Characters make up such an important facet inanime. Either pivoting the audience to root for the heroes like Goku, Naruto, and Ichigo, grow frustrated with such as Eren and Kazuya, or just empathize and push hope onto well-deserving underdogs who have had the whole world thrown at them like the Elric brothers.
By building a rapport, there’s a connection that links the viewer and the character, but what happens when the character departs from the story too early? The following anime are perfect examples of key characters that continue to make an impact on the narrative long after they are gone. Haunting the cast, the audience, and the story with their absence.
Naturally,Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Dayis one of the best examples of a character that continues to influence the story long after their death, since it quite literally makes that the focal point of the story. Menma’s ghost returns to “haunt” Jinta Yadomi years after her accident when they were children.
Unable to pass on to the afterlife, she requests Jinta’s help to fulfill her wish. After falling into a depressive slump, laden with his feelings of guilt and recluding himself from society and his former friendships, Jinta sees Menma’s ghost as the final nail in his eventual psychotic break.
But as his other friends are roped into helping him with Menma’s request, the story begins to reveal its true colors about how people cope with grief, by either repressing their feelings, redirecting them, or reshaping them to resemble a weapon pointed at themselves or other people.Anohanacontinues to serve as an insightful glimpse at how grief warps us.
Ushio Kofune is a bit of an enigma in that, likeThe Summer Hikaru Died, she makes a reappearance, but not entirely as what Shinpei Ajiro once knew her as. While her memory does still linger very prominently, with her death being the reason why he returned to his hometown, there’s something clearly odd about the circumstances surrounding it.
Alongside other unnatural occurrences, Shinpei sees visions of Ushio around the island, inciting questions about what mystery is underfoot, and does it have anything to do with the supernatural or strange? Through memories and these visions, Ushio remains a character who lingers long after her supposed death in the opening scenes.
Bleach
Masaki Kurosaki, and to be quite frank, most mothers in shōnen anime continue to linger in the memories of their loved ones. They live long enough tofuel a tragic backstory, like in the case ofDemon SlayerandFullmetal Alchemist, or serve as a somber reminder that occasionally washes up unresolved feelings, like inBleach.
Masaki’s influence on Ichigo was naturally much more prominent in the earlier series, due to her death being taunted to Ichigo served as the motivator he needed to fuel his desire to protect others. Her loss changed him, as naturally it would, but Masaki’s absence and image didn’t just affect Ichigo.
The entire Kurosaki family revolved around Masaki. Their spiritual connection caused them to feel that loss much more deeply than other shōnen protagonists, since they knew spirits that were devoured had no chance of reaching the afterlife. Masaki’s death hit hard, maybe not on the viewer but on the remaining cast, reflecting that intensity to the audience.
Yuki Yoshida’s death is a blink and you’ll miss it type of entry, due to how quickly the reveal occurs, to how it immediately pans away as if the audience discovered Yuki themselves. Based on the manga by Natsuki Kizu,Givenis broken into three major parts, with the first one centered on Mafuyu Sato.
Mafuyu is learning to come to terms with Yuki’s death, believing that he is in some part to blame for his best friend and former lover’s suicide. After being recruited into a band by Ritsuka Uenoyama, despite his prominent talent as a singer and lyricist, he struggles to come up with the right song due to his unresolved grief and closure.
Yuki’s death doesn’t demand too much time; instead, it’s the guilt and Mafuyu’s mistaken belief that his part in it is what is keeping him from coming to terms with being happy after such a tragedy. His later performance is reflective of his feelings and emotions as he slowly learns to cope, letting go and allowing himself forgiveness.
Demon Slayer
Rengoku’s death inDemon Slayer: Mugen Trainwas a gunshot that resonated beyond the Demon Slayer Corps to the audience themselves. As one of the largest and most vibrant personalities among the Hashira, it wasn’t so much his death that made his loss hurt, but the way the remaining cast reacted to the news.
Never mind, Kyojuro Rengoku’s death remains as one of the most painful losses in theDemon Slayerfranchise to this day.
Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke were left without words, their hopes cracked just as they were beginning to admire him. The remaining Hashira, like Mitsuri and Muichiro, were devastated, and it only grew colder when the attention shifted to Rengoku’s household.
The influence of Rengoku’s passing is felt twofold upon panning to his brother, Senjuro, who so clearly admired him, alongside his rough and irate father, Shinjuro, who ultimately crumbled when he thought he was alone at the loss of his son. It was another devastating death that would set him right, if only for Kyojuro’s sake.
