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alt title(s): Grim Reaper; Death 
The mascot of death. The nature and purpose of the Grim Reaper actually varies between two different versions: one version describes him as a simple guide, the being who takes you to the next world after you die (the fancy word for this is psychopomp); the other sees him as the actual entity of death — you die when he touches you. Either way, he is generally seen as a tall skeletal spectre in a black hooded robe, who wields a Sinister Scythe when he visits commoners and a sword when he visits royalty, though the scythe is the most common of his symbols. He is also often shown with an hourglass as a symbol of elapsing life. He is sometimes described as mute, and in some accounts you can challenge him to a game of chess for the right to stay alive. Often he picks up the characteristics of Charon, the boatman of the river Styx in Greek theology.
The Grim Reaper, in his days as a frequent figure of folk tales, was originally used as a menacing, sombre symbol of the inevitability of death. He first appeared in Western art and folklore with the outbreak of the mid-fourteenth century bubonic plague epidemic (the Black Death). As with most folklorish characters, he is no longer taken seriously and may even come across as benign. Usually he's either played as a bored civil servant type, a la his numerous appearances in Family Guy, or he's seen as a bumbler a la his role in the movie Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. Even when he's still treated as a menacing figure, there will be humor involved, such as his appearances in South Park, The Simpsons and the film The Meaning of Life. And don't forget The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy, originally known as Grim And Evil, in which he plays a major role. Still other representations of death forgo the neutral and buffoonish guise entirely and make Death a God Of Evil that must be fought, like the Final Destination films or Castlevania games.
Conversely, actually meeting him may reveal Dont Fear The Reaper is wiser; dying is not as bad as feared.
As with most public services, expect hilarity to ensue if Death Takes A Holiday.
A frequent modern variation is the notion that instead of the Grim Reaper, you can be a Grim Reaper - that it's a position offered to certain people after they die.
When this concept was imported to Japan in the 19th century, they translated the name as Shinigami. Japanese media then proceeded to play with the character to the point that many shinigami no longer have anything in common with the Grim Reaper, aside from the name. Somewhat ironically, as a Shinigami (literally, 'God of Death'), the Grim Reaper has a lot less power than in Christian/European beliefs, where he is not a god (there being only one of those), but instead the Anthropomorphic Personification of the concept of death itself. Thus, the concept of being able to defeat or kill Death in combat (Castlevania) or Grim-Reaper figures themselves being able to die (Death Note) can seem absurd to Western viewers.
A subtrope of Psychopomps. Compare to Horsemen Of The Apocalypse for when the rest of the Four Man Band show up. See also Enemies With Death.
Examples:
Folklore
Anime and Manga
- Tagmec, Knight of Parca (no, not that one) from Kishiro Yukito's Aqua Knight. Bone.
- Death shows up to claim Nube halfway through the Hell Teacher Nube manga. She's a cute, cheerful girl dressed in a black robe with skull motifs, huge glasses, with a taste for parfaits and confectioneries. And a huge scythe.
- Shinigami-sama in Soul Eater is your standard looking Grim Reaper, though with a goofy looking face as not to frighten the students of the Extranormal Institute he founded. He is also surprisingly badass if you provoke him, even ripping off a powerful Demon's SKIN and sealing said demon in a sack made of its own skin.
- The Grim Reaper is the cloaked, silent, skeletal form at England's bedside in Axis Powers Hetalia. He is moved to tears by England's "last words" (or his inability to finish them) to America. England doesn't die.
Comic Books
- In Preacher, the Angel of Death expresses disinterest in the position he was assigned to and gives it over to the man who would become the Saint of Killers. The former actually looks like an angel and used a sword, while the latter retains his cowboy appearance from his mortal times and the sword is reforged into twin revolvers for him. Clearly, neither conform to the stereotype.
- Death is one of several personifications of abstract concepts who appear in the Marvel Universe. She has even been killed off herself, twice—both times with disastrous results.
- During the second Secret Wars crossover, the Beyonder did this, but was convinced that life was meaningless without death, and restored her to existence.
- Death was destroyed by the Ultimate Nullifier at the end of Universe X, freeing the dead to travel to a new heavenly dimension—but dooming the living to suffer eternally if mortally wounded. Much of the plot of Universe X revolved around finding a replacement Death, then dealing with the chaos when Jude didn't restrict himself to people who were supposed to have died.
