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Plenty of anime series are meant to help the viewer relax, unwind, and have fun with a low-stress story, which often leads to cozy slice-of-life stories or even the concept of iyashikei. Anime like those are certainly fun and popular, but so are their opposites, the high-intensity anime that actually want the viewer to feel stressed in a good way as the tension keeps rising. Anime like those feature high stakes, incredible plot twists, and a great deal of action, drama, or both.
These anime know that consumers of fiction generally want to worry about what’s happening in the story and worry for the well-being of the protagonists. Intense, stressful anime like these torture their characters so the audience can root for them as tormented underdogs, hoping against hope that things will turn around in the end. If anime fans need a stressful and intense anime to get them engaged with a cool story, then there are plenty of excellent titles to try out as the high-octane adventure begins.
10
Jujutsu Kaisen Punishes Its Heroes With Defeat & Painful Deaths
Stream Jujutsu Kaisen on Crunchyroll
Jujutsu Kaisen ranks last among the most stressful anime to watch because its first season balances the horror, action, and losses with plenty of humor. In fact, shonen anime fans might have wondered if Jujutsu Kaisen should have been counted in the “dark trio” at all, but then Season 2 and its Shibuya Ward Incident arc showed up. That arc doubled the fun and the stress, making for an incredible watch.
No doubt every viewer was on the edge of their seat as the sorcerer heroes barely broke even with the villainous curses, since Nobara Kugisaki and Kento Nanami both fell to the villains in grim displays. Satoru Gojo was captured and Yuji’s execution sentence was restored, so now it’s stressful think about what might happen in the upcoming Season 3.

Jujutsu Kaisen
- Release Date
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October 3, 2020
- Directors
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Sunghoo Park, Shōta Goshozono
9
Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor Challenges Kaiji With High-IQ Games of Chance
Stream Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor on Crunchyroll
A somewhat older manga/anime franchise centering around the gambler hero Kaiji Ito is great fun for fans of series like Squid Game or the anime Kakegurui, though Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor isn’t quite as bloody as the brutal Squid Game. Still, even if Kaiji‘s tone is a tad lighter than Squid Game‘s, it’s a remarkably tense, stressful, and wonderfully suspenseful watch.

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This entire franchise is about Kaiji’s struggles to win challenging games of chance to fight his way out of bottomless debt in the middle of Japan’s economic hardship in the 1990s. Kaiji risks life and limb many times in the franchise, and he has nothing but his wits and guts to keep him going when his enemies stack the odds ever higher against him.

Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor
- Release Date
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October 2, 2007
8
Death Parade Keeps Fans in Suspense About Everyone’s Fate
Stream Death Parade on Crunchyroll
Death Parade may be short, but it packs a lot of drama, supsense, and wild plot twists into that short time frame to keep fans guessing until the very end. The anime’s stressful narrative is rooted in how Decim the bartender regularly throws his bar’s new arrivals into psychologically challenging games, testing those people to reveal their true selves over time.
The people who arrive in Decim’s bar aren’t always innocent, and they never even know where they are or how they got there. Soon enough, the grim truth will come to light as Decim regularly chooses whether to send his new arrivals either to the afterlife or to a realm of eternal torment. In many of the test games, there’s simply no telling which fate someone will get until the last second, and the answers may often be surprising.
7
Terminator Zero Shows Humanity on the Brink of Nuclear Armageddon
Stream Terminator Zero on Netflix
The sci-fi anime series Terminator Zero features plenty of violent deaths at the hands of killer robots, just like in the overall Terminator franchise, but that is far from the only source of stress and tension in this anime. The real question is whether Dr. Malcolm Lee can convince his new super-AI, Kokoro, to spare the human race from the destructive fate Skynet had planned for it.
Since the Terminator Zero is a fresh new part of the overall Terminator franchise and features characters with limited plot armor, there is no telling what will happen as the robot uprising unfolds in August 1997. Fans will even see Skynet launch its nuclear weapons to begin Judgment Day, all while Dr. Lee pleads with Kokoro to change humanity’s fate, and it’s suspenseful, to say the least.
6
Death Note Is a Tense Battle of Wits With Justice & Survival on the Line
Stream Death Note on Netflix
The famed crime thriller anime Death Note is a fun yet suspenseful and grim watch thanks to its intense battles of wits and the moral ambiguity of it all. Death Note keeps viewers on the edge of their seats as the genius protagonist Light Yagami risks everything to clash with the super-detective L, and only with his greatest tricks can Light hope to survive as Kira. A few times, Light’s defeat will seem certain as he’s pushed to the brink.

