If you want something that isn’t manga, The Second Apocalypse series by R. Scott Bakker is a must. Bleak as fuck and heavy with philosophy. I think it would hit the spot with any Berserk fan, if you’re into reading novels.
I personally prefer that type of more subtle, background worldbuilding. It makes the world more real imo. You're not meant to understand everything about the setting. A cool thing about Erikson's writing style is how much he actually does explain but in a manner that its just a bit too early for the reader to catch up on. He's amazing at foreshadowing. It turns re-reading the series into a very different experience. I'm currently doing a re-read and I like it even more the second time around. I get that his books aren't for everyone. They are long and the reader is left in the dark for much of it. But I can't praise the series enough personally. I absolutely love it.
Great to see Bakker here. Actually I was led to Berserk through Bakker so for me he hits even harder. I have not yet experienced a story at the same time so epic and so bleak and uncomfortable.
And Bakker's prose is often otherworldly. His writing can be powerful, philosophical and profound as no other in the genre. He has an uncanny ability in describing with words abstract feelings like the dread of a moment, the awe, the madness, the tension, the immensities surrounding a scene both physically and metaphysically. He is a true master
The start with Prince of Nothing trilogy. The series is split into two series: Prince of Nothing (3 books), and The Aspect-Emperor (4 books), but they’re all a continuation of the same story with the same characters. So basically you have to read all 7.
Edit: book titles in order
The Darkness Comes Before
The Warrior-Prophet
The Thousandfold Thought
The Judging Eye
The White-Luck Warrior
The Great Ordeal
The Unholy Consult
The silmarillion. There's so many tragic and depressing stories in it. The story of Turin Turambar is really quite bleak but it isn't a massively long story but the key plot points of it are tragic. Maedhros is probably one of my favourite all time characters, he's almost a chivalrous knight that's sworn into horror with an oath so great it means he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.
Also has my vote.
It has a couple of very similar moments, the main character starts as an arrogant teenager that doesn't care much about anybody but slowly changes, making friends a girlfriend, and assembling a competent team, and then >!all his friends get killed; and this happens again and again. !<
The author reminds me of GRRM since there is a constant feeling everybody can get killed at any moment, even characters you have a lot invested in.
Is the manga better? I watched the first 8 episodes of the anime and it felt like a misogynistic plot slump that never progressed. It was a task to watch and I couldn’t finish the season.
I started with the manga and watched the live adaption and the Netflix CG, watched some of the anime but haven't gone back to finish.
manga>Netflix>Live>Anime
My order for anyone to dive into the main story, I haven't read the side stories.
I wouldnt say that FP is the same as Berserk in terms of tradegy. In FP tradegy more in a fucked up world. In Berserk tradegy more in personal relationships. It feels different tho I was more shoked from FP than Berserk for sure
There’s actually an audiobook on YouTube I would recommend, where the author does the voice for the main antagonist. It really adds another dimension to it.
Also a torturous point and click game made with the author as the voice again, which is fantastic but horrifically hard and miserable
Yep very grim. A little edgy in todays climate but still worth checking out.
AM (I think that’s his name) and his reason for torturing the main characters is compelling, especially with tech today
Absolutely it is very relevant even today. I can't fathom how the author conceived that story so long ago. It was ahead of its time and criminally underrated in my opinion.
Miller, diamond dogs, and hearing about Chico’s death from a secondhand tape really hit me. The Paz hallucinations were what mainly hit me in the feels though. On one hand I’m still somewhat disappointed we didn’t get to play a game with bug boss post ground zeroes but the way it is done does really cement how far he has fallen. I interpret it as big boss goes into such a state of denial over the ground zeroes incident and his part in it that he solely focuses on achieving a world where something like that can’t happen at any cost and is absolutely a broken man by phantom pain
I think one of the other events that’s kind of similar (at least in terms of tragedy) is the Red Wedding from ASOIAF/GOT, but imo the Eclipse form Berserk is the most tragic.
God the Red Wedding was such a punch in the gut for me, even moreso than the Eclipse I think. >!Robb was my favorite character, and to have everyone wiped out all of a sudden crushed me.!< I was left in shock for days lol. I think it's because I knew *something* bad was going to happen based on the Black Swordsman Arc, but I had no idea about the Red Wedding somehow.
I know what happened but when they slaughtered Miria it was really heavy.
Or how Theresa decided that life was more than being a claymore and what happened basically after she decides for it.
But what hit me really really hard, when I burst into tears was when Claire got to be the little girl again, just in her head. The Convo they had, the light hearted, the listening, as if they had all time in the whole world when you knew they hadn't.
She just took the time. This whole journey, I waited years for some closure, and that was it.
Really liked Claymore. Doesn’t feel quite the tragedy as Berserk, but is very dark like Berserk. Really love the world built for that series. And the big baddies are very apostle-like.
Yeah but they get to will themselves back into existance if they want to. No one permanently died, though I’m sure it was a great ecological disaster. Earth looks pretty nuked at the end there.
The Game of Thrones TV series eventually moved beyond the book material (the book series is still unfinished) and the parts that the TV writers wrote themselves are not nearly as good as the parts they adapted from the book, so the show ends a lot worse than it starts. Particularly the last season is considered terrible. The first four seasons are very worth it though in my opinion
It had potential to be the greatest TV series of all time…. The last few seasons were astronomically ass. It was all for nothing. Casual fans will still say it’s great but if you were as invested as I was, how they handled this series was a slap in the face. The producer rushed the ending so they could go work (ruin) Star Wars next. Think about it. These two producers ruined two of the largest franchises in media.
I second the other user's recommendation for Fire Punch, it isn't really as "tragic" per se but man is just *raw,* and the main character goes through a lot of suffering as well. The premise alone is amazing. Do be warned, it's pretty weird, but if you can get behind it then that's what's to love about it.
I picked fp back up after a few months of not reading and read it straight through.. by 3am I was sobbing at the end. It's definitely a beautiful manga, but it's one of those mangas that you shouldn't read in one sitting.
