Downer Ending/Anime and Manga: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* [[Go Nagai]] seems to be fond of this. Half of his series have a [[Downer Ending]] (and the other half a [[Bittersweet Ending]]):

** One of the classic manga downer endings was ''[[Devilman]],'' which ended with the main character losing everything and everyone he loved (including his [[Plucky Girl]] girlfriend, [[Family-Unfriendly Death|savagely dismembered by a psychotic mob of humans]]), losing the final battle between his army of devilmen and Satan's army of demons and ending up ripped in half by Satan, who was really his best friend Ryou ([[Foe Yay|who was in love with him]]), and quite dead. And humanity probably got all but wiped out, although it doesn't go into great detail about that. The sequel series, ''[[Violence Jack]]'' was, if anything, even ''nastier''.

** As for ''[[Violence Jack]]''. It turns out that the title character is Devilman Reborn, the main bad guy is created to TORTURE SATAN, created by Satan himself, and it ends with Satan and Devilman getting ready for round 2.

** The original ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' ended with {{spoiler|Kouji killing Dr. Hell. However, the Mykene Empire -that had been awaiting for one of their enemies destroying the other- struck inmediately, razing to rubble several major cities -New York, London, Paris, Moscow and Tokyo-, bringing down the Photon Power Research Institute, destroying Diana-A, Boss Borot and Mazinger-Z itself. Kouji almost died, and he was saved by Tetsuya Tesurugi pulling off a [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment with ''[[Great Mazinger]]''. The series ended with the humanity on the brink of being wiped out as several characters told Mazinger-Z was now useless. And later, in ''[[Great Mazinger]]'', Dr. Hell returned, showing Kouji's efforts and struggle had been all for nothing.}} It was even worse in several retelling of the series.

** In ''[[Shin Mazinger Zero]]'', the characters are locked in a [[Groundhog Day]] time loop where {{spoiler|Mazinger-Z has became a demon/EldritchAbomination and destroyed the world.}} It has happened 2,977 times so far...

* Another infamous one is Osamu Tezuka's ''Jungle Taitei'', known to the rest of the world as ''[[Kimba the White Lion]]''. Remember in the original anime about the fun adventures of Leo and Lyra? In the end of the manga and the 1997 movie adaptation, Lyra dies of a plague and Leo sacrifices himself to save his human companion in the middle of a blizzard. HUGELY subverted in the anime sequel ''Leo the Lion'' to the original anime.

* ''L/R Licensed by Royalty'' ended with at least one, if not both, of the main characters pointlessly dying within the literal last minute of the show. Much screaming and ranting from this editor ensued.

* There are no happy endings in ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]''. The conspiracies are stopped and life goes on, but the whole thing will get covered up and most of the villains go free. Not much left to do than count the losses and cleaning up the mess.

* The ''[[Suzuka]]'' manga takes a sharp turn from what had previously been a ''[[Love Hina]]''-esque Romantic Comedy after an unplanned pregnancy results in the couple contemplating an abortion before deciding against it, backing out of college and a promising career in track and field for the both of them so that the male protagonist may become a salaryman while the female stays home and cares for the baby. To top it off, the male protagonist's rival and the character who had perpetually played second banana to him in track go on to represent Japan in the Olympics. There's probably a moral in here somewhere.

** This Troper would'nt call it a downer ending, rather a ''[[Bittersweet Ending]]''. True that they had give up their dreams and school, but look on the bright side: they are married and living happily together with their kid. Also in the last chapter, Suzuka, (after getting married) finally admits that she is in love with Yamato. Before that she hadn't said it out loud before.

* ''[[Gilgamesh]]'', [[True Art Is Angsty|itself an extremely dark and depressing show with overtones of hopelessness]], has one of the most spiteful [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]] Downer Endings ever. Kiyoko, having already lost everyone and everything she cared about, having been forced into debt, despair, and work as a call-girl by the very Countess supposedly trying to "save the world" whilst ruining the lives around her, and who in lonely desperation turned to a member of the opposing Gilgamesh who then impregnated her, dies after mutating into a birthing cocoon for the hybrid lifeform. In the climactic final battles against the twisted Enkidu, his cohorts, and the Gilgamesh forces, it's revealed that they're essentially unstoppable and un-killable. This leads to the [[Kill'Em All]] deaths of pretty much everyone in the cast not already dead at this point. In the end, it's revealed that the TeaR organism responsible for the first near-apocalypse and which has instigated the horrible events of the story is actually a living manifestation of the Countess's own petty, dark, hateful, jealous, twisted heart, and that she's directly responsible for everything without realising it, despite ostensibly and ironically trying to fix it. Upon this revelation, she accepts the death of Humanity and allows TeaR to wipe out all life on Earth. To add insult to injury, in the odd, meta-void left behind, TeaR is then killed by the Gilgamesh spawn from the husk of what was left of Kiyoko, meaning that TeaR won't go on to recreate the planet in its image and it's all gone for good.

