Tragic backstories are a staple in the anime world. It is almost impossible to see a series without a tragic character.
We have become so used to seeing difficult childhood or past, that a series feels off without it.
The options are endless. From victims of abuse, war, slavery, homelessness, and any other plausible problems that may befall a person, anime series has it all.
However, tragedy isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It is what keeps us glued to the series.
Our interest gets piqued when we see how that character is going to cope with their sadness.
It is not unusual for characters in an anime to go through the same pain as others.
This can sometimes create a foundation for those characters to understand each other.
When they share the same pain, they empathize with each other and become comrades.
This helps in the plot development of the anime and makes it more interesting. Here are 10 pairs of anime characters that share the same pain.
1. Naruto and Gaara (Naruto)
They were both Jinchuriki and ostracized by their villages.
Growing up while bearing the hatred of people around them was something extremely unbearable.
That is why they both understood better than others how it felt to be completely lonely in the world.
They coped up with their past differently.
Gaara started hating the world and developed an impulsive personality. Meanwhile, Naruto strived to become a Hokage.
When the two fought in the first Naruto series, Naruto saved Gaara from his darkness.
Gaara then changed into a different person and even became a Kazekage who protected his village valiantly.
2. Erza and Jellal (Fairy Tail)
Fairy Tail has a huge number of tragic characters. Erza and Jellal share the same past and the pain that comes with it.
They were captured to be slaves during their childhood. There, they were abused and forced to work to build a tower.
Any act of defiance was punishable by death.
Living in such hell, every day was a challenge. During their childhood, they were both close friends and had each other's back even if it meant sacrificing themselves for the other.
Unfortunately, Jellal fell into the darkness due to the scheme of others.
Even several years later, Erza did her best to save him from it.
3. Atsushi and Lucy (Bungou Stray Dogs)
Atsushi and Lucy share a past not very different from one another. They were both orphans and abused in their orphanages.
They grew up suffering inhumane torture only to end up having no place to go back to. They were also kicked out of their orphanages when they grew up.
While Atsushi was lucky enough to join the Private Detective Agency, Lucy ended up with The Guild, only to endure more suffering.
Regardless, they were both left with permanent scars of their past.
4. Nami and Trafalgar Law (One Piece)
Nami and Law are both extremely different characters and don't seem to have much bond with each other.
However, their childhood experiences aren't that different from one another.
They were both orphans whose parents died in war devised by the World Government.
Nami grew up with the care of her foster mother since she was a baby. Meanwhile, Law met Corazon when he was 10-years-old.
Although he hated Corazon at first, the latter soon became like a father figure to him. Nami and Law both lost their foster parents due to pirates.
5. Sanemi and Gyomei (Demon Slayer)
Sanemi and Gyomei are the two strongest Hashira who joined the Demon Slayer Corps after losing their families because of demons.
Sanemi was the eldest among the seven children of the household. His abusive father was murdered by someone, which didn't have much impact on Sanemi.
However, the rest of his family (except Genya) were killed by demons.
Meanwhile, Gyomei was an orphan who was raising nine younger orphans and considered them as his family.
When getting attacked by a demon, they all thought he won't be able to protect them so they thought of helping him instead.
However, they all died at the hands of the demon without being any help to him at all.
6. Edward and Alphonse (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)
Being brothers, it is only understandable that they faced the same family issues. Their father left home when they were little.
With only having their mother with them, they tried the best they could to make her happy.
However, she succumbed to an unknown illness when they were little.
Edward and Alphonse learned alchemy in hopes of resurrecting her, only to end up getting their lives turned upside down when the human transmission failed.
Ed lost one of his arms and legs while Al lost his entire body.
Since then, they made it their lives goal to get their bodies back and live normal lives.
7. Kakashi and Obito (Naruto)
In the cruel world of Shinobi, Kakashi and Obito lost far too many things to count.
However, Rin's death was something that neither Kakashi nor Obito could get over.
The three of them were teammates and practically grew up together.
When she died, they both awakened their Mangekyou Sharingan. However, this power wasn't nearly enough to fill the void in their hearts.
They became enemies later on and were only able to settle their differences in the final arc of the series, a few episodes before Obito died.
8. Mavis and Zeref (Fairy Tail)
Mavis and Zeref were the cursed couple who could never be happy together. 300 years after getting the Ankhseram curse, Zeref met Mavis.
Her intelligence amazed him. Meanwhile, Mavis found Zeref fascinating since he was a talented magician and had the most unusual curse.
Mavis asked Zeref to teach her magic to save Magnolia. However, one spell she used gave her the same curse as her.
Years later when she learned of this, she was devastated. They promised each other to look for a cure, but Mavis was affected by his curse and fell into a deep slumber.
After the final war ended, she told Zeref that she empathized with him as she could understand his loneliness. They both died together as a result of their curse.
9. Yuki and Kyo (Fruits Basket)
Yuki and Kyo have been at odds with each other ever since the first episode of the series.
No matter the situation, they would fight and argue with each other for no reason at all. However, their past isn't that different from one another.
Yuki was technically sold by his parents to Akito so they could have a more lavish lifestyle.
The experience he had with Akito as well as the pain of being abandoned by his parents left a huge scar in his heart.
Meanwhile, Kyo was also left lone as a child. His mother killed herself which led everyone to blame him, even his father.
Kyo's father treated him as a monster and left him to fend for himself until Kazuma adopted him.
10. Shin-Ah and Jae-Ha (Yona of the Dawn)
They both carry the ancient blood and powers of the dragons.
The ancient dragons were revered in the kingdom as gods. Naturally, the dragon warriors carrying their blood were treated with respect as well.
However, thousands of years later, history was lost and the ancient powers were perceived as curses.
Shin-Ah and Jae-Ha were raised by their predecessors who also had the powers of the dragons.
They were both isolated in their villages and had to live in hiding or in captivity.
They began to hate their power and believed it to be the cause of their misfortunes.
