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Darkest Hour / Anime & Manga

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Darkest Hours in anime and manga.

  • 20th Century Boys's darkest hour is at the end of the second arc, which sees an even crueller person donning the Friend mask, killing several million people, and molding the world in his own image, making all the protagonists work up till then all for nothing. After that, things start to eventually look up, starting with the return of the supposedly dead hero from the first third of the story.
  • Attack on Titan: Many times, the first one seven episodes in, with the 104th Trainees trapped in Trost with Titans all around them, Eren seemingly killed, and everybody ready to give up (some to the point of suicide) except Mikasa, who gets waylaid by a Titan without any gas to power her vertical maneuvering gear. Even then, she was contemplating on just giving up.
  • Berserk:
    • The Band of the Hawk's darkest hour comes after the completion of their Griffith rescue operation, which was the first victory for the Hawks since their downfall upon Griffith's imprisonment, but a Pyrrhic Victory at that, since Griffith now disfigured and crippled beyond repair after a year of torture can never wield a sword again and the Hawks can never return to their status without his leadership. Most of the Hawks are confused and emotionally distraught, especially Guts, Casca, and most of all Griffith himself. He goes through a Despair Event Horizon as a result, but during it, he finds a glimmer of hope for himself; unfortunately, it's a VERY BAD ONE for everyone else involved, as it involves sacrificing everyone he ever led to demons so that he can become the fifth member of the God Hand, Femto. It's made that much worse for watchers of the anime, where all of the above happens... and then the series ends.
    • The darkest hour for Guts and company has arrived in the form of the end of the Fantasia arc. After all of their journey to Elfhelm in order to restore Casca's pre-Eclipse sanity, Guts and company are met with Griffith, who it turns out has been sharing a body with the Moonlight Boy (Guts and Casca's son) because of the circumstances of his reincarnation. Guts goes berserk all over again, but is unable to land so much as a scratch upon the powerful Godhand, who proceeds to make off with Casca right before his very eyes. Danaan and the Elves leave the island and the world entire since Griffith has destroyed the protection of the island, meaning that Puck and Ivalera are the only Elves left in the world. And Guts is in the full throes of despair.
  • At the end of the Spade Kingdom Arc in Black Clover, despite the Magic Knights' best efforts, the Dark Triad has captured Yami and Vangeance, the mages needed to form the Tree of Qliphoth to bring devils to the living world, and Lolopechka, the ruler of the Heart Kingdom. In the process, Zenon and his Dark Disciples kill half of the Golden Dawn, and Vanica detonates her Dark Disciples, ravaging the Heart Kingdom.
  • Bleach:
    • Near the end of the series’ pre-timeskip half, it seems hopeless for Soul Society to win against the Arrancar after Aizen sent Wonderweiss and Hooleer to Fake Karakura Town. Kyoraku and Ukitake lost their battle against Stark, and Wonderweiss and Hooleer free the trapped Barragan, Halibel, Aizen, Gin, and Tosen. It seems like Soul Society has lost this battle, until the Visored show up.
    • Ichigo's lowest personal moment occurs during the Lost Agent arc. Thanks to More than Mind Control, Ichigo's friends and family have united with the Big Bad against him or are critically injured. The guy he thought was a friend turns out to be a villain instead and the powers he worked so hard to regain are stolen from him. He's abandoned on his knees, a sword through his chest, crying in the rain. He gets better.
    • Soul Society suffers a crushing defeat at the beginning of the Thousand-Year Blood War Arc. The city is laid waste by the Vandenreich and Urahara, Sado and Orihime are defeated at a second front in Hueco Mundo. Within fifteen minutes, fully half the Gotei 13 is dead or critically injured, five bankais have been stolen and Ichigo himself is imprisoned between worlds, forced to listen helplessly to the screams of the dying. Significant characters that are brutually defeated include Byakuya, Kenpachi, Renji, Rukia and Kira. Yamamoto and Sasakibe die.
    • Yhwach and his Praetorian Guard defeat Squad Zero, considered the ultimate shinigami force, with ease. Afterwards, he manipulates Ichigo (through his Quincy blood) into finishing the Soul King off, which starts the collapse of the three worlds. Ukitake releases the minor god who kept him alive since he was a child in an attempt to slow down the crisis, but it proves to be a vain sacrifice when Yhwach absorbs said god. A good measure of how bad the situation is, is the fact that Kyouraku has to release Aizen from his prison, seeking aid, and that the lower level Sternritter join forces with the shinigami against Yhwach.
    • Ichigo pretty much experienced the worst of his life just as he showed off his Bankai against Yhwach, who immediately snapped it in two before Ichigo can use it with his "The Almighty". Then Yhwach bypassed Orihime's shield with his powers easily to lay waste on Ichigo in order to break him further before he finally absorbed his Hollow and Quincy powers... reducing Ichigo as both physically and mentally powerless while Yhwach got what he wanted as he leaves into a portal.
  • In anime adaptation of Brave10, by the end of episode 11, the bad guys have won, or at least they been successful at Bullying a Dragon.* In the sequel, Brave10 S, the darkest hour is the breaking up of the Braves post-Battle of Ueda.
