The Journal of Cartoon Over-analyzations

We know that most of you out there in academia are currently thinking:

Traumatizing anime? Isn’t that some sort of redundant tautology?

While it’s true that for every single Kiki’s Delivery Service there are about seventeen Sister Lovecraft’s Ninja Maid Story Neko Octopus Ninja Room, one must realize that “traumatizing” is truly a relative term. Only the crème de la crème of subjectively disturbing, stomach-turning sequences have descriptions like this:

 Aforementioned naked chick proceeds to get the hell out by tearing off the head of any guard unfortunate enough to be in her way. One has his legs ripped off; another is lobotomized by a ballpoint pen. All of this is done by a pair of horrifying invisible nightmare arms sprouting from her back.

After determining that guards’ blood is in fact a kind of magenta neon paint, Lucy finishes by beheading a clumsy secretary and using her corpse as an improvised meat-shield before going on her merry naked way.

Now what self-respecting 16-year-old male wouldn’t think that was The Awesomest Thing Ever? Answer: none. But we digress.

The 5 Most Traumatizing Anime Sequences in Recent History: A Scholar’s Guide >Catena Ex Situ