The citizens of Tokyo now live in fear of vicious creatures called ghouls that blend in alongside humans and feast on their flesh. One day, Ken Kaneki, a shy college student, meets a girl called Rize who is also an avid reader like him. Unfortunately, as he finds out on his first date, Rize turns out to be a ghoul. Just when she is about to eat him, Kaneki is saved, barely clinging to life. In the process of surviving this attack, Kaneki finds out that he has now become a ghoul.
Dark, violent, and often dripping with blood, Tokyo Ghoul seduced many with its initial charms and expertly disappointed them later. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Tokyo Ghoul, then head on down below.
Anime Like Tokyo Ghoul
For Fans of Eating Delicious People
Attack on Titan
Facing imminent extinction, humanity retreated behind a series of tall, thick walls to escape their most dangerous threat – massive human-like Titans with a taste for human flesh. With an enemy that eats humanity for fun rather than food, they are constantly threatened. As such, it is the duty of every human to defend the species. Enter Eren Yegaer who, after his village was destroyed by Titans breaching the outer wall, he and his adopted sister Mikasa join the Survey Corps. They are one of three factions of the military that scouts and combats Titans outside the walls. After joining in the brutal war, Eren discovers a secret about himself that could unravel what the world thinks they know about Titans.
Both series start out rather similarly as the main character turns into a monster that eats people. Both series then move away from that into larger and more complex plots.
Shiki
Fourteen-year-old Megumi Shimizu dreamed of nothing more than moving from her rural town to the big city, at least until she died. Her death was only the beginning of a savage epidemic that rocks the small village of Sotoba. In order for young doctor Toshio Ozaki to discover the truth behind the disease, he must first abandon his humanity.
While Shiki is indeed about vampires, like Tokyo Ghoul it features a kind of monster that slowly invades human society and then violently runs rampant. However, Shiki is overall presented as more of a mystery.
Claymore
In the world of Claymore, humans coexists with demons called Youma. In order to combat these violent creatures, human / Youma hybrids called Claymores were made. The story begins with Raki, a young boy who lost his family to a Youma attack meeting the Claymore Claire. Though detested by society, Raki begins to bond with the Claymore, and as they journey, they come to understand each other better.
Both series follow hybrid humans/maneaters that live, often miserably, in their cruel world full of suffering. While Kaneki endures a little more torture, Claire in Claymore endures more of a sustained shunning by society while being faced with a violent profession.
Pupa
After being abandoned by their abusive parents, siblings Yume and Utsutsu are left alone in the world to fend for themselves. However, after following a herd of red butterflies, Yume becomes infected with a new cannibalistic virus, Pupa. Her brother Utsutsu is only half-infected, gaining miraculous restorative powers. Will Utsutsu be able to protect his little sister and protect the world from her new hunger?
Naturally, the biggest thing these two anime series have in common is that they are about cannibalistic monsters. Both are dark, filled with blood, black screens instead of hardcore action, and weak main characters. The only difference is that Tokyo Ghoul declares a plot and stays with it, Pupa does not. Get ready for long stretches of squelching noises and pornographic moans.
High School of the Dead
For Takashi Kimuro, it was just another school day until the dead began to rise. Having had to kill his best friend, he bands together with another girl, Rei, in hopes to escape the school, only to find it already fallen. With the help of other students, the pair manages to escape, only to find a pandemic spreading across the country.
Zombies and ghouls, they are not so different. Zombies lack the cognitive faculties to be as deadly as ghouls, but they both eat delicious people. While in Tokyo Ghoul, it tells the story of the monster, High School of the Dead features the living. Unfortunately, High School of the Dead gets highly distracted by perverse humor and fan service.
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
During the industrial revolution of their world, a monster appeared that cannot be killed unless pierced through its iron-protected heart. Those who are bitten by the creature become zombies know as Kabane. On the island of Hinomoto, humanity has built stations to seek refuge from these creatures. Ikoma lives at a station that brings supplies to the island and has created a weapon he believes can fight these creatures. While waiting for a chance to test it, he meets a mysterious girl named Mumei. After following her, he might just get the chance he desires.
Both Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress and Tokyo Ghoul feature a main character that becomes a hybrid creature of the thing that threatens humanity. This puts them on a violent path, but Kabaneri follows more the traditional heroic story rather than that of an anti-hero tale that Tokyo Ghoul becomes.
