The adaptation of Goth in general started in the United Kingdom, early of 1980s. It was created by music fans from the gothic rock and post punk genre. Its influence and name came directly from the music genre.
It was not long after when the world adapted its culture and made its way to Japan. Gothic in Japanese and in the world of Anime, has a different meaning and it’s not limited to the genre. It is a fashion statement or style that relates to themes such as medieval, black magic, terror, darkness, resurrections, and deaths.
Goth Anime is influential to people and viewers who love macabre cosplay. It has a different approach than your usual happy and vibrant characters. It leans on the dark characters and environment giving the series a more serious, obsessive, and twisted fun feel.
Here are our top 5 picks for goth and dark anime.
Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh is an anime series directed by Masahiko Muratai and written by Akio Satsukawa. The original run of the series was in October 2003 to March 2004 with a total of 26 episodes. It falls under the drama, fantasy, action, science fiction, and horror genre.
The story plot of the series is a battle between two conflicting forces known as ‘Gilgamesh’ and ‘The Countess of Werdenberg together with the Orga-Superior children’. Team Gilgamesh was led by Terumichi Madoka or known in the series as Enkidu.
It started when a group of researchers discovered the tomb of King Gilgamesh and acquired the ability to build Heaven’s Gate to improve human knowledge. This event led them to the world stage of stardom and new enemies emerged to destroy their progress, and was successful.
The enemy attack resulted in a chaotic scene and disables the electronic mirror in the sky, leading to the birth of enhanced beings.
The story then focuses on Tatsuya and Kiyoko being the target of those enhanced beings and also with the person who started all the chaos.
The Mystic Archives of Dantalian
The Mystic Archives of Dantalian is a light novel, manga, and anime series. The manga was written by Gakuto Mikumo. The anime series was directed by Yutaka Uemura and produced by Yasuhiro Takeda, Junka Kobayashi, and Yoshikazu Beniya. It aired in July of 2011 to October of 2011 with a total of 12 episodes.
The story takes place in the country of England, right after the Great war. It follows the story Huey that was given by his grandfather custody of a book called ‘Bibliotheca Mystica de Dantalian, as part of his parting will. It is a library filled with forbidden books. Then Dalian, who was a mysterious girl that lives in the library.
Dalian was the guardian of the archives and magical books known as ‘Phantom Books’. She gave Huey a key that will enable him to unlock the secrets within. Both of them investigates all the supernatural causes that revolve on the phantom books, and with the key, seals the power and slowly restores the negativity caused by the books.
Darker Than Black
Darker than Black is a manga and anime television series with a focus on supernatural thriller, science fiction, and mystery. The manga was written by Tensai Okamura and illustrated by Nokiya. The television series was directed by Tensai Okamura and produced by Yoshihiro Oyabu, Ryo Oyama, Osamu Hosokawa, and Hiroo Maruyama. It aired from April 2007 to September 2007 with a total of 25 episodes.
The story follows the appearance of two impervious fields called the ‘Heaven’s Gate’ located in South America, and ‘Hell’s Gate’ located in Japan. While the world and several agencies try to figure out the origin of the field, they discover secrets but not the answer they were looking for. However, one thing is certain, the gates have granted supernatural abilities. Entities called ‘Contractors’ began to emerge and used their powers to do crime.
The main character ‘Hei’ a syndicate contractor, with his assistant Yin, worked together to solve the mystery of the gates.
Trinity Blood
Trinity Blood is a light novel, manga, and anime television series. Its genre focuses on post-apocalyptic, dark fantasy, and action. The light novel was written by Sunao Yoshida and the manga was written by Kiyo Kyujyo. Its television series was directed by Tomohiro Hirata and written together with Atsuhiro Tomioka. It aired from April 2005 to October 2005 with a total of 24 episodes.
The series really depicts the anime goth theme for its death features, religious architectures, and dark elements. It follows the story when the world has fallen into chaos because of the war between the humans and the vampires. It continued even after the Armageddon which almost destroyed the earth.
To protect the human kind, a travelling Vatican priest named Abel Nightroad is on a journey to fight against the opposing vampires. The enemy was led by Abel’s twin, named Cain.
Ergo Proxy
Ergo Proxy is an anime television series with a genre that focuses on psychological thriller, post-apocalyptic, and cyberpunk. It was directed by Shuko Murase and produced by Satoshi Fuji, Akio Matsuda, Takashi Koshiyama, and Hiroyuki Kitaura. It aired from February 2006 to August 2006 with a total of 23 episodes.
The story takes place in an alternative future setting where humans and robots called ‘AutoReivs’ have co-existed. They used these robots for their daily tasks.
When everything was going peacefully, it suddenly came to an end when the robots gained self-awareness from an unknown virus. It made them crazy to commit murder. An inspector named Re-L Mayer was tasked to find out the mystery behind the virus, and little did they know that the story goes beyond just random murders.
Conclusion
Now you know our top 5 picks of goth and dark anime. Which one do you like? Ofcourse! All of them. You don’t have to worry as you can just move on to the next series when you’re done with the other, and we are sure that you will find more anime with the same genre.
