Yuno Gasai and the Yandere timeline

Yuno Gasai from the Anime/Manga Mirai Nikki aka Future Diary is the single most well known Yandere, or at least she was when I fully joined the Anime Community in the mid to late 2010s, so much so that Gigguk’s Yandere video could make a Joke out of pretending she’s the only one who matters.

But unlike most characters who have become virtually synonymous with their Archetype she is not the first or even the first really popular one, or even really among the first.  I would dare say by the time of her creation the Yandere was already becoming an overplayed Cliche.

Now when I started researching this thesis I was shocked how much older Mirai Nikki’s source material is, I’m not used to popular Manga taking over 5 years to get an Anime.  But it was still not old enough to destroy this premise.  It started publication on January 26th 2006.

Now I’m someone who is fairly strict in how I even define a Yandere, I talked about elements of it in a post I made earlier this year.  So for example the character from Shuffle who some call a Yandere (I’ve heard she’s more of one in the Anime then in the original VN) I’m iffy on counting.  But if we count her then Shuffle’s Anime ended on January 6th 2006.

Amelie Doree has a video on the 2003 Visual Novel Cross Channel, from it I can conclude it has a character who can be considered a Yandere.

Most of Higurashi was released by the end of 2005 including the two most Yandere relevant chapters.  Getting back to the relative strictness with how I define a Yandere, Sonozaki I consider a Yandere even if atypical in some ways, while Ryugu is not a Yandere, when she acts Crazy it has nothing to do with romance, apparently she's considered a Yangire a term I know less about.

The original School Days Visual Novel was released in 2005.  And in my opinion Kotonoha is still the best Yandere.

The first Durarara!! Light Novel came out in 2004 and the second came out in 2005.  They feature even by my strictest definition multiple Yanderes.  And if you loosen the definition it might just be possible to argue this is a saga where (almost) everyone is a Yandere.

And that’s the key to my thesis really, it is particularly the role Yanderes play in Durarara!! that even in these early novels makes it feel like it’s already a cliche, like the author is on a Meta level joking about how arguably overused this character type is.

All that and I still have a hunch none of these is where the Yandere trend began.  It’s difficult to research because characters who technically qualify have always existed, with some even suggesting the first Anime Yandere was a character from Uresei Yatsura or Ranma1/2 or something like that, or even Jojo.  And Gaijin Goomba of course wants to connect it to some pre-modern Japanese Folk Tale.

But when I ask who the first Yandere is I mean the beginning of this trend in Otaku oriented Visual Novels and Light Novels of the early 2000s which may have actually began in the mid to late 90s.  There may not be a definitive single first one, but I get the sense that even the oldest of the ones I’ve discussed above were already part of a trend.

But let’s return to the mystery of why Yuno Gasai was able to steal the spotlight from all these predecessors.  Is it because she’s the best?  I already said I consider someone else the best.  But this is one of those tropes where so many people want to argue why the one they like is the only one who was written with a complex Psychological profile that makes their insanity not truly only about the person they are romantically fixated on, but the truth is they were all written with depth.

Maybe why Yuno overshadows the rest is because of the Anime adaptation, because of how well she was performed by Tomosa Murata and later in the English Dub Brina Palencia?  

Glass Reflection I remember said in his Future Diary review that he didn’t like Brina as Yuno and that ticked me off.  One of Brina’s unique talents is to sound vocally more "normal" then most Anime characters even while still having an eccentric personality.  And for the Bipolar quality that a good Yandere is supposed to have that kind of voice is actually perfect.  

Cross Channel still doesn’t have an Anime, but besides that all those Pre-Yuno Yandere also made their Anime debut before her.  Mirai Nikki started airing in the Fall of 2011.  School Days technically was an Anime in its source material but got its TV Anime in 2007.  Higurashi had its Yandere Arcs in its first season in 2006.  And both of the first two Durarara!! LNs were covered in the first season of its Anime in the first half of 2010. And they all had good VAs who did a great job bringing their character's Insanity to life.

It honestly might be more that Yuno was the LAST notable Yandere as far as actual Japanese media goes.  The shows that copy everything else about Future Diary make their female lead very much not a Yandere. Instead for the terminally online the Yandere has been kept alive by a perpetually in-development American Indie Video Game and ASMR videos.  And maybe there's some V-Tubers who's gimmick is that they're a Yandere I wouldn't know.

So when Anitube as we currently know it started Yuno was the freshest Yandere in everyone’s memory.  And for plenty of newer Anime fans she may have been the only Yandere recent enough for them to have seen in action when she was new.

Update February 13th 2026: I recently learned of a 2000 Visual Novel called Silver that has who can perhaps be considered the first Yandere of VNs named Sasai Yuuna.

Halloween Anime recommendations by Streaming App

It’s time for me to do another Halloween Anime Recommendations post. This time the structure shall be by what legal streaming sites (if any) you can watch them on, cause I think in my prior versions of this the need to say it for each entry separately and then add edits when changes happen later made them difficult to read.  But it does mean some shows may get mentioned more than once if they’re on more than one website/app.

I’m starting to write this many months in advance with the plan to post it on October 1st 2023, I intend to double check and make sure everything I say here is on a given website/app still is, but if anything slips through the cracks I apologize.  Also knowing my luck something could be taken down the day after I post this.

I’ll start with the Freest Anime Streaming Site, RetroCrush, because getting people to access what's most accessible is one of my main goals.

The Vampire Princess Miyu OVAs from the 80s are still there, and last I checked, still only Dubbed which is sad because it’s one of the few things where I don’t particularly recommend the Dub, the Dub is adequate, it certainly could have been worse, but sounds stiff at times.  But besides occasionally awkward Dub voice acting they hold up really well, with a nice mood and atmosphere amplified by really distinct sound effects.

Boogiepop Phantom is there which I wasn’t expecting.

They also have Go Nagai’s The Devil Lady which I recently watched and is pretty good.

The movie Hells is pretty fun as well.

Honestly there’s probably a lot more on Retrocrush I’m just not familiar with yet, my tastes in Anime are pretty modern, fortunately they have a Halloween Collection of their own featuring the shows I just listed.  And maybe if I’m lucky before October is over they’ll add some of the stuff I plan to talk about at the bottom of this post.

A number of Anime on Retrocrush are sometimes also on similar Free apps like Tubi, MidnightPulp and Filmrise, but I don’t feel like keeping track of which.  Since almost all Anime on any of those is also on Retrocrush with the most notable exception being Case Closed/Detective Conan which isn’t a Horror show but has the occasional Hallween episode.

