Break the Cutie/Anime: Difference between revisions

* In [[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]], Riza Hawkeye is a [[Backstory|retroactive]] example. She used to be a [[Shrinking Violet|cute and meek girl]] before {{spoiler|her parents died (and it's strongly implied her dad was rather unbalanced, which is confirmed later), leaving her an orphan}}, and she trusted Roy with {{spoiler|the secret to Fire Alchemy, inadvertently creating a [[Person of Mass Destruction]]}}. She then joined the army and went through Ishval, forcing her to [[Took a Level Inin Badass|toughen up]] the hard way, [[Sugar and Ice Girl|but without tossing all of her feelings away]].

*** No, Lelouch didn't fix it -- heit—he tried, but couldn't. In last episodes of season 1, she was really insecure, suffering both {{spoiler|knowing Lelouch was Zero and having forgotten her love for him, not understanding why}}. So the one we must thank for having the sweet Shirley back in the beginning of R2 is ''[[Big Bad|the Emperor]]''. '''That's how broken Shirley was.'''

** Mao, {{spoiler|the orphan whom C.C. gave Geass to,}} went through this as well. He [[Used to Be a Sweet Kid]] but his mind-reading powers drove him completely insane, rendering him the most irreparably broken character in the entire series, who has to be {{spoiler|[[Mercy Kill|Mercy Killed]]ed by C.C.}}. He's even [[One-Scene Wonder|famous for it]].

** Suzaku fits to an extent as well, since he starts off at the beginning of the series as a [[Knight in Shining Armor|chivalrous and gentle person]] before the series [[Serial Escalation|embarks on the path]] of [[It Got Worse]]. As it runs its course, he suffers a [[Heroic BSOD]] when it's revealed that {{spoiler|he killed his father}}, and then later {{spoiler|he's given a "Live" Geass order from Lelouch which means that he has to stay alive at all costs,}} after which {{spoiler|his girlfriend gets killed off in a very ugly fashion}} and then later {{spoiler|he ends up deploying nuclear weapons while under the effect of his Geass}}, and ultimately gets pushed across the [[Despair Event Horizon]]. And then finally {{spoiler|he's left to a potential [[Fate Worse Than Death]] by killing Lelouch as Zero as soon as he manages to hook back up with him, and has to spend the rest of his life as Zero all [[Lonely Atat the Top]].}}

* Mai Tokiha from '' [[MaiMy-HiME]]'' was a loving sister that worked hard for her [[Ill Girl|sickly brother's]] sake and an all-around nice girl, willing to sacrifice herself for others. However, {{spoiler|the combined weight of having to try to prevent her friends from killing each other, watching Shiho order Yuuichi to kiss her to ''deliberately'' make Mai jealous, and then watching her brother Takumi die in her arms (apparently the hands of her best friend Mikoto, but it later turns out that Shiho killed Akira's child out of jealousy) finally pushed her over the edge}}. She calmed down a bit when {{spoiler|1=Mikoto temporarily came out of her [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] state and [[My God, What Have I Done?|tried to apologize]], but was unable to call off Kagutsuchi's attack in time and watched as it seemingly burned Mikoto to ashes. With her brother who she built an identity around working to provide for dead, her love interest stolen by his childhood friend, her best friend having just died by her own hands, and with other HiMEs after her own life... Well, she [[Break the Cutie|breaks]].}}

*** Also from ''5D's'': [[Dark Magical Girl]] Aki Izayoi. We're first introduced to her as the [[Emotionless Girl]] and a closet sadist, as well as someone who refuses to think for herself and is a generally unsympathetic character, to both the audience and pretty much the entire world. Come Episode 40, where Aki is {{spoiler|comatose after dueling [[Evil Counterpart]] Misty (who pretty much breaks her brain by telling Aki that she killed her brother, and, indirectly, Misty herself) and witnessing the only person she really cares about fall to his death ([[Back Fromfrom the Dead|or so they think!]])}}, and we meet her father. Who reveals that, aside from having serious [[Parental Abandonment|abandonment]] issues due to the fact that she adored him and he was never home, she suffered serious mental abuse and even a bit of physical abuse when she was a child, due to the fact that he couldn't come to terms with the fact that she had powers. When she grows up, she's ostracized by nearly every single person she meets for the same reason, and she can't get rid of it without turning into what is implied to be an even bigger social pariah in the ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' universe, since ''everyone'' you meet plays cards. And I mean ''everyone.'' Yuusei forgives her for being a little psychopathic.

