Cancel Culture is Killing Horror Anime, 1 Series at a Time

by

The anime industry has experienced huge growth recently, resulting in a large number of new shows being created. Each season brings a wave of fresh releases, and many of these are now popular worldwide thanks to streaming services like Crunchyroll, Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix. This increased accessibility is fantastic for Japanese animation, but it also comes with some challenges.

The recent growth in anime’s popularity mostly benefited mainstream series like shonen or isekai, which appeal to a wider audience. Meanwhile, the horror genre suffered. Because horror often uses shocking or disturbing content, it tends to attract more criticism, and fans sometimes unfairly dismiss the entire genre due to problematic elements found in some titles.

Shonen Anime Dominance Buried Horror Anime

Horror anime experienced a surge in popularity for a while, especially from the late 1990s to the mid-2010s. Shows like Shiki, Hell Girl, and Elfen Lied were particularly successful during this period. Back then, animation studios were more willing to experiment with bold ideas and tackle challenging themes. For example, Corpse Party: Tortured Souls features intensely violent scenes of high school students being killed. Similarly, the popular horror anime Another includes a shocking scene where a girl tragically dies after falling down the stairs and being impaled by an umbrella.

The truly frightening moments in horror anime aren’t just for shock value. They aim to disturb both the characters on screen and the viewers, making the audience feel the characters’ fear and unease. Unfortunately, dedicated horror anime are becoming rare. With the massive popularity of shonen and isekai anime, other genres struggle to stand on their own and are often combined as subgenres—like the horror elements found in shows such as Dark Gathering.

Horror anime isn’t completely gone – recent releases like Mieruko-chan and the Mononoke films have been well-received, boasting strong stories and visuals. However, these are rare successes. Too often, horror anime doesn’t get the attention it deserves, as seen with Uzumaki. Studios understandably tend to invest in more popular genres like shonen, but the frustration fans felt with Uzumaki clearly demonstrates that there’s a dedicated audience eager for quality horror anime.

Cancel Culture Made Anime Afraid to Be Dark

These days, everything is heavily criticized online, particularly on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit. If a show receives widespread negative reactions, it can have lasting repercussions. Production companies are well aware of this risk and want to avoid projects that could lead to backlash. This raises the question of whether studios are intentionally choosing safer, lighter anime themes, fearing disapproval from fans – especially international viewers, who are crucial to their financial success. The anime industry relies heavily on its overseas market, making fan reception a significant concern.

As a horror anime fan, it really frustrates me that the genre isn’t getting the attention it deserves! So many people say they want mature, dark stories – they rave about shows like , or Hell’s Paradise – but those aren’t really pure horror, and honestly, they don’t push boundaries like older series such as Elfen Lied did. It’s kind of ironic, because those same fans will happily binge endless, formulaic isekai and shonen anime, yet often completely ignore the few genuinely scary shows that do get made. I don’t think there’s one simple reason for this decline – it’s a complicated mix of what audiences are used to, what the industry is producing, and just how viewer tastes are changing.

It’s unfair to criticize studios for making popular shows – they need to make money to stay in business. And it’s understandable that new anime fans gravitate towards genres like action or fantasy, as they’re generally easier to get into than more specialized ones like horror. However, dedicated horror fans are the ones who really miss out, often finding themselves rewatching the same limited selection of shows repeatedly. Given this situation, studios should at least make sure the horror anime they do produce are made with extra care and quality, something that wasn’t quite achieved with series like Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre.

Read More

2025-11-03 05:22