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The last thing you want to say in a room full of anime fans is: “Oh, you’re watching cartoons?”
Anime fans are quick to jump and explain that anime is more than just Japanese cartoons. While the artistic style and genres associated with anime are often seen as childish or even lewd, the complex storylines that animation studios work into their series and films have stuck with audiences, changing the way they see the world around them.
The most common way fans try to prove anime isn’t childish is by pointing to the slew of dark anime that’s been produced in recent years. Examples range from B-movie grade gorefests to the more philosophical, yet just as gory, Made in Abyss (2017).
But dark is more than just blood and brutality. In the case of these thirteen dark anime shows and movies, what makes them truly dark is the way they hold a mirror up to our real world.
13. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Yup, we’re starting with this one.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with this dark anime movie, Grave of the Fireflies (1988) is the story of two siblings desperately trying to survive during World War 2. After the death of their mother during an airstrike, which leaves her with severe burns, Seita is left to figure out how to survive while caring for his younger sister, Setsuko.
What makes it a dark anime?
Many anime and non-anime movies incorporate war into their plotlines but the real horrors of war are often brushed off in favor of focusing on a hero’s arch type of narrative or a feel-good story about national pride. Grave of the Fireflies (1988) does neither.
Its story is strictly about the horrors of war and the people it affects the hardest: children. Throughout the film, we’re haunted by memories of pre-war Japan and the hope of a life after the war. Audiences are forced to watch the siblings starve, be beaten away by other people trying to secure their survival, and run from falling American bombs.
As much as it would feel better to say that those days are over, the life-disrupting effects of war are still felt by children today, no matter which side of a conflict you’re on.
12. Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009)
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009) may be a relatively new series but its touching and poignant tale of brotherhood between Alphonse and Edward Elric helped the series cement its spot as one of the best shounen anime of all time. The basic premise of this dark anime is that it’s set in a world where alchemy, the study of the transformation of matter, is real. The problem? Alchemy requires an equivalent exchange of something just as valuable as what an alchemist wants to make.
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The Elric brothers struggle to cope with the death of their mother, an event that left them orphaned after the mysterious disappearance of their father. The brothers, just children at this point of the story, discover that humans can be created from a set of basic elements. There’s just one caveat: no one has ever done it right because there seems to be a missing ingredient. After a failed attempt to resurrect their mother, Alphonse Elric’s body is left mangled, forcing Edward to bind his soul to a suit of armor. This fatal mistake sends the brothers on a quest to find a way to regain Alphonse’s body.
What makes it a dark anime?
There’s a ton of messed up things going on in this dark anime show. Viewers get first-row seats to human experimentation, a practice with historical precedents such as the Tuskegee study and Nazi medical experiments. A little less subtle is the fact that a ‘Fuhrer’ is the leader of Amestris, a country that has forcibly annexed its neighboring nation of Ishval through a war effort that involved the wholesale genocide of native Ishvalans.
11. Death Note (2006)
What is justice?
That’s the question at the heart of our next dark anime recommendation, Death Note (2006). The show gets its name from a magical item called a Death Note, a notebook where Japanese death gods, known as shinigami, write the names of those destined to die. Since their power over life and death is tied to their personal Death Note, a shinigami can pass or lose this power to humans. For better or for worse, the Death Note owned by the Shinigami Ryuk falls into the hands of a high school student, Light Yagami.
Light is popular at school for being a genius and is well-known for his good breeding and background, thanks in part to the fact that his father works in law enforcement. This made him highly sensitive to issues of crime and justice, driving Light to use Ryuk’s Death Note as a way to deliver justice on those he sees as sinners.
What makes it a dark anime?
While he starts out with a fairly solid, if a bit questionable, moral compass, a life spent on a pedestal bolsters Light’s taste for retributive justice. Retributive justice is that gut reaction of anger, a desire to strike out at a wrong-doer, that you get when you experience or witness something you think of as unjust.
In their game of cat and mouse, rival geniuses Light and L share one sentiment: “I will hunt you down wherever you’re hiding and I will eliminate you. I am justice!”
Death Note (2006)’s dark anime status doesn’t hinge on how many people Light kills but rather, the darkness that lurks behind what we rationalize as morality. The YouTube channel Wisecrack goes further in-depth on how this dark anime show handles the question of what true justice really is.
10. Psycho-Pass (2012)
Psycho-Pass (2012) is another dark anime that tries to grapple with the question of what justice is. Admittedly, the show is a bit of a Minority Report (2002) rip-off that shares the premise of catching criminals before they’re able to commit a crime.
