While it is fully possible to create horror and mystery in a big city, there is a particular reason that those two genres are drawn to the country. A rural town may give some a sense of safety in that you know all of your neighbors seemingly pretty well. However, the countryside brings with it a distinct sense of isolation. There is no overwhelming authority that can bring people down with force. Sometimes the only hospital is an hour away. Any help comes from what you have on hand, and what is on hand isn’t much. Furthermore, what happens when those neighbors you think you know so well turn into complete strangers when it comes down to it?
Isolation creates a certain depth of mystery and fear, so if that is what you desire in your anime, we have some small town mystery anime recommendations for you.
Best Anime With Small Town Mysteries
Higurashi: When They Cry
When it comes to small town horror and mystery in anime, Higurashi is a staple. It follows a kid who moves to the rural village of Hinamizawa that has a history steeped in mythology, civil unrest, and tragedy. In this village with a single-room school house, he becomes friends with several girls of varying ages. Then, when he begins to hear rumors of the bloody history of the village and disappearances that surround the upcoming festival, he finds his friends mysteriously silent on the subject.
Umineko: When They Cry
While it technically shares a the same world and creator, Umineko is a different story than Higurashi. However, it is still a horror mystery, and one steeped in isolation. It takes rural village one step further and places the setting as a secluded island inhabited by only one family. Of course, they becomes stuck there by a storm during their annual family gathering, and then family members start dying.
While that set up alone would have been quite fun, it adds a bit of a supernatural twist with the Golden Witch Beatrice, a family legend, to things that deepens the mystery.
Okamikakushi: Masque of the Wolf
Okamikakushi, the visual novel, was made by the same creators as the Higurashi and Umineko visual novels. The anime, however, was a bit of a flop when compared to its cousins. It does, like Higurahsi, follows a new boy who moves to a small town. There, he meets a bunch of girls who enjoy his company, and other people start to go mysteriously missing.
Shiki
While often considered a “B-tier” anime by fans, for some reason, Shiki is actually a master class on small town horror. It follows not just one character, but a handful in a small town that suddenly starts experiencing sudden deaths of residents due to an unclear cause. One sudden death in a village can be expected, but several deaths start to stir the old rumor mill.
Shiki keeps the cause of the deaths until late in the game. It invites you to make guesses, though. Is it a disease like some suggest? It is a monster? Who is doing it? All good questions and all answers to which are sufficiently well-kept to preserve the suspense.
Summertime Render
Like Umineko, Summertime Render takes the isolated rural village and places it on an island. However, nothing is really cut off in Summertime Render, but that’s because when people start dying in outrageous mass, time resets so the main character can have another go at solving the mystery.
The series follows a main character returning to his island home, at first, to attend the funeral of the recently deceased daughter of the family that adopted him. He then begins to think it was a murder when an island legend of people being killed when they see a double of themselves comes into play.
Ghost Hound
Despite the simple premise of three boys who can go into the Unseen World getting tied up in a mystery when other things start coming over to our reality, Ghost Hound is a surprisingly complicated series. It combines supernatural elements with psychological elements to create a mystery that just keeps on giving.
While, unlike in some series, the rural setting doesn’t necessarily add too much to the story. It still adds that crucial element of isolation where the characters really do have only themselves to rely on.
Another
While there are smaller towns on this list than the one in Another, it keeps to the formula. It follows a new student in a middle-sized town where his class is determined to ignore one girl in it. He defies their suggestion to ignore her too, and discovers that a curse manifests if that class doesn’t ignore one student each year. It leads to a number vicious deaths as they furiously work to discover the cause of the curse.
Despite having potential authoritative help on hand, the authorities would be rather helpless in this case. Furthermore, Another does isolation well in several different ways that add to the mystery.
H2O – Footprints in the Sand
While a goodly portion of the rural mystery anime series here are horror mysteries, not every mystery series in a small town is as such. H20 is more of a mysterious drama akin to the likes of Clannad. It follows a blind boy who moves to a new town. He meets a girl that actually cures his blindness, and this sets him on the path to uncover the many melancholy secrets of the village and those within it.
From the New World
From the New World is a supernatural mystery that front loads a bunch of questions in the beginning. It takes place 1000 years after showing certain members of humanity suddenly (and violently) manifesting psychic abilities. The future it shows is one where everyone has these powers and society as we know it has crumbled into smaller, isolated villages. It also suggests that something sinister happens to children in this world who do not manifest that power.
Now what makes this show successful is that it addresses and answers each question eventually. Your view of the world grows up as the children main characters do. As they go from children to adults, you uncover all the darkness.
Haibane Renmei
Haibane Renmei follows the mystery of girls born from a cocoon with angel wings and halos into a small village. There are normal people in the village, but they keep a distance from these girls that all live together.
What Haibane Renmei does really well is it gives you a sense that outside the village there is literally nothing, because that’s probably pretty true. Haibane Renmei plays things close to the vest in its mystery, leaning hard on metaphors and symbolism. It creates something as ponderously interesting as it is sad without being tear-jerking.
Box of Goblins
The non-linear storytelling in Box of Goblins can throw some for a loop, and the fact that it is one of the most dialogue-laden anime series can be a turn off too. However, Box of Goblins explores the many threads surrounding the sudden serial killing of several young girls in a small town. It is a mystery that involves a bit of contemplation by the audience, but if you want a complex mystery that isn’t spoon-fed to you in the end, this one is a real hidden gem.
Erased
While Erased has a touch of supernatural to it by sending the main character back in time to his childhood, it is primarily a good, old-fashioned murder mystery. The series places him back in his small hometown right before several children were about to be abducted, killed, and found later that spring. With knowledge of the future, he goes to great lengths to stop it.
Erased really excels in the way a good murder mystery should excel. It paints so many different people as potential and even viable suspects, and the culprit is ultimately someone you didn’t immediately expect.
The Lost Village
The titular Lost Village is a place that cannot be found on any map. However, a group of societal rejects who met on the interest believe they know where it is. They all meet up and gather to go there, and do indeed find this village. However, people start to mysteriously die and the mysteries of the village – and those inside of it – starts to pour out.
Do you have more anime recommendations for mystery anime series that take place in a small village? Let fans know in the comments section below.
