*HEAVY SPOILERS* What was the saddest in the series? (2025)

zineron said:
Initial thoughts and my first MAL forum post. My current rankings from least to most sad (maybe this will change with further discussion/information):

7. Hacker embraced worthy challenges and accepted his death but he still has some traces of existence in the system so is he even fully dead? I was more sad when he left the group before Brawler died since it indicated a shift in how I thought the series was going to go, but he was gone for so long that I had little attachments to his character. Also his "death" was late enough in the series that I expected it.

6. Cutthroat had satisfaction from killing along the way but probably would not have stopped killing even if he had killed Swindler so he probably would have never felt fully satisfied, obviously never fully treated for mental health issues or not able to be redeemed. He was so far gone that it was more of a relief that he got taken out. With Hacker currently out of the picture and Brawler dead, Cutthroat's death further solidified the tonal shift in the show by confirming that Brawler's death was the just the beginning and not a one-off thing (less chance of ragtag found family reuniting), and that we may see the others fall too.

5. Courier was willing to die to finish the job and came to terms with it. He was married to work, had no attachments to anything left. Everything felt finished, he seemed satisfied. Even though his death seemed inevitable as the episode started, I might have preferred an ending where we see him survive and just move on to his next job in the wake of everything, though, to have it come full circle.

4. Swindler, since she got dragged into this mess, but at least she embraced Akudama-dom and her death as a noble sacrifice to help save the kids and also bring forth public awareness about Executioners in one final drive to revive civil unrest. At this point I well expected her and Courier to die so it wasn't as sad to me.

3. Doctor, the other Akudama who did not achieve a satisfying and noble death besides Cutthroat. She was fascinated with the idea of controlling death but could not achieve control of her own death, ironic. While shaping up to be a second villain of the series, and not unlike Cutthroat loving bloodbaths while remaining unsatisfied, the way she died between Hoodlum and the mob was a lot more shocking, tragic, and impactful for me as opposed to Cutthroat's death via Swindler's self-defense. She was a researcher with a concrete drive that didn't finish it out instead of being just mentally insane. It could have been fun to see her stick around longer if her arc carried out in a way that wasn't a threat to the children and other Akudama but instead her and Hoodlum continuing on to take out Executioners. But with less than half of the Akudama remaining after her death (and arguably all of the weaker/less colorful personalities at that), the show's steam was running out.

2. Brawler, while eager to take on worthy challenges and probably accepted his death as a result of his fights, likely would not have died if Doctor had healed him properly. First death, so also shocking because it signaled a turn from the grand heist/ragtag found family type show that it appeared to be setting up in the earlier episodes, and also sad since it greatly impacted Hoodlum and his arc and death.

1. Hoodlum, also somewhat dragged into this mess (certainly more akin to Swindler than not), went from fearing for his life among the Akudama, to making a real friend, to losing that friend, escaping with his life after taking out an eye in a panic, being made to believe that Brawler died nobly and told to leave his emotions about his friend behind, then being baited and manipulated by Doctor and then learning the truth about Brawler's death, avenging Brawler but dying in the process. Even though he carried out a proper vengeance for his bro and died smiling, because his arc was such a roller-coaster and he had growth and a lot more potential as a character, coupled with the dramatic buildup with Doctor, that it felt particularly sad to see him go. Also the show was just going to have a lot less of a wildcard, and as a result less potential to really go all out with the climax, without him in it (and Doctor as said above).

On one hand Doctor should probably be ranked less sad than Courier and Swindler on my list but Doctor's potential and the way Doctor died juxtaposed with my expecting Hacker, Swindler, and Courier to die based on the OP's pattern (especially after solidifying Hoodlum and Doctor's deaths) really dampened any sadness I might have had for the last three. I think at that point, between the plot shifting focus to the children and then having Hoodlum/Doctor's deaths, I was ready for this all to be over with because I wanted more/different out of this show than what I was getting (and wasn't really invested in the children ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ), and the way I came to terms with that with each character's death definitely influenced my rankings.

The show gave me a lot different than what I had wanted from it, and not to say what it provided was bad, but it definitely dampened the ride as time went on. But it's also an anime I spent a lot of time thinking about and analyzing the world-building after each episode was over (and for 2.5 hours on Christmas writing this post in the middle of the night when I should be sleeping), so it does get kudos for being an interesting series. I think the series, having taken the plotline it did, could have benefited a lot from having a 13th episode though (and maybe not have spoilers in the OP).