We all know the scene. It’s usually about two thirds of the way through the story and the nice character, the one we all love, suddenly gets cut down. What makes it even sadder is that usually the only purpose their death serves is to give our protagonist a renewed focus. yep, the guys that killed your friend are evil. Now you need to go get them back.
Okay, not every sad death scene goes like that. But you must admit it’s fairly common in anime. My list below are the deaths that came in isolation (no group deaths), in non-horror/slasher anime, that serve as a critical plot point and really crushed me. As such, it’s an entirely subjective list. Feel free to add your own in the comments below.
Please Note – There are spoilers below. You have been warned.
Honourable mentions this week go to:Shirou Fujimoto (Ao No Exorcist), Nagisa Furukawa (Clannad After Story), Art (Hamatora), Kuro Sensei (Assassination Classroom), and Mikoto Suoh (K).
Number 5: Maes Hughes from Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood
Kind of a given going into this list that Maes Hughes would appear. Arguably one of the most well remembered anime deaths of all time. What makes Maes stand out (I feel) is that he is a genuinely sweet character, a family man, and very few of the main cast in Full Metal Alchemist die. They get injured a lot and there are some deaths, but Maes is really the only one that get’s treated as a true death with the funeral and the mourning family.
While Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood plays this for the emotional punch and uses it to drive first the Elric brothers and then Mustang into action, Maes’ death is more than just a cheap plot device. It is a devastating reminder that life and death are at the core of the story. If you look at the timing, it has been a long time since the hit from the death of the Elric Brothers mother, and quite a length of time has passed since Nina’s tragic end. There are many lighter moments in the show but they always come back to the darkness at the centre of the story and Maes’ death is definitely one of those moments.
Number 4: Mikage from 07 Ghost
I was really torn about this one given 07 Ghost really doesn’t end and has no rewatch value. Certainly, I was really crushed when he died (or rather was horrifically murdered after being forced to try to kill his best friend) but then the show pulls the whole his soul is still with you in the form a really cute animal that follows Teito around for the rest of the run time. It kind of takes some of the impact out of the death.
Clearly though, I decided Mikage’s demise was one of the saddest deaths in an anime. I think it is more that Mikage never did anything to deserve anything that happened to him. Sure he helped his friend escape the military and that certainly deserved some punishment, but having his family threatened, being possessed, and forced to try to kill his friend before choosing to die so that neither his family or his friend would be hurt, just kind of sucked all round. This was definitely a sad death scene. (It doesn’t help that the rest of the anime kind of suffers from Mikage’s lack either).
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Number 3: Joker from Black Butler Book of Circus
I started noticing a theme in my choices. Characters who aren’t inherently bad but end up on the wrong side of the protagonist for whatever reason or try to turn over a new leaf and get killed in the process. Book of Circus gives us Joker.
Joker is a pitiful character. He originally comes off as quite strong and together but it becomes quickly apparent that he is desperately trying to hold up his little sand castle of dreams even as the tide is washing it all away. By the time Joker is killed he literally has nothing left to live for. It is sad and tragic and just leaves you feeling empty inside.
Number 2: R from Jormungand
Hard to believe that any death in an anime about an arms dealer travelling with body guards would get to you but R manages it in Jormungand. In the first season he is almost a non-entity, but he is definitely there. After seeing the second season I went back and watched and began to see how they had managed to make a character who seemed so in the background such a major emotional turning point.
R is working against Koko with the American government, but when one of their agents targets Jonah, R throws caution to the wind to save the child soldier, in the process revealing his duplicitous lifestyle to Koko before getting himself very dead. The impact this death has on Koko is enormous and unlike most of the deaths before it, this one causes the show to pause for some quiet reflection which hits the audience hard.
Number 1: Nephrite from Sailor Moon
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that this has made my list of saddest death scenes.
