History YouCantGoHomeAgain / AnimeAndManga

* In ''Manga/Cyborg009'', the cyborgs are all told that it's impossible to go back to their previous lives, lest the Black Ghost organization find them. Most of the cyborgs don't have much to actually return to, but the 2001 anime still has a rather sad episode where 003 reveals to 009 that she can't go back to her brother because the Black Ghost organization had her cryogenically frozen for so long, her brother would be an old man if he was even still alive.

* ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'': If a witch apprentice becomes a full-fledged witch, she cannot go back to her home world and must stay in the witch world forever. This causes a small rift near the end of the series when Hana pretty much has to stay to ascend to be the next queen, but the other girls ([[HasTwoMommies her adoptive mothers]]) choose to stay on Earth (even Pop, who was conflicted after passing her final exam).

* ''LightNovel/TheHeroLaughsWhileWalkingThePathOfVengeanceASecondTime'':

* In ''LightNovel/SundayWithoutGod'', after Ai's [[DoomedHometown village is destroyed]], she decides to travel the world God has abandoned in hopes of finding a way to save it.

* In ''Manga/{{Cyborg 009}}'', the cyborgs are all told that it's impossible to go back to their previous lives, lest the Black Ghost organization find them. Most of the cyborgs don't have much to actually return to, but the 2001 anime still has a rather sad episode where 003 reveals to 009 that she can't go back to her brother because the Black Ghost organization had her cryogenically frozen for so long, her brother would be an old man if he was even still alive.

* [[spoiler:Faye Valentine]] from ''Anime/CowboyBebop''. [[spoiler:She eventually finds the spot where her home used to be, only to discover there's nothing there now, not even ruins. She draws the layout of her house, as well as a rectangle where her bed used to be, in the dirt, and lies there alone]].

* Holo of ''LightNovel/SpiceAndWolf''. Her hometown might be the only place she belongs, and it's rumored to have been destroyed centuries after she left. Even if it still exists, she knows that the passage of time has likely changed it into something completely different. She won't give up until she acknowledges it herself, though.

** In the ending of the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime's]] movie, ''[[TheMovie The Conqueror of Shambhala]],'' this is made even more poignant [[spoiler:as the Elrics find themselves unable to return to their own world]].

* In ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': [[GenderBender Ranma]] can't go home because his father made a vow to his mother that if he failed to make their son into a real man, father and son would commit seppuku and their mother would be the one to cut off their heads -- and turning into a girl when [[BalefulPolymorph splashed with cold water]] is pretty much the opposite of being a real man. [[NoSenseOfDirection Ryoga]] can't go home because he can't find it, and it's not like his parents would be home if he did. Shampoo can't go home until she claims Ranma as her husband. It's not clear if Ukyo even ''had'' a home other than her dad's ''okonomiyaki'' cart.

** Ed and Al burn down their house so they won't be able to give up their mission. Of course, Pinako and Winry's house is always open to them, so they're not as homeless as they'd like to think.
** Hohenheim is convinced they did it so as not to face up to the whole "brought back an abomination of nature instead of our dead mother" thing every time they walked by the study. He's probably not wrong.
--> "It's no different from when a child wets the bed and then hides the sheets. You were running away...Edward."

** [[spoiler:Obito Uchiha, later known as [[BigBad Tobi]]. He's rescued from certain death by Madara, but the cave that they are in has the exits blocked off (intentionally) with a giant boulder, so Obito ''literally'' can't leave. Eventually [[StartOfDarkness something]] happens that causes Obito to completely lose any desire to return, however. ]]

* Zoro of ''Franchise/OnePiece'' sets out to sea to find Mihawk, but is unable to find his way back due to his [[NoSenseOfDirection poor sense of direction]].

* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' -- [[GenderBender Ranma]] can't go home because his father made a vow to his mother that if he failed to make their son into a real man, father and son would commit seppuku and their mother would be the one to cut off their heads -- and turning into a girl when [[BalefulPolymorph splashed with cold water]] is pretty much the opposite of being a real man. [[NoSenseOfDirection Ryoga]] can't go home because he can't find it, and it's not like his parents would be home if he did. Shampoo can't go home until she claims Ranma as her husband. It's not clear if Ukyo even ''had'' a home other than her dad's ''okonomiyaki'' cart.

