Yes, we have more Halloween list fun this week as I count down my five favourite anime that have a lot of blood and/or gore. Now I had to think long and hard about my pre-requisite for something ending up on this list because just most amount of gross out moments didn’t seem like a great criteria. So instead I decided to go with anime that use blood and gore the best as part of the narrative rather than for the shock factor. That said, it is my list so I’d love to know what you would include on yours.
So what are my top 5 anime with blood and gore?
Please note, there will be spoilers below. And while it should go without saying given the list title, a lot of the images will be disturbing if you do not like blood and gore.
Honourable mentions: Tokyo Ghoul and Attack on Titan, both provide blood and gore aplenty but it always feels more sensationalist than necessary.
Number 5: Higurashi
Cute kids who turn into psychos and kill their friends, in sometimes truly horrifying ways. This anime really does push the boundaries with a young cast that are subjected to torture, dismemberment, and generally just misery and death. Despite the young age of the cast it doesn’t really hold back on showing the deaths seemingly relishing in each and every failed attempt to break free from the time loop. This one definitely earns a spot on the list even if it isn’t quite as graphic as some of the others.
Number 4: Elfen Lied
I almost just made this an honourable mention given a lot of the blood and flying body parts could definitely be seen as just an attempt to shock the audience. Still, the story does rely heavily on human fear of the unknown and of fear of the monster, and Lucy delivers both as she walks her way through a mass of armed guards leaving nothing but blood in her wake. After the opening the blood keeps coming but it is certainly diminished after the anime has set its scene.
Number 3: Another
While more about atmosphere and creepiness than blood, there’s something even more shocking about the moments of pure gore this anime delivers because of the slow build to them. Very few people forget the umbrella on the stair case incident and the teacher suicide in the classroom is a truly unsettling and disturbing visual that isn’t leaving me any time soon. As these deaths are the result of the curse the class is under the violence and shocking nature of these events are actually kind of necessary because otherwise the kids wouldn’t be half so desperate to undo the curse.
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Number 2: Devilman Crybaby
Want a break from simply dripping and splashing blood around the screen? Devilman Crybaby delivers true body horror with some truly violent and gory sequences that will leave you feeling fairly unsettled. As much as I didn’t really get into the story or characters of Devilman Crybaby, I have to admit that if you are after a genuine round of body horror with a lot of gore thrown in, this anime is going to deliver provided you don’t also mind a lot of sexualised content mixed in with that.
Number 1: Pupa
This one wins again (as it previously in 2016 on anime I recommended for Halloween). This is one graphic and disturbing short anime that will definitely get under your skin as a younger sister, infected with a virus, will feed by eating the flesh of her still living older brother (also infected but fast healing). This is blood, gore and a whole lot of shudder inducing imagery and definitely not for the faint hearted. Also, not for anyone who wants a conclusion because you’ll be left wanting.
And there we have it, my top 5 list of anime that use blood and/or gore. As always, feel free to share your list in the comments below.
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Karandi James
I have watched another and elfn lied . Both was great and I cried in the ending of elfen lied.
I do have to say… Elfen Lied, for me, still wins in the gore department xD
It definitely does do blood and gore. I felt it was a case where it opened really strongly (particularly in the gore department) and then didn’t have anywhere to really go because it is kind of hard to top what it started with.
I love Higurashi. I’ve only watched the first half as I wanted to play the games first, but since there’s been no new announcements on the games being released in English yet, I might just watch the rest instead.
Another sounds interesting, might have to check that out.
Another is a fairly slow build anime but is you like some solid work with the atmosphere occasionally punctuated with some horrible violence before getting to an extremely overblown climax, it works really well. I enjoyed it.
Pupa is such a fail. They should have done full length episodes and adapted the whole manga instead of what they did. I have a feeling that the anime only came to be as some sort of promotion for the manga. Not sure though but it sure looks like it because the stop in the middle of the manga. I btw like Pupa as a manga and am totally fine with the anime.
Another is probably my favorite horror gore anime. It just have it all.
Another works very well as an atmospheric piece and the sudden gore in the early scenes certainly lands with the right amount of shock and awe. The ending goes a little off the rails, but it does at least very nicely end the story and if it is gore you want the ending delivers.
