What are The 10 Best Anime where the Main Character is tortured and has a painful experience or a dark past?
Today, we will be covering a recommended list of the 10 best anime series where the main character gets some sort of the worst, the darkest, and most painful experiences by being tortured. These heavy tortures inflict such pain through a variety of methods, and probably will change their lives completely. As a result, some of these tortured anime characters became broken, twisted, insane, or really abnormal!
So, let’s countdown our 10 best anime where the main character is tortured and had painful experiences.
10. Elfen Lied
- Genres: Action, Horror, Psychological, Supernatural, Drama, Romance
- Studio: Arms
- Episodes: 13
We are starting off our list of the best anime where the main character is tortured with Elfen Lied. This is a horror anime series that highlights that the Diclonius are a dangerous species with horrific power, that’s why they have been captured and are isolated in laboratories by the government.
Lucy, the female main character is a young and psychotic Diclonius, who manages to break free of her confines and brutally murders most of the guards. Even though she got shot in the head, She survives, falling off a cliff into the ocean and managing to drift along to a beach.
As a result, She lost her memories, and was named after the only thing that she can now say, “Nyuu”. Hopefully, The two who discovers her, allow her to stay at Kouta’s home. However, it appears that her psychotic side is not dead just yet…
9. Ajin
- Genres: Action, Mystery, Horror, Supernatural, Seinen
- Studio: Polygon Pictures
- Episodes: 26 / Two Seasons
Ajin is a good anime that focuses on some mysterious immortal humans known as “Ajin”, who first appeared 17 years ago in Africa. Upon their discovery, they seem like a threat to mankind, as they may use their powers for evil. Since then, whenever an Ajin appears within society, they arrest and take them into custody immediately.
Kei Nagai is a high schooler who knows very little about Ajin, he only sees them appear in the news every now and then. The students only know that these creatures are not humans, but Kei doesn’t pay much attention in class. Therefore, his perilously little grasp on this subject proves to be completely irrelevant when he survives an accident! signaling his rebirth as an Ajin and the start of his days of torment.
However, he finds himself alone and on the run from the entire world! Kei soon realizes that more of his species may be a lot closer than he thinks.
8. Owari no Seraph
- Genres: Action, Military, Supernatural, Drama, Vampire, Shounen
- Studio: Wit Studio
- Episodes: 24 / Two Seasons
Seraph of the End is among the best vampire anime series that features a main character who is tortured and has had a harsh dark past.
The series showcases that a mysterious virus appeared on Earth which killed every infected human over the age of 13. Meanwhile, vampires emerged from the world’s dark recesses and enslaved mankind.
Enter Hyakuya Yuuichirou, a young boy with the rest of the children from his orphanage, who are treated as livestock by the vampires.
Even in captivity, Yuuichirou dreams big.
He dreams of killing vampires.
He dreams of killing them all.
7. Corpse Party
- Genres: Mystery, Horror, Supernatural
- Studio: Manglobe
- Episodes: 6 / Two Seasons
Corpse Party is an anime that features torture, gore, and so many gruesome scenes! The story is set in Heavenly Host Elementary School, an elementary school that was torn down following the murders and disappearances of several of its staff and students.
By the start of the story, another school called Kisaragi Academy has been built over the elementary school site. Those students were telling ghost stories when a sudden earthquake transports them to another dimension. Where Heavenly Host Elementary still exists and is haunted by the ghosts of the school’s murdered children.
Therefore, The students of Kisaragi Academy try to find their way home and survive the other mysterious forces that haunt the school.
6. Deadman Wonderland
- Genres: Action, Sci-Fi, Horror, Shounen
- Studio: Manglobe
- Episodes: 12
Deadman is a really good anime where the main character is tortured and really has had some sort of painful experiences due to being framed for a crime he didn’t commit.
The series kicks off normally, and it looked like it would be a normal day for the main character Ganta Igarashi and his classmates. They were preparing to go on a class field trip to a certain prison amusement park called Deadman Wonderland.
However, Ganta’s life is quickly changed when his whole class gets massacred by a mysterious man in red. Framed for the incident and sentenced to death, Ganta is sent to the very jail he was supposed to visit. But Ganta’s nightmare is only just beginning.
The young protagonist is thrown into a world of sadistic inmates and mysterious powers. In the jail, he lives in constant fear of the lethal collar placed around his neck that is slowed only by winning in the prison’s deathly games.
Therefore, Ganta must bet his life to survive in a ruthless place where it isn’t always easy to tell friends from foes! All while trying to find the mysterious “Red Man” and clear his name, in Deadman Wonderland.
5. Berserk
- Genres: Action, Adventure, Demons, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Military, Romance
- Studio: Millepensee
- Episodes: 49 / Three Seasons
Among the best anime that features a tortured main character, we have Berserk, a series that follows the main character Guts, who has been branded for death and is destined to be hunted by demons until the day he dies.
