The isekai genre of anime is well known for featuring characters that are transported to another world. They mostly consist of anime that involve exploration, romance, adventure, comedy, and lighter themes that were made with the idea of giving the viewers a good time.
There is a growing subset of isekai anime that explore darker and adult themes; they feature graphic violence, blood and gore, sexual content, and themes like the corrupt nature of society and humans, trauma, and morality. These iconic isekai series resonate with fans of the genre despite their unsettling nature and gruesome tales.
Updated September 28, 2024, by Emedo Destiny: One of the most famous anime genres in recent times, the Isekai genre is typically known to employ brighter themes. Usually, it features a lot of adventure, exploration, romance, and supernatural elements. These are combined to give viewers a rather exciting and generally good viewing experience. However, recently, there has grown appeal for Isekai anime that incorporates much darker and more mature elements into its narratives. These Isekai anime infuse elements of gore and violence, with some going as far as showcasing sexual content and, at the same time, exploring themes that depict the everpresent reality of humanity, like the inequality of men, discrimination, and corruption, among others. So, for viewers and fans who resonate with these Isekai types, here are some of the darkest of the genre that have been put out so far.
15 The Faraway Paladin
Anime-Planet Rating: 3.8 / 5
The Faraway Paladin tells the tale of an ordinary individual who reincarnates into a new world after living a life of emptiness and stagnancy. Reborn into a magical world and a land devoid of life, the central character, Will, is raised by three undead but loving parents: a skeleton, a mummy, and a ghost. Each of his parents, in their way, teaches and raises him into a warrior guided by the blessings of the Goddess, with knowledge of magic years beyond his age. Above all, he is taught the essence of love.
As Will grows older, he is slowly exposed and taught of the world he has been reincarnated into in preparation for setting out on his own. The period of Will’s inevitable departure from his family eventually arrives. Will soon realizes the hidden truth behind his undead guardians, and on his journey, he learns of the hidden truths of this magical world. Without the guidance of his parents, Will must come to terms with the fact that the world is not all that he has been taught to know and make a choice with all that he knows.
14 The Twelve Kingdoms
Anime-Planet Rating: 3.9 / 5
The Twelve Kingdoms series revolves around a typical high schooler, Youko Nakajima, whose only wish is to be normal. She does everything she can to be a model student and is even her class president, but Youko has never fit in anywhere due to her red-coloured hair. Youko’s life changes forever when she encounters a man called Keiki, who claims to be from another world and claims Youko is the empress to the throne of his kingdom.
While trying to escape with Youko, two of her classmates are accidentally transported alongside Youko to another world. Their troubles, however, have only started as they separated from their guide, Keiki. Now, in a strange land full of magic and beastly creatures with no idea where they are or where to go, Youko and her friends must find a way to survive or succumb to the harsh conditions of this new world.
13 Now And Then, Here And There?
Anime-Planet Rating: 3.7 / 5
The sci-fi fantasy revolves around the life of the protagonist, Shuuzou’ Shuu’ Matsutani, who lives a relatively peaceful and ordinary life with his friends and has a fierce passion for kendo. Dejected after losing out to his rival in the sport, Shuu decides to watch the sunset atop a smokestack. There, he comes across a strange girl named Lala-Ru, whom he tries to befriend despite her uninterested demeanour.
Shuu’s evening turns wild when a woman accompanied by two serpent-looking machines appears, searching for Lala-Ru to capture her. Mindlessly trying to save her from her kidnappers, Shuu gets transported alongside Lala-Ru and her captors to a desert-like world. Shuu quickly discovers that Lala-Ru may be the hope of survival in this strange world. Forced to become a child soldier for war, Shu must find a way to survive his current hell and find a way home.
