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Crunchyroll: Character Deaths: Which Shocked Anime Fans the Most? (Spoilers)
- Thread starter Zolo
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phoisgood495
Member
YUP people were calling me crazy for years, but it was so obvious! There's literally 0 point to showing that scene unless he was actually alive.
Oda doesn't like death so much he quit manga even when characters died, quit Fist of the North Star when Rei dies.
Even hates the idea of bringing back the dead.
Even hates the idea of bringing back the dead.
I was going to say...
Series where the lead's fists blow people apart and doesn't like death?
Does not compute
There's a difference between random mook #937 dying and a named, major character.
Host Samurai
Member
Gantz is always the fist thing that comes to mind.
Reptars Revenge
Member
Yamcha
#13
BKatastrophe
Member
Ace's death was emotional because it was Luffy's biggest failure after not being able to keep his crew from being separated by Kuma (which ended up turning out to not be a failure in the long game, but at the time it was). It's shocking because of the effect on Luffy.
Well, and because Oda actually decided to pull the trigger. I'm still upset about Pell.
DerekOfTheDykes
Member
I feel like Kamina is a great example whether you like him as a character or not.
The narrative sets him up not as a supporting character but as the clear deuteragonist. He is arguably the driving force behind the early part of the show, and the only reason you would ever really know Simon is the main character is because genre-savvy fans know that the core drill and Lagann will be important, and Simon will EVENTUALLY grow past his early timidness to become the real lead. But even then, the show sets up several moments to let you know that Kamina has an arc of his own ahead, that much of his bluster is a front and he will need to have the OPPOSITE arc Simon does (learning it's okay to be vulnerable and that you don't have to be the hero 100% of the time).
And then the show kills him with no warning Gurren gets taken out while fighting the first of the four generals, and you basically don't find out until after the whole battle is won that he actually died in the process. The show then does everything in its power to make that loss hurt, draining the color from the artstyle and leaving us with only a moody and supremely unlikable Simon for quite some time (until Nia comes along, literally bringing color back to the show as she brings positive energy back to the cast). And long after Kamina's death, the team is basically patterning their imagery and attitude all off of one man.
Kamina is easily one of the most impactful deaths in all of anime, and it makes no sense that he isn't in the top 10. Not behind fucking Mami and Kaworu.
Biscuit is funny, because I initially pegged him as a disposable character, but the show gives him a lot more to do than you would expect and he makes it so long I almost started to believe he'd make it. But he definitely starts being telegraphed about an episode in advance.
eso76
Member
Ok, but what about Joe himself ?
Paltheos
Member
Yeah, you're the only person in this topic to have mentioned it (and me ofc). I'm pretty surprised Touch-anything still registers with the Japanese fanbase. I'm not accustomed to seeing it appear on these sorts of lists.
I don't know about shocking but his death is super impactful. He doesn't really trip many death flags up to the episode before he dies, and when he does, the show quietly but effectively handles it through a whole episode of buildup, just in the way you'd expect a masterwork like that first season of Touch would handle it. The instant Kazuya leaves home in the most intentionally obvious "He's dead" scene, a cloud of worry and uncertainty hang over the entire episode. You know he's dead, but the show manages to keep you in disbelief, in no small part due to how earnest the storytelling had been up to that point and how cruel a twist this would be. Everything, bar the Uesugi parents who are as usual clueless and an obstacle to both the characters and the showrunners, is handled perfectly.
Never watched Touch, but I recognize the art style.
Krillin's first death hit me like a brick when watching the original Dragon Ball. I even knew it was coming and I was still shocked at the way he died.
It's not the way he died as it was telegraphed, more that they killed him at all I guess.
It's not the way he died as it was telegraphed, more that they killed him at all I guess.
Paltheos
Member
Oh.
Well, I recommend it. Touch was a megahit in the '80s, and it's very easy to see why it resonated with so many people. Mitsuru Adachi's very talented at telling honest stories of teenagers struggling with romance and growing up (very often played in the context of baseball).
