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 In Badass|toughen up]] the hard way, [[Sugar and Ice Girl|but without tossing all of her feelings away]].

** Let's not forget ''how'' she got {{spoiler|that secret: by having it ''forcibly tattooed on her back''}}. And Roy later had to {{spoiler|add more scars by burning said back so no one would be able to discover it.}}

*** The identity of the Rockbells' killer differs between [[Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime)|the 2003 anime version]] and the manga/Brotherhood anime. A young and traumatized {{spoiler|Roy}} in the first series, {{spoiler|Scar}} in the manga/Brotherhood. But it's played amazingly both times.

** Also Ed and Al, in all cotinuities. They started out with a happy family, but then Daddy left {{spoiler|for very good reasons}}, Mommy died, they attempted to bring back Mommy only to fail and mutilate themselves in the process. And THAT'S all before the story even begins. [[It Got Worse|Whoa boy]]!

** Aside from this, averted with Lulu, who {{spoiler|sees all of the other Schiff die off in ones and twos, and faces her own premature death from the Thorn.}} Despite this, she remains [[Genki Girl|happy and chipper]], and {{spoiler|eventually they find her a cure.}}

*** Pulled yet again in regards to Haji. Through a flashback, it is shown that the reason he went from being somewhat stoic to made of stone was because {{spoiler|his blood turned his One True Love and reason for living into a murdering psychopath who forgot who he was and ''cut his arm off'' during her rampage.}}

* ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'' revolves around this trope. Yui is raped basically within 5 minutes of her second trip there, and becomes a vengeful, hateful villainess, primarily because of her {{spoiler|bishonen bodyguard Nakago, who warped her mind to the point where she blames her best friend Miaka for the rape, since she wasn't there to help her. Eventually, it turns out that Yui was never actually raped, but the entire thing was a [[Gambit Roulette|ridiculously complicated plan]] by Nakago to pit them against each other as a part of a larger plan to stage a coup in Genbu. Later he tries to rape Miaka as well but fails, though he ''does'' get her to believe that it happened until someone else explains the mess.}}

** Also, that whole arc where {{spoiler|Yui drugs Tamahome to make him betray Miaka, who was temporarily broken until she breaks the spell with [[The Power of Love]]. Then, Miaka's own mistakes make everything ''worse'' for her, Tamahome, and their friends}}

** Chiriko, Chiriko, Chiriko. This is a ten-year-old boy who initially [[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 (Visual Novel)|AIR]]'' arguably qualifies, since a lot of time and effort is put into presenting her as a sweet, lovable, although somewhat peculiar girl -- 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}}.

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'''s plot [[Deus Angst Machina|tortures]] its already troubled protagonist Shinji to the point of snapping into a psychological breakdown for two whole episodes and/[[Gainax Ending|or]] {{spoiler|destroying humanity}}. Not to mention doing something similar to [[Dysfunction Junction|almost every single other character]]. Let's just face it, at some point the writers sat down and said 'okay, we need to break every single character by the end of this series. Any ideas?' It's particularly heartbreaking when we're shown a flashback of a toddler Shinji right before witnessing the death of his mother: a young child who's smiling and constantly laughing, without a hint of bitterness and actually seeming outgoing. His 'break the cutie' process started at 4 years old and just kept going downhill... [[It Gets Worse|really downhill...]]

* ''[[Baccano (Light Novel)|Baccano!]]'' does this to Czeslaw Meyer, a [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|seemingly]] [[Adorably Precocious Child]] who ends up getting his limbs torn off, shot in the face, and having all sorts of other unpleasant things happen to him. [[Good Thing You Can Heal|Good thing he can heal]]... [[A Fate Worse Than Death|or not]].

** After gaining immortality, Czeslaw was brutally tortured for several hundred years. When he finally snapped and killed his torturer, he gained his memories - [[Mind Rape|meaning that he now has hundreds years of memories of being tortured and torturing himself]].

* Cream gets one of these in ''[[Sonic X]]'' after the {{spoiler|robot Emerl whom she rescued and made friends with goes crazy}} under the power of [[Green Rocks]], tries to attack her mother and then beats the living heck out of Sonic, who [[Taking the Bullet|got in the way]] while Cream was trying to reason with him and he went for her instead. A distraught Cream then {{spoiler|has to destroy Emerl herself}}. Being who she is, however, she gets over it, to an extent.