- And apparently, Deadpool is in love with her. Thanos loves her as well, however, and cursed Deadpool with immortality so he couldn't steal his girl. Or at least, that's Deadpool's story.
- The DC universe has a special grim reaper, the Black Flash, specializing in speedsters (like the Flash) who would presumably be too fast to be caught by the normal Death. They also have the Black Racer, for everyone else (even Gods), and is one of the most badass versons of death ever (a Knight with skis).
- Brazilian comic Penadinho (known in English as Bug-a-booo) has comedic versions of many stock horror characters. One of them is The Grim Reaper himself - or herself, as it is a female version, Dona Morte (in English, Lady McDeath) who is clumsy and is always running after her "next clients", since no one wants to die. She also appears in stories of the same author whenever someone mentions death.
- "Death of the Endless" She's a pretty and friendly Perky Goth, and, of course, the last thing anyone sees. She is also the first thing anyone sees, but no-one remembers or hears what she says to babies.
- Travis Morgan was once visited by a gorgeous Death, as Stripperific as any other woman in that series, who invited, "Come to me, my love!" and then took him through a vision of his past. He refused to go with her and recovered from his illness at the end of the issue.
- Spirou And Fantasio get to meet the Ankou.
Film
- The Seventh Seal. Chess.
- In Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, the boys get to come back from the dead after beating the Grim Reaper at various games, including Twister and Clue. (A Shout Out to The Seventh Seal.) The Grim Reaper then helped them deal with the villains and joined their band.
- Loki, Matt Damon's character in Dogma, is said to have formerly been the angel of death, having been dismissed by God after the Exodus. That a replacement had not been appointed in the 3500 years since suggests to Loki that his talents were not adequately appreciated.
- Parodied - with a Shout Out to The Seventh Seal - in Last Action Hero in which Death (Ian McKellen), as a character, actually escapes the movie The Seventh Seal, and comes walking down the street. As he touches some people, they drop dead.
- Interestingly, Death is also the one who gives Daniel the advice he needs to save Jack's life, which partakes somewhat of the friendly guide version of the trope.
- In A Prairie Home Companion, a movie with themes of mortality (the end of a show, the end of an era, the end of a life...) that happens to be Robert Altman's last film (Oh dear...), Death looks like... Virginia Madsen. She is an Angel of Death present at the final taping of the titular show who was once human. (She had heard a joke on the show so funny that she flipped her car, but hearing the joke again post-mortem, she couldn't see what was so funny about it.) Guy Noir convinces her to ferry away a visiting executive who will be destroying the theater PHC called home, and she happily agrees, knowing it won't change the ultimate outcome.
- She claims her name is "Asphodel", a Meaningful Name with a reference to both the flower Asphodel and Azrael
 , the traditional Angel of Death.
- Death in Woody Allen's Love And Death parodies The Seventh Seal yet again.
- Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, anyone? The GR is designed by Terry Gilliam and voiced by John Cleese, and gets extremely annoyed when a bunch of dinner guests would rather argue with him than just die like they're supposed to.
- "There's a Mister Death here; he's here about the reaping? I don't think we need any at the moment..."
- Ghostface from the Scream series
Literature
- Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels take this even further: Death is a character in his own right, with thoughts, feelings (sort of), and a genuine personality. He's the central figure of several books in the series, and is the only character to appear in every book (even if only for a line or two). Oh, and he Always speaks in small caps, how the author depicts "a voice like lead slabs falling on a marble floor." In a subversion of the reaper's traditional portrayal, Death is one of the most likable and sympathetic characters in the series, to the extent that Pratchett fans due to meet the real one soon have expressed their hopes that he's like the one in the novels. For "what can harvest hope for, if not the care of the Reaper Man?"
- Though Death performs his duty for every living thing on the Disc, from humans to tube worms, his brief retirement in Reaper Man left a void that was filled with a separate Death for every creature: Death of Rats (Squeak), Death of Mayflies (a trout), Death of Trees (a chopping sound), and so on, to say nothing of the malevolent, Witch King-like replacement Death of Humans. When he returned, Death recalled all of them... except for Death of Rats *
and the Death of Fleas, who has yet to reappear in the series . It's a lonely, eternal job, and it's nice to have someone to share it with.
- Death's boss is Azrael, the Death of Universes, a being so colossal that galaxies appear as twinkles in his eye, and it takes a whole page to contain a single-word reply to a question.
