10 Goriest Anime Series Of All Time, Ranked

Anime gained a following in the West partly because of its more adult content, leading many fans to wonder what the goriest anime are.

Despite animation's reputation of being for kids, some of the best anime are also the goriest. It might not be for everyone, but for those who are interested in blood and viscera, few mediums can beat anime. Without the limitations of gore in live-action, anime is free to be incredibly creative, and incredibly detailed, with its extreme level of violence.

However, rather than just being used for shock value, gore also becomes a driving plot point in some cases, especially with anime that focus on cannibalistic creatures, anomalies of nature, and other monstrous creatures. The imaginative scope that anime provides further allows anime studios to get creative with their hyperviolent content. The best gory anime use the medium's inherent strengths to create scene that wouldn't be possible in any other medium.

10 Neon Genesis Evangelion

Original Anime Created By Hideaki Anno and Studio Gainax

Largely considered as one of the most depressing anime of all time, Neon Genesis Evangelion blends mech-violence with deep concepts of religion and philosophy. The central conflict is between human-engineered mech suits called EVAs and gigantic alien creatures known as the Angels. With even the mech-suits secreting a red blood-like fluid, the battles seem to be extremely bloody with both the EVAs and Angels being ripped out with blood (and even at times organs) spraying all over. However, with some deaths happening offscreen and the human severity still limited, Neon Genesis Evangelion seems to be way darker in its exploration of human depression and trauma rather than its brutal violence.

9 Terra Formars

Based on the Manga created by Yū Sasuga and Kenichi Tachibana

In Terra Formars' future, six space explorers encounter humanoid bugs on Mars only to be brutally slain by them. This leads to an all-out war between the two races with constant scenes of killing and torture between the creatures and humans. While the violence would indeed be shocking for some viewers (as is evident from some scenes even being censored on Japanese television), Terra Formars is relatively lighter in comparison as most of the bloodshed takes place in fast fighting sequences, so viewers don't get much time to process the explicit details. A lot are bugs are squished though!

8 Re: Zero, Starting Life In Another World

Based on the Light Novel Series Created By Tappei Nagatsuki and Shin'ichirō Ōtsuka

Subaru Natsuki is definitely one of the saddest anime protagonists given how he has to go through multiple deaths and carry the memories of each lifetime. After being teleported to an alternate fantasy dimension and getting brutally killed right away, he discovers that he has the power to turn back time before dying. What follows is a tragic series of events with the bloodshed increasing especially after Natsuki encounters a murderous cult. The receivers of the violence have no age limit with even children getting severely dismembered. However, the show still doesn't go all out with the violence as thankfully, some of the more brutal deaths happen offscreen. Even if blood is shed, the explicit impact on each dismembered organ is also not put in full focus.

7 Tokyo Ghoul

Based on the Manga By Sui Ishida

The titular ghouls in Tokyo Ghoul refer to zombie-like creatures that feed on human flesh. As a young man named Ken Kaneki gets attacked by one such ghoul, he turns into a superpowered ghoul-human hybrid who must run from the law to survive. Tokyo Ghoul is arguably brutal in its depiction of prolonged violence and torture, but it makes smart use of other visual elements to hide the true extent of violence. For instance, a scene where a female ghoul is feasting on multiple bodies, the bodies are hidden within dark shadows. Similarly, a torture scene finds the character's fingers and toes being chopped off, but audiences only catch a glimpse of the blood-stained tools. All in all, Tokyo Ghoul is fear-inducing, but its violence is relatively low when compared to other anime series of the era.

6 Attack On Titan

Based on the Manga Created By Hajime Isayama

A show that focuses on flesh-eating titans is bound to be gory right from the first episode. All through the iconic anime, Attack on Titan features scenes of humans being squashed or bitten into by the colossal creatures with some scenes being deliberately slowed-down to disturb viewers. At times, the humans also fight back slicing and dicing them in innovative ways. What's interesting is that Hajime Isayama's original manga series is way gorier than the anime. Yet the anime has become iconic for its brutally stylistic violence that is increasingly integral to the plot and the fast-paced action sequences.