Of the 50 episodes on Tubi none work as a Halloween episode. Of the original 123 on Filmrise Episode 20 A Haunted Mansion Murder Case would probably be the first.  Season 2 Episodes 6-7 Mountain Villa Bandaged Man Murder Case also works, episode 24 qualifies but it’s not one of my favorites.  Season 3 Episodes 7-8 have Ghost in the name.  Season 4 Episodes 2-3 is another Mountain Villa set up, however I feel episodes 6-7 is the most traditional Halloween episode among them since it’s Dracula themed.  Season 5 episode 6 is also worth mentioning.

I recently learned that Cowboy Bebop The Movie is essentially the Die Hard of Halloween movies and it’s only on Tubi.TV.

Pokemon has its own Free Streaming App PokemonTV, not all of the Anime is on there and much of what is often changes, but the earliest Seasons usually are as well as most spin off series not part of the main Anime.  The Early seasons have a few Spooky focused on the Ghost Pokemon, and the Generations Miniseries has one for one its Gen4 entries.

On Adult Swim’s App and Adult Swim On Demand should still be Housing Complex C which last year very quickly earned its status as an essential Halloween recommendation, it finally cracked the code of how to make Lovecraftian Horror work in a visual medium. 

HIDIVE still has some of the best Halloween Anime, but it now lacks a couple key Anime that it used to have.

On the subject of Zombie Anime, as I’ve said before, if you want something that feels like a Moe Anime take on George a Romero watch School Live!.  But if you want one that feels more like a Zack Snyder Zombie Movie go for High School of The Dead.

One of last year’s recent additions to the Halloween Anime Canon is Call of The Night which isn’t actually scary at all but is still pretty watchable and has the right vibes.

Monster Princess is a fun and trashy Halloween Anime.

Lunar Legend Tsukihime’s 2003 Anime is not liked by most fans of its franchise, but I found it enjoyable and certainly fits the season.  

Rozen Maiden also has nice Halloween vibes.

Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess will start airing on October 7th six days after I plan to post this.  So I don’t know if it’ll actually be good or not but I’ll check it out.  [Update: this show isn't what I expected, it may still be good but I don't think it fits as a Halloween show.]

[Update: The Eminence in Shadow season 2 happens to begin with a Ghoul arc.]

Honestly I wouldn't recommend subscribing to Amazon Prime just for the Streaming Anime that comes with it, but between all the good non-Anime stuff on Prime (like Britannia which can be a fun show to watch for Samhain) and saving you shipping and handling on Amazon orders there isn’t much of a reason not to get it.  In which case there are a couple Anime you can watch there specifically.

Elfen Lied I dedicated a full post to back in August..  In short it gets dismissed a lot today as the ultimate substance-less edgelord Anime, but there is a real Heart to it that those critics are ignoring, I’m even willing to call it downright Wholesome at times.  But however you interpret it there are certainly many who’d find something like it fun to watch for Halloween.

Vatican Miracle Examiner is a 2017 show I didn’t finish, but I’m willing to recommend it to people who have Prime on its first 4 episode Arc alone.  It’s like the ultimate absurd B-Movie horror premise, I don’t want to spoil where it goes, just trust me.  If only it had a Dub.

Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarock seems interesting.

In addition to the Anime that comes with Prime you could also Digitally purchase some stuff if you can afford it, like Lupin III Secret of Mamo (I don’t know which Dub the Amazon purchase comes with) which has potential Halloween appeal.  The original Vampire Hunter D is also Purchasable that way.

Hulu has some options but I wouldn’t recommend subbing to Hulu for Anime alone.  Some of what is and isn't on Hulu seems to rotate a bit, it has a lot of the same stuff HIDIVE does but I’ve never noticed any of the Halloween stuff I mentioned above on it before.  It also has some CR overlap.

The original Hellsing (not Ultimate) is another Anime I consider fun for Halloween.

Seraph of The End: Vampire Reign is a show I had fun with once a few years ago but haven’t rewatched it since.

Blood-C is amazing, I was enjoying it from early on but then was totally blown away by where it went.

Wandering Witch is about a Witch but usually isn’t actually scary.

Netflix is one of the more expensive but it does have some solid options.

Vampire in The Garden is a show I enjoyed in the Summer of 2022 but forgot to talk about when October came along.  It’s the kind of show I would have had a lot more to say about if I could have seen it during the height of my Vampire fixation in 2009-2014.

Monster is a classic 00s Anime that is on there now after lacking a legal streaming option for years.

Fate/Apocrypha is a show I cautiously recommend with its unique takes on Frankenstein and Dracula and Jack The Ripper.

Zom 100 is a new show from this year that I haven't watched any of yet myself so I don’t know if i can recommend it, I may try it during this month.

And Netflix also has some Resident Evil content.

Castlevania is a show I have mixed feelings on, including being mixed about if to even count it in an Anime discussion.  And its spin off Nocturne went up just a couple days before October started.

[Update: Good Night World released on Netflix on October 12th wound up having some Halloween appeal.]

Crunchyroll, some may argue I should’ve started there since it’s used by pretty much every Anime fan willing to pay for a legal streaming App at all.  It has a greater volume of stuff then HIDIVE, I’m not sure I want to write mini reviews of everything on there potentially relevant.

The one I most actively recommend is Garden of Sinners aka Kara No Kyoukai which sadly still isn’t dubbed but is fantastic regardless.

Gankutsuou is a classic no one should miss out on.

Sankarea is very good, I could have sworn it was on Hulu when I first watched it but now it’s only on CR.

In/Spectre is another one I'll go out of my way to recommend since some prominent Canadians have been stupidly hating on it, don’t listen to them it’s awesome. 

 Ms. Vampire who lives in my Neighborhood is a fun show from recent years.  Zombieland Saga is a show I still haven’t watched myself but I’ve heard consistently good things about it from those who have.  Holy Knight is a Vampire OVA I have mixed feelings on.

Dance in The Vampire Bund is interesting.  Its pilot works as a neat short story all on its own, I think many will enjoy it who won’t like the rest of the show.  It’s also a shaft show so can visually remind one of other Shaft shows like…. Omg it just occurred to me Monogatori could be Halloween relevant but I can’t watch it, it has no dub and is already Text heavy even before Localization.

Occultic;Nine and Chaos;Child are good recommendations if like me you’re feeling oddly Nostalgic for 2016 and 2017 this year.

Some stuff on CR may still be on Funimation if you're still subscribed to it (or if it even still exists in October), some may even still be only Dubbed there like Boogiepop Phantom.  Phantom beats the proper Boogiepop and Others Anime on pure Aesthetic, but both are worth a watch.

Witch Hunter Robin is an old personal favorite of mine that doesn’t get talked about as much as it deserves.

Of CR’s planned Fall 2023 shows starting in October, only The Family Circumstances of The Irregular Witch seems even close to relevant, but I have my doubts. [Update: turns out this is the kind of show who's one joke wears thin pretty quickly.]

