#Dawn of titan titan list series#

Sure, Tetsuo turning into a giant blob in Akira is pure Cronenberg-like body horror, but the film isnвЂ™t meant to elicit fear as much as it is plain exciting. These anime used violence and gore to shock audiences, but they were more interested in thrills than in scares. During the 1980s, a stronger perception of horror anime took form, with the rise of OVAs (essentially direct-to-video anime) giving way to a decade where extreme violence, gore, sex, and the grotesque were commonplace in shows like Wicked City, Vampire Hunter D and, of course, Akira. In Japan, however, creators established an identifiable horror tone in the 1960s with shows like Adventure Boy Shadar and GeGeGe no KitarЕЌ, though the concentration was on fighting monsters and ghosts to save the world rather than scaring the audience. From Walt DisneyвЂ™s Silly Symphonies, particularly вЂњThe Skeleton Dance,вЂќ and the works of the Fleischer brothers like Swing You Sinners and Snow-White, animation opened up the world of film to fantasmagorical imagery, even if it was in service of a fun musical number with dancing ghouls. The soul of horror has been a part of animation since the dawn of the medium, at least in the West.

#Dawn of titan titan list series#

Since genuine scares are scarce, the anime series that actually do fit the bill become more worthy of celebration. Whether you as a viewer are personally spooked or not is subjective, but true horror anime shares a direct lineage with the history of spine-tingling tactics.

So, what constitutes вЂњhorrorвЂќ? In the simplest terms, the genreвЂ™s entries are meant to provoke fear. Sure, there are shows that involve tons of violence and gore, or rampant demons/vampires/monster activity, and quite a few of the go-to titles are about the darker parts of the human psyche and include tense plots. And year after year, the lists get filled with shows that, in my opinion, arenвЂ™t really horror. Each Halloween, anime fans are gifted list after list of horror anime to watch for the holiday.