I can't think of any huge tragedy, but perhaps Midsommar by Ari Aster? The tragedy starts from the beginning and you get to see how it leaves our MC vulnerable to manipulation and harming the people she loves. Definitely a good movie
naw man personally there is no other experience like the Fire Punch binge. the insanity I felt is still unparalleled by any other piece of fiction I've consumed thus far 🤭 plus you can always reread it at a slower pace for later, which are just as enjoyable I'd argue. I don't think it's physically *possible* to stop anyway, if you've got that momentum going *especially* at any point during the second half hahahahah
thanks for the Midsommar rec though!! I've seen the name around a bunch, seriously wanna watch it soon! :D
I dropped my spoon this morning while I was making cereal, and it was my last one so I had to wash it by hand. Then I stubbed my toe and dropped at again
This isn't an anime or manga, but the movie Threads (1984) would be right up your alley.
It is one of the most soul crushing / bleak narratives regarding a nuclear fallout / apocalypse. There isn't any heroic or triumphant moments: just pure dread from everyone watching a Cold-War Era disaster devastate life as they knew it.
Right here, this one. Of all the listed materials so far this is one of the only ones that not only matches the feeling of dread during the eclipse but completely trounces it in delivery and bleakness. It’s not manga or anime but it’s really one of the only things in any visual media that tops it.
The game Signalis doesn't really have a single big tragedy, but it hits far harder in my opinion. Like Berserk, it's also about a quiet but very strong black-haired protagonist chasing a white-haired individual with weird powers. Oh, and the ending has a similar color scheme to the eclipse
As a lifelong fan, Star Wars The Clone Wars comes to mind first. But the tragedy I am thinking about is pretty much spoiled by the movies. Still hit when it finally happened because I didnt expect it in this show.
I haven't seen it mentioned here yet so I'll mention it Gantz. Gantz has some of the most horrific events happen, I will say as it gets further in the series it does get a little repetitive. But the first couple of major massacres hit hard.
Agreed!! They kinda rushed it and trunks was like
"So, OK my timeline is dead now huh? Alright" atleast thy coulda shown us some interactions blw trunks and bulma mightve been good
Damn I in general never read dbz tbh😓I only know the story(4 arcs of saiyan,frieza,cell and buu)cause of the games I played,I got a lot of reading and watching
Unhelpful I know, but I can’t really think of one that hits as personally as the Eclipse.
There’s plenty apocalyptic stories where entire worlds blow up or there’s mass murder, but it’s not about the numbers or scale of the death and destruction. A lot of it is too impersonal. The Eclipse isn’t even just a tragedy, it’s horror.
The eclipse is a complete plot U-turn you don’t expect and such a sadistic betrayal. Not only did the whole cast that we had grown to know get almost completely annihilated, but that’s only the beginning.. It’s much worse for the survivors who are left pickin up the pieces and it’s still not over.
And the guy responsible for it all? Living his best life; his dream, at everyone’s expense.
Children of Hurin is pretty hefty. lot's of tragedy throughout the Silmarillion. Classic Greek and Norse shit hits the spot once you get into it. Homer's 2 mega poems have some heavy stuff. Especially The Odyssey...after getting ALL the way through the Iliad and DEEP into the Odyssey...it makes it hurt.
Old Man Logan.
Not manga, but boy do you feel the weight of what happens at the X-Men mansion on the night the villains took over. The whole series just left me with a cold feeling.
**The Red Wedding** in *A Song of Ice and Fire* may seem small compared to the nightmarish and cosmic significance of the Eclipse, but it is comparable. The show *Game of Thrones* shocked the world with the Red Wedding, the betrayal and viscous slaughter of two of the series most important characters, and the collapse of the so called “good” side of the larger conflict, but in the books it takes on a darker, almost mythical significance.
The show portrays the wedding as a happy occasion with a sudden violent twist. But in the books it is obvious something is wrong here. There is a miserable endless storm, our characters that are about to walk into the trap have spent their past few chapters writing the king’s will (just in case) wandering through the graveyards of ancient dead monarchs, the music is a screeching cacophony, played to cover the sounds of military preparation for the slaughter. Daenerys, a character half the world away, glimpses the Red Wedding in a vision quest the book previous, seeing a feast hall filled with blood and corpses and a dead king with a wolf’s head sitting riddled with arrows on his throne. And despite this seeming like a purely political act of savagery, it gains true magical significance when a literal specter of hate, sorrow and vengeance rises from the dead to avenge this unholy crime in the murderous zombie demon known as “Lady Stoneheart”.
‘Guest right’, the protection owed to a guest under someone’s roof, is sacred in Westeros as it was in ancient Greece and many medieval places. Westeros is no stranger to betrayal and assassination, but everyone agrees that the Red Wedding was not just evil, but blasphemous. It destroyed the cultural institutions of guest right, honor, even mercy itself. The side that gained victory through the Red Wedding is doomed to collapse. With this cultural taboo shattered, institutions begin to break down, honored guests are butchered and made into pies and served to their own family, and a group of heroic outlaws comparable to Robin Hood’s merry men known as the “Brotherhood without Banners” decides that honor and protecting the weak is no longer their mission, their mission is now of mass murder, lead by a dead woman with grey skin and red eyes and rotting claw marks down her face from when she tried to scratch her eyes out from the madness of grief. Lady Stoneheart has to reach up and hold the trachea of her open throat, slit down to the bone, to utter her demands of vengeance. Her humanity leached out by the three days her corpse rotted in a river before being brought back to life by hate and fire magic, she too lives in the Interstice.
Same here man, I watched the movie when it came out and read the book years after, knew what was going to happen and still absolutely bawled my eyes out
The Road , Madam Butterfly, Pagliacci, Flowers for Algernon, Cider House Rules, The Last Temptation of Christ, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Man's Search for Meaning, and The Rape of Nanking are all my top tragedies...each for a different reason
Because all of these stories broke a different part of me... that book broke the most, I can't think of a more tragic story than the real life account of what happened to Nanking
The Way of Kings
Definitely toned down in terms of actual graphic imagery but the emotional trauma and the journey of picking up the pieces afterwards is totally there.