* Kamui from ''[[X 1999]]''. Probably the only [[CLAMP]] character able to give [[Tokyo Babylon|Subaru]] (above) a run for his money, and CLAMP [[xxxHolic×××HOLiC|love]] [[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle|their]] [[RG Veda|woobies]]. No wonder Subaru becomes Kamui's [[Big Brother Mentor]].

* Gohan in ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. He starts out as something of a nerdy crybaby, but then he's kidnapped (twice in the same day!), abandoned in the wilderness, watches his father get beaten and killed, watches his kidnapper-turned-father-figure get beaten and killed, watches a bunch of his father's friends get beaten and killed, and watches his father's best friend get beaten and almost killed, all in the first story arc! This is repeated in the following story arc, with the deaths of Krillin and Dende, and more beatings for Goku and Piccolo. It finally culminates in the Cell arc, when Cell deliberately goes out of his way to piss Gohan the hell off and he dutifully shows us why we should [[Beware the Nice Ones]] by reaching the first level beyond Super Saiyan, by shifting from [[The Messiah]] Jr. into a brutal, sadistic, homicidal maniac that would make Frieza proud. Then his father dies. Post-[[Time Skip]], aside from the [[Superhero]] gig, Gohan's retired from fighting in order to attend high school and take a shot at just being a normal kid, but once he re-[[Took a Level Inin Badass|takes a level in badass]] and finds out the [[Big Bad]] murdered just about everyone, including his [[Love Interest]] and mother? ''DBZ'' is nothing if not repetitive! Note that the [[Future Badass]] version, who suffered the permanent loss of just about everyone he knew at a young age, does not even ''approach'' this level of power or heartbreak.

* ''[[Last Exile]]'': {{spoiler|The character Dio}}. To clarify: {{spoiler|his [[The Caligula|sister Delphine]] basically kidnaps him while his [[Battle Butler|friend]] [[Extreme Doormat|Luciola]] stands by and does nothing (although, to be fair, they were outnumbered by Delphine's elite guards). Then, while he screams for Luciola to save him, he is brutally [[Mind Rape|Mind Raped]]d on his sister's orders. Pre-[[Mind Rape]], Dio was a cheerful, if odd and extremely hyper, young man with a great fondness for [[The Glomp|glomping]] people and flying vanships. Post [[Mind Rape]], he is a mentally unhinged killer with a tendency to stare off into space giggling and engage in [[Brother-Sister Incest]] with the one who made him that way.}} The birthday party scene made this even worse.

** When we first meet Casca, she's an intelligent and capable [[Action Girl]] who at one point leads the Band of the Hawks to rescue Griffith from {{spoiler|his horrific year-long torture ordered by the King for having sex with his daughter}}. But when Griffith later does his infamous [[Face Heel Turn]], {{spoiler|she loses everyone in the Hawks to a whole mess of demons summoned by the evil Godhand, and then gets stripped naked by demons who have naughty tentacles in mind for her before being raped by the newly-transformed Griffith, who has joined the Godhand as their fifth member Femto, right in front of Guts, the man she loves, who is [[Forced to Watch]]}}. The horror of the experience [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation|completely shatters poor Casca's mind]] and leaves her [[Cute Mute|unable to speak]]. Needless to say, Guts is [[Unstoppable Rage|madder]] [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|than]] [[Berserk Button|hell]] at Griffith both for this and the betrayal that led up to it.

