Due To The Dead / Anime & Manga

Examples of Due to the Dead in Anime & Manga

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• 7 Seeds: Whenever possible, the characters will try to perform a burial or something similar to anyone that has died. In cases like Izayoi or the three Team Winter members that didn't survive the cryo-stasis, it's done for emotional reasons and as a sign of respect and grief. But others cases, like covering up Mayu's body, are stated to be done to prevent the bodies from being damaged by wildlife.
• Cruelly subverted in the anime adaptation of Attack on Titan; after the disastrous 57th expedition of the Survey Corps, they attempt to recover the bodies to be brought back to their families and proper burial within the walls, but when a few troops go against orders and try to get a body that was deemed unrecoverable due to proximity to Titans, and end up drawing them back to the convoy, Levi orders all of the bodies ( including those of his entirely wiped out squad) to be dumped so the cart carrying them can escape. And none of the soldiers, including Levi, are happy with it.
• Black Butler: After the death of Ciel’s aunt, Madame Red (who, alongside Grell, became Jack the Ripper), a funeral is held for her, with both Ciel and Elizabeth in attendance. In Ciel’s case, however, right before his aunt’s coffin is closed, he drapes a red overcoat onto her body and places a red rose in her hair, as red was her favorite color. Ciel also has Sebastian scatter red rose petals inside the church where the funeral was being held. After the funeral, Ciel also pays respects to the grave of Mary Jane Kelly, the last victim of Jack the Ripper. He’s accompanied by Sebastian and Undertaker, the latter of whom Ciel had hired to dress Kelly’s body before she was buried. Ciel even paid for her burial and erecting her gravestone out of his own pocket.
• Black Clover: After Yami slices Vetto in half before the latter can pull off his Suicide Attack and the dust settles from the attack on the Seabed Temple, he privately holds a makeshift funeral for him, using a lit cigarette as a makeshift incense.
• Bleach:
  • One of the duties of the Shinigami sent to the world of the living is to perform Konso (soul burial) on the souls of the lingering dead, allowing them to pass on to Soul Society. This serves a number of purposes: chiefly, it saves them from being preyed upon by Hollows, who eat the souls of the dead in order to satiate their hunger, and it stops them from becoming Hollows themselves. It also serves another purpose in that it helps preserve the balance between the realms of the living and the dead, which would spill unto one another if one were to house too many souls.
  • Their other main duty is to outright kill Hollows. A Shinigami's Zanpakuto has the power to purify the soul of a Hollow of the sins they committed in death, which then allows them to move on to Soul Society and re-enter the cycle of reincarnation. Hollows that committed grave sins in life, however, are another story: those get Dragged Off to Hell.
  • Every year, on the anniversary of Masaki's death, Ichigo and his family go to visit her grave. Notably, it is the one day in the entire year where Isshin smokes, since the one time Masaki complimented his looks was when he smoked during the time they started dating.
  • When it becomes apparent that Ikkaku will die fighting Edorad, Yumichika calls Soul Society and requests, among other things, that they make preparations for his military funeral. Fortunately, it doesn't come to that.
  • After Chojiro Sasakibe dies fighting the Vandenreich, he is given a military funeral with the entirety of the Gotei 13 in attendance. Later on, Yamamoto gives his Lieutenant a "proper send-off" by obliterating the man responsible for his death.
    Yamamoto: I'm finally able to give you a proper send-off. Chojiro... Farewell.
  • Captains that are killed in battle have a special ritual performed 12 years after their death named Konso Reisai, where a Hollow is purified in front of their grave. While the ritual's purpose appears to be merely ceremonial and it's followed as an old custom, the true purpose of the ritual appears to have been forgotten to the point that it became a mere superstition: the reishi of deceased Captains is simply too dense with reiatsu to break down and return to the soil of Soul Society, naturally or otherwise, and allowing their reishi to linger freely in Soul Society is a threat to the balance. The ritual supposedly serves to help with the breakdown process, but in truth it casts the dead Captains into Hell.
• The manga version of Chrono Crusade shows a crowd of mourners at Rosette Christopher's grave, and many years later a minor character states that flowers are placed on the grave every year, even though the grave's location wasn't revealed to the public. It's implied that Chrono is the one leaving flowers on her grave every year, showing that he still cares for her several decades after her death.
