A cursed finger, a haunted tunnel, a chainsaw devil, a vampire who only comes out at night and a ghost in the school bathroom.
The best supernatural anime are never just about monsters. The ghost, the curse or the devil is a test, and what the hero gives up to pass it is the real story. These five pass that test better than anything else of the last few years.
Number five is a 2020 deep cut that most supernatural lists skip, and it earns its place.
1. Jujutsu Kaisen (2020)
2020 · TV series · 24 episodes · MAPPA
A high school boy swallows a cursed finger to save his friends, and the strongest curse of all moves in.
Yuji Itadori eats one of the fingers of Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses, to protect his friends. Instead of being executed, he is sent to Tokyo Jujutsu High to find the rest of the fingers, under the teacher Satoru Gojo.
MAPPA adapted Gege Akutami's manga in 2020. Every cursed technique has rules and a cost, which is why the fights feel like puzzles and why it sits at number one.
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2. Dandadan (2024)
2024 · TV series · 12 episodes · Science SARU
A girl who believes in ghosts and a boy who believes in aliens find out on the same night that both are real.
Momo Ayase and her classmate Okarun make a bet: each visits the haunted spot the other swears by. She meets aliens, he meets Turbo Granny, and nothing is normal again.
Science SARU made it in 2024, directed by Fuga Yamashiro from Yukinobu Tatsu's manga. Under the chaos it is a first crush between two lonely kids.
3. Chainsaw Man (2022)
2022 · TV series · 12 episodes · MAPPA
A broke teenager merges with his chainsaw devil dog and wants a normal life more than anything.
Denji hunts devils to pay off his late father's debt, with Pochita, a small devil with a chainsaw on its head. When the two merge, Denji becomes Chainsaw Man and Public Safety recruits him.
MAPPA made it in 2022 from Tatsuki Fujimoto's manga. The devils are born from what people fear, and that idea makes every new one land.
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4. Call of the Night (2022)
2022 · TV series · 13 episodes · LIDENFILMS
A boy who cannot sleep walks the city at night and meets a vampire who offers to make him one.
Ko Yamori is fourteen, has stopped going to school and cannot sleep. On one of his night walks he meets Nazuna Nanakusa, a vampire, and asks her to turn him. The catch: he has to fall in love with her first.
LIDENFILMS adapted Kotoyama's manga in 2022, directed by Tomoyuki Itamura. The empty streets, neon and night air make it the coolest-looking romance on this list.
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5. Toilet-bound Hanako-kun (2020)
2020 · TV series · 12 episodes · Lerche
The deep cut: a ghost in the girls' bathroom grants one wish, and the price is a lot more than she planned.
Nene Yashiro summons Hanako-kun, the ghost said to live in the third stall of the old school building's girls' bathroom, to make her crush love her back. The wish goes wrong, and she ends up as Hanako's assistant.
Lerche adapted AidaIro's manga in 2020. It looks like a picture book, all flat colour and ink lines, and that makes its school ghost stories hit much harder.
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Curses with rules: Jujutsu Kaisen. Ghosts and aliens on the same night: Dandadan. For a devil hunter who wants breakfast, Chainsaw Man. If you want romance after midnight, Call of the Night. And for a school ghost story with a bite, Toilet-bound Hanako-kun.
How we ranked: Anime Crush picked series where the supernatural is the heart of the story, then ordered them by how much the monster changes the person who faces it.
