Those who decide that it's Better to Die than Be Killed in Anime and Manga.
- In both the manga and anime of Akame ga Kill!, General Esdeath, after being fatally injured by Akame's Murasame, chooses to freeze herself solid and shatter her body into nothing rather than let the poison finish her off, as she would rather die by her own terms. The only difference between the two media is that she froze Tatsumi's corpse alongside herself in the anime, while in the manga he was still alive. Failing to gain his affection was a failure she bemoaned as her only regret, just before ending her own life.
- Played with in Angel Densetsu. Kuroda and his flunkies got so freaked out about what Kitano might do to them for letting Takehisa get hurt that they rushed headlong to fight the guys who hurt Takehisa, and they won.
- One soldier in Attack on Titan resorts to eating his gun when his unit's compound is surrounded by Titans. Considering the horrible fate awaiting humans in situations like this, this is very understandable.
- Berserk, of course, uses the rape variant, with Casca prepared to bite off her own tongue when she is cornered by some Tudor mercenaries.
- Subverted at the end of the Nazi arc in Black Lagoon. Dutch gives the leader of the Brown-shirt group one of Revy's guns to shoot himself with. He almost does it, until he points the gun at Dutch, and pulls the trigger, only to find the gun to be empty. Revy and Dutch then turn him into Swiss cheese. What makes this scene truly hilarious (in a Refuge in Audacity kind of way) is how they have a bet on what he's going to do beforehand, their comments implying they've done this sort of thing before. (Both of them went for "black"; Dutch himself noting that "white" isn't much of a bet in this case).
- Lee on Broken Blade takes her own life when it looks like Rygart is about to capture her, believing the Krishnans are barbarians who will torture and otherwise abuse her. Tragically, she's utterly wrong, but that's what she and other Athens soldiers have been made to believe to help justify the war.
- Subverted in Campione!. Duke Voban has Mariya kidnapped to be his slave. Having once been his slave four years ago, she says she refuses to go through that again and threatens to kill herself. Voban comments it would be pointless, because he can just bring her back as a zombie like he does to his defeated foes, so she quickly aborts that plan. She is rescued by the heroes.
- Case Closed:
- Teen Genius Shiho Miyano attempts this when locked up for betraying the bad guys after they kill her sister. Rather than facing execution, she took a poisonous drug she created to suicide. Instead of dying she suffered its other effect, which shrank her to the size of a six-year old little girl. Because of that, she was able to escape and eventually assume the identity of Ai Haibara.
- Also used by Black Organization member Calvados, who chose to kill himself rather than be captured. Then again, it was better than being executed by the Organization for his failure.
- In Daltanious, when the Zaal Empire destroyed the Helios Empire, many Heliosians committed suicide to avoid a Fate Worse than Death at their hands. Of course, when you find out the Awful Truth of the Zaal's motives, it's hard to blame them....
- Dragon Ball Z.
- Subverted. After Goku goes Super Saiyan, Freeza claims that he'd rather die by his own hands than a Saiyan's — and then fires at the planet, gloating that he can survive in a vacuum. As it turns out, he holds back too much power for fear of killing himself, delaying the final explosion.
- Inverted as Goku prefers to be killed in battle rather than dying via a heart disease.
- Played straight with Cell, after Gohan utterly wrecks his shit as a Super Saiyan 2, hits the Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum button and decides he'd rather kill himself and blow up the planet than let Gohan kill him. It fails due to Goku teleporting himself and Cell away to blow up on Kaio's planet...but even Cell's surprised when he not only survives but regenerates even stronger than before.
- Fist of the North Star:
- Shin hurls himself off of a building
rather than succumb to Kenshiro's attack after their final battle. In the PlayStation 2 Fighting Game Twin Blue Stars of Judgment, Shin actually has this as a self-inflicted Fatal KO that can be used if he's losing, complete with the same dialogue. Considering though that it has the same musical accompaniment as a regular Fatal KO... - In the Raoh Den OVA, Souther does this for pretty much the same reasons as Shin.
- Raoh himself also choses to commit suicide by striking his own vital-points in an impressive pyrotechnics display after being defeated by Ken in the final battle. "I am RAOH! I need no assistance to return to the heavens!"
- Shin hurls himself off of a building
- This is the ultimate fate of Envy in the manga of Fullmetal Alchemist. He kills himself to avoid being killed by lowly humans, and also because he can't cope with being pitied by them.