The world of Psycho-Pass is set in a cyberpunk version of Japan that is ruled by a computer network called the Sibyl System, a reference to the prophetesses of ancient Greece. The Sibyl System issues a document known as a Psycho-Pass which contains the result of psychological and biometric assessments made by the supercomputer. Once a citizen’s Crime Coefficient exceeds 100, the maximum acceptable threshold for a deteriorated mental state, they are then captured by law enforcement and either imprisoned or executed.
What makes it a dark anime?
Psycho-Pass (2012) unravels our very understanding of what crime is. All definitions of crime share one characteristic; that crime is positive in nature. No, this doesn’t mean crime is a good thing but that crime exists when it actually exists and is done. If no illegal act is committed, then it follows that there’s no crime to punish people for.
But imagine a world where law enforcement is preventative, meaning that you can be punished for crimes that you haven’t even committed yet. Is it justified because it prevents injustice from happening? Or is this preemptive law enforcement unjust because it punishes for no reason? While this seems like a pointless thought exercise, it’s the same question that hangs between the justice system and non-offending pedophiles.
9. Jigoko Shoujo (2005)
If you liked Girl From Nowhere (2018) then this is the dark anime for you.
Jigoko Shoujo (2005) is an anime centered around the urban legend of ‘Hell Girl’. People looking to take their vengeance on those who have wronged them go to the Hell Correspondence website and fill in a form that requests Hell Girl, Enma Ai, to take them their enemies to, well, hell. It’s a bit like Death Note (2006) but with a third party doing the killing and on a more personal scale. Like Girl From Nowhere (2018), each episode of Jigoko Shoujo (2005) functions as a stand-alone short story.
What makes it a dark anime?
It probably comes as a surprise that this dark anime is classified as a shoujo anime, a genre that’s typically known for its sweet shows like Sailor Moon (1992) which are centered on magical girls, friendship, and love. But the show does have a magical girl in the form of Enma Ai and many of its episodes feature young women seeking revenge. Jigoko Shoujo (2005) also deals with retributive justice but does it in a way that points out the rottenness of people who go on the Hell Correspondence website to kill people.
Unlike either Light or L, Enma Ai is a supernatural being with no interest or emotional investment in the troubles of her clients. The only thing she has to say about it is that her clients, too, will go to hell after sending someone there. The message of Jigoko Shoujo (2005) is clear: justice that is vengeance is still evil.
8. Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Ghost in the Shell (1995) is a classic dark anime that’s been adapted as a Hollywood live-action movie starring Scarlett Johansson. While the live-action flopped, the original anime remains one of the most critically acclaimed films by director Mamoru Oshii.
The film is a neo-noir cyberpunk story set in a futuristic version of 21st-century Niihama Prefecture and follows the officers and detectives of Public Security Section 9 on their quest to fight crime and even prevent it. The story takes full advantage of its setting, envisioning a wide array of cyber-criminals along with good old political intrigue. But of the many members of Public Security Section 9, the most recognizable is Major Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg who serves as the second in command of the group. Her less-than-human nature is what gives the show its name.
What makes it a dark anime?
Aside from its already grim setting, Ghost in the Shell (1995) is a dark anime thanks to its introspective look at the common sci-fi premise of man vs. machine. The breakneck pace of technology and our collective desire for improved standards of living make it possible that our future is one full of cybernetically enhanced humans who rarely get ill and are functionally immortal. But to achieve this level of indestructibility and perfection means removing everything that is imperfect, that is, what is human about a human.
Ghost in the Shell (1995) is a lesson in existential philosophy that presents itself as an action sci-fi movie. Major Kusanagi is barely human when she appears in the film as most of her body has been replaced with cybernetic parts. Her growing distance from humanity makes her wonder if the ‘ghost’ in this cybernetic ‘shell’ still exists; the ghost, in this case, being her human soul. Her line of thought brings audiences to the next question: Are souls real? If they aren’t, is Kusanagi still human?
This dark anime film still has rad fight scenes but its haunting take on the Ship of Theseus, the paradox seen in Wandavision (2021) miniseries, is a part of what gives Ghost in the Shell (1995) so much staying power.
7. Black Butler (2008)
Black Butler (2008) is a dark anime that couldn’t get more stereotypical. It tells the story of Ciel Phantomhive, the heir to an English earldom and a toy manufacturing company called Funtom Corporation. The diminutive eye-patching wearing earl is only 13 years old at the beginning of the show but serves as the Queen’s Watchdog, doing the dirty work for the show’s fictional version of Queen Victoria.
