History BittersweetEnding / Anime

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As said on the main page, '''spoilers are unmarked'''.
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* While it can be considered a DownerEnding by some readers/viewers, ''LightNovel/AiNoKusabi'' ends with both protagonists finally getting together only to die in each others' arms moments later.
* In the anime of ''VisualNovel/{{Air}}'', Misuzu dies at the end from her curse, but managed to reconcile her relationship with Haruko before that in a particularly {{SugarWiki/Heartwarming|Moments}} series of scenes. Furthermore, since she found true happiness by meeting Yukito and coming to love Haruko, Misuzu apparently broke the curse on Kanna, ensuring her next reincarnation cycle will be a normal, happy life. Meanwhile, Yukito is stuck to live the rest of his life as a Crow... In the anime/manga anyway. In the movie he [[ButNowIMustGo leaves town]] in the end, promising to help Misuzu the next time she reincarnates. The Manga ends quite a bit happier, with Misuzu surviving.
* During the final battle in ''Manga/{{Akumetsu}}'', Shiina is shot and is bleeding to death. In order to save her, Hazama Shou sacrifices his own body to create a clone body for Shiina. He uses his Akumetsu mask to transfer Shiina's mind from her dying body to her new body. Shiina is able to survive, however, all of the Akumetsu/Shou clones die at the end, and the clone plant is also destroyed.
* ''Anime/AngelBeats''. In the anime at least, it ends with EVERYBODY in their world disappearing except for Otonashi and his closest friends. Then, once it's down to two (Otonashi and Kanade) there comes a revelation that a lot of people saw coming a mile away, but still, Otonashi's crying and despaired scream as the last word of the show (aside from ending themes) was pretty depressing. The song that plays for the last few minutes of the show, Ichiban no Takaramono, is pretty sad in and of itself. There is a bit of hope of a ReincarnationRomance at the end, if you don't take the AlternateCharacterInterpretation and take that as Otonashi's imagination.
* ''Anime/AnoHanaTheFlowerWeSawThatDay'': even though the team fulfills Menma's wish, by the time she leaves everyone is bawling their eyes out because this time she's really not coming back.
* ''Manga/AoNoFuuin'' can be seen this way. All of the current Oni decide to sleep beneath Mt. Fuji and prevent its eruption, with Soko and Akira finally having time as a regular couple and ridding her of her status as Soryu. But the manga makes it clear that, even with the Oni sleeping now, that humans ''will'' eventually cause the environment to become so bad that the Oni will awaken again to bring balance to things. So they won't mind that Oni will be eating a few humans to survive. Fortunately, Akira makes sure that the Saionji group changes its ways to focus on preventing the environment's degradation, to keep this from happening.
* At the end of the ''Manga/{{Area 88}}'' manga, Project 4 has been defeated and Kanzaki is dead. Aslan's civil war is over, and the country is about to convert to a modern republic. However, the civil war has cost countless lives, and Aslan will need years to rebuild. Most of the main characters, including Saki, Mickey, Sela, Roundel, and Greg, are dead. Ryoko and Shin reunite, but Shin's amnesia means that years of his memory are missing.
* Akari from ''{{Manga/ARIA}}'' finally graduates as a "Prima" and inherits Aria Company, but has to say goodbye to her beloved sempai Alicia, who retires from her job. She also sees her old friends a lot less than she used to.
* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': The Battle of Trost arc ends with a PyrrhicVictory that won back the Trost district and sealed up Wall Rose from the Titans, thus representing humanity's first victory against the Titans, but at appalling cost and in the process leaving everyone devastated. The blow is softened, though, by the fact that all civilians evacuated in time.
* The graduation episode of ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh''. Saying goodbye is never easy. There's a particularly bittersweet bit near the end: a scene (or panel, if you're reading the manga) of all six girls bowing respectfully to Yukari, with the words "Thank you very much." appearing above them. They do this facing "out", so it has the effect of actors taking a curtain call. And Chiyo [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments breaking in tears]] in the ceremony.
* In ''Anime/BagiTheMonsterOfMightyNature'', the eponymous [[HalfHumanHybrid human/lion hybrid]] gradually loses her humanity and goes feral. Then Ryo, the other main protagonist mistakenly believes she killed his mother, spends years training to get his revenge, and succeeds in stabbing Bagi. A minute later he finds he was mistaken, and that she had not only has not killed his mother, but actually carried out her last wish. The next day Bagi's body disappears, as she managed to recover, and ran away to the mountains, away from humanity
* ''Anime/{{Betterman}}'' ends with Kankel being competely defeated by Betterman OLTUS' Psycho Birth, but as for the team: Shou and Kaede are killed when Kaede suffered from Algernon, with her baby being carried off by Chandi, Miyako killed after she learned she was the carrier of Algernon from the first Dive inspection. Sakura lost her powers and is currently in a coma, with Keita and Hinoki ending up on a deserted island, [[BookEnds just as they were in the beginning of the series]].
* The manga ''Manga/BitterVirgin'' ends with the primary couple Daisuke & Hinako together. But the hurdles presented by Hinako's traumatic past and its consequences leave little hope in everyone (''including the couple themselves'') that the relationship will ultimately survive. Daisuke himself thinks the job of taking care of Hinako should go to someone more mature than he is, while Hinako herself is certain Daisuke will find a more cheerful girl better suited to him than she is. But, in the here and now, they're together and happy.
* The ''Manga/BlackButler'' anime ends with Ciel being turned into a demon, leaving Sebastian as his eternal butler. A neither cheery nor tragic conclusion for both sides.
* ''Anime/BloodPlus'' could be argued as having a Bittersweet Ending. Diva dies, Saya lives after trying to kill herself on Diva's blood but is deeply affected by her death, Hagi is crushed under a building, Riku's rape and subsequent death at Diva's hands still haunts Kai and Saya, and Solomon died for Saya without her even knowing. A lot of people are dead, including huge numbers of the Red Shiled, and all but one of the Schiff, and the kind of emotional and psychological toll it has taken on the main characters is palpable. However, there are still some good things. Diva's children are being looked after by a loving and caring family so they won't turn into monster sociopaths, Kai is getting on with his life, Lulu is still alive, and Julia is pregnant. At the end we see that as Saya goes into hibernation again, that Hagi's trademark blue hair ribbon is by her sleeping place, indicating that he is still alive and waiting for Saya to awaken again. So in the end, this becomes more of an EarnYourHappyEnding type of story. Considering the kind of pain and grief the main characters had to go through to get it, they really do deserve it.
* While ''Manga/{{Bokurano}}'' is tragic to the point of being sadistic and ends in an [[UpToEleven extremely]] [[DownerEnding bleak note]], the anime adaptation manages to pull a bittersweet ending of sorts off.
* At the end of ''Anime/{{Canaan}}'' the eponymous character, and her very close friend ([[LesYay or more]], as its implied), Maria go their separate ways because their lifestyles are too different for them to stay together.
* ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'':
** The manga version of. The BigBad is vanquished, but no-one truly escapes unscathed.
** The anime version, too. It tends to be a matter of opinion what the proportion of "bitterness" to "sweetness" is. Joshua is so mentally damaged by what happened that he's mentally reverted back to the child he was before Aion corrupted him, and doesn't even remember Rosette and Chrono consciously, though he is otherwise perfectly happy and content and no longer suffers the ill-effects of being the Apostle of Hope, due to that power having been taken from him. All of the people from the orphanage have been restored to life. Rosette and Chrono retreat to a private cabin to spend the last of their days together in happiness, dying (at the exact same moment) hand in hand and smiling peacefully while sitting on a swinging couch on the porch. The epilogue to the anime, however, goes pretty heavily into {{Downer Ending}}; Father Remington, revealed to essentially be an angel in the series, may no longer return to heaven (though it's ambiguous whether he was exiled or whether he's chosen to remain on the Earth as a symbol of his disapproval for the suffering Rosette and Chrono were forced to undergo). In Rome, he bumps into a stranger and looks up to apologise- and, if only for a moment, sees the face of Aion. Seconds later, the man attempts to assassinate the Pope.
* Creator/CoolKyouShinsha's one-shot ''Cluster of Life'' ends with the ghost girl finally able to move on and the traveler reconnecting with his parents. Because of this, they won't be able to see each other again until the traveler eventually dies.
* ''Anime/CodeGeass'':
** Most of the cast gets moderate to happy endings, but the three protagonists that were instrumental in bringing about the peaceful resolution? Lelouch, despised by the world, is assassinated on international television, just as he planned; Suzaku, who impaled his best friend, becomes Zero, carrying the weight of the world's happiness even at the cost of his own, and must carefully hide his true identity for the rest of his life; and C.C. is still immortal, still wandering the world, and still lonely, although the knowledge that Lelouch genuinely cared for her (and never once blamed her for giving him his eponymous geass) was enough to give her the strength to live on.
** Nunnally watched her beloved brother die seconds after realizing he was a good guy all along. On the other hand, she regains her eyesight and becomes Empress, and she seems close to Suzaku in the epilogue, so it's not all bad.
** And the same goes for Kallen who finally understood the truth about Lelouch just in time to watch helplessly while he is killed (Kallen's [[BodyguardCrush protective streak towards Lelouch]] is one of her character-defining traits). She gets everything she had been fighting for and is living happily with her bedridden-but-getting-better mother in a liberated Japan while attending school like a normal person, but she gets all those things [[DidNotGetTheGirl at the cost of the man she would gladly have died for]], and she's the one who narrates the epilogue in a rather bittersweet tone.
** In ''Manga/CodeGeassNightmareOfNunnally'', Nunnally manages to save the world and regain her sight and mobility by rejecting her parents' plan, but that results in them vanishing from the world. Euphemia becomes empress, but her mission to restore peace to the world is hampered by hatred and distrust of Britannia. Lelouch is forced to leave Nunnally forever, but Nunnally has some comfort in sharing one last hug with him and him telling her he will always love her. Despite the problems that lie ahead, Nunnally still believes that there is hope, and is willing to face the future with her best friend, Alice.\\\
For the sake of completeness we should also mention the fan theory that Lelouch actually absorbed his father, Emperor Charles', Code during his final fight with him, becoming immortal upon getting killed rather than actually [[KilledOffForReal dying for real]]. With this in mind, it helps push things a little farther towards the HappyEnding direction. It must be noted, however, this theory clashes with the anime's lore and that WordOfGod has always repeated that Lelouch is truly dead, they said so in [[https://forums.animesuki.com/group.php?do=discuss&gmid=38473 interviews]] (e.g. [[https://imgur.com/a/do0fiOb Animage 10 and 11]], [[https://www.retromags.com/galleryimgs/monthly_2017_10/small.59f05755697f9_ContinueVol.42(October2008).jpg.f9ec262ce76541c515b3ea32e65060c8.jpg Continue Vol.42]], etc), [[https://imgur.com/a/2dxGMFX tweets]] by the director ([[https://imgur.com/a/HoF6xhX translation]]), the [[https://d2ydh70d4b5xgv.cloudfront.net/images/c/a/code-geass-lelouch-of-the-rebellion-r2-official-guide-book-japan-anime-free-s-h-3dd125709d6de684a48b26ffff07f459.jpg official guide book]], ..., and Lelouch is listed among the dead in [[https://imgur.com/a/GdjEhBD the Death List for R2]]. C.C. even explicitly says Lelouch is dead in [[https://streamable.com/d8dji the new epilogue]] (from 2009). Then it was announced that he was confirmed to be the main character in the sequel which is officially named "Lelouch of the Resurrection", which aligns with the mountain of official statements ([[https://www.reddit.com/user/GeassedbyLelouch/comments/8hklfr/evaluating_code_theory_main_body_index/ database with official statements]]) about his death.
* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', a show where most of the episodes are standalone, has almost every other episode end on a bittersweet note (Asteroid Blues, Waltz for Venus, Jupiter Jazz, Speak Like a Child, Boogie Woogie Feng Shui and Black Dog Serenade, to mention a few). The main character arcs of Spike, Jet, Faye and Ed which resolve in the last three episodes could be interpreted as such, but may also fit the definition of {{Downer Ending}}s: Two of them discover that YouCantGoHomeAgain, and the other two lose people close to them. It finally ends keeping to the trope, with the primary character doing a TakingYouWithMe.
* ''Manga/{{Cyborg 009}}'':
** The original intended ending of the manga and the ending to the 2001 anime qualify. After the final battle in space, Black Ghost is finally destroyed and 009/Joe seemingly falls to his death, only to be saved by 002/Jet, but then 002 runs out of fuel and the two friends fall to their death through the Earth's atmosphere, appearing as a shooting star. Manga-wise, this was retconned quickly with the next arc, after fan mail convinced Ishinomori to resume the story. Anime-wise, the 2001 anime ends there and episodes 49-51 ("God's War") take place in an alternate continuity.
** As far as "God's War" itself goes, while the anime incarnation didn't get to the final battle, the manga and light novel definitely also apply. The 00 team winds up laid waste to by the Gods, killed off one by one until only 009, 003, and 001 remain and are left to decide whether they should try to fight the ultimate "God of Gods" or if they'd be better off sacrificing themselves to return to "The world of light" (the planet that Earth was an imperfect copy of). They make the choice to die on their own terms, with 001 first dying by ''erasing himself from that plane of existence''. 009 and 003 then confess their love to each other and their hope of being reincarnated, before they too die as the Earth becomes a lifeless wasteland. However, in the end, in the unspecified year of 201x, a "World of light" is shown and it appears to be identical to Earth- save for it being entirely peaceful. The 00 team reunite at a beach, now appearing as ordinary humans. Mileage varies as to whether this ending could be considered happier or bittersweet, seeing as it's implied that the team may or may not be actually "alive" and may have just ascended to a higher plane of existence in regaining their humanity.
* In the end of ''Anime/DarlingInTheFranxx'', the threat of the VIRM has finally been extinguished and the Klaxosaurs returned to the Earth to pass it on to humanity. Ikuno also discovers a cure for the RapidAging for the parasites, and Plantation 13 are able to start new lives, from Kokoro and Mitsuru raising their growing family to Futoshi running a bakery. However, [[TheHeroDies Hiro and Zero Two]] [[HeroicSacrifice had to sacrifice their lives]] to ensure their friends will live on to building a better world than the one they lived in before. Though it's shown centuries later after the epilogue that [[{{Reincarnation}} Hiro and Zero Two have reincarnated on Earth]], [[ReincarnationRomance with the two of them meeting once again as human children.]]
* ''Manga/DeathNote'': The series' KarmaHoudini VillainProtagonist finally gets his just rewards, but '''way''' too many people died in the process, millions of people around the world still revere him as a god and there's absolutely nothing stopping Ryuk from repeating the whole thing next time he gets bored. On the flip side: humanity lost the first real chance for world peace ever and all those people died for naught.
* ''Manga/DevilmanLady'': Jun defeats the Child of God at the expense of the lives of all of her friends, including her [[SchoolgirlLesbians love interest Kazumi]], whose gruesome death as she was absorbed into Jun she was forced to watch; and she lost both her arms. However, the last scene is a human child playing with a Devil Beast child, suggesting that humanity is accepting their successors without any more violence.
* ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' ends with the Tamer's partners de-digivolving and then being forced into the Digital World, and the Tamers are left to believe that they will never see their partners again. It would be a downer ending, except for the last five seconds or so before the ending credits, offering a bit of hope that they will be re-united eventually. That hope is subsequently dashed to pieces by a later Drama CD which has the Tamers blindly sending messages to the Digital World in hopes of maybe reaching their partners. Actually, it is still left open that they could be reunited someday, at least they all seem to think they will. Runaway Locomon (depending on your personal continuity) actually does show them after reuniting. Really, we just don't know.
* ''Anime/DinoZaurs'': Diamond Ryugu is defeated and the Dragozaurs leave Earth but the Dino Knights turn back into fossils as the Earth is no longer in danger.
* ''Manga/DissolvingClassroom'''s ending is definitely more bitter than sweet, verging on a DownerEnding, as while Yuuma and Chizumi are implied to have been killed by the animated liquid remains of their victims, thus sending their souls to hell, thousands (if not millions) of people are implied to have been killed by watching the news feed of the press conference and hearing Yuuma's deadly apologies.
* ''Manga/DragonBall'':
** The Cell saga, due to Gohan's arrogance, Goku sacrifices himself to try and save the earth from Cell, but the sacrifice is in vain, as Cell comes back even stronger than before. However, Gohan along with help from Goku's spirit and Vegeta, manages to finally destroy Cell once and for all. They manage to revive most of the people killed by Cell, and the earth is finally safe. But due to Goku being revived once already with the Earth's dragon balls, cannot be revived again. The Z-Fighters come up with a plan to revive him, but Goku, realizing that his presence indirectly caused all the problems throughout ''Z'', decides its better for him to stay dead, so the earth can remain safe.
** Played VERY straight with the Saiyan Saga. The Z-fighters win, but at the cost of nearly the entire group - Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu, and Piccolo are all killed, and Goku is nearly beaten to death. Even worse, Piccolo's death causes Kami to also perish, meaning the Dragon Balls are useless stones and there's no way to bring back the dead. And worst of all, Goku allowed Vegeta to escape into space, and it's suggested that Vegeta's first course of action after being healed will be to head back to Earth and finish the job. The only silver lining is that there MIGHT be other Dragon Balls: if they can be found and used.
** Averted however, in the Buu Saga. By the end, the earth is once again safe from the villain, and everything is back to normal. Goku is finally revived, and can live with his loved ones again, in peace.
* ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'''s Future Trunks saga ends this way. The threat of the mad god Zamasu is over with, but to do so, Future Trunks' universe is destroyed with Trunks, Future Mai and Future Zen-O being the only remaining living beings from that universe. Goku retrieves that Zen-O and brings him to his timeline's Zen-O, giving each other a friend, and plans are put into motion to go back in time before Zamasu' rampage started to stop him and create a brighter future, but Trunks and Mai are the only ones left from their universe trying to forge a new future in the new timeline. The weight of this hits when Gohan arrives to bid Trunks and Mai farewell, causing Trunks to break down into tears as he realizes he failed his best friend and mentor.
* The manga version of ''Manga/ElfenLied''. Thousands of people are dead, Kouta is forced to MercyKill Lucy, and the Diclonius species ceases to exist, but the people responsible recieved their comeuppance, and most of the remainder of the cast get a happy ending. Best of all, Lucy defeated her EnemyWithin by stopping her SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum just before asking for Kouta to MercyKill her. At the very end, Kouta - now with a daughter he named Kaede - meets the reincarnated selves of Lucy and Nyu.
* ''Anime/EurekaSeven: Pocketful of Rainbows'':
** The ending can be considered bittersweet. Though the heroes manage to save the world, the members of Gekko State are all doomed to die early due to their accelerated aging, the government's KillSat causes untold collateral damage that kills countless innocent people, and Eureka herself was forced to sacrifice her memories to save Renton and become an ordinary human being who is incapable of speaking, thanks to memory wipe.
** The manga ending is even worse. Although {{Big Bad}} was eventually defeated, Eureka dies in Renton's arms from her wounds. This leaves him and his grandpa to look after the 3 kids for at least 2 years. Thats gotta suck for a 14 year old kid.
* Franchise/EvilliousChronicles:
** Pretty much every happy ending, spanning the course of over 1000 years, is tempered with the bitterness of knowing all the characters are going to die of either old age or other factors later on in the series--but that's not to say it doesn't have it's share of straight examples. It's probably safe to say that when it doesn't have a DownerEnding, an Evillious story ends like this.
** In the Story of Evil, from its various sub-arcs, we have for the the principal twin characters the tyrannical princess Rilliane survives to repent, but loses her brother Allen who dies in her place. For the Lucifenian Revolution, Germaine avenges her father's death by killing Allen, but he was raised as her foster brother. Not to mention all of the revolutionaries who died to make it happen, only for Lucifenia to end up under the control of another monarchy in their instability. For the side stories like LightNovel/WiegenliedOfGreen, Clarith finds peace and fulfillment at the monastery, but loses the love of her life. For LightNovel/PraefacioOfBlue, Kyle and Germaine end once and for all the conspiracy orchestrated by his mother, Prim, but he loses his half sister in the process and again throws a country into political instability.
** In the Seven Deadly Sins Series, there's the LightNovel/TheLunacyOfDukeVenomania, where all the women escape from the duke's harem when he's killed, but it sparks a wave of political instability and bigotry towards his ChildByRape descendents, as well as death taking away his one sympathetic goal that he began the novel with--to confess his love to a childhood friend he'd brainwashed in with the rest of them.
** In LightNovel/EvilFoodEaterConchita, another entry in the Seven Deadly Sins Series, Banica eats herself, thus ending her reign of terror and keeping her baby safe. However, Elluka fails to collect the glass, and Conchita becomes the new demon of Gluttony, an immortal who persists in terrorizing people for centuries afterward.
** In the Original Sin Series, Elluka, who later becomes the constant protagonist of the rest of the series, is brought back to life and made immortal by the Sin ark, in exchange for her entire country and all the people she cared about either being obliterated or driven into insanity/evil.
* ''Anime/FafnerInTheAzureDeadAggressor'':
** The series ends with a number of the pilots dead, [[CheerfulChild Tsubaki]] must tearfully say farewell to her friends before assimilating with the Island, and Soushi dies even after Kazuki saves him. At the same time, Tatsumiya Island has the information to save Sakura's life and prevent the early deaths of the pilots, the world's civilizations can rebuild, and Soushi promised Kazuki he'd find a way to return one day. Judging by the trailers for the movie, he will.
** In addition, there's the even ''more'' bleak prequel special. Yes, Tatsumiya Island obtains data from the wreckage of Ryo's Titan-type Fafner to fight against the Festum and the Island now has time to prepare for the upcoming battles, but most of the important people who do survive are going to die soon enough anyways and everyone who partook in the L Plan were killed as well.
* The "Tower of Paradise" arc in ''Manga/FairyTail'' ends on a bittersweet note that's more "bitter" than "sweet". Sure, the Tower was destroyed and Erza's former Nakama were freed (and reconciled with Erza). However, Simon died in a HeroicSacrifice. TheReveal at the end of the arc makes it dangerously close to a full DownerEnding: the ''real'' villain of the arc, Ultear, got what she wanted out of the whole mess (discrediting the current magic council, so they had to disband), while Jellal (the apparent BigBad who they actually beat) turned out to be nothing more than her brainwashed pawn! Oh, and it turns out the Tower never could have revived [[UltimateEvil Zeref]], or rather did not '''need''' to, because Zeref ''isn't actually dead''. Jellal's rampage gave Ultear's ''real'' allies, the Dark Guild Grimoire Heart, the chance to acquire one of the keys to Zeref's [[SealedEvilInACan seal]].
* The opening scene of ''Anime/FangOfTheSunDougram'' strongly hints at a DownerEnding, but it turns into a bittersweet one at the last moment. The civil war seems lost when the BigBad tricks the LaResistance leaders into accepting his very unfair offer of independence. Most guerillas go home and the Liberation Army becomes a police force and the handful of rebels who see through the deception and continue fighting are surrounded by [[TheEmpire the Earth Federation Military]]. Then suddenly the BigBad gets assassinated and the tricked rebel leader takes a stand and refuses to let the earthlings run his newly-formed country. In the end, the planet Deloya is still only formally independent, the eponymous HumongousMecha is destroyed, but it's heavily implied that future prospects are bright.
* At the end of ''Anime/TheFantasticAdventuresOfUnico'' the evil baron is killed, Katy has found a new home, everyone is happy... but then the West Wind returns and Unico must leave and forget his friends forever.
* ''LightNovel/FateZero'': [[BrokenAce Kiritsugu]] orders [[ActionGirl Saber]] to destroy the Grail in order to prevent more outcomes, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero but it ends up with it causing a fire that consumes half of the town]]. Saber returns to her time, in which she remembers the words of Lancelot, as she regrets of her life as a king. [[HumbleHero Waver]] survives, but loses [[CoolBigBro Rider]], who has quickly become the most important person in his life. Most of the characters are dead and [[BrokenBird Sakura]], [[TykeBomb Illya]] and [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Rin]] are separated from their loved ones and live lonely for the next ten years, as the people they cared for are missing or dead. The BigBad Kirei and [[TheCaligula Gilgamesh]] are still alive. On a happier note, Kiritsugu saves a young [[FutureBadass Shirou]], who will become a hero of justice like Kiritsugu, but unlike him, following the right path and give the story a happy ending in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight''.
* ''Anime/Figure17TsubasaAndHikaru'' ends with what might ''tentatively'' be called a DeathByNewberyMedal: Hikaru vanishes at the end after defeating the Maguar for good because her human form was only ever temporary, and to top it off, Tsubasa has to leave all of her friends to move (again). But we do see that she's a much stronger person because of everything that happened. Worst of all, "the adults" promised Tsubasa they would take Hikaru home and make certain that ''absolutely every scientific resource'' available to their civilisation would be dedicated to saving Hikaru from her eventual fade-out -- they were practically about to take her back for the preservation attempt when the final battle blindsided them and forced Hikaru to burn off the little energy she was using to stay alive. Though, admittedly, there were subtle implications that Hikaru's life in the labs would not have been all too nice had she been preserved...
* ''Anime/FinalFantasyTheSpiritsWithin'' ends with the world saved, and the Phantoms at peace, but the ''entire cast'' save for two characters dead.
* The first ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' series ends with Kenshiro finally defeating Raoh... and then discovering that Yuria is dying from radiation sickness. We find out in the second series that she lived on for a couple of years before telling Kenshiro to continue living without her.
* ''Anime/FiveCentimetersPerSecond'': Takaki will probably never meet Akari again, but he finally begins to take control of his life and starts to deal with the lonely and bitter feelings that he's been nursing for fifteen years.
* ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'', in both anime and manga formats, probably fits here as well. Naota matures a good deal and doesn't let the world or his friends be glassed, but it certainly isn't the happiest ending. At least Haruko offers Naota to come with her "the next time", whatever that means. ''We can has sequel, please?''
* ''Literature/FromTheNewWorld'' has one of these. Saki and Satoru survive and marry, and Squealer's attempt to genocide all humans in Japan and steal babies to use as weapons is stopped. However, Kiromaru and Tomiko are dead, most of the bakenezumi colonies have been wiped out and human society is still just as messed up as when the series began. Still, Saki and Satoru have hope for the future and the series ends with a shot of the empty halls of Zenjin Academy echoing with the sounds of children's laughter and an inscription:
-->"The power of imagination is what changes everything."
* ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'':
** The series ends with Ed and Al both alive, but stuck in parallel worlds.
** [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa The movie's]] ending is arguably bittersweet as well. Ed and Al finally get together again but they're both stuck in the parallel world for good. The brothers thought little of leaving their friends behind forever, which was especially heartbreaking for Winry. While Ed didn't really have a choice and decided to make sure the Gate could never be opened again by doing so, Al did.
* ''Anime/FullmoonOSagashite'''s ending is quite a TearJerker. After it was revealed a bit earlier that Eichi 's soul was with Mitsuki all the time, enabling her to see the shinigamis in the first place, we see Mitsuki after her operation. Through a miracle, or rather a (not that heroic but still) HeroicSacrifice of Mystia and Jonathan she still hasn't lost her voice yet and is singing at a concert, when suddenly Takuto, who was thought to be dead shows up and they're happily reunited... ...until the camera pans to Eichi, who separates his soul from Mitsuki's body and is seen flying away reaching out for her while crying. Until he eventually calms down, smiles down on her peacefully and vanishes into nothingness. This is probably made even sadder by the realisations that with Eichi gone, Mitsuki is now unable to see or talk to any of the shinigamis ever again; and she's only still alive because of his presence and the ensuing events, which means that he himself ruined his chance to be reunited with her in death any time soon.
* The ending of ''Manga/FutureDiary'' certainly counts. Sure Yuki and Yuno were able to become god of the 3rd world and the memories from Yuno of the 2nd world were given to 3rd world Yuno. However that doesn't change the fact that everyone with the exception of the 9th, the Muru murus, and Yuki himself (obviously) from the two previous worlds are dead. Also, neither of them can just hit the reset button (as Yuki painfully became aware of) to bring them back. [[CameBackWrong All that would come back would be their bodies, not their minds.]] Seriously, were it not for the 3rd world resolving the way it did, the end would have been a full blown DownerEnding.
* ''[[Anime/GaoGaiGarFINAL GaoGaiGar FINAL]]'', the [[PostScriptSeason Post-Script OVA]] to ''[[Anime/GaoGaiGar GaoGaiGar]]''. It turns out the heroes only have the ability to open two tiny windows back to our planet that will stay open for a couple of seconds. They choose to send Mamoru and Kaido back home, entrusting the future to them. As they fly towards the portals, they pass by the ruined husks of all the Brave robots who sacrificed themselves using their ultimate attacks to save the universe, and hear each one's voice encouraging them to look forward and remember the Oath Sworn Through Courage. Finally, as they return to Earth and meet all their friends and family once again, the character version of the already fairly emotional ending theme begins to play.\\\
Made even worse by the fact that, up to this point, the series was ''extremely'' lighthearted and took great pains to have everything come out in a happy ending. Throughout the series and FINAL, a total of two major human characters and one of the robot characters were killed. In the final episode, it is implied that every one of the Mobile Unit is dead for good, though there is a chance that GGG will find a way back home.\\\
An eventual happier ending is teased [[AllThereInTheManual in the manual]] though. Specifically, Genesic [=GaoGaiGar=]'s specs include a device called the "Galeoria Road" - where have we heard that name? Oh wait, it shares a name with the portal to the alternate universe in question, the Galeoria Comet. There's also what appears to be an old version of Guy himself who makes brief appearances in bonus content and ''Anime/{{Betterman}}''.
* ''Anime/GenesisOfAquarion'':
** Apollo and Silvia ''finally'' [[{{UST}} resolve]] their series-long bout of WillTheyOrWontThey... only for Apollo to then go and sacrifice himself to save the world. At least the promise of ReincarnationRomance gives it a more hopeful spin than other such endings...though it will take around 12000 years for that to happen, apparently.
** The OVA alternate retelling is also bittersweet but on a different note. Apollo and Silvia are able to save the world without Apollo having to sacrifice himself, letting them be together, but several of their friends that survived in the series died fighting Touma.
* Arguably the ending of ''Anime/GregoryHorrorShow: The Second Guest,'' though more on the "bitter" than "sweet." The female protagonist finally has what she's been wishing for--a family to call her own. Meaning a husband a child to look after. On the bitter side of things though, in getting this, she's become a permanent guest of the HellHotel, cannot go back to the real world, and lost her sanity/sense of self in the process. [[{{Squick}} Oh, and it's ''[[{{Squick}} Gregory]]'' [[{{Squick}} she's got a family with.]]
* In ''Animation/GuardianFairyMichel'', the Black Hammers lost all the fairies they captured and the Tree of Life is saved, but Michel dies in order to rejuvenate the tree. He will revive in the future, but until then everyone must work together to protect nature. Also, Kim leaves the island.
* ''Anime/GunBuster'':
** Perhaps the first example for many '90s anime fans, the end of the sixth OVA episode in which Noriko and Kazumi within Gun Buster One had to enter Gun Buster Three in order to detonate the bomb within. Due to time dilation effect, they returns home with 10,000 years having passed on Earth. A joyous reunion with human civilization alive well with a spectacular welcome long prepared for them, but without their peers, who have long since died.
** The sequel ''Diebuster'' kills off Nono by saving the entire universe from collapsing from an errant black hole after killing off the last remaining space monster.
** Also the manga sequel ''Aim for the Top! The Next Generation'' had their friend Jung Frued live on for quite some time due to suspended animation/light speed travel... never got to finish it so not sure if she's actually alive when the Gunbuster gets back... she was looking for it though.
* Several ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' series, ''even'' the SuperRobot ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'', end with the heroes defeating the villans but losing friends and family in the process. The most famous is ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', in which, during a battle, Amuro [[DatingCatwoman accidentally kills the woman he loves]], who was protecting [[TheRival Char Aznable]].
** Even more bittersweet is the ending for ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack'', in which Axis is reversed, Earth is saved, and Char is terminated at last, but Amuro also dies in the process.
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91'' does the opposite of this with the hero managing to save his love interest and keep all his friends alive, but his side winds up losing the actual war and their home town is conquered. Gundam doesn't do happy endings.
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'' seems to be considered an exemplar of this, the colony is saved from nuking and Al and Chris survive the whole affair, but Bernie dies needlessly, Al is forever traumatized and Chris is in the dark about the fact that she killed her lover.
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' seemed to be a rarity in that really no loved ones were harmed in the making of this show ''and'' everything works out perfectly. Everybody that dies is either a mook, a one-episode character, straight villains, or Treize Kushrenada. Even the big bad, Zechs, manages to survive the finale... somehow.
** The sequel/finale movie ''Endless Waltz'' also has a Bittersweet Ending: true peace has come to the world, the villain has been defeated and the girl he was manipulating rescued, AND all the Gundams are destroyed for good (4 via their {{Self Destruct Mechanism}}s, the fifth blown to pieces by the recoil of its own BFG)... However, the pilots scattered to the five winds, likely never to see each other again.
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' the protagonists manage to prevent ZAFT and the Earth Alliance from completing obliterating each other (and the rest of humanity), but most of the cast is dead and there is no decisive end to the war or Natural/Coordinator resentment, allowing for another, even more brutal war to follow only two years later.
** [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny The sequel]] eventually (the ending was revised twice) ended up being not quite as bittersweet but still not totally happy. The heroes won, but at the cost of forcing themselves onto the world stage to constantly work for peace for the rest of their days. Most of the characters on both sides survived (and the biggest death in the Seed finale actually turned up alive in Destiny) but a few died, mostly people relating to former hero, turned fallen hero Shinn, although his love interest managed to defy the odds and survive, and Shinn himself is able to make his peace with his anger and his past. Although if you still view Shinn as the hero it might be a downer since several people he cared about died, everything he worked for in the series was for not and he was defeated in the end by the people that caused him most of his pain in the first place.
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'' ends with Akihiro finally killing Iok, Ride murdering Nobliss and the rest of Tekkadan successfully fleeing from Mars where they renewed their lives. Additionally Mars gains its independence, and the Seven Stars are disbanded, creating a more democratic Gjallarhorn that outlaws the use of Human Debris. But Mikazuki and Akihiro died while Gaelio is stuck on a wheelchair. Rustal is still alive and remains in power after taking control of Gjallarhorn without suffering any punishment.
* By the end of ''Gunslinger Stratos: The Animation'', the [[BadFuture Dead End future has been averted, [[GreaterScopeVillain the Timekeepers]] have been defeated, and the alternate selves have been [[HeelFaceTurn redeemed]], but [[KilledOffForReal Sidune is still dead]].]]
* ''Manga/HanaToAkuma'': Hana and Vivi get married and live happily for a time. But Hana inevitably dies of old age, leaving Vivi with two children as long-lived as him.
* In ''Anime/HanbunNoTsukiGaNoboruSora'', Rika survives the difficult heart operation, but only has a few more years to live regardless.
* ''Anime/HeavyMetalLGaim'' concludes with The rebels victorious, the Poseidal empire destroyed and all the heroes alive, but hero Daba Myroad abandons all his friends, including the 2 women who were in love with him, to take care of his brain damaged sister.
* Several chapters of ''Manga/HelenESP'' end this way, such as "Helen and Devil", where the dog [[DarkIsNotEvil Devil]] is beaten to death, but the baby it was caring for survives.
* ''Anime/HellGirl'''s second season, ''Futakomori'', ends with Ai dead, but the souls of her family finally at rest.
* By the time ''{{Manga/Hellsing}}'' is over, Millennium has been defeated forever, but at the cost of much of London, the Hellsing and Iscariot Organizations both having to be rebuilt, the loss of the Council of Twelve with only a few of its members surviving, and the loss of Hellsing's greatest champion for thirty long years.
* At the end of ''Anime/HighSchoolFleet'', everything looks like it's happily over, the crew are disembarking with the captain coming last...and then the ''Harekaze'', having suffered grievous damage, gives a groan and begins slowly sinking at her mooring, as the crew cry out in dismay and the captain stands to attention and salutes.
* ''Manga/{{Hitohira}}'' has the {{bittersweet ending}} that is so typical for high school series, when a large part of the cast graduates. This is put up a notch by Mugi being left behind by her best friend who studies abroad and that her sempais made lot of difference in her life by giving her more confidence. The beautifully envisioned farewell scene between Mugi and Nono on the rooftop is absolutely heart-wrenching--and the last shot of the names of all five members of the Drama Research Society carved in the old club room door seal the bittersweet mood once and for all.
* ''Manga/HoneyAndClover''. Everything is going to be just right, except that the time at the art college leaves nothing but bittersweet memories for the protagonist.
* ''Franchise/{{Jewelpet}}''
** ''Anime/JewelpetTwinkle'': Akari saves Alma from the Battest and reunites her with her family, including her revived mother, and wins the Jewel Star Grand Prix. However, she has to leave Jewel Land forever, which means that she won't see the friends she made there, human or Jewelpet, again in the near-future. In addition, her partner Ruby leaves on a journey that will take an indefinite amount of time, possibly decades, making it even harder for them to see each other again.
** ''Anime/JewelpetKiraDeco'': the Mirror Ball is fully repaired; Jewelina is therefore revived and new Jewelpet Rosa is born. The Decoranain are defeated and the Dark general and Coal reform. But it's time for the Kira Deco 5 to leave for their own world, which means they most likely won't see their Jewel Landian friends ever again. But they sure as hell try to distract you from the bitter part, considering it literally ends with all of them dancing the go-go.
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure''