- Pratchett also used another more True Neutral version of Death in Nation, called Locaha. Who may or may not exist.
- The Pratchett/Neil Gaiman novel Good Omens concerns Armageddon, so of course Death features as one of the Four Horsemen (or motorbikers) of the Apocalypse. He doesn't get as much page time as the others because he's always busy, but shares the Death of Discworld's accent and occasional sense of humor. He also has wings of utter darkness and is more ambivalent towards humanity.
- In Piers Anthony's On a Pale Horse, the office of Death passes from one holder to the next when the new Death kills his predecessor.
- Robert Burns's poem Death and Dr Hornbook features a non-skeletal (albeit cloaked) Grim Reaper of the disgruntled civil servant mould, who is apparently a Grim Reaper specifically responsible for southwestern Scotland. This ingenious double subversion is similar to modern unorthodox portrayals of Death and thus qualifies the trope as Older Than Radio.
- In Paul Robinson's book Instrument Of God, the person who is in charge of the Recycling Department (where people who have died decide to go back to earth to be reborn as a baby) is The Death Traffic Manager but is colloquially known as Grim or The Grim Reaper.
- The Book Thief is narrated by Death (and makes him a sympathetic character to boot!)
- The Black Rabbit of Inle from Watership Down is involved in the death of every rabbit, but if a rabbit dies without his permission…watch out.
- Death of Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar series is a bald figure in dark clothing, who has a quota of deaths every hour (by profession) and has never missed it.
- The description of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol is a clear reference to the Grim Reaper.
- Invoked in Dan Abnett's Gaunts Ghosts novel Only In Death. Wes Maggs is haunted by a figure of an old woman with a malformed face and a black lace gown. He is convinced that she is Death, come to take Ghosts. In some, dangerous situations, other Ghosts see her as well. When resolving to fight as hard as he could, Maggs defies her. She proves to be Soric's handler from the Black Ships, projected by him. The reason she appeared more when they were in danger was that Soric sensed it, and his desperate desire to help them caused more of his psychic activity to reach them.
- The classic Spanish novel La Dama del Alba (The Lady of the Dawn) has Death as a beautiful woman who envies the living, as she can never know love because of her role.
Live Action TV
- The entire premise of the TV series Dead Like Me. Grim Reapers in the Dead Like Me universe work as a team, and are the first variation of Reapers described; the kind that guide the soul of a deceased person to the afterlife. They also have the responsibility to "pop" the soul of the person shortly before their death, so that they feel no pain. As George quickly learns, failure to remove the soul can have... side effects.
- The cockney, cab driving Grim Reapers from the first season of The Mighty Boosh.
- The Angel of Death appeared several times in TV's Charmed, played in all but one instance by the same actor. He was depicted as unstoppable, anyone who fell onto his list would die, and the episode would involve characters learning to accept death was inevitable.
- In what could be regarded as a rare subversion, an episode of Star Trek: Voyager not only plays it straight, but features friendly-guide Death turning into aggressive-destructive Death as Janeway refuses to pass over. Of course, he was a Sufficiently Advanced Alien who, for some reason, needed people to voluntarily travel to his torturous Hell dimension so he could use them as a living battery. His aggressive side made for a pretty creepy Reaper.
- Spoofed in the series Murder Most Horrid Dawn French plays a grim reaper forced to be customer-friendly, and has to deal with interrupting a murder a few minutes early by arranging the circumstances so that the right murder takes place.
- At the end of the series finale of Red Dwarf, a pale reaper shows up to collect Rimmer, who evades death by kicking the specter in the jewels and running away.
- Andrew in Touched By An Angel is one of the Angels of Death. They don't actually kill people; he just helped those who were about to die (or in the process of dying), get prepared and escorts them after.
- Big Wolf on Campus had two episodes that involved The Grim Reaper, naturally everything is parodied hilariously. When a character tries to save his own life by challenging death to a game of chess, he loses, so then they play Yahtzee, and he loses, so they play Connect 4, and so they play Cludo. Death was not up for playing Stratego at that point. Also, in the other episode, Death has agreed to leave, but as he walks out the door he turns and starts to deliver his classic "In time all will come to..." speech only to have the door slammed in his face... because, you know, they're teenagers, they don't want to hear about that sort of stuff.
- Supernatural featured an episode or two with The Grim Reaper as an insanely hot brunette. This is pretty much par for the course on Supernatural.
