Kida is the audience’s tour guide to Ikebukuro, guiding Mikado around the strange jungle that is this wild city. He’s the cool ‘best friend’ character and always seemed to be comfortable amongst the dangers surrounding them, taking the initiative to introduce Mikado to the important figures across Ikebukuro. However, it was soon revealed that Kida was far more than just a tour guide and ended up becoming a part of this odd proxy gang war against his best friend. Masaomi Kida is a character that we’ve seen every side of. His ability to learn from his mistakes and take a step in the right direction is admirable. Entering back into the series in DurararaX2, he’s humble and prepared to face the realities of life and the consequences of his actions. And there’s nothing cooler than doing the right thing, right? ...Right?

The Blue Squares were always a fairly vague gang and within the first season, they existed as little more than flavour text as the gang that the Yellow Scarves defeated. Whilst the gang was disbanded, their name was important and it’s one that stuck with us throughout the conflicts between the Dollars and the Yellow Scarves. But jump ahead to DurararaX2 and the Blue Squares are back in a brand new form. Aoba is the original founder of the Blue Squares and ended up losing the group due to the gang war predating the first episode. But now that he’s back in town, he’s out to rebuild the Blue Squares using any means necessary. It’s a really cool progression and the conflicts between him and Mikado end up building them both as characters in this strange mutually advantageous relationship.

Everybody loves the underdog. There’s something brilliant about watching all of these powerful people galavanting around town, only to realise that our weak protagonist is perhaps the most powerful of all of them. Mikado’s place within Durarara shows a disconnect between strength and power, finally introducing the scope of community influence. The Dollars is an online chat group that Ryuugamine formed as a joke. Anyone can join the chat group as long as they were invited. At its core, it’s just a chat group much like what you’d have on Skype. However, the invite-only nature and quick expansion of it eventually led to gangsters using the name “Dollars”. It was at this point that Mikado decided to turn it around and use the group for good, eventually creating the most powerful gang in Ikebukuro.

Speaking of the Dollars, Kyohei is one such member and the leader of his own gang who try to carry out good deeds throughout the city, even if it does involve terrifying means. Among a group of eccentrics, Kyohei’s ability to stay level-headed and collected is certainly valuable. He’s regarded as one of the more charismatic characters within a show, displayed through his own honesty, acting as a direct anti-thesis to Izaya. In a town where the dynamic can change quickly and anger takes over logic, Kyohei is the one consistent force that pulls us back to reality and finds his own reasons for fighting, separate from the constant manipulation that’s consistent with other major characters in the show.

When a new season of one your favourite shows comes back after such a long absence, it’s natural to expect a gift. Something extra that doesn’t just say “I’m back!” It says, “I’m back and I’m better than ever!” The Orihara twins are that gift. As the sisters of the ultimate manipulative force that is Izaya, they’re just as eccentric. Together, they’ve manipulated their own personalities into polar opposites of each other in an attempt to make up for each other’s weaknesses at every turn. It was even mentioned by Izaya that they flipped a coin to decide who gets which personality. Everything about them is so flippant and their extreme reactions to everything and vague loyalty is a strange mix between cool and creepy. Thank god there’s a screen separating us or the Orihara Twins would be the source of my nightmares.

Most wouldn’t regard a character who seems to play the role of comic relief so often to be “cool”. However, Shinra is far far more than just a set of jokes and plays an integral role within every plot point. Despite him being an underground doctor, he’s also very good friends with both Izaya and Shizuo, two of the most powerful forces within the city. He recognises both of their flaws and as a middleman ends up becoming tied up in the largest amount of occurring narratives out of any character. The fact that someone who’s physically weak, not particularly manipulative and not really malicious can become such an important character within every conflict is just brilliant and he defies all our expectations of him. Most characters in his position would be constantly fearful of attack, but Shinra always remains calm, collected and ready to dish out a joke, even at the expense of some of the most dangerous people.

Shizuo’s possibly the easiest pick within this list. Inhuman strength, sunglasses and a profession as a waiter all seem to build up to “You’ve just been served puns” as well as the ultimate image of ‘coolness’. With possibly one of the strangest backstories within the series, Shizuo has had superhuman strength from childhood. But without a superhuman body, every time he ended up using it, he’d end up hospitalized. Through years of strain and self-abuse, he finally gained the strength to be able to support his own superhuman outbursts. However, that isn’t what’s cool about Shizuo. When we’re first introduced to him, it’s as a character to fear. Someone who will violently hunt down anyone who wrongs him. So what changes our perspective is how he’s built up later on as someone who doesn’t really like violence and gets annoyed at his own short temper. It’s just unfortunate that much of Ikebukuro don’t see it the same way.

Simon is a constant unknown force and throughout the entire first season of Durarara, we’re not even totally sure who he really is. We knew he owned a Russian Sushi place in Ikebukuro and was connected with various figures around town, but his real place within the world was unclear. The same goes for what exactly Russian sushi is. There’s this great scene in the first episode where Mikado is told that the three people he needed to avoid was Izaya, Shizuo and Simon. However, as someone with no real apparent feuds, Simon is the odd man out within that equation. That is until we get the chance to see his incredible strength and later hear his backstory as a former Soviets Special Forces operative. He is the strongest man in Ikebukuro and even Izaya mused that in a fist-fight between him and Shizuo, Simon would come out on top.

There’s nothing cooler than a motorcycle. Unless it’s a headless horseman on a motorcycle made of shadows. What’s initially presented as a fairly odd concept in the ever changing chaos that is Ikebukuro, ends up contributing to one of the most likeable characters within the series. Whether it’s escaping from the police or beating up crooks, Celty is the closest the Durarara franchise gets to having their own Batman. But in place of a growly voice, Celty instead uses a cellphone to tap out her messages. She lost her head, after all. As one of the strongest characters on the “good side”, she can create weapons and shapes from a shadow protruding from her neck. Appearing from nowhere, Celty’s presence on the scene changes the dynamic entirely, turning a gang beat-up into a supernatural slaughter. She’s the Dullahan from Celtic mythology and now she’s one of the good guys in the Ikebukuro gang wars. I believe that’s reason enough to place her on this list.

There really is no other candidate for the top place here. As one of my favourite characters in fiction, Izaya’s position as an antagonist is as complex as it is mysterious. Much like Little Finger from Game of Thrones, Izaya’s motivations are always unclear, yet most conflicts can be traced back to him. Dancing around the streets of Ikebukuro, Izaya has very few fears and always seems to be in control, even when being attacked by Shizuo, the strongest man in the city. There’s something inherently cool about winning and Izaya’s streak never seems to end. With little investments in his own plots, he’s just as happy watching them fail as watching them succeed. It’s such an odd dynamic that even parts of Durarara!!X2 where he’s bleeding on the streets aren’t considered a defeat, as Izaya’s reaction puts everything back towards him.

On an emergency trip to Canada, Haru is suddenly introduced to his adopted younger brother Ren. Haru is tasked with “civilizing” Ren, who is very rough around the edges. Haru begins to learn about Ren’s past and takes care of him diligently, and the two start to become a real family. Five years later, as part of a childhood promise, Ren moves to Tokyo to live with Haru and Haru’s two biological brothers. Despite a brewing forbidden love between brothers with a notable age gap, Ren and Haru develop a bond that can only be described as love in its purest form. Based on a manga with the same title, Super Lovers promises to be a yaoi anime about a romance that faces a lot of social boundaries. Fans of the manga will be pleased to know that the anime will be produced by Studio Deen, the creators of the well-received Junjo Romantica. If you’re looking for a BL fix this spring, check out Super Lovers.

Kagewani: Shou is the upcoming sequel to its first season Kagewani, a horror anime with an experimental art style that has more than a few heads turning in its direction. In true Japanese kaiju fashion, strange monsters are attacking humans and seem completely unstoppable. One scientist, Banba Sousuke is looking for answers to the monsters and his past. In short 7-minute episodes, Kagewani stuffs in enough suspenseful monster reveals and small bursts of plot setting to keep us glued to the screen. The first season took a fantastically interesting step into the human psyche in the last episode, but we were left with a gaping hole where a second season would fit nicely, and here it is! New mysteries have popped up for the second go-around, including the growing shadowy scar Banba has around his left eye. Brought to you by Takashima Tomoya, the director of Yami Shibai (Japanese Ghost Stories), Kagewani: Shou should be able to transition to this new direction quite nicely.

Naruhodo Ryuuichi is a rookie lawyer who is filled with passion for fighting for his clients. Based on a hit visual novel game series by the same name, Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney brings dramatic courtroom showdowns to your anime world. Ryuuichi’s rival is a genius prosecutor Mitsurugi Reiji who has little pity for the accused, but with the help of his mentor Ayasato Chihiro and his assistant Ayasato Mayoi, Ryuuichi faces each unusual case head on. With the visual novel games as a guide, we can expect new twists and turns in each unusual case. How will Ryuuichi slip past Mitsurugi’s iron-clad prosecution? With triumphant finger pointing and a well-timed “Objection!” Ryuuichi is sure to find the important evidence he needs before the final gavel is struck. Players of the game will be the first on the hype train, but it’s possible the anime will inspire the non-gamers to pick up their handhelds and take a shot at lawyering in the visual novel age.

Kiznaiver is an original anime—code for crazy awesome plot potential—set in the ruins of a futuristic metropolis, where our protagonist Sonozaki Noriko is chosen to be a Kiznaiver, a person who can share pain from physical wounds with others through the Kizuna System. Each of the Kiznaivers is distinct in personality, and they all belong to different social circles, but the Kizuna System connects them. Will the shared pain of wounds also allow them to connect their feelings? As the promo dialog states, “Everyone wants to be connected to someone.” Kiznaiver already has a lot going for it. This new anime is produced by the studio Trigger, the wonderful people who have brought us the ever-popular anime orgasms of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill. If you’re wondering about character development, you will be pleased to know that Kiznaiver’s script is written by Okada Mari (Anohana, Toradora, Nagi no Asukara). The unique and vibrant animation from Trigger combined with interpersonal relationships guided by Okada Mari might just be the genius collaboration we didn’t know we always wanted.

The elusive village of Nanakimura is hiding a secret. The village is rumored to be a utopia, a place where you can leave behind all your troubles of the world. In a tour bus of thirty passengers, many are looking for the escape they need to bring peace to their troubled hearts in this village of legend, but when they arrive, they find Nanakimura is abandoned. What fate befell their last hope at finding the much-needed solace in their lives? For that matter, what fate awaits them in this forgotten village? This drama anime filled with mystery is the second original collaboration with Okada Mari (Anohana, Tododora) on this list. With the recent success of Iron-Blooded Orphans, Okada has been able to show her writing versatility, and this spring collaboration has all the kiddies talking. Mayoiga will be directed by Mizushima Tsutomu, the man at the reigns of Shirobako and Prison School. This mix-and-matched staff of Mayoiga may even rival the melty combination genius of taco rice, but only time will tell! Time seriously needs to hurry up.

This spring, Production I.G is blessing us with a new globe-trotting and spy-tastic seinen anime, Joker Game. At the eve of World War II, the Japanese military has developed a mysterious “D Agency,” composed of talented intellectuals who excel at manipulation. Far from being assassins, these spies live under the rule of “Don’t die; don’t kill,” and they certainly are trump card outliers in the Japanese army. Look forward to this war drama with a brainy twist. Based on a real novel, not the light variety, the synopsis looks promising. The voice cast looks straight-up, down-right great. It looks great, period. Please, let this be great. As a World War II period piece, the visuals have a good level of realistic grit to them, letting it stand out in the polished Spring 2016 crowd. Joker Game has a unique aesthetic, with its adult male characters sporting suits, and with backgrounds matched to the time period and European locations. For anime fans who like well-developed plots with historical relevance, Joker Game needs to be on your watch list this spring.

By far, the most anticipated anime for this season is Bungo Stray Dogs. Already slated for 2 seasons, Bungo Stray Dogs is adaptation of the supernatural mystery manga of the same name. In Bungo Stray Dogs, we get an eclectic group of detectives who all have supernatural powers. The main protagonist Nakajima Atsushi is an orphan who was thrown out of his orphanage, but he joins a supernatural detective agency on a hunt for a human-eating tiger that appeared around when Atsushi came to town. What is the connection between Atsushi and this tiger? The original manga for Bungo Stray Dogs is well-received, and BONES isn’t one to disappoint when they have a good story. If the anime holds true to its source material, look forward to a plot that is set up well and delivers consistently through the veil of mystery. If you looking for some supernatural action-packed detective work or some handsome guys with interesting sets of skills, Bungo Stray Dogs will have something you’ll enjoy. Let’s see if Bungo Stray Dogs will be the top-notch mystery we’ve been looking for.

What, Psycho-Pass?! Savvy readers who already watched this brilliance of a TV anime show might’ve been so immersed in one of the most riveting anime narratives of this decades to remember how disturbing some of the earlier stories had been. Possibly to fit his gory and almost nihilistic writing style to the TV airwaves, the first half of Psycho-Pass is a collection of Gen Urobuchi’s imaginatively violent murders ranging from our first exposure to death by molecular deconstruction (through the Dominators used by our protagonists) to sawing up a corpse so that it can be flushed into a toilet bowl. Admittedly, Psycho-Pass is among Urobuchi’s tamer works, especially compared to almost all of his prolific visual novels. However, it is possibly his most gut-churning anime as you realise that one of the victims in the show ended up with their legs attached to where their arms are supposed to connect with their shoulders, in an almost beautifying way no less.