  • The anime also shows Satella's body laid out for viewing in a church, possibly after her funeral.
  • Both versions have Rosette and Joshua find Chrono sleeping in a tomb, that was sealed with holy magic and intricately carved. Flashbacks later reveal that it's the grave of Mary Magdalene, and show her in her coffin laying on a bed of flowers before her tomb is sealed.
• Code Geass has cyborg Jeremiah Gottwald actively deciding to respect a dead commander of the Geass order because of the loyalty the man showed, which is the one trait Jeremiah values above all others.
  • Despite having professed hating him not too long before, Lelouch makes a point of burying Rolo with his own hands after his Heroic Sacrifice marking his grave with the pendant he gave him that was originally meant for Nunnally; proving that he grew to genuinely care for his false brother.
• Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School: Future: When Makoto Naegi found Izuru Kamukura to place him in the Neo World Program, he saw a small vase with flowers and a Galaga hairpiece in the room that Izuru was staying in. The hairpiece belonged to Chiaki Nanami, the first victim of Junko’s Killing Games. Before she died, Izuru, as his previous self Hajime Hinata, befriended her and fell in love with her. Hajime’s love for Chiaki subconsciously affected Izuru, causing Izuru to cry for her when he saw her die and later to pay respects for her with the flowers and hairpiece.
• Played straight with L's funeral in the Death Note anime- at least, until Light is left alone, at which point one of the most disturbing scenes in the series begins.
• In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, the series has at least two key events for these rites.
  • After Kyojuro dies, several scattered scenes of characters reacting to his death is shown, his lord Kagaya in particular is offering his prayers to the already fallen slayers before Kyojuro, commending on Kyojuro's bravery until the end, earnestly expecting to join him and everyone else in the afterlife when their mission to eradicate demonkind is finally done.
  • In the end, after Muzan is dead, the Corps are disbanded, Tanjiro and Nezuko go back home, taking Zentisu and Inosuke with them; Zenitsu carries the ashes of his beloved master Jigoro with him, Tanjiro and Nezuko allow him to bury the ashes in the same place the Kamado family was buried, where they all send their prayers and move on.
• Digimon Adventure: After Machinedramon is destroyed, Hikari (Kari in the dub) says she wants to build a grave marker for the Numemon who died protecting her from Machinedramon. The rest of the team agrees with this, and Sora says they'll all help her.
  • In Digimon Tamers, the 3rd Digimon series, the titular Tamers team travels to the Digital World to rescue their friend Calumon. Along the way, they meet and befriend the Digimon Meramon. Unfortunately, they come under attack, and Meramon sacrifices himself protecting them. After the battle, the Tamers hold a small funeral for him, making a grave marker for him using a pile of stones and a drawing of Meramon's face.
• Dragon Ball Z: When Vegeta dies tearfully begging Goku to avenge their race on Namek, Goku, out of sympathy, takes the time to give Vegeta a proper burial before fighting Frieza.
• Fist of the North Star:
  • After throwing himself to his death before the effects of a Hokuto Shinken attack kills him, Shin's body is retrieved by Kenshiro, who gives him a proper burial out of respect for the man who loved Yuria as much as he did.
  • After Rei dies in a hut as a result of Raoh's attack, Kenshiro puts the hut to flame as a funeral pyre.
• In Fruits Basket, Tohru and her friends visit her mother's grave, and find that her grandfather had also come to pay his respects.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, a flashback shows that one of the most important talks between Roy and Riza took place at the end of the Ishvalan war... when she was done giving an Ishbalan murdered child, whose body she found by a nearby road, something similar to a dignified burial.
• Full Metal Panic!
  • The fact that Sōsuke is respectful to the dead becomes a huge plot point in The Second Raid. It's eventually revealed that the reason for Gauron's obsession and Love at First Sight towards Sōsuke stems from having seen the dignified way Sôsuke serenely dragged and threw the corpses of all his fallen enemies into a makeshift burial. There was no compassion or great emotion found in Sōsuke's eyes while he was doing that, and his reason for doing it was presumably because of his own internal set of morals.
