History Main / SoapOperaDisease

* In ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'', [[spoiler:Reinhard dies of a completely straight example of this. Which comes off as a little strange since he's in his early twenties and living in the future a couple of thousand years ahead of the present day in which one would think medical technology would be advanced enough to at least identify it. Especially considering they're dealing with the emperor of the entire galaxy. Rubinsky dies of a more explicit brain tumour]].

* ''ComicBook/MagnificentMsMarvel'': Kamala learns that her father has a mysterious disease and doesn't have much longer to live. Tony Stark later reveals to her that it's an Inhuman-related disease accidentally reactivated by the Terrigen Mists' release and recruits Dr. Strange (who had regained use of his hands again) to help excise it.

* ''ComicBook/TheMagnificentMsMarvel'': Kamala learns that her father has a mysterious disease and doesn't have much longer to live. Tony Stark later reveals to her that it's an Inhuman-related disease accidentally reactivated by the Terrigen Mists' release and recruits Dr. Strange (who had regained use of his hands again) to help excise it.

* Miss Grundy gets diagnosed with this in the first issue of ''ComicBook/LifeWithArchieTheMarriedLife'', and dies a few issues later as a result.
* In ''[[ComicBook/MsMarvel2014 The Magnificent Ms. Marvel]]'', Kamala learns that her father has a mysterious disease and doesn't have much longer to live. Tony Stark later reveals to her that it's an Inhuman-related disease accidentally reactivated by the Terrigen Mists' release and recruits Dr. Strange (who had regained use of his hands again) to help excise it.

* In ''LightNovel/EndoAndKobayashiLiveTheLatestOnTsundereVillainessLieselotte'', Lieselotte's late uncle Augustus had always been sickly since birth, and by the time he could have married his [[ArrangedMarriage officially betrothed fiancee]] [[spoiler:Elizabeth]], he's already too weak to get out of his bed. This is important to [[spoiler:Fiene]]'s backstory, as his fiancee's family issued a ParentalMarriageVeto out of this exact reason, despite [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage they're completely in love with each other]]. This is why [[spoiler:Fiene]] is raised as a commoner despite her parents being some of the most {{Blue Blood}}ed people in the setting, since the two decided to sleep together anyway so that [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy she can have his child]], knowing well that they're technically [[RoyalBastard committing adultery]].

* In ''LightNovel/EndoAndKobayashiLiveTheLatestOnTsundereVillainessLieselotte'', Lieselotte's late uncle Augustus had always been sickly since birth, and by the time he and [[spoiler:Elizabeth]] could have legally married, he's already too weak to get out of his bed. This is important to [[spoiler:Fiene]]'s backstory, as his Fiancee's family issued a ParentalMarriageVeto out of this exact reason, despite [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage they're completely in love with each other]]. This is why [[spoiler:Fiene]] is raised as a commoner despite her parents were some of the most {{Blue Blood}}ed people in the setting, since the two decided to sleep together anyway so that [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy she can has his child]], regardless of the fact they're technically [[RoyalBastard committing adultery]].

* In ''LightNovel/EndoAndKobayashiLiveTheLatestOnTsundereVillainessLieselotte'', Lieselotte's late uncle Augustus had always been sickly since birth, and by the time he and [[spoiler:Elizabeth]] could have legally married, he's already too weak to get out of his bed. This is important to [[spoiler:Fiene]]'s backstory, as his Fiancee's family issued a ParentalMarriageVeto out of this exact reason, despite [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage they're completely in love with each other]]. This is why [[spoiler:Fiene]] is raised as a commoner, since the two decided to sleep together anyway so that [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy she can has his child]], despite they're technically committing adultery.

* In ''Manga/BokuNoHatsukoiWoKimiNiSasagu'', Takuma suffers from a heart condition that doesn't allow him to do any physical effort nor getting him too excited, as it causes him to faint. Other characters, like his childhood friend Teru and [[spoiler:Kou and Ritsu's father]], suffer it too.
* In ''Anime/TheBorrowerArrietty'', the male protagonist Sho has a heart condition ever since he was a child. Just a short period of physical activity can cause him pain.
* In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Goku suffers from a mysterious heart virus during the Android Saga. According to Future Trunks, it took his timeline's Goku's life and many others before a cure is discovered. Trunks gives Goku this cure and is given to him when he is finally affected by it, but it lays him up for a good while, which is particularly bad as Androids 16, 17 and 18 are active and hunting him down. ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' changes it to a cholesterol-induced heart attack caused by eating too much bacon, and makes it so that Goku doesn't take the medicine pre-emptively because it was grape flavored.

