17 Anime Characters Who've Experienced Life-Altering Trauma

For someone with such a terrifying backstory, Edward Elric of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is remarkably emotionally stable. When Edward was a little boy, his mother died of an unspecified illness. Desperate with grief, he begins studying alchemy, and attempts to raise his mother from the dead. Unfortunately, rather than reviving his late mother, Edward only succeeds in creating an undead monster. Additionally, the gamble costs him two of his limbs, and destroys his brother Alphonse's body completely. After recovering from the terrifying event, Edward and Alphonse make it their mission to restore their bodies. They work tirelessly to achieve this goal, but end up embroiled in far greater issues. After experiencing great trauma, Edward develops a noble desire to protect others from suffering.

Guts of Berserk has arguably one of the worst childhoods in anime history; any one of the horrible things that's happened to him would completely wreck a normal person. As a newborn, Guts was found beneath his mother's hanged body. From there, he's adopted by a mercenary named Gambino who regularly beats him, and eventually begins advertising the young Guts's services as a sex worker. Later, Guts survives a terrifying supernatural event called the Eclipse that leaves him severely injured and branded with a mark that attracts dangerous supernatural forces. How does Guts deal with this his life of trauma? He becomes a miserable, hard-hearted man who will stop at nothing to achieve revenge. As a side-effect of this, Guts regularly finds himself acting violently towards his loved ones, despite his best efforts to remain calm. Guts is deeply scarred by his past, but considering how the world of Berserk regularly features religious zealots being burned at the stake, there probably aren't too many qualified therapists hanging around.

Ken Kaneki has been through a lot. In Tokyo Ghoul, the hero is subject to a not-so-great home life, and winds up being brutally attacked by a man-eating ghoul whose organs fuse with his own to create a ghoul/human hyrid that needs to consume human flesh to survive. That all sounds pretty rough, yet Ken doesn't actually react that strongly to the horror. Instead, he represses most of his actual emotions (after an initial freakout), and convinces himself that his circumstances are acceptable. Ken's demeanor changes dramatically after he's tortured by a ghoul named Yakumo Oomori. Oomori employs a variety of inventive torture methods, such as repeatedly cutting off Kaneki's fingers and forcing them to regenerate, or putting a Chinese red centipede in his ear. The experience leaves Kaneki so physically and psychologically broken that his old defense mechanisms no longer work. As a result, his personality hardens dramatically, and he becomes capable of hurting others for his own personal benefit.

Just about everyone in Attack on Titan is traumatized to some degree, but Eren Jaeger is arguably the most vocal about his issues. After being confined in a small, crowded town (so as to avoid being eaten by giant, humanoid monsters called Titans), Eren is fed up with his life, and ready to fight for his freedom. That desire increases exponentially when his town is attacked, his home destroyed, and his mother is eaten in front of his eyes. After escaping as a refugee, Eren joins the Survey Corps to help destroy the Titans. Even after he gains power, Eren still has nightmares and flashbacks related to his skirmishes with the monsters, and his rage increases exponentially with each new battle.

Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- is not your typical Isekai anime. When Subaru is transported to a different realm, he soon realizes that it's no ordinary world. Every time he dies, he goes back in time and starts over. Plus, a "Return by Death" curse prevents him from telling anyone about it. He is stuck in an endless loop where he keeps experiencing brutal and violent deaths, only to repeat it all over again. The trauma of repeatedly dying is enough to make anyone go insane.

At first glance, Gintoki Sakata of Gintama is a lazy good-for-nothing who scrapes together a living doing legally-questionable odd jobs. That's not totally untrue, but there's more to the character than meets the eye. Gintoki begins life as an orphan who is forced to loot corpses for food. He is taken in by a school that teaches children how to become samurai, and soon finds himself fighting in the Jouei War, so that he can rescue his missing teacher. Nearly everyone in his battalion is killed in combat, and Gintoki is one of the few survivors. After the war, Gintoki leads a normal life, wherein he rarely discusses his combat experiences. To hide his trauma, he's bitter, sarcastic, and shows little regard for his own life, but in reality he's haunted by his inability to save his comrades.

Kousei Arima of Your Lie In April starts the series off with a major problem: he's a pianist who can no longer hear his own music. Before a terminal illness left her unable to play, Kousei's mother was also a famous pianist. She decided to teach her son how to play piano, but her methods were so strict and severe that the young boy found the lessons to be torturous. At one point, things get so tense that she actually hits him until she draws blood. Eventually, Kousei's mother dies, leaving him orphaned and unable to play the music that once brought him joy.

For a shonen anime, My Hero Academia features a surprising lack of tragic backstories. That said, some characters still show signs of having experienced serious trauma. One such character is Shoto Todoroki, a student at a school for would-be heroes. Shoto's birth was the result of his father Endeavor's attempts to combine his fire quirk (the in-universe term for power) with his wife's ice quirk. Unfortunately, Endeavor only cares about his son's abilities, not his well being. Endeavor begins beating Shoto when he is five years old, and claims that abuse will make the boy stronger. He also beats his wife, who is so traumatized by her husband that she decides to pour boiling water on Shoto's eye, scarring him for life. Shoto grew up despising his father, and once swore to only use the ice powers he inherited from his mother. By letting his fire powers lay dormant, Shoto is forced to opperate at half-strength. In order to achieve his full potential, he needs to learn to view his flame powers as more than just an extension of his father.

