# The 14 Best Dark Fantasy Anime of All Time

> Some of these built the genre; others just made it bleed more. Every pairing forces a choice about what dark is supposed to mean.

*By YPB Team · Published August 16, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-14-best-dark-fantasy-anime-of-all-time*

---

## Current results (0 votes)

1. **Attack on Titan**
   Hajime Isayama's walled-city war story, where the fantasy premise is a delivery system for atrocity and consequence.
2. **Berserk (1997)**
   The original adaptation of Kentaro Miura's mercenary epic, still the genre's reference point.
3. **Hellsing Ultimate**
   A 2006 OVA series about a vampire employed to destroy other vampires for the British crown.
4. **Made in Abyss**
   A deceptively cute 2017 series about children descending into a pit that maims everyone who climbs back out.
5. **Devilman Crybaby**
   Masaaki Yuasa's 2018 reimagining of Go Nagai's demon manga, which ends the world on purpose.
6. **Claymore**
   A 2007 series about half-demon women hired to kill the monsters they are slowly becoming.
7. **Vinland Saga**
   A Viking revenge story that gradually argues itself out of believing in revenge.
8. **Jujutsu Kaisen**
   Modern sorcerers fight curses born from human fear, and the body count stays high.
9. **Chainsaw Man**
   A teenage devil hunter with a chainsaw for a head, in a world where devils are named after fears.
10. **Demon Slayer**
   A Taisho-era swordsman hunts the demons that killed his family and turned his sister.
11. **Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood**
   Two brothers pay a physical price for alchemy in a story that keeps escalating what the price is.
12. **Tokyo Ghoul**
   A student is turned half-ghoul and has to eat people to survive in modern Tokyo.
13. **Dorohedoro**
   A grimy, funny fantasy about sorcerers, body horror and gyoza, set across two connected worlds.
14. **Puella Magi Madoka Magica**
   A magical-girl series that reveals the contract behind the magic to be a trap.

Tags: fantasy, animation, horror, japan, manga