  • In Cardcaptor Sakura, the main one comes when Sakura believes she's lost to Yue; she has a lucid dream in which the catastrophe takes place, and friendships no longer exist for the people Sakura was close to.
    • In the second movie The Sealed Card, she has lost the whole city, including her closest friends, father and apparently love interest to the negating power of the card with no way to stop her. And when she finds a way to stop her under the condition that she will bring a Heroic Sacrifice, said love interest appears and takes her spot.
  • The end of the second act of The Castle of Cagliostro has our heroes riding high - it looks like they're about to rescue Clarisse from Count Cagliostro's clutches, when in a heartbeat everything goes south. Lupin takes a bullet, the autogyro they were using to escape is shot down, Fujiko ditches the group, and the Count now has Clarisse and her family's ring. The third act opens with Lupin gravely wounded, his gang in hiding, Zenigata, who was grudgingly helping them expose the Count's counterfeiting operation, taken off the case, and a drugged Clarisse being forced to marry the Count.
  • A Certain Scientific Railgun: Gensei has managed to knock out Misaki and read her mind, gaining the code that he needs to unlock the full power of the Mind Control device. Mitori manages to kill Kuroko and can devote her attention to controlling Mikoto again. Touma and Gunha are losing against Mikoto, who is only growing more powerful with time. And then it turns out Misaki pulled a Memory Gambit on Gensei so that he'd destroy the Mind Control device and knock himself out, Kuroko faked her death on-camera with some techno-wizardry from Uihara so that she could sneak up on Mitori and take her out, and all of this allows Mikoto to regain her mind and stall her rampaging body long enough for Touma and Gunha to rally against her.
  • Chapter 82 of Chainsaw Man has Denji hit rock bottom. After having to kill the Gun Devil which possessed the corpse of Aki, Makima brings him to her appartment, whrere she gets him to open the door as she kills Power before his eyes. As Denji tries to process those events, Makima shows him that he was the one who killed his father. Thinking he caused the death of everyone close to him, Denji gives up on making his own decisions, so much that for the next few chapters Pochita has to take control of his body.
  • This takes place in Chrono Crusade after a disastrous battle with Aion leaves the True Companions broken.
    • In the manga, Rosette is nearly killed when Chrono goes into an Unstoppable Rage. Chrono realizes what he's doing in time to save her life, but Aion uses it as his chance to incapacitate him. Azmaria is then kidnapped, Aion leaves the rest badly injured, and Chrono is so distraught that he forces himself into an Angst Coma so he won't take any more of Rosette's lifespan. It ends once Rosette and Chrono decide to follow Aion to his base of operations.
    • In the anime, Rosette is kidnapped by Aion and brainwashed to take part in his plans. Chrono manages to free Joshua from the horns, but they've damaged his mind so much he barely remembers anyone, and in the process Chrono is frozen in time. Thing spiral out of control from there, and don't get better until Chrono's final fight with Aion, and the rest of the series is grim up until the ending.
  • In Code Geass, the Darkest Hour comes in R2 episode 19. Suzaku uses a nuke-equivalent in Tokyo because Lelouch's geass command from season 1 compelled him to. This leads to terrific and terrifying destruction, much civilian death, and Nunally's demise. Lelouch, Suzaku and Nina all go into shock, thinking My God, What Have I Done? while a new weapon that fires these on command is in development. This leads to The Zero Requiem. And then Schneizel takes advantage of the whole situation to reveal Lelouch's identity to the Black Knights, and manipulates them all into turning against him.
  • The Darkest Hour in Digimon Tamers is when the children realize they can't beat the D-Reaper even with All Your Powers Combined, Juri is in a suicidal, catatonic state, they learn that the D-Reaper obliterated the Digital World, making it a Barren Wasteland, and they realize its plan is to cause a Class 6 Apocalypse.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • In the original Dragon Ball, King Piccolo had killed Goku's best friend Krillin, with him failing to avenge him, now his Old Master Roshi is also dead along with Chiaotzu, Piccolo got his wish for eternal youth, and worst of all, he killed Shenron himself so that he is no longer challenged.
    • In the Saiyan saga of Dragon Ball Z, almost all of the Z warriors have been killed fighting Vegeta and Nappa, Gohan and Krillin are the only ones still standing, and Goku still hasn't made it back to Earth yet.
    • Just prior to the climax of the Namek saga: Frieza has survived everything Goku has thrown at him, including the 20x Kaio Ken and the Spirit Bomb, Vegeta, Dende and the Namekians are dead, and Piccolo is mortally wounded, and were he to die, the entire purpose of the journey to Namek would be moot. On top of that, Frieza decides to kill Krillin next...
    • There's an episode devoted to this in the Cell Saga where Cell powers up a massive Kamehameha blast to destroy the Earth, as a badly injured Gohan and the rest of Z warriors look on helplessly.
    • Occurs on a galactic scale in the Majin saga, when Kid Buu destroys the earth, then proceeds to zip from one planet to the next, destroying them as he goes. When Kid Buu arrives in the Other World, Goku and Vegeta try to fight him, but find themselves horribly outmatched.
