Anime Like Higurashi: When They Cry - NEW
If you loved Higurashi: When They Cry - NEW's Animation and Mystery storytelling, these anime deliver a similar experience — selected for art style, narrative depth, and emotional impact. Each includes where to stream it now.
★ Top Picks
Boogiepop and Others
There is an urban legend that tells of a shinigami that can release people from the pain they are suffering. This "Angel of Death" has a name—Boogiepop. And the legends are true. Boogiepop is real. When a rash of disappearances involving female students breaks out at Shinyo Academy, the police and faculty assume they just have a bunch of runaways on their hands. Yet some students know better. Something mysterious and foul is afoot. Is it Boogiepop or something even more sinister...?
Umineko: When They Cry
As customary per year, the entire family is gathering on the island for a conference that discusses the current financial situations of each respective person. Because of the family head's poor health, this year involves the topic of the head of the family's inheritance and how it will be distributed. However, the family is unaware that the distribution of his wealth is the least of Ushiromiya Kinzo's concerns for this year's family conference. After being told that his end was approaching by his longtime friend and physician, Kinzo is desperate to meet his life's true love one last time: the Golden Witch, Beatrice. Having immersed himself in black magic for many of the later years in his life, Kinzo instigates a ceremony to revive his beloved upon his family's arrival on Rokkenjima.
BLOOD-C
Saya Kisaragi is an outwardly normal girl who serves as the shrine maiden to a country town; in reality, she is a skilled swordswoman charged by her father to defeat Elder Bairns, monsters who feed on human blood. As her battles grow more desperate and more people she cares for fall victim to the Elder Bairns, Saya begins finding faults in her reality, and eventually uncovers a disturbing truth about herself, the town and her surviving friends.
The Summer Hikaru Died
Six months ago, Hikaru vanished for a week. Now, as his best friend Yoshiki senses something amiss and confronts him, the harrowing truth emerges.
Dark Gathering
The story centers on Keitarou Gentouga, who has the ability to be a spirit medium. In junior high school, he got someone else wrapped up in a spirit possession incident, and he has been a shut-in for more than two years. As he reintroduces himself to society as a private tutor, he meets a genius girl named Yayoi Houzuki. Yayoi is instantly able to tell that Keitarou has skill as a spirit medium, and she invites him to go with her to a haunted location. The two then start their journey capturing evil spirits.
SCHOOL-LIVE!
Yuki Takeya, Kurumi Ebisuzawa, Yuri Wakasa, and Miki Naoki decide to stay over at school. Along with the school adviser Megumi Sakura, they suddenly find themselves to be the final survivors of a zombie attack, and continue to live and survive at the school.
Uzumaki
Kirie tries to escape from her town Kurouzu-cho, where the residents get obsessed with spirals due to an unexplained curse.
Shiki
Sotobamura is a small village with around 1300 residents; so small the village isn't even connected to a single highway. An isolated village in which old customs, such as the burial of the dead, are still practiced. One day, the bodies of three people are found dead. Although Ozaki Toshio, the village's lone doctor, feels uncertain, he treats the deaths as a normal occurrence. However, in the days following, the villagers start to die one after the other.
More Anime Like Higurashi: When They Cry - NEW
RESIDENT EVIL: Infinite Darkness
Years after the horrors of Raccoon City, Leon and Claire find themselves consumed by a dark conspiracy when a viral attack ravages the White House.
Junji Ito Collection
A collection of animated horror stories based on the works of Japanese artist Junji Ito.
Occultic;Nine
The "paranormal science" story follows nine idiosyncratic individuals, linked by the "Choujou Kagaku Kirikiri Basara" occult summary blog run by 17-year-old second-year high school student Yuuta Gamon. Little incongruities that occur around these nine eventually lead to a larger, unimaginable event that may alter what is considered common sense in this world.
Undead Murder Farce
In this world, creatures like vampires and werewolves still walk about, but Aya Rindo can’t say the same for herself. This beautiful disembodied head, carried by her maid Shizuku Hasei, is a detective in search of her stolen body. One evening, they meet half-human Oni Slayer Tsugaru Shunichi, who offers a lending hand. Now, the trio is traveling through Europe, solving mysteries along the way.
Higurashi: When They Cry
After moving into the quiet town of Hinamizawa, Maebara Keiichi spends his days blissfully in school often playing games with his local friends. However, appearances can be deceiving. One fateful day, Keiichi stumbles upon news of a murder that had occurred in Hinamizawa. From this point on, horrific events unfold in front of Keiichi, as he soon learns his close friends may not be all that they seem.
ChäoS;HEAd
Takumi Nishijou, a high school student at the Private Suimei Academy, one day hears about the 'New Gen' murders that have been occurring around the city. Although dismissing the subject because it doesn't involve him, Takumi begins to experience strange mishaps around him, from a horrific picture he received while on his PC, to a mysterious Pink-Haired girl standing at a murder scene. From there on Takumi struggles to cope with the events unfolding around him, and is soon unaware of what is real or a delusion. As his fate opens up before him, the perpetrator behind the 'New Gen' events attempts to find him, leading him into a world where nothing is as it seems.
The Witch and the Beast
Guideau is a young woman who was cursed by a witch, forced to carry a dark secret. Ashaf is a tall, soft-spoken man with a coffin strapped to his back and secrets yet untold. Together they venture across the land on their quest for vengeance. Appearances can be deceiving, and each step could be their last. In a dark fantasy filled with adventure, will unlikely heroes find the vengeance they seek?
Claymore
When a shapeshifting demon with a thirst for human flesh, known as "youma," arrives in Raki's village, a lone woman with silver eyes walks into town with only a sword upon her back. She is a "Claymore," a being manufactured as half-human and half-youma, for the express purpose of exterminating these monsters. After Raki's family is killed, the Claymore saves his life, but he is subsequently banished from his home. With nowhere else to go, Raki finds the Claymore, known as Clare, and decides to follow her on her journeys. As the pair travel from town to town, defeating youma along the way, more about Clare's organization and her fellow warriors comes to light. With every town cleansed and every demon destroyed, they come closer to the youma on which Clare has sought vengeance ever since she chose to become a Claymore.
Trinity Blood
Many centuries ago, man's Armageddon gave birth to the vampires' wrath. As man and immortal clash, a reality-shattering threat looms. Hope resides solely in a new breed of hunter operating under the Vatican's authority. The true battle between holiness and evil has begun.
MARS RED
It’s 1923, and the mysterious blood source Ascra has unleashed a horde of vampires across Japan. In response, the government spawns Code Zero. With S-rank vampire Defrott and the rookie Kurusu, this kill squad is made for one reason: to hunt the undead!
Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre
From the mind of horror manga maestro Junji Ito comes a spine-tingling selection of some of his most bizarre, disturbing and terrifying tales.
Diabolik Lovers
Based on a visual novel of the same name by Rejet and Otomate, for the female market. Komori Yui is a positive-thinking girl who nevertheless is troubled by seeing spirits and experiencing poltergeist phenomena. In her second year in high school, she transfers to a new school — a night school for entertainers and celebrities — due to her father's work. There are rumours that vampires exist among the student body, and Yui ends up living with the six sadistic Sakamaki vampire brothers.
Why These Anime Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with Higurashi: When They Cry - NEW (2020): Animation and Mystery themes, comparable animation style, and similar narrative pacing. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface anime most likely to resonate with fans of Higurashi: When They Cry - NEW.
See full details for Higurashi: When They Cry - NEW (2020)