5Sua and Ivan
Alien Stage
As one of the earlier competitors, Sua’s death came as a shocking warning to fans that the series was not afraid to kill off its main characters. As one of the children raised in Eden Garden, Sua was just the first of the deaths that would live on to torment the remaining cast members, but also the viewers.
Not to be outdone, Ivan’s sacrifice was also a pivotal turn, showcasing his refusal to properly adhere to the competition’s rules in light of winning at the cost of his friends. Both these characters' deaths continue to haunt Mizi and Til throughout the following entries, with competitors like Luka using them to gain an advantage.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
Cast
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End follows the elven mage Frieren after the defeat of the Demon King. As generations pass, she confronts humanity’s mortality, taking on a new apprentice and striving to fulfill her late friends' final wishes, embarking on a journey to reconcile with life and death.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s Endintroduced a surprising twiston a hero’s journey, following the aftermath of the party’s lives when the Demon King is defeated. Frieren, an elven mage, underestimates the passage of time for other species, and upon her return to visit the party, finds that her former comrades are now much older, with the human Himmel passing away.
His death from old age is one of the more peaceful passings depicted in this list, but it still weighs heavily on Frieren, who is now more aware than ever about the passage of time, debating whether she is using it as well as humans are with their shorter lifespan.
Himmel’s presence serves as a reminder and mantra in guiding Frieren going forward, due to his tenacity and lively nature that helped build a connection between them. As one of the few able to have her open up, his absence pushes Frieren to ponder humans and question how their actions affect the world long after they cease to be.
Oshi No Ko
Oshi No Ko is a 2023 Japanese series that follows a small-town doctor’s encounter with a popular teen idol leading to an entanglement in the cutthroat entertainment industry. The narrative explores themes of ambition, identity, and the hidden realities behind fame as the characters navigate complex personal and professional challenges.
Oshi no Kostarted with a relatively wholesome premise, diving into the life of an idol and how much work went into the industry, with oftentimes very little reward. The story takes a dramatic shift just as Ai Hoshino’s life was beginning to turn for the better, when she is murdered in her own home by one of her fans.
The actual meat of the story kicks off with AI’s children. Ruby wants to follow in the footsteps of her mother, becoming an idol who loves and is both loved by her fans, while Aqua helps to make her dream come true, and investigates what happened to his father in a quest for revenge for abandoning his mother, Ai.
Ai’s presence leaves a gaping hole in the narrative, especially in the wake of her children, who loved her dearly. Her death represents different types of motivation, with neither Aqua nor Ruby able to forget it entirely,carrying her memory out of honor, but also as a heavy burden.
Mokumokuren is hiding no secrets inThe Summer Hikaru Died, making quick work of Hikaru Indo’s death, but while his corpse may be rotting in the forest, he is definitely not gone. Both because a monster has taken his place living in the small town, and because his loss is eating away at Yoshiki Tsujinaka, who was his best friend.
Hikaru lingers like a ghost on the very edge of Yoshiki’s psyche throughout the series, confronted with the death of his best friend each day he’s left dealing with the monster left in his wake. Memories of their history and childhood flicker like a dying flame, further twisting the knife in this already hurtful and horrific tragedy.
Natsume’s Book of Friends
Natsume’s Book of Friends follows the story of Takashi Natsume, a boy who can see spirits and inherits a book containing the names of spirits bound by his late grandmother. Assisted by a spirit named Madara, Natsume seeks to release the spirits' names while navigating the challenges of his unique ability. The series explores themes of friendship and the supernatural.
Based on the manga by Yūki Midorikawa, Reiko Natsume is the classic interpretation of a character that continues to linger in the narrative long after she has passed, almost serving as a representation of generational trauma. Takashi Natsume comes into her inheritance, left with an old tattered book full of names, demonic contracts that yokai are intent on reclaiming.
Due to not having any friends growing up, Reiko tricked yokai into giving her their names so that she could summon them whenever she felt like it. Few were meant as meaningful contacts while most were captured as a sort of game, a sense of control, leaving Takashi in a right mess.
The audience is given snippets of Reiko’s life,echoing both her loneliness and her sad attempt at making friends, only to take advantage of their generosity and corrupt what once were kind spirits. We learned alongside Takashi the good and bad sides of his grandmother as he traverses a different path, creating friends and family of the once-enslaved yokai.
