A lot of popular anime and manga have come out in the past decade, but Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man is on a whole other level. A signature title in Weekly Shonen Jump’s “Dark Trio,” Chainsaw Man helped define a new generation of over-the-top and ultra-violent shonen action series.
Chainsaw Man specializes in excessive gore, unsettling body horror, disturbing dismemberment and blood-soaked battles, all of which are mixed together with heartbreaking melodramatic storytelling. The series set new standards for how far beyond the limits mainstream anime could be pushed. Curiously, there are a handful of anime that are now several decades old that offer even greater levels of carnage than Chainsaw Man and are sure to win over its fans.
Berserk Is Anime’s Definitive Dark Fantasy In A Rigged World Full Of Cosmic Horror
So much of Berserk‘s beauty comes from the meticulous artwork of Kentaro Miura’s manga. Berserk‘s various anime adaptations have struggled to fully capture the full weight of Berserk‘s haunting brilliance, but the 25-episode anime from 1997 does a good job at depicting its cruel world. Berserk follows Guts, a wandering swordsman, who is on a bitter quest for revenge after a devastating betrayal leads him down a lonely path.
Berserk‘s dark Medieval world often feels as if it’s controlled by demonic forces and that Guts is already cursed to a predetermined fate. There are many moments in which he feels like his journey is in vain and that his death is inevitable, yet Guts never gives up. If anything, he gains a new sense of purpose and a deeper appreciation for life after he gains true friends and support in his corner.
There’s an escalating tension when it comes to Berserk‘s threats, whether they’re conflicted humans, run-of-the-mill demons or the more prolific Apostles of God Hand. God Hand and the unbelievable power that the corrupt Griffith wields has a cosmic horror quality to it. It’s a powerful tool that amplifies Berserk‘s extreme violence. There’s at least a glimmer of hope and a feeling of impartiality in Chainsaw Man.
Gantz Pits Desperate Humans Against Aliens In The Ultimate Death Game
Anime and manga’s death game subgenre has found increasing popularity over the past few decades. Hiorya Oku’s Gantz adeptly taps into this space of suspense and psychological horror with a macabre “game” where deceased humans must hunt and kill aliens with advanced weaponry. Kei and Masaru are two ordinary people who suddenly find themselves in the world of Gantz, fighting for points as they wipe out aliens upon their deaths.
Every element in Gantz is finely tuned, and it’s a strategically brilliant combination of extreme action, science fiction and horror. Gantz is a series where there’s a genuine sense of stakes and zero plot armor for its cast of characters. Everyone is expendable, which is just as tensely terrifying as the brutal violence and betrayal that follows. Gantz crafts some absolutely horrifying designs for its aliens that have become one of the series’ most memorable elements.
It’s hard to top Chainsaw Man‘s aggressive Devil designs, but Gantz‘s aliens feel otherworldly in the scariest way possible. Gantz can go pound for pound with Chainsaw Man when it comes to brutal violence. However, Gantz exists in a more oppressive and nihilistic world that seems designed to punish and cause pain.
Genocyber Celebrates Bleak Bio-Experiments In A Corrupt Corporate World
There are many action anime that build to brutal setpieces even if the rest of the anime isn’t particularly intense or intended for more mature audiences. However, there are also anime like Genocyber that are explicitly created to push boundaries and create extreme spectacles that are meant to gross out the audience and show them something that they’ve never seen before. In the case of Genocyber, this bleak cyberpunk body horror classic is all about humanity’s toxic traits and its compulsion to selfishly self-destruct.
In this sense, it’s incredibly appropriate that an anime about mankind’s folly and destruction wants to disgust and shock its audience through alarming visuals. Genocyber is a five-episode anime from the mid-’90s where two psychic sisters are co-opted into weapons by a corrupt corporation. The synthesis of this macabre psychic experiment is Genocyber, a monstrous creation who doles out endless pain and violence. Genocyber is full of non-stop atrocities that never even try to hold back.
These brutal battles and body horror elements are complimented by Genocyber‘s abject hopelessness. It feels like it’s set in a world where any chance of normalcy is impossible. Genocyber‘s body horror-coded transformation brings the Devils’ transformations from Chainsaw Man to mind. The helplessness of Genocyber’s twin sisters and how their innocence is so thoroughly corrupted is more harrowing than many of Chainsaw Man‘s backstories.
Devil Lady Is A Scathing Indictment Of Humanity That’s Dense In Demonic Destruction
Go Nagai’s Devilman is an early example of a shonen series that dabbles in dark fantasy and apocalyptic storytelling. Various Devilman properties, off-shoots, and even crossovers have been explored since the franchise’s inception. Devil Lady, also known as Devilman Lady, is the proper sequel and continuation of the original Devilman and a title that’s extremely vicious and intense for an anime from the late ’90s. Devil Lady takes the same basic premise as Devilman, but shifts this malevolent metamorphosis to Jun Fudo, a model.
Devil Lady builds upon Devilman‘s foundation and is arguably an even better series in some respects due to Jun’s complexity and the fascinating duality she processes as a beautiful model and demonic arbiter of justice. Devil Lady is naturally brutal when it comes to the malevolent massacres that are triggered by different demons. However, Devil Lady is an especially heavy anime because of its nihilistic perspective that presents humans as equally cruel and paranoid creatures as any demon.
Devilman has always been a franchise about the cyclical and unavoidable nature of violence as something that humanity is doomed to repeat. Devil Lady beautifully hammers in this theme as it builds to a savage endgame that would make Chainsaw Man‘s Devil Hunters wince. Devil Lady‘s anime is actually toned down in comparison to its source material manga, but it’s still an incredibly intense ordeal that leaves the audience in a dark, uncomfortable place that trumps Chainsaw Man‘s depths of despair.
Doomed Megalopolis Launches A Black Magic Apocalypse On Japan
Doomed Megalopolis is a four-episode dark fantasy OVA series from the early ’90s that feels tonally in line with the works of Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Doomed Megalopolis opts for something a little more ambitious as it combines dark fantasy, psychic trauma, and the occult with actual Japanese history. The anime examines a spiritual showdown that takes place within Tokyo during the start of the 20th century and it’s hard not to think of some of the climaxes that took place in not just Chainsaw Man, but also Jujutsu Kaisen.
Doomed Megalopolis transforms the world into a deadly dystopian that’s ripe with monsters, murderers, sorcerers, and apocalyptic creatures. Doomed Megalopolis never struggles when it comes to its brutal setpieces and the massive casualties that play out across its four episodes. There are certain dark fantasy anime where supernatural activity spills over into the real world simply because the plot demands that it happens. Doomed Megalopolis triggers its psychic fallout and uncomfortable occult activity as an angry response to Japanese imperialism.
Doomed Megalopolis even goes so far as to argue that some of Japan’s greatest real-life natural disasters, like 1923’s Great Tokyo Earthquake, were actually the result of occult activity. Doomed Megalopolis touches a lot of the same territory as Chainsaw Man and manages to push it even further and leave the audience in a darker place.
- Release Date
-
2022 – 2022
- Network
-
TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, TV Aichi, TVh, TVQ, TSC
- Directors
-
Takeru Sato
-
-
Tomori Kusunoki
Makima (voice)