• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Crunchyroll: Character Deaths: Which Shocked Anime Fans the Most? (Spoilers)

Isn't
Lelouch
confirmed not dead in S3 of Code Geass? But even ignoring that I wouldn't put him on the list, his death in S2 wasn't shocking IMO, just stupid. A perfectly fitting ending to the shitshow that was R2 though.

My personal pick though would be
Kamille
from Zeta Gundam. While he technically isn't really dead, it's still pretty shocking to see him go out in such a way.
 
Nobody dies in one piece. That's why ace's death is so shocking.

This...it's been something that has grind my gears the entire time rolling through it. Even when they get shot in the face and fucked up completely, they never die.

But ACE?! That broke my heart. He felt like such an important character and one I felt would be around for a while since he was so connected to luffy. So seeing him erased was very shocking.
 
Eh. I feel like even going into Madoka blind you realize pretty early that the show is not going to play by the rules. I just really don't like the idea that a death being more violent or horrific in tone is worth much weight, especially not that early on.

The big thing there though was up until it was airing, the trailers for Madoka were intentionally misleading. So even with the darker than expected tone from the first few episodes, I wouldn't blame people, at the time of it originally airing, of being shocked that one of the characters promoted as a lead bites it by the third episode.

From the full list, the only entries I only take contention with are Kaworu and Lelouch. Lelouch because while the death itself was a welldone scene, they backed the character into such a corner that I also didn't realistically see any chance for him to escape everything unscaved and go back to a normal life. Kaworu was literally added near the end of the series. Yeah, the reveal of his true nature may have been a good twist, but death not so much.

I'd have put Jonathan Joestar (who I'm surprised wasn't ranked at all) and L in their places.
 
He basically came out and said he'll only kill a character off if it progresses the story as a whole or an important character arc. Even now he still gets quite a bit of flack for not killing characters off, which is kind of funny because looking back JK Rowling wishes she took a similar stance in the last Potter book since she feels she killed off a bunch of characters for no real reason. No one was really happy about that either. It's kind of why I like Oda's stance on killing characters off, it's a big thing to do and should probably have a larger purpose in the story.



Ace's death went against almost 10 years of reader conditioning and came right after he had been saved by Luffy. I'd say it pretty much belongs in the top spot.

Yeah I'm still expecting recent characters like
Vergo and Monet
to be seen in the future and not dead. Though the very recent
Charlotte Moscato
definitely did die which was necessary to demonstrate something but still surprised me.

Oda constantly have cover stories that so the current whereabouts of characters including many defeated enemies support this.

I like his approach a lot though and find it necessary because it allows a wide range of characters to be at different power levels including very weak (Usopp, Nami) but still attack very and be attacked by much stronger foes.

If all enemy attacks had the ability to actually kill then a lot of the Strawhats and allies would be dead.
 
Mami's death is fairly placed because I did not see that coming and don't believe a single person who says they totally saw it coming because the show didn't give any sort of hints it was going to go in such a direction.

All the marketing and such for that show implied it was going to be cute magical girls done by Ume-sensei doing cute magical girl things. I went in basically expecting Hidamari Sketch except with magical girls. Then oh...Mami just got her head bitten off and the rest of her body eaten, oh this shit is actually dangerous, oh being a magical girl kinda fucking sucks, oh being Homura really fucking sucks.
 

JCG

Member
Is Kite really classified as a death?
Since he comes back in the body of a little girl of all fucking things.

Again, I don't think that stops people from finding his original death to be shocking.

Just like if this was a live action list and they had, say, Spock's death from Wrath of Khan,
 
Again, I don't think that stops people from finding his original death to be shocking.

Just like if this was a live action list and they had, say, Spock's death from Wrath of Khan,
I honestly found the bee hat girl getting gunned down and that one dude getting naked brain control tortured more shocking.
 

Kreed

Member
1. Portgas D. Ace, One Piece

#1 I suppose should be expected with One Piece's popularity as well as having been known for characters never dying outside of flashbacks. Oda made a choice to kill Ace and Whitebeard for the benefit of the story.

Ace's death would have been a lot more meaningful if Oda didn't decide to create
Sabo
as a way of replacing Ace's role in the story.
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Ace's death would have been a lot more meaningful if Oda didn't decide to create
Sabo
as a way of replacing Ace's role in the story.

Sabo's more of a direct connection to the Revolutionaries, Ace was more of a window into the Emperors.
 

LotusHD

Banned
Also shocked that Kamina wasn't ranked higher. Nothing else comes to mind at the moment though.

Oh, a certain Steins Gate character got me real good.

Ace's death would have been a lot more meaningful if Oda didn't decide to create
Sabo
as a way of replacing Ace's role in the story.

Speak for yourself,
him revealed to be alive after all these years
was a fantastic moment. I liked that it his spirit has been passed on, so to speak. :p
 
That's a trope that is certainly not limited to anime. Nebulous powers that can affect the life and death, and in turn can be affected by life and death, is a common trope in fiction. Period.
Yeah, but when i see it elsewhere I get angry; when I see it in anime I just sigh and figure that's what I signed up for.

I mean, it's bad storytelling, I just care less with anime because my standards are lower.
 

LotusHD

Banned
Yeah, but when i see it elsewhere I get angry; when I see it in anime I just sigh and figure that's what I signed up for.

I mean, it's bad storytelling, I just care less with anime because my standards are lower.

As far as I can recall (Memory is definitely hazy tho), it only got revealed in one instance, and it didn't come off as dumb BS and got handled very quickly. Though I suppose it could one day though lol
 
Yeah, but when i see it elsewhere I get angry; when I see it in anime I just sigh and figure that's what I signed up for.

I mean, it's bad storytelling, I just care less with anime because my standards are lower.
It's not bad storytelling in every scenario. Especially in HxH's case, where it's heavily foreshadowed.
 
I agree with #1.
The first time Krillin died was pretty shocking but death becomes a slight inconvenience in DBZ that it's really hard to care.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Was Raoh really that shocking? Everyone fucking dies in that except Kenshiro. Most of the people he's trying to fight for and protect end up dying haha
 
Top Bottom