* ''Manga/IllBoyIllGirl'' has a disease that has no particular ill effects outside of (possibly) coughing up black blood. The only huge effect it has is that names, faces, and practically anything that relates to a person is, in the eyes of the infected, blotted out or obscured. The only faces they ''can'' see are other people who are infected, and provided the disease hasn't advanced enough, [[spoiler:the faces of the dead]].

* In ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'', the disease that Satsuki and Mei's mother has is never revealed, though it is [[WordOfDante believed by many fans]] to be tuberculosis. The movie is based on Creator/HayaoMiyazaki’s childhood and it’s what his mother had before she was cured from antibiotics in 1955.

** Kousei's mother died of an illness that left her wheelchair bound.

** The second time is with Reimu's mother, Reiko, and she passed away of a long term illness, although this is justified in that they didn't know what she has and neither could they diagnose it but it is implied to have had something to do the radioactive fallout.
** Ran and, apparently, it's chronic but not terminal, however, it does leave her with bouts paralysis (the authoress describes it as being similar to multiple sclerosis). Likewise, the same occurred with Yume Ni and her chronic illness, the which she's passed away from.

* In ''Fanfic/TravelsOfTheTrifecta'', Paul and Reggie's mother died of an unnamed terminal illness. [[spoiler: Paul learns that he has the same mysterious illness because it's genetic. It seems to have periodic coughing up blood, physical frailty and weakened immune system as general symptoms]] but it is not stated to be any real-life disease. Given that Pokemon has animals that don't exist in real life, the Pokemon world having its own genetic diseases isn't too unusual.

* In ''Literature/FoundationAndEmpire'', Emperor Cleon II suffers from some painful and unknown disease which no one can cure.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* In VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}, Nagisa suffers from an undefined disease which prevents her from attending school from time to time. [[spoiler:Her daughter Ushio gets the same undefined condition. In both cases, it turns out to be fatal.]] [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Or at least until the]] ResetButton [[SubvertedTrope is used in the final episode/"true ending" of the game.]]]]
* Subverted with [[spoiler:Shingen]] in ''VisualNovel/IkemenSengoku''. He appears at first to have a classic lingering soap operaish illness that's only vaguely defined by occasional [[IncurableCoughOfDeath violent coughing fits]] and the main character even comments that it may not be pneumonia, tuberculosis, or any other disease she's familiar with. However, the route where he receives medical treatment in modern times has a doctor diagnose him with the real-life condition [[https://www.hindawi.com/journals/crim/2011/939808/ endobronchial lipoma]] and even correctly describe it as a tumor that's benign on its own but can cause breathing difficulties and pneumonia. The game does still take some liberties with its portrayal of this disease, but it still gets major points for explicitly linking it to something that actually occurs in the real world.

* In ''Webcomic/KillLaKillAU'', while they are not terminal, although severe, some of the illnesses Ryuuko suffers from are not named and neither are her symptoms described, however, she is often seen attached to machines and intravenous drips. This is played with in ''Room 002108'', chapter 9, where it is stated by an American doctor that she has some unknown illness, the which turned into septicemia, which implies it was some kind of bacterial infection, causing her blood to poison her, the which almost killed her or should have.

* Provided you can take the [[GreekChorus Shadow Girls]] at their word, this was part of the motivation for [[spoiler:Ruka]] in ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' to come to Ohtori. [[spoiler:He was in love with Juri but knew she [[SchoolgirlLesbians preferred someone else]] who didn't love her back. Upon learning he's dying of something fatal, dramatic, and completely not in evidence on-screen, he manipulates the dueling game to give Juri some closure with his last days.]]

* In the ''Anime/SpeedRacer'' episode "The Desperate Racer," Hap Hazard desperately wants to win a race so that he can cure his sick sister Eloisa. What sickness Eloisa has is not elaborated upon.

* In ''As the Wind Blows'', we have this with Shiro and his illness. However, given the fact that he's elderly, it's likely age-related.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode "Mother's Day", it's revealed that Chuckie's mother Melinda died about a year ago. How she died is left ambiguous but she apparently died in hospital, so she was either sick or seriously injured, however, her diary implies it was the former.