16 year old Akira Tsubaki gets into a relationship with fellow classmate and loner Mikoto Urabe. Having a setup so similar to many anime romances, it shouldn’t be wrong for any innocent viewer to assume that this show is about Akira and Mikoto’s adorable couplehood and their learning to come into terms with being with one another. Well, they wouldn’t be wrong either… However, Nazo no Kanojo X is especially disconcerting because the entire basis of the main couple’s relationship and sexual attraction to one another is based on them dwelling (both mentally and very, very graphically) on each other’s spit. There’s an element of rawness in the show’s frank depiction of Akira and Mikoto’s pent up frustration despite the Ghibli-inspired fantastical aesthetics, giving an almost poetic meaning to their salivary exchanges as they learn to accept the weirdness in their significant other. Whether it is appealing to watch is something we have decide on our own. Watching Nazo no Kanojo X is akin to visiting your neighbours and then absolutely enjoying yourself as their puppy runs enthusiastically onto your lap, only for you to realise in horror that his entire body is covered in the stink of his uncleaned waste. You can definitely learn to ignore the stench and enjoy his antics, but that would definitely be more of a compliment to your strength of mind.

Shiki is an anime about vampires. Not many vampire anime exist, and among the most popular shows of the past decade are a shoujo love story and a high school romantic comedy. In stark contrast to its motif predecessors, Shiki tells a story of the conflicts between the humans and ‘shiki’, long-living vampiric creatures, in a rural Japanese village that escalates into a desperate war of survival at the cost of morality and compassion. The show does a great job of making every death count. While Shiki resembles a horror show more than anything else in the first half of its run, there comes a point when the viewer is no longer astonished by the vampires but instead by the sheer violence that both sides are capable of. In one particular scene, village doctor Toshio Ozaki becomes so consumed with his hate for the ‘shiki’ that he heartlessly dissects one of their kind both in our and his conscious victim’s view. The scene, in all its disturbing glory, ends up being a turning point in demonstrating to us that some of the most disgusting and revolting conflicts are those of when people try to regain their normal lives.

Not often in fiction does sex and violence get to the point of actually disgusting its audience. Elfen Lied accomplishes this in the beginning 10 minutes of its first episode, and continues doing so for the rest of its one-cour runtime. Just like Shiki, Elfen Lied thrives on contrasting moments of normality with unnerving images of supernatural forces at work. The anime builds upon its beginning moments of security guards being flinged about like bloody pinatas by heroine Lucy’s psychic hands that it almost has no choice but to go further into the deep end as the episodes go by. In fact, Elfen Lied is so good at doing this that it challenges our ability to stomach violence through gratuitous scenes of on animal beatings and premature girls being systematically tortured, both vivid enough to induce some vomiting from less resilient viewers. There is little reason to Elfen Lied’s violence, which makes it all the more disgusting as you realise the meaninglessness of the characters’ suffering. However, as a piece of anime history and a focal point to the levels of gore that a TV anime is capable of, Elfen Lied is a benchmark that deserves its recognition.

Most people have no idea that ufotable made Gyo, but everyone who does know about Gyo probably came across it by accident or knew about the manga that it was adapted from. Released as an hour long OVA, Gyo resembles the horror rental tapes that one might grab for a nice weekend with friends. As one of the more straightforward anime of this list, it really is a surprise that Gyo isn’t better known among anime watchers; it could easily earn a cult following by horror fans who can stomach some of its more repulsive imagery. Gyo also happens to be the kind of monster-on-man show that is deeply interested in showing the gritty physical detail of engaging in combat with armies of shark-cyborg mutants, where even a single scratch reduces you to a zombie-like sea monster. Somewhat ironically, Gyo actually tells a very compelling story of survival and loss, making it quite an impressive feat of where anime makes good use of disgusting elements for an intriguing viewing experience. Feel free to utilise this anime for a memorable bonding experience with the braver ones among your good friends.

With violence being such a common tool in fictional media to impress viewers, it takes a special something for today’s anime fans for anime violence to be described as disgusting. With Blood-C, it is the ridiculous level of creativity put into scenes of its monsters massacring the human population that immediately puts it above the two other mainstream anime featuring gratuitous violence. Bringing back to life a franchise with a dedicated cult following that started with the much-loved Blood: The Last Vampire anime film, Blood-C throws you for a loop by an nausea inducing dichotomy between awkward school life scenes and exaggerated levels of blood spilling. While this alone might be traumatising to dedicated franchise fans, the really disgusting aspect of the show are the scenes of otherworldly monstrosities indiscriminately killing innocent civilian. Whether it is people getting ripped apart at the limbs, skewered like hot snack or made into a torrent of bloody fluid as though in a blender, Blood-C finds a way to put you in awe from the sheer creativity of its violence while simultaneously forcing your eyes away from the monitor. Blood-C is the kind of anime that is perfect material to make .gif files and freak out your friends with. No one who enjoys a decent story will put themselves through it, but it does do a good job of showing how modern anime can push the limits of what makes it to the air waves.

Abunai Sisters is one of those things that no one wants to recognise as an anime, but is considered so because it was made under prolific animation studio Production I.G. The studio is best known for making great anime like Ghost in the Shell and Psycho-Pass about important things like human identity and social disorder. On the other hand, Abunai Sister is a not so great CGi-made anime about not so important issues, like Koko and Mika’s ridiculous breast physics and antagonists who obsess over them. It’s also fluently voiced in English, which is interesting since the dialogue is obviously trenched in Japanese syntax. For the most part, Abunai Sister entertains through the ridiculousness of its aesthetics and the shallowness of its story. However, this backfires by how unappealing absolutely everything about it is, from the physical appearance of Koko and Mika to the repulsive attempts at fanservice throughout the show. There is something innately disgusting about a fanservice show that is so ugly that one can only enjoy it in an ironic sense, which is made even worse when one realises that there is absolutely no point to the entire show other than inducing a few cheap laughs. In a sense, Abunai Sister subverts sexuality by making all elements of it in the show as disgusting as possible. However, describing it as such is a generous evaluation of the anime’s intellectual value.

Lasting only 3 minutes as a single episode OVA, Utsu Musume Sayuri is the shortest entry on this list by length. Despite so, it may very well be the most immediately disturbing from the moment the you are introduced to the titular Sayuri and her deformed family members, who from what any viewer can tell is part of Sayuri’s own body. The plot for this anime is simple; Sayuri, a creature consisting of many horrifying physical features is told by her family to “hit” another horrifying creature, and she does. That’s literally it. Of course, since this anime is so short, introducing Sayuri and her family takes nearly half of its entire runtime and is just as disturbing as anything else there is to see. So little makes sense about this show that it ends up sticking to the mind as an amalgamation of all disgusting behaviour imaginable, compressed into a single act lacking any rhyme or reason and provides no closure to the horror that just a glance of this anime exposes you to.

Visual novels are infamous for birthing fictional works that depict violent and disturbing fetishisations of sex, albeit with countless counterexamples of great writing in the same medium. Euphoria is a strange animal in the sense that it is without a doubt a hideous culmination of sexual extremity and torturous behaviour, but is also recognised for its smart writing. The anime, being a low production value hentai OVA, has less of the latter while retaining the most disgusting aspects of the original game. Some of you braver readers might have taken the initiative to check out the first episode and might be thinking, how does this any worse than any of the shows above? Well, resilient readers, do be aware that the first episode is alike a roller coaster building up for speed, escalating higher and higher before it all comes crashing down into loops of excretion-infused coupling and hyper-violent fetishisation forced on unwilling high school students, all in the name of surviving a crazy game that no one involved understands. Even the more venturous of anime fans will need a bucket nearby in case they can’t stomach their disgust hearing the desperate cries of the more vulnerable female characters. Even your sympathy for the hesitant protagonist, who carries out all of these acts, will wane as he adapts emotionally to the role of being a antagonistic deviant. Those who are looking for an entry point to the dark side of anime need look no further, for Euphoria is the disgust-inducing gem of the industry that awaits your curiosity.

The truth is, if this had been a list about the Top 10 Disgusting Manga, we would have came up with a much darker, much less appealing list of works. As such, it only makes sense that the top of our current list is an anime adaptation of a kamishibai (literally “paper drama”) story of young Midori during the Showa-period of Japan, who loses her parents and is forced to a position of slavery in a freak circus. That being said, this is a particularly unappetising work that cannot be recommended in good faith to anyone, and as thus its entry in this list serves as a way of your avoidance from sheer nightmare-fuel. The anime depicts in vivid detail and avant-garde creativity of Midori’s sexual and emotional abuse under a number of physically deformed circus performers with heavy use of psychotic imagery, often to the point of grotesque sex scenes that does not excite in the slightest. It therefore follows that Director Hiroshi Harada single-handedly drew the entire film after having failed to gather a proper production staff. Fortunately (or unfortunately for those forced into watching the film), this means that viewers get the complete experience of Harada’s artistic expression, which he certainly puts into use throughout scene after grotesque scene of abstract personal horror and disgusting renditions of intercourse between numerous couples. As much as this anime can be considered in either extremes as self-contained trash production or a pure expression of art, it is a dire challenge to the viewer’s stomach as well as to their sanity. There is no pleasure whatsoever to be gained from watching Shoujo Tsubaki as it is occupies a space in creative expression devoid of any intention of being entertaining. Instead, it forcefully expands the viewer’s worldview of what is possible of human imagination while raising very significant questions of how far one creator must be in a dark tunnel to be so dedicated in completing an anime that no one can possibly enjoy.

Let's get this list started with Another! This story revolves around a high school boy named Kouichi Sakakibara, whose life is shaken when he has to move from Tokyo to Yomiyama to live with his grandparents, as his father had to move to India due to his job. As Kouichi misses the first three weeks of school, because of a health problem, his new classmates go visit him to the hospital. There, Kouichi meets Misaki, a strange girl with an eye patch. When he finally starts going to school, he realizes that Misaki is one of his classmates. The strange thing, though, is that nobody seems to be able to see her, and whenever he asks the other about Misaki, no one seems to know her. Not knowing exactly what's going on, Kouichi decides to get closer to Misaki, to discover the truth firsthand. Did we talk about mystery up above? Well, Another has plenty of mysteries! It shares with Mayoiga a very eerie atmosphere and a lingering sensation that something bad is going to happen any moment. As in Mayoiga our protagonist, Mitsumune, and the others want to start a new life, for Kouichi a new life begins without him wanting it. During both these shows a lot of bad things keep on happening: people disappearing, people dying, strange visions. What's more, all the characters, struck with fear, start accusing each other in the attempt to find the culprit. Even the two protagonists are very similar: Kouichi and Mitsumune, they both try to get closer to the most suspicious of the girls, Misaki and Masaki. Although Another has a horror orientation, these two shows manage to keep you glued to the screen as you want to know how the situations will be resolved. If you are enjoying Mayoiga, but feel brave enough to watch something even stronger, give Another a try!

Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni revolves around a high school student – Keiichi Maebara – who suddenly moves in the little village of Hinamizawa and befriends his cute female classmates. His life goes on peacefully, and Keiichi thinks he has found a very nice place to live in. In fact, he sticks to his classmates and joins all the activities they do as well. Suddenly, though, the situation turns for the worse. After the annual Watanagashi Festival, a festival held to thank Oyashiro-sama – the local god – he discovers a series of terrific events happened for the last four years, related to that festival. After that moment onward, other horrific events start happening, and a bitter truth strikes him: his classmates may not be what they really seem. There are a lot of similarities shared by Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni and Mayoiga. First of it all, everything starts from a situation that could be somehow normal; Maebara moves from the city to a village, exactly how in Mayoiga they move to the countryside. Then, the initial idea of it being a calm and peaceful place gets spoiled by some inexplicable happenings. The characters, in both these anime, show a side of them that suddenly changes when their psyche is being tested. The atmosphere is eerie; it starts one way, but suddenly the viewers get the feeling that something is wrong with the entire background. Both villages, Nanakimura and Hinamizawa, are full of strange legends and have a creepy folk song. What's more, in both these shows there are a lot of fear inducing situations, like people dying, or disappearing. As like Another, Higurashi has a horror trait with it, but the atmosphere and the situations are very similar to the ones in Mayoiga, so if you like one, you will like the other for sure!

Let's go on with Danganronpa: The Animation and its protagonist, Makoto Naegi. After winning a lottery as the “Ultimate Lucky Student”, he gained the chance to attend the Hope's Peak Academy. This is a high school that only accepts elite students, who once accepted, receive a title describing their own talents and skills. Makoto Naegi, though, is just an ordinary boy who won that title by chance, so he is overly happy to attend that rumored high school, that will give him a bright future. The moment he steps into the Academy, he faints; when he wakes up, he realizes that he is trapped into the school, with no way out. When he and the other 14 students meet the school president – Monokuma, a little bear – he makes a scary announcement: they will be able to graduate only if they will manage to kill one of their classmates, without being discovered! Danganronpa and Mayoiga share the initial idea of a new hope. In Danganronpa is the idea that the elite school will give all the students a bright future, while in Mayoiga is the idea of a new life. In both these shows we find more characters, with different personalities, who don't agree with the other party's way of thinking, starting fights over and over. Of course, the creepy atmosphere is another trait they share, as suddenly the viewers have the strange feeling that the lucky chances the characters were given, are just hiding something else. In both the situations, all the characters have to find a way to sort things out, by cooperating and accepting the other party's way of thinking. As like in Mayoiga, even in Danganronpa there are murders, crazy characters and inexplicable happenings that will make you wonder what is going on. All the characters will have their psyche tested, and they will be put into situations that will shake them at the core. So, the mystery and drama traits are exactly the same you can find in Mayoiga. If you are liking Mayoiga's themes, then, you are bound to like Danganronpa as well. Why don't you give it a try?

