25 Best Anime to Watch During Halloween

As the leaves turn amber and a chill fills the air, Halloween looms, bringing with it a desire for stories that tingle the spine and tickle the imagination. Every year, I dive deep into the world of anime to discover tales that perfectly capture the spirit of the season. Whether you’re looking for ghostly encounters, eerie mysteries, or simply a taste of the supernatural, I’ve curated a list of the best anime to watch during Halloween. So grab your favorite blanket, dim the lights, and prepare to embark on a journey through the spine-chilling world of animated horror and fantasy.

1. Elfen Lied

Original Run: July 25, 2004 – October 17, 2004
Episodes: 13 (+ OVA)
Created By: Rin Okamoto
Genres: Dark Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction

The story is set in Kamakura, Japan, and revolves around the Diclonius, mutant beings very similar to humans but with two strange horns on their heads and endowed with very strong invisible limbs called “vectors”.

Believed to be dangerous to the normal human race, Diclonius babies are killed at birth or locked up in research laboratories, subjected to terrible torture, and extremely violent experiments.

One of them, Lucy, however, manages to escape to the sea, massacring anyone who comes in front of her. She is found on the beach by two boys in a complete state of amnesia and double personality, caused by a shooter shot in the head while escaping.

2. Mononoke

Original Run: July 12, 2007 – September 27, 2007
Episodes: 12
Created By: Kenji Nakamura
Genres: Ghost story, mystery, psychological horror

Mononoke focuses on the character of the apothecary from the third narrative arc of Ayakashi: a traveling apothecary stingy with words, so his name is not even known. He travels accompanied by his medicine cabinet and a box containing a spiritual sword whose pommel is adorned with a monkey’s head.

3. Tokyo Ghoul

Original Run: July 4, 2014 – December 25, 2018
Episodes: 48 (+2 OVA episodes)
Created By: Sui Ishida
Genres: Dark Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural Thriller

The story of Tokyo Ghoul revolves around the student Ken Kaneki, who falls in love with a young woman named Rize Kamishiro. After meeting her, she bites his shoulder in a secluded alley and reveals that she is a ghoul, which shocks Ken.

As Rizeis about to eat Ken, several large metal poles fall on her from the construction site of a building. Roze dies in the process, while Ken is rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries. After recovering, he is released from the hospital. On the day of his release, he finds out that he is no longer human. He looks in the mirror and shivers run down his spine because he now has one “red eye”.

He realizes that Rize’s organs were transplanted into him in the hospital. Since he now owns Rize’s organs, he is a so-called and very rarely occurring “half-ghoul”.

4. Soul Eater

Original Run: April 7, 2008 – March 30, 2009
Episodes: 51
Created By: Atsushi Ōkubo
Genres: Action, Dark Comedy, Dark Fantasy

To fight the evil Kishin, which can “plunge the world into the abyss of madness”, Shinigami-sama creates The Academy is a place where Weapons and Overlords are trained together.

The former are the very weapons that will stop the death of the world; the second are those who will hold the weapon. The Scythe of Death will be obtained when the weapon eats 99 evil souls ready to become Kishin, and 1 witch soul, and therefore all overlords are actively competing in creating the Death Scythe.

The story takes place during the main events of the manga and anime, Maka and Soul at that time had not yet become known in the Academy and beyond.

5. Occult Academy

Original Run: July 6, 2010 – September 27, 2010
Episodes: 13
Created By: Tomohiko Itō
Genres: Fantasy, supernatural, comedy

The story revolves around Maya Kumashiro, the daughter of the recently deceased director of the private Waldstein academy, dedicated to the study of the occult.

It is the year 1999 and agent Fumiaki Uchida, a mysterious young man, has arrived since 2012 through a journey through time, with the aim of destroying the Key of Nostradamus, an unknown element that in a few months will trigger a crisis that will allow an extra-dimensional invasion, leading humanity into a war that threatens to end them in the future.

Uchida and Maya end up forming a team to achieve this, trying to prevent the invaders from taking over the Earth in the future, however inside and around the school there are so many paranormal events that take place that determine which of these is the Key of Nostradamus is a heavier task than you’d imagined.

6. Ghost Hunt

Original Run: October 3, 2006 – March 27, 2007
Episodes: 25
Created By: Fuyumi Ono
Genres: Mystery, Horror, Supernatural

Ghost Hunt follows the stories of Shibuya Kazuya, the president of Shibuya Psychic Research (SPR), and Mai Taniyama, a high school freshman. The story begins when Mai told ghost stories with her friends in the classroom, who were interrupted twice: first by a mysterious “student”, and then by a classmate, who warns them that, somehow, their stories attract spirits.

While she was walking in the morning, the next day, she found herself in front of the building that was related to one of the ghost stories, she, intrigued, decides to go investigate.

