Holy Shit That Was Bleak, I Love It

[Fox12]

The obvious answer is Berserk, but I won't go there (it's a given). Elfen Lied, perhaps? The story had plenty of problems, but the one thing it got right was Lucy. Every moment she was on screen was pure gold. But these are too obvious, so let me suggest some of the best stories you've never heard of.

One is Saikano, a sci-fi war story about a girl who becomes the ultimate weapon. It's interesting to me, because it's a war story that doesn't focus on the war. Instead it focuses on the civilian population. It's handled with surprisingly brilliant subtlety, and though it can be a tad bit melodramatic, the story is brilliant all the way to the tragic and inevitable finale. It's similar in tone to Grave of the Fireflies, only far better, and with more interesting characters.

My biggest shout out goes to the manga Narutaru (shadow star). It starts out like a light hearted childrens series before quickly becoming a deadly serious seinen epic. The characterization is, frankly, some of the best I've ever seen anywhere, with one of the most memorable and emotional endings of all time.

 

[Shocksplicer]

Cowboy Bebop. It begins with everyone alone and miserable, shows them come together as a family and trust each other, then everyone goes their separate ways and it's all for nothing.
Bastion and Transistor. I think Supergiant Games might need a hug...
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Love isn't some wonderful, magical thing, and it might just destroy you.
Moon. Poor Sam.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Goddammit, this one's right up my alley, and yet I can't think of anything... SHIT.

Buffy Season Five sort of fits that mold, I guess. It really feels like there should be more then this, but I swear I just can't think of them right now.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

A segment in the anime Aoi Bungaku called "No Longer Human" based on the Japanese novel of the same name. A lot of the other segments were pretty bleak as well, but No Longer Human had a very depressing look, atmosphere and rarely any joy or happiness to it, but was also really good and was the best out of all the segments (which were great as well.) Also, the fact that it serves as a kinda autobiography for the author of the original novel, who committed suicide that same year, makes it feel a lot more personal and adds to the bleakness.

Other than that, Saya no Uta and Phantom: Requeim for the Phantom (Both Gen Urobuchi). Madoka Magica, which I love and is also pretty bleak, wasn't quite as dark as those two, and my thoughts after watching it wasn't about how bleak it was, but how good it was.

Movie wise, some of Chan-wook Park's films, like Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, as well as some other Korean thrillers, like I Saw The Devil.

 

[FPLOON]

Adventure Time springs to mind. While certainly not the bleakest thing I've ever watched, it's certainly up there. The deeper you dig into it's world and mythos the more bleak, dark, and down-right depressing it gets. And that bleakness is ironically bolstered by the shows colorful, mad-cap, and upbeat art style and dialog.

That was basically the first thing that popped into my mind, among other things already mentioned in this thread...

With that said, the one that threw me off the most so far (that hasn't already been mentioned yet to my knowledge) was when the "I drink your milkshake" scene came up in There Will Be Blood... Out of context, it's kinda funny... Within context (as well as what happens afterwords) makes that particular line more darker that I'm willing to joke about, basically...

 

[SadisticBrownie]

For a more recent note, the Hannibal season 2 finale. Just...holy shit. It makes the Red Wedding look like a barrel of laughs.

This would be mine as well. I've decided to call it the Red Dinner. The soundtrack (which is always awesome) and cinematography took the feeling of bleakness to new levels for this show. As depressing as the episode was though, I honestly think it was one of the greatest episodes of TV I've ever seen.

I agree completely. It was horrific and beautiful at the same time, and absolutely perfect.

 

[Nouw]

That moment when you look through the thread and realize a good amount of fiction you consume falls under bleak and depressing. And here I am about to start Ultraman Nexus and True Detective haha.

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Just wanted to thank you guys for not posting any actual spoilers.

]Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

My man!

 

[Casual Shinji]

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Love isn't some wonderful, magical thing, and it might just destroy you.

That movie is far from bleak. I'd say the message of that movie is "Love isn't some wonderful, magical thing, and that's okay." It shows that you need to take the bad with the good, and if you only focus on the former it will destroy you.

 

[Artina89]

I was thinking Breaking bad as well. It has amazed me how my mind has changed about that show. I went from not really getting it, to it being one of my favourite shows. It has definitely grown on me.

It's mostly because the writers are so good at getting and keeping you invested in the characters and, by extension, the story. AMAZING drama.

