Top 10 Darkest Anime Endings
For this list, we'll be looking at the conclusions in anime that are bound to make your soul turn to dust. Get ready for some next level spoilers as well as plenty of mature content down the line. Things are about to get depressing
#10: “Shiki” (2010)
As with all good gothic horrors, it’s often the humans that come across as monsters more so than the actual monsters - even if the vampire scenes are the stuff of nightmares. With bloodsuckers silently converting a small town, it’s not long before the populace is either consumed with paranoia or been turned into children of the night. By the time things come to a close, the village has gone up in flames, everyone’s either been horribly murdered or forced to flee, and its hinted at that the cycle of tragedy is doomed to repeat itself.
#9: “Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion” (2013)
Oh Homura, why? Why would you rob yourself of your own happy ending? After discovering she’s trapped inside a witch’s labyrinth, everyone’s favourite magical girl is forced to battle her way through alternate versions of her friends, as well as Kyubey’s dark machinations in order to escape her newfound reality. Just when it looks like she’s about to be reunited with Madoka forever…she steals her god power, rewrites the universe, and essentially goes psycho, all in the name of love. The Urobutcher strikes again.
#8: “Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam” (1985-86)
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Zeta had already established itself for taking the brilliance of the original Gundam and amping up the darkness to insane degrees, but this ending was something else. While we couldn’t be happier with the concluding four way battle, especially when Kamille used his Mobile Suit to shish kebab the likes of Scirocco, the last thing we wanted was for our boy to end up with a severe case of space dementia! As if he hadn’t been through enough with watching his friends die, losing Four, and finding out his mentor was the Red Comet. Can’t Kamille just catch a break? You don’t see Judau dealing with this shit!
#7: “School Days” (2007)
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Honestly, we’re a little torn on this one, because if you really think about, isn’t Makoto getting brutally stabbed over and over by one of his heartbroken conquests the perfect ending? Alright, so Sekai getting killed by a crazed Kotonoha, who then splits her open to see if she was pregnant before taking Makoto’s decapitated head for herself…might have been a bit of an overkill. Best to just forget that part ever happened and focus on the sweet satisfaction of watching karma come and stab one of anime’s most hated characters in the back, er, chest.
#6: “Grave of the Fireflies” (1988)
We all know it’s coming, and each time it just gets harder to watch. As civilian casualties of the Second World War, siblings Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive in the fallout of a firebombing. With nowhere to live and no means of supporting themselves, we’re forced to watch the heartbreaking sight as both brother and sister eventually succumb to starvation. It doesn’t mater if the film ends with a beautiful scene of their spirits reuniting under the light of fireflies, we can’t see any of it cause we’re still crying our eyes out!
#5: “Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School” (2016)
Considering the Despair Arc is practically its own anime, it’s ending is more than legible for consideration…especially since it results in the entire cast being so overwhelmed with grief over the death of their friend that they get turned into Junko’s despairing servants. Once again caught in the Ultimate Despairs antics, we’re greeted to the sight of Chisa and company succumb to their own anguish and Junko’s brainwashing after they witness Chiaki meet her end in a saw-esque dungeon. Yep, that’ll put a damper on your day all right.
#4: “Berserk” (1997-98)
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Damn it Griffith. Look, we feel bad that you spent the last year getting tortured until you got reduced to a mute cripple, but did you really need to trigger the Eclipse? After reclaiming his Behelit, the White Hawk finds himself given the choice by the God Hand to join them as an omnipotent demon…just as long as he’s willing to sacrifice his comrades in exchange. The deal proves too tempting to pass up, leading to such wonderous sights as the Band of the Hawk being slaughtered, Guts losing an arm and eye, and Casca being violated by a reborn Griffith.
#3: “Devilman Crybaby” (2018)
Considering the latter half of the series chronicled humanity’s downfall into a self-destruction mob willing to butcher each other over the slightest issue, there was never any real chance the show was going to end on a happy note. Pretty sure all the happiness died out when Miki was decapitated and flung around like a flag. Of course, Go Nagai being Go Nagai, he managed to push things just a step further by having the world literally end while Satan cradles the legless body of Akira after he crushed him in their final battle. Can see why God wanted to nuke the planet.
#2: “The End of Evangelion” (1997)
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Out of all the numerous times the world went to crap, nothing tops the one where our boy Shinji was left stranded in an orange hellscape, inexplicably strangling the girl he liked, while half of Rei’s giant decapitated head smiled at them in the distance. This was not what we thought the Third Impact would look like. Not that it’s weirder than Shinji being trapped in his own mind being told congratulations over and over and over again, we just didn’t expect the end of all humanity to be such a mindfuck.
#1: “The Ideon: Be Invoked” (1982)
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Apparently, someone thought that the original ending to Space Runaway Ideon wasn’t dark enough, so they introduced this feature flick to try and cram in as much distress and death as possible. Don’t think you’re in for a mecha-filled fun time, since everyone aboard the Solo Ship ends up getting axed off in a final firefight. If they don’t lose their heads from the laser blasts, they’re catapulted off into the vacuum of space when the ship ends up getting torn apart. And if that wasn’t enough they decide to go one step further, and destroy the entire universe, wiping out everyone and everything in the process. Lovely.
