Summary
Tragic anime backstories deliver a deep emotional impact and shed light on real-life issues that many people face. The best tragic anime backstories deal with sensitive topics and evoke empathy for those who have experienced trauma. These behind-the-scenes stories often explore the consequences of abuse, neglect, isolation, and other forms of mental and physical pain.
Warning: This article contains serious discussion of assault and self-harm
Tragic backstories are an important part of anime, with The most tragic anime behind-the-scenes stories made fans appreciate the story and characters of the series on a completely different level. While it’s easy for a tragic backstory to become overdone or boring, few plot devices can deliver the same emotional punch of a well-executed tragic backstory.
Tragic anime backstories revolve around the human experience, exploring many different types of trauma. Although these tragic backstories often use elements of fantasy, at their core, these stories are often about very real issues that have defined many real people. The best tragic anime backstories shed light on sensitive topics and bring empathy to those suffering.
Shoto Todoroki – His abusive father ruined his life
My Hero Academy
As the son of one of the worst characters in My Hero Academia, Shoto had trouble from the moment he was conceived. His father, Endeavor, was completely self-absorbed and obsessed with creating and training a hero stronger than All Might, leading to children who did not meet the standards being abandoned. When Shoto was born with both his father’s and mother’s abilities, he was subjected to a harsh training regimen by Endeavor.
What’s truly disturbing is that Endeavor’s domestic abuse also ruined Shoto’s relationship with his mother: although she loved Shoto and inspired him to be kind, life with Endeavor made she had a mental breakdown when just the sight of Shoto’s upper left features caused her to have a mental breakdown. burned it with boiling water, leaving Shoto with facial scars and a bitter, distant attitude. Even worse is the way Endeavor treats his first son, Toya. Endeavor’s cruel treatment of young Toya is what created one of My Hero Academia’s strongest villains in Dabi.
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Haruka Kotoura – Her telepathy alienates everyone in her life
Kotoura-san
Even though Kotoura-san is largely a comedy, the first episode “Kotoura-san and Manabe-kun” was extremely difficult to get through. Kotoura was born with the ability to read minds, which in another series might have been 100% beneficial to her or just meant to be funny, but here the ability quickly isolates her. it with the rest of the world.
She cannot distinguish between what is private and what is not, making those around her uncomfortable because they understand her abilities as little as she does. When Kotoura accidentally reveals that her parents cheated on each other, and her mother rejected and abandoned her. Confused and hating herself, Kotoura chose to stay away from others and never talk, all before starting middle school.
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Asuka Langley Sohryu – Motivated by her mother’s decline
Evangelical Neon Genesis
No one has a good time in one of the saddest anime films ever made, but Asuka’s backstory is especially horrifying. As a child, Asuka’s mother has a mental disorder and no longer recognizes Asuka as Asuka, instead of treating the doll as her daughter. This culminated in her hanging both herself and the doll, a scene that traumatized Asuka for life.
As a teenager, Asuka desperately needed to be seen and acknowledged by others and feared being found lacking in some way, meaning she could not handle failure mentally. Her obsession with being the best at everything, not just piloting an EVA, is her attempt to prevent anyone else from removing and replacing her.
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Czeslaw Meyer – Immortal and tortured for 200 years
Noise!
Eternal life is not everything that people think. Just ask Czes, who was aboard the Advena Avis with his guardian Fermet and was given the same manuscript of immortality as the other passengers. For the next two hundred years, Fermet used Czes as a subject for brutal experiments Testing the limits of immortality, this was little more than torture.
Czes can only escape by “devouring” Fermet: absorbing him into himself, the only way an immortal can kill another immortal. Alone and trapped in a child’s body, he fends for himself and is willing to do anything to survive. He is extremely paranoid and fearful of other immortals, convinced that they will devour him at the first opportunity.
Vash the Stampede – His evil brother caused him to destroy a city
Trigun
All Vash wants to do is be kind and follow the philosophy of “Love and Peace!” However, due to living in a world of hopeless cynicism and falling for the mistakes of one of the most likable siblings in anime, he suffers a completely ruined reputation across the entire planet and a terribly lonely life.
