Top 20 Best Psychological Horror Anime

Kon’nichiwa, min’na!!

Today we are here to talk about a commonly discussed topic which is- ‘horror and psychological things’.
Everyone likes to see or hear ghost stories and I’m sure that everyone has heard quite a lot of them. We are all curious about these things as no one knows quite accurately about them.

Most horror anime feature terrifying visuals, but these horror anime focus more on the psychological aspect of the genre.

So, here we present to you the Best Psychological Horror Anime series which will make you shiver in fear. But also you would enjoy it a lot. Now, without wasting any more time, let’s dive into the list straight away:

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1. Death Note

• Author: Tsugumi Ohba
• Genre: Mystery, Police, Psychological, Supernatural, Thriller, Horror
• Episodes: 37

Synopsis: Death note is one of the most popular anime series in recent years. The protagonist of the story is Light Yagami who is an elite student with greater thoughts.

Suddenly one day he found a book falling out of the sky named Death Note. With its tremendous power, Light decides to change the world and make it a perfect place. He wanted to create a world with no criminals present in it.

By using the power of Death Note, Light started to kill all the criminals of the world one by one. It created tension in the whole world due to which the higher authorities decided to send their legendary detective L to hunt down the person killing these people.

2. Tokyo Ghoul

• Author: Sui Ishida
• Genre: Action, Drama, Horror, Mystery, Psychological, Supernatural
• Episodes: 48+2 OVA

Synopsis: This story is about some mysterious creatures named ghouls who hunt down humans and devour them.
Tokyo is now surrounded by ghouls and people are getting devoured day by day. Nobody knew the real identity of these ghouls and was an unknown creature to humans.
The ghouls all seemed to be like humans but when the time comes, they devour humans to satisfy their hunger.
One day a high school student named Ken Kaneki stumbles upon a beautiful girl named Rize who is a lover of books like him.
They became good friends in the meantime, but Kaneki didn’t know, how this little encounter was going to change his entire life.

3. Berserk (1997)

• Author: Kentaro Miura
• Genre: Action, Adventure, Demons, Fantasy, Horror, Military, Romance, Seinen, Supernatural
• Episodes: 25

Synopsis: The Black Swordsman whose real name is Guts is the protagonist of this story. He was a member of a mercenary group named the Band of the Hawk.
It was also known as the Grim Reaper Of the Battlefield. Griffith who was an intellectual and sturdy guy led the group. Due to some incidents, they battled their way to the royal court together.
This led to the change in their fates which drastically changed their lives for the future.

4. Another

• Author: Yukito Ayatsuji
• Genre: Horror/ Mystery/ Supernatural/ Thriller
• Episodes: 12 + 1 (ova)

Synopsis: This story revolves around Yamiyama North Middle School whose class 3-3 is said to be haunted. A few years back in the year 1972 there was a girl named Misaki in this class 3-3.

Apparently, due to some incident, she died one day. But surprisingly her classmates were not affected by it and they continued to do their classes like she was present with them. This continued till the graduation ceremony.
The most shocking thing that happened was that no one knew why in their graduation class group photo, Misaki who was already dead was present.

Several years later, in 1998 Sakakibara Kouichi transfers to this school and now is a student in classes 3-3.
He noticed that a girl named Mei Misaki was always alone in the class and everyone in the class ignored her existence. She was a mysterious girl and it was like no one else can see her.

5. From the New World

• Author: Yusuke Kishi
• Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Supernatural
• Episodes: 25

Synopsis: In the far future, human civilization has decreased in number and now lives in very small communities.
They possess a special power called Juryoku which helps them to materialize anything they imagined. They use this as an important source of energy for themselves.

One day, Saki and her friends found a little robot outside of the town that was cast away. The main feature of the robot was that it recorded the history of human evolution.

Through this robot, they found out how Juryaku was discovered and what caused humanity to be so less in number in the future. This was forbidden information that was to be not known by anyone.

6. B. Beginning

• Author: Katsuya Ishida
• Genre: Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Horror, psychological
• Episodes: 12

Synopsis: This story takes place in Cremona, which is an archipelagic nation. The whole world is run by scientific and developed technologies nowadays, but the crime rate also increased with this development.

The protagonist of this insane story is Koku. This story follows Koku’s journey as he meets new people like Keith who is an elite investigator for the royal police.

A variety of characters with a mysterious criminal group hide in this city. Koku also stumbles upon Killer B who is known as a serial killer when a band of crimes occurs simultaneously.