[Update: Dead Mount Deathplay is a fun show with good Halloween vibes, and it's second part starts today October 10th.  Don't know if it's Dub will resume before October ends though.]

.......

Sadly there are still some Anime that can’t be legally streamed anywhere including some Halloween relevant options.  Occasionally a sufficiently old and niche one can simply be found on YouTube like Monster of Frankenstein or the Live Action Boogiepop and Others movie both of which I recommend.

I don’t want to publicly promote where I go to watch what I can’t officially watch for a number of reasons.  Otherwise I’d definitely direct people to someplace where they can watch Karin, a great early 00s hidden gem Vampire Anime.

The 90s TV Anime version of Vampire Princess Miyu is a mixed bag (especially its Dub which is indeed worse then what the OVAs got), but I do see value in some episodes so I am sad it’s not streaming anywhere.

Most of the Blood The Last Vampire franchise can’t currently be officially streamed, the original movie from 2000, Blood+, the Live Action movie and The Last Dark movie which continues the story of Blood-C, are all worth checking out. 

Detective Conan’s 25th Movie The Bride of Halloween is sadly still not officially localized for The West in any capacity.

But perhaps most tragic is the inability to legally watch Umineko When They Cry anywhere.  Like Tsukihime I'm nearly alone in considering it’s Anime good, but I consider it very good, I rank it much higher than Tsukihime. Its penultimate episode made me Cry.

And it turns out even Higurashi isn’t on HIDIVE anymore, along with Vampire Hunter D.  Two of the absolute must sees.  Night Walker is also gone.

I may add updates to this post if anything changes before October is over.

Sometimes it's actually unethical not to Spoil a story.

When Doki Doki Literature Club first blew up back in 2017, one aspect of the conversation around it was occasionally how the Tigger Warnings at the beginning kind of Spoils the game, and yet it would still be wrong not to have them.  Fortunately the game is good enough at immersing the player during the hours it spends pretending to be a normal Visual Novel that you may very well have just forgotten about the Warnings by the time stuff starts happening.

DDLC's trigger warnings fortunately did not have to be very specific, there are lot of things they could have been referring to.  And even more Fortunately one potentially Triggering trope DDLC does not do is have a twist where a character we thought was a Cis Woman turns out to be a manipulative psychotic Trans Woman serial killer.  If that had happened, it would in my opinion warrant a more specific trigger warning.

That is a very specifically problematic trope that may be very potentially triggering to some people not necessarily inherently bothered by any broader trigger warnings it could be classified under.  But it is also a trope that is inherently a twist, you can't warn someone that it's coming without Spoiling the story in-question.  But I have no respect for the artistic intentions of creators who choose to use that damaging trope.  I am still a Libertarian when it coms to Free Speech, I have no desire to ban works that engage in Problematic tropes I hate, but the people who want to avoid this Trope also have the right to be warned about it.

In the case of this Trope it goes beyond being unethical to not spoil it, I'd call it outright Immoral to try to prevent people from giving this plot point away on the grounds that preserving Twists is some inherent virtue of your personal Internet Ethics.

I'd been playing by the old rules even though I've felt this way on the inside for awhile.  The Umineko Visual Novel does this trope yet I still didn't discus it till after the Spoiler warning in my Umineko post.  And NezumiVA is a Trans Woman Anituber who did an hour long spoiler free video on Umineko.  Some Trans Anime Fans aren't bothered by what Umineko did, but they need to understand that their being okay with it doesn't mean others will be, and some younger Trans Anime Fans may assume that because someone like NezumiVA recommended it without any qualifiers it must be completely free of any Transphobic tropes only to be very triggered when they invest countless hours into the VNs without any warning of what's coming.

Again I've been guilty of what I'm criticizing here myself in the past, I increasingly feel guilty how often I've recommended Pretty Little Liars to people while forgetting to bring up it's use of this trope in it's last 2 seasons.

That's just one example of an inherently Problematic Twist, there are others I'm sure, but this is the one I have personal experience with.

But after that is the perhaps more trivial but still worth discussing matter of cases where how something is marketed makes an aspect of it a Spoiler that clearly shouldn't be based on how the text itself is written.

Catwoman: Hunted is an animated movie that has no twists, saying exactly how the villain is defeated in the end can still be called a Spoiler, but the identity of the villain certainly is not.  The movie is NOT a mystery, who the main antagonist is is obvious very early in the film, way to early to at all be worth calling a spoiler.  Yet I got in trouble with a prominent YouTube channel on Twitter for referring to that villain on the grounds that it's a Spoiler.

The only reason the identity of the villain can at all be considered a Spoiler is because it was Marketed as if Black Mask were the villain. he's the only antagonist on the Cover.  But in the text itself he obviously is not the main villain, he is set up as less important then Minerva from the start.

I don't know why they did this.  It could be the film entered production before Wonder Woman 84 came out with the expectation that it would make Cheetah a big deal, but then after it had poor reception from the loudest online Nerds they decided to avoid the now tainted character in how they promoted it.  Either way though when something clearly not a twist in the script is inexplicably concealed in the marketing, I feel professional reviewers and other such online Fandom Influencers have a responsibility to clear up that Bait and Switch, not collaborate with it.

Now since Minerva doesn't take on a Cheetah look till the final battle, and some casual viewers may not instantly know to associate the name of Minerva with Cheetah, perhaps this Minerva becoming Cheetah you can argue is sufficiently a surprise.  But the Tweets I made didn't even say Cheetah, so to such a casual fan all it really gives away is that it's not Black Mask, and again anyone planning to watch this movie as specifically Black Mask fans should know going in that he is even less significant then he was in the Red Hood movie.

You would have to be fairly in the know to get specifically Cheetah from "most overused Wonder Woman villain" which is really only even true in the specific context of Animated DC projects.  Even then exactly what Cheetah is has been inconsistent over the years, I did not give away what kind of Cheetah you'll be getting.

But these DC Animated films are not made for casual fans, they are mostly made for the people who will recognize every obscure name they pull out.  And if Catwoman: Hunted were an exception they wouldn't have been so nonchalant about having a group of Crime Bosses summon Demons, Aliens and Robots to battle in the middle of a film that started as a simple Heist movie.  Even the most fantastical Lupin III movies are not that casual about their fantastical elements.  Only Superhero movies are this all over the place genre wise.

Umineko's Anime is Great

Umineko is different from most cases of my defending a Visual Novel based Anime hated by fans of the source material.  Though my basic argument that the Anime needs to be judged as it's own thing first before bringing source material comparison into it (which VN zealots constantly refuse to do) remains.

In those other cases the Anime adaptation doesn't fundamentally change anything about what happens, it's mostly fans being upset about stuff cut that they liked, but all that cut stuff is probably still Canon in the Anime it's just off screen or in most cases literally in a POV character's head.  In Umineko however actual changes happen making it so what is happening in the Anime can't be the same as what was happening in the VN.