    • Dragon Ball Super:
      • In Resurrection of F Saga, Vegeta was about to finally finish off Frieza which Goku couldn't do because he let his guard down thanks to Sorbet's ring laser. Frieza then decides to use this time to destroy Earth in to take Vegeta and everyone out. With the Earth destroyed, only Goku and fellow survivors remain alive thanks to Whis and Beerus while they look on in despair for everyone killed. Whis however, gives Goku one last chance to make things right but rewinding to before Frieza can destroy Earth.
      • In Future Trunks Saga, Merged Zamasu's body was destroyed but he ends up becoming Infinite Zamasu by fusing with the whole multiverse to the point that he takes over the timeline and trying to take over the original timeline. Then as the heroes aren't strong enough to hurt him, Zamasu ends up blasting the entire world to kill the remaining survivors and only the heroes including Future Mai, Supreme Kais Shin and Gowasu, and Future Trunks were the only survivors left. Goku summons Future Zeno to destroy Zamasu... at the cost of Future Trunks' timeline being destroyed.
  • In Fairy Tail, Gray Fullbuster dies a gruesome death, a crying Jet holds a lifeless Droy in his arms, Bacchus is stabbed by the enemy and Macao Conbolt is seen being pilled up by dragons before the tearful eyes of his son. Then Ultear sacrifices her life to rewind time but it only turns back ONE MINUTE! We then find out that minute saved the lives of the aforementioned people together with countless others, however, bear in mind the battle with dragons is only in the beginning and humanity still haven't defeated a single one of them so this trope still counts.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • The Elric brothers' first meeting with Father and the aftermath. They've found out the horrible secret of their country and they're led to believe there's nothing they can do to stop it. One of the chapters in this arc is even called "Inside the Belly."
    • Father's just activated his transmutation circle and absorbed the entirety of Amestris. Then he absorbed the Truth.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist (2003): Dante and the Homunculi kidnap and immobilize Alphonse, place him in a giant transmutation circle, and plan to use him as a Philosophers Stone, so Dante can pull a Grand Theft Me on Rose. Then Edward gets killed by Envy while trying to save them.
  • Goblin Slayer has a few:
    • The beginning of the story alone has the party of rookie adventurers Priestess joined on her first day slaughtered during their first job. Warrior is killed and hacked to pieces, Wizard is poisoned and Fighter is gangraped after a futile attempt to buy Priestess enough time to run off with Wizard. Priestess doesn't get particularly far before Wizard starts succumbing to the poison, and her Heal miracle can't fix the damage. Adding to that, a couple of goblins catch up to her and get ready to have their sick fun with both Priestess and a dying Wizard. Just as Priestess gives up all hope, however, Goblin Slayer enters the plot.
    • During his usual morning routine, Goblin Slayer finds enough goblin tracks near Cow Girl's farm that he realizes it's about to be attacked by a humongous goblin horde, one that his party alone cannot hope to handle. He tries to ask Cow Girl to run away, only for her to refuse because she knows he intends to stay behind and fight off the horde alone; in her eyes, losing Goblin Slayer a second time would be a fate far worse than whatever the goblins might do to her. This forces Goblin Slayer to reassess his options and take his chances by requesting the entirety of the Adventurer's Guild for help. Luckily for Goblin Slayer, his pleas do not fall on deaf ears, and after some encouragement the adventurers agree to help him defend the farm.
    • When a fight breaks out in the Water Town sewers, the party holes themselves in a room with only one exit as a horde of goblins led by a Goblin Champion tries to kill them. Things go well at first as the party manages to hold the line, until the Goblin Champion sends Goblin Slayer flying after catching him by surprise by using a goblin as a meat shield. Goblin Slayer ends up with several broken bones and coughing blood; given that he serves as a Living Emotional Crutch for Priestess, the sight of his mangled body is enough to break her concentration and causes her Protection miracle to come undone, allowing the goblins to overwhelm the party. To make matters worse, the Goblin Champion goes straight for Priestess and bites her shoulder off, leaving her to scream in agony as the rest of the party is powerless to help her. Things take a turn for the better when Goblin Slayer, against all odds, forces himself back to his feet long enough to punch the Goblin Champion's eye off and terrify the goblins into running away, but then, after he makes sure that Priestess is safe, he finally collapses from his wounds.
  • Gundam:
  • In HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, the girls end up confronting Big Bad Dune for the first time... and he easily hands them all their asses, kidnaps Tsubomi's grandmother, regains his full power, then proceeds to turn the Earth into a desert and it seems that, for a little while, those four are the only people alive...
  • The last part of the manga Hellsing develops with the city of London being attacked and destroyed by Nazi Vampires, with Alucard far away on a ship and unable to fly over to London where everything is going down, and the Hellsing manor almost destroyed and under attack by more Nazi Vampires led by Zorin Blitz. The Vatican organizes the Ninth Crusade to deal with this threat, but Maxwell, who is Drunk with Power at this point, is not interested in helping the people of London and orders his crusaders to kill them all for being Protestants. The situation doesn't get better until Alucard arrives (which actually makes things worse because the situation is so bad at this point that Integra has to authorize Alucard's final release).
