Given their episodic formats, not all anime are destined to have the same tone throughout their run. This is all it can take for a light-hearted series about memorable adventures and friendship to be a pivotal scene that loses all. Before the audience realizes it, the anime they’re watching will be reimagining the fun things it featured just one episode ago.
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After having these scenes, these anime either leaned towards a more mature approach, or changed their styles entirely. Sometimes it was the death of a major character that brought about this transformation, or it was something worse than the death itself. Either way, these anime were never the same once they reached a certain event and they never looked back.
10 Trigun – The Arrival Of Legato Blossom Killed The Comedy
triple (In)famous for luring the audience into a false sense of comedy. Vash the Stampede was a wanted gunman, but his goofy personality and wacky take on nonviolence triple Looks like a funny comedy about cowboys. As it turns out, Vash was on the run from a violent past, and Legato brought this darkness back.
While Vash was playing with the kids, his games and anime playfulness abruptly ended the moment Vash sensed Legato’s deadly presence. Out of Vash’s sudden fear, the audience realized that Legato was not just another silly gunslinger to human tornado, but a legitimate threat that could kill everyone.
9 My Hero Academia – All Might’s Retirement Marked The End Of A Heroic Era
All has never kept his impending retirement a secret, but his retirement seemed like something the characters and viewers could keep in the back of their minds. Unfortunately, his final fight with All For One hastened All Might’s retirement. That said, the victory and retirement of All Mights led to two seismic social changes.
On an optimistic note, he told Izuku Midoriya (and by extension, his generation) that he would be the next symbol of peace. Conversely, the fall of All Might’s marked the end of their defenses, thus prompting the villains to return. As for the anime itself, Midoriya finally took the lead by breaking out of the shadow of All Might.
8 Fearless (1997) – Nosferatu Zod’s Arrival Brings Back Dark Fantasy
fearless One of the most famous dark fictions of all time, but anyone who started watching the original 1997 anime would be forgiven for forgetting it. After the Snake Baron was killed by Guts in the pilot episode, the next 24 episodes were set flashbacks to Guts’ time with the Hawk’s band, and the supernatural was mostly absent.
In the next few episodes, fearless There was a realistic period piece about the medieval era. This changed when Guts and Griffith battled an apostle, Zod, whose existence defied logic and was their first encounter with the supernatural. The supernatural will only reappearing near fearless Concluding, but Zod’s debut was the beginning of the end of normalcy.
7 Attack On Titan – Eren Yeager’s “Resurrection” Was The First Of Many Hard Truths
the very first, attack on Titan Presents itself as a dark fantasy about humanity’s fight for its existence against the Titans. The characters dying left and right seemed par for the course, but then Eren came back to life after being eaten by a Titan. Specifically, Eren emerged from the nape of a bizarre Titan who was sentient in some way.
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While it would take a few more episodes to understand that Eren was a Titan Shifter, his Titan form and his resurrection were the first to explore the dark truth of the island of Paradis. since, attack on Titan ceased to be a simple dark fantasy and became a slow unfolding tragedy that engulfed the entire world.
6 The death of a certain scientist Railgun S – Misaka 9982 gave Mikoto Misaka an existential crisis
Academy City wasn’t exactly the scientific utopia he claimed to be, but Mikoto’s life was a blast in an Arizona-filled city. Even when the scientists went too far, Mikoto knew that he and his friends would be able to save the day. It wasn’t when Mikoto collided with his clone, as their strange but funny meeting ended in bloody tragedy.
The truth was that Misaka 9982 was one of thousands of Mikoto clones designed to be thrown into the accelerator’s path for an experiment. a certain scientific railgun was a mainly cheesy sci-fi anime, but after the second season and everything there was a pretty dark turn when Mikoto saw his clone horribly die.
5 One Piece – Portagas D. Ace’s death ends Luffy’s youthful adventures
Even though he and the Straw Hats faced tough times such as their forcible dismemberment at the hands of Kuma, Monkey D. Luffy’s trips were generally enjoyable and fun. Luffy’s carefree days crash during the summit battle of Marineford, where he sees his older brother die.
Unlike the Straw Hat’s temporary loss to Kuma, there was no way for Luffy to undo Ace’s death. Worse, Ace died protecting Luffy, and Luffy presumably blamed himself. one pieces The days of innocent childhood ended with Ace’s death, and the post-time skip arcs where Luffy all but became a revolutionary showed this change in priorities and tone.
4 Tengen Toppa Guren Lagan – Kamina’s Death Stopped Freaky Shonen Adventures
Leading its first arc, with a protagonist as Motivational as Kamina, Gurren Lagann It looked like it was going to be a typical shonen anime with big robots and the power of friendship. However, Team Dai-Guren (and the audience) received a harsh reality check when Kamina had the heroes’ first major casualty in their fight for freedom.
With Kamina’s death, her younger brother Simon had no choice but to grow up rapidly and take Kamina’s place. Although it was still a fun anime with giant mecha fighting each other, Gurren Lagann After Kamina’s death, it was quite deep. To this day, Kamina’s death is considered one of the saddest anime turning points of all time.
3 Puella Magi Madoka Magica – Beheading of Mami Tomo The darkness of the anime began
Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Magical Girl is famous for turning the formula into a cosmic horror story, but it didn’t start out that way. Initially, Madoka and Sayaka’s brush with magic was somewhat upbeat, even though the first episodes of their anime were a bit darker than their contemporaries. But then a witch cut off the head of the mummy.
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Mami was introduced as the figure and potential mentor to Madoka and Sayaka’s older sister, and she was just as happy-go-lucky as she was. But the moment Mami dies fighting a witch, the true darkness of the story slowly creeps into the colorful world of the characters. Little by little, madoka Made innocence synonymous with magical girls.
2 Neon Genesis Evangelion – Burdil’s Identity Begins With Shiji Ikari’s Psychological Lineage
Evangelion There’s always been a darker look at typical Super Robot anime, but its inherent darkness only took hold about halfway through. Until then, it was routine for Shinji to kill the Angels, but there was something troubling about the Thirteenth Angel, Bardil. For one, it was a hijacked EVA Unit-03, and it was being piloted by his friend, Toji.
Worse yet, Shinji realizes this when his father Gendo remotely commands Eva Unit-01 to ruthlessly kill Bardial and kill Toji. From this point on, Shinji and Evangelion The anger as a whole deepened. whatever the excitement and fun Evangelion The earlier arcs were destroyed when Shinji saw Toji’s bloody body.
Even after losing parts of their bodies during their failed attempt to turn their dead mother back to life, Edward and Alphonse Elric see alchemy as a calming force to master. When he saw that alchemy had been used on the innocent Nina and her dog, Alexander, he received a rigorous reality check about alchemy’s scary potential. Even worse, it was Nina’s father’s fault.
Desperate to make any kind of scientific progress, Shaw turns his daughter and pet into a fantasy. Shu succeeded, but created a disgrace against nature and human decency. After this mythical nightmare scene, Ed and Al take alchemy more seriously, and full Metal Alchemist To warn of the pride of power took a darker tone.
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