** Theresia, a twelve-year-old girl and the daughter of The Count, one of the early Apostles that Guts kills in the series, is a classic case of an innocent daughter sheltered from the world and wanting more than anything to be free of her "cage," as she explains to Puck, who the Count has captured and brought to her as a "pet." She tells Puck that her mother was killed by pagans, and her father became different ever since, almost like he wasn't even human anymore. When Guts's battle with the Count makes a wreck of the castle, the door to Theresia's room becomes undone, and Theresia can finally escape. {{spoiler|But when she arrives at her father's chamber, she is horrified upon seeing the monstrous Apostle form of her father, is taken hostage by Guts in a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] moment, and then is forced to watch as Guts puts him through the same torture that he puts other Apostles through. And then the Count's Behelit activates and the Godhand arrive. After a brief battle with Guts, Femto, the newest member of the Godhand, establishes his [[Complete Monster]] credentials in a big way by demanding that Theresia be sacrificed so that the Count can continue to live. And then, as Theresia watches in terror and horror, the other Godhands reveal to her the truth about her mother's fate -- that she had joined the pagans and was conducting an orgy in the Count's own castle when he arrived, that he found himself unable to kill her despite her utter betrayal, which drove him over the [[Despair Event Horizon]] and allowed the Godhand to show up, and that the Count himself sacrificed her in order to become a demon. This ordeal, along with having to watch her father get [[Dragged Off to Hell]] after refusing to sacrifice her, is enough to drive Theresia to attempt suicide, but she finds the will to live again when the ground below her gives way and she grabs Guts's outstretched [[BFS|Dragon Slayer]]. Poor little Theresia is left with an utter hatred for Guts, manifested in one of the scariest [[Death Glare|Death Glares]]s ever as she vows to kill him one day}}.

** {{spoiler|Arguably Nena Trinity fulfills this category herself [[Dark and Troubled Past|once we learn her and her brothers's backstories.]] The Trinity siblings are [[Artificial Human|Artificial Humans]]s only born and raised to be Gundam Meisters, and the DNA used to "create" them is... Ribbons Almark's own. And their "daddy" ultimately sets them up to kill them. While it's not an excuse, it ''does'' explain a lot, specially considering that [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones|the only persons they cared for were each other, and their mutual love was very genuine]].}}

* In ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'', [[Complete Monster|Johan]] is -- [[Manipulative Bastard|as noted]] -- especially—especially prone to doing this to his victims, even simply to screw with them. For example, in volume 12, sending an abandoned small boy to look for his mother, basically telling him that if he sees her, and she sees him, if she truly loves him and wants him she'll take him back {{spoiler|(naturally, Johan is crossdressing as the much more wholesome Anna at the time, making it that much creepier)}}. He sends him to look for his mother in ''the red light district of Prague'' -- where—where the boy witnesses rape, depravity, a drug addicted prostitute dying from withdrawal begging him for money and even the prostitutes themselves taunting him. {{spoiler|Tenma and Grimmer have to talk him out of jumping off a bridge after this. This still doesn't quite break the cutie. But it comes damn close. Mind you, this boy is perhaps 7 or 8}}.

*** Orihime sorta came pre-broken, though. Her parents were abusive drunkards, so her older brother Sora ran away with a toddler Orihime when he turned 18 and then went the [[Promotion to Parent]] way. He then was seriosuly injured right after their first and only fight, and Orihime took him to the Kurosaki clinic but Isshin couldn't do anything to save him -- andhim—and ''that'' is when she met Ichigo. Later she was had [[Traumatic Haircut|her hair forcibly cut]] by other girls, and Tatsuki stepped to help her. And after being more or less stable but still questioning her own worth and her growing feelings for Ichigo through the first arcs... well, the Hueco Mundo and Arrancar arcs came. She's more or less getting better, if the X-Cution arc is a lead.

** It's not quite the same as Jeri,but Keenan in ''[[Digimon Savers]]'' pretty much fits the bill. As a baby he falls into a gate to the Digiworld crying helplessly for hours. So he gets adopted by a Frigimon,that gets killed right in front of him via [[Complete Monster|Kurata]] and he's ''only'' 5. So he comes to think [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|Humans Are Bastards]] already. But even his own compatriots don't trust him and turn on him at proper excuse. Finally his father figure Merukimon also gets killed in front of him.

* ''[[Blood Plus+]]'' manages to break the same cutie ''twice'' courtesy of [[Easy Amnesia]]: Saya Otonashi starts out as a carefree young girl until {{spoiler|her twin sister Diva, who Saya had set loose,}} murders Saya's foster father Joel and everyone else who was attending his birthday party, turning Saya's entire life into a mission to hunt {{spoiler|Diva and her Chevaliers}} down and kill them. Then, after the Red Shield's disastrous meddling in Vietnam causes Saya to awaken in the present with no memories, Saya is once more a normal, cute [[Ordinary High School Student]]... who is forced to fight Chiropterans, manipulated by her enemies, and has to deal with realizing that she's not human. When {{spoiler|Diva rapes and murders Saya's adopted little brother Riku}}, Saya has a full-blown [[Heroic BSOD]].