A Silent Voice is one of the most popular anime movies to appear in recent years. The story focuses on Shouko Nishimiya, a deaf girl, and Shouya Ishida, a classmate who once bullied her and who is trying to make amends. Interestingly, although Shouya is the bully and Shouko the victim, both are traumatized by the experience. Shouko's self-esteem takes a serious hit after she is mocked for her disability, yet Shouya is repulsed by his own behavior, and wants desperately to make up for it. Both characters are emotionally shaken to the point of attempting suicide, and they can only find reprieve through exploring their shared connection.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba starts off its first episode with a shocking and tragic event for the main protagonists. After Tanjiro comes back from the village, he finds his entire family brutally murdered by a demon. The only survivor is his sister, Nezuko. But her life wasn't exactly spared. Instead, she has turned into a flesh-eating demon. Not only did she have to experience her whole family being killed, but her life will never be the same as a demon.

No matter what side they fight for, nearly every character in Naruto is traumatized in some way. Considering the world of the show is in a constant state of warfare, it would be unrealistic to expect anything else. Of all the show's damaged cast members, Obito Uchiha is one of the most frequently misunderstood villains. Obito starts off as a boisterous young boy with big dreams of becoming a great ninja. After a terrible accident leaves half of his body crushed, his horrific undead relative Madara brings him to an underground bunker, where he replaces the child's destroyed body with humanoid plant matter. While Obito is recovering from his injuries, Madara tries to convince him that the world is an irredeemable Hellscape that needs to be destroyed. Despite his vulnerable state, Obito isn't swayed by Madara's argument. However, when he reenters the outside world, he is greeted by the sight of one of his best friends murdering the other. Driven mad with grief, the formerly happy kid becomes one of the series's main villains, and aids Madara on his quest to destroy the world. As it turns out, Madara deliberately set up the battle to convince Obito that the world was irredeemable.

Nothing about Lucy's life in Elfen Lied is happy nor pleasant. Because Lucy is a Diclonius, she has horns on her head. This made her a target of extreme bullying and discrimination all throughout her childhood. She also had no parents and lived in the orphanage where the other kids and staff would ostracize her. The point of no return is when Lucy witnesses the orphanage bullies kill her beloved dog. She snaps and instantly kills them with her telekinesis. She then harbors a deep hatred for humans and starts killing countless people in cold blood. And to make matters worst, she is captured and experimented on by the government in a Diclonius Research Institute. It's no wonder why Lucy became as evil and sadistic as she is.

Death Note's Sayu Yagami starts off as a normal, happy, teenager, but all that changes when her brother begins playing the part of vigilante mass murderer. To make matters worse, her brother's criminal activity winds up getting her kidnapped. While viewers aren't shown exactly what happens to Sayu while she is held hostage by Mello and his underlings, she returns from captivity mute and unable to walk. The last time Sayu appears on-screen, her mother is pushing her around a park in a wheelchair, and she's staring into space with a haunted look in her eyes.

Nao Tomori's mission in life is to ensure that nobody else experiences the horrors her older brother Kazuki was once subjected to. Like many of the characters in Charlotte, Kazuki was born with a special ability; he could cause vibrations in the air around him, which made him a prime target for unscrupulous scientists. Kazuki was the subject of a series of experiments that left him a shell of his former self. Once testing had ended, Kazuki could do little more than lay in a hospital bed, sans the occasional violent meltdown. After watching her brother shrivel, Nao is determined to help others keep their powers a secret from those who would take advantage of them.

Sword Art Online II's Shino Asada (AKA Sinon) started playing a virtual reality game called Gun Gale Online as a form of immersion therapy. When she was a little girl, Shino found herself involved in a bank heist that ended with her shooting the robber in self-defense. Ever since she was forced to kill a man, Shino has experienced nightmares, flashbacks, and other symptoms of PTSD. Playing a video game that lets her use a gun in relative safety allows Shino to gain mastery over the event that traumatized her. Unfortunately, what Shino is doing isn't exactly prescribed, and she actually ends up putting herself in danger when the game becomes enmeshed with reality.

Himura Kenshin was once known as Himura Battōsai, the legendary assassin. However, by the time Rurouni Kenshin begins, the warrior has left his days of violence behind him. Kenshin vows to never take another life, and wants desperately live in peace. Additionally, he believes that anyone who he wronged while he was an assassin has the right to exact their revenge. His self-esteem is basically nonexistent, and he doesn't think that he has any right to happiness.

The trauma experienced by Hayato Shinkai of Yowamushi Pedal might seem trivial to some, but it clearly affects him deeply. During a particularly heated race, Hayato is so focused on winning that he inadvertently runs over and kills a rabbit, orphaning its baby. Hayato feels so guilty that he immediately adopts the baby rabbit. Even after the young bun is safe in its new home, Hayato is unable to cut past other bikers during races, as this was the reckless maneuver that caused the accident. Whenever he tries to break ahead, he becomes panicky and experiences flashbacks.