History Main / MonoNoAware

* This is a CentralTheme in a number of Creator/FromSoftware titles. Throughout the ''Dark Souls'' trilogy, the Age of Fire or the human era has been artificially extended at great cost and the world seems to decay and grow steadily worse from the effort. Player characters working towards the MultipleEndings of ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'' in particular can urge it to limp along further, draw strength from its decay, or allow it to die and make way for something new.

[[folder: Theatre]]

** [[spoiler: The first Archon of Inazuma, Makoto practically embodies this notion, that "things that don't last are all the more beautiful", befitting both her ideal and her nation being a Japan equivalent. Makoto's ideal of Transience is about "searching for the brief flashes of light", enjoying every moment, and continuing progress, while her twin sister, Ei picked "eternity" as a direct response to Makoto's death and the fall of Khaenri'ah, with her interpreting it as preserving everything in Inazuma as much as she could so that the tragedies that befell them would never happen again.]]

* In ''VideoGame/GhostOfTsushima'', the achievement for completing the game is called "Mono no Aware", fittingly how [[spoiler: Jin accepts that his old ways of fighting are gone by confronting his Uncle Shimura, and moving on to his new mantle as the ghost.]]
* Discussed in the "Jetstream" DLC of ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', in which Senator Armstrong states that while he often hears politicians talk about how fleeting and beautiful cherry blossoms are, he instead finds the idea of transient beauty revolting due to it going against [[TheSocialDarwinist his personal philosophy]].

* Act 6: ''Kurenai Enish'' has a lot in common with Yumemigusa, including a Japanese-style setting (the {{Yokai}} AU) and a character who must accept death. They also both star the middle pairs.

* ''Theatre/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'', like its manga source material, shows Renaissance Italy through this lens. In particular, the song "Primavera", inspired by [[Art/{{Primavera}} the painting]] by Creator/SandroBotticelli, is about the sweet spring breeze of freedom that flows through Florence in the age of Lorenzo the Magnificent.

* Theatre/{{Tsukiuta}}'s ''Yumemigusa'' embodies this most of all of their plays. It features AlternateUniverse versions of the characters as an isekai [[UsefulNotes/TheShinsengumi Shinsengumi]], with Arata or You as Okita. While they do fight bad guys, the real core of the story is Arata/You's illness and death, and it ends with a DiedInYourArmsTonight scene. Creator/TaikiYamazaki, ''Yumemi'''s Arata, was Angelo in the original cast of ''Cesare''.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': Hobbes invokes this when he says fall is his favorite season.

Compare TheAntiNihilist, {{Bathos}} and MartyrdomCulture. Contrast TheyChangedItNowItSucks, TheFatalist, MortalityPhobia and NostalgiaFilter. See also UsefulNotes.{{Buddhism}} and ItCantBeHelped.

* This is a CentralTheme in a number of Creator/FromSoftware titles. Throughout the Dark Souls trilogy, the Age of Fire or the human era has been artificially extended at great cost and the world seems to decay and grow steadily worse from the effort. Player characters working towards the MultipleEndings of ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'' in particular can urge it to limp along further, or draw strength from its decay, or allow it to die and make way for something new.

* ''Manga/FrierenBeyondJourneysEnd'': Frieren is an elf with a thousand year lifespan which has led to her [[TimeDissonance perceiving time differently from humans]] and she outright refuses to take apprentices as they'd just die before her anyway. Himmel's death causes her to start taking an interest in humans and trying to appreciate the time she spends with them.

-->-- '''Matsuo Bashou'''

* ''LightNovel/LoveChunibyoAndOtherDelusions'' portrays {{Chuunibyou}} as something we need to grow out of, but which is beautiful for precisely that reason, and should be looked back on without [[OldShame shame]].
* ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'': A young teenager wanders across the world, with the self-imposed rule of only staying three days in each country she visits. Yet the world is as beautiful as it is dangerous, and she is often confronted by the uglier aspects of human nature.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film]]

* ChristmasCake

* Theatre/{{Tsukiuta}}'s Yumemigusa embodies this most of all of their plays. It features AlternateUniverse versions of the characters as an isekai [[UsefulNotes/TheShinsengumi Shinsengumi]], with Arata or You as Okita. While they do fight bad guys, the real core of the story is Arata/You's illness and death, and it ends with a DiedInYourArmsTonight scene. Creator/TaikiYamazaki, ''Yumemi'''s Arata, was Angelo in the original cast of ''Cesare''.

