Crapsack World/Anime and Manga: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's]]'' has Satellite, where Yusei has lived a hard life. This changes later on in the series.{{spoiler|The post-apocalyptic world Z-one, Antimony, Paradox and Aporia come from is also this.}}

* [[Highschool of the Dead]] is an animated version of George Romero's [[Night of the Living Dead]] on a worldwide scale. Being a badass is a survival requirement, the zombie (called Them) hordes never seem to completely go away, and the best you can hope for is to hold them off long enough to survive another day.

* ''[[Mirai Nikki]]''. For perspective, the [[Moral Event Horizon|former]] most sympathetic character, the [[Woobie]] lead, was last seen {{spoiler|massacring orphans in a desperate attempt to bring his dead parents back to life. His father killed his mother, and then his father was killed by the mob.}} The second most sympathetic character is a full-blown terrorist [[Mad Bomber]].

** The [[Toku]] style Hero of Justice is a vigilante psychopath.

* Between the warmongering kingdoms and their [[Aristocrats Are Evil|corrupt nobility]], the [[Corrupt Church|heresy-crushing Holy See]], and [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|the evil Godhand]] [[The Legions of Hell|and their ravenous demonic Apostles]], life in the world of ''[[Berserk]]'' really, really, really, really, really, [[Overly Long Gag|really]] sucks hardcore. [[Cosmic Horror Story|The world seems to exist only to make people as miserable as possible and to give the demons somewhere to play]]; humanity exists so that the demons have something to play with. The biggest idealist in the entire setting (who is ''anything'' but altruistic and is quite willing to use ruthless methods to accomplish his dream) snapped under the pressure and is now the [[Big Bad]].

** The demons get screwed, too. The price that people pay to become demons, in addition to sacrificing the people closest to them, is a guaranteed trip to Hell after they die. Hell is a nightmarish vortex of damned souls that drags your spirit into it, where you suffer indescribable pain and torment until all traces of your being has been utterly consumed in a sea of eternal suffering. And thanks to {{spoiler|Griffith/Femto taking advantage of the Skull Knight's dimension warping attack, [[It Got Worse|that Hell has literally broken loose]]}}.

* ''[[Claymore]]'' is in much the same boat as ''Berserk'' above, as far as ravenous, human-eating monsters are concerned (there are lots of them and they are pretty much unstoppable for normal humans), but normal people tend to be, on average, significantly nicer than they are in ''Berserk''. ''Just by a bit.'' But then the heroines find out that {{spoiler|everyone on their island, demons, Awakened Beings, and Claymores alike, are being manipulated so that they can become perfect weapons to fight the truly horrific monsters on the mainland}}.

** However, there are the Seven Ghosts of Pieta which are trying to change the continent, either by killing an [[Eldritch Abomination]] greater than the others (Priscilla for Clare), or is leading a full scale rebellion against the Organization (Miria). So far...both seem to be succeeding.

** In the main timeline Earth is implied to be one of the few places other than the afterlife exempt from this. The galaxy at large is a [[Crapsack World]], because its most politically powerful resident is a [[Complete Monster]] who [[Oh Crap|correctly]] believes that [[A God Am I|he is the strongest being in the universe.]] So you have someone more evil than anyone in human history [[Earthshattering Kaboom|who is his own Death Star]] and who's been running around the galaxy for decades doing whatever he likes because there's nothing anyone can possibly do to stop him or even ''scratch'' him. {{spoiler|Until Goku goes Super Saiyan.}}

* Most of the stories in [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s ''[[Phoenix]]'' series. The historical chapters feature a decidedly unromantic depiction of feudal Japan full of war, famine, disease, filth, corruption, death & copious amounts of mutilation with sharp objects. But at least the characters in those stories had [[Scenery Porn|the breathtaking beauty of nature]] to raise their spirits. Those who have the misfortune of being born in this world's bleak, [[Zeerust]]ed future get no such luck. In addition to having all the above mentioned problems, the world is ecologically screwed, full of [[Fantastic Racism|bigots]] who mistreat [[Cloning Blues|clones]] and robots, and occasionally ruled by an [[Corrupt Church|oppressive theocracy]]. After people start piling into rocket ships to escape this awful mess, the Earth eventually faces an immigration crisis when the space colonists & their children start coming back in droves because most of the other planets in the universe are even ''worse'' than the world that they left! When humanity finally goes extinct in the (chronologically) final chapter, it comes as something of a relief.

