15 Sad Anime Characters That You Should Know Update 04/2024

Sad Anime Characters

They have some of the most heartbreaking backstories ever seen in anime, thus you can’t help but feel for them.

These anime characters serve as a continual reminder that not everyone gets to enjoy a life of rainbows and sunshine. The pasts of some of these people can only be described as hellish because of the traumatic circumstances they have been through.

These characters have been through so much suffering that it would have killed a regular person to feel it. Fortunately for some of these people, they were able to connect with like-minded individuals who were willing to lend a hand in their recovery. While some of them had a happy conclusion, that was not the case for all of them. A list of ten anime characters with tragic backstories has been compiled for your viewing pleasure.

Backstories are an essential part of each character, and they may make them stand out from the rest. A tragedy, regardless of how horrendous the character’s past or the circumstances that led to his or her demise, always elicits sympathy from the audience.

Not everyone was as fortunate as others, and some of these personalities ended up on the wrong side of history. Here are a few characters, both new and old, that have been through a lot of heartache in the course of their lives.

1.Ciel Phantomhive – Black Butler

Ciel Phantomhive – Black Butler

Even though Ciel Phantomhive is still a child, his background is no less terrible than that of any other character. An unknown assailant assassinated his mother and father, as well as all of the house servants, on his tenth birthday.

A cult kidnapped and tormented him until he unwittingly assisted in summoning a demon with his antipathy toward the members of the group.

2. Ray – The Promised Neverland

They think of him as the calmest among Emma and Norman when they first encounter him. Despite the abundance of tragic characters in The Promised Neverland, Ray stands out as one of the most tragic.

Even as a young boy Ray had been preparing to escape Gracefield House and knew that his own mother, Isabella, was feeding the children to demons.

3. Akame – Akame Ga Kill!

Akame – Akame Ga Kill

The outside world may see Akame as a cold-blooded killer, but her true nature is more complex. After her parents sold her and her younger sister, Kurome, to the empire, she was compelled to live by any means necessary, even if that meant murdering innocent people.

People Akame thought she could trust have betrayed her time and time again, including a young lady named Martha, who pounced on an opportunity to end Akame’s life. So, it’s difficult to win her trust.

4. Killua Zoldyck – Hunter X Hunter

For those who don’t know, Killua comes from a line of assassins, therefore his childhood was anything from normal. To discover if he could evade lethal strikes, his parents put him through a variety of risky circumstances at the tender age of three.

Killua has also killed more individuals than the majority of adults in his lifetime. As a result, he had to attack his entire family, even leaving his mother’s face bandaged, to escape from the nightmare that is his existence.

5. Kyo Sohma – Fruits Basket

Kyo Sohma

The fact that Kyo happens to be a cat, the zodiac animal with the most ill will, makes being born into the Sohma family, one with its roots in people being born according to their sign, all the more difficult.

In contrast to Kyo, who is able to leave solitary confinement early on in the series, it turns out that persons born under the cat zodiac are almost always locked away. Even before Kyo was born, Kyo’s mother committed suicide because she couldn’t love her son because of his awful true nature.

6. Lelouch vi Britannia – Code Geass

Even nobles like Lelouch vi Britannia can have tragic lives, as he exemplifies. While growing up, he witnessed the assassination of his mother, which also paralyzed his younger sister. As a result, he was sent to Japan and abandoned by his father, who left him there.

His hatred for his father and the Britannia Empire is understandable in light of the unfortunate circumstances surrounding his birth. He becomes Zero and sets out to overthrow Britannia’s hegemony over Japan after gaining the power of Geass. But his drive for vengeance is stronger than his yearning for justice, which is a tragedy. A person who sets out to destroy something ends up becoming it himself.

7. The Elric Brothers – Fullmetal Alchemist

Edward and Alphonse Elric grew up in Trisha’s care, despite their father’s absence. As a result of the loss of his mother, Ed developed a dislike for his father. In their desperation to bring their mother back, they broke the most sacred alchemical taboo by transforming themselves into human beings. A malformed creature was born as a result of their efforts, and it was killed as a result.

In the end, Edward had to give up one arm and a leg, whereas Alphonse had to give up his entire body. After that, Edward and Alphonse embarked on a grueling and emotionally draining journey to regain their health and vitality.

