7 Anime That Bring Characters Back to Life After Dying
Ahmed Riaz
Audiences mourn fictional character deaths almost as much as real death when stories execute them to perfection. Anime has racked up some of the most heartbreaking deaths in television history. As a result, anime is also responsible for introducing some of the most reality-breaking death reversals of all time.
Reincarnation is such a common storytelling mechanic in anime that it’s now a genre growing larger every year. Time loop series like Re:Zero have also emerged as a popular anime subgenre that treats death like a plot point rather than the end of a character’s story. Whether it’s because of Naruto‘s broken jutsu techniques or One Piece‘s flimsy writing decisions, some deaths just aren’t as final as others.
Re:Zero’s Deaths Are Mile Markers in an Isekai Time Loop Marathon
Deaths in reincarnation anime series like Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World aren’t the end of the story; killing off characters is how the plot moves forward. Based on the ongoing manga series originally released in 2012, the Re:Zero anime adaptation quickly gained recognition as a well-written entry in the isekai category after debuting in 2016.
Re:Zero‘s protagonist, Subaru Natsuki, dies 11 times in the first season alone, setting a markedly dark tone for the series right off the bat. With a blend of isekai and darkness that modern anime audiences love, one of Re:Zero‘s best qualities is leveraging Subaru’s cheat code against death itself. Subaru’s death count is still climbing in Re:Zero Season 4, solidifying the series as one of the best dark isekai streaming on Crunchyroll.
Neon Genesis Evangelion Hits the Reset Button Until Shinji Rebuilds a Better World
It wasn’t until after the original Neon Genesis Evangelion, the 26-episode series created by Gainax Pictures and released from 1995 to 1996, that this anime universe started rewriting the rules of death. While phenomena like Rei Ayanami’s cloning and Yui’s attachment to Eva-01 merely bend the rules of existence in the show, the franchise’s Rebuild of Evangelion films open up new possibilities by introducing time loops to the story.
While it’s up to interpretation exactly how many timelines exist by the end of the fourth Rebuild movie, it’s clear that Evangelion’s protagonist, Shinji Ikari, is getting chances at a better life after every death. Hardly any character gets to live out their dreams in Evangelion’s universe, but Shinji’s deaths eventually pave the way for a few happy endings.
Dragon Ball Made Death Meaningless to Shonen Anime in the Most Fun Way Possible
Goku with a halo floating above NamekImage via Yéred García Oseguera
Dragon Ball’s entire premise is based on magical artifacts that can grant almost any wish, including bringing someone back from the dead. By collecting all of a planet’s Dragon Balls to make a set, the wielder can summon a Dragon to grant any wish within its power. Although it’s common for characters to be wished back to life in Dragon Ball’s story, there are limitations.
Even with the power of the strongest known Dragon Balls, people can only be resurrected a limited number of times. Many of Dragon Ball’s most iconic characters, including Goku, Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu and Vegeta, return from the afterlife thanks to a wish at some point or another. The constant hunt for more Dragon Balls is one of the most entertaining story engines ever created, and it has inspired countless other shonen anime to follow in its footsteps.
Jujutsu Kaisen Treats Death Like a Multiple Choice Quiz
Kenjaku uses Curse Manipulation to absorb Mahito in Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2Image via Studio MAPPA
Jujutsu Kaisen is one of those dark anime universes where death is often the beginning of something terrible. Whether or not a JJK character is a sorcerer, there are several options to keep them alive, or rather, to keep them from being fully dead. Regardless of the method, it all starts with the right amount of Cursed Energy.
Kenjaku, the primary villain of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3, manipulates death often throughout the series by using his brain transfer technique to extend his lifespan indefinitely. As a result, Kenjaku invents the Culling Games to facilitate the reincarnation of other powerful sorcerers, cheating death on an even greater scale. Even if Kenjaku has nothing to do with it, a person can transform into a Cursed Spirit upon their death under the right (usually tragic) circumstances, like Yuta Okkotsu’s spirit companion, Rika.
One Piece’s Author Can’t Commit to Killing Off Characters
Vivi riding on Pell’s back in One PieceSource: Toei Animation
One Piece’s polarizing Alabasta Saga in the anime’s early phases features one of Eiichiro Oda’s most egregious writing flaws to date. After a dramatic moment when a beloved warrior makes a sacrifice and appears to die a hero, Oda simply brings the character back as if nothing had ever happened.
CBR Exclusive · One Piece Quiz WHICH ONE PIECE LEGEND ARE YOU? Set sail — Quiz sequence initiated ⚓ The Grand Line stretches endlessly before you. Across its treacherous waters, legends are born — forged in Devil Fruit power, unbreakable will, and the fierce loyalty of a crew that would sail into any storm. Twenty questions. One legendary result. Your adventure begins now. 🌊
🍖Luffy
⚔️Zoro
🗺️Nami
📖Robin
🍳Sanji
01
The Going Merry is ready to leave port. What’s your first move? 🚢 How you set sail says everything about who you are at sea.
02
A Marine warship is blocking your route. You: 🏴☠️ Crisis response reveals your true pirate nature.
03
You find a Devil Fruit on the table. What do you hope it is? 🍈 The fruit you crave is the power you were always meant to have.
04
What is your one, unshakeable dream? 🌟 Every great pirate sails for something deeper than treasure.
05
The Thousand Sunny docks at a new island. First stop? 🏝️ What you do first in port reveals your deepest priorities.
06
Your greatest weapon aboard the ship? ✨ Every Straw Hat has one thing that makes them irreplaceable.
07
What’s your natural role when things get tense? 🪝 The pressure moment is where your true function reveals itself.
08
Honest confession — what is actually your biggest flaw? 😬 Even the greatest pirates have one thing they’re still working on.