7. Junji Ito Collection

• Author: Junji Ito
• Genre: Horror, fiction
• Episodes: 12 + 2 ova

Synopsis: Junji Ito Collection is all about the horrifying incidents which happen to people in the darkest hours.
This collection is full of horror and psychological incidents with an unexplainable and inescapable nature.

Junji Ito has vividly portrayed the unparalleled terror through his works including stories of deep nightmares which can last for decades to cursed objects which can carve holes in all of their victims. These supernatural stories are not for everyone to indulge in as some may find them very traumatizing and horrifying.

8. Corpse party

• Author: Makoto Kedoin
• Genre: Horror, school
• Episodes: 4 (ova)

Synopsis: This story is about a group of students from Kisaragi Academy. Mayu Suzumoto is going to transfer to another school, so the group decided to cast a friendship charm called Sachiko Ever After for her.

Upon completion of the charm, they were all stumbled by an uneven earthquake and were now present at Heavenly Host Elementary School. They were all separated from each other.

Among this group, Seiko Shinohara and Naomi Nakashima met with each other, and together they searched for a way to get out of this place. When Naomi was searching for the paper charm slip possessed by Seiko, she encountered a girl in a red dress.

9. Deadman Wonderland

• Author: Jinsei Kataoka
• Genre: Horror, Action
• Episodes: 12

Synopsis: – This story follows a man named Ganta Igarashi who is falsely accused of a crime that he did not commit.
Due to this, he was sent to a private and new prison where the main attractions are the inmates present in it. The prison was like modern gladiatorial coliseums with lots of twists and turns in it.
This was known as the Deadman Wonderland which has lots of different stuff like different superpowers, a weird little girl, and many conspiring theories which act on it.
Ganta Igarashi comes across all these things in this wonderland full of horrifying incidents and a new adventure awaits him.

10. Serial Experiments Lain

• Author: Chiaki J. Konaka
• Genre: Drama, Mystery, Psychological, Sci-Fi, Horror
• Episodes: 13

Synopsis: The protagonist of this psychological and mysterious story is an ordinary girl named Lain Iwakura studying in high school. She had never experienced doing any work on computers. But one day due to some supernatural incidents and also the death of one of her schoolmates, she was tricked into the world of the wired.

The most noticeable fact in this world was that everything seems to be an illusion, as nothing seems to be what it is in reality. Even Lain herself was a part of this illusion where she figures a way out of this world.

11. Higurashi

• Author: Ryukishi07
• Genre: Horror, Mystery, Psychological, Supernatural, Thriller
• Episodes: 24

Synopsis: This story happens in the quiet and peaceful city of Hinamizawa, where a young boy named Maebara Keichi recently moved to. He spends his days cheerfully with his friends in school and also playing with his neighborhood friends.

One day, Keiichi heard the news of a murder happening in his town, Hinamizawa. From that point on several incidents started taking place in his life and many major revelations were unfolding in front of him. Keiichi learned that there is more to his friends than he knew and their appearances are quite deceiving.

This story takes place in many different situations revealing the horrific and mysterious events taking place in Keichi’s life.

12. Monster

• Author: Naoki Urasawa
• Genre: Horror, Psychological, Thriller, Vampire
• Episodes: 74

Synopsis: Kenzou Tenma is a brilliant and incredibly skilled person who is a Japanese brain surgeon by profession in Germany.
One day he tried to save the life of a young boy who was shot in the head by going against the hospital politics. Due to that, he got demoted from his position by the hospital director.

After a few days, the hospital director was murdered and the main suspect in the murder was Tenma. Tenma learned that the boy he saved was originally something else than he thought to be.

Now he is on his way to investigate and clear his name. To do that he must find the truth about the Monster who is doing all of this.

13. Mononoke

• Author: Chiaki J. Konaka
• Genre: Demons, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Psychological, Supernatural
• Episodes: 12

Synopsis: Mononoke is a malevolent spirit that possesses different forms. To exorcise these spirits, the Medicine Seller travels all around Japan to search for them.

He was actually a researcher in occult studies and a master in this field. The condition to defeat a Mononoke was to first learn about it. The Medicine Seller once visited an old inn on his journey. There he found a pregnant woman named Shino who has finally found a place to rest.

The place she was in was infested by a group of Mononoke, The Zakishi Warashi. Now the medicine seller has to learn about this group to perform the exorcism upon them.

