There are a lot of acclaimed Japanese horror movies and manga, but horror anime can be hard to come by. Unfortunately, some fan favorites, like Satoshi Kon's film Perfect Blue and the series Monster, aren't readily available anywhere in the West. But don't worry! If you want to watch some spooky anime right now, there are quite a few great horror and thriller series available to stream. Click forward to see our picks.
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.Another
Available on Crunchyroll and Hulu
Another is basically Final Destination: The Anime. It's about a small Japanese town that's still haunted--figuratively and perhaps literally--by the death of a student nearly 30 years ago. When 15-year-old Kouichi Sakakibara transfers to the town, he discovers that all the students have a dark mood about them. He also quickly learns that he is the only one who acknowledges the presence of Mei Misaki, a mysterious girl who wears an eyepatch… and who might be dead.
That's when a series of tragic events (and gruesome deaths) start to unfold. Also, there are some seriously creepy dolls that may or may not give you nightmares.
Elfen Lied
Available on Hulu
Known for its gore and nudity, Elfen Lied follows Lucy, a mutant breed of human with horns and telekinetic powers known as a Diclonius. As a result of the mutations, she is kept in a government facility and made a victim of forced experimentation and torture. As she escapes, she wreaks complete havoc--and sustains a head injury that gives her an alternate, childlike personality known as Nyu.
Elfen Lied is part government conspiracy, part love story, and all gore. Proceed with caution.
Mononoke
Available on Crunchyroll
Mononoke captures the supernatural horrors of Edo Japan, its distinct, traditional-looking art style lending an unsettling tone to its murder mystery story. It follows a character known only as the Medicine Seller who travels Japan to slay unnatural spirits called mononoke using a special sword--strange, especially, since samurai were the only class permitted to carry swords at that time in history.
The series is broken up into a few very short arcs lasting two to three episodes, which makes it easy to watch in pieces or to binge without getting overwhelmed (although you might get super spooked).
Parasyte -the maxim-
Available on Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Anime Strike
Based on the popular late-'80s sci-fi horror manga, Parasyte is about what it sounds like: parasites from space that use humans as hosts. It stars high school student Shinichi Izumi, who falls victim to a parasite--but the parasite fails to take over his brain, instead winding up in his right hand. They form a symbiotic relationship as Shinichi works to fight the rest of the parasites.
Parasyte isn't the scariest anime out there and might come off as a bit silly to some, but it's great for those who want science fiction with a horror tone to it.
School Days
Available on Crunchyroll
Friendship, romance, and the trials and tribulations of high school… what does this have to do with horror? It's hard to say. But this is the show that disturbed a lot of anime fans back in the mid-2000s. Just trust me on this one.
School Live
Available on Crunchyroll
Get through its sugary sweet first episode, and School Live has a nasty surprise for you. Yuki absolutely loves her school, so much so that she's oblivious to the horrors and destruction around her. As far as she knows, she's just a third-year high schooler and member of the School Living Club, whose members live in the school. To Yuki, this is bliss.
It might be a bit moe for some, but School Live is harrowing in its own ways, addressing grief and what it takes to survive. And if you get too tense, there's a cute dog to take the edge off.
Serial Experiments Lain
Available on Crunchyroll and Funimation
Serial Experiments Lain is an avant-garde psychological horror series that starts with a suicide. Lain Iwakura, a high school girl in suburban Japan, is one of many girls to receive an email from the girl who died, Chisa Yomoda. Chisa says she's not dead and lives within the Wired, an internet-like virtual-reality world. And that's just the beginning.
More than anything, Lain is incredibly unnerving. It's grounded in reality, but there's always something slightly off about how the characters act. And when it gets weird, it gets really weird.
Shiki
Available on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hulu
What do you do if you can't tell good from evil? Shiki is set in a small town inhabited by vampires (called shiki, which is translated as "corpse demon"). The sudden death of 15-year-old Megumi Shimizu is just the beginning of a summer filled with bloodshed; a young doctor named Toshio Ozaki teams up with a youth from the city, Natsuno Yuuki, to save the village from the shiki.
Shiki is based in older vampire stories--the shiki cannot go out in sunlight, for example--and eschews the trends of recent vampire fiction. Plus, those vampires can get pretty creepy-looking.
When They Cry (Higurashi)
Available on Hulu
When They Cry is an adaptation of the visual novel Higurashi and is somewhat of a cult classic. Set in 1983 the village of Hinamizawa, When They Cry follows Keiichi Maebara, a student who moves to the village and quickly becomes close friends with a few classmates. However, the town has been plagued by a number of murders, and no one will tell Keiichi what's going on.
This isn't a series for the faint of heart; it's violent and depressing and sees Keiichi fall into paranoia as he tries to uncover the mysteries of Hinamizawa. But if you like suspense and can handle the show's brutality, give it a shot.
Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories
Available on Crunchyroll
Yamishibai is perfect for a bite-sized bit of classic Japanese horror. Every episode is just a few minutes long and tells a different scary tale based on Japanese folklore, prominently featuring the supernatural. The sketchy art style is unsettling to say the least, and the first season's creepy playground-themed opening is the stuff of nightmares on its own.
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