Story Preference Tragedy or Triumph

Curious, Which do you prefer do you like a story that focuses on tragedy with characters moreover or one that allows characters to triumph over the odds and whatnot.

Tragedy. I love shows that break from shonen concepts, where the protagonist doesnt always get the girl, save his friends, win at the last second with a power he didnt even know he had. One of my favotires is Soukyuu no Fafner. It follows the lives of residents of a small city living on an isolated island hidden from sight. The world has been ravaged by giant alien creatures who have mild telepathic abilities. They corrupt and destroy all living flesh they come into contact with. The only way to combat them is with giant mechs created using barely understoon components of the aliens themselves. The drawback is that only children can pilot them and even if they manage to survive many battles their body will slowly succumb to the corruption and die. Their society survives on the notion that some families have to surrender their children to a program which almost guarantees their death.

Well...I suppose I like triumph, but not if it's all the time and sometimes I think it's good if they lose something/someone along the way. Part of the problem with shows like Bleach is the constant level-up of the main character and the character shields that everyone seems to be gifted with. I think they should win in the end, but there's far too much success in some series to the point that you know what's going to happen before it even starts.

I like a balance between the two. The reason why is that I've seen plenty of series that have messed me up emotionally (*cough* Wolf's Rain *cough*) but sometimes I just can't stand triumph (getting too much of the same thing is boring). I guess it just depends on the state of my current life at that current moment. Sometimes I just like to watch the world being saved, and other times I love to watch the world burn.

I dunno, either I suppose. Whichever one serves the story best. I do also really like the ambiguous ones that really depend on your own point of view though, like the Orphanage or Pan's Labyrinth. My view on the ending to the Orphanage was dramatically different from my father's view where I thought it was really sad but he thought it was happy. Same thing with Pan's Labyrinth where I thought the ending was happy and the vast majority of my friends thought it was sad :p

I love a good combination. Perhaps something like 2/3 tragedy and 1/3 triumph, not too predictable though (but a little bit is all right I suppose). I read through Gantz and really enjoyed it. It could have ended better but I really enjoy something like that.

I like triumph, but with sacrifice. Bittersweet endings. Tragic endings are just depressing, and triumph is just too cliche and boring.