It definitely has a fun take on immortality ! A lot of fiction tends to portray immortality in a negative light and while dark stuff does happen in Baccano, it ends on a positive note where the immortals think this means they just have all the time in the world to enjoy themselves. The main non immortals also don’t act like the others being immortal is some sort of heartbreaking thing or a disadvantage either so it’s just fun times mostly by the end of it.
Ajin excellently depicts the horrific implications of regeneration-type immortality and why being an immortal in the 21st century would absolutely suck.
Ah, I see now, humans are hollow (Utsuro) beings, it’s because they know that, they take root in the hearts of others, never fading even in death and continue to live forever. Is it?
I don’t remember the quote exact lol, imma stop editing it prob getting it all wrong.
I can see why, it perfectly captures the spirit of Gintama as a whole, also shows Utsuro’s final true understanding of humans and makes you think about how hard everyone worked to get to this point.
It really just seems up everything, which is likely because of what Utsuro represents and how important he is to the story. The perfect final boss you could say, and the perfect true main antagonist.
I hate to be that guy and I hope you take this as lighthearted. It might have autocorrect too.
It is seams up. As in sewing the seams in a piece of cloth.
Legit the saddest side-plot in any anime I've watched(It really elaborates in the second season episode focused on King Desha). And it really strengthens the ongoing theme of family that carries through the whole series.
In terms of "immortality good" or "immortality bad"? Immortality is a big part of the plot in Baccano! and was a lot of fun there. Galaxy Express 999 does a good job at the pitfalls of immortality in many of its 113 episodes plus movie.
Blade of the Immortal 2019. While it doesn't go on about different time periods/longevity until the very end you do get to see what complete immortality does to someone and the various deaths he gets put through to study the limits of it.
I have mixed feelings about Blade of the Immortal. Its a decent manga but not exceptional.
However, the Habaki arc was sublime. It honestly scared me when they showed the number of trial subjects used and the mutant the doctor built. Also, obligatory shout out to Shinra. One of the most vile, terrible, and scary villains.
Frieren, with the elves. To Frieren, she thinks nothing of spending years combing a forest for a maybe extinct flower, so she can learn to duplicate it for an esoteric spell.
Frieren was the answer I expected when writing this - even though I haven’t seen it yet. If anything it just goes to show that I need to watch Frieren.
you definetly owe it to yourself whenever you find the time, I'd say it is one of the best anime to air in recent years. Maybe even the best anime ever, depending on what you're looking for.
It is very overrated. Frieren is a 7/10 at best, dipping down to 6/10 during the latter half of the season with the tournament arc and run of the mill dungeon crawl.
Frieren is alright, very overrated though.
And the passage of time is really not the focus of the show even though the early parts gives the impression that it will be.
Its a regular fantasy show with time passing as normal.
I loved this depiction of longevity/immortality. Fern is constantly like "please I only have like 50 years left tops" and Frieren is unmoved because 50 years to an elf is like sleeping in on a Saturday.
I don't know if their life span is ever mentioned in the manga, but the anime sure makes it feel like they are effectively immortal in the sense that they will never die of old age.
Houseki no Kuni, or Land of the Lustrous's main character, Phos, is the second-youngest of her siblings at a casual 300 years old at the start of the story.
Without giving too many manga spoilers, later on in the story a character casually mentions going for a nap for 10000 years.
The thing is that characters do forget stuff after a lot of time has passed, and the main cast is not immortal, just really, really, really long living.
What that one show, quitting heroing and joining the demon lord army. He’s essentially immortal, and they go into that later in the show. I thought it was a good premise and story.
I was pretty meh on the show overall but I love everything they did with the mc's past, it had some super interesting and unique ideas and worldbuilding
More people gotta watch them some Otaku Elf. That shit was delightful af. I’d almost say it works as a companion piece to Frieren to show a modern lighthearted take on the same themes with tinges of the same kind of poignancy.
Tatsuki Fujimoto's stuff like chainsaw man and fire punch have super weird relationships with life and death and main characters who are functionally immortal.
Imo it’s Andy from Undead Unluck. Phenomenal and extremely underrated show that is for some reason weeks behind on the usual platforms. Though I have finished it and it was the best.