Let's move on with a mystery anime revolving around a professor named Souhei Saikawa and his assistant, Moe Nishinosono. The story begins with the two protagonists wishing to meet the genius programmer Shiki Magata. She has been living isolated for fifteen years on a solitary island, since she was a 13-year-old, due to the fact that she killed her parents. Due to her intelligence, Shiki Magata is admired by professor Saikawa, but a shocking truth will unravel in front of him and his assistant. When they arrive to the island, and finally are about to meet Shiki Magata... They find a corpse and get caught up into a series of murders. As for the similarities that Subete Ga F Ni Naru shares with Mayoiga, we need to go deeper this time. In both these anime there's a new start; in Mayoiga there's this trip from the city, to the countryside, while in Subete Ga F Ni Naru there's this strong willing for both Saikawa and Nishinosono to meet the genius programmer, so much so that they decide to go to that solitary island to meet her. So, different backgrounds, but still something that start from a very normal situation only to get worse later on. As for the mystery part, just how in Mayoiga we find the unsettling atmosphere, the eerie sounds and visions that allow the viewers to perceive that there's something wrong, the same happens in Subete Ga F Ni Naru. In fact, when Saikawa and Nishinosono find a corpse, and start to investigate, there's a crescendo of suspense that make the viewers wonder how everything will be solved and if it is even possible to be solved. In both these shows we find people who are put in a corner, and struggle to keep themselves sane. Even though Subete Ga F Ni Naru has psychological and philosophical traits with it as well, it's not a stretch to say that it will give you the same feeling you have while watching Mayoiga!

Let's talk about this wonderful masterpiece born from Sanbe Kei's pen and adapted into an anime that gained a great popularity among viewers! This is a story revolving around a guy named Satoru Fujinuma, with a strange power that brings him back in time by few minutes, whenever a tragedy is about to happen, to allow him to fix it. Satoru calls his power “revival”. When a tragedy strikes him, his mother's killed and he is the prime suspect, his power sends him 18 years back in time. He soon realizes that probably his mother's murder is connected to the abduction and murder of his lonely classmate, Kayo Hinazuki. Satoru starts to work for that purpose, trying hard to save his friends and his mother's lives, only to discover a shocking truth that will change his life forever! Athough Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi has a strong supernatural trait with it, it's clear as day that it has some similarities with Mayoiga as well. First of it all, both these shows are mystery and drama genre. Then, let's talk about the atmosphere surrounding the characters. In Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi, the viewers have this constant feeling that whatever Satoru does, can turn out to be the wrong decision, with no time to fix it back anymore. So there's this anxious feeling that will keep the viewers glued to the screen, strongly cheering for Satoru. At the same time, in Mayoiga we find the same unsettling feeling, given by the fact that all the characters have absolutely no clue about what's going on, so it's like they're moving blindly in a setting that they don't know and anything bad can happen any moment. What's more, in Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi, bad things happened to children, who were abducted and killed by someone. Even when Satoru will go back in time for the first time, it'll happen again. At the same time, in Mayoiga there are people disappearing, leaving the viewers with a lot of questions about whom, or what made them disappear. As for the background, just how in Mayoiga they start a new life somewhere else, equally Satoru finds himself 28-year-old, in the body of a 10-year-old child, starting from the beginning his childhood. What else can we say? It's about time you catch up Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi, over all if you're enjoying Mayoiga right now!

Let's close this list with a masterpiece come from a successful novel, written by Yusuke Kishi and adapted into an anime later on. This story takes place in Japan 1000 years from here, and revolves around the lives of five children: Saki, Satoru, Shun, Maria and Mamoru. They grow up in a quiet village, in the 66° district of Kamisu. Their village is like a utopia: full of vegetation, full of clear water, with breathtaking views and the sounds of the nature. Due to some circumstances, though, the utopia comes down crushing and unveiling them the sad truth. In fact, not only they discover about the sudden outbreak of the psychokinesis that can make people become violent and destructive, and a real danger for other people's lives, but they also will finally discover the truth behind the bloody past that brought mankind to that point. They will begin their adventure, trying to save their friends from a world on the verge of the downfall! If in Mayoiga the characters want to live in a utopia and for that purpose they join the tour, in Shinsekai Yori they start from a utopia that falls down bit by bit. Everything in Shinsekai Yori is unsettling and eerie; in fact the viewers will expect the worse to happen from the first episode. The disappearing people theme here is strong; what's more, and what's very distressing, is that when in Shinsekai Yori someone disappears, suddenly no one can remember about that person anymore. The same unsettling sensation the viewers can feel in Mayoiga, for example when a certain character is suspected to be dead and disappearing. As like in Mayoiga, even in Shinsekai Yori we can find characters that try to get along, but keep on bickering because of their differences in character. The setting is very similar as well; even though Nanakimura is an abandoned village, it is very similar to the 66° district of Kamisu in Shinsekai Yori. Even though Shinsekai Yori has a horror and supernatural trait with it, it shares with Mayoiga the same drama and mystery orientation, as the viewers will keep on wondering what's going on and will remain glued to the screen until the end. Well, what are you waiting for? It's time to catch up with Shinsekai Yori as well!

Dr. Kenzou Tenma works in Europe as a renowned brain surgeon. Kenzou is highly praised and looked upon as one of the greatest young minds in the field. He has a beautiful fiancée and is just about to get promoted, but one day, Kenzou must decide between saving the life of the mayor or of a small boy. Ignoring the advice of those around him, Kenzou is compelled morally to save the boy. Soon after, a string of murders amongst the surgeons leads Kenzou to question his decision as all the clues point to the boy he saved. Now, Kenzou must figure out who the little boy is and if he really has something to do with the killer. If gripping mysteries are your cup of tea, Monster will surely quench your thirst. Monster if a fan favorite when it comes down to anime mysteries and it will not disappoint Sherlock fans out there! From murder mystery to a boy who challenges our main protagonist, Kenzou, there is no end to how gripping Monster can be! You’ll soon find yourself floating alongside Kenzou, attempting to solve the puzzle before he can, but is it really as easy as Sherlock makes it out to be?

The story of Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru follows Tatewaki Shoutarou who meets Kujou Sakurako. Shoutarou is just a high schooler, but his world changes when he comes across the bone-loving Sakurako who is a bit eccentric. Together, they come across a series of cases that require Sakurako’s great ability to analyze bones. Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru follows the same style as Sherlock in which each episode displays a new case in which we must attempt to unlock the case. Sakurako, much like Sherlock Holmes himself, is capable of discovering every clue down to the smallest detail, after everyone has already made their own assumptions. Using her power of analyzing, Sakurako is able to reveal what is the most likely scenario, but should she ever be wrong, Sakurako will quickly turn her assumptions around to get the right conclusion. Sakurako is also quite eccentric making her a difficult one to converse with. Does she sound like Sherlock Holmes to you?

A Death Note allows Shinigami to kill anyone so long as they can see the face of the victim and write their name down. Ryuk, a bored shinigami, decides to give a human a Death Note to see what would happen. Yagami Light is the highly intelligent young man who comes across the Death Note. He is disgusted with the current state of the world and tries out the Death Note on a criminal. When Light discovers that the Death Note works, he wants to use it to rid the world of criminals. The police soon catch on and believe there is a serial killer on the loose targeting criminals, so they recruit the help of a brilliant yet eccentric young man only known as L. If we were ever to turn Sherlock around and view the entire situation from the viewpoint of James (Jimmy) Moriarty, it would follow something like Death Note (without the supernatural powers and good Samaritan mindset). The main similarity to Death Note and Sherlock would be the battle of wits that ensues throughout both series as we root for one side (usually the side that we see the world from). If you love a thrilling battle of wits between prodigies, you will more than enjoy Death Note. It’s a never ending competition between the youngest and most intelligent minds!

Kudou Shinichi is an expert detective at the budding age of seventeen. While pursuing two suspicious men, Shinichi witnesses illegal activity. After catching Shinichi, they drug him with an experimental substance and leave him for dead. Shinichi is astonished to discover that not only is he alive, his body has reverted back into that of a seven year old! With his intelligence preserved, Shinichi keeps his state a secret from everyone. Working under the alias of Edogawa Conan, Shinichi is determined to keep solving cases while also looking for a cure to his condition. Detective Conan features young Shinichi who, much like Sherlock Holmes himself, is able to find the smallest clue in a crime scene to discover what truly happened. Shinichi uses the same power of deduction that Sherlock Holmes uses to uncover the truth in every mystery. Much like Sakurako, Shinichi is capable of backtracking if his assumptions are wrong, to come to the proper conclusion. Hell, Shinichi pays homage to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by utilizing “Conan” as his alias. Now, this is an anime worth watching for many Sherlock fans out there!

Using the Sibyl System, each citizen in Japan is able to have their mental state examined to determine their criminal intent or “Psycho-Pass”. Anyone found with criminal intent is dealt with by Inspectors and their Enforcers, who were once Inspectors who developed a criminal intent and must work for Inspectors in exchange for their freedom. Tsunemori Akane is a conscientious woman who wants to carry out justice fairly, but she must work alongside Enforcer Kougami Shinya. While working, Akane learns of the errors with the Sibyl System which has her in a mental battle between what justice truly is and if the Sibyl System can truly keep people safe if it is corrupt. Psycho-Pass may not seem similar to Sherlock, but let us consider a few things. First off, when a crime is committed, we have no knowledge on who the criminal might be since their Psycho-Pass checks out alright so our protagonist, Akane, led by Shinya, must figure out the mystery on her own. Each crime committed has not provided many clues yet somehow, Akane and Shinya are able to eventually figure out the criminal. Then we have our antagonist who just can’t seem to be shot down. Psycho-Pass is quite clearly very similar to Sherlock, although it does have a darker tone that sets it apart as it criticizes the idea of a “utopia” and how the government treats its “criminals”. Psycho-Pass is not just a mystery, it is a statement on a utopian regime that may be more corrupt than we believe. If you love Sherlock, but also love darker stories, Psycho-Pass is one series that is for you.

Narumi Ayumu is the younger brother to Kiyotaka who was once regarded as a renowned detective and pianist. One day, Kiyotaka disappeared leaving only a clue about “The Blade Children”. It’s been two years and there have been a series of murders and incidents that are related to the Blade Children. Ayumu teams up with the school journalist, Yuizaki Hiyono, to unlock the mystery. Right from the start you have one clue: The Blade Children. While the following events unfold before you, you get to enjoy witnessing Ayumu and Hiyono unlock the mystery that is Spiral: Siuri no Kizuna. Along the way, much like Sherlock, you get to see just how all of the events affect their lives and how Ayumu changes. Not only is it about the mystery, it’s about the evolution of Ayumu and how he is able to converse with others. Ayumu may not be as awkward as Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes, but we get to see just how he changes all the same.

More commonly referred to as “Dr. Nakabachi”, Shouichi Makise was a scientist researching the field of time travel, and is also Kurisu’s father. Jealous of his daughter’s academic success, Dr. Nakabachi attempts to murder his daughter in order to steal her research on time travel. Dr. Nakabachi’s popularity mainly lies in the fact that he is the main antagonist we the audience see in the series. However, compared to the other characters as well as his short screen time, Dr. Nakabachi’s popularity is pretty low. That being said, he does inadvertently play a key part in being the catalyst that helps bring Okabe and Kurisu closer together.

The owner of the CRT store below Rintarou Okabe’s apartment as well as Okabe’s landlord, Yuugo may have a small role in the story, but has a big impact overall. A big, muscular man, Yuugo earns himself the nickname “Mr. Braun” from Okabe due to his passion for CRT television, resulting in Yuugo often losing his temper with Okabe over his eccentric behavior as well as his “experimenting” in his apartment. Yuugo’s reveal of being associated with CERN and the action he takes once Okabe catches him, however, is pretty monumental, as we begin to see the first test for Okabe in terms of whether he can push through traumatic events in order to set things right. While he’s one of the least popular characters on the show due to his limited role, people still tend to enjoy Yuugo if not for his straight man attitude towards Okabe.

Moeka Kiryuu is quite the opposite of most of the other girls in the series. Unlike the others who are happy and vibrant, Moeka is very much stoic and takes matters seriously, almost dangerously so. Moeka also tends to be expressionless a lot of the time, which only adds to the accidental humor she portrays as she solely communicates to anyone via cell phone, even if they’re right in front of her. Because of her emotional walls, it takes some time before Okabe and the others understand why she acts this way. Moeka tends to be popular in the sense that she stands out from the rest of Okabe’s friends in terms of her personality. Fans can also relate to her preferred form of communication and the humor that results from that. Definitely one of the more unique personalities in Steins;Gate.