7. DEATH NOTE

Original Run: October 3, 2006 – June 26, 2007
Episodes: 37
Created By: Tsugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata
Genres: Mystery, Supernatural Thriller, Psychological Thriller

Light Yagami is a model student, bored with his lifestyle and tired of being surrounded by a society filled with crime and corruption. His life takes a decisive turn when one day he finds on the ground a mysterious black notebook, entitled “Death Note”, which bears the following instruction: “The human whose name will be written in this notebook will die”.

Initially skeptical of his authenticity, Light changes his mind when he successfully tests the notebook on two criminals and meets the real owner of the Death Note, a shinigami named Ryuk; he then decides to use this new power to kill all criminals, eradicate evil and become the “God of the new world”.

In his evil deeds, he is first challenged by the mysterious L and later by his former apprentices.

8. Parasyte

Original Run: October 9, 2014 – March 26, 2015
Episodes: 24
Created By: Hitoshi Iwaaki
Genres: Body horror, horror thriller, science fiction

One night, tennis ball-sized spheres containing snake-like creatures fell in numbers unknown all over the world. They are programmed to take the place of human brains. One of these attacks a young man, Shinichi, during his sleep, trying to enter through his ear but cannot reach him.

Awakened with a shock as the parasite tries to enter through his nose, he tries to defend himself but ends up having his right hand punctured. The high school student then takes his headphones and wraps them around his arm, preventing the parasite from climbing to the brain.

Unable to leave his arm, the latter finally merges with his right hand. Meanwhile, other parasites, having managed to take possession of their host’s brain, begin to feed on humans, while the creature and Shinichi are forced to cohabitate.

9. Rosario + Vampire

Original Run: January 3, 2008 – March 27, 2008 / October 2, 2008 – December 24, 2008
Episodes: 13/13
Created By: Akihisa Ikeda
Genres: Harem, romantic comedy, supernatural

Tsukune Aono is an unremarkable young boy who unfortunately failed all the high school entrance exams. By pure chance, his father finds an advertisement for Yokai High School, the High School for Monsters. It is there that he meets Moka Akashiya, an angelic-looking young girl who actually hides a split personality and very powerful vampire powers (S-class monsters).

His powers are revealed when the rosary adorning his neck is torn off. Thanks to Moka’s powers, both will fight several monsters. Later, Tsukune and Moka will meet the succubus Kurumu Kurono and Yukari Sendo, a gifted little witch.

10. Umineko no Naku Koro ni

Original Run: July 2, 2009 – December 24, 2009
Episodes: 26
Created By: 07th Expansion
Genres: Mystery

The main plot of the game takes place in 1986 within a small time frame of two days from October 4th to 5th on a small, remote island called Rokkenjima of the Izu Islands. This is where Kinzo, the head of the rich Ushiromiya family, lives.

As his death seems near, eight of the family members gather at an annual meeting to discuss how to divide the inheritance.

They are joined by three other family members and five servants. As the first deliberations begin, a typhoon looms, preventing them from leaving the island, while the strangest things happen at the same time and one after the other dies.

11. Another

Original Run: January 10, 2012 – March 27, 2012
Episodes: 12 (+ OVA)
Created By: Yukiko Ayatsuji
Genres: Horror, Mystery, Supernatural Thriller

In 1972, a popular and charismatic student named Misaki Yomiyama from Class 3-3 of North Yomiyama School suddenly died in the middle of the school year. Devastated by the loss, his classmates and teacher acted as if Misaki was still alive and even reserved a spot for him at the graduation ceremony.

What was even more suspicious was that Misaki appeared in the graduation photograph.

In the spring of 1998, ninth-year student Kōichi Sakakibara moves from Tokyo to Yomiyama, the hometown of his late mother, because his father has gone to work on research in India. His transfer was to North Yomiyama School, to class 3-3.

12. Devilman Crybaby

Original Run: January 5, 2018
Episodes: 10
Created By: Masaaki Yuasa, Ichirō Ōkouchi
Genres: Action, dark fantasy

Akira Fudo is informed by his best friend, Ryo Asuka, that the ancient race of Demons taking possession of the bodies of humans in order to possess them, has returned to Earth to take them back. Believing that the only way to defeat the Demons is to prove their existence to humans, Ryo suggests that Akira accompany him to see Demons take possession of humans.

Merging himself with Amon, the Lord of Demons, Akira transforms into the Devilman, a human with the powers of a Demon while retaining his own heart.

13. Blood Blockade Battlefront

Original Run: April 4, 2015 – October 4, 2015 / October 7, 2017 – December 23, 2017
Episodes: 12 + OVA / 12 +OVA
Created By: Yasuhiro Nightow
Genres: Action, science fiction, urban fantasy

Three years ago, a rift between Earth and the world beyond opened in New York City. During that terrible night, New York was destroyed and rebuilt, trapping New Yorkers and extra-dimensional creatures in a bubble.

