Among the varying genres of anime, a thriller is one of the most exciting genres. It is the kind of fast-paced genre, full of conflict, tension, and many unexpected twists. The best thing about thriller anime is that it keeps the suspense built up for the viewers.
This list will discuss the 10 best thriller anime, according to the audience, their characters, and storyline. Some of the anime in this list is for the adult audience. So, let’s have a look at this list of anime that you can binge-watch.
10. Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica:
This is a story of hope, despair, and friendship where the characters deal with the difficulties of being a magical girl. The main protagonist is Madoka Kaname, who encounters a magical creature, Kyuubey, after experiencing a bizarre dream. Kyuubey offered Madoka and Sayaka Miki an opportunity to gain magical powers only if they agreed to make a contract with it. It also promised to fulfill their one wish under the condition that they must fight witches and risk their lives if needed. Witches are invisible to human eyes and are referred to as the catalysts of despair in the areas where they reside. Mami Tomoe, a magical girl and Kyuubey’s ally, befriends the two girls and encourages them to accept the contract.
Some of the main characters of the series are:
Madoka Kaname- The main protagonist of the series and a 14-year old girl whose life took a major turn when she encountered Kyuubey and got involved in the magical world.
Sayaka Miki- Madoka’s classmate who encountered Kyuubey with Madoka and also ended up accepting its contract.
Kyuubey- A familiar that can grant any wish to a certain girl under the condition that she becomes a Puella Magi and fights against witches.
Homura Akemi- A magical girl who appeared in the apocalyptic nightmare of Madoka’s. She transferred to her school the next day of the dream and is a very talented but mysterious individual.
Kyouko Sakura- A veteran magical girl who appeared later in the story. She has been a Puella Magi much longer than the others and is very skilled.
9. Death Parade:
The story mainly focuses on life after death. There is no heaven or hell after death, only a bar that stands between reincarnation and oblivion. It is the duty of the bartender to test the souls of the deceased and send them for either reincarnation or oblivion, depending on their performance. The souls don’t have any memory of dying when they arrive at the bar. The test starts with simple games like bowling, darts, air hockey, or anything similar to that. As the game proceeds, it becomes life-threatening, and the souls start regaining their lost memories. The game continues until the series of tests reveals a person’s true nature. Even though the arbiter system has access to the deceased’s life memories, they can’t judge someone solely on that.
Some of the main characters of the series are:
Decim- He is the main protagonist, and his faction deals with people who have died simultaneously. He is the bartender of Quindecim.
Kurokami no Onna- She is Decim’s assistant and came to his bar after dying. She had her memories of dying upon her arrival, so Nona assigned her as Decim’s assistant until they figure out how to judge her.
Nona- She is the manager of the arbiter system and the bartender of Nona Ginta. She has been the manager for over 82 years.
Clavis- He is the personal valet to Nona and an elevator operator in the arbiter system. He transports arbiters and guests between floors.
Ginti- He is a short-tempered arbiter who doesn’t get along with Decim.
8. Re: Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu (Re: Zero- Starting Life in Another World):
This is another part of the Re: Zero series; the story revolves around Subaru Natsuki, whose everyday life took a drastic turn when he is summoned to a fantasy world while on his way home from a convenience store. With no signs of the one who summoned him and being attacked by some thugs, his arrival at the new world couldn’t be any worse. Until a beautiful and mysterious girl, Emilia runs into him and saves him while she pursues the person who stole her insignia. Subaru offers to help her, and just minutes after they found her insignia, someone brutally murdered both of them. However, things became even weirder when Subaru reawakens to a familiar scene where the same groups of thugs confronted him. Now, Subaru must figure out the mystery of this strange phenomenon and locate the mysterious force behind it.
Some of the main characters of the series are:
Subaru Natsuki – He is the main protagonist who can call “Return by Death” to go back in time before his death.
Emilia – She is the female protagonist and a half-elf girl who is also a candidate to become the kingdom’s next ruler.
Beatrice – She is a mysterious mage who has the ability to wrap any room in the mansion into a library, but she can’t leave the mansion.
