History DownerEnding / AnimeandManga

* At the end of ''Anime/AngelCop'', All the main and secondary characters are dead, Japan's government doesn't change at all despite our heroes' efforts, and it's headed toward a complete economic collapse. Angel was badly wounded and Raiden had to activate a bomb within his body that would kill Lucifer. Most likely, both of them were killed in the resulting explosion. It wasn't a complete downer, Angel was only knocked down by the resulting explosion that came after shooting Raiden in the head, Asura survived the fight with Lucifer and left with Angel away into parts unknown in the end, Taki escaped his custody at the end and killed Maisaka+ Nogawa with a bomb.

* In what is probably the darkest ending of any Creator/StudioGhibli movie, ''Anime/TheTaleOfThePrincessKaguya'' ends like this: [[{{Lunarians}} celestial beings from the Moon]], who Kaguya belongs to, return to get her, and they're led by what looks like the Buddha himself. Her father's men put up resistance and are easily overwhelmed. Kaguya protests to the Moon People that she wants to stay on Earth but has a celestial robe of forgetfulness placed on her anyway. In a HopeSpot, she briefly appears to remember her life on Earth, and then is taken back to the Moon while her adoptive parents sob. Roll credits.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory'' - Gato and Delaz are killed, but the Zeon ultimately wins. Kou lost his beloved HotScientist, and is courtmartialed for stealing the GP-03 after the GP-01's destruction, though released later. Captain Synapse commits suicide in order to take responsibility for the above. The Titans, who most of the Albion crew join, are formed, and we all know how well that turned out. The good guys have effectively lost, and moreover their PyrrhicVictory sets the stage for an even bloodier war and all their attempts to help just sets the stage for a worse organization.

** This also occurs in Ito's other work ''Manga/{{Gyo}}''. The protagonists survives and likely joins [[LaResistance the group working on a vaccine for the germs]] later on, but his girlfriend and uncle were both infected by the germs and the girlfriend was killed by a mob of the infected, while the uncle carried off his [[HotScientist attractive assistant]] to parts unknown. Not to mention Japan has been devastated and the infected are still on the march as well as having spread outside of Japan. Arguably not as bleak as ''Uzumaki'', as there was at least a faint light of hope in the vaccine the students were working on.

* ''Manga/{{Gilgamesh}}'', [[TrueArtIsAngsty itself an extremely dark and depressing show with overtones of hopelessness]], has one of the most spiteful ShootTheShaggyDog Downer Endings ever. Kiyoko, having already lost everyone and everything she cared about, having been forced into debt, despair, and work as a call-girl by the very Countess supposedly trying to "save the world" whilst ruining the lives around her, and who in lonely desperation turned to a member of the opposing Gilgamesh who then impregnated her, dies after mutating into a birthing cocoon for the hybrid lifeform. In the climactic final battles against the twisted Enkidu, his cohorts, and the Gilgamesh forces, it's revealed that they're essentially unstoppable and un-killable. This leads to the KillEmAll deaths of pretty much everyone in the cast not already dead at this point. In the end, it's revealed that the [=TeaR=] organism responsible for the first near-apocalypse and which has instigated the horrible events of the story is actually a living manifestation of the Countess's own petty, dark, hateful, jealous, twisted heart, and that she's directly responsible for everything without realising it, despite ostensibly and ironically trying to fix it. Upon this revelation, she accepts the death of Humanity and allows [=TeaR=] to wipe out all life on Earth. To add insult to injury, in the odd, meta-void left behind, [=TeaR=] is then killed by the Gilgamesh spawn from the husk of what was left of Kiyoko, meaning that [=TeaR=] won't go on to recreate the planet in its image and it's all gone for good.

* Often referred to as one of Yoshiyuki "KillEmAll" Tomino's happier endings, the ending of ''Anime/HeavyMetalLGaim'' isn't an upper to any significant degree, even if everyone kind of screws themselves over in reality. Sure, all the heroes live, but the villain succeeds in his plan to kill the main character's family off by causing irreparable brain damage to the hero's little sister, and in a bit of a stupid move on his part, he goes to live alone with her on some planet away from everyone else in the team. Meanwhile, neither LoveInterest gets the nod, the best friend and the fairy sidekick may think they are dying of radiation poisoning and leave the group to wander alone somewhere, and even a [[HeelFaceTurn former villain]] doesn't get to be with the one he loves.

* By the end of ''Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon'', over half of the cast has been killed with many of the surviving protagonists expressing a rather bleak pessimism about their fates. Eventually, the series ends when the anime's title robot is destroyed along with the surviving cast members. One of "KillEmAll" [[Creator/YoshiyukiTomino Tomino]]'s most notorious endings.

* ''Anime/{{Texhnolyze}}'', while maintaining an extremely dark and depressing atmosphere throughout the show, still manages to pull off one of the saddest {{Downer Ending}}s imaginable (could also be classified as KillEmAll).

* ''Manga/{{X 1999}}''. Almost the entire named cast is pretty much dead or assumed so, either in mutual takedowns or as suicidal charges against the BigBad, and Tokyo is largely destroyed AND flooded. The sole survivor is the protagonist, but even he loses his two best friends, one of whom arbitrarily does a FaceHeelTurn the literal instant the protagonist chooses to join the heroes to protect the two of them. The villains don't get to celebrate this new ally for long, because the {{Face Heel Turn}}-ed friend eventually chooses to screw the rules and decides to KillEmAll.

** The final chapter of the series ends with [[VillainProtagonist Eren]] successfully causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt and using [[FinalSolution the Rumbling]] to wipe out approximately 80% of humanity, save the Eldians. However, he laments to Armin that he never wanted this and confesses his love for Mikasa, but his ThanatosGambit required him to keep her at arm's length. In the end, Eren managed to achieve his goals and secure a future for his race, [[PyrrhicVillainy but at the cost of the lives of himself, most of his species, and almost everyone he cared about]].

* ''Manga/FukushuuKyoushutsu'': Many of the class are dead, the ones tho survive have been through varying degrees of mental or physical trauma. The protagonist, Ayana, ends up in a coma after falling from a fourth store window, and the BigGood died in the middle of her own plan. The ManBehindTheMan, Yamase, gets away scot free for starting the whole mess after Ren, the only person left to know the truth, is unable to harm him due to their friendship. Just to boot, months later it's revealed that after the entire case was made public, a surge of minor-on-minor violent crimes and revenge stories happened across Japan.

* ''Anime/{{Gilgamesh}}'', [[TrueArtIsAngsty itself an extremely dark and depressing show with overtones of hopelessness]], has one of the most spiteful ShootTheShaggyDog Downer Endings ever. Kiyoko, having already lost everyone and everything she cared about, having been forced into debt, despair, and work as a call-girl by the very Countess supposedly trying to "save the world" whilst ruining the lives around her, and who in lonely desperation turned to a member of the opposing Gilgamesh who then impregnated her, dies after mutating into a birthing cocoon for the hybrid lifeform. In the climactic final battles against the twisted Enkidu, his cohorts, and the Gilgamesh forces, it's revealed that they're essentially unstoppable and un-killable. This leads to the KillEmAll deaths of pretty much everyone in the cast not already dead at this point. In the end, it's revealed that the [=TeaR=] organism responsible for the first near-apocalypse and which has instigated the horrible events of the story is actually a living manifestation of the Countess's own petty, dark, hateful, jealous, twisted heart, and that she's directly responsible for everything without realising it, despite ostensibly and ironically trying to fix it. Upon this revelation, she accepts the death of Humanity and allows [=TeaR=] to wipe out all life on Earth. To add insult to injury, in the odd, meta-void left behind, [=TeaR=] is then killed by the Gilgamesh spawn from the husk of what was left of Kiyoko, meaning that [=TeaR=] won't go on to recreate the planet in its image and it's all gone for good.

* ''Anime/EurekaSeven'' - While the anime has [[TastesLikeDiabetes an almost-disgustingly happy ending]], the manga ends with Dominic and Eureka both dead. While Renton believes that Eureka may still be alive, the rest of the characters assure that the Coralians are completely wiped out.

** One of the classic manga downer endings was ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'', which ended with Akira losing everything and everyone he loved (including his parents and his PluckyGirl girlfriend, Miki, [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath savagely dismembered]] by a [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters psychotic mob of humans]]), losing the final battle between his army of devilmen and Satan's army of demons and ending up ripped in half by Satan, who was really his best friend Ryo ([[FoeYay who was in love with him]]), and quite dead. And humanity probably got all but wiped out, although it doesn't go into great detail about that.

* The third episode of ''Manga/KotouraSan'', as well as its manga equivalent, ends with Yoshihisa gets hospitalized, Haruka moves because [[ItsAllMyFault she blames herself]], and Yoshihisa solemnly says [[MyGreatestFailure he couldn't protect her]]. Overridden by the next episode. This is from a series known for being a CerebusRollercoaster.

* ''Anime/SmilePrecure'' is a special case where this trope isn't in ''the main story's ending'', but is the goal of the villains of the anime. Those villains want to gather energy to revive [[BigBad their leader]] who, when awakened, will induce a worldwide disaster called "Worst Ending" and invoke this trope.

** As if there wasn't enough controversy regarding the ending's bitterness, an epilogue chapter shows that the entirety of the series was AllForNothing as Eldia is bombed to dust by the survivors and a lone child is shown entering the WorldTree, implying the entire CycleOfRevenge [[ShaggyDogStory is set to begin anew]].

* ''Anime/SmilePrecure'' is a special case where the main story ''isn't'' the one that gets hit with this trope, but is the goal of the villains of the anime. Those villains want to revive [[BigBad their leader]] who will arise with all the power to induce a worldwide disaster called "Worst Ending", invoking this trope.

* ''Manga/{{Ibitsu}}'': Kazuki, the main character, is dead after a long time beign tortured by the Lolita (being kept in his room and being fed trash), and well after she has already killed his parents, sister and friends. When the police figures out he's dead, he's blamed for all the deaths and Lolita is shown selecting her next victim.

* ''LightNovel/HyakkaRyouranSamuraiGirls'' while a lighthearted series throughout the first eleven episodes, the final episode has ''BOTH'' Moe!Jubei and Badass!Jubei perform a HeroicSacrifice by sending the resident {{Yandere}} Gisen up to the atmosphere to disintegrate. Unfortunately, Gisen goes on to state that within a thousand years later, she will be resurrected to do this all over again.

* ''Manga/{{MW}}''. Father Garai foiled Michio Yuki of gassing the entire world with the titular chemical weapon by sacrificing his life of taking it down with him to the ocean, the latter gets gunned down by one of his hostages, Shunsuke Ban still doesn't recover from his last attack, and Michio, impersonating his older lookalike brother, escapes punishment and is free to do whatever he wants.

* "Melcarba" sees the titular robot be brought down by a lightning strike, with the Searchers reflecting on how the technology that was used to create it [[YouCouldHaveUsedYourPowersForGood could have been used for better ends]] than creating berserker war machines.