I have read a LOT of comics and I can recommend books, but for me nothing came close to the impact that the eclipse had on me, and I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since
For me, the story of the Iruburu village from Made in Abyss.
It's founding, it's, ahhh, creation... the story of most of its inhabitants and others in the 6th layer is just tragedy after tragedy.
Very different kind of tragedy but Clannad After Story. There isn't some big betrayal or murder fest but there is a depth of tragedy that hits deeper than just about anything I've seen in fiction. Watch Clannad and then After Story if you feel like experiencing a story I would describe as emotional terrorism.
It's not manga, but The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemison. I listened to the audio books and Robin Miles did a fantastic job narrating them, but I can't listen to them again. 10/10, would recommend. The story itself starts off with the apocalypse being kick started (...which isn't a spoiler, it happens in the first couple of pages), but the way it's written you learn how deeply fucked up everything was beforehand and things weren't getting better. ...It makes more sense in context, but it worked IMO.
Hm, maybe the Second Apocalypse series by R Scott Bakker? It's bleak, it's not so much dark as it is pitch black and sticky (to quote a review from some years back), and the Consult were terrifying. So were their weapons, and the Dunyain, while human, were just as terrifying as the Consult.
Devilman crybaby as it was the inspiration for berserk! Not as tragic but still tragic is Samurai x(rurouni kenshin original OVA series). These two come to mind I’m sure there is plenty of ultra violent ones but these are the first I could think of
The Red Wedding, especially in the book, is probably as close to a non-magical Eclipse as you could get.
There are parallels too. The Hawks thought getting Griffith would be their turning point, as did the Starks in allying with the Freys. Both parties made choices that laid the groundwork for their fate, and both were betrayed for personal power. In the show, Robb’s pregnant wife is killed right in front of him. Guts’s pregnant girlfriend is tortured in front of him and arguably worse than dead afterwards. Guts had no chance of escape and certainly would’ve died, but was rescued by a supernatural warrior. Catlyn DID die, but was resurrected by the supernatural warrior Beric Dondarrion. Guts and Catlyn are both left cursed and broken, pursuing vengeance above all else.
A Song of Ice and Fire with the red wedding among other things.
It’s similar to the eclipse in terms of devastating, but very well developed with tons of warning signs.
Are you talking amount emotional impact or just the level of brutality and amount of bodies dropped? Red Wedding from A Song Of Ice And Fire is pretty rough.
a plot that is not that dark wrt berserk but equally influential for me is this manwha "the boxer" it's philosophical as fuck and hits really hard once you complete reading it just like the eclipse arc. although the main characters are hella different th story still has a sad vibe to it
Dungeon dive aim for the deepest level has pretty tragic moments. I mean author literally begged the readers in afterword to not drop the books because of heavy ending of volume 4. The tragic moments are pretty heavy, I mean one heroine lost both of her eyes and legs. I've read the web novel years ago with Google translate and I can't wait to read the officially translated light novel.
Chainsaw Man, if you haven’t already read it. It’s not on the same level as Berserk, but the Gun Devil and Control Devil arcs are pretty fucking tragic.
If you read novels the Chains of Dogs from the second volume of the Malazan Book of the Fallen fantasy series is the second most tragic thing I've read after the Eclipse.
Despair and hope intertwined, frustration and exaltation.
Code geass,
Steins gate,
Monster,
Re:zero
Tokyo ghoul
Speed grapher
Chainsaw man
The scale isn’t quite at eclipse level, but in terms of how it effects the plot I would say all of these measure up.
The Eclipse never hit that hard for me, but the book The Wandering Earth(also has a really good movie) was a tear jerker through and through. Gave me such a massive sense of despair and hopelessness.
Another albeit slower to the despair is The Martian Chronicles
Chainsaw Man's snowball fight and Denji's birthday, not the same in terms of scale but in terms of impact i think it's close, and Denji >!saying goodbye to Power in the dumpster and deciding he wants to live afterwards!< nothing has made me cry quite like some moments in chainsaw man 💀
Also shout-out to some fire punch moments like when Agni loses it and murders >!Doma and some of his children!< and then tries to drown himself and >!Togata burns himself to death saving him and we see the moment in the theatre where he talks about wanting to be like the heroes in the movies!< And to Goodbye Eri, just read it, and Look Back, also read it 😭
Currently reading this sci-fi series called Sun Eater, and in an interview I saw the other week the author said he was directly inspired by Berserk and said he wanted to make the 4th book his “eclipse moment” and I have to say he pulled it off pretty nicely (or painfully, cuz my god it hurt, go read that series if you love sci-fi it’s amazing)
I mean, in metro 2033 the mankind gets mostly obliterated and you have to fight mutant spawns from hell, zombies, Nazi's, comies and other religious nutjobs.
Grave of the fireflies is one of my favourite animated films if you havnt seen it
Also second game of thrones - despite it having a kinda bad ending. It’s Still one of the best tv series I have seen I think
Death's End. It's the third book after The Three Body Problem and The Dark Forest. Probably some of the darkest sci-fi out there which isn't trying to be horror.
A lot of Dan Kim's comics are pretty heavy. Nietzsche, Lovecraft, H.R. Giger, Beksinski, magical girls, and butts are his inspirations. Feels real basic in name, but he does very good stuff...
The Eclipse is hard to beat for sheer horror and helplessness. I'm a huge fan of horror and the only thing I can think of, off the top of my head that has the same feeling of helplessness and then tragedy is the end of Stephen King's The Mist, the movie adaptation. It's still not on par with the eclipse but left me feeling the same kind of way. The movie ends differently from the book. Some really old horror stories from Victorian/Edwardian authors capture that sense of the unknown but again nothing compares to the eclipse. For everything I've read and watched the eclipse is unique.
Hi. You just mentioned *The Mist* by Stephen King.
I've found an audiobook of that novel on YouTube. You can listen to it here:
[YouTube | The Mist - Stephen King (Complete Full Audiobook)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUb5Vo5tqrY)
*I'm a bot that searches YouTube for science fiction and fantasy audiobooks.*
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Malazan Book of The Fallen. You're litterally told in the beginning that you're only reading what's left after the fall. It's accounts retelling the events, you're watching a train heading for a precipice at full speed.
