It just isn’t Halloween without an intense feeling of fear or disgust. Whether it’s mind games or physical torture, there’s something about horror that attracts us to it. Countless anime series evoke these kinds of emotions, and when it comes to streaming them, Crunchyroll has got fans covered. So, here are eight horror anime to watch on Crunchyroll.
Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories
An anime based on real-life urban legends is a great way to kick off your Halloween watch party. Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories is an anthology series comprised of five-minute-long episodes. However, don’t let the short running time fool you. The series makes good use of its time, serving up scares that’ll have you afraid to take a bathroom break.
Each episode opens with a creepy old man in a yellow mask setting up his Kamishibai — a Japanese street theater structure — at the local park. The children gather around him as he tells various ghost stories and myths using paper figures.
One such creepy story comes from the urban legend of Hachishakusama (aka Eight Feet Tall), a demon who takes the form of a tall woman to abduct children. (Talk about creepy!) Featuring similar tales about supernatural beings, myths, and Japanese folklore, Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories is definitely a must-watch between horror flicks.
Shiki
Everyone loves vampires, and Crunchyroll has one of the best horror vampire anime series ever produced, Shiki. When a young girl unexpectedly dies from an unknown disease, her village mourns her passing, never once suspecting her death is only the beginning of a ferocious epidemic that will leave their town in shambles.
The town’s doctor, Toshio Ozaki has his doubts about the nature of this epidemic, and with the bodies piling up, he realizes the sinister truth behind these deaths. Meanwhile, antisocial teen Natsuno tries to cope with the sudden death of his best friend, Mutou, and the return of an annoying girl. What mysteries plague this remote little village, and what will its citizens do to survive?
Forget what you know because Shiki isn’t your traditional vampire story. It adds a few twists to the genre that will make you question which side you’re truly on.
Another
The sudden death of a classmate can be tough for a class to handle, especially if they were well-liked. So, instead of saying their goodbyes and having a period of mourning, the students of Class 3-3 decided to carry one as if their friend never left. But the students (and future Class 3-3 students) would come to regret their decision, as it opened the door to the underworld. Now, deaths and supernatural anomalies plague their school.
Every year an extra dead student or faculty member comes to join the class. And when they show it, it can only mean one thing: the students and their families are about to die. During the first few years, the deaths were kept to a minimum, which made it easier for people to brush them off as weird accidents that could’ve happened to anyone. However, as the years passed, the body count grew. It’s taken two decades since the curse started, but now people no longer consider these gruesome deaths to just be bizarre accidents.
Junji Ito Collection
Junji Ito is the master of horror and suspense, with many of his works receiving critical acclaim for how they play with the human mind. So, when news broke that several of his famous works would get an anime adaptation, horror fans couldn’t help but be excited.
The Junji Ito Collection is an anthology series that includes horror, gore, disgust, and comedy. From a famous and monstrous giant fashion model to the creepy Souichi, whose misfortunes are a welcome relief after watching all that horror, the series has something for every horror fan.
If you’re looking for the perfect series to stream on Crunchyroll this Halloween, this is it. Even those unfamiliar with Junji Ito’s work will appreciate being able to watch something terrifying and still be able to sleep at night. One warning though: Don’t get too attached to these characters, most of them don’t come out unscathed.
The Future Diary
Would you steal, cheat, and kill to gain control of space and time? That’s what happens in horror anime Future Diary. The series follows Yukiteru Amano, a high school student who receives a future diary — a future-reading flip phone co-created by Deus Ex Machina, the God of Time and Space. With this strange phone in his possession, young Amano is forced to take part in a bloody battle royale against 11 other future diary holders. The winner of the battle will become Deus’ successor.
This condition quickly turns the scenario into a game of survival, where killing your opponent is your only chance at victory. Amano reluctantly teams up with his obsessive stalker, Yuno Gasai, who also has a diary, and soon learns that he doesn’t have the courage or skills to survive in this game. On top of that, there’s something strange about his partner. It seems she migh have other plans for her unrequited love.
Parasyte -the maxim-
Without warning, parasitic aliens have invaded Earth. However, their onslaught lacks the bells and whistles of other alien movies and shows. Instead, their attack is more strategic. They’ve burrowed into the brains of several vulnerable targets without anyone noticing. The move allows them to fully take over their host and morph into a variety of forms, such as blades, and to even grow wings.
One of these aliens burrows into the brain of ordinary high school student Shinichi Izumi. But it fails to take over his brain, ending up in his right hand instead. Unable to move, the parasite, now named Migi, has no choice but to rely on Shinichi to stay alive.
Initially, Migi is nothing more than a nuisance, but Shinichi eventually finds the parasite does have its advantages. Thanks to Migi, Shinichi becomes more muscular, no longer needs to wear his glasses, and can withstand serious injuries. Too bad the other parasites see their union as a threat and will do everything they can to eradicate Migi and Shinichi.
Kagewani
Monsters are common in horror. But the horrifying creatures of Kagewani are far from what we’ve come to expect. A young man decides to exploit people’s love of the bizarre and unexplained by sharing fake stories of strange animals on his website. Of course, when a giant monster slaughters his entire crew, he comes to regret his actions. Meanwhile, at a college campus, several students become the unexpected prey of a terrifying sand monster.
Sousuke Banba, a researcher obsessed with unidentified mysterious animals, investigates these gruesome attacks and stumbles upon the word “Kagewani.” The strange word leads him to the nefarious pharmaceutical company possibly connected to the monster attacks. But can he stop these creatures or, more precisely, the person behind them?
The Garden of Sinners
The Garden of Sinners is comprised of seven horror films that follow Shiki Ryougi, a young woman whose family is involved with the supernatural. Several family members possess dual personalities that are aware of each other, meaning they’re essentially two people in a single body. This, along with her upbringing, has led Shiki to live a life of solitude.
Yet, she manages to form a friendship with her classmate Mikiya Kokutou, who sees Shiki not as an enigma but as a shy girl. Well, up until he sees Shiki, knife in hand, standing over a corpse. Although the evidence is damning, Mikiya still refuses to believe that Shiki’s killed someone. He gets closer to Shiki, perhaps too close. Together they investigate the seemingly unrelated anomalies occurring throughout the city.
The Garden of Sinners is a collection of magic, mystery, action, and psychological twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat this Halloween.