    • It gets much, much worse. Anderson becomes a thorn-monster-thing. Walter pulls a Face–Heel Turn. Alucard DIES and does not come back before the end of the war.
  • High School D×D's Darkest Hour occurs in the 11th volume when Opfus had 75% of her powers drained from her. Then they're trapped in an alternate dimension surrounded by grim reapers. They were able to destroy the statues and were already about to get out of that place when Opfus gets kidnapped by a newly-rebuilt Shalba Beelzebub, and Ise has to rescue her. The volume ends with Ise getting hit with a dragon-eater Samael blood coated on an arrow, leaving him to die in that place. That's not all however; Hades starts a war on the Underworld, Azazel's been accused of cooperating with terrorists even though he's the one who wanted peace in the first place, and every single member of the Occult Research Club suffering a Heroic BSoD.
  • Inuyasha:
    • Sango and Miroku waiting for the Wind Tunnel to absorb them while their despair consumes the light within the Shikon no Tama leaving it in darkness.
    • When Sesshoumaru finally learns the truth about Tenseiga's origins and Meidou Zangetsuha's purpose, he concludes his father has groomed Inuyasha to kill him. He's so shaken that he abandons his group, Inuyasha's group having to save them from Naraku. Nothing - not even Kagura's death or Rin's second death - has ever made him despair the way thinking his father hated him did.
    • Inuyasha is tricked into thinking he murdered Kagome in his blood rage. This breaks him down so completely that he gives into his despair and demon blood.
  • One for every JoJo's Bizarre Adventure part:
    • Part 1 - The seemingly dead Dio attacks Jonathan on his honeymoon.
    • Part 2 - Kars achieves his goal of becoming an ultimate being and is now immune to Hamon, and Joseph's out of ideas.
    • Part 3 - Kakyoin, Iggy, Avdol, and Joseph are dead, Polnareff is injured to the point of helplessness, and only Jotaro remains to take on DIO and his almost invincible time stopping power.
    • Part 4 - Kira has gained a new Stand ability that allows him to easily pick off the only people who can stop him, and the only person who knows Kira's real identity has no way of telling them directly.
    • Part 5 - Polnareff's Requiem Stand has gone berserk, and thanks to some body-switching, Big Bad Diavolo is in someone's body, Narancia is dead, and the Requiem Arrow is almost in Diavolo's hands.
    • Part 6 - Pucci upgrades his Stand to one that can reset the universe, and he plans to make a world where everyone knows their fate. The only one stopping him is a kid with no offensive abilities whatsoever, as Pucci has killed everyone else who dare tried to stop him.
    • Part 7 - Valentine has all the corpse parts and merges them with Lucy, giving him complete immunity to Johnny's attacks, Gyro's strongest attack doesn't work and gets him killed, and then Diego shows up...
    • Part 8 – Big Bad Tooru has been found out by our heroes, but because his Stand, Wonder of U, inflicts calamity on anybody who tries to pursue either of them, there's very little way to get close to killing them. Said calamity results in Josuke accidentally killing his friend, Rai Mamezuku, and causing Wonder of U's cane to lodge itself in his sister Kei's eye, which makes her croak. Josuke then learns of his new 11th-Hour Superpower, which bypasses the calamity, and his adoptive mother Kaato kills Tooru by having him take on her son's rock curse, but Wonder of U is still not dead, resulting in one last fatality from the calamity.
  • Jujutsu Kaisen:
    • Chapter 27 is one of the darkest chapters in the manga. When Yuuji tries to persuade Junpei to join the Jujutsu Specialty High School of Tokyo, suddenly Mahito appears and contorts Junpei's body for shits and giggles. When Yuuji tries to ask Sukuna to revive Junpei, Sukuna's response to the incident is mocking Yuuji and laughing sadistically with Mahito, which results in Yuuji having his Heroic BSoD and making his priority to kill Mahito his raison d'etre.
    • Things get worse during the Shibuya Incident arc. In the span of a single night, Gojo gets sealed by the Disaster Curses, most of Shibuya is decimated by the battle, most of the people imprisoned inside the veil are killed in the crossfire, and then there is Yuji who undergoes a full Trauma Conga Line: his loss against Choso allows for Jogo to feed him ten of Sukuna's fingers, letting him take full control for a while as Yuji is helpless to stop Sukuna's rampage; he sees one of his mentors in Nanami and possibly one of his closest friends Nobara die before his eyes; he is helpless to stop Geto/Kenjaku from using Mahito's Idle Transfiguration to set up the Culling Game by akawening cursed energy in civilians, including Megumi's step-sister; Jujutsu society uses him as a scapegoat for the whole debacle and sends Yuta Okkotsu to personally execute him; and finally, most of the sorcerers dispatched are either injured (Megumi, Maki, Toge, Kusakabe, Todo) or dead (Naobito, Nanami and possibly Nobara).