Before I get into those changes however, I want to describe for you my experience watching the Anime as someone who went in knowing only that it's a spiritual sequel to Higurashi.  Because I knew the connection to Higurashi I figured the timeline would restart every 4 to 6 episodes but nothing else.

It starts as an Anime take on a fairly generic murder mystery set up, the first 4 and a half episodes do a good job of establishing the characters and making me interested, and there was definitely a sense that it was being self aware about the clichés it is playing with, I happen to like that style of metafiction.  I was having a good time but it was not something I'd recommend outside the specific context of Anime to watch during October.

Then in the midst of episode 5 during what seemed to my Higurashi memory like an Arc's climax the show suddenly cuts to the characters sitting around talking about the "bad end" having a conversation that feels like one of those non canon Meta conversations characters often have over the next episode preview.  Then Battler starts questioning things and then stuff starts happening and then the Witch shows up, and he starts arguing that witches don't exist, to the Witch standing in front of him.  Then it cuts to Lady Bernkastel and I'm like "she looks and sounds familiar".

Then the show goes off the rails in the best way possible, it gets so absurd and wacky and over the top and I loved every minute of it, the Brass knuckles, the witch battles, the juggling between realities and time periods.  But as all that's happening I also start to get genuinely more invested in the characters and before I know it the penultimate episode makes my Cry, something that then still happened to me fairly rarely, this show that I was a few hours ago tweeting about as a show to watch for the absurd ridiculousness now has me in tears.

When a show or movie makes me Cry it's pretty much a guaranteed 10 out of 10, there would have to be some significant problems to cancel that out and Umineko had none.  So no matter what the VN differences were gonna turn out to be, the Anime as it's own stand alone piece of art irreversibly earned it's status as an Artistic Masterpiece.

Now as I discus the VN differences I will have to get into spoilers, though I'll try to keep them minimal.

Halloween Anime Recommendations Redux

I figured I’m long overdue for an updating of my Anime Halloween Recommendations.  This one will mostly not be about ranking them besides that I will start with is my Number 1.  Instead I will divide it into sections.

I’ll try to always identify places where you can legally stream them, but some can’t be legally streamed anywhere and I feel it's risky to publicly name any unofficial sites on my public blog.  Note anything I say is on Crunchyroll should also be on VRV, but at this point VRV is no longer worth the extra money it costs. I think more of these are on HIDIVE than any other single site, fortunately HIDIVE has a fairly cheap monthly subscription, and they offer a 14 day Free trial.

My Absolute Number 1.

Is still Higurashi When They Cry.  But it has become necessary recently for me to qualify myself.  Start with the first season of the original 2006 Studio Deen Anime which you can watch on HIDIVE, sadly only that of the older Higurashi Anime was ever Dubbed.  Then watch Season 2 also on HIDIVE which is also called Kai.  

Then take a break, sit on that material knowing that for a long time that was the entire story besides some ambiguously canonical side stories.  

Then watch the Rei OVAs also on HIDIVE, then the Kira OVAs which aren’t.  

Then watch Umineko When They Cry which also isn’t legally streaming anywhere, most hardcore fans hate that Anime especially but I prefer it to the VN’s story.

Then take a longer break, and consider watching Gou and SOTSU which are Higurahsi When They Cry New on Hulu.  I find these to have worthwhile content but not nearly the masterpieces the original story was.  So please treat their canonicity as optional.  [August 2022 Update: Gao and Stosu are also on Crunchyroll now including an English Dub.  I hate that this has a Dub but not Kai or Rei.]

Part 2: Some Retro Recommendations.

I mean truly retro, like even most Millennials can't remember when they were brand new.

The Vampire Princess Miyu OVAs from the 80s which are on three Free streaming sites, TubiTV, RetroCrush and Midnightpulp.  It’s a four episode OVA originally but sometimes it’s streamed as two Volumes in which what is usually referred to as the second episode is part of Volume 1.  Also in this case only the Dub is streaming for some reason. [Update March 2023: it's gone from Tubi now but still on the other two.]

Vampire Hunter D, the original 1986 film which holds up better than it’s overhyped sequel.  HIDIVE streams this one both Subbed and the Sentai Dub, which is a good Dub.  But it seems that you will have to turn to Piracy or finding old VHS tapes if you want to experience the original Streamline Dub.

Kyoufu Densetsu Kaiki! Frankenstein called in English The Monster Of Frankenstein or Frankensteins Monster, Horror Legend - Bizarre! Frankenstein.  This movie also isn’t legally streaming anywhere. I watched it on YouTube, however it might not be there anymore since it’s Toei and they've gotten more aggressive recently as PreCure and Sailor Moon focused YouTubers have learned.  It has a Dub that was actually recorded in the 80s, like one of the very oldest Dubs in existence.  I reviewed the movie on MAL a few years ago.

Part 3: Some Millennial era Stuff.

Nightwalker which is an Anime I talked about earlier in the Month. [Update: it's now on RetroCrush]

Hellsing, I only recommend the original, never Ultimate.  This one’s on Funimation.  [Update August 2022: Hellsing is on Cruncyhroll now.]

Witch Hunter Robin, which I’m personally very nostalgic for, but I don’t know how many others remember it.  It’s also on Funimation.  [Update March 2023: and now it's on Crunchyroll.]

Princess Resurrection is more Campy Halloween fun than ever actually scary, but I enjoyed it.  It’s another one on HIDIVE.

Part 4: If you’re into Fate/ try some other Nasuverse Type Moon stuff.

Kara No Kyoukai, called Garden of Sinners in English, can now be streamed on Crunchyroll but it doesn’t have a Dub.  It’s from UFOtable who did the Fate/Zero Anime, the TV Anime of Unlimited Blade Works and the Heaven’s Feel movies so it looks as great as they do.  And Yuki Kajiura does the music which is always a treat.

Tsukihime has an older Anime from 2003 which does have a Dub but isn’t legally streaming anywhere.  Many hate that Anime, but I’m baffled by people who continue to dismiss it but defend Deen/Stay Night. I feel it holds up far better.  Because Tsukihime is more Horror Genre then Fate/ I feel it’s “cheaper” looking presentation suits it better then Deen/Stay Night, similar to Deen’s Higurashi stuff [Update too late: turns out Tsukihime is on HIDIVE as well and I didn't notice.]

Part 5: Zombie Anime

If you want an Anime Version of a George A Romero Zombie movie, I recommend School Live! on HIDIVE.

If you want something more like Zach Snyder’s Zombie movies I recommend HighSchool of The Dead also on HIDIVE. [Update: I also spotted this on Hulu today.]

If you want something outside the standard Zombie format altogether but that still feels appropriate for Halloween, Sankarea was a good show.  I could have sworn I stumbled upon it earlier this year on either Hulu or Netflix, but now it’s showing up only on Funimation.  [Update August 2022: This is on Crunchyroll now.]

