10 Darkest Anime Series Ever, Ranked

The world of Japanese anime is often compared to cartoons, and some series like Doraemon really do feel like that. However, colorful visuals don’t always mean a happy and innocent story, because some anime series are quite dark, sometimes famously so. Some of those dark or brutal anime series are subverting expectations about what anime should be, while others are more conventional drama stories that happen to be anime.

An anime series may have dark themes and moments if it includes material such as grief, loss, betrayal, heartbreak, or exposing the darkest side of humanity. These dark series tell grim stories that are meant not to make viewers feel good, but make a sharp point about human nature and the reality of suffering. These dark series might also have their bright side, such as moments of hope and even joy, but the darker side will always do the heavy lifting and will define the most important plot points or themes.

Dark Themes/Elements: Genocide, Ethnic Tensions, Grief

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood ranks last among the darkest anime series because in its narrative, good triumphs over evil and the heroes get their happily ever after. Along the way, though, the heroes suffer all kinds of hardships and challenges, and it all started when the Elric brothers began their quest to find the Philosopher’s Stone. Then Ed and Al learned the gut-wrenching truth of how those Stones are made.

The Fullmetal Alchemist anime also delves into heavy and complicated topics that intertwine in compelling ways to keep the narrative moving smoothly, such as the horrific Ishvalan Civil War and its consequences, as Scar can attest to. Ed’s and Al’s quest also has a dark personal edge, because they lost their mother Trish to a disease and lost body parts trying to revive her with forbidden alchemy.

Original title: Hagane no renkinjutsushi.
When a failed alchemical ritual leaves brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric with severely damaged bodies, they begin searching for the one thing that can save them: the fabled philosopher’s stone.

Release Date

April 9, 2009

Cast

Romi Pak , Rie Kugimiya , Shinichirô Miki , Fumiko Orikasa

Seasons

1

Production Company

Bones

Number of Episodes

64

Expand

9 Fruits Basket Shows Tohru Honda Trying to Save the Sohmas From Themselves

Dark Themes/Elements: Verbal Abuse, Alienation

The shojo anime Fruits Basket is one of the darkest anime in its demographic, no matter its flowery visuals and reguler comic relief. This is another dark series with a happy ending, with plenty of characters enduring serious abuse and misery along the way. That’s because the members of the reclusive Sohma family have a lot of baggage thanks to their curse and even each other.

Related

Naruto Fans Forget How Dark and Disturbing The Anime Can Be

Naruto is an anime that explores heavy themes and menacing antagonists in depth, yet it is criminally overlooked as a nightmarish series.

Tohru Honda, the protagonist, must save the Sohmas from themselves, which means soothing their wounded hearts and empowering them to improve their lives while breaking free from Akito’s grip. The anime set up Akito Sohma to be the final villain with her constant verbal and emotional abuse, but she too is a victim, having suffered from a selfish mother who deeply resented her.

After Tohru is taken in by the Soma family, she learns that twelve family members transform involuntarily into animals of the Chinese zodiac and helps them deal with the emotional pain caused by the transformations.

Release Date

April 5, 2019

Cast

Manaka Iwami , Laura Bailey , Nobunaga Shimazaki , Jerry Jewell

Seasons

3

Studio

Production Company

TMS Entertainment

Number of Episodes

63

Expand

8 Terminator Zero Asks Whether Humanity Even Deserves to Survive

Dark Themes/Elements: Nuclear War

Based on director James Cameron’s famous Terminator sci-fi franchise, the Terminator Zero anime explores this world of time travel and killer robots from a fresh perspective. The Connors are absent, replaced by new heroes who must fight desperately to prevent Judgment Day’s arrival with both actions and words. It’s August 1997, and nuclear fire is only hours away.

Most disturbingly of all, the AI that Dr. Malcolm Lee made to fight Skynet, named Kokoro, isn’t entirely convinced of its mission. Kokoro wonders if humanity is even worth saving from Skynet’s wrath, and Dr. Lee will struggle to provide answers. That challenges Terminator Zero fans to ask hard questions about human civilization and what about it is worth saving, and everyone’s assumptions about that just might be wrong.