  • As for Gauron himself, he reveals that when he was around the same age as Sōsuke, he was ordered to arrange the bodies of the victims of the Khmer Rouge his Pol Pot colleagues killed. The similarities in that aspect end there, however. Although he was forced to give proper burials to the people his superiors killed, he is shown to be sick and perverse, and is later shown to have wanted Kaname's body to be raped and brutally violated by the assassin he sent after her (along with photos to be taken of it). Of course, his reason for that might be based more on his want for revenge against the girl that is melting the heart of his "beautiful" Assassin Saint.
• Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden:
  • Right before Takiko is spirited away to the world of the book, her mother Yoshie had just passed away and the preparations for her Buddhist funeral were about to begin. Some time later, she looks into Hikitsu's Magic Eye and is temporarily sent back to Japan, but she ends up returning to the book right before the funeral properly takes place.
  • In the book itself, Soruen is given a very heartfelt funeral after he dies in an Heroic Sacrifice.
• Jojos Bizarre Adventure:
  • Stardust Crusaders:
    • Despite the fact that he tried to murder him and his friends (as well as temporarily blinding Kakyoin), Jotaro takes the time to bury N'Doul after he kills himself to protect Dio's secrets, placing the cane the blind assassin used for listening as a grave marker for him.
  • Golden Wind:
    • La Squadra Esecuzioni gets a moment of this, showing how, despite being hardened killers, they genuinely do care about each other. Two of their members, Gelato and Sorbet, are tortured on Diavolo’s orders, resulting in their deaths. Diavolo even sends Gelato’s body to the rest of the team in pieces as a gruesome warning to them to not disobey him. After this, all the members attend a funeral for Gelato and Sorbet before setting out to avenge them by overthrowing Diavolo.
    • Giorno gives this to Abbacchio and Narancia after their deaths at the hands of Diavolo. He uses his Stand’s ability to grow flowers over their bodies as makeshift graves to shield them and protect them. He also said that he and his friends would make sure to return Narancia’s body home to Naples after defeating Diavolo.
  • Stone Ocean:
    • The anime adaptation of Stone Ocean adds a moment of this for F.F. After F.F. is killed, Emporio tells Ermes about it as she recovers in Green Dolphin’s medical wing. Ermes pours a glass of water out the window, as F.F. loved and needed water to survive, swearing to avenge her.
• Lupin III:
  • When Zenigata is declared dead, he is always treated to full police honors, as if he made a Heroic Sacrifice For Great Justice. Lupin and his gang attend at a respectful distance. (If they're seen, the police would have to arrest them.)
  • Lupin himself is declared dead on occasion. Pops will assault the corpse to prove it isn't really Lupin. (If he can't prove it, he's usually sad for a while afterwards.) The rest of the gang mourns him in their respective ways. The service is very small, no family in attendance.
• During the final episode of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, Signum and Genya are seen taking flowers to what is implied to be Zest's grave. When they arrive, they find Auris nearby, who had already left some flowers of her own.
• In My-Otome, there is a shrine to fallen Otome beneath Garderobe. Since an Otome's body dissolves after death, there are no earthly remains but what appears to be a copy of their GEM is inserted into a crystal pillar to serve as their monument. Miss Maria specifically kneels and apologizes to the deceased when a gaggle of aspiring Otome trespass into the shrine.
• Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water: Two instances of this in the episode where Nadia and Jean met Marie:
  • When their plane is shot, Gladys and her two henchmen cross themselves and take a moment of silence for the memory of the chiildren they were tracking, thinking they were dead.
  • After sucessfully fleeing the assaulters, Jean take a shovel and go bury Marie's parents and dog, even though he was still tracked. After this, the trio go to these graves.
• Naruto:
  • The series' first major arc, the Land of Waves arc, ends with this for Zabuza and Haku, the first real enemies that Team 7 fought against. After Haku dies saving Zabuza from Kakashi, Kakashi closes the boy's eyes and lays his body down gently. Later, when Zabuza is about to die, Kakashi, at Zabuza's request, lays the now-immobile Zabuza next to Haku, so he could die alongside the only one in the world he came to care about. Their bodies are later buried offscreen, with Zabuza's sword, the Executioner's Blade, being placed as a grave marker for him. Later in Shippuden, we see their gravesite once more as Suigetsu travels there to take Zabuza's sword for himself.
  • More than one funeral takes place in the story, including those of the Third Hokage (who died fighting Orochimaru) and his son Asuma (died fighting Hidan). In the case of the latter, Asuma had his student Shikamaru promise to take on his soon-be-born child as his student in the future. Shikamaru, in honor of his teacher, accepts it.