12 Dead Mount Death Play
Anime-Planet Rating: 3.8 / 5
Dead Mount Death Play is a reverse Isekai that takes place on earth, following the legendary battle between the legendary Hero and the necromancer called the Corpse God. However, following the aftermath of what was to be their final battle, the outcome isn’t quite right, and something feels off. Corpse God’s last antic is reincarnation after death. Across space and time, on Earth, the Corpse God is reborn as Polka Shinoyama in modern Tokyo.
While adapting to his new body and environment, Polka gets targeted by various organizations dealing with the supernatural. Among these groups is Misaki Sakimiya, a high school girl who can see spirits and is oddly out to get Polka from their first encounter. To make sense of his situation and reveal the truth behind his reincarnation, Polka allies himself with Takumi Kuruya and Lisa Kuraki, who help him face the dangers coming for him.
11 Drifters
Anime-Planet Ratings: 4.1 / 5
Drifters is a tale where history, fiction, and fantasy collide onto a canvas of narratives. The series focuses on Toyohisa Shimazu, a fierce samurai who takes part in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Ordered by his uncle to operate as the rear guard for his retreating forces, Toyohisa is critically and at death’s door when he suddenly finds himself faced with a stoic-faced man called Murahisa in a white hallway filled with doors. Suddenly pulled into one of these doors, Toyohisa finds himself once more in a world entirely unlike his own.
This world is filled with strange creatures and famous warriors from different eras. Toyohisa quickly makes an acquaintance with the infamous Oda Nobunaga and the ancient archer Yoichi Suketaka Nasu. Through them, he learns of the happenings of his new world and that he has been summoned as a Drifter to fight against the Ends, who are determined to create an empire and eliminate the drifters. Toyohisa and his unconventional band of heroes must now find a way to keep the balance of their new world and defeat the Ends
10 The Rising Of The Shield Hero
Anime-Planet Ratings: 4.3 / 5
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The series follows Naofumi Iwatani, who is transported to a fantasy world alongside five other people to become heroes tasked with saving the kingdom from destruction. He was maltreated while the other heroes summoned with him were treated like kings because their Legendary Weapons were actual weapons, but his was a shield.
He was later joined by an unsuspecting adventurer who falsely accused him of rape and stole the little amount of money he could amass, and it turns out she was the princess of the kingdom. He got put on trial and was exiled and could only return when there was a wave the kingdom needed to be saved from. It follows his rise to strength and redemption as he slowly clears his name.
9 The Dungeon Of Black Company
Anime-Planet Rating: 3.6 / 5
This tells the story of a man named Kinji Niyomiya who gained a lot of money through real estate investment to live a luxurious lifestyle without ever having to work a day in his life. He was suddenly transported through a portal to the fantasy world of Amuria, where he was enslaved to a mining company that specialized in mining crystals from a dungeon.
The dungeons were once explored by heroes and filled with the ore demonite. He makes friends along the way, which includes a dragon girl and a crocodile demi-human and others, as he plots to overthrow the Raiza’ha Mining Company and build his own.
8 Arifureta: From Commonplace To World’s Strongest
Anime-Planet Rating: 3.8 / 5
Hajime Nagumo is transported to another world with his classmates. While his teammates gain powerful abilities and become heroes, he gains mediocre abilities and became the subject of constant bullying from his classmates. While exploring a dungeon one day, Hajime gets betrayed by one of his classmates and falls into the depths of the dungeon.
He discovers powerful artifacts, gains new abilities, and undergoes a transformation that changes his appearance and also his personality and makes him an outcast. He sets out to find his way home, and along the way, he makes friends with a vampire, Yue, who joins him on his quest as he struggles to come to terms with his new identity and the new world he finds himself in.
7 Re:Creators
Anime-Planet Rating: 3.8 / 5
Sota Mizushino is a high school student who dreams of writing his own light novel. He gets transported into the mecha anime world of Elemental Symphony of Vogelchevalier, where he meets the main character of the anime, a girl named Selesia, in the middle of a battle with a mysterious girl wearing a military uniform.
