Crunchyroll’s sizable catalog of anime to stream is always growing, and with it, more mature content is added. Anime itself has been rapidly maturing, presenting themes and animation that just 10 years ago would have been considered highly inappropriate or too violent for young viewers.
Anime fans have also been growing and maturing, right alongside their favorite anime, and as worldviews shift, so do what’s depicted and explored in anime as a medium. Attack on Titan, for example, delves deep into relatable politics in a way modern viewers can relate to, but there is also a level of horrifying violence that further matures the series’ content. For fans looking for a more adult anime, Crunchyroll has some of the most renowned mature series on streaming.
Prison School Is an Incredibly Sexual Anime
Sometimes, when it comes to mature anime, viewers aren’t necessarily looking for something profound but for something that’s a pure guilty pleasure. Perfectly not suited for a young audience, Prison School is a shameless display of fetishes. After being an all-girls school since its founding, Hachimitsu Academy decides to let a couple of boys enroll. However, after being faced with an ultimatum about their possible expulsion, the boys agree to be imprisoned within the school.
The punishments the boys face in Prison School aren’t trying to hide anything. The bold BDSM-style torment is a dream come true for the boys. This ecchi anime is undoubtedly one of Crunchyroll’s most mature because it specifically caters to the raunchy crowd. While not for everyone, the sexual comedy Prison School has become a notorious 18+ series in the anime community.
Tokyo Ghoul Blends Tragedy and Horror Beautifully
Despite having a poorly received second season, Tokyo Ghoul is an amazing dark anime series. The manga might do the series better justice, but the first season still has a special place in the hearts of many anime fans. Young Kaneki Ken is excited to go on a date with a beautiful woman, but the date turns disastrous. After Rize reveals herself to be a ghoul, a creature that feasts on humans, Kaneki’s life is forever changed. Left on the brink of death afterward, Kaneki soon finds himself part ghoul.
Kaneki is an extremely tragic anime protagonist. His life gets completely turned upside down, and there’s misery around every corner. Tokyo Ghoul is one of the most mature anime on Crunchyroll, known for its portrayals of gruesome torture, gore, and psychological torment. While there are some happy moments in the series, an overarching atmosphere of tragedy prevails. And, as tragic as Kaneki is, he’s not the only character to suffer terribly in Tokyo Ghoul.
Deadman Wonderland Features Brutal Death Games
Prison can already be a harsh place of survival, but Deadman Wonderland‘s Ganta Igarashi must battle for his life every day. After his entire class is massacred, leaving Ganta as the sole survivor, Ganta is falsely accused of their murders. Put on death row, the government sends Ganta to the titular prison, where he must participate in a series of battles and games to survive.
This death game-style anime is nothing like the comedic fetishes of Prison School. The Deadman Wonderland prison is a place of horrors and violence. However, the series is far more than just a fight for survival. Behind the prison’s disturbing nature lies a trove of secrets that Ganta is determined to uncover. Deadman Wonderland is a dark and mature anime available on Crunchyroll, featuring a twisted plot and high-stakes drama that make it a must-watch.
Playing Death Games to Put Food On the Table Is Psychologically Harrowing
Anime featuring death games are nothing new, but Studio Deen’s adaptation of Yushi Ukai’s Shiboyugi: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table goes into the disturbing nature and psychology of death game players. Main character Yuki is a competitive death game player, always pushing herself to the limit with a goal in mind. She doesn’t want to stop until she’s survived 99 games and set a world record.
Though there is very little gore, despite characters being brutally maimed and killed in each death game, the psychological ramifications of playing around with death as if it were nothing but an experience is a horrifying concept. Even Yuki can feel herself cracking slowly under the pressure of this goal she’s set for herself, and if one of the most prolific survivors is feeling that way, its a guarantee that other players with less experience are feeling even more disturbed than she is by the lengths they’ll go to earn a buck.
Garden of Sinners Sets the Stage for Ufotable’s Other Works
Ufotable is best known for their work on Demon Slayer and the Fate franchise, but Garden of Sinners is one of their best titles. Tying into the Fate series and Tsukihime, Garden of Sinners revolves around the story of Shiki Ryougi. After being in an accident, Shiki wakes up from a rather long coma to find that she has a new ability that allows her to see death. Garden of Sinners explores its darker and more mature aspects mostly through Shiki’s personal journey.
