10 Incredibly Tough Decisions Anime Characters Have Had To Make
The hardest choices require the strongest wills, an especially true saying for these characters.
Tough decisions, defining moments for almost all anime characters. The situations creating a need for such decisions, the characters' reactions, and consequences can be incredibly impactful. Indeed, it is hard not to be entertained by world-ending choices.
A character can be intelligent, simple-minded, headstrong, cowardly, kind, or callous. In the end, they will all face different decisions of varying difficulty and consequence; it's how they react to such choices throughout the series that draws audiences to them.
Even for the smaller scale, less bombastic anime, a character's choices can result in a multitude of people's deaths... or even worse, social embarrassment! These very decisions define fan-favorite characters that have the biggest impact, emotional, and material within the stories.
Such decisions can be the crux for whether an anime is truly great, creating tension, relief, or horror - inevitably forcing our main cast to deal with the consequences of said actions.
Of course, this list details the hardest decisions made by characters, not the most foolish, or else Vegeta would take up half the spots himself! Choices that are not always right but are done with conviction.
10. One Piece - Giving Up On The Going Merry
The Going Merry is a small ship gifted by Usopp's friend Kaya, a ship that has faithfully served the Strawhat Crew all the way through Reverse Mountain and up to Skypiea; this is until it is eventually unable to safely transport the group beyond Water Seven and becomes a danger to the crew.
It is so beloved by the crew, and especially Usopp - that it has even developed its own personality, its own soul. This makes it all the more heartbreaking to see the Strawhat Pirates forced to give it up and move on without it. The one closest to it wasn't able to do so, stubbornly defying both his own captain and the expertise of the greatest shipwrights in the Grand Line.
Not only does Usopp treasure the ship as a gift from his friend or as a reliable crewmate, but its irreversible damage represents his inadequacy in maintaining it. His friends' seemingly callous choice to abandon the Going Merry when it is no longer useful, along with his own weakness, creates his own fear of being abandoned.
Despite his experiences and relationships with the crew, he can't simply follow along with them. He would rather leave the crew than continue to drag them down or be abandoned. Inevitably, he fights his beloved captain, his friend, for the Going Merry - refusing to accept reality, to move on.