Death’s within any anime is sad, however deaths of major characters that we love and hope to see live and fight in the anime are without a doubt heart touching. Here are some of the saddest anime deaths which myself and a few friends thought you’d like to see in no particular order.
Portgas D. Ace and Edward Newgate (Whitebeard)
Son the Pirate King, and one of the Four Emperors; Ace and Whitebeard. Not much of these two is seen throughout the anime but their deaths are equally devastating to any One Piece fan, as they are to the OP universe. Ace, as well as being son of the Pirate King, is also Luffy’s brother, as they exchanged cups of sake as youths in a vow of brotherhood. During the war of the best in Marineford, we see Luffy and all of Whitebeard’s crew and allied crews trying to storm through the battlefront in an effort to save Ace. Luffy, after entering the battlefield, exclaims “I’m going to save you, even if I die”, and in a cruel twist of fate, Luffy fully exhausts his body but continues to fight, and succeeds in rescuing Ace, but Ace ends up sacrificing his life in order to save Luffy from Akainu during the escape. Whitebeard’s death was equally touching, since throughout the entire war, you see Whitebeard facing a storm of different attacks; gunshots, sword stabs, cannon ball fires and also Akainu’s lava fists, but still stands strong, and in his final moments, he dies standing tall. [Image]
Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto
Yamamoto’s death was probably one which had touched all Bleach fans. After revealing his beastly Bankai, he was certainly shocked to know that he was cheated of his chance to kill Juha Bach, after such a moment he had no moment to react to which Juha took the chance to cut Yamamoto in half. While his body stands, the other half falls to the ground as though all his spirit and fire has disappeared from the Earth. It was truly a shocking death and Juha Bach was certainly clever in the way he took Yamamoto’s life! [Image]
Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze
Kushina and Minato are Naruto’s parents as you may know, they saved Naruto’s life by giving up their own. As Kurama see’s his chance to kill Naruto we see Minato and Kushina quickly take action in stopping Kurama’s hand by stepping in front of it. Both of them die by Kurama’s hand which means that they will die together. They know their fate and thus begin to say goodbye to Naruto as a child as well as when he’s grown up. [Image]
Going Merry
Possibly one of the more obscure anime deaths out there, simply because it’s technically not a living being. However, despite this, the death of Going Merry is still a worthy mention, as he has been with the Strawhat nakama since their first voyage as a real crew, meeting new challenges and facing bombardments from rivals (and mostly Luffy). At Enie’s lobby, Merry has pushed himself far beyond the limits of any regular ship, and even voyaged (on its own will) on one final trip, even whilst no longer being seaworthy. What makes Going Merry so special is the fact that through the plot, you can slowly see Merry developing a spirit/soul/will of its own, shown on Sky island where he repairs himself to his original form, and also during the battle between Luffy and Usopp, where Merry is seen crying. [Image]
Itachi Uchiha
Itachi Uchiha’s death was hard to see. After all Itachi and Sasuke had together as kids, it’s really hard to see both of them fight to the end. Plus after learning about he’s past and how he died, it was amazingly touching and to see Sasuke make his decisions after learning all of it was incredible. Furthermore his death wasn’t the most disappointing thing, it was the after effect in which Sasuke had to it, plus after Itachi was reincarnated it was good to see that Sasuke got to see his brother in an equal term where Sasuke was told the truth. Itachi was a great leaf shinobi in disguise. [Image]
Jiraiya
Jiraiya is awesome, he was a leader to many as well as a teacher to some. From Nagato to Minato and his beloved son Naruto. He was amazing and although his death affected Naruto the most, it affected others such as Tsunade and Orochimaru, which were friends from the very start. He was awesome, his death brought forward a lot and helped Naruto think through some stuff to figure out how to stop Nagato as well as use Sage Mode to fight against many other enemies. He was a teacher and a friend. [Image]
Ulquiorra Cifer
Ulquiorra was an enemy to some but he grew on many of us, from being quite yet powerful member of the Espada, he was never a bad guy. All he wanted to do was to protect his leader which in this case Aizen. Ulquiorra is one of my favourite Bleach characters, to which his death was definitely shocking. However I was angered to see Ichigo death while being ecstatic to see Ichigo go crazy on Ulquiorra. There was definitely a touching moment between Orihime and Ulquiorra, that is what is most upsetting. [Image]
Gin Ichimaru
Gin, a lover to Rangiku while being a secret hero to many. In the end, he didn’t realize that Aizen had gotten a lot stronger than he could have anticipated, because of this such a wonderful hero died. He started with us by being a somewhat free spirit character to which he and Aizen had great plans. He stole the Hogyoku off Aizen to prevent him getting any stronger but paid with his life, he knew from the moment he met Aizen that he would do something, thus he stayed with him. I only hope that we see him one more time, however it’s most unlikely as he’s died in the arms of Rangiku. [Image]
Zabuza Momochi (And Haku)
Zabuza and Haku were the first and main antagonist to Naruto when it began. We see him as a very aggressive character at start but as we learnt about him we quickly found out that he cared deeply for Haku, who were always together. Naruto had quickly figured out that Zabuza obviously had strong feelings for Haku to which he’s never showed, and after figuring this out, he wasn’t able to tell Haku, who was already killed. During the Edo Tensei arc, Haku was able to find out, even if it was short it was something they both could share, it was truly wonderful, even if they’ve already dead. [Image]
Asuma Sarutobi
Sarutobi being the leader of Team 10 as well as a very close teacher to his students, in particular Shikamaru, is a very sad story. He was fortunate enough to have loved and be loved by Kurenai who is now pregnant. It’s also sad that she will have a child in which they will never be able to see their father, all because of how he died. He was a teacher to every as well as Naruto and the others. He’s definitely a very cool teacher to have, always paying for Choji’s meals. He was awesome, sad to see him go! [Image]
There are too many deaths that are too sad to mention above so here are some that we also considered:
- Kaname Tosen (from Bleach)
- Lisanna Strauss (before she came back from Edolas)
- L (from Death Note)
- Simon (from Fairy Tail)
- Marco Bott (from Attack on Titan)
- Goku (During Cell Games Saga, against Cell)
Note that this list is from anime’s that have been watched by all of us, please don’t criticize is we have missed some very important deaths. This was post done with the help of a few of my friends, Naim and Nirmal, thank you both for the help! Also if you’ve got a sad death that you think was very sad within any anime, please be sure to tell me using the comment section.
Filed under: Daily Anime Art, Daily Anime Thoughts Tagged: Asuma Sarutobi, Bleach, Fairy Tail, Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto, Gin Ichimaru, Going Merry, Haku, Itachi Uchiha, Jiraiya, Kushina Uzumaki, Minato Namikaze, Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, One Piece, Portgas D Ace, Top 10, Ulquiorra Cifer, Whitebeard, Zabuza Momochi