- The catch in Reaper is that at least one version of reapers are alive, work for The Devil, and capture already-dead escaped souls to return them to Hell. Worse than a Reaper is the Ender, which can destroy souls (and anything else) utterly.
- Xena Warrior Princess has Celesta. She looks nothing like a normal reaper.
- An episode of Benson had him play Trivial Pursuit against Mr. G. Reaper, not for his own life but for the lives of a bus-full of schoolchildren caught in a severe storm. All the questions Death got had answers involving "death"; when Benson accused him of cheating, he denied it, saying, "You have often heard it said, 'He cheated Death,' but no one ever said 'Death cheated him!"
- The Undertaker
- Although not appearing as a character the Reaper is the symbol worn by the Sons Of Anarchy Motorcyle Club on their jackets and is carved into the conference table in their meeting room.
- Death appears in several episodes of The Twilight Zone, the first being "One For the Angels". He appears as an affable guy who shouldn't be feared.
Music
- Death appears in Ayreon's Into the Electic Castle when the Indian dies. Obviously we can't see him, but his part is done in death growls.
- The music video of Nana Mizuki's Eternal Blaze has a blonde little girl summoning the Grim Reaper, though this version came with a bovine skull instead of the traditional human one.
- The Nice's song "Azrael" is about the Angel of Death (its alternate title).
- OK, I'm genuinely shocked that nobody's mentioned Blue Oyster Cult. Do I really need to remind you of the title?
- Bands such as Grave Digger, Grim Reaper, Children of Bodom and post-reunion Artillery have Death as their mascot.
- In one episode of The Outer Limits (new series), Death takes the form of a lightning bolt. He does not like people trying to escape him by medical means, apparently because it would destroy reality if done too much.
Musicals
- The personification of Death is a central character in the German musical Elisabeth. He's not much of a traditional Grim Reaper type, though, as he's not hooded, scythe-wielding, or skeletal (in fact, he's usually rather handsome, although of course it depends on who's playing him). He's referred to as "Der Tod" ("Death", in German); his duets with Elisabeth are seen as pretty much long-life flirtations, and the single duet with her son Rudolf can be very easily seen as Ho Yay.
Other
- The grim reaper is commonly depicted on the Death card of Tarot decks (although it represents change rather than death).
- There was once a roller coaster at Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh, PA called the "Steel Phantom", whose mascot was the Grim Reaper. It was torn down, supposedly for being extremely dangerous. When a new coaster, "the Phantom's Revenge", was being built in its place, there were commercials featuring the Grim Reaper going tanning and generally relaxing, waiting to go back to work.
Tabletop RPG
- The Warhammer 40000 C'tan god known as the Nightbringer Mind Raped proto-life so comprehensively he gave all living creatures (except Orks) the fear of death, and although he can take any shape usually styles himself as a giant floating reaper, complete with thirty-foot-long-scythe. Partially as a consequence of this, the Eldar formed a sect of warriors called the Dark Reapers, although instead of scythes, they use rapid-fire micro-missile launchers. The first Dark Reaper, the Phoenix Lord Maugan Ra, instead uses a shuriken cannon (yes, a BFG that fires shuriken) with a scythe blade on the end of the barrel.
- Dungeons and Dragons has had several gods of death over its history, and several Grim Reaper analogues:
- In 3.5E Forgotten Realms, the Lawful Neutral god of death, Kelemvor, could dispatch any creature he liked to do his work, and Kelemvor himself would occasionally come in person. Kelemvor's avatar is of a tall man wrapped in black shrouds, wearing an emotionless silver mask. In an exception to the Grim Reaper's usual weapon of choice, Kelemvor prefers a bastard sword.
- One type of Inevitable (mechanical being of pure law designed to fulfill a specific duty while roaming the planes) is the Marut, which seeks to destroy any being that uses magic to extend its lifespan beyond normal limits, while ignoring those who simply were resurrected, unless the offender does so repeatedly or on a massive scale. Like Kelemvor, Maruts are relatively benign to players (who seldom bother with simply prolonging their lives), and can be potent allies to players hunting liches and the like.
- D&D 4E features an entire race of Grim Reapers, the Sorrowsworn, who answer to the Raven Queen, the goddess of death and fate in the new setting. Extremely high-level monsters, they won't bother you unless you "defy death"...which given the fact that at least one character has been subject to Raise Dead at that level, makes them a frequent opponent around that tier of play. The Sorrowsworn also come with their own pets, the shadowravens, who you do not want to get mad.
