Ever since I was a baby otaku, the one thing that impressed me most about anime was its willingness to kill characters. To my young mind, this was an unbelievable concept. Even today, a good anime death can be one of a series’s most powerful and cathartic moments.
This list isn’t a comprehensive repository of every anime death in history, nor will it necessarily match your list 100%. Instead, this is a snapshot of some of my favorites from over the years that hit my poor heart the hardest. If you don’t see your favorite listed below, shout them out in the comments, and let’s commiserate together. Oh, and naturally, you should beware of spoilers from this point forward.
Setsuko Yokokawa (Grave of the Fireflies)
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Based on a semi-autobiographical short story of the same name, Grave of the Fireflies is a powerful war story about two orphans trying to survive alone in Japan during the last months of World War II.
Grave of the Fireflies is easily one of the most tragic movies that I will never watch again. If you’ve never seen this Ghibli classic from 1988, it begins with the main character identifying the date of his death. After that inspirational opening, this movie spends the next 89 minutes destroying the audience’s heart and soul. Perhaps no moment in the film is better exemplified by this than the death of the main character’s little sister, Setsuko.
Eleanor Baker (Madlax)
The 2004 action-mystery series Madlax is mostly a forgotten gem. But please allow me to share the story of a maid who followed her young charge into a foreign war zone to bring her home. There are a lot of events that lead to Eleanor finding herself in a war zone that I can’t summarize here.
100% devoted to the teenage girl, Margaret Burton, whom she had known since childhood, Eleanor just wanted to bring her home. Instead, she found herself in a shootout with the military, where she sustained life-ending wounds. While she gets to see her “young miss” once again, unfortunately, her life ends before she can complete her mission.
Joel Garland (The Ancient Magus Bride)
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Who says that supporting characters can’t have powerful death scenes? The Ancient Magus’ Bride certainly doesn’t!
In a short story arc that pays off throughout the first season, we meet a couple who love each other, but can’t actually see each other. The man is an older human named Joel Garland who tells the main character, Chise, about a beautiful woman he once saw in his garden years ago. What he doesn’t know is that the beautiful woman he saw and fell in love with is a vampiric faerie called Leanan Sídhe, who gives talent to men in exchange for their lives ending while young.
At first, the Leanan Sídhe denies having feelings for Joel even though she has kept watch over him for years after their first encounter. Unfortunately, it is eventually revealed that because of her constant but invisible presence in Joel’s life; he is going to die sooner than expected. Wanting to help them see each other one last time before he dies, Chise creates a potion that gives the lovers one last chance to say goodbye.
Meiko “Menma” Honma (AnoHana)
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While her death may not happen within the confines of the series, what makes Meiko’s tragic passing qualify is when her friends can finally help her move on to the afterlife. When the Super Peace Busters realized they could all see her ghost in the last moments before she disappeared, it brought more than a few tears to my eyes. I dare you not to feel something when you hear the main characters yelling for their friend through their tears.
Togame (Katanagatari)
Another unexpected death tucked away in a hidden gem from 2010. What makes Togame’s end so powerful isn’t just the way it happens, but the build-up leading up to it. Katanagatari was unique in its presentation; instead of twelve half-hour episodes aired weekly, this series did twelve 50-minute episodes aired monthly.
By the end of this series, Togame undergoes radical transformation both physically and emotionally. Starting the series as a no-nonsense “master strategist”, she only has eyes on completing the mission. She sees the warrior she’s hired, Yasuri Shichika, as nothing more than a powerful tool to use. By the end of the series, as she lies dying in his arms, asking if it’s okay for her to love him, the transformation is complete, and the audience has grown emotionally richer for the journey that they went on with her.
Chrono and Rosette Christopher (Chrono Crusade)
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Hey look, it’s a two-for-one entry! The next couple of entries are examples of anime series that warn you of their tragedy in advance, revealing they plan to kill their main characters and break your heart in the process. This is the case for the first of these examples, Chrono Crusade.
Throughout the run of this series, main character Rosette Christopher frequently uses her mystical device, which powers up contracted demons in exchange for her life force. The audience knows that these repeated actions are going to lead to her death. We know this because the series specifically and repeatedly tells us. Yet when we get to the final episodes, and the supporting cast finds the peacefully deceased bodies of the main characters, it’s quite difficult not to shed a tear over the fact that these two friends have finally found eternal peace, even if the world around them hasn’t.
Clara Magnolia (Violet Evergarden)
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Episode 10 of Violet Evergarden wrecks me every single time. Violet arrives at a small house and helps a chronically ill mother write letters for her young daughter to receive for the next 50 years after her death. It’s not just the payoff to this episode that makes it so poignant, but the build-up of the young daughter who doesn’t understand why her mother can’t or won’t spend time with her.
Brian Jay (Space Brothers #0)
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In the last example on this list of an anime preparing us for death before it strikes, astronaut Brian Jay is already dead by the time we first learn of him in the original 99-episode Space Brothers TV series.
In the prequel movie, however, Brian Jay is alive and well, helping a young Hibito Namba become the best astronaut he can. As we watch Hibito and Brian get closer over the former’s training, it becomes all the more heartbreaking when we finally get to the scene of Hibito learning that his friend and mentor had died in a tragic re-entry accident.
Mami Tomoe (Madoka Magica)
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Oh, Madoka Magica, how many people have you traumatized since 2011?
While I say that the first death (of many) in which Mami Tomoe, cough, loses her head in the heat of battle, was unexpected, anyone who knew writer Gen Urobuchi’s reputation from visual novels probably saw this coming a mile away. However, the fact that none of them warned us ahead of time is pretty rude. Just saying.
While opinions of Mami have changed over the years, at the exact moment we all saw her die most horrifically, I’m convinced that the production staff could hear each jaw drop from around the world as these young girls (and the audience watching) had their innocence forcibly stripped from them.
Koro-sensei (Assassination Classroom)
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Finally, we come to one of the most powerful deaths in all of anime history. Even the hardest and most protected of hearts around the world were shattered the moment Nagisa drove the knife into the heart of his teacher, completing the assassination mission. After two complete seasons, the assassination had finally been successful, and just like all of E class, we all wept like babies as he melted away into the night sky.
I have written entire essays about what this death meant to me. It’s thanks to this series that I now live a life that I think Koro-sensei would be proud of.
Published: Nov 20, 2023 04:29 pm