5 Deadman Wonderland

Based on the Manga By Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou

An innocent high-schooler is imprisoned for mass-murdering his entire classroom. But this isn't even the worst part as he must now participate in a deadly prison tournament to stay alive. Chopped up by knives is just the tip of the iceberg as all sorts of weapons are used in Deadman Wonderland ranging from swords and guns to flamethrowers and bombs. The fighting even involves fantasy elements with some characters can use their own blood as weapons or armor. However, this comes with the downside of characters needing to maim themselves first to release that blood, a practice that is followed by zoom-in shots of the graphic acts.

4 Hellsing Ultimate

Based on the Manga By Kouta Hirano

Set in the aftermath of the Second World War, Hellsing Ultimate deals with vampire Nazis wreaking havoc in Britain while the anti-vampire organization Hellsing seeks to bring an end to this orgy of blood. The adrenaline-heavy series is filled with bodies being dismembered, impaled, and blasted in full glory. One of the highest-rated horror anime, the antagonism of the blood-suckers in Hellsing Ultimate knows no bounds as they not only bite their victims, they often end up burning them, gunning them down in collective slaughters. As expected, the violent revenge against the miscreants is also expectedly bloody. The ultimate conclusion is that no matter which side gets more gory in their methods, peace is to come to none.

3 Blood-C

Created By Studio IG and CLAMP

Blood-C deals with the everyday life of a seemingly ordinary girl called Saya who leads the life of a student by day and a monster-hunter by night. Much like other supernatural monster anime series, gruesome deaths obviously serve as recurring themes. Heads and limbs being torn apart is quite a normal occurrence in Blood-C. The goriest scenes though are of monsters feasting on their victims, each killing accompanied by its own unique method. Terror is aroused not just by the splatter of blood and crushing of bones but by the fact that nobody in Blood-C dies a quick and easy death. Everyone has to go through agonizing acts of sadism before they finally take their last breath with their deaths lasting for a good deal of seconds (sometimes up to a minute). As the screaming victims get ripped apart, viewers are bound to remember the feeding scenes in Attack on Titan but Blood-C follows a way more brutal approach.

2 Chainsaw Man

Based on the Manga Created by Tatsuki Fujimoto

Much like the Chainsaw Man manga, the anime is bloody in all creative ways. After all, viewers are bound to expect tons of blood splashing all over the skin given the lead character is a devil-human hybrid with chainsaws literally popping out of his head and arms. The evolution of the main character into a chainsaw-wielding monster comes with a painful evolution process as the chainsaws cut through his own body. Even the death scenes are intentionally prolonged, and it takes time for the titular protagonist to make a kill given how the chainsaws take time to grind through human flesh.

1 Genocyber

Based on the Manga Created By Tony Takezaki

Increasingly detailed and disturbing, Genocyber is the goriest anime of all time for many despite its limited episode count. The 5-episode-long OVA series deals with blending cybernetic structures and psychic human control. With an evil scientist forcefully using two girls for his sadistic experiments, the violence can be quite triggering for some viewers. The gruesome bodily transformations border on such nihilistic territory that gory anime works like Akira and Attack on Titan would seem relatively tame. While the extremely bloody violence is what makes Genocyber stand out, it can also be its weaknesses with many viewers giving it up in the middle itself. Still, regardless of how any viewer feels about it, it's hard to deny that Genocyber is the goriest anime of all time.

Gore is often thought of as mindless, a cheap trick just used for shock value. While that's undeniably the case for many anime that use gore, that's underselling the importance of extreme violence in anime. Violence can shock viewers, yes, but it can also be used to advance plot and character. The goriest anime series of all time are all undeniably shocking, but they also use their gore in interesting ways.