A soldier from a war-torn future is sent back to 1997 to protect AI scientist Malcolm Lee, whose work on a rival AI to Skynet could change the course of humanity’s battle against the machines. As they face an unstoppable assassin from the future, they must navigate the ethical dilemmas of creating a powerful new AI, all while the fate of Malcolm’s children and the world hangs in the balance​.

Release Date

August 29, 2024

Creator(s)

Mattson Tomlin

Cast

Timothy Olyphant , Rosario Dawson , Andre Holland , Sonoya Mizuno , Ann Dowd

Seasons

1

7 Jujutsu Kaisen’s Best Plot Twists Are All Brutal and Shocking

Dark Themes/Elements: Grief

On one hand, the shonen action anime Jujutsu Kaisen has delightful humor and certainly the power of friendship to give the heroes a fighting chance, but it’s always an uphill battle. Protagonist Yuji Itadori had to eat one of Ryomen Sukuna’s fingers to survive a curse attack, only to be sentenced to death from the sorcerer world’s elders. Only Satoru Gojo’s influence prevented that from happening.

Meanwhile, Jujutsu Kaisen amps up the horror and heartbreak with storylines like Mahito twisting the bullied Junpei Yoshino into a monster, not to mention Maki Zenin’s struggles against the sorcery world’s bias against female sorcerers. Most recently, the Jujutsu Kaisen anime dealt an emotional blow with Nobara Kugisaki’s apparent death, and Yuji is all alone as the sorcerer elders aim to execute him after all.

Jujutsu Kaisen

A boy swallows a cursed talisman – the finger of a demon – and becomes cursed himself. He enters a shaman’s school to be able to locate the demon’s other body parts and thus exorcise himself.

Release Date

October 2, 2020

Cast

Junya Enoki , Yuma Uchida , Yuichi Nakamura , Adam McArthur , Asami Seto

Seasons

3

Studio

MAPPA

Creator

Gege Akutami

Main Characters

Yuji Itadori, Satoru Gojo, Ryomen Sukuna

Production Company

Mappa, TOHO animation

Number of Episodes

47 Episodes

Expand

6 Tokyo Ghoul Thrusts the Hero Into a Morally Ambiguous Struggle For Survival

Dark Themes/Elements: The Suffering of Innocents, Torture

In broad strokes, the seinen manga/anime franchise Tokyo Ghoul almost feels like a shonen “monster hunter” anime, but it also focuses on some tricky moral ambiguity that sets it apart from Demon Slayer and even Chainsaw Man. That’s because in Tokyo Ghoul‘s world, the human and ghoul sides each have cruel and innocent people, so it’s not black and white.

Related

10 Best Dark Shojo Anime, Ranked

While shojo anime is known for being light and fluffy there are some that dip their toe in darker themes.d

Protagonist Ken Kaneki saw that for himself when he became a one-eyed ghoul, a classic example of a half-other anime hero. He saw the good and bad on both sides, such as CCG investigators, innocent ghouls like Hinami, and cruel ghouls like Aogiri Tree, so he resolved to stop all the fighting rather than favor one side. It won’t be easy for Ken to reconcile the two sides, though, as members of each side fight him or even torture him.

Tokyo Ghoul

Tokyo Ghoul took the world by storm when it debuted during the summer of 2014. Studio Pierrot does some wonderful work adapting author Sui Ishida’s dark fantasy series. Tokyo Ghoul isn’t for the faint of heart. This anime combines several genres such as horror, psychological thriller, action, and drama to great success.

Genre

Animation, Action, Horror

Language

English

Number of Seasons

4

Debut Date

July 3, 2014

Studio

Pierrot

5 The Flowers of Evil Explores the Frustration and Emptiness of Teen Life

Dark Themes/Elements: Teen Angst, Verbal Abuse/Manipulation

The Flowers of Evil is the middle-darkest manga/anime franchise because it has no fanciful elements to get in the way of the raw, real drama that unfolds between its young characters. Protagonist Takao Kasuga is introduced as an innocent, book-loving high schooler, only for the scheming Sawa Nakamura to twist him around her little finger, just for fun.

