Forum - View topicHorror anime - scary/disturbing or not so much?
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Rukiia
 Posts: 1897 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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This discussion goes out towards my fellow horror anime fans. Has there been an anime series/movie/oav/ova you've seen where the story/characters have really scared or disturbed you? Or have you been finding the horror genre these days to be quite disappointing?
Back in the 90ies I watched Mermaid's Scar (older sister rented it from Blockbuster) and the monster (Lost Soul) in the show gave me nightmares for weeks (I was only 11 years old when I watched it). I also made the mistake of watching Devil Man when I was younger (was intended for my older sister to watch but since I was starting to get into anime I just had to watch it too, but boy did I regret it after). I would have to say back then that anime horror titles were pretty scary, but the newer stuff is mostly disturbing. As much as I loved Jigoku Shoujo/Hell Girl, I was disappointed that it wasn't as scary as it looked to be from the previews I've seen. I still watched it regardless, its even one of my favorites, and it does have some parts which can be pretty disturbing spoiler[Like the episode with the crazy lady who killed a little girl's dogs. She thought the girl saw her bury a person she murdered, for inheritance money, because her dog got away and ran into the lady's backyard where the deed was taking place. The crazy lady also drowned the dog's newborn puppies in a bathtub when she thought the girl called the police on her.] but I was hoping to have the thrill of being scared (kinda like with Asian Horror films, there have been a number that have scared me tremendously). The one anime that really disturbed me was the first season of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni/When They Cry. It first seemed like your typical cutesy anime, but then the characters and story turn all dark and twisted out of no where. spoiler[The part with Mion forcing Shion to use the fingernail ripping torture device on herself REALLY made me feel uneasy.] This show really threw me off as it was a blind watch (didn't know anything about the show except for the name so the sudden turn of events was a big surprise for me) and because of that I became a huge fan of the series. Umineko no Naku Koro Ni also took the disturbing cake with some scenes (even though the violent scenes spoiler[ Like Rosa and Maria being forced up into the air and then dropping down to have their heads impaled on fence posts] were censored). All in all, in my personal opinion, I find that horror anime titles from 2000-2010 are not scary but can be pretty disturbing. So am I just desensitized over today's anime horror shows, or does anyone else here feel the same as me? Look forward to hearing your guy's opinions. 
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Kelly
Posts: 868 Location: New York City |
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Personally, I haven't watched When They Cry or Elfen Lied, which seem to be the two big scare your pants off anime. I'm not into gore, and my taste in horror runs more supernatural than slasher, so I've passed. I like Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust well enough, and it has a great pseudo-gothic style, but I can't say it scared me, as it's main focus is action. I absolutely love xxxHOLiC and Ghost Hunt, especially as Halloween approaches in October, but although both have some disturbing sections (especially Ghost Hunt's Bloodstained Labyrinth arc), they're actually relationship stories in supernatural trappings, without a heavy focus on scares.
That leaves the Magnetic Rose section of Memories. What I liked about it was it's relative subtlety. You don't always see what's happening, but if you're familiar with Puccini's operas you know exactly what's happening offstage, and it makes your skin crawl. A true case of less is more. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18433 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I have often said that horror is the most difficult genre to pull off in anime, and anime that can truly qualify as horrifying are very rare. I think there's a fundamental reason for that, too, which strikes more to the very nature of anime as an entertainment medium rather than any lack of talent or effort on the part of creators.
Horror stories, whether they go for direct shock value (e.g. most slasher films) or a slow but gradually intensifying burn, depend heavily on a sense of realism, of being able to put the viewer in the midst of the events, to scare the audience. Movie directors sometimes forget that, which is why bigger-budget horror movies will often fail where cheaper ones succeed: get too glitzy and the whole experience becomes too artificial for the audience to immerse themselves in it. The extra step of separation from reality that animation has serves it very well for magical and fantastical tales, but it cripples the medium's ability to put viewers in the midst of the story and thus adequately scare them. Disturb the viewer? Oh, yes, anime can do this quite well. Scaring, though, is another story. The arc previously mentioned from Ghost Hunt is, in my experience, about the closest I've ever seen an anime get to being truly scary. Certain scenes from Barefoot Gen definitely have the power to horrify, though that's a special case since, in those instances, the viewer knows that those scenes are based on real-life observations and thus can more directly connect with them. When They Cry certainly puts in an effort, but beyond those the pickings are very, very thin. |
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KanjiiZ
 Posts: 661 Location: Central Coast |
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I've never seen School Days and I just happened to click on a video called "Nice Boat Bro". I was scared for about two days. I finally managed to grow the balls to google what was going on, and I realized it wasn't all that scary. One of the reasons it really irked me was because I couldn't help but think "some guy, somewhere cheated on his girlfriend and it could happen to him".
Anime like Higurashi just isn't scary to me. It tries so damn hard to be creepy and tell me how to feel that it flat out fails to achieve it's goal. You can rip nails all you want, but they're just cartoon characters with Japanese voices that I can't differentiate tones from. |
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FLMikeATT
 Posts: 58 |
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100 stories aka Requiem from the Darkness really creeped me out; much moreso than any other anime I can think of off the top of my head.
