Ask John: Are There Any Anime Where Evil Wins?

Question:
Is there an anime/manga without a happy ending, where good does not defeat evil; where villains bash the hero’s fundamental truths, hero turns bad, and the world goes to hell? Yes, I know that Lain, Evangelion, and Angel Sanctuary have ambiguous endings, but that’s not what I’m asking. Is there an anime that blatantly states that the world isn’t fair? Is there even an anime without model heroes and villains?

Answer:
NOTE: I’ve tried to keep this response spoiler-free, but the nature of the question deals with how particular anime series end, so fans wary of even small spoilers may wish to stop reading now.

There are countless examples in anime of evil scoring victories, but rarely does evil ultimately win the war (if you’ll excuse my reliance on cliché). That’s not to say, though, that such examples do not exist. The most immediate example that comes to mind is original Dangaio OAV 3 which concludes with the Dangaio mecha destroyed, the heroes all unconscious and floating helplessly in space, and the evil villain laughing manically. Of course, I’ve always been under the impression that this was intended to be followed up by a fourth episode that was never produced. Another example that comes very close to a simple clearly deliniated “evil wins” is Berserk. In a effort to not give away surprises from the plot, the conclusion of Berserk is not quite so simply clear-cut, but is far from a heroic, happy ending.

Examples of anime whose fundamental treatise is the unfairness and cruelty of life and the world are a bit more common. The Violinist of Hameln TV series suggests a cold and cruel world that urges the protagonist, for a short time, to actually join the side of “evil” and more often simply choose his own path, siding neither with good or evil. The conclusion of the Violinist of Hameln TV series avoids catastrophe, but leaves a distinct feeling that perhaps the “right” decision wasn’t actually the best decision. The X movie likewise presents a harsh, cruel world in which people exist only to die, and dying painfully at a young age and a predetermined time is an inescapable destiny. The Vampire Miyu TV series rarely allows evil to legitimately win, but each episode’s conclusion suggests that if there was any resolution to the conflict in the episode, the advantage is more likely be attributed to the side of “evil,” than “good.” The Devilman Lady TV series likewise has an ambiguous conclusion that suggests that the side of pain, suffering and evil has achieved more than the side of good. But, to the extent of my knowledge, the harshest, most cruel and brutal view of the world ever presented in anime comes from the Ima Soku ni Iru Boku TV series (Now & Then, Here & There). At the end of the series, evil has not conquered all, but there can be no doubt that any sign of good or the positive is far, far away in a world distant from the one in which this anime occurs. In its single-minded effort to illustrate the cruelty of the world, virtually everyone who ever appears for even the briefest moment in “Imaboku” meets an untimely end, many of them quite painfully, after a great deal of torturous suffering. At the conclusion of Imaboku, the protagonist may be alive, but that’s all that can be said for him.

When searching for an anime series that has no conflict, there can easily be cited “life-sim” anime like To Heart and Whisper of the Heart, but for an example of a series that has conflict but no “model heroes and villains,” one need look no farther than the classic Gundam continuity. In fact, this is one of the factors for which Gundam is most famous. Char Aznable is initially presented as a villain in the original Gundam TV series, but in Zeta Gundam his motivations and actions seem totally justified and make him the “hero.” Then in the Char’s Counterattack movie there simply is no distinction between the “heroes” and “villains.” Char admits that his actions in the fourth Gundam movie are criminal, but he is clearly identified as a “people’s hero” and idolized and supported, and shown as a more sympathetic and “human” character than Amuro, the overt “good-guy” of the film.

Megazone 23 likewise does a good job of dismissing the distinction between good and evil. The military man BD in the first two films may at first seem like a stereotypical villain, but his actions throughout the movies, and the theoretical discussions held throughout the two films confirm that BD is acting in the best interest of society keeping in mind the future, while the “hero” Shogo acts only thinking of the present and his immediate circle of friends. Right and wrong in Megazone 23 are not a clear moral and immoral but rather a clash of adult responsibility with youthful idealism.