* ''Franchise/Gundam'':

*** Though it's still ambiguous as to whether Spike REALLY died. He lived at least long enough to walk down the steps from where Vicious's body is to where the guards were before falling over. And let's keep in mind, he has falllen from a cathedral and lived and [[ShrugOfGod the creator isn't saying one way or another]].

* Another infamous one is Osamu Tezuka's ''Jungle Taitei'', known to the rest of the world as ''Manga/KimbaTheWhiteLion''. Remember in the original anime about the fun adventures of Leo and Lyra? In the end of the manga and the 1997 movie adaptation, Lyra dies of a plague and Leo sacrifices himself to save his human companion in the middle of a blizzard. Super extremely subverted in the anime sequel ''Leo the Lion'' to the original anime.
* ''Literature/BattleRoyale'' ends on an even more depressing note than the original book. Shuya and Noriko are the only ones to survive the game and flee to America, the memories of the game haunting them for years to come. And Shuya implies that their relationship eventually became strained because of those memories and him never actually saying "I love you" to her. Meanwhile, the horrendous game has not stopped, so another class will be chosen to participate in six months.
* Often referred to as one of Yoshiyuki "KillEmAll" Tomino's happier endings, the ending of ''Anime/HeavyMetalLGaim'' isn't an upper to any significant degree, even if everyone kind of screws themselves over in reality. Sure, all the heroes live, but the villain succeeds in his plan to kill the main character's family off by causing irreparable brain damage to the hero's little sister, and in a bit of a stupid move on his part, he goes to live alone with her on some planet away from everyone else in the team. Meanwhile, neither LoveInterest gets the nod, the best friend and the fairy sidekick may think they are dying of radiation poisoning and leave the group to wander alone somewhere, and even a [[HeelFaceTurn former villain]] doesn't get to be with the one he loves.
* Both exemplified and ultimately subverted by ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry''. Most of the individual arcs end with one of the main characters either brutally murdering or being murdered by one (or more) of their best friends, but the cycle of murders ultimately leads to a Good End for the main characters.
* The same applies to its companion, ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry''. One of the worst endings has the protagonist stripped naked, forced to be a pet/servant to the antagonist, and is eaten alive by people in goat-masks. Oh, and this is ''after'' a lot of the other island's inhabitants are murdered.
** The ending of the series also applies where it at best is {{bittersweet|Ending}}. Battler finally once again can meet his family and Beatrice in the golden land or a {{downer|Ending}} where everything from ep 3 and forward was just a way for an amnesiac Battler to sort out his memories about Rokkenjima.
* The ''VideoGame/MegaManX1'' OVA: ''The Day of Sigma''. Dr. Cain dies, Abel City is destroyed, X and Zero are in bad conditions and the Mavericks and Sigma are [[TakeOverTheWorld taking over the world]].
* Given that it's about war orphans starving to death in 1945 Japan, ''Anime/GraveOfTheFireflies'' has not just a downer ''ending'', but a DownerBeginning and a downer middle. There's ironically a ray of sunshine in the ending in that the two ghosts are reunited in the afterlife (albeit refusing to move on to the next life), but overall, the whole thing is the downer of downers.
** To make matters worse, the story is semi-autobiographical. The story was based on the feelings of guilt the writer had that he survived while his sister died. He remarks that there were many times he found food and ate it without bringing any back for her and wishes that he had died. No wonder he killed off his AuthorAvatar.
* ''Manga/{{Ibitsu}}'': Kazuki, the main character, is dead after a long time beign tortured by the Lolita (being kept in his room and being fed trash), and well after she has already killed his parents, sister and friends. When the police figures out he's dead, he's blamed for all the deaths and Lolita is shown selecting her next victim.
* ''Anime/MonsterRancher'':
** The series ended its second season with most of the cast sacrificing their lives in a fight against the Big Bad. The main hero was sent back to Earth in shock. There was a third season where they were resurrected, but it was not shown on network TV. And don't forget that Holly was left on her own in the middle of an icy tundra full of the dead and dying. And the last anyone saw of Genki was him falling off of a dragon into the forest...
** Many of the episodes ended this way too. One episode had a major character howling over the body of his [[CainAndAbel brother who he had just personally stabbed through the chest]], not to mention the amount of times the episode ended with the good guys limping away from a decisive defeat.
* ''LightNovel/DotHackAIBuster'', the novel and canonically first installment of the ''.hack//'' series, ends with Lycoris deleting herself and reincarnating as poisonous scenery. Nirvana-Flowers, to be exact. Yes, they are poisonous, but also beautiful. Also, they have a deeper meaning: Nirvana flowers are said to guide the living into the realm of death.
* The first episodes of ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'' suggested a more-or-less lighthearted comedy/action series, if with a few shocking parts. It ended with most of the cast either dead or mentally scarred for life (including Rosette, although if Chrono died as well she gets to be TogetherInDeath with him) and the Great Depression just around the corner. [[TheChick Azmaria's]] fate ''might'' have been enough to push it towards bittersweet, but Remington is metaphorically kicked between the legs when he sees that [[KarmaHoudini Aion may have survived]], and even if he is dead for good [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil his influence lives on]], and is on his way to try and assassinate the Pope. End series.
** However, this is ''not'' the case in the manga version; while still hardly completely happy, it certainly wasn't as unbearably bleak as the anime. Most notably, Aion had the good graces to be confirmed ''dead'', and all of the main cast members survived (although Rosette still died much younger than she deserved, leaving Chrono to live on without her. [[BittersweetEnding So not completely happy]].)
* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', in season 3. Judai, after grieving over the loss of Johan, who sacrificed himself to bring Duel Academy to Earth, decides to save him, [[TrueCompanions and his friends tag along, much to Judai's dismay, who tells them not to help him for their own safety.]] It hurts like a bitch when Judai duels [[ManipulativeBastard Brron]], who has captured all of his friends, except Sho, who escaped. Brron played these cards that forced Judai's friends to emote to death. Manjyome was pissed at Judai, Tyranno Kenzan blamed him, and Asuka and her brother Fubuki were like, in somber sadness, "Why, Judai?: '("Despite the torment Judai goes through, he beats Brron. But Sho comes and doubts that he and Judai should be friends any longer, leaving the latter [[HeroicBSOD alone and heavily riddled with guilt over the loss of his friends]], leading to his transformation into the Supreme King.
** The dub of GX was halted after Season 3. Consequentially, the American version concludes with several people dead or missing, and Syrus losing his best friend and older brother forever.
* The first season of ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth'' ends with the protagonists discovering they were being manipulated for almost the entire series, essentially assisting the suicide of the very person they were meant to rescue and being sent home, traumatized.
** Apparently that was the original ending. The continuation was made entirely because of fans [[RageAgainstTheHeavens raging against CLAMP]].
* ''[[Manga/LRLicensedByRoyalty L/R Licensed by Royalty]]'' ended with at least one, if not both, of the main characters pointlessly dying within the literal last minute of the show.
* There are no happy endings in ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell''. The conspiracies are stopped and life goes on, but the whole thing will get covered up and most of the villains go free. Not much left to do than count the losses and cleaning up the mess.
* ''Anime/{{Texhnolyze}}'', while maintaining an extremely dark and depressing atmosphere throughout the show, still manages to pull off one of the saddest {{Downer Ending}}s imaginable (could also be classified as KillEmAll).
* ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure'' had a Downer Ending in theory, but by the time it aired, it was already well known to even the most oblivious viewer that the OddlyNamedSequel starting next week would have to start by waking Mepple, Mipple, and Porun back up.
** And it happened again in ''Anime/PrettyCureAllStars DX 3'', what with all the Cures losing their powers and their WeaselMascot companions. When [[Anime/SuitePrettyCure there was a series]] that was just starting at the moment. Probably no surprise why they threw in the extra few minutes after the credits.
* ''Anime/{{Gilgamesh}}'', [[TrueArtIsAngsty itself an extremely dark and depressing show with overtones of hopelessness]], has one of the most spiteful ShootTheShaggyDog Downer Endings ever. Kiyoko, having already lost everyone and everything she cared about, having been forced into debt, despair, and work as a call-girl by the very Countess supposedly trying to "save the world" whilst ruining the lives around her, and who in lonely desperation turned to a member of the opposing Gilgamesh who then impregnated her, dies after mutating into a birthing cocoon for the hybrid lifeform. In the climactic final battles against the twisted Enkidu, his cohorts, and the Gilgamesh forces, it's revealed that they're essentially unstoppable and un-killable. This leads to the KillEmAll deaths of pretty much everyone in the cast not already dead at this point. In the end, it's revealed that the [=TeaR=] organism responsible for the first near-apocalypse and which has instigated the horrible events of the story is actually a living manifestation of the Countess's own petty, dark, hateful, jealous, twisted heart, and that she's directly responsible for everything without realising it, despite ostensibly and ironically trying to fix it. Upon this revelation, she accepts the death of Humanity and allows [=TeaR=] to wipe out all life on Earth. To add insult to injury, in the odd, meta-void left behind, [=TeaR=] is then killed by the Gilgamesh spawn from the husk of what was left of Kiyoko, meaning that [=TeaR=] won't go on to recreate the planet in its image and it's all gone for good.
* The ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' anime ends with Griffith, who is completely fucked up from a year of being put to the torture before being rescued by Guts and the Band of the Hawk, and who has pretty much lost everything worth living for, using his Crimson Behelit to call forth the Godhand on the day of the Eclipse, resulting in Guts and all of his friends being transported to Hell. There, the Godhand, the {{Big Bad}}s of the setting, reveal the true nature of demons and persuade Griffith to sacrifice the Hawks in exchange for becoming their fifth member. Griffith accepts their DealWithTheDevil, everyone gets marked with the Brand of Sacrifice, and from there, it all goes to hell as everyone is picked off one by one by a whole mess of things out of pure nightmare until only Guts and his love interest Casca are left. Then Guts' left arm gets caught in a demon's jaws as he tries to save Casca from the demons, and as he tries to free himself, Griffith is reborn as a demonic god known as Femto, who proceeds to fly down and start having his way with Casca. Guts is forced to chisel off his arm with what's left of his sword in order to save her, only to be dogpiled by more monsters and is forced to watch as Femto rapes Casca right in front of him as his right eye is clawed out. The manga continues the story after this, but the anime ends there. Never watch the last episode of ''Berserk'' if you're feeling depressed.
** [[FromBadToWorse And that's only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the manga.]] It makes one wonder what kind of real ending the series will have.
* ''Anime/WeissKreuz [[OddlyNamedSequel Gluhen]]'' ends with Sena and his long-lost mother both dead, Omi having sacrificed what was left of his innocence in order to fully establish himself as the head of the morally dubious Takatori family, Ken in prison, Yoji [[VictoryGuidedAmnesia amnesiac]] and lacking most of his personality, and Aya apparently bleeding to death on a city sidewalk from a gut wound while the many pedestrians walking past take no notice.
** It really is more of a BittersweetEnding. Ken had nothing to really live for and voluntarily went to prison so he could think, finding out that soccer was the only thing he still enjoyed, being in prison didn't matter to him. Considering the traumas and heartbreak yoji went through in his life, ending up with amnesia and getting married afterwards was a great thing for him. Aya really had nothing left to live for, he left behind his sister, his friends, his home. Omi sacrificed his innocence to protect the Takatori family and perhaps reshape it.
* ''Manga/{{Saikano}}'' has one of the most depressing finales ever: despite Chise's efforts, the world ends and the only survivor is apparently Shuuji. Chise herself becomes a tiny ball of light and the viewer is left with the impression that hope is utterly lost for good.
** Whereas in the manga Chise turns into a spaceship and she and Shuuji leave the lifeless earth and head into space (assuming Shuuji isn't hallucinating or hasn't gone mad because everyone he knows is dead).
* Given that it involved TimeTravel one would suspect the manga ''Manga/GoldenDays'' by Takao Shigeru to have one of these. It does, and by the time Mitsuya returns to his time every single person (excluding his grandfather) he met in the past is dead -- which is all the more [[TearJerker sad]], since there was a possibility they would still be alive. (He only went about 70 years back in time.)
* ''Manga/YourLieInApril'': Kaori ends up dying from complications during the high-risk surgery and Kousei receives [[DeadManWriting a letter from Kaori posthumously]] via her parents, thanking him for introducing her to music, for bringing color to her world and Kaori admits that it wasn't Watari she loved but Kousei. Tsubaki tries to comfort Kousei by reasserting her feelings for him and determination to never abandon him, but it doesn't have much effect and there's no signs that he will reciprocate her feelings any time soon. The next shot is Kousei lamenting on the idea of spring; the season when he meet Kaori for the first time, has come, but this time without the presence of Kaori.
* The ending of ''VisualNovel/{{Air}}'' undoubtedly qualifies; the final episodes follow Misuzu's excruciating battle to remain cheerful through bouts of extreme pain, ending with her death in the arms of Haruko. For those who paid ''close'' attention to the mythology of the Anime '''and''' the Game, there is still hope: The curse of Kannabi No Mikoto, Misuzu's first previous life, can be broken if one earns true love and happiness, which she does through Yukito and Haruko. So although she may have died breaking the curse, her next life will be free of it, and free to pursue happiness - ''if'' she has a next life, that is. It's AllThereInTheManual, hence strictly speaking it's a BittersweetEnding with an uplifting and hopeful note - [[GainaxEnding if it were not for the fact that the anime's ending is still rather ambiguous, even with the manual in hand]]. And of course, for poor grieving Haruko it all doesn't make one shred of a difference.
* By the end of ''Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon'', over half of the cast has been killed with many of the surviving protagonists expressing a rather bleak pessimism about their fates. Eventually, the series ends when the anime's title robot is destroyed along with the surviving cast members. One of "KillEmAll" [[Creator/YoshiyukiTomino Tomino]]'s most notorious endings.
** Of course, that's nothing compared to the fact that everyone in the entire universe died. Or did they? The ending was very surreal and sort of left up to the interpretation of the viewer whether anyone had truly "died" in the end.
* Yoshida Akimi's hard-boiled [[{{Shojo}} shoujo manga]] ''Manga/BananaFish'' is famous for being a TearJerker. When the manga came close to its end the author was flooded with fan mail that begged her not to kill off Ash, the main character. Unfortunately she did, but provided readers with several one-shot prequels and a [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet sequel]] only months after the series ended. (All of these can be found in ''Banana Fish - Another Story''.)
* The first season finale of ''Anime/CodeGeass'': the protagonist, Lelouch, has just been forced to kill his beloved half-sister because his own MagicalEye went haywire and drove her AxCrazy, going on a rampage killing all the Japanese people she can see just when the series was about to make a brighter turn (the Japanese were about to have equal rights with their conquerors, and Lelouch was about to ally himself with the cause). As he leads his forces into battle with TheEmpire, he finds out that an agent of the Emperor has kidnapped his younger sister, the person for whom he's doing all this. In the process of going to rescue her, he loses his army and C.C., his closest ally, his trusted bodyguard Kallen has her faith in him badly shaken, and to cap it all off he ends up in an almost surely fatal Mexican standoff with his former best friend Suzaku, who now despises and wants to kill Lelouch because said half-sister was his girlfriend. It all ends with the two friends leveling their guns at one another.
