10 dark anime that you should watch

Anime often explores profound, disturbing, and controversial themes that live-action shows often shy away from. Through animation, stories can probe deep into the darkness of the human condition while retaining compelling narratives and stylized aesthetics.

For mature audiences, dark anime offers intensely visceral yet thoughtful examinations of complex philosophical ideas. While not for everyone, fans of cerebral horror and existential social commentary may find the disturbing anime highlighted here to be transcendent viewing experiences.

Spanning cyberpunk, gothic fantasy, and crime thrillers, these shows blend grim content with artistry to evoke emotion and reflection. Viewers willing to peer past blood, gore, and traumatic imagery may uncover compelling perspectives on psychology, morality, and the depths of human cruelty.

10 must-watch dark anime for mature audience

1) Berserk

Berserk (Image via OLM, GEMBA/Millepensee)

The grim medieval world of Berserk centers on Guts, a lone warrior bearing a cursed brand that brings demons to attack him nightly. Once a member of the mercenary Band of the Hawk, Guts suffered unspeakable tragedy when the Band’s leader Griffith sacrificed his soldiers to fulfill his dream of attaining godlike power.

In the carnage that follows, Guts helplessly watches as his lover Casca is brutally assaulted into insanity by Griffith while demonic forces look on. With Casca now mentally broken, Guts initially wanders alone battling demons and seeking bloody vengeance against those responsible, namely the demigod Griffith.

Berserk features shocking amounts of graphic violence throughout Guts’ lonely crusade. Its disturbing imagery reinforces the dark tone and Guts’ rage at the forces that ruined his life. For some, it may prove excessively grim, but Berserk’s visceral style effectively channels the devastation of Guts’ tortured existence.

2) Serial Experiments Lain

Serial Experiments Lain (Image via Triangle Staff)

A seminal psychological dark anime series, Serial Experiments Lain focuses on introverted teenager Lain Iwakura. The teen receives a mysterious email from a suicidal classmate that leads her to strange revelations about reality’s true digital nature.

She learns that humanity’s collective unconsciousness has evolved into a vast virtual network called the Wired which influences the physical world. It builds a creepy atmosphere around fragmented identity, tech-driven consciousness, and the nature of reality.

Strange events cause Lain to isolate herself from friends as she descends further into the disturbing truths of the Wired. With its shadowy visuals and cryptic sci-fi storyline, Lain is highly unsettling despite little graphic content. It chills with surreal imagery, existential themes, and a growing sense of societal conspiracy.

3) Monster

A dark psychological thriller acclaimed for masterful plotting, Monster begins with Japanese neurosurgeon Kenzo Tenma whose principles of saving human lives face a test after he operates on a young boy named Johan Liebert instead of the city mayor.

Years later, a string of murders makes Tenma realize that Johan has become a dangerous serial killer manipulating those around him with ease. However, legal authorities suspect Tenma of the crimes, leaving him a fugitive who must prove the full extent of Johan’s malevolence.

Featuring little traditional action, Monster excels as a disturbing examination of human malevolence through its dense cat-and-mouse game between Tenma and Johan. With little gore but an intense atmosphere, it captures Johan’s chilling evil like few dark anime do.

4) Neon Genesis Evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion (Image via Gainax)

Despite its visual style typical of mainstream mecha anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a profoundly dark and avant-garde work when examined more deeply.

Behind the scenes of cool battles between giant bio-mechs and aliens, it examines heavy themes of depression, anxiety, and the existential crises brought about by trauma. Protagonist Shinji struggles with his mental health throughout this series as he is forced to fight in an apocalyptic conflict on Earth at only 14 years old.

Neon Genesis Evangelion does not shy away from Shinji’s breakdowns, suicidal ideation, and generally shattered psychology, making for a groundbreaking dark anime in terms of accurate mental health representation.

5) Perfect Blue

Perfect Blue delivers a haunting psychological horror thriller focusing on Mima, a Japanese idol singer attempting to transition into professional acting. However, she faces growing unease and alienation as she sheds her innocent pop idol image.

As Mima struggles with questions about her identity in the glare of fame, she becomes plagued by hallucinations of a former idol self. Meanwhile, a mysterious website eerily details her private life and deadly real-world crimes unfold around her.