7. Another:
The series starts with the narration about the 3rd year Middle School girl Mei Misaki who passed away in 1972. She was very popular as a talented student in her school, and everyone was devastated by the loss. Since then, many mysterious phenomena have started happening in Yomiyama, and it has been enveloped with a frightening atmosphere. One of the strange incidents was that even though Misaki died before graduation, no one could explain why she was in the graduation photo.
Then, twenty-six years later, in 1998, Kouichi Sakakibara transferred to the same class as Misaki. He is confused about the gloomy and suspicious environment in his class. He is also drawn to a mysterious eye-patch wearing student Misaki; however, he is confused why the rest of the class and even the teachers seem to ignore her. The series revolves around the mysteries of the town and the tragic incident that occurred twenty-six years ago.
Some of the main characters of the series are:
Kouichi Sakakibara- He is the main protagonist who transferred to Misaki’s class twenty-six years after her death.
Mei Misaki- A mysterious eye-patch wearing student whose presence is always ignored in the class. She is supposedly the spirit of the deceased student.
Izumi Akazawa- Kouichi’s classmate and holds a grudge against him for breaking the school rules.
6. Mirai Nikki (Future Diary):
The series mainly focuses on the life of an introverted high school student Yukiteru Amano who spends his time writing a diary on his cellphone. In his diary, he converses with his imaginary friends Deus Ex Machina, the god of time and space, and Mur Mur, the god’s servant. However, Deus turned out to be an actual being, and he wants to play a game of survival with Yukiteru and the other 11 contestants. The winner and the sole survivor will succeed Deus as the new god of time and space. The contestants are required to use their diaries to eliminate their rivals with the use of their diaries. The diaries help the contestants by showing them what they will in the future and the events that already took place in the future.
Yukiteru teamed up with Yuno Gasai, a contestant in the game but is madly in love with him. She took responsibility for his safety. However, things aren’t so simple when the seemingly beautiful and intelligent girl hides many secrets and has other plans for this game.
Some of the main characters of the series are:
Yukiteru Amano- He is the main protagonist and one of the contestants in Deus’ game of survival.
Yuno Gasai- She is the female protagonist of the series. Yuno is Yukiteru’s girlfriend and partner in the game.
Deus Ex Machina- He is the god of time and space and the mastermind behind the brutal game of survival.
Mur- She is Deus’ servant and has a very playful attitude towards Deus.
5. Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsi (Parasyte- The Maxim):
Humanity was at risk when all of a sudden, worm-like aliens called parasites invaded the earth. Those creatures take over human bodies by entering through their nose or ears to get to their brains and control them. Once those parasites gain control of a human body, they devour humans as food. One of those parasites tried to gain control of a 16-year-old Shinichi Izumi. However, he was sleeping while wearing his earphones, so the parasite tried to enter his brain through his right arm, but it failed and ended up taking control of only his right hand. Because Migi (parasite) can only control Shinichi’s right arm, they have separate personalities. For both of them to survive, they have no choice but to co-exist and get along with each other. The pair ended up fighting other parasites that attacked Shinichi.
Some of the main characters of the series are:
Shinichi Izumi- He is the main protagonist and was a normal high school student until a parasite took control of his right arm.
Migi- It is the parasite the lives in Shinichi’s right arm. Migi is doesn’t killing humans as it can nourish itself with the food Shinichi consumes.
Satomi Murano- She is Shinichi’s best friend. Their friendship became unsteady when Shinichi was consumed by fear of his new grotesque body.
4. Monster:
The series is about a neurosurgeon Dr. Kenzou Tenma, a Japanese doctor who is living in Germany. He is recently engaged to the daughter of his hospital’s director. Kenzou is a very talented doctor and has a bright future ahead. Unfortunately, his life took a turn for the worse due to a seemingly small incident. While he was busy preparing for a poor immigrant worker’s surgery, he got a call from the hospital’s director, who asked him to operate on a famous performer instead. He successfully saved the celebrity’s life, but he was struck with guilt as the worker died because he gave up on his operation.
After that incident, whenever he is in similar situations, he always stands his ground. He decides to save the life of a boy Johan Liebert instead of the mayor. Unfortunately, it led to serious consequences for him, and he lost his social standing. When the director and Kenzou’s fellow doctors died and with no evidence to convict him, he became the hospital’s director.
Nine years later, saving a criminal’s life resulted in him being haunted by his past again when he again encountered the monster he operated on. Johan turned out to be a serial killer, and now Kenzou must stop him and make amends for the havoc created by the one he saved.