Part 6: Something very Modern.

In/Spectre from last year was a very fun and thought provoking show.  It’s on HBOMax and I’m sure other sites too, but I want people to choose sites like HBOmax, Disney+, Netflix or Hulu over Anime specific sites when they can to encourage those sites to consider Anime worth investing in so more Anime can become more easily accessible.  [Update August 2022: and thanks to recent devleoptments I no longer want to encourage people to Sub to HBOmax, fortunately In/Spectre including the Dub is on Crunchyroll now.]

Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood is a slice of life Anime with Yuri undertones about Vampires.  It’s on Crunchyroll and apparently it has a Dub now, I’m pretty sure it didn’t have a Simuldub and thus I had watched it Subbed.

Juggalo Anime Recommendations (Also Bone Thugs)

I'm not a Juggalo but my brother is, so I know a lot about that community that the average outsider probably doesn't.

But also I'm an Otaku.  Being an Otaku and a Juggalo are kind of parallel in how to outsiders it just seems like a fancy way of saying you're a fan of something (Anime in one case and in the other the Insane Clown Posse hence forth called ICP for short and affiliated artists), but there is in fact a deeper hard to define identity behind it.  You weren't an ICP fan before you listened to ICP music but you were probably already a Juggalo.  Likewise I only got enough into Anime to even start considering calling myself an Otaku in the latter half of 2016, but what an Otaku is I in fact always was.

There is also how it sometimes becomes almost a quasi religion.  While Juggalos symbolize God as a Dark Carnival of freaky clowns, Otaku symbolize God as a Cute Anime Girl in Sailor Fuku.  

Also like with a lot of insular fan communities that chiefly interact online there has been post Gamer Gate an increasing visibility of the loud minority of political reactionaries in each community tainting how they were once perceived as fairly inherently progressive.  My brother and I are both Socialists.

One of the roles I have self appointed myself in the modern Anime community is being someone who thinks they know how to recommend potential entry points to people who haven't tried it yet.  And in this case one of the things I think Juggalos and Otaku sometimes have in common is their sense of humor.

You see I think I might very well be the only non Juggalo who's watched Big Money Hustlas and found it funny, I get the sense of humor it's going for, meanwhile Big Money Rustlas which has had better luck at getting nice things said about it from Normie critics I found rather unappealing.

Now there are a lot of Comedy Anime out there going for a lot of different styles of humor.  But the first Anime to pop into my mind as material that might be enjoyable to the same people who find Big Money Hustlas funny are Nabeshin shows like Nerima Daikon Brother and Excel Saga.  The first one I listed is probably better for people new to Anime, if you've seen The Blues Brothers you have basically have all the pop cultural context you really need.  Excel Saga has a lot of meta going for it that makes a working knowledge of the 30 years of Anime history leading up to it helpful, but still I don't necessarily think entirely necessary.  I hate that neither show it seems can be legally streamed online right now.

Those are comedy recommendations.  Juggalos are also known for being into the Horror genre.  Recommending Horror Anime has already become a recurring theme of this blog, but it's become increasingly necessary for me to qualify my recommendation of Higurashi When They Cry.  

Please for the love of God start with the 2006 Deen Anime and then it's sequel Kai, and then take a break, contemplate that story knowing that for a long time what was all there was, they are legally streaming on HIDIVE and can be found for free on sites I won't risk linking to here.  Then maybe give the Rei and Kira OVAs a shot but their canonicity was always ambiguous at best and their goofiest episodes definitely not cannon.  For the Gou series that started in late 2020 and it's follow up Sotsu which is still airing (officially in English often called Higurahsi When They Cry New) I won't have a final verdict till I see how it ends which I now fear even Sotsu won't have the final ending, right now my feelings are complicated leaning towards not liking it.

Now when it comes to Umineko When They Cry, as the only person who seems to truly love it's Anime version, I think Juggalos if they found it might appreciate it.  It can't legally be streamed anywhere right now however.

For Zombie Media, the Anime equivalent to the George A Romero films would be School-Live! aka Gakkou Gurashi!  While something more like Zack Snyder's Dawn of The Dead for better and for worse would be High School of The Dead.  Both are also on HIDIVE along with Vampire Hunter D and Princess Resurrection which I haven't watched yet.

The 80s Vampire Princess Miyu OVAs are on TUBi, RetroCrush and Midnight Pulp if I remember correctly.

Many Juggalos are also into the Music of Bone Thugs N Harmony, and I have two kinds of recommendations based on that.  First my favorite Anime Composer, Yuji Kajiura, has a musical style that I feel can at times have a similar appeal to that of DJ U-Neek who is Bone's main Producer.

She did the music for most of the old Bee Train shows of which I still consider her best work to be Noir followed closely by it's sister serises Madlax and El Cazador de la Bruja.  She then did Mai Hime a show I still haven't watched most of yet, and the Kara no Kyoukai films, then really hit it big in 2011 with the one two punch of scoring Fate/Zero and Puella Magi Madoka Magica.  Since then she's done Princess Principal which was great, Demon Slayer which is a Shonen I didn't watch, the Heaven's Feel Trilogy, Lord El Melloi's Case Files and more.

She also did the Music for at least one Live Action Japanese film and that's the Boogiepop movie from 2000.

Boogiepop and Others is a series of Light Novels that started in the 90s that in-spite of their influence didn't get a proper Anime till 2019.  The Author of that series liked to reference in various ways the Music he was into.  And one of those was clearly Bone Thugs N Harmony because the prequel novel features a character named Mo Murda (but that gets back translated into English Localizations as Mo Murder by people not getting the reference) which is a confirmed reference to the multitude of songs Bone made with some variation of that title.

The 2019 Boogie Pop Anime is difficult to talk about, because I found it pretty enjoyable when I watched it not knowing what they cut.  But it's first three episodes are to anyone in the know a frustratingly abridged version of the first novel.  The live action movie is a much better adaptation of that source material.

The 2019 Anime still has value, the books adapted for the latter half of the 18 episode season I feel were adapted much better, at least in that the Anime version can stand on it's own better.  Episodes 10-13 is the Prequel story, Boogiepop At Dawn which contains the Bone reference character mentioned above.  

The Live Action Boogiepop movie doesn't and shouldn't have a Dub, for LA that's an inherently more awkward process.  For the 2019 Anime I like the English Dub but I'm known for being not too Dub critical in general, either way of consuming it should work fine, do what ever you'd generally prefer.  Same is true of everything else recommended except Higurahsi Kai and Umineko which sadly don't have Dubs.  Nerima Daikon Brothers might be the one that's most better to watch Dubbed, since it's unique musical nature can be harder to follow subbed even for people very used to it, that of course could make it more difficult for a Dub to work, but they pulled it off spectacularly.