Touch is a big investment though and while I believe the first season is the best stuff of Adachi's that I've seen at least, the latter seasons have... problems. Mostly poor pacing and unimportant side plots. Cross Game is allot more recent, allot shorter (50 episodes versus the 108? for Touch), and allot more consistent in quality. It's one of those shows that mostly went under the radar in the west, but I've never heard poor feedback on. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good slice of life show!
Newtype-001
Member
Ace was great cause he escaped so people thought he was safe then jumped in the way to save luffy i wish i read this as the same time as everyone1 else.
The way Lancer died in Fate/Zero was kinda fucked up. Not him dying i mean its fate lol but the way hes lead to do die.
The way Lancer died in Fate/Zero was kinda fucked up. Not him dying i mean its fate lol but the way hes lead to do die.
AcademicSaucer
Member
How many years has it been since Ace died ?, I stopped reading One Piece like 2-3 arcs after that, when they to that Spanish themed kingdom.
the_sun_king
Member
That's the only form of emotional resonance one could get from it imo. Not because of Ace himself.
Also, as I strictly believe the magic of One Piece is the entire crew/nakama relationship, the splitting up of the team by Kuma earlier on had a much more resonating effect for me than Ace's death. Again, I honestly didn't give a damn about Ace; only when we got that flashback did I manage to care, but womp, too little too late. I have many problems with the Whitebeard War stuff overall, the handling of Ace's character being just one of them.
Moon Patrol Pilot
Member
This right here! Fucked my 5th grader self up watching that episode when my favorite character died. I was in denial that I even waited for him to come back in a future episode saying "surprise, I wasn't really dead!".
Linkstrikesback
Member
Yes, one is absolutely fine for the lead main characters to be responsible for , while major named characters should be left alive to atone, no matter how evil they are. Or whatever the nonsense explanation was for one piece.
Unrepentant sarcasm aside, the only death in anime that I was shocked by was Mami, since I didn't know what I was actually watching before it happened.
But then I don't watch that much anime anyway, I'm not sure I can actually reach 10 characters killed without defaulting to "kill em all" anime like Danganronpa or Higurashi no naku Koro ni, which feels like cheating the spirit of that question.
Lights and Waves
Member
The Madoka death blew my mind and is probably the reason most people got hooked on the series.
Lights and Waves
Member
Also surprised the entire cast of Sailor Moon dying during the first finale isn't on this list.
Oda even considers that like killing off a crew mate.
Only if they also remove
Kuririn
Mami
There's nothing on the list saying that a character can't be revived after the fact.
Mami's death in Madoka was shocking because it happened 3 episodes in and at that point, most people watching (who weren't familiar with Urobochi's previous works) were just expecting a magical girl show by Shaft. They didn't expect the show to actually start killing the girls off.
Real answer (my answer)
Massive spoilers for an anime that features cute Dangos and has a visual novel and starts with the letters C L A N
Massive spoilers for an anime that features cute Dangos and has a visual novel and starts with the letters C L A N
Ushio's death. I couldn't believe Nagisa's passing but I understood. But to have Ushio die as well was just devastating. How ugly could the world get at that moment?
ZeroCypher
Member
People have forgotten OG Merry
Thousand Sunny is way cooler doe.
the_sun_king
Member
Word. And I cared far more for Merry than Ace.
DerekOfTheDykes
Member
Ehhhh. A Gundam series killing secondary protagonists isn't really too out there. It could be argued that Biscuit probably wasn't as obvious a choice out of the cast, but it's Gundam. Biscuit probably isn't even in the top 5 most surprising non-Zeta deaths (because Zeta Gundam was a tragedy conga line that needs to be judged basically outside the rest of the franchise).
Crimson_Echidna
Banned
@ #13:
eso76
Member
Raoh could kick Ken's sorry ass anytime.
He just decided to be defeated for some weird reason, kinda like Obi One let Vader kill him.
Still pisses me off to think about it.
psynergylover
Member
how can you be "shocked" by a death in dragon ball?
@ #13:
Just there to make villains look strong.
Krillin was the first real death in Dragon Ball and it was shocking for a light hearted series.
Mookie1515
Member
Sad no
from Martian Successor Nadesico. Their death turned an ok parody into a definitive must watch of the giant robot genre.
Gai Daigoji
He's number 15 on the full list.
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