I couldn't agree more. I am currently re-watching the entire series, and I am finding myself laughing out loud at some of the scenes in the earlier seasons, for example when:

Spoiler

When, in the episode Cat's in the bag Jesse uses Hydrofluoric acid to dissolve Emilio's remains in the bathtub and causes the remains of his bath and Emilio's remains to come through the ceiling

I found that absolutely hilarious, which is just the tonic first thing in the morning before work.

 

[Fyrana]

Anything by Gen Urobuchi, dude's called Gen the butcher for a reason

Spoiler: just look him up in google image search

Stuff he's done that i've seen/read and can confirm as good and bleak:
Saya no Uta, Madoka, Fate/Zero

Fullmetal Daemon Muramasa
It's about a guy called Kageaki who has a sweet red mecha, but it comes with a curse.
Whenever he kills anyone he hates, he has to kill someone he loves.
I´m sure you can see where this is going.
If you've ever read any of my posts in this site, you may have noticed i really like Muramasa

I think the Drakengard series by Yoko Taro counts

Spoiler: here is a very entertaining interview with Yoko Taro that probably explains this better than i can

Basically, Yoko explores different characterizations of murderers in his games, he finds it weird that games like Dynasty Warriors say thing like "100 enemies defeated!" so normally, you'd be a psycho if you killed 100 people.
That's the characterization he used for Drakengard 1's protagonist, he is a murder-loving mute, and the whole game is really fucked up, there is a mission where you go around killind child soldiers, and one of your party members is a pedophile and so on.

After 9/11, he realized people could also kill by thinking they were right, that's the theme he boarded in Nier, the sequel to one of the asshole troll endings of Drakengard 1
Nier is very bleak, both for the heroes and for the villains, if you complete the game once, you can see what the monsters were saying all along, and the game suddenly gets a lot darker

Note that Drakengard 2 wasn't done by him, and so it's not as fucked-up as the rest of the series

I wouldn't say Drakengard 1 was as bleak as Nier. In Drakengard 1, I just couldn't like ANY of the characters. Each and every single one of them were just absolute assholes and despicable bastards. However, in Nier they try and make you care about each of the characters. Nier, Kaine, Yonah, and Emil were all very likable. So likable by the end of the first playthrough you may very well be in tears over how terrible you feel for all of their fates. By the end of the second ending... well good god. I haven't cried as much in a game since To The Moon and Lilly's Route in Katawa Shoujo.

Spoilers:

Spoiler

Learning that you are a vessel created by Nier back at the start of the game and had developed your own soul is sad. But learning that you have spent the better part of the game murdering all that remains of humanity, including your very own soul? Leaving the entire human race to perish is just absolutely tragic. That isn't to even mention the Shades you meet on your way to the Shadowlord's domain. Killing children and infants?

In Drakengard, I just wanted every single character to die painful deaths. None of them (from what I could remember) were decent human beings, but despicable monsters. So when Nier happened, everything just felt very bleak from the get go and just got worse and worse the further you get in the game and the more you come to know and enjoy the characters.

 

[Black Reaper]

Spoiler: quotes

Anything by Gen Urobuchi, dude's called Gen the butcher for a reason

Spoiler: just look him up in google image search

Stuff he's done that i've seen/read and can confirm as good and bleak:
Saya no Uta, Madoka, Fate/Zero

Fullmetal Daemon Muramasa
It's about a guy called Kageaki who has a sweet red mecha, but it comes with a curse.
Whenever he kills anyone he hates, he has to kill someone he loves.
I´m sure you can see where this is going.
If you've ever read any of my posts in this site, you may have noticed i really like Muramasa

I think the Drakengard series by Yoko Taro counts

Spoiler: here is a very entertaining interview with Yoko Taro that probably explains this better than i can

Basically, Yoko explores different characterizations of murderers in his games, he finds it weird that games like Dynasty Warriors say thing like "100 enemies defeated!" so normally, you'd be a psycho if you killed 100 people.
That's the characterization he used for Drakengard 1's protagonist, he is a murder-loving mute, and the whole game is really fucked up, there is a mission where you go around killind child soldiers, and one of your party members is a pedophile and so on.

After 9/11, he realized people could also kill by thinking they were right, that's the theme he boarded in Nier, the sequel to one of the asshole troll endings of Drakengard 1
Nier is very bleak, both for the heroes and for the villains, if you complete the game once, you can see what the monsters were saying all along, and the game suddenly gets a lot darker

Note that Drakengard 2 wasn't done by him, and so it's not as fucked-up as the rest of the series

I wouldn't say Drakengard 1 was as bleak as Nier. In Drakengard 1, I just couldn't like ANY of the characters. Each and every single one of them were just absolute assholes and despicable bastards. However, in Nier they try and make you care about each of the characters. Nier, Kaine, Yonah, and Emil were all very likable. So likable by the end of the first playthrough you may very well be in tears over how terrible you feel for all of their fates. By the end of the second ending... well good god. I haven't cried as much in a game since To The Moon and Lilly's Route in Katawa Shoujo.