After the battle, he and Selesia returned to find out that anime characters from the multitude of creators had been transported to his world, with some of them allied to the girl in the military uniform, who promised to take them back home unaware of her true goals. Sota and Selesia try to stop her and help the other characters before she destroys all their worlds.
6 Grimgar Of Fantasy and Ash
Anime-Planet Rating: 3.9 / 5
People suddenly find themselves in a fantasy world with no memory of their previous lives or how they got there. Some of them were recruited to join the military service as Trainee Volunteer Soldiers by Chief Britney, and the ones who didn’t were left no choice but to become adventurers in a bid to fend for themselves and survive.
Led by a man named Manato, they start out hunting weak monsters to grow stronger and learn to work together effectively. This is a tale of loss, revenge, and the adventurers coming to terms with the life-and-death nature of their time on Grimgar.
5 Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation
Anime-Planet Rating: 4.2 / 5
A man subjected to constant bullying and humiliation by his classmates during his school days decided to live out the rest of his life shut in his room. One day he decides to go out and ends up sacrificing himself to save some school girls from a speeding truck.
He gets reincarnated as Rudeus Greyrat, the son of the village chief Paul and adventurer Zenith. In this new world, he learns to trust and socialize with people while also cultivating his innate magical talent. He ends up having to navigate the vast continent with his cousin named Eris after a disaster sends them and his family members to different ends of the world.
4 Sword Art Online
Anime-Planet Rating: 4.0 / 5
Sword Art Online is one of the pioneers of the isekai anime genre. The world’s first VRMMORPG game, which utilizes full dive technology, is a dream for gamers, but it quickly became a nightmare when players were unable to leave the game, and when players died in-game, they also died in real life.
Clearing the game becomes the only way for players to return home. Kirigaya Kazuto, aka Kirito, a boy with an innate talent for gaming, also got stuck in the game. He makes friends with a girl named Asuna. Other players also formed parties to further their goals, including a group of player killers called the Laughing Coffin.
3 Overlord
Anime-Planet Rating: 4.2 / 5
This anime also involves a full-dive MMORPG that was about to be shut down after years of success. He was the leader of a once successful guild which now had only 4 members. He decided to stay in the game during the last moments of the game till the servers were shut down; after it did, the game kept on running, and he then discovered that he was transported into the world of the game.
He sets out on an adventure to find other players that might have also been transported along with him in an attempt to solve the mystery of the occurrence and picks up the name of the guild “Ainz Ooal Gown” as a message to them. The story tells the tale of a person who is adjusting to life in a video game with limitless power and no ethical concerns.
2 Re:Zero – Starting Life In Another World
Anime-Planet Rating: 4.2 / 5
Subaru Natsuki is summoned into a new world. He is killed while trying to help Emilia, a half-elf who he falls in love with, only to be revived in the past. He then finds out that he has the power to turn back time when he dies. After dying a couple of times and helping Emilia successfully, her host decides to take him into one of his mansions as a butler.
Subaru decides to use his abilities to protect his newfound love, who is also a candidate to become the next ruler of the Kingdom of Lugunica. He suffers in silence due to the amount of pain he incurs each time he dies to change an unfavorable future, even though no one around him knows.
1 The Saga Of Tanya The Evil
Anime-Planet Rating: 4.2 / 5
An atheist Japanese man was reincarnated by an entity who calls himself God into a world where he would face difficult situations that would make him turn to God for help; in an attempt to condemn the man for not having faith. He is reincarnated as Tanya Degurechaff, an orphan girl, in a place called the Empire where magic has been incorporated into the military.
The God which she named Being X, promises to condemn her to eternal damnation in hell if she does not die a natural death or if she refuses to have faith in it. She decides to join the Empire’s Mage Corps and attempts to climb their ranks as soon as possible so as to remain far from the battlefront and reduce the risks of getting killed. She becomes a ruthless soldier who cares less about the lives of people, especially those that get on her bad side.
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