Character Deaths, and the Nature of Them

I created this thread to discuss character deaths in anime and manga, in general. This is not a thread for listing what character deaths affected you the most; in this thread, you would need to talk about how a character's death did or did not affect you and why it did so. Please do not throw out spoilers willy-nilly. If you are going to mention the death of a character from a series, no matter how old or well-known, please put it in a spoiler and specify which series it is from.

I got the inspiration for this thread after talking about deaths in various Gundam shows in a thread in the Mecha section. I was saying that the deaths made the shows better, but someone's rebuttal made me think more about the killing off of characters. While it can have a big impact on the viewer, it can also be a hell of a drag. Losing a great character in the middle of a series, for example, makes you wonder why they bother creating the character in the first place. Why introduce someone the fans like, only to get rid of him before the audience is satiated?

Of course, such things rarely happen in anime and manga. Character deaths are typically rare and only used to create a very emotional scene, or to make the surviving characters stronger. A person may sacrifice him/herself to save others, and that spurs on the main characters, making them angry and more determined to defeat the evil villain.

While this sort of thing can greatly move the audience, it's still lazy, isn't it? It's not new in the least; in fact, I daresay that most long action series have this sort of thing happen at least once. It's almost expected, like the main character being a teenager. But does this make the death any less special, any less moving? It seems like it should, but such scenes still move me. It's confounding.

I'm going to give a personal example (as well as show what I'd like done regarding spoilers).
Spoiler from the end of Rave Master/Groove Adventure Rave manga:


I've written a lot, but I'm going to throw out one more thing, which I might elaborate on later - villain deaths? Certainly, villains die more often than heroes, but is that a good thing? With some series, you expect to villains to die, even if they're likable or are more than just evil personified. Should a series be that predictable, or should it strive to be more than that?

For me it depends on a combination of factors, not least of which are how attached I am to the character and the manner of their death. TTGL spoilers:



It is definitely possible to do a good character death (the Witchblade anime comes to mind, and everyone who's seen that series knows which character I'm talking about), but it's just as possible to do a bad character death, wherein a much-liked character is killed off seemingly just to up the show's drama factor. Gundam is frequently guilty of this, and "Kill 'Em All" shows do this to such sickening levels that I've collectively declared all shows like them to be Not Worth Watching.

There are, however, some characters that I'm so attached to that killing them off would make me drop the series entirely. Pretty much every main character in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is like that, as is Lacus Clyne from SEED, Guy and Mikoto from GaoGaiGar, most of the main cast of Mahou Sensei Negima, and quite a number of others. It would take a truly awesome death to make me accept such an event as anything other than discontinuity.

I gotta say that I don't like deaths in stories of any kind but I admit that if no one ever died the stories wouldn't be as special and unpredictable. I'm fine if the story-teller feels that someone should die to show the danger of the situation or create an emotional scene but it's when the most good-hearted and kind characters are killed off that I hate.

Take FMA for example:

I prefer when creativity is used to make emotional scenes, and story-tellers don't resort to killing of an extremely likable character. Take Clannad for example, lots of creatively emotional scenes without killing someone off. Although... (extreme Clannad spoils)

Spoiler from Chrno Crusade

The problem is that if you kill off a character that isn't likable, no one will care. If you think about it, writing a deep likable character just to kill him/her off in the plot is quite painful. And it is not like you can have every character live depending on the circumstances.


I understand what you're saying, but changing that would be quite difficult. Villains tend to either die or become good guys, there really isn't room in-between. If he becomes good, then odds are he/she isn't the final villain. If he/she is the final villain and doesn't die at the end, then the finale will seem rather anti-climatic.

I think it depends on the type of anime/manga/tv/movie whatever. If for example your anime/manga has a lot of battles, and no one seems to die from them then it can get pretty boring(Bleach is probably the best example of this. I mean seriously, has anyone that was at all important actually died in a battle? And i'm not counting flashbacks either). But for something romantic then its not as necessary since the tension won't come from wondering if the characters will survive the next battle

But on the topic of killing likable characters, if only unlikable characters die then in my opinion it becomes to easy to predict. Its hard for me to get so attached to one character that i will quit the series if he/or she dies.

Personally I prefer character deaths for the sake of the story rather than to cater to fans (which in that case most of the time results only in unimportant character or evil guys that ended up dying.) In Gundam deaths are to show the horror of war, a lot of people died no matter what faction you are important or not which to me what makes it interesting. It knida give you the feeling its really screw up but that what the directors wants you to feel and guess what it got stuck in the minds of fans for decades.

Also in Muv Luv (VN game)


Also death of characters seems to make them much more remembered than the characters that are alive due to their sacrifices. One good example is Samurai Seven where the characters who died are mentioned more than those who are alive.

The same goes for one of my most favourite character in Gundam 00.

If the only way a writer can get a reaction out of the audience is to kill off characters, that writer shouldn't be writing in the first place. Character deaths are good ways to create drama but they're far from the only way. NGE spoilers:

I have to say that as long it's done right, I think that character death can do good things for the story or to tie up a great story.

Naruto and Rurouni Kenshin spoilers!

Fitting end nothing. Watsuki publicly denounced the entire second OVA because it was made without his consent or input and went completely against the way he wanted the series to end. The manga has a much much happier and (in my less-than-humble opinion) far superior ending.

Where exactly is the point in killing off the heroes right at the end of the story? Especially if it happens after they've won whatever conflict they fought in, the only apparent purpose it has is that the authors are being a bunch of dicks and deliberately making the ending bittersweet. GaoGaiGar spoilers:

There are, I think, only two (that I remember now, at least) deaths that dealt me huge blows, one because I did not saw it coming, the other because I sort of knew it was coming, but still held on to hope, so when it finally happened I just sort off... broke.

I'm going to take about Code Geass for a moment, but it has nothing to do with Lelouche's fate.



Speaking of Rolo