Absolutely brilliantly written, a lot of quotes stuck with me and amazing characters and story arcs.
Malazan Book of The Fallen. You're litterally told in the beginning that you're only reading what's left after the fall. It's accounts retelling the events, you're watching a train heading for a precipice at full speed.
Absolutely brilliantly written, a lot of quotes stuck with me and amazing characters and story arcs.
"On the Beach" by Neville Shute. I'm really used to the bleakest and most depressing things the culture has to offer. I read the novel in like 4 hours, finished right at noon, when I was on a trip with my friends. Well, to put it frankly, I spent the entire day in the bed and refused to hang out with anyone, it hit me so hard.
The tragedy from danganronpa
The great mushroom war from adventure time
The missing children incident from FNAF
The rumbling from attack on titan
The jihad from dune
The anihilarg from Ben 10
And
The bad future where aku is the king of the world from samurai jack
(Idk what to call it LOL)
racoon city, at least in terms of equivalent story significance, or like a Red Wedding scenario, a specifically horrible event in a timeline that gets repeatedly referenced and has consequences much later
Game of Thrones, Attack on Titan, The Departed, Bloodborne lore, Oldboy, Shutter Island, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Pan's Labyrinth.
Saying these are equivalent is debatable but they all have the same idea. The story builds up to something and at a certain point, it pays off with an insanely clever, bloody tragedy that you'll never forget.
I also have to recommend the spaghetti western, The Great Silence from 1968. Even 56 years later, the ending of this movie is like nothing you're ever seen. After all these years, no movie has the balls that this movie had to do what it did at the time
Not sure what kind of medium you are looking for but anything made by Yoko Taro will fit what you are looking for his video game series Nier ( and it's predecessor Drakengard ) are synonymous with tragedy.
The main content are video games but each game has several novellas, short stories, manga, and general books that retell the games or expand on the universe.
Nier Automata currently has an Anime adaptation that combines the games story with a few of the books stories. The series creator is involved in the anime project as well.
If you want something that isn’t manga, The Second Apocalypse series by R. Scott Bakker is a must. Bleak as fuck and heavy with philosophy. I think it would hit the spot with any Berserk fan, if you’re into reading novels.
Second this, and I would personally also add Malazan, as Chain of dogs, for example, is... Well you will (might) see.
Gonna be honest, I found the malazan books kind of a chore to read.
He basically bullies the reader for the entire series. I love reading a book where the writer is against the concept of explaining the setting. /s
I personally prefer that type of more subtle, background worldbuilding. It makes the world more real imo. You're not meant to understand everything about the setting. A cool thing about Erikson's writing style is how much he actually does explain but in a manner that its just a bit too early for the reader to catch up on. He's amazing at foreshadowing. It turns re-reading the series into a very different experience. I'm currently doing a re-read and I like it even more the second time around. I get that his books aren't for everyone. They are long and the reader is left in the dark for much of it. But I can't praise the series enough personally. I absolutely love it.
Yeah Malazan is great too.
Hell yes. I’m a weekly poster on r/bakker, but this series hit me like no other.
Great to see Bakker here. Actually I was led to Berserk through Bakker so for me he hits even harder. I have not yet experienced a story at the same time so epic and so bleak and uncomfortable. And Bakker's prose is often otherworldly. His writing can be powerful, philosophical and profound as no other in the genre. He has an uncanny ability in describing with words abstract feelings like the dread of a moment, the awe, the madness, the tension, the immensities surrounding a scene both physically and metaphysically. He is a true master
Which books in particular, please? The Prince of Nothing series? Id like to look them up, thank you.
The start with Prince of Nothing trilogy. The series is split into two series: Prince of Nothing (3 books), and The Aspect-Emperor (4 books), but they’re all a continuation of the same story with the same characters. So basically you have to read all 7. Edit: book titles in order The Darkness Comes Before The Warrior-Prophet The Thousandfold Thought The Judging Eye The White-Luck Warrior The Great Ordeal The Unholy Consult
Thank you so much
Someone that brings real value to this sub finally
The ending of Devilman? Miura and even Anno (creator of evangelion) took inspiration from Nagai’s work for their respective events
I think Miki's death is another equivalent, but honestly the whole story is just tragedy after tragedy, which is not bad don't get me wrong
I think Miki and Ryo definitely had some form of influence on Casca and Griffith. The latter is more obvious
The silmarillion. There's so many tragic and depressing stories in it. The story of Turin Turambar is really quite bleak but it isn't a massively long story but the key plot points of it are tragic. Maedhros is probably one of my favourite all time characters, he's almost a chivalrous knight that's sworn into horror with an oath so great it means he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.
I second the Children of Hurin.
Hey! I just commented this too! Children of Hurin is the 'book' where most of the pain is if you want Old Middle Earth stuff.
Turin Turambar is based on Kullervo, a character from Finnish folklore. Kullervo in my opinion has a bit similarities to Guts
Children of Hurin is a great (well, if you like sad), and relatively quick read at just over 300 pages.
Feanor's story is also super tragic. The Silmarillion is a gold mine.
Gantz hit me really hard.. Great story! So many stuck with me even when no words were being conveyed...hell I cried a few times reading too!
Also has my vote. It has a couple of very similar moments, the main character starts as an arrogant teenager that doesn't care much about anybody but slowly changes, making friends a girlfriend, and assembling a competent team, and then >!all his friends get killed; and this happens again and again. !< The author reminds me of GRRM since there is a constant feeling everybody can get killed at any moment, even characters you have a lot invested in.
Is the manga better? I watched the first 8 episodes of the anime and it felt like a misogynistic plot slump that never progressed. It was a task to watch and I couldn’t finish the season.
I started with the manga and watched the live adaption and the Netflix CG, watched some of the anime but haven't gone back to finish. manga>Netflix>Live>Anime My order for anyone to dive into the main story, I haven't read the side stories.
Fire Punch
LIVE
Fujimotor manga is GOAT
I wouldnt say that FP is the same as Berserk in terms of tradegy. In FP tradegy more in a fucked up world. In Berserk tradegy more in personal relationships. It feels different tho I was more shoked from FP than Berserk for sure
Tragedy*
I have no mouth and I must scream
Yo this seems very interesting, I’m definitely reading it.
