The tragedy-marred anime that moves the viewers to tears, has some extremely strong-willed, daunting characters who inspire the viewers and are emblems of empathy and sympathy as well.
The characters that provide emotional ground and context to the pain provided by the plot make for the beautiful message that the anime tries to exude. These characters give the viewers a reality check through the art they are showcased with.
The happy-go-life that is expected from the media, is broken by the realistic projections of the characters' stories.
The paths they walk with their hardened shell of a character provide further awareness of trauma and understanding and cultivate empathy. Here are some of the strongest characters with the most tragic backstory:
Black Butler
MC: Ciel Phantomhive
The young master of Black Butler is, despite his age, a very tragic character who had to face horrors very much at the onset of his life. An unidentified assassin murdered his mother, father, and all the servants he had, during his tenth birthday, since then his life has spiralled down drastically.
Moreover, he was kidnapped by a cult that had tortured and assaulted him, which led him to manifest his hatred and anger for them and summon a demon who forged a bond with him.
The Promised Neverland
MC: Ray
The Promised Neverland with its unique plot setting, featured three dominant characters, Emma, Ray, and Norman, amongst whom Ray was the mysterious and calm kid, but despite his calm exterior, he had a very tragic life despite the anime having so many tragic characters.
He knew everything all along, about the children being fed to demons by their mother, who was in fact his real mother.
HxH
MC: Killua Zoldyck
Coming from a family of assassins, he was born and brought up right into their ways, so he was introduced to murder, gore, and killing human lives from a tender age.
Eventually, he is trained to protect himself from dire life-threatening situations, but the burden of such horror that he carries with him is evident, which leads people to sympathise and love his character as he tries to grow in the warmth of his friendship with Gon.
Dororo
MC: Hyakkimaru
Dororo is another tragic anime that features the most daunting yet sensitively tragic character who had faced the most horrific of situations and mastered his growth through that.
Hyakkimaru was the subject of his father’s sacrifice of him to please the demons, a human rooted in such hatred and anger, Hyakkimaru bore the curse of his father’s greed and faced the harshest tragedies that followed him until he met Dororo.
Hellsing
MC: Seras Victoria
Hellsing sure changed the trajectory of the dark classic Dracula, but its projection of one character Seras Victoria was the most ruthless given the struggles and adversities she was forced to face and smile through.
From being an orphan to getting into the military, and being raped by zombies from where she was saved but turned into a vampire, her journey was a ruthless and merciless way for her, but she powered through nonetheless with her feisty and cheerful self, which is an inspiration to the viewers.
Elfen Lied
MC: Lucy
Elfen Lied is an overall extremely psychologically tormenting anime, that shows the tragic incidents in the rawest way, revealing the most sensitively painful sides of life.
Lucy is a product of human torture, hatred, and the grotesque side of humanity, which propels her to become a vicious machine for killing humans, thus becoming a threat to humanity.
Berserk
MC: Guts
Berserk, to this day, is the most traumatic and haunting anime ever created and leaves the readers and the viewers on a massive cliffhanger due to the death of the creator. Guts lived his life, always in the constant touch of death and violence.
He is the most tortured, since he was in his dead mother’s womb, and has been subjected to violence and death given the trajectory of his life, and he emerged strongest and harshest.
All the struggles hurled at the characters are not to glorify the struggles that they endure to become undaunting and merciless, but such art forms act as awareness and cautionary tales that journey the viewers through the stories including struggles and trauma, conveying the message of prioritising mental health.