Horror is a genre that generally does better when it’s low budget

 or at least seems low budget from a 21st century perspective, the Lugosi Dracula and Karlof Frankenstein may have been the most expensive films of 1931 for all I know.  My point is in the Hammer Dracula movies it’s not a bug that all the blood looks obviously like red candle wax, it’s a feature.

Sometimes the superficial expectations of what “high quality” looks like doesn’t actually fit the aesthetic of the kind of story at hand, it’s similar with classic Film Noir.

Big Budget movies about Frankenstein or Dracula just wind up looking like superhero movies using Victorian pulp rather than comic books as their source material.  I enjoy some of those movies, but they aren’t movies I’d recommend watching as Horror.

My reason for this rant here is that every week now when a new HigurashiGou comes out there is somewhere a twitter image comparing an old 2006 Higurashi screenshot to it’s Gou counterpart saying “and you think Deen looked better then Gou”.  And it feels similar to what I ranted about in that old Sakuga post.

Art is subjective.  And Gou is not objectively better because it looks more pristine and shinier and more like an average generic 2010s Anime.  Rather that is exactly why it no longer feels like Higurashi to me.  I enjoy plenty of generic 2010s Anime, but that’s not what I watch Higurashi for.

I don’t want to dunk on Gou, it’s not the worst looking, I can tolerate it more than Pokemon Sun and Moon which I dislike for similar reasons, and the storyline has my attention still.  My point is the old Higurashi worked, it became nigh universally considered the best Horror Anime partly because of the very visual aspects these people are now trying to bury it for.

This is not any kind of Childhood Nostalgia for me, I first watched Higurashi in 2017, my first post about it on this Blog was when I had just first watched it, so not even half a decade yet have I been into it.  What I do have childhood Nostalgia for is Sailor Moon. I'd started seeing it on TV before it was ever on Toonami even.  And I am fine with how Sailor Moon Crystal looks, it also looks very different from the 90s Anime, but it’s not simply trying to force those character designs into the most conventionally modern artstyle, the opposite really, it's trying to be stylistically faithful to a 90s Manga in a way the limitations of 90s Anime couldn't.  

But perhaps a more apt comparison is Fate/Stay Night another Visual Novel adapted by Deen in 2006 and then later by a more "respectable" studio with "seemingly" more budget put into the Animation.  Fate/ has horror elements but that's not it's primary appeal.  So yes for Fate/ the Deen Anime is almost unwatchable to me while UFOTable is in every way an improvement.  But the reason Deen's style didn't suit Fate/ as well is because Fate/ is meant to feel Epic and Mythical rather then Spooky.  

My plea to Horror YouTubers to talk about more Horror Anime?

If you'r afraid "I don't understand Anime enough to have the proper context for this" good, that's exactly the perspective this conversation needs.

You see there is a Meme in the Anime Community that Horror is a genre Anime isn't good at.  And in my opinion the main reason for that is most discussion of these shows are from people who're more into Anime then they are Horror and so only have the most surface level assumptions about what the goal of Horror even is.  The only non Anime Horror they've seen is the most mainstream well known stuff, to make an analogy they'd understand, the Horror equivalent of the only Anime you've seen being what airs on Toonami and a couple Ghibli films.

I don't consider myself nearly a Horror fanatic, but I definitely feel like I've seen a lot more western horror then Mother's Basement or Gigguk or Digi-nee.  I've seen lots of Universal and Hammer stuff and the major Slasher franchises, but also the kinds of movies that show up in those 50 movies for 20 dollars box sets you used to be able to buy at K-Mart during Halloween season.  And I've read more pre-Dracula vampire stories then anyone else who's blog isn't explicitly a Vampire themed Blog.  And in the context of all that I think Anime does Horror just fine.

And the thing is I feel like other Genres don't have this problem in how their Anime installments are talked about nearly as much.  There are plenty of non-Horror YouTubers I wish would dip their toes into Anime more often, and I make recs I think will suit them in their comments sections.  But SFdebris has given a normie SciFi nerd's perspective on some SciFi and Fantasy Anime, the Anime heroes that most resemble American Comic Book Superheros have been talked about by Comic Book YouTubers, Death Note has been talked about by every normie who could possibly have something interesting to say about it, and we've had normie Feminists talk about Utena at least in print.

All of those are things I'd like to see more of, but they don't have the complete dearth that Horror Anime has.  The most interesting videos on Higurashi are from someone who mostly makes their name talking about PreCure.

Now most of the YouTubers I'm thinking of are mostly talking about Movies not more serialized formats.  So that might be a problem since none of the top Anime Horror I recommend are movies.  But the 80s Vampire Princess Miyu OVAs are about the same total length as a movie, so perhaps they're the best place to start.

So people like Dark Corners and In Praise of Shadows  the opposite of your perspective on Anime Horror we have more then enough of, your takes are now needed to balance things out.

So start with the Miyu OVAs, find out which Anime Horror movies are considered good or at least interesting, I have no recs there yet besides maybe that early 80s Frankenstein movie.  Then when you're ready to devote time to some TV Anime get on School Live and Higurashi.

I'm making this plea at the start of July hoping I can inspire someone to have something ready by this October.  Dark Corners now has a series specifically on stuff you can stream, a lot of Anime is streaming, apparently the Miyu OVAs are on Tubi now.

Episodes 1 and 2
Episodes 3 and 4
[Update: I was suprised to see Tubi has the Dub (and only the Dub from what I can tell) for this one, Tubi usually only has Subs from what I've tried to watch there before.
The OVAs have a pretty good Dub so it should be fine.]

Don't use only my recommendations though.  There is a lot I haven't even seen yet.

Update:  These Horror YouTuber have talked about serises of Horror Films though, and in that context maybe dividing Higurashi up between it's Arcs would work.

What is the actual goal of the Horror Genre?

Mother's Basement has recently added another video to the ongoing saga of AniTubers lamenting that Horror is one genre they feel Anime really has trouble with.  And I notice these critiques often act like Scaring the viewer is a horror story's only or primary goal, like something has to give them nightmares to be truly a success, but is it though?

When I made my Halloween Anime recommendations back in 2017 I defined myself as not a traditional horror fan since I've never been truly scared by any horror fiction or sought to be. I've been startled by jump scares, creeped out by things, and felt that spooky atmosphere, but never truly scared and certainly never had nightmares from them, and I've watched plenty of the classic staples of the genre.  But as I've thought about it more since then I've realized that's not so unusual, my brother says he's also never really been scared by any either, and if he isn't a hardcore horror fan I don't know who is.