Vash and his twin brother Dao are Plants, artificial beings with special powers used to generate energy. While Vash tries to use his powers to protect humanity, Dao wants to destroy them and force his brother to obey. To achieve this purpose, The knives sabotage the spaceship they lived in as childrenkilled their adoptive mother and caused the July disaster, killing thousands while everyone blamed Vash.
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Gaara – Feared by his people and used as a weapon by his father
Naruto
The tragedy of Gaara’s story is that it is very similar to Naruto’s, but Naruto had rare strokes of luck that shaped his path to becoming a good person, Gaara saw only persecution and misfortunegoing back to the reason why they became jinchuuriki: Gaara’s father did it to turn his son into a weapon, Minato did it out of love for Naruto.
Shukaku’s sand throw prevented Gaara from getting close to other children without injuring them, while Naruto was able to play with at least some of the children, like Shikamaru. While Naruto had a kind mentor in Iruka, Gaara’s uncle, Yashamaru, who truly loved him, was forced by Gaara’s father to try to kill him, destroying Gaara’s trust in others.
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Momiji Sohma – Forgotten by his mother and abandoned by his father
Fruit basket
Choosing which Fruits Basket character has the most tragic backstory is a huge task, but Momiji might take the cake. His mother disowned him because of the Zodiac curse, leading to she chose to have her son’s memories erased by Hatori so she can return to a normal life.
Worse than her and many other Fruits Basket parents’ public hatred of their children was Momiji’s father’s insincere display of affection for him. He pressures Momiji to say that he agrees with being erased from his mother’s life, promising to love him twice as much to make up for it. But he never once fulfilled this promise, ignoring Momiji in favor of his wife and newborn daughter.
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Hyakkimaru – Body sacrificed by father
Dororo
Hyakkimaru in Dororo would have had a normal life if not for his father Daigo’s greed. As soon as Hyakkimaru was born, Daigo sacrificed the heir’s body to the devil to ensure the prosperity of his land, then tries to kill his new skinless, limbless child, for the simple reason that he can conceive a new heir.
Hyakkimaru survived, grew up in pain and was forced to learn how to fight with prosthetics so he could destroy the demons and regain his body. The worst part? Only after his land was destroyed following Hyakkimaru’s quest to restore himself did Daigo realize that sacrificing him was for nothing: just let his heir grow up and succeed him. I will personally bring them to prosperity.
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Guts – Abused by his father and betrayed by his best friend
Hysterical
Intestines coming out of the mother’s womb are unlucky. He does not know who his biological father is, and he was born when his biological mother was hanged for an unknown crime. He treated his adoptive parents not much better: although his mother Sys took pity on the infant and cared for him, against the wishes of her lover Gambino, she died of an epidemic a few years later.
Convinced Guts had brought them bad luck, Gambino abused Guts and used him as a child soldier for eleven years, until finally trying to kill him. Guts is forced to kill him and then fend for himself in one of the bleakest worlds in anime. As an adult, Guts has terrible self-esteem and cannot trust others not to hurt or betray him. Worse still, any sense of trust that Guts develops is completely violated by his best friend Griffith during a terrifying solar eclipse.
Crona – The most tragic anime plot
Soul eater
Any character introduced with a tragic version of the “Hail Mary” prayer as their theme music is going to have some serious mommy issues. Crona was conceived and raised by the witch Medusa in an attempt to create an artificial Kishin. They are isolated from others, only interacting with others when ordered to kill them and give them to Ragnarok, the liquid weapon Medusa used to replace their blood.
Even after being rescued by Maka, Crona still feels terrified when facing everyday life. In the anime, they successfully escape Medusa and have the chance to live freely, but in the manga, they are not so lucky: Medusa’s conditioning ability is too strong. They return to her and the result is even more broken mentally and physically. All this leads to Crona having Most tragic plot in anime history.
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