Garden of Sinners can be somewhat difficult to follow. There are several films, as well as a 10-episode anime series. However, the disjointed aspect of the franchise is purposeful. All of its glorious confusion is in place to emphasize its themes of struggle and human nature. Garden of Sinners also features a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack and the beloved animation quality that Studio Ufotable always offers.
Hell’s Paradise Uses Death Row Inmates Like Disposable Pawns
As one of modern anime’s Dark Shonen Trio, Hell’s Paradise has as many graphic and gory scenes as it does mature themes. An unstoppable assassin, Gabimaru is sentenced to death for his crimes, but there is one way even this relentless killer could cheat death: retrieve the Elixir of Life from a dangerous island from which no one’s ever returned alive.
Driven by longing to reunite with his wife, Gabimaru has nothing left to lose. That being said, nothing could have prepared him for the horrors that await him on an island inhabited by brutal gods who will stop at nothing to protect their treasure. Themes and visuals in this anime are incredibly mature, with so many blood-spattering combat scenes in every episode. Coupled with the dark questions posed about life and death, Hell’s Paradise is one of the most mature anime on Crunchyroll, hands down.
Psycho-Pass Asks if Freedom Is Worth Giving Up For Security
Cyberpunk anime like Ghost in the Shell and Psycho-Pass explore society’s relationship with technology in mature, thought-provoking ways. Sometimes it’s personal, such as transhumanism, but it can also be society-wide, like in Psycho-Pass. Viewers will be challenged to take a stand on the use of heavy surveillance and preventative anti-crime measures, which is better suited to more mature audiences.
In Psycho-Pass‘s world, privacy is sacrificed for the sake of security, and that’s something deep for mature audiences to ponder. Younger viewers simply won’t have the context or experience to comment on that much, however. Also, Psycho-Pass featured some truly bloody death scenes as cops like Akane Tsunemori use high-tech weapons to dispatch criminals right before those wrongdoers commit the crimes they’re apparently about to carry out.
Platinum End Is an Edgy Anime About the Value of Life
Even if the Platinum End anime has some flaws and a rather strange ending, no one will deny how mature and dark its narrative is. Chiefly, the Platinum End anime dares its unhappy heroes to reassess the lives they were about to willingly end, trying to find joy and purpose in their human existence. That kind of existential crisis is definitely best for mature audiences, rather than kids.
The Platinum End anime is also mature and dark because its characters are often depicted attempting to end their lives or discussing that particular phase of their lives, which never makes for easy viewing. And even with angels actually swooping in to save the day, characters like Mirai Kakehashi have plenty of woes on their hands, including a death game to find the next God. That, in turn, leads to new questions about what God really is and what it means to have such a role.
Chainsaw Man Subverts Shonen Anime With Gory Battles and Quiet Despair
Subversive anime series can lightly poke fun at certain genres, such as Zom 100 or Mashle: Magic and Muscles, but others use that subversion to show the dark side of familiar narratives. That is what makes Chainsaw Man such a compelling watch, including mature narratives such as the flaws of human beings and trying to find the meaning in a meek, depressing life. Unlike many teenage shonen heroes, Denji is not meant to be inspirational or motivational.
Denji is a more grounded, twisted, and saddening view of what it’s really like to be a lost youth who has everything to gain. Chainsaw Man is an unflinching look at how heartbreaking, violent, and strange such a life can be, all with devils and betrayal thrown in. Such narrative weight makes Chainsaw Man rank in the middle among Crunchyroll’s most mature anime.
FMA: Brotherhood’s Traumatic Horror and Scenes of Genocide Are Chilling
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is deep, mature, and memorable thanks to the weighty themes it explores, many of which have painfully real analogs in the real world. Edward’s quest to find the Philosopher’s Stone involves the likes of hearing about brutal genocide, inhumane experiments to create the Philosopher’s Stone, and the grim duality of human nature. There may be some goofy moments and smatterings of comic relief, but FMAB isn’t always an easy watch.
Edward and all anime viewers get to see both the best and worst in humanity in the story of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, all reinforced with solid dialogue, a carefully balanced tone, great fights, and robust character arcs. That makes the themes in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood dark but bearable, leading to a generally hopeful shonen narrative where humanity’s bright side can always outshine the deepest, darkest side of it all. Viewers can still find these themes in the original FMA, but most fans agree that Brotherhood is the better of the two.