09
A crewmate is in serious danger. You: 💪 How you protect the people you sail with is who you truly are.
10
Halfway across the Grand Line. What keeps you going? 🌟 Not the crew’s reason. Yours. The private one.
11
You lost the fight. The crew is watching. Now what? 😳 How you rise after falling is what separates legends from passengers.
12
Your bounty poster just went up. What’s on it? 💰 The World Government describes you the way your enemies see you.
13
Free day on a peaceful island. What actually happens? 🌴 How you rest is a window into what drives you when no one’s watching.
14
What does your crew actually say about you behind your back? 📋 The people who sail with you see the version you can’t.
15
Which Haki do you feel most aligned with? 🔮 The Haki you master reflects the deepest truth of who you are.
16
What does it truly mean to you to be a pirate? 🌊 Not Garp’s definition. Not the Marines’. Yours.
17
In a hundred years, what will they say about you? 🎬 The Void Century has room for one more name. What does yours mean?
18
A Warlord of the Sea is blocking the path forward. You: 👀 Warlords don’t intimidate legends. They reveal them.
19
The crew celebrates a big victory. Your contribution? 🎉 How you celebrate says as much as how you fight.
20
You reach Laugh Tale. The One Piece is real. What do you do? 🔥 Twenty questions. One truth. No turning back now.
⚓ The Grand Line has made its judgement ⚓ YOUR ONE PIECE LEGEND
Your scores are revealed below! The character with the highest number is your One Piece counterpart. Read their profile to discover your true pirate destiny. 🌊
🍖 Luffy
⚔️ Zoro
🗺️ Nami
📖 Robin
🍳 Sanji
You don’t understand the word impossible — not because you’re naive, but because you genuinely never accepted that it applied to you. You charge into every situation with the full force of your personality, your body, and your heart, and somehow the universe rearranges itself to accommodate you. You don’t lead through command; you lead through being so completely, recklessly yourself that everyone around you becomes a better version of who they were. You eat too much, feel too loudly, and care too deeply. The world calls it recklessness. Your crew calls it home. 🍖
You have made exactly one promise and you have organised your entire existence around keeping it. Stoic to a fault, terrifying in combat, and somehow always facing the wrong direction — you are the immovable foundation that the whole crew leans against when everything else shakes. You don’t ask for recognition. You don’t need it. The work is its own reward. The sword is the path and the path is the sword. You will lose a thousand times before you reach the top, and you will get back up every single time. That is not stubbornness. That is who you are. ⚔️
You are sharper than anyone in the room and you know it — but you also know exactly when not to show it. Pragmatic, resourceful, and carrying more than you ever show on your face, you are the reason the ship reaches anywhere at all. Every route was planned by you. Every impossible weather reading, every near-catastrophe avoided — that was you. The world tried to take everything from you once, and you built something extraordinary out of the wreckage. You love the people you’ve chosen fiercely, quietly, and without much ceremony. The map isn’t finished. You’ll get there. 🗺️
You spent so long being hunted for what you know that you forgot — briefly, painfully — that you were also worth loving for who you are. You carry the weight of erased history in your memory and the quiet certainty of someone who has survived what should have been unsurvivable. Calm where others panic, perceptive where others miss everything, and in possession of a dark humour that still catches people off guard. You don’t trust easily, and when you do, it is the most complete and devastating loyalty imaginable. You want to know the truth. You deserve to live to read it. 📖
You have principles carved so deep they function like a skeleton — invisible, structural, and the thing holding everything else upright. You cook for people because food is love expressed at its most honest. You fight for the crew because protecting them is the most natural thing in the world. You are elegant, occasionally absurd, capable of extraordinary tenderness and absolutely terrifying combat in the same five-minute span. You came from darkness and chose light so deliberately and so completely that it became your defining act. The sea called and you answered. All Blue is out there. You’ll find it. 🍳
To save the Alabasta Kingdom from destruction, Princess Nefertari Vivi’s trusted guardian, Pell, risks his life to carry a bomb away to a safe distance before it explodes. The dramatic explosion gives the impression that Pell died, but that writing decision was subsequently walked back. Not only did this retcon undercut Pell’s sacrifice and ruin a solid ending to his story, but Oda repeated the same mistake with other characters, including Jaguar D. Sol and Monkey D. Garp.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Reconnects Two Lovers After One Dies
Frieren Beyond Journey’s End Season 1 Himmel kneels to put a ring on Frieren’s finger in front of a clock towerImage via Madhouse
Death and grief are central to Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’s story. Following a centuries-old elf grieving the death of her human companion, Himmel, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End gives their missed connection a second chance to blossom. Determined to confess her true feelings (once she finally unpacks them) to Himmel, Frieren embarks on a journey to visit him in the afterlife almost three decades after his death.
The premise of Frieren’s journey is a powerful use of fantasy few modern anime can match. Now with two seasons to its name, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End brings a powerful elf even closer to understanding the fascinating magic of love. Although death is final in many ways in the world of Frieren, there is still no doubt among the fandom that Frieren will reunite with Himmel by the end of the story.
Naruto Constantly Brings Back Characters From the Dead
Very early in Naruto’s story, the anime explores the dark side of the Hidden Leaf Village’s powerful jutsu techniques. One of the most memorable scenes in the original Naruto anime is when Orochimaru summons two of the former village leaders from the dead to fight the Third Hokage, and it’s far from the only time jutsu cheats death in the series.
Naruto: Shippuden takes the reincarnation trend to new heights during the Fourth Great Ninja War. Characters from every era of Naruto‘s story take to the battlefield in a tragic clash against undead legends in a war to put them to rest once and for all. In a cutthroat shinobi world, being allowed to rest in peace after dying is the least someone could ask for in Naruto.