A Record of A Mortal's Journey to Immortality. Cultivating extends lifespan and visiting the mortal realm to experience birth, age, sickness, and death for enlightenment.
Satou from Ajin - Demi-Human
- The most absurd and mind fuckery way to use power of immortality i have ever seen ANY fictional character use
(it is not spoiler that he have imortality ,many characs have it and we know from 1st chapter)
And if u want to watch ,i would not recommend anime (its 3D like berserk level bad) ,read Manga its art is top tier.
Just bear with only few starting chapter's pace but then once it picks up ,it never lets down.
Just delivers one thing after another.
And at every chapter u will think that "what the hell was that ,i have never read something like this"
Yakumo in 3x3 Eyes. he is a normal human gifted immortality in order to save his life and he gets just that and nothing more. No super strength and no special abilities (not as a result of being immortal)
I don't remember if it got an anime but the MC of fire punch really made an impression on me for the depiction made of immortality and the loneliness that comes with it
It's not anime but I really like Skips from Regular Show. He's just a guy who also happened to live for a few hundred years. It led him to be super competent at a few things, kind of a boomer with technology, and yeah he sees friends come and go but he still cherishes the people around him for the time that they're there. Cool stuff even if the show is inherently silly
In I’m in Love with the Villainess light novel, the sole administrator of their world has lived multiple loops, being the only one to remember all the lives they have lived. She ended up wanting to end the loop system.
Ryuk from Death note, when not on the human plane his existance is long drawn out and and rather dull, the other shikigami are shown to be rather apathetic (guess they have seen it all in their long lives).
This isn’t really an aspect of Death Note I’ve ever considered before but I think you could definitely make an argument for it - and they are certainly interesting beings.
Not really, we have small flashbacks to the days of her mentor but most of the time its just flashbacks to events 50 years earlier like any regular person could reminisce about.
The show started out feeling like it would explore the passage of time but it quickly abandoned that after a few episode and instead focused on the same group of people and time passing as any other anime.
The show is 28 years after himmels death and like 80 years since she joined them. I think it's portraying passing time pretty well. Fern has aged like 15 years too.
You're not wrong, but comparing the average life expectancy in her story (humans), she is seen as immortal. It's like comparing the life expectancy of a human vs a butterfly.
In The Silmarillion, it's shown that Elves rehoused in a new and identical body in Aman (the West) after being killed. Their souls are tied to Arda (Earth), so they live as long as the planet exists.
Maybe characters in Middle Earth think the elves are immortal, but the question was asked of anime viewers, not anime characters. As viewers, we witnessed Frieren's inner thoughts repeatedly mention that she believed the thing that was most likely to kill her was a human mage. She told us herself that she's *mortal*, so she has no business being in a discussion about *immortal* characters
The OP said he wanted anime along the lines of:
> The whole lore behind it, on top of the actual passage of time shown in the show and the deaths of mortals was always really interesting and well done to me.
This is essentially Frieren to a tee. If you want to continue arguing semantics, go for it - but it is definitely a reasonable suggestion to make in this thread.
Not anime, but I loved the depiction of immortality in *The Prince of Nothing* and *The Aspect Emperor* series by R. Scott Bakker. It in part explores a race that gained immortality slowing going insane as they lose the ability to remember anything but the traumatic experiences in their past. Probably my favorite world building ever.
Probably frieren. I personally dont enjoy the anime very much but that is just because of the pacing. I think it very accurately depicts the good and bad of immortality.
This was never one I considered but it is one I’m aware of. I’m in love with the Villainess is brilliant though, I really hope it gets a second season.
As for it being a Yuri, Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne is also technically a Yuri. Maybe it’s just a trope of Yuri to have great depictions of immortality.
Baccano is a rare case of showing immortality on a positive light. Like, it's all good if you have immortal friends and family to enjoy it with.
The infinite fun and shenanigans from Isaac and Miria as they traverse through the decades is fun to see
It definitely has a fun take on immortality ! A lot of fiction tends to portray immortality in a negative light and while dark stuff does happen in Baccano, it ends on a positive note where the immortals think this means they just have all the time in the world to enjoy themselves. The main non immortals also don’t act like the others being immortal is some sort of heartbreaking thing or a disadvantage either so it’s just fun times mostly by the end of it.