* ''LightNovel/NidomeNoYuusha'' has this trope invoked for extra cruelty by princess Alesia on Ueki Kaito. After summoning him and using him as an UnwittingPawn and TheScapegoat, she binds herself with a magic ritual to prove she's not lying then tells him, in explicit detail, exactly how many people had to be sacrificed just to summon him. These sacrifices include 200 of his school mates, and 5 of his blood relatives on Earth. What's worse, is that even if he found a work-around so he could still go back, Princess Alesia openly promised to squash his efforts [[ForTheEvulz just for shits and giggles.]]
** [[spoiler:Obito Uchiha, later known as [[BigBad Tobi]]. He's rescued from certain death by Madara, but the cave that they are in has the exits blocked off (intentionally) with a giant boulder, so Obito ''literally'' can't leave. Eventually [[StartOfDarkness something]] happens that causes Obito to completely lose any desire to return, however. ]]

* After his mentor dies, [[Anime/WolfChildrenAmeAndYuki Ame]] decides to leave his home and be a wolf full-time to look after the forest.

* ''LightNovel/TheTwelveKingdoms'':

* ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'': If a witch apprentice becomes a full-fledged witch, she cannot go back to her home world and must stay in the witch world forever.

** Guts had to flee from his original mercenary band after he killed his adoptive father in self defense and the other members sought to avenge their leader's death. Later, it was revealed that Casca joined the Band of the Hawk because if she were to go home, she would be [[spoiler: arrested and tortured for killing a noble in self defense of AttemptedRape]]. On the grander scale of things, the whole Band of the Hawk was forced to flee the Kingdom of Midland upon [[spoiler: Griffith's arrest for high treason - which was popping the cherry of the princess.]]

** Jimbei tries to avert this when he becomes a Warlord of the Sea. One of his requirements for joining is that the World Government would allow any ex-slaves to return to Fishman Island. However, once Jimbei resigned from his position, the pardon was revoked and the remaining Sun Pirates were forced to leave.

* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' - [[GenderBender Ranma]] can't go home because his father made a vow to his mother that if he failed to make their son into a real man, father and son would commit seppuku and their mother would be the one to cut off their heads -- and turning into a girl when [[BalefulPolymorph splashed with cold water]] is pretty much the opposite of being a real man. [[NoSenseOfDirection Ryoga]] can't go home because he can't find it, and it's not like his parents would be home if he did. Shampoo can't go home until she claims Ranma as her husband. It's not clear if Ukyo even ''had'' a home other than her dad's ''okonomiyaki'' cart.

* All three main characters in ''Anime/TokyoGodfathers''- Gin, Hana, and Miyuki- believe this. Gin because [[spoiler:he left due to being unable to support his family, believing they'd be better off without him]]; Hana because [[spoiler:she lost her temper and attacked a heckler during her singing act at her mother's bar]]; and Miyuki because [[spoiler:she believes her father will have her arrested for stabbing him in the heat of the moment during a fight.]] Ultimately, over the course of the story, [[spoiler:all three are proven wrong in the best way possible.]]

* ''Manga/FairyTail:
** When the guild war with Phantom Lord is over, [[spoiler:Lucy flat out tells Jude that, after all that's past between them, she can't return to her family's estate]].

* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Ed and Al burn down their house so they won't be able to give up their mission. Of course, Pinako and Winry's house is always open to them, so they're not as homeless as they'd like to think.

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' [[spoiler:Itachi Uchiha. After killing his entire clan on orders he can never return to Konoha without dying or starting a civil war]].

* ''Anime/SpiritedAway'' has young Chihiro and her ignorant parents wander into what appears to be a bankrupt theme park and explore. Long story short, she is forced to sign a contract, which turns her into Sen, a serving girl who must work in Yubaba's Bath House of the Gods for all eternity, unless she wants her TransformationTrauma'd parents to be ground up and [[ItMakesSenseInContext made into sausages]]. The whole point of the film is her learning how to be more mature and resourceful in order to reverse this fate.

* Youko spends the first arc of ''LightNovel/TheTwelveKingdoms'' trying to get back to her own world. [[spoiler:Eventually, she comes to realize that she is needed far more in Kei than she is at home, and reluctantly agrees to become the Glory-King.]]

