Deaths in anime, gaming, and manga

[Hollow 1977]

What are some of the most tragic deaths in an anime, video game, or manga? Ones that may bring you tears. We have all been there. You are watching your favorite anime and suddenly some character you liked gets killed. I am sure many remember Aerith. So for you which deaths hurt so much that you had a hard time dealing with?

Spoiler

Selan in Lufia II hit me be pretty hard. She an Maxim were a couple and had a kid and then she gets killed. I never played the first game so I did know it was coming. It was hard to continue playing after that.

 

[NinjaKittyProductions]

I would have to say Nox in the anime Wakfu. Even though he was the villain, his backstory was full of strife and heartache and all he wanted was to see his family again. Season 2 and 3 felt lack-luster to me because was not in it.

 

[Windows i7]

Character deaths aren't what bring me to tears. What does though is when a scene in a video game reminds me of a sad event in my own life. Persona 5's ending for example triggered this. There is also a scene where a student attempts suicide by jumping off the school roof. That can be... pretty emotional for someone who has had a close friend commit suicide.

 

[Hollow 1977]

I remember that being in Persona 4 too. One your social links attempts it cause her guy turned her down. You have to talk her down slowly. I have dealt firsthand with depression and it's not escapable. The only thing I found cause I still have it from time to time is to play a video game or do something to take my mind off it hoping it will pass. For some though it's so intense that they want an escape and end up attempting suicide.

 

[BlitzMalachite]

What death that hit me so hard is one of the Higurashi no naku koro ni ones.

Let Rika's Death. That tore me apart that I never speaked ever again.

 

[Hollow 1977]

Anime's can grab you and refuse to let go. One of the first big deaths I experienced in anime was Neflite's death in Sailor Moon. He and Molly were starting to get closer and then out of nowhere comes an attack. I was still hopeful he would survive but sadly he did not. He was not mentioned again until a few episodes later. Next to that was when Jowy killed Victor's friend in Suikoden 2 or when Odessa dies in Suikoden 1. I did not see either coming.

 

[John Freeman]

As I remember death in video games never stuck with me regardless how big of an impact it have on the story, maybe due to the fact that I'm too focus on the gameplay at time and then death scene hit the feeling wasn't feel like the same as in film, most impactful death in anime must be light death from death note, I really agree with him on his way of using death note, bad people rarely and hardly change, and it so easy for them to come back to their old way of harming others for their own benefits, after his death I just lie down, I don't even feel sad, just numbness, maybe the death of a character hit hardest when I feel relatable to them and really hoping for them the success

 

[Lornsteyn]

I have a soft spot for heroic deaths or really epic moments, I dont know, I have sometimes a few tears in my eyes then...but It dont happen that often.
The dead itself makes me not that sad, I like deaths of important or favorite characters, It also makes them more unforgettable.
Probably the majority of my favorite character are death people. xD
My avatar Teepo of Breath of Fire 3 is one of them, I guess he was even one my first death favorite characters.

 

[TheoAllen]

Heroic death is the one I like, works every time, as long as it isn't a cheap death where the author decides to revive the character for whatever reason (turned out the character didn't die, just crippled, literally revived, or any other means). It works even better if it's at the ending of the story.

I don't recall many of the examples in anime, but I do remember one that is still fresh in my memory

Spoiler

Darling in the Franxx: was one of my fave endings. The mc and his "other half", 02, "sacrificed" themselves to travel into another dimension to fight humanity's worst enemy. While their friends patiently waiting for their return, despite it's been more than decade they never come back.

In gaming, I don't play many JRPG to know one, but I do know one in XCOM1, your (best) soldier sacrifice themselves to stop the alien invasion. It may not much emotional as in the cinematic scene, just a standard in-game movie, but the best thing is that the sentiment built up because it was the best soldier I had.

 

[DerVVulfman]

For games, the death of Aeris in Final Fantasy VII was a shock. But I didn't cry. I wanted bloody revenge.

For anime, that may be the death of Captain Bernadotte in Hellsing Ultimate. Not just because of character development, but for the anguished cry that Seras gave as he died in her arms.

In both cases, they do involve character development. In the first one's case, the ever loving lesson 'DO NOT LEVEL AERIS UP!' makes sense.

 

[Skoops]

I've kinda been hard to surprise with deaths in most narratives; the more you get into storytelling, the more you can see a death get telegraphed in the works of others. I was taken aback by some of the deaths in the early seasons of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure because they sometimes just came out of nowhere and let you know that even the main characters are fair game.

