Curated playlist

Dark fantasy anime and manga

Daemons of the Shadow RealmDaemons of the Shadow Realm is a Japanese manga by Hiromu Arakawa, and it opens with a pair of twins described as "born between day and night." Their names are Yuru and Asa. They come from a premodern village called Higashi, and a prophecy…
Fullmetal Alchemist: BrotherhoodFullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood began with a notice printed in the 20th volume of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, released in August 2008. Its author, Hiromu Arakawa, used that volume to announce that a second anime adaptation was already…
Berserk: The Golden Age ArcBerserk: The Golden Age Arc recast almost every Japanese voice, but not the English ones.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (TV series)In a 2020 poll, Japanese schoolchildren admired a fictional demon slayer more than their own mothers.
Berserk (2016 TV series)The 2016 Berserk anime mixed 3D models with hand-drawn 2D art. Shadows on both got the same pen-like hatching effect.
Jujutsu Kaisen (TV series)In 2024, Guinness World Records and the data-science firm Parrot Analytics named Jujutsu Kaisen the most in-demand animated television show, taking the title from Attack on Titan. Jujutsu Kaisen is a Japanese anime series produced by the…
DevilmanDevilman was a dark manga born from a TV studio's request for something softer.
Berserk (manga)Kentaro Miura's manga Berserk kept going after he died in 2021. His friend Kouji Mori now supervises the story.
Berserk (1997 TV series)The 1997 Berserk anime opens with its hero already scarred. Guts, a lone mercenary, has lost an arm and an eye.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no YaibaDemon Slayer began as a quiet manga about a boy who sold charcoal. By July 2025 it had over 220 million copies out.
Attack on Titan (TV series)Attack on Titan was the first non-English show to become the world's most in-demand TV program.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen TrainDemon Slayer: Mugen Train topped the 2020 worldwide box office. It was the first non-American film to do so.
Jujutsu KaisenA rotten finger sets off the manga Jujutsu Kaisen. A student swallows it and hosts a thousand-year-old sorcerer.
Puella Magi Madoka MagicaPuella Magi Madoka Magica hid its dark story behind cute, pastel marketing on purpose.
Tower of GodIn Tower of God, a boy who has never seen the sky opens a door himself. Almost no one in his world can do that.
Black ButlerIn Black Butler, a demon ignores a cult's summoning and answers a twelve-year-old boy's call instead.
Attack on TitanAttack on Titan's giants began with a drunk customer at an internet cafe.
Fullmetal AlchemistTwo brothers try to bring their mother back in Fullmetal Alchemist, and lose a leg and a whole body.
DororoA daimyo in the manga Dororo trades his newborn son's body to 48 demons. The boy's mother sets him adrift on a river.
Re:ZeroSubaru Natsuki is walking home from a convenience store when he is suddenly transported to another world. That moment opens Re:Zero, a Japanese light novel series written by Tappei Nagatsuki. It is also known, less commonly, as Re: Life in…
HellsingHellsing is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano. Its central vampire is Alucard, the original and most powerful of his kind. He serves the family of the man who defeated him one hundred years before the story…
Soul EaterAtsushi Ohkubo's manga Soul Eater runs on a strict counting rule. A living weapon must absorb the souls of 99 evil humans, followed by one witch, in exactly that order. Break the sequence and the tally starts over from zero. A rule like…
Fate/stay nightFate/stay night began as an unfinished college story. Kinoko Nasu finished only one of its three routes in 1999.
Claymore (manga)The magazine that launched Claymore shut down exactly six years to the day after the manga began.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (film)Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is a 2021 Japanese animated dark fantasy film, and its first audience came at midnight. About 15,000 people watched it at the earliest public screenings on opening day, spread across 58 screens. Theaters had planned to…
Blue ExorcistIn Blue Exorcist, a teenager pulls a sword and learns he is the son of Satan. His flames burn blue.
Bastard!!Kazushi Hagiwara's manga about a dark wizard names its characters, spells and places after rock and metal bands.
DorohedoroDorohedoro, a Japanese manga series by Q Hayashida, begins with a man whose head is that of a reptile and who cannot remember who he used to be. His name is Caiman. His only clue to the sorcerer who cursed him is a full-size man living…
Hell's Paradise: JigokurakuHell's Paradise: Jigokuraku, a web manga by Yuji Kaku, begins with an execution that does not work. Gabimaru the Hollow, a ninja from Iwagakure, has been sentenced to die. Nothing the executioners try is able to kill him, because his body…
Chainsaw ManChainsaw Man is a Japanese manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto, and its world contains a creature that can erase an idea from human memory. When the Chainsaw Devil devours another devil, the thing that devil stood for vanishes from existence and…