A close friend and classmate of Mayuri’s, Ruka tends to be very shy and outright feminine in terms of his interaction with others. Ruka’s story and character are different in the sense that while most of the others tend to wrestle with various terms of loneliness, Ruka struggles with his desire of wanting to be female instead of male. Okabe’s travel to different world lines actually makes this possible, resulting in Okabe having to acknowledge Ruka’s feelings toward him and how to further pursue their relationship. Ruka’s popularity tends to resonate towards those with similar feelings as well as being the subject of humorous misunderstandings Okabe and the rest of the group have with his appearance when they first meet him.

The most popular waitress at the maid café that Mayuri works at, Faris is actually very similar to Okabe. Both are characters who act a certain way in order to hide who they really are. In Faris’ case, her family is very wealthy due to them owning much of Akihabara; as a result, Faris felt that those who knew this would treat her differently, and has only confided this knowledge to those who she really trusts. Faris’ popularity lies in the “moe” personality she exaggerates while at the same time being more than just the façade she puts on. There’s definitely more than meets the eye when it comes to her backstory for those interested in mystery, and at the same time there’s a simple humor Faris portrays in terms of her interactions with Okabe and Mayuri.

Itaru Hashida aka Daru is Okabe’s closest friend as well as a hacker in various types of software. Daru also possesses an incredible amount of knowledge regarding otaku culture, making him have perverted tendencies. Despite these traits, however, Daru serves as the voice of reason in the group; it is because of his down to earth approach that he is able to keep Okabe (and sometimes Mayuri) in check whenever they get too excited about something. Daru’s popularity lies in being relatable to anime fans in terms of his style of humor as well possessing a similarity with many anime fans in real life.

First appearing as a part-time employee for Yūūgo Tennouji, Suzaha enters the series as a normal tomboy who enjoys riding her bike. As the series progresses, however, it is soon revealed how Suzaha is not only from the future, but that her father, who she spends a majority of the series looking for, is Daru. Suzaha is definitely popular in the sense that she’s quite mysterious; she keeps a polite distance from everybody and appears to be someone altogether when something catches her interest in regards to her mission to find her father. She also tends to be full of surprises in terms of her fighting ability, her mission, and her very identity.

A naïve and innocent girl considering her age, Mayuri is the childhood friend of Rintarou Okabe. Even though Mayuri can be a bit socially inept in terms of understanding the world around her (including her friends), Mayuri has an innocence about her that marks her as a kind of “moral compass” in the story. Mayuri plays a big role in the series in terms of being why Okabe is who he is as well as the decisions he makes later in the story. Many people like her mainly as being a very sweet person as well as having the type of humor younger fans of anime tend to enjoy. Even older fans who aren’t big fans of her humor can appreciate how Mayuri tends to instigate some of the other characters into their kinds of humor.

The main character of the series, Rintarou Okabe aka Okarin is a self-proclaimed mad scientist who is eccentric in every sense of the word. Constantly talking to himself, manically laughing at random moments, always on the lookout for the “Organization” that’s always after him… Okarin certainly seems to lead an interesting life to those who don’t realize he’s simply a university student who’s just a bit odd. The fact that he acts this way in order to make his Mayuri’s life more enjoyable, however, reveals the true character beneath all the bravado, and it’s just one of several key moments where Okarin’s true character is revealed. Many fans of the series like him not only because of his quirks, but also because when the moment really mattered, Okarin despite having his wildest dreams come true, chose to do whatever it took to make sure his friends would be OK, especially those closest to him. Even if you’re not a fan of his humor and awkward interactions with the other characters at the beginning, you find yourself rooting for him as he travels through the different world lines to save his friends from their fates.

Needless to say, Kurisu Makise is easily the most popular character, and for good reason. A beautiful young girl considered to be a scientific genius and quite mature for someone her age ends up spending her time researching time travel with some wacky offbeat peers (to say the least). Considering how easy it is for a fair amount of anime fans to identify with Okarin or Daru, it’s no surprise that seeing someone like Kurisu hanging out with them and revealing that she shares their interests can be welcoming to them. Add in the fact that fans feel that she’s a go-to example of a tsundere character, and you have yourselves a character that you’re constantly talking about. Kurisu does go through her own development just as much as Okarin does; by the end, she appears to be a lot more relaxed and even happier to be around people that care about her and who she can relate to. Without a doubt, Kurisu is the most popular character.

Hope’s Peak Academy is the nation's most prestigious academy that is dedicated to raising the nation's hope and future. Needless to say, to enroll in here, you have to be the top in your field of studies. Makoto Naegi was ecstatic to be offered a place. However, Makoto had no idea what his talent is. To make matters worse, the school appears to have been taken under control by the mysterious Monokuma. In order to find the truth and survive in the school, all 16 students of Hope’s Peak Academy only have one objective: to kill each other and not get caught. There’s more than meets the eye. Both series captured the essence of an intricate crime perfectly. Both Danganronpa and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney are derived from games. Danganronpa shares many elements from Ace Attorney as well. There is an investigation phase and a class trial thereafter to pinpoint the killer. From evidence gathering and rebutting counterarguments to crime that appears to be unsolvable or simply not plausible. Both animes expertly manipulate the essence of a good mystery plot - suspense and tension before finally bringing everything to satisfying close. This is the closest you will get to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney!

Shinichi Kudou is a brilliant detective. Shinichi is a high school student that occasionally works with the police to solve cases. During a fateful investigation however, he was attacked by the Black Organization and was forced to consume a lethal poison. When Shinichi woke up, he found that he had a body of a preadolescent boy. Retaining his memories and his intelligence, Shinichi hides his identity from those around him. Going by a pseudonym, Shinichi continues his investigative work while trying to reverse the side effects of the poison. Although Detective Conan does not fulfill the courtroom element of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, this mystery anime will give the investigation phase of Ace Attorney a run for their money. Detective Conan is episodic, which means that each and every case is different which is akin to Ace Attorney's style of cases. Conan has a greater focus on the deductions of the detective than on gathering evidence. Whereas Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is more graphical in the sense of evidence presentation, Conan is more of understanding the flow of logic in a simple to understand manner. Till date, this anime remains a hot favourite. If you liked Ace Attorney, Detective Conan is equally easy to understand and fun to watch!

A genius beauty in her twenties with a keen mind and her passionate love for - bones??? Sakurako Kujo is often alone if not for her assistant, Shotaro - a young high school boy. Whenever the duo is together, they are highly likely to run across a human corpse. And here, it is up to Sakurako with her love of bones to piece together the story and solve the mystery. This is yet another mystery anime you should add to your list. Centering on the gruesome crime of murder, the anime resembles Ace Attorney on the investigative aspect. Expect the same level of deductions and compelling mysteries. After all, dead bodies always have a story to tell and it is up to the detectives to paint the full story and uncover the truth.

Meet Aya Tachibana! A sixth grader worrywart. One fine day, Aya joins a group of boys who are all unique individuals. Finding her own place in this clique was hard but eventually, Aya manages to fit in and find friends at last. Here comes a tale of different people with different talents coming together to solve cases. How will this bunch of people cooperate with each other, let alone solve cases? Watch to find out! Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note leans more towards light mystery solving. Don't expect anything outrageous like a murder or an international scandal; they are still middle schoolers after all! If you feel the need to rack your brains like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney but in something more applicable to our everyday reality, Tantei may just be the anime for you! The mysteries in Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note are more of the kind of oddities you experience on a daily basis along the lines of a missing wallet. Due to how easily we can relate to the normalcy of these mysteries, there is a better sense of satisfaction when you follow through the line of reasoning to the outcome. Love the ease of understanding an Ace Attorney case thoroughly? Then definitely check out this anime!

At first glance, you might have the impression that Alice is a closet otaku. Alice has computers all around her, is forever cooped in her room, and has a strange love for Dr Pepper. Despite living a NEET lifestyle, Alice is an astute detective whose specialization lies in gathering information from the web. No criminal is safe from the watchful eyes of the Net, and Alice is the one person that can process this vast amount of information that the Net provides. Shady deals, murders and even illegitimate business are threatened with Alice around. A mystery anime you ought to watch, Kamisama no Menchou is episodic as well and filled with many different kinds of mysteries. Alice shares the intellect of the Ace Attorney who sometimes seemingly pulls out the conclusion and overturning the situation. Although for Phoenix Wright, this is often by luck and bluff. Ultimately, it is up to the detective to speak the words of the dead and bring the truth to light!

Many would ask why the Wind Instrument Club is solving mysteries instead of playing their instruments. Well, the short answer is nobody knows how it ended up that way. After joining the Wind Instrument Club, strange oddities began to appear around Chika Homura and her club members. It is now up to Chika to solve the mysteries that ails the school! However, before that however, she still needs to recruit more members to actually compete in competitions. What kind of oddities are there in the school and how will Chika balance solving mysteries and managing the club? Just like Tantei Team , if you're leaning more towards to the light hearted side of Ace Attorney with just a dash of mystery, we would highly recommend HaruChika as well! The mystery of HaruChika is not as thought provoking due to the easy going nature of the show. It is extremely easy to watch and digest. This, and Chika's somewhat comical nature to develop a cute girl persona will be sure to make you chuckle at the very least! As a whole, this show is all about bite sized mysteries providing an overall plesant watching experience. Like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, it is easy to comprehend and easy to watch!

The series follows Mikawa Fumika who is a mail carrier of 'Shigofumi', letters containing the words of the dead which express feelings left hidden and unsaid while alive. Mikawa goes along and delivers these letters to the living. However, there's an problem at hand. Shigofumi carriers are deceased humans who look just as they did before death. Despite this, Mikawa is still getting older. Shigofumi is similar to Kara no Kyoukai in a couple of ways. Both series incorporate a lot of supernatural and fantasy elements. They often both have a similar tone and atmosphere, and have an eerie unease to both of them. Furthermore, both deal very much with themes of death in their own ways. Finally, Shiki and Mikawa both have their pasts slowly revealed throughout the series as well.

Fate/Zero is the prequel to Fate/stay night, yet can be viewed independently. It revolves around the preceding Holy Grail War that is covered in the original Fate story. Fate/Zero follows Kiritsugu Emiya who is contracted by the Einzberns to win the holy grail. Kiritsugu, in love with Irisviel Einzbern, accepts and summons Saber to fight in the conflict. Opposite Kiritsugu is Kotomine Kirei, who's seeking purpose and resolve to his existential issues by fighting in the Grail War. Fate/Zero, although written by Gen Urobuchi, is still part of the Nasuverse, same as Kara no Kyoukai, and it shares a lot of similarities with what's typical of Nasu's works. Fate/Zero and Kara no Kyoukai are both dark, urban fantasy stories that deal with the supernatural, and are very dialogue heavy. They also have a strong action bent to them as well, balanced nicely with the emphasis on the dialogue which can get a little dense at times. And of course, they're both Ufotable adaptations which have given both wonderful animation and general design.

Mima Kirigoe stars in an idol group but after giving her future some thought she decides to try her hand at becoming an actress. For Mima, this is a step in the right direction, but one of her most obsessive fans is very unhappy about the decision she took. Mima accepts a peculiar role which her manager isn't completely sure about. While filming, strange things happen to the cast and crew and Mima begins to suffer mental breakdowns and becomes less and less able to separate, what’s real and what’s not. Kara no Kyoukai was never completely straightforward from the very first film but the 5th film in particular is a bit of a trip. With the 5th film, often thought of as the series best, being such a mindfuck, perfect blue feels definitely similar in that regard. Moreover, both films have elements of horror and mystery and have an eerie atmosphere to them. They also explore psychological themes in an urban setting, albeit with Kara no Kyoukai delving much more into fantasy elements.

Advances in cybernetics have allowed human beings to replace their physical bodies with cybernetic prosthetics. Motoko Kusanagi is a 'full cyborg', someone whose body is completely mechanical, however, she still retains her human consciousness, her 'ghost', despite her prosthetic body, her shell. She's a member of section 009, a police anti-terrorism and security unit that's tasked with tracking down a hacker called the puppet master. What occurs forces Motoko to think more deeply about her identity, and how humanity and technology coexist. Ghost in the Shell and Kara no Kyoukai both examine themes of identity albeit through different angles. GITS does it through technology and Kara no Kyoukai takes a more spiritual/fantasy approach. Likewise, both have strong female leads, Motoko for GITS and Shiki for Kara no Kyoukai. Both have great dialogue, with a lot of meat to chew on in terms of different ideas and concepts, but also include a lot of high-quality action, as well as, great overall presentation.

Oosawa Maria is a Japanese photographer who's stationed in Shanghai. Maria , along with her partner named Mino, search for stories throughout the city. She investigates claims of strange occurrences at a local festival and unwittingly jumps into the middle of a fight between a mysterious white haired women and equally odd masked men. Just as it appears, she won't make it out, her old friend Canaan appears to save her. However, Canaan and Maria aren't completely in the clear. Canaan and Kara no Kyoukai are both written by Kinoko Nasu, and Canaan is also under the Type Moon umbrella. While Kara no Kyoukai is a little bit denser, Canaan isn't completely straightforward in its storytelling style either and sort of leaves you in the thick of things with a lot left to your own devices to figure out. They both feature strong female leads and a lot of action.