* ''[[Death Note]]'': Light Yagami is finally found out as the murderous Kira when his final gambit involving an [[Ax Crazy]] Teru Mikami fails and launches into a [[Motive Rant]] which is decisively shut down by Near's [[Shut UP, Hannibal]] speech, goes into [[Villainous Breakdown]] mode and tries to use what's left of his Death Note to kill Near and the SPK members, only for Matsuda, his biggest fan among the SPK, to go completely ballistic and shoot him multiple times, only to be stopped short of actually killing him. As Teru kills himself with his own pen, Light escapes the warehouse mortally wounded and returns home defeated, and Ryuk puts the final nail in Light's coffin by making good on his promise to Light in the very first episode and writing Light's name in his Death Note.

** [[It Got Worse|And that's only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the manga.]] It makes one wonder what kind of real ending the series will have.

* ''[[Weiss Kreuz]] [[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo|Gluhen]]'' ends with Sena and his long-lost mother both dead, Omi having sacrificed what was left of his innocence in order to fully establish himself as the head of the morally dubious Takatori family, Ken in prison, Yoji [[Victory-Guided Amnesia|amnesiac]] and lacking most of his personality, and Aya apparently bleeding to death on a city sidewalk from a gut wound while the many pedestrians walking past take no notice.

* Despite the fact that the mood in the ''[[School Days]]'' anime starts very happy and then gradually goes downhill, the ending is still a big shocker when the pregnant Sekai knifes the male protagonist Makoto to death, then gets slaughtered brutally by her rival Kotonoha, who slices her open with a hacksaw to see if she's really pregnant. Kotonoha then carries Makoto's ''severed head'' around on her sailing trip. Brrrr! "Nice boat," indeed.

** Likely the only positive thing about this ending is that Makoto, who in the anime is a dimwitted and lecherous scumbag who uses the girls around him for his own pleasure, gets what he deserves.

* ''[[Lost Universe]]'', despite being a mostly light hearted 'action/adventure' type anime, kind of slaps the viewer in the face by ending with Canal destroyed, Kain apparently dead, and Millie waiting at home for both of them to return. There may be a little hope as Millie hears a ship landing outside, but it's strongly implied that this is just a dream. Oh, and to make it even worse, it's revealed that despite the implied Kain/Millie potential romance, the two are actually related, as Millie's grandfather, who is also the Big Bad, was the brother of Kain's grandmother (making the granddad Kain's great-uncle). This may be even more of a shock to fans of the Slayers series, since Lost Universe was created by the same people and is, in fact, supposed to be the "Next Universe Up" from the ''[[Slayers]]'' world.

* ''[[X (manga)|X 1999]]''. Almost the entire named cast is pretty much dead or assumed so, either in mutual takedowns or as suicidal charges against the [[Big Bad]], and Tokyo is largely destroyed AND flooded. The sole survivor is the protagonist, but even he loses his two best friends, one of whom arbitrarily does a [[Face Heel Turn]] the literal instant the protagonist chooses to join the heroes to protect the two of them. The villains don't get to celebrate this new ally for long, because the [[Face Heel Turn]]-ed friend eventually chooses to screw the rules and decides to [[Kill'Em All]].

** This is, notably, only true of [[The Movie]]. The ending of the TV series is more of a [[Bittersweet Ending]].

* In ''[[Doubt]]'', when you finally think everything is over, Hajime is hung by another Wolf, and Yuu picks up Mitsuki's cellphone, which ends up in Mitsuki getting into her Wolf mentality again and killing Yuu. Obviously, Rei gets away with all of this.

* ''[[Pom Poko]]'' ends with one of the three Transformation Masters dying, another one going insane and forming a Buddist Dance Cult, before proceeding to turn his 'male parts' into a treasure ship, and sailing away (with some of the tanuki who couldn't transform) to reach Nirvana, not realising that they're sailing to their deaths. Meanwhile, Gonta and another group of tanuki have one final attack against the humans which results in them all getting killed. In an act of desperation, the rest of the tanuki stage one final performance - of how their home used to be, before appealing to the humans. Although they are slightly successful it is too late, thus forcing the tanuki to do what the kitsunes did: blend into society, abandoning those who couldn't transform. The film tries to end on a happy note by having all the tanuki meet up, rejoicing, but it doesn't really work, and there isn't enough happy to make it a [[Bittersweet Ending]].