Firstly, what makes a death sad is emotional connection to the characters, and given that Sailor Moon is one of my all time favourite anime, it should be no surprise that I feel an emotional connection to the characters. Secondly, I saw this when I was pretty young and unlike most other cartoons, they just knocked off a fairly major character, on screen, and one who had redeemed himself (kind of), and they didn’t even wait for a season final or something.
This was really different from anything else I was watching at the time and I honestly couldn’t believe what I’d just watched. I remember sitting and staring at the screen completely stunned. I wanted to scream, “But he just saved Molly!”
No matter what anime deaths come after this one, I will always remember Nephrite. Even though he was a villain, and not a particularly good one, and even though he was barely in a quarter of the series, his death had real impact.
Okay, who do you have on your list?
Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James
I feel as though Hughes’ death had more impact in the 2003 series, since we’d known him quite a bit longer, and he’d been around for about half the series, instead of just ten episodes. He was never a major character in the manga, either.
maes death was really sad. smh. it still stings. great list.
For the sake of avoiding spoilers I’ll simply say the episode and series.
Episode 135 in Hunter x Hunter (2011). I literally felt numb and spent a good hour or so reflecting and taking in what the heck I just watched, trying to contemplate why it hit me so hard.
No other death in anime has made me feel quite the same way.
For ones you picked your on your list I know of Hughes and nephrite your number one choice surprised me actually haha but that was a such a sad scene I still cry every time and Hughes death got me on a unexpected level of when watching full metal for the first time. Great list XD
I don’t know if Nephrite would have the same impact if I first saw it as an adult, but it was pretty devastating when I was young and I remember that feeling everytime I rewatch it.
Gah! There’s just so many to choose from. Well done on whittling it down to five.
Obviously I have my own personal saddest, but I agree that Joker was particularly moving. His characterisation was so spot on that it really did hurt when he bit the dust.
Omg when Hughes died I pretty much died. It was so upsetting. Another one for me was when L died in death note 😭😭😭😭
Your honorable mentions alone broke me! (especially Mikoto and Art!!) I can’t…..I just…..can’t…(now I feel so dramatic and would probably write my own list of heartbreaking deaths…) *breaks down* Nice post though, Karandi-san! *sobs*
If you ever write your own list, let me know, I’d love to check it out.
Kaori Miyazono is also absolutely tragic (though anticipated)
Maes Hughes was my top choice! Glad he made your list.
I was just a bit older than Elicia when my father passed away (from cancer) so each time I see Maes death not matter the media I just start crying (the worst are the funeral part). I must say Masaoka death in Psycho Pass shed tears. The look on Ginoza face is so painful.
Mikage was definitely 07 Ghost’s best character (or so I think). It got a little dull after his death. Joker’s death was pretty painful as well, particularly because of how pitiful he became towards the end.
I really wish Mikage had been in 07 Ghost for longer. He was the one character I really connected with and then his spirit became a fuzzy animal. It just kind of went downhill fast then.
I think I really did yell “But he just saved Molly!” when I first saw that episode.
I would consider Kaori for sure, but only because I got so far into Kousei’s shoes that I was hoping against hope right alongside him. That she would power through it like everything else in her life 🙁
I think I would also add Spike Spiegel. As inevitable as it was when I look back on it now, at the age when I first watched I just found myself wishing he and the others could just have space adventures forever.
I ‘d add Wolfwood from Trigun and Kaori from Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso. Probably doesn’t need any explanation.
I so should have remembered Wolfwood when writing this list. Great pick.
And beware of SPOILERS 😀 One of the deaths that I remember vividly, was Roy Focker’s (or Roy Fokker as he was known in the American Robotech version) death in Macross. I was ofcourse pretty young way back when I first saw that (about 11 years of age), but I remember being pretty shocked by it. To date it is still a very powerful scene, and it had quite a bit of impact on me. Another death that caused quite a stir was Gai Daigoji’s death in Martian Successor Nadesico. I really liked him, because of the incredibly hilarious situations he got into, and I thought he would have a significant impact on the show. Having him die in Episode 4 was pretty much a OMG moment.