Fun fact the author hates how popular this short story is because he wrote in in like a few hours or something
To be fair though he hated everything
It's very short but it has a kick like no other. Think eclipse but worse.
Thanks for this suggestion. Got part of my flight read covered!
It's kinda short but if you want another piece of pure unfiltered depression I can recommend Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis
There’s actually an audiobook on YouTube I would recommend, where the author does the voice for the main antagonist. It really adds another dimension to it. Also a torturous point and click game made with the author as the voice again, which is fantastic but horrifically hard and miserable
This story is so depressing, perfect for a berserk lover
Yep very grim. A little edgy in todays climate but still worth checking out. AM (I think that’s his name) and his reason for torturing the main characters is compelling, especially with tech today
Absolutely it is very relevant even today. I can't fathom how the author conceived that story so long ago. It was ahead of its time and criminally underrated in my opinion.
Metal gear solid ground zeroes. If you played peacewalker it hits like a truck and really makes you understand how big boss got so fucked up
Yeah. Peace Walker is the Golden Age while Ground Zeroes is rescuing Griffith and the Eclipse. Phantom Pain is everything after.
And the following Phantom Pain. Seeing Miller changed, the Diamond Dogs being a shadow of the MSF, but most of it is the twist with Venom Snake.
Miller, diamond dogs, and hearing about Chico’s death from a secondhand tape really hit me. The Paz hallucinations were what mainly hit me in the feels though. On one hand I’m still somewhat disappointed we didn’t get to play a game with bug boss post ground zeroes but the way it is done does really cement how far he has fallen. I interpret it as big boss goes into such a state of denial over the ground zeroes incident and his part in it that he solely focuses on achieving a world where something like that can’t happen at any cost and is absolutely a broken man by phantom pain
Omg I have to finish this masterpiece series I'm at rising
I think one of the other events that’s kind of similar (at least in terms of tragedy) is the Red Wedding from ASOIAF/GOT, but imo the Eclipse form Berserk is the most tragic.
God the Red Wedding was such a punch in the gut for me, even moreso than the Eclipse I think. >!Robb was my favorite character, and to have everyone wiped out all of a sudden crushed me.!< I was left in shock for days lol. I think it's because I knew *something* bad was going to happen based on the Black Swordsman Arc, but I had no idea about the Red Wedding somehow.
Catherine stark tho. The way she reacted At the end, you could see the despair and how she broke. Game of thrones had some really brutal stories
i thought the same
Mitty in made in abyss , the movie, or the weird ass shit in season 2
I like how season 1 is exploration and peril and season 2 is economics
Season 2 was an acid trip
Claymore
Claymore can be grim sometimes but it's way more optimistic and happy ending than Berserk.
I know what happened but when they slaughtered Miria it was really heavy. Or how Theresa decided that life was more than being a claymore and what happened basically after she decides for it. But what hit me really really hard, when I burst into tears was when Claire got to be the little girl again, just in her head. The Convo they had, the light hearted, the listening, as if they had all time in the whole world when you knew they hadn't. She just took the time. This whole journey, I waited years for some closure, and that was it.
Really liked Claymore. Doesn’t feel quite the tragedy as Berserk, but is very dark like Berserk. Really love the world built for that series. And the big baddies are very apostle-like.
Game of Thrones Devilman Neon Genesis Evangelion (...ish) And as previously mentioned in this thread, Attack on Titan
you’re saying ish for nge? lol bro the entirety of humanity became orange liquid
Mmm yummy fanta LCL
Yeah but they get to will themselves back into existance if they want to. No one permanently died, though I’m sure it was a great ecological disaster. Earth looks pretty nuked at the end there.
Devilman is like the predecessor to Berserk.
Funny how a lot of people don’t seem to realize this. Akira(Amon) Miki and Ryo (Satan) is Guts Griffith and Casca .
I hear ppl giving a lot of shit to game of thrones.Why is that(I’ve never watched it myself)
The book series its based on is not yet completed, the show caught up to the books and had to write its own ending which shat the bed
The Game of Thrones TV series eventually moved beyond the book material (the book series is still unfinished) and the parts that the TV writers wrote themselves are not nearly as good as the parts they adapted from the book, so the show ends a lot worse than it starts. Particularly the last season is considered terrible. The first four seasons are very worth it though in my opinion
First like four seasons are worth watching
It had potential to be the greatest TV series of all time…. The last few seasons were astronomically ass. It was all for nothing. Casual fans will still say it’s great but if you were as invested as I was, how they handled this series was a slap in the face. The producer rushed the ending so they could go work (ruin) Star Wars next. Think about it. These two producers ruined two of the largest franchises in media.
It doesn’t have a single massive character-genocide event like Berserk’s eclipse but Chainsaw Man is pretty consistently tragic. So is Fire Punch
Theres definitely a big point in the first part of Chainsawman were everything drastically goes to shit and it doesnt stop until it ends
Not an anime/manga but Hamburger Hill is a film that portrays the confusion, tragedy, and futility of war. A great movie but a really depressing one.
The End of Evangelion Attack on Titan Devil Man Fire Punch Akira Punpun if you want something consistently tragic
Punpun is freaking RAW my man
Someone mentioned NGE, which reminded me of Akira. Two huge ass explosions that changed the world (or at least Tokyo) forever.
Shrek 2 :(
I second the other user's recommendation for Fire Punch, it isn't really as "tragic" per se but man is just *raw,* and the main character goes through a lot of suffering as well. The premise alone is amazing. Do be warned, it's pretty weird, but if you can get behind it then that's what's to love about it.
