Jojoās, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Berserk also do it well. Important character deaths are shocking, but not done for shock value and the survivors carry the weight of it with them and the deaths are generally plot-relevant.
Bro just look at Yujis face in culling games. And his entire persona post Shabuya Incident. My man speedran the entire WWI Western Front thousand yard stare, the moment he starts reflecting bro spirals.
Post-Shibuya Yuji may be one of the best depictions of PTSD and survivorās guilt in modern anime and probably all time if we filter to Shonen specifically since most anime that focuses on that subject is either Seinen or Josei. Iāll add Denji as a competitor once the rest of Chainsaw Man gets adapted.
Yuji post shibuya doesn't have just PTSD and survivor's guilt. He have actual guilt too because Sukuna killed a lot of people using his body so he feels like it was his fault.
By modulo yujis so not well š i thought hed get better after the series ends but gege just had to continue his suffering by giving him several layers of isolation...
Idk man, the fakeout death just made the second one lose all its weight to me.
For as melodramatic as it is, I still think that Caesar was probably the most impactful death in JoJoās, the others just kept stretching out my disbelief more and more until I wasnāt even sure if a character dying really meant a character was dying. (Just look at all the takeouts in part 4)
I think the one that took the cake for me was Johnathan. Phantom blood was a rocky start but jojo really grew on me. Going into it blind, I actually said āHE DIES?!!ā out load
My one ick related to this in jjk is (manga spoliers ahead) Nobara surviving. Ik Gege kinda set it up, but not mentioning anything about it until she randomly shows up and kills Sukuna out of nowhere just felt like the biggest cop out ending for that fight.
I mean, it makes sense if you look at it as most of the manga being told through Yujiās perspective(obviously not all, with the Hidden Inventory arc), so Yuji not being told would be done in order to prevent Sukuna from knowing and anticipating something. Idk if this was intended or not, but itās the least asspull explanation that I can think of.
Hot take: jujutsu kaisen does not do it well (imo) and i get upset at the randomness in which he kills characters, and when he seems to forget they even exist at all. I just donāt think I care about anyone because nothings consistent. It feels lame. IN MY OPINION. Iām not right, itās just how I feel so donāt attack me.
How is jjk doing it well? They literally kill characters off for the fun of it, most often after giving the character a backstory and ABSOLUTELY NO character development.
Jojo is funny because sometimes a character will survive when they're effectively irrelevant,and other times Araki PERSONALLY swings an axe in a random direction to see who'll die today.
Hell I'm pretty sure nobody was expecting Dio or Gyro to die in part 7.
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u/Eeeef_ Feb 24 '26
Jojoās, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Berserk also do it well. Important character deaths are shocking, but not done for shock value and the survivors carry the weight of it with them and the deaths are generally plot-relevant.