10 most stressful anime to watch

Anime has captivated viewers across the globe not only through its fantastical stories and lovable characters but also through its ability to take audiences on an emotional rollercoaster ride.

While many series provide light-hearted fun, others grab viewers and send their stress levels soaring. These stressful shows may leave the audience anxious or drained by the end, yet one will find themselves unable to stop bingeing to see what gut punch comes next.

From humanity's last stand against titans to a cat-and-mouse duel between a mastermind detective and a teenage killer, these thrilling and disturbing shows are almost too stressful to endure—yet too tantalizing to turn away from. Listed below are 10 of the most stressful anime that will leave viewers biting their nails.

Disclaimer: This article reflects the author's opinion.

10 must-watch stressful anime

1) Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan (Image via Wit Studio/MAPPA)

This hugely popular anime throws viewers headfirst into a post-apocalyptic world where the remains of humanity hide behind enormous walls from man-eating giants called Titans.

Protagonist Eren Yeager experiences trauma as a child when a colossal Titan breaches Wall Maria, allowing smaller Titans to enter and devour humans, including his mother. This drives Eren to join the Survey Corps to fight back against the Titans and reclaim land for humanity.

Attack on Titan immediately grabs viewers by the throat and does not let up. The constant threat of Titans breaking through the walls keeps stress and tension levels high. Furthermore, grotesque Titans devouring humans shown in graphic detail adds to the anxiety factor.

2) Made in Abyss

Made in Abyss (Image via Kinema Citrus)

This fantasy adventure anime has beautiful, detailed animation that hides the extremely dark turn the story takes. Made in Abyss follows the story of young orphan Riko living in the town of Orth near a giant hole, called the Abyss, which runs deep into the earth.

The Abyss holds remnants of an ancient civilization and strange creatures, but is mostly unexplored due to the harsh ascent required to return to the surface once descended. Regardless, Riko dreams of following in her mother's footsteps as a famous cave raider exploring the depths of the Abyss.

Riko befriends Reg, a relic-like robot boy, and descends with him to the Abyss’s lowest depths. Their whimsical quest, however, soon turns into grim survival; each new layer warps body and mind with the Abyss’s Curse, predators prowl, and mounting psychological blows that lead to a gut-wrenching climax.

3) Neon Genesis Evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion (Image via Gainax/Tatsunoko Production)

This iconic mecha anime is set in a post-apocalyptic vision of the world, fifteen years after it was ravaged by a cataclysmic event known as the Second Impact. The story revolves around fourteen-year-old Shinji Ikari, as he is summoned to the fortress city of Tokyo-3 by his estranged father, Gendo, to pilot Evangelion Unit-01.

Shinji battles otherworldly beings called Angels to prevent the Third Impact and further ruin. This stressful anime is filled with heavy themes like depression and identity crises. Shinji has deep-seated abandonment issues and social anxiety that feeds into psychological struggles that all the characters seem to face.

Things continuously escalate as the enemy attacks become more bizarre and intense, while scenes of graphic violence paired with psychoanalytical themes drive up the stress factor. It also employs avant-garde animation, symbolism, and analogies that may be confusing or disconcerting on initial viewing.

4) Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World

Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World (Image via White Fox)

The story follows Subaru, a teen summoned to another world, who meets a half-elf named Emilia as she's being attacked. After a series of unexpected events leave them both dead, Subaru finds he has acquired an ability called "Return by Death" that sends him back in time to redo events when he dies.

He soon realizes everything in this new world is not as magical as he expected. Re:Zero grabs viewers by repeatedly subjecting Subaru to horrific deaths, and seeing the light leave his eyes over and over again is profoundly disturbing. The atmosphere is foreboding and unpredictable, with enemies lurking everywhere.

Subaru's painful mission to save himself and the people he cares about from constantly dying is an exercise in anxiety, and viewers experience all the frustration of his futile efforts throughout the storyline of this stressful anime. The psychological trauma pushes Subaru and the viewers to their breaking point.

5) Monster

Monster (Image via Madhouse)

Monster anime chronicles Japanese neurosurgeon Kenzo Tenma, whose decision to save a young boy named Johan Liebert instead of the city's mayor comes back to haunt him.

When it's discovered that the hospital director and several other doctors have been murdered, Kenzo realizes Johan is much more disturbed and dangerous than he could have imagined. This stressful anime sinks its teeth in slowly with disturbing realism instead of supernatural frights.

Johan has a hypnotic presence and can get normally moral people to commit terrible acts with simple suggestion. Monster’s unseen horrors and the Tenma-Johan cat-and-mouse chase generate relentless dread; Johan’s banal, motiveless evil forces viewers to ponder what spawns monstrosity long after the credits fade.