* An incredibly depressing ending to what was just another [[Super Robot]] series, [[Space Warrior Baldios]]: the hero Marin and his allies can only watch as the [[Big Bad]], Zeo Gattler, unleashes his "Final Weapon" which triggers a cataclysmic series of gigantic tsunamis that ravage the surface of the earth. The last shot of the series is a freeze-frame of a tsunami wave, with the word "End" appearing next to it. This ending was made partially because the series was supposed to run one more season and they had to cut it off somewhere. The ending is famous enough to be the downer end screen on the 44th scenarios of ''[[Super Robot Wars Z]]''.

* ''[[Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade]]'' ends with the protagonist being forced to shoot his love interest in order for her to remain a bargaining chip in the Wolf Brigade's schemes against the police. The last line after the event? "And then the Wolf ate up [[Little Red Riding Hood]]."

* ''[[5 Centimeters Per Second|5 Centimeters/Second]]'' had the two lead characters meeting by chance in school and quickly falling in love with each other. However, since their parents' jobs require them to move a lot, they quickly lose contact with each other (the anime is set in the 1990s, where cell phones and e-mail are not as widespread as today). Both characters basically never see each other again, which causes a great deal of emotional pain to both of them. The film ends with a [[Tear Jerker]] montage of how they both move on with their lives. What makes it even worse is when the film teases the audience by having the two leads pass each other on a railroad crossing, but neither recognizes the other until it is too late, and a passing train separates them.

* ''[[Hyakka Ryouran]]'' while a lighthearted series throughout the first eleven episodes, the final episode has {{spoiler|''BOTH'' Moe!Jubei and Badass!Jubei perform a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] by sending the resident [[Yandere]] Gisen up to the atmosphere to disintegrate. Unfortunately, Gisen goes on to state that within a thousand years later, she will be resurrected to do this all over again.}}

* ''[[Katanagatari]]'' ends up with almost the entire named cast (save about five characters) dead, the ornate [[Thanatos Gambit]] driving the plot having proved [[What a Senseless Waste of Human Life|completely futile,]] and the hero [[Walking the Earth]] having lost the only person he ever loved.

* ''[[Basilisk]]''. {{spoiler|Gennosuke and Oboro are reunited at the end, but they commit suicide and ALL of their friends are dead.}}

* The end of episode 12 "The Pizza Cats Are Only Human" in ''[[Samurai Pizza Cats]]'' ends with the Pizza Cats being defeated and Speedy collapsing, and episode 36 "Bad Bird Uncaged" ends with Speedy being defeated by Bad Bird. It is even worse in the original version, where Bad Bird appears to kill Speedy as he is lying on the ground defenceless.

* [[Master of Martial Hearts]]: The Platonic heart doesn't exist, the losers of the tournament go insane and sold off as [[Sex Slave|SexSlaves]]. Turns out, Aya's entire life has been an utter lie. Her childhood friend Natsume, love interest Haruki, and newest friend Miko all want her dead. The entire tournament was set up by them for revenge on what her parents did to their families. Aya's mother saves her, kills Natsume, Haruki, and Miko. She stays behind in the burning building to to atone for Aya's sins, which kills Aya's Mother and the insane losers of the tournament. Aya then kills Natsume's mother, who was responsible for Natume and Miko's decision to hold the tournament.

* [[Shiki]]: The villagers hunt down all the Shiki in the village, despite a few who weren't truly bad in the first place and were only being strong-armed into attacking their loved ones and friends. And while the villagers were acting out of self defense, its obvious nothing will be the same when everything's over. Yuuki dies fighting Tatsumi, blowing them both up. And just when it seems the villagers have won, their village mysteriously catches on fire and burns to the ground. Oh yeah, and the one who started all this, Sunako, manages to get away.

** The OAV clarifies the mysterious fire as an intentional act of arson by a badly disturbed local woman.

* ''[[MW]]''. Father Garai foiled Michio Yuki of gassing the entire world with the titular chemical weapon by sacrificing his life of taking it down with him to the ocean, the latter gets gunned down by one of his hostages, Shunsuke Ban still doesn't recover from his last attack, and Michio, impersonating his older lookalike brother, escapes punishment and is free to do whatever he wants.

* one of the notable examples is ''Zettai Kareshi'' (Absolute Boyfriend)In the Ending {{spoiler|Night begins to grow sleepier and sleepier. The problems developed by him exceeding his abilities eventually causes his machinery to stop working, resulting in his "death".}}