Are there any manga where the original protagonist explicitly loses in the end?

[TimeVolt]

I'm really curious about this, it seems that any and all manga (and most stories in general) always have the original protagonist "win" or accomplish their goal in the end, and thats all well and good, but have their been any that NOT have the original protagonist "win" or accomplish their goal? Spoilers for the first book of Xanth:

Spoiler

I'm kinda going for something kinda like the first book of xanth, where the protagonist doesn't accomplish his original goal of not being exiled and marrying his first love interest, of course, he ends up happy, but thats not what i'm imagining happening.

I'm thinking of like, total defeat at the hands of the antagonist, or better yet, the original protagonist just giving up on his quest. But of course, defeat is subjective, and the original protagonist could just be killed or turned evil or something, but the main point i'm trying to convey is "total defeat or the not accomplishing of goals in the end, preferably accompanied by the despair of the protagonist".

 

[sterven]

Berserk
Guts just gets shit on by griffith the entire time

Spoiler

and as time goes on he keeps putting off his main goal of revenge in order to help the people he cares for
and right now were at the big crux is he gonna give up his revenge or is he gonna abandon his companions now that Casca is "fixed."

Edit: I just reread the tag and you must be talking about completed works right? In that case check out devilman.

 

[Sleeper]

@TimeVolt I don't know if this exactly fulfills your criteria, but Boys on the Run could ostensibly count. The protagonist pretty much fails at every single thing he sets out to do, but does get something approaching a happy--for him, anyway--ending at the VERY end. I'm talking like, literal last-page save. But to give you a frame of reference, the very first arc of this manga involves:

Spoiler

the protagonist failing to hook up with a girl he's been crushing on at his place of employment, a two-faced coworker pretending to hook him up, only to steal said girl, get said girl pregnant and dump her, the protagonist decides to fight for the girl's honor, gets the--if you'll pardon my language--mortal shit kicked out of him by the two-faced coworker, and after the aforementioned savage ass-beating, runs to see his pregnant crush off at the train station, only for her to ask if the two-faced coworker was okay, despite seeing the protagonist bloodied and bruised nearly beyond recognition.

And again, this is the first arc.

I will say that, as an observational point, I think one of the reasons so many stories end with the protagonist achieving their goals, even if it's a Pyrrhic victory, is because the general populace (obviously, there are exceptions, but speaking in broad terms) doesn't particularly enjoy investing themselves in a character and their journey, only to have it not pay off in the end, unless the failure is explicitly designed to show that victory was never really the point to begin with, or wouldn't have changed things in the long run. Personally, I can accept a downer ending if it's thematically appropriate, or the characters' victory would've been a worse option than their failure, but I've known a number of people (myself included, on occasion) who've found a story they otherwise enjoyed rendered pointless, or considered "ruined" simply by virtue of the character failing in the end. Horror games come to mind as a common breeding ground for that kind of trope.

Edit: fixing a broken BBCode tag.

 

[axelTHEGREAT]

Sesuji wo Pin! to will be your best shounen shot.

Tanya is love, and love is life. TANYA IS LIFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Edit: nevermind, I didn't read your closing.

 

[TimeVolt]

@Sleeper Downer Ending! Thats the phrase I was looking for, thank you! I was thinking there was a trope for that but I forgot its name.

Of course, it doesn't have to exactly fit the criteria, I'm just looking for things that broadly fit the scope of what I was talking about. I wanted to emphasize more the protagonist not accomplishing they're original goal but then i remembered that you can just replace stuff like "stop the demon king from reviving" with other things like "killing the demon king before they can cause any more havoc" and that would still get a happy ending, I guess what I wanted recommendations of stories that didn't have too happy an ending but not necessarily apocalyptic or dystopian-ish.

@sterven I mainly put that stuff about not having a happy ending in there to counter all the stories that were terrible throughout most of the story only to have the plot do a full 180 and end with like, time travelling back and stopping the entire event from happening

Spoiler

cough cough endgame cough cough

 

[alipz]

Hoshi no Samidare
Joshikousei ni Korosaretai
Aku no Hana

 

[Neushaartje]

A couple come to mind to me:

Spoiler

Death Note, Uwa-Koi, School Days

.