Juuzawa Juu is a high school student who seeks simply to be left alone, fueling his delinquency. He has a strange encounter with Ochibana Ame who claims to have known him in a previous life. She asks to serve him as his 'knight', but Juu doesn't want anything to do with her. However, after a classmate is killed, Juu changes her mind and asks for her help to look for the killer. This series feels similar to Kara no Kyoukai in a number of ways. It's a mystery story about finding a murderer which echoes a number of the plotlines going on in Kara no Kyoukai. They share the same urban setting and the atmosphere often feels very similar. They both deal with fairly dark themes and content and the duo of the main characters feels somewhat similar to how those in Kara no Kyoukai interact.

Bungou Stray Dogs features a character named Nakajima Atsushi who is an abandoned orphaned wandering about the city. After several turn of events, Atsushi becomes involved with Dazai Osamu and Kunikida Doppo, both of which are the members of the Armed Detective Agency on the mission to search for a man-eating tiger that has been ransacking warehouses and livestock. After helping the detectives with the case, somehow Atsushi’s involvement with the Armed Detective Agency doesn’t just end there. So be sure to stay tune for this awesome series to find out Atsushi’s fate! Just like the Grimm series, the protagonists of this series, Dazai Osamu and Kunikida Doppo, works as detectives, and not exactly a normal one at that. Dazai and Kunikida, along with the others are members of the Armed Detective Agency. The Armed Detective Agency is an organization that harbors individuals possessing supernatural powers and abilities that can be used for combat. This means exciting and nerve-wracking battles between the Armed Detective Agency and the Port Mafia gang as well as investigating cases that are related to ability-users, much like the Grimm series with Nick investigating cases that are ‘Wesen’-related.

What if one day, you wake up and realize that you’re no longer human? You wake up with out-of-this-world and unexplainable things. Then at this point, you start to wonder whether if you can ever go back to your normal life. This is what happened to Koyomi Araragi. After barely surviving a vampire attack that almost ended his life, the effects of the vampirism still lingers as Koyomi gained supernatural abilities similar to a vampire such as enhanced vision and super-fast healing. Join Koyomi and his struggles to maintain his life as a normal high school student in Bakemonogatari! Just like the Grimm series, as Nick struggles with his new-found abilities as a Grimm, Koyomi Araragi struggles with his new-found ability as a half-vampire. It illustrates how it can be a challenge for the characters to maintain a ‘double-life’ while keeping it a secret from everyone. Aside from the identity crisis, both protagonists have their fair share of involvement with the supernatural elements of their respective series; Nick with Wesen-related cases and Koyomi with monsters.

Noragami is an anime series that features Yato, a demi-god and his journey of becoming a famous and worshiped by many. So how do you get famous and gain a lot of followers? By taking on weird jobs, and receiving really small amounts of cash as payment. Although this might seem like the worst way to achieve that goal, nevertheless it didn’t discourage Yato. Luckily for him, he also happens to exterminate and slay monsters and spiritual beings. His teammates are Hiyori Iki and Yukine, and both are helping Yato in achieving his dreams. Although the main protagonist of Noragami is a demi-god unlike the Grimm series’ Nick who is a human, the Noragami series had almost the same plot as Grimm, as the main character deals with supernatural beings and exterminates them for the good reasons. Noragami had all the essence of what makes Grimm a great series with the added comedy spice which makes Noragami an exciting as well as a funny series to watch, so be sure to check this anime out!

The story unfolds with Natsume Takashi, a boy born with the ability to see supernatural beings such as ghosts. As interesting as it may sound, at first Natsume hated the idea of having that troublesome ability, because he was constantly being chased by spirits. After discovering the “Book of Friends”, a book that was left by his late grandmother, Natsume soon realized that it was the main reason why he gets into so much trouble with spirit encounters. This was due to the fact that the book contained names of spirits that have been brought under control by his grandmother. Take a peek into Natsume’s life as he learns to slowly embrace his abilities as sort of a ghost whisperer. Although this series’ main character is a bit different from the Grimm series in terms of how he acquired his said ability to make contact with supernatural beings, as Natsume was born with the ability while Nick had his ability awakened when he reached a certain age, both went through the similar struggles of trying to live a normal life. But even then, both protagonists from their respective series played a crucial role in using their abilities to do good things. Such traits can be seen on Natsume as he decides to go on a journey to find the spirits and release them of their names from the ‘Book of Friends’.

This next anime takes place in Tokyo, the heart of Japan. Over the years, Tokyo has evolved into a dangerous city, as it was filled with the so-called ‘ghouls’ living in the midst of humanity even if they’re still not widely known. Originally living as a normal university student, Ken Kaneki is unaware that his fate will soon take a dark and nasty turn. Ken’s life quickly changed after he was viciously attacked by Rize Kamishiro, the very girl that he had asked out on a date who turned out to be a ghoul herself. Thanks to a miraculous construction collapse, Rize was killed by the collapsing pipes. Ken was then rushed to the hospital and in a desperate attempt to save his life, doctors made the decision to do an organ transplant from Rize’s body into Ken. Thanks to the transplant, Ken somehow becomes a one-eyed ghoul himself. Just like the previous selection on this list, the similarities between the main characters from both series is to be acknowledged as Ken struggles with maintaining his life as half-ghoul and half-human. Just like Nick Burkhardt, Ken Kaneki makes best of his powers as he uses it to become a ghoul investigator and exterminates anyone who would threaten the peace of his place. This next series really defines the expression of being ‘gory’ as it highlights a lot of piercing attacks, impales and of course, lots and lots of blood which complements well with the Grimm series even though it’s not as violent as Tokyo Ghoul. In addition, this series does also have an uncanny resemblance to the movie ‘Blade’, but instead becoming vampires, the main character of the series becomes a ghoul.

It all started three years ago when a Gate to another dimension opened out of nowhere in New York City, and creatures and monsters from the Otherworld began its invasion to Earth. Due to the mysterious fog that enveloped the former New York City, the city went through drastic changes to its culture and civilization as humans and monsters learn to live alongside each other. New York City was then known as Hellsalem’s Lot because the city also becomes a sort of warzone for its inhabitants. The story features Leonardo Watch, a boy gifted with the ability of “All-Seeing Eyes of the Gods” who moved to Hellsalem’s Lot in hopes to uncover the mysteries behind the bizarre ability he was given. His investigation led him to Libra, a secret organization that is dedicated to preserving the balance between Earth and the Otherworld. He was then subsequently recruited by Libra and met quite a few of teammates along his journey of finding a cure for his sister. What makes this anime so amazing is thanks to its awesome action-packed themed. The word ‘blood’ on the title was not just a mere expression, as the series was centered on the unique techniques that the characters use, which was derived from blood. Although the techniques and abilities in this series are considered more extravagant than the Grimm series, both series definitely brings excitement with their action essence of the series. Aside from those, protagonists from both series are also involved in a secret organization dedicated to keeping peace and order, Leonardo with Libra, and Nick with Grimm.

What better way to start than with a psycho killer? Takao Hiyama is a high school teacher who also happens to be the serial killer reported in the news. He’s the Third Diary Owner and the first one to try to kill Yuki. His diary is the Murder Diary, which reveals information about the location of his potential victims and how to get them. The Third is one of the biggest psychopaths on Mirai Nikki, although he doesn’t get to live long enough to show us more of his sadistic nature. He’s clearly a maniac as we can judge from his unsettling serial killer outfit and his Jason-style machete. In fact, The Third never actually looks very interested in winning the survival game, or at least not as much as he is interested in using his Diary for murdering people.

John Bacchus is the Mayor of Sakurami City and one of the main antagonists on the show. As a matter of fact, John’s not only The Eleventh Diary Owner but he also happens to be the mastermind behind the whole survival game. It is revealed that John’s the one who suggests the Future Diary game to Deus Ex Machina as the way to select the next god. Of course, he also takes this opportunity to make his own diary the most powerful of all, the Watcher Diary, which reveals the entries of the other diary owners. The Eleventh is not like the typical psychopathic or emotionally unstable killers we find throughout Mirai Nikki. He’s actually presented as a wealthy gentleman with good manners, composure and a high intellect. However, The Eleventh is very likely one of the most ruthless and manipulative of all diary owners. He will destroy anyone who stands in his way to fulfill his ambition of becoming god and improving the human race (ringing any bells?). Besides, if Minene herself called him a maniac then he must be a real psycho.

Reisuke Houjou is definitely the most kawaii and psychotic five year old kid ever. Reisuke’s a brilliant child and the Fifth Diary Owner. He may seem like a cute harmless little boy, but he’s in fact a deadly master strategist determined to kill Yuki and Yuno. Unfortunately for him, his diary is the weakest of all, the Hyper Vision Diary, which provides him only three entries a day in the form of a drawing with some notes. Despite Reisuke’s many disadvantages (mainly his age and his diary), this child prodigy puts up a hell of a fight at Yuki’s own house, facing no less than the scary Yuno. The Fifth is one of the many emotionally unstable characters in Mirai Nikki who become dangerous psychopaths as the result of their traumatic past. However, unlike the rest of these broken characters, Reisuke is quite a cheerful psycho, as he takes the survival game like any other game and he’s happy to play it with Yuki and Yuno. We’re not sure what’s more unsettling.

Yukiteru Amano is our main character and The First Diary Owner. From the very beginning of the show he strikes us as quite the odd character. He’s not the stereotypical easy-to-like protagonist; actually he’s the opposite of that. Yuki is an introverted, socially awkward, spineless kid who can very easily inspire hatred and loathing in all of us. However, as the show moves forward, Yuki becomes a very interesting character and we get to see a darker side of him. This survival game clearly turns Yuki’s life into a roller coaster of emotions, so we cannot really blame him for becoming a crazy cold-blooded killer. However, I don’t think we can justify him shooting down his own friends either. The thing is, when you’re in the middle of a survival game that is meant to determine who will be the next god and you happen to lose both your parents, it can be a bit hard not go totally berserk… especially if the only moral support you have is an emotionally unstable psychopathic girl like Yuno.

Kurou Amano is not a diary holder but Yuki’s father. He divorced Rea Amano after getting into a serious debt and he became an absent father to Yuki ever since. Kurou is shown as a 32 year old man who is very lively and playful, and really loves his family. Sadly, he owes a lot of money to the wrong people and cannot really spend too much time with Yuki and Rea. Sounds like a loving and caring father who just made some mistakes, right? Guess again! Kurou can be as much of a crazy psycho killer as any other on the show when it comes down to saving his own butt. He actually allied with The Seventh’s (Ai and Marco) to break his own son’s cellphone. To be fair, Kurou wasn’t aware that this would kill Yuki, but that only justifies his actions for so long. Shortly after, he steals Yuki’s parachute and leaves him and Yuno to die in a collapsing building. What a father! Oh, and did I mention he also kills his ex-wife for trying to turn him in?

Tsubaki Kasugano is The Sixth Diary Holder and the High Priestess of the Omekata Religion. She presents herself as an innocent, pure and fragile girl only to ambush Yuki and Yuno. Tsubaki’s diary is the Clairvoyance Diary, which unlike the rest of diaries is not an electronic device but a large scroll that gives her detailed information about her surroundings. Behind her good-girl image, The Sixth is in fact a damaged girl who suffered a lot of abuse in the past. As a result of her traumatic experiences, Tsubaki has become a wicked girl who enjoys making other people suffer the way she did. The Sixth is actually so twisted that she makes some of her followers try to abuse Yuno with the intention of luring Yuki into the temple and killing him. This girl is definitely one crazy witch… you know, because she leads a dark cult.

Minene Uryuu is one of the most interesting and beloved characters of the entire show, mostly for being particularly mad. She’s The Ninth Diary Owner and the second one to try to kill Yuki. Minene is not only crazy as hell, but she’s also relentless and overly resourceful. Thanks to her diary, the Escape Diary, Minene can get away from the authorities as well as from any dangerous situation, which is why she becomes one of the last standing in the survival game. Her first appearance on the show pretty much says it all. Minene shows up at Yuki’s school dressed as a goth loli and wearing the scariest and most disturbing smile on her face. Soon after, she begins to blow up different parts of the school, killing hundreds of teenagers in the process. Of course, she does all this while laughing like a freak on a loudspeaker. Yup, we get an idea of why Minene was called a terrorist.

The lovely and adorable Muru Muru is also one of the most popular characters on Mirai Nikki. She is Deus Ex Machina’s assistant, but later in the story she participates actively in the survival game. Muru Muru is a very childish deity who loves playing games, disguising as other people (generally diary owners) and reading manga. Muru Muru is crazy in a really cute and funny way, although she does have a dark, deceiving and manipulative side. By the end of the show we get to see what Muru Muru is all about (at least the first Muru Muru). She’s a deceiving fiendish creature that manipulates the game and its participants to her own amusement. This psychotic divinity doesn’t have an ounce of sympathy for humans and she messes around with them just for fun. We can see this on one of the after-ending scenes, where Muru Muru takes phone calls from Yuno’s mother and gives her terrible advice. However, most of the time, she shows her eccentricity by having the craziest dialogues with the main characters, like asking Yuki about how to become famous. WTF?