* In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Goku suffers from a mysterious heart virus during the Android Saga. According to Future Trunks, it took his timeline's Goku's life and many others before a cure is discovered. Trunks gives Goku this cure and is given to him when he is finally affected by it, but it lays him up for a good while, which is particularly bad as Androids 16, 17 and 18 are active and hunting him down. ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' changes it to a cholesterol-induced heart attack caused by eating too much bacon.

* ''Anime/VariableGeo'': Satomi's kid brother, Daisuke, suffers from an unspecified medical condition that keeps him bedridden with a hacking cough and, occasionally, seizures. The costs of his treatments are expensive, [[PerpetualPoverty even with Satomi working two jobs.]] Which is why she originally wanted to enter the VG tournament in hopes of winning the prize money and real estate.* ''Manga/YourLieInApril'':

This is essentially the fate of [[spoiler:The Mother]] in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother''. The disease is fatal, and that's pretty much all we know about it.

* The illness an implied to be SecretlyDying Ryuuko has in ''Raindrops'' is not named, yet the symptoms are vaguely described, although it is severe and does result in her death. Averted in the case of Satsuki in ''Sunshine'', who explains that she has leukemia and was LivingOnBorrowedTime.* In Fanfic/{{Suikakasen}}, [[spoiler:Yoshika]]'s main motivation revolves around her dying (and the subsequent fear of death) of a disease. This disease is not named and the only shown symptom is BloodFromTheMouth, but it's pretty clear that it's terminal.
* Played with. While her sister, Ryuuko's illness was implied here and there in ''Through Thick and Thin'' as being cancer (i.e, her being a special diet and being treated with chemotherapy) and, in a prequel, outright stated to be "Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma", Satsuki's illness isn't too spelled out, however, she was being treated at home on medication, before being hospitalized for surgeries, making her's vaguer.

* In ''Fanfic/TravelsOfTheTrifecta'', Paul and Reggie's mother died of an unnamed terminal illness. [[spoiler: Paul learns that he has the same mysterious illness because it's genetic. It seems to have periodic coughing up blood, physical frailty and weakened immune system as general symptoms]] but it is not stated to be any real-life disease. Given that Pokemon has animals that don't exist in real life, the Pokemon world having its own genetic diseases isn't too unusual

* ''Fanfic/BlindCourage'': Zelda's PosthumousCharacter mother died of a vaguely described, long-term illness on her seventh birthday. She had headaches, vision problems, and convulsions. One morning she lost consciousness and never woke up.

* At one point in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', Master Happosai suffers from a case of this. Unfortunately, he gets better. Also, the teacher Hinako Ninomiya had a case when she was young. She gets better as well.
* Sahana from ''Sundome'', with her nosebleeds, dizzy spell and [[IncurableCoughOfDeath bloody coughs]]. [[spoiler: In the end, it gets her, and there is nothing that can be done. Hideo does his best to make her last days happy. He succeeds with that.]]

* ''Anime/VariableGeo'': Satomi's kid brother, Daisuke, suffers from an unspecified medical condition that keeps him bedridden with a hacking cough and, occasionally, seizures. The costs of his treatments are expensive, [[PerpetualPoverty even with Satomi working two jobs.]] Which is why she originally wanted to enter the VG tournament in hopes of winning the prize money and real estate.
* In VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}, Nagisa suffers from an undefined disease which prevents her from attending school from time to time. [[spoiler:Her daughter Ushio gets the same undefined condition. In both cases, it turns out to be fatal.]] [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Or at least until the ]] ResetButton [[SubvertedTrope is used in the final episode/"true ending" of the game.]]]]
* MadScientist Ghinias Sakhalin in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamThe08thMSTeam'' has some sort of disease that he has to take medication every day for. It mostly looks like paranoid schizophrenia, but he does have some poorly defined physical symptoms as well. The symptoms seem to fit Wilson's Disease, a genetic disorder that prevents the body from metabolizing copper properly whose most common symptoms are brain damage that often presents with schizophrenia-like symptoms and liver disease.

* In ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'', the disease that Satsuki and Mei's mother has is never revealed, though it is [[WordOfDante believed by many fans]] to be tuberculosis. The movie is based on Creator/HayaoMiyazaki’s childhood and it’s what his mother had before she was cured from antibiotics in 1955.
* Similarly Tsukimi's deceased mother in ''Manga/PrincessJellyfish'' had a vague, deteriorating disease that apparently lasted a few years. Eventually, she was hospitalized and died.

