Anime is one of the most exciting and entertaining pieces of art that has millions hooked worldwide. Thriller animes have a separate fan base and are top-rated as it keeps the viewers on the edge of their seats, biting their nails, with a shiver going down their back. It makes us question every small thing, every plot point along the way, making us rack our brains. A good thriller will always leave you wanting more.
Here’s the list of top ten anime thrillers one must watch if they want to make their time worthwhile and exciting:
1. Steins; Gate
This is an anime with lots of twists and turns in the plot that you can never guess what’s going to happen next. It follows the story of Rintarou Okabe, a mad scientist who spends his free time inventing gadgets along with his lab members Mayuri Shiina and Itaru Hashida. One day, Okabe creates the microwave phone that allows them to send emails and texts to the past. They soon realize they can change the past with this gadget, but this power comes with a considerable burden and dire consequences.
2. Death Note
This anime is about the story of Light Yagami, a brilliant student who discovers a mysterious notebook called 'Death Note' which belongs to Shinigami Ryuk. The book allows its user the ability to kill anybody whose name is written inside it. Light wastes no time and uses it to start killing people who he thinks are immoral and evil. L, a detective, along with the Japanese police starts to investigate the mysterious deaths all over Tokyo. This leads to a cat and mouse game between Light and L, which becomes more sinister and dangerous as the show progresses.
3. Monster
A psychological thriller anime that revolves around Dr. Kenzo Tenma, a genius neurosurgeon in Germany, who saves the life of a young boy instead of the mayor and thus loses the support of his hospital. Not much time later, the hospital director and its doctors are murdered and Tenma gets his old position back. Even though he was suspected of the murder, he was not arrested due to the lack of evidence. Nine years later, the boy Tenma saved reappears in his life with a mirage of mysteries and secrets that he must unfold to clear his name.
4. The Promised Neverland
This anime is a sinister and gripping story of three orphans Emma, Norman, and Ray, the three oldest and most intelligent kids at an orphanage. One day, they discover that their lovely orphanage is a farm where kids are raised as food for demons, and every few months, the demons come to collect the kids. The show progresses as the three look for ways to escape the orphanage and from the clutches of their evil caretaker who eventually starts to doubt them.
5. Erased
The story brings together a murder mystery and time travel through our protagonist Satoru Fujinuma. He goes back in time through his ability called ‘revival’ to prevent the death of his mother, which leads him to travel 20 years back in the past, to his 9-year-old self, just a few days before his classmate is killed. He realizes that his mother’s death and the girl’s murder are connected and he must outwit the killer to save them both.
6. Re: Zero
This 25 episode series which aired in 2016 is about Subaru Natsuki, a typical youngster who is thrust into another world. Subaru tries to find the person who summoned him and befriends an elf girl on the way. While trying to help her, they both die until Subaru wakes up again and finds himself alive but a few hours in the past. He discovered that he could reverse time by dying and thus starts his gripping journey to find answers about this new world.
7. Another
A 2012 thriller and horror anime that revolves around Kōichi Sakakibara, who has just recently moved into the Yomiyama middle school. He meets a mysterious girl Mei Misaki and gets embroiled in a mystery involving his classmates and schoolmates who suddenly start dying in horrible and gruesome ways.
8. Mirai Nikki: Or Future Diary
This anime depicts the story of Yukiteru Amano, a loner with an imaginary friend, Deus Ex Machina, who is the God of time and space. Deus Ex gives Amano a unique diary that can predict the future. Deus Ex then makes him battle against 11 other individuals with the same diary until only one survives, who will be named as Machina's heir.
9. Death Parade
The story is set in a world where after their death humans arrive in the Quindecim, a bar where the enigmatic white-haired Decim, the bartender, works. The Bar organizes games between the dead which decides the fates of their soul and whether they get reincarnated or thrown into a void of oblivion.
10. Terror In Resonance
This anime premiered in 2014 and has 11 episodes. It is set in a parallel universe where a terrorist attack has destroyed Tokyo and the sole clue to the perpetrator's identity is a strange internet video. While fear spreads, two strange and eerie youngsters create Sphinx, a shady organization intent on ending the world.
