The 10 Best Horror Anime Series: Another, Shiki, and More
Ready for an anime fright-fest? From cursed classrooms and rural vampirism to techno-paranoia and puzzle-box mayhem, this lineup spans the full horror spectrum. Queue a few, kill the lights, and let the chill creep in.
Another
P.A. Works’ Another is easily our favorite horror anime of the bunch: a cursed homeroom, an inscrutable girl with an eyepatch, and a mystery that metastasizes into straight-up slasher carnage. Adding to the stellar ambiance, it’s set in 1998 and follows transfer student Kōichi Sakakibara as Class 3-3’s body count starts ticking upward in gruesome, senseless ways. Tsutomu Mizushima directs with a sure hand, saving answers for the back half while the show escalates from whispers to screams.
What makes it special on a first watch and rewatch is the craft: Another uses sound like a weapon—rain hiss, tinny tape recordings, and hushed, grainy monologues that make the school feel like it’s already haunted. It plays in multiple horror sandboxes (ghost story, curse logic, and—when it wants—full slasher), which is why it’s become an impeccable genre staple.
Shiki
Shiki is a gothic vampire tale done with patience and precision. In the rural village of Sotoba, people begin dying in heat-heavy summer—first written off as illness, then something stranger, darker. As the local doctor and a disaffected teen chase the truth, the show becomes an autopsy of a community sliding into the abyss.
The trick is how Shiki paces the collapse. It’s less a jump-scare machine than a slow bleed of dread, getting under your skin until the finale makes you question who the monsters actually are. The moral queasiness lingers—which is basically the kind of horror that keeps you unsettled beyond its runtime.
Future Diary (Mirai Nikki)
If you like your horror with action and a nasty survival-game hook, Future Diary is the adrenaline pick. Twelve “diary” holders receive phones that predict the future and are forced into a battle royale to succeed a dying god; last person standing rewrites the universe. The 26-episode anime ran from 2011–2012 and remains infamous for its twisted turns and antiheroine Yuno Gasai.
Beneath the blood and bombast, Future Diary keeps the screws tight with court-of-public-opinion paranoia. It’s a propulsive binge, loud and unashamedly pulpy, but the survival mechanics and character reveals give it teeth.
The Summer Hikaru Died
Haunting, tender, and terrifying, The Summer Hikaru Died threads queer longing through cosmic dread. In a quiet mountain town, Yoshiki realizes his best friend Hikaru has come back… wrong—occupied by something not human. The 2025 anime adaptation (based on Mokumokuren’s hit manga) premiered on Netflix this summer and quickly became a word-of-mouth sensation for good reason.
From a genre perspective, this one is less about overt brutality and jump scares and more about a relationship corroded by the uncanny. That’s why the horror lands so hard: the show weaponizes tenderness and routine until they deform into pure menace. This one can get pretty heavy in themes (trauma, grief, etc.), but that’s exactly what we want from a solid horror title.
Serial Experiments Lain
A foundational psychological horror mystery, Serial Experiments Lain opens with a schoolgirl’s suicide and slips into something stranger: a pulsing network called the Wired, identity bleed, and conspiracies that feel uncomfortably current. It’s avant-garde and chilly, and for dropping in 1998, it’s also proven to be a series that anticipated our tech ethics panic decades early.
If you want “mess-with-your-mind” horror, this is the one. The show’s disorienting edits and philosophical asides create a free-fall mood; it’s less about a clear, coherent plot than the dread of losing the edges of who you are. End an episode here, and the room will feel a little off—exactly as intended.
Higurashi When They Cry
Come for the sleepy village vibes, stay for the time-looping murder mystery that resets and refracts until the truth hurts. Higurashi is notoriously dark—shocking violence, paranoia, and emotional whiplash—but its arc-structured storytelling keeps you hooked as each “chapter” reconfigures the same summer from a new angle.
Because it iterates on itself, the show makes your theories part of the fun. You’re not just watching a horror story; you’re actively testing cause and effect across arcs. It’s disturbing, yes, but also unusually rewarding for mystery fans who like to solve alongside the characters.
Summertime Rendering
Think puzzle-box thriller with some recognizable horror DNA. After returning to his island home for a funeral, Shinpei gets pulled into a looping fight against “Shadows”—doppelgängers that step out of the uncanny valley armed with lethal intent. The 2022 adaptation is tightly plotted, action-packed, character-driven, and generous with answers without deflating the suspense.
It’s a strong binge experience, and if you would like a lighter sense of resolve by the end, this one’s for you.
Claymore
Dark fantasy with horror bones, the classic anime series Claymore drops you into a world where Yoma—flesh-eating demons—hide in human skin. The only defense: half-human, half-Yoma warriors known as Claymores.
Yes, it’s savage and somber, but the hook isn’t the weekly beast—it’s the slow body horror of turning yourself into a blade. Fights hit like a hammer, and the murky ethics leave the victories uneasy, layering real horror into the action.
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
“Zombies on a train” undersells the spectacle. Wit Studio’s 2016 steampunk siege series locks humanity inside armored stations connected by ironclad rail lines, while Kabane swarm like wildfire. It’s a 12-episode blitz—steam guns, blade ballets, and a runaway momentum that barely leaves room to breathe.
Less pure scares, more survival-horror rush, Kabaneri scratches the itch for kinetic, gory action without forgetting the desperation that makes zombie stories work. When the train throttles up, so does your heartbeat. Yes, there’s also another iteration of this one, but we still prefer the 2016 series.
Danganronpa: The Animation
A murder mystery with courtroom theatrics and a sadistic mascot, Danganronpa corrals “ultimate” students into a locked school where the only graduation plan involves getting away with murder. Each arc builds to a class trial—half deduction game, half social meltdown. And fortunately for longtime fans of the original concept, the 2013 anime adapts the hit visual novel with a lurid, candy-acid sheen.
Whodunnit purists will appreciate the puzzle construction; horror fans will enjoy how the rules force characters to weaponize friendship. It’s noisy, stylized, and surprisingly mean—ideal for a group binge so you can argue your theories between episodes.