** Cosmo can be considered this as well, except that she was damn well broken to begin with, what with having her entire home and family destroyed right in front of her, crash landing on another planet being {{spoiler|used as an unwitting spy by the enemy she was trying to fight against and ending up stuck in a situation which meant she either lost her sight and hearing or the bad guys kept watching... Not to mention the fact that the bad guys turned out to actually ''be'' her species with their leader quite possibly [[I Am Your Father|being her father]],}} and having the worst case of survivor's guilt ''ever'' encountered in a series aimed at an under-teen demographic. {{spoiler|And has to force her boyfriend to kill her, which counts as a ''double'' [[Break the Cutie]] between them.}}

* When we first meet ''[[Bitter Virgin]]'''s sixteen-year-old Hinako Aikawa, she had already endured serious [[Abusive Parents|sexual abuse]] from her stepfather. Abuse which [[Adults Are Useless|her mother refused to acknowledge was happening]] until it got Hinako pregnant for the ''second time''. Readers saw these events transpire in a flashback that occurred while Hinako was in the process of being raped ''again'' by a random molester. Fortunately, ''that'' time she was rescued, and the series as a whole focuses on Hinako's recovery from these traumas.

* In ''[[Vampire Princess Miyu]]'', not only [[Dark Magical Girl|Miyu]] is an already broken cutie who {{spoiler|had her powers awaken when someone came to kill her and she had to bite him to survive, then saw her parents be captured and put in suspended animation when her mom tried to [[Screw Destiny]] and not have Miyu become the Shinma Guardian}}, but she actively seeks out pretty people who have been through extreme suffering and pain in their pasts, so she can offer them [[Kiss of the Vampire|a blood contract]]: they give her their blood, she eases their pain through placing them in a [[Lotus Eater Machine|dream-like trance]]. {{spoiler|Unless they ''still'' have things to do and people are suffering because of them, like the third OAV shows}}.

** Gluhen claims another one in short order. Sena Izumi, the idealistic, hotheaded, optimistic addition to Weiss {{spoiler|is revealed to have found his sister's dead body, heard the gunshot that killed his father, and then while cowering in a closet had the gun turned on him by their murderer--his mother, who then goes missing. During the Koua mission, he proceeds to get broken even more by losing Nozomi, a friend he'd sworn to protect, to brainwashing-induced suicide--right in front of him, even; Kyou, another member of Weiss whom he had begun to think of as an older brother; be manipulated into killing his uncle; finally find his mother...and then is promptly shot in the chest by her. He dies in Aya's arms after apologizing for being unable to kill her first.}}

* ''[[Barefoot Gen]]'' seems to be leading towards this for Gen and all of his family, given that they're a family of war protestors in World War II era Japan... specifically, Hiroshima. They're mocked for being traitors, refused food, Gen's father is arrested and beaten, have their field of wheat which is the only hope they had of not starving destroyed, Gen's sister is accused of stealing money and stripped naked, the sweet potatoes they get from some friends in the countryside are taken away when a policeman accuses them of buying them on the black market, and plenty of other constant insults by their neighbors and times when they almost starve to death. Then the atomic bomb goes off. This finally breaks Gen's mother, {{spoiler|who has to watch her husband, son, and daughter burn to death in the remains of her house. She does get better, though.}}

** Don't forget about Chibiusa in the Black Moon arc, or Hotaru, since she was born. No wonder these two are BFFs.

** An even stronger Usagi example is during the third season. {{spoiler|It's Usagi's birthday, but her boyfriend doesn't remember, so she slaps him and spends a few hours feeling extremely guilty, then realizes she never told him her birthday in the first place. He makes up for it by buying her the glass shoes she wanted... which turn out to be possessed by a [[Monster of the Week|Daimohn]] after her [[Anatomy of the Soul|Pure Heart]]. Worse, judging by the sheer shininess of her Pure Heart, which is pretty damn bright, she might just be the possessor of a talisman. Tuxedo Mask comes to her rescue, but her broach is stolen by Kaolinite so she can't transform, and it's only a matter of time before the Daimon tracks her down. Usagi, Tuxedo Mask, Kaolinite, and the Daimon end up facing off in an under ground parking garage, where Tuxedo Mask is turned into a glass sculpture and Kaolinite gets away with him and her broach. Kaolinite uses the two of them for ransom, and Usagi ends up going to Tokyo Tower and offering her Pure Heart up. It turns out it isn't a talisman and everything's okay in the end - heck, Uranus and Neptune even managed to kill off Kaolinite - but it was sure a hellish day for Usagi. Oh, and to top it off, the glass shoes Mamoru bought her broke.}}