    • It gets even worse during the Culling Game. After the heroes achieve a number of victories that allow them to accomplish their objectives and come within inches of releasing Gojo from the Prison Realm, the moment is soured by the reveal that Tsumiki never woke up: the whole time she's been possessed by a reincarnated sorcerer named Yorozu, who throws everything into disarray by adding a new rule permitting free travel between colonies. Before anyone can make sense of the situation, Sukuna seizes the moment to invoke his Binding Vow with Yuji and forcibly take over control of his body for an entire minute, which he uses to transfer his soul into Megumi's body. Finally, Hana is left critically injured in the ensuing fight, after which Sukuna escapes to duel Yorozu and kill her, effectively granting him complete control over Megumi's body as he loses the will to resist now that his sister is undeniably dead.
    • Things reach the lowest possible point in only four words: Sukuna kills Satoru Gojo.
  • Kemono Friends: By the end of episode 11, Kaban has sacrificed herself against the Black Cerulean to protect Serval, which is unconscious on the ground and certainly not completely safe, with the Black Cerulean still roaming and being an enormous threat to the other Friends.
  • Kill la Kill: By the end of episode 13, Satsuki sets off to raid the last few schools not under her control, and Mako is forced to take part in it. The Elite Four return and are on the verge of getting even stronger. Nui completely defeats Ryuko, destroying Senketsu, and its shredded pieces are scattered across Satsuki's forces and used for combat data. All of this presumably makes Ryuko's depression go From Bad to Worse.
    • And then things get even worse during the course of episodes 18-20. Satsuki is defeated by her monster of a mother Ragyo, who steals Junketsu for herself. Ryuko fares little better, getting her heart ripped out by Ragyo and revealing that she is a Life Fiber hybrid. Ragyo's COVERS have taken over Japan, imprisoning many people, including Mako and her family. Satsuki is rescued by the Elite Four and Ryuko ultimately awakens, but doesn't want anything to do with Senketsu anymore because she is still bugged out over being a Life Fiber hybrid. Then Ragyo and Nui lure Ryuko to Honnouji Academy, where they capture her and force her to wear Junketsu, turning her Brainwashed and Crazy — and worse, they've stitched the thing to her Life Fibers, meaning that if it's forcibly removed, it will kill her.
  • Kirby: Right Back at Ya! has the Grand Finale, "Fright to the Finish". Fire Kirby has used up all of his energy and reverted back to normal after tiring himself out trying to attack Nightmare physically. Nightmare then decides to enter his sleep and give him a nightmare by torturing him before moving on to crush him. Tiff tries calling for the Warp Star, but it's nowhere to be found in Kirby's dream. Just when all hope seems lost, Kirby summons it in his dreams and eats it, becoming Star Rod Kirby and beating Nightmare in one hit.
    • Before said episode, there've also been plenty of other such moments in several previous episodes, with examples being that moment in "Flower Power" when Meta Knight is getting overpowered by the carnivorous Pukey flower (with his sword Galaxia even being flung into the ceiling by one of its flytrap heads), Tuff is being constricted and about to get eaten again and Tiff, Lololo, & Lalala are looking on at the situation in shock and Kirby is still asleep from the sleeping sickness induced upon him by the Noddy he ate in the beginning of the episode, and it looks like there's no one to save them and nothing anyone can do about it until Tuff starts using his strength to edge himself close enough to pluck a petal from the Pukey
    • That moment in "A Half-Baked Battle" where Kirby finds himself unable to fight back against Belly Buster due to refusing to eat any of its pies for how terrible they taste and eventually getting swallowed along with King Dedede and Escargoon after which they would've been digested for sure if not for Dedede's idea to have Kirby turn into Bomb Kirby and blast everyone out of it with his bombs.
    • The biggest and most tearjerking example of such a moment is that one in "Monster Management" when Kirby's relentlessly getting the crap beaten out of him by one of Night Mare Enterprises' most powerful Demon Beasts, Masher, and Meta Knight gets smacked real hard by it right into a wall and becomes too injured to help him any further. Kirby is eventually forced into a battle of two against one against both it and Knuckle Joe that isn't going so well for him either, ultimately being forced near a wall with both of them looming over him with Tiff pleading for this beatdown to stop with tears in her eyes. The end result would've been a Downer Ending for that episode and the entire series as a whole if Knuckle Joe actually finished him off instead of telling Kirby to suck up his attack and not revealed himself to be a monster hunter who was actually going after Masher itself. Thankfully, it gets better after all of those such moments.
  • Kyo Kara Maoh! near the end of season two; the Sealed Evil in a Can turns out to be the demon kingdom's Crystal Dragon Jesus and possesses the protagonist, The Smart Guy performed a Face–Heel Turn prior to that and has been planning it for centuries, and the practically invincible army is not only invading the rest of the world but also starting to come over to Earth.
  • Macross Frontier's Darkest Hour begins around episode 20, with the president being assassinated, a Vajra infestation on the main ship causing wholesale civilian slaughter, the death of Michel as he defended his love, and the departure of Ranka Lee. Things go From Bad to Worse ... but eventually end well.
