Top 10 Scariest Anime of All Time

Sharing its name with a much more iconic horror anime that we’ll get into later, "Umineko" is a respectable adaptation of 07th Expansion's visual novel. The story revolves around the Ushiromiya family, who meet up on an island retreat due to the patriarch being on his deathbed. This then springs into a murder mystery that’s heavy on mind-games and supernatural shenanigans. Sprinkling in several shockers and unanswered questions along the way, the anime's scares may be diluted, but when it hits, it hits pretty hard.

A slow-moving thriller about a group of vampires trying to take over a human village who refuse to acknowledge their existence, this one is not for the faint of heart. While only sporadically terrifying, "Shiki" rewards patience with an unforgettable final stretch of episodes that are unapologetically nihilistic and graphic. With challenging themes and realistic, if not necessarily likable characters, it subverts expectations by recontextualizing the idea of good and evil. Humanity and the shiki's capacity for horrific acts fuel the anime's psychological terror, culminating in a last act that is unsettling in its openness.

Before directing the likes of "Ghost in the Shell," Mamoru Oshii released the almost impenetrable "Angel's Egg." Following a girl who lives in a desolate world and guards an egg, this bizarre classic is heavy on the symbolism and light on story or dialogue. As hard as the movie can be to decipher, it does feature a nightmarishly beautiful art style that is haunting on a primal level.
The visuals are its most immediately gripping feature but the theme of lost faith also adds to the film's sense of isolation.

Centered around a group of orphans living at the seemingly idyllic Grace Field House, their image of a peaceful life goes up in flames when the oldest learn that their home is actually a farm that raises children as food for a monstrous species lurking just out of sight. With their own mother figure serving as an additional antagonist, heroes who have yet to hit puberty, and some of the creepiest facial expressions in anime, "The Promised Neverland" delivers its scares through constant suspense and an ever-present feel that something could and likely will go wrong at any second.

Horror comes in many shapes and styles, with this series being the forerunner when it comes to gore and body disfiguration. When parasitic aliens take to using human bodies as makeshift homes, a timid teenager ends up with a talkative right hand. A character-driven psychological thriller with a lot of action and even bigger body count "Parasyte" does a great job balancing its separate elements, resulting in an anime that is accessible but also unique. While being scary is not always its main focus, "Parasyte" frequently ramps up the terror through its effective monster designs and blood-soaked kills.

“The other” is a common theme in the horrorscape, but it usually comes in the form of an outsider interacting with the familiar. Putting aside a somewhat cute intro, "Midori-ko" is entirely devoted to the strange, crafting a world where everything is surreal and there are only traces of recognizable reality, mainly concerning the female main character. Grotesque entities, both human and vegetable-hybrids, populate Keita Kurosaka's ambitious and gorgeous work of art,presenting a universe where hunger has run rampant. The art style is already unsettling, but paired with its terrific sound design it becomes something that will make your blood chill.

Ever since a middle school student passed away, her class has been subjected to some rather peculiar incidents, even gaining a reputation for being cursed. Naturally, new transfer student Koichi transfers into said class, finding himself drawn to the enigmatic, eye-patch wearing Mei Misaki. And then the killing starts. "Another's" death scenes are so graphic and abundant that it could be dismissed as nothing more than a gorefest, but that is not completely fair. It’s core mystery is sturdy enough that it will keep you roped in, all the while it conjures up more and more creative ways to have these unlucky souls meet an early grave. Don’t forget your umbrella.

An anime so ahead of its time that it was borderline prophetic in its prediction of the online world's influence on identity. While a lonely and timid girl in real life, Lain soon finds herself morphing into a destructive and cruel person on "The Wired," which is basically the internet on steroids. While perhaps not frightening in the traditional sense, it is consistently disconcerting, be it through its sparse but effective music, existential themes, or unexpected divergences. "Serial Experiments Lain" is unpredictable, unusual, but also strangely relatable, which makes the whole experience all that more unnerving.

In a nutshell - cute girls doing horrifying things. An anime that follows multiple timelines revolving around different and oh so dangerous waifus, Keiichi Maebara moves to a rural village that seems perfectly ordinary at first, but that could not be further from the truth. While the second season leans away from horror, "When They Cry's" opening run features a constant cycle of bowls-emptying imagery, alarming reveals, foreboding, and flashes of visually-striking violence, with characters who seem capable of disturbing acts of insanity at any instance. Don’t eat the rice balls.

Satoshi Kon's classic thriller is a tense look into the entertainment industry and the way a divide can occur between a person's reality and the characters they inhabit. When Mima decides to leave a pop idol group and become an actress, she is greeted with resistance from fans, a stalker, and internal conflict. "Perfect Blue's" biggest scares come courtesy of Me-Mania, Mima's hair-raising predator, whose relationship with reality is loose at best. Mima also grows increasingly incapable of distinguishing reality from fiction, which the film portrays to perfection, lending itself to transitions guaranteed to shatter psyches!