Guts embark on a journey to defy such a gruesome fate, as waves of beasts relentlessly pursue him. Steeling his resolve, he takes up the monstrous sword Dragonslayer and vows to exact vengeance on the one responsible.
As a result, Guts will be hunting down the very man he once looked up to and considered a friend. Along the way, he encounters some unlikely allies, such as a tiny elf named Puck, and Isidro, a young thief looking to learn swordsmanship from the former mercenary. As the ragtag group slowly comes together after having decided to join Guts in his quest! They will face incredible danger, unlike anything they have ever experienced before.
4. Re: Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu
- Genres: Psychological, Drama, Thriller, Fantasy
- Studio: White Fox
- Episodes: 25
When Subaru Natsuki leaves the convenience store, the last thing he expects is to get transported from his everyday life into another world. However, things aren’t looking good for the teenager! Because, not long after his arrival, he is attacked by some thugs; armed with only a bag of groceries and a now useless cell phone, he is quickly beaten to a pulp.
Fortunately, a mysterious beauty named Satella, in hot pursuit of the one who stole her insignia, stumbles upon Subaru and saves him. So, In order to thank the honest and kind girl, Subaru offers to help in her search, and later that night, he even finds the whereabouts of that which she seeks.
But unbeknownst to them, a much darker force stalks the pair from the shadows, and just minutes after locating the insignia, Subaru and Satella are brutally murdered. Hence, Subaru immediately reawakens to a familiar scene—facing the same group of thugs, meeting Satella all over again. As a result, the enigma deepens as history inexplicably repeats itself.
3. Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin
- Genres: Drama, Historical, Seinen, Thriller
- Studio: Madhouse
- Episodes: 26
Rainbow is a masterpiece anime where the characters are getting tortured and undergoing painful and brutal punishments in jail.
Set in Japan, 1955: Mario Minakami has just arrived at Shounan Special Reform School along with six other teenagers who have been arrested on serious criminal charges. All assigned to the same cell, they meet older inmate Rokurouta Sakuragi—a former boxer—with whom they establish a close bond. Under his guidance, and with the promise that they will meet again on the outside after serving their sentences, the delinquents begin to view their hopeless situation in a better light.
Rainbow is a dark and sad anime, that follows the seven tortured cellmates along with the mc, as they struggle together against the brutal suffering and humiliation at the prison. So, Facing such hellish conditions, the seven inmates must scrape together all the strength they have to survive until their sentences are up. However, even if they do, just what kind of lives are waiting for them on the other side?
2. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
- Genres: Mystery, Dementia, Horror, Psychological, Supernatural, Thriller
- Studios: Studio Deen
- Episodes: 50 / Two Seasons
Keiichi Maebara has just moved to the quiet little village of Hinamizawa in the summer of 1983. He quickly becomes inseparable friends with schoolmates Rena Ryuuguu, Mion Sonozaki, Satoko Houjou, and Rika Furude. However, darkness lurks underneath the seemingly idyllic life they lead.
As the village prepares for its annual festival, Keiichi learns about the local legends surrounding it. To his horror, he discovers that there have been several murders and disappearances in the village in recent years. Therefore, they all seem to be connected to the festival and the village’s patron god, Oyashiro.
Keiichi tries to ask his new friends about these incidents, but they are suspiciously silent and refuse to give him the answers he needs. As more and more bizarre events occur, he wonders just what else his friends may be keeping from him, and if he can even trust them at all.
When madness and paranoia begin taking root in Keiichi’s heart, he will stumble straight into the mysteries at work in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, an anime story that features both the main and some side characters being tortured.
1. Tokyo Ghoul
- Genres: Action, Mystery, Horror, Psychological, Supernatural, Drama, Seinen
- Studio: Studio Pierrot
- Episodes: 30 / Three Seasons
Tokyo Ghoul is an anime series that features a main character who is tortured, as well as going through many painful and hellish experiences, turning him from an innocent, ordinary boy to a powerful, emotionless ghoul.
Tokyo is a cruel and merciless city—a place where vicious creatures “ghouls” exist alongside humans. The citizens of this once-great metropolis live in constant fear of these bloodthirsty savages and their thirst for human flesh. However, the greatest threat these ghouls pose is their dangerous ability to masquerade as humans and blend in with society.
Tokyo Ghoul mainly focuses on following Ken Kaneki, a kind student, who is in love with Rize Kamishiro. However, Rize is not exactly who she seems, and this unfortunate meeting pushes Kaneki into the dark depths of the ghouls’ world. Hence, In a twist of fate, Kaneki is still alive, as the enigmatic waitress, Touka saves him. Thus, he begins his new, secret life as a half-ghoul/half-human who must find a way to integrate into both societies.
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