14. Elfen Lied

• Author: Lynn Okamoto
• Genre: Action, Drama, Ecchi, Horror, Psychological, Romance
• Episodes: 13

Synopsis: This story is about a creature named the Diclonii or the two-horned human. They possess immense powers that could easily destroy the whole human race.

Out of fear for them, the humans quarantined them in some research facilities. But due to an accident, big female clones escaped from the facility. It resulted in the killing of many guards in the facility.

The female clones escaped into the town of Kamakura. She encountered two people named Yuka and Kouta there. The two people named the diclonis Nyuu and started to live together.

15. Hell Girl

• Author: Ken’ichi Kanemaki
• Genre: Horror, Mystery, Psychological, Supernatural
• Episodes: 78 (3 seasons)

Synopsis: This story starts at the epitome of human grudges where people possess enough hatred for other persons. In this story, there is a rumor of a Jigoku Tsushin which is a message board. It can be only viewed at midnight.

If someone writes the name of a person on the message board then the Jigoku Shoujo will appear and take that person straight to hell.

Ai Enma is referred to as Jigoku Shoujo in this story. She and her followers make contracts and take out the task of carrying a hated soul to hell.

16. Paranoia Agent

• Author: Satoshi Kon
• Genre: Drama, Mystery, Police, Psychological, Supernatural, Thriller
• Episodes: 13

Synopsis: In this story, Lil slugger who is a kid studying in elementary school creates a social phenomenon. He has been going around attacking people with his golden bat in Musashino, Tokyo.

Here we see a large community of people or victims affected by this boy. Due to these incidents, two detectives were sent to stop the boy from attacking anyone.

The only surprising thing was that none of the victims remembered the face of the boy. The detectives knew that this was not just any simple assaulting case and there was more to it.

17. Shiki

• Author: Fuyumi Ono
• Genre: Horror, Mystery, Supernatural, Thriller, Vampire
• Episodes: 22+ 2 (ova)

Synopsis: Sotoba is a quiet and peaceful village where our story revolves around. This village has a population of about 1300 people. One day during summer, strange deaths started to occur in this village. Nobody in the village can figure out the cause of the deaths. They all suspected it to be a type of epidemic.

But at the same time, a weird family shifted to an abandoned mansion in that same region. Many investigations were taking place to find out about these unusual deaths. Later we came to know that the deaths were the work of vampires who were attacking the people.

18. Gantz

• Author: Hiroya Oku
• Genre: Action, Drama, Horror, Psychological, Sci-Fi, Supernatural
• Episodes: 26

Synopsis: – This story is about a selfish high school student named Kei KuRono who has no interest in others except himself.
But one day he was asked to help out Katou Masaru, who is his childhood friend. They were rescuing a drunkard person who fell into the subway tracks, but instead, due to an incident they both were both run down by the train.
But suddenly despite getting killed, they were transported to an apartment with other strange people who were already dead.
Now their lives are in the hands of a strange black ball called GANTZ and to save their lives they must participate in a game.

19. Ghost Hunt

• Author: Shiho Inada
• Genre: Comedy, Horror, Mystery, Supernatural
• Episodes: 25

Synopsis: Mai Taniyama and her friends love to tell ghost stories in their free time and enjoy the stories. She met a man named Kazuya Shibuya who works at Shibuya Psychic Research Center when she was 17 years old. Kazuya was sent to investigate some occult activities at a rumored haunted school.

Mai was involved in it and was put into a dangerous situation, but was saved by Kazuya’s assistant. But due to that Kazuya’s assistant becomes immobile. Due to it, Mai becomes Kazuya’s new assistant to investigate the paranormal activities.

20. Boogiepop Phantom

• Author: Sadayuki Murai
• Genre: Dementia, Drama, Horror, Mystery, Psychological, Supernatural
• Episodes: 12

Synopsis: The occurrence of several strange signs like a light through the sky or some aura followed by murders is the main theme of this horrifying story.

The characters in this story share their involvement with others and how they are connected to the incidents occurring in the story. They are all connected to a similar murder case that occurred around 5 years ago.

They all have some common similarities between them which they unify together. And ultimately the story of Boogiepop phantom starts now.

CONCLUSION:

So, that’s it for today. Give these anime series a try if you like horror and psychological stories. I am sure that you would love the above-mentioned anime series.

Also, mention in the comment section, the anime series which you liked the most. See you soon in my next article. Till then
Sayonara!!