It’s essentially a supernatural noir dark anime that puts a gothic twist on Detective Conan (1996) and follows Earl Phantomhive as he tries to solve the mysteries the Queen assigns him to with the help of his not-so-human butler.
What makes it a dark anime?
Just about everything in Black Butler (2008) is dark anime material. For one, Ciel is a victim of human trafficking and still bears the mark of the cult that previously enslaved him. The anime and manga touch on several topics relating to the historic setting of the show. Themes of this dark anime range from the horrors of upper-class debauchery, the systemic brutalization of Victorian England’s underclass, the colonization of India, and even the inhumane treatment of persons with disabilities in circuses.
6. Code Geass (2006)
Code Geass (2006) is one of the more recent additions of this list that gained popularity from the mid to late 2000s. The high stakes tensions of this dark anime earned it a dedicated fan base whose loyalty to the show will soon be rewarded with a sequel.
This dark anime series focuses on Lelouch Lamperouge, a student of Ashford Academy who has a chance encounter with a mysterious woman named C.C. As a thank you for saving her life, C.C gives Lelouch a power known as a Geass that allows Lelouch to mind control anyone who he has eye contact with. Why is a student getting embroiled in war? Unlike many shounen anime protagonists, Lelouch isn’t a pure-hearted hero. His ambitions are partly based on his own sense of morality and on a need for vengeance against the Holy Britannian Empire that has colonized Area 11, a nation once known as Japan.
That being said, Lelouch isn’t even a native of Code Geass (2006)’s Japan. He’s actually an exiled prince of Britannia looking for a way to avenge his mother who was murdered in a political plot.
What makes it a dark anime?
If it isn’t obvious yet, Lelouch’s journey from student to masked rebellion leader Zero is a dramatic story of anti-imperialism. Though Lelouch has his own personal motivations, it’s really his Zero alter-ego who drives the story. Zero tiptoes the line between fighting imperialism and being an authoritarian ruler himself.
The show doesn’t shy away from depicting Area 11 natives as second-class citizens in their own country. We see Area 11 natives, often called by the slur ‘Elevens’, live in squalid conditions in ghettos while ‘Honorary Britannians’, Japanese people who work for the Britannian government, receive better housing and support. One of the show’s protagonists, Suzaku, is an Honorary Britannian but even this doesn’t save him from the systemic inequality he’s subjected to in the Britannian army.
5. Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995)
Now here’s a dark anime that’s a consistent fan favorite. Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995) is widely considered as one of the best 90s anime of all time.
The Evangelion here is a giant bio-machine that humans of this futuristic earth use to fight Angels, extraterrestrial harbingers of doom who bring cataclysms to Earth. It’s not exactly a ‘save the world’ story given that the Earth of Evangelion has already been subjected to an apocalyptic event that the Japanese to regroup in a settlement called Tokyo-3, a fortified futuristic version of the real-world city.
What makes it a dark anime?:
Like Code Geass (2006), this anime series features giant robots piloted by teenagers being used as engines of war. Sounds grim? It gets grimmer than that. Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995) was among the first anime to turn the beloved mecha genre on its head, turning it from a feel-good ‘kids beat up bad guys’ story to a real contemplation on the psychological effects of war. Many of the characters in this dark anime clearly suffer from mental health issues, the most common of which is PTSD. No surprise there, seeing as many of the mecha pilots in Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995) are basically child soldiers.
4. Red Garden (2006)
Just like Jigoko Shoujo (2005), the 2006 anime series Red Garden stands out for its uniquely feminine take on the dark anime style. While it’s classified as a seinen anime series (basically an older brother to the shounen genre) Red Garden (2006) closely follows the personal lives of each of the main protagonists.
In a break from anime tradition, the girls aren’t Japanese high school students. Instead, they all attend a prestigious private school in Roosevelt Island, New York City. The all-female lead cast could be part of the Clueless (1995) cast if they weren’t stars of a horror anime series.
Kate Ashley is a ‘perfect student council president’ type who struggles under the pressure of needing to be a model student. Meanwhile, Rachel Benning fits the mean girl stereotype, acting more concerned about her nails than other characters while straining under the way she’s seen as an easy woman a la Heather Chandler. Rose Sheedy fills the sweet and timid role and Claire Forrest plays the stereotypical tomboy.
What makes it a dark anime?
For a supposedly male-oriented show, this dark anime series is extremely sensitive to women’s issues, particularly the dangers of teenage girlhood. The show isn’t all drama as many of its scenes are still dedicated to fighting supernatural creatures but its dark anime status is more melancholic in nature than the others on this list.