** The anime may remove one or two things, but it's still '''not''' easy to deal with. First, {{spoiler|Galaxia releases Nehelenia, who then sets up a whole world takeover that has her transforming people into [[Empty Shell|empty shells]], which includes Mamoru too. Then the scouts are captured one by one and sealed away in mirrors, while Usagi sets out to release Mamoru and face Nehelenia despite having lost a good part of her powers. She then almost is mindwiped, and how she gets released? By seeing Jupiter's rose earring fall to the ground ''after Jupiter is tortured to near death by Nehelenia'' and then is captured. When Usagi gets better, she reaches Nehelenia's lair...and since Mamoru is brainwashed and has forgotten abut her and Chibiusa, poor Chibiusa is killed/written out of existence in Usagi's arms. It takes Usagi ''all'' of her willpower and then ''redeeming'' Nehelenia (another broken cutie in this particular continuity) to fix all of this shit.}} And ''then'' {{spoiler|the incident that kills Mamoru happens, but Usagi wasn't there to witness it, thus the poor kid believes that Mamoru is way too busy to contact her in the States. She lives her life as much as she can, [[Stepford Smiler|hiding her bad feelings]] as she fights alongside her Seishi and the Starlights, but the truth starts to surface slowly.}} And soon afterwards, {{spoiler|Princess Kakyuu reappears only to die protecting Usagi and the Starlights, then Galaxia invades and kills the Inner Seishi in front of Usagi and the Starlights...only to drop a huge bomb by showing Usagi Mamoru's starseed, the proof that she killed him. And then comes Haruka and Michiru's [[Fake Defector]] act where they kill Hotaru and Setsuna in front of Usagi again, then die as they fail to bring down Galaxia. Again, it's a wonder that Usagi isn't driven insane, and that she manages to ultimately get better.}}

* ''[[One Piece (Manga)|One Piece]]'': Almost every time a Strawhat Pirate member has a flashback. The combination of Oda's skill at drawing cute kids and writing cruel back stories is just plain lethal.

*** Actually, if you think about everything that has happened in the series, Naruto kinda qualified as a 'break the cutie' from the outset. First, his {{spoiler|father}} sealed a demon inside him as the nly way t save their village, his parents are dead, and he grows up ostracised by the entire village. Then, finally, when things start looking up, his best friend decides to turn on him, cue battling with the power inside him for control, his best friend tries to kill his love interest, tries to destroy his village, and everyone is trying to get him to kill said best friend. And {{spoiler|his parents gave their lives}} to save him when he was a baby, and he was made to house the Kyuubi inside of him, {{spoiler|the very same Kyuubi that his mother housed for a time, killed his parents, and tried to kill him}}. Really not fun.

** The same can't be said for Sasuke though. Despite how he is now, in flashbacks he was shown to be a cute, naive kid. Until Itachi murdered their family... and then [[Mind Rape|showed it to him]]... twice. The second time leading to his [[Face Heel Turn]].

** Another possible candidate is Gaara (hear me out). He was initially a kind-hearted child who just wanted some friends. Then he killed the one person he cared for because they were trying to kill him (on Gaara's dad's orders, no less,) due to the beast within him was something the village would rather forget. we've seen how this turns out...

*** 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 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 -- 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.}}

** There's a few other characters too, such as Freckles/Doll from the circus arc.

** Elizabeth in chapter 57.

** Oh yes, did I mention that Neo Queen Serenity, King Endymion, Sailor Venus, Sailor Mars, and Artemis all get killed and they don't get better? You can imagine what this does to (Chibi) Usagi and Diana.

* [[Rozen Maiden]]: Suigintou. In Overature, she starts out a very friendly doll {{spoiler|despite the fact that her father abandoned her (incomplete) and she's been literally crawling through N-Fields to find him. She happens to find Shinku, who takes her in and acts as if she cares. However, once Sugintou is killed the first time by Souseseki, Shinku reveals that Sugintou is not a complete doll, and looks on coldly as Sugintou begs Shinku to save her. Shinku refers to her as junk several times. Sugintou comes back, because Rozen decided to quit being a Jerkass, and tries to grab Shinku's Roza Mystica.}}

** White gets hit ''hard'' as {{spoiler|N reveals to her that her star Tepig actress may have never shared her dreams alongside of her. When White tries to jump out of the Ferris Wheel car that she is currently stuck inside, Gigi decides to stay with N. The shock makes her slip out and fall, and she ends up on the ground, barely conscious, with her eyes full of tears}}.

