Ask John: What is the Best Anime Horror Title?

Question:
In your opinion, which anime title tops the charts in the horror genre? I watched Berserk and it sits on the top of my chart, but everybody is talking about Elfen Lied and how it’s a heart stopper.

Answer:
Out of all the genres covered by anime, horror may be the one most difficult to judge for two reasons. First, although it pains me to admit this, animation is intrinsically inferior to live action in the ability to instill fear in viewers. BY its constitution, anime is a step removed from the naturalistic immediacey necessary to create a genuine sense of fearful tension. As a result, anime horror has to be criticized by different standards than those used to critique live action horror films. Second, such a wide variety of horror appears in anime that it’s difficult to narrow the field. Before I provide a singular answer, I think it’s neccessary to discuss the topic for a while.

The potential effectiveness of any horror film depends on how intimately its viewers identify with it. Viewers must invest themselves in the action on screen, feel empathy with the action on screen, in order for the on-screen action to affect them. Since anime is two dimensional and obviously fantasy, it’s nearly impossible for anime to be genuinely scary. Horror isn’t frightening unless viewers take it seriously. But the traditional look of anime makes it too easy for viewers to remind themselves that what they’re seeing isn’t real. The stylized look of anime makes anime easy for a viewer to rationally associate with, but difficult to associate with on a physical, instinctual level, which is what’s necessary for horror to be frighteningly effective. Possibly because animators realize that 2D animation is psychologically less “real” and therefore less frightening to viewers, Japan’s anime industry generally avoids trying to produce anime with the goal of scaring viewers. Instead, the anime industry produces horror hybrids such as action horror like Supernatural Beast City, Vampire Hunter D and Hellsing; romantic adventure horror like Tsukuyomi and Tsukihime; and monster movies like Devilman, Urotsukidoji, Bio-Hunter, and Cybernetics Guardian Saigard. Straightforward Gothic and atmospheric horror like Vampire Miyu and Gakkou no Kaiden exist, but they’re produced relatively rarely.

This variety of horror anime makes identifying a singular best horror anime very difficult because it’s difficult to determine exactly what counts as horror anime. For example, the Berserk anime series is predominantly a medieval fantasy, but it contains elements of supernatural horror. The Elfen Lied anime is a gruesome science fiction story about an evolved species of human and the impending extinction of the human race at the hands of this monstrous new life form. (When described that way, the same can be said of Blue Gender, actually.) Overtly, Elfen Lied isn’t a horror series. It’s science fiction. Yet Elfen Lied can be loosely thought of as horror because it contains horrific violence and deals with the fear of something threatening that humankind doesn’t understand. However, at the same time the Kakugo no Susume OAV series is also horrifically gruesome, and “splatter” is generally considered a sub classification of the horror genre, but I’ve never thought of Kakugo no Susume as “horror” anime because it never aims to frighten on psychological or primal levels. Then as another example, the Ima Soku ni Iru Boku (Now & Then, Here & There) anime series is disturbingly unsettling, frightening, and horrifying. Yet it’s also not a horror anime. So it’s very difficult to determine which anime are and aren’t technically horror anime. Numerous anime series, for example Ghost Sweeper Mikami and Bleach, would normally be considered horror titles based on their content, but they aren’t actually horror. At the same time, there are non-horror anime titles like Iczer-One that are more horrifying than many actual horror anime.

The best examples of definitive horror anime are typically good or even outstanding. They’re horrifying, but unfortunately rarely frightening. And I think that being frightening is a vital component for an unqualified excellent horror anime. The early episodes of the Devilman Lady series occasionally do an excellent job of creating an atmosphere of uncomfortable horror. Sadly, the series discards that effort after the first few episodes. The Vampire Miyu anime, both OAV series and TV series, does an exceptional job of combining the macabre atmosphere of Japanese and European horror. The result is overpoweringly visual and oppressively nihilistic, but just not scary. The Gantz anime also features intense gore, uncertainty, and alien beings- all the features of an excellent horror. But the Gantz anime gets weighed down with unlikable characters that viewers can’t empathize with and distractingly poor animation. Elements that distance viewers from having an immediate personal empathy are the antithesis of effective horror. And titles like Hellsing and Vampire Hunter D are exciting and literally spectacular (as in full of spectacle), but they feel like action movies disguised as horror rather than genuine fright films.

I think that the ultimate horror anime should actually be a horror film or series, not something from another genre that includes characteristics of horror. I think, also, that the ideal anime horror is one that’s capable of creating a sense of fear and tension in viewers. As a life long horror movie fan, I think I’m familiar with most of the horror anime that Japan has produced, including titles little known in America like Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro, Wolf Guy, and Jigoku Sensei Nube. Within the realm of my knowledge and recollection, the singular anime that’s specifically designed to be unsettling and scary and best succeeds in that mission is Perfect Blue, a film often referred to as a psychological horror film. After all, what more authentic and effective horror is there than horror that terrifies the viewer with physical revulsion and psychological shock? The brilliance of Perfect Blue is that it manages to be an effective horror by avoiding things that usually prevent anime horror from being effective. It’s often said that Perfect Blue could have been made with live action. In fact, the story was later produced as a live action film. But I’ve never believed that Perfect Blue would have been as effective in live action as it is in animation because animation is a more favorable medium for illustrating the film’s multiple layers of reality and perception. In this case, live action would only make viewers more conscious of what the film is trying to do, which would unravel the illusion and the film’s effectiveness. Perfect Blue is a shocking and terrifying film because it’s believable and realistic, and because it takes steps to make its violence appear viscerally powerful and immediate. It’s said that the most effective cinematic violence is that which viewers can relate to. Perfect Blue illustrates that rule by making its violence sudden, unexpected and very immediate, enhancing it by focusing on the reactions of the victims so that the violence isn’t gratuitous or rewarding; it’s painful and horrifying. The psychological horror is amazingly effective because throughout the film viewers understand what’s happening, and believe that they understand what’s happening. When it’s revealed that all along the viewers haven’t been in control and haven’t understood what’s been happening, the viewer is left reeling in shock and horror. That off-balance feeling, combined with the physical revulsion the film engenders, creates the most powerful sense of helplessness and fear that I think anime is capable of creating.

Although Perfect Blue is a psychological, rather than supernatural horror, I think it’s deserving of recognition as the most effective horror anime produced so far. As far as I’m aware, no anime has effectively dealt with the sort of spine tingling, supernatural horror that live action Japanese films like Ring and the Ju-On franchise have so successfully adapted. Japanese video games like the early entries in the Biohazard franchise, the Clock Tower games, and the Silent Hill franchise have also excelled at illustrating atmospheric supernatural horror. But I can’t think of a single anime that fits this mold. As I’ve stated earlier, I have doubts that anime is even capable of effectively illustrating terrifying supernatural horror, but I do look forward to some future anime production proving me wrong.