The fall season is officially here as a long and hot summer gives way to autumn. Of course, what would fall be without immediately jumping into the spookier side of things? Halloween remains an all-encompassing holiday where scare enthusiasts are more than happy to display decorations, hand out candy, and dress as some of their favorite ghosts and goblins. To help ring in the season, now feels like the best time to point out some of the best animated series that are tailor-made to send shivers down your spine, while also celebrating autumn.
Over The Garden Wall
Where To Watch: Hulu
Let’s get the best example of an animated series that was made for the fall season out of the way. Over The Garden Wall was, criminally, only one season, but despite this fact, the series has managed to become legendary in the animation world. Focusing on brothers Greg and Wirt, the animated series sees the siblings exploring “The Unknown,” an environment that is fit to bursting with supernatural shenanigans and homages to the autumn season. Luckily, the series is family-friendly, so there aren’t too many scares that will keep audiences away from this beloved series.
To this day, Over The Garden Wall remains a fixture for many animation fans, with MONDO recently revealing a new action figure line that will bring some of its greatest characters to life. There hasn’t been news regarding any sort of sequel to Wirt and Greg’s journey, but last year saw Cartoon Network creating a special stop-motion video to celebrate the show’s tenth anniversary. If you haven’t seen the animated show before, run, do not walk to watch it to celebrate the fall season.
Gravity Falls
Where To Watch: Disney+, upstream
Gravity Falls might take place in the summer in the Pacific Northwest, but don’t let this fact fool you. The Disney animated series is filled with supernatural creatures and wild scenarios that make it fit right in with other animated shows on this list. For those who might not know about this one, Dipper and Mabel are a brother and sister who are spending the summer with their “Grunkle” Stan. While Stan running a business dubbed the “Mystery Shack” is strange enough on its own, the siblings discover plenty of things that go bump in the night, to say nothing of a vast conspiracy that threatens the town.
Of the many episodes that make up Gravity Falls’ two seasons, the installment known as “Summerween” is clearly the frontrunner for the episode that most evokes the spooky season. The creators of the series took the chance to honor Halloween by creating a brand new holiday that would see the kids encountering a ghastly terror, while still getting the chance to trick or treat all the same.
Hilda
Where To Watch: Netflix
While both Gravity Falls and Over The Garden Wall are both family-friendly, they have their fair share of disturbing moments that elicit the spirit of Halloween. Such isn’t nearly the case with Hildathe original three-season series that is currently housed in Netflix’s library. Instead, Hilda focuses on a blue-haired girl who lives in an isolated mountain area with her mother. Much like the previous two series mentioned, the titular character goes on adventures that see her encountering supernatural beings, especially when it comes to visiting the city known as Trolberg.
Hildaas a series, has a feel to it that is definitively autumn-esque in its appearance. Creator Luke Pearson had originally started the story as a series of graphic novels, exploring the wild world that translated quite well to an animated format. Unfortunately, a fourth season of Hilda doesn’t appear to be in the cards as the franchise ended with the film, Hilda And The Mountain Kingthough said movie does a satisfying job of bringing Hilda’s journey to an end.
Castlevania
Where To Watch: Netflix
Netflix has been knocking it out of the park with their animated originals over the years and one of the biggest examples of that has been Castlevania. While the original Konami-based story garnered four seasons to focus on Trevor Belmont and company’s fight against Dracula, the franchise would return thanks to the two-season-long sequel series, Castlevania: Nocturne. The Castlevania series is easily the bloodiest and most disturbing series on our example so far, with the streaming service more than willing to explore some of the ultra-violence in following the Belmont clan.
Castlevania is an amazing adaptation of its source material, while also being the perfect series to whip your way through during the spooky season. The Belmonts are constantly under attack by vampires and their supernatural cohorts, making for quite the gruesome adventure to follow over its six seasons in full. Unfortunately, a third season of Castlevania: Nocturne has not been confirmed, and animation fans are left to wonder if we’ll ever see this vampire-filled world make a comeback. Speaking of vampires…
Shiki
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
Horror and anime don’t exactly go hand-in-hand, as there have been few and far between examples of spooky stories that don’t have “Junji Ito’ attached to the title. Enter Shikia vampire-centric story that takes place in a remote, small Japanese town where the undead are plaguing the residents. First debuting in 2010, the series garnered twenty-two episodes in total, making for a one-and-done story that can sink its teeth into viewers.
While a series like The Summer Hikaru Died has gone a long way to pushing anime horror forward, Shiki feels like a better choice when it comes to all things autumn. Shiki works as almost something like an anthology, taking place in the same town but jumping from different characters throughout. There’s a creepiness to Shiki that makes it work so well, despite its artistic style that might not elicit horror at first, though once the story gets rolling, things change quickly.
AAAHH!!!! Real Monsters
Where To Watch: Paramount+
Let’s end our list with one of Nickelodeon’s creepiest animated series, AAAHH!!!! Real Monsters. The story of Ickus, Oblina, and Krumm arrived many years prior to the introduction of Harry Potter, setting up a franchise that saw monsters attempting to scare humans as a part of their education. Arriving on Nickelodeon long before Disney’s Monsters, Inc., the series garnered four seasons, with over fifty episodes to its name.
Originally ending in 1997, the entire series can currently be streamed on Paramount+, giving viewers a family-friendly story that had a unique aesthetic to its monsters. There are certainly episodes dedicated to Halloween, but the trio’s story continues to work as a unique series that might have set the bar for other supernatural schools that would arrive in the future.
What do you think of our animated choices for the fall? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
