Horror has always had a bad reputation in anime. There aren’t that many horror anime to begin with, and the ones that are made suffer serious problems. Whether that’s terrible production values, skipping over and changing parts of the original story, cheap moments made for shock value, or in one case, all of the above along with some new issues, there are no shortage of problems that plague an already minuscule genre.
Down below are horror anime most people would consider lacking and the main culprits behind their failure. This article isn’t going to make fun of the show or anyone who worked on it. Instead, it’s a critical examination for why these anime, rather than leaving viewers scared out of their wits, left them feeling frustrated instead.
Poor Writing Decisions
The Tokyo Ghoul anime adapted the critically acclaimed manga of the same name, and is one of the biggest proponents of the “read the manga instead” sentiment out there. The series takes place in an alternate Tokyo where creatures called ghouls exist, who need to eat human flesh to survive. The first season started solidly enough. The visuals weren’t the greatest, and some stuff was skipped from the manga, but it didn’t destroy the story. That all changed with the second season, Tokyo Ghoul Root A.
The anime went in a completely different direction from the manga with a new story and ending. The main character Kaneki joined a gang for “edgy” reasons that weren’t present in the manga. The anime barely explained another character’s backstory. Characters introduced early in the manga were brought in late and killed off without the opportunity to form a connection. And when the third season that adapted the sequel series, Tokyo Ghoul:re, came out, the show had to retcon the second season without sufficient time to explain what happened in the original manga, complicating the series’ continuity. Aside from the serviceable first season, Tokyo Ghoul stands as a perfect case study for how not to adapt a manga into anime.
Another
Another is yet “another” example of this category, but with completely different problems. Based on a novel of the same name, the show is very faithful to the original source material. The issue is that the source material is extremely divisive. Set in 1998, the show focuses on a boy by the name of Koichi Sakakibara who transfers to Yomiyama Middle School and meets the mysterious classmate Mei Misaki. Koichi has to figure out the mystery of who’s the original cause of the curse that’s causing the gruesome, violent deaths of his classmates and people related to them. The issue comes down to how the anime takes this violence to laughable, unbelievable levels.
As the show progresses, the death of Koichi’s classmates start as ludicrous attempts at shock value and never stop. The first death in episode starts when one girl called Yukari tripping on the stairs . She rolls around on her back in unnatural fashion while the tip of the umbrella does a perfect 180 and lands in the exact spot where her neck ends up. Another girl dies when the cords of an old elevator snap and it falls into the second basement, shattering her skull instantly and crushing her body after the elevator collapses. And yet another classmate drowned from an aneurysm before getting chopped up into pieces by a boat’s rotors. That’s not even scratching the surface of the deaths, which don’t contribute to solving the mystery in any way. They’re cheap attempts to shock and jumpscare the viewer without providing any suspense or buildup. It makes the anime more comedic than terrifying, and makes the reveal of the mystery more rushed than it had any right to be.
Terrible Production Values
Many people and critics consider the Berserk manga to be one of, if not the best manga of all time. It has some of the best art of all time, not just in manga, but art in general. There are panels and pages in Berserk that wouldn’t look out of place in a museum. Even the perfect adaptation couldn’t replicate every detail. When studio Millepensee, an unknown studio, took charge of the series, audiences lowered their expectations even further. But even with lowered expectations and large amounts of skepticism, the anime still failed to reach that bar of quality on any metric.
The show’s 3D is not good, or even mediocre for that matter. Characters move in awkward, unnatural lines with stilted movement, and the backgrounds look completely removed from the foreground. They resemble real life pictures rather than drawn assets. There’s this weird grainy filter over faces to give off the illusion of the manga’s art style. It looks mediocre at best and distracting at worst. The poorest part is the editing. It’s complete with weird close ups, still frames, and obvious focuses on things that don’t need to move in order to avoid animating. This includes movements like a character simply jumping around. It feels like an experiment of 3D rather than using learned lessons to make the best quality show. This quality continues through all twelve episodes and two seasons. Almost everyone says to skip watchong this adaptation, for good reason.
Uzumaki
The anime adaptation of Uzumaki by critically acclaimed horror author Junji Ito is a more recent example. Now, there were already signs the anime was going through production hell. This three volume manga only got four 20 minute episodes. The project had been delayed several times, resulting in a five year production cycle. But the first episode silenced all worries. Beautifully detailed character designs, great animation from wind effects to characters rolling their eyes around, and linework that made the show resemble a manga in animated form. That quality wouldn’t last long.
Starting from the second episode, the visuals fell off a cliff. Simple scenes like running away turned into JPEGs sliding across the scene. Character designs constantly went off model in unintended ways. None of the detail from the first episode remained. Even simple punching animations didn’t have any weight. The writing didn’t compensate for the mistakes, either. The team smashed chapters together hamfistedly while skipping others entirely. In many ways, it ended up being the worst possible outcome for the series. It turned out the team working on the first episode didn’t return for the last three. Instead, an entirely new studio and staff produced it. They knew the quality wasn’t up to par, but they released it anyways to show something to the world. Uzumaki needed a more organized production cycle, more episodes, and a studio and staff to work on the show for the entire time to succeed.
Everything and the Kitchen Sink
Pupa combines the previous problems and adds new ones of its own. It’s an anime adaptation of a horror manga of the same name, starring Yume and Utsutsu Hasegawa. When younger sister Yume sees some red butterflies, the titular Pupa disease infects the twins. Interesting premise, right? Well, the most glaring issue is that the length of each episode is only three minutes long when trying to adapt 31 chapters that are 30 pages each. It bludgeons the story to death and leaves it to die out in the rain.
Questions from “How does seeing red butterflies get the siblings infected?” to “How does Utsutsu gain regenerative powers?”, are asked, and almost none of them are answered due to the anime’s runtime. It’s fine to leave some parts of a horror story unanswered, but when even the most basic questions about the world don’t have an explanation, problems immediately start coming up.
When it comes to characters, Pupa doesn’t improve. The two main characters don’t have any personality beyond screaming and calling out for each other. They don’t have a single unique quirk to set them apart, and their motivations are simple as can be. Character development? Please. Side characters are introduced and never brought up again, while others from the manga aren’t brought in at all!
Last but not least, the production is mediocre to average at best and terrible at worst. The lighting and coloring is bland, with zero weight given to shadows. Important scenes are completely edited out, from fights to dialogue. Instead of showing movement, the show uses still images, panning and zoom shots to give the illusion of animation. There’s a weird watercolor filter that looks completely out of place. All these qualities combine to make a show that is visually mediocre in every aspect.
Pupa was doomed from the start, and it would take a complete rewrite and production overhaul to make it anywhere near presentable. I don’t see any other way to salvage the anime.
Final Thoughts
Even though I gave a lot of anime a very thorough thrashing, I don’t hate any of the people working on them or think they didn’t care. Issues like poor scheduling, rushed schedules, a lack of training and misguided creative visions held these anime back. Unfortunately, they still all contributed to the bad rap horror has with anime.
It’s not all bad news, though. Good horror anime exist, such as Mononoke, Shinksekai Yori, Perfect Blue and the recent Dark Gathering. These anime have better production values and writing, and are proof that horror anime can work. They just need the essentials for every good production; a solid staff, good scheduling, and solid working conditions. I guarantee that’ll save the reputation of horror anime across the globe.