- Gankutsuou: Based on The Count of Monte Cristo. Interestingly, given its alternation in Sympathetic P.O.V. from the novel, Fernand has a more admirable death, choosing to save his son's life and redeem himself through a Heroic Sacrifice, rather than shooting himself after his sordid past is exposed.
- In Getter Robo Armageddon The truth about Michiru Saotome's death was that she deliberately messed up the test to kill herself after discovering she was infected by in Invader.
- In the wolf arc of Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin, Shuga skewers himself on a bamboo to avoid losing to Akame.
- Rika Furude from Higurashi: When They Cry chooses to stab herself repeatedly in the head rather than be tortured to death by Shion, whom she stares in the face the whole way through. She gets better. Note that she only did this in Meakashi-hen. In Watanagashi-hen, Shion tortured and killed her like she did to Satoko; Rika knew Shion would torture her and chose the 'easy' way out.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure uses this on occasion, but most notably in the second part: Straizo is hanging from Joseph's hand and being interrogated about Mexico. Straizo, a Hamon user who became a vampire, begins to breathe in the pattern that generates Hamon. Since Hamon is fatal to vampires, this is suicide for him, but he'd rather die of his own volition than grow old (why he became a vampire to start with) or be killed by Joseph.
- Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: An inversion is what triggers Shio Sakaki's backstory conflict with Akira Hongo. In their youth, they had a mutual friend named Hajime Suzuki. When they were set to be recruited by YAMI, they put them to the test by having them fight to the death amongst each other. Suzuki accepted because he wanted to die as a fighter by his friends' hands rather than succumb to his heart illness. Sakaki didn't want to do it, so Hongo did it himself.
- Kill la Kill: After Ryuko defeats Big Bad Ragyo Kiryuin in the ultimate battle above Earth, she asks her to come back to Honnouji as a daughter would (since, you know, she's actually her mother). In response, Ragyo kill-la-kills herself by tearing her own heart out and crushing it in order to negate her defeat and also to spread the remaining Life Fiber spores into the void of space.
- In Kino's Journey, Kino happens upon the corpse of a traveler in an area inhabited by herds of man-eating sheep. She sees his car stopped at the edge of a cliff, and notices that he'd broken his shin and was unable to walk anymore. She then notices a persuader (i.e. handgun) in his hand, and while she doesn't say her conclusion out loud, the implication is clear.
- In Roll Over and Die, this scenario was used to begin the protagonist Flum's journey. After being betrayed and sold into slavery, the slave merchant realizes that Flum has no value as a slave. He throws her into a prison along with other slaves he deems to be worthless. Afterwards, he releases three ghouls to eat them while giving the slaves the chance to pick up a cursed weapon that would most likely kill them if they touch it. Flum decides to take her chances because she would rather die by her own choice rather than let the ghouls eat her. It is then that she finds out that her supposedly useless affinity Reversal, allows her to use cursed weapons which allow her to turn the tables and kill the ghouls along with the slave merchant.
- Legend of the Galactic Heroes:
- Early in the story, two nobles are given the option to commit suicide by poison rather than be officially executed. Both refuse and ultimately have the poison forced down.
- Ansbach bites a poison capsule rather than be taken alive after attempting to assassinate Reinhard, and succeeding in killing Kircheis, during his fake surrender.
- Late in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, the people of Chang Wufei's home colony decide it would be better to self-destruct their decrepit colony than to give in to the rapidly-expanding Alliance. This has a massive impact on Wufei, being the origin of the idealized concept of justice that became his own personal Never Live It Down, as well as setting up his Face–Heel Turn in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz. It is also the reason he switches back; Heero's pleas during their final duel causes him to realize that helping Dekim and Mariemaia will lead to a repeat of the same tragedies.
- This is what Haman Kahn from Neo Zeon does in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ after losing her last battle against the hero Judau Ashta.
- In My-Otome, when faced with an angry mob out for revenge against Queen Mashiro for losing their kingdom, Aoi, one of her aides, chooses to throw herself off the face of a cliff to avoid risking Mashiro's life by revealing her location. Aoi manages to survive the fall, but not without suffering severe injuries.
- Inverted with Zest in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. Rather than let his body give out from Clone Degeneration, he instead chooses trigger a Suicide by Cop by attacking Signum so he can die in honorable combat.
