Top 10 Anime Characters with the Worst Childhood

Gaara had a painful childhood. The loss of his mother at birth, the hatred from his own father and village, no friends, just the pain of loneliness. He spent his life trying to make friends when they only rejected him and he became a killer who was feared by his own village - until he met Naruto. Naruto taught him the meaning of friendship and love. It was also because of his mother's love that his sand forever protected him, even when he wasn't a jinchuriki.

Mother who is dead because of him. Father who sees him as nothing but a weapon and tries to assassinate him more times than Gaara can count. Kills his own uncle who was his only friend but tried to kill Gaara on orders from his own father, and made him tell Gaara that he hated him and that his mother never loved him. Along with his entire village seeing him as a monster. Enough said.

From the bleak worldview Berserk gives us, Guts shouldn't even have been born. That goes against anything the Godhand, who supposedly governs the laws of causality, would want since he opposes their will. He was born from his mother's hanging corpse, raised by a mercenary band and only knew the way of the sword with all the deaths surrounding him. In fact, death and destruction are basically all this poor guy knows.

He lost his foster mother, the only character of his childhood to lovingly care for him, to an illness. For a couple of coins, he was unknowingly sold by his foster father, Gambino - the leader of the mercenaries, to a man named Donovan, to have his way with him when Guts was still just a kid.

Gambino only admitted this grim truth when he was going to kill Guts because he had hated him ever since they found him. Seeing him as a bad omen and the cause for all the strokes of bad luck the band had experienced recently, Guts was forced to kill Gambino in self-defense. The remaining mercenaries chased him down, put a couple of bolts in him and left him for dead in the wilderness, where the boy was forced to fight the local wildlife in order to survive. From hereon continues the disastrous journey that is Guts' life. He becomes socially reclusive, he hates being touched (understandably), and suffers from feverish nightmares. And that is only the beginning of the painful treachery and physical makeover that is to come.

He has been through the worst of what life has to offer as a kid, slowly eating him from the inside out. Yet he has never abandoned his own humanity and instead directs all his hatred and destructive mindset on slaying as many demons as he possibly can. In short, this guy's childhood was, and his current life is, a living nightmare. Cut Guts some slack, Miura. Poor guy deserves some rest.

Dude, he grew up being hated for something he couldn't help. Growing up, he had no parents, no friends, no love, nothing. He grew up being the dead last, and everyone hated him. Yet, despite being hated, he loved that village to the point that he wanted to work his way to the top to protect it.

I mean, sure, he grew up with friends as he got older, but for the most part, he had nothing. Skipping class with Choji, Shikamaru, and Kiba doesn't mean he had friends, especially when their own parents made them stop playing with Naruto. I get that Gaara had a childhood exactly like this, but he always knew he was a jinchuuriki. Even though he was betrayed by his uncle, that doesn't mean he had no choice. He had the choice to open up. He was the kazekage's son! Practically royalty. He also had family! In my opinion, Naruto had it much worse.

Believe my story... Two years ago, I knew nothing about emotion or tragedy. But when I saw the second episode, tears rolled down my eyes. I felt so sad about them. They lost their mother and their bodies. The most painful childhood had these brothers.

This probably makes me sound like a horrible person, but one of the reasons their tragic backstory is so good (in a bad way? I don't know) is because it wasn't 'fated to be' or anything. They brought it upon themselves, and I love Hiromu Arakawa for that. It's something original among all the 'sorry your parents got killed because you're special' stuff out there.

The saddest part is that Ciel is destined to continue his tragic path. Nothing can be gained by taking revenge: his beloved ones won't come alive, his memories won't be vanished, and nothing can be erased. His sacrifice and all that Ciel has to go through is meaningless.

But it is human nature to want power in their most powerless situations, even if the power means loss. We see Ciel's remaining childlike soul crushed bit by bit every time he kills someone. In order to survive that time, he bargained with the Devil and lost everything he had: his innocent soul and his hope.

Erza Scarlet had a really sad childhood, in my opinion. She went through slavery at the age of 7, or was it 6? Maybe 8? They built the Tower of Heaven all because they wanted to resurrect Zeref. It was so sad. And one of her closest friends got possessed and became evil. What sadness. To me, it was tragic. I've never seen childhood so depressing!