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Many characters get killed off in Death Note, as new viewers will no doubt suspect, and that doubles the stress and tension as Light’s criminal career continues. There is no telling who might get betrayed or have their name written in a Death Note, leading to some of the best plot twists in all of shonen anime. Even the final episode is a suspenseful affair, with Light facing his bloody endgame as Near’s side corners him in a warehouse.

Death Note
- Release Date
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October 4, 2006
Cast
5
Tokyo Revengers Throws Its Hapless Hero Into Merciless Gang Battles
Stream Tokyo Revengers on Crunchyroll
Tokyo Revengers ranks in the middle among the most stressful, suspenseful, and tension-ridden anime of all because protagonist Takemichi Hanagaki is such an underdog the entire time. This is an anime where almost everything goes wrong, and the hero must fight hard just to stay in the game. For every one of Takemichi’s victories, there is an even bigger defeat, making Takemichi wonder if he’s just going in circles.
Takemichi’s mission keeps getting more complicated in Tokyo Revengers as he goes back in time to 2005, all to change the past and prevent a horrible future. Takemichi must endure regular beatdowns and try in vain to change the mind of his fellow delinquents, and each slip-up could have serious consequences for Takemichi and the people he cares most about. When time travel is involved, the time stream tends to find ways to correct itself to make up for the hero’s actions, no matter how justified Takemichi may be with his mission.
4
Fruits Basket Pushes the Sohmas to Find Their Freedom at Any Cost
Stream Fruits Basket on Crunchyroll
Even romance anime like Fruits Basket can have palpable tension and stress, no matter the happy ending waiting for everyone at the end. In fact, when combined with drama, romance can be one of the most stressful genres of all, with heartfelt personal stakes on the line for all the main characters. However, the cast of Fruits Basket have more than a potential romance to worry about.
The cursed members of the Sohma family are all dealing with gut-wrenching personal issues concerning their self-worth, verbal abuse at Akito’s hands, and finding the courage to carve out their own lives despite the risks. Tohru Honda will do her best to heal the Sohmas and empower them to take control of their lives, though Akito has her claws sunk deep into everyone’s minds, making it a stressful challenge to see if anyone can break free.
3
Oshi no Ko Maintains the Tension About Ai’s Killer & Aqua’s Well-Being
Stream Oshi no Ko on HIDIVE
The dark idol anime Oshi no Ko combined bizarre plot twists with humor and tragedy just in the first episode, and the stress and tension have only risen sense. The main characters all feel serious pressure and stress to find personal happiness while also surviving the exploitative entertainment industry, to the point the heroes have a hard time telling truth from lies. That fact is represented by the Hoshino family eye stars.

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For some characters in Oshi no Ko, the stress comes from their efforts to make it big as entertainers, with Kana wondering if she has earned her successes and Akane contending with cyberbullying. Aqua, meanwhile, is under serious pressure to find his mother’s killer at any cost, a grim quest for revenge that is eating him up from the inside. Of course it’s stressful to see Dr. Gorou get a second lease on life as Aqua Hoshino, only to jeopardize it all with his ill-advised mission of vengeance.
2
Psycho-Pass Takes Place in a Dystopia of Constant Surveillance
Stream Psycho-Pass on Crunchyroll
The dystopian cyberpunk anime Psycho-Pass delves into deeper societal themes than other sci-fi anime like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners usually do. Psycho-Pass will make the viewer feel properly stressed and suspenseful not about whether protagonist Akane Tsunemori will survive her duties as a futuristic cop, but whether society will ever figure out a way to balance safety with freedom.
Psycho-Pass explores some major themes as it challenges the viewer to wonder how far any state should go to protect its people from violent crime, including the usage of constant surveillance and cops who take down criminals right before they act. In the process, Akane will inch her way to the truth of the Sibyl System and realize who her true enemies are — but whether she can do anything about it is another question entirely.
1
Attack on Titan Is a Wild Ride of Action, Horror, Betrayal, & Mystery
Stream Attack on Titan on Crunchyroll
The most delightfully stressful anime of all time is the recent mega-hit Attack on Titan, a breathtaking blend of the zombie genre, mecha, horror, and conspiracies. This is a stressful shonen anime on many levels, starting with the physical level, since no one’s survival is guaranteed. Attack on Titan won’t hesitate to slaughter its own cast, keeping viewers in a state of constant worry about who will survive.
There is also the stress with the mysteries and truth of the Attack on Titan world, since all is not what it seems. Right away, fans will be desperate to know what is beyond the city walls and learn the truth of the destructive Titans. The answers to those questions will actually be more terrifying and stressful than the original mysteries, but they will also lead to some astonishing plot twists, so it’s all worth it in the end.