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There are countless mass slaughters in anime that would send chills down the audience's spine. The anime plots with political struggles, anti-colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and wars use the trope of genocide to intensify the macabre nature of the storyline.
Be it a killing spree of a ruthless killer or an invasion by an imperialist force, genocides in anime are horrific and overwhelming. However, mass slaughters in anime are necessary to show the conflicting nature of humanity. It adds substantial realism to the plots dealing with sensitive topics, such as “ethnic cleansing” in Black Clover, or “manifestation of innate violence” in Elfen Lied.
This list offers a compilation of 13 horrific mass slaughters in anime with detailed descriptions and their necessity for the anime plot, ranked from least to most horrifying.
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Disclaimer: This article contains depictions of large-scale violence and reflects the opinion of the writer.
Ranging from "Eren's Rumbling" to "Bunny's ramgage", here's a list of 13 mass slaughters in anime
13) Deadman Wonderland: Classroom Massacre
While not the deadliest, the “classroom massacre” in Deadman Wonderland is one of the most horrific mass slaughters in anime. The scene is scary not because of the kill count but the way of its execution.
The scene starts on a normal cheerful day in protagonist Ganta’s life, however is shifted to a mass slaughter scene in an instant. Later, Ganta gets framed for the murders committed by Red Hand.
12)Elfen Lied: Lucy’s Awakening
Elfen Lied is an anime about bigotry, alienation, abuse, and revenge that constantly asks viewers to interpret the meaning of “humanity”. It’s a short anime about a “diclonius” named “Lucy” and her path of revenge.
Lucy was confined in an inventory and tortured regularly. After she freed herself from confinement, she went on a killing spree and killed everyone in the inventory, along with the army trying to her.
11) Blood C: Killing Bunny Rampage
The creator was not joking while naming the series Blood- C (using “C” as a homophone of “See”), as it is filled with bloody genocides. “Bunny” is the last “Elder Bairn” released by Fumito.
Bunny multiplies itself and tramples over a town, killing all the civilians in dreadful ways. The Bunnies making a puree out of the civilians are one of the most horrific mass slaughters in anime.
10) Hunter x Hunter: Kurta Clan Massacre
From Attack on Titans to Joran, a lot of anime use “ethnic cleansing” to allegorize real-life political struggles around the world. “The Kurta clan massacre” is an example of such a horrific mass slaughter in the anime world.
“Phantom Troupe” annihilated the Kurta clan for their rare “scarlet eyes” in Hunter x Hunter. They gauged out the eyes of pure clan members, while tortured and abused the women married into the clan. They butchered the children in front of their parents because anger and pain can awaken the power of “scarlet eyes." “The Massacre of Kurta Clan” is undoubtedly a top-ranking among the most horrific mass slaughters in anime.
9) Berserk: Guts vs 100 soldiers
While the audience can expect Griffith to sacrifice the “band of Hawks” for his gain, they could never imagine Guts becoming a “Killing Machine” until they saw him brutally murder 100 soldiers to rescue Casca.
During the "Golden Age Arc", while saving Casca from “Blue Whale” armies, Guts found himself surrounded by a vastly outnumbered enemy. The dynamic art style and Guts' stoic attitude intensify the brutality of this scene while butchering the soldiers around. This scene from Berserk is one of the most horrific mass slaughters in anime.
8) One Piece- Destruction of Lulusia
The destruction of the Lulusia kingdom in One Piece is one of the most heinous political insurgents shown in anime. Lulusia is a small island that becomes a focal point of rebellion against the corrupted “World Government”.
Imu, the mysterious leader of the World Government, ordered to annihilate the Lulusia Kingdom, leaving no survivors alive. This monstrous incident falls among one of the most horrific mass slaughters in anime.
7) Code Geass: Euphemia’s Order to Annihilate the Japanese
Code Geass is one of the most ambitious ahead-of-time anime ever made. It’s an alternate history narrative like Joran, set in post-world-war times. Lelouch VI Britannia joins the rebellious forces of Japan to wipe out the rule of the Colonialist government.
During a confrontation with British princess Euphemia (his sister), he accidentally activates his “Geass” and orders Euphi to kill all the Japanese attending the ceremony.
The brutality of the scene was intensified because neither Lelouch nor Euphi wanted the massacre to happen. The massacre portrays utter helplessness not only from the victims but from the victimizers as well.