** The second season makes it even more of a downer by showing what happened immediately afterward: Suzaku beats Lelouch senseless, Kallen runs away rather than doing anything to help, and Lelouch is dragged before the Emperor, who laughs in his face before giving him FakeMemories via MindRape, all in order to lure C.C. out. He spends an entire year living under these altered memories until C.C. returns and undoes the damage. And then during the second half of the new season, let's just say [[FromBadToWorse things get even worse]] to the point one wonders if things may or may not have ended favorably enough for the characters, despite certain positive aspects.
* ''Manga/{{Diabolo}}'' ends with the main character, Ren, killing his evil best friend and cousin, then committing suicide-by-cop. There are only two characters left standing by the last page, and they're side characters: a prostitute and a guy with six months to live.
* ''Anime/MagicalPrincessMinkyMomo'': Classic magical girl anime from the 1980s, Minky Momo, has a sudden swerve at the midpoint with Momo, the main character, and princess of the Land of Dreams... being run over by a truck. She dies rather anticlimactically. However, she is reborn as a human, but by then, the plot's actually over, with the final stretch of episodes only existing in the baby Momo's dreams. This left so much of an impact on the franchise itself that the 1991 sequel series referenced it every once in a while, usually playing it for laughs.
** Later parodied in the very first episode of ''Anime/ExcelSaga''.
* And then there's the legendary battle of ''Anime/{{Windaria}}'' which opens brightly in a city saving upbeat vignette with a young handsome farmer as Hero. An epically crafted collision of Romeo and Juliet with Hamlet, by the time it is done the technological mountain kingdom has brutally massacred their brave but less developed lowland neighbors; the once-saved city (and its helpless populace) is undone and under a thousand feet of water; in a desperate doomed attempt to end the carnage the beautiful Princess reminds us she is Chekov's Pickpocket and kills her beloved Prince with his own gun before turning it on herself in one of the most powerful, heart rending and tear-jerking moments ever put to film; our Hero - after betraying EVERYBODY - comes home to find out that his innocent loving wife is now a ghost who only stayed to see him one last time ... and to cap it off, in the story's closing heartbeats, when he - having become such a weak, selfish lowlife that he's one of the few folks who actually deserves to die - can sacrifice his life to join his wife in the afterlife, he doesn't even have the guts to do so.
** The {{Macekre}} English dub completely changes the nature of the ending. It also adds a FramingDevice that wasn't present in the original. The voiceover narration is of the Hero retelling his memoirs as an old man. The opening suggests that he has recently passed away and his children are now reading his story. His last words in the story indicate that he was eventually forgiven in the end and allowed to join with the Tree of Life. Meaning that he made peace with himself at the end of his life.
* ''Anime/{{Witchblade}}'' features the Witchblade breaking down and slowly destroying Masane's body (which it doesn't do in the original version), and when she finally dies, her daughter's only indication that she died is a tiny shell made from Masane's remains.
** It can be considered a BittersweetEnding, because Masane's commits an HeroicSacrifice and for her it's still victory: Rihoko is more or less safe and Takayama is turned from scapegoat to hero. Also, the shell scene itself looks [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence rather ambiguous]].
* ''Manga/FrankenFran'' stars apprentice MadScientist Fran (who looks like a cross between [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Sally Ragdoll]] and WesternAnimation/{{Te|enTitans}}rra) who can perform miracle surgeries, but seems to be unheeding of the consequences. Of course, this being a ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors''-style manga, a downer ending is all but guaranteed. For instance, Fran's emergency surgery on a girl who just rejected a homely boy saves her life, teaches her humility and the power of love, restores her body, brings the two of them closer, and suddenly transforms her into a giant praying mantis who eats her boyfriend the first moment they're alone. To the girl's credit, she ''did'' seem to like him for who he is and not how he'd taste. It's also an CruelTwistEnding, as well.
** Frankly speaking, just about all of Franken Fran's stories end with particularly mean-spirited and horrific fates for her [[strike:patients]] victims, to the point it is sometimes ''really'' hard to sympathize with Fran at all.
*** Not all of the stories have downer endings. And Fran do what she does because she is literally incapable of giving a mercy kill (she was ''made'' this way), so she'll always try to save someone's life, no matter what.
* Despite being a comedy, ''Manga/PrisonSchool'' ends with a pretty devastating one. Kiyoshi spends the entire series trying to get with Chiyo, the kind-hearted younger sister of the AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil President, and risks getting beaten or expelled at every turn for her. The final arc of the manga revolves around his LoveConfession to her, but Hana tries to [[RelationshipSabotage sabotage it in order to keep Kiyoshi for herself]]. She ends up succeeding after revealing that [[ItMakesSenseInContext Kiyoshi was still wearing her panties]], and as a result Chiyo is shown to end up [[BreakTheCutie becoming a bitter man-hater like her sister]] and it's heavily implied that boys at the school will continue to suffer with her as President.
* ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' has these in about half of its routes, especially in the True Ends.
** Arcueid, continually losing her power, in the end leaves her lover behind and goes back to eternal sleep in her castle, forever dreaming of her times spent with him.
** Akiha's route ends with the protagonist killing himself to restore her sanity, though it is hinted in the fandisc sequel that he might still be alive. Her normal ending simply has her spending the rest of her life as a mindless bloodsucker.
** Hisui's ends with her sister Kohaku, the mastermind behind most of the game's events, killing herself in guilt and to let Hisui live in peace. Akiha also dies. This is a really bittersweet ending since you still get the girl and it gives an incredible feeling of life continuing.
** The Epilogue, taking place [[AlternateContinuity after any (or all) of the routes]], has the protagonist once again meeting the woman who taught him to value life. He thanks her for all she had done; during their talk, it is revealed that the protagonist will only have a few years left to live, less if he continues to use his [[MagicalEye Mystic Eyes]].
* ''Manga/ShadowStar'', the anime, had NoEnding. In the ''manga'', however... Every character got their own little downer ending, for one thing, but it all culminated when ''everyone in the entire world dies'' except for Shiina and Mamiko, both of whom are pregnant. The briefest glimmer of hope is given in the final pages, which show Shiina's daughter and Mamiko's son, in an AdamAndEvePlot.
* ''Manga/{{Bokurano}}'', another manga by [[Creator/MohiroKitoh the same author]] is by no means any happier. Starting as a game, the children soon realize that everything is more serious than it seems when the adult who introduced them to said game disappears and the first child who had piloted ''dies''. The anime, however, manages to pull a BittersweetEnding of sorts off.
* ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket]]''. At the end, Al's friend Bernie attempted to fight and destroy the Federation's latest mobile suit, the Gundam NT-1, or risk having the peaceful space colony nuked. Except that he was himself using a damaged grunt unit. And the pilot of NT-1 was Chris, Al's neighbor who's attracted to Bernie (the feeling is mutual). The two dueled until Bernie was killed and Chris gravely injured. In front of Al. ''After Al found out the nuke carrier had been stopped and rushed to tell Bernie.'' And then Chris asked Al about his "cousin" Bernie...
** What drives it further down is the last scene. Al is sitting in his classroom where his friends, with whom he was so ethusiastic about mobile suits at the beginning, are still discussing war and mobile suits. Al finally snaps and starts crying. One of his friends tries to cheer him up stating: "Don't worry, there will be another war!" thinking Al is saddened over the "cool" battles being over. Al is alone in understanding that mobile suits are war machines piloted by other people, who if not for the war might as well be friends. What makes this line even worse is that his friend is right. There will be other wars and they will be just as terrible.
* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory'' - Gato and Delaz are killed, but the Zeon ultimately wins. Kou lost his beloved HotScientist, and is courtmartialed for stealing the GP-03 after the GP-01's destruction, though released later. Captain Synapse commits suicide in order to take responsibility for the above. The Titans, who most of the Albion crew join, are formed, and we all know how well that turned out. The good guys have effectively lost, and moreover their PyrrhicVictory sets the stage for an even bloodier war and all their attempts to help just sets the stage for a worse organization.
* ''[[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Zeta Gundam]]''. The Titans have been defeated, but with the exception of Kamille, Fa, and the crew of the Argama, everyone else is dead or missing. Axis Zeon emerges as the strongest power after the war, and while Kamille succeeds in killing Scirocco, he got his brain fried as a result. Then again, if you know that Kamille gets better in ''ZZ Gundam'', then the ending isn't as bad.
* The final episode of the First Generation in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamAge Gundam AGE]].'' Despite spearheading a successful operation against the Ambat fortress, Grodek gets sentenced to life for committing treason and the Earth Federation covers up the evidence of his findings about Vagan. Also, the Earth Federation reveals genocidal motivations by renaming the first battles against Vagan as the War of Bat Extermination. Back in the Diva, Millais, Woolf, and Adams all get a HeroicBSOD from finding out that the UE were people all along and Emily overhears Flit grieving over his inability to save Yurin. Most importantly, Lord Ezelcant's forces are shown preparing for the next step of the war against Earth Federation.
* At the end of ''Anime/AngelCop'', All the main and secondary characters are dead, Japan's government doesn't change at all despite our heroes' efforts, and it's headed toward a complete economic collapse. Angel was badly wounded and Raiden had to activate a bomb within his body that would kill Lucifer. Most likely, both of them were killed in the resulting explosion. It wasn't a complete downer, Angel was only knocked down by the resulting explosion that came after shooting Raiden in the head, Asura survived the fight with Lucifer and left with Angel away into parts unknown in the end, Taki escaped his custody at the end and killed Maisaka+ Nogawa with a bomb.
* Junji Ito's ''Manga/{{Uzumaki}}''. Everybody succumbs to the curse of the spiral, ''[[EverybodysDeadDave Everybody.]]'' And it'll keep happening, again and again...
** This also occurs in Ito's other work ''Manga/{{Gyo}}''. The protagonists survives and likely joins [[LaResistance the group working on a vaccine for the germs]] later on, but his girlfriend and uncle were both infected by the germs and the girlfriend was killed by a mob of the infected, while the uncle carried off his [[HotScientist attractive assistant]] to parts unknown. Not to mention Japan has been devastated and the infected are still on the march as well as having spread outside of Japan. Arguably not as bleak as ''Uzumaki'', as there was at least a faint light of hope in the vaccine the students were working on.
* Despite the fact that the mood in the ''VisualNovel/SchoolDays'' anime starts very happy and then gradually goes downhill, the ending is still a big shocker when the allegedly pregnant Sekai knifes the male protagonist Makoto to death, then gets slaughtered brutally by her rival Kotonoha, who slices her open with a hacksaw to see if she's really pregnant. Kotonoha then carries Makoto's ''severed head'' around on her sailing trip. Brrrr! "Nice boat," indeed.
** Likely the only positive thing about this ending is that Makoto, who in the anime is a dimwitted and lecherous scumbag who uses the girls around him for his own pleasure, gets what he deserves ([[DisproportionateRetribution and then some]]).
* ''Manga/SomedaysDreamersIISora'' ends with protagonist Sora returning to her hometown and succumbing to her heart condition. This is especially egregious since she seemed to be mostly fine for the largest part of the series.
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
** The end of ''Manga/PhantomBlood'', where Jonathan dies to save his wife and unborn child, taking his adoptive-brother-turned-villain, Dio Brando, down to the bottom of the sea with him. In the context of just Part 1, this is more of a BittersweetEnding; however, of course, in ''Manga/StardustCrusaders'', Dio is revealed to have survived and stolen Jonathan's body.
* ''Manga/{{X 1999}}''. Almost the entire named cast is pretty much dead or assumed so, either in mutual takedowns or as suicidal charges against the BigBad, and Tokyo is largely destroyed AND flooded. The sole survivor is the protagonist, but even he loses his two best friends, one of whom arbitrarily does a FaceHeelTurn the literal instant the protagonist chooses to join the heroes to protect the two of them. The villains don't get to celebrate this new ally for long, because the {{Face Heel Turn}}-ed friend eventually chooses to screw the rules and decides to KillEmAll.
** This is, notably, only true of TheMovie. While the casualties are large in all incarnations of the story, the ending of the TV series is more of a BittersweetEnding and the manga is currently stuck in an indefinite hiatus.
* In ''Manga/{{Doubt}}'', when you finally think everything is over, Hajime is hung by another Wolf, and Yuu picks up Mitsuki's cellphone, which ends up in Mitsuki getting into her Wolf mentality again and killing Yuu. Obviously, Rei gets away with all of this.
* A very old example is ''[[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1409 Triton Of the Sea]]'' , When the title character spends the entire series avenging his family, who were annihilated 5000 years ago by the bloodthirsty Poseidon family, only to find out from after defeating the BigBad that it was the ''Triton'' family who were the bloodthirsty ones and he proved it by committing genocide, thus causing a HeroicBSOD. THE END. It should be noted that this is the first series written and directed by Creator/YoshiyukiTomino, and was considered a kid's show at the time.
* ''Anime/PomPoko'' ends with one of the three Transformation Masters dying, another one going insane and forming a Buddist Dance Cult, before proceeding to turn his 'male parts' into a treasure ship, and sailing away (with some of the tanuki who couldn't transform) to reach Nirvana, not realising that they're sailing to their deaths. Meanwhile, Gonta and another group of tanuki have one final attack against the humans which results in them all getting killed. In an act of desperation, the rest of the tanuki stage one final performance - of how their home used to be, before appealing to the humans. Although they are slightly successful it is too late, thus forcing the tanuki to do what the kitsunes did: blend into society, abandoning those who couldn't transform. The film tries to end on a happy note by having all the tanuki meet up, rejoicing, but it doesn't really work, and there isn't enough happy to make it a BittersweetEnding.
* An incredibly depressing ending to what was just another SuperRobot series, ''Anime/SpaceWarriorBaldios'': the hero Marin and his allies can only watch as the BigBad, Zeo Gattler, unleashes his "Final Weapon" which triggers a cataclysmic series of gigantic tsunamis that ravage the surface of the earth. The last shot of the series is a freeze-frame of a tsunami wave, with the word "End" appearing next to it. This ending was made partially because the series was supposed to run one more season and they had to cut it off somewhere. The ending is famous enough to be the downer end screen on the 44th scenarios of ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsZ''.
* Author and illustrator Creator/TakashiYanase seemed to have been a big fan of this trope, mostly in the anime adaptations of his stand-alone works.
** The ending of his adaptation of ''Anime/RingingBell'' (or Chirin's Bell, as it's known in Japanese) is the story of a [[SweetSheep lamb]] who is out to avenge the death of his mother, who was killed by a wolf. After realizing he can't kill the wolf in the state he's currently in, he offers to become the wolf's apprentice. After many years of training Chirin is now an adult, very rugged and disfigured with many battle scars, and the wolf decides to bring him to the farm where he grew up to kill a sheep and bring it back to him. Once he kills the guard dogs, he makes his way into the barn, chooses a sheep and charges - but he realizes that he can't bring himself to do it, because she has a lamb with her. He leaves, but the wolf confronts him. Chirin stabs the wolf with his misshapen horns, and the wolf congratulates him on succeeding with his goal before dying. Chirin decides to go back to live on the farm, but the other sheep are afraid of him. He realizes that without the wolf he no longer serves a purpose, as the sheep won't accept him and the wolf he has grown to love as a father figure is dead, so he goes back to the mountains where the wolf lived, during a blizzard. He is never heard from again and is presumed to have died; but he, or at least his ghost, was rumored to have visited the valley, as the sheep heard the ringing of a little bell that was never removed from his neck.
** ''The Gentle Lion''/''Anime/TheKindlyLion'' ends with an escaped lion (Buru-Buru) and his mother (Muku-muku the dog) being killed by an army. However, both the short and book ends on an [[AmbiguousEnding ambiguous note]] where it's hinted that Buru-buru and Muku-muku survived being shot and implied that both "went running all the way to the end of the world". Both versions even show the lion and dog flying off to the moon.

