I'm looking for a manga/anime/movie/show where the protagonist or one of the principal characters is doomed to certain death - and they know it.
Yeah, I know that everyone is 'doomed to certain death' (we're all gonna die!), but in the context of this request, I mean 'certain death' in a more extraordinary way - not death through natural aging or by accident, but prematurely and cruelly, with forewarning, in a way that leaves the person plenty of time to contemplate their demise.
Examples: terminal illness, an entire assassin's guild being sent after their life (with their knowledge!), a family curse, a blood clot in the brain, a deal with the devil, an unwilling sacrifice, a prophecy, a legal death sentence, a suicide mission, foreknowledge of an incoming bomb/natural disaster, shrapnel from an old wound buried in a heart valve, etc.
Basically, I want to look at how the character deals with the knowledge of their own impending death. SELF-AWARENESS IS KEY.
The death should be unavoidable, or almost unavoidable (like, it would take a miracle for them to survive, and they honestly don't think that they will). They might actually end up surviving at the end, or they might not - but as far as they know, they won't.
Any genre except hentai/ecchi is welcome.
Things I've already read or already know of:
Birthday - a young boy with terminal disease lives out the last of his days. Very sad, very lovely. Has a 'shounen ai' label but is mild/subtle enough that everyone (not just readers of BL) ought to read it.
Boku no Hatsukoi o Kimi ni Sasagu - another boy with a fatal health problem, and plenty of forewarning.
Seizon - Life - amazing manga about a father's quest for justice in his last days on earth. His own impending death is definitely one of the main deciding factors for his actions.
Ilegenes - one of the main characters is a 'clone' who is raised solely to be used as 'spare parts' for his actual counterpart. He knows he's going to die once his organs/limbs are used up, but grows to love his counterpart as a brother, and is content with facing his own death. (So far, anyway! That might change.)
Konoyo Ibun - a man starts dying of a family curse which has killed all of his ancestors before they grew old. Thankfully, a demon turns up to save him when it gets too close, but he is pretty much living on the threshold of constant death, and at the start of the manga, he's despairing about being able to survive at all. It, um, throws an interesting light on how far he's willing to go to stay alive. Even if it means turning gay. For a demon.
Heaven's Door (HONGOU Ranko) - yeah, terminal illness and talking about death. But it's a shoujo romance. So, yeah. Don't expect it to get all seinen up in har.
Sleeping Moon - FABULOUS, gorgeous story about another family curse that kills off all the young men in the clan. The protagonist and his cousin both have to deal with the fact that they'll probably die - and soon. In fact, the protagonist can eventually feel himself dying...
Renri no Eda - more terminal illness.
Babylon 5 - one of the most fascinating elements in this TV series was Londo's prophetic insight into his own death at the hands of G'Kar. He knew how and when he was going to die - as the emperor of an empire, with a Narn's hands around his throat - long before he actually got there. This fits into the prophecy category of 'certain death', but there's also this other interesting arc in the series, about an assassin's guild that likes to forewarn its victims waaaaaay ahead of time. So as to maximize suffering.
"How will they kill me? When? Will it be the spring roll I have for dinner tonight? (Poison?) The speed-boat I take my girlfriend on tomorrow? (An exploding engine?) The construction site I'm working at? (A staged accident?) ARGH! I might as well just lock myself up and shrivel to death!"Iron Man - the two recent movies starring Robert Downey Junior do an excellent job of highlighting the fact that Iron Man (a.k.a. Tony Stark) is basically living on borrowed time. The second movie in particular places emphasis on Stark's foreknowledge of his own death, and how he handles it.
More stories like these, please!
