Top 10 Most Touching Deaths in Anime

For some reason, I have been thinking about Life and Death a lot lately. It got me wondering how I'd wanna end up when my time comes. So, I'll be posting, what I believe to be, the most touching deaths in fiction.

This time we will be covering deaths in anime:

BEWARE *Spoilers*

10. Zabuza (Naruto):

Zabuza was a bad bad bad man. He got it coming the second he crossed Team 7's path. One's skin might cringe from merely listening to his exploits. You can't feel a drop of warm blood in him...that is until Hakku dies. The man had the heart to face Hatake Kakashi, was rendered unable to combat. And then he breaks down...and we get to see that there really is no Black or White in this world, when we vouch for him to destroy the man who hired and betrayed him.

As he turns into an illusion of a demon when he runs towards his employer, one gets a calm feeling of justice served cold.

9. Gren (Cowboy Bebop)/ Ray (GunXSword)

I put the two deaths together because in both cases the dying man gets the last laugh. Ray ultimately ruins the plans of his sworn nemesis, finally removing that smug calm off the Claw Man's face. Same can be said for Vicious, when he runs away with the bag, only to find that it's carrying a bomb.

Both of these, died a death with calm faces, and found peace that they had been looking for a long long time.

8. Ryoji Kaji (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

There was nothing special about Kaji's death. Some unknown assailant comes in...he greets him as he knows him, and understands that he is going to die. With the sunlight coming through the fan in the background, we hear the shot. Kaji Dies...and for a few days that follow, you find it hard to smile.

7. Asuka (Neon Genesis Evangelion):

Though she is alive at the end of the series, the death scene for Asuka was nothing short of spectacular. It was one of those 'goes out in style' scenes, but Asuka prays, understand her mother's love and finds her long lost confidence, destroying numerous eva units, declaring her abilities to be far superior and finally achieving Redemption.

Now, that's a good death.

6. Rat (Tekkon kinkreet)

One of the most touching scenes ever in any anime. Rat gives advice for living life to his protege, as Rat prepares to be shot down by him...After you hear the gunshot, his life flashes past him, and you wish you didn't watch it on a weekend.

5. Maes Hughes (Full Metal Alchemist)

Maes was so full of life. You can't help liking this character. So when Envy wears his wife's face before shooting him, anime fans or not, it will leave a scar within you forever. You can't help but agree with Mutang when he's standing on Maes's grave and says, "It's going to rain today"

4. Itachi Uchiha (Naruto Shippuuden)

I know, the anime didn't do justice to it, but the manga got it right. Amongst shows that have dragged, Naruto defines the genre. However, with Itachi we always knew there was more than it meets the eye. We knew that all his facade was actually just another one of his masterfully crafted illusions. He easily counters everything Sasuke had came up with years and years of preparation, and then walks towards him as if to gouge his eyes...and then just pokes his forehead, as he did in the days past...and then passes in peace.

3. Julia/Spike (Cowboy Bebop)


Its hard to define Cowboy Bebop. It is amazing how it achieves the deep essence that puts all efforts of Hollywood, to date, to shame. Everything in this anime sets milestones for all the other animes to follow when ever there had to be a sense of seriousness, atmosphere and drama. Unable to move on from his past Spike spends his life as a drifter searching for his long lost love. And after all those years when he finally meets Julia, she dies...

Julia: Was it all a dream?
Spike: Yeah... just a bad dream

Losing his sense of purpose, Spike voluntarily goes to his death, bringing Vicious down with him.
Finally with his revenge complete...He walks down the stairs, says 'Bang' with a smile, and falls, making it customary for anime protagonists to die from that point onwards.

"I was living in a dream I never wake up from. Before I knew it, the dream was over." ~ Spike Spiegel


2. Lelouch (Code Geass R2)

Spike may have defined the path to a protagonist's death...but it was Lelouch who perfected it.
What Lelouch accomplished with his death, and his death scene cannot be understood unless one has watched the entire Code geass series.

In CG's setting, The Empire of Brittania rules the world. It oppresses all the nations it conquers and deprives their people of their rights. Lelouch was a prince of Brittania, but he is sworn revenge against the Emperor. He wore a mask and became 'Zero' the saviour of the people. He build armies and made conquests and brought forth a liberation front, the likes of which Brittania and the world had never seen.

With the power to make anyone obey his single command and an extra-ordinary intelligent mind, he gains the upper hand in his battles with superior strategy, winning the absolute loyalty of the world as Zero.

Then as Lelouch himself, he becomes their greatest villain and oppressor, by ruling the Empire itself. He becomes the image of the worst dictator ever causing the entire world to put their differences aside and join forces to stand up to him.

He finally gets himself killed by a friend wearing Zero's mask.

Lelouch falls to his death as a dictator, uniting the world and bringing forth an era of peace and tranquility, as people cheer Zero's name around him. This is by all means the best death scene in the history of fiction, anime or otherwise.

1. L (Death Note)



Death Note is one of the very very few strange cases where one finds extremely difficult to take sides. You can't decide whether to take Light's side or to go with L. All that changes as soon as L dies, you almost immediately know which side you are on.

Anime deaths are usually long pieces of dramatic dialogue, with the departed going down with a smile and a sense of accomplishment given that he was on the good side. That's why I didn't include Wolfwood's (Trigun) or Raul's (Ergo Proxy) in this list.

L never got that luxury... He did not get a classic death scene or a sense of accomplishment like Lelouch who precedes him on this list... The greatest detective in the world gets a heart attack and dies. His eyes finally closing, his mind finally at peace, his soul at rest., Leaving you with only disbelief...

Almosty every classic death in anime series leaves one sad, because of the character association build over the course of the series. L's death, however, is the only one that leaves one in denial. It takes quite a time for one to come to terms with the fact that he is gone, which makes it the most touching death in any anime ever made.

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Honorable Mentions:

Scar, Greed, Misato, Raul, Wolfwood