* The title character from ''[[Kimba the White Lion]]'' also had it pretty rough. Before he even was born, his father was shot by hunters, while his still pregnant mother was put on a boat to become a zoo animal. After several weeks Kimba was born, a storm was coming right towards the boat, so his mother forced him to leave her behind while she drowns in her cage. [[Downer Beginning|Not the smoothest way to start out a series]].

** Also said older sister Sango. The poor girl is as plucky as she can be after witnessing how poor Kohaku was [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] into killing their dad and almost killing her, but seeing Kohaku lose his memories upon all of this shit and not being able to remember her ''because it'd mean he'd also remember killing their dad and friends''... it often ends up breaking her into tears. It's not helped by how her [[Chivalrous Pervert]] love interest, Miroku, is getting closer and closer to fall victim to [[Power Incontinence]].

** Kagome doesn't have it easy either. She witnesses a good part of Sango's breaking process, is confronted by her [[Dark Magical Girl]] past self [[Always Someone Better|who is more expert and skilled that she is]], doesn't know what her real place in the world is as she goes back and forth in past and present, and Naraku often '''directly''' seeks to break her mind. [[The Scrappy|But her haters refuse to see it and cal her "whiny", "bitch", "whore", and "jerk".]]

** As much as every magical girl here (save Madoka to a degree, she has [[Desperately Looking for A Purpose In Life|other issues]]) seems to have it... they have gotten past what broken them, mind you [[Broken Bird|that doesn't really help much.]]. '''Sayaka Miki''' here takes the prize on this trope for the show so far... since well, {{spoiler|[[Love Makes You Evil|Love, and]] [[Love Hurts|the grief]] [[Did Not Get the Girl|that]] [[Despair Event Horizon|follows,]] [[Love Makes You Evil|makes you]] '''[[Start of Darkness|Evil]]'''.}}

** 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 In 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.]]

* Reika Kitami, the main villain of the ''Bible Black'' series experiences this in the Prequel. When she first arrives in high school, she's a sweet, [[Wide Eyed Idealist]] who bonds with a puppy, who wouldn't hurt a fly unless pushed, and is absolutely pure sexually and mentally. Unfortunately, these make her the prime target of the Rose Cross Coven (a cabal of 7 high school girls who practice black magic to make money and to hurt people they don't like). She also angers Kozono Nami, the school's resident [[Rich Bitch]], [[Alpha Bitch]], and [[Psycho Lesbian]] by refusing her advances. The result? First, the puppy she bonded with is used as a sacrifice, than she gets raped by a bunch of thugs (loosing her virginity in the most horrible way possible short of being tentacle raped), then she gets knocked out and wakes up on a human sacrifice alter in the school basement. While all this is going on, she's not only physically and emotionally traumatized, terrified and likely in shock, but doesn't even have any idea what the hell is going on. After getting stabbed... repeatedly... with a very large sword, she witnesses the rest of the cult members getting massacred by Nami after the ritual fails (since Kitami was no longer a virgin). After summoning the last of her strength to kill Nami she collapses mortally wounded. At this point, the Devil offers her a contract to save her life. At this point, Kitami is simply so terrified and in agony/shock that she accepts it without question. The very final scene in the prequal shows Kitami walking into the sunrise with a vacant grin, on a residential street... naked... and covered in blood.

** And if that wasn't bad enough, the process is repeated on Imari in the original series. Imari starts out exactly as Reika did. Cute, sweet, innocent high school girl, with an apparently reciprocated crush on the primary male protagonist, Minase. As soon as Minase finds the Black Bible used by the original Rose Cross Coven, it all just goes badly for Imari. It begins with her walking in on Minase having sex with another female student (after he invited her to come over and cook diner for him in the first place), she gets kidnapped by the new coven (Now taken over by Reika) thanks to Minase (who has become the 2nd under Reika after his own magical mind break), is drugged and subsequently forcibly sodomized by a [[Charm Person|magically]] [[Playing With Puppets|controlled]] but fully aware/struggling Minase. Then gang sodomized by numerous other anonymous men AND the demonically "gifted" Reika, then has her actual virginity taken by Reika as part of the ritual attempted with her in the prequel. By the end of the series, Imari is pretty much [[Empty Shell|gone]] with Reika having [[Demonic Possession|taken over her body]] completely. Don't think it gets more broken than that.

** Also, in the fanmade game ''[[Heta Oni]]'', {{spoiler|Italy}} is broken quite a few times, {{spoiler|because everyone continues to die while trying to protect him, and he has to watch it all. [[And I Must Scream|Again, and again, and again, and again...]]}}

* ''[[No 6|No. 6]]'': Sion in the Correctional facility during episode 10.