Renamed Hellsalem’s Lot, the city is a paranormal melting pot where magic and madness live alongside the ordinary, where every type of human vermin comes together to harness the supernatural. Someone threatens to breach the Bull and unleash the horrors of New Jerusalem, but the mysterious super agents of Libra are fighting to prevent the unthinkable from happening.

14. Hell Girl

Original Run: October 4, 2005 – September 29, 2017
Episodes: 90
Created By: Hiroshi Watanabe
Genres: Dark Fantasy, Supernatural Thriller

When a person feels a grudge, Jigoku Shōjo (Hell Girl) appears and sends the person causing that hatred to Hell. However, the user must seal a contract with her before executing the revenge, and the price to pay is always that the person who accepts the contract must also go to Hell when he dies.

The series is basically a collection of independent stories, each of which tells the story of the suffering of a different person at the hands of one or more subjects, the contract with Enma Ai and the punishment to which the aggressor is subjected by her.

15. Highschool of the Dead

Original Run: July 5, 2010 – September 20, 2010
Episodes: 12 (+ OVA)
Created By: Daisuke Satō, Shōji Satō
Genres: Action, Horror, Supernatural Thriller

On an ordinary morning, everything happened as normally as any other day. From the roof, Komuro Takashi, the main character, observes a strange event at the school gates: a suspicious man is causing confusion.

One of the teachers, when trying to expel him, ends up being bitten by the suspicious man and in the middle of cries of despair from the other teachers he gets up, but now he is a zombie.

He then begins to eat the other teachers who were with him. Seeing this, Takashi runs back into the school and joins together with his friend Miyamoto Rei and her boyfriend Igou Hisashi of which he is the best friend.

Now the school is already overrun with teachers and other zombie high schools.

16. Berserk

Original Run: October 7, 1997 – March 31, 1998 / 1 July 2016 – 23 June 2017
Episodes: 25 / 24
Created By: Kentaro Miura
Genres: Dark Fantasy, Epic, Sword and Sorcery

Berserk tells the story of the meeting of Guts and Griffith, leader of the Falcon Troop, a band of mercenaries in the pay of the kingdom of Midland. From this meeting will be born an ambiguous friendship, but nevertheless efficient: the presence of Guts, warrior with the disproportionate sword, will quickly prove essential to the ambition of the young Griffith, swashbuckler and outstanding tactician.

The anime is thus the account of the rise and fall of the Falcon Troop, and of the relation between Guts and Griffith, particularly complex, between relation of interest (Griffith uses the force of Guts), mutual respect ( both see each other as soldiers), and deep affection (each inexplicably needs the other’s presence).

17. Devils’ Line

Original Run: April 7, 2018 – June 23, 2018
Episodes: 12 + OVA
Created By: Ryo Hanada
Genres: Dark fantasy

When the student Tsukasa Taira goes home one evening with her fellow student Shota Akimura, they are followed by a demon. There have been repeated murders of women in the city in which a demon is suspected. But the stranger turns out to be investigator Yūki Anzai, who uses his skills to hunt demons as a half-demon.

Shota is arrested by him because he is a demon and he is suspected of the series of murders. The rescued Tsukasa brings Anzai home. There he suddenly attacks her, but thanks to his medication he can hold back. Because Anzai also has to keep his thirst for blood in check, like the other demons who want to live peacefully between people.

18. Actually, I Am…

Original Run: July 6, 2015 – September 28, 2015
Episodes: 13
Created By: Eiji Masuda
Genres: Romantic comedy

Asahi Kuromine, a high school student unable to keep secrets, surprises one of his classmates, Yoko Shiragami, by deploying a large pair of wings. He then learns that Yōko is a vampire, and that her father threatens to change her establishment if her identity comes to light.

Since Youko is particularly distracted, she struggles to keep her secret, especially since Mikan, Asahi’s childhood friend, keeps insisting on finding out more about her. Asahi will later discover that other girls in her school also keep heavy secrets, which will make her task as a confidante all the more difficult.

19. Dororon Enma-kun

Original Run: October 4, 1973 – March 28, 1974 / April 8, 2011 – June 24, 2011
Episodes: 25 / 12
Created By: Go Nagai
Genres: Horror, comedy, supernatural

Some of the demons on earth do not follow the rules that hell gives them, but plan to overthrow the king of the underworld. He then sends his nephew Enma to solve the problem. Enma teams up with Yukiko, daughter of the Snow Princess, and the Kappa Kapaeru.

