Hey everyone, it's Stephen Wago back again with another edition of Top 5 in Anime. Last time I took on the task of ranking what I thought were the top 5 most controversial anime shows. Recently I've been having a lot of success getting the Addicted to Anime Facebook page up and running. It's our own little community of Anime fans as well as a great place to keep updated on the podcast. Recently I've been doing a "Depressive Post of the Day," and it got me thinking. We get so emotionally invested in the characters and stories of our favorite shows that when we finally lose one of our beloved characters, it's heartbreaking. So I thought it would be good of me to ruin your day and either remind you of, or introduce you to, my "Top 5 Most Impactful Deaths in Anime."
Number 5: Nina Tucker from Full Metal Alchemist/Brotherhood
Full Metal Alchemist and I have a love-hate relationship, not because I dislike the series in any shape or form. Quite the opposite really; it does such a good job at getting me invested in even a minor character like Nina, that along with the delivery of how she actually died, I was left thinking about it for days later.
Nina is estimated to be about four years old, and between her voice and character traits, she is absolutely adorable! (Her pet dog Alexander helps with that too.) However, Full Metal Alchemist isn't kind to children by any means. For a series in which the protagonist loses his mother and two of his limbs, it shouldn't have been so shocking when Nina Tucker met her end.
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| Chimera Nina looks on as Ed beats down Shou Tucker |
Shou Tucker, the father of Nina, was a bio-alchemist. He was famed and given the name of the Sewing-Life Alchemist after creating a talking chimera. Now funded by the state, he had yet to provide anything new with his research, thus leaving him on the edge of a mental breakdown over what he would do next. It's then that the character Shou Tucker took a turn for the worse by introducing to Edward Elric his newest chimera…
Edward had his suspicions, and on questioning Shou it is revealed that he did not create a chimera capable of speaking via bio-alchemy, but instead using the forbidden art of human transmutation to fuse his daughter Nina and her pet dog Alexander into one being. Not only that, his wife that had "left" he and Nina had also been the victim of a similar experiment resulting in the first talking chimera he had created.
The once adorable four year old was now some odd looking creature who asked the Edward Elric, "Why does it hurt, big brother?" In the end, Nina's pain would come to end when the alchemist killer Scar put her out of her misery with his arm of deconstruction. For Shou Tucker, his fate varies depending on whether you watch the original anime or Brotherhood. For Nina Tucker, however, there is no happy ending.
Number 4: Nagisa Furukawa from Clannad After Story
Clannad is a romantic drama that follows the story of Tomoya Okazaki. Through his journeys we're introduced to Nagisa Furukawa, whom only one word can really describe: sweetheart. If I had to pick from a list of characters who was the most kind, sweet, and caring, Nagisa would easily make the top of the list. So of course she had to die, right?
After traveling through Nagisa's and Tomoya's relationship through the entire series of Clannad, we're given a chance to look at their lives together after Tomoya graduates in Clannad After Story.
Eventually it's revealed that Nagisa is pregnant; however, she's always been an individual to have health problems. Those problems introduce us to one of the saddest scenes in anime history. On a winter night so harsh that ambulances couldn't get on the road, and with no midwife at the scene, Nagisa gives birth to her daughter, Ushio. Nagisa struggled and pushed through the pains of her illness, and in the process she weakens. Tomoya, holding his new baby girl in his arms, knelt over Nagisa, continuously tries to converse with her as her responses get shorter. Nagisa asks if she can rest now, but Tomoya pleads with her to just stay awake a little bit longer. To no avail.
I have to mention that this won't be the only hardship Tomoya will have to face; his daughter has a similar fate, dying of the same illness on a winter night. This left me struggling as to which of the two characters' deaths was the most impactful. However, the Clannad fan base isn't left miserable for too long, as the small family of three is later reunited once more. Althought to explain how that whole thing works out, I'd need to write another article.
Do yourself a favor, watch Clannad…and have some tissues with you.
Number 3: Light Yagami from Death Note
Light's death definitely made an impact and caused a variety of different emotions, and that's how it made it number three on my list. Light Yagami was once a bored high school student who hated this corrupt and disgusting world we live in. With his father being a higher up in the Japanese police, he had a sense of justice about him. So when he stumbled upon the power of the Death Note it allowed him to take Japan by storm, killing countless numbers of criminals and even those who just got in his way. It wasn't long before the media gifted him the name Kira, which he utilized and hid behind.