* ''Anime/FiveCentimetersPerSecond'' had the two lead characters meeting by chance in school and quickly falling in love with each other. However, since their parents' jobs require them to move a lot, they quickly lose contact with each other (the anime is set in the 1990s, where cell phones and e-mail are not as widespread as today). Both characters basically never see each other again, which causes a great deal of emotional pain to both of them. The film ends with a TearJerker montage of how they both move on with their lives. What makes it even worse is when the film teases the audience by having the two leads pass each other on a railroad crossing, but neither recognizes the other until it is too late, and a passing train separates them. By the time the train passes, the female lead is gone.
* Another ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' example in the novel, ''[[Literature/MobileSuitGundamHathawaysFlash Hathaway's Flash]]'', where Mafty Navilles Erin (aka Hathaway Noa) is captured in the end and was sentenced to death by Bright Noa, who had no idea it was his own son he was executing. Ouch.
** That, and moments before he's executed, the ghost of Quess Paraya appears to him, tells him she never loved him, and tells him that his struggle, started by her death that made Mafty go against the Federation, was all fruitless and his reason for starting it a lie. Double ouch.
* ''Manga/TokyoBabylon''. So, TheHero's LoveInterest turns out to be a sociopath, kills TheHero's sister, cripples his grandmother and then [[KarmaHoudini walks away like nothing happened]]. [[ShootTheShaggyDog Nice.]]