Some really great choices here, particularly Pupa which is an interesting and unique choice for a list like this, as most people tend to gloss over its gore due to how “bad” of an adaptation it was.
Great list. Still need to watch Higurashi at some point.
Glad you liked the list and you should definitely check out Higurashi at some point.
Not heard of your 1 and 2 picks but have watched the rest.
I have to concur with the Blood C support, as well as nominate Gantz, Future Diary, Hellsing Ultimate and Mnesonyme as equally brutal gore fests! 😮
That’s a fairly solid list of gore.
Great list. I def would have added corpse party. That whole anime was red haha
Corpse party seems like a popular addition.
The only one I’ve seen is Higurashi. Some ones I’ve seen that get super bloody would be Perfect Blue, Hellsing, Texhnolyze, and Megazone 23 (especially part II) at the top of my mind.
Thanks for sharing your list.
No problem, Karandi.
So the very first anime that I ever (knowingly) watched was Ninja Scroll back in 1998. Yeah, nothing quite like watching a Yoshiaki Kawajiri movie as your introduction to anime, although that’s definitely one that I’d put more on the “sensationalist” side of the gore ledger. My personal favorite of the 90s VHS-era gorefests was and still is Bastard, though. That was just pure testosterone-fueled id, and incredibly cheesy fun.
Next year I’ll probably need to look at anime that use blood and gore for sensationalist purposes. I’ll probably end up with a very different list.
Pupa is just too gross. I don’t think I could watch it, especially knowing it isn’t that great… I’ve seen most the rest of the list and have to agree!
Glad you liked the list and yeah, Pupa is definitely its own thing.
Is it bad that after reading this I’m curious about Pupa and want to watch it? 🤔 Somehow what you said about it and that image left me quite interested…
Just so long as you don’t expect the story to end because it literally just stops.
Oh wow 😮 That does sound very intriguing. I’ll put it down to watch on Halloween lol
Awesome list! I haven’t seen Higurashi yet, should probably do that soon. My biggest question is, where’s Shiki??
Shiki doesn’t get really gore-filled until the end. And while it is an excellently gore-filled ending, the majority of the anime is more atmospheric than bloody.
I would’ve put Corpse Party somewhere cause it’s by far the goriest anime I’ve seen and hell even Parasite Maxim. I mean this is a pretty good list you got, despite the fact that I hate Pupa period I think it’s a terrible series and makes no goddamn sense. But yeah it’s pretty gorey, but it’s something I’d not squint to.
I never really got into Corpse Party so I don’t really remember it when thinking of lists. As to Parasyte, while I love it and I know there is gore in it, the gore isn’t what I remember about it. I’d probably put that one more into body horror.
I honestly would have totally done a rewatch for Another for Halloween, if I didn’t have so many other things to watch right now. It’ such a great show 😊😊
As for others I think Blood C is one that I really enjoyed as well. It wasn’t the best anime ever made, but still it had something. The fights were great, and I just loved the main characters. Story wise it might lack a lot of things..but in the action and gore department it totally makes up for that 😊😊
I never did get into the Blood C anime. Not sure why.
Well…as I said: its’ not really a great story. And the setting can be pretty strange at times as well. But…I don’t know, I just really loved the fights and the main character was just awesome and bad ass 😊😊
This is a good lineup, though I haven’t seen Pupa.
I’d like to cast votes for Claymore and Blood-C/Blood-C The Last Dark, too.
Oh, Claymore should have gotten a spot on the list. Now the question is where would I have put it.
Honorable Mention is the easy out I always take for series on the fringe lol even then, though, it’s still tough to rank them.
Another is definitely my personal favourite on this list. The gore is so pretty!
I don’t know that I’d use the word pretty to describe gore, but Another is definitely visually striking.
I still really need to see Another. Finding it in the UK at a reaosnable price is proving difficult though.
That’s always a problem when something is out but the price is just that little bit too much. I had the same issue with Madoka Magica in Australia. It took ages before they brought the price down to something I considered reasonable.
Exactly. It gets pretty bad here when you miss the initial release too, as the price then seems to go up after the first year, even in the second hand market.