Characters who suffered the most in their childhoods

[Newprimus]

Well, barring some really out-there childhoods featured in doujinshiii and such,


Satoshi and Satoko from Higurashi really had a hard time, and are a good mention.

The Narutaru examples are quite good too.


In erogames, one that kinda stuck with me for a long time was in Cross Channel:

Spoiler:

From what I can gather, the main protagonist was apparently forced to wear girl's dresses and such, and I think he was abused whilst so as well.

[Bandersnatch]

Gotta give Guts from Berserk another vote.

Very minor spoilers from early volumes

Spoiler:

The guy was born from the corpse of his mother, raised knowing only about war, blamed for the death of the woman who saved him, sold for the night by his father figure to another guy leading him to get butt raped. Then later he gets chased out of the group, fleeing for his life and falls off a cliff, somehow surviving only to get attacked by wolves five seconds later....DAMN!

[KiNA]

Hensel & Gretel from Black Lagoon?

[nadare]

Hansel & Gretel from black lagoon, too.

[Kikaifan]

Ah crap, beat me to it. By a few hours. Damn.

You could probably throw Revy in there too no problem.

[jedinat]

If manga is included, Rei from Mars had an almost laughably difficult childhood. Kira's wasn't easy either.

As for anime, Ginko from Mushishi didn't have it too easy. Neither did Watanuki from xxxHolic.

[Jayjs20]

Tell me if this is just me.

I haven't seen all the animes listed, but seeing people list Shinji(Eva) and Sagara(FMP) on the same level as -any- mentioned character from Elfen Lied greatly makes me question the credibility of this thread as a whole.

[Areguzanda]

Kaoru from Ai Yori Aoshi
see it and you will know why.
but he is still lucky, because he has Aoi to treat his wounds *jealous*

[Furudanuki]

Lots of anime series feature someone who had an unhappy childhood, but IMO Sana's six brothers from Innocent Venus would win a "worst childhood" contest hands down.

Spoiler for Major plot spoiler:

Sana and her brothers were the results of a genetic engineering project of a special military unit. The boys were dissected and had portions of their nervous systems implanted in powered armor suits in order to interface with and enhance the abilities of the suit's users. The remainder of their nervous systems are kept in tanks in a laboratory for future use. And the worst part? They still retain awareness of who they were and everything that was done to them. The memories of pain and terror carried in their nerve tissues are so strong that most people who try to use the armored suits are either driven insane or die from the stress. As a result, the ones who can use the suits are either certifiable psychopaths to begin with, or highly disciplined and controls individuals who are having their humanity slowly eaten away.

[Cephalopedalis]

Well i can think of quit a number of characters who suffered (or are suffering)a horrific childhood.

IMO the worst cases i know about

- Gaare from Naruto (obvious)
- Wrath from Full Metal Alchemist (the Anime not the Manga)
- Johan Liebert from MONSTER

[felix]

Add another point for Gaara..
Then there's also Sasuke..

[Ptolemi]

This is an ibvious one....

The ppl from Elfen Lied. All of them except his cousin.

The most screwed up childhoods ever. No question about it.

[felix]

Oh yeah how the hell could I forget..

That girl who had her hands..... *ahem*
Poor thing.. she had it the worst.. :'(

[SnowfairyX]

Originally Posted by BlackCatXIII

Oh yeah how the hell could I forget..

That girl who had her hands..... *ahem*
Poor thing.. she had it the worst.. :'(

Who and what series are you referring to?

[felix]

Elfen Lied..

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by Ptolemi

This is an ibvious one....

No, it's far from obvious imo. Kouta had a pretty horrible "accident" happen to him, but it only lasted for a few moments before his brain blanked the whole thing out. It is no fairy tale, but he didn't suffer for long.

In the same time there are characters who have been suffering ever since... let's take one not so obvious one - Misuzu from Air and let's have a look at her situation.

Spoiler for major spilers for Air:

All her life she has spent alone. Due to some unknown cause(curse of the winged beings) she is unable to befriend anyone, because she has a breakdown each time she is about to become friends with any one. Her mother included. (And it is not her real mother, but her mother's sister - her mother died way back and her father didn't want her at that time so she ended up with her mother's sister)

Because of her strange sickness and some other factors she does not have a close relationship with her mother - they are simply living under the same roof. At school children wouldn't even talk to her much, because she is considered weird. And even if they would talk to her it is not like she can make any friends because it would cause her to break down.

Her mother has not even given her a birthday present on any of her birthdays. In fact they pretend such day does not exist. on her 16th birthday she gets to talk and play with Yukito for a bit and says that this is the happyest birthday she has ever had. Normaly she spends all her time alone playing cards with herself.

Yukito is the only person that she has that resembles a friend - but she still can not get too friendly with him or that causes her to break down. It gets even better - her sicknes becomes worse and she is getting weaker day after day. Yukito figures this has got to do something with him and tries to leave, but he can't ... when it looks like Misuzu is about to die he sacrifices his own life to gain some more time for Misuzu so that she can gain some happy memories.

