Nothing shows off the flexibility of anime as a medium quite like sitting down and hashing out the brightest stars of every genre. There truly is something for everyone with more coming all the time, whether you are a sub or dub watcher. The biggest hope is this list will guide you to mystery anime series you maybe haven’t heard of or watched before. With that in mind, here we go!
High-Rise Invasion
High-Rise Invasion does the usual combo of mystery-horror, but in a spectacular way that makes the viewer constantly aware that safety doesn’t exist.
The show starts with Yuri Honjo on the roof of a high-rise building with surroundings that certainly look like the skyline of her city. Every roof seems to have no real way down, instead rope bridges seem to connect the buildings. The skyline stretches a very long distance, only broken by a massive spire that did not exist in the world Yuri is from.
While she can’t contact her parents, a call does connect to her brother Rika, who is trapped in this same world and calm enough to share some information on her surroundings. He warns her to “treat this world as pure reality, not a dream or an illusion.” He tells her that there isn’t any way to get down to the street nor are there accessible elevators.
While on the call, Yuri sees a woman fleeing from what seems like an ordinary man, but he is wearing a white smiley face mask and carrying a bloody baseball bat. Rika tells Yuri about the people wearing the masks, and that their goal isn’t necessarily murder, but to drive people “to the edge of despair” enough to jump from the rooftops.
High-Rise Invasion gives you answers to questions, but the answers only further the mystery and spawn more questions. It doesn’t fall prey to the usual “slow burn” label that some shows get that try the whole mysterious/unknown world plot either, choosing instead to pace things mile a minute, giving viewers the same little time to breathe feeling as the show’s characters.
The first season of 12 episodes is currently streaming on Netflix.
