Top 18+ Best Dark Anime on Crunchyroll, According to IMDb Ratings (2023)

Anime can often be surprisingly dark, even some too much to digest. Certain genres have more darkness than others, such as horror or suspense anime, which often portray complicated and gray storylines, and gory visuals. For those whose tastes run a little darker, we’ve brought the top 18+ best dark anime on Crunchyroll, according to their IMDb Ratings.

Top 18+ Best Dark Anime on Crunchyroll, According to IMDb

20) Deadman Wonderland

Ganta Igarashi’s life turns upside down when he visits the prison amusement park, Deadman Wonderland, with his classmates on a school trip.

His classmates are all massacred by a stranger in red attire, but he’s the one who is blamed for the massacre and is sentenced to the same prison. Now, he must survive the sadistic inmates of the prison as he searches for his classmates’ killer.

19) Goblin Slayer

Goblin Slayer follows a simple premise of a man hellbent on eradicating all goblins from the world but is gory and brutal enough to earn a place among the best dark anime on Crunchyroll.

When the new adventurer Priestess is kidnapped by the goblins, she’s saved by the titular Goblin Slayer, a Silver-ranked adventurer. Now, she accompanies him on his journey along with some new teammates along the way.

18) Future Diary

Yukiteru Amano’s supposedly imaginary friend turns out to be the god of time and space, known as Deus Ex Machina. After receiving a special ability where his cellphone predicts the future, Yukiteru is thrust into a bloody battle royale.

The winner gets to be the next god of time and space. In this predicament, Yukiteru meets Yuno Gasai, a beautiful girl who partners with him against the rest of the participants.

17) Another

Kouichi Sakakibara transfers to Class 3-3 of Yomiyama North Junior High after suffering from an accident. During his time in the hospital, he meets Mei Misaki, a girl with an eyepatch, who also turns out to be his classmate.

In school, Kouichi’s classmates befriend him, but he notices that everyone in class, including the teacher, pretends that Mei doesn’t exist.

16) Tokyo Ghoul

In society, there is a faction of people who consume human flesh and have special predatory organs. These people are called Ghouls.

Ken Kaneki unwittingly becomes one of these people when he goes on an unfortunate date with Rize Kamishiro.

The woman turns out to be a Ghoul, and dies in an accident, leaving an injured Kaneki her organs to survive, and making him a half-Ghoul.

15) Terror in Resonance

After a terrorist attack on a nuclear plant, the government is terrified to find that a nuclear prototype has been stolen. The terrorists call themselves “Sphinx”, and release a video threatening to cause more havoc if the riddle they left behind isn’t solved.

Unknown to everyone, the terrorists are two young men, Nine and Twelve, who survived a secret scientific experiment and are currently masquerading as high school boys.

14) Death Parade

While for most people, there are just two options after death: hell or heaven. But for those two who died at the exact same time, what awaits them after death is a bar named Quindecim.

There they are greeted by the bartender, Decim, who gives them various life-threatening challenges before passing judgment. Death Parade has a unique set-up and is one of the best dark anime on Crunchyroll.

13) Akame ga Kill!

Tatsumi is an innocent village boy who arrives at the capital with his friends. But the city turns out to be inhumanly cruel as his friends are tortured and killed.

But then he meets Akame, an expert assassin working under the rebels who are trying to save the country from their corrupt Prime Minister. Moved by Akame’s ideals, Tatsumi joins her assassin team, the Night Raid.

12) Higurashi: When They Cry – Gou

Keiichi Maebara is a transfer student who moved into the small mountain village of Hinamizawa in June 1983. He befriends his classmates, Rena, Mion, Satoko, and Rika, and frequently hangs out with them.

But soon, Keiichi starts noticing strange behaviors from his friends, who seem to be hiding something from him. Soon terrible tragedies begin to haunt the town.

11) Re: Zero, Starting Life in Another World

When Subaru Natsuki is transported to a fantasy world, he meets a beautiful girl named Satella and sets out to help a little girl named Felt along with Satella.

When they arrive at a bar near Felt’s home, Subaru and Satella are violently killed by a woman named Elsa. However, Subaru finds himself back to when he was first transported into this world.

Re: Zero is startling in its bleakness and the suffering of its protagonist, and is counted as one of the best dark anime on Crunchyroll.

10) Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is brilliant in its take on the magical girl genre with shocking darkness. The story starts with two friends, Madoka and Sayaka, and are seniors at school, Mami, whom they befriend.