* ''Manga/YourLieInApril'':
** Kousei's mother died of an illness that left her wheelchair bound.
** [[spoiler:Kaori]] suffers from a similar disease that caused her to gradually lose the ability to walk or [[spoiler:play the violin]] over the series. She dies of complications during surgery instead of the illness itself, though it was considered terminal.
* In ''Manga/BokuNoHatsukoiWoKimiNiSasagu'', Takuma suffers from a heart condition that doesn't allow him to do any physical effort nor getting him too excited, as it causes him to faint. Other characters, like his childhood friend Teru and [[spoiler:Kou and Ritsu's father]], suffer it too.

* ''Manga/IllBoyIllGirl'' has a disease that has no particular ill effects outside of (possibly) coughing up black blood. The only huge effect it has is that names, faces, and practically anything that relates to a person is, in the eyes of the infected, blotted out or obscured. The only faces they ''can'' see are other people who are infected, and provided the disease hasn't advanced enough, [[spoiler: the faces of the dead]].

* In ''Anime/MomokoKaeruNoUtaGaKikoeruYo'', it's not said what the titular Momoko's condition is, however, given the fact that she was born with it and her twin brother Riki wasn't (though they are fraternal twins), along with it coming with a slew of issues (the which affects her muscular and motor functions), it can be assumed that she probably has a severe form of cerebral palsy. Tragically, by the end, [[spoiler: she passes away]].
* In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Goku suffers from a mysterious heart virus during the Android Saga. According to Future Trunks, it took his timeline's Goku's life and many others before a cure is discovered. Trunks gives Goku this cure and is given to him when he is finally affected by it, but it lays him up for a good while, which is particularly bad as Androids 16, 17 and 18 are active and hunting him down. ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' changes it to a cholesterol-induced heart attack caused by eating too much bacon.

* In ''Fanfic/TravelsOfTheTrifecta'', Paul and Reggie's mother died of an unnamed terminal illness. [[spoiler: Paul learns that he has the same mysterious illness because it's genetic. It seems to have periodic coughing up blood, physical frailty and weakened immune system as general symptoms]] but it is not stated to be any real-life disease. Given that Pokemon has animals that don't exist in real life, the Pokemon world having its own genetic diseases isn't too unusual.
* In ''Webcomic/KillLaKillAU'', while they are not terminal, although severe, some of the illnesses Ryuuko suffers from are not named and neither are her symptoms described, however, she is often seen attached to machines and intravenous drips. This is played with in ''Room 002108'', chapter 9, where it is stated by an American doctor that she has some unknown illness, the which turned into septicemia, which implies it was some kind of bacterial infection, causing her blood to poison her, the which almost killed her or should have.

* From one Anime/KillLaKill fic, titled ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11037352/1/%E9%A3%9B%E9%B3%A5-Asuka Asuka]]'', we have this with either Satsuki or Ryuuko (it's never made clear which), who was diagnosed with something that is described to be "chronic sans cure" and [[spoiler: she dies of her illness in the end]]
* The illness an implied to be SecretlyDying Ryuuko has in ''Raindrops'' is not named, yet the symptoms are vaguely described, although it is severe and does result in her death. Averted in the case of Satsuki in ''Sunshine'', who explains that she has leukemia and was LivingOnBorrowedTime.
** Similarly, in ''As the Wind Blows'', we have this with Shiro and his illness. However, given the fact that he's elderly, it's likely age-related.
* This is averted in the fanfic ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/1854724?view_adult=true Endless Numbered Days]]'' by janewithawhy with Satsuki's illness being [[spoiler: lung cancer, the which progresses to terminal]].
* Naruto's illness in ''Fanfic/AccidentalCompanions'' isn't named, however, he has been ill with it for a long time and is implied to have [[spoiler: died of it]].
* Played with. While her sister, Ryuuko's illness was implied here and there in ''Through Thick and Thin'' as being cancer (i.e, her being a special diet and being treated with chemotherapy) and, in a prequel, outright stated to be "Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma", Satsuki's illness isn't too spelled out, however, she was being treated at home on medication, before being hospitalized for surgeries, making her's vaguer.

* ''Fanfic/BlindCourage'': Zelda's PosthumousCharacter mother died of a vaguely described, long-term illness on her seventh birthday. She had headaches, vision problems, and convulsions. One morning she lost consciousness and never woke up.
* In Fanfic/{{Suikakasen}}, [[spoiler:Yoshika]]'s main motivation revolves around her dying (and the subsequent fear of death) of a disease. This disease is not named and the only shown symptom is BloodFromTheMouth, but it's pretty clear that it's terminal.

