Though there is much anime that perfectly fits the horror genre, some of them take place in fairly ordinary locations, such as regular cities or schools. However, there are also some horror anime that have their scary settings to fit their stories, from cursed villages to extremely haunted schools filled with ghosts or zombies.
From Attack on Titan's monster-filled world to Deadman Wonderland taking place in the most lethal amusement park to ever exist, the settings of these horror anime are not for the faint of heart. Any viewers watching were glad that these places didn't exist in real life, and did not want to end up in any similar settings themselves.
11 Attack On Titan Took Place In A World Of Flesh-Eating Titans
Attack on Titan took place in a world where flesh-eating, giant Titans could eat almost anyone possible while they were still alive. To stay alive, many people moved into walled cities that were supposed to keep them safe from the Titans outside. However, these walls were not foolproof. The destruction of a wall resulted in Eren Yeager losing his home and watching his mother being eaten alive. Even the best warriors in the Survey Corps often had a hard time fighting the Titans and protecting the people they were supposed to keep safe because of these flesh-eating beings. Many of them even died during this process.
10 Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Took Place In An Academy-Turned-Execution Spot
Imagine taking shelter in an academy to survive the apocalypse, only for the school itself to turn deadly. This was exactly what happened to the students at Hope's Peak Academy in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc after Monokuma took over the school. The only way to leave the school was to kill someone else and get away with it. If the killer was caught, they would be subjected to a gruesome execution befitting of their reputation. As the deaths increased, however, the surviving students eventually banded together to try to figure out who imprisoned them in the first place and why.
9 Soul Eater Took Place In An Academy Where People Were Both Warriors And Weapons
Soul Eater took place in an academy where people trained to be both warriors and the weapons that served those same warriors. The person that ran the academy was a shinigami representing Death, and the academy itself is even called the Shinigami Academy. The students there had to collect the souls of powerful witches and villains instead of finishing regular schoolwork. One of the defining elements of the series was the soul determining the appearance, size, and behavior of the creature it inhabits.
8 Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Took Place In A Cursed Village
Despite looking like a setting for a heartwarming slice-of-life anime, Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni's location was a cursed village. Though the village itself looked fairly peaceful as is, it was revealed that there were murders and disappearances of people taking place during a village festival every year. This series of incidents were nicknamed the "curse of Oyashiro-sama."
As the murders start occurring again, the protagonists must find out why these incidents are happening, and hopefully not get killed themselves. The setting seems deceptively safe, but the curse proves otherwise.
7 Deadman Wonderland Took Place In A Deadly Amusement Park
After the protagonist Ganta was left as the only survivor and blamed for massacring his entire class, he was taken to the titular Deadman Wonderland, a prison styled like a twisted amusement park. To earn its Cast Points, the park's currency, prisoners had to participate in deadly games and survive them. Even worse was that Ganta had a collar that put poison in his blood, and the antidote could only be taken every three days. He and many other prisoners were forced to do their wardens' twisted biddings, but Ganta thankfully made an ally in a girl named Shiro.
6 Umemiko No Naku Koro Mi Takes Place On A Remote Island
Umemiko No Naku Koro Mi took place on a remote island called Rokkenjima. After the head of the Ushioromiya family died, the remaining members gathered to discuss how to split the inheritance. However, a typhoon prevented them from leaving the island, and the rest of the family members started mysteriously dying, one by one. It was revealed that a witch named Beatrice once lived on the island and left a riddle. Whoever solved the riddle would become the family head, but if no one did, Beatrice would be awakened and everyone would die.
5 Shiki Took Place In A Remote Mountain Village
Shiki's setting was a remote mountain village. After a family moved into a western-style castle on top of the hill dominating the village, a series of sudden deaths occurred. It was initially thought by physicians and others that it was an epidemic, which was bad enough considering how small the village population was before the deaths.
However, Toshio and Seishin found out that the dead will end up coming back to life to feed on other people, and it started because of the same family that initially moved in. This made the true cause of the deaths much creepier than it seemed.
4 Highschool Of The Dead Took Place In A Zombie Apocalypse
Highschool Of The Dead took place during the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. After trying to expel a mysterious man on school grounds, one of the teachers was bit by the man. This teacher later became a zombie that attacked other teachers and students, and it forced the remaining students to band together to try to survive. Even worse is that the series later revealed that this incident went beyond the school, as zombies spread throughout the surrounding city despite the best efforts of law enforcement and the city officials.
3 School-Live! Is Another Anime That Took Place During A Zombie Apocalypse
While Highschool Of The Dead detailed the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, School-Live! took place after the zombie apocalypse already began. The school itself is full of zombies on some of its floors, and the resources that the living characters ate were fairly minimal since they were trapped in the school with nowhere else to go.
To make matters more complicated, one of the living main characters suffered from delusions that made everything look fine and normal at school. The rest of the cast had no choice but to play along with the delusions to keep her safe from both the zombies and any other dangers.
2 Black Butler Took Place In A Supernatural Victorian London
Many people aware of Black Butler know that Sebastian is a demon serving the Phantomhive family, but there are more supernatural beings in the series than him. From Grell the Grim Reaper working with Madame Red to act as Jack the Ripper to other demon butlers existing, it is clear that though the setting took place in Victorian London, it was given a gothic and creepy vibe with its added supernatural elements. The first episode of the series even showed off how creepy Phantomhive Manor could be, after one of its visitors got lost, was chased by Sebastian throughout its halls, and later baked alive in an oven.
1 Ghost Stories Took Place In A Haunted School
Many horror anime take place in creepy school settings, and Ghost Stories is another one of them. Satsuki, the main protagonist, found out that her mother was responsible for sealing ghosts in a school. The only problem was that these same ghosts were slowly being released thanks to the increasing urbanization of the surrounding town. This resulted in Satsuki and her friends having to deal with these ghosts. She also later dealt with a demon that was sealed inside her pet cat and had to work with the demon to get rid of the ghosts for good.