What's the Most Brutal Anime You've Seen?
- Thread starter SonOfMethuselah
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Well, I definitely plan on checking out this Elfen Lied. And if I have it right, there's a character from Hellsing who I see used as an avatar quite a bit, and I've always wanted to know where he came from, so I think I'll look in to that one, too. Mnemosyne also sounds like an interesting concept. I've got a big weekend full of nothing ahead, so it might be time to jump into this anime thing, see what I've been missing. Lord knows I could use a little culture.the doom cannon said:
I thought Baccano! was pretty brutal.
I'm sure there is more brutal stuff out there, but I'll just stick to this for now.
The part where the Rail Tracer was dragging Czeslaw's hand on the train tracks while the train was in motion particularly stood out as a brutal moment.
And the part where Czes has his neck snapped by the Rail Tracer
And when Czes was shot in the head by Ladd... Come to think of it, Czes dies a LOT.
Speaking of Ladd, he's probably the most violent character in the show. In a good way.
And the part where Czes has his neck snapped by the Rail Tracer
And when Czes was shot in the head by Ladd... Come to think of it, Czes dies a LOT.
Speaking of Ladd, he's probably the most violent character in the show. In a good way.
I'm sure there is more brutal stuff out there, but I'll just stick to this for now.
Well, yes and no on Elfen Lied. It opens with like five minutes of a naked girl brutally eviscerating dozens of people. However, (and this is just one of the many reasons I think Elfen Lied is dumb and stupid) Elfen Lied was animated by Studio Arms, whose previous productions have included such prestigious series as Battle Vixens, Queen's Blade, and Night Shift Nurses. This is not a studio brimming with talent. Elfen Lied is the epitome of cheap animation. Nothing has much/any weight or impact.SonOfMethuselah said:
It does make you realize just what a huge difference there can be in animation quality, and how immensely talented some studios are.
Mnemosyne suffers from the same problem, though to a lesser degree. It still wasn't enough for me to be disturbed by it in the slightest, however.
Moving on to the positive, Baccano! has some of the highest quantities of violence of any anime - certainly it's the most violent I've seen (oh, except for Hellsing Ultimate). As long as you're an emotionless bastard like me it's not really horrifying or disturbing, but that's intentional because Baccano!'s fun. It's a show about immortal alchemists running gangs during the Great Depression. FUCK. YES.
The single most brutal scene I've ever seen in an anime, however, would be from Bakemonogatari. A guy gets most of his limbs broken, and is punched all the way through his stomach. Then he's grabbed by his intestines and swung around the room until they tear. However, this entire scene is inked in exactly one color - green - because
Rounding out the pack, the most disturbing scene I've ever seen in an anime would be the last scene from episode seven of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
"Stop...please stop..."
From an artistic standpoint, animation has the advantage of existing in hyperreality. Gore, facial expression, etc. can be distorted and exaggerated. But obviously it doesn't work if you don't identify the character on-screen as a person, so that's where it can break down.SonOfMethuselah said:
Do me a favor. After you watch it, PM me what you thought about it. The things people say about it mystify me.SonOfMethuselah said:
There are two versions of Hellsing: Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate (which is just called Hellsing in Japan). Hellsing 1 I haven't actually seen, but I know it diverges from the story of the manga on which it is based, whereas Hellsing Ultimate tells the story (Because people watch Hellsing FOR THE PLOT). When people talk about Hellsing, they are probably (but not necessarily) talking about Ultimate. I've seen nine of the ten episodes of Ultimate and it really is awesome. It's also great both subbed and dubbed - both versions are basically a bunch of big-name (within the field) voice actors chewing the scenery.SonOfMethuselah said:
Yes...anime...culture. That is a thing. That it has. At all.SonOfMethuselah said:
Mostly jk. Anime is all I watch, so at the very least I have to convince myself it's culture-y. Enjoy your big weekend-of-nothing turned weekend-of-anime. And if you're ever looking for suggestions, just ask
Hm, Hunter x Hunter is pretty brutal I guess. It has more of an impact in some ways because you don't really expect it since it often seems like just a fun Shonen anime. It can go quickly from that, to people getting brutally dismembered, in a way you don't really expect from other Shonen titles. This isn't the kind of Shonen where the heroes dramatically finish an enemy with some crazy attack like getting hit by swords in a way that they should have been diced up, and they just spurt up a fountain of blood before falling down, and often times not dying. If you get hit by a crazy attack that should dice you up, it will dice you up.
The decapitations and mauling only become more frequent the further you get into the series. It's not quite at the level of scary, but it can be a bit unnerving when a character that you've come to know gets unexpectedly killed after a clash you though he/she'd win and you find out about their death when you see the victor holding their decapitated head in their lap.
At one point, the main character, Gon, was fighting a guy who's power was to be able to create explosions with his hands. At one point mid way into the fight, he enabled himself to do a dual explosion with both hands, and grabbed both of Gon's arms. Think Gon got away? Nope, he exploded both of his arms. He lost his entire left forearm, and his right arm was horribly battered, and barely usable. So much for main character invulnerability.
I'm surprised that absolutely no one has mentioned Full Metal Alchemist (either series) or Ghost in the Shell. The former has genocide as a major theme, and everyone will remember what happened with Tucker and "the Chimera". As for GitS, it's not ultra violent often from what I've seen, but there are a couple scenes throughout the series that really do become hard to watch.