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KanjiiZ
Posts: 661 Location: Central Coast |
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I'd argue that it's more of a cultural thing than a fault of the director. I think it would be easier for your typical suburban kid from New Hampshire to be more easily scared off an episode of The Wire than a movie like Mulholland Drive. To add to the whole cultural thing, as a hispanic, I was raised with a fear of different things than a Japanese person. Japanese tend to be more fearful of psychological thrillers and such, while I was raised to be scared of little elves that come to take bad children away and a lady who's missing her kids after drowning them (La Llorona). I really can't blame Japanese people if they can't scare me. |
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Rukiia
Posts: 1897 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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I have been hearing that alot from people who have seen this. I have the boxset and only watched one episode. I've been told it starts off kinda slow but then really picks up. I should watch more of it after I'm done with Samurai Champloo.
The artwork in this show reminded me of Dr.Seuss. It was like it was done by his evil twin brother. It was pretty weird yet I did enjoy watching it. Hardly scary but high on the creepiness scale. |
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Crisha
Moderator
 Posts: 4290 |
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I'm going to agree with Key. The sense of "realism" plays a big important role in making a horror film effective. I say that and yet it isn't the slasher flicks that scare me half as much as the supernatural ones do (i.e. The Thing, The Orphanage, The Blob, The Grudge). So "realism" in a sense where the events aren't necessarily realistic, but that I could still be pulled in and imagine myself in the situation - the key word being "imagine". I have a very active imagination, and it's always the unknown, monstrous horrors that get me more. There are some anime series/moves that have been able to effectively disturb me with the psychological aspects - Perfect Blue, Higurashi, Ghost Hunt. However, the visuals aren't able to draw me into the world and aren't able to scare me due to it being animation. Regardless, I still love the horror genre of anime. |
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Player No. 3
 Posts: 209 Location: San Antonio, Texas |
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For me, I've always felt that what I don't see makes makes a show intensely more horrifying than what I do see. I should clarify what I mean by scary. A "scary" scene/show/movie makes me feel uneasy long after I've viewed it; otherwise, it's just startling "pop-up"scares and the emotion fades quickly. When an anime creates a suspenseful/creepy atmosphere, I'm more likely to be scared. So far, only 2 shows have done this: When They Cry and the recent Shiki.
Albeit, When They Cry has gore and explicitly show you what is going on most of the time, most of the landmark scares have been the subtle scenes, especially from the first arc. Particularly, there was this one line about Oyashiro always following you and how you can hear his footsteps behind you sometimes. That piece had me freaked out for days. Shiki achieves atmosphere perfectly for me. Combined with the moody music and the general eeriness of the village, several scenes right out terrified me. The one that replays in my head is when Megumi spoiler[appears under the bed of Natsuno's best friend.] The real kicker is that I saw it coming, and I was still scared. I'm agree with willag's argument. When fiction creates a world that I can see myself in or see as possible, then it amplifies the scares. |
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Clodus
 Posts: 497 Location: Kansas |
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Higurashi was more psychological disturbing than scary, to me at least. The only anime that has ever genuinely scared me was Ghost Hunt's Blood-soaked maze or Bloody Labyrinth arc. I almost wet my pants and I'm a grown ass man haha
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7994 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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No, not much is all that horrorfying to me for the reason Key mentioned; it's just not "real" enough to be scary. What I get isn't terror but if it's good I might get a bit creeped out. Anime that have are either the serious supernatural ghost stuff like Ghost Hunt or the extremely violent and graphic horror like Elfen Lied and Rin: Daughter of Mnemosyne. Otherwise I'm totally immune to animated horror.
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Jaymie
Posts: 915 |
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I find Shiki to be pretty creepy. It has a very thick atmosphere and an amazing set-up. It doesn't really try to be outright scary like Higurashi or Elfen Lied, but that's what makes it so effective.
The scene that sticks out in my mind is when spoiler[the main character sees Megumi, his stalker who died three episodes prior, underneath his friend's bed. O_O.] |
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Guren Alchemist4
 Posts: 347 |
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lol I remember those stories when I was young and I truly believed those to be true. They had me spooked when I visited family in Mexico since they would tell me of personal accounts of hearing La Llorona or about someone who saw her and had to break out in prayer to get protection. lol And I think the elves you speak of are Duendes which would cause mischief. Anyway that's enough reminiscing. lol In terms of anime, I can't really recall any really scary series. Ghost Hunt had some good episodes. Perhaps, some instances in Boogiepop Phantom were a little unsettling. Some have mentioned Elfen Lied but I don't really consider anything about it frightful. |
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Eivion
Posts: 569 |
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I tend to not to get scared often in general so it doesn't really happen to me with anime. There is still some things that I do find to set the creepy atmosphere well though that I enjoy. Higurashi no Naku Koroni and Ghost Hunt are the most recent ones that I found to do it well.
Some of the stuff being mentioned here despite having the horror moniker next to it I don't really see as horror either like Elfen Lied, Vampire Hunter D, Jigoku Shoujo, and RIN. Will say though that Elfen Lied did disturb me when I watched it years ago, but more in the knots in my stomach than causing fear way. And I think that would bother me less now. |
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RHachicho
 Posts: 897 Location: Essex, UK |
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I will have to agree with key on this one. I don't remember an Anime that has made me truly jump. A couple of times I have been disturbed/sad about what was going on. But I have never had the suspensive/frightened feeling I get from watching a good horror movie.
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