Summary
Sad anime backstories provide a deep emotional impact and shine a light on real-life problems that many people face. The best sad anime backstories deal with emotional issues and evoke empathy for the victims. These backstories often deal with abuse, neglect, isolation, and other consequences of emotional and physical suffering.
Warning: This article contains serious discussions of violence and self-harm
Sad backstories are an important part of anime, the saddest anime backstories make fans appreciate the series’ stories and characters on another level. While it’s easy to overdo or hack away at a tragic backstory, few plot devices can pack the same emotional gut punch of a well-plotted tragic backstory.
Tragic anime backstories run through the human experience, exploring various traumas. Although these tragic backstories often use fantastical elements, at the core, these tales are often very real problems that come to identify many real people. The best sad anime backstories shed light on sensitive issues and offer empathy to those affected.
Shoto Todoroki – His abusive father ruined his life.
My Hero Academy
As one of the most villainous characters in My Hero Academia, Shoto has had a difficult time since conception. His father, Endeavor, is obsessed with fulfilling himself and creating and nurturing a stronger hero than anyone else, and as a result, undersized children are neglected. When Shoto was born to his father and mother Kiwix, he was subjected to a gruesome training method by the Endeavour.
The real upheaval is that Endeavor’s domestic abuse ruins Shoto’s relationship with his mother: although Shoto loves him and inspires him to be kind, life with Endeavor drives her into a mental breakdown. They scald it with boiling water, giving Shoto its scarred face and bitter character. Even worse is how Endeavor treated his first child, Toya. Endeavor’s cruel treatment of young Toya is responsible for creating one of My Hero Academia’s strongest villains in Dabi.
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Haruka Kotoura – Her phone relationship has alienated everyone in her life.
Kotura-san
Although Kotoura-san is mostly funny, the first episode “Kotoura-san and Manabe-kun” is incredibly difficult to get through. Kotura was born with the ability to read minds, which in a different series could be 100% useful to her or just played for laughs, but here it quickly isolates her from the rest of the world.
Being private makes those around her uncomfortable because they understand her abilities as little as she does. When Kotura suddenly reveals her parents’ imitation of each other, her mother denies it. Confused and self-loathing, Kotura prefers to stay away from others and never speak before starting middle school.
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Asuka Langley Sohryuu – inspired by her mother’s breakdown
Neon Genesis Evangelion
In one of the most depressing anime ever made, no one has a good time, but Asuka’s backstory is especially terrifying. At a young age, Asuka’s mother suffered a psychotic break and treated Asuka as her own daughter, not recognizing Asuka as Asuka. This ended up hanging both herself and her doll, a sight that scarred Asuka for life.
As a teenager, Asuka desperately wants to be seen and recognized by others and fears being found out in any way, meaning she can’t deal with mental breakdowns. Not only is Evan a pilot, but her obsession with being the best at everything is her way of trying to make sure that no one else outstrips or replaces her.
Watch it on Netflix
Czeslaw Meyer – Immortal and tormented for 200 years.
Noise!
Eternal life is not just cracked. Just ask Czes, who was on board the Advena Avis with Fermet the guardian, and who, like the rest of the passengers, was given an immortal draft. For the next two centuries, Fermet used chess to test the limits of immortality, which was little more than torture.
Chase manages to escape by “eating” Fermet: absorbing him into himself, the only way an immortal can kill another immortal. Alone and locked in his child’s body, he fends for himself and is willing to do anything to survive. He is so stunted and scared of the other immortals, he admits they will eat him at the first opportunity.
Vash the Stampede – Makes his evil brother destroy a town.
Trigun
All Vash wants to do is be kind and say “love and peace!” Just follow that philosophy. However, living on a hopelessly alienated world and being on the wrong end of one of the best sibling rivalry in anime, he ends up with a completely ruined reputation on the planet and a life of terrible loneliness.
Vash and his twin brother, the Blades, are artificial plants with special powers used to create energy. When Vash tries to use his powers to protect humanity, the blades want to destroy them and bring his brother to heel. To this end, the Blades destroy the spaceship they lived in as children, kill their foster mother and cause the July disaster, killing thousands, people blame Vash.
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Gara – Feared by the people and used as a weapon by his father.
Naruto
The tragedy of the shared backstory is how similar it is to Naruto, but where Naruto gets lucky breaks that pave the way to becoming a good person, Gaara finds abuse and bad luck, even going back to the reasons for being a jinchuriki: he made a shared father. What Minato did to turn his son into a weapon was because of his love for Naruto.
Shukaku’s release of sand prevents Gaara from getting close to the other children without harming them, while Naruto can play with at least some of the children, such as Shikamaru. While Naruto had a kind mentor in Iruka, his mutual uncle Yashamaru, whom he truly loved, he was forced to try and kill the mutual father, shattering the mutual trust in others.
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Momiji Sohma – Forgotten by his mother and neglected by his father
Fruit basket
Picking which Fruit Basket character has the saddest backstory is a tall order, but Momiji might just take the cake. His mother rejects him with the Zodiac curse, choosing to have her daughter’s memories erased by Hattori so she can return to a normal life.
Worse than her and most fruit baskets is the obvious hatred parents have for their children is Momiji’s father’s love for him. Momiji forces him to say that it’s okay for him to disappear from his mother’s life, for which he promises to love him twice as much. But Momiji is never seen following through on this promise to his wife and new daughter.
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Hayakimaru – His body was sacrificed by his father.
Dororo
Hyakimaru from Dororo could have a normal life if it weren’t for his father Daigo’s greed. The moment Hyakimaru was born, Daigo sacrificed his heir’s body to a demon to ensure his country’s prosperity, then tried to kill his new skinless, disembodied son, thinking he might conceive a new heir.
Hyakimaru survives, grows up in agony, and is forced to learn to fight with limbs made to slay demons and hold his body. The worst part? Daigo learns the futility of sacrificing him after the land is destroyed by Haikimaru’s efforts to reclaim himself: simply allowing the heir to grow and replace him will lead to prosperity on its own.
Check it out on HiDive
Guts – abused by his father and betrayed by his best friend
Berserk
The gut is an opportunity outside the womb. He does not know who his birth father is and was born after his birth mother was hanged for an unknown crime. He had little success with his adoptive parents; Although his mother, Sis, sympathizes and cares for the newborn, against the wishes of her lover Gambino, she dies of an epidemic a few years later.
Convincing Guts brought them such bad luck, Gambino abused Guts and used him as a child soldier for eleven years, finally trying to kill him. Guts is forced to kill him and then defend himself in one of the worst worlds in the anime. As an adult, Guts has self-respect and cannot trust others to hurt or betray him. To make matters worse, any sense of confidence Guts develops is completely shattered by his brutally eccentric best friend, Griffith.
Krona – The saddest anime backstory
A soul eater
Every character is introduced to the sad “Hail Mary” prayer, as their theme music has some serious maternal issues. Crona was conceived and raised by the sorceress Medusa in her attempt to create artificial Kishi. They were isolated from other humans, only when ordered to kill them and feed them to Ragnarok, a liquid weapon in which Medusa replaced their blood.
Even after being rescued by Maka, Crona still finds dealing with everyday life terrifying. In the anime, they successfully separate from Medusa and have the opportunity to live freely, but in the manga, they do not have such a chance: Medusa’s conditioning is very strong. They return to her and because of this they are broken mentally and physically. All of this allows Crona to have the saddest backstory in anime history.
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