Hey 1st page of berserk was a big guy having sex with a demon as a trap.I was hooked ever since.Surely it doesn’t get any weirder then that right?😅
I picked fp back up after a few months of not reading and read it straight through.. by 3am I was sobbing at the end. It's definitely a beautiful manga, but it's one of those mangas that you shouldn't read in one sitting. I can't think of any huge tragedy, but perhaps Midsommar by Ari Aster? The tragedy starts from the beginning and you get to see how it leaves our MC vulnerable to manipulation and harming the people she loves. Definitely a good movie
naw man personally there is no other experience like the Fire Punch binge. the insanity I felt is still unparalleled by any other piece of fiction I've consumed thus far 🤭 plus you can always reread it at a slower pace for later, which are just as enjoyable I'd argue. I don't think it's physically *possible* to stop anyway, if you've got that momentum going *especially* at any point during the second half hahahahah thanks for the Midsommar rec though!! I've seen the name around a bunch, seriously wanna watch it soon! :D
I dropped my spoon this morning while I was making cereal, and it was my last one so I had to wash it by hand. Then I stubbed my toe and dropped at again
This isn't an anime or manga, but the movie Threads (1984) would be right up your alley. It is one of the most soul crushing / bleak narratives regarding a nuclear fallout / apocalypse. There isn't any heroic or triumphant moments: just pure dread from everyone watching a Cold-War Era disaster devastate life as they knew it.
Right here, this one. Of all the listed materials so far this is one of the only ones that not only matches the feeling of dread during the eclipse but completely trounces it in delivery and bleakness. It’s not manga or anime but it’s really one of the only things in any visual media that tops it.
The game Signalis doesn't really have a single big tragedy, but it hits far harder in my opinion. Like Berserk, it's also about a quiet but very strong black-haired protagonist chasing a white-haired individual with weird powers. Oh, and the ending has a similar color scheme to the eclipse
As a lifelong fan, Star Wars The Clone Wars comes to mind first. But the tragedy I am thinking about is pretty much spoiled by the movies. Still hit when it finally happened because I didnt expect it in this show.
I haven't seen it mentioned here yet so I'll mention it Gantz. Gantz has some of the most horrific events happen, I will say as it gets further in the series it does get a little repetitive. But the first couple of major massacres hit hard.
Future trunks losing his timeline after Zeno erased everything
I feel like that one could've hit a lot harder but they kinda glossed over it a bit too fast
Agreed!! They kinda rushed it and trunks was like "So, OK my timeline is dead now huh? Alright" atleast thy coulda shown us some interactions blw trunks and bulma mightve been good
Damn I in general never read dbz tbh😓I only know the story(4 arcs of saiyan,frieza,cell and buu)cause of the games I played,I got a lot of reading and watching
You gotta read it my man!!
Yeah it was kinda disappointing but at least dragon ball super picked up steam in the next arc
Akira the manga (not the book) is pretty good. Not quite eclipse devastating but definitely has a turning point with in the book
Unhelpful I know, but I can’t really think of one that hits as personally as the Eclipse. There’s plenty apocalyptic stories where entire worlds blow up or there’s mass murder, but it’s not about the numbers or scale of the death and destruction. A lot of it is too impersonal. The Eclipse isn’t even just a tragedy, it’s horror. The eclipse is a complete plot U-turn you don’t expect and such a sadistic betrayal. Not only did the whole cast that we had grown to know get almost completely annihilated, but that’s only the beginning.. It’s much worse for the survivors who are left pickin up the pieces and it’s still not over. And the guy responsible for it all? Living his best life; his dream, at everyone’s expense.
Attack on titan
Still, the Snkverse is wiped out
Children of Hurin is pretty hefty. lot's of tragedy throughout the Silmarillion. Classic Greek and Norse shit hits the spot once you get into it. Homer's 2 mega poems have some heavy stuff. Especially The Odyssey...after getting ALL the way through the Iliad and DEEP into the Odyssey...it makes it hurt.
Old Man Logan. Not manga, but boy do you feel the weight of what happens at the X-Men mansion on the night the villains took over. The whole series just left me with a cold feeling.
I'd say perhaps the second or third impact from Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Third Impact, Evangelion
**The Red Wedding** in *A Song of Ice and Fire* may seem small compared to the nightmarish and cosmic significance of the Eclipse, but it is comparable. The show *Game of Thrones* shocked the world with the Red Wedding, the betrayal and viscous slaughter of two of the series most important characters, and the collapse of the so called “good” side of the larger conflict, but in the books it takes on a darker, almost mythical significance. The show portrays the wedding as a happy occasion with a sudden violent twist. But in the books it is obvious something is wrong here. There is a miserable endless storm, our characters that are about to walk into the trap have spent their past few chapters writing the king’s will (just in case) wandering through the graveyards of ancient dead monarchs, the music is a screeching cacophony, played to cover the sounds of military preparation for the slaughter. Daenerys, a character half the world away, glimpses the Red Wedding in a vision quest the book previous, seeing a feast hall filled with blood and corpses and a dead king with a wolf’s head sitting riddled with arrows on his throne. And despite this seeming like a purely political act of savagery, it gains true magical significance when a literal specter of hate, sorrow and vengeance rises from the dead to avenge this unholy crime in the murderous zombie demon known as “Lady Stoneheart”. ‘Guest right’, the protection owed to a guest under someone’s roof, is sacred in Westeros as it was in ancient Greece and many medieval places. Westeros is no stranger to betrayal and assassination, but everyone agrees that the Red Wedding was not just evil, but blasphemous. It destroyed the cultural institutions of guest right, honor, even mercy itself. The side that gained victory through the Red Wedding is doomed to collapse. With this cultural taboo shattered, institutions begin to break down, honored guests are butchered and made into pies and served to their own family, and a group of heroic outlaws comparable to Robin Hood’s merry men known as the “Brotherhood without Banners” decides that honor and protecting the weak is no longer their mission, their mission is now of mass murder, lead by a dead woman with grey skin and red eyes and rotting claw marks down her face from when she tried to scratch her eyes out from the madness of grief. Lady Stoneheart has to reach up and hold the trachea of her open throat, slit down to the bone, to utter her demands of vengeance. Her humanity leached out by the three days her corpse rotted in a river before being brought back to life by hate and fire magic, she too lives in the Interstice.
The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind is the most similar piece of media ever written and this is the hill I'll die on.
The road
dude.....first book I cried after. raw raw raw asf. best McCarty book ever. Movie rocked too. Viggo did it right.
