Happy Halloween, everyone!