Game of Thronesis one of thebest TV series of all time. It’s a show filled with highs, lows, andincredible moments of angst.Luckily, these themes aren’t unique to the medium of live-action television shows. Anime is another art form filled with great, dark, bleak shows that will leave viewers feeling traumatized well past their final episodes. Some series are more brutal than others, but at their core their psychologically shaking and are more than capable of invoking an existential crisis or two.
Whether it’sNatsuki Subaru fromRe: Zerodying over and over again, Guts watching his whole life get taken from him inBerserk,or Hyakkimaru reclaiming his body horrifically inDororo,each angsty seriesbrings something different to the table. The stories might be different, but the themes are the same: sometimes, life isn’t as great as it should be.
Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another Worldis surprisingly brutal. On its surface, it’s a normal isekai series about Natsuki Subaru. He gets transported to a new world and is having a hard time navigating it before he unexpectedly dies. That isn’t the end of his story, as he comes back to life around the same time he was first transported to his new world. While most people who get transported to a new world get an exciting power, Subaru gets one of the most bittersweet in Return by Death.
The series is centered around Subaru’s newfound ‘power’ and how he uses it to not only survive, but to try and create the best possible reality for himself.Subaru’sdeaths never get easieror less frequent. It’sone of the darkest anime serieswith few moments of brightness throughout, making it a great choice for someone who likesGame of Thronesand wants to watch something just as violent with even less hope to be found.
Chainsaw Man
Chainsaw Manis a lot of things. It’s hilarious, silly, self-referential, and altogether traumatic. The characters inChainsaw Manvary greatly, making the show diverse in more ways than one. Some characters like Denji and Power don’t like to think about much, while characters like Makima always seem to be a few steps ahead of everyone around them. At its core,the world ofChainsaw Manis dark. Characters die quickly and unexpectedly on both sides of the moral spectrum.
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Chainsaw Manis one of thebest anime series of all time, and only a single season has been animated so far. It has an amazing cast, an intriguing world, and some of the best fights around. It’s somehow equally hilarious and brutal, a combination not many other series can pull off successfully,in just 12 episodes too.
Attack on Titan
Attack on Titanquickly became one of the most popular anime series around. Thefirst episode ofAttack on Titanalonewas enough to get anyone hooked, and it’s also one of the most traumatizing. There’s nothing more scarring than seeing a calm, idyllic world subjected to absolute terror in an instant. The people living behind Wall Maria had their lives changed and ended when the Colossal Titan came to their small town and destroyed the wall protecting them. He let in scores of Titans that ate and destroyed everyone in their path.
Attack on Titanstarts out dark and never lets up. While there are a lot of great moments in the series, like the friendships within the Scout Regiment make, they are few and far between. Somehow, Eren’s story as the main character only gets darker from the moment he sees his mother get eaten alive in the very first episode.
Dororois one of the best samurai anime, and one of the darkest too. The premise itself is nothing short of brutal. Hyakkimaru’s father sacrificed his body to demons in order to gain prosperity for his land, and the deal worked all too well. Hyakkimaru’s body was sacrificed to the demons before he was even born, leaving him with nothing more than a corpse to live with.As Hyakkimaru defeats the demons that use his body for their own gain, the land they’ve bestowed their powers upon gets worse and worse. Even though his body is rightfully is, it doesn’t stop the people living on his father’s land from suffering.
Dororoisn’t just dark because of the violence, but because of the bittersweet realization Hyakkimaru goes through every time he gains part of his body back. He had to suffer so that others would prosper, and as he began to prosper instead, those same innocent people took on an unexpected level of suffering.
Jujutsu Kaisen
Jujutsu Kaisenis another series much darker in reality than most people might think. On its surface, it’s a shōnen series withJujutsu Kaisen’sbest fightsranking among shonen’s greatest, tons of quality friendships, and a great plot tying everything together. Looking just beneath the surface will reveal an anime more than willing to kill off beloved characters, thousands of innocent people, and anyone else Sukuna cares to kill. It’s a bleak series for most of the heroes, and some of the villains as well.