- There is of course the greater deity Nerull the Reaper, who is described in Manual of the Planes as "...a rust-red skeleton wearing a dull black cloak" who wields a "...sablewood staff from which projects a scarlet blade of force that has the power to slay any creature". Nerull's clerics are serial killers. In 3rd Edition, he was opposed by Wee Jas, a Lawful Neutral deity of death and magic who didn't agree with him on the "kill everything that breathes" subject.
- Fourth Edition states the Raven Queen (an ascended mortal, rather than Wee Jas) took him down, hard. Of course, it seems Vecna the Maimed God has managed to salvage part of him, because Vecna now has big mean undead with scythes in his service...
- Long before Fourth Edition did it, there was a "grim reaper" included in the Ravenloft setting's monster-books. They aren't minions of a death-deity as far as anyone knows: they just like to kill stuff.
- Also in D&D, drawing the wrong card from a Deck of Many Things could summon a "minor death" to try to kill you, which looks like the grim reaper as depicted on a Tarot card.
Video Games
- In Sacrifice the uber-spell of the death god Charnel is, well, "Death". It summons an eldrith towering figure with two scythes attached to its hands hydrolisk-style. As with all the uber-spells in the game, Death is indiscriminate and will gleefully massacre all and every creature it encounters, be it a friend or a foe to the summoner, although for some reason it will not lay a scythe on the wizards (the heroes of the game) themselves.
- Used in Grim Fandango, in which you play a reaper whose job is presented as a supernatural travel agent.
- The Grim Reaper is almost always Dracula's second in command in the Castlevania series of video games. Quite why the embodiment of death is a servant of a Vampire is anyone's guess. Though it should be noted his name in every game is always "Death," not Grim Reaper. Mistranslation? It becomes confusing when you can kill Death. More confusing is when Soma Cruz can steal his soul... well, at least until you get to the end and realize that Soma is essentially Dracula, who Julius Belmont finally managed to beat to death in 1999, reincarnated. So really, it's the game going full-circle.
- Leon in Lament Of Innocence comments on how Death "despite having divine powers, has fallen like the vampires." Leon, at least, seems to believe he's a god or fallen angel. Supposedly, his name in Japan is Shinigami or God of Death, so it's probably a more likely assumption.
- In Romancing Sa Ga, Death is actually a God and a Bonus Boss, He makes the Final Boss look like a weakling in comparison. (Strangely enough, defeating him increases your alignment with him; also if your alignment with him increases enough; he will assist you in battle by killing any enemy except Undead monsters and certain bosses)
- Die in Shadowgate (not hard to do) and this is who's waitting for you.
- In The Sims 2, The Grim Reaper appears when it's time to take away any character who dies. With the appropriate expansion, he also comes for pets (with a rather cute animation). Too many deaths at the same time can result in "Grimmie" (as players tend to call him) getting overworked and needing to relax by watching some TV, or go to the toilet. Sims can be saved from death if another Sim successfully pleads with "Grimmie" and wins a game of "Which hand is their soul in?" with him. Incidentally, he also has some sweet wallpaper on his cell phone and hangs out with beach-bimbos.
- "The Grim Ripper" is one of the optional characters in some versions of the Guitar Hero video games. He plays a pretty mean scythe.
- Persona 3 is positively rife with examples:
- First there is the Bonus Boss "The Reaper," an Anthropomorphic Personification of Death who stalks the halls of Tartarus while dual-wielding shotguns.
- Pale rider, a persona of the of the Death arcana.
- Then there's Thanatos, i.e., the scary sword-wielding thing that bursts out of Orpheus at the beginning of the game and, the ultimate Death persona.
- The game also has one aversion: The 'true' Anthropomorphic Personification, Nyx, the Mother of Shadows, is an Eldritch Abomination with no real physical form and manifests as the moon during the final showdown. Her messenger avatar, Ryoji, doesn't look very reaper-like either, but conforms closer to the trope.
- The Pale Rider from the various Shin Megami Tensei games and spin-offs, including the aforementioned Persona 3.
- The Halja from Odin Sphere. They're called 'shinigami' in the Japanese version, but more closely resemble the western image of this trope; complete with cowled faces and sickles.
