Anime For The Curious College Student: Halloween Edition

By Jasmine Cummings on October 17, 2016

As a crushing case of writer’s block has forced me to set aside part three of my National Park series, I have another list of anime for anyone who’s interested in giving it a try. This list is meant to be enjoyed in the last couple of weeks leading up to Halloween, a combination of bloody horror and gentler series for those who simply want to enjoy the milder melancholy of October.

And so, here are four anime for the season of all things supernatural.

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1) Natsume Yuujinchou (Natsume’s Book of Friends) – Natsume is a bittersweet journey into the life of Natsume Takashi, a boy born with powerful supernatural abilities that allow him to see spirits known as youkai. Unfortunately, these spirits are far from friendly; such a strong child would make a delicious meal, and there’s only so far Natsume can run before gathering unwanted attention from youkai-blind humans he lives with.

‘Liar’. ‘Freak’. ‘Monster.’ This is the cruelty of those who can’t see. Natsume Yuujinchou follows Natsume, now a teenager, as he finally begins to come to terms with himself and realizes he isn’t alone. Thanks to an inheritance from his grandmother, a formidable woman who may have been even more powerful than Natsume himself, he’s forced to spend more time among spirits than he ever wanted to.

This series will tug at your heartstrings in the gentlest way possible. There’s no blood and no real violence, but does call for a minor warning for past child abuse. Natsume’s childhood was not a happy one, though the abuse was mostly emotional. The fifth season of Natsume just began airing earlier this month.

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2) Mushishi – Mushishi is the calmer, more contemplative older sibling to Natsume. There is no overarching plot. Rather, the series is entirely episodic, following the meandering path of Ginko, an occult detective that investigates damaging instances of mushi, primitive ethereal lifeforms that can have adverse effects on normal living things. While Ginko is the main character of Mushishi, he acts more as a catalyst for the stories of those he meets.

This is the sort of series you sit down to watch with a mug of hot chocolate and the lights off. Just settle in for an evening full of strange, fascinating tales of the ocean of alien life just beneath the surface. This series has no fighting at all, though there are several moments of suspense. Mushishi’s greatest asset is its beautiful, almost delicate animation and sweeping musical score, which lends the series a whole new level of immersive atmosphere. Turn the volume up for this one.

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3) Terra Formars – With Terra Formars, we find ourselves venturing into the territory of bloody horror. In order to terraform Mars, humanity seeded the planet with modified algae to purify the atmosphere … and a huge batch of cockroaches to nourish it. Five hundred years later, the astronauts who expect paradise find hell instead, as each and every one of them are torn apart by the now mutated, humanoid bugs. In response, an elite team of fighters undergo genetic modifications that grant them the strength and abilities of other insects and animals in order to exterminate the roaches and reclaim the red planet.

Terra Formars is horrific and brutal. Those who ‘volunteered’ for the surgery — with its 36 percent survival rate — are often grief-stricken and desperate, and determination to return to Earth isn’t enough to see them through. You can’t help but get attached, yet even main characters can die without warning. Be aware the series contains graphic, intense violence and gore.

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4) Berserk – Let me say it now – Berserk is the darkest, bloodiest, most disturbing series I’ve ever watched or read. It needs warnings for just about every emotional, mental, and physical horror you can imagine. But if you can look past the raw insanity and sadism, you’ll find a classic of epic proportions. The Berserk manga has been ongoing since 1989 and is still published today, though it suffers from on-again off-again hiatuses. The series isn’t complete, and I honestly can’t say if it ever will be, but the art is so stunning, the writing so poignantly human, that I recommend it to anyone who can stomach the grotesque.

Guts is a mercenary known as the Black Swordsman, traveling across a monster-ridden landscape, cutting down anything and anyone who gets in his way in the name of vengeance. Years ago, as a member of the infamous mercenary group known as the Band of the Hawk, Guts and his lover, Casca, served under their leader Griffith, a man of incredible beauty and thirst for power. After being locked away and tortured for sleeping with the King’s daughter, the then deformed and crippled Griffith sacrificed the Band in order to become a God.

The brutal, overwhelming army of monsters claimed everything, including Guts’ arm, Casca’s sanity, and very nearly their lives. Their survival came at great cost, both now marked by evil and under constant attack by the restless dead. And so Guts sets out to kill Griffith and perhaps find a way to return the now child-like Casca to her former self, gathering a ragtag group of strays to himself along the way.

Besides the manga, several animated series and three movies exist. While nothing can compare to the perfection of the manga itself, the movies are gorgeously animated and serve to explain how Guts became the Black Swordsman. I suggest starting with them.

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