** Chiriko, Chiriko, Chiriko. This is a ten-year-old boy who initially [[Refusal of the Call|Refused the Call]] when he realized he was a designated Suzaku warrior, because he was terrified of going to war (like any normal child would be). His final fate, in which {{spoiler|HE STABS HIMSELF IN THE CHEST as a [[Taking You with Me]] attack on an enemy warrior}}, is so heartbreaking that even his adult comrades Tasuki and Mitsukake are brought to tears by witnessing it.

* Misuzu from ''[[AIR]]'' arguably qualifies, since a lot of time and effort is put into presenting her as a sweet, lovable, although somewhat peculiar girl -- onlygirl—only to {{spoiler|have her suffer enormous pain in the last few episodes and die in the arms of her adoptive mother, her aunt Haruko. Her final moments are still [[Tear Jerker|gruesomely beautiful]], though}}.

* Both Rue and Fakir have this as part of their backstories in ''[[Princess Tutu]]''. In a flashback, we see Fakir as a cheerful, imaginative child -- inchild—in stark contrast to his [[Ineffectual Loner]] personality in the main part of the story. It's revealed that a mixture of his parent's deaths {{spoiler|because of his powers}} and stress over feeling responsible for Mytho's safety slowly wore on him until he became the [[Jerkass]] we see at the beginning of the story. Rue, herself, is shown as being sweet and caring as a child, but [[The Ojou|snobby and harsh]] when she's older (to the point where she insists on being called Rue-sama/Lady Rue). ''Her'' personality change is revealed to be the result of {{spoiler|constant emotional abuse from her father, the Raven.}} It only gets worse in the second season, when {{spoiler|Mytho}} begins to physically abuse her and manipulate her.

* Pretty much every likable character from ''[[Now and Then Here and There|Now and Then, Here and There]]'' -- but—but especially Sara, who, after being mistaken for Lala Ru, gets {{spoiler|abducted, beaten, and repeatedly raped, eventually committing murder in order to escape into the desert with no supplies, where she ends up buried in a sandstorm. She survives that only to later learn one of the rapes got her pregnant. She eventually chose to keep the child.}}.

* In ''[[Chirin no Suzu]]'' a lamb named Chirin starts out as cute, friendly, and happy go lucky until his mother is killed by a wolf, so he seeks revenge but realizes that he's too small and weak to do any damage so he convinces the wolf to become his apprentice and he goes through [[Training Fromfrom Hell]] until he becomes a deformed ruthless killing machine.

* As mentioned in passing above, Kimihiro Watanuki from ''[[xxxHolic×××HOLiC]]'' starts the story as a cheerful guy prone to humorously spazzing out but very well-adjusted for someone whose parents [[Heartwarming Orphan|died when he was a little kid]] and who ''sees and [[Weirdness Magnet|attracts monsters]] that try to eat him''. This is mostly played for laughs in the beginning, but gets progressively more serious, until the [[The Reveal|traumatic revelations]] [[Deus Angst Machina|start to pile up]] and he ends up realizing {{spoiler|he may not even be real}}. Apart from several near-death experiences {{spoiler|one of them [[It Makes Sense in Context|unconsciously]] self-induced}}, having {{spoiler|an eye eaten by a monster and losing the mobility of one finger}}, and seeing {{spoiler|his mentor and mother figure}} die before his eyes after his surrogate family of sorts {{spoiler|disappears without a trace}}. [[CLAMP]] mass-produce [[The Woobie|woobies]].

*** Possible? Gaara was six years old when he realized that no one loved him. His father hated him for his inability to control Shukaku, his uncle hated him because Gaara's mother, his sister, died in childbirth, everyone else hates him because he's a "monster" ... he himself tries to hurt himself (in the flashback, he's trying to stab himself, and is disappointed when it doesn't work; later, he cries after being called a freak). His uncle tries to murder him {{spoiler|-- on his father's orders, which he actually questioned --}} and Gaara kills him in self-defense. He is effectively abandoned by everyone who should have cared. And the result? Sociopath at six, after he realigns his life's philosophy to fit with what he's learned; and serial killer by twelve, after he puts that philosophy into effect. No wonder he latched on to the idea of Shukaku as a "Mother" -- the—the demon was the only thing making any effort to protect him (and even it was only doing so out of self-interest). When you've been starved for love all your life, anything will do. Even after he reforms (which Naruto brings about by giving him a good heart-to-heart talk about caring for others) and builds a family with his brother and sister, he is still haunted by his past -- listenpast—listen to what he says to Lee after saving him from Kimimaro, or what he says to Matsuri in what was one of the few good scenes in that filler arc. Six years of solid hate and horror? I'd call that broken. {{spoiler|Made all the more meaningful by him ''actually getting much better'' in the current arc. Specially now that he can call out his old man on all the shit he did to him, leading the Kazekage to aknowledge said shit and telling hi that Shukaku's sand ''was'' sorta directed by his mom's spirit.}}