Takao was dragged down a dark path of misery, despair, and delinquence as Sawa convinced him to embrace his perverted side and reject the society he grew up in, and Takao internalized it all, if reluctantly. Takao and Sawa will feel libertated at first, but then Takao will learn what Sawa has already figured out: that there’s nothing out there for them, just more emptiness. They both destroy their young lives for practically no reason, so Takao can only hope he can rebuild his life after his family moves away.

The Flowers of Evil

Takao worships the class beauty, Nanako, from afar. When he is alone in the classroom one day after school, he notices her bag of gym clothes on the floor. He can’t resist picking it up. 

Release Date

April 5, 2013

Cast

Shin’ichirô Ueda , Mariya Ise , Yoko Hikasa

Seasons

1

Creator

Shūzō Oshimi

Production Company

Zexcs

Number of Episodes

13

Expand

4 Elfen Lied Stars a Heroine Who Has Nowhere to Go

Dark Themes/Elements: Alienation, Graphic Violence

The supernatural helps drive the story of Elfen Lied, since the antihero is a horned girl named Lucy/Nyu who has no place to call her own. She is a Diclonius, a species of humanoids with telekinetic powers, and they are not welcome on Earth. In fact, their kind is often experimented on, sometimes with deadly results, but Lucy escaped that fate by sheer force.

Now Lucy/Nyu is wandering free with two minds in one, and no one can understand her, though Kota and his friends will certainly try. Every time Lucy/Nyu thinks she can find happiness, something goes wrong and brings out her violent side. The repeated violence may soon convince Lucy that she was wrong to seek peace, which will break her heart all over again.

Two university students come across a seemingly harmless girl named Lucy, unaware that she’s actually a mutant serial killer with a split personality.

Release Date

July 25, 2004

Creator(s)

Takao Yoshioka , Lynn Okamoto

Cast

Kira Vincent-Davis , Adam Conlon , Christine Auten , Nancy Novotny , Cynthia Martinez , Sasha Paysinger , Jay Hickman , Jason Douglas , Luci Christian

Main Genre

Action

Seasons

1

Studio

Arms, Studio Guts

Creator

Lynn Okamoto

Writers

Lynn Okamoto

Streaming Service(s)

Prime Video

Franchise(s)

Elfen Lied

Directors

Mamoru Kanbe

Expand

3 Oshi no Ko Exposes the Lies and Abuse of the Entertainment Industry

Dark Themes/Elements: Grief, Exploitation, Emotional Trauma

Oshi no Ko‘s dark side comes from its subversive and blisteringly honest critique of the idol industry in Japan. Lies are the central theme of Oshi no Ko, because characters like Ai Hoshino and her twin son and daughter can only present fake versions of themselves, unable to show their real selves to the world. That’s why they all have the eye stars, a trademark of the Hoshinos.

Related

10 Best Anime If You Have A Dark Sense of Humor

From savage humor to sarcastically tackling dark themes, these dark comedies are perfect for anyone with a twisted sense of humor.

Ai believed she would never feel true love, and only in her dying moments did she realize that she truly loved her son and daughter. Some years after that, Aqua prepared to spend his second life seeking revenge, while Ruby threw herself into the same industry that killed her mother. Along he way, Kana Arima and Akane Kurokawa will also explore the exploitation and lies of the entertainment industry, with the former practically cheating to get jobs and the latter suffering from online verbal abuse from fans.

A doctor and his recently-deceased patient are reborn as twins to a famous Japanese musical idol and navigate the highs and lows of the Japanese entertainment industry as they grow up together through their lives.

