Fear can drive people to behave in unpredictable ways. Many anime explore not only these different kinds of reactions but also the different kinds of fear that drive those reactions. Many times that reaction is one of betrayal.
Characters may fear dying and selfishly react to protect themselves, betraying their friends and family in the heat of the moment. They might fear a threat that creeps up on them unseen, driving them to lash out at their imagined cause of that danger. Or they might betray a mission, a principle, a friend, all because they fear their way of life might drastically and inalterably change.
10 Cooperation Births Betrayal In Danganronpa
The premise of Danganronpa actually sets each participant in the survival game against each other, but the participants don't want to follow that path. They make a strong effort to work together to end the game without satisfying the heinous demands of their demented teddy bear overlord.
But despite the efforts of some of the characters to cooperate, several participants surreptitiously betray those attempts and instead play by the game's rules, fearing that if they don't, someone else will do it before they do. Even though viewers expect this to happen in a death game anime, it doesn't improve everyone's opinion of the offenders, even if viewers wouldn't wish the resulting warped punishment on each offender.
9 Loyalty Is Tested Time & Time Again In Attack on Titan
The dynamic between political interests, the supernatural, and people's daily lives is strong in Attack on Titan. Human relationships are strained to the breaking point time and time again, as the harsh reality of these people's lives is repeatedly thrown into their faces and they are called to make do-or-die choices.
Many of the characters choose their friends over everything else in these moments. But some choose their country and their mission, whether out of principle or fear. These decisions create some of the most impactful moments in this epic series, often showing a new side to a character or changing a stable situation into a suddenly dire set of circumstances.
8 Darwin's Game: Survival Of The Killers
Friendship and alliances hold together pretty strongly in Darwin's Game, with a strong band quickly forming around the prodigy Kaname Sudou. While some of these characters were enemies briefly before becoming Sunset Ravens members, they remain faithful to the clan after joining. The betrayal in this series is not of one character against another but of the trust Kaname's guildmates had in him and the guild.
Kaname doesn't want to have to kill others in the game and hopes that all other killings can be prevented as well. But in a moment of fear and rage, Kaname himself abandons his principle and sets out to kill as many of his rivals as possible, actively turning the Ravens from a guild seeking peace into a symbol of fear.
7 Confronting Existential Crises: Neon Genesis Evangelion
How will people react when faced with the imminent destruction of their world? Or simply the destruction of the reality they've built up around themselves? Neon Genesis Evangelion shows many different sides of humanity, as characters face this fear and react to it in many different ways. Some try to run away. Others become angry and lash out. Some suddenly have to confront their true selves.
No matter the reaction, usually these individuals end up betraying someone who was either dear to them or an esteemed compatriot. The result is almost always destructive for all parties involved, from Shinji crushing Kaworu Nagisa to Ritsuko's attempts to kill Gendo Ikari, human betrays human until the very end of this dark, sometimes confusing, but epic series.
6 The Ordinary Goes Very Bad In School Days
For all but the final episode of the infamous School Days, viewers' hearts are tugged in both pleasant and only mildly unpleasant ways, feeling hope, sympathy, and then sorrow for Kotonoha; frustration but empathy for Sekai; and complete irritation and disgust with Makoto and his conduct.
But once the final episode rolls around and all the storylines converge, Kotonoha's fear of losing what she had gained finally overwhelms her, driving her to do the unthinkable. Jealousy and the fear that arises from it are showcased as well in this show as anywhere in anime.
5 The Promised Neverland: Betrayal is Promised
The children of Grace Field House all live peaceful, clean, happy, and prosperous lives with their Mom in The Promised Neverland. Until the secret emerges: the children are being raised as food for demons. Emma and Norman learn this harsh secret and confide in their friend Ray, in hopes of finding a way to save any more children from being sent away to an unknown dinner table.
Ray already knows the truth, however, and torn between his fear of Mom and his growing love for his friends, he briefly works to thwart Norman and Emma's attempts to plan a mass escape.
4 Another Highlights Human Panic When Faced With Unknown & Fatal Threats
Confronting fear is the strongest current running through Another. As the name implies, the story deals with the second emergence of a deathly curse at Yomiyama Middle School, manifesting itself in another of the students in one of the classes. The key to the fear, however, is that no one knows which student is the cause of this curse.
Another showcases how humanity tends to react to such circumstances. Many of the students in the class begin to panic and look for anybody to blame, usually with dire consequences, inadvertently furthering the curse's effects through their own fearful reactions.
3 Betrayal Plus Betrayal Equals Code Geass
Lelouch Lamperouge's rise as a revolutionary shakes the ruling powers of the world of Code Geass to their core. Those both near and far from Lelouch face drastic changes in their way of life, as the revolution forces them to face a new reality. Lelouch and Suzaku both betray their friends, their causes, and each other multiple times as they struggle with the fear of change or the fear of loss, both believing they are acting out of principle.
They leave broken bodies, hearts, and minds in their wake as they cling to ideals that cannot survive the extreme actions they take in the name of upholding those ideals and goals.
2 Serial Experiments Lain: Fear Of Unknown Drives People To The Unknown
Of the several powerful themes relevant to the 1990s anime Serial Experiments Lain, fear of the unknown is the most visible. While the story centers around Lain, who doesn't betray anyone, all the characters surrounding Lain come to points in their lives where they have to face the fear not only of the unknown, but of the truth emerging from that unknown: that this unremarkable girl named Lain is about to ascend to a god's status, and there is nothing any of them can do about it.
Lain's family is most affected, with her mother and sister distancing themselves from her and treating her as a monster, as the former clings pathetically to her worldly life and the latter goes insane with fear, confusion, and depression.
1 Rachel's Heartbreaking Decision In Tower of God
Bam and Rachel in Tower of God are friends in their previous lives below the Tower, and there's no reason they shouldn't remain friends after entering. The system within the Tower doesn't necessarily pit participant against participant, or at least not initially. Their paths seem to diverge for a while, but Bam remains a true friend to Rachel until they are finally reunited in the Tower, and it looks as though their friendship will enter a new and beautiful stage.
When the stage seems set for these two to take the next step in overcoming the Tower, Rachel does the unthinkable and betrays Bam, to what she believes is likely his death. This twist in the story shocked viewers, but was she driven to betrayal because of fear? Season 2 will hopefully shed some light on this answer.