** Parts 1, 3, and 5 are pretty bittersweet. In Part 1, Jonathan defeats Dio, but at the cost of his own life and the lives of everybody on the ship except Erina and an infant. To make it worse, he doesn't even succeed; Dio takes Jonathan's body in order to survive. In Part 3, they do finally kill Dio, but half the group dies in the process. Part 5 ends on a similar note to Part 3.
** Part 6 ends on a very bittersweet note. Emporio defeats Father Pucci, the BigBad, but he's the only hero who survived Pucci's Made In Heaven. The slain heroes are reincarnated in the new universe, but only Emporio remembers their journey together, and Foo Fighters stays dead. WordOfGod softens the blow a little by saying that while the heroes don't remember ''what'' happened, the feelings and friendships they experienced carry over to their new identities.
** Part 7 ends with Valentine and Diego dead, the corpse safe, and Lucy freed, but Gyro, Hot Pants, Ringo and Mountain Tim are all dead too, leaving Johnny alone. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking He doesn't even win the race]].
* ''Manga/JyuOhSei'': Thor has finally acquiesced to Tiz's insistence that he be her husband, and he successfully stops the BigBad's plot... but his best friend, Third, kills himself, and Tiz ends up dying in an even more thoroughly pointless fashion.
* ''Anime/{{K}}'' ends with the evil Colorless King being killed. But Shiro was also killed to bring down the Colorless King and Reisi was forced to kill Mikoto to prevent his SwordOfDamocles from falling, leaving HOMRA without their king. But Neko and Kuroh don't believe that Shiro is truly dead and set off to find him.
* Subverted in ''Manga/KannazukiNoMiko''. In the last scene it appears that Chikane is going to stay locked in the shrine, never to see Himeko again; but an additional scene ''[[TheStinger after the ending credits]]'' shows the two girls meeting on the street again. It isn't quite clear though ''when'' that happens, so they both might still have waited for a long time--especially considering Chikane has to be reincarnated and grow up once more.
* ''Manga/{{Karin}}'' has one of these as well. Is finally allowed to marry Kenta and live as a human, but her family erases her memory of themselves so that this can happen
* ''Anime/KillLaKill'' ends with Ragyo defeated, the world safe, and Satsuki finally accepting Ryuko as her sister. Unfortunately it also costs them Senketsu, who fades along with the rest of the life fibres. And no, [[KilledOffForReal he doesn't come back.]]
* Something similar to the example above happens in ''Manga/KoiKaze''. Nanoka and Koushirou are together, despite [[BrotherSisterIncest being brother and sister]] and [[MayDecemberRomance their ten years age gap]], but the imagery surrounding them strongly hints that their relationship won't last. It should be said that the open nature of the ending allows for quite a few interpretations, though none of them really change its bittersweet nature. For instance, it could also mean simply that they will have to endure a lot of adversities because of their relationship, no matter how genuine their love might be. In fact, the manga uses similar symbolism, but strongly suggests that this last interpretation is the meaning it is going for - which is especially meaningful when you consider that it was finished after the anime.
* ''LightNovel/KonoSubarashiiSekaiNiShukufukuO'': The anime's second season ends with the heroes defeating yet another one of the Demon King's generals, even when his plan to cripple Alcanretia's economy succeeds.
* Kurau in ''Anime/KurauPhantomMemory'' manages to save the world from the in-pouring Rynax, but loses her own Rynax in the fight, which causes her pair Christmas many years of bitter loneliness. Luckily, Christmas' pair returns in the DistantFinale, but she is not quite the same one as before. The human Kurau also has good memories of her time she was filled with her Rynax, but arguably [[GrowingUpSucks changes into a much less colorful person than she was back then]].
* The ending of ''LightNovel/{{Kurenai}}'' has Shinkurou successfully freeing Murasaki from the Inner Sanctuary, but he still must part ways with her when she ''chooses'' to stay behind with the Kuhouin family in order to fight against their traditions instead of continuing to run away. Murasaki's last lines were her realization that she never asked Shinkurou if he loved her.
* ''Anime/LostUniverse'' may fall under this, or may outright fall into happy ending, depending on your interpretation of the ending. [[SpaceshipGirl Canal]] suffers extensive memory loss due to damage incurred in the final battle and fades away after confessing her love for Kain, who vows he'll fix her and bring her back. Kain and Volfied then destroy Dark Star Dugradigdu, but vanish during the explosion, even as the rest of the crew escape to safety. The anime ends with Rail and Nina relaxing on a beach together, and Millie contentedly waiting on Kain's home planet for him to return, certain that he will. Sure enough, the very end of the episode is a repaired Swordbreaker coming in to land, with Millie racing outside to greet her beau. Only her comments about this possibly being a dream that she doesn't want to wake from throws any doubts on this not being a happy ending. The original LightNovel continuity, however, is a straight up DownerEnding, with all of the heroes dead and some of bad guys surviving to pick up where they left off. That said, if one accepts that ''Anime/{{Slayers}} [[OddlyNamedSequel TRY]]'' is the follow-up to the Lost Universe anime, then the ending becomes a DownerEnding.
* ''Anime/LuckyStar'':
** The ending is quite melancholic despite (or perhaps even ''because of'') all the girls performing the whole theme song in cheerleading outfits.
** The penultimate episode also fits this trope: We learn that Mama Kanata's ghost is still watching over Konata and Sojiro, but they are completely unaware of her presence, and upon finding proof of her existence, misinterpret it as evidence that they are being haunted by an unfriendly ghost and burn it. The group has finished school and will presumably go to different colleges.
* ''Anime/{{Macross}}'':
** In ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', the war between the people of Earth and the SDF-1 vs. the Zentraedi ends on a bittersweet note bordering on a [[DownerEnding total downer]]: The final battle successively sees the destruction of over 90% of Earth's surface by the Zentraedi armada, immediately after which the surviving humans manage to destroy most of the the Zentraedi fleet, leaving both sides nearly wiped out. Surprisingly enough, this was followed by another thirteen episodes taking place after the battle, [[PostScriptSeason which apparently wasn't originally in the plan; the characters are cautiously optimistic, a mood which is actually vindicated by later ''Macross'' series, which show that humanity and its allies have established a thriving interstellar civilization across much of the Milky Way in less than a century. In fact, Macross Plus shows that civilization on Earth itself has recovered fairly well despite the devastation.]]
** The American adaptation ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' refers to the above as the "Zentraedi Holocaust", and actually ups the bitterness by having its ''[[Anime/SuperDimensionCavalrySouthernCross The Masters]]'' and ''[[Anime/GenesisClimberMospeada The New Generation]]'' sections take place against the backdrop of a post-''Macross'' [[AfterTheEnd razed Earth]].
** ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'' gave the impression of doing this in the NonSerialMovie: Alto seemingly dies, Brera actually dies, Sheryl is in coma and possibly up for AFateWorseThanDeath, and Ranka is heartbroken. But all the other good characters survive, the ''Frontier'' fleet finds a planet to settle on, all baddies are killed, and Sheryl at least has ''some'' signs of recovery - and this after it seemed certain she would die. Life goes on and the galaxy as whole is safe for now. However, WordOfGod stepped in and stated that [[EarnYourHappyEnding the fans had overly exaggerated the "bitter" part]]: instead, Creator/ShojiKawamori confirmed that not only is Alto still alive, but that Sheryl makes a full recovery. He was actually ''shocked'' by how pessimistically most fans interpreted the ending.
** ''Anime/MacrossDelta'': Ragna has been liberated, and Roid's plan to take over the galaxy has been defeated...but at the cost of Keith's life. While there's mention of peace negotiations being considered, the war is far from over and millions have died as a result of the weapons of mass destruction being used. Mirage and Freyja both confess their love to Hayate, with the former taking her rejection in stride. Hayate and Freyja become an OfficialCouple... but both are aware that she won't have much longer to live, as the process of burning out has already started.
* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'':
** The series ended with the incident resolved and no one dying. Well, almost no one. To ensure the [[DeaderThanDead complete destruction]] of the NighInvulnerable OmnicidalManiac, the first Reinforce sacrifices herself, despite the tearful protests of Hayate.
** ''AudioPlay/StrikersSoundStageX'', which is set [[TimeSkip three years after the third season]], also ended on a bittersweet tone. [[NightOfTheLivingMooks The Mariage]] case was resolved with minimal losses, but Ixpellia, the MysteriousWaif that Subaru met, protected, and made friends with during the incident, [[ConvenientComa went back to sleep for maybe ten years... or a thousand]]. What is it about [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld characters from Ancient Belka]] and Bittersweet Endings? Ixpellia would wake up (sort of) less than a year later in ''[[Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid ViVid]]''.
* Creator/OsamuTezuka's ''Anime/{{Metropolis}}'' ends with the main character Kenichi stopping world domination...At the cost of his love interest Tima, a cute synthetic human girl who was used as a superweapon, driven mad by the effects of it and winds up falling to her doom despite Kenichi's futile attempt to save her. Oh, and he decides to stay in Metropolis while his uncle returns to Japan. The we see a radio in a junkyard, and we hear Tima's voice saying "Who am I?".\\\
In the original Japanese release and the English theatrical release of the film had a picture after the credits depicting a shop named "Kenichi & Tima Robot Company," with Tima visible in the window (or possibly driving the truck as the person looks similar to Tima). This could imply that Kenichi succeeded in rebuilding Tima (even though it would be unclear whether he had managed to reactivate her), or the Tima in the window could only be a painting or picture. It wouldn't seem like a good idea to reactivate her.
* ''{{Manga/Monster}}'' had many deaths, but the survivors [[EarnYourHappyEnding earn a happy ending]]: Eva finally recovers, Lunge reconnects with his daughter, Tenma is exonorated, Dieter lives happily with Dr. Reichwein, and Nina returns to as normal a life as she possibly can. Mostly everyone else is dead.
* ''Manga/MuhyoAndRoji'' manage to defeat Ark and convince Enchu to make a HeelFaceTurn, but Enchu accepts responsibility for his actions, and is sentenced to life without parole.
* ''Anime/NanakaSixSeventeen'' has one -- while the teenage Nanaka does begin to grow as a person and her relationship with Nenji gets back on track, the child Nanaka is essentially dead and Nenji's not sure which one he prefers. Fortunately, there's the BonusEpisode which doubles as one big SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}} to offset it.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** The Gaara Retrieval Arc of ended on a rather bittersweet note, since the team saves Gaara, but Elder Chiyo dies in the process to revive him.
** Similarly, the Land of Waves arc; the bridge is completed, hope is restored, and Gato is dead and no longer able to oppress the people, but [[AlasPoorVillain Haku and Zabuza's deaths]] deeply impact Team 7 and make them question what it means to be a ninja. The Invasion of Konoha Arc ends with the village saved from destruction at Orochimaru's hands, but the Third Hokage and many other ninja die in the process.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. After everything the protagonists do to kill the Angels and prevent the extinction of the Human Race, it happens, leaving only [[AdamAndEvePlot the main hero and his love interest]] around while everyone else remain in a [[HiveMind gestalt]]. Possibly subverted by the fact that everyone else can come back if they want, we just never see any of that happen.
* ''Anime/NowAndThenHereAndThere'' has an ending that is positive, but heartbreaking. "Can we watch another sunset together someday." as the girl speaking fades out of reality as the price for having saved the protagonist. And then there's the implication that, since this is billions of years in the future, the sun will become a supernova, possibly killing the future inhabitants.
* ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'': Every season finale is like this in one way or another.
** ''S1'': The girls gain their powers in episode 50 but are discovered by the {{Muggle}}s and nearly subjected to a BalefulPolymorph. Onpu uses forbidden magic to erase everyone's memories, but karma finally catches up with her and she ends up in a coma. Doremi, Hazuki, and Aiko ultimately resolve to save Onpu even at the cost of their hard-earned magic. They succeed thanks to Pop's assistance, but the spell to save Onpu is considered forbidden magic and they had to give up their powers. Majo Rika is left trapped as a Witch Frog and thus has to depart for the Witch World, taking the fairies with her since the girls are no longer Witches. A lot of tear were shed when they all had to say their goodbyes.
** ''Sharp'': The girls successfully get the Love Supreme Flower needed to save Hana from dying and her saying her first words gets them a passing grade that would allow them to return to being full-fledged Witches again. However, it was a PyrrhicVictory, as their crystals, which were given to them so they would be at their strongest when trying to get the MacGuffin, were destroyed, leaving the girls in a cursed slumber. Hana's words broke the curse and awakened them, but nothing could be done about the shattered crystals, forcing the girls to once again become normal girls and to separate from Hana, despite the latter's pleas.
** ''Motto'': The girls succeed in getting the BigBad to begin her HeelFaceTurn and revert the Cursed Forest back to the Love Supreme Forest. However, even though they recieved a passing grade and are now allowed to become full-fledged Witches again, they still do not have their crystals and thus still have to remain normal girls for the time being. Finally, the BigBad is still in a cursed slumber of her own and nothing can be done about it for the time being.
** ''Dokkan'': The GrandFinale is built up to the huge TearJerker it is over the course of several episodes. Sure, the BigBad has been taken care of and has made a HeelFaceTurn, but the girls now have to decide whether to be LongLived Witches or remain normal girls and thus having to say goodbye to Hana forever. Over the next few episodes, various events happen that threaten to separate them: Hazuki is planning to go to a different school after graduation, Aiko and her father are moving back to Osaka to help her mother take care of her grandfather, Momoko is moving back to America, and Onpu is going to a different school herself. When it comes time to choose, the girls ultimately decide against becoming Witches, causing Hana no small amount of pain and sadness. When the day of graduation finally arrives, Doremi suffers her most severe HeroicBSOD yet and locks herself in the Maho-dou, fearing losing her friends forever. Everyone confesses their love for her and eventually snaps her out of her stupor, the final straw being a BatmanGambit on Hana's part. Everyone goes their separate ways but remain in touch throughout the epilogue.
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', the entire Whitebeard War Saga (Thriller Bark arc, Sabaody Archipelago arc, Amazon Lily arc, Impel Down arc and Marineford arc together) is as big an example of this as you're gonna get in this series. Preparing for the New World, the Straw Hat Pirates meet up with new friends, an old enemy-since-reformed, new enemies reforming, and icons of the old age of Piracy. What follows later (in chronological order) is: They encounter the cruelty of the world's nobles after one of their friends are kidnapped and the other shot; they face up against three adversaries which alone are much too powerful for them leading to the crew is forcibly split up; Luffy finds out his brother is being held at the world's worst prison awaiting public execution, and after entire said prison, gets his ass handed to him so soundly he had to give '''ten''' years of his life to keep going, and after failing to spring his brother, loses one of his friends just so he and many of his newfound allies can escape; Quickly made apparent he is ''nowhere'' near strong enough to hold his own against the Marines' elite soldiers, and when it looks like he's saved Ace Admiral Akainu ruthlessly kills him right in front of Luffy, to bring the point home, leading to Luffy finally mentally collapsing. It's bittersweet because at least Luffy survived, his crew is okay albeit separated, and after they become stronger they can reunite to enter the New World together.
** As for global ramifications, Ace as mentioned before died, ending the bloodline of Gold Roger. Blackbeard not only renounced his Warlord of the Sea title, but busted the worst criminals in the world's history out of prison leaving the Chief Warden Magellan severely injured and Impel Down severely damaged. Whitebeard died, removing one of the Four Emperors, and all protections created due to his status, which not even the Marines themselves can handle; and Blackbeard went and stole Whitebeard's Devil Fruit, meaning the threat of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit (Gura Gura no Mi) continues with the power not in the hands of aging, morally-conscious legendary pirate, but an amoral, power-mad megalomaniac who just threw away his status as a privateer for the World Government in favor of being captain of the world's greatest sociopaths. On the other hand, both Coby and Shanks stop the war; Whitebeard's last words confirmed the existence of One Piece, keeping the age of piracy ''very much alive''. With the Marines' victory, and Coby's words, this may encourage the organization to go through some serious changes, perhaps even ethically, to prepare for the new era. It's kind of a win-win situation for the Marines, and piracy in general. So the era of dreams isn't dead yet.
* ''Anime/PanzerWorldGalient'': The anime sort of just...ends. The Arstians all escape planet Lanplate, and the Eraser comes and wipes out the planet and all of its inhabitants. [[BigBad Marder abruptly decides to end the Arst War and spend the last few minutes with his people.]]
* The ending of ''Anime/PomPoko''. Their attempts at driving off the housing development unsucessful, the surviving Tanuki who can transform do so and join the human world, leaving those who can't to a short life of scavenging. However, the public televised appeal some of Tanuki made to humanity at least kept the situation from becoming much worse. The final scene sees a small group of them singing and dancing joyfully on an empty golf-course, all that remains of their forest home. Even the song that plays over the credits is bittersweet.
* ''Popotan'' ends with the sisters still on the same journey through time that has caused them so much grief throughout the series, but now they've at least grown to appreciate being together. The ending is more happy than sad to be sure, but not enough to not qualify for this trope.
* ''Anime/PrincessMononoke'':
** Ashitaka (permanently healed of TheCorruption) and San fall in love, but they do not get together because San is unable to forgive other humans. Ashitaka promises to stay close enough to see San on a regular basis. Oh, and Irontown and the forest are both destroyed (though the forest is getting better...).
** Despite Irontown being destroyed, the inhabitants decide to start anew, this time being closer to nature rather than opposing it.
** And TheStinger shows that the forest will, indeed, make a full recovery due to the presence of a CallBack/BrickJoke - near the start, Ashitaka mentioned that the presence of the Kodama meant the woods was healthy. Guess what you see at the very end before the final credits?
* ''Anime/PrincessTutu'': The story is done, the good guys win, Rue and Mytho show their true love and this lets them defeat the Raven with the help of Tutu and Fakir... but not only do Rue and Mytho have to leave Kinkan Town so he can reclaim his throne, but Ahiru/Tutu has to return to her original duck form '''forever'''. The final shot of the series shows Fakir relaxedly fishing in a pond, while Ahiru happily swims nearby his feet, implying that they stayed together, but with Fakir owning Ahiru as his pet.
* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'':