Spoilers:

Spoiler

Learning that you are a vessel created by Nier back at the start of the game and had developed your own soul is sad. But learning that you have spent the better part of the game murdering all that remains of humanity, including your very own soul? Leaving the entire human race to perish is just absolutely tragic. That isn't to even mention the Shades you meet on your way to the Shadowlord's domain. Killing children and infants?

In Drakengard, I just wanted every single character to die painful deaths. None of them (from what I could remember) were decent human beings, but despicable monsters. So when Nier happened, everything just felt very bleak from the get go and just got worse and worse the further you get in the game and the more you come to know and enjoy the characters.

Actually good point, Drakengard 1 was pretty bad, i read the Dark id's Lp of it, which is probably better than the actual game, and the characters were very entertaining, if not outright likeable(unlike the originals), so that's probably why i put it on that list despite it being a pretty bad game

And about the topic, i remembered a few more things

J.S.A.: Joint Security Area by Park Chan Wook, it's about some guys in the Korean Military who become friends
Thing is, they aren't from the same side, some are from North Korea and the others are from South Korea

Oldboy, also by Park Chan Wook is pretty good, it's one of my mother's favorite films and she has a bookcase full of movies she likes

The film Pietà by Kim Ki-duk
It's about a guy that works for some loan sharks and goes around maiming people to get them to pay up, then suddenly a woman who claims to be his mother appears out of nowhere and starts following him around
I walked into it at the theater a few minutes late, but it's really good

A Clockwork Orange is this for my mother, she describes it as something like: "You can't believe this film makes you feel bad for such an asshole"

Actually, my mother is very fond of these kind of films, i think there is no proper way to translate the expression she uses to talk about them, but it would be something like "films that leave you sick"
She says Lars Von Trier's films like the Antichrist fall into this category as well

 

[Shocksplicer]

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Love isn't some wonderful, magical thing, and it might just destroy you.

That movie is far from bleak. I'd say the message of that movie is "Love isn't some wonderful, magical thing, and that's okay." It shows that you need to take the bad with the good, and if you only focus on the former it will destroy you.

...I think you and I have very different interpretations of that ending. And that's okay too.

 

[Alcamonic]

Welcome to the NHK is an emotional rollercoaster that starts of as a comedy but towards the end becomes really really depressing at the end. And I just loved the shit out of it. It was seriously inspiring me to.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Berserk III: Descent. I know not all people liked it, but I thought it was good. The end credits song is the perfect nail in the coffin.

Requiem for a Dream. Perhaps because I knew what I was in for when I watched it I wasn't as devastated, but holy hell it was still relentless.

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

I don't know if anyone's said this, but Silence of the Lambs. Even it's happy ending is still kinda depressing when you realize that there are plenty of Serial Killers like Buffalo Bill. Yeah... the world sucks sometimes...

 

[Kyogissun]

HOW HAS NOBODY MENTIONED THE MIST YET?! The film adaptation that is...

I mean I'd say WHY it's a great 'bleak' movie but I can't or else I'd spoil the unbelievably amazing ending. Very few horror films have had the balls to pull off an ending like The Mist. Speaking of Stephen King, I'd also add The Shining onto this list as well. Sure, it's ending isn't what I'd call completely hopeless but there is loss and pain, with no 'they lived happily ever after' post climax scene.

 

[Pink Gregory]

I'm also going to go with The Road. That movie was so good and so depressing at the same time. I have only watched it once, but I can recall most of what happened in it because it was so well done. All of the fear, desperation, and sadness really took it out me, but I was so glad that I experienced it. Someday I'll watch it again when I'm in the right mood and mindset for it. That movie really sticks with you.

Wait for Child of God to come out (or better yet, read it, because the film will inevitably miss some things endemic to Cormac Mccarthy's prose), and prepare for an experience you probably won't be so pleased about

I haven't read the Road, but having read that and Blood Meridian, I don't think I'm going to be much surprised when I do.

OT:

There were moments in 'Nausea' that I genuinely laughed at. Existentialist literature always seems to be written with an underlying black humour that I quite appreciate. The absurdity, I suppose.

"My tits, my lovely fruits." probably doesn't count.