5 anime to watch if you love Stephen King!

No author is more Halloween worthy than Stephen King. But what is an anime super fan supposed to do, when Stephen King doesn’t write anime or manga and it doesn’t look like he’s going to start any time in the near future? Not to worry! There are even anime out there that are in league with the king of creepy and there’s even a King story to match them with!

Another

creepy girl walking down creepy hallway — Why is the lighting always bad in horror movies? Up grade your ambient lighting!

If you like Stephen King’s The Shining, than Another is a great anime for you. Just like in The Shining, there are plenty of creepy things running a muck in the anime Another. Much like in The Shining, Another is set in big, old, and creepy buildings. Another has an old school building and an old shrine complex, rather than an old mountain hotel. There isn’t any psychic children, but there is a curse in the anime Another. And in both The Shining and Another there is a lot of information, that other people knew, that probably should have been told to the main characters in the beginning of the whole mess! So if your looking for a good creepy haunting, check out Another!

dead body on stairs — See, this is what happens when you don’t light stairs properly!

Shiki

creepy girl with red glowing eyes — Don’t let the smile fool you!

If you like Salem’s Lot than Shiki is a great anime for you. There are so many similarities between Shiki and Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot that one had to have been inspired (at least a little bit) by the other. Salem’s Lot is about a group of “Outsiders” moving into a big old house just out side of a small rural town. Little by little strange things start happening in the small town and people start dying in unusual ways. The town is very far into the countryside and help is slow coming. A lot of bad things happen before anyone comes to the rescue. And sur-prise, this is also the plot of the anime Shiki! So if you love Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot and would like to see the story re-imaged with Japanese themes, watch Shiki.

Mushishi

If you like The Mist than Mushishi is a great anime for you. With Mushishi it’s not as easy to point to any one reason that this anime would be a good match for a fan of Stephen King’s The Mist, rather it’s more like the spooky, barely seen terror of The Mist is also in many episodes of Mushishi. This anime can be a bit episodic and not all episodes will even be very scary, but there are a number of episodes that have the same feel as in The Mist. Like in The Mist, in many episodes of Mushishi there are horrifying things hidden from the ordinary person (often by mist) people go missing, people die, and people under pressure are driven to extremes. That’s why Mushishi is a great match for fans of The Mist, just make sure to watch quite a few episodes to get a real feel for the anime.

mushishi main character with spirit behind him — Don’t look behind you!

ID: Invaded

If you like Stephen King’s Dead Zone you will probably like the anime ID: Invaded. Unlike with Mushishi, it’s not the feel of the anime that matches the Stephen King story, but rather the personality of the characters and how they react to the stories they are in. Much like Dead Zone, ID: Invaded is an anime about a good person that did bad things for a good reason. Though the main character has amazing ability, he also has a lot of flaws. Just like in Dead Zone, the main character of the anime (Akihito Narihisago) just wants to get back to the normal life he once had. Unfortunately, that’s impossible, but unlike Dead Zone, it’s not because he becomes too famous to teach or because his girlfriend leaves him.

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia

If you like Storm of the Century by Stephen King, than you will probably like the anime Dusk Maiden of Amnesia. Though DMA is the most distant of the anime to it’s matching Stephen King story, it has the same core social paradigms as Storm of the Century. In both the anime DMA and the Stephen King story, a small town is driven by fear to sacrifice someone defenseless as a desperate act to save themselves from something terrifying that they can’t explain. In Storm of the Century Mike can’t forgive the actions of the town’s people so he leaves, in DMA, Yuuko can’t forgive the actions of the people around her and it manifests into something much more grim. Desperate acts by people driven by fear and main characters that can’t forgive them are clear themes that show up repeatedly in both stories.