Release Date

April 12, 2023

Cast

Manaka Iwami , Jeremy Gee , Jack Stansbury , Alyssa Marek , Savanna Menzel , Natalie Rial

Seasons

1

Creator

Production Company

Story By

Aka Akasaka

Writers

Jin Tanaka

Number of Episodes

Directors

Daisuke Hiramaki

Expand

2 Attack on Titan Turns a War For Survival Into An Apocalyptic Genocide

Dark Themes/Elements: Genocide, Horror Action, Betrayal

The Attack on Titan shonen anime started off on a brutal note as Eren Yeager and his allies fought desperately to hold back the flesh-eating Titans, and it was personal for Eren because a Titan ate his mother before his very eyes. What followed was nonstop gore and mayhem as the war heated up, and then the plot got even darker and more complex thanks to conspiracies, lies, and betrayal.

The Reiss family had been hiding the truth of the Titans from everyone, but even when that issue was dealt with, Eren still had many enemies across the sea. That prompted him to become a devastating antihero as he prepared to launch a genocidal war against all non-Eldians with the rumbling. That turned friend against friend in violent fashion, and then the carnage shot through the roof as Eren’s threat of the rumbling became real.

Attack on Titan

If post-apocalyptic is tattooed on your forehead in terms of what you enjoy watching, then look no further since Attack on Titan is the show for you. Based on the manga series of the same name created by Hajime Isayama, the series is an action-fueled, dark fantasy, post-apocalyptic anime that makes you watch in terror from beginning to end. Set in a world where humanity lives within cities surrounded by enormous walls that protect them from gigantic man-eating humanoids referred to as Titans, the story follows Eren Yeager, who vows to retake the world after a Titan brings about the destruction of his hometown and the death of his mother. Bringing revenge upon the massive foes and reclaiming the world from the Titans, Eren and his friends join the Scout Regiment, an elite group of soldiers who fight the Titans. The anime can be split into four different blocks of content: the 2013 season and its films, the 2017 season and its film, the 2018-2019 season and its film, and the upcoming final season that has yet to be aired. While the anime has yet to be done, Attack on Titan is a series to start as soon as possible, with all of its 59 episodes and a handful of films to watch, it may take a bit of time. An anime like Attack on Titan is rare to come across. Based in a world that doesn’t let you sleep at night, it’s a series that really keeps you up until the sun rises. So, if that’s your cup of tea, get ready for an adventure to take down these Titans.

Genre

Action, Dark Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic

Language

English, Japanese

Number of Seasons

3

Debut Date

April 7, 2013

Studio

Wit Studio, MAPPA

1 Berserk Stars a Lone Struggler Who Must Overcome Trauma and Betrayal

Dark Themes/Elements: Sexual Violence, Betrayal, Emotional Trauma

The famous Berserk manga/anime franchise is the darkest of all because it has so many brutal, horrific elements that make for a highly R-rated experience. In fact, the anime version of Berserk can’t even fully depict the original manga’s most graphic content, though the anime versions can allude to it, and fans will get the point all the same. This is a story of medieval heroes enduring unspeakable abuse and hardship while struggling not to lose themselves to the darkness.

Guts the mercenary embodies all those dark themes, being a survivor of ghastly abuse and betrayal, all without ever losing his good side. It’s inspirational yet gut-wrenching to watch Guts fight so hard to move past his worst moments and become a noble hero for the people he cares most about, all while fighting off ravenous Apostles and spirits every night as his mind and body are ground down.

Berserk

Guts, a wandering mercenary, joins the Band of the Hawk after being defeated in a duel by Griffith, the group’s leader and founder. Together, they dominate every battle, but something menacing lurks in the shadows.

Created by

Kentaro Miura

First Film

Berserk: The Golden Age Arc 1: The Egg of the King

First TV Show

Berserk

Latest TV Show

Berserk

Where to watch

Crunchyroll

Video Game(s)

Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Sho , Berserk and the Band of the Hawk , Sword of the Berserk: Guts Rage

Manga Volumes

42

Summary

Berserk (Japanese: ベルセルク, Hepburn: Beruseruku) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kentaro Miura. Set in a medieval Europe-inspired dark fantasy world, the story centers on the characters of Guts, a lone swordsman, and Griffith, the leader of a mercenary band called the “Band of the Hawk”. The series follows Guts’ journey seeking revenge on Griffith, who betrayed him and sacrificed his comrades to become a powerful demonic being.

Expand