* In ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'', when [[SuperOCD Hannelore]] found herself mulling over the idea of quantum vacuum decay and how the universe could spontaneously end at any time. Dora [[https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4137 comforted her]] with the idea that, even if that is the case, all things are impermanent regardless, and that at least there's beauty in the time it's around.

* In ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'', [[spoiler: The first Archon of Inazuma, Makoto practically embodies this notion, that "things that don't last are all the more beautiful", befitting both her ideal and her nation being a Japan equivalent. Makoto's ideal of Transience is about "searching for the brief flashes of light", enjoying every moment, and continuing progress, while her twin sister, Ei picked "eternity" as a direct response to Makoto's death and the fall of Khaenri'ah, with her interpreting it as preserving everything in Inazuma as much as she could so that the tragedies that befell them would never happen again.]] There's also Yoimiya, who belongs to the Japan equivalent of Inazuma as well. Her family has run Naganohara Fireworks for generations, and Yoimiya loves what she does. Fireworks are the embodiment of transience-- they flash with a powerful bang before fizzling out, and that's exactly why Yoimiya loves them. During the fireworks show, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness the normally talkative Yoimiya becomes silent]] and gazes at the sky, taking in all the sights and sounds of the moments she knows will fade away in a moment's time so she can enjoy them to the fullest.

* In ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'', [[spoiler: The first Archon of Inazuma, Makoto practically embodies this notion, that "things that don't last are all the more beautiful", befitting both her ideal and her nation being a Japan equivalent. Makoto's ideal of Transience is about "searching for the brief flashes of light", enjoying every moment, and continuing progress, while her twin sister, Ei picked "eternity" as a direct response to Makoto's death and the fall of Khaenri'ah, with her interpreting it as preserving everything in Inazuma as much as she could so that the tragedies that befell them would never happen again.]]

* In ''Series/TheMakanaiCookingForTheMaikoHouse'' one of Momoko's mottos is the saying "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichi-go_ichi-e ichi-go ichi-e", literally "one time, one meeting". No matter how many times she practices the same dance routine, each performance will end up different, and she says goodbye at the end of every dance. She's surprised when Kiyo displays a complementary philosophy to her cooking: so many factors might affect the dish no matter how familiar it is, and so she says hello before every meal preparation.

* BittersweetSeventeen

%%[[folder:Film]]%%

%%[[/folder]]%%

-->''"What a heavy burden God has laid on men! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind."''

* Shows up in, of all things, ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheBlackKnight''. What starts off as a UniversalAdaptorCast take on Myth/ArthurianLegend ends up turning into a metafictional take on the story where [[spoiler:the main villain, knowing the story will end with the kingdom in ruin, intends on using her magic to create an eternal world that never changes. Sonic, in his usual snarky style, thinks that sounds pretty lame and stops her, afterwards saying that he figures everything will end someday, so we should live life to the fullest in the time we have.]]

* In ''VideoGame/GhostOfTsushima'', the achievement for completing the game is literally called "Mono no Aware", fittingly how [[spoiler: Jin accepts that his old ways of fighting are gone by confronting his Uncle Shimura, and moving on to his new mantle as the ghost.]]

* Shows up in, of all things, ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheBlackKnight''. What starts off as a UniversalAdaptorCast take on the ''Myth/KingArthur'' legend ends up turning into a metafictional take on the story where [[spoiler:the main villain, knowing the story will end with the kingdom in ruin, intends on using her magic to create an eternal world that never changes. Sonic, in his usual snarky style, thinks that sounds pretty lame and stops her, afterwards saying that he figures everything will end someday, so we should live life to the fullest in the time we have.]]