Would you like to never see society or never have a family? That is Erza's childhood. She had to work for most of her childhood and was whipped, stabbed in the eye, slapped, and treated like dirt!

Vegeta was forced to work for Frieza as a child soldier. Let that sink in and then tell me that isn't a horrible childhood.

While Vegeta was forced to be a child soldier, Goku was being a dumb ass in the forest.

Vegeta's entire home planet and most of his race were just destroyed by Freeza. He was forced to work for that same guy for most of his life. That does sound sad. It amazes me how Vegeta just doesn't give a damn. He's that badass to just shrug it off.

Robin had quite a disastrous childhood. Even before she became one of the world's most hated fugitives, her life was already quite tragic. Her mother chose her profession over caring for her, leaving Robin in the care of an abusive aunt who treated her like nothing short of a slave.

The other people in her village treated her like a monster for her Devil Fruit powers. They called her names and threw rocks at her just because she was different. She was practically the dictionary definition of an outcast, and even with the archaeologists who liked her, she was to remain outside.

After six years, her mother finally returned. Even when her mother abandoned Robin, she loved her and wanted nothing more than to just hold her hand and stay together, but even that was impossible because her mother would rather die with her job than stay with Robin. They held hands once, hugged once before they were separated from each other permanently. And even at that point, her mother's last words were that of an archaeologist to another archaeologist, rather than from a mother to her daughter.

She even made her first friend outside of the archaeologists. But that had to happen right before the government decided her island had to be destroyed. She watched him die right before her eyes along with everyone and everything she had ever known.

This all happened when she was eight. Now let's start with what happened after.

After the destruction of her island, little Robin got a humongous bounty that set every single marine and bounty hunter on her trail. Even normal people would have nothing to do with her because of her bounty.

For twenty long years - half of which when she was just a teenager - she was betrayed at every turn, used and abused for her powers, with only her godforsaken mother's request spurring her on.

He had a drunk and abusive father. Then, when he finally found happiness with Nagisa, she was ripped away from him. Later, when his daughter became a ray of sunshine to him, she too was ripped away from him. How sad is that?

Kotomi Ichinose's parents died in a plane crash. That's all I have to say.

In all honesty, I believe Lucy from Elfen Lied had the worst childhood imaginable. Abandoned by her parents, she was treated horribly by everyone at the orphanage, not to mention that Tomoo. Her only friend at the orphanage was murdered by the children, who she later killed. She couldn't find acceptance from anybody except Kouta.

Basically, it's a story about racism - her past was ruined because she had horns. I think horns would be so cool! She was bullied, had her puppy murdered in front of her, and was then locked away for testing for her power.

P.S. The bullies deserved it 100%.

Bullied, beaten, and mocked by his brothers, rejected and insulted by his father, only his mother cared for him but she died when he was a child. Then he got put in a cell with an iron mask because his father wanted to forget he existed. Finally, he escaped (after his dad said he wanted him to die and that he was ashamed of him) and then the ship sank and he was left to starve on a rock for weeks. Damn, that sucks. Luckily, he met Zeff who turned out to be a great father figure for him.

I thought starving on a rock for weeks was bad, but what happened before with his so-called family is ten times more horrible. What kind of father locks their child with an iron mask to forget his existence because he is ashamed of him for being an ordinary human being? What kind of brothers bully and beat their brother for cooking and laugh about different ways he could have died? That's just awful!

Imagine being killed by your own father and being fused with your pet dog to become a chimera for his own selfish gain… Yep.

Nina Tucker's dad is the worst anime character ever. How could you do that to a little girl - or anyone - let alone your own daughter?

Nina Tucker was fused with her dog by her dad, so her dad could keep their job.

Having your blood replaced with black blood... And he was always in pain. The poor child didn't even deserve this. When he didn't do what she wanted, she locked him up. It was cruel, terrible, horrible! No wonder he doesn't know how to do many things without fearing them! Who wouldn't fear things with the sort of childhood he had?

All those things Medusa did to him completely traumatized him. He developed a fear inside his mind that turned him to insanity. When Maka saw his soul, it was all messed up inside...

