Crunchyroll Just Made Weekdays Much Scarier For Anime Fans

October is a great month for horror anime, lending itself perfectly to the Halloween-inspired Soul Eater or Blood Lad. Most horror fans have a special love for Halloween, but there is more to the horror genre than that. Anime fans searching for a more tender exploration of human darkness within the Fall 2025 lineup need to give This Monster Wants to Eat Me a chance. This Monster Wants to Eat Me is an ongoing Crunchyroll series with a mature and emotional take on horror, one that contrasts sharply with many of the season’s other offerings.

Not only is the horror genre slimmer than the options for slice-of-life and isekai anime, but This Monster Wants to Eat Me makes horror a little less about fighting monsters and more about the grim despair of losing the will to live. If fans want to mix some of this psychological horror into their Fall 2025 viewing experience, they can check out This Monster Wants to Eat Me on Thursdays, right after the light-hearted adventures of Campfire Cooking in ANother World With My Absurd Skill on Wednesdays and right before Spy x Family on Saturdays.

This Monster Wants to Eat Me Focuses on the Daily Reality of Human Suffering

Some horror anime use gruesome spectacles, monsters, and the supernatural to drive home the intensity of what is happening. Anime adaptations of author Junji Ito’s works do just that with the body horror of spirals and even rotting fish on strange mechanical legs, while Another is about a violent curse on a certain classroom and Angels of Death is like a haunted house adventure of sorts. In-your-face gore and nightmarish creatures are one way to deliver horror, but it’s hardly the only way, and not everyone is keen on that anyhow. A slightly gentler but no less unnerving approach to horror is to dive into the darkest aspects of the human psyche, a kind of horror that scares viewers because it hits so close to home. Fans might even see themselves in a character haunted by trauma, loss, or despair, which can be more effective than any hatchet-wielding serial killer or malevolent ghost.

This Monster Wants to Eat Me may not present itself as a traditional horror anime, to the point it may be fairer to call this a supernatural drama anime, or a mild example of a psychological horror anime. It’s not quite the same as a legend like Monster, but This Monster Wants to Eat Me will definitely chill Crunchyroll subscribers who get to know protagonist Hinako Yaotose and her woes. It’s a high school slice-of-life anime where the life isn’t even meant to be lived anymore, and that’s the unsettling part.

This Monster Wants to Eat Me does involve yokai such as Shiori the mermaid, which deliver the physical horror and supernatural aspect while also fueling some action scenes to up the stakes. Above all, though, This Monster Wants to Eat Me is about one’s own inner demons, the soul-crushing despair that comes with unresolved trauma. What Hinako experienced, and her self-destructive reaction to it, will certainly horrify viewers who have been there, or those who know someone who has. Hinako hasn’t emotionally recovered from the accidental death of her parents and older brother, and now, she wishes to join them in the afterlife — if there even is such a thing. Most stories are rooted in the fact the hero wants to live and accomplish something in life, but Hinako feels the grim opposite in This Monster Wants to Eat Me.

It remains to be seen how well the anime handles this concept in the long run, but at least for now, fans of psychological horror and drama may find themselves hooked by Hinako’s delicate relationship with her own life. She’s ready for it all to end, but she will also survive long enough to befriend her mermaid companion Shiori, who will protect Hinako from other yokai while also preparing to devour Hinako when the time is right. It feels like a ticking time bomb of a friendship, a truly unnerving twist on the usual paradigm of girls becoming besties in their carefree high school days. On top of that, Hinako and Shiori just might fall in love while Hinako’s friend Miko feels ever more jealous, creating tension about whether this yuri romance will inspire Hinako to survive no matter what, or just make things more painful as Hinako’s life is eventually ripped away.

Other Anime Also Explore the Pain of Living Without a Purpose

Among other things, This Monster Wants to Eat Me is a personal drama about the struggle of finding the will to live after suffering immense loss or trauma. It’s easy for an anime lead to embrace life and make the most of it when everything is in place, such as an athlete who has a team, sport, and friends, to push them along. It’s one thing for a character to feel just a little lost or overwhelmed by life until a friend, rival, or lover kicks their adventure into high tear. But it’s another thing for a character to be ready to die, or at least throw away their seemingly ruined life, and then begin the bitter uphill battle to find meaning once again.

A variety of notable anime series share common ground with This Monster Wants to Eat Me, and none of them are horror anime, reinforcing the notion that This Monster Wants to Eat Me is horror-lite at most. Anime titles like these will haunt viewers with main characters who have abandoned the desire to live on, or at least, those who feel their life is an aimless, joyless gray haze. One of them is the famed Your Lie in April, where Kousei Arima trudges wearily through his junior high life after losing his connection to piano music due to personal trauma, only for Kaori Miyazono to inspire and heal him with the power of friendship and music. Kaori may lose her own life, but Kousei restores his own, and that makes the ending so inspiring and bittersweet.

Undead Unluck may be radically different than This Monster Wants to Eat Me on most levels, but these two anime do share the idea of a protagonist who is ready to die, only for a bizarre stranger to show up and support them. Fuuko Izumo lost her parents due to her Unluck ability as a Negator, while her new friend Andy has lived so long as an immortal being, he is desperate to rest in the grave at last. Together, they will find a new purpose and joy in life while fighting together, giving the otherwise carefree Undead Unluck a remarkably morbid edge.

Meanwhile, the subversive seinen anime Oshi no Ko and the excellent historical anime Vinland Saga both feature protagonists who felt like they lost everything but revenge after losing someone dear to them, only for Aqua Hoshino and Thorfinn Karlsefni to each find a new reason for being, a reason to not just discard the gift of life and give up. Aqua lives both for revenge and to protect his new sister Ruby, while Thorfinn had to reach his lowest point and face the reality of his past violence before he could become the kind of person who may build the peaceful colony of Vinland. All of these anime and more give fans of This Monster Wants to Eat Me hope that Hinako will find her own reason to live, with Shiori there to protect and support her the entire time.