Together they find shelter with the elementary school student and Mangalan Tsutomu and hunt down the renegade demons. Enma’s magical hat, Chappoji, helps them with this, but he often also gives dangerous advice.

20. Higurashi When They Cry

Original Run: April 4, 2006 – ongoing
Episodes: 74 (+11 OVA episodes)
Created By: 07th Expansion
Genres: Murder Mystery, Psychological Horror, Supernatural Horror

The story occurs in the fictional village of Hinamizawa on June 58 of the Shōwa era (1983). Shortly before that, one of the main characters of the story, Keiichi Maebara, was transferred to the local school.

He gradually begins to establish relationships with his new classmates – headman Mion Sonozaki, her twin sister Shion, his peer Rena Ryūgū, as well as with junior high school students Rika Furude and Satoko Hōjō.

Hinamizawa seems to Keiichi to be a calm and peaceful place, but shortly before Watanagashi he learns that for four years in a row in the village on the day of the festival, there have been murders and disappearances of people. The chain of these crimes remained unsolved and was called the “curse of Oyashiro-sama” among the local population.

21. BLOOD+ / BLOOD-C

Original Run: October 8, 2005 – September 30, 2011
Episodes: 62 (+ one film)
Created By: Production I.G
Genres: Action, Horror, Dark Fantasy

The series is set over 30 years after the events of the feature film Blood: The Last Vampire (which you can also watch, while you’re at it) – in 2005. The plot introduces lines related to modern intrigues, in which various organizations are involved, including, for example, the US Army, who want to control and control vampires in order to use them for their own purposes.

Saya Otonashi lives in a city in Okinawa with her adoptive father, George Miyaguscu and two brothers, Kai and Rik. Saya does not remember the events of her past until she began living with a new foster family a year ago.

For medical reasons, she needs blood transfusions from time to time.

22. Shiki

Original Run: July 8, 2010 – December 30, 2010
Episodes: 22 + 2
Created By: Fuyumi Ono
Genres: Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Horror

The story takes place in the remote mountain village of Sotoba where ancient traditions still survive, such as the burial of the dead. At the end of a scorching summer, the Kirishiki family suddenly moves into the western-style castle that dominates the village from the top of a hill.

At the same time, a series of sudden deaths begins to decimate the inhabitants; Chief physician as well as owner of the only clinic, Toshio Ozaki, initially suspects a mysterious epidemic but, with the help of his childhood friend, Seishin Muroi, now a local temple bonze and author of successful novels, will instead discover a horrifying truth.

The dead come back to life as vampires who are forced to suck the blood of other people to feed themselves, it all started with the arrival of the Kirishiki family.

23. Interviews with Monster Girls

Original Run: January 7, 2021 – March 25, 2021
Episodes: 12 + ONA
Created By: Petos
Genrses: Comedy, supernatural

The story takes place at a time when demi-humans, better known as “demis”, slowly began to be accepted into human society. Tetsuo Takahashi is a biology teacher interested in running backs. He brings together the three running backs of his high school, trying to capture their attention, gain their trust and understand this phenomenon.

24. Deadman Wonderland

Original Run: April 17, 2011 – July 3, 2011
Episodes: 12 (+ OVA)
Created By: Jinsei Kataoka, Kazuma Kondou
Genres: Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic, Thriller

A powerful earthquake ravaged mainland Japan and largely destroyed Tokyo, submerging three-quarters of the city in the ocean. Ten years later, the story centers on Ganta Igarashi, a seemingly ordinary student who attends Nagano Prefecture College.

Although a survivor of the earthquake, Ganta has no memory of the tragedy and has lived an ordinary life. All of this changes when a strange man covered in blood and wearing purple armor floats outside the classroom windows. Smiling like a madman, the Man in Red slaughters Ganta’s entire class and, rather than killing him, embeds a shard of red crystal in his chest.

A few days after the massacre, Ganta is declared the sole suspect and, after a speedy trial, is sentenced to life in prison in Deadman Wonderland, a prison lined with an amusement park.

25. Hellsing: Ultimate

Original Run: October 10, 2001 – January 16, 2002
Episodes: 13 (+10 OVA episodes)
Created By: Kōta Hirano
Genres: Action, Dark Fantasy, Horror

The Royal Knights of Protestant Order are a noble house of London led by Abraham Van Helsing. For generations, he has been fighting against creatures that most ordinary people are unaware of like vampires, ghouls and any non-human entity that is generally referred to as a “monster”.

The Order operates in great secrecy and has long been a paramilitary organization in the service of her Majesty. Leading the organization is Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, a direct descendant of the first Lord Hellsing. Still a teenager, she is forced to take control of the Order.

Her father Arthur, sick and close to his death, orders his daughter, should she feel threatened, to go down to the basement of the mansion, where there is something able to protect her.