by Are characters less rewarded for having a painful past?
Heroines are indispensable in anime, and we often expect them to have a happy ending, such as marrying the main character or achieving their goal. However, there are also works in which the heroine meets a traumatic end.
“ef – a tale of melodies.” Speaking of heroines who met a tragic end, we cannot leave out “Amemiya Yuko (CV: Nakajima Yumiko)” from the TV anime “ef – a Tale of Melodies.”, which began airing in 2008. The anime is based on the PC game “of – a fairy tale of the two.” It is the second season following the first season that aired in 2007. Yuko, who lived in an orphanage with “Himura Yu (CV: Tokon Koichi)” in her childhood, is one day taken in by “Amemiya Akira (CV: Furusawa Toru),” who will later become her stepbrother.
In episode 6, it is revealed that Akira sexually assaulted her. Yuko begins to resent him, believing that if Yu had prevented Akira from taking her in, she might not have had to go through what happened to her. When Yuko finds Yu at her high school, she begins to follow Sora. Yuko has lost her memory of Yuko, and although he finds her annoying because she is persistent in following him around, he gradually begins to remember her memories. Despite this painful past, Yuko later finds happiness in Yu’s company.
However, their happiness does not last long, as Yuko is hit by a car while shielding a young girl on Christmas and dies. Due to the severity of Yuko’s suffering, some viewers commented, “It’s a shame because I thought she had overcome her painful past and found happiness.” In contrast, others commented, “Although there were some strong settings and depictions, I was drawn in and overwhelmed by the direction and various resolutions towards the end. It’s a great work, including the first season,” and “It’s a work that depicts the pure love of each character, with the theme of independence.
The development from episode 10, which considers the past, made me cry, and the last scene was amazing.” “Senki Zesshō Symphogear” A character who shocked viewers with the death scene depicted from the first episode was “Amaha Kanade (CV: Takayama Minami)” who appears in “Senki Zesshō Symphogear” broadcast in 2012. In this work, girls wear armor-type weapons called “Symphogear” and fight against the mysterious disaster “Noise” using the song. Despite losing her family in an attack by Noise, Kanade formed a unit called Zwei Wing with the main character Tsubasa Kazanari (CV: Nana Mizuki) and balanced her career as a top artist and a warrior. In the first episode, Noise suddenly appeared during an armor activation experiment conducted at the same time as Zwei Wing’s live performance, and a battle ensued.
Then, a fragment of Kanade’s Gungnir, one of the only pieces of equipment in the Symphogear System that can counter Noise, pierces the left chest of the main character, Hibiki Tachibana (CV: Aoi Yuki). She was unable to escape in time and was seriously injured. To save Hibiki, Kanade uses her most potent attack, Zesshō, but she cannot withstand the strain beyond her limits and dies in battle, her body reduced to ashes.
Even before the broadcast, promotions had been going on that made it seem as though the two members of Zwei Wing were the main characters, and magazines had focused on Kanade and Tsubasa rather than the main character, Hibiki, so when Kanade died in the first episode, many people were surprised, with comments like “I wanted her to be my favorite character, but she’s gone in the first episode…” and “I was looking forward to Kanade’s exploits, so this is a total surprise.” Senki Zesshō Symphogear became a popular series and has continued for five seasons.
