7 Manga Built on the Suffering of Fictional Children

The Promised Neverland, by Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu
Eleven-year-olds Emma, Norman, and Ray have enjoyed an idyllic childhood at Grace Field House orphanage under the eye of the matronly Mom, a saintly caregiver who could give Mary Poppins a run for her carpetbag. The trio’s halcyon days come to an end when they stumble on the shocking truth about their orphanage—it is not, in fact, a charity run by kindly, far-off adults, but rather a farm managed by absolutely horrifying monsters who want to eat them all. And Mama knows everything. Emma and her friends go from playing hide-and-seek on the lawn to attempting to outfox the parent figure they once trusted with unquestioning devotion, while at the same time making ruthless choices about which of their siblings, who range in age from infants to 10-year-olds, are realistically salvageable in an escape attempt. Sacrifices will have to be made.

Erased, by Kei Sanbe
When someone close to him is murdered, Satoru Fujinuma is thrown 18 years into the past, awakening as an elementary schooler just weeks before a childhood classmate, Kayo Hinazuki, was kidnapped and killed in a crime that rocked his small town. Erased is a tense page-turner of a thriller completely built on the suffering of the young Kayo, whose life is misery from beginning to end. Granted, the first thing we know about her is that she was kidnapped and murdered, which is not a great way to start off, but as Satoru gets to know her, it becomes apparent just how bad things really are. Kayo is cold and emotionally distant in class, leaving her isolated and alone (a perfect target for a serial kidnapper). At home, her mother abuses her physically and emotionally, at one point leaving her out in an unheated shed in the middle of winter. Kayo’s development and growing relationship with Satoru is one of the the strongest emotional threads in the manga, but boy, does this girl have it rough.

Fullmetal Alchemist, by Hiromu Arakawa
Arakawa is one of the most accomplished mangaka out there, but oh, how she loves the suffering of little children. When Edward and Alphonse Elric’s mother dies, they are orphaned at a young age, which is already a tough break for our protagonists. But then the brothers become convinced that they can bring their mother back to life with the awesome power of alchemy, and everything gets way, way worse. Before you know it, Ed’s missing limbs, Al’s misplaced an entire body, and someone’s burying a humanoid alchemical monstrosity in the backyard. And even if life start looking up for our young heroes after that—Ed joins the military, which isn’t the ideal place for a 15-year-old, but at least he can walk now—there’s plenty of other suffering in store for the children in this manga (in a word: Nina).

Made in Abyss, by Akihito Tsukushi
Riko has grown up in the shadow of her mother’s reputation as one of the most celebrated explorers of the Abyss, a vast cave system littered with dangerous creatures and mysterious relics. Though she’s always dreamed of following in her mother’s footsteps, her opportunity comes sooner than expected when she meets a strange mechanical boy from the Abyss’s deepest recesses. If you go into this dark adventure manga expecting it to be soft on its heroes because of their youth, you’re going to be in for a rough ride. Not only is the place stuffed with deadly flora and fauna that love to gobble up unsuspecting explorers (and not the quick, painless type of gobbling), the geography of the Abyss is lethal, too—the further one descends, the greater the physical consequences are. Not even fellow humans are a safe bet for our young travelers, as most of them have their own agendas or are driven near insanity by extended time in the Abyss. Be careful, kids.

Seraph of the End, by Takaya Kagami and Yamato Yamamoto
After a devastating pandemic wipes out every human over the age of 14, genteel vampires with excellent taste in footwear have come out of the shadows to take their rightful place as rulers of the earth. Barring a few resistance fighters, the human population is enslaved by their new overlords. And the vampires need a food source, so naturally they take over guardianship of human children and turn them into livestock, creating battery blood farms to suck the life out of their little wards. Some vampires even single out a few lucky children out for special, toothy attention. When Yuichiro, one of the captive orphans, attempts to fight back by leading a daring escape with a group of cherubic youngsters, well…let’s just say it doesn’t end well for anyone—except the vampires.

Hunter x Hunter, by Yoshihiro Togashi
Gon Freecss is determined to become a Hunter, an elite adventurer capable of everything from tracking down treasure to stopping criminal masterminds. The qualification exam alone is grueling and dangerous, but that doesn’t stop the plucky 12-year-old, nor his friend and agemate, Killua Zoldyck. Togashi’s world isn’t kind to any of its young characters, but it is particularly cruel to Killua. Whereas Gon is almost pathologically optimistic, Killua is the worrier and planner, the one who’s afraid to fail, to disappoint, to be abandoned. The kid is a hardened assassin at twelve, trained from infancy by a completely psychotic family and an older brother who considers emotional blackmail “being a little protective.” While their loving parents turn a blind eye, Illumi goes out of his way to keep his brother under his thumb by foiling Killua’s every attempt to gain independence or emotional intimacy with others. And that’s not even touching Killua’s other siblings—the Zoldyck kids could keep an army of therapists employed full time.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, by Hirohiko Araki
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, a multigenerational battle epic that started serialization in 1987 and is still running today, has inflicted untold suffering on many of its young characters over the years, but it all begins in part one of the series, Phantom Blood. The progenitor of the Joestar line, Jonathan Joestar (known, of course, as JoJo) is a mere 12 years of age when his fated nemesis, Dio Brando, walks into his life. Dio, an interloper who schemes to replace Jonathan in his father’s affections, quickly initiates a campaign of psychological torture on the young Joestar heir. He injures—and eventually kills—JoJo’s beloved dog, turns his friends against him, spreads nasty rumors, steals his possessions, forcibly kisses JoJo’s crush, and manipulates his father’s love. All at the age of twelve! And Phantom Blood is only the first arc in a 30-year serialization—scads of children (and dogs have suffered under Araki’s pen over the years for our reading pleasure).
What are your favorite manga that ruin kids’ lives?