* The ''Manga/BlackButler'' anime has quite the downer ending where we see Sebastian rowing a boat with Ciel laying inside of it in a bed of white roses, just like in the second ending animation. However, we see Ciel isn't dead yet, and around him in the water are the Cinematic Records of his memories up to that point. When they reach their destination, Ciel sits on a bench (the same one as in the final shot of the opening theme) and looks at Sebastian, ready for what's to come. Sebastian tells him he'll make his death as quick and painless as he can, but Ciel retorts, saying he wants him to make it as painful as possible. Sebastian agrees and we see him gently caress Ciel's face, removing his eyepatch in the process. The last few shots we get are of Ciel's 'normal' eye wide in what looks likes an almost sorrowful expression as he stares at the demon. Sebastian leans down, and our final shot is of his lips curling into a smile before it cuts off to the credits.
** Not to mention what happened an episode or two before that where Maylene, Bard, and Finny have to kill Pluto. We also don't know what happened to the three afterwards, although we're left with the knowledge of "when I left they were still breathing".
*** And there's the ending of "Black Butler II", which is arguably either a sequel to the first series or an AlternateContinuity all of its own, where the wish of a dying enemy turns Ciel into a demon in his own right, which means that Sebastian can never claim his soul. So Sebastian doesn't get what he wants, is now forced to serve Ciel (if you believe he doesn't enjoy serving Ciel), and Ciel, who is arguably a DeathSeeker, will have to live with his pain and the emptiness of his revenge forever.
** Quite a few of the manga arcs have had downer endings too. The UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper arc ends with Madam Red dying. The {{Circus|OfFear}} arc has all the first tier members die except Snake. And let's not forget all the children Ciel had burned alive when he set [[StalkerWithACrush Baron Kelvin]]'s estate on fire, although his reasoning was that the children would never be themselves and remain in such a [[EmptyShell traumatized]] state that killing them was probably the best option.
*** The circus arc in particular was a major downer ending, as nearly everyone involved except Baron Kelvin and the doctor were sympathetic characters, and turned out to have done Kelvin's bidding [[ShoottheShaggyDog and died for ''nothing''.]]

* Subverted in ''Anime/BagiTheMonsterOfMightyNature''. The protagonist blames the [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody all-but-feral]] Bagi for his [[YouKilledMyFather mother's death]]. After [[TookALevelInBadass taking a few levels in badass]], [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge he hunts her down]], investigating the tales of a monster indiscriminately killing villagers. It wasn't [[HopeSpot her handiwork]], but she's nevertheless a PersonOfMassDestruction, capable of taking out several squads of soldiers with her super-speed and mind control powers. They fight, but she [[FightingFromTheInside hesitates right before striking]], giving him just enough time to [[ShootTheDog stab her]]. He descends into a HeroicBSOD. But it turns out that she was NotQuiteDead and is shown roaming the desert in the end credits.
* The ''Anime/TransformersArmada'' episode "Credulous". Sideways turns out to have been a DoubleAgent who chooses this point to declare for the Decepticons, Hotshot gets beaten and severely damaged, and Starscream gets the Star Saber.

* In ''Manga/{{Akumetsu}}'', all of the Shou clones die, having failed in their mission to rid Japan of corruption and evil. The Prime Minister's reforms also fail, which resulted in him becoming homeless.
* The ending of the Six Tailed Beast arc in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''. The arc's BigBad has been defeated, Hotaru saved and Utakata the six-tailed Jinchuriki has finally realized the truths of master-and-student and is ready to take on Hotaru as his student. Seems like a happy ending, right? Well, despite all the development he got through the whole arc, those who read the manga knew from the start that Ukataka was [[DoomedByCanon going to be captured by the Akatsuki]], which the end promptly showed.
* ''Manga/DeepLove: Ayu no Monogatari'' ends with a broke and anorexic Ayu dying from AIDS in the city streets.
** In the sidestory ''Pao no Monogatari'', which is told from Ayu's dog Pao's perspective, he dies alongside Ayu at the end. Just before passing on, he remembers all of the people who had loved and cared for him throughout his abusive life.
* A rule of {{Hentai}} is that if it's not a romance or comedy, it will nine times out of ten be depressing to the viewers. The following is spoilered due to squick. [[SchmuckBait You have been warned.]] ''Inyouchuu The Animation'' has the heroine and her friends captured by the Lord of Nightmares. Her friend and love interest try to save everyone but is captured and beaten to a pulp. The heroine offers her body to the Lord of Nightmares, to save her friend and give him an opening to kill the villain. At the end of the episode, the love interest finally recovers and charges the Lord of Nightmares using ThePowerOfLove to fuel him, only to be killed and reduced to green ash/gunk. The heroine says that she had given herself up shortly after offering her body to him, because her friend would not get up to save her. The anime ends with her saying she barely remembers his face, as the flames finally die down. Whether or not this is worse then the manga is up for debate.
** On the topic of hentai and downer endings, one that's strange even for hentai downer endings (the typical hentai downer ending has the BigBad being victorious and leaving the protagonists as his/her sex toys), the Lilith series ''Shion'' deserves mention. After apparently settling down for a fun, carefree life in freedom with her new boyfriend (and his other lover), in the closing minutes of the last episode, the eponymous heroine is killed by her old boss, with the implication that he would go on to kill the others as well. Subverted if you watch the series "bonus clip," which implies that they all get better. Or remains straight if you factor in the lyrics and dialog at that part, and that video's [[http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=5836 title]]. (NSFW)
* ''Manga/BlackLagoon'':
** The Hansel and Gretel Arc. It's not entirely their fault that they're psychopathic murderers but it's explicitly stated that all they will do is kill people, so they both are killed. The same can be said about the final Yakuza arc. Lampshaded by Benny. "Stories like this don't have happy endings."
** The Yakuza arc isn't much better. Rock earns Balalaika's respect, but he fails in his attempt to save Yukio (due to Yukio committing [[{{Seppuku}} jigai]] after Ginji is killed) and nearly gets Revy killed.
* The final chapter of the [[HorrorAnimeAndManga horror manga]] ''Manga/{{Emerging}}'' makes it very clear that [[ThePlague the virus]] that ravaged Tokyo may be mutating - possibly to an airborne strain, which would not only be much more contagious, but also be unaffected by the vaccine serum. Cue a scene where [[HugeGuyTinyGirl Ooshima and Misaki]] unknowingly walk right past someone with the trademark IncurableCoughOfDeath as 'disease particles' float around.
* ''VisualNovel/PhantomOfInferno'': (Anime) In literally the last minute of the show, Reiji is apparently shot by a disguised assassin in a passing hay wagon, and Ein is last seen laying face-up on the ground next to a poisonous plant that's missing a leaf. Their fate is left ambiguous.
* At the end of the anime's first season, ''Manga/{{Kaiji}}'' bets four of his fingers and all of the money he got in the E-card game in one final gamble. He loses.

* The story of the manga ''Manga/NotSimple'' ends with the protagonist Ian committing suicide in a subway bathroom after he learns that the woman he has been waiting three years to reunite with, the only person apart from his deceased sister who has ever made him happy, has died in the time since he last saw her. This turns out to be a mistake, however, as the young woman that gave him the news thought that Ian was looking for her aunt, when he had actually been looking for her mother. However, due to the AnachronicOrder of the story, this could technically be considered a downer beginning.
* ''Anime/EurekaSeven'' - While the anime has [[TastesLikeDiabetes an almost-disgustingly happy ending]], the manga ends with Dominic and Eureka both dead. While Renton believes that Eureka may still be alive, the rest of the characters assure that the Coralians are completely wiped out.
* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' has the ending to the episode "Hard Luck Woman". Faye Valentine, a woman who has [[LaserGuidedAmnesia amnesia]] about who she is or where she is from, finds out where she came from. Before she leaves, she tells Ed that there's, "There's no place better than a place you belong". She finally arrives and runs, while flash backs show an over-eager Faye during her teens/childhood running in the same street. Faye gets to the place in her flashbacks, and in real life, and sees her entire house demolished. [[TearJerker She just begins to draw a line into the sand to demonstrate where her bed was and look up at the sunset...close to tears.]]
** While it can also be seen as a BittersweetEnding, there's also the finale, where Vicious violently takes over the leadership of the Red Dragon, Spike reunites with his long lost love Julia only to lose her to the Red Dragon's men, and then decides to leave the Bebop to pursue a final one-man assault on his old syndicate, an assault that ends with Spike and Vicious both falling in the final showdown.
*** Though its still ambiguous as to whether Spike REALLY died. He lived at least long enough to walk down the steps from where Vicious's body is to where the guards were before falling over. And lets keep in mind, he has falllen from a cathedral and lived and [[ShrugOfGod the creator isn't saying one way or another]].
* The first ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' anime has a VillainEpisode that features [[EvilIsSexy Lust]], who is contemplating her existance. A man from her past shows up and it's revealed that she does have a heart of gold - she taught the man to save an entire village from an awful sickness. The man and her reconnect, and she gradually draws too close to him. Eventually, the man asks Lust to run away with him, explaining he fell in love with her years before and his fiance doesn't matter to him. Lust's response is to kill the man, who is revealed to have the disease. This is immediately followed up by everyone else in the village screaming in agony as the disease kills them. To top things off, his fiance shows up and sees his corpse, and dies from the disease as well. Lust's response makes it even more chilling, showing that even the villian has given up on her objectives and will to live.
* ''LightNovel/HyakkaRyouranSamuraiGirls'' while a lighthearted series throughout the first eleven episodes, the final episode has ''BOTH'' Moe!Jubei and Badass!Jubei perform a HeroicSacrifice by sending the resident {{Yandere}} Gisen up to the atmosphere to disintegrate. Unfortunately, Gisen goes on to state that within a thousand years later, she will be resurrected to do this all over again.
* ''LightNovel/{{Katanagatari}}'' ends up with almost the entire named cast (save about five characters) dead, the ornate ThanatosGambit driving the plot having proved [[WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife completely futile,]] and the hero WalkingTheEarth having lost the only person he ever loved.
* [[http://www.mangatoshokan.com/read/Little-Red-Riding-Hood-and-the-Kind-Wolf/locate+Bittertrap/1 This adaption]] of ''Literature/LittleRedRidingHood'' manages to make you uncomfortable while not containing a single word. The cute drawing-style only helps its cause to leave you with a bitter aftertaste.
* ''Manga/{{Basilisk}}''. Gennosuke and Oboro are reunited at the end, but they commit suicide and ALL of their friends are dead.

* ''Anime/MasterOfMartialHearts'': The Platonic heart doesn't exist, the losers of the tournament go insane and sold off as {{Sex Slave}}s. Turns out, Aya's entire life has been an utter lie. Her childhood friend Natsume, love interest Haruki, and newest friend Miko all want her dead. The entire tournament was set up by them for revenge on what her parents did to their families. Aya's mother saves her, kills Natsume, Haruki, and Miko. She stays behind in the burning building to to atone for Aya's sins, which kills Aya's Mother and the insane losers of the tournament. Aya then kills Natsume's mother, who was responsible for Natume and Miko's decision to hold the tournament. On the upside, this did finally end the CycleOfHatred that was running rampant in their families. Though Aya now has no friends or family. So, yeah, her life is pretty much down the crapshoot.