** The planet is actually {{spoiler|Earth, 10 billion years in the future. The sun is expanding into a red giant and will eventually destroy the world.}}

* The post-apocalyptic wasteland that is the world of ''[[Fist of the North Star]]''. If you're an [[Muggles|Average Joe/Jane]], you're a (literally) dirt-poor peasant scraping by on your meager provisions. You'll be constantly on the lookout for roving brigands who, if you're lucky, will steal all of your possessions, effectively sentencing you to death in the desert wasteland, and savagely beat you. If unlucky, you'll be murdered, [[Rape as Drama|and possibly raped as well]] if you're female. Also, you must worry about power-mad martial artists enslaving you and your loved ones and slaughtering you on a whim as they set to establish themselves or their empire. And just to make things worse, this ''isn't'' one of those nuclear [[After the End]] series that forgot about fallout; if you don't starve and aren't murdered, you might end up with radiation sickness. If you happen to practice the series' brand of martial arts, odds are you'll fare little better. If you're a low-level villain/lackey, you'll undoubtedly fall under the [[Your Head Asplode|head-detonating]] protagonist, Kenshiro, or possibly to another "good guy" after you [[Kick the Dog|kick one dog too many]]. If a low-level hero, you must constantly battle thugs, and there's no telling when one of the previously mentioned power-mad martial artists (who will be light years beyond your ability) will carve a swath of destruction through your homeland, either killing, enslaving, or imprisoning you. If a high level villain, odds are even greater that you'll be killed by Kenshiro, though there is a rare chance of being killed by another high-profile martial artist (such as Rei or Toki). Finally, Kenshiro, the protagonist, has arguably the worst fate of any character in the series. He loses his father; {{spoiler|all three of his brothers}} - granted he kills one of them, {{spoiler|(Jagi)}}; {{spoiler|his best friend Shin}}, who was corrupted by {{spoiler|Jagi}}; and virtually all of his other friends. The "off into the sunset" ending with him and his lover, Yuria, is rendered bittersweet when it's revealed {{spoiler|Yuria is dying of radiation poisoning and has a limited time left to live.}}

* The [[Nasuverse]] is pretty crappy. Between the vampires, which- apart from only one or two exceptions- are most definitely ''not'' [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampire|friendly]], and other supernatural creatures, ordinary humans are constantly being killed and having their life sucked out of them. The only people who oppose the vampires are an order of [[Church Militant]] [[Knight Templar|Knights Templar]] who kill anything [[Fantastic Racism|nonhuman regardless of threat]] and aren't too concerned about killing innocent bystanders, and a cabal of power hungry mages, most of whom are only interested in their own research, and the only reason they fight the vampires at all is to [[The Masquerade|preserve the secrecy of magic]]. In fact, some mages kill people in the course of their experiments, and for the most part, as long as they kill any witnesses to prevent discovery, they won't suffer any penalties. But even the mages have it bad; the Mage's Association has an established aristocracy, and those who aren't part of it are basically second class citizens. And anyone who makes a ground-breaking discovery will receive a sealing designation, which is a polite way of saying that they'll be locked up for the rest of their lives and experimented on. Oh, and if all that wasn't bad enough, the entire human race is ultimately doomed, and there's nothing anyone can do stop it.

* [[Loveless]] takes place in a rather shitty world. To put things into perspective- almost all of our main characters are or were abused children and are severely emotionally fucked up; even people on the 'good guy' side do very bad things (Ritsu-sensei, anyone?); the few decent people who try to help are useless; kids as young as twelve get dragged into presumably-very-dangerous spell battles Seven Moons Academy gets attacked and the ones dealing with the resulting mess are the ''students''; and, at least for now, [[The Bad Guy Wins]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:{{SUBPAGENAME}}]]