Some of the main characters of the series are:
Kenzou Tenma- He is the main protagonist and a Japanese neurosurgeon living in Germany.
Johan Liebert- He is the monster in the series, and his past is the main focus of the series.
Anna Liebert- She is Johan’s twin sister and survived the night when her parents and brother were shot in a seemingly botched burglary.
3. Yakusoku no Neverland (The Promised Neverland):
The series starts with a beautiful house surrounded by a forest and a gated entrance. The house is where the orphans live happily as siblings with their guardian Isabella, whom they call Mama. The children are well-fed and are properly educated there. They are required to take difficult tests frequently. Once in a while, a child is adopted by a family, and they leave the orphanage, ready to live with their new families.
However, things aren’t what they seem to be. No one knows what’s beyond the gates or what happened to the adopted children. Norman, Emma, and Ray are the brightest among all the children, and after they have found the dreadful truth behind the orphanage, they must decide whether to save only themselves or all their siblings in the orphanage. The second season of the series will start airing on January 8th, 2020, where more secrets will unravel about the world.
Some of the main characters of the series are:
Emma- She is an 11-year-old girl and one of the oldest among the children. She is also one of the most intelligent children in the orphanage.
Norman- Just like Emma, he is also 11 years old and brilliant.
Ray- He is also 11 and is the smartest among everyone, even more than Emma and Norman.
Isabella- She is the mama of the orphanage and is a perfect mother figure for the orphans. However, she is hiding some dark secrets that risk the lives of the children.
2. Steins; Gate:
The series is about a self-proclaimed and mad scientist Rintarou Okabe. He rents a room in an old building in Akihabara, and there, he spends time inventing his prospective future gadgets. Rintarou and his friends have customized their microwave to a device that can actually send text messages to the past. It didn’t provide anything concrete for Rintarou’s scientific breakthrough until Kurisu Makise received a text from him which he didn’t remember sending her. Things only got confusing as the characters are prompt by a series of mysterious occurrences. In their pursuit of learning how to close the boundary between different timelines, they are now in danger of being captured by an organization named SERN that is also researching time travel.
Some of the main characters of the series are:
Rintarou Okabe- He is the main protagonist and a first-year in Tokyo Denki University. Despite his immature behavior, he is a talented scientist.
Kurisu Makise- She is the female protagonist and is a research member of Victor Qondria University’s Brain Research Program.
Mayuri Shiina- She is a second-year student in Kasensou Private Preparatory Academy and Rintarou’s childhood friend.
Itaru Hashida- He is also a first-year student at Tokyo Denki University. Itaru is Rinatrou’s friend since high school and is a very talented hacker.
1. Death Note:
There probably isn’t an anime fan that hasn’t watched or at least heard of this series. Death Note is one of the most popular thriller anime. In the series, the death note actually belongs to a shinigami (god of death); they have the power to kill anyone as long as they know the victim’s face and name. The death note can kill the person in a way the holder of the notebook desires. Among so many shinigami, one was Ryuk, who got bored of his life and dropped the death note to see how it would impact the human world
The series is about a brilliant high school student Light Yagami, who found a Death Note by chance. At first, he thought that the notebook is a prank and didn’t give much thought to it. But then he got curious and tried to test the notebook by writing a criminal’s name on it. The person actually died. Since then, he took it upon himself to extinguish crimes from the world by eradicating all the criminals. His goal is to create a peaceful world without any crime, but very soon, the police discover that a serial killer targets all the criminals, and now they are trying to find the killer.
Some of the main characters of the series are:
Light Yagami- He is the main protagonist who hates the state of the world. He thinks of himself as someone with divine power after getting the death note.
Ryuk- He is a shinigami and the owner of the death note in Light’s possession.
L Lawliet- He is the best detective globally and is investigating the serial killer’s identity.
Misa Amane- She is a celebrity who has a huge crush on Light. She also possesses a death note of a different shinigami.
These are the best thriller anime, according to us. They will keep you at the edge of your seat the whole time, and you can’t help but watch all the episodes at once.
Honorable Mentions
Manager, Please Scold Me
Tsuma ni Damatte Sokubaikai ni Ikun ja Nakatta
