If you ask someone what their greatest fear is, they may say something like clowns, spiders, or dolls. Dolls are particularly creepy not just in their soulless lifeless face, but also what they represent: innocence. The idea that a child’s play thing, a toy, something that should be so harmless could be haunted, possesed, or just down right creepy is very unsettling.

We’ve all seen movies or heard stories about scary dolls, but what about in horror anime? Well, today I’ll be breaking down the scariest dolls of all time in anime.

10) Maromi From Paranoia Agent

In the world of Paranoia Agent, we learn after a series of brutal random attacks that the first victim Tskukiko Sagi, has been under a lot of stress and pressure from her job as a character designer. Her company wants her to make a new character as big as her last one, which was Maromi. Maromi is a pink dog similar to the likes of Sanrio character Hello Kitty. Tsukiko constantly carries around a Maromi plush doll with her and talks to it as if it is real. Tsukiko also sees Maromi's plush move and talk back to her, leaving us to wonder if Maromi has come to life or if she has actually lost her mind. 

The Maromi plush sitting in Tsukiko’s bag.

9) Moga-chan from Ghost Sweeper Mikami

In a more light hearted series, Ghost Sweeper Mikami focuses on an exorcist, Mikami, with her interesting team of girl-crazy Tadao Yokoshima and sweet ghost girl Kinu Himuro. In one episode they encounter a little girl who is devastated because her Moga-chan doll (similar to a Barbie doll) was taken away by a pale faced ghost. The team ends up opening a portal in which they encounter an army of Moga-chan dolls including the doll Mikami had when she was young. Mikami’s old doll from childhood wanted revenge on the human race just because Mikami stopped playing with her, the thought of old childhood toys we have such good memories with coming to life and wanting to turn the human race into dolls is a thought that surely gives me goosebumps.

The trio when they encounter the doll army.

8) Mary from Ghost Stories

After Satsuki’s friend Keiichriou finds a beautiful porcelain doll in the trash, she tells him to get rid of it. When she gets home, the doll is there waiting for her. The doll begins stalking her and calling her house saying “I’m Mary! Let’s play!” Eventually Mary possesses other toys to tie up Satsuki and have her dismembered. Until a tissue falls out of her pocket and Mary remembers when she was first found, Satsuki cleaned her up with a tissue and has a change of heart towards Satsuki. We aren’t told much on Mary’s background or what is possessing her, but the fact that she stalked and almost killed Satsuki in such a gruesome way is creepy enough and maybe we don’t want to know the backstory on this awful, awful doll.

A closeup on Mary, after being cleaned off.

7) Traditional Japenese doll from Paprika

Sometime in the future, scientists develop something called The DC Mini, which is used to enter people's dreams to be used as a therapy treatment. When someone steals 3 DC Mini prototypes it is up to Dr.Atsuko Chiba to use her dream alter ego Paprika to go into the dreams and find out who stole it, as if it were to fall into the wrong hands major devastation could happen. Now how do dolls fit into this you may ask? Well, the doll imagery in this movie is ever so apparent, at first they believe fellow scientist Himuro is behind all this and when they go to his apartment to search for clues his apartment is filled with dolls. Not to mention in the dream world during the parade, there are talking dolls everywhere. A big doll also almost destroys the city. The dolls in this movie aren’t a main point of the plot, but they do give an uneasy feeling throughout the film.

The doll that ends up terrorizing the city.

6) Zashiki-warashi dolls from Mononoke

 In the first episode of Mononoke, we find the medicine seller staying at an Inn, where a pregnant woman comes in and also asks for a room. She is given a room that they rarely give out and we soon learn why. She keeps seeing little dolls (very similar looking to Russian matryoshka dolls) and the sounds of children around the inn. The innkeeper informs her there are no children staying the night however, only she and the Medicine Seller can hear it. The room is haunted by Zashiki-warashi, the ghosts of children, and in this particular case the ghost of aborted fetuses from when the Inn was a brothel. The innkeeper forced the prostitutes to abort their children when falling pregnant and it is up to The Medicine Seller to protect the pregnant Shino and her unborn baby.

The dolls possessed by the unborn children, appearing and disappearing all over the Inn

5) Muraki’s Mother’s Dolls from Descendants of Darkness

Tsuzuki Asato isn’t just any 26 year old, he’s a shinigami! It’s up to him to look into serial killer Kazutaka Muraki. Being a serial killer isn’t enough either, Muraki also has an obsession with dolls. Although his dolls are not haunted, all the dolls in his collection were passed down by his mother who also treated him like he was a doll. The dolls tend to represent both how he treats others, such as the victims he murders and the trauma from his mother.

Descendants of Darkness characters.

4) Matsukaze from Vampire Princess Miyu

Miyu’s main enemy in the series is Reiha, a Yuki-onna. Rehia is constantly accompanied by her living doll Matsukaze, who is possessed by a spirit. Matsukaze acts as a father figure towards Rehia as her own father perished and it is also something Rehia resents Miyu for. Matsukaze has no other powers other than the ability to talk, but he is quite rude and abrasive especially to Miyu. He isn’t as frightening as other dolls on this list but he sure is unsettling.

A closeup on Matsukaze’s face.

3) Conjoined dolls from Another

Mei Misaki’s grandmother owns a shop filled with dolls, most of which are beautiful and not that scary. When Kouichi follows Mei into the basement, she shows him a doll of conjoined twins. She claims to like them because of how calm they look. This is directly following a scene in which there is a doll who looks exactly like her sitting in a coffin. This whole doll shop scene is very creepy and makes sense for someone as out there as Mei Misaki to have a fondness for this soulless creature. This is a scene sure to make your skin crawl.

The conjoined dolls in Mei’s grandma's basement. 

2) Puppet Bride from Hell Girl

Hell Girl is a wonderfully spooky anthology, so of course there has to be a doll epsiode. In the episode Puppet Bride we meet soon-to-be wed Inori and her stressful situation. Her mother-in-law, Kyogetsu, a doll maker, has been treating her awful. She beats her, berates her and she is overall unhappy. She loves Kyogetsu’s son, and asks him why his mother would treat her this way, in which he replies she is under a lot of stress due to an art exhibit coming up. However, Inori has had enough and contacts Ai Enma to put a stop to this. And one day well working in her shop, Kyogetsu’s dolls come to life and terrorize her and she herself resembles a puppet. Soon after, Ai Enma comes and whisks her away to hell. Puppets are a special breed of awful, and Hell Girl hit the nail on the head with this freaky episode.

Kyogetsu after turning into a puppet.

1) Minnie from Ghost Hunt

In the second episode of Ghost Hunt, The SPR team takes on a poltergeist case that seems to be bothering a family. The family’s daughter, Ayami, mentions to the team that her doll Minnie has been speaking to her. Obviously, this raises a big red flag for the team. As they watch over Minnie it's apparent that a spirit is using the little doll as a vessel. Later we learn that the house the family is living in has had many children die within its walls, and Minnie is being possesed not only by dead children but the mother of one of the children who committed suicide. Minnie is particularly creepy given the fact that she's not just possessed by 1 ghost, but the spirits of many dead kids who have died in gruesome ways. 

Minnie, a doll who is possessed by dead children.