6) Black Clover: Purging the Elves
Black Clover is a soft-core anime when compared to Code Geass or Elfen Lied. However, “The Massacre of the Elf Clan” is one of the most horrific mass slaughters in the anime world.
Elves were a peaceful species, living separately from the humans in the Forsaken Realm. Albeit their kind nature, they were feared and alienated because of their magical power. Zagred manipulated the “fear” in humans, to make the king slaughter the entire clan on the day of Licht and Tetia’s marriage.
This cruel instance of “ethnic cleansing” makes this incident one of the top 10 among the most horrific mass slaughters in anime.
5) Inuyashiki: Shinjuku Incident
Inuyashiki: Last Hero is a supernatural fantasy anime that questions the extent of good and evil. The anime follows the lives of Inuyashiki and Shishigami, who got supernatural powers from an extraterrestrial explosion.
Shishigami, with his abilities, goes on a rampage, from killing his classmates to innocent civilians at Shinjuku. This incident highlights another consequence of power in the hands of an immature person, like Light in Death Note. The inhumanity in this massacre ranks the “Shinjuku incident” among the top 5 most horrific mass slaughters in anime.
4) Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood- Destruction of Xerxes Civilization
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is filled with dreadful scenes, starting from Edward and Elrich’s mother’s death to Nina’s murder. However, the destruction of Xerxes civilization by the “Father” in this anime is one of the most horrific mass slaughters in anime.
Xerxes was destroyed 400 years before the start of the anime. The alchemist Von Hohenheim created “Homunculus”, who manipulated the aging king into sacrificing the whole Xerxes civilization to gain a human body for himself and become a “living philosopher’s stone”
In Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Homunculus who later became known as “Father” sacrificed around 10,73000 Xerxes civilians, making it an extremely gruesome incident.
3) The End of Evangelion: Third Impact
The movie The End of Evangelion is a sequel to the 1995 anime series Neon Genesis: Evangelion. Neon Genesis is undoubtedly the most complex and ambitious anime ever created. It offers a comparative narrative of human existence through different theological and philosophical themes.
The plot is based on SEELE and Gendo Ikari’s experiment to merge all human consciousness into a single consciousness. Rei triggers the “Third Impact”, and because of this, the AT fields between different human consciousnesses collapse, unifying them into a single consciousness.
The End of Evangelion has intriguing surreal imagery and offers an existential exploration of the sense of identity. While there is no bloodbath shown, it is still one of the most horrific mass slaughters in anime.
2) Attack on Titan: Rumbling
The world of Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan is a “Hobbesian Jungle”, where the instinct of self-preservation is the greatest force of all. The anime is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where an isolationist autocrat rules over “Eldians”.
The anime explores various themes ranging from political struggle to the existential question of being to allegorize many historical political events around the world. The plot has the most dreadful mass slaughters in the anime universe.
The most horrifying of them all is the “Rumbling”, where Eren wiped out 80% of humanity irrespective of race, ethnicity, class, and creed. The plot hints at various motivations behind Eren’s dreadful decision.
1) Deviman Crybaby- Ryo Wipes out Humanity
Devilman Crybaby is one of the most critically acclaimed anime of all time. It’s a short anime series with 10 episodes dealing with bigotry, alienation, and a sense of identity. The anime is enriched with theological and philosophical imagery and tries to find an answer to a century-long question- “What does it mean to be human?” (Miko Kuroda)
At the end of the Devilman Crybaby, Ryo instigates people around the globe to fall into a frenzy of paranoia and attack each other. The mass genocide, resulting from alienation and bigotry, should be the cruelest among the horrific mass slaughters in anime.
The ending is horrific not only because Ryo ultimately wipes out almost all of humanity, but the execution of this global genocide through manipulation is the most heinous among all the mass slaughters in anime.
Final Thoughts
According to Hobbes, the innate nature of humanity is violence, and most of the anime uses this idea to portray the deranged state of humanity in our world. As we see in multiple animes like Attack on Titan, Psycho Pass, Devilman Crybaby, Parasyte, etc., when threatened, violence is the only resort humans turn to.
This list has 13 examples of the most horrific mass slaughters in anime to discuss how “violence” is displayed on screen to convey more complex ideas. The graphic representation of mass slaughters in anime can be overwhelming for the audience; therefore, this list can be used as a reference for “scenes-to-avoid” for visually sensitive viewers.