** The ending of. Madoka becomes a magical girl, changes the whole system so that witches no longer exist and brings Mami and Kyouko back to life... but disappears from existence as a result. And she couldn't bring Sayaka back because she'd become a witch, so had to carry her off to Heaven with her, meaning the revived characters stil see Sayaka as dead. Though witches no longer exist, a new threat has replaced them because the Incubators still need to collect energy from some place to keep the universe's gears turning. The meguca battle never ends... BUT...it's also assumed that Madoka became a Goddess from the result with Sayaka and the girls that were originally witches had AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence, essentially making it the magical girl's answer to Valhalla.
** ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion''. Homura [[EarnYourHappyEnding earns her happy ending by creating a world where Madoka and Sayaka are still alive and Kyubey is under her control. She does this by stealing Madoka's powers in order to become a demon. It's implied that Homura's new world won't last, and she even tells Madoka, now an AmnesiacGod, that they'll become enemies someday. It's also left unclear how much Sayaka remembers, as she held out against Homura's efforts to alter reality for the longest. At the very least she has WistfulAmnesia.]]
** It's interesting to note that both the endings of the original series and ''Rebellion'' are bittersweet in opposite ways. In the original series ending, two of the main characters are essentially dead, and it's stated the others will soon join them. Despite this, [[EarnYourHappyEnding the ending's tone is uplifting. In direct contrast, ''Rebellion'' ends with all the main characters alive in an ideal world...]] and yet [[DownerEnding the ending's tone is depressing.]]
* ''Anime/RayearthOVA'' ends with Cephiro still dying, and Emmeraude taking everyone back to see if they can find another way to save it, and the Magic Knights' wish to remain friends is left unknown if it truly comes true.
* The ending of ''Ressentiment'' - the main characters manage to avert a nuclear holocaust and give Moon a new life in the real world, but on the other hand, none of the characters' issues get resolved - fifteen years later Takuro is still a lonely loser, Nagao is a single mother with an even longer string of failed relationships behind her and Echigo is dead.
* ''Manga/RGVeda''. Four of the Six Stars are dead and, at the end, Kujaku sacrifies himself in order to awake Ashura one last time so he can be with Yasha, who has been watching over him for centuries. There's also the fact that Yasha and Ashura are the [[LastOfHisKind last of their kin]] with Ashura being [[NoBiologicalSex unable to pass his blood]], so once they die, their bloodlines die with them; not to mention the constant threat of the [[EnemyWithin Black]] [[OmnicidalManiac Ashura]] returning somehow. But hey [[EsotericHappyEnding they're together at least]], '''''right!?'''''.
* ''Manga/SailorMoon'':
** The manga ends with the revelation that Chibi-chibi is Sailor Cosmos, the far-future self of Sailor Moon, who returned to the past because, after what may well have been ''thousands'' of years, she's finally forgotten why she fights evil if it can never really be defeated. She regains her sense of purpose, and the story ends with Usagi and Mamoru's wedding, which is a wonderfully upbeat scene... but Mamoru realizes that these events prove that Sailor Moon, and ''only'' Sailor Moon, is immortal, and destined to outlive everyone she loves, and continue fighting a literally endless battle against chaos.
** ''Manga/CodenameSailorV'', of which ''Sailor Moon'' is the MorePopularSpinOff, also has a bad one. The final chapter starts with Minako both starting a career as an idol and finding what appears to be her true love (and it's Ace, a fellow idol and the man giving her a chance!), and even if we know that something will happen to make them lose both (as she wouldn't have any in ''Sailor Moon, set after this), what happens is rather bad: Ace is revealed to be Danburite, BigBad of the series and {{Dragon}} to Kunzite, and Minako has to ''kill him'' before starting to fight even ''worse'' enemies. Worse, his last words contribute to her realizing that [[MarriedToTheJob her duty as a Sailor Soldier comes before either love or idoldom]], [[{{Irony}} even if she has the talent to be an idol and is a]] LoveGoddess. Thankfully, she also knows she won't have to fight alone anymore, and we know she'll find her TrueCompanions soon.
* The ending of ''Manga/{{Saiyuki}}'' prequel ''Gaiden'', fans already know that for Sanzo, Gojyo, and Hakkai to be alive, Konzen, Kenren, and Tenpou had to have died. Not only does young Goku lose his friends and family, he loses them ''brutally'', all of three of them dying painful deaths. On top of that, Goku gets all of his memories erased, save for the memory of his name, and is then imprisoned in a mountain for 500 years. The viewers then see flashes of Goku's life in the cave, which is dull and is just of him sitting and lying around. The prequel closes with Sanzo arriving at the cave and Goku feeling nostalgic at the sight of him.
* The first magical girl anime, ''Manga/SallyTheWitch,'' had Sally exposing her powers to save her school. She was intended to eventually leave the Human World anyway, and thus had to say farewell to her friends, to return to the Magic World.
* ''Anime/SamuraiSeven'': The samurai save the villagers from annihilation by the bandits and Ukyo, but at the end of it, four of them are dead, and none of the other three stick around.
* In ''Manga/SatouKashiNoDanganWaUchinukenai'', the aloof middle-school-aged protagonist Nagisa decides to go to high school after all and her brother overcomes [[{{hikikomori}} his illness]] but only after Nagisa's friend Mokuzu's gruesome death.
* ''Manga/SchoolLive'': The anime. Yuki has broken free of her cheerful delusions, Megu-nee is a zombie and has bitten both Kurumi and Touromaru, and although an antidote has been found and used on them both, Taroumaru dies to the heartbreak of everyone and there's no certainty that the antidote is permanent (the manga suggests otherwise). On top of that, they have to leave their beloved school and on their way out, Miki sees her friend Kei -- whom she had been hoping to one day meet again -- walking back to the school as a zombie. Despite all that however, the antidote is working on Kurumi for now, the girls are all alive, the zombies have left the school for now allowing the girls to make their escape, and [[HopeSpot another survivor has found a letter from Yuki, implying that there's still hope for our protagonists]].
* ''Anime/{{Simoun}}''. All the Sibyllae have made their choices. Neviril, Aaeru, Dominura, Limone, and Yun stay "young" forever, with the strange consequences that entails. Everyone else takes the plunge and grows up. Time passes, people change, war comes and goes... and life, as it always does, goes on.
* ''Manga/SlamDunk'': Shohoku doesn't even make it past the third round of the Nationals, but they still managed to defeat the #1 team in the Nation.
* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'':
** The ending to season 3 of the anime (''Slayers TRY'') had the world saved once again... at the cost of the welfare of both [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds a twisted yet hurt survivor of a mass slaughter]] and ''another planet''. It may as well be that Sirius is the only living denizen of [[Anime/LostUniverse the Overworld]] left. The [[FourTemperamentEnsemble four protagonists]] feel rather unsatisfied and bittersweet about the outcome.
** The ending to season 5 (''Evolution-R'') is far more satisfying, but there's a bittersweet regard involving [[BadassAdorable Pokota]], who will more or less spend the rest of his life stuck as an unaging stuffed animal due to his posessed human body being destroyed out of necessity.
** And the final novel of the main series ends triumphantly for Lina and [[IdiotHero Gourry]] as they decide to [[WillTheyOrWontThey visit Lina's home kingdom]]. The cost of this was killing off the mentally conflicted Luke, who had transformed into [[PiecesOfGod Shabranigdo; this happened to him because the woman he loved, Milina, was poisoned, denied medical treatment, and died.]]
* ''Manga/{{Sola}}'': Aono is turned back into a human, but this requires Matsuri to sacrifice her own life. Plus, [[ReplacementGoldfish Yorito]] dies as well, and Aono removed herself and Yorito from the memories of Mana and Koyori.
* The ending of ''Manga/{{Solanin}}''. By this time, it seems that the group has finally somewhat come to terms with Tsuneda's death and Meiko has decided to get another job. However, Ai might be leaving for Sendai which threatens her relationship with Kato who in turn isn't doing well at his job and none of the band members have the motivation to go beyond occasional practices. On top of that, the general sentiment seems to be that life sucks and is boring so you should cherish what small happiness you can get out of it.
* Also occurred in ''Anime/SonicX''. The cute little kid who spent most of the series in a state of perpetual SurvivorGuilt was dead after sacrificing herself to save the galaxy (BecauseDestinySaysSo), while making her potential love interest the one who had to shoot her [[TearJerker in a scene which would bring tears to the eyes of hardened criminals]], the human cast member had to go home, had no time to say goodbye and would probably never see any of them again. Plus, Shadow is off somewhere brooding in space -- again -- but hey, at least the universe was saved.
* ''Anime/SpacePatrolLuluco'': Luluco defeats the evil Blackholeian and restores justice to the universe, but at the cost of her beloved Nova sacrificing himself to the black hole they used to defeat him, thus separating them across time and space when they had only just confirmed their mutual love. Yet Luluco does not despair because she knows he's alive and waiting for her in some alternate universe, [[IWillFindYou and she fully intends to search the cosmos until she finds him again]]. Outside of the show itself, we might have some indication that she ''does'' find him eventually...in the ''Anime/{{Kiznaiver}}'' universe. Pay close attention in the upper right corner of ''Kiznaiver'' episode 12 at the part where Tenga and Chidori are meeting at [[FreezeFrameBonus 21:07, and you'll see Luluco talking to Nova]]. [[EarnYourHappyEnding She kept her word]].
* ''Anime/SpiritedAway'': it's implied that Chihiro [[VictoryGuidedAmnesia won't remember her adventures]] in the Spirit world, just like she didn't really remember Kohaku, or already thinks it was AllJustADream. The English dub either leaves that part out or implies that she has kept the strength she gained over the course of her adventure. (There is a limit to how much bittersweetness Disney will tolerate.) Even in the Japanese version, there's a possibility that her memories could be unlocked given the right stimulus, just as Haku's were when she told him his real name. This looks especially likely when you remember that Haku promised her that he'd look for her, and that the family appear to have lost several days if not weeks by the time they return to the car.
* ''Anime/StarshipOperators''. Amaterasu is destroyed, and Kibi does not regain its independence. The cast ''do'' get the Earth Federation to declare war on the Henrietta Alliance of Planetary Nations... but they're only interested in taking the planets of the Henrietta Alliance for themselves. Even then, they managed to unite other remaining independent planets against the Earth Federation after their last newscast.
* ''LightNovel/StrawberryPanic'' spends its final few episodes building up a sad but beautiful Bittersweet Ending -- only to swerve away at the last second.
* The anime adaptation of ''LightNovel/SukaSuka'' ends with one combined with GainaxEnding since it stops itself at the third of the five volume light novel series, which also ended on a bittersweet note. The ship Willem and the Leprechauns escort manages to successfully get back home safely, but the overwhelming amount of Timere that attacked them in the area they were exploring had killed off more than half the ship's crew, and, despite everyone's protests and pleads due to her continuously deteriorating mental state, Chtholly still goes off to fight the Timere anyway to protect a heavily injured Willem and Nephren and dies in the process, taking all the Timere in the area with her, and afterwards, tearfully thanking Willem for the happy life he'd given her, despite her tragic fate.
* ''Anime/TekkamanBlade''. The Radam invasion has been prevented, for now. Unfortunately, in the process D-Boy had to kill the rest of his family and friends that weren't already dead as a result of the initial Radam attack, except for his sister who was killed off by his younger brother. Fortunately, fighting as Tekkaman Blade has damaged his brain to such an extent that he no longer remembers that he ever had a family, or what he had to do to them.
* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' was arguably ''not'' this kind of ending, with characters going out in blazes of glory that fit their characters and the series' over-the-top style...until Nia died after the final battle (on her wedding day, no less) as a result of her Anti-Spiral nature being tied to the destruction of the Anti-Spiral himself in the previous episode. Fan division over this is rampant regarding whether Simon's calm acceptance of her death before his eyes is him refusing to make Lord Genome's mistake by [[AGodAmI attempting to play God]] or [[BrokenAesop undermining the show's premise]] of [[ScrewDestiny changing Fate itself]] by [[{{Determinator}} pure refusal to accept it and overriding willpower]].
* ''Anime/ThisUglyYetBeautifulWorld'' manages to avoid the expected GainaxEnding, the world is saved... but Hikari and Akari have disappeared, heading across the vast reaches of space in order to help find a home for all the life energy released during the averted Apocalypse. The song "Kimi ni Aete" which plays over the ending, coupled with the new star visible in the sky as proof of their existence makes this quite the TearJerker as well.
* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'': Tokyo Ghoul: JACK ends with Taishi and Arima solving the case and defeating Lantern. Who just so happens to be their friend Minami. [[AlasPoorVillain They both seem to pity her at the end.]] Taishi's childhood friends are still dead and, despite dedicating his life to being a ghoul investigator, marrying his childhood friend Aki, and ultimately starting a family with her, Arima and he are shown to have drifted apart over the years.
* ''Anime/{{Tokyo Magnitude 8}}'' ends with Mirai reuniting with her parents and life slowly going back to normal after the earthquake. Mirai's little brother, Yuuki, is still dead which ruins the mood.
* Episode 14 of ''Manga/TokyoMewMew'', which focuses on Keiichiro and his ex-girlfriend, shows them coming to terms with their breakup and parting ways forever rather than getting back together.
* ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle''. The BigBad is finally killed, but that in turn means that his creations, Clone!Syaoran and Clone!Sakura can no longer exist. All existence as we know it is falling apart, and the only way to stop it is for Watanuki to be stuck in one world (the shop) and Syaoran Jr. to constantly move between worlds, meaning that both of them will put strain on the relationships of their loved ones. Thankfully, Syaoran Jr. to makes the most of his price by deciding to look for a world that can bring back the clones. Unfortuately, though Watanuki looks like he's coping well enough, it doesn't look like there's much hope for him on the ''Manga/XxxHOLiC'' side...
* ''Anime/UmiMonogatari'' ends with Kanon and Marin defeating Sedna, but have to separate since land and sea people are not supposed to be together. It is hinted that Kanon will keep looking for Marin. In the DVD special it becomes clear that Kanon keeps longing to meet Marin again. She even seems to get her wish for a while, which makes things more bitter.
* Ichika from ''Anime/UtaKata'' manages to save herself and the human race from being erased, but she has to say goodbye to the girl who has quickly become the most important person in her life.
* Given that ''Manga/{{Uzumaki}}'' starts with a series of horrible suicides and [[FromBadToWorse everything gets worse from then on]], the main characters resting in peace could be considered a Bittersweet Ending instead of an outright DownerEnding. They [[KillEmAll still all die]] or [[BodyHorror turned into a snail]] or [[AndIMustScream frozen in time in the case of the main characters]].
* ''Manga/VideoGirlAi'' sets up for this trope only to subvert it when Ai is rematerialized as a human right after what seemed like a tearful final goodbye in the epilogue. SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming|Moments}} ensues.
* ''Manga/WanderingSon'' ends with Nitori going off to college and finally saying "I am a girl" instead of "I ''want to be'' a girl". Makoto gets an ambiguous but still positive ending and Nitori's girlfriend Anna states she doesn't mind being gay if Nitori wants to [[{{transgender}} live as a woman.]] Deuteragonist Takatsuki gets a less happy ending. The last time we see them they're crying and they confessed their unrequited love to Nitori earlier, knowing that she would decline. Takatsuki in high school became really confused and starting doubting whether they wanted to be seen as a girl or a boy. The ending is fairly ambiguous on their part but still dark.
* ''Anime/{{Witchblade}}'' anime has HeroicSacrifice variant. And that's right after Masane has RelationshipUpgrade, her interaction with Witchblade sort of enhanced (though not without [[PowerAtAPrice side effects]]) and she finally knows that Witchblade-induced transformation does not [[HarmfulToMinors disturb]] Rihoko in the least. All the nice "[[TykeBomb Sisters]]" we saw are dead, others are [[WhyAmITicking ticking]]. Still, rogue X-Cons are wiped out, I-weapons are annihilated and Takayama is exonerated from blame, became hero and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive his rival]] isn't a threat [[VillainousBreakdown anymore]], so Rihoko is left in better world and good care.
* ''Anime/WolfChildrenAmeAndYuki'': Ame leaves his mother and sister to go live in the woods as a wolf, but Hana comes to terms with it, realizing he's an adult. Yuki goes off to live in the dorms of her new middle school, and Hana continues to live in their house out in the country.
* By the end of ''Manga/WolfGuyWolfenCrest'', Haguro has been defeated by Inugami... at the expense of Inugami's life, as it is first implied that he died from his injuries. Aoshika is now in deep depression from the trauma she endured from being held captive by Haguro and over guilt for feeling responsible for Inugami's death. Luckily, through much counseling from Jin and Inugami's aunt, Aoshika finally find the strength to move on from the tragedies in her life by relocating to Alaska and living in seclusion with the wolf pack that raised Inugami. However, it's revealed in the last pages that Inugami is ''not'' dead and is really being kept alive as a test subject in some laboratory. The story ends with Inugami waking up from a coma and vowing to be reunited with Aoshika.
* The ending of ''Anime/WolfsRain'' features the protagonists finally making their way to their destination of Paradise only to be systematically killed one by one by the now deranged BigBad, Lord Darcia. After he's finally killed, only Kiba, and Cheza, the girl he was trying to protect, remain, both of whom are slowly dying as well. She proceeds to attempt to use her powers to recreate Paradise, only for the world to be corrupted by the presence of Darcia's severed eyeball. We are then treated to an ambiguous DistantFinale where we see all the wolves have apparently been reincarnated in our modern world, when we suddenly cut to black. The implication is that Blue, the humans, and all the another life seen in the series probably didn't even get reincarnated because of not being pure wolves. Seen by some as an outright ShootTheShaggyDog ending.
* The end of ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows: Goddesses Arc'' qualifies as this. Keima succeeded in reviving five of the Goddesses residing within his previous capture targets, and with their help has thwarted a plot to revive Old Hell. But the last scenes show him [[TearsOfRemorse crying on a bench]] since he had to [[BreakHisHeartToSaveHim break someone else's heart]] to revive the last Goddess.
* ''Manga/YokohamaKaidashiKikou'' ends with the two main robots living together, tending to the coffee shop. But the main human couple has moved away to form a family, and it can be deduced that every human Alpha knows has already died by the time of the epilogue chapter.
* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', the finale ends with the pharaoh gets to learn his real name and going to the afterlife, but he must leave the friends he made here.
* [[Franchise/YuGiOh Yu-Gi-Oh!]] also has several spinoffs/sequels that have their own shares of bittersweet endings:
** [[Anime/YuGiOhGX GX]]: Graduation day has come and everyone must leave to fulfill their dreams. Judai doesn't attend the graduation party. As he's about to leave the school, Winged Kuriboh leads him to the area where Yugi's deck is and finds Yugi himself there. Yugi sends Judai back in time to duel a past version of himself that still has the Millennium Puzzle and Yami Yugi. It is through this duel that Judai regains his love for dueling.
** [[Anime/YuGiOh5Ds 5D's]]: Zone is defeated and sacrifices his life to stop the Ark Cradle, taking Yusei's place as he was about to do it himself. However Bruno was killed in a earlier duel against Yusei. A couple of months later all of Yusei's friends gets great opportunities for each of them but they all share the same problem, in order to enter these opportunities they will have to leave Neo Domino City and thus not be with each other anymore. After a duel between Yusei and Jack to settle the scores between them, everyone decides to go their separate ways except for Yusei who stays behind in Neo Domino City with the belief that everyone will return once again once they fulfilled their dreams.
** [[Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL ZEXAL]]: Don Thousand is destroyed and everyone who was sacrificed to the Barian World is revived with the exception of Kaito and the Seven Barian Emperors. Yuma and Astral have a duel against each other with Yuma winning and using the Numeron code to revive Kaito and the Barians who are now reborn as humans. However Astral must return home to the Astral World as a result. But a new threat emerges in the Astral World and Yuma and his friends head there to stop it.
** [[Anime/YuGiOhArcV ARC-V]]: Yuya defeats Reiji and becomes a pro duelist. This causes Reira to smile, purfiying Zarc's soul in the process, though she still remains a baby. Also Ray is revived as Yuzu with all her counterparts merged with her just like Yuya.
----