However, Light was not the protagonist of this story; that role fell on the shoulders of the mysterious and beloved detective who went by the letter
"L." The two had constant mental jousting battles trying to slip the other up. In the end, however, using the people closest to him as pawns, Light became villainized forever by fans of the series as he stood over L's fallen body with a sick smile across his face.
Thus when Near took over the role of hunting down Kira and was successful, it left many L fans rejoicing as Light flopped around in a puddle of his own blood. This Death Note fan, though, was rooting and hoping that in the end Light would be the victorious. Unfortunately the Shinigami that dropped the Death Note book into the human world would write Light's name down before he could bleed out or be imprisoned. The image of L would look triumphantly over the lifeless body of Kira laying on the stairs as the series came to a close.
Number 2: Maes Hughes from Full Metal Alchemist/Brotherhood
I'm sure a lot of people are screaming at me over their keyboards right now for not putting this at number one. Trust me, this one is one of the most heart-wrenching deaths, yet over hyped. To describe Maes Hughes in one word, it would be "goofy." However, he was a fantastic father, husband, and friend. When he wasn't irritating people at the most inappropriate times with pictures of his daughter, he was helping the Elric brothers or best friend Roy Mustang.
Hughes meets his untimely demise after uncovering a huge plot to create a country-sized transmutation circle. Unable to make a phone call from the land line, he rushed out to go find other means of contact, where he was met and did battle with the homunculus Lust before he continues onward to a pay phone outside.
As he tried to get connected, he unknowingly dropped a picture of himself and his family. Suddenly 2nd Lt. Ross demanded that he stop making the phone call, and Maes realized that this was not Maria Ross (due to her missing a mole) but an imposter. The imposter revealed itself to be another homunculus, Envy. Maes launched an assault with a knife but halted mid-attack as Envy transformed into an identical image of his wife after eyeing the dropped photograph.
After finally growing attached and learning more about Maes and his family, we're left in misery as he was gunned down by the image of one of his most cherished people after hesitating to finish his attack. As if it wasn't sad enough already, the funeral was made even more horrible as his daughter screamed, "Why are they burying Daddy?" and tells her mother that her daddy had a lot of work to finish and shouldn't be buried.
Thankfully, for us fans of Hughes, we found redemption later on as Roy Mustang beat Envy down into its true and weak form.
Number 1: Lelouch Lamperouge from Code Geass
Lelouch Vi Britannia commands you to not to bitch at his death being the number one of my list!
Really, when you think about it, how can you argue that Lelouch's death not only was the most impactful but also easily led to the greatest and most complete ending of an anime ever!
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| Lelouch Vi Britannia Commands You |
The former Britannia prince who left his name, identity, and past behind looked to make the world a better place for his blind and crippled sister, Nunnally. He eventually stumbled in to a series of events that had him confused for a terroris. At this time, a strange girl with mysterious powers offered him a contract, the terms of which being that she would give him the power to do what he desired. Thus he came into possession of his "Geass."
Everyone's Geass varies in its ability; Lelouch's allowed him to a give a command to any individual and have them follow it. Using this ability, he put himself into a position of power, becoming the strategist of a terrorist group, the Black Knights, under the hidden identity of Zero. The group's purpose was to take down the evil Britannia Army.
In a world conflicted by war, and with countries at each other's throats, it became apparent that it would never come to an end. With that, Lelouch made himself a symbol of hatred and disgust among the entire world. He passed the identity of Zero on to his former best friend Suzaku and agreed to allow Suzaku to kill him on a public platform, thus making the ultimate sacrifice and shouldering the entire world's hate as he was impaled upon Zero's blade.
He did whatever it took to gain absolute power, losing countless people and hurting everyone close to him. A flashback of his final words to Suzaku played over his death scene in which he talked about giving the world the gift of Geass. As his life comes to an end, Nunnally ascends to power, the war ended, and the world came together for open discussion. It would still face its trials and issues, but with Britannia now under a new and beloved leader, there was peace at last.
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| The Ultimate Sacrifice |
That concludes my rather depressing list. Did you agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comment section below! If you want to keep up to date with my exploits, feel free to follow me at @SteWago on Twitter.
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