You could say that a “big reveal” is pretty crucial to a successful anime. Not every successful series has one, but you will find that a lot of successful shows have at least one moment that you didn’t see coming. Whether it was that sudden but inevitable betrayal or showing that what’s been going on is really just small fish in a big pond. These reveals are effective at sinking set hooks even deeper for a show.
This is obviously riddled with spoilers, but I’ll try to keep spoilers out of the headers. Don’t read the fine print if you haven’t watched the show and don’t want to be spoiled.
Best Anime Reveals
The 5th Division Captain Wasn’t Actually Dead in Bleach
It wasn’t exactly heart breaking to see the 5th Division Captain Aizen killed so much as it was surprising. He was nice and level-headed, but there were likely other more interesting captains you cared about more. Still, it came as a complete surprise when he turned out to have faked his death and would then commence to be one of the primary antagonists for the rest of the series. Who saw it coming from old mild-mannered glasses guy?
The Colossal and Armored Titan Identities Revealed in Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan is a series that really enjoys its big reveals throughout the course of the series. It is perhaps what keeps people coming back. However, of all the big reveals, none had more impact than when you learned that the armored titan and colossal titan were not just some nameless titan shifters you never met, but comrades Reiner and Berthold. You didn’t even have big suspicions of them after Annie turned out to be the Female Titan, but it turns out the three were more familiar with each other than you would have thought.
What Really Happened to Ryuko’s Father in Kill la Kill
Throughout Kill la Kill, you are made to think that Satsuki is evil and even perhaps that she did something to Ryuko’s father, but it turns out the truth is a lot more shocking. It turns out that Satsuki, alongside having nothing to do with murder, is actually Ryuko’s full-blooded sister and their father was actually killed by Nui, an artificial life form created by Ryuko and Satsuki’s mother after failing to fuse her human daughter with life fibers. Kill la Kill ultimately boils down to one dysfunctional family problem.
Itachi’s True Motivations in Naruto
For as lengthy as Naruto is, you would think that there would be more big reveals in it. However, most reveals aren’t terribly surprising. One that did catch audiences off guard was finding out that Itachi only killed his clan because the government made him. The Uchiha clan, as is their way, was plotting a coup, and the village picked their top ANBU for the job to put an end to it. It was made even more painful by revealing this at the end of Itachi’s life when he was fighting his brother.
Rei’s Origins in Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion is another series that really has a love affair with big reveals and then making the main character pretty mopey about them. However, finding out that Rei was a clone of Shinji’s dead mother, and there were actually many tubes full of her was pretty messed up. It becomes even further messed up when you find out that this is carried out by his father.
The Purpose of Magical Girls in Madoka Magica
After the girls start dying, it quickly disperses the illusions that Madoka Magica is yet another cheery magical girl series. However, it was still pretty unexpected when it was revealed that witches were not only magical girls that did not purify their soul gems, but also that magical girls exist only to be used as a way to harvest energy for the universe. Their suffering and fights are meaningless and never-ending because they make such a good energy source.
Why Everyone is Animals in Odd Taxi
As anime has been known to use animal characters as allegory and symbolism from time to time, you wouldn’t be in the minority to look at Odd Taxi and think it is just another one of those shows. However, they were excessively clever to save their big reveal to the end where it turns out that the characters weren’t animals because some anime creator designed them as such, but because the main character essentially had a psychological break after childhood abuse and started imagining everyone in the world as animals because he could better deal with them.
The Minds Behind the Sybil System in Psycho-Pass
The Sibyl System itself is a system that seems pretty suspect. However, the characters of the show are so adapted to their society that they don’t necessarily see how messed up it is to arrest someone based on crimes they have not actually committed. However, that only begins to sink in for Akane after the big reveal of the inner workings of the Sybil System. It isn’t some advanced AI running the show, but a series of brains harvested from dangerous criminals. It takes criminal minds to detect potentially criminal minds, I guess.
Why Higurashi: When They Cry Has Such a Confusing Story
A lot of fans are turned off by Higurashi and its resetting of the story after killing off the characters in vicious ways. It’s pretty confusing and hard to grasp what is going on. However, tenacious people who stick with it (or just like watching the brutality) are eventually rewarded with answers in the second season. It is revealed that each time the series resets, it resets with the death of Rika who, as the actual main character, is stuck in a time-loop of that event, trying to change things to save people’s lives, and failing pretty badly each time.
The Identity of Kanade in Angel Beats
As a series that explores the very sad stories of all the young people that missed out on their youth, died, and were sent to this sort of purgatory, it seems like you would expect Kanade to have a sad story as well. However, as a servant of God, maybe not. Regardless, she has a bit of an unexpected one. It turns out that after Otonashi used his last bit of life to mark himself as an organ donor, she was the recipient of his heart.
Sadly this means that she also died at some point, oddly enough ending up in the afterlife long before literally every other character. However, while thinking about it deeper makes this a headscratcher, it was a pretty effective reveal at the time. Then again, time is pretty meaningless for the dead.
What are some of those big anime reveals that shocked you? Let fans know in the comments section below.