Hallucinations and blurred reality ensue as Mima confronts the dark extremes of celebrity obsession. With a tense, layered plot exploring fame, self-identity, and perception shifts, Perfect Blue anime showcases acclaimed director Satoshi Kon’s distinctive surrealist cinematic style to terrifying effect.

6) Made in Abyss

Featuring youthful characters and fantasy adventure trappings, it seems child-friendly at first glance. However, as the story follows plucky orphan Riko and her mysterious robot friend Reg exploring a vast pit known as the Abyss, the true horrific nature of the pit’s effects on the human body and mind slowly unveil itself.

Strange spatial distortions and alien creatures present lethal threats, yet even more harrowing are symptoms of a curse called the Curse of the Abyss. The curse causes intense pain, physical mutilation, madness, and death at deeper levels.

Riko descends seeking clues to her missing mother despite knowing she is also subject to this dangerous curse. Made in Abyss masterfully pairs its cute visuals with body horror and existential themes. As Riko risks her safety and humanity, it asks how far to go for deadly knowledge—and what remains if we lose ourselves.

7) Elfen Lied

The grim sci-fi tale of Elfen Lied begins with the seemingly innocent horned girl Lucy escaping her imprisonment by an unethical research facility. In the process, she gruesomely slaughters numerous guards, leaving behind a shocking trail of blood and dismembered limbs showcasing her invisible arms known as 'vectors'.

It soon becomes clear that Lucy’s violent tendencies mask a lifetime of traumatic discrimination which molded her into a vengeful killer quick to lash out. Amid its visceral gore, it explores how society’s cruelty can forge monsters who strike back with brutal vengeance.

Balancing its grimness with emotional characterization, Elfen Lied makes viewers consider deeper questions of human ethics behind the gene research that shaped Lucy and the prejudice that made her abandon her own humanity in this disturbing sci-fi tragedy.

8) Hellsing Ultimate

Hellsing Ultimate (Image via Madhouse, Satelight, Graphinica)

Dark fantasy tales of vampires and monsters inherently contain elements of horror and violence. Hellsing Ultimate anime takes the blood, gore, and existential dread intrinsic to the genre and pushes it several steps further over the top with its depiction of deadly vampires, bloody combat, and apocalyptic threats.

The show features vampiric mass murderers Alucard and Seras as they work for the Hellsing organization hunting down threats to England. The style combines with visceral substance to deliver an action-horror spectacle like no other for those who can handle its macabre brilliance.

9) Devilman Crybaby

Devilman Crybaby (Image via Science SARU)

Devilman Crybaby anime follows emotional teenager Akira whose body becomes fused with a powerful demon known as Amon. As brutal fights break out between Akira and other demons, no one realizes that their eventual revelation to the world will amplify humanity's own worst traits like paranoia, greed, and bloodlust.

Explicit violent and sexual content pervades Crybaby’s intense narrative about self-destructive tendencies innate within human nature. However, these graphic elements drive home the anime’s core message warning how our increasing capacity for cruelty may fuel humanity’s own extinction if left unchecked.

For thoughtful audiences, the gratuity holds meaning few could convey through such a visceral spectacle.

10) Texhnolyze

In terms of bleak dystopian sci-fi, Texhnolyze presents a cyberpunk future of technological body modifications, corrupt corporations, warring factions, and the extinction of the human soul through scientific progress.

In the dark city of Lux, three primary characters struggle fruitlessly to inject meaning into their texhnolyzed bodies, violent lives, and the decadent ruins of civilization that remain. Texhnolyze crafts a depressingly sublime tone poem on posthuman evolution and existential nihilism.

Through minimalist pacing and visuals saturated in grays and blacks, Texhnolyze muses soberly on eternal questions of violent discontent innate within the human condition that science promises yet fails to resolve. Buried in despair, this dark anime is a rewarding, uncompromising dystopian triumph.

Conclusion

These 10 dark anime may disturb, depress, and outright traumatize. Yet the best of them use their grim themes and imagery to provide genuine insight into complex facets of human experience often ignored by lighter entertainment.

For mature viewers who can appreciate complex social commentary and philosophical perspectives, the dark anime featured here comes highly recommended. Just beware of their vicious bite—and know these shows are not for the faint of heart!