Some anime creators love punishing their characters even when they're truly honorable. While some of the most emotional moments in anime are connected to beloved characters' deaths there are also a few unfortunate heroes and villains who had to face worse things than dying. Some of the most intense and saddest scenes in anime are thanks to these tortured souls whose stories broke fans' hearts all over the globe.
Some of these terrible deeds happened in horror anime shows or in dark anime that make fans cry and where viewers somewhat expected these kinds of things to happen. However, some of the most fun fantasy and action anime show creators also came up with devious ideas to torture their characters in very creative but horrible ways.
7 Guts – Berserk
Berserk is one of the darkest anime shows for adults who love iconic battles with fascinating and powerful characters, gigantic swords, and some of the most iconic helmets in anime history. While most of the characters had heartbreaking backstories and many of them had to face painful and horrendous things none of them had it as bad as Guts.
Guts had to overcome horrible things since the moment he was born and somehow always got surrounded by people who betrayed him. Among many other terrible things, he was born shortly after his mom was lynched and hanged on a tree. Later he was forced to kill his adopted father, then betrayed by his best friend who was not only responsible for all of Guts' friends' death, but also for abusing his lover, who eventually lost her sanity. After all this, he also had to deal with his dark curse.
6 Elder Toguro – Yu Yu Hakusho
.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
Yu Yu Hakusho is one of the greatest action anime series and Elder Toguro was one of its most memorable villains. He was a vile and sadistic character who enjoyed torturing others, so one could say that he had it coming. Even though he was a horrifying character, and he might have deserved his faith it was still one of the worst faiths an anime character ever had to endure.
During his fight with Kurama, Elder Toguro not only suffered from an endless and nightmarish hallucination but got the Tree of Depravity planted in his immortal body. This horrifying plant constantly drained his life force while Elder Togure hallucinated about this humiliating and never-ending battle against Kurama. Thanks to this double attack he was tortured both physically and mentally for eternity.
5 Rika – Higurashi When They Cry
Higurashi When They Cry is one of the scariest horror animes of all time that had plenty of terrifying characters and heartbreaking deaths, but Rika's story is without a doubt the worst one.
Rika was cursed with living in an endless loop for hundreds of years. During this time she had to re-live her own brutal and painful deaths as well as her loved ones, over and over again. Rika can't figure out how to break the loop or what's the thing that's causing her friends to lose their minds and go on violent killing sprees in their charming and quiet small village.
4 Mitty – Made In Abyss
Made In Abyss is one of the darkest anime shows with a surprisingly charming art style and some truly heartbreaking stories. While there are plenty of characters who suffered terribly in this series too, Mitty's fate was the most agonizing one.
Mitty was once a friendly and vibrant little girl who quickly became Nanachi's friend. However, during an experiment, involving her and Nanachi, she could no longer fight the curse's power and her human form along with her intelligence vanished and the once brave and kind little girl became a Narehate who is unable to speak or walk.
3 Ai Enma – Hell Girl
Ai Enma has one of the saddest magical girl stories and while she might be Hell Girl's all-powerful, red-eyed terrifying creature she still had to suffer a terrible fate too. Ai was the first Hell Girl who mercilessly dragged damned souls to hell, but she had her own tragic backstory about how she became this feared entity.
As a young human girl, Ai was constantly tortured and bullied in her small village. One day the villagers decided she should be the next sacrifice for the mountain god. Even though her parents tried to save her, Ai was eventually hunted down and buried alive. After her death, Ai became an evil creature who murdered everyone in her village. Because of her hateful act, the Master of Hell forced her to become the messenger of vengeance, the first Hell Girl, and serve for eternity.
2 Father – Fullmetal Alchemist
Fullmetal Alchemist also had a couple of heartbreaking deaths and sad storylines. While Father was an evil and violent character he still was the one who ended up suffering for eternity when he got banished to the dead realm where he had to face a never-ending and painful existence.
Father not only had to face his failure but was stripped from all the power and freedom he wanted so badly. When the gates opened he eventually was grabbed by the hands and dragged back to the terrifying abyss forever.
1 Zeref – Fairy Tail
Fairy Tail is one of the most magical fantasy animes of all time with fascinating characters. Zeref was one of its most interesting anti-heroes who had to suffer for hundreds of years because of the dark Curse of Contradiction.
Zeref was cursed by an ancient deity called, Ankhseram when he was first in contact with dark magic. While he did receive immortality thanks to the curse, he would also kill every living being if he loved them. Zeref eventually decided to live alone because he didn't want to hurt his loved ones. However, as he got more and more detached from his love and humanity he became dark and more wicked, and eventually not only lost everyone he ever loved but also himself.