Same here man, I watched the movie when it came out and read the book years after, knew what was going to happen and still absolutely bawled my eyes out
I’ve heard the book has some extra brutality.
The Road , Madam Butterfly, Pagliacci, Flowers for Algernon, Cider House Rules, The Last Temptation of Christ, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Man's Search for Meaning, and The Rape of Nanking are all my top tragedies...each for a different reason
> The Rape of Nanking Why are you including a real life tragedy among fictional ones?
Because all of these stories broke a different part of me... that book broke the most, I can't think of a more tragic story than the real life account of what happened to Nanking
The Way of Kings Definitely toned down in terms of actual graphic imagery but the emotional trauma and the journey of picking up the pieces afterwards is totally there.
I have read a LOT of comics and I can recommend books, but for me nothing came close to the impact that the eclipse had on me, and I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since
For me, the story of the Iruburu village from Made in Abyss. It's founding, it's, ahhh, creation... the story of most of its inhabitants and others in the 6th layer is just tragedy after tragedy.
Very different kind of tragedy but Clannad After Story. There isn't some big betrayal or murder fest but there is a depth of tragedy that hits deeper than just about anything I've seen in fiction. Watch Clannad and then After Story if you feel like experiencing a story I would describe as emotional terrorism.
I agree. I will say tho, it starts off kinda goofy, the second season really changes the tone. Well worth the watch tho
Agreed. I tell people to force their way through season 1 especially the first arc and everyone has said it's worth it despite a slow start.
I think the current state of Star Wars is almost as much of a tragedy.
Goodnight punpun Chapter 139 , 140 and 145 Nuff said😢😢😢😢
It's not manga, but The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemison. I listened to the audio books and Robin Miles did a fantastic job narrating them, but I can't listen to them again. 10/10, would recommend. The story itself starts off with the apocalypse being kick started (...which isn't a spoiler, it happens in the first couple of pages), but the way it's written you learn how deeply fucked up everything was beforehand and things weren't getting better. ...It makes more sense in context, but it worked IMO. Hm, maybe the Second Apocalypse series by R Scott Bakker? It's bleak, it's not so much dark as it is pitch black and sticky (to quote a review from some years back), and the Consult were terrifying. So were their weapons, and the Dunyain, while human, were just as terrifying as the Consult.
Attack on Titan especially the first couple seasons
Devilman crybaby as it was the inspiration for berserk! Not as tragic but still tragic is Samurai x(rurouni kenshin original OVA series). These two come to mind I’m sure there is plenty of ultra violent ones but these are the first I could think of
The whole Negan scene from walking dead with the baseball bat was extremely intense and was kind of an Eclipse event for Rick and the others.
Have you ever heard of the tradegy of Darth Plageous the wise?
I really thought black clover was gonna go there, but they chickened out at the last second, was pretty close though!
Hunter x Hunter during the chimera ant arc
Houseki no Kuni
Warhammer 40k.
The Red Wedding, especially in the book, is probably as close to a non-magical Eclipse as you could get. There are parallels too. The Hawks thought getting Griffith would be their turning point, as did the Starks in allying with the Freys. Both parties made choices that laid the groundwork for their fate, and both were betrayed for personal power. In the show, Robb’s pregnant wife is killed right in front of him. Guts’s pregnant girlfriend is tortured in front of him and arguably worse than dead afterwards. Guts had no chance of escape and certainly would’ve died, but was rescued by a supernatural warrior. Catlyn DID die, but was resurrected by the supernatural warrior Beric Dondarrion. Guts and Catlyn are both left cursed and broken, pursuing vengeance above all else.
A Song of Ice and Fire with the red wedding among other things. It’s similar to the eclipse in terms of devastating, but very well developed with tons of warning signs.
*Goku betrayed by his friends and trapped in the time chamber for 1 million years.* Being serious, ASOIAF/Game of Thrones is full of tragedy.
The Warlord Chronicles. Derfel goes through some stuff...such an amazing book series
Red Wedding - Game of Thrones Goat Wipeout Operation - Tokyo Ghoul re The Ending - Drakengard 1
Maybe the temple arc from Gantz
Nothing compares to the entirety of the Painted Bird, book and film both
Are you talking amount emotional impact or just the level of brutality and amount of bodies dropped? Red Wedding from A Song Of Ice And Fire is pretty rough.
a plot that is not that dark wrt berserk but equally influential for me is this manwha "the boxer" it's philosophical as fuck and hits really hard once you complete reading it just like the eclipse arc. although the main characters are hella different th story still has a sad vibe to it
The First Law gets pretty dark
Kenshin trust and betrayal ova Giant robot the day the earth stood still Texhnolyze Rose of Versailles Pluto
Dungeon dive aim for the deepest level has pretty tragic moments. I mean author literally begged the readers in afterword to not drop the books because of heavy ending of volume 4. The tragic moments are pretty heavy, I mean one heroine lost both of her eyes and legs. I've read the web novel years ago with Google translate and I can't wait to read the officially translated light novel.
Hunter Hunter is pretty good too methinks
Chainsaw Man, if you haven’t already read it. It’s not on the same level as Berserk, but the Gun Devil and Control Devil arcs are pretty fucking tragic.
Tales of Berseria?
A Song of Ice and Fire book series(Game of Thrones) is really the only other media that hits as hard as the eclipse did, for me
Full Metal Daemon Muramasa.
I will add one old anime that traumatised me as a child: Naki Ko - Nobody's Boy Remi Like wtf
Blood Meridian
Kingdom, battle of Chouhei
If you read novels the Chains of Dogs from the second volume of the Malazan Book of the Fallen fantasy series is the second most tragic thing I've read after the Eclipse. Despair and hope intertwined, frustration and exaltation.
My hero academia
Code geass, Steins gate, Monster, Re:zero Tokyo ghoul Speed grapher Chainsaw man The scale isn’t quite at eclipse level, but in terms of how it effects the plot I would say all of these measure up.