For the sake of completeness we should also mention the fan theory that Lelouch actually absorbed his father, Emperor Charles', Code during his final fight with him, becoming immortal upon getting killed rather than actually [[KilledOffForReal dying for real]]. With this in mind, it helps push things a little farther towards the HappyEnding direction. It must be noted, however, this theory clashes with the anime's lore and that WordOfGod has always repeated that Lelouch is truly dead, they said so in [[https://forums.animesuki.com/group.php?do=discuss&gmid=38473 interviews]] (e.g. [[https://imgur.com/a/do0fiOb Animage 10 and 11]], [[https://www.retromags.com/galleryimgs/monthly_2017_10/small.59f05755697f9_ContinueVol.42(October2008).jpg.f9ec262ce76541c515b3ea32e65060c8.jpg Continue Vol.42]], etc), [[https://imgur.com/a/2dxGMFX tweets]] by the director ([[https://imgur.com/a/HoF6xhX translation]]), the [[https://d2ydh70d4b5xgv.cloudfront.net/images/c/a/code-geass-lelouch-of-the-rebellion-r2-official-guide-book-japan-anime-free-s-h-3dd125709d6de684a48b26ffff07f459.jpg official guide book]], ..., and Lelouch is listed among the dead in [[https://imgur.com/a/GdjEhBD the Death List for R2]]. C.C. even explicitly says Lelouch is dead in [[https://streamable.com/d8dji the new epilogue]] (from 2009). Then it was announced that he was confirmed to be the main character in the sequel which is officially named "Lelouch of the Resurrection", which aligns with the mountain of official statements about his death.