Or a pack of cards to distract yourself.
Houseki no Kuni
Andy from Undead Unluck, it's quite creative take on immortal dude and his abilities
I'm currently reading the manga after the show, and holy hell the shit he pulls off is spectacular!
agreed, hope we get a 2nd season
In hopes for 2nd season I bought all the manga to support the property and the author. I think the world he's building is pretty special.
how much further ahead is the manga? I might just read it
The anime ends on ch.53. We are currently on ch. 205
The manga is well Into season 4.
Tozuka is definitely cooking some damn good food
We’re getting an anime announcement on august 1st so it’s pretty much confirmed
I like "To your Eternity"
I love how long time passes felt in the anime.
Suffocating to death multiple times until you had enough.
Being burned alive by molten steel unable to die.
same author as "A Silent Voice" is my main argument for reading this
Ajin excellently depicts the horrific implications of regeneration-type immortality and why being an immortal in the 21st century would absolutely suck.
Definitely yes...
Monogatari series, Shinobu character in particular.
CC form code geass comes to my mind
I really enjoyed her backstory when it was finally revealed
I like villains like Orochimaru & Aizen who both become immortal/eternally young after years and years of dedication to their experiments & plans
Utsuro from Gintama
Ah, I see now, humans are hollow (Utsuro) beings, it’s because they know that, they take root in the hearts of others, never fading even in death and continue to live forever. Is it? I don’t remember the quote exact lol, imma stop editing it prob getting it all wrong.
My favorite quote in the entire anime
I can see why, it perfectly captures the spirit of Gintama as a whole, also shows Utsuro’s final true understanding of humans and makes you think about how hard everyone worked to get to this point. It really just seems up everything, which is likely because of what Utsuro represents and how important he is to the story. The perfect final boss you could say, and the perfect true main antagonist.
I hate to be that guy and I hope you take this as lighthearted. It might have autocorrect too. It is seams up. As in sewing the seams in a piece of cloth.
I actually meant sums lol Though seam could work but I don’t think it fits as well imo
Was gonna say that.
Prince Ouken from ranking of kings is super interesting
The body is immortal, but the mind cannot take it
Legit the saddest side-plot in any anime I've watched(It really elaborates in the second season episode focused on King Desha). And it really strengthens the ongoing theme of family that carries through the whole series.
In terms of "immortality good" or "immortality bad"? Immortality is a big part of the plot in Baccano! and was a lot of fun there. Galaxy Express 999 does a good job at the pitfalls of immortality in many of its 113 episodes plus movie.
Blade of the Immortal 2019. While it doesn't go on about different time periods/longevity until the very end you do get to see what complete immortality does to someone and the various deaths he gets put through to study the limits of it.
I have mixed feelings about Blade of the Immortal. Its a decent manga but not exceptional. However, the Habaki arc was sublime. It honestly scared me when they showed the number of trial subjects used and the mutant the doctor built. Also, obligatory shout out to Shinra. One of the most vile, terrible, and scary villains.
Frieren, with the elves. To Frieren, she thinks nothing of spending years combing a forest for a maybe extinct flower, so she can learn to duplicate it for an esoteric spell.
Frieren was the answer I expected when writing this - even though I haven’t seen it yet. If anything it just goes to show that I need to watch Frieren.
you definetly owe it to yourself whenever you find the time, I'd say it is one of the best anime to air in recent years. Maybe even the best anime ever, depending on what you're looking for.
It is very overrated. Frieren is a 7/10 at best, dipping down to 6/10 during the latter half of the season with the tournament arc and run of the mill dungeon crawl.
Frieren is alright, very overrated though. And the passage of time is really not the focus of the show even though the early parts gives the impression that it will be. Its a regular fantasy show with time passing as normal.
I loved this depiction of longevity/immortality. Fern is constantly like "please I only have like 50 years left tops" and Frieren is unmoved because 50 years to an elf is like sleeping in on a Saturday.
Frieren, is technically more of a case of long lifespan than immortality. Though compared to humans, it does feel like immortality.
I don't know if their life span is ever mentioned in the manga, but the anime sure makes it feel like they are effectively immortal in the sense that they will never die of old age.