Normally, a character that gets as little screen time as Yomotsu Hirasaka (AKA The Twelfth) wouldn’t be ranked this high. However, The Twelfth is not just another crazy Mirai Nikki character; he is a total nutcase. He thinks himself some sort of superhero who works in the name of justice. He also seems to love prancing around in tights and wearing a giant eye-like mask. The Twelfth’s diary is the Justice Diary, which predicts any type of crime (and I literally mean any type). This vigilante is so madly obsessed with justice that he considers littering, robbery, and murder to be equal crimes. The Twelfth behaves in such an odd way that one might be inclined to think he is just playing around. Of course this is only until we remember how he stuck his hand in Minene’s eye socket and took her dead eye right off. Who in his right mind would do something like that!?

Obviously, no surprise here; this might have been “Top 10 Craziest Characters Ever” and Yuno would still be #1. She is the ultimate yandere girl. No one else can represent obsessive love and psychopathic behavior as Yuno. Her Diary is the Yukiteru Diary, which provides her an entry about Yuki’s actions and status every ten minutes. Basically, the dream of any stalker. Yuno is crazy in a million different ways, but mostly she is crazy in love with Yuki (how romantic :3). She is capable of pulling the impossible and of killing as many people as necessary in order to be with Yuki, including herself. Yuno is so madly in love with Yuki that she can go as far as drugging him to kidnap him. That is one crazy bitch indeed (that’s right, we said it). All in all however, Yuno is the greatest highlight of the show. She’s the most original and unique anime character in quite some time and her psychopathy never ceases to amaze us. Of course, we appreciate her and we love her for being what she is (blood-stained and all).

Kyon is bored with his current life, or more specifically, he lacks any belief in the supernatural, thinking things will only continue on at the same tedious pace. Someone with a similar feeling is Haruhi Suzumiya, a girl in Kyon’s class, but she on the other hand has taken it upon herself to make things interesting, to seek out the supernatural for herself. After commenting on how bored she is by the clubs at school, Kyon suggests to Haruhi that she should make her own club, and so the SOS Brigade is born, a club dedicated to investigating the supernatural. And of course Kyon is bullied into joining. Although the stories go their very separate ways, the starting circumstances and themes behind both Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu and Hyouka are very similar. That is, Haruhi also has a good share of mysteries, or rather unusual events, that Kyon has to figure out, as well as having the everyday slice-of-life periods where silly goings on occur. Kyon and Oreki are dangerously similar as characters with both lacking any motivation to do so much as lift a finger, but at the end of the day both are forced to do all the hard work. Both series also share the romantic undertones throughout, though Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu explores them more, but still doesn’t have too much focus on the romance aspect. Haruhi will give you a similar feelings to Hyouka at the start but take you on quite a different adventure with much more focus on the supernatural, making many of the mysteries a little less believable and a lot more bizarre.

Cynical, Narcissistic, Hachiman Hikigaya is like a bitter old man in a teenager’s body. His opinions and ideas although not often wrong, never seem to be what people want to hear, or the kindest resolution to a problem. As a punishment for writing a mocking essay, his teacher forces him to join the Volunteer Service Club, dedicated to helping other students with their problems. An ironic and fitting punishment. Along with the cold heart of winter Yukino Yukinoshita, the two of them set to solving the often silly and tiresome problems of high school students. By far the biggest thing Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru and Hyouka have in common is their main character. Oreki and Hachiman may have different reasons, but they are both equally disinclined to get involved with other people, let alone offer their services. As you can imagine though, just like with Oreki, Hachiman is often quite agreeable from an audience perspective and watching him develop (and screw up) is very enjoyable. In addition to that, the mysteries, or in Yahari’s case student problems, in both shows are a little odd, but always somewhat grounded in reality. Compared to more supernatural shows, this makes them easier to follow, and gives you more opportunity to work them out for yourself which is a nice challenge. Like Hyouka, Yahari also has romance which isn’t fully addressed, although it focuses a lot more on this aspect later on. If you liked Hyouka but wanted a bit more conflict, we would recommend Yahari.

Revolving around the five students of Yamaboshi High School’s Cultural Research Club, Kokoro Connect puts the member’s friendships to the test in a series of bizarre, supernatural events. It all starts when they begin switching bodies with each other at random, which is awkward to say the least. As the incidents continue and other strange things begin to happen, secrets and feelings are put out in the open, for better or for worse. Although they have fairly different plotlines, Kokoro Connect and Hyouka both have a similar feel for a number of reasons. First is the art style, which is quite similar despite both being by different studios, and along with this both are excellent at very quickly creating an eerie and unsettling atmosphere. The character relationships also have a similar feel, with some silly slice-of-life moments, along with arguments, and the awkwardness that comes with hidden feelings. Another somewhat obvious but important point is the school club settings, which again has a big effect on the character relationships, environment, and daily occurrences in the story. Although not really a mystery show, Kokoro Connect shares a lot of other similarities with Hyouka, so if you were after the similar series but with a bit more drama, Kokoro Connect is a good choice.

A story of ghosts, spirits and gods, many of whom are insistent on inhabiting the bodies of young girls, Bakemonogatari is supernatural to the core and won’t let a minute pass without reminding you of it. The one charged with saving said damsels in distress is Koyomi Araragi, a high school student who has just got back to his normal life after surviving an unfortunate encounter with a vampire. After catching fellow student Hitagi Senjougahara as she fell through the school’s stairwell and realizing that she’s almost weightless, he insists on delving back into the world of apparitions to help her out. Although Bakemonogatari focuses heavily on the supernatural, both it and Hyouka feature a constant flow of mysterious cases that can only be solved by our quick thinking protagonist, often leaving everyone else in the dust. Their motivation is also similar, cute girls (and a lack of anything better to do). One of the things that separates these two from the bunch though is their use of language. The characters from both series are actually terrifyingly intelligent in the way that they speak and phrase things, as well as how they tell stories and explain events. It’s easy to find yourself hanging off their every word. The two shows are also big on using unusual imagery during the telling of their stories that breaks away from more standard animation and art styles, though Bakemonogatari tends to be a bit more abstract in this regard. Overall both shows are very clever about the way in which they tell their stories, as well as having some great mysteries, and funny scenes.

A Japanese student very far from home, Kazuya Kujou has been cast out by his classmates at St. Marguerite Academy due to his appearance and the saying that “the traveler who comes in the spring brings death with him”. But an eventful meeting leaves him with at least one long lasting companion, Victorique de Blois, the pipe smoking, book loving Golden Fairy of the library. Of course, Victorique also happens to be a genius detective, and together the two of them begin solving mysteries, from police cases to more personal vendettas. If you salivate at the idea of more mysteries, then this is the show for you. Gosick and Hyouka’s clearly defined link is their excellent mysteries and puzzles. Compared to Hyouka, Gosick tends to go for slightly more drawn out arcs, and chooses to focus less on slice-of-life events. Because of this Gosick has a more serious and dark feel to it, particularly later on in the series. Gosick also features romance, with it becoming more important later on in the series. Although the romance is focused on more than in Hyouka, we still have the amusing and awkward undertones continuing throughout a majority of the show. So if you’re hungry for more mystery, Gosick is one of the best around, with a good helping of comedy and romance.

Yuuta Togashi is just an ordinary high schooler, at least now he is. When he was at middle school though, he was the Dark Flame Master, a badass with a demon hand. Or rather, he thought he was. But that embarrassing past is all behind him now, or at least it was until Rikka Takanashi decided to show up. Despite being a high schooler, Rikka is still lost deep in her Chuunibyou syndrome, and she’s determined to bring the Dark Flame Master back! No mystery in this one, in fact, it’s pretty clear what’s going on. But despite the lack of mystery, with the same high school setting and amusing character dynamics, Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai and Hyouka have a very similar feel throughout. This is also partly due to them sharing the same production studio, KyoAni, and thus having a very similar art and animation. The two main characters are also very similar, with a male lead who is just trying to have a normal high school life, and a female lead who’s a tad (very) excitable and can’t leave him alone. As you can imagine with Chuunibyou having a stronger focus on romance, this makes them a funny combination. So for those of you that thought Hyouka could use a little more wackiness and a lot more romance, Chuunibyou is an excellent choice.

As one of the most recent horror anime on this list, Ajin, takes us into a world of terrorism, misinformation, and immortals. For a long time Ajin, supernatural/immortal beings, have lived in relative peace with humanity. At least that’s the status quo as there have only been a couple documented interactions. However, this all changes in Japan when one psychopathic Ajin, Satou, begins to bomb and terrorize the city all the while wearing his trademark close-eyed grin. Ajin succeeds in providing a unique blend of horror for its viewers. Between the gritty action sequences of Satou capping people in the foot, knee, face with a shotgun (still smiling) and moments of nationwide paranoia, you’ll be kept on pins and needles. Though many might not like the animation style, Polygon Pictures’s choice of CG is actually used to great effect. It creates this sort of puppetry quality, despite being very fluid, that unsettles the nerves. Most people feel like they’re wearing a mask of some sort and so it’s hard to weed through what’s true and what’s not.

Another sends you off to Class 3-3 of Yomiyama North, the class of which a popular student died within back in 1972. As we follow Kouichi Sakakibara into this classroom, we’re immediately thrown off balance by a rather eerie, gloom-filled class, complete with the eyepatch-wearing Mei Misaki. Despite, the eyepatch, no one seems to notice her except for Kei. Thus following primarily Kouichi and Mei, Another embarks on a quest to discover what phenomenon has been tormenting the students. This show is practically the anime equivalent of Final Destination, however, with a bit more narrative depth. The horror Another haunts us with is a combination of an extremely tense environment mixed with brutal deaths. Umbrella points impaling bodies, elevators crashing and speed boats cutting bodies apart are just a few of the type of deaths you can expect. Are you cringing yet? Ultimately, Another makes you aware and afraid of everything you do. Is it safe to be twirling this pencil about my fingers? What if it slips and pierces an eye. Time to put it down.

Often times, the high school years are seen as the golden years of life. Yuki Takeya understands that her time in high school has been so great at Megurigaoka that she never wants to leave. However, the backdrop of her friends and all the awesome times they’ve had in their club is simply a façade. In truth, a zombie outbreak has left them isolated in their school. The other survivors are torn psychologically between the horror of their current predicament and their attempts to create a blissful world for Yuki, if not for themselves as well. Gakkou Gurashi’s horror is particularly well done in its contrast with the rather youthful animation style and character designs. This contrast dissects the reality of the situation and creates a confusing mess of emotions that you will need to sort through. Essentially, his show is a breeding ground for paranoia because so much of it depends on deception. Thus, it’s difficult at times to trust what you’re being presented. Nonetheless, it keeps you attached as you’ll be constantly wondering two things: will they survive and who’s really saving who in this terrifying situation.

Deadman Wonderland is a terrifying adventure from beginning to end. It throws into what seems to be an average school life anime, but then Ganta Igarashi’s entire classroom is blown up and he is framed for the crime. From that point he enters the maddening, horror-filled world of the prison Deadman Wonderland. Each episode of Deadman Wonderland has at least one moment that makes you turn your head and cringe, physically in pain from the brutality and gore. His classroom being blown up and the carnage afterwards was already pretty gruesome, but the horror is taken to the extreme when shown the false video during the trial. The scene, in rather sickening detail, portrays a reel of atrocity, including the raping of a dead body. That’s how this show starts off. From there, its blood and death from obstacle course killing fields to underground fighting rings. Adding fuel to every moment is the disturbed nature of most of the characters, with several murderers having an almost child-like demeanor that will send shivers down your back.

This fifth chapter of the Kara no Kyoukai film series follows the events following a double homicide committed by Tomoe Enjou. To Tomoe’s confusion though, it doesn’t seem that the media or police are covering the case. In fact, he finds out his mother, who he was sure he killed, is still alive. Despite being the fifth installment of a series, which is altogether worth your time, most people can jump right into this movie without feeling completely lost in its narrative. You will have to pay attention, because the plot can take some drastic turns, but it’s worth every ounce of your attention. Between an intensive noir-like setting with hard lines and dark colors as well as the number of corpses that pile up, Kara no Kyoukai 5: Mujun Rasen is one nightmarish ride. To grasp just how grand of a psychological twist this series can pull off, one character takes over an entire apartment building and causes the occupants to kill one another. From there, he has copies of the inhabitants re-enact their grisly murders/suicides hoping to find a deviation in their deaths. It’s this type of horror that makes up the entire series.

Taniyama Mai’s school has been experiencing quite a few supernatural phenomena. To solve these incidents the principal has called in the president of the Shibuya Psychic Research Company, Shibuya Kazuya. During Kazuya’s initial investigation, Mai happens to interfere and accidentally injure Kazuya’s assistant. Thus, Kazuya drafts her into service and Mai gets to see behind the scenes of the stories she loves to gossip about. As an anime, Ghost Hunt’s horror is reminiscent of the ghost tales told around a campfire or while spending the night at a friend’s house. At that very moment, the story seems all too possible and immediately you begin to imagine monsters and ghosts to be hiding in the shadows. The show is filled with a range of suspenseful moments, but few have the lasting, bedeviling effect of the time Kazuya finds himself in a silent stare down with a ghost that intends to kill him at the first sign of weakness.