8. Itachi Uchiha – Naruto

Itachi Uchiha – Naruto

Itachi Uchiha resolved to establish a society without bloodshed after witnessing the horrors of war as a boy. Years later, he realized that the Uchiha clan was filled with resentment and animosity. When his family began plotting a coup, he covertly joined the Hidden Leaf as a double agent.

In spite of his best attempts, he was compelled to kill his fellow clansmen. His brother, Sasuke, was the lone survivor after Itachi encouraged him to hate him in order to revenge his clan. It’s incredible that Itachi has been able to carry this weight all by himself for so long.

9. Hyakkimaru – Dororo (2019)

Hyakkimaru, the son of Dororo’s wicked father, appears to be doomed regardless of the version. Hyakkimaru’s father sacrificed him as a sacrifice to various demons in exchange for the prosperity of his land from the moment he was born.

As a result, Hyakkimaru loses his skin, limbs, eyes, voice, and spine to the demons. Then, his father orders him to be taken away from him. Hyakkimaru is later saved and raised by the doctor Jukai, who gives him artificial prosthetics to help him thrive. Hyakkimaru is cursed with a fate worse than death since he was forced to suffer for the sake of another man’s ambition.

10. Nico Robin – One Piece

Nico Robin’s tragic backstory is one of the most heartbreaking in One Piece. During her mother’s absence, Ohara was left vulnerable to both verbal and physical abuse from her aunt as well as other children; she was just two years old when she was abandoned. She was eight when the marines stormed her home, killing her mother, her archaeologists, and her best friend.

In the following 20 years, Robin evaded the World Government by evading it. In that period, she had to fend for herself because all of the people she trusted turned against her. For most of her life, Robin had been living in an absolute misery.

11. Crona – Soul Eater

Crona – Soul Eater

Crona was abused by his mother Medusa and his demon weapon Ragnarok constantly as a child. Crona became insane as a result of the abuse she received from her captors. He will kill and consume his opponents’ souls without hesitation as a madman agent.

A friendship with Maka in the anime helps Crona recover from his delusions and return to normality. In the manga, this is not the case. The new Kishin goes insane, killing Medusa with a machete and becomes the new Kishin in the process. It’s impossible not to feel terrible for Crona at the end of the day.

12. Seras Victoria – Hellsing

Seras was formerly a human and a police officer before Alucard transformed her into a vampire. Hellsing Ultimate disclosed Seras’ backstory in its seventh episode, which was the only episode in the whole series to do so. According to the storyline, her father had been working as an undercover cop and the crooks he was after had led him to their house, where she saw them behead her parents.

She was shot and left for dead after killing one of her assailants, but not before witnessing one of the criminals rape her mother’s corpse. This incident stayed with her for the rest of her life.

13. Lucy – Elfen Lied

Lucy – Elfen Lied

Lucy was raised in an orphanage where she was bullied and neglected by the other children. A puppy she cared for in secret was her only companion. After displaying the puppy to another orphan, she told Lucy’s bullies about it.

In the end, Lucy was forced to witness as her one companion was brutally murdered. In an act of self-defense, she unleashed her vengeance on her captors. Lucy is then eventually captured and imprisoned in a government facility, furthering her hatred of humans. Lucy, a lonely child, was transformed into a ferocious killing machine by her encounters with nefarious humans.

14. Hänsel & Gretel – Black Lagoon

Hänsel and Gretel, who have never been identified, have one of anime’s most harrowing backstories. Hänsel and Gretel were forced to appear in snuff films after being abandoned at a young age. They were given the option of being abused or killed if they didn’t kill the other youngsters. The twins became serial killers as a result of the continual abuse and atrocities they witnessed.

The twins, who saw themselves as “vampires,” believed that they might live indefinitely as long as they continued to take lives. Balalaika kills the twins for torturing and killing her soldiers, which is a tragic finish.

15. Guts – Berserk

Guts – Berserk

Guts has been surrounded by death and bloodshed since he was a baby. He is raised as a child soldier by mercenaries after being found under his mother’s hanging corpse as an infant. His guardian Gambino, who even sold him to one of his men, also severely abused him.

The Band of the Hawk is where Guts finally makes friends and feels a sense of belonging. When Griffith is forced to force himself on his beloved Casca years later, he must watch helplessly as his fellow soldiers are sacrificed to the forces of evil. Demons will seek him every night for the rest of his life regardless of whether or not he survived the massacre.