Whatever you do, watch the OVAs - Hellsing Ultimate - instead of the original. To keep it short - the OVAs do everything the original series sets out to do, but far better and without making Seras come across as utterly defenseless or having a main villain that's laughably hard to take seriously.SonOfMethuselah said:
I can see how it might look that way, in fact I never really was interested in violent thriller/horror anime till I saw Mirai Nikki, which I knew nothing about upon going in. Being 2D throws some horror aspects out of the window, for instance jump scares, but what the Japanese excel at are plot scenarios combined with excellent voice acting that are psychologically disturbing and uncomfortable.SonOfMethuselah said:
For example, in the way anime faces are very expressive, mood changes can be much more sinister that helps ramp up the tension. And obviously they can run wild with the cute + gratuitous violence trope, which for the most part wouldn't be allowed for child actors to do in live action.
a friend of mine recently introduced me to Hellsing Ultimate which is both brilliant and bloody/brutal, unfortunately out of the 10 episodes only 8 are in english so far (last 2 sceduled for August i think) so i would definitely recommend that
Obligatory mention of Elfen Lied. Yes, it's violent to a ridiculous degree, but that's all there is to it. Other series do the violence much better.
Higurashi is viloent (though perhaps not quite on the level of Elfen Lied), but it paces itself much better, which gives it more weight. I cringed a hell of a lot more when watching one character die in Higurashi than I did when watching the whole series of Elfen Lied.
OS yeah, Higurashi gets my vote.
Higurashi is viloent (though perhaps not quite on the level of Elfen Lied), but it paces itself much better, which gives it more weight. I cringed a hell of a lot more when watching one character die in Higurashi than I did when watching the whole series of Elfen Lied.
OS yeah, Higurashi gets my vote.
I'm going to go with Akira. Sure, there are more gory or violent anime, like Elfen Lied, but the OP asked for "brutal". The violence in Akira is brutal. The most innocent or undeserving characters are victims to most unpleasant and visceral suffering. Elfen Lied opens with exploding heads and gratuitous fan service, so it feels like a childish cartoon. Akira has a character step on a piece of glass with his bare foot, or a blameless girl getting her nose punched in - and it looks ten times worse.
emotional: now and then, here and there.
all the other stuff was posted before here i think-but well maybe gyo-not brutal but disguisting^^ but junji ito rocks shit and can even turn his cat into something ill never want to meet any time any soon anywhere *urgh
all the other stuff was posted before here i think-but well maybe gyo-not brutal but disguisting^^ but junji ito rocks shit and can even turn his cat into something ill never want to meet any time any soon anywhere *urgh
Yeah I think that's a /thread right there.Aaron Sylvester said:
I never watched the entire series, but that show was ridiculously brutal and actually fairly scary. The show was like a nightmare, everything would be fine one minute, then suddenly it would devolve into pure Bedlam.
The only other thing I can think of is Elfen Lied... such a beautiful yet gloriously messed up show. Not just in violence either, there was a lot of messed up imagery and subtext in that show.
... Now I have to listen to Lilium again.
Urotsukidoji.
Definitely not for children.
Nerdy kid turnd into a giant monster with 10 ..."tentacles" ahem...that tears apart Tokyo while demons rape & pillage & ...well, brutalize.
One especially memorable 3 second clip had a demon fly by while holding a woman by the ankles and eating her out, another person flies from the foreground to splat against the wall in the background, all while a severed head rolls by.
The whole thing is very demented... I highly recommend it.
Definitely not for children.
Nerdy kid turnd into a giant monster with 10 ..."tentacles" ahem...that tears apart Tokyo while demons rape & pillage & ...well, brutalize.
One especially memorable 3 second clip had a demon fly by while holding a woman by the ankles and eating her out, another person flies from the foreground to splat against the wall in the background, all while a severed head rolls by.
The whole thing is very demented... I highly recommend it.
Baccano. Hands down.
An immortal ten-year-old takes a shotgun blast to the face.
A man flying through the air grabs a rope attached to a train, and it rips his hand apart. He then uses said hand to punch a water-tower he and the girlfriend in his arms are falling toward at speed, completely obliterating that limb.
This same man, earlier in the series, gleefully chats to another man while pummeling him to death in front of an audience of train passengers.
A different man ends up covered in the gore of a hijacker that he held suspended underneath the train they were on and grinds him to death against the tracks. He then proceeds to run around the train killing people while still covered in blood, eventually proposing marriage to one of the passengers.
Throughout the rest of the series, there are all manner of bloody mutilations and great story twists.
An immortal ten-year-old takes a shotgun blast to the face.
A man flying through the air grabs a rope attached to a train, and it rips his hand apart. He then uses said hand to punch a water-tower he and the girlfriend in his arms are falling toward at speed, completely obliterating that limb.
This same man, earlier in the series, gleefully chats to another man while pummeling him to death in front of an audience of train passengers.
A different man ends up covered in the gore of a hijacker that he held suspended underneath the train they were on and grinds him to death against the tracks. He then proceeds to run around the train killing people while still covered in blood, eventually proposing marriage to one of the passengers.
Throughout the rest of the series, there are all manner of bloody mutilations and great story twists.
