Spoiler warning: This ranking reveals the deaths of all ten characters below, along with key story details from their series and films. It is a subjective list, not an objective measure: the order weighs narrative buildup, ties to the people left behind, surprise or inevitability, sacrifice, and the consequences that continue after the death. The sadness often comes less from the moment itself than from what it changes for the survivors.
10. L — Death Note
L’s death is painful because it feels like the end of a long intellectual duel just as the investigator has brought the truth within reach. Rem kills him after Light uses her protective feelings for Misa to turn the situation to his advantage. L’s absence leaves a vacuum: the pursuit of Kira continues, but the relationship that made the conflict so compelling is gone.
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9. Yuuki Konno — Sword Art Online II
Yuuki’s story places her death in the shadow of an incurable illness. Her farewell in the game world is communal rather than solitary: the people she has befriended gather around her, making the scene tender even as it is devastating. The sadness comes from the contrast between the vitality she brings to those relationships and the limits imposed by her condition.
8. Mitty — Made in Abyss
Content note: This entry involves severe suffering and a mercy killing. After Bondrewd’s experiments leave Mitty in an irreversibly damaged state, Nanachi kills her to end that suffering. The scene is difficult not because it presents death as a victory, but because it makes compassion and grief inseparable: Nanachi’s act is an expression of love, and also a loss that cannot be undone.
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7. Kurisu Makise — Steins;Gate
Kurisu’s death appears at the very start of the story, but the series keeps changing what that event means. She is stabbed, and Okabe’s attempts to navigate alternate timelines make the loss recur as a possibility he cannot simply set aside. The emotional weight builds through repetition: each new version of events sharpens the cost of trying to save someone while confronting how fragile the outcome is.
6. Erwin Smith — Attack on Titan
Erwin’s fatal charge against the Beast Titan is a choice made under impossible circumstances. His attack creates an opening for Levi, but the sacrifice is not emotionally simple: Erwin has spent years pursuing answers, and the mission asks him to put that unfinished desire aside. The scene’s force lies in the collision between the commander’s public duty and the private dream he may never fulfill.
Rank #2
5. Maes Hughes — Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Hughes is killed by Envy after uncovering the Homunculi’s plans. The loss hits through the ordinary life surrounding him: his love for his family, his warmth with his friends, and the future that should have continued beyond the investigation. Roy Mustang’s grief gives the death a lasting consequence, turning Hughes’s absence into part of the motivation and pain that shape the rest of the story.
4. Jiraiya — Naruto Shippuden
Jiraiya dies while investigating the Akatsuki, killed by Pain. He is more than a powerful teacher to Naruto; he is a mentor whose humor and affection make his guidance feel personal. His final message gives Naruto something to carry forward, but it cannot replace the person who delivered it. That combination of practical legacy and intimate grief makes the loss linger.
Rank #3
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3. Kaori Miyazono — Your Lie in April
Kaori dies during an operation, leaving Kousei to face the music and memories they shared without her. The story connects her absence to performance: what she inspired continues to sound through him, even though she is no longer there to hear it. That transformation from a shared present into a remembered influence gives the ending its particular ache.
2. Portgas D. Ace — One Piece
Ace gives his life protecting Luffy from an attack. The sacrifice makes the loss immediate, but its impact reaches far beyond the brothers: the grief affects Luffy and figures such as Whitebeard and Garp, and reverberates through the wider story. Ace’s death is devastating because it turns a rescue into a permanent absence at the moment Luffy believes he has brought his brother back within reach.
Rank #4
1. Setsuko — Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Setsuko’s death from malnutrition is the most devastating entry here because it is bound to the grinding conditions of postwar hardship, not to a climactic battle or a single dramatic decision. The film depicts civilian and child suffering with a focus on what deprivation does to everyday life. Scholarly analysis in the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies also discusses the film’s partly autobiographical connection to writer Akiyuki Nosaka’s wartime experience caring for his stepsister. That context should not be mistaken for a one-to-one account of the fictional characters, but it deepens the historical weight of Setsuko’s story.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why these deaths stay with viewers
These ten losses are not interchangeable. Some are acts of sacrifice; others emerge from illness, war, or the consequences of a character’s choices. What links them is the life left behind: a student without a mentor, a family without its center, friends carrying a final message, or survivors forced to continue with an absence that reshapes them. That is why a ranking can only be personal. Different viewers will remember different deaths as the saddest, depending on which relationships and consequences stay with them.
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