* ''Anime/{{Memories}}''. ''Magnetic Rose'' ends with the two guys on the spaceship torn apart, Miguel hypnotised and condemned to the fate of those who have fallen into Eva's wiles before him, and Heintz stuck drifting in space in his suit that will probably run out of oxygen soon. ''Stink Bomb'' ends with Nobuo releasing the chemical to kill Japan's military leadership and most likely wiping out Tokyo at the very least.
* ''Manga/{{MW}}''. Father Garai foiled Michio Yuki of gassing the entire world with the titular chemical weapon by sacrificing his life of taking it down with him to the ocean, the latter gets gunned down by one of his hostages, Shunsuke Ban still doesn't recover from his last attack, and Michio, impersonating his older lookalike brother, escapes punishment and is free to do whatever he wants.
* The manga ''Manga/{{Shigurui}}'' has several Downer Endings to various arcs within the story:
** Gonzaemon was in love with a young woman, but due to Kogan's prodding that he abandon whatever was "holding him back" so that he may become a great swordsman. He slaughtered her.
** Gennosuke is shown to be in love with Mie, but his [[FreudianExcuse childhood trauma]] combined with [[ParentalSubstitute loyalty towards her father]] prevents him from expressing his feelings. While he is skeptical, he does not step in when Kogan attempts to persuade Irako into impregnating his daughter in front of the other samurai.
** Mie misinterprets [[ManipulativeBastard Irako's refusal]] as charity and after Kogan's death, the school is thrown into disarray and loses all money and support. The new successor Gennosuke and Mei struggle to regain their pride by having Gennosuke defeat Irako in battle. Upon Irako's death, instead of embracing the comfortable life she has come to know with Gennosuke, she slits her throat and leaves him alone once again.
* One of the notable examples is ''Manga/AbsoluteBoyfriend''. Towards the end, Night begins to grow sleepier and sleepier. The problems developed by him exceeding his abilities eventually causes his machinery to stop working, resulting in his "death".
* The ending of episode 9 of ''Popotan'': Konami is revealed to have died, sending Mai back into the depression she's been trying to avoid throughout the series. Most sad endings in ''Popotan'' are at least bittersweet. Ain't anything sweet about this one.
* The first part of ''Webcomic/{{Magician}}'' is probably this what with Edermask being beaten by Janus and disappearing, Dirt dead and Janus's complete takeover of the continent.
* ''Franchise/LupinIII'': Happens sometimes. We're not counting just when the gang fails to get anything from their heist; that happens often. Some stories have one character that the audience felt deeply about being killed off for the ending. ''Anime/LupinIIIIslandOfAssassins'' stands out as probably being the codifier for the fan opinion that if Lupin's wearing a black shirt under a red Jacket, people are going to ''die''.
* ''[[VideoGame/CorpseParty Corpse Party: Tortured Souls]]'', the original ending has five survivors, but in the OVA adaptation, only Naomi and Ayumi survive. And one of them [[GoMadFromTheRevelation turns insane]] by the final scene.
* ''Manga/SatouKashiNoDanganWaUchinukenai'' is something between this and a BittersweetEnding. But it's hard to feel anything but depression when the abused {{Deuteragonist}} is murdered by her father and her only friend finds her body in the woods.
* The final episode of the first season of ''Anime/AldnoahZero'' ends with [[BigBad Saazbaum]] surviving and having killed Asseylum. Slaine shoots [[TheHeroDies Nao]] in the head at the very last minute.
** The second season makes this a lot happier when Inaho and Asselyum turn out to have survived and Saazbaum is killed a few episodes in. Of course, Slaine then becomes the new BigBad and is more effective than Saazbaum, leading to a BittersweetEnding for the series as both sides of the war are decimated before Slaine is stopped and locked up forever while Inaho and Asseylum can't be with each other, their love being sacrificed to maintain a lie for political peace.

* ''Anime/BloodC'' ended with the whole town massacred and [[BigBad Fumito]] along with [[BitchInSheepsClothing Yuka]] escaping which left Saya, thirsty for revenge after all the hell she had been through. Its sequel movie gave a [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet one]] with Fumito finally dead but Saya walks into an aimless journey after learning Fumito's true intentions.
* ''Anime/LeChevalierDEon'' ends with the main character, D'eon, being the only major character left alive and as an old man, reflecting how due to UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, he lost faith in his country and lost everyone he ever cared about. In a sense, D'eon, even loses his sense of identity as in the first episode, his dead sister Lia, possessed him to some degree, and their identities merge throughout the show, to the point that at the end, he is no longer sure if he is D'eon or Lia, and spends a lot of time dresssed as Lia and pretending/sometimes believing he is her. In addition, the show slowly kills off almost all the characters throughout the story, but leaves a few alive before the epilogue. The epilogue is a DeadlyDistantFinale, showing how the survivors all ended up being killed, which D'eon comes to terms with in the final scene, as much as he can.
* Midway of ''Manga/{{Saiyuki}} Gaiden'' already has Kenren and Tenpou being dead, but the whole story concludes with Konzen being crushed to death by the Earth's entrance gate so he could allow Goku to escape from Heaven. Konzeon Bosatsu then finds Goku at the entrance, traumatized from Konzen's death, seals his memories before imprisoning him for 500 years.
* ''Manga/AsTheGodsWill'': Part I ends with both leads, Takahata Shun and Amaya Takeru, failing to kill the BigBad of their arc, and falling to their demise.
* Any given arc of ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' is going to end with a pile of bodies, at least one failed military objective, and people questioning the worth of it all. Save perhaps for [[HopeSpringsEternal one little item]] that might promise a better future.
** The final chapter of the series ends with [[VillainProtagonist Eren]] successfully causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt and using [[FinalSolution the Rumbling]] to wipe out approximately 80% of humanity, save the Eldians. However, he laments to Armin that he never wanted this and confesses his love for Mikasa, but his ThanatosGambit required him to keep her at arm's length. In the end, Eren managed to achieve his goals and secure a future for his race, [[PyrrhicVillainy but at the cost of the lives of himself, most of his species, and almost everyone he cared about]].
** As if there wasn't enough controversy regarding the ending's bitterness, an epilogue chapter shows that the entirety of the series was AllForNothing as Eldia is bombed to dust by the survivors and a lone child is shown entering the WorldTree, implying the entire CycleOfRevenge [[ShaggyDogStory is set to begin anew]].
%%* TheMovie of ''Manga/FairyTail''.
* The original ending to ''Manga/Cyborg009'' was this, as it ended with 009 and 002 perishing in space while the rest of the cyborgs look on in despair. Complaints from fans led Ishinomori to continue the series and retconning the two's deaths to simply being injured, although this led to a different kind of DownerEnding as Ishinomori passed away before the manga was completed (it was eventually finished by his son and two of his assistants).
* ''VideoGame/{{Gungrave}}'''s anime is a change up from the first game's ending which had ended with Grave getting his revenge and riding off into the sunset with Mika, keeping her safe. Instead Grave makes peace with Harry...after both have been shot full of holes by Millennion foot soldiers despite being ordered to stop thanks to Mika. The show ends with Grave and Harry killing each other right before Mika arrives to find them dead and cries while finding it in her to smile at her friend's fate. Oh and the song that plays? It's called "Happy Ending."
* The ending of ''Side:Despair'' in ''Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool'' it even warns you at the beginning "this is a tale of hope that ends in despair". In short, [[TheBadGuyWins The Tragedy has begun]]: Chisa and Class 77-B were turned into Junko lackeys through the Brainwashing Despair Video, Chiaki is brutally tortured to death, and Ryota is a broken, guilt-ridden wreck. Since it's just a {{Prequel}}, this is certainly expected, as Izuru becomes TheStarscream, plotting behind Junko's back out of anger for what she did to Chiaki, setting up the events of ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair''.
* In ''Manga/ApollosSong'' by Creator/OsamuTezuka, this is the theme of the entire book: a dim hope being cruelly and suddenly snatched away. Shogo is cursed to fall in love but meet a tragic end ''forever.'' This also applies to the overall plot -- Shogo is psychotic but receiving treatment when the book starts. By the end he's pronounced cured but soon dies with Hiromi and is left to his eternal punishment
* ''Manga/FukushuuKyoushutsu'': Many of the class are dead, the ones tho survive have been through varying degrees of mental or physical trauma. The protagonist, Ayana, ends up in a coma after falling from a fourth store window, and the BigGood died in the middle of her own plan. The ManBehindTheMan, Yamase, gets away scot free for starting the whole mess after Ren, the only person left to know the truth, is unable to harm him due to their friendship. Just to boot, months later it's revealed that after the entire case was made public, a surge of minor-on-minor violent crimes and revenge stories happened across Japan.
* In episode 20a of ''Anime/{{Tamagotchi}}'', everyone is making good progress getting the Tama-Cherry Blossom to bloom by doing fun activities until Mametchi starts to perform his rendition of "Every Lovely". His [[DreadfulMusician singing is so terrible]] that it makes the blossoms on the tree all fall off simultaneously. The episode ends there with everyone else shocked at the fallen blossoms while Mametchi is still moving along with his song, unaware of what his singing has done.
* The manga series ''Manga/FluffyFluffyCinnamoroll'' from Creator/{{Sanrio}} has quite a bit of these though it's usually {{played for laughs}} on the characters {{butt monkey}} moments due to the how comical the series is which adds some [[BittersweetEnding bittersweetness]] to it (particularly funny for the readers but not for the in-universe characters), in the final chapter has the Cinnamoangels sell a bunch of cds of a group called "The Caramels" but they forgot to save a copy for themselves (the thing they worked so hard to earn money for) which causes [[YamatoNadeshiko Azuki]], [[ProneToTears Mocha]] and even [[{{Tomboy}} Chiffon]] to [[InelegantBlubbering start bawling like babies]].
* ''Manga/TegamiBachiLetterBee'' has a BittersweetEnding in both its manga and anime adaptations, but some storylines don't end nearly as happily.
** Episode 15 of the anime sees Lag and Sylvette in a carriage with Bonny and Moss, a couple that is fleeing from a gang of Wild West-style outlaws. They claim that it's because the leader of the gang wants Bonny's hand in marriage, but it's actually because Bonny and Moss stole some spirit amber and plan to sell it. It's eventually revealed that Bonny doesn't love Moss, but was actually planning on using the money to reunite with her actual lover Clyde, who'd left for Akatsuki. Bonny runs off, enraged at her failure, and while Moss thanks Lag for helping him see the truth, he's clearly heartbroken.
** The end of the first season of the anime. Lag finally encounters Gauche(his friend and the Letter Bee who delivered him to Cambel Litus) again, only to realize that he's lost his heart and forgotten who he is, resulting in him becoming a letter-stealing Marauder named Noir, an encounter that ends with Gauche shooting him with his Shindan and leaving him there. Worse, it's later revealed that Gauche's memory loss is permanent, and he will never return to the way he was before. Meanwhile, Sylvette fights with "Roda", a mysterious young woman who has the same name as Gauche's old dingo, resulting in Roda easily defeating her and mocking her for being a failure as a dingo. The incident severely shakes Niche's confidence and leads her to take a TenMinuteRetirement.
* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': The Paranormal Liberation War Arc, a climactic battle between the heroes and the alliance of the League of Villains and the Meta Liberation Army, ends this way. The battle results in massive property damage, the deaths of more than a few heroes (including Crust and Midnight) and countless civilian casualties. Although some notable members of the League are arrested, [[BigBad Shigaraki]], now fully under the control of [[GreaterScopeVillain All For One]], escapes with many of his allies. As a result of the disastrous outcome of the battle, and Dabi publicizing Endeavor's abuse of his family and Hawks [[ShootTheDog killing Twice]], public faith in heroes has been devastated. As if that's not enough, All For One [[GreatEscape breaks out of Tartarus]], unleashing the most dangerous criminals in the process. In mere hours, six more high security prisons are broken and criminals are running amok across the nation. In one week, dozens of Pro-Heroes resign due to the mayhem. The arc ends with [[ButNowIMustGo Izuku abruptly dropping out of U.A High, leaving his mother and friends, as he and All Might venture into the chaos]]. They are accompanied by Endeavour, Hawks, and Best Jeanist, but most of the responsibility of the mission is on Izuku.
* The third episode of ''Manga/KotouraSan'', as well as its manga equivalant, ends with Yoshihisa gets hospitalized, Haruka moves because [[ItsAllMyFault she blames herself]], and Yoshihisa solemnly says [[MyGreatestFailure he couldn't protect her]]. Overridden by the next episode. This is from a series known for being a CerebusRollercoaster.
* In what is probably the darkest ending of any Creator/StudioGhibli movie, ''Anime/TheTaleOfThePrincessKaguya'' ends like this: [[{{Lunarians}} celestial beings from the Moon]], who Kaguya belongs to, return to get her, and they're led by what looks like the Buddha himself. Her father's men put up resistance and are easily overwhelmed. Kaguya protests to the Moon People that she wants to stay on Earth but has a celestial robe of forgetfulness placed on her anyway. In a HopeSpot, she briefly appears to remember her life on Earth, and then is taken back to the Moon while her adoptive parents sob. Roll credits.
* ''The Gyaru is Curious About the Otaku'' has the gyaru main character notice that her otaku classmate Yamasaki is drawing a YuriGenre manga in class, with the main characters based on the two of them and that she's popular for a high schooler. The main character asks Yamasaki about it, but Yamasaki assumes the main character is planning on spreading rumors about her (based on the main character calling it "creepy"), and the main character gets offended. The two of them never speak again until graduation, and Yamasaki stops drawing in class. Years later, after Yamasaki gets serialized, the main character sends her a DM asking her about the manga she worked on in class, but Yamasaki has no interest in continuing it. While Yamasaki had been attracted to the main character, she's gotten over her feelings, leaving the main character to suffer the pain of her unrequited love.

