The most enchanting event of the year, Halloween is right around the corner and people are eagerly waiting for the clock to strike midnight on October 31st. Pumpkin, candies, weirdly fascinating costumes, and the common custom of trick or treat will all be seen again with some sort of drama as usual. But, if you’re an anime enthusiast then there’s still one thing you’re missing and that is, anime to watch this Halloween.

No matter what the occasion is a good source of entertainment and always makes it easy for the hosts to lift up the mood of friends and family attending the festivities. Importantly, if it’s about anime then there are dozens of genres including horror and crime thriller that seem best suited for a week entirely dedicated to Halloween.

And, in today’s article, we’ll take a look at some of the best anime to watch this Halloween with your friends, relatives, or maybe a partner. So, without any further ado let’s get started.

10. Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories

Junji Ito fans will be delighted to find out about this show because it explores various kinds of Japanese horror stories. Yamishibai is told from the perspective of a creepy masked man who arrives at a playground and asks children to gather around for his stories. Each episode of Yamishibai was animated to mimic the kamishibai method of story-telling.

The series is organized into a collection of shorts with each episode featuring a different tale based on myths and urban legends of Japanese origin. These include exploring the nature of talismans, family traditions, and even popular figures such as the Eight Feet Tall Woman. With around ten seasons, this Japanese mythology-inspired anime is still ongoing.

9. Shiki

Shiki is a Japanese horror novel written by Fuyumi Ono which you should definitely try if you’re looking for anime to watch this Halloween. The series tells the tragic tale of survival in a world where one cannot easily distinguish between good and evil. The mysterious death of a young girl, Megumi Shimizu in the village of Sotoba marks the beginning of a hot summer into a season of blood and terror.

At first, Toshio Ozaki, a young doctor suspects it is a ferocious epidemic but, soon realizes it’s all the work of vampire-like structures called “Shiki”. Afterward, Toshio teams up with an anti-social youth, Natsuno so that they can work together to save Sotoba before it transforms into a ghost town of vampires.

8. Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun

Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun is a lite horror anime series that follows a high-school student, Nene Yashiro who desires a boyfriend. In fact, she even summons a mysterious spirit ‘Hanako-san of the Toilet’ who can grant any wish for the right price. However, on the contrary, she finds out that Hanako-san is actually a boy and not a girl, as rumors said.

So, she becomes his assistant and works with him to fight against evil spirits and maintain the balance between the spirit world and the human world. Interestingly, ‘Hanako-san of the Toilet’ is a popular Japanese legend about a girl named Hanako-san who haunts girls’ restrooms in high schools. The anime used this unfounded belief, keeping the theme alike.

7. Higurashi: When They Cry

Higurashi When They Cry is a murder mystery novel series set in the year 1983. The series focuses on a group of young friends living in the fictional village of Hinamizawa and the strange events that occur there in 1983. Within a few days of moving to Hinamizawa, Keiichi Maebara starts noticing little oddities surrounding the lives of his fellow villagers.

He then eventually uncovers a connection between mysterious disappearances and murders in the village, and the annual village festival. An increasingly paranoid Keiichi vows to get to the bottom of this mystery. With the help of Rika Furude, who is the sole witness of all the tragedies, he tries to find a way out of it, without knowing if there is one after all.

6. Hellsing Ultimate

Hellsing Ultimate is a classic dark shōnen series featuring one of the most talented marksmen in anime verse, Alucard. The series revolves around the Hellsing organization whose main goal is to search and destroy the undead and other supernatural forces of evil that threaten the country and queen of England.

Led by Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, the organization digs deeper into the case study of the Nazi remnants called “Millenium” that threatens the safety of England. With the help of the original and most powerful vampire Alucard the faction goes into an all-out war to protect England from a war-crazed SS-Major who seeks to start an eternal war with his vampire army.

5. Elfen Lied

Elfen Lied is a dark fantasy anime series based on the interaction between human beings and mutant species. The edging storyline and ruthless action make it a critically hit series and a must anime to watch this Halloween. The anime is set around the Diclonius Research Institute, also known as the National Research Institute on Human Evolution, which is built for the sole purpose of studying a mysterious species called Diclonius.

It’s a cruel facility, certainly a no-go place in the anime universe, that wants to control the psychokinetic evolution of humanity by any means necessary. The goal is to create more Diclonii and ensure they overthrow humans and take their place as the dominant species on Earth. As a faint-hearted person, maybe you should avoid this anime as extreme gore, violence, and nudity are common phenomena in the entirety of the series.

4. Parasyte: The Maxim

The popular seinen anime by Madhouse Studios, Parasyte: The Maxim is well-known for its body horror theme and sci-fi elements. Parasyte is dark from the beginning and features a great number of gore scenes that can be disturbing for anyone. The original manga was initially published in the early 90s and it’s one of the few anime that are banned in China for the public.

Parasyte is a story of a 17-year-old Shinichi Izumi who is partially infected by a space Parasyte that butchers and consumes humans. In order to survive, he must learn to co-exist with the creature and live the life of both a Parasyte and a human. The good thing about this anime is that it never degrades because of its plotline and evolves further with more intense moments.

3. Devilman Crybaby

Devilman Crybaby is a Netflix original anime series based on Go Nagai’s manga series Devilman. The series premiered in 2018 and caught the attention of many fans because of its setting around the themes like puberty, sexuality, and love. It is one of those good anime with an immortal main character where the serious threat to humanity has been highlighted deliberately.

Akira Fudo was originally a human who turned into a Devilman thanks to the efforts of his best friend, Ryo Asuka. But due to Akira’s pure heart, he gains the demon’s powers, memories, strength, and willingness to fight while maintaining his human consciousness. Now, a creature with the body of a demon but the mind of a human, Akira swears to protect his former people against the hordes of demons that seek to destroy humanity.

2. Corpse Party

The name itself can bring terror to anyone’s face and the anime adaptation of Corpse Party lives up to it. Although the plot of the anime is set around school life it’s nothing like the daily curriculum activities. Corpse Party is based on a survival horror game and portrays the themes of redemption, sacrifice, and past lifeforms with an element of ghastliness.

Nine students gather at their high school to bid farewell to one of their friends. At midnight, they perform a ritual using paper dolls so that they will remain friends forever. Oddly enough, the students are transported into the spirit world where they are visited by the spirits of the school’s murdered students. Trapped in an alternate dimension, they must work together to get out of it or get killed in succession.

1. Another

The list of anime to watch this Halloween is incomplete without “Another”. Another is a mystery horror novel written by Yukito Ayatsuji which received an anime television series in 2012. The series follows the life of Kōichi Sakakibara who gets transferred into the Yomiyama North Middle School’s class 3-3. After his arrival, the class gets caught up in a strange phenomenon involving the deaths of students and their family members.

Sakakibara looks into the matter and concludes that the series of deaths are all connected to the curse “Misaki of 1972”, a yearly calamity, that horrified the class 3-3 since 1972. Accompanied by a peculiar student named Mei Misaki, Sakakibara tries to find a solution to stop this massacre and save the lives of other students.

Which one of the following anime are you going to watch this Halloween? Feel free to comment down your thoughts and make sure to recommend some other anime like the ones listed above, also don’t forget to share this article with your fellow otaku friends.

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