- Kisame in Naruto kills himself via his own summoned shark to keep from being interrogated any more than he already was. This earns him Might Guy's respect, who commends his Villainous Valour.
- Several examples in One Piece:
- Gol D. Roger, the Pirate King, is an inversion. He was dying from an incurable illness, but rather than go out with a whimper from it, he chose to surrender himself to the Marines. They executed him, but Roger got the last laugh by sparking a new age of piracy with his last words.
- Dr. Hiruluk chooses to do this for a number of reasons: First, he was dying of an unknown disease. Chopper, in an attempt to cure him, accidentally poisons him. Finally, he had walked into an obvious trap laid by King Wapol to catch the only remaining free doctors on his island. Rather than be captured, and to avoid letting Chopper live with the guilt of killing his father, he chose to kill himself.
- The people of Fishman Island invoke this when Hody Jones is moments away from killing King Neptune. They beg for Straw Hat Luffy to hurry up and destroy Fishman Island as Madame Shyarly predicted since they would rather let their home be destroyed than see it twisted under Hody's reign.
- Outlaw Star: Before dying by falling into a star, Hilda bites on a capsule that explodes.
- Happens in the third volume and OVA of Hellsing, where Alucard does what he does best. The last man standing turns his gun on himself rather than face him. Alucard looks disgusted afterward. Indeed, Alucard holds human life in such high regard that he feels that for someone to kill themself rather than die in combat makes them more of a dog than a human (though considering the fate that awaits those who get killed by him he's really not one to talk) The fact that Seras (while still human) kept fighting against a vampire in spite of the insurmountable odds is what made Alucard consider her worthy of immortality in the first place.
- In Puella Magi Madoka Magica's third timeline, upon realizing the Awful Truth after fighting Sayaka's witch form, Mami suffers a mental breakdown and resolves that it's better if she and the other girls all die before they can turn into witches. She shoots Kyoko and is about to kill Homura when Madoka kills her.
- Rurouni Kenshin: Shishio's aidé Houji Sadoshima killed himself when it became clear that he wasn't going to get his day in the limelight to speechify about his ideals. He gave himself an Impromptu Tracheotomy, then used his last bits of life to write his last will with his own blood on the nearest wall.
- Inverted in the Asgard saga of Saint Seiya with Mime's stepfather Folkell. He purposefully acted as an Abusive Parent to Mime to make the boy hate him and one day kill him, partly because he wanted to die a warrior's death instead of succumbing to his illness, and partly to atone for having killed Mime's biological parents by mistake.
- In Space Patrol Luluco's episode based on the above, Kill ** Killian chooses to set himself on fire with his already-flaming hands rather than fight the Space Patrol. The fire apparently destroys the whole planet, since it was made of Life Fibers.
- Non-lethal example Played for Laughs in Sword Art Online. When Kirito and Leafa are ambushed by a squad of Salamanders in ALO, Kirito decides to use his illusory Spriggan powers to turn himself into a giant monster, and proceeds to kill them off in a matter of seconds, even eating a few of them. By the time the group's leader is left with only one more member, he's so terrified of Kirito that he jumps off the bridge into the river below, preferring to die by the underwater monsters.
- Akagi Shigeru in Ten - The Blessed Way of the Nice Guy (the series to which Akagi is a prequel) chooses to go through medically-assisted suicide rather than have his mind deteriorate due to Alzheimer's. The fact that he was never afraid to face death makes it easier to digest... the fact that his mind was the greatest weapon he ever had and the fact that he was only in his early fifties doesn't.
- Tiger & Bunny: Downplayed as the Big Bad doesn't actually actually kill himself when captured and he was to be taken to prison rather than killed. He uses his powers to warp his mind so he's basically in a vegetative state and may as well be dead; and when he is killed by Lunatic, he's completely unaware of it.
- Voltes V combines this with Seppuku in the case of Jangal, for his honour. He swears to never abandon Heinel. Ever.
- In X/1999, Seishiro kills himself by deliberately thrusting his hand through Subaru's chest, aware that Subaru's twin sister Hokuto (who he previously killed by the same method) had cast a spell on him that would instantly reverse their positions if he ever tried to kill Subaru (who is unaware of the spell and wants to die at Seishro's hand). Kamui explains later that he would rather die than be killed by the one he loved, and that Seishiro had the luxury of being able to choose how to die, whereas the rest of the world would not have that choice.