** ''The Gentle Lion''/''Anime/TheKindlyLion'' ends with an escaped lion (Buru-Buru) and his mother (Muku-muku the dog) being killed by an army. However, both the short and book ends on an [[AmbiguousEnding ambigious note]] where it's hinted that Buru-buru and Muku-muku survived being shot and implied that both "went running all the way to the end of the world". Both versions even show the lion and dog flying off to the moon.

** ''The Gentle Lion''/''Anime/TheKindlyLion'' ends with an escaped lion and his mother (a dog) being killed by an army.

** The final chapter of the series ends with [[VillainProtagonist Eren]] successfully causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt and using [[FinalSolution the Rumbling]] to wipe out approximately 80% of humanity, save the Eldians. However, he laments to Armin that he never wanted this and confesses his love for [[AmazonianBeauty Mikasa]], but his ThanatosGambit required him to keep her at arm's length. In the end, Eren managed to achieve his goals and secure a future for his race, [[PyrrhicVillainy but at the cost of the lives of himself, most of his species, and almost everyone he cared about]].

* Author Creator/TakashiYanase seemed to have been a big fan of this trope, mostly in the anime adaptations of his stand-alone works.

'''WARNING:''' Nearly every example is a spoiler. Read at your own risk!

** One of the classic manga downer endings was ''Manga/{{Devilman}},'' which ended with Akira losing everything and everyone he loved (including his parents and his PluckyGirl girlfriend, Miki, [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath savagely dismembered]] by a [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters psychotic mob of humans]]), losing the final battle between his army of devilmen and Satan's army of demons and ending up ripped in half by Satan, who was really his best friend Ryo ([[FoeYay who was in love with him]]), and quite dead. And humanity probably got all but wiped out, although it doesn't go into great detail about that.

** As for the sequel series, ''Manga/ViolenceJack''; it was, if anything, even ''nastier''... It turns out that the title character is Devilman/Akira Reborn, the main bad guy is one-half of Zenon created by Satan/Ryo to punish himself, and it ends with Satan and Devilman getting ready for Round 2.
** The original ''Anime/MazingerZ'' ended with [[spoiler:Kouji killing Dr. Hell. However, the Mykene Empire -that had been awaiting for one of their enemies destroying the other- struck immediately, razing to rubble several major cities -- New York, London, Paris, Moscow and Tokyo-- bringing down the Photon Power Research Institute, destroying Diana-A, Boss Borot and Mazinger-Z itself. Kouji almost died, and he was saved by Tetsuya Tesurugi pulling off a BigDamnHeroes moment with ''Anime/GreatMazinger''. The series ended with the humanity on the brink of being wiped out as several characters told Mazinger-Z was now useless. And later, in ''Anime/GreatMazinger'', Dr. Hell returned, showing Kouji's efforts and struggle had been all for nothing.]] It was even worse in several retellings of the series.
** In ''Anime/ShinMazinger'' [[spoiler:even though Kouji kills Dr. Hell and saves the day, it turned out to be a BatmanGambit by Baron Ashura, ensuring the Mikene Empire will rise and the series ends with Mazinger-Z defeated, the God Scrander destroyed!]]
** In ''Manga/ShinMazingerZero'', the characters are locked in a GroundhogDayLoop where [[spoiler:Mazinger-Z has became a demon/EldritchAbomination and destroyed the world.]] It has happened 2,977 times so far...

* Often referred to as one of Yoshiyuki "KillEmAll" Tomino's happier endings, the ending of ''Anime/HeavyMetalLGaim'' isn't an upper to any significant degree, even if everyone kind of screws themselves over in reality. Sure, all the heroes live, but the villain succeeds in his plan to kill the main characters family off by causing irreparable brain damage to the hero's little sister, and in a bit of a stupid move on his part, he goes to live alone with her on some planet away from everyone else in the team. Meanwhile, neither LoveInterest gets the nod, the best friend and the fairy sidekick may think they are dying of radiation poisoning and leave the group to wander alone somewhere, and even the dude who does the HeelFaceTurn doesn't get to be with the one he loves.

** The same applies to its companion, ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry''. One of the worst endings has the protagonist stripped naked, forced to be a pet/servant to the antagonist, and is eaten alive by people in goat-masks. Oh, and this is ''after'' a lot of the other island's inhabitants are murdered.
** The ending of the series also applies where it at best is {{bittersweet|Ending}}. [[spoiler:Battler finally once again can meet his family and Beatrice in the golden land]] or a {{downer|Ending}} where [[spoiler:everything from ep 3 and forward was just a way for an amnesiac Battler to sort out his memories about Rokkenjima]].
* The VideoGame/MegaManX OVA: ''The Day of Sigma''. Dr. Cain dies, Abel City is destroyed, X and Zero are in bad conditions and the Mavericks and Sigma are [[TakeOverTheWorld taking over the world]].

** To make matters worse, the story is semi-autobiographical. The writer wrote the story due to the feelings of guilt he had that he survived while his sister died. He remarks that there were many times he found food and ate it without bringing any back for her and wishes that he had died. No wonder he killed off his AuthorAvatar.
* ''Manga/{{Ibitsu}}'': [[spoiler:Kazuki, the main character, is dead after a long time beign tortured by the Lolita (being kept in his room and being fed trash), and well after she has already killed his parents, sister and friends. When the police figures out he's dead, he's blamed for all the deaths and Lolita is shown selecting her next victim.]]

** The series ended its second season with most of the cast sacrificing their lives in a fight against the Big Bad. The main hero was sent back to Earth in shock. There was a third season where they were resurrected, but it was not shown on network TV. [[spoiler:And don't forget that Holly was left on her own in the middle of an icy tundra full of the dead and dying. And the last anyone saw of Genki was him falling off of a dragon into the forest]]....

* ''LightNovel/DotHackAIBuster'', the novel and canonically first installment of the ''.hack//'' series, ends with Lycoris deleting herself and reincarnating as poisonous scenery.
** Nirvana-Flowers, to be exact. Yes, they are poisonous, but also beautiful. Also, they have a deeper meaning: Nirvana flowers are said to guide the living into the realm of death.

** And it happened again in ''Anime/PrettyCureAllStars DX 3'', what with [[spoiler:All the Cures losing their powers and their WeaselMascot companions. When [[Anime/SuitePrettyCure there was a series that was just starting at the moment.]] Probably no surprise why they threw in the extra few minutes after the credits.]]

** The end of ''Manga/PhantomBlood'', [[spoiler:where Jonathan dies to save his wife and unborn child, taking his adoptive-brother-turned-villain, Dio Brando, down to the bottom of the sea with him]]. In the context of just Part 1, this is more of a BittersweetEnding; however, of course, in ''Manga/StardustCrusaders'', [[spoiler:Dio is revealed to have survived and stolen Jonathan's body.]]

*** And there's the ending of "Black Butler II", which is arguably either a sequel to the first series or an AlternateContinuity all of its own, where [[spoiler:the wish of a dying enemy turns Ciel into a demon in his own right, which means that Sebastian can never claim his soul. So Sebastian doesn't get what he wants, is now forced to serve Ciel (if you believe he doesn't enjoy serving Ciel), and Ciel, who is arguably a DeathSeeker, will have to live with his pain and the emptiness of his revenge forever.]]

* The ending of the Six Tailed Beast arc in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''. The arc's BigBad has been defeated, Hotaru saved and Utakata [[spoiler:the six tailed Jinchuriki]] has finally realized the truths of master-and-student and is ready to take on Hotaru as his student. Seems like a happy ending, right? Well, despite all the development he got through the whole arc, those who read the manga knew from the start that Ukataka was [[spoiler:[[DoomedByCanon going to be captured by the Akatsuki]]]], which the end promptly showed.

* A rule of {{Hentai}} is that if it's not a romance or comedy, it will nine times out of ten be depressing to the viewers. The following is spoilered due to squick. [[SchmuckBait You have been warned.]] [[spoiler:''Inyouchuu The Animation'' has the heroine and her friends captured by the Lord of Nightmares. Her friend and love interest try to save everyone but is captured and beaten to a pulp. The heroine offers her body to the Lord of Nightmares, to save her friend and give him an opening to kill the villain. At the end of the episode, the love interest finally recovers and charges the Lord of Nightmares using ThePowerOfLove to fuel him... only to be killed and reduced to green ash/gunk. The heroine says that she had given herself up shortly after offering her body to him, because her friend would not get up to save her. The anime ends with her saying she barely remembers his face, as the flames finally die down.]] Whether or not this is worse then the manga is up for debate.
** On the topic of hentai and downer endings, one that's strange even for hentai downer endings (the typical hentai downer ending has the BigBad being victorious and leaving the protagonists as his/her sex toys), the Lilith series ''Shion'' deserves mention. After apparently settling down for a fun, carefree life in freedom with her new boyfriend (and his other lover), in the closing minutes of the last episode, the eponymous heroine is [[spoiler:killed by her old boss, with the implication that he would go on to kill the others as well.]] Subverted if you watch the series "bonus clip," which implies that they all get better. Or remains straight if you factor in the lyrics and dialog at that part, and that video's [[http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=5836 title (NSFW)]]
* ''Manga/BlackLagoon'': The Hansel and Gretel Arc. It's not entirely their fault that they're psychopathic murderers but it's explicitly stated that all they will do is kill people, so they both are killed. The same can be said about the final Yakuza arc.
** Lampshaded by Benny, "Stories like this don't have happy endings."

