- January 1, 2023
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- 10 minutes read
10 Anime That Are Literally Too Dark – CBR – Comic Book Resources
These anime take darkness too far and make it hard for some viewers to watch, literally.
The diverse art styles featured in anime can make or break a series. Sometimes unique artistic choices can add to the plot, but they can also distract viewers from the deeper meaning. Dark color choices can play an especially large role in setting the atmosphere for more serious anime. While darker aesthetics can seem appealing, they can also make light-hearted anime seem pointlessly gloomy.
Anime's dark academic settings from the late '90s to early 2010s create nostalgia. Josei, thriller, and horror anime are especially known for using gothic settings to set the tone for the series. However, when overdone, dark backgrounds and color schemes can make anime less interesting to watch, and can also make a series seem cliché.
NANA is about Nana Osaki and Nana Komatsu, two young women who share the same name. They move in together and quickly become involved with each other's success, heartbreak, and drama. This anime is a shoujo, but it also could be considered a josei due to its romance themes.
Similar to Paradise Kiss, NANA focuses on the bittersweet parts of love and the color choices in the anime reflect that. Despite having lighter scenes, many important moments in NANA take place at night. In addition to that, Nana Osaki is the leader of a punk band, so she and many other characters often were dark clothes and accessories.
Paradise Kiss is a josei anime that's meant to have an older, nostalgic feel. Caroline, the protagonist, starts working as a model for a group of college fashion designers, and she ends up falling in love with the group's leader. This complicated love leads to many heartbreaks, so Paradise Kiss uses a darker color scheme to match those emotions.
This anime's pale color choices and dim backgrounds create little contrast, making it harder for the characters to stand out. Although it adds to the anime's impact, the dimness of Paradise Kiss makes no sense, especially since it focuses on fashion and color choices.
The anime xxxHOLiC follows the story of Watanuki, a high schooler with the ability to see spirits. He befriends a fortune-teller and ends up working at her shop, where he aids her in helping people with spiritual issues. xxxHOLiC's art style matches the bittersweet nature of its plot.
Most of the colors used are muted, so they can blend together while standing on their own and often match the vibe of whatever issue they're currently dealing with. There are often darker spirits involved meaning xxHOLiC goes to the extreme to include dark backgrounds and dark characters' uniforms.
Death Note's plot focuses on a high schooler named Light Yagami who suddenly gains the ability to end lives with a notebook. Death Note's plot is incredibly grim, and its art style reflects that. Similar to xxxHOLiC, the colors featured in the anime are dull and muted. They are strikingly different from the brighter colors modern anime are known for.
Death Note includes many rainy scenes, so backgrounds are often dreary shades of gray or dark blankets of clouds. While it's an amazing anime, Death Note's darker aesthetic may only appeal to some.
Tomie is a notoriously dark anime, and its aesthetic is just as dark. This anime follows the story of a deceased high school girl who haunts the classmate that murdered her. Tomie focuses on as much psychological horror as it does physical horror, and the dark animation style only makes this anime feel grimmer.
The faded-looking background and colors add to Tomie's grim feel. The show's use of pale colors with low contrast makes it hard to even distinguish what's happening in some scenes. In addition to having a really dark plot, Tomie's dark animation can it make difficult for some viewers to watch.
The Danganronpa series is well-known among anime fans because of its unique premise and game-show-like nature. The characters don't know what to expect or who to trust, and the viewer often knows as little as the characters do. However, this series also has many darker moments with gore and gruesome deaths.
Because the characters are perpetually indoors, Danganronpa 3 – Future Arc doesn't include brighter lighting to maintain consistency between episodes. The dark lighting lowers the contrast between colors and makes it easier for characters to fade into the background.
Vampire Knight's plot focuses on high schooler Yuki who keeps the peace between the humans and vampires at her school along with Zero Kiryu. The humans are in the day class and the vampires are part of the night class. Because of this, many scenes take place at night and are visually darker.
Vampire Knight is an example of an anime with lower contrasting colors, unlike modern anime. Even Zero's hair, which is depicted as white or silver, is most often animated as a darker gray. Vampire Knight's dim color choices add to its dark academic aesthetic.
Perfect Blue is a truly heartbreaking anime about how easy it is to lose touch with reality when nothing makes sense in the world. In this anime, Mima is a young actress who tries to transition from being an idol to becoming a professional actor. However, the fame that comes with her position often puts her life in danger.
Perfect Blue has dull colors – stereotypical of many '90s anime, which match the dark psychological experiences shown. However, the low contrast makes some scenes look blurry or indistinguishable and takes away from the anime's impact.
Blue Literature's plot revolves around Yozo Oba, a young man who struggles to fit in. Blue Literature is the adaption of the book No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai, the inspiration for Bungo Stray Dog's Dazai. No Longer Human is one of Dazai's most known works partially because Dazai tragically took his own life immediately after the book was published.
Similar to the book, this anime focuses on many smaller arcs that all tie back to the same theme of the pain of not fitting in. Blue Literature's muted colors reflect the anime's sad nature by maintaining a dim, dreary atmosphere. However, the lack of contrast is sometimes extreme and it can make the anime less interesting to watch, overall.
Black Butler is about a kid named Ciel who lost his parents at a young age. He makes a contract with the demon butler Sebastian to protect himself while he avenges his family. Despite having lighter and funnier moments, Black Butler is full of darker scenes – literally and figuratively.
As the name suggests, many characters in Black Butler dress in all black. Furthermore, the Victorian setting features dark and gothic backgrounds and buildings. The dark academic aesthetic is pretty, but sometimes it causes Black Butler to seem too gloomy and dull.