- In Soul Nomad And The World Eaters, each world in The Multiverse has its Master of Death — a god-like being acting as psychopomp and responsible for maintaining the free flow of souls between life and the afterlife. Of the two you encounter during the game, Gamma and Gig, Gamma is a Knight Templar who kills off everyone above the age of 30 in his world to keep it from being uglied by old age, and Gig is an Omnicidal Maniac with a psychotic streak who turned your world into a slowly dying dustbowl 200 years ago. Neither look particularly like the traditional reaper, being hovering humans with Shoulders Of Doom. Gig uses a scythe, however. Of note is how when a certain character from another
game world starts talking about challenging the Reaper metaphorically, people point out this doesn't describe Gig very well.
- Conkers Bad Fur Day has Gregg the Grim Reaper, a short and squeaky-voiced skeletal figure who masks his voice with a loud, booming megaphone. Not quite what you'd expect, but how many grim reapers have you met before? Has a particular hatred of cats (you know, nine lives and all that) and related animals (such as catfish), and isn't that fond of squirrels either (since they have as many lives "as they think they can get away with"). He hates The Undead even more, though (because they really screw up the paperwork), and hands Conker a shotgun before the Zombie Apocalypse level so he can get rid of them.
- Played with in The World Ends With You, where the dead are given a second chance at life through the Reapers' Game, a seven-day gauntlet of challenges where Players must fight to survive against monsters called "Noise" and the Reapers themselves (again, Shinigami in the Japanese version), who as it turns out are just one part of a massive Celestial Bureaucracy the full details of which are only available to those who strive for One Hundred Percent Completion.
- Komachi from Touhou kinda mixes up the mythologies here. She's a Shinigami who both uses a scythe and rows a boat across the Sanzu river. Also, she doesn't take her job very seriously and is prone to slacking off. In Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, it was explained that she wasn't so much a The Grim Reaper so much as purely an entity akin to Charon, since she's not permitted to reap souls. She's just a ferryman who takes you across the river.
- The Final Fantasy series has a whole variant of Grim Reaper appearances, all summoned with the spells Death or Doom, more frequently the former. A full listing can be found here.
- The Twisted Metal competitor Mister Grimm is actually the Grim Reaper in most incarnations. It was suggested that he was once a mortal man, as statistics given in Twisted Metal Head-On match the form he assumes in his ending, rather than his usual appearance as a skeletal biker. The exception occurs in the darker Twisted Metal Black; unlike the main series, Grimm in this game was a US soldier in Vietnam, who was captured along with a wounded friend. The friend died, and in order to avoid starving to death, Grimm had to eat his corpse, keeping the skull as a mask.
- In all of the Gauntlet games, Death appears to... steal your experience points. To make him stop, you need to use magic to kill death.
- Dieu Mort, being the Arcana of Death in Arcana Heart, naturally has the appearance of the traditional Grim Reaper.
- That One Miniboss in Mad World is a Grim Reaper-styled assassin who has a One Hit Kill scythe, appears from out of nowhere when a zombie grabs you, and disappears when you hit him. Thankfully, killing him is optional.
- Monster Rancher has the Joker, a reaper like monster wearing a clown mask.
- Grabbed by the Ghoulies has a Grim Reaper who appears when break one of the rules of the room you're in. Accidentally punch an imp in a "weapons only" room? Here comes Death, complete with.. totally radical air-guitar/scythe, obviously. Which is played whenever he touches anyone and kills them (yes, even enemies). And you can punch him out the window in some rooms. For the bringer of death, he seems like a pretty cool and mortal guy.
- Dantes Inferno, very loosly based on the work of the same name begins with Dante, a Knight Templar, beating up Death and stealing his scythe
- Shadow Hearts has Fox Face, referred to variously as "Grim Reaper" and "God of Death". As a more traditional Japanese version of Death, he can be defeated, banished, and eventually destroyed.
- In Mega Man X 4, Sigma disguises himself as a grim reaper, complete with a Sinister Beam Scythe. His plans in the game involves instigating a massive civil war between two benevolent Red Shirt armies and, at the end of the game, using a Kill Sat to annihilate the humans from the face of the earth. Luckily, he was defeated before the latter came to pass, but considering the events in the former, resulting in the deaths of most members of one of the Red Shirt armies, what do you mean its not symbolic?
- In Brutal Legend, the Reaper is a type of unit in the Drowning Doom faction, and are an absolute bitch to kill, due to their high mobility and powerful attack.