Oh, but it gets better - her condition keeps getting worse to the pont she can not walk on her own. She is in pain all the time, but pretends that she is fine in front of her mother in order not to worry her. In the end she asks Haruko(her mother) to take her to the beach (because she saw children playing there and how fun it was)... there she gets out of her wheelchair and walks about 10 steps or so before collapsing, but she still says with a smile that she has reached her goal - to be happy once in her life... after that she dies in Harukos arms.

Nice life she had, didn't she? It is even better in Air the Movie imo - instead of breaking down when she gets too friendly with any one she feels pain whenever she has feelings for any one(love for her mother included)... Her life has been weaking for a long time now and the doctors have no idea what to do... and Misuzu knows about this.

Certainly does not help when she falls in love with Yukito. Later down the road her mother even beggs of Misuzu to hate her if that would help her to ease the pain... but Misuzu answers that she has finaly decided - that emotional pains hurts more than physical. At the end she meets the same fate - getting weaker and weaker by the day with Yukito and HAruko by her side untill we have the beach scene again where she dies in Yukito's and Haruko's arms.

Nice life this girl had, didn't she? I have no idea how she managed to cling on to her sanity or didn't commit a suicide.

Kouta from Elfen Lied does not come close to this level of suffering. Lucy might to a lesser extent, but none of them had to suffer for 16 years straight.

[Deathkillz]

Originally Posted by Kira_Naruto

Hensel & Gretel from Black Lagoon?

Originally Posted by nadare

Hansel & Gretel from black lagoon, too.

Originally Posted by Kikaifan

Ah crap, beat me to it. By a few hours. Damn.

You could probably throw Revy in there too no problem.

LOL! i was thinking that when i saw the title to this thread

hmm another one would be riku from higurashi...pain over and over again

[luckyovermind]

Nameless girl from gin'iro, definitely one of the most tragic tales. (I'm refering to the first chapter and first epilogue combined)

[PastPrime]

Originally Posted by Skyfall

No, it's far from obvious imo. Kouta had a pretty horrible "accident" happen to him, but it only lasted for a few moments before his brain blanked the whole thing out. It is no fairy tale, but he didn't suffer for long.

In the same time there are characters who have been suffering ever since... let's take one not so obvious one - Misuzu from Air and let's have a look at her situation.

Spoiler for major spilers for Air:

All her life she has spent alone. Due to some unknown cause(curse of the winged beings) she is unable to befriend anyone, because she has a breakdown each time she is about to become friends with any one. Her mother included. (And it is not her real mother, but her mother's sister - her mother died way back and her father didn't want her at that time so she ended up with her mother's sister)

Because of her strange sickness and some other factors she does not have a close relationship with her mother - they are simply living under the same roof. At school children wouldn't even talk to her much, because she is considered weird. And even if they would talk to her it is not like she can make any friends because it would cause her to break down.

Her mother has not even given her a birthday present on any of her birthdays. In fact they pretend such day does not exist. on her 16th birthday she gets to talk and play with Yukito for a bit and says that this is the happyest birthday she has ever had. Normaly she spends all her time alone playing cards with herself.

Yukito is the only person that she has that resembles a friend - but she still can not get too friendly with him or that causes her to break down. It gets even better - her sicknes becomes worse and she is getting weaker day after day. Yukito figures this has got to do something with him and tries to leave, but he can't ... when it looks like Misuzu is about to die he sacrifices his own life to gain some more time for Misuzu so that she can gain some happy memories.

Oh, but it gets better - her condition keeps getting worse to the pont she can not walk on her own. She is in pain all the time, but pretends that she is fine in front of her mother in order not to worry her. In the end she asks Haruko(her mother) to take her to the beach (because she saw children playing there and how fun it was)... there she gets out of her wheelchair and walks about 10 steps or so before collapsing, but she still says with a smile that she has reached her goal - to be happy once in her life... after that she dies in Harukos arms.

Nice life she had, didn't she? It is even better in Air the Movie imo - instead of breaking down when she gets too friendly with any one she feels pain whenever she has feelings for any one(love for her mother included)... Her life has been weaking for a long time now and the doctors have no idea what to do... and Misuzu knows about this.

Certainly does not help when she falls in love with Yukito. Later down the road her mother even beggs of Misuzu to hate her if that would help her to ease the pain... but Misuzu answers that she has finaly decided - that emotional pains hurts more than physical. At the end she meets the same fate - getting weaker and weaker by the day with Yukito and HAruko by her side untill we have the beach scene again where she dies in Yukito's and Haruko's arms.

Nice life this girl had, didn't she? I have no idea how she managed to cling on to her sanity or didn't commit a suicide.

Kouta from Elfen Lied does not come close to this level of suffering. Lucy might to a lesser extent, but none of them had to suffer for 16 years straight.

I would say that the diclonius children in Elfen Lied had about the worst childhoods. Test subjects that were treated worse than lab animals.

[anselfir]

everyone from elfen, Nana especially.

Rei.