  • One of Kakashi's "quirks" is him always being late because he likes spending time checking on the symbolic grave of his best friend Obito. It's a huge plot point: Obito turns out to be Not Quite Dead, and he learns about Naruto's upcoming birth when he hears Kakashi talking to his grave about it.
  • After learning that his sensei Jiraiya was killed by Pain, Naruto later pays his own respects to him. That same night, he buys some ice cream and sits alone in the park. The ice cream he bought is a double popsicle, the same thing Jiraiya bought and shared with him once during their 3-year training journey. Naruto’s in the park alone, just sitting and letting the ice cream melt (and his tears silently flowing)…until Iruka comes along. Iruka comforts him by reminding him of how proud Jiraiya was to have Naruto as his student and that he’d entrusted his will to him. Naruto thanks him, and Iruka splits the popsicle for the two of them to share.
• One Piece:
  • The Marineford War ends in the (most notable) deaths of Whitebeard and Ace. When Shanks steps in to put a stop to it, he demands to take the bodies to give them a proper burial. While Vice Admiral Doberman objected (he wanted to put their heads for viewing as a symbol of the Marines' victory) Fleet Admiral Sengoku outranked him. Whether this was out of respect or because he didn't want hostilities to flare up again, Sengoku conceded to the demand without complaint.
  • Kawamatsu resorted to Robbing the Dead in order to supply the Kozuki sympathizers with weapons, an act that he admitted to find deplorable and shameful. However, given that said weapons were to be used in order to dethrone Kurozumi Orochi and remove Kaido from Wano Country, Kawamatsu reasoned that it was too early for the swords of the dead to rest. Plus, since he would be keeping them in a secret storehouse while the swords were restored and maintained until the day of the Onigashima Raid, this way they could be kept safe from actual grave robbers. He was aided in this by Onimaru, the fox companion of Shimotsuki Ushimaru, who at first objected to Kawamatsu's grave-robbing by trying to bite his arm off, before changing his mind and helping him dig up the swords.
  • This is used as an Establishing Character Moment for Oden during a flashback when he uses a dead friend's funeral pyre to cook himself lunch, before putting out the pyre with a bottle of sake. It was his way of symbolically sharing one last meal and drink with him.
• Overlord (2012):
  • After Ainz repels the knights attacking them, Carne Village takes the time to bury and mourn their dead. While Ainz can easily resurrect the dead villagers, he elects not to in order to draw less attention to himself, though it's clear he's conflicted by the decision.
  • A rather twisted, but still oddly respectful example of this occurs after Ainz has the Worker Arche executed by Shalltear as a Mercy Kill. After she’s killed, Ainz has Entoma take her body and disassemble it, putting the parts of her corpse to various uses. Entoma takes her vocal cords to use Arche’s voice as her own, Demiurge receives her skin to use it to make paper, her head’s given to a Silk Hat Demon, her arms sent to the Dead Man’s Struggle, and the rest fed to Grant’s children. Ainz says that this is their way of respecting the dead, saying that it’s the duty of hunters (in this case, Nazarick) to use every part of their prey (in this case, Arche) to productive use without waste.
  • Before his duel with Ainz, Gazef Stronoff requests that he not be resurrected should he die. Ainz grants his request by using a high level insta-kill spell, meaning he can't be resurrected since the resurrection methods available to human civilization are, for the most part, of a lower level. He then allows Brain and Climb to return home with his corpse so that he can be given a proper funeral. For that matter, while Ainz could've used flashier, more destructive methods to kill Gazef, he uses an insta-kill spell in order to leave his corpse intact out of respect, privately admitting that he did not hate him.
  • When Zanac is betrayed by the nobles of the Re-Estize Kingdom, his head is offered to Ainz as a way to pledge fealty to him. When Ainz sees whose head is in the bag offered to him, he hands it over to Albedo and asks her to have it "buried with respect". Then he has the nobles and their families sent to Neuronist as punishment for their betrayal and because he had developed a sense of respect towards Zanac after talking to him a few minutes ago, having become utterly disgusted by the nobles' shameless attempt to save their own skin and crude treatment of Zanac's corpse.
