Cosmic horror, also referred to as Lovecraftian horror, is a horror subgenre that focuses on the fear of the unknown and mystery.
It’s named after the famous novelist H.P. Lovecraft, whose works still inspire many young people to read. There are some anime that can be considered relevant to this subgenre or that you will love if you are a fan of it.
This listicle is highly subjective and we will include shows based on our personal experience.
Table of Contents
10. Mushishi
Mushishi follows the story of Ginko, a serious and composed character, and also a Mushi. This term refers to strange creatures whose origin or habits no one knows.
What is known is that coexistence with them is complicated for human beings. For this reason, there are the Mushishi, experts in the field who know how to deal with them.
This is especially because since certain Mushi may be small and harmless, on the flip side certain turn out to be real terrifying monstrosities.
It must be said that the episodes are very slow and reflective, and if we want to use a misnomer, artistic. But the anime is deliberately so, to create a fantastic atmosphere that is almost hypnotic and lulling.
9. Gunbuster
Before devoting himself to his ultimate masterpiece Hideaki Anno worked on other works that still had their share of success.
Prominent among them is Aim for the Top! Gunbuster, a small OAV series consisting solely of 6 episodes from the Gainax studio.
The story is set in an alternate future where a terrifying alien insect race is spotted in the Solar System. Fearing that they may lead to catastrophe, the humans decide to monitor them and learn just as feared that they plan to attack them, thus starting the war.
As you might well guess the anime is Mecha-themed, as you would expect from a series under Anno’s direction. But, although short, its imprint is well marked.
8. Serial Experiments Lain
Series Experiments Lain has 13 episodes and is an original story dating back to 1998, and is one of the best thriller anime due to its fairly deep meaning and plot complexity.
The plot tells the story of Lain Iwakura, a rather peculiar little girl partly because of a less-than-ideal family situation. Lain comes into contact with Wired, a global network very reminiscent of our Internet, where she will learn a lot of information regarding this mysterious virtual network. But the Wired hides more horrific things than expected.
The overwhelming threat is precisely due to Wired, but there is more behind that.
The message of this anime lies in the warning to keep an eye on technology, as it’s still something partially unknown that we can misuse daily.
7. Ghost Hound
Ghost Hound is a series released between 2007 and 2008 consisting of 22 episodes.
In the small town of Suiten, paranormal phenomena take place due to the encounter between the real world and the spirit world, allowing terrific monsters to enter the human world.
A thriller with horror themes, full of psychology and psychoanalysis, through scientific, pseudo-scientific, and religious themes. It contains disturbing and bizarre scenes to be even more creepy and uncanny.
Not a light viewing without commitment, requiring a good deal of attention and an analytical eye and if you love anime with a ghost town setting.
6. Hell Girl
Between 2005 and 2006 Hell Girl, an underrated supernatural horror work was born directly as an anime.
The premise is simple: at a website that can only be reached at midnight by typing the name of the person you want to send to hell a strange supernatural force will do its work.
The horrible, supernatural creatures that are conjured up in this process are anything but harmless.
The anime is about 26 episodes long and it does a good job in putting a heavy feeling of uneasiness on the watcher.
5. The Ancient Magus Bride
A 24-episode anime series based on the manga of the same name by Kore Yamazaki and animated by Studio Wit.
The protagonist of the story is young Chise Hatori, a girl who, after losing her entire family in previous years, decides to sell herself off at an auction to change her life and find some light in her life after many years of suffering.
She will then be purchased by a man who stands out mainly because of his tall height and head shaped like a canine skull to make her a magician.
References to cosmic horror elements will be many and marked, starting with the figure of Elias, the man with the skull on his head, and then becoming more and more so.
4. Knights of Sidonia
The solar system no longer exists, destroyed by the terrific warlike alien race of the Gauna. Humanity is reduced to wandering the Universe aboard the Sidonia, the last viable Ark in search of new planets to inhabit.
Such are the premises of this anime, which makes cosmic horror its bulwark.
Released in 2014, Knights of Sidonia presents a setting that is sad and desolate. This makes us ponder upon the fragility of humanity when dealing with more advanced species.
3. Ergo Proxy
An exquisite mix of philosophy and sci-fi/cyberpunk elements, but with that cosmic horror twist that makes it deserve its place on this list given its dark setting by no less than terrifying demigods.
Ergo Proxy is set in a post-apocalyptic future where survivors live under a dome city, namely Romdo, to shelter from the lethal and toxic climate.
It’s immediately noticeable that there is an interest in environmental issues and especially the human-machine relationship.
In this utopian society, humans control so-called AutoReivs, automatons that perform the most manual roles.
This anime gets darker and darker and the end is the true culmination of dread and cosmic horror.
2. Angel’s Egg
A film by master Mamoru Oshii, released in 1985, in which Yoshitaka Amano also collaborated in character design. The cosmic horror atmosphere comes to the fore already in the prologue, where we witness the descent of a strange eye-shaped figure.
The story follows a helpless nameless child in an abandoned city.
She cherishes an egg that she hides under her robe, even as she goes to search the rubble of the city for food and water. Who knows whose strange creature this mysterious egg is.
Angel’s Egg is an almost silent film but rich in symbolism.
Oshii himself has said that it is up to the viewer to find meaning in everything shown in the film, creating his narrative. This makes everything both clear and unclear, increasing the sense of the unknown and potential danger.
1. Berserk
A masterpiece of the dark fantasy/horror genres by the notorious mangaka Kentaro Miura, and one of the best anime that only gets darker in its plot.
Its 1997 anime adaptation is famous for its vintage style and its fitting setting, even though we recommend approaching the series by reading the manga.
Few other works can match this one due to the complexity of its characters and for starring two incredible personalities: Gatsu and Griffith.
The presence of demons, monsters, and other supernatural beings is marked in this anime, giving it some darker tones and adding to the view a heavy cosmic horror touch.
You can’t miss out on this anime as it represents one of the best examples of dark fantasy thanks to the setting and the enemies.
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