  • In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, the episode "That Day, Riot Force Six". It ends with most of their forces injured, both the Ground Forces HQ and Riot Force Six HQ destroyed, and Ginga and Vivio captured.
  • Mazinger Z: Its Darkest Hour happened in episode 92, but the Mazinger vs Great General of Darkness expanded upon it and turned it even more tragic: The army of Mykene Empire struck, easily razing several big cities (London, New York, Moscow...) to ruins. When they raided Tokyo, Kouji flew to fight them... and got the crap beaten out of him. When he returned to the Institute, he found out several Mykene Beasts had smashed the place, destroying Sayaka and Boss's Humongous Mecha. And Shiro, his little brother, had been hurt when a ceiling collapsed, and he urgently needed a blood transfusion. In spite of he was weak -and he was underage- Kouji DID demand they used his blood. Later, at the night, he was sitting in what was left of his bedroom, observing a picture of his father and his grandfather and crying Manly Tears as he muttered the Mykene Beasts would return, and he could not win, but he would fight even though he knew he was going to die (unbeknownst to him, Sayaka was observing him, shedding tears as she heard him talking).
    • Great Mazinger: In the anime it happened in the last episode: the Mykene bombarded the Fortress of Science, Kouji and Tetsuya were forced to fight separately, Tetsuya was defeated and nearly got killed and Prof. Kenzo Kabuto died. And in the Gosaku Ota episodes it was worse.
      • Nevertheless, in that same manga the Darkest Hour happened in one of the last arcs: Great Marshall of Hell blackmailed the Government into destroying the Fortress of Science, Great Mazinger and Venus A. The Fortress was blown up to bits and crumbled into the ocean, the heroes were forced to flee and hiding, and while they were seeking a shelter and lying low, the Mykene army conquered Japan.
    • UFO Robo Grendizer: In the finale of the first season, The Hero was defeated and forced into hiding with his Humongous Mecha, his lancer was shot down, his Love Interest was dying, the base was taken by one of the Co-Dragons of Big Bad, and the Professor was tortured.
  • My Hero Academia's Paranormal Liberation War Arc sets the stage for the series' final act with this trope: Much of Japan has been ravaged by the war and trust in the Hero Association has been heavily damaged by the revelation of Endeavour's actions towards his family revealed by Dabi. All for One has broken out of Tatarus along with numerous villains from the past. Even worse, many heroes have decided to quit as they were broken by the events of the war.
  • Naruto:
    • During the Invasion of Pain arc, the village has been leveled, with several important characters and hundreds of nameless villagers killed. Naruto's new sage power has failed and he is pinned to the ground helpless. Worse still, he can find no response to Pain's nihilistic Breaking Speech. Then Hinata tries to come to his aid, makes an Anguished Declaration of Love and attacks Pain, only to get stabbed. Naruto's shock and anger overcome his protective seals and the power of the Nine-Tailed Fox bursts free like it has never done before. As Kyuubi-Naruto is fighting Pain, the scene switches to Yamato (the only person who can rein in the Nine-Tailed Fox when Naruto loses control), who's miles away. He looks down to his tattoo that shows how many tails Naruto has unleashed (if all of them are released, the Nine-Tailed Fox can break free completely), and sees the number changing from 8 to 9...
    • The battle against Madara Uchiha manages to top this. Madara effortlessly absorbs all nine tailed beasts at once, killing Bee and knocking out Naruto, and then he stabs Sasuke in the heart. Naruto's condition rapidly deteriorates into cardiac arrest and is utterly unresponsive to any of Sakura's medical jutsu, forcing her to resort to CPR. The alliance has already been devastated by several attacks from the Ten-Tails and the Zetsus. Sasuke is bleeding out with no one able to help him, and he may already be dead.
      • Then it got worse. Minato tries to transplant his half of Kurama into Naruto, but Black Zetsu interferes and Madara shows up. Sakura is still performing CPR, but who knows how much longer she can hold out. Gai wants to help, but he can barely stand. An unknown figure is approaching Sasuke.
      • Then it gets even worse. Madara became the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki and finally activated the Infinite Tsukiyomi; after this, the Sage of Six Path's mother, Princess Kaguya is revived and has Black Zetsu use Madara as her vessel, becoming the true final villain.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi's Darkest Hour is everything that happens after the Governor's ball, most of it to Negi. The Governor tries to kill him after Negi uncovers his real objective, all while his Superpowered Evil Side is threatening to consume him. His mentor is erased in front of him. The secret organisation headed by his nemesis is activating the plan to destroy the Magical World, which erased a lot of his students' new friends in the crossfire as they watched. Oh yeah, Mahora Academy might not survive either. His childhood friend Anya and Asuna are being held hostage, and he's just found out that the Asuna he's been with for all this time is a sleeper agent that he has to unmask. On top of this, he has to beat the evil side into submission, otherwise he'll turn into a feral, homicidal demon the next time he uses Magia Erebea. He feels personally responsible for most of these... and he's just ten. Most overwhelmed little boy since Ender Wiggin.
