5 Great Anime That Go From Cute to Dark

These anime shows might make your heart pound with cute anime girls, but once you’re past the first introductory episodes, you’ll realize the show is not what it seems. As the story unravels, you’ll realize the cute and clumsy characters are real psychopaths, and they even make Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) from the 2000s cult classic American Psycho look like a child.

These anime shows are so disturbing psychotic that even the Joker from The Dark Knight (2008) and Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange (1971) can learn a thing or two about going full lunatic on their foes.

Sometimes an anime goes beyond the understandable concept of human psychology, and its characters commit some crimes that are just too dark even for the adults. From cannibalism to hostility, here are five anime shows that start cute but turn dark with every passing episode.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry)

Calling this beautiful anime dark is not enough. Even if you climb the ladder of horror and gut-ripping cinema, there are just not enough movies and anime shows that come nearly as terrifying as Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. The show starts as a slice-of-life anime where cute anime girls with bright eyes attend the same school as Keiichi, the main protagonist. After a few adorable episodes, the female characters start losing their minds. Some killed their parents, some beat their classmates with school chairs, and some went on to blind their best friends with medical syringes.

It is safe to say Higurashi no Naku Koro ni epitomizes how you should never judge a book by its cover. Those who end up watching the show should know that Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is one of the most twisted anime series created in modern times.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni was released in 2006, and the Japanese animation company Passione revamped the colors and graphics to release the new version as a separate anime.

The Promised Neverland

The Promised Neverland revolves around Emma and her life in an orphanage. She is the eldest among the children and takes care of toddlers with the orphanage caretaker, Mom. The show starts innocently, and it is where all the children enjoy day-to-day life with their friends and their caretaker mom. But things are not always what it seems to be. The house caretaker is a human trafficker who sells children who are 11 years old to the demons.

As Emma and her group of smart friends find out about the horrifying truth, the team begins experimenting with their escape, but Mom is one step ahead of them, and she plans to sell her children to the demons for the right amount, and she doesn’t seem to regret it.

It would have been so simple if the story just saturated around the selling of children, but in the last four episodes, Emma and her friends found out the outside world is the same as the inside, and there are hundreds of other orphanages that sell healthy and fit children to demons.

The Promised Neverland is a twisted show about young children running for their lives when they don’t even have a place to go. The twists and turns are sure unique, and the constant plot switch adds fuel to the show’s overall energy. If you like suspense and thriller, The Promised Neverland is your best bet as it never hides from showing the dark side of good things.

Zankyou no Terror (Terror in Resonance)

Zankyou no Terror is your modern-day take on the concerning terrorist attacks. The show touches some of the weirdest strings of terrorist psychology and gives an insight into the terrorist mind. The show starts a slice-of-life anime, but it provides a reality check to viewers about the world and how it affects small children’s minds.

There are no protagonists or antagonists in the story. The central characters include the two boys named Twelve and Nine and their female friend Mishima Lisa. Twelve and Nine are two individuals who go by the name “Sphinx” and directly challenge the Japanese Government and Police that they are here for revenge and destruction.

At the end of episode one, the destruction caused by “Sphinx” takes a civilian life, and to continue their journey of truth and accountability for their mysterious past, Twelve and Nine become the greatest terrorist group in Japan. In the midst of all this, Mishima falls in between the two worlds of society and her friends. The show is not for kids, even though the terrorists themselves are a bunch of kids misguided by the government in their former life.

Perfect Blue

Even if there is a show that contains gruesome bloodbaths and gut-churning scenes, it won’t be able to scare its viewers like the way Perfect Blue does. Considered as one of the most significant Satoshi Kon work among Paranoia Agent, Millennium Actress, and the Tokyo Godfathers, Perfect Blue is so strange and depressing in its art form, storytelling style, and the way characters react to the situation that even the American movie director Darren Aronofsky copied the frames, dialogues, and movie plot in his 2010 American psychological horror film Black Swan.

Perfect Blue is innocent in the first 10 minutes, but after that, fans have to witness the emotional trauma of Mima Kirigoe as she enters the film industry as a new-age actress. What makes the movie terrifying is the depressing characters who fall victim to the film industry. The movie revolves around Mima Kirigoe, who changes her life from being a pop music idol to an established actress. The people around Kirigoe make her life a living hell as she struggles to sleep, eat, cry, sit and work.

The producers, directors, and even the fans turn against her as she loses her mind and indulges in drugs, sex parties, hallucinations, and a never-ending lifestyle, which gives birth to her alter-ego personality Rumi.

Gakkougurashi! (School Live)

Gakkougurashi! will take you on a journey of psychological war and PTSD. Even though there is a fair share of comedy in the series, School Live’s is a twisted and dark anime series. The story revolves around Yuki Takeya, who loves her school and her classmates. She is also a member of the School Living Club, which means she doesn’t even need to leave the school after it ends, and she gets to sleep in the school with her club members.

Sounds cute doesn’t it? But here is the catch, the school is the last non-infected place in Japan. And the School Living Club members are the sole survivors of the zombie apocalypse. Another thing that makes the show exciting and dark is that Yuki Takeya is not aware of anything. She lives her life as a regular 3rd year at Megurigaoka High School, and the people around her keep this secret from her that the world has collapsed and her school is the only hiding place in the world.

Yuki Takeya’s childish habits and her slapstick approach to the situation might catch you off guard in the first few episodes, but after episode two, the teachers, students, and the last surviving people reveal that viewers and Yuki should get ready for a dark and horror anime instead of the cute one they were expecting in the start.

Source: 5 Great Anime That Go From Cute to Dark