Yeah yeah, this may be a controversial statement, but I would love NOTHING MORE than to be proven wrong.
I genuinely believe that there’s no good horror anime out there. Something that actually gives you chills and makes you Avert your eyes from the screen just doesn’t exist. Junji ito is creepy and gross, sure, but I wouldn’t say it does enough to be considered proper horror
Other horror animes just have a creepy aesthetic or rely on dark story beats like shiki or another. I don’t know if it’s just the disconnect from being animated in the first place, but I don’t think anime is capable of delivering a true horror experience.
Please, if you disagree, prove me wrong, I need to be wrong about this
I was freaked for Paranoia Agent
But I think it’s a product of animated medium. Are there many scary animations even outside of anime? (Legit asking for examples since I can’t think of much rn) I think anime more often comes closest in spite of the premise here.
My guess is it has to do w how things feel frightening when they’re somewhat relatable - when you can imagine yourself in this awful situation. Anime and animation in general has a difficult time with this due to being clearly and objectively not real.
Instead they tend to twist reality to the unimaginable horrors. The farfetched, the surreal, the cosmic kind of horror you can only imagine but likely not truly experience. This both helps and hinders its interpretation of “horror”.
I think this is it, it’s just hard to imagine yourself in the characters place when their world doesn’t look like your world