Forum - View topicYour Halloween 2025 Anime Watchlist
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Dop.L
Posts: 746 Location: London |
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Is Shiki no longer (legally) available anywhere? Because if not this 2010 Noitamina anime set in an isolated small town beset by vampires certainly deserves to be more widely available. I still consider it one of the best vampire related horror anime shows I've seen.
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al505
Posts: 27 |
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Seriously? No Mieruko-chan or Dark Gathering?
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1415 |
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Hellsing (2001), TV version. This may sound like a standard pick, but I know it sometimes get shrugged off in favor of the OVA. That's a shame because there's plenty it does well and arguably better, especially the establishment of its world. Killer soundtrack, unmatched. I have seen the truth, and it's Seras Victoria in blue.
Demon Prince Enma (2006) is pretty good possession investigation horror and feels like a solid example of 2000's style "serious" anime. Not only is it free to watch on Tubi, the two luxurious Honneamise label DVD volumes are still quite cheap.
Seconding this. I'd heard it was alright, but when I finally saw it many years later I was blown away. Very addictive show. Sadly it seems it isn't streaming anywhere and the DVD/BD are up there in price... |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3516 Location: Back stateside |
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Every Halloween I watch Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales episodes 9-11, a.k.a. "Bakeneko" a.k.a. the episodes that led to the creation of Mononoke, a.k.a. the series I was expecting to see top this list.
Edit: also, "The Blood-Soaked Labyrinth" arc from Ghost Hunt. Creepy as heck. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2808 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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That and episode 7 of the 2018 GeGeGe no Kitaro (the ghost train) were two of my other top picks. (I figured everyone was tired of my raving about Kitaro by now, though.) |
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2760 Location: United States |
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Unfortunately no. Blame Aniplex for locking it in their jail and never doing anything with it and anything else they have. |
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Multi-Facets
Posts: 391 |
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For Spooky Week (the week of Halloween), I watch the "Eko Eko Azarak" trilogy (I know it's more than three movies, but three's what I have), "Demon City Shinjuku", "Dororo (2019)", the "Devilman" OVA duology and "Shuten Doji", and "The Crow" (which isn't anime but deserves its place in the lineup).
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vestenet
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 2 |
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Alas, Shiki would have been my first choice to write about if it were available to buy or stream. |
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scowler
 Posts: 105 |
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Danganronpa is a pretty decent Halloween choice (of course, the games are even better).
Shadows House would be good as well. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 5292 |
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I've seen a few of the things on this list and they definitely fit the bill. Made in Abyss is enough to give anyone nightmares.
As for me, I have a quasi-annual tradition of watching the Cowboy Bebop movie around Halloween. It's not horror per se, but it's set at that time and features Ed walking around with a pumpkin on her head, so I don't need any more excuse than that.  But if you're talking Bebop and horror, you can't go wrong with the twisted insanity of the episode "Pierrot Le Fou," or the classic Alien-esque "Toys in the Attic."
A show that immediately comes to mind is Den-noh Coil, which I just rewatched for the first time in ages. From the outside it doesn't seem like there's much horror potential there...I mean it's about a bunch of kids playing around with augmented-reality glasses, how scary could that be? But I'd forgotten just how much existential dread it manages to evoke, especially in its second half. That scene where spoiler[shadow figures take Yasako's little sister Kyoko by the hand and lead her down a foggy street, leaving behind her real body as a black outline with "NO DATA" stamped across it?] *shudder* It leans hard into that urban horror aesthetic in key moments, and it's enough to keep you glued to the screen, white-knuckle gripping your chair. But maybe the real horror is in how remarkably prescient it was in predicting our modern tech hellscape... It didn't exactly get a lot of love here, but I had a lot of fun with the Toonami original Housing Complex C. It's only four episodes long, so there's not much time to work with, but it still managed to instill an increasing sense of dread with me, and then its finale suddenly turned into batshit insane cosmic horror in the best possible way. I was sad to see it get crapped on so much. And as far as super-obscure picks go I don't think I can do much better than Kakurenbo, a CG OVA that aired on [adult swim] some two decades ago. It's about a group of masked kids playing a game of hide-and-seek in a mysterious abandoned city, all while being pursued by automatons in the shape of ancient fantastical creatures. It's a short work with very little dialog, but it still manages to keep ratcheting up the tension until it finally reveals the terrible secret behind its setting. I'm one of probably 10 people who actually bought the DVD. 
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Calsolum
 Posts: 937 |
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Damn I was also about to bring up why Shiki didn't make the list. I would've at least given it an honourable mention while acknowledging that it isn't available for purchase or streaming.
It would just mean that viewers would have to ask any of their friends had a legal copy they could borrow. It would be another win for owning physical media. Man I wish I wish I'd bought a copy of Shiki when it was available. Man it's just luck of the draw that most of the anime I did end up buying are still available but stuff like Shiki aren't. A couple of things on this list I'll definitely check out but if I may add people should aslo check out Hell Girl(Jigoku Shōjo) and/or Ghost Hunt(not to be confused with ghost stories though the eng version of that is also excellent) |
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chrisb
 Subscriber Posts: 764 Location: USA |
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1000%. I can’t recall any other recent horror stories that got the vibes down as well as these 2. Especially Dark Gathering. |
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db999
Posts: 437 |
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Some of the anime on my Halloween list, other than the ones mentioned on this list, are Castlevania which if you're ok with it not really following the plot of the games, is a fantastic action horror show. I'd also give a shout out to Soul Eater which just screams Halloween vibes even if its anime only ending leaves something to be desired. However, the show I want to shout out for Halloween viewing is Jujuutsu Kaisen. It's incredibly spooky, has a fun and entertaining cast and some amazing fight scenes. For Halloween especially, I'd like to shout out two arcs specifically. First off, the Junpei arc which, is probably the creepiest arc of the show and that ending is emotionally devastating. Second, even though a lot of the reviewers and forum commenters on this site didn't seem to like it much, the Shibuya arc is another great pick for Halloween especially because that's when it takes place. Sure it has some pacing issues and some missed potential specifically with spoiler[Megumi's father coming back but Megumi not recognizing him, and Nobara's maybe death,] but it was a wild ride and I think it holds up pretty well despite a few weak spots. The arc also works way better as a binge than it did weekly so maybe if you weren't a fan of it when it was coming out weekly I'd say it's definitely worth a rewatch.
Also for something anime adjacent I'd like to shout out some episodes from Avatar The Last Airbender. Obviously season 3 episode 8 The Puppet Master, is a perfect scary episode for Halloween, but also Season 2 episode 14 The City of Walls and Secrets, mostly that ending, and episode 17 Lake Laogai are also pretty creepy. I also think season 1 of Legend of Korra is also good for some spooky vibes particularly episodes 4 and any time Amon is on screen. |
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dm
Subscriber Posts: 1714 |
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The original Vampire Princess Miyu OAV had an episode about dolls and puppets that was a great bit of creepiness.
Kakurenbo is a great suggestion, too. The creators did a clever thing — CGI couldn’t do realistic expressions, so they came up with a reading for all the characters to wear Inari masks. This eliminated the biggest uncanny valley problems while adding additional creepiness. I always thought the Pierrot le Fou episode of Cowboy Bebop was top-notch horror, with the villain’s relentlessness.r |
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<('_')^
Posts: 182 |
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Shiki, Ghost Hunt, & Hellsing should have been no brainers.
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