The Promised Neverland
Grace Fields House is a home for orphans. However, even though they have no blood families, they are all one big family. That is, until the age of twelve when they are adopted out. The kids also know that they are not allowed outside the fenced yard, but one day, two children break that rule. They then discover that the children who are “adopted” are actually subjected to something much darker.
While it takes a little bit of watching to unravel, you learn about the creatures living alongside humanity in both series. Both Ghouls and Demons in The Promised Neverland have their own societies that are hidden at first but unveiled by the main characters via events in the plot.
For Fans of Forced Protagonists
Deadman Wonderland
When Ganta Igarashi got on a bus with his classmates for their class trip, it was gearing up to be an amazing day. They were going to Deadman Wonderland, after all, an amusement park where convicts perform death-defying stunts for their amusement. However, when Ganta’s class gets brutally murdered before his very eyes by a man in red, he finds himself the sole survivor as well as the suspect. Now he’s been sentenced to the same amusement park he was just enjoying.
While both dark in tone and setting, Tokyo Ghoul features a predator / prey environment while Deadman Wonderland is more master / slave. However, both main characters find themselves forced into a deadly and brutal world where they need to grow tough in order to survive.
Ajin
Immortal humans known as Ajin first appeared in Africa 17 years ago. While they were labeled a threat to mankind, to many they were just an infrequent news item. However, for Kei Nagai, a high schooler studying hard to be a doctor, he discovers he is an Ajin after being fatally hit by a car. Now on the run from the government that wants to imprison him, Kei must find a way to survive.
Through various circumstances, both main characters are forced to become a human-monster hybrid. As a result, they also find themselves hunted by the organization that wants to wipe out these monsters. While ghouls use their nature as more of a defense mechanism (and to feed), Ajin are more calculating and controlled.
Guilty Crown
After being ravaged by the Apocalypse Virus, Japan has fallen under control of the GHQ, an independent military force dedicated to the restoration of order. However, a guerrilla group called Funeral Parlor seeks to put an end to their despotism. After a fateful run in with a key member of Funeral Parlor, weak and anti-social Shuu Ouma finds himself with a powerful new weapon, the ability to pull out manifestations of a person’s personality to wield as weapons. Now he must make use of it in order to free Japan once and for all.
Both Guilty Crown and Tokyo Ghoul feature protagonists who get their supernatural powers completely by accident and have to learn to deal with them. Ultimately, they transform from crybabies to badasses throughout their many battles, but not without turning more towards darkness. For fast-paced battles where each enemy feels unique, there can be no two better series.
Devilman Crybaby
Akira has always been a little weak and blends into the background, so when his childhood friend asks for help uncovering devils, he agrees. The pair head to Sabbath where many gather for debauchery and to be possessed by devils. When the devils begin to wreck havoc in their new living hosts, Akira agrees to merge bodies with a devil in order to save his friend. Though he now has a voracious devil inside him, he still has the heart of a crybaby.
If you enjoyed how viciously violent Tokyo Ghoul could be on occasion, Devilman Crybaby does that just as well. Furthermore, it takes a wimp of a main character and makes him into a vicious monster.
Land of the Lustrous
In this world, Gems inhabit the ruins of a world. Taking on certain characteristics, gems are assigned roles depending on their hardness. The hardest among them fight the Lunarians, aliens that seek to shatter them to decorate their own bodies. Phosphophyllite, or Phos, is young and fragile, but wants desperately to help the war effort of fellow gems.
Don’t be fooled by how bright and colorful Land of the Lustrous looks, it is just as mature a show as Tokyo Ghoul. It does lack the physical gore because all the girls are minerals, however. What both series most have in common is that they are ultimately about characters giving and losing a little more of themselves in each battle they face. Land of the Lustrous is a little more literal in that sense, though.
Bungou Stray Dogs
The orphanage that Atsushi Nakajima has been living at has been recently plagued by a tiger that only he can see. Blaming him for the incident, they kick him out. Now homeless, he wanders the streets until he meets the eccentric Osamu Dazai and saves him from drowning. As it turns out, Dazai is a supernatural detective and agrees to help him solve the mystery.
In each series, you watch once normal main characters be turned into a monster. This event eventually leads them to join an organization that is pitted against a similarly powered enemy. While Bungou Stray Dogs isn’t as gruesome most of the time, it does present an interesting world that it unravels.
For Fans of Monsters Fighting Monsters
Hellsing Ultimate
In this world, there are monsters that lurk in the darkness. Ones waiting to devour everything you are and hold dear. To stem the tide of this darkness is the Hellsing Organization. Commanded by Integra Hellsing, the organization’s powerful military force dedicate their lives to fighting monsters. However, their most powerful weapon is the vampire, Alucard, who turned against his own kind in service to Hellsing. Now with his new vampire assistant Seres at his side, he must battle not only monsters, but anyone that stands in Hellsing’s way.