For the sake of completeness we should also mention the fan theory that Lelouch actually absorbed his father, Emperor Charles', Code during his final fight with him, becoming immortal upon getting killed rather than actually [[KilledOffForReal dying for real]]. With this in mind, it helps push things a little farther towards the HappyEnding direction. It must be noted, however, this theory clashes with the anime's lore and that WordOfGod has always repeated that Lelouch is truly dead, in [[https://forums.animesuki.com/group.php?do=discuss&gmid=38473 interviews]] (e.g. [[https://imgur.com/a/do0fiOb Animage 10 and 11]], [[https://www.retromags.com/galleryimgs/monthly_2017_10/small.59f05755697f9_ContinueVol.42(October2008).jpg.f9ec262ce76541c515b3ea32e65060c8.jpg Continue Vol.42]], etc), [[https://imgur.com/a/2dxGMFX tweets]] by the director ([[https://imgur.com/a/HoF6xhX translation]]), the [[https://d2ydh70d4b5xgv.cloudfront.net/images/c/a/code-geass-lelouch-of-the-rebellion-r2-official-guide-book-japan-anime-free-s-h-3dd125709d6de684a48b26ffff07f459.jpg official guide book]], ..., and is listed among the dead in [[https://imgur.com/a/GdjEhBD the Death List for R2]]. Then it was announced that he was confirmed to be the main character in the sequel which is officially named "Lelouch of the Resurrection", which aligns with the mountain of official statements about his death.