3. Midori: Shōjo Tsubaki (1992)
There’s no subtleties with this dark anime movie. Directed by Hiroshi Harada, Midori: Shojo Tsubaki (1992) tells the story of the titular Midori, an orphaned girl who is forced to join a freak show circus after her father abandons her and her mother dies from an illness. You’d think that’s what she dies from but this dark anime goes all out on the gore. Midori’s mother is eaten by rats and mice.
The unwitting Midori is taken by Mr. Arashi, the leader of the Amazing Freak Show, to the circus where the monstrous cast members violently abuse Midori, both physically and sexually. The unbridled display of violence made it something of a circus freak show on Twitter where several users have challenged themselves to watch what’s said to be the most messed up anime of all time.
What makes it a dark anime?
Violence and graphic depictions of rape. Though it initially seems like a shock piece of ero-guro, some viewers have seen past the controversial (and psychedelic) imagery of the film, focusing on the parallels between Midori and comfort women, which were women forced to provide ‘sexual comfort’ services for Japanese soldiers during World War 2. If gore is your type of thing, which I’m sure some of you are into given that you clicked on a ‘dark anime’ compilation, then this is the anime show for you.
But if you’re looking for something a little more poignant, these next dark anime movies are the ones you’re looking for.
2. Akira (1988)
Back to the cyberpunk side of dark anime movies. Akira (1988) is set in the dystopian future of, wait for it, 2019. Shotaro Kaneda, the leader of a biker gang, rips through the streets of Neo-Tokyo with his best friend, Tetsuo as they duke it out with the Clowns, a rival biker group.
Similar to Ghost in the Shell (1995), this dark anime film is a landmark piece of the sci-fi genre. It’s a complicated tangle of political turmoil, inter-gang violence, and terrorism. Add a dash of human experimentation and you get the world of Akira (1988).
The film kicks off when Tetsuo runs into Takashi, a man with psychic abilities, who recently escaped from a government laboratory with the help of resistance fighters. When the government comes for Takashi, they take Tetsuo with them and discover that he has powerful psychic abilities that are on par with the titular Akira who reduced Tokyo to rubble in 1988.
What makes it a dark anime?
Artist Katsuhiro Otomo used Akira (1988) to contemplate Japan’s nuclear bomb traumatized past by transporting it to a distant future world. Tetsuo’s descent to madness can be read as a cautionary tale about the potential risks of nuclear energy told by a Japan that was, and still is, reeling from the devastating effects of the atomic bomb.
While its contemporary, Grave of the Fireflies (1988), takes a personal approach to the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings, Akira (1988) is allegorical, using Tetsuo’s growing pride and ambition to be the savior (and destroyer) of the new world as a way to warn us about the other side of what is often touted as a safe and clean source of energy.
1. Perfect Blue (1997)
This dark anime masterpiece by director Satoshi Kon is a psychological thriller that audiences today will likely compare to Black Swan (2010). But the Western film merely follows in the footsteps of Perfect Blue (1997), a mind-bending mystery surrounding Mima.
Mima is the lead singer of CHAM!, a Japanese idol girl group that’s managed by Rumi Hidaka, a former pop idol whose far past her glory days. Though she has a strong career as a singer, what Mima really wants to do is act. When she finally lands a minor role in “Double Bind”, a detective series, her fans are angered by her change in persona from the innocent girl archetype her agency sold her as.
As the controversy around Mima grows, she finds herself stalked by an obsessed fan who has taken up “clearing” Mima’s name as his personal mission.
What makes it a dark anime?
Perfect Blue (1997) is a perfect slow burn of a movie. This dark anime exposes the sleazy underbelly of Asian idol culture. Many entertainment agencies in South Korea ban their talents from pursuing romantic relationships, effectively controlling a significant portion of their personal lives, in order to encourage fans to develop parasocial relationships with their stars. After all, if your favorite idol stays single then there’s a chance they’ll fall in love with you.
Industry shenanigans like this are part of why a stalker has openly threatened to murder Lisa Manoban, a member of the famous BLACKPINK idol group, if she doesn’t enter a relationship with him. Meanwhile, Japanese idols across the pond are forced to apologize to fans after being assaulted by them and shave their heads as punishment for having personal lives.
It’s been decades since this dark anime movie was released but idol culture doesn’t show signs of changing.
Want to see more of how fiction is fueled by real-world horrors? Check out From Dracula to Edward Cullen: The Evolution of the Vampire Myth.
