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Crapsack World/Anime and Manga: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
* The [[Cosmic Horror Story]] that is ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. After half of us have died and the Earth was left a wasted place, what was left of Humanity is left in a post-apocalyptic death race against the [[Eldritch Abomination|Angels]]. The only means of defense is to send what few children were born at the right time out in gigantic Angel-derived Evangelions. But it's actually worse than that. The children who are supposed to pilot the Evangelions [[Dysfunction Junction|are traumatized, broken, neurotic and mentally unstable]] to begin with, and the rest of the cast is growing to be increasingly generally bitter, psychologically incompetent, and pessimistic. Also, the entirety of existence basically revolves around the Hedgehog's Dilemma, which is the philosophical notion that if you go near other people, you become Hell to them and they become Hell to you, but when you go far from them, you cannot survive. As time passes, the dysfunction and insanity [[It Got Worse|only gets much more worse]] in scenes that [[Mind Rape|are more and more]] [[Go Mad
* ''[[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.
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* 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]]}}.
*** You can't expect much else in a world where {{spoiler|[[God Is Evil|God "it"self was created as a result of humans subconsciously wishing for a cause to their misery]], and has been busy being that cause ever since; it even calls itself "the Idea of Evil"}}. This setting is perhaps the closest we have to ''[[Warhammer
* ''[[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.
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** 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 war-torn desert planet that ''[[Now and Then, Here and There]]'' takes place on, mostly because it's a (slightly) exaggerated version of modern Africa.
** 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.}}
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[[Category:Crapsack World]]▼
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