So in fact I can't help but feel like most discussion of Horror Anime is really stilted by how it comes from people who are ultimately more into Anime then Horror.  So when someone says "Higurashi isn't scary, it's just Cute Girls being Creepy" I'm like "yeah, a lot of Western live action Horror is about cute little kids being creepy too", from Bad Seed to Children of The Corn.  Shows like Higurashi just merge that common form of Horror with Moe tropes.  Maybe that I'm one of the few people who kind of enjoyed Omen IV:The Awakening is another thing that foreshadowed by Otakuness.

I think the main appeal of the Slasher genre tends to be sadism, they're made for men who get off on watching women be brutally killed, and it's the same with the sub genre Saw and Hostile started, I have no intention of recommending what Anime to appeal to that impulse.  Which is why it's never been a genre I like much, but I do enjoy some Halloween movies and the first couple Child's Play films.

Classic Universal and Hammer monster movies are mainly about the Gothic Aesthetic, both done as a period piece and sometimes as being about the Gothic infecting the modern world.  Jason Colavito likes to try and distinguish Gothic from Horror as a Genre (he says American Horror Story is really Gothic not Horror) but the truth is Classic Horror was always mainly about the Gothic.

How do you translate that Gothic appeal into Anime?  There are two ways.  One is simply Anime depicting the same European Gothic aesthetic of those movies, a lot of Anime is inspired by Western media.  The other is to look at Japan's history and culture and figure out what the uniquely Japanese equivalent of Gothic Horror would be, and again I feel that is another thing Higurashi does perfectly.

And it is the importance Aesthetics plays in Horror that makes me totally reject this common assertion that the abstract nature of Animation is somehow an obstacle.  Do Black and White horror movies work because people think that color pallet is what the 20s-50s actually looked like?  Do Silent Horror films work because we think people didn't talk back then?  No of course not.

Basically I reject even the starting premise of this debate that Anime has been less successful at Horror then other mediums.  Over the last 3-5 years the Anime versions have become my favorite versions of most genres, and Gothic/Horror is no different.  It's just Horror is the one genre where I still haven't seen as much yet.

And of course the Horror Fandom also includes people who love laughing at Campy Cheesy so Bad it's Good Horror, and the 90s and early 2000s avalanche of schlock dubbed by studios like Central Park Media and ADV that inevitably get riffed by Anime Abandon provide plenty to scratch that itch.

MithrandirOlorin’s Halloween Anime Recommendations.

I’m by no means the first Otaku to provide some Halloween season Anime recommendations in October.  So why care about mine?

October 31st happens to be my Birthday.  So even though I’ve defined myself as not a Horror fan in the strictest sense (in that I’m not looking to be scared by any fiction I watch) I have other reasons for enjoying a lot of stuff in the Horror and Gothic genres.  And I have a lot of memories of enjoying such fiction during the Halloween season.  

I love the classic Universal Monster movies, I’ve also enjoyed many Hammer films.  And other more obscure horror movies, like those Public Domain ones you sometimes find in DVD box sets selling 50 for only $10.  Slasher films I’ve tended to not be fond of, but I do enjoy Halloween 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6.  And some of my favorite episodes of Western live Action television have been Halloween specials, from NCIS episodes like Witch Hunt to Pretty Little Liars‘ epic trilogy of Halloween specials.  Plus I love the first two Ghostbusters movies, and I don’t hate the reboot.

Since I’ve become mainly an Anime watcher over the last couple of years.  It’s overdue that I make some Anime Halloween recommendations.  Though I feel kinda like I haven’t watched enough Horror centric Anime.

I listened to about like an hour of the Podcast that Mother’s Basement did with Digibro, Gigguk and BestGuyEver about their Halloween recommendations.  And really none sound like they fit what I look for this time of year, but they might for others.

One thing Gigguk said that rubbed me the wrong way, was that he doesn’t like how Anime Horror is too “aesthetically pleasing”.  I don’t like how western horror in recent years is so obsessed with being Aesthetically ugly.  I like the first two Saw movies as Mysteries, and that’s about it from the Torture Porn genre.  And I like none of those movies that revolve around women crawling out of caves all slimy and muddy and dirty.  Classic Horror, like Universal and Hammer gave us, was very Aesthetically pleasing, it was simply a Gothic Aesthetic.

These recommendations are largely for people relatively new to Anime in general, if you have a respectable MAL already you’ve probably at least tasted all or most of these.  If however you consider yourself a hardcore Otaku and you’ve missed any one of these, you need to reconcile that immediately.

Why give Halloween themed recommendations to Newbies?  Maybe Horror or Gothic romance simply is your favorite genre and so Halloween fitting Anime would be the best entry point possible.  Or maybe now simply is the time you decided to finally give Japanimation a shot.  Or maybe you’re already at phase 2 or 3 of burrowing down the Otaku rabbit hole and are looking for new routes to dig into.  Perhaps specifically saving the Horror Route for October.

One more note before I start.  I haven’t watched the Castlevania series on Netflix yet.  I’ve decided to wait till during this Halloween season (and thus after I’ve already posted this) to watch it.  Then I might talk about it somewhere if I feel compelled to.  (Turns out it’s not actually Anime.)  I don’t want to include in this list something that hasn’t already stood the test of time somewhat.  And it gives me something new for the season to enjoy myself.  It annoys me that the Godzilla Anime doesn’t drop till November.

1. I’ve already declared When They Cry/Higurashi the ideal Horror Anime.  If you haven’t seen it yet, don't read that post past the Spoiler Warning.  In summary what I’ll say here is it has very much the Japanese equivalent of a Gothic Aesthetic.  And it makes an engaging mystery, with well done shocking moments.  And never abuses the Jump Scare.  
   
   
   But one thing I forgot to mention in that post was the Score, the Music in this show is perfect at setting an eerie mood.  If you can find the music on it’s own, it’d be excellent for a Haunted House.  
   
   
   Another note before moving on, for the numbered entries here I’m not recommending entire franchises but single series that might be part of larger franchises but still have a distinct entry on MAL or most Streaming sites.  For Higurashi it’s really only season 1 I’m recommending for October viewing.  Season 2 (Kai) is perhaps better for early November, when you’re kinda still in a Halloween mood, but want to phase yourself out of it before Christmas.  (Don’t expect Christmas recommendations BTW.)
   
   
2. Vampire Princess Miyu, the 4 episode 80s OVA.  This would be best if you want something shorter to get your feet wet.  It’s probably the only pre-2000 Anime I’ll recommend here.  It similarly has the Japanese equivalent to a Gothic Aesthetic.  And I really like it’s use of sound effects.  I also like the 90s TV series, but that’s better watched in the context of how to make a darker Magical Girl show.
   
   
3. School Live I now consider the best Zombie Anime.  Highschool of The Dead still has value, but if you’re gonna watch only one watch School Live.  Don’t let the cuteness fool you, it gets pretty scary.  And it isn’t filled with tasteless fanservice.
   
