This list was originally published in October 2023. Happy Halloween again, anime sickos.

For many years, especially in the ’80s and ’90s, anime in the United States had a reputation for the horrors it was willing to put onscreen. The dynamic and adult-oriented work of directors like Katsuhiro Otomo and Yoshiaki Kawajiri, usually available on the back shelves of local video stores, starkly contrasted with the bubbly, kid-friendly cartoons (and relatively static cartooning) that defined U.S. animation. Guts spilled, nudity was commonplace, and many of the one-off “ original video animations ” (a.k.a. direct-to-video OVAs) relished stories of the kind of supernatural savagery we just can’t get enough of in the Halloween season. Today, anime is more globally available than ever before, whi

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