Most Brutal Survival Games in Anime

Summary

• Survival anime games are psychological nightmares filled with betrayal and desperate measures to survive.
• Characters in these games face brutal deaths and hopeless situations with no mercy or rules.
• From Future Diary to Kings Game, these anime showcase violent challenges that push characters to their limits.

In survival games anime, characters are put in life-or-death situations where they have to do whatever they can within and out of their power to survive. These characters are pushed to their absolute limits, and only the strongest, smartest, or most ruthless can make it out alive. These games are more than just battles, they are psychological nightmares, filled with betrayal, desperation, and sheer brutality.

These anime showcase some of the most gruesome deaths, mind-breaking challenges, and hopeless situations in the genre. In these games, one cannot go in the same and come out the same as either friendships scatter, bodies get torn apart, winning comes with losing one’s humanity, or all. Fans of this genre are sure to have a memorable viewing experience as they get thrown into the world of the darkest, bloodiest, and most unforgiving games ever created.

9

Future Diary

A Battle Between 12 Where Only 1 Must Be Victorious To Be Deus’s Successor

Technology has some mind-blowing qualities, and finding a diary on a phone that can predict the future is one of them. When Yukiteru first discovered this, he tried to ignore it, but it became glaringly obvious that his phone could indeed predict the future. However, things take an interesting and brutal turn when one of his supposed imaginary friends, Deus invites him to play a game.

This game involves 11 other players who have diaries similar to Yukiteru’s. This game involves all the characters killing each other, and the last person standing gets to be Deus’s successor. What makes this game brutal is the lack of rules, meaning the participants can use any means or level of force to emerge victorious.

8

Juni Taisen

No One Is Intended To Survive

• Premiered: October 3, 2017
• Studio: Graphinica

The Jūni Taisen is a deadly battle royale that takes place every 12 years between warriors representing the twelve Chinese zodiac signs. These warriors are highly trained killers and must fight to the death. The last warrior standing has the winning prize of getting one wish granted, no matter how impossible it seems.

However, this game is not as easy as it sounds. It is designed to make sure that there is no survivor as each participant must swallow a lethal poison gem at the start of the game. This gem gives them 12 hours to either kill the other participants or die. With this twist, there is no telling who will emerge victorious as even the strongest participant can die if they do not kill every other person before their time runs out.

7

Danganronpa: The Animation

Kill Or Be Killed

Students go to school to learn, but the students of Hope’s Peak High School go to school to kill each other. Makoto is excited to be a student at this school, where only talented individuals can get in. But the excitement turns sour as he is trapped in the school with 14 other students by Monokuma, a sadistic robotic bear.

To escape, a student must commit murder and avoid being caught in a class trial. If the murderer is correctly identified, they are executed, but if they goes undetected, they escapes while everyone else is killed. This rule turns everyone into a deadly assassin in an environment where they can trust no one and there are no rules limiting them.

6

Btooom!

Survival Game Of Explosions

It is undeniably a brutal way to die by explosion, with one’s body blown into bits and pieces. Playing a game like this is all fun till it becomes a reality, and this was the unfortunate situation of Sakamoto. This guy was the top-ranked player of an online game called Btooom!. In this game, the player would have to kill his teammates in order to collect their chips and become victorious.

Sakamoto’s fun ends when he finds himself in the world of this violent and incredibly deadly game. On arrival, he immediately gets a taste of what he puts other players through as a bomb is thrown at him. He survives, but it only gets worse, and he must survive in a world where he cannot trust anybody in order to get back to the real world.

5

Darwin’s Game

High School Student Stuck In A Ruthless Game

A seemingly harmless online game invitation opens Kaname to a world where he has to kill to survive. In this game, Darwin’s Game, players are granted special powers called Sigils and they must use these powers to battle and survive. At first, Kaname refused to kill his fellow players even though they did not extend the same grace to him and relentlessly tried to kill him.

In this world, there is no safe place and after seeing the dead body of his friend, Kaname wakes up to the deadly reality in front of him. He has no choice but to fight, kill his opponents, and survive in order to win the game.

4

Tomodachi Game

A Game That Destroys Friendships

There is a famous saying about how money is the root of all evil, and in this anime, fans see how money disrupts the friendships between five friends. Yuichi and his friends are dragged into a mysterious and deadly game after money meant for their class trip goes missing. This game involves them repaying a mysterious debt.

Tomodachi Game is a brutal survival game, not because of gore but because of how it destroys friendships and exposes human greed. For someone like Yuichi, who understands the value of friendship, winning this game involves going against what he grew up with. For a player to win, they would have to lie, manipulate, and betray those closest to them.

3

Deadman Wonderland

A Prison That Forces Prisoners To Entertain The Public At The Expense Of Their Lives

A lot could go wrong on a class trip. An innocent class trip to a prison amusement park takes a deadly turn as a mysterious man kills all of Ganta’s classmates. As the only surviving student, he gets framed for the murders and is sent to the prison he came to visit, where his nightmare becomes even worse. As a prisoner, he realizes that there is no space for the weak as they get killed by the stronger ones.

As Ganta tries to clear his name, he must be on guard and follow the rules of the prison to ensure that he lives to clear his name. Prisoners are forced to participate in amusement park games with hidden death traps, and losing means instant death.

2

Gantz

A Deadly Game That Gives Its Participants The Rare Chance To Return To Life After Dying

A selfless act to save a homeless man from getting hit by a train resolves in Kei’s death as the train hits him. His life does not end there as he wakes up in a mysterious room with other recently deceased individuals, including his childhood friend Masaru. In the room with them is a large black ball that has weapons and suits for everyone.

They discover that their mission is to hunt and kill aliens across the city. However, they cannot refuse to partake in the mission, or else they will die permanently. If they fail, they die permanently, and even if they win, they get to return to earth.

1

King’s Game

Obey Or Die

A simple text shoves Nobuaki and his classmates into impossible situations that they must overcome or complete to avoid being given a gruesome punishment that can cause death. The text is from an unknown person who goes by the name King and this person sends deadly commands to the students, and if they refuse or fail to complete their task, they die in gruesome ways.

The only rule is that the game cannot be stopped, and the only way to survive is to obey the King. Obeying the king leads to violence, mass killings, and other horrific acts.