Ask John: What are the Scariest Anime?

Question:
Since it is Halloween I figured I’d ask. What are the top scariest/spookiest animes you’d recommend?

Answer:
I feel as though I’m a little late to address this question, but since I didn’t receive it until after Halloween anyway, I suppose that the timing can be overlooked.

The two-dimensional illustrated nature of anime inherently distances it from reality and thus partially cripples its ability to evoke genuine fear. Viewers shrink in terror when they empathize with the characters, settings, and situations on screen. When watching anime, viewers are constantly aware that what they see isn’t real, thus the sense of personal peril is lessened. However, anime can still be unsettling and disturbing due largely to its narrative intensity. Japanese supernatural horror is quite unlike Occidental horror. Typical British and American ghost stories involve humans encountering and ultimately either exorcising or escaping supernatural manifestations. Westerners perceive spirits as terrifying and threatening but ultimately etherial, spectres that can be placated. In Japanese literature, however, the supernatural is more powerful than the human realm, and individuals targeted by ghosts are doomed. Unlike American horror that typically leaves room for possibility, Japanese horror is characterized by an implacable tragedy. In Japanese ghost stories there is no escape, no hope; those targeted by malicious spirits are doomed to death.

The sense of inescapable foreboding and shocking finality are oppressively prevelant in the 1990 Umezu Kazuo no Noroi and 1999 Inuki Kanako Zekkyou Collection: Gakkou ga Kowai! OVAs. Both of these disturbing anime shorts abound with creepy settings, unsettling art design, and most importantly, shocking tragic finality. Ironically, both OVAs are based on manga from artists best known for creating children’s stories. But the children that star in these OVAs don’t encounter cathartic happy endings. These two OVAs are grim, oppressive, creepy, and most shocking because they reject the typical positive endings expected of such anime. Viewers expect precocious young kids to escape unharmed, yet in these grim children’s horror OVAs, there are no happy endings, and no one gets out alive.

The 2000 Yonimo Osoroshii Grimm Douwa (Extremely Frightening Grimms Fairy Tales) OVA presents grotesque, morbid interpretations of the Hansel & Gretel, Bluebeard, and Cinderella fairy tales. While gore isn’t prevelant in the OVA, the unsettling art design of the Hansel & Gretel segment compounded by the perverse pessimism of the following two segments makes the entire OVA disturbing and unforgettable.

I have to admit that I only watched the first episode of 1991’s High School Mystery: Gakuen Nanafushigi television series many years ago, but my recollection of it is that unlike countless other “seven school mysteries” anime, Gakuen Nanafushigi maintains a foreboding and gloomy atmosphere throughout.

Again proving that many of Japan’s most creepy horror anime come from children’s authors, Ninja Hattori-kun, Pro Golfer Saru, and Doraemon creator Fujiko Fujio A’s 1989-1992 Warau Salesman (Laughing Salesman) anime series, based on the 1969–1971 manga, is deeply unsettling because it revels in exploiting and degrading typical human vices.

The 2000 Gakko no Kaidan television series has been severely compromised in America by its 2005 parody English dub from AD Vision. The series is frequently called “childish” or “dull,” but I wonder how much of that reaction is influenced by the skewed opinion of the American localization staff rather than reaction from viewers that have actually tried watching the original Japanese presentation. While not nearly as dark and morbid as the Gakkou ga Kowai OVA, viewers who actually try watching the original language version of the show may find that the Gakko no Kaidan TV series is actually a bit more spooky than it’s widely given credit for being.

In terms of unsettling narrative, the 1997 Vampire Miyu television series may surpass its predecessor OVA series because the TV series more appreciably illustrates Miyu’s cold aloofness to humanity. While Miyu does have close friends, she’s largely indifferent to average human beings, doing nothing to defend or protect them from supernatural harm.

The popular Higurashi no Naku Koro ni franchise suffers from an odd inversion. As the installments’ production values increase, the show becomes increasingly less about horror and more satirical and beholden to the prevelant moé marketing trend. Particularly the 2006 first TV series is horrifying and unsettling, provided that viewers can bear its shrill hyperbole and near parodical exaggeration.

I’d feel remiss if I didn’t at least mention a few other titles. The 2010 Shiki television series has its fans, but I don’t number among them. The show is ostensibly creepy, but it so lacks in plausibility and common sense that it’s impossible to take seriously, thus is comes across like a ridiculous parody of horror to me. Last year’s horror series Another has proven popular, but a highly pretentious and unfulfilling first episode discouraged me from watching more of it. The Corpse Party OVA franchise contains some intensely grotesque scenes but largely doesn’t maintain a frightening atmosphere.