* ''Anime/{{Macross}}'':
** In the later installments of the ''Anime/{{Macross}}'' franchise, human civilization is spread across multiple colony ships and colonized planets, and it is implied that it is virtually impossible to travel back to Earth from most of them, at least unless you happen to be very rich and/or influential.
** In ''Anime/MacrossDelta'', Freyja Wion's decision to remain with Walkure when war breaks out between her homeworld of Windermere and the New UN GalacticSuperpower means that she can't ever return to her homeworld... given that by participating in Walkure's actions, she has committed high treason against her planet's government, the sentence for which is execution.
* Several characters deal with this in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', with many a DoomedHometown due to invasions by Titans. Mikasa lost her childhood home when kidnappers murdered her parents, though she's immediately adopted into the Yeager family. A year later, Shiganshina is destroyed and the main trio of Eren, Mikasa, and Armin are left living as refugees. Hannes discusses this trope, longing to return to the peaceful days of the past....but [[spoiler: he's killed while protecting Eren and Mikasa]], who realize those days can never be reclaimed. Reiner and Bertolt, fellow refugees from Wall Maria, are driven by their desire to return to their lost village.....though Reiner acknowledges this trope, admitting there's nothing left to go back to. [[spoiler: Though they ''do'' head back to their true home after their [[TheMole cover]] is blown, it's fairly clear from their BecomingTheMask that Reiner was correct about the "home" of their childhood being gone]]. After three years away, Sasha finally returns home to find her village unrecognizable -- what was once an isolated hunting village deep in the forest is now a clear-out farming village that raises horses. And in a particularly heartbreaking example, [[spoiler: Connie's village is destroyed when the Beast Titan transforms the villagers into Titans]]. Barely holding back tears, he states that he no longer has a home to return to.
* All three main characters in ''Anime/TokyoGodfathers''- Gin, Hana, and Miyuki- believe this. Gin because [[spoiler:he left due to being unable to support his family, believing they'd be better off without him]]; Hana because [[spoiler:she lost her temper and attacked a heckler during her singing act at her mother's bar]]; and Miyuki because [[spoiler:she believes her father will have her arrested for stabbing him in the heat of the moment during a fight.]] Ultimately, over the course of the story, [[spoiler:all three are proven wrong in the best way possible.]]
* In ''Manga/{{Cyborg 009}}'', the cyborgs are all told that it's impossible to go back to their previous lives, lest the Black Ghost organization find them. Most of the cyborgs don't have much to actually return to, but the 2001 anime still has a rather sad episode where 003 reveals to 009 that she can't go back to her brother because the Black Ghost organization had her cryogenically frozen for so long, her brother would be an old man if he was even still alive.
* In ''LightNovel/SundayWithoutGod'', after Ai's [[DoomedHometown village is destroyed]], she decides to travel the world God has abandoned in hopes of finding a way to save it.
* In Tahakata's Princess Kaguya, Kaguya finds herself languishing in her upper-class life and in a surreal dream that appears to overlap with reality, she escapes her palace and finds that her old home in the countryside had faded and her friends had migrated elsewhere. Even if the option were available, she would return to nothing back home.
* ''Manga/SchoolLive'':
** It initially seemed a bit strange that Yuki was living in the school and doesn't even think to go home until later in the first episode. But once TheReveal that they are living in a ZombieApocalypse, it makes sense that none of the girls can return home.
** The anime didn't adapt this scene however Kurumi ''did'' visit her home once. There was no sign of her family and everything was in shambles.
** Later, [[spoiler: a rescue helicopter crashes near the school, starting a fire that destroys most of the girls' supplies and survival gear (the anime scrapped the helicopter and the zombies themselves caused a fire). With the school no longer a viable shelter, the girls "graduate" and leave to find a government safe zone.]]
* For anyone who goes below the Fifth Layer in the eponymous cavern from ''Manga/MadeInAbyss'', return to even the shallower layers is essentially impossible. Death or complete loss of humanity is the consequence of coming up from the Sixth Layer, which is called [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the City of the Unreturned]] as a result. From the Seventh Layer, death is the only possible outcome.
* LightNovel/NidomeNoYuusha has this trope invoked for extra cruelty by princess Alesia on Ueki Kaito. After summoning him and using him as an UnwittingPawn and TheScapegoat, she binds herself with a magic ritual to prove she's not lying then tells him, in explicit detail, exactly how many people had to be sacrificed just to summon him. These sacrifices include 200 of his school mates, and 5 of his blood relatives on Earth. What's worse, is that even if he found a work-around so he could still go back, Princess Alesia openly promised to squash his efforts [[ForTheEvulz just for shits and giggles.]]

* LightNovel/NidomeNoYuusha has this trope invoked for extra cruelty by princess Alesia on Ueki Kaito. After summoning him and using him as an UnwittingPawn and TheScapegoat, she binds herself with a magic ritual to prove she's not lying then tells him, in explicit detail, exactly how many people had to be sacrificed just to summon him. These sacrifices include 200 of his school mates, and 5 of his blood relatives on Earth. What's worse, is that even if he found a work-around so he could still go back, Princess Alesia openly promised to squash his efforts [{ForTheEvulz just for shits and giggles.]]

* The protagonists of ''Anime/{{Gunbuster}}'', due to [[spoiler:the time dilation effect. By the time they make it back to Earth, everyone they've ever known is long dead. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming The people of Earth still remember them and welcome them back regardless.]]]]