About Chrno Crusade, I just gotta say that the manga, I think, ends in a much worse way.


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I think Deep Love is definitely by far the most depressing manga I've read, just because it deals with reality so much and doesn't produce unnecessary humor and it's just very "real."

Definitely agree with this statement. Deep Love: Ayu's story is actually the only shojo (it is shojo right?) manga that I have read and and I agree that it is as depressing as mentioned above.

Another manga that I have to say is depressing, mainly in like the first half of it, is Gantz. It is one manga that I would get attached to characters only for them to die.

Also I surprised that only one person has said anything about Battle Royale (that is if I read correctly). This is one manga that I had to stop and come back to later because it was making me depressed.

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BELIEVE

Reina's story is getting as sad.. Similar topic, but different context. I'm really scared about what is going to happen to her.. Don't want to spoil anything in there though.

arigatou was pretty depressing
that is one family with some real problems

Ah damn...if he's stupid..then I'm stupid....coz i kinda think the same way he does >_<"...and it is quite depressing...>_>
And also....all this and no Ichigo 100%? someone has got to become depressed after reading that....i can't be the only one....can i? o.O

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Everyday I'm tumblin'

I agree fully with deep love, but Battle Royal is just to ealistic to really be depressing.

And i wouldn't consider Deep Love shoujo, it has the art, but it is more seinen/josei if you ask me.
@daed
arigatou is also pretty depressing, so is believers from the same mangaka





This thread really has been going on for a long time.

@bully_jesus
I found believers to be more bitter than depressing. I mean I didn't feel sorry for anyone at the end. But it left me with a weird after taste...
But I didn't read arigatou nor deep Love...
And by the way it sound I don't think I'll ever feel like reading either.

I think the reason people's responses are all over the map here is that there's more than one kind of "sad" and different people respond to different things:

The commoner kind is the "unhappy plot development" variant. If you've read Video Girl Ai, you've seen the part where Ai gets taken back by her maker as defective. Not pretty stuff to read, since you already know Ai well, and you (if you've been reading this long) are quite attached to her as a character. Of course, since it's a happy-ending shonen romance, the situation is used as an opportunity for Yuta to grow a pair, as is often the case with these plots. Usually the mangaka will throw in something like this in a shonen manga with a romance sub/primary plot about 2/3 the way through the story arc. A slower (shoujo) example of the same thing is the stuff that goes on in Arima's head through the last third of Kare Kano.

A rarer, but recently more common sad setup is the "pathetic" variant. Pathetic, here, is used in the Greek drama sense, meaning "inspiring pathos in the reader." Even Ghost in the Shell has a little pathos about it, but if you really want to wade neck-deep into the pathetic, you can't beat material like Gunslinger Girl or Eden. Takahashi's Mermaid series (which I like best of all her work) is more upbeat, but still definitely pathetic in tone. To make a pathetic plot work, you have to set up likeable characters in a continuing horrible situation. This is easy. The hard part is to be a good enough story teller that anybody actually wants to read it. One story I thought that bit off way too much but somehow managed to chew most of it was Kirara. It manages to be funny while still having a pathetic undertone...at least until the confused, hurried ending.

What keeps people coming back to stories like Crying Freeman, the Mermaid Saga, VG Ai, Eden, or Gunslinger Girl (to use a more recent example) is not that they're gluttons for punishment, but that the author has done a good job of creating characters you like and situations you wish they weren't in.

Speaking of Gunslinger Girl specifically, I think it hits you a lot harder if you are somebody's parent. Likewise, I grew up around military working dogs, and recognize most of the conditioning and resultant behavior (accurately portrayed by the mangaka), which just makes it creepier.


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i guess in a way you could say that people have their own different definition of "Sad". Thats why i think everything is all over the map.

Random thought: where would this put Grave of the Fireflies? I know a fair number of people that absolutely refuse to watch it because it's too sad.

Well, I'd file it in the same category as All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque, and a goodly body of Russian fiction (like The Little Match Girl for a short and typical example).

Yes, it's really sad. That's pretty much its purpose as a movie. William Tecumseh Sherman said it best: "War is hell." Takahata designed the film to set up a pathetic and empathetic situation and used the framework to make a simple statement about war, its effect on civillian populations, and the consequences of putting pride and principles above pragmatism. I would argue that when Seita dies at the end of the film, it's a release from suffering and thus better than his alternatives at that point. It's very much like Russian fiction in that way.

Yes it's definitely pathetic. And what I've observed of different people's reactions to the film suggests that their opinion of the film is shaped almost entirely by their opinion of Seita and his actions. If the viewer empathizes strongly, he will be moved emotionally. If he regards Seita as a pompous callow youth, a less profound reaction results.

I think that one reason the movie is so generally effective is because Hollywood (and the Anime industry as well) have conditioned us to expect an 11th hour reprieve and happy ending. Movies (and books) that have the cojones necessary to deny us the happy ending are often better, but seldom big box-office hits. Consider the lawsuit over the ending of Blade Runner to be a good lesson in why really sad movies aren't often made.


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Bokura Ga Ita<<<<most depressing thing ever

I know I will only repeat what has been already said, but Battle Royale and Uncivilized Planed are saddest things i've ever read..

Edit: oh yeah, and.. some episodes of Shinigami no Ballad anime were pretty depressing too, i dont know if they are in manga too, because there are only 3 chapters scanslated..

The Deep Love series is definitely depressing
Some other good depressing mangas, endings at least, that I think are good are
Telepathic Wanderers and maybe Saikano, Basilisk, and Psychic Academy