Under The Bed: Horror in Anime & Manga

After a long day of running around, Drey and I took a small break in the Manga library.  Like the idiot I am, I started reading volume one Uzumaki うずまき by Junji Ito. Homie is twisted but that’s a topic for another day.  The library closes, now my mind fuckery level is at an all-time high. I was so confused.   That confusion only heightened.  

I was not ready. 

Under The Bed: Horror in Anime & Manga (panel). 

Hosted by: Xan Villanueva

Let me provide a little of perspective. I’ve been watching anime for almost 20 years.  So I’ve come across a ton of anime in my life. When I was younger, I would take stories for face value.  It is what it is.  To an extent, I still do that but the way I process the information is different.  It’s more introspective rather than being based on strictly on how entertaining a story is.  Though a great plot doesn’t hurt.

When I became more in tune with what I was taking in.  I became more analytical about what I watched. I sought some level of substance and at times I found it. This also caused me to reflect on some of the favs from childhood.

For a long time, Sailor Moon was one of those series, I watched as a kid that wasn’t really for kids. Even the DIC version has mature undertones that they couldn’t get rid of.  And they chopped out important components of the story in attempts to censor it. But in actuality, Sailor Moon was way tamer in comparison to other animes and even American cartoons. (Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes). I watched series that were way more problematic.

Villanueva made this pretty clear. Under The Bed: Horror in Anime & Manga.  You have no idea how accurate this title is. Some of the clips shown were straight out of a horror movie.  Midori for instance. The anime nowadays are way more clean-cut.

I honestly though that “School Days” was the worse anime I ever saw. And Elfin Lied was runner-up for bloodiest. Yeah, that my friend was far from the truth.  The reason being is pretty simple.  I’ve had the pleasure or curse (depending on how you see it) of seeing a few of the titles that were shown and mentioned throughout this panel.  That in itself is kinda disturbing.  But oddly enough, I remember watching these series but not much else.

I don’t have the full list of features shown but I’ll post the ones I remember seeing below.

Perfect Blue パーフェクトブルー

Demon City Shinjuku 魔界都市 (新宿)

Demon Lord Dante 魔王ダンテ

Berserk ベルセルク

Guyver 強殖装甲ガイバー

Barefoot Gen はだしのゲン

Barefoot Gen はだしのゲン hands down was the most horrifying clip shown throughout the panel. This was a reflection of real life. The dark side of humanity.

This is a panel that I would definitely sit in again.  If it comes to a Convention near you, I’d highly recommend going to see it.  If you’re into obscure and disturbing things. This is not a panel for just anybody.  And now that it’s over, I plan to re-watch these.  Expect some posts, in the near future.

So have you seen any of these anime? Let me know in the comment section below.

Thanks for reading.