Webcomics
- Irregular Webcomic has a plethora of reapers, each assigned to collect souls from specific causes of death. Very specific causes of death, including Death of Insanely Overpowered Fireballs, Death of Being Wrestled to Death by Steve
Irwin, Death of Inhaling Hat-Making Chemicals, etc. Death of Being Ground By A Mars Rover Rock Abrasion Tool had something of a long wait before his debut performance.
- Of late, the author himself has become Death of Going Back in Time and Killing Yourself, after being on the receiving end but before any inkling of the giving end. One of the perks of the job is... The ability to travel in time.
- Gunnerkrigg Court, which has numerous figures from different myths serving as Psychopomps, features a brief appearance by Ankou, who looks like The Reaper and even carries a scythe.
- Completely subverted in Fanboys, where Death is a friendly jokester who dresses in bright, cheery colors. He absolutely loves his job and a number of comics shows him cracking some kind of joke just before getting to the actual reaping. He has a pet cat who died of a bullet to the head, and he loves showing off how getting it to smoke a cigarette will make smoke come out of the wound.
- In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Death is a skeletal maitre d' because Purgatory is a restaurant with bad service.
- In a non-continuity set of strips in Exiern, Death (played by Typhan'knee) comes for a guy who tries the Chess With Death trope. She cheats, then lampshades it:
- In Wilys Defense has a rather hilariously goofy Angel of Death who's entire character became cemented with the simple line of "Here's Death with the weather!". He clearly enjoys his job, since he brings up the weather almost every time he appears. At one point, it starts raining indoors, despite that according to him, the forecast didn't call for it. His older sister remarks about how unreliable his forecasts are, to which Death replies, "Meteorologist just so happens to be Sanskrit for 'lying douchebag'."
- The titular character of the furry webcomic Jack is assigned the job, as well as being the anthropomorphic personification of the sin of Wrath.
- Lovefeast is centered around the concept of less-than-normal people giving up their lives to train to become "death gods" within a secret society. Inside of that society, they call each other Shinigami. They adopt different death god abilities to not only handle souls of the dead, but also to destroy demons that might interfere with those souls' passing to Purgatory. "THE" death god passed away ages before the story takes place and was a shape-shifter himself but sometimes took on the traditional cloaked appearance of the Grim Reaper.
- In Grim Reaper School, children that died too soon are made to be Grim Reapers in a slightly less than traditional sense; the main character, Charlie, discovers there's more to it than meets the eye.
Advertising
- Australia had a landmark 1987 AIDS education ad which portrayed the reaper going bowling... with people as pins.
Western Animation
- Parodied in Family Guy: Death comes to collect Peter, but sprains his ankle. He will rest and recuperate and spare Peter if he'll take over his route. Which requires he kill off the entire case of the TV show Dawson's Creek. Peter is too guilty to kill them after hearing the line from the their theme song, I don't wanna wait for our lives to be over...
- In one The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror, Homer Simpson kills the Grim Reaper, then becomes the Reaper himself, and enjoys abusing his power—until he's asked to claim Marge. The segment ends with a car chase between Homer and God, and Homer escapes with a Dukes Of Hazzard jump across a railway track, just before the train.
- In The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy the grim reaper is named "Grim" and is now the children's slaves until they decide to let him go.
- Death appears in Chilly Beach, to take away Dale — who opts to challenge him. Then proceeds to annoy the hell out of death by taking too long to pick what game they're going to play. Leading to this exchange:
Death: CHOOSE! or I shall choose for you!
Dale: [panicked] Uh, Hockey!
Death: Very well. [summons a hockey rink and puck, then proceeds to slapshot said puck into the goal so fast it buns a hole through the net] ...By the way, hockey is what I would have chosen.
Dale: Aw, crap.
- Death also had the misfortune of having to collect one Wakko Warner, after an unfortunate incident involving a Sweedish Meatball overdose. Of course his siblings, Yakko and Dot had to tag along to avoiud breaking up the family. After a chaotic game of checkers (the Warners not being up to Chess), they became attached to the Personification of Death Itself, whom they affecionately called "Daddoo." Finally, Death decided to restore them to life, remarking that he would not be back till the end of their natural lives, which he added he hoped would not be for a very long time.
- The Monkey King poses as the Grim Reaper in Jackie Chan Adventures, in order to kill Jackie. While proving himself to be extremely good at wielding a scythe, he is talked out of killing Jackie that way because "it wouldn't be very funny".
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