30 Day Anime Challenge #12 – Saddest Anime Scene

Disclaimer: This post contains some pretty big spoilers for Hunter x Hunter (2011). If you have not seen the series and don’t wish to be spoiled you probably shouldn’t read this. You have been warned.

…Still here? Seen this Anime? Don’t care if it gets spoiled for you? Great! Today in this edition of the 30 Day Anime Challenge, we’ll be looking at the saddest scene I’ve ever seen from an Anime. This pick is actually the second saddest I’ve seen, but since my saddest is a death scene and there’s a separate challenge later on covering “Saddest Anime Death”, I decided to leave it for that one and pick a scene which didn’t specifically cover the death of a character. So here we go, my saddest Anime scene is…

Gon and Killua Part Ways (Hunter x Hunter)

Gon and Killua are the best of friends. Throughout the entire course of the series they always had each others backs and their friendship was often tested through the most brutal of circumstances and hardships that many relationships would struggle to overcome. Yet, despite the most straining events possible occurring, the two of them managed to always remain friends, no matter what was said and done. Gon and Killua have  one of the greatest, most relatable, most realistically developed and most endearing friendships in all of Anime.

And that’s what makes this scene so heartbreaking to watch. After 140+ episodes of seeing these two inseparable friends stick together through just about everything the world could possibly throw at them and watching them compliment each others personal weaknesses, they go their separate ways, reluctantly, but also because they have to. They have their own goals and dreams to pursue, neither of which has anything to do with the other, and for the first time ever, they need to fulfil their ambitions on their own, without one another’s help.

Their friendship isn’t over by a long shot, but seeing two characters who always relied on one another and had such a strong bond walk away, in opposite directions, with a sad look on their face really shocked me to the core.

And the directing of the scene is what really enhances just how heartbreaking this scene really is. At the episodes end, where the scene takes place, the song that served as Gon and Killua’s “theme”, titled Reason plays in the background, complete with an ending credits sequence made up of clips and screencaps of the most iconic scenes between the two throughout the course of the entire series. In the span of around a minute and a half, we’re shown every memory and every moment these two friends shared with one another and we remember just how amazing a journey Gon and Killua had together. And once the sequence is over, we’re brought to the realisation that this amazing adventure of friendship, commitment, brotherly love and loyalty has finally come to an end with one simple word: “Goodbye”.

Just look at how their faces change… It’s so sad!

On all three of my full viewings of the series, this scene has always hit my hard and it’s always made me feel genuinely upset. I’ve never seen two characters regret leaving one another’s side as much as these two, and if the Manga ever comes back from it’s freaking indefinite hiatus, I hope they meet again some day to take the world by storm and have incredible adventures together once more. That’d be awesome.

But until then, I’ll keep praying for Togashi’s well being and hope that he gets better soon. I’m sure we’ll see the two of them together again some day.

What’s your saddest scene in Anime?