* Shilo Wallace, the protagonist of ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'', has a rare blood disease that she inherited from her mother that makes her unable to go outside without becoming ill; her father thus keeps her locked inside her bedroom while he researches a cure. [[spoiler: Eventually justified: Shilo isn't actually sick at all. Her symptoms come from the medication that her father is poisoning her with.]]

* ''Literature/TheInfernalDevices'': [[spoiler: Jem's. It was caused by a demon drug that was used to torture him and his parents when he was younger. There is no known cure for it, and he has to keep taking a specific drug to keep on fighting - as Brother Enoch says, taking the drug means a slow death, but keeping him off the drug would mean a quick one.]]

* In ''Literature/VampireAcademy'', Viktor Dashkov is ill with Sandovsky's Syndrome, a Moroi-exclusive disease, which is slowly killing him.
* In the ''Literature/HyperionCantos'', Matrin Silenus mentions that when he wrote his ''[[CashCowFranchise Dying Earth]]'' books, book 3 introduced a telepathic child dying from some strange disease. He went into a drinking celebration once he was allowed to let her die in book 9.

* The first episode of ''Series/MrShow'' opens with Ronnie Dobbs doing a PSA for his disease "Entitilitus." He notes that no one knows where it comes from or what it is, but "entitilitus kills." Toward the end of the episode, Terry sells the rights to make a {{Biopic}} of Ronnie [[spoiler:after he dies]]. In the film, the Ronnie reveals to Terry that he suffers from entitilitus [[spoiler: then dies in his arms]].
* This is essentially the fate of [[spoiler:The Mother]] in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother''. The disease is fatal, and that's pretty much all we know about it.
* [[spoiler:Shuichi Kitaoka/Kamen Rider Zolda]] from ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' is revealed to have one of those, it's actually his main ulterior reason for entering the Rider Battle. Very vaguely described and with no apparent symptoms other than the occasional fainting and easily acted spasms, but it's terminal (he had a few months left at best at some point) and incurable. The novel reportedly had him have Alzheimer's instead, which is odd since he looked to be barely in his [=30s=] in the show.

* In ''VideoGame/DarkElfHistoria'', if the player manages to get through enough of Freylia's early quests without failing, then Ruse will come down with a disease that will force Freylia to put new jobs on hold in order to track down a cure.

* Subverted with [[spoiler:Shingen]] in ''VisualNovel/IkemenSengoku''. He appears at first to have a classic lingering soap operaish illness that's only vaguely defined by occasional [[IncurableCoughOfDeath violent coughing fits]] and the main character even comments that it may not be pneumonia, tuberculosis, or any other disease she's familiar with. However, the route where he receives medical treatment in modern times has a doctor diagnose him with the real-life condition [[https://www.hindawi.com/journals/crim/2011/939808/ endobronchial lipoma]] and even correctly describe it as a tumor that's benign on its own but can cause breathing difficulties and pneumonia. The game does still take some liberties with its portrayal of this disease, but it still gets major points for explicitly linking it to something that actually occurs in the real world.

* Inverted in the ''WebOriginal/{{Paradise}}'' setting, in which humans are randomly, permanently Changed into {{Funny Animal}}s by causes unknown. The change is InvisibleToNormals, to whom the Changed will still appear to be his old human self. In order to prevent Changed from being injured by medical practitioners because of physiological differences the medics can't see, the Changed invented a fictitious ''real-world'' disease—-"Sleeping Sickness (Ivory Coast Variant)"-—and issued medical alert bracelets for it so that a Changed or Known physician could be alerted at need.

* Also mocked in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks''. Theodore gets hooked on a soap opera where one of the characters has a disease called Zomboid Rigadosis. Alvin and Simon try to convince him it isn't real, but they all panic when Dave appears to have become stiff and motionless, and try to find a way to cure him. It was actually a wax statue. Things get especially amusing when they try to take "Dave" out to get some sun, and he begins to melt.

* In ''[[ComicBook/MsMarvel2014 The Magnificent Ms. Marvel]]'', Kamala learns that her father has a mysterious disease and doesn't have much long to live. Tony Stark later reveals to her that it's an Inhuman-related disease accidentally reactivated by the Terrigen Mists' release and recruits Dr. Strange (who had regained use of his hands again) to help excise it.