When Mami saves them from a witch, they learn about magical girls and their duty. When they are offered to become magical girls themselves, they don’t know the misery and darkness that lie ahead.

9) Psycho-Pass

In the futuristic world, there is a system called the Sybil System which assesses a person’s mental condition and criminal tendency, known as the Psycho-Pass.

If the Psycho-Pass comes higher than a certain person, then the person is removed from society. In such a world, idealistic rookie Akane Tsunemori joins the police force as an Inspector and partners with jaded Enforcer, Shinya Kogami.

8) Hellsing Ultimate

Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing is the commander of the Hellsing Organization, which exterminates supernatural forces that seek to destroy humanity.

The deadliest weapon in the organization is a vampire named Alucard who, along with Seras Victoria, his new vampire servant, destroys everything and everyone standing against the organization.

7) Fate/Zero

Fate/Zero is the prequel to its 2006 predecessor and features the Fourth Holy Grail War. With fearsome contenders and their more dangerous Hero Spirits, the War is as deadly as ever.

Kiritsugu Emiya, a notorious mercenary, is hellbent on winning the War to stop the suffering of the world, even at the cost of sacrificing his beloved wife. 

Fate/Zero is often considered the best of the Fate series, and features in among the best dark anime on Crunchyroll.

6) The Promised Neverland

The Promised Neverland starts with the blissful, idyllic lives of the orphan children at Grace Field. However, the picturesque scenes soon turn into a nightmare when Emma and Norman discover that the orphanage is a livestock firm.

The children are being sold to monsters to be eaten. Along with their best friend, Ray, the kids hatch a plan to help the other children escape.

Though the second season was utterly disappointing despite having stellar source material, the first season was great enough to be counted as one of the best dark anime on Crunchyroll.

5) Made in Abyss

The secret of the Abyss is unknown; it’s an endless pit of mysterious origin, and humans have been trying to solve the mystery for many years with the divers.

Riko is a novice diver who wants to go deep into the Abyss to find her missing mother, but her lower rank doesn’t permit it. When she finds an amnesiac boy, whom she names Reg, and who turns out to be a robot, the duo sets out to discover the truth of the Abyss.

4) Vinland Saga

Thorfinn was born in a time of war, where death and bloodshed never ceased. But even then, his father always taught him kindness and morality.

But when his peace-loving father is murdered by Askeladd, every bit of kindness shatters inside Thorfinn as he seeks revenge on his father’s killer.

During the war between Britain and Denmark, the Viking mercenaries rage on as Thorfinn looks for Askeladd.

3) Steins;Gate

While attending a science seminar, “mad scientist” Rintarou Okabe witnesses the death of the brilliant researcher, Kurisu Makise. However, Kurisu turns out to be alive and thanks Okabe for saving her life.

She also joins his science club after discovering that the microwave Okabe and his team invented is actually a time-traveling device. This sci-fi thriller is among the best of the best and certainly one of the best dark anime on Crunchyroll.

2) Death Note

Suffering from boredom, Shinigami Ryuk drops a Death Note on Earth, and it is found by Light Yagami, a brilliant young man.

After learning the rules of the Death Note from Ryuk, Light begins to kill criminals all over the world under the moniker of Kira.

But when the world’s greatest detective, L, joins the case, Light must do everything to hide his true identity of Kira.

1) Attack on Titan

Often considered one of the best anime of all time, Attack on Titan is a global sensation. It is also among the best dark anime on Crunchyroll. 

After the appearance of the humanoid, man-eating Titans, humanity has been forced to live within the bounds of three great walls. One fateful day, Titans broke the outermost wall, Wall Maria, and wreaked havoc on the village of Shiganshina.

On that day, Eren Yeager’s life changed forever, and as he went on to become a soldier with his adoptive sister Mikasa and best friend Armin, he vowed to kill all Titans.

The list of the top 18+ best dark anime on Crunchyroll ends here. The anime on this list shows a variety of darkness, some in their brutality and some in philosophical ways. But one thing is common among them, and that is that all of these anime are entirely entertaining. 

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Anamika Das

Anamika loves words and stories and putting them to pages. She also loves anime, manga, books, movies and everything fantasy. She has been a fan of anime since childhood and her admiration for it only grew with years. Her passion for writing is even more elevated by writing about the things she loves.