What really gets me these days is when games do permadeath and either don't let you restart, or make it prohibitively punishing to do so, to force you to just deal with sudden deaths in your party. If it's not scripted, if it's your fault for not planning well enough, or if it's part of a choice that you need to make to continue, that really sticks with me. It's more true to life if it just happens, without a lot of fanfare, without anyone planning it, just leaving you alone to think about what just happened, without the game going ahead and mourning on your behalf.

 

[RetailDrone7576]

At the Canadian border in Detroit: Become Human, the guards were doing checks to weed out androids, and I was forced to make a choice with only a few short seconds to decide and I chose to sacrifice Jerry...a few days later i looked up the other outcomes and learned the ugly truth: due to my save file having a positive public opinion I didn't need to sacrifice anyone, everyone would have survived if i did nothing.

 

[ChipTato]

I gotta say that no show has made me cry. The death of chelsea (kinda forgot her name) from akame ga kill was honestly the suckiest as in a big oof for me, since she was my waifu.
But emotionally i have to say, it's from the new bunny girl senpai movie. (not gonna spoil)

 

[hero_buddy]

i've been watching anime since i was 9 or 10, and i used to be stone cold about deaths. never cried or anything. but then, as i got older, i started becoming a more emotional person, actually laughing at humorous scenes and crying at just about every emotional one. it doesn't take much these days to fire up the waterworks.

 

[EthanFox]

Mine is a cliche these days, to the point where I don't even feel the need to spoiler it - Aeris in Final Fantasy VII.

I've said this on here before but anyway, in the UK, we didn't get many JRPGs on consoles. FF7 was a really big deal here because it was the first big JRPG that a publisher threw their weight behind. It was extremely popular; it was the first big JRPG I ever played (I think) and this is the case for many UK gamers, even among those who like myself were already old enough to drink by the turn of the millennium.

Consequently FFVII was the first game in which I really got invested in its story, and, critically, it was the first game I'd ever encountered where a main character could genuinely die. As you can imagine, this was a bit of a revelation; you'd really got to know this person, you'd spent time equipping, levelling and improving her, but now she was dead and she wasn't going to come back.

You get people on YouTube who say they went through stages of grief over it, or that they actually wept; I'm not going to criticise those people because it's kinda nice that the game was able to move them so much, though personally I didn't go through anything like that. It was more surprise - I was astounded that the game would "go there".

i've been watching anime since i was 9 or 10, and i used to be stone cold about deaths. never cried or anything. but then, as i got older, i started becoming a more emotional person, actually laughing at humorous scenes and crying at just about every emotional one. it doesn't take much these days to fire up the waterworks.

I also experienced this; emotional scenes in movies etc. didn't really faze me once I'd reached adolescence, and that continued until my early 20s; however, since then I've found myself increasingly moved by movies, games (art in general really). I'm not sure if it's a life experience thing; like having more real-life experiences to draw from makes you more empathetic with fictional ones.

 

[hero_buddy]

I'm not sure if it's a life experience thing; like having more real-life experiences to draw from makes you more empathetic with fictional ones.

i think that just may be the case. not to overshare, but after i hit 18, i went through a whole slew of bad experiences, which is about the time i started getting more emotional over media.

 

[rue669]

For me, it was the last moments in Gungrave.

Pretty damn emotional. That was a stellar anime.

Berserk too, at the eclipse. But that’s more for shock than sad. It’s very shocking.

 

[Darkanine]

Anime deaths never really did it for me. The closest thing to make me genuinely sad was the deaths of Sammie, Kim, Vanessa, Claudia and Gloval in the last episode of the first Robotech series, and that was mostly because I was sad because their deaths were so wasted all to conclude a drawn out and frustrating love triangle. They weren't given any kind of send-off or mourning AFAIK, just boom, dead off screen and no one seemed to care. Maybe the expanded universe stuff handles it better.

A death that did make me genuinely sad was the deaths of Bright Mac and Pear Butter in My Little Pony...seriously. You don't actually see their deaths, what you do see is their blossoming love and eventual marriage, told from their friends, passing the story on to the late couples children. Meanwhile, the father of Pear Butter lives in shame as he can never apologize and make peace with his daughter, or even let his grandchildren know who he is out of shame. I'm not doing it justice, but it was heart-wrenching.

 

[Tatsuya]

I would have to say NINA TUCKER – FULL METAL ALCHEMIST BROTHERHOOD or

 

[Tatsuya]

Lelouch Lamperouge- Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion