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Sometimes, the best horror stories are the ones that crop up naturally. The ones that may have started off as some mundane event but got spookier with each mouth that passed it on. In the past it was called folklore. Now they’re urban legends.

Related: The Most Disturbing Video Game Urban Legends

People have scared each other with one legend or another, like the story of Bloody Mary, the Mad Gasser of Mattoon, or the Chupacabra. Some of these tales have turned up on TV shows too, including anime. These in particular made their names by putting them at the forefront.

8 Paranoia Agent

Urban Legend Anime- Paranoia Agent

Satoshi Kon’s psycho-thriller isn’t about one particular urban legend. Like his other films, it's more meta than that. The show starts with stressed character designer Tsukiko Sagi gets attacked by a teenage boy with a baseball bat. She becomes the first victim of Li’l Slugger, as he goes on to assault more people in and around Musashino in Tokyo. All people know about him is he obscures his face with a cap, rides on inline skates, and whacks people across the head with a bat.

It would be simple enough if the show was about catching him. Instead, it’s more about how his story spreads through the community and affects people. Or in short, how urban legends are created. After all, it worked for similar mysterious attackers like Spring-Heeled Jack in real life. Only that Li’l Slugger has an exact yet more bizarre origin story behind him for Funimation viewers to discover.

7 Otherside Picnic

Urban Legend Anime- Otherside Picnic

Starting off as a series of sci-fi yuri novels, Iori Miyazawa’s Otherside Picnic is about a college girl called Sorawo who likes to explore the ‘Otherside’. They’re parallel worlds where urban legends and online stories are real. For example, she bonds with another woman called Toriko when they go hunting for ‘Kunekune’, waggling paper-like creatures from Japanese creepypastas.

They come across more on their adventures, like Kisaragi Station. The latter was born from a 2chan post in 2004 about a girl trapped in a mysterious train station. In Otherside Picnic, it’s the setting for a rescue mission as Sorawo and Toriko save some US marines who fell into the Otherside while on maneuvers. So, if that feels like the key element other yuri series have been missing for some viewers, check out Otherside Picnic on Funimation or Crunchyroll.

6 Boogiepop Phantom

Urban Legend Anime- Boogiepop Phantom

Before he produced his takes on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure in Purple Haze Distortion and Crazy Diamond’s Demonic Heartbreak, Kōhei Kadono made his name with the Boogiepop light novel series. They’re perhaps more what people might imagine when they think of an anime take on an urban legend. In that it's a fancier, if convoluted, take on the Boogieman.

Related: The Supernatural Light Novels That Inspired the Monogatari Series

The series is about a spirit called Boogiepop who takes control of a high schooler called Tōka Miyashita in order to protect the world. Is he supernatural? Or does Tōka have a split personality? No one knows for sure. Oddly enough, its sequel Boogiepop Phantom got animated 19 years prior to its forebear in 2000. Both are available on Funimation, Crunchyroll, and VRV for anyone seeking the full story.

5 Hell Girl

Urban Legend Anime- Hell Girl

Speaking of anime versions of urban legends. The original story spoke of a website where, if users put in the right details, they could send demons to torment their target before dragging them into the underworld. All free of charge too…bar the user’s own soul, as they’ll be hell bound too. Studio DEEN’s series turned the website’s main demon into Ai Enma, the titular, kimono-clad Hell Girl.

She was once a normal girl, until she was betrayed and offered as a sacrifice by her village. She broke out of her grave and burnt it to the ground in revenge, killing everyone. Now she serves the underworld through her ‘business’, punishing sinners to atone for her crime, with the website being the latest version of her services. Amazon Prime has every season on offer. While Crunchyroll only has Hell Girl: Fourth Twilight.

4 Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories

Urban Legend Anime- Yamishibai

Before television took over Japan, children and families were entertained by kamishibai. They were a form of street theater where a man would tell a story with a mobile wooden frame they'd slide pictures in and out of. Studio ILCA’s Yamishibai is basically a play on that, as a creepy masked figure pops by with his stall to present scary short stories. The show now has 10 seasons and counting, with each season consisting of roughly 5-minute or so episodes.

Most of its stories either use urban legends as their plot’s basis or use actual figures from folklore as inspiration. For example, the first season’s ‘Umbrella Goddess’ episode was based on Hachishakusama, the Eight-Foot-Tall woman who goes after young children. HIDIVE has two seasons of the show, but the whole enchilada can be found on Crunchyroll and VRV.

3 Ghost Stories

Urban Legend Anime- Ghost Stories

Surprisingly, the 2000 anime series infamous for its gag dub started life as a series of spooky novels by Tōru Tsunemitsu. They even got a tetralogy of films and a TV series way before ADV Films had its way with the characters. Their dub would turn paranormal enthusiast Leo into a Jewish stereotype, and the antagonist entity Amanojaku into a 4th wall breaking wisecracker.

Related: Ghost Stories: Things You Didn't Know About the Anime's English Dub

Nonetheless, the series sees main character Hajime and his friends come across figures from Japanese urban legends. Like Akagami Aogami, a cloaked figure who hides in bathrooms and offers to either choke their prey to death or bleed them out. Most infamously, its 3rd episode was originally going to feature Kuchisake Onna, the ‘Slit-Mouthed Woman’, before complaints led to it being scrapped. Otherwise, every episode can be found on Amazon Prime, Crunchyroll, VRV, and Retro Crush.

2 Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun

Urban Legend Anime- Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun

One of Japan’s more persistent urban legends is the one about Hanako-san, the ghost of a girl who died in a public toilet. Like ‘Bloody Mary’, she can be summoned by knocking on the 3rd stall of a public toilet and asking if Hanako is there. If they get a response, the summoner will see a bloody hand that’ll drag them inside the stall to a fate worse than death.

Other stories make Hanako male, or even a benevolent figure who grants wishes. Aidalro’s Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun did both. In it, school student Nene summons Hanako and wishes for a boyfriend. Instead, she gets spiritually bound to Hanako-kun, the ghost of a boy who maintains the balance between the human and spirit worlds by taking care of paranormal threats and rumors. The first season can be found on Hulu, Funimation, and Crunchyroll.

1 GeGeGe No Kitarō

Urban Legend Anime- GeGeGe no Kitaro 2018

Finally, the biggest entry on the list. GeGeGe No Kitaro actually started off as a kamishibai story called Kitaro of the Graveyard, which was about a deformed boy who lived in the local cemetery. This was also inspired by 'The Candy Buying Ghost', a tale about a man who finds a baby in a graveyard after its mother's ghost visits him asking for sweets. The modern series is based on Shigeru Mizuki’s 1960 manga, which has been adapted into an anime 6 times between 1968 and 2020.

They’re generally about Kitarō and his friends coming across different figures from Japanese and Western folk tales. Episode 10 of the latest season (available on Tubi and Crunchyroll) features all of Japan’s infamous Seven School Mysteries, from Toilet-Bound Hanako and her male equivalent Yosuke, to human-faced dogs called Jinmenken and the moving statue of Kinjirō Ninomiya. As far as urban legends go, it’s hard to find a more packed anime than this one.

More: Anime That Focus on Japanese Folk Tales