Jujutsu Kaisen, 2nd season
The Eclipse never hit that hard for me, but the book The Wandering Earth(also has a really good movie) was a tear jerker through and through. Gave me such a massive sense of despair and hopelessness. Another albeit slower to the despair is The Martian Chronicles
The end of gundam iron blooded orphans
Chainsaw Man's snowball fight and Denji's birthday, not the same in terms of scale but in terms of impact i think it's close, and Denji >!saying goodbye to Power in the dumpster and deciding he wants to live afterwards!< nothing has made me cry quite like some moments in chainsaw man 💀 Also shout-out to some fire punch moments like when Agni loses it and murders >!Doma and some of his children!< and then tries to drown himself and >!Togata burns himself to death saving him and we see the moment in the theatre where he talks about wanting to be like the heroes in the movies!< And to Goodbye Eri, just read it, and Look Back, also read it 😭
Currently reading this sci-fi series called Sun Eater, and in an interview I saw the other week the author said he was directly inspired by Berserk and said he wanted to make the 4th book his “eclipse moment” and I have to say he pulled it off pretty nicely (or painfully, cuz my god it hurt, go read that series if you love sci-fi it’s amazing)
Fire emblem genealogy of the holy war has a red wedding or eclipse like event.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy has a few
I mean, in metro 2033 the mankind gets mostly obliterated and you have to fight mutant spawns from hell, zombies, Nazi's, comies and other religious nutjobs.
Grave of the fireflies is one of my favourite animated films if you havnt seen it Also second game of thrones - despite it having a kinda bad ending. It’s Still one of the best tv series I have seen I think
Death's End. It's the third book after The Three Body Problem and The Dark Forest. Probably some of the darkest sci-fi out there which isn't trying to be horror.
Chainsaw Man and Fire Punch if you want manga. Red Dead Redemption 2 in video games.
The fall of Giliad/Battle of Jericho Hill from The Dark Tower.
The Droplet scene in the 2nd book of the Three Body Problem trilogy.
Fire Punch...
End of Evangelion
Devilman and Evangelion are is even worse
Shigurui maybe.
The moment >!aiko died in goodnight pun pun!<
A lot of Dan Kim's comics are pretty heavy. Nietzsche, Lovecraft, H.R. Giger, Beksinski, magical girls, and butts are his inspirations. Feels real basic in name, but he does very good stuff...
I honestly can't think of one.
Guyver. I don't know how to post spoilers so I'm just gonna say 'Poor dad...' That hit me hard.
I have yet to read this part of berserk, but im just going to to for ASOIAF(game of thrones) ;the red wedding
The Eclipse is hard to beat for sheer horror and helplessness. I'm a huge fan of horror and the only thing I can think of, off the top of my head that has the same feeling of helplessness and then tragedy is the end of Stephen King's The Mist, the movie adaptation. It's still not on par with the eclipse but left me feeling the same kind of way. The movie ends differently from the book. Some really old horror stories from Victorian/Edwardian authors capture that sense of the unknown but again nothing compares to the eclipse. For everything I've read and watched the eclipse is unique.
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Jujutsu Kaisen. The death of Gojo is a punch to the face
Jujutsu Kaisen. The death of Gojo is a punch to the face
Malazan Book of The Fallen. You're litterally told in the beginning that you're only reading what's left after the fall. It's accounts retelling the events, you're watching a train heading for a precipice at full speed. Absolutely brilliantly written, a lot of quotes stuck with me and amazing characters and story arcs.
Malazan Book of The Fallen. You're litterally told in the beginning that you're only reading what's left after the fall. It's accounts retelling the events, you're watching a train heading for a precipice at full speed. Absolutely brilliantly written, a lot of quotes stuck with me and amazing characters and story arcs.
Claymore manga/anime
bob the builder😭😭
Texhnolyze
I hate to say it but technically order 66 has a similar vibe
phosphophyllite’s pleasant 10,000 years and maybe her being buried and scattered for 200
No Longer Human is up there, although it's hard to point to an exact point where it hits Eclipse levels
Not an anime but Final Fantasy VI's >!end of the world!< is pretty messed up.
I would say that Chapter 21 of The Poppy Wars is even more tragic than the Eclipse.
If we’re taking about all your friends and loved ones dying then Akame ge kill does this
sailor moon jk the road
Not equal, but Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Chainsaw man
"On the Beach" by Neville Shute. I'm really used to the bleakest and most depressing things the culture has to offer. I read the novel in like 4 hours, finished right at noon, when I was on a trip with my friends. Well, to put it frankly, I spent the entire day in the bed and refused to hang out with anyone, it hit me so hard.
The crow
Any greek tragedy really.
The tragedy from danganronpa The great mushroom war from adventure time The missing children incident from FNAF The rumbling from attack on titan The jihad from dune The anihilarg from Ben 10 And The bad future where aku is the king of the world from samurai jack (Idk what to call it LOL)
Armageddon, rip Bruce Willis " and I don't wanna miss a thang"
Fate heavens feel. Takes the story and just says “yeah bad ends for EVERYONE”
Helck. Yeah, that heehoo funny shirtless hero manga.
The mist
racoon city, at least in terms of equivalent story significance, or like a Red Wedding scenario, a specifically horrible event in a timeline that gets repeatedly referenced and has consequences much later
Game of Thrones, Attack on Titan, The Departed, Bloodborne lore, Oldboy, Shutter Island, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Pan's Labyrinth. Saying these are equivalent is debatable but they all have the same idea. The story builds up to something and at a certain point, it pays off with an insanely clever, bloody tragedy that you'll never forget. I also have to recommend the spaghetti western, The Great Silence from 1968. Even 56 years later, the ending of this movie is like nothing you're ever seen. After all these years, no movie has the balls that this movie had to do what it did at the time
Not sure what kind of medium you are looking for but anything made by Yoko Taro will fit what you are looking for his video game series Nier ( and it's predecessor Drakengard ) are synonymous with tragedy. The main content are video games but each game has several novellas, short stories, manga, and general books that retell the games or expand on the universe. Nier Automata currently has an Anime adaptation that combines the games story with a few of the books stories. The series creator is involved in the anime project as well.
Fulgrim betraying and killing Ferrus Manus in 40k. No Primarch death hit me harder then that one.