A death scene is an obvious candidate for this kind of post, so that’ll be today’s focus. Death scenes don’t particularly affect me unless I’m completely blindsided and I really liked the character. For example, I sobbed uncontrollably at that one thing that happens in Mockingjay, but that is the first time ever that a book made me a helpless pile of sadness. In other words, I don’t cry at death scenes. If I feel like I might, I keep it under control unless I’m totally alone and no one else can hear me.
So all of that being said, it’s rare for me to think of any anime scene as the saddest, yet when I saw the theme of this post, it only took me a few seconds to choose a scene. That scene is Asuna’s death from Mahou Sensei Negima!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eajqKIUXxH4
(Starting at 20:27)
This death messed me up. In the span of a single episode, Negima! goes from a cute boarding school series with a million different characters you can choose as your fave to a tragic and heartbreaking drama. I watched this series almost ten years ago, so at the time I didn’t know how many episodes there were nor could I easily find anyone saying “Oh yeah, Negima’s great but be prepared for a sad death scene toward the end.” So basically, I went into this series expecting and receiving a comedy until episode 23 and did not see this tragic storyline coming despite the fact that Asuna actually hints that something is wrong with her several episodes before this happens (IIRC).
What got me was not just the suddenness of her death, but also the character’s subsequent reactions. Because I was watching this ten years ago on YouTube (before the days of the next episode appearing in the sidebar), I honestly thought I had reached the end of the series, or close enough to it. Episodes 23 and 24 mess with you by having credits rolling over tributes to Asuna while sad music plays in the background.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_gSwlrxfII
(Starting at 0:38)
Literally everyone loses it, even Asuna’s arch rival Ayaka and my 15-year-old self could not handle it (on a side note, my 24-year-old self now ships Asuna and Ayaka, but I digress). Asuna was my favorite back then, so needless to say, I was not okay.
Of course, all hope is not lost because more of the plot happens at the actual end of the series, but to this day, I remember Asuna’s death as one that hit me harder than most other anime deaths I’ve seen.
To end on a light note (as opposed to a death note), here’s a cute Negima! AMV I found years ago that actually introduced me to Wicked and made me ask my mom if she’d take me to see it for my 16th birthday. 15-year-old me thought this was the greatest thing for about a month and half.
Next: favorite male character. Guess which anime I’m gonna talk about. Just guess.