Presented in the style of Kamishibai performances, which utilizes paper figures and backgrounds, Yami Shibai has rounded up its third season of terrifying shorts. With each four-minute episode being a standalone story of horror, Yami Shibai has a few unique qualities that make it stand out from the rest. First, and most obviously, its animation is an artistic mix of kamishibai, photos, and a moment or two of live action that create a peculiar static tension that is impossible to get away from. It creates a certain desire to see them move that’s akin to having an itch you can’t reach. It’s also reminiscent of staring at the dull and lifeless qualities of a doll’s eye, which works extremely well in this show. Mix these qualities in with impeccable sound setting the mood, and you’ll be captivated from season one’s ghost and curses to the inescapable, too-close-to-home situations of the third season. Truly, this show proves that no place is ever safe. From a simple drive home to your bedroom to a bathhouse, evil will find you.

Have you ever wished death upon someone? Well, Hell Girl gives you a chance for that wish to become reality. In the world that Studio Deen created, Jigoku Tsuushin (Hell Correspondence) allows people to input the names of their enemies onto a website. The peoples whose names are written are then ferried to hell immediately by Ai Enma, while the prosecutor will join them upon death as payment. Hell Girl’s narrative, style, and sound come together in glorious unison to provide viewers with an exceptional taste horror. From the constant harassment and bullying of victims in the real world to the nightmarish traps for those being punished by Ai, there is always something haunting. When you first experience one of Ai’s nightmarish traps, set up with the help of three straw dolls in the school hallways, you’ll fully understand just how twisted and deceptive this anime is. Do yourself and remember Golden Rule, people. However, what really pushes this show so far forward is its ability to provide a lasting narrative. Most horror type shows can only provide so many thrills for so long, but Hell Girl is able to successfully introduce character after character, fleshing out the abuse and paranoia created from bullies and stalkers, and convince us as viewers to invest our time into another person’s nightmare.

Studio Deen’s 2006 masterpiece, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, follows Keiichi Maebara as he moves to a quiet little village and quickly becomes friends with schoolmates Rena Ryuuguu, Mion Sonozaki, Satoko Houjou, and Rika Furude. As the village gets ready for a festival, the show almost feels as if it’s about to turn into a generic harem. However, Keiichi starts to learn about murders and other terrible events that seem to have some connection with the festival and the village’s patron god, Oyashiro. Like any normal person, Keiichi turns to his friends for advice to find out that they’re not really people he should have ever called friends. First things first, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is incredibly well-written and staged out. Though, some might be confused when a dead character comes back, the episodes are composed in certain arcs, and it’s honestly for the best as it forces you to piece together certain narrative elements and relationships. Also, it allows us to better analyze the specific mental states of each character by dividing itself into these arcs. With all the madness and mental instability that are depicted in this anime, it might have been too much to handle if it followed a more normal narrative. Now, the narrative has a lot of other strong suits, such as its ability to suspend our disbelief and make us fully agree that these people we just met are cult/homicidal psychopaths. Nonetheless, the story would not have as much impact as it would have if it wasn’t for the gore that ensued within each episode. People drive pins through a finger and then axe somebody, people throw their own necks into knives, nails get ripped off, and that is only a taste of what this horror fest has in store.

Nine students hold congress in their high school one night to say goodbye to a friend. With youthful tendencies, they decide that this farewell needs to be incorporated with a particular ritual using small paper charm dolls. These dolls, however, are connected to an alternate dimension of an elementary school that used to reside where their high school now stands. A maze of sorts, these nine students must work together to get out of this nightmarish environment. Cruel ghosts and maddening traps galore, Corpse Party is the Saw of anime. The mastermind behind every trap and ounce of torture that the students face is the ghost Sachiko, a young girl who was murdered back when the grounds were an elementary school. Now, she is one angry ghost and takes a lot of pleasure out of torturing the people who are unlucky enough to be sent to her domain. Whether it’s gouging out eyes, cutting of tongues or cutting a person’s head in half little by little with scissors, Sachiko doesn’t have any limit to the horror she can inflict. The gore alone is enough to sate most horror fanatics. However, the mystery and overall story behind is Corpse Party is strong enough that some with squeamish stomachs might even find themselves unable to stop. It’s compelling and even though it might terrorize your dreams, it’s hard to stop before finding out what drives young Sachiko.

There is one childhood friend who turns out to play a more important role in Satoru’s life than many would have expected; that character is Kazu. Kazu belongs to Satoru’s group of friends and is often seen hanging out with them inside and outside of class. He is depicted as a loud and outgoing guy and clearly has no problems befriending other people. Kazu becomes important later on in the story as Satoru tries to protect another girl once Kaya is safe. That girl is Aya, a primary school student who is supposed to become the second victim of the serial killer. Satoru struggles trying to befriend her and is at a loss, not knowing what to do. That’s when Kazu steps in and manages to get close to Aya with his likable personality. Thanks to Kazu and his special charm, Aya’s death could be prevented and that’s why we want to give him the first shout-out on this list.

Here we have another character you might have forgotten about, but who plays an important part in the universe of Erased. Sawada is a TV reporter who first shows up after Kaya disappears in the original storyline. Satoru catches him interviewing his mother for possible clues, but does not think much about him. He becomes important again once Satoru is grown up; his mother tries to contact Sawada to name the real murderer but gets killed before she can do so. It already takes some courage to become a reporter in the first case and also to work on a case involving a dangerous serial killer. Yet, Sawada is never seen being afraid and quite on the contrary, he does not stop in his pursuit of the real killer. When Satoru visits him asking for help, Sawada gladly hands over a list of possible suspects. Even though he wasn’t the one solving the crimes, Sawada still supported the investigations with his courage.

There is one character in Satoru’s elementary school class that stands out from the rest of the crowd and that character is Kenya Kobayashi. Kenya is a mysterious child. He is friendly but doesn’t talk unless he actually has something meaningful to say. Similarly, he takes notice of what’s going on around him and thinks about everything he observes. His level of maturity is way beyond his actual age and he is also the only character who suspects that Satoru is involved in something bigger. Despite his mysterious personality, Kenya is one of the closest friends of Satoru. He might not fully understand the scope of Satoru’s actions, but he understands that his friend is involved in something important and he’s not afraid of supporting him. His sense of justice might be even stronger than Satoru’s and combined with his will to help he is truly a courageous character.

Yes, we have decided to include the ultimate antagonist of this story, Gaku Yashiro, on this list. Keep reading to find out why! Yashiro is Satoru’s homeroom teacher and is known as a lovable and kind-hearted man. He even supports Satoru when he finds out that the boy is trying to befriend and protect the lonely girls of his neighborhood. But as the story continues it becomes clear that all of that is just a mask to hide Yashiro’s true identity - the identity of a ruthless serial killer. It might be rather morbid to say that it takes courage to become a murderer. However, that is not our main reason for including Yashiro; it’s the fearlessness with which he pursues his goal that makes him stand out from the rest of the cast. His reasoning might be questionable, but you do have to admit that he doesn’t stop before he gets what he wants. Yashiro is the strong-willed villain of Erased and seventh spot on our list.

There are some unlikeable characters in Erased, but it is clearly Akemi who many viewers despised the most. The single mother physically abuses Kaya, her only child. When she is not beating her, pushing her head underwater or leaving her outside freezing in a cold shed, she finds other ways to neglect her motherly duties. For most parts of the story, there is no glimpse of love inside Akemi and she seems to have no compassion or sympathy whatsoever. Why would we include an abusive mother on a list honoring courage? No one is without a past and it is the things that Akemi went through that turned her into the woman she is today. After a bad breakup, she had to bring up her daughter on her own; alcohol and violence were simply her escape from a scary reality. In the end, Akemi might have chosen the easy way out, but it still required courage to get this far and to accept that she was wrong in the end.

Next up is Jun Shiratori, the friendly guy who was framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Better known under his nickname Yuuki, he is often seen strolling around the neighborhood Satoru and his friends grow up in. He makes an effort to befriend lonely kids and talk to them whenever he has the time. During the day, he works as a food delivery worker with his dad or spends his time alone in his room. It is not far-fetched to suspect a male loner might have killed Kaya and the other girls. But as it turns out, Yuuki is innocent. He simply cares about the kids around him and wants them to grow up to become happy adults. Yuuki encourages them to find friends and stand up for what they believe in. Unfortunately, it was this courage that sealed his fate. And as a sidenote: Yuuki means courage in Japanese, so there is no way we could have excluded him from this list.

Satoru might not have many friends as an adult, but there is one girl who became more important to him than he would have ever expected: Airi Katagiri. Airi works at the same pizza place as Satoru is known for always having a smile on her face. She is only a high school student so she has a rather childish and outgoing personality. While Satoru tries to keep his distance, Airi insists on getting closer to him and helping him out whenever she can. Airi’s childish facade hides a more thoughtful personality. Her family split up because of a lack of trust and that is why Airi makes an effort to believe in the people she cares about. She is one of the few people who supported Satoru when he was framed for the murder of his mother. Airi might seem like an innocent child, but she has values that she believes in and is not afraid to fight for them. What a courageous character!

Satoru might not have a big family or a girlfriend, but there is one person who will always be part of his life: his mother Sachiko. While some mothers might be smothering their kids, Sachiko encourages Satoru to do his own thing. Already from a young age she shows great support and simply wants her son to be happy even if she doesn’t really understand what he is going through. Satoru might feel embarrassed by her from time to time and wish she was more like other mothers, but the two of them still share a special bond that cannot be broken. If we had to describe Sachiko with one word it would definitely be strong. Just think about it: she is a single mother, working full-time while also raising Satoru and teaching him important values on the way. On top of that, she also has a sense of what’s right or wrong and tries to frame the true murderer years after the killings. Sachiko is independent and truly courageous, that’s why she earns the third spot on this list.

Of course, we had to include the hero of the story, Satoru Fujinuma, on this list. After all, his courage is the driving force of the whole storyline. At the beginning of the story, Satoru leads a simple and rather dull life. He lives alone, doesn’t have a girlfriend and works as a pizza delivery boy. But deep down he cares about the people around him. He is kindhearted and wants to protect his loved ones. While his special ability to travel back in time is a nuisance to him, he still cannot help it but use this power for the greater good and save those in need. What makes Satoru courageous? Of course, there is the fact that he has a little bit of a savior complex and wants to protect others. We are not only talking about his childhood friends but even as a grown-up, he puts the needs of others above his own. Most importantly, Satoru isn’t afraid to risk his own life. He doesn’t stop when a situation gets dangerous and certainly won’t rest until justice has been done. While Satoru’s courage is truly admirable, there is one last character we simply had to include on this list.

Our final choice had to be Kayo Hinazuki, the girl who Satoru tries to save from her gruesome fate. Kayo is a quiet and shy girl. She doesn’t have any friends, rarely talks and would rather stick to herself. Only after getting close to her does Satoru learn the reason for her behavior; Kayo is being abused by her own mother and lives in a world full of pain and suffering. Afraid of what might happen to her, Kayo doesn’t stand up for herself and accepts her fate in silence. Of course, this isn’t the end of Kayo’s story. It already takes courage to endure physical and emotional abuse, but Kayo becomes even stronger after Satoru steps into her life. Standing up to her own mother and believing in a better future for herself made Kayo one of the strongest characters in Erased, despite her young age. It was her courage that truly touched us and that is why she deserves the final spot on this list.

Our first recommendation is the most recent movie of this list and a definite must-watch when it comes to coming-of-age stories. Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda, or Kokosake for short, tells the story of Jun, a girl who once was a happy child, but who had to change after a traumatic incident. Her emotions were sealed away by a mysterious egg fairy and with them her ability to speak disappeared. Now she is a quiet teenager who would rather just disappear altogether. But her life is about to change again, with the help of love, friends and most importantly, music. Kokosake was already well-known way before its release, mostly due to the fact that it’s from the makers of ultimate tearjerker Ano Hana. What could have disappointed lots of fans turned out to be a charming movie with a beautiful soundtrack and a refreshingly innocent story. Kokosake received a couple of awards and is thus one of the most recommended anime movies in recent years. Our first pick!

Let’s move on to an older movie that still deserves some love today: Tokyo Godfathers. One Christmas Eve, three people who couldn’t be more different from each other find an abandoned baby. On a quest to find its parents, a transvestite, a middle-aged alcoholic and a runaway girl find their way around the streets of Tokyo. This turns out to be harder than they had expected and soon enough the three strangers find themselves caught up in a series of mysterious events. Tokyo Godfathers is a heart-warming story that entertains with its combination of interesting storyline and great characters. On top of that, there are more than just a few funny scenes that will literally make you laugh out loud. Most importantly, an overall festive feeling surrounds the story and makes you think about the meaning of family and friendship. Tokyo Godfathers is a hit even outside the holiday season so why not give it a try tonight?

We are coming back to recent times with Bakemono no Ko, also known as The Boy and the Beast. This is a modern fairytale that takes place nowhere else than the streets of Tokyo. The boy mentioned in the title is Ren, a young boy who decides to run away from his terrible life. The beast is Kumatetsu, a fierce-looking monster who is fighting for his right to claim the throne of the Beast Kingdom. To do that, he needs to prove that he can take care of an apprentice and that’s where Ren comes in. The unlikely pair decides to team up and together they tackle their problems and try to make the best out of their situation. The premise of Bakemono no Ko is a rather unique and is definitely already reason enough to give it a chance. If you still aren’t sure of whether you should give this gem a try, let us just add that it was the second highest-grossing Japanese movie of 2015 and received international approval. Mamoru Hosoda succeeded at creating a lovely mixture of an emotion-filled storyline with unique yet interesting characters. A definite must-watch!