Yeah, we probably can't make this entry without also mentioning the fan theory that Lelouch actually absorbed his father, Emperor Charles', Code during his final fight with him, becoming immortal upon getting killed rather than actually [[KilledOffForReal dying for real]]. With this in mind, it helps push things a little farther towards the HappyEnding direction. It must be noted however that WordOfGod has always repated that Lelouch is truly dead, in [[https://forums.animesuki.com/group.php?do=discuss&gmid=38473 interviews]] (e.g. [[https://imgur.com/a/do0fiOb Animage 10 and 11]], [[https://www.retromags.com/galleryimgs/monthly_2017_10/small.59f05755697f9_ContinueVol.42(October2008).jpg.f9ec262ce76541c515b3ea32e65060c8.jpg Continue Vol.42]], etc), [[https://imgur.com/a/2dxGMFX tweets]] by the director ([[https://imgur.com/a/HoF6xhX translation]]), the [[https://d2ydh70d4b5xgv.cloudfront.net/images/c/a/code-geass-lelouch-of-the-rebellion-r2-official-guide-book-japan-anime-free-s-h-3dd125709d6de684a48b26ffff07f459.jpg official guide book]], ..., and is listed among the dead in [[https://imgur.com/a/GdjEhBD the Death List for R2]]. Then it was announced that he was confirmed to be the main character in the sequel which is officially named "Lelouch of the Resurrection", which aligns with the mountain of official statements about his death.

Yeah, we probably can't make this entry without also acknowledging the theory that Lelouch actually absorbed his father, Emperor Charles', Code during his final fight with him, becoming immortal upon getting killed rather than actually [[KilledOffForReal dying for real]]. With this in mind, it helps push things a little farther towards the HappyEnding direction. With a season 3 coming that has now revealed he survived, its made this theory more plausible.

* ''[[Anime/GaoGaiGarFINAL GaoGaiGar FINAL]]'', the [[PostScriptSeason Post-Script OVA]] to ''[[Anime/GaoGaiGar GaoGaiGar]]''. It turns out the heroes only have the ability to open two tiny windows back to our planet that will stay open for a couple of seconds. They choose to send Mamoru and Kaido back home, entrusting the future to them. As they fly towards the portals, they pass by the ruined husks of all the Brave robots who sacrificed themselves using their ultimate attacks to save the universe, and hear each one's voice encouraging them to look forward and remember the Oath Sworn Through Courage. Finally, as they return to Earth and meet all their friends and family once again, the character version of the already fairly emotional ending theme begins to play.\\\
Made even worse by the fact that, up to this point, the series was ''extremely'' lighthearted and took great pains to have everything come out in a happy ending. Throughout the series and FINAL, a total of two major human characters and one of the robot characters were killed. In the final episode, it is implied that every one of the Mobile Unit is dead for good, though there is a chance that GGG will find a way back home.\\\
An eventual happier ending is teased [[AllThereInTheManual in the manual]] though. Specifically, Genesic [=GaoGaiGar=]'s specs include a device called the "Galeoria Road" - where have we heard that name? Oh wait, it shares a name with the portal to the alternate universe in question, the Galeoria Comet. There's also what appears to be an old version of Guy himself who makes brief appearances in bonus content and ''Anime/{{Betterman}}''.

** [[Anime/YuGiOh5Ds 5D's]]: Zone is defeated and sacrifices his life to stop the Ark Cradle, taking Yusei's place as he was about to do it himself. However Bruno was killed in a earlier duel against Yusei. A couple of months later all of Yusei's friends gets great opportunities for each of them but they all share the same problem, in order to enter these opportunities they will have to leave Neo Domimo City and thus not be with each other anymore. After a duel between Yusei and Jack to settle the scores between them, everyone decides to go their separate ways except for Yusei who stays behind in Neo Domino City with the belief that everyone will return once again once they fulfilled their dreams.

** The Cell saga, due to Gohan's arrogance, Goku sacrifices himself try and save the earth from Cell, but the sacrifice is in vain, as Cell comes back even stronger than before. However, Gohan along with help from Goku's spirit and Vegeta, manages to finally destroy Cell once and for all. They manage to revive most of the people killed by Cell, and the earth is finally safe. But due to Goku being revived once already with the Earth's dragon balls, cannot be revived again. The Z-fighters come up with a plan to revive him, but Goku, realizing that his presence indirectly caused all the problems throughout ''Z'', decides its better for him to stay dead, so the earth can remain safe.

* Arguably the ending of ''Anime/GregoryHorrorShow: The Second Guest,'' though more on the "bitter" than "sweet." The female protagonist finally has what she's been wishing for--a family to call her own. Meaning a husband a child to look after. On the bitter side of things though, in getting this, she's become a permanent guest of the HellHotel, cannot go back to the real world, and lost her sanity/sense of self in the process. [[{{Squick}} Oh, and it's ''[[{{Squick}} Gregory]]'' [[{{Squick}} she's got a family with.]]]]

* The [[Franchise/YuGiOh Yu-Gi-Oh!]] spinoffs/sequels have their own shares of bittersweet endings:

** [[Anime/YuGiOhArcV Arc-V]]: Yuya defeats Reiji and becomes a pro duelist. This causes Reira to smile, purfiying Zarc's soul in the process, though she still remains a baby. Also Ray is revived as Yuzu with all her counterparts merged with her just like Yuya.
* ''[[Anime/GaoGaiGarFINAL GaoGaiGar FINAL]]'', the [[PostScriptSeason Post-Script OVA]] to ''Anime/GaoGaiGar''. It turns out the heroes only have the ability to open two tiny windows back to our planet that will stay open for a couple of seconds. They choose to send Mamoru and Kaido back home, entrusting the future to them. As they fly towards the portals, they pass by the ruined husks of all the Brave robots who sacrificed themselves using their ultimate attacks to save the universe, and hear each one's voice encouraging them to look forward and remember the Oath Sworn Through Courage. Finally, as they return to Earth and meet all their friends and family once again, the character version of the already fairly emotional ending theme begins to play.\\\
Made even worse by the fact that, up to this point, the series was ''extremely'' lighthearted and took great pains to have everything come out in a happy ending. Throughout the series and FINAL, a total of two major human characters and one of the robot characters were killed. In the final episode, it is implied that every one of the Mobile Unit is dead for good, though there is a chance that GGG will find a way back home.\\\
An eventual happier ending is teased [[AllThereInTheManual in the manual]] though. Specifically, Genesic [=GaoGaiGar=]'s specs include a device called the "Galeoria Road" - where have we heard that name? Oh wait, it shares a name with the portal to the alternate universe in question, the Galeoria Comet. There's also what appears to be an old version of Guy himself who makes brief appearances in bonus content and ''Anime/{{Betterman}}''.

* In the anime of ''VisualNovel/{{Air}}'', Misuzu dies at the end from her curse, but managed to reconcile her relationship with Haruko before that in a particularly [[CrowningMomentOfHeartWarming heart warming]] series of scenes. Furthermore, since she found true happiness by meeting Yukito and coming to love Haruko, Misuzu apparently broke the curse on Kanna, ensuring her next reincarnation cycle will be a normal, happy life. Meanwhile, Yukito is stuck to live the rest of his life as a Crow... In the anime/manga anyway. In the movie he [[ButNowIMustGo leaves town]] in the end, promising to help Misuzu the next time she reincarnates. The Manga ends quite a bit happier, with Misuzu surviving.

* The graduation episode of ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh''. Saying goodbye is never easy. There's a particularly bittersweet bit near the end: a scene (or panel, if you're reading the manga) of all six girls bowing respectfully to Yukari, with the words "Thank you very much." appearing above them. They do this facing "out", so it has the effect of actors taking a curtain call. And Chiyo [[CrowningMomentofHeartwarming breaking in tears]] in the ceremony.

* ''Anime/NanakaSixSeventeen'' has one -- while the teenage Nanaka does begin to grow as a person and her relationship with Nenji gets back on track, the child Nanaka is essentially dead and Nenji's not sure which one he prefers. Fortunately, there's the BonusEpisode which doubles as one big CrowningMomentOfFunny to offset it.

