Anime series occasionally make the mindless slaughter of background characters unrelated to the main characters look easy. However, it is a heavy burden to end a life, but so many series make that weight look easy to bear. Inconsequential, even. However, one way to add weight to a death is to make a character kill someone they love, but not just someone they love, maybe even someone the audience loves as well. It adds a great deal of emotional impact that helps everyone feel the weight a little bit more.
Spoilers, obviously.
Best Anime Characters That Had to Kill Something They Loved
Griffith in Berserk
Griffith, throughout Berserk is built up to be a compassionate but shrewd commander. He inspires the loyalty of his mercenary band through his actions and personality, but always keeps them at a distance to protect his own heart. Ultimately, he lets Gutts in there and when he leaves to pursue his own dreams, it causes Griffith to act rashly. As sleeping with a princess, he is tortured for months where they take his tough, sever the ligaments that let him use his arms and legs, and basically wreck him. He answers this by allowing demons to eat his entire mercenary band so he can become a demon himself. It is an ultimate betrayal, but the ritual only worked because he did indeed love the members of the Band of the Hawk.
All the Characters in Madoka Magica
As Madoka Magica gives the glimpse of multiple different time lines, you see this manifest in almost all of them. In one timeline, Mami starts killing her friends to stop them from ever turning into witches only to be killed by a friend herself. Kyoko kills Sayaka and herself after Sayaka turns into a witch. Homura has to kill Madoka as she turns. And one and one it goes.
Clare in Claymore
The life of a Claymore is to not get too attached to the only people in the world that will interact with you – other Claymores – because you may one day have to kill them. Shunned by the rest of humanity for their demon blood and job of killing demons, Claymores lead a solitary life. One instance of the devastating job of a Claymore comes when main character Clare must hunt down Elena. She was the girl in which Clare endured her transformation with, but Elena can no longer control the demon blood inside her and must be killed. Clare unhappily does the job.
Nagisa in Assassination Classroom
Over the course of Assassination Classroom, you watch Nagisa transform into quite the little killer. He, like all the other students in the class, also bonds closely with Koro-sensei, the only teacher to ever legitimately help them with any struggles. However, as a monster with a time limit lest he destroy the Earth, he must be killed. As the narrative dictates, he must be killed by Nagisa who is clearly his favorite student. It is an emotional moment for everyone as they circle around their teacher and Nagisa plunges the dagger into his heart.
Itachi in Naruto
Naruto as a whole has a few instances of this. However, none are more memorable than Itachi killing his entire clan. He killed his entire clan including his girlfriend and parents, sparing only his younger brother. You know he cared about them not because he was crying the entire time, but because it awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan, something only done by killing a loved one.
Lelouch in Code Geass
As Zero, Lelouch has killed a lot of people, but not all of them particularly beloved. One death shown to have significant impact on him, however, was the death of his half-sister Euphemia. In a big oops incident, he accidentally orders her to go on a rampage against the Japanese using his Geass powers that cannot be disobeyed. In order to stop it, he is forced to kill her as Zero. She was also his first love, which makes it better or worse, I guess.
Shinji in Neon Genesis Evangelion
In an moment in which Shinji is actually justified in his angst, he manifests it after killing Kaworu. The character had profoundly little time in the series, but made the most of it by getting very close with Shinji. Some interpret this closeness in a number of different ways, but regardless it turns out Kaworu is an Angel. He then takes an EVA to meet Adam, only to be met by Lilith. In the end, with his hand played, he asks Shinji to kill him.
Ash in Banana Fish
The series Banana Fish is full of suffering as people are forced to do horrible things. However, one of the most hard hitting moments is when Ash is forced to kill Shorter after he has been dosed with the drug Banana Fish. It causes him to go berserk and it puts people in danger. Although close friends, Ash is forced to put him down.
Eri in My Hero Academia
The negative effects of a quirk in My Hero Academia are touched on, but it isn’t really explored until Eri. Her quirk is one that can turn back time on anything she touches. Unfortunately, this means she can basically erase a person from existing. As she is a small child at the time, she cannot fully control the quirk and ends up erasing her father. Afterwards, she is abandoned by her mother and given to her grandfather and his yakuza syndicate. Unfortunately for her, she understands what she has done and it has taken a huge mental toll.
Natsuki in Mai-Hime
A large part of Mai-Hime is watching the relationship develop between Natsuki and her only friend Shizuru, it seems only fitting that the series pretty much end with them battling. It is a battle that leads to the death of both parties, but must be done to end Shizuru’s rampage. It is a shame that the emotion of that episode is undone an episode later.
Kurumi in School Live
Of the four girls in School Live, Kurumi has the most difficult task of being the one that feels like she needs to do the hard job of putting down zombies. This is because she was the first of them to kill a zombie when the boy she had a crush on turned and she killed him. She tries to mercy kill her teacher later too, but ultimately fails to follow through. She is tough as nails, but not without her tasks taking a toll on her.
Eren in Attack on Titan
Does it count if you kill a loved one and you don’t know your doing it? While Eren is hyper focused on killing Titans, he spends much of the series not knowing that he killed his own father. In order for a titan shifter to become one, they must become a titan and then eat another titan shifter. So his father transformed him, and then he ended up eating his titan shifting father.
Do you know any more anime characters that had to kill someone they loved? Let fans know in the comments section below.
