In the last decade, anime and manga have become pretty mainstream, and there is hardly any person who does not know about them. There are several anime that helped the industry reach such heights and gain massive popularity. Every person has their favorite genre and accordingly chooses their playlist. But there are a few anime that set a dark tone right from the beginning.
The first episode is enough to scar the viewers for a lifetime. They might have sat down to watch the anime with a particular mentality, but the dark turn shook them to their core. There are only a handful of anime that managed to scar the fans. Here are the top 5 anime that did a fine job of haunting the fans right off the bat. Warning: Mild premise spoilers ahead!
5. Oshi no Ko
Do not be fooled by the theme and the contrast. Oshi no Ko is as dark an anime can get. What started out as a normal situation soon took a dark turn with a flashback. A doctor finds that his idol is pregnant with twins after she comes for a checkup. Suddenly, he has a flashback when a woman named Sabrina told him about getting reborn as a celebrity’s daughter after her death.
Coincidentally, the doctor was killed, and he was reborn as one of the twins of her idol. But the catch is that he remembered everything from his past life. Slowly, things started to unfold, and it could not get any weirder. Oshi no Ko is a great anime, but people should keep themselves from getting the shock of their life, as it might scar them permanently.
Oshi no Ko is available on Crunchyroll.
4. Demon Slayer
Demon Slayer is one such anime that has people going crazy over it. It has reached new heights of popularity, even after the first episode crushed its very core. Tanjiro Kamado, a coal seller, went out to support his family. Later, he returned only to find that his mother and younger siblings were brutally murdered, with her younger sister transformed into a demon.
It was a horrific incident that shook the fans. No one expected the anime to change gears so fast. It was enough to make the fans realize that it was going to be a bumpy ride and they might not recover from the pain.
Demon Slayer is available on Crunchyroll.
3. Tokyo Ghoul
Fans could figure out that Tokyo Ghoul is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. The word ‘Ghoul’ was enough to lay the structure. But still, no one expected the contrast to change so drastically, and that too from the first episode. Ken Kaneki, a calm and shy college student, meets a girl, Rize Kamishiro, who loves to read. They immediately hit it off and went on a date.
On their way home, they were passing through a construction site, and suddenly disaster struck. Rize revealed herself to be a ghoul who feeds on human flesh. Ken Kaneki was just her dinner. She impales him with her tentacles. Every option of escaping was in vain, as Rize was more powerful than Kaneki. Due to Rize throwing him here and there, the iron logs above them were loosening.
Suddenly, it fell and crushed her to death. Ken Kaneki had already lost consciousness and woke up in a hospital only to find out Rize’s internal organs were transplanted in him to save him, as Rize had died. Ken Kaneki became a ghoul. It is quite a lot to take in from a single episode.
Tokyo Ghoul is available on Crunchyroll.
2. Goblin Slayer
Goblin Slayer is pretty brutal when it comes to scaring people for life. While most anime takes it slow on the first episode, Goblin Slayer had no intention of slowing. Goblins are beasts who feast on humans. A priestess joins a group of people, including wizards and guild members, on an expedition to a cave inhabited by goblins. The group entered the cave, and soon they were ambushed by the goblins.
Except for the priestess, every one of them was killed brutally, and the females were r*ped. The brutality of the scene cannot be expressed in words. It was truly a massacre, and fans were unprepared for it. The horror still haunts the first-time viewers. Fortunately, the priestess was saved by the Goblin Slayer, but the killing and r*pe scenes were too raw to intake.
Goblin Slayer is available on Crunchyroll.
1. Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan is one of the greatest anime of all time. It aired its last episode in November 2023. For a decade, it entertained the fans as well as haunted them. The first episode of Attack on Titan was enough to scar the fans for life. Eren Jaeger and Mikasa Ackerman lived with Eren’s mother, Carla Jaeger, in the Shiganshina District, which is inside the outermost wall.
Outside the wall, there were giant, mindless, man-eating creatures known as Titans. One fine day, the Armored Titan and the Colossal Titan destroyed a portion of the outermost wall, and in came the Titans. They massacred the whole place and started to eat one human after another. During the commotion, Carla Jaeger got tracked under the debris of her house.
Eren and Mikasa tried to save her, but one of their close family friends took the kids and escaped. To Eren’s horror, he saw his mother getting devoured by one of the Titans. It was a bloody scenario, and no one expected it to happen. People were screaming everywhere, and the look on their faces was enough to haunt the fans for life.
Attack on Titan is available on Crunchyroll.