Both series feature characters that were recently turned into monsters and then find themselves drafted into an organization. While Hellsing is about vampires, there are just as many other violent creatures within the world. Ultimately what ties both series together is how much violence and blood flow from each.
Seraph of the End
After a mysterious virus killed every human over 13 years old, the vampires rose up with a promise to protect the survivors. The only thing they asked in return is donations of blood. For Yuuichirou and Mikaela, they have grown tired of being livestock and pose a daring escape plan. It ultimately fails with only Yuuichirou left alive. However, after joining up with a mercenary company, he swears vengeance on the vampires, no matter the cost.
While the main character in Seraph isn’t technically a monster, like in Tokyo Ghoul, the main character eventually drifts more towards the dark side. Essentially, Seraph and Tokyo Ghoul are two sides of the same coin. Tokyo Ghoul follows the monsters while Seraph focuses on the humans.
Blue Exorcist
Humans and demons live in two different worlds, but demons are constantly trying to bridge the gap. The only way they can slip into the human world is to possess a human. When demon king Satan cannot find a suitable meat suit, he sends his own son over in hopes that he will grow into an appropriate vessel. However, after being raised as a human by exorcists, when it comes time for Rin, the son of Satan, to fulfill his destiny, he chooses to side with the humans.
Both Tokyo Ghoul and Blue Exorcist have a serious case of the “Oh God, what have I becomes?”s. Both main protagonists live normal lives until their world is turned upside down, and while they can go either way, typically they aim towards the good. However, while Kaneki’s circumstances are accidental, Rin doesn’t really have a choice as to what he is.
Parasyte
One night, sixteen-year-old Shinichi Izumi was peacefully sleeping when a race of parasitic aliens descended on Earth. One parasite infects Shinichi, trying to get to his brain to take over his body, but ends up getting stuck in his right hand. Unable to relocate to the brain, the alien, named Migi, now has no choice but to learn to coexist with Shinichi in his body in order to stay alive. Unfortunately, the other parasitic aliens are not so friendly with humans or to parasites that failed to complete their mission.
Both Parasyte and Tokyo Ghoul feature weak main characters made strong as they turn into a monster/alien. This leads them to essentially be hunted and have to endure endless tragedy.
Devils’ Line
In this world, vampires, or devils as they are often called, live among humans. The majority of humanity isn’t aware of them as they do not differ much from normal humans. A vampire does not even need to drink human blood, but once they taste it or sometimes even just see it, they experience such lust and pleasure that they are driven crazy with desire. Anzai, a half-vampire, is part of a secret sub-section of the police force that deals with these rogue vampires that transform and go on a rampage. One day, he saves college student Tsukasa from a vampire and their fates become intertwined.
While Devils’ Line is about vampires, like Tokyo Ghoul, it follows a main character that just doesn’t want to hurt anyone despite their innately violent nature. While they both end up being about a character joining an organization, Devils’ Line has romance play a significant part of the main character’s story.
Demon Slayer
After the death of his father, Tanjirou has taken up the role of the man of the home, supporting his mother and five siblings. However, after selling charcoal in town, he returns to tragedy. All his family was brutally slaughtered, save for one of his sisters. Unfortunately, she has been attacked by a demon and mingled their blood, turning her into a demon as well. However, she still shows signs of humanity, thrusting Tanjirou onto a quest to find a way to change his sister back and preserve what is left of his family.
If you enjoyed Tokyo Ghoul for its violent and original fights as well as its collection of interesting characters, Demon Slayer can fill the void. It is a more action-oriented show, but it has some vicious moments as well.
Jujutsu Kaisen
In order to gain more power, demons search for fragments of the legendary demon Sukuna to consume them. One day, Yuuji Itadori, who just lost his grandfather, learns of this as he saves his school friends from being consumed by demons after they break the seal on one of the body parts of Sukuna that was at their school. In order to stand a chance, he eats it, revealing himself as a rare vessel that can utilize and control the curse of Sukuna, meaning when he dies, Sukuna’s curse dies with him.
While Jujutsu Kaisen definitely has more of a shounen battler vibe to it, it does lean towards the dark and vicious side. It also throws some very unique characters at you as well which help to separate it from the pack.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Tokyo Ghoul? Let fans know in the comments section below.