Next up on our list is a movie that might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but belongs definitely to one of the most underrated anime movies out there. Memories is a collection of three different stories that have each been directed by different directors. Magnetic Rose tells a story of loving and losing, Stink Bomb is a humoristic view on the works of a chemical researcher and Cannon Fodder will make you reflect on what wars can do to the minds of people. What ties these stories together is the idea of memories and how much they define a person. Directing three different stories that are still combined into one final masterpiece is already astounding by itself. What makes Memories stand out, even more, is the fact that you get to see three completely different approaches to creating an animated movie. Of course, this also means that you might enjoy each story differently, but that is part of the charm of Memories. If you enjoy thoughtful movies then check it out.

Not all anime movies need to have breath-taking animations to be successful and Tekkon Kinkreet will show you why. White and Black are two orphan boys who are trying their best to survive on the streets of a China-inspired version of Japan. With only a handful of possessions, they still manage to make the best out of their situation and enjoy each day as if it was their last. What they didn’t realize though is that they need each other more than they would have thought and when fate starts ripping them apart, their peaceful life as they used to know it is coming to an end. The most prominent feature of Tekkon Kinkreet is its unique art style that some might describe as ugly. But what seems off-putting at first actually works well for the storyline. After all, Tekkon Kinkreet shows its viewers the dark and dirty sides of a modern city and what it means to be part of life on the streets. This movie shows the beautiful bond between two boys and is the sixth recommendation on this list.

After Memories and Tokyo Godfathers we have the third creation of director Satoshi Kon with Millennium Actress. In the midst of winter, young Chiyoko meets a mysterious stranger who she immediately falls in love with. To follow him on his journey inside and outside of Japan, the girl decides to become an actress who produces one hit movie after the other. Millennium Actress tells the life story of Chiyoko while also shedding some light on the most recent events in Japanese history. Millennium Actress is a true masterpiece that combines several different storylines, perspectives and time periods seemingly effortless. Satoshi Kon is known for combining reality with fantasy and this movie is definitely no exception. Like many other recommendations on this list, Millennium Actress is an international hit and thus a definite must-watch. Especially fans of bittersweet love stories should set an evening aside to watch Millennium Actress.

You didn’t really expect us to leave out one of the most successful Japanese movies in history, did you? Spirited Away tells the story of Chihiro who, one day, stumbles into the spirit realm. To save her parents from a gruesome curse she has to go out and find her way around a world that scares and excites her at the same time. With beautiful visuals and unique characters Spirited Away shows the struggle of a girl to find her way home. In this movie everything just seems to come together perfectly: the story is interesting, each character is more unique than the previous one, the artwork is breathtaking and on top of all of that you also get a soundtrack that is beautiful in its simplicity. Spirited Away is the highest grossing movie in Japanese history and made Studio Ghibli as famous abroad as it is in Japan. If you haven’t watched Spirited Away yet, it is definitely time to do that.

We have reached our Top 3 and we want to start with a must-watch anime movie for all Sci-Fi fans: Akira. The story is set in a future that is not so distant anymore where modern Tokyo is suffering from the after-effects of World War III. Its streets are ruled by tough biker gangs and the government is being under constant attack. To top this chaos off, psychic powers start emerging and now everyone has to fight for their own right to live. Why should you watch a movie that is almost 30 years old, you may ask. The fact that Akira is one of the most successful anime movies of all time is already a good reason. This little gem has stood the test of time and is still as relevant today as it was in the late 80s. It is a masterwork when it comes to Sci-Fi stories and a must-watch for all self-proclaimed movie connoisseurs. If you haven’t watched it yet, what are you still waiting for?

You have asked for it and here it is: next up on our list is the romantic drama 5 Centimeters per Second. Similar to Memories, this movie doesn’t tell one, but several different stories in one film. The story starts with two childhood friends who fall in love only to be torn apart by fate and ends with a unique look on what it means to be in love and how fragile human bonds really are. Get ready for an emotional rollercoaster that will make you think about the meaning of sakura petals falling to the ground. 5 Centimeters per Second convinces more with its unique atmosphere than it does with its storyline. With the help of more than outstanding visuals, you will get dragged into the story and start caring about each character as if their problems were your own. This movie is deeply emotional and shows a rare love for detail, so grab yourself a pack of tissues and watch it tonight.

We have reached the end of our list, but we cannot let you go before talking about our final recommendation which simply had to be the all-time classic Ghost in the Shell. It’s the year 2029 and humans have replaced nearly all of their body parts with robotic features. Mankind has reached a new high, but it needs to pay the prize for its advanced technology. What does it mean to be human? How much should we rely on technology? What is the worth of your free will? These are just some of the questions that you will be asking yourself while watching Ghost in the Shell. This movie revolutionized Japanese movie making and has opened new doors in the animated film industry. It is deep, entertaining, dark and most importantly still relevant today. Even Ghost in the Shell’s animation can still compete with today’s artwork, but if you are not a fan of older visuals you might want to check out its remake of 2015. Everyone else, definitely watch the original version as Ghost in the Shell is one of the most touching and thoughtful anime movies out there.

After being in a state of suspended animation for 12 years, Kaido, Yuji woke up only to find out that blues are inhibiting the Earth while humans live on a space station known as the “second earth”. With his awakening, he discovered that he has the power to kill the blues and regain their lost home. Blues are originally made for the sole purpose of becoming a bioweapon. As observations have been done, humans noticed that this large bugs not only eat organic matter but also inorganic matter as well. The blues must have realized that places with heavy population were a great nesting place as humans are good for their nutritional needs. Humans tried to eliminate the blues, but like some viruses that mutate to be immune to some medicines, the blues also found a way to alter themselves to take the blows of humanity has to offer. Not before long, humans were forced to live outer space with the blues still constantly reproducing to dominate the planet earth. This time, humans are considered insects by the blues and this brute creature will not stop until they annihilate humanity entirely.

Once you bypass the CGI aspects of the anime, you will see the great story that Ajin has to offer. Ajin were first momentary discovered in Africa that was followed by some reported sightings of it in parts of the world. Since Ajin are quite rare, humans of today's time regard them as nothing but superstitions. That is what our hero Nagai, Kei thinks until an accident proved to him that Ajin do exist and that is he is one of them. Ajin prominent trait would be their immorality. This is why the government are out to get them for they a good test subject for certain cruel experiments. Since Ajin are being treated this way, they are wrecking havoc all over the place in revenge for what the government has done to them. To make matter worse, Ajin have screams that can paralyze any humans and uses their Black Ghost to fight. They are mostly deadly with some Ajin having even no regard for human life.

Tokyo Ghoul is one of those animes that will make you question yourself of who is on the right side or who is on the wrong side. Is it the humans? Or is it the ghouls? Tokyo not only inhibits humans but there are also ghouls who lurk around, perfectly blended with mortals who they see as food. As fearsome creatures are only inches away, our protagonist Kaneki, Ken, is supposedly leading a normal life as normal people should. Until an incident occurred where he wakes up one morning, only to discover that he was turned into a half-ghoul. Now trapped in his new distorted world, Kaneki sees first hand the contrast between humans and ghouls. In the world of Tokyo ghoul, humans are not considered at the top of the food chain anymore as there are already ghouls who can only eat humans and their own kind. Ghouls are highly dangerous when they choose to be. They have monstrous strength and can easily kill humans with their Kagune which they use as their primary weapon for hunting and for killing.

Based on the 1989 manga by Iwaaki, Hitoshi, Parasyte pulls us from its world where parasitic aliens attach themselves to humans and lay prey who falls victim to them. Unique circumstances lead Izumi, Shinichi to be infected by a parasite through his right hand instead of the normal way where parasites infect the brain. After some unfortunate happenings, Shinichi decided to take down all parasites together with his right-hand man or in this case alien Migi. (Pun intended) In their original form, parasites are creatures that really aren’t imposing at all. But once these creatures successfully attach itself to its host, they are scary and fatal. When they finally have full control of their host’s body, they proceed to go out in search for more humans to eat as that is what their instinct tell them too. At times, when faced with dangerous situations, they can alter their host’s body to harden up and create sharp weapons all over the body for combat.

Claymore is a dark fantasy that is set during the medieval times where Yoma feast on human flesh and can blend in with human society. It is now up to the Claymores, who are half human and half Yoma hybrids, to stop these demons from terrorizing humans. The story starts with Raki who was saved by Clair, a Claymore that is normally rejected by society. Just like our selection above, a normal Yoma is a parasitical creature that also invades the brain to gain access to a human body. The only difference is that Yoma, whether they eat a lot of humans or not, must find another host after some time to continue living. Yoma are often sadistic, enjoying how they kill and eat their prey. However, beings much more powerful than these normal demons started to pop out of nowhere that even Claymores are having a hard time to kill it. They are called the awaken beings who were former Claymores turned Yoma due to them losing control of their demonic energy. Awaken beings are beastly in appearance and more threatening than a normal Yoma.

What comes after death? Do we go to heaven or to hell? Or maybe we wake up suddenly to a place where we are forced to play a game for our survival. For Gantz through, that is the case. Kurono, Kei, and Katou, Masaru died after trying to save a homeless man. They didn’t expect that afterlife would force them in a twisted mission to fight monstrous aliens and robots in order to live. Gantz has a lot of monsters revolving around its world. With each new targets presented to the participants, its either do or die depending on how they smartly defeat their targets. The aliens that are asked to eliminate ranges from docile ones (which are rare) to unpleasant vicious beings. Gantz definitely shouts savagely, women almost getting raped, children being beaten up to a bloody plump, torturing men endlessly until they die and the remaining will either be dismembered or squished down by the said target. This show is gory that can make us cringe with the way they show brutality towards the aliens or especially the humans.

Just like Ajin, who uses CGI as a means to show its marvel, Knights of Sidonia is set in the futuristic dystopian world where the remaining humans are constantly on the run in fear of being extinct. With earth long gone, humans rely on “seed ships” to be their new home and uses high-end technology to multiply and to answer their basic needs. Meet Tanikaze, Nagate who lives on the one of the known “seed ships” that is Sidonia. Follow him as he embarks on a journey to protect Sidonia as a “Garde” pilot. Gauna, are aliens that destroyed the earth that still continuously hunt humans down to extinction. Gauna has two main parts, the true body, and its placenta. With its placenta, they are able to morph their body to their bidding. While the true body, in turn, can absorb a whole lot of things including humans. They are also extremely hard to kill, as the only way for a Gauna to die is for them to be pierced in their true body by a Kabizashi, which is a large spear-like weapon.

From the famous Blood franchise comes with Blood-C. Kisaragi, Saya is an upbeat school girl by day and a fierce monster slayer by night. She has learned the ways of the sword through her father and inherited her ceremonial sword through her mother. With this by her side, she has fully devoted herself to protect her once peaceful village only for her beliefs to be tested as she uncovers truth after truths. The old ones or also called elder bairns are the primary antagonist of the show. They are in huge numbers and with different traits and abilities depending on their kind. Like most of our selections, their instinct is to kill and feed on humans. Though, the monsters of Blood-C are more, let's say, creative when they slaughter their poor victims. It's precisely evident that they do not only murder the humans out of hunger, but they also do so to enjoy and relish the terror that is painted in their prey’s face. Humans have tried to reach out to them and beg for them to stop, but this vile creature sees humans for what they are to them: food.

Before the start of the series, scientists sent out cockroaches in the planet mars as an experiment to see if it deemed habitable by earth creatures. It was a success only show its problems in the distant future. At present, humans are plagued by a martian virus where the only cure for it can be found in mars. Expeditions are made by genetically modified humans to get samples of mutated cockroaches and exterminate them to get a hold of the martian planet once more. Cockroaches are mostly hated by anyone. They are dirty and they look disgusting. After watching Terra Formars, surely your hate towards these insects will double up a notch. And we can’t help it as the anime depicts them in a much more gruesome way possible. These evolved humanoid cockroaches are called Terraformars. They are the one who currently lives in the planet mars and has a distinctive hatred for humans. Terraformars are quite intelligent and adaptable, relying on their fellow brethren to eliminate humans. They still retain their cockroach traits even after evolving thus humans must have special ways to wipe them out by first modifying their bodies coupled up with a well-planned attack. Even with this, Terraformars are still hard to dispose of as they still continue to improve fast with each ability being stolen from their victimized modified humans.

Berserk is an anime that is known as one of the true classics and is loved by many. A man who grew up from the harsh realities of battles, Guts story began when he was recruited by Griffith in his group of mercenaries that is the “Band of the Hawk”. However, as the series progress, we see Guts’ glorious mercenary days to his current demon slaying ways due to his friend’s lust for more power. Being a dark fantasy anime, Berserk’s world is abundant when it comes to races. Just to mention a few, there are dragons, elves, golems, trolls and the Apostles. Apostles are once human beings who threw their humanity away to be a demonic monster because of their despair. Although formerly a human, Apostles doesn’t have any trace of humanity left in them after their transformation. They adhere hedonism and only listen to their rulers known as the God Hand. Overall Apostles, along with their leaders, practically do anything inhumane to remaining mortals. Their evil deeds are so repulsive that it left us fathomable unsettling feelings.