* Tomoya Okazaki from ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]'' becomes [[The Woobie]] because of this. I mean, first {{spoiler|his wife dies, then his daughter dies, and they were the only reasons he wanted to continue living. Then he dies alongside his own daughter. Of course, they all got better}}.

* In ''[[MPD Psycho]]'', a [[Serial Killer]] kidnaps the girlfriend of the lead detective investigating his case, mutilates her, rapes her repeatedly (in that order), then delivers her -- limblessher—limbless but still alive -- directlyalive—directly to the detective's office.

* [[Adorably Precocious Child|Negi]] of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'': his [[Doomed Hometown|hometown]] gets destroyed by demons at age four or so, and at age ten he ends not only with the responsibility of protecting his students after they get [[Trapped in Another World]] (and sold into slavery, get amnesia, and [[Clear My Name|framed for terrorism]]), but he discovers that {{spoiler|his mother was framed for ''genocide'', and the people who did it are trying to kill him. And then there's the whole "having to prevent the magic world from collapsing" thing...}} Fortunately, all the crap that happens to him only [[Took a Level Inin Badass|drives him to become stronger]].

*** Of course, neither had it as bad as Alucard himself… {{spoiler|with his captivity and rape as a child}}. Quite honestly, he was a goddamn saint for Christendom throughout his entire life and was ''very'' repeteadly screwed over. [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice|He might have very questionable hobbies]], [[Knight Templar|but was very much]] [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|a warrior of Christ]]. And the manga makes his position very, very clear in the scene of his human form's death, with him kneeling to lap at the blood of his homeland. The man, the most devout of the knights of God, stripped of literally ''everything'' that ever meant anything to him and left to see as the enemies of his faith are left to ravage his beloved homeland. And today, readers would bet ''every single one of you, reading this article, has only known Vlad III of Wallachia as '''Dracula'''.'' A ''monster''. [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters]].

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120731043116/http://courtintrigue.proboards.com/index.cgi Court Intrigue], a ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' RPG set in the 30th Century, has a race of aliens called the Argenians who have their planet destroyed. Among the survivors are 8-year-old [[Cute Mute|Mirek]] and 9-year-old [[Bratty Half-Pint|Keiki]]. The former becomes a [[Dumb Struck|mute]] and latter starts to act out because the events are so upsetting.

** Similarly there is Homura Akemi. {{spoiler|Whom is caught in a brutal and [[Tear Jerker|depressing]] [[Groundhog Day Loop]] of her own making. With no means of escaping, so far.}} In fact, [[Moe|compare]] [[Meganekko|Past]] [[Shrinking Violet|Ho]][[Adorkable|mu]][[Ill Girl|ra]] with [[Took a Level Inin Badass|Pre]][[Clark Kenting|sent]] [[Ice Queen|Frost]][[The Stoic|y]] [[Combat Pragmatist|Ho]][[Broken Bird|mu]][[Crazy Awesome|ra.]] [[Stoic Woobie|Quiet as she is, somewhere in her, she is crying.]]

* In ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]''. [[Yandere|Russia]] was already under Tatar's rule which, according to [[Hot Amazon|Hungary]] and [[The Woobie|Lithuania's]] pity for him, is a bad situation to be in. But Russia's most noticeable [[Freak-Out]] takes place during the [[Meaningful Name|Bloody]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20100213102502/http://aph.starry-sky.com/russ.html Sunday] strip. Russia is doing his best to try and make the people in his country happy, but they aren't satisfied. In this particular strip, the people are protesting, and demanding freedom and higher wages. {{spoiler|Russia can take no more of the people blaming him for everything, but manages to endure it. However, when the Romanovs are killed, he horribly snaps.}}