6) Death Note

Death Note (Image via Madhouse)

This mega-popular dark fantasy thriller fires on all cylinders right away by introducing Light Yagami—a brilliant but bored high school student who finds a supernatural notebook called the "Death Note," which kills anyone whose name is written in it.

When he experiments with the lethal book, he is soon met by Ryuk—a god of death, bored like Light was—who dropped the Death Note expecting such anarchy. Light decides to use the terrifying power to rid the world of criminals and change society, using the alias "Kira" as his deeds gain global notoriety.

The dilemma soon arises about whether he is a vigilante hero or a murderer corrupted by power. The enigmatic detective L hunts him, igniting a relentless mind game that drives the suspense. Thought-provoking explorations of vigilante justice and utopian ideology make the stressful Death Note compulsively watchable.

7) The Promised Neverland

The Promised Neverland (Image via CloverWorks)

The Promised Neverland packs dread into every frame with its tale of three eleven-year-old orphans named Emma, Norman, and Ray. They live happily at the Grace Field House orphanage, cut off from society but cared for by their loving yet mysterious caretaker whom they call "Mom."

Their bright reality unravels when they learn "Mom" is raising them as food for inhuman monsters. So, Emma, Norman, and Ray hatch a risky escape plan to save themselves and all the other children from their doomed fate. The anime turns a pastoral setting into an ominous trap, as viewers want the children to flee.

Mom’s unnerving smile signals deeper peril, ramping up dread as the children must rely on strategy and psychological warfare against a foe whom brute force can’t touch. Watching small children have to resort to psychological warfare and lose their innocence just for a chance at survival is highly distressing.

8) Paranoia Agent

Paranoia Agent (Image via Madhouse)

Paranoia Agent follows an introverted character designer named Tsukiko Sagi, who serves as the unwilling origin point for Shonen Bat ("Lil' Slugger"). Shonen Bat is an elementary school boy with rollerblades and a bent baseball bat who begins attacking random strangers on the street, seemingly unprovoked.

Two homicide detectives track reports trying to find the mysterious assailant terrorizing the town, as the nightly attacks appear connected to Tsukiko, while social hysteria around the attacks amplifies. The disorienting editing and animation choices make Paranoia Agent an especially stressful viewing experience.

Shonen Bat's back turned to the viewer, manic laughter, and sudden smash cut attacks mess with the audience's head. His bizarre attacks seem to prey on the anxieties and weaknesses of his targets. As hysteria gives rise to an urban legend, it calls into question the thin line between perceived danger and reality.

9) Erased

Erased (Image via A-1 Pictures)

Erased follows Satoru Fujinuma, a manga artist who possesses an ability called "Revival" that sends him a few minutes back in time to prevent life-threatening incidents. When his mother is murdered by an unknown assailant in his apartment, Satoru's ability activates and sends him back eighteen years to his childhood.

He realizes that solving a child murder case from his youth may be the key to preventing his mother's death in the future, as well as several other linked deaths. Erased quickly pulls at the viewers' heartstrings, thanks to the strong writing.

Red herrings intentionally lead the audience astray to keep suspicions raised on nearly every new character introduced. Furthermore, seeing Satoru frantically race against time to unmask the culprit and save innocent lives makes for an incredibly tense viewing experience.

10) Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor

Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor (Image via Madhouse)

Kaiji Itou is an unemployed drifter trying to survive in contemporary Japan, dominated by greedy corporate moneylenders. When he co-signs on an ex-friend's debt to the ruthless Teiai Corporation, Kaiji finds himself tricked aboard an illegal gambling ship run by the company to pay off the debt through gambling.

Refusing to surrender his life's worth so easily, Kaiji faces other desperate debtors in a series of over-the-top gambles where the stakes are life and death. Kaiji takes viewers on an emotional rollercoaster as the underdog battles seemingly impossible odds to escape perpetual slavery under Teiai's loan shark scheme.

Kaiji’s high-stakes bets and twisted games ratchet up anxiety as he scrambles to outwit merciless opponents. Meanwhile, the ship's claustrophobic, lawless confines amp up dread; a single misstep in this seedy floating casino can cost everything, keeping the protagonist and viewers' nerves stretched.

Conclusion

Beyond lighthearted fare, some viewers seek anime that hurls them onto extreme emotional roller coasters. Such stressful anime strike precisely because they drag both viewers and characters through a merciless gauntlet of high-stakes battles, psychological tension, macabre horrors, and hopeless scenarios designed to keep anxiety peaked.

Related links:

• 10 best anime for Naoki Urasawa fans
• 10 best anime like Erased that you should watch
• 10 best anime to watch with friends
• 10 best anime to watch if you like The Promised Neverland

Edited by Janhavi Chauhan