Sometimes you just want it to be dark all the way through.
It is perfectly fine to want a show to end happily. If you easily get attached to the characters, it would be quite painful to see them suffer. However, sometimes you want to take a break from happiness and see the more depressing aspects of reality being reflected in anime.
Here are 5 shows that achieve that without stooping down to mindless violence.
This is perhaps the poster child of depressing anime. Less known to modern fans, Texhnolyze used to be recommended as a deep philosophical and psychological study of humans. It’s quite obvious from this that the show won’t be happy, but some viewers go in blind, not realizing that sometimes Texhnolyze would be hard to watch. The revelations about the world and humanity in the end make the journey totally worth it, but beware: you can’t really call them positive. Oh, and the first episode barely contains any dialogue — and it somehow makes it incredibly interesting in its own regard.
Nowadays, most people are aware that this is not a happy show made for little girls. The very first scene of it is extremely haunting — and it only goes more and more depressing from there. It’s very expected, however, when you look at the show’s writer: Gen Urobuchi worked on such works as Fate/Zero, Psycho-Pass and Requiem for the Phantom — and is nicknamed “Urobutcher” by some of the fans. Madoka Magica follows the trend. With a highly controversial movie sequel and another movie currently in production, this is a series anyone asking for something depressing needs to check out.
A horror anime full of bizarre character designs, Shiki explores prejudice and blind hatred. The exploration, as you may have guessed, is not happy. Featuring more and more hopeless decisions for the characters, Shiki often gets very gruesome with its character deaths. A statement about human morals, it will make you think about who the bad guys in it truly were.
Casshern Sins
Sharing multiple characters, including the titular Casshern, with the 70s series, Casshern Sins is its own thing. Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland world, it follows the group of protagonists as they travel through barren land. Casshern is trying to find himself, as he doesn’t even know his origin, all while being hunted by pretty much every sentient being in the world. Oh, did we mention that all the humans are dead, so only sentient robots remain? Talk about dark.
Blue Submarine No. 6
A 4 episode OVA from the late 90s, Blue Submarine No. 6 (Ao no 6-gou) is largely unknown to the current viewer. It’s not a hype action series: instead, it’s a somber story of a war between humans and an underwater race created by a detached scientist. Full of cynicism, it shows some of humanity’s darker sides, while also expressing concerns about climate change. Warning: leave all the hopes for a happy ending when you enter this one.
Sometimes you just want it to be dark all the way through.
It is perfectly fine to want a show to end happily. If you easily get attached to the characters, it would be quite painful to see them suffer. However, sometimes you want to take a break from happiness and see the more depressing aspects of reality being reflected in anime.
Here are 5 shows that achieve that without stooping down to mindless violence.
This is perhaps the poster child of depressing anime. Less known to modern fans, Texhnolyze used to be recommended as a deep philosophical and psychological study of humans. It’s quite obvious from this that the show won’t be happy, but some viewers go in blind, not realizing that sometimes Texhnolyze would be hard to watch. The revelations about the world and humanity in the end make the journey totally worth it, but beware: you can’t really call them positive. Oh, and the first episode barely contains any dialogue — and it somehow makes it incredibly interesting in its own regard.
Nowadays, most people are aware that this is not a happy show made for little girls. The very first scene of it is extremely haunting — and it only goes more and more depressing from there. It’s very expected, however, when you look at the show’s writer: Gen Urobuchi worked on such works as Fate/Zero, Psycho-Pass and Requiem for the Phantom — and is nicknamed “Urobutcher” by some of the fans. Madoka Magica follows the trend. With a highly controversial movie sequel and another movie currently in production, this is a series anyone asking for something depressing needs to check out.
A horror anime full of bizarre character designs, Shiki explores prejudice and blind hatred. The exploration, as you may have guessed, is not happy. Featuring more and more hopeless decisions for the characters, Shiki often gets very gruesome with its character deaths. A statement about human morals, it will make you think about who the bad guys in it truly were.
Casshern Sins
Sharing multiple characters, including the titular Casshern, with the 70s series, Casshern Sins is its own thing. Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland world, it follows the group of protagonists as they travel through barren land. Casshern is trying to find himself, as he doesn’t even know his origin, all while being hunted by pretty much every sentient being in the world. Oh, did we mention that all the humans are dead, so only sentient robots remain? Talk about dark.
Blue Submarine No. 6
A 4 episode OVA from the late 90s, Blue Submarine No. 6 (Ao no 6-gou) is largely unknown to the current viewer. It’s not a hype action series: instead, it’s a somber story of a war between humans and an underwater race created by a detached scientist. Full of cynicism, it shows some of humanity’s darker sides, while also expressing concerns about climate change. Warning: leave all the hopes for a happy ending when you enter this one.