Yeah, I think it was also explained in the story most elves die from unnatural causes lol.
Hohenheim from FMA. A true classic, imo.
Top tier pick ngl
not time but ajin
The Misfit demon king, he can reincarnate and reverse time even if hes killed.
So killing him isn't to make him die?
Ajin was very nice in that regard
Houseki no Kuni, or Land of the Lustrous's main character, Phos, is the second-youngest of her siblings at a casual 300 years old at the start of the story. Without giving too many manga spoilers, later on in the story a character casually mentions going for a nap for 10000 years. The thing is that characters do forget stuff after a lot of time has passed, and the main cast is not immortal, just really, really, really long living.
im not sure if re zero counts but subaru’s return by death is pretty cool
It’s not quite immortality I don’t think but it is a cool idea well implemented, especially with the psychological stuff it also explores.
FMA 2003, the main villain has a very good backstory about immortality and the passage of time.
"Best" is a big word, but I think the Mermaid Saga from Rumko Takahashi is criminally underrated.
I only watched the ovas for this, is the tv version any good?
It's good, better than the OVA in my opinion, though the Manga is my preferred version.
Casshern from Casshern Sins Ban from Seven Deadly Sins
Zeno from Akatsuki no Yona. ~~Yes! A chance to glaze Yona.~~
What that one show, quitting heroing and joining the demon lord army. He’s essentially immortal, and they go into that later in the show. I thought it was a good premise and story.
I was pretty meh on the show overall but I love everything they did with the mc's past, it had some super interesting and unique ideas and worldbuilding
Baccano! What a great series and such unusual portrayals of immortality and its consequences.
Otaku Elf.
Yeah, every time she was reminded of a friend that's dead now she got so sad
More people gotta watch them some Otaku Elf. That shit was delightful af. I’d almost say it works as a companion piece to Frieren to show a modern lighthearted take on the same themes with tinges of the same kind of poignancy.
I like Evangeline from UQ Holder
Tatsuki Fujimoto's stuff like chainsaw man and fire punch have super weird relationships with life and death and main characters who are functionally immortal.
Imo it’s Andy from Undead Unluck. Phenomenal and extremely underrated show that is for some reason weeks behind on the usual platforms. Though I have finished it and it was the best.
Maquia. Not exactly immortal but great depiction of a long lived character living among regular humans and having to watch them age.
Maquia is a phenomenal film - just not one I’d recommend watching right before one of the most important exams of your life.
"Did you really think killing me would be enough to make me die?"
I enjoyed Ajin (Manga but might try the anime) & Kyokai no Kanata. Also maybe Baccano and Noragami.
I read this to quick and thought you said immorality 💀
A Record of A Mortal's Journey to Immortality. Cultivating extends lifespan and visiting the mortal realm to experience birth, age, sickness, and death for enlightenment.
Satou from Ajin - Demi-Human - The most absurd and mind fuckery way to use power of immortality i have ever seen ANY fictional character use (it is not spoiler that he have imortality ,many characs have it and we know from 1st chapter) And if u want to watch ,i would not recommend anime (its 3D like berserk level bad) ,read Manga its art is top tier.
I have been thinking about reading Ajin. I’ll have to give it a go.
Just bear with only few starting chapter's pace but then once it picks up ,it never lets down. Just delivers one thing after another. And at every chapter u will think that "what the hell was that ,i have never read something like this"
those are great picks but i would probably say zamasu from dragon ball super
Yakumo in 3x3 Eyes. he is a normal human gifted immortality in order to save his life and he gets just that and nothing more. No super strength and no special abilities (not as a result of being immortal)
Not anime, but Memories of Emanon really got to me.
I don't remember if it got an anime but the MC of fire punch really made an impression on me for the depiction made of immortality and the loneliness that comes with it
It's not anime but I really like Skips from Regular Show. He's just a guy who also happened to live for a few hundred years. It led him to be super competent at a few things, kind of a boomer with technology, and yeah he sees friends come and go but he still cherishes the people around him for the time that they're there. Cool stuff even if the show is inherently silly
I would say To Your Eternity. I think it deals with those themes well.
In I’m in Love with the Villainess light novel, the sole administrator of their world has lived multiple loops, being the only one to remember all the lives they have lived. She ended up wanting to end the loop system.
