Top 10 Anime That Are Too Edgy

We can’t believe we have to say this, but in anime there’s a fine art when it comes to implementing the remnants of the Third Reich. If used appropriately, it can add an extra dimension of terror to the antagonists. If not, then it just come across as a desperate attempt to appear gritty. If that wasn’t bleak enough, our protagonist is a loner who inherits a deadly set of abilities made for slicing apart ancient, evil Germans. The only thing its missing is a frenemy that our lead has complex feelings towards. Oh wait, he has one of those too.

Wow. Just wow. This anime wants to be so edgy that it somehow ended up passing into the realm of unintentional hilarity. You have a perfectly ordinary, if quiet, girl who isn’t only abused at home by her brother (because reasons) but she’s bullied relentlessly at school. Not just your regular standard of bullying either, more like the almost-get maimed-with-a-switchblade-kind-of-bullying. Keep in mind this is all before her cat gets murdered and she finds herself thrown into a magical girl death match. Subtlety truly has no place here.

It’s known as the anime equivalent to Game of Thrones, but that’s not always a good thing. Oh sure, some of the death scenes hit close to home and it doesn’t shy away from showing some truly gruesome fight scenes, unfortunately it also tends to get a bit carried away with itself. Every death is portrayed as the most dramatic thing every put to animation, the fanservice seems over-the-top at times, and the supposed emotional payoff can seem a tad unwarranted. We’re all for seeing more of best girl Leone, but there’s only so much Seryu we can stand.

Once again, we see what happens when a horror anime tries to outdo itself with its death scenes. Oh sure, everyone remembers the harrowing moment when the teacher commits suicide, but from there the rest just feel like gags. Before long, what’s supposed to be a serious anime about a town’s accursed past becomes nothing short of slapstick. Impaled by an umbrella, struck by lightning, buried underneath a chandelier, the edge has gone so far off the rails its somehow ended up becoming comedy gold.

Go Nagai loves nothing more than to explore the depravity that lurks inside the hearts of man, something he achieved to great success with works like Devilman. Then you have this little number, which asks the question of just how much cannibalism, decapitation and sexual violence can one anime get away with? The answer? A ludicrous amount. The shock horror factor might work at first, but the OVA manages with wear itself thin by trying to one-up itself with its hardcore material, a gimmick that will have you desensitised before you know it.

Adolescence is already a labyrinth of awkwardness and anxiety, one that can lend itself to some painfully real storytelling. Teens sending each other to hell via a website? Not so much. While this series does tackle heavy issues such as kidnapping and bullying, there are moments when it pushes the envelope just a bit too far. The entire population save for the victims appear to be jerks to absurd degrees, and the reasons for the antagonists having their souls damned can be a little on the lacklustre side. A rival baker who stole a recipe? Come on guys!

We’ll admit that starting your anime by having a class of kids get turned into red paste certainly set a tone, it’s just a shame that the rest of the series couldn’t live up to it. While Carnival Corpse is supposed to be this bloody display of crazy kids fighting to the death, most of them didn’t really manage to inspire any fear, and before you know it the whole thing had become a generic action show, one that liked to tell its audience how dark it was as opposed to showing it.

Buckets of blood, experimenting on children, and just the faintest hint of incestuous cannibalism painted in an erotic manner. What happens when you put all of it together? An anime that likes to think of itself as artistic when in truth the only thing it has going for it is that each episode is mercifully short. With the outbreak of a virus that turns humans into monsters, Utsutsu tries to protect his sister from the outside world…while also allowing her to devour his flesh to appease the monster inside of her. That’s not edgy, that’s just vile!

Blood+ may have been mired in its own pretentious brand of darkness, but its got nothing on this little number. With the apparent aim of trying to get the biggest kill-count in the goriest way possible, the only thing this anime is remembered for is the amount of civilians that get torn apart. With bland protagonist Saya doing very little to help the situation, what promised to be a gritty take on the “Blood” lore ended up becoming that one anime that featured giant bunnies eating human kebabs.

Don’t hate us Lucy, we think you’re a great character and the amount of bodies you’ve piled up in your time is very impressive. It’s just that everything else around you is trying way too hard to outdo your tragic backstory. While our favourite Diclonius has suffered all manner of trauma throughout her life, including watching her puppy get beaten to death, this anime seemed determine to give everyone a chance at misery. Kouta’s whole family got slaughtered, Mayu was abused at home and Yuka is pretty determined to play kissing cousins. Careful not to cut yourself on all that edge.