How dark is your concept of "dark"?

For me, dark is defined as mostly unhappy. It's when things start out bad...and go downhill from there. NGE is one of the darkest animes I've seen.

Some, believe it or not, actually manage to pull up from their plot tailspins and redeem themselves with a happy ending (or the closest they can get to one given the circumstances). There have been a few I've seen that play like warm-fuzzy sitcoms, but end very harshly. In the interest of not giving away any spoilers, I'm not going to say which ones those are.

Why Evangelion holds that spot in my mind is because it, firstly, isn't dark in terms of lighting. A typical "dark" anime is usually in the horror genre, consequently much of the action takes place at night or in the shadows. Most of NGE's stories happen in broad daylight -- and they still managed to depress the hell out of me. The lead characters are children, and what happens to them shouldn't happen to a dog.

Most animes prefer to teach an upbeat lesson; like "Never give up in the face of adversity, and you will eventually triumph. NGE's lesson is, "Struggle as hard as you want, idiot, because nothing matters in the end." It also tends to focus a lot on the most repugnant images it's creator could dream up. And gave us a cast of characters that were each reprehensible in their own individual ways. Now that I come to think of it, yes, it is the antichrist of anime. Not because it was badly made...far from it. It was a very professionally polished self-loathing acid trip.

1. I've never seen an anime that has really been "dark". As you said, every ones definition of "dark" is very "tame". However, I believe the closest I have come to a dark anime is actually an anime movie called Strait Jacket.

2. It revolves around the use of Sorcery. People use Sorcery for everything. Military, Government, Hospitals, etc. However, using the sorcery turns you into demons (in Japanese Akuma). Because of this special "containment suits" were made for people who use Sorcery. However, things sometimes go wrong and people still turn into Akuma and go on a killing rampage. Because of this "Strait Jackets" were made. These are people who use Sorcery to fight the Akuma; they also risk turning into Akuma in the process. This anime is violent, bloody, graphic, and as "dark" as I've seen any anime EVER get. If you know a "darker" anime...I'd love to know what it is.

EDIT:

Personally, I didn't find Elfen Lied, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, nor Claymore "dark"; and those are the animes I've always been told about or see when I or someone else asks for a "dark" anime.

EDIT 2:

Now, the show is split up into episodes on here, however it is the full movie.

Sub Link:

http://www.goodanime.net/strait-jacket-episode-1

Dub Link:

Still looking. It is dubbed, though, because I have it on my I-pod. However, I can't find it online. I'll keep looking, though.

What? The reason why we say we can't account for 90% of the matter in the universe is because of Dark Matter and Dark Energy. If those concepts had never been thought up then we would have no reason to think there is any more matter than what we see... therefore we would be able to account for 100% of the matter in the universe. Honestly, you should probably consider doing looking into scientific theories and for what reasons they were formulated before you damn them all. Dark Energy is a hypothetical source for the expansion of the universe. Dark Matter has been "seen" through the collision of two galaxies (specifically the collision of their dark matter halos). It can also be observed through the bending of light around the gravity it produces and it is necessary to explain why stars on the outer rim of galaxies orbit at the same speeds as stars in near the core of galaxies. See, you didn't even know what Dark Matter and Dark Energy is or what the concepts are used for.

Dark: (Adj) A world without Light (Yagami)

<_< I couldn't resist.

The darkest series I've ever read were

Uzumaki: It's about a town cursed by a design, not a ghost or killer or something and there's no escaping the town. Another creepy thing about Uzumaki is that (spoiler...and I'm having trouble wording it) The main girl basically gets twisted up in a pile of bodies in the end and the story is basically her telling you how she got there. (please tell me if you cant understand what I'm saying, I'm having a lot of trouble wording this)

and Litchi Hikari Club: It's about a group of guys trying to create the "ultimate artificial intelligence" and basically throughout the whole story there is: rape, some guro-ish stuff, lots of murder, gore, etc.

. I haven't really seen any dark anime lately (except for those mainstream "dark" anime series.)

Gantz: General animation darker colors, blood, guts, varying graphic scenes, sex scenes, language, so forth. You see people being squashed, sliced in half, shot, ran over by a train, pulling out people's teeth, car crashes a just generally dying in rather nasty circumstances.

Dark thought processes: There is a general devaluation of human beings. You see people trying to survive and thinking of other as objects to achieve your goals. In the anime you see people not seeing people as humans, but being there to fulfill your desires.

I don't really think that there is or should be a standard of dark anime that if there isn't guts flying everywhere it isn't dark. Anytime you see an anime in which the evil themes and/or deaths are a constant occurrence I would generally call it dark.

My definition of dark is pretty dark.

The darkest anime I've watched (and I don't watch that many) is Elfen Lied. What they did to those girls is pretty awful and some of the scenes where pretty bloody. For me, the anime wasn't dark because of the blood and/or killing, it was really how people treated those girls and the things they went through and what it turned them into. But then again I don't watch super dark anime.

(this may contain spoilers for death note)

i think death note is probably the darkest anime ive seen, especially once it really gets into the story. at first he uses it casually, only killing the most evil people. but after a while, it turns much darker and his plan is to change the earth completely, killing people with even the slighest crime. not only is the animation and the theme generally quite dark, but so is the story and what happens during this anime.

1. Neon Genesis Evangelion specifically End of Evangelion

2. SPOILER LOLOL SPOILER

The movie really starts with an invasion of nerv in which nearly everyone is slaughtered, Shinji has given up the will to live and lets the JSDF (japanese military) kill him, or would have if misato hadn't intervened. skip 2/3 through the movie and we arrive to asuka (who had formerly been in a coma) being sent into battle as soon as she awakens from it, shortly after a complete beat down (with asuka on the sending side) the MP evangelions restart and impale her through the head, then eat her "mech" alive in which she has to feel everything.

Then shinji is able to get to his unit... upon discovering asuka torn apart missing limbs, his sanity breaks and he gives up the will to live. crucified SEELE sacrifices his mind in a ritual to make him god in which he decides to end himself and all life. after a thorough asskicking by his own subconsciousness he reverts his decision and gives all living things the choice to be reborn. he spends around a month as the only living being on earth before asuka finally emerges from the sea.

yeah thats ******* dark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3Uge0DljYA

id have to say

Higurashi no Naku koro ni

its just dark xD lool

Hellsing was pretty brutal.Nazis,blood and gore,innocents being massacred,rape,and lets not forget Alucards smile(shivers)