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There aren’t any other shōnen series as willing to traumatize their audiences likeJujutsu Kaisen.Naruto, Dragon Ball,and evenOne Piecedon’t have the sheer number of brutal themes thatJujutsu Kaisenbrings to the table. Luckily, there are a couple of funny, light-hearted moments in the series to break up all the death and destruction. If they weren’t there,Jujutsu Kaisenmight almost be too traumatic.
Made in Abyss
Cast
Made in Abyss is an adventurous fantasy series set on a remote island with the Abyss, a deep, mysterious chasm filled with relics and creatures. Riko, an aspiring explorer, discovers a peculiar robotic boy in the upper levels, and together they embark on a perilous journey into the Abyss.
There’s a huge portion of the anime community that would point toMade in Abyssas an anime withone of the darkest twists in anime history, and they have a solid argument. Like a lot of other good, bleak anime series,Made in Abysspulls its viewer in through adorable characters, an interesting world just waiting to be explored, and no real signs of true darkness. Once the main characters head into the titular Abyss, however, the darkness they’re set to face is unavoidable.
There isn’t anyone who would look at the cover art ofMade in Abyssand guess how dark it can really get.The Abyss isbrutal,and that’s putting it lightly. Even the characters within the series can hardly believe the sheer brutality they’re faced with on a regular basis, making this series one of the best for anyone looking for a heaping dose of trauma.
Devilman Crybabyis one of thebest horror anime seriesof all time. It’s another series that disguises its dark themes very well for the first few episodes. It’s only 10 episodes in total as well, creating and finishing an incredible story in much less time than a lot of other series. The story is set in a world where devils have just been discovered. The two main characters, Akira and Ryo, and working hard to understand the devils when the devils start to take over the world at large.
It’s one of the few anime series willing to let the good guys lose. Not many series can pull this off, butDevilman Crybabydoes, and it’s traumatic the entire time. Akira and Ryo start the series as best friends before becoming mortal enemies, and by the end of the series, it feels like neither of them really gained anything.
The Promised Neverlandis one of themost interesting anime seriesto watch. It has an immaculate first season witha gripping first episode, but the second season leaves a lot to be desired. Luckily, fans can watch just the first season and leave with a great, traumatic ending without having to move onto the second season.The first episode ofThe Promised Neverlandis plenty traumatic in and of itself.
The series stars an adorable group of kids living in an orphanage together, sharing meals, playing together, and altogether living a great life. The series takes a drastic turn when two of the children discover one of their friends dead and learn the true intention behind their lives in the orphanage. It’s a dark twist nobody could have seen coming, and the series only gets more bleak past the first episode.
Neon Genesis Evangelionisn’t just traumatic, it’s enough to causean existential crisis.It’s pretty confusing at times, but understandable enough to leave anyone feeling a little shaken to their core. The series is hard to describe without thinking about just how brutal it really is. Shinji is called by his dad to pilot a dangerous machine in an attempt to fight one of humanity’s greatest threats. His dad is already one of theworst fathers in anime, and it never gets better throughout the series.
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Neon Genesis Evangelionnever lets up in its sheer bleakness. It’sa brutal series from start to finish, with multiple events that cause characters to die, the world to nearly end, and more traumatizing moments. It’s one of the most well-known and revered series in the art form as well, and the only real way to understand why is to watch the series itself.
Berserk
Based on the manga series created by Kentaro Miura, Berserk was an action-fantasy series initially released in North America in 1997. The series acts as an adaptation of the first portion of the manga, covering the origins of Guts the Black Swordsman, a powerful warrior who joins a mercenary group known as The Band of the Hawk.
There isn’t a way to talk aboutBerserkwithout talking about how traumatic it is. It’s an amazingly dark series that makes a lot of other dark series look hopeful in comparison. The main character, Guts, goes throughso much hardshipit’s genuinely hard to comprehend. He has seen the worst of humanity since the moment he was born. Even his birth itself was traumatic. As an adult and the powerful Black Swordsman, he’s doing his best to get his revenge on his former friend Griffith and protect what little he has left.
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Berserkstarts as a traumatizing series and doesn’t get lighter. There are some moments that alleviate the darkness that surrounds the series, but they’re few and far between. At it’s core,Berserkis a series more than deserving of a comparison toGame of Throneson several levels, and a true victor in the battle forthe most traumatizing anime of all time.