   
4. Witch Hunter Robin.  I can’t believe I haven’t talked about this on this blog more yet, since it’s about as ancient as the BeeTrain trilogy in my development as an Anime Fan.  It’s use of its horror elements is pretty interesting.  It's also got intrigue.  And is one of the best examples of why I love the 26 episode structure.
   
   
5. Hellsing, (the original Anime not Ultimate).  Is a satisfying Anime spin off to the legacy of Bram Stoker’s novel.  While all of the above 4 have Dubs, and the Dub is what I watched, this is the only one I feel confident in calling a top tier Dub, after all Alucard is Crispin Freeman.  Though I will say for Miyu not to write off the OVA’s dub based on how the 90s show’s gets called one of the worst of all time, it’s a very different Dub.

The only honorable mention I shall provide is the Fate/ franchise as a whole, it has Horror elements but that is not quite it’s main appeal.   But since the mythology/folklore is a large part of why I’m into Horror in the first place, it does overlap well with part of why I like Fate/ so much.  From the quasi Lovecraftian quality of Fate/Zero’s Caster, to the Fate/Stay Night:Unlimited Blade Works Caster’s berserk button being when she’s called a Witch.   Those are as I’ve explained before the best entry points to Fate/.  

Heck, Rin Tosaka pretty much always dresses like it’s Halloween.

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, is the worst entry point only appealing at all if you're really into the niche it’s made for.  I am, so I enjoy even it’s much maligned Dub.  But as the ultimately least dark version of the Fate/ universe, it still has some solid Halloween season material.

The Grand Order OVA’s Dub becomes available this October, so I’ll also be watching that before the month is over, I can’t comment on it before then.  But on the subject of single episode OVAs, Fate/Prototype can be a spooky quick Halloween viewing experience.

But another reason I couldn’t leave Fate/ out of this post is that Fate/Apocrypha is a currently airing show that includes the characters of Vlad The Impaler and Frankenstein’s Monster, and also Jack The Ripper, and Semiramis is fairly Witchy.  So if any currently airing TV Anime this October needs to be mentioned it’s that one.  The tone however doesn’t fit Halloween as well as the other shows from what I’ve seen so far, unfortunately.  Maybe they’re saving the scarier bits for the Fall, either way it is again not a good entry point for Fate/.

As of episodes 8 and 9, Vlad and Frank’s characters are finally getting some good exploration.  And as of episode 11 I’m very into it.

Normally a list like this doesn’t end on the honorable mention.  But I organized this from the top down anyway.

It turns out this year’s October 31st will be the last day the legal streaming site www.Daisuki.Net operates, it’s being shut down.  So this month is your last chance to watch any Anime there.  But it has none of what I’ve recommended so that’s not actually helpful here.

Vampire Princess Miyu and Witch Hunter Robin had past legal western releases, but I can’t find them currently legally streaming anywhere.

School Live, Hellsing and Fate/ should be easy enough to find legally, between Crunchyroll, Funimation’s Website and Netflix.

Higurashi I was having trouble finding on any legal site, but then I found HIDIVE.  You can watch stuff free with ads, but need a paying subscription to view the Dubs it has.  For Higurashi the Dub isn’t that well received anyway, I was okay with it mostly but I can see why others wouldn’t be.  School Live is also on that site.  And it has some Fate/ stuff as well.
Update One Year Later: Now Witch Hunter Robin is on Funimation and VRV, but Miyu is still not legal anywhere.  Higurashi season 1 is now also on Hulu and Yahoo but season 2 is still only on HIDIVE.

Update May 2021: The English Dub of the Miyu OVAs are now on TubiTV, MidnightPulp and RetroCrush.  

Higurashi is still on HIDIVE (and VRV via HIDIVE) but that site doesn't have legal free viewing anymore.  Gou is on Hulu and FUNimation but I do NOT recommend watching it till you've seen the main series.

Witch Hunter Robin is still on FUNimation but not on VRV anymore.  Hellsing is also on FUNi and School Live! is on HIDIVE/VRV.  Most of Fate/ can be watched on either Netflix or HIDIVE.

When They Cry/Higurashi the ideal Horror Anime

Strictly speaking I'm not a Horror fan.  I've never been truly scared by any fiction I've consumed, nor have I ever sought that reaction.  So the presumed main appeal of Horror stories does not apply to me.

But I have enjoyed many stories in the Horror genre for other reasons.  I'm interested in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy elements they sometimes use, which overlaps with my interest in mythology and folklore, both real and fictional.  I enjoy mysteries and thrillers and Hitchcock style suspense.  And I can enjoy psychological horror because I like character pieces, I like exploring and developing interesting characters, and something like telling a story from the POV of someone slowly going insane from Paranoia can be an interesting way to do that.

But my lack of interest in most modern Horror tends to come from a deteriorating appreciation for the idea that "less is more".  I get tired of endless Jump Scares and gratuitous blood and gore.

I'm also someone who has spent the last few years increasingly turning almost exclusively to Anime for my entertainment media.  I haven't watched much Horror anime yet, a few that have horror elements but are still not chiefly about being horror, like Future Diary.  And yes even the Zombie anime I talked about last year was not really a horror story.

But this last week I decided to check out Higurashi no Naku Korro ni (sometimes just shortened to Higurashi) rendered in English as both When They Cry and The Moment the Cicades Cry.  This Anime has much of why I'm interested in Horror stories, and none of what commonly bugs me about them.  And It's also had positive reviews from people who are Horror fans much more so then I am.

This show has some of the most notoriously gory scenes in all of Anime.  But it uses those moments sparingly, building up to them and earning them.  And it has exactly 1 scene that could qualify as a Jump scare, and even that is perfectly executed.

I'm not the only one who was reminded of The Wicker Man at certain moments (the original, I haven't seen the remake).  And I suspect it has some Twin Peaks influence too.  It is very much the Japanese version of a Gothic Novel.  But it's also very creative and original, and non-linear.  It's a period piece set in June 1983 but not constantly throwing the 80s in your face the way western TV shows set in the 80s do.

And that is my Spoiler Free recommendation.




Spoiler Warning.



I'm someone who often doesn't mind being spoiled, I'll intentionally read a book's afterward before the actual story.  But if there is anything I've watched where I'm glad I wasn't spoiled going in it is this Anime.  Because I was born in 1985 people don't believe me when I say I was surprised by Vader begin Luke's father when I first watched Empire Strikes Back.  But my family didn't have access to the Internet till like 2000, and my parents were not into Star Wars, and I didn't have friends back then.  But I can say being surprised by that scene did not effect my overall enjoyment of that film nearly as much as not knowing what's going on in Higurashi matters.

So I'm going to give a second spoiler warning, if you think you don't mind being spoiled, think really hard about that before reading on.


Spoiler Alert.