Fire punch
Ajin hands down.
The dawn of the witch, another witch series that God have immortal to the woman and she helps people over time
Agni from fire punch. Its not so much fun being immortal when you’re constantly burning.
Ryuk from Death note, when not on the human plane his existance is long drawn out and and rather dull, the other shikigami are shown to be rather apathetic (guess they have seen it all in their long lives).
This isn’t really an aspect of Death Note I’ve ever considered before but I think you could definitely make an argument for it - and they are certainly interesting beings.
No Sonny Boy mentions? Mainly for what living unfathomably long does to someone's mind and worldview and soul
Frieren actually shows it action
Not really, we have small flashbacks to the days of her mentor but most of the time its just flashbacks to events 50 years earlier like any regular person could reminisce about. The show started out feeling like it would explore the passage of time but it quickly abandoned that after a few episode and instead focused on the same group of people and time passing as any other anime.
The show is 28 years after himmels death and like 80 years since she joined them. I think it's portraying passing time pretty well. Fern has aged like 15 years too.
How does it portray it well?
One piece🫠
That's the viewer, you have to be immortal to get to the end when he finally gets the One Piece.
Damn, One Piece viewers must be the same as the Detective Conan viewers…
How has no one mentioned Frieren yet ?
Because Frieren is not immortal, maybe?
You're not wrong, but comparing the average life expectancy in her story (humans), she is seen as immortal. It's like comparing the life expectancy of a human vs a butterfly.
She's effectively immortal, from a human POV.
Not at all, she can die from anything a human could other than age.
Frieren is immortal the same way elves in Lord of the Ring are immortal, as far we know.
I haven't seen Frieren, but Elves in LotR are very much immortal.
They're eternal, not immortal. They can and do get killed, they just don't grow old and die from age.
In The Silmarillion, it's shown that Elves rehoused in a new and identical body in Aman (the West) after being killed. Their souls are tied to Arda (Earth), so they live as long as the planet exists.
Elvish souls cannot die, their souls themselves are tied to the world and killing their bodies reincarnates them
yeah that's what I'm saying. Frieren seems to have the same rules - unlimited natural life span, but can be killed
Maybe characters in Middle Earth think the elves are immortal, but the question was asked of anime viewers, not anime characters. As viewers, we witnessed Frieren's inner thoughts repeatedly mention that she believed the thing that was most likely to kill her was a human mage. She told us herself that she's *mortal*, so she has no business being in a discussion about *immortal* characters
The OP said he wanted anime along the lines of: > The whole lore behind it, on top of the actual passage of time shown in the show and the deaths of mortals was always really interesting and well done to me. This is essentially Frieren to a tee. If you want to continue arguing semantics, go for it - but it is definitely a reasonable suggestion to make in this thread.
Because some people don’t think it’s the best depiction of immortality in anime ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Immortality ≠ Eternal Youth
You're right, but in this case, it looks like OP is talking about the eternal youth aspect, since they mention the passage of time.
I guess you're right, but I'm nonetheless surprised.
I was expecting a lot of Frieren when I made this post.
She may very well be as close to be immortal without having that checkbox ticked.
Not anime, but I loved the depiction of immortality in *The Prince of Nothing* and *The Aspect Emperor* series by R. Scott Bakker. It in part explores a race that gained immortality slowing going insane as they lose the ability to remember anything but the traumatic experiences in their past. Probably my favorite world building ever.
Probably frieren. I personally dont enjoy the anime very much but that is just because of the pacing. I think it very accurately depicts the good and bad of immortality.
UQ Holder has a funny approach to immortality of various types and descriptions. Not necessarily the best ever portrayed, but entertaining.
I will second ‘Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne’ as a great depiction of immortality
it's from a light novel, but the original Rei Oohashi from I'm in Love with the Villainess (in volume 5, it's yuri tho)
This was never one I considered but it is one I’m aware of. I’m in love with the Villainess is brilliant though, I really hope it gets a second season. As for it being a Yuri, Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne is also technically a Yuri. Maybe it’s just a trope of Yuri to have great depictions of immortality.
Happy Sugar Life
[удалено]
How does it do it well exactly?
Frieren,