Most anime focus on the protagonist’s development and life throughout the runtime. If a protagonist dies, it’s usually at the end or somewhere toward the end of the anime. But then there are some anime that kill their protagonists off at the very start. Here is everything you need to know about the Anime Begins With Protagonist’s Death.

Read this: The Most Heartbreaking Anime Deaths That Broke Our Hearts

Dragon Ball Z

Dragon Ball Z started with Goku dying to stop Raditz. Although Dragon Ball Z would later be known as an anime where death never truly sticks. The beginning of the Saiyan Saga saw Goku dying as Piccolo and he teamed up to save Gohan from Raditz.

While they did succeed, Raditz proved too strong for either man to face alone. After Goku’s death, he’d have to run through Snake Way to find King Kai and get stronger. Gohan took over the role of deuteragonist in the anime from there on.

Konosuba

The first Isekai example is Konosuba, wherein the main protagonist Satou Kazuma got killed. Died from shock after saving someone from being hit by a slow-moving tractor. Kazuma was transported into a fantasy world by the rather arrogant Aqua. As the anime progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that all of Kazuma’s traveling companions are all dysfunctional.

 Re: Zero

Re: Zero is an interesting look at the subject of death and rebirth. It involves the protagonist Subaru Natsuki as he is summoned to a fantasy world. Then killed while trying to help a young half-eld named Emilia. He then revives a few hours in the past only to continue to die.

When he dies he can carry on the memories of what happened before he was revived. It’s akin to being a living memory card and having a saved file. Subaru will come and go back in time every time he dies to continue helping people. It’s an Isekai with a time travel gimmick.

Shakugan no Shana

Sakai Yuji comes to learn that his existence is fake and that he has been dead for some time now. A girl with flaming red eyes and hair breaks his reality when she explains the existence of an alternate world, The Crimson Realm, inhabited by denizens.

These beings can manipulate the power of existence. Some of them threaten the balance between the worlds by consuming human existence for their own purposes. Yuji had already been consumed and what remains of him is just a substitute.

Read this: Five Gruesome Deaths In Chainsaw Man That Gave Fans Trauma

Yuyu Hakusho

Urameshi, a renowned delinquent, dies in a car crash while pushing a kid away from a speeding car. His ghost lingers, and he is visited by the afterlife’s spirit guide, Botan. She is there because there is no place yet decided for Yusuke, neither in heaven nor hell.

She informs him that the kid would have survived even without his sacrifice. Therefore, he is to enter a series of trials in order to judge where he will go next. He has a chance to return to his body and come back to life but only if he passes the tests.