Top 10 Most Violent Classic Anime

Top 10 Most Violent Classic Anime

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Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we are counting down our picks for the Top 10 Most Violent Classic Anime. For this list, we’re looking at the anime of yesteryear that became infamous for their hardcore, graphic content. Keep in mind, we’re not saying that any of these are gems in demand of watching, if anything some may have been better off buried. And yet, for better or worse, they’re standouts within their own blood-soaked genre. Just don’t expect us to show any of the gnarlier content! Think we missed a gory epic? Let us know in the comments!

This is definitely one we’d recommend, if only for how absurd it can get with its action, vulgarity, and pristine examples of early dubbing. In a future dominated by cybernetic augments and a new wave of radicalisation, Angel and her fellow Special Security Force agents aim to bring order. Through violence, of course. Every curse word and every death is about as over the top as you’d expect, making it a must watch for those of you that are big on the cheesiness of the 90s mixed with the saucier tropes of anime.

Short, not so sweet, and packed with more glam hair styles than we know what to do with, this collection of OVAs is an easy miss, but makes for a fun time. With the promise of a reduced sentence, three hardened criminals take on the dirty work as wannabe members of the Cyber Police. Even if the action can sometimes be drowned out by its meandering story, it still has some of the best so bad its good dialogue you’re likely to hear. Never change Benten.

So, this one comes with a few disclaimers. Yes, technically this is a hentai. And yes, it’s also the pioneer of the tentacle genre. That being said, it’s also got just as much decapitation and body horror as it does people getting railed, so that’s something. Honestly, chances are you’re only going to check this one out due to curiosity or because it happens to feature the tags you like. But still, as a piece of erotic animated history, you have to respect how it ushered in brand new…uh…culturally defining sub-genre.

Whether you’re referring to its earliest adaptation or the slew of OVAs that followed after, anyone who found themselves enraptured by Netflix’s take on Go Nagai’s dark masterpiece should give Devilman’s older entries a shot. Sure, the dub can be abysmal in places, but it makes up for it with the same visceral content, most of which is expanded upon, so now you can watch the extended edition of Akira’s nightmare as he tries to cope with being a demon hybrid. Masochists, eat your heart out.

Before there was JoJo, there was Baoh. And what exactly is Baoh? A mere man who finds himself infected with a strange parasite that turned him into a precursor for every single trope that Araki would eventually bring into the Joestar verse. We’re talking dogs being killed, henchmen getting torn asunder, bulging biceps attached to equally impossible frames. The classics. While it doesn’t have the focus or imagination of any of the JoJos, it does make for a fun watch for fans who can appreciate it as a template. A very bloody template.

One of the quintessential hack and slash anime experiences, if you’re after blood, nudity and a lot of swordsmen getting sliced up, then you should already have this in your collection. The story may be bare bones, involving a skilled ronin taking out a group of uber-powered mercenaries, but that simplicity allows it to cram in plenty of awesome fights. That, and a whole lot of WTF moments involving certain areas of anatomy. Pretty sure that snakes aren’t supposed to come out of there.

Yoshiaki Kawajiri is something of a mad genius who has given us gems like the aforementioned Ninja Scroll, short-lived experiments like Oedo 808, and even masterpieces like Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. He’s also given us crazy nightmare fuel, ala this! His special brand of grit and hardcore erotica return in full force with this flick, only now its set in the present time, with an investigator taking on various monsters disguising themselves as humans. Yes, it’s the one with the spider woman who has teeth in between legs. Starting to think this might be a fetish.

If you thought Devilman was too excessive in its depictions of humanity’s savagery, then you haven’t seen anything yet. Set in a post-apocalyptic world where raiders and survivors roam around committing one atrocity after another, you’ve got Jack, who decides to ram it right back in their faces. Think Fist of the North Star if it swapped out the martial arts for cannibalism, torture, sexual depravity, and all other kinds of pleasantries. Just make sure you’re in the right mood before giving this one a go.

There are few anime out there that have assembled as much notoriety for their content quite like this film, and it’s not hard to see why. This thing is one disturbing scenario after the next, focusing on an innocent girl who is forced to work at a circus, where she becomes a frequent victim of the freaks who work there. Nothing is off the table with this thing, genuinely sickening in some places, with its relentless shock factor causing it to be banned just about everywhere. Just…be aware of what you’re getting into if you fancy going on the hunt for it.

A glorious example of old school, nonsensical, self-sabotaging, no-limits, insanity. Genocyber is what you get when you try to throw everything plus the kitchen sink into an OVA, with excessive violence and gore being the sole focus. Yeah, there’s something about a psychic girl, a homeless boy and all that malarkey, but it's drowned underneath the volumes of grizzly deaths as every side character ends up demolished around them. If not for its lacklustre second and third episodes we’d say this was something that demanded to be seen as a standalone example of animated carnage, but can still be a riot if you fancy watching people get mauled into molecular paste.