* Surprisingly, or not, as the case may be, the manga version of the final battle against Chaos in ''Manga/SailorMoon'', in which the main character has the choice of either [[spoiler:destroying Chaos utterly and the Cauldron with it, thus dooming the universe to a slow extinction, if a new Cauldron doesn't pop up somewhere else, meaning a new powerful enemy appearing causing hundreds of billions of beings to be killed in the ensuing fight, or just 'momentarily' delaying the ultimate evil's return resulting in a massive battle...in which hundreds of billions of people will die anyway, but might end up being reborn because the Cauldron is still there.]] Guess which option she chooses?
** Also, the implication in the manga that Usagi will become [[spoiler:Sailor Cosmos at some point in the future, and that ''only'' she is truly immortal... everyone else she knows will eventually be gone, with only herself to keep Chaos at bay for what looks like the rest of time]].

* The first ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' anime has a VillainEpisode that features [[EvilIsSexy Lust]], who is contemplating her existance. A man from her past shows up and it's revealed that she does have a heart of gold - she taught the man to save an entire village from an awful sickness. The man and her reconnect, and she gradually draws too close to him. Eventually, the man asks Lust to run away with him, explaining he fell in love with her years before and his fiance doesn't matter to him. [[spoiler:Lust's response is to kill the man, who is revealed to have the disease. This is immediately followed up by everyone else in the village screaming in agony as the disease kills them. To top things off, his fiance shows up and sees his corpse, and dies from the disease as well.]] Lust's response makes it even more chilling, showing that even the villian has given up on her objectives and will to live.
* ''LightNovel/HyakkaRyouranSamuraiGirls'' while a lighthearted series throughout the first eleven episodes, the final episode has [[spoiler:''BOTH'' Moe!Jubei and Badass!Jubei perform a HeroicSacrifice by sending the resident {{Yandere}} Gisen up to the atmosphere to disintegrate. Unfortunately, Gisen goes on to state that within a thousand years later, she will be resurrected to do this all over again.]]

* ''Manga/{{Basilisk}}''. [[spoiler:Gennosuke and Oboro are reunited at the end, but they commit suicide and ALL of their friends are dead.]]

* The ''Manga/{{Tokko}}'' manga ends with Ranmaru monologuing that [[spoiler:the world ended]] two years after the end of the story.

** Gonzaemon was in love with a young woman, but due to Kogan's prodding that he abandon whatever was "holding him back" so that he may become a great swordsman. [[spoiler:He slaughtered her.]]
** Gennosuke is shown to be in love with Mie, but his [[FreudianExcuse childhood trauma]] combined with [[ParentalSubstitute loyalty towards her father]] prevents him from expressing his feelings. While he is skeptical, he does not step in when Kogan attempts to [[spoiler:persuade Irako into impregnating his daughter in front of the other samurai.]]
** Mie misinterprets [[ManipulativeBastard Irako's refusal]] as charity and after [[spoiler:Kogan's death]], the school is thrown into disarray and loses all money and support. The new successor Gennosuke and Mei struggle to regain their pride by having Gennosuke defeat Irako in battle. Upon [[spoiler:Irako's death]], instead of embracing the comfortable life she has come to know with Gennosuke, [[spoiler:she slits her throat]] and leaves him alone once again.
* One of the notable examples is ''Manga/AbsoluteBoyfriend''. Towards the end, [[spoiler:Night begins to grow sleepier and sleepier. The problems developed by him exceeding his abilities eventually causes his machinery to stop working, resulting in his "death".]]

* The first part of ''Webcomic/{{Magician}}'' is probably this what with [[spoiler:Edermask being beaten by Janus and disappearing, Dirt dead and Janus's complete takeover of the continent.]]

* ''[[VideoGame/CorpseParty Corpse Party: Tortured Souls]]'', the original ending has five survivors, but in the OVA adaptation, only Naomi and Ayumi survive. [[spoiler:And one of them [[GoMadFromTheRevelation turns insane]] by the final scene.]]
* ''Manga/SatouKashiNoDanganWaUchinukenai'' is something between this and a BittersweetEnding. But it's hard to feel anything but depression when [[spoiler:the abused {{Deuteragonist}} is murdered by her father and her only friend finds her body in the woods.]]

** The second season makes this a lot happier when Inaho and Asselyum turn out to have survived and Saazbaum is killed a few episodes into the second seasob. Of course, Slaine then becomes the new BigBad and is more effective than Saazbaum, leading to a BittersweetEnding for the series as both sides of the war are decimated before Slaine is stopped and locked up forever while Inaho and Asseylum can't be with each other, their love being sacrificed to maintain a lie for political peace.
* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'' warns the audience from the very first chapter that it will be a tragedy. It keeps this promise with a particularly sudden and bleak ending, softened only when a sequel was announced. [[spoiler:The [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Anteiku staff]] has been destroyed by the [[CreatureHunterOrganization CCG]], with Touka and Nishiki forced to abandon their human identities and leave behind loved ones. [[BigGood Yoshimura]] has been captured by his [[AntagonisticOffspring daughter]] [[BigBad Eto]]/[[DiabolicalMastermind the Owl]] and [[AntiHumanAlliance Aogiri]] [[TheSyndicate Tree]], and will be used as the [[FateWorseThanDeath new donor]] for [[MadScientist Dr. Kanou]]'s experiments. Juuzou and Kuroiwa have both been maimed, and are left mourning for Shinohara, who has been declared Brain Dead. Hide is declared Missing, with the possibility that Kaneki ''ate him'' while suffering from SanitySlippage. Kaneki, Amon, Takizawa, Koma, and Irimi are all believed to have been killed during the battle, with their ultimate fates left ambiguous. Tsukiyama has been left in an AngstComa after failing to save Kaneki. Aogiri has kidnapped several Investigators for Dr. Kanou's experiments, and have come out on top after seeing both sides they oppose destroy each other. And the ones getting the last laugh (besides Eto and Aogiri) are the mysterious [[MonsterClown Pierrot]], a group of Ghoul pranksters that have been manipulating the events of the series all along. Their members include [[BitchInSheepsClothing two of Kaneki's most trusted allies]], Uta and Itori, who laugh over Kaneki's apparent demise, and Souta/Furuta, the eventual FinalBoss of the sequel]].

** The final chapter of the series ends with [[spoiler: [[VillainProtagonist Eren]] successfully causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt and using [[FinalSolution the Rumbling]] to wipe out approximately 80% of humanity, save the Eldians. However, he laments to Armin that he never wanted this and confesses his love for [[AmazonianBeauty Mikasa]], but his ThanatosGambit required him to keep her at arm's length. In the end, Eren managed to achieve his goals and secure a future for his race, [[PyrrhicVillainy but at the cost of the lives of himself, most of his species, and almost everyone he cared about.]]]]

* The original ending to ''Manga/Cyborg009'' was this, as it ended with [[spoiler:009 and 002 perishing in space while the rest of the cyborgs look on in despair]]. Complaints from fans led Ishinomori to continue the series and [[spoiler:retconning the two's death's to simply being injured]], although this led to a different kind of DownerEnding as Ishinomori passed away before the manga was completed (it was eventually finished by his son and two of his assistants).
* ''VideoGame/{{Gungrave}}'''s anime is a change up from the first game's ending which had ended with [[spoiler:Grave getting his revenge and riding off into the sunset with Mika, keeping her safe]]. Instead Grave makes peace with Harry...after both have been shot full of holes by Millennion foot soldiers despite being ordered to stop thanks to Mika. The show ends with Grave and Harry killing each other right before Mika arrives to find them dead and cries while finding it in her to smile at her friend's fate. Oh and the song that plays? It's called "Happy Ending."

* The manga series ''Manga/FluffyFluffyCinnamoroll'' from Creator/{{Sanrio}} has quite a bit of these though it's usually {{played for laughs}} on the characters {{butt monkey}} moments due to the how comical the series is which adds some [[BittersweetEnding bittersweetness]] to it (particularly funny for the readers but not for the in-universe characters), in the final chapter has [[spoiler: the Cinnamoangels sell a bunch of cds of a group called "The Caramels" but they forgot to save a copy for themselves (the thing they worked so hard to earn money for) which causes [[YamatoNadeshiko Azuki]], [[ProneToTears Mocha]] and even [[{{Tomboy}} Chiffon]] to [[InelegantBlubbering start bawling like babies]].]]

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': The Paranormal Liberation War Arc, a climactic battle between the heroes and the alliance of the League of Villains and the Meta Liberation Army, ends this way. [[spoiler:The battle results in massive property damage, the deaths of more than a few heroes (including Crust and Midnight) and countless civilian casualties. Although some notable members of the League are arrested, [[BigBad Shigaraki]], now fully under the control of [[GreaterScopeVillain All For One]], escapes with many of his allies. As a result of the disastrous outcome of the battle, and Dabi publicizing Endeavor's abuse of his family and Hawks [[ShootTheDog killing Twice]], public faith in heroes has been devastated. As if that's not enough, All For One [[GreatEscape breaks out of Tartarus]], unleashing the most dangerous criminals in the process. In mere hours, six more high security prisons are broken and criminals are running amok across the nation. In one week, dozens of Pro-Heroes resign due to the mayhem. The arc ends with [[ButNowIMustGo Izuku abruptly dropping out of U.A High, leaving his mother and friends, as he and All Might venture into the chaos.]] They are accompanied by Endeavour, Hawks, and Best Jeanist, but most of the responsibility of the mission is on Izuku.]]

* In what is probably the darkest ending of any Creator/StudioGhibli movie,''Anime/TheTaleOfThePrincessKaguya'' ends like this: [[{{Lunarians}} celestial beings from the Moon]], who Kaguya belongs to, return to get her, and they're led by what looks like the Buddha himself. Her father's men put up resistance and are easily overwhelmed. Kaguya protests to the Moon People that she wants to stay on Earth but has a celestial robe of forgetfulness placed on her anyway. In a HopeSpot, she briefly appears to remember her life on Earth, and then is taken back to the Moon while her adoptive parents sob. Roll credits.

** The ending of the series also apply where it at best is {{bittersweet|Ending}}. [[spoiler:Battler finally once again can meet his family and Beatrice in the golden land]] or a {{downer|Ending}} where [[spoiler:everything from ep 3 and forward was just a way for an amnesiac Battler to sort out his memories about Rokkenjima]].