• An early episode of Pokémon: The Original Series has and his gang as well as Team Rocket escape from the capsized St. Anne. Ash has Pidgeotto look for dry land, and it finds Team Rocket unconscious and brings them to Ash and company's platform. They presume Team Rocket dead and say a quick prayer and attempt to bury them at sea, but Team Rocket comes to just in time to stop them. Pikachu snaps his fingers in disappointment.
  Ash, Misty, and Brock: Ahh! Zombies!
• Rebuild World: Played with.
  • Colbert gives a whole song and dance to Akira and Sheryl about retrieving the dead traitor hunter Guyver's body to give it to the Hunter's Office for the greater good, convincing them to take the body from the wasteland. But it turns out that Colbert was assigned to monitor Guyver and make sure he didn't flee from paying his debts, and hands the body to the debt agency to verify his death wasn't faked.
  • A Punch-Clock Villain Noble Demon hunter Akira fights named Erde talks about how The Dead Have Names, and asks Akira for his name in order to properly honor him after killing him. Erde apologizes to his subordinates that died fighting Akira in his Last Words.
• At the conclusion of Saint Seiya's Galaxian Wars arc, Phoenix Ikki performs a Heroic Sacrifice to redeem his evil deeds and save the Bronze Saints from an even bigger threat. Although he was buried beneath a mountain, the four remaining Bronzes erect a grave in his honor at that site.
• In Snow White and Seven Dwarfs, whereas the government simply dumps bodies in places where they're out of sight, Takeru tries to bury what bodies he can, from those of civilians to those of their enemies. Respect for the dead, overall, seems to be a theme in the series—Shirayuki believes that you should Never Speak Ill of the Dead, compared to Kuroyuki who's happy to disrespect the fallen.
• In the manga adaptation of Sword Oratoria, Aiz Wallenstein throws herself into battle against a huge army of monsters who've killed at least two other adventurers, whose eyes are open even in death. A few panels later, the corpses' eyes have been closed, making them seem much more at peace.
• Used as an Establishing Character Moment in Tokyo Ghoul. When Kaneki is sent to help Yomo harvest bodies for the cafe, he's understandably intimidated by the silent Ghoul. But when they arrive on site and discover the body of a recent suicide, Yomo pauses to pray over the victim prior to getting to work. Afterwards, it becomes clear that Yomo is actually an incredibly kind person.

Evil

• The Berserk manga has Wyald establishing his monster credentials in a big way by not only raping and murdering a woman who helped the Hawks as well as the girls in her care, but also carrying their naked, dismembered bodies into battle with the Hawks.
• In the Chrono Crusade manga, when Aion kills Pandaemonium, he cuts off her head and then mercilessly hacks up her body. However, considering that Pandaemonium is the body of his human mother, Lilith, grafted onto the body of the demon's Hive Queen, Aion views it as "freeing" her, and probably also as revenge for the desecration the demons subjected his mother's body to. Also, throughout the series several demons are shown as being cruel, disgusting or evil because of their treatment of the bodies of their human victims.
• Jojos Bizarre Adventure:
  • Phantom Blood: Zig-zagged in the case of Dio. Dio desecrates Jonathan's remains in the worst way possible when he takes over his body for his own use. Supplementary materials reveal that Dio actually feels conflicted over doing this to one of the only people he ever respected, but he also believes that Jonathan's body is the only worthy vessel for his rebirth.
  • Golden Wind: Diavolo has Gelato, a member of La Squadra Esecuzioni, tortured to death by Cioccolata. After he’s killed, Diavolo has Gelato’s body disassembled with the individual pieces preserved in formaldehyde blocks, creating a gruesome puzzle out of Gelato’s corpse. He then has the blocks mailed to the rest of La Squadra, as a warning to them that they should never disobey him. Ironically, it has the opposite effect, driving them to actively work towards overthrowing Diavolo.
• Lupin III shows both ends of this trope. On the evil end:
  • Lupin himself is declared dead on occasion. Pops will assault the corpse to prove it isn't really Lupin. The rest of the gang mourns him in their respective ways. The service is very small, no family in attendance.
  • Lighter and Softer stories where the villain die have a Gory Discretion Shot, dying painfully and ignored.
  • Darker and Edgier stories have no discretion, but the gang may choose to honor their enemy by watching them die, or turn their backs on the enemy.