* ''Manga/VideoGirlAi'' sets up for this trope only to subvert it when Ai is rematerialized as a human right after what seemed like a tearful final goodbye in the epilogue. CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming ensues.

* ''Manga/YokohamaKaidashiKikou'' ends with the two main robots living together, tending to the coffee shop. But the main human couple have moved away to form a family, and it can be deduced that every human Alpha knows has already died by the time of the epilogue chapter.

* ''Anime/BloodPlus'' could be argued as having a BittersweetEnding. Diva dies, Saya lives after trying to kill herself on Diva's blood but is deeply affected by her death, Hagi is crushed under a building, Riku's rape and subsequent death at Diva's hands still haunts Kai and Saya, and Solomon died for Saya without her even knowing. A lot of people are dead, including huge numbers of the Red Shiled, and all but one of the Schiff, and the kind of emotional and psychological toll it has taken on the main characters is palpable. However, there are still some good things. Diva's children are being looked after by a loving and caring family so they won't turn into monster sociopaths, Kai is getting on with his life, Lulu is still alive, and Julia is pregnant. At the end we see that as Saya goes into hibernation again, that Hagi's trademark blue hair ribbon is by her sleeping place, indicating that he is still alive and waiting for Saya to awaken again. So in the end, this becomes more of an EarnYourHappyEnding type of story. Considering the kind of pain and grief the main characters had to go through to get it, they really do deserve it.

* Given that ''Manga/{{Uzumaki}}'' starts with a series of horrible suicides and [[FromBadToWorse everything gets worse from then on]], the main characters resting in peace could be considered a BittersweetEnding instead of an outright DownerEnding. They [[KillEmAll still all die]] or [[BodyHorror turned into a snail]] or [[AndIMustScream frozen in time in the case of the main characters]].

* ''Manga/WanderingSon'' ends with Nitori going off to college and finally saying "I am a girl" instead of "I ''want to be'' a girl". Makoto gets an ambiguous but still positive ending and Nitori's girlfriend Anna states she doesn't mind being gay if Nitori wants to [[{{transsexual}} live as a woman.]] Deuteragonist Takatsuki gets a less happy ending. The last time we see them they're crying and they confessed their unrequited love to Nitori earlier, knowing that she would decline. Takatsuki in high school became really confused and starting doubting whether they wanted to be seen as a girl or a boy. The ending is fairly ambiguous on their part but still dark.

** Part 6 ends on a very bittersweet note. Emporio defeats Father Pucci, the BigBad, but he's the only hero who survived Pucci's Stairway to Heaven stand. While there seem to be copies of the others in the new universe, they have no memories of their adventure or of each other. Only Emporio remembers what happened.

** ''AudioPlay/StrikersSoundStageX'', which is set [[TimeSkip three years after the third season]], also ended on a bittersweet tone. [[NightOfTheLivingMooks The Mariage]] case was resolved with minimal losses, but Ixpellia, the MysteriousWaif that Subaru met, protected, and made friends with during the incident, [[ConvenientComa went back to sleep for maybe ten years... or a thousand]]. What is it about [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld characters from Ancient Belka]] and Bittersweet Endings? Ixpellia would wake up (sort of) less than a year later in ''[[Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid ViVid''.]]

* ''Anime/NowAndThenHereAndThere'' has an ending that is positive, but heartbreaking. "Can we watch another sunset together someday." as the girl speaking fades out of reality as the price for having saved the protagonist.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', the entire Whitebeard War Saga (Thriller Bark arc, Sabaody Archipelago arc, Amazon Lily arc, Impel Down arc and Marineford arc together) is as big an example of this as you're gonna get in this series. Preparing for the New World, the Straw Hat Pirates meet up with new friends, an old enemy-since-reformed, new enemies reforming, and icons of the old age of Piracy. What follows later (in chronological order) is: They encounter the cruelty of the world's nobles after one of their friends are kidnapped and the other shot; they face up against three adversaries which alone are much too powerful for them leading to the crew is forcibly split up; Luffy finds out his brother is being held at the world's worst prison awaiting public execution, and after entire said prison, gets his ass handed to him so soundly he had to give '''ten''' years of his life to keep going, and after failing to spring his brother, loses one of his friends just so he and many of his newfound allies can escape; Quickly made apparent he is ''nowhere'' near strong enough to hold his own against the Marines' elite soldiers, and when it looks like he's saved Ace Admiral Akainu ruthlessly kills him right in front of Luffy, to bring the point home, leading to Luffy finally mentally collapsing. It's bittersweet because at least Luffy survived, his crew is okay albeit separated, and after they become stronger they can reunite to enter the New World together.\\\
As for global ramifications, Ace as mentioned before died, ending the bloodline of Gold Roger. Blackbeard not only renounced his Warlord of the Sea title, but busted the worst criminals in the world's history out of prison leaving the Chief Warden Magellan severely injured and Impel Down severely damaged. Whitebeard died, removing one of the Four Emperors, and all protections created due to his status, which not even the Marines themselves can handle; and Blackbeard went and stole Whitebeard's Devil Fruit, meaning the threat of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit (Gura Gura no Mi) continues with the power not in the hands of aging, morally-conscious legendary pirate, but an amoral, power-mad megalomaniac who just threw away his status as a privateer for the World Government in favor of being captain of the world's greatest sociopaths. On the other hand, both Coby and Shanks stop the war; Whitebeard's last words confirmed the existence of One Piece, keeping the age of piracy ''very much alive''. With the Marines' victory, and Coby's words, this may encourage the organization to go through some serious changes, perhaps even ethically, to prepare for the new era. It's kind of a win-win situation for the Marines, and piracy in general. So the era of dreams isn't dead yet.

** In ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', the war between the people of Earth and the SDF-1 vs. the Zentraedi ends on a bittersweet note bordering on a [[DownerEnding total downer]]: The final battle successively sees the destruction of over 90% of Earth's surface by the Zentraedi armada, immediately after which the surviving humans manage to destroy most of the the Zentraedi fleet, leaving both sides nearly wiped out. Surprisingly enough, this was followed by another thirteen episodes taking place after the battle, [[PostScriptSeason which apparently wasn't originally in the plan; the characters are cautiously optimistic, a mood which is actually vindicated by later ''Macross'' series, which show that humanity and its allies have established a thriving interstellar civilization across much of the Milky Way in less than a century. In fact, ''Anime/MacrossPlus'' shows that civilization on Earth itself has recovered fairly well despite the devastation.]]

* The Ending of Shinohara Chie's manga ''Ao no Fuuin'' can be seen as this. The 30.000 Oni, excluding Soko, have gone to sleep in the deep layer of their refuge within Mt Fuji and have prevented it from erupting very, very soon. Soko is about to sleep with Akira, which will take her powers as Souryo and overall status as an Oni away, meaning she is free to live her life as a human by his side... but not only is she separated from her daughter and husband from ancient times, Takao is still going to live on as merely a head... and even ''worse'', the ending implies that humans ''will'' eventually ruin the ecosystem of the planet so badly that they will have nothing against the Oni waking up and some of them having to die now and then to feed them, to bring some form of balance back.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'' ends with Akihiro finally killing Iok, Ride murdering Nobliss and the rest of Tekkadan successfully fleeing from Mars where they renewed their lives on Earth. Additionally Mars gains its independence, and the Seven Stars are disbanded, creating a more democratic Gjallarhorn that outlaws the use of Human Debris. But Mikazuki and Akihiro died while Gaelio is stuck on a wheelchair. Rustal is still alive and remains in power after taking control of Gjallarhorn without suffering any punishment.

* ''Anime/HeavyMetalLGaim'' concludes with The rebels victorious, the Poseidal empire destroyed and all the heroes alive, but hero Daba Myroad abandons all his friends, including the 2 women who were in love with him to take care of his brain damaged sister.

** [[Anime/YuGiOhGX GX]]: Graduation day has come and everyone must leave to fulfill their dreams. Judai doesn't attend the graduation party. As he's about to leave the school, Winged Kuriboh leads him to the area where Yugi's deck is and finds Yugi himself there. Yugi send Judai back in time to duel a past version of himself that still has the millennium puzzle and Yami Yugi. It is through this duel that Judai regains his love for dueling.
** [[Anime/YuGiOh5Ds 5D's]]: Zone is defeated and sacrifices his life to stop the Ark Cradle, taking Yusei's place as he was about to do it himself. However Bruno was killed in a earlier duel against Yusei. A couple of months later all of Yusei's friends gets great opportunities for each of them but they all share the same problem, in to enter these opportunities they will have to leave Neo Domimo City and thus not be with each other anymore. After a duel between Yusei and Jack to settle the scores between them, everyone decides to go their separate ways except for Yusei who stays behind in Neo Domino City with the belief that everyone will return once again once they fulfilled their dreams.

* ''Manga/WanderingSon'' ends with Nitori going off to college and finally saying "I am a girl" instead of "I ''want to be'' a girl". Makoto gets an ambiguous but still positive ending and Nitori's girlfriend Anna states she doesn't mind being gay if Nitori wants to [[{{transsexual}} live as a woman.]] Deuteragonist Takatsuki gets a less happy ending. The last time we see her she's crying and she confessed her unrequited love to Nitori earlier, knowing that she would decline. Takatsuki in high school became really confused and starting doubting whether she wanted to be seen as a girl or a boy. The ending is fairly ambiguous on her part but still dark.

** It's interesting to note that both the endings of the original series and ''Rebellion'' are bittersweet in opposite ways. In the original series ending, two of the main characters are essentially dead, and it's stated the others will soon join them. Despite this, [[EarnYourHappyEnding the ending's tone is uplifting. In direct contrast, ''Rebellion'' ends with all the main characters alive in an ideal world...and yet [[DownerEnding the ending's tone is depressing.]]]]

* ''Anime/SpacePatrolLuluco'': Luluco defeats the evil Blackholeian and restores justice to the universe, but at the cost of her beloved Nova sacrificing himself to the black hole they used to defeat him, thus separating them across time and space when they had only just confirmed their mutual love. Yet Luluco does not despair because she knows he's alive and waiting for her in some alternate universe, [[IWillFindYou and she fully intends to search the cosmos until she finds him again]]. Outside of the show itself, we might have some indication that she ''does'' find him eventually...in the ''Anime/{{Kiznaiver}}'' universe. Pay close attention in the upper right corner of ''Kiznaiver'' episode 12 at the part where Tenga and Chidori are meeting at [[FreezeFrameBonus 21:07, and you'll see Luluco talking to Nova. [[EarnYourHappyEnding She kept her word]].]]

* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' was arguably ''not'' this kind of ending, with characters going out in blazes of glory that fit their characters and the series' over-the-top style...until Nia died after the final battle (on her wedding day, no less) as a result of her Anti-Spiral nature being tied to the destruction of the Anti-Spiral himself in the previous episode. Fan division over this is rampant regarding whether Simon's calm acceptance of her death before his eyes is him refusing to make Lord Genome's mistake by [[AGodAmI attempting to play God or [[BrokenAesop undermining the show's premise]] of [[ScrewDestiny changing Fate itself]] by [[{{Determinator}} pure refusal to accept it and overriding willpower]]]].

* Given that ''Manga/{{Uzumaki}}'' starts with a series of horrible suicides and [[FromBadToWorse everything gets worse from then on]], the main characters resting in peace could be considered a BittersweetEnding instead of an outright DownerEnding. They [[KillEmAll still all die]] or [[BodyHorror turned into a snail or [[AndIMustScream frozen in time in the case of the main characters]].

* The end of ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows: Goddesses Arc'' qualifies as this. Keima succeeded in reviving five of the Goddesses residing within his previous capture targets, and with their help has thwarted a plot to revive Old Hell. But the last scenes show him [[TearsOfRemorse crying on a bench since he had to [[BreakHisHeartToSaveHim break someone else's heart]] to revive the last Goddess.]]

* ''Yuusha-Oh Anime/GaoGaiGarFINAL'', the [[PostScriptSeason Post-Script OVA]] to ''Anime/GaoGaiGar''. It turns out the heroes only have the ability to open two tiny windows back to our planet that will stay open for a couple of seconds. They choose to send Mamoru and Kaido back home, entrusting the future to them. As they fly towards the portals, they pass by the ruined husks of all the Brave robots who sacrificed themselves using their ultimate attacks to save the universe, and hear each one's voice encouraging them to look forward and remember the Oath Sworn Through Courage. Finally, as they return to Earth and meet all their friends and family once again, the character version of the already fairly emotional ending theme begins to play.\\\