    • As if that wasn't enough, the final showdown between Ala Alba and Kosmo Entelechia has gone wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. Negi is incapacitated (bad), so the rest of the team pull off a daring rescue (good). Half the attacking group is turned to stone in the clusterfuck (bad), but at least they've stopped the world-ending ritual and stolen the artifact, rescued the princess and saved the world, right? Uh, no.
  • The Water Seven and Sabaody arcs in One Piece, both storylines in which the Straw Hat Pirates have come close to annihilation.
    • Those are tame compared with The Marineford arc. The marines succeed in executing Ace, Blackbeard kills Whitebeard and steals his powers, Luffy has sustained a massive amount of damage and sacrificed part of his lifespan in vain, and several villains from previous arcs have now been freed from prison (by Luffy himself, no less), and as the cherry on top, Luffy lost his brother despite all the sacrifices he made, and the anguish leads him to believe he's too weak to attain his dreams. It takes Jimbei reminding him he's still got his crewmates alive and waiting for him to snap him out of it.
    • Perhaps one of the darkest as a whole for the Myth Arc was during the Dressrosa arc. There was a fruit user in Doflamingo's crew who had the ability to turn anyone she touched into a toy. And everyone who is turned is completely forgotten, by everyone, and they have no means to tell people. During an assault, Nico Robin, the only person in the world capable of reading the Poneglyphs, gets turned into a toy. Keep in mind, the Poneglyphs being deciphered is serious enough for the World Government to practically glass an island, and reading four of them (Road Poneglyphs) is necessary to reach Laugh Tale. If not for Usopp, the bad guys would probably have won.
    • The Whole Cake Island arc is yet another, especially for Sanji. Sanji is in an Arranged Marriage with one of Big Mom's daughters, and his own family is blackmailing him by threatening to kill his adoptive father Zeff if he doesn't go along with it. Luffy and Nami have gotten captured and are on death row in the dungeon, Pedro is locked in a battle against Tamago, Brook is trapped in the treasure room with Big Mom herself, Carrot and Chopper are trapped and lost in a mirror world, and on top of that, his would-be wife Pudding turns out to be a manipulative sociopath who fully intends to kill Sanji during the wedding ceremony while her family kills the rest of the Vinsmokes as well for their cloning technology. The kicker is that the name of the chapter this is revealed in is called Hope, and ends with the solemn narrative words "Not a single ray of hope, left in this world."
  • Ouran High School Host Club: The result of a plan orchestrated by the main villain, Tamaki's Evil Matriarch grandmother, in an attempt to separate him and Haruhi: disolve the host club and force Tamaki away to France.
  • Episode 12 of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. Stocking's ascended to Heaven, Panty's lost her powers, and the Big Bad abducted Brief to unlock the Ghost sealed away. Then it gets...weird.
  • In Pluto, when all of the seven great robots of the world have been destroyed. Except for Atom, who may be insane at that point.
  • While Popotan isn't exactly a dark series to begin with, it does reach a very bleak point in episode 11. The main characters have been told that they can either continue time travelling with all the impediments that would put on their social lives, or live away from each other in three separate time periods; after Mai leaves, Ai and Mii find going on to be pointless and eventually abandon their journey too. The next episode reveals that none of them are very happy about the situation.
  • In Princess Tutu, the Darkest Hour is when the Raven turns the townspeople into crows and captures Mytho when Princess Tutu can't remove her pendant from her neck (which is Mytho's last heart shard). Ahiru becomes so depressed that she believes the only way she can help everyone is by killing herself. Fakir stops her by convincing her that he will always be with her and they can save Mytho together. The Darkest Hour comes to an end when Ahiru finds the courage to give Mytho the pendant and return to being a duck.
  • By episode 11 of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Homura is the only magical girl left alive and is fighting a losing battle against Walpurgisnacht even after unloading a small army's worth of firepower on it. After repeating the same six weeks who knows how many times, she finally gives up hope... cue Wishplosion courtesy of her beloved Madoka.
  • Rebuild of Evangelion gets quite dire in the climaxes of each film:
    • 2.0: The 10th Angel has overpowered Unit-02 (even after Mari releases its inhibitors) and devoured Rei. Shinji joins the fray in Unit-01, only to run out of power, leaving him at the Angel's mercy. As it seems he is doomed, however, Shinji and Unit-01 go berserk, overpower Zeruel, and extract Rei's soul from its core, in so doing inadvertently starting Third Impact, which is only stopped by Kaworu and the Lance of Longinus.
    • 3.0: In a misguided attempt to undo the devastation he wrought at the end of the previous movie, Shinji nearly kickstarts a Fourth Impact. While he is stopped, the gravity of his acts, combined with the death of Kaworu, the one person who treated him with kindness in over a decade, render him catatonic.
  • Towards the end of the Nepal arc of Saike Matashitemo, Saike only had one day left to live, his condition painfully worse and as it turned out, the oracle holder his friends seek out to heal him had a dangerous price and he only had one more use before becoming a fetus. To make matters worse, Johann storms in and take the healing god for himself then after a long chase, kills Hizu and Ana. Saike's only solution was to drown himself in a lake he had no idea his power would even work at or any idea he would survive another reset even if it did.
