WARNING: The following contains spoilers for To Your Eternity, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
To Your Eternity is a new anime based on Yoshitoki Oima's manga series of the same name, centered around an innocent immortal discovering what it means to be human. While Oima is best known for her manga A Silent Voice, the emotional first few episodes of To Your Eternity already show it has the potential to become even more well-regarded than its predecessor. The anime only began airing this April, but the episodes that have aired so far prove it's capable of delivering a thoughtfully emotional story, handling character deaths particularly well.
Character deaths are often among the most memorable moments of any anime -- Nina Tucker's death early in Fullmetal Alchemist is a good example of this, especially considering how iconic it still is, over a decade after the anime's conclusion. Deaths are always intended to have emotional weight, but not all anime manage to hit the right notes. Too often, deaths feel tacked-on for shock value fail to add something meaningful to the story. To Your Eternity, on the other hand, has a reputation among fans for its memorable deaths.
The death of the Nameless Boy in the first episode is a good example. The anime takes its time in establishing him as a lonely boy who was left behind to take care of the elderly when the rest of his village set off in search of greener pastures. Now that all the older villagers have passed away, he's all on his lonesome in a snowy, empty village with little to do but dream his family will one day return for him as promised. But many years have passed with no sign of them.
This loneliness drives the Nameless Boy to attempt to follow in their footsteps across the ice. He has a cheerful attitude about it when speaking to his pet wolf, Joaan -- who is actually the immortal series' protagonist in wolf form -- never letting on his fear about his family's fate. Even when the boy falls through the ice and is badly wounded, he attempts to push onward, only to find the broken wreckage of his village's wagons. The realization of his family's deaths and his increasing illness force him to return to the lonely village. The once-optimistic boy then dies in his cabin with only Joaan to remember him ... and carry out his dream to travel the world.
It's an impressive first episode that manages to introduce a character, endear him to the audience and ultimately kill him off all in twenty minutes. The Nameless Boy's death could easily have lacked impact and been seen as mere fodder for Joaan's development, but the depth given to his character soundly avoids this. His hopes, his life alone and his kindness are all carefully established, allowing us to empathize with him before he meets his cruel fate.
The Nameless Boy's death -- as well as those in later episodes -- serve as a good contrast to more rushed anime. It's unfortunately typical for series to throw involved plots at the audience while never taking the time to introduce who their characters are at heart. Death is a form of loss, after all, and better shows understand that a character needs to have a meaningful presence before that loss can be truly felt.