Crona was abused all their life and was constantly in pain. Not to mention always being bullied by Ragnarok. Medusa didn't deserve to call herself a mother.

Kakashi had one of the worst childhoods ever. He grew up without his mother, and his dad committed suicide because he couldn't deal with the hate he was receiving, and that only for a tiny mistake, which honestly was not even a mistake. Then, after losing his dad, like it wasn't enough, he lost his friend. His friend Obito basically died for him and then gave him his eye (not actually died but Kakashi only found out he was still alive like 15 years after).

And well, that's not all. Rin, a good friend of Kakashi, the girl that loved him, had to jump in front of one of Kakashi's attacks (Chidori) and be killed by Kakashi himself, in order to protect the village. Kakashi blamed himself for Rin's death so much and he just couldn't move on because he promised Obito he would protect her, and failed. Then, there were still people he loved left to die, so his sensei died too. He sacrificed himself for the village.

And Kakashi just couldn't make any bonds anymore because he couldn't handle the pain of another death. So, he was alone, very alone. Yes, he still had friends, but not the same. He basically became a "killer" in ANBU so even if he went through all of that, he was still the greatest man I know. Kakashi deserves all the respect.

Both her parents were murdered by human traffickers right in front of her when she was a little kid, then they kidnapped her. Sure, Eren Yeager came and rescued her, and his family took her in. But still, having both your parents killed in front of you, then being kidnapped? If that isn't a terrible childhood, I don't know what is.

Mikasa watched both her parents die bloody deaths, as she was almost sold to human traffickers. On top of all that, her adoptive mother was eaten by a Titan. Eren is the only family she has left. Her childhood was DARK.

Gray had a mother and a father, and the three of them lived in a village together. Everything was good until the demon Deliora from the Book of Zeref came and destroyed the village, taking Gray's parents. Gray had just been knocked unconscious.

Then, a female ice-make wizard named Ur and her male student named Lyon found Gray and pulled him from the rubble. Ur took him in as her second student and also taught Gray ice-make magic. One day, Gray goes to challenge Deliora to avenge his parents. Ur and Lyon object, but Gray says he has to do it. Ur says that if he leaves, he is no longer her student. He goes on.

Gray was too weak for Deliora and had been knocked out again. Once again, Ur and Lyon went to save him. Gray wakes up and finds out that Ur had lost a leg to Deliora and says she cannot beat him. Lyon is in shock because he thought Ur was the strongest wizard. He tries to vanquish the demon using Iced Shell, but Ur stops him by freezing him in an ice rose. Ur then uses the same method - Iced Shell - on Deliora. (Iced Shell turns the user of the spell into ice and seals away the target in that ice for eternity.) She succeeded.

Before she turned into ice, she told Gray to tell Lyon she had died. After the spell, Gray sat in tears. The ice Ur had frozen Lyon with melted, and he began looking for Ur. Gray said she had died, and Lyon blamed it on him. The two students parted ways and Gray joined Fairy Tail.

Oh, my heart...

Trunks was raised in destruction. He never knew a moment of peace until he had to travel back in time to destroy the Androids in the past to save his future. That's one of the saddest things I've seen in anime.

I won't lie. I teared up when Future Trunks thought of what his future would be like if Black never showed up. He imagined a life with him, Bulma, and Mai together.

Sasuke was already suffering BEFORE the massacre. He felt neglected by his father who always praised Itachi, always telling him to be like him. To be told by your own father to not be yourself is harsh. Everyone praised Itachi and Sasuke often found himself compared to him, always in his shadow. Even if he tried his best and was top of his class.

Not only that, but he truly loved Itachi and never got to play with him once he became ANBU, always receiving a poke on the head, hearing the same things every time. His own brother lying to him. That's not really pleasant, well, at least he had some comfort from his mom.

Then, right after he figured out that his father did love him and talked about him, he just had to get murdered right after. His clan was murdered, right in front of his eyes - by his own brother, who was the closest person to him (I think). His idol, own brother, tortured him with his eyes. He had to switch from loving him to hating him, leading to revenge. Well, even after the downfall, he acted like an arrogant, prideful brat - that annoyed me. (Sorry for my grammar)

She was enslaved as a child in order to save her village and has been treated like crap by her enslavers. She should definitely be higher on this list.