  • Sailor Moon:
    • Episode 45. The girls finally decide to take on the Dark Kingdom at its source, because Metallia will soon break free of her imprisonment and destroy the world if not stopped. The episode ends with all but Sailor Moon dead. Even though she's encouraged by the spirits of her friends to keep going, it still wasn't looking good for Usagi at that point. And to rub things in further, after having been absent for several episodes, Mamoru's brainwashing / dark energy infusion is now completed and entirely successful, unlike before.
    • The climax of Sailor Moon Stars. Sailor Moon and the Starlights are the only Sailor Soldiers left. This is on top of the dark shadow of Tuxedo Mask's disappearance that's been hanging around for half the season. The Hope Spot is a dream as well, and really not that close to the end.
    • The manga has one that's worse: Galaxia destroys all the Sailor Crystals, leaving herself, Sailor Moon, and Sailor Chibi Chibi the only ones left.
  • Partway through School-Live!, a series of horrible events causes the girls to have to evacuate their school. Kurumi is bit by a zombie and it seems like she is a goner until Miki finds an experimental antidote and it works. Not too soon afterwards, Kurumi and Miki become surrounded by zombies however make it out fine. Moments later a rescue helicopter crashes when the pilot becomes a zombie and this sets the school on fire, making it uninhabitable. The anime toned everything down a bit by the helicopter crash and decreasing Miki's injuries]].
  • By the last episode of Scrapped Princess, Pacifica has sustained a mortal wound, Prince Forsythe has given himself a mortal wound, Shannon and Zefiris have been dragged off by the surviving Peacemakers, and for good measure, the Royal Forces start blasting the place. It ends well.
  • In Shakugan no Shana, the final series has a freaking god invade the mortal realm. This from a series where The World Is Always Doomed, it happens in the anime a full ten episodes before the show ends.
  • In Sword Art Online, Episode 24, Kirito reaches makes his way to the top of the World Tree to save Asuna, but unfortunately, Sugou, playing as Oberon spams his Game Master status and confines Kirtio and Asuna into an area outside the game and he uses a gravity spell that was still in development and, at present, is overpowered. He then chains up Asuna and as Kirito tries to stand up to Sugou/Oberon, Oberon kicks Kirito back onto the ground and stabs him with Kirito's own sword. Sugou then starts to turn down Kirito's pain inhibitors, planning to continue lowering it until it affected his Kirito's body in the real world (which starts when it drops bellow level 3). Sugou then proceeds to rip Asuna's top off, and sexually assault her in front of Kirito with the latter unable to stop him. In his near-death experience, Kirito begins to give in to despair as he is left powerless to stop Sugou, and is ready to give up and face reality. Fortunately, Akihiko Kayaba's digital spirit approaches Kirito and gives him a Heroic Second Wind, and lends him his system administrator status, which helps Kirito turn the situation around and take down Sugou.
  • Most of the Rossiu arc of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, where the heroes are discredited, stripped of power, and seemingly impotent in the face of the apocalypse. The Darkest Hour for the first two arcs is Simon's Heroic BSoD. Due to Kamina's death.
  • Umi Monogatari has the end of episode 11. Marin and Urin try to fight Sedna, but have their powers drained from them. The episode closes with them sprawled on the ocean floor, near death, as Sedna's darkness flows into their bodies.
  • Wolf's Rain: The last couple episodes are a never-ending barrage of this. As in, all the main characters die. And not just die, but die horribly. One by one. Finally, it's just Kiba left standing against the Big Bad. He wins, but he's dying. But wait! Cheza exploding into a pile of seeds! Yes, there is hope and joy at- wait, never mind. The universe really does die. All the characters you had some attachment to did face horrible, gruesome deaths. And the last thing you see is Kiba dying. Except not. Only not really. See a whole other existence is apparently made because of this. An existence where only four of the main characters are shown being in, or at least convincing doppelgangers of them. You never really get to find out if the Reset Button was real, or just Kiba's dying dream. If it is real, it's never hinted at in any way that any of the characters shown alive still know each other at all, or where the rest of the gang is. If the rest of the gang is there to begin with. One possible explanation is that it really is a reset, but only the wolves are reincarnated in it (Darcia did say that it was "a paradise only for wolves").
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Basically the entire time the school is trapped in the Spirit World during the third season. Calling it Darkest Hour would be an understatement. There's a lot of Nightmare Fuel too.
  • YuYu Hakusho:
    • During the Chapter Black where the whole objective is to prevent a portal to the Demon Word from opening potentially letting in A and S Class Demons that can potentially wipe out the Earth. Also the Black-and-White Morality the heroes are so used to gets thrown out the window. Made even worse that even the protagonist of the series could not catch up.
    • Sensui's power far exceeded Yusuke's, being an S class while Yusuke was a B+ at best. Knowing he had no chance of ever beating Sensui, Yusuke opted for a Heroic Sacrifice, letting Sensui kill him, thus boosting the the power levels of Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei up to A class. 3 A Class fighters against an S Class was still a very one sided Curb-Stomp Battle in favor of Sensui. It took two Deus ex Machina just to beat him.

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