Cancel Culture is Killing Horror Anime, 1 Series at a Time

The anime industry has grown significantly in the last couple of years, leading to more animated series being produced en masse. Each anime season features a fresh heap of new releases, among which many get recognition on a global level, thanks to anime becoming so accessible through OTT platforms like Crunchyroll, Disney+, Hulu and Netflix. This is, hands down, one of the best things that has happened to the Japanese animation industry, but it also has its side effects.

Only the most popular series, often shonen anime or the isekai genre, got to reap the benefits of this growth because of their more universal appeal. The horror genre, where stories often rely on bold and unsettling elements to elicit the needed response, was adversely affected. Problematic material crops up far more often in horror than in series with a broader appeal, leading anime fans to wrongly condemn horror as a whole.

Shonen Anime Dominance Buried Horror Anime

There was a time when horror anime saw a significant boom in production. The genre truly peaked in the late 90s to mid-2010s when shows like Higurashi: When They Cry, Shiki, Hell Girl, and Elfen Lied thrived. This was a time when animation studios were not afraid to take creative risks or depict something controversial. For instance, in Corpse Party: Tortured Souls, there are disturbing scenes of high school students being brutally murdered. Not only that, in Another, a highly acclaimed horror anime, there is a scene of a girl slipping on the stairs and dying by the pointed edge of an umbrella getting lodged in her throat.

The scariest scenes in horror anime are not included merely in an attempt to sensationalize the act. These frightening sequences are meant to unsettle both the characters and the audience, as the horror experienced by the characters seeps through the screen, making horror fans share in their discomfort and dread. However, these horror shows have dwindled because they are hardly in demand anymore. Due to the popularity of shonen anime and the isekai genre that refuses to die, other genres struggle to exist as a standalone show. Now they must be clubbed together with either a shonen anime, an isekai story, or a fantasy adventure as a subgenre, like Dark Gathering.

It is not that horror is entirely dead because anime like Mieruko-chan, the Mononoke movies, and The Summer Hikaru Died have been released recently and garnered much appreciation from fans as well. They all have a good storyline and are visually striking. However, these are a few exceptions, as most of the time, horror anime gets a lackluster treatment like Uzumaki. Studios also prefer to invest in series they know will be more famous, and it is understandable that they prefer the shonen genre in that sense. However, there exists an audience that will appreciate a well-made horror anime, and the fan disappointment surrounding Uzumaki proves just that.

Cancel Culture Made Anime Afraid to Be Dark

Everything is under scrutiny, and almost every show gets dragged on X (formerly Twitter) or Reddit forums. If a huge number of people decide to denounce a project, it can face consequences in the long run. Production houses are aware of that, and they certainly would not want to make anything that would get them canceled. It ultimately begs the question whether the studios deliberately choose lighter-themed anime because they fear that fans, especially the international ones, might not like it. This is a legitimate concern on their part, for the money that these industries rake in is very much dependent on their overseas market.

There is also a lack of interest in this genre, which is a significant issue. Many anime fans claim they want to watch mature content, or they enjoy darker shows like Attack on Titan, Chainsaw Man, or Hell’s Paradise. Yet, none of these are purely horror, nor do they contain as many mature themes as earlier works, such as Elfen Lied did. Ironically, these same fans are also the ones who would spend hours on generic isekai and repetitive shonens. They might not even give attention to the few horror anime that do come out from time to time. Ultimately, there is no single culprit behind this decline, as it is the result of a complex mix of audience habits, industry trends, and shifting viewer expectations.

The studios should not be condemned for pumping out the shows that people are watching, as they do need the profit to continue. Similarly, newer anime fans can not be faulted, since shonen and isekai series are inherently easier to follow and offer broader appeal compared to niche genres like horror. However, it is the true horror fans who suffer the most, who are left to cope with the shortage by revisiting the same shows over and over again. In such a scenario, the least studios can do is ensure that the few horror anime they produce are executed with more care than what fans received with failures like Uzumaki or Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre.