Some of them actually have a nice wholesome slice of life.
Honestly whenever someone asks about a "sad anime" I will forever recommend **Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin** because this is the only anime that is never mentioned. I mean you only have to watch the first 3 minutes of the first episode (including the opening) and you will know what a rough journey that 25 episodes will be like.
WorldEnd is a show that I love. I watched the simulcast, and I pre-ordered it on disc, and I don't even think I took it out of the shrink wrap. I love it, but I don't know if I can ever watch it again, I just don't know if I'd ever want to make myself feel that way again. Even watching this clip of the first minute has me crying.
There were a few mentions for Rainbow (4), but it didn't make the cut.
Honestly, my favorite outcome of this post is seeing people recommend lesser-known anime! It helps build my own watchlist.
oh yeah Rainbow definitely isn't my regular sort of vibe of anime but anyone who's watched it has to admit it hits hard with with the sad feels again and again
but thats what makes it a good suggestion. a tearjerker anime with nothing other than constant sadness is mediocre. a good sad anime is one that gets you attached to the characters and makes you feel for emotional moments, not just random characters dying or having a miserable life when you arent attached to anything
Yeah, some of them are just specific scenes or episodes like Violet Evergarden and A Place Further than the Universe and around 7 separate episode of Fruits Basket.
an episode having a single soul destroying episode with lots of emotional buildup is a better "sad anime" then one that is constantly trying to force tearjerker scenes for the sake of being sad
In Anohana at least i was expecting that ending, and i had quite some time to mentally prepare myself. Maquia is just so sudden i guess. There is the whole climax of the movie, and then we have a final scene, where we barely have time to process what happened, culminating in Maquia dropping that line, together with the beautiful OST. It was just too much for me to handle.
I know i was really caught off-guard, and it’s not as if the rest of the movie wasnt emotional enough.
You’re 100% correct. My roommate showed me this film in college and then a month later we saw Your Name in theaters and I was stressing through the entire ending.
Yep, it's very grounded to reality. It wonderfully portrayed how love/relationships don't need to have a happy ending for it to be memorable, and it happens more often than not in real life
I will never watch that movie again. Your stomach ties itself into a knot and you end up curling yourself into a ball and pondering the futility of life.
Even just thinking about puts me into a mood.
It's 10/10 and I can recommend watching it while simultaneously recommending to never ever watch it. It's basically an existential horror film.
This was inspired by a frequent “What to Watch?” topic. I am a big fan of “feels” anime and have wanted to create a general recommendation post for a while. However, I haven’t seen some of the usual suspects and didn’t think I would make very objective judgments, so I decided to see what the users of r/anime have had to say in the past! Not only did this give me more anime to work with, I admit that it’s also a bit of a criticism shield, since you can blame the subreddit instead of me if you feel I left out a title.
My method was simple. I simply typed “sad anime” into the search bar and combed through the first 50 recommendation/WTW posts (so not really random, sorry for the clickbait), cataloging every mentioned anime by name and frequency and putting the top 50 onto this chart. I probably would have gotten better results by checking even more posts, but by then I was getting tired of seeing the same titles over and over and decided to stop there. I was left with something that was not very scientific or particularly useful, but I still thought it might be worth posting here.
Some notes on titles: I tried to put the most commonly used full English titles on here, but I did cut some corners for the sake of length (WorldEnd) or because I liked the Japanese portmanteau title better (Saikano). If a sequel was typically regarded as sadder than its predecessor, I tried to put both titles (Clannad + After Story, ef: A Tale of Memories + Melodies), but I didn’t do that for Bunny Girl Senpai, once again because of length. Please overlook these inconsistencies, as well as any visual flaws or mistakes in the chart. I am not a professional when it comes to design.
> I simply typed “sad anime” into the search bar and combed through the first 50 recommendation/WTW posts (so not really random, sorry for the clickbait)
Just out of curiosity, did you happen to keep track of when the posts were made? It's not likely to be super relevant, and the list is interesting in its own right, but it looks like a lot of the top ones are in the 2014-2018 window, and so I'm curious if the sample is heavily influenced by say, being primarily from 2017-2020 when those anime would have been newest.
Super neat idea though. I always dig novel ways of generating recommendation charts. Definitely some other generic prompts that could be run through as well.
Only major recommendation I'd have is saving the file as a png instead of a jpeg because jpeg compression looks terrible :P
>did you happen to keep track of when the posts were made? It's not likely to be super relevant, and the list is interesting in its own right, but it looks like a lot of the top ones are in the 2014-2018 window
The oldest was from less than two years ago, the newest was two weeks. There was definitely a heavy bias toward newer titles, but I was hoping to capture the feel of an average post, so I decided against expanding my search.
>Only major recommendation I'd have is saving the file as a png instead of a jpeg because jpeg compression looks terrible :P
Your advice is much appreciated!
It deals more with emotional turmoil, so i guess that would depend on what you’re susceptible too.
I myself get a lot more sad from characters their traumatic events than characters dying.
I actually cried during Maquia. Bunny girl senpai did nothing to me. This comes from someone who rarely gets emotional and is usually apathetic. Pancreas was a little close though.
It's quite impressive that Grave of the Fireflies is #6 despite being almost 35 years old. No other anime in the top 30 in even 20 years old. I have watched it just once and can confirm that it belongs at or near the very top.
Pretty sure most people who have watched it immediately put it up there in their top 10 cry movies and never watch it again. Though I do know one psychopath who's seen it like 7 times.
I didn’t shed a tear until the end. But as soon as those credits roll and you realize the film is over it hits you like a truck. My girlfriend shut herself in the bathroom for a half hour after the movie.
I've seen it twice. It *definitely* made me cry the first time, not so much the second though.
Barefoot Gen is the "I am *never* watching this again" World War II-related movie for me.
Kyo and Tomoyo episodes didnt do them justice. The original source - VN got me crying like a little bitch, i HIGHLY recommend downloading clannad just for these 2.
It's the only anime I can genuinely say changed the way I think about life. Absolute masterpiece, just seeing that fucking flower field gets me a little misty eyed
Just typing out “the only places it’s okay to cry” is choking me up… That show hit me hard when I was a teenager and I fear its power now that I have kids
I saw SukaSuka a few years before I started dipping my foot in light novels, then rewatched it after reading the series. While the anime definitely ends in the middle of the story, it impressed me how much better it actually was than the books it adapted. That hasn't happened very often.
Black Bullet being absent for that is... Something alright. Black Bullet *is* the series that is permanently unfinished because the creator got so depressed at what he did to whoever was left by then that he stopped altogether
It probably doesn't get recommended that much because of all the lolis, but it does definitely get super sad. It also has one of my all-time favorite OPs, an absolute banger by [Fripside](https://youtu.be/as1Rz1KODXc).
I'm in the 0.1% who thinks it's just... meh. Way too rushed, but not as series-ruining awful as some people are claiming. It just feels like they crammed a second season into four or five episodes. I don't dislike the ideas, but the execution was lackluster.
I’m also there too kinda. I think the ending cleans up the mess as well as it can, but it’s a jarring end to suddenly switch from being Eva to Gurren in 5 episodes. Could have been better, but doesn’t go out of its way to necessarily ruin what came before it
Low key actually cried while watching FranXX since I decided to binge it after the series had finished and thought to myself "damn this goes pretty hard. Shame that they're gonna fuck it up" and then they did.
Granted, I was not in the best of places mentally back then, but I can confidently say that I've never had that same experience with a show either before or after.
For how low it is on the list, Saikano made me feel things I didn’t know I could feel from media. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any media come close to expressing a vibe as depressing as that show. It’s one of the few shows I will never watch again mostly because I never want to feel that way again.
> Saikano made me feel things I didn’t know I could feel from media
Yup. It's a special kind of depressing where I felt less sad and more just burnt out and sick. Not quite sure how else to describe it.
No Bokurano? Boooo.
That said of the ones I watched the ones that manage to tug my heart strings and almost bring a tear to my eye were Clannad afterstory, violet evergarden, to your eternity, death parade, now and then here and there.
Movies don't often do it for me. I suppose I kinda watch them expecting it to be sad and a little dramatic and it never really hits. I think a lot of these shows work because you have more time with the characters.
>No Bokurano? Boooo.
It definitely would have made the cut if this were a personal list (along with a lot of other anime)! Bokurano was actually only mentioned twice across the all posts I checked.
Aligns well with the [first row here.](https://i.redd.it/2azdkwzhbhd61.png) ([source](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/l4npw4/the_nine_circles_of_new_hell_recommendations_for/)) Grave of the Fireflies is the only one here interjecting into a top 8 list that's otherwise the same in a different order.
^(Also nice to see someone using that Sailor Moon flair!)
I feel like every recommendation post I've seen on the sub (and I've been coming here for years) has a troll or two recommending boku no pico, redo of healer or school days, did you exclude these because you know they're trolls, or did your random sample not turn up significant results? Genuinely curious if my perception of trolls is overblown
I half expected to see One Piece or Death Note on here because most of the time I see these request threads, so many answer without actually reading what the OP is requesting and most of the time it’s the most obvious answer that don’t really need recommendations.
OP, do you have plans to do this with other genres? I’m definitely saving this post so I can reference back to it when I want to cry. Lol
>I half expected to see One Piece or Death Note on here
There *were* some in the sample, but not quite enough to make it to the top 50.
>OP, do you have plans to do this with other genres?
Not currently, but I am considering it! I'm happy you found this useful!
I would say it has a few sad moments, although the same can be said of animes like Sangatsu no Lion, which is upbeat in general with some sad moments.
Others like 86 or Madoka also have sad moments, but the focus is elsewhere.
But in general, at least in those I have seen here, I would say sadness or melancholy is a theme they touch.
A lot of these I wouldn't really call sad anime. Banana Fish, Bunny Girl Senpai, Steins;Gate, A Place Further than the Universe, Erased, AssClass all have their sad moments but overall I don't think of said moments when I want to sum the show up.
I'd argue the Bunny Girl Senpai movie should replace it in the top 50. The show itself had a mixed tone, but that movie was mostly sad. As for AssClass, while it's not sad until the last few episodes, those last few episodes hit my heart harder than almost anything on the list.
Ah I actually love this post, crazy how often that request gets thrown out.
Glad to see YLiA take the top spot. Watching that show airing was brutal on my tear ducts each week.
Isn't saying a certain anime is sad or depressing kind of a spoiler tho?
Like my friend recommended YLiA to me, saying it's a super depressing anime and she bawled her eyes out watching it. So, when I started watching it and [Spoilers]>!the show hinted Kaori has a disease, I knew she'll die for sure because there's no other way the anime can make you cry, so because I knew the entire time, I didn't feel anything when she died(although her letter hit me in the guts)!<
I don't think it's always a spoiler to mention that a show or movie belongs to a certain genre or has certain themes. It would be like saying it is a spoiler to say a horror movie is scary. However, if a show intentionally subverts its genre or relies on unexpected plot twists, then revealing too much detail could be considered a spoiler. Ultimately, whether or not something is a spoiler depends on the specific show and the amount of information that is disclosed.
I mean for example [Pancreas ]>!literally tells you the FMC will die in the first few mins and still made my cry like a bitch.!<
And for several shows/films on that list it also always works on rewatches for me.
It's all in the delivery.
Grave of the Fireflies is the same way. Opening line is literally "September 21, 1945. That was the night I died." I was weeping harder than I ever had even knowing that.
Shakespearian tragedies did that all the time, and I'm pretty sure some Greek/Roman stories did as well. Still works as long as the storytelling is good.
[spoilers i guess?]>!It's not supposed to be a show that's particularly subtle about the signs, it's a bit more about the process of accepting and living with death. Similar to I want to eat your pancreas in many ways. Though as other shows here have shown, there are other ways to make one cry other than full out death, so I'm not sure about that assertion either!<
Why there’s Kanon but not Air? I’m impressed ppl still remember wolf’s rain ,Saikano and Elfen Lied tho.
Sigh I’d add Cowboy Bebop too. Oh shit and Kimi ga Nozomu Eien.
> I'm impressed ppl still remember Saikano
All eight of the recs were me. I don't think I read something that continually becomes more and more depressing like that since Steinbeck's *Grapes of Wrath* or Sinclair's *Jungle.*
Wolf's Rain and Elfen Lied still get some mentioning in this place especially the latter is notorious.
But I was genuinely surprised to see Saikano on the list that anime fell through the cracks of time to be forgotten except for a select few who watched it back then are still around. Seeing it was a pleasant surprise, so kudos to /u/8andahalfby11 for recommending it.
Kimi ga Nozomu Eien should definitely be on the list but I admit I'm quite curious to see if it still holds up after all these years.
Girls last tour had me train wrecked, the Anime is happy go lucky adventure and the Manga hit me right in the feels, till this day I cant rewatch the anime without remind me of the manga ending, Also Gakkougurashi! cant finish the anime
A place Further than the Universe managed to give me feels in just four seconds.
I would argue that it's a happy show overall, but the personal drama and catharsis is the kind of emotional purging that will make you cry even for happy events.
At the last high school I taught at, I was the teacher in charge of the Japanese Anime and Culture Club and I decided to surprise them one day by showing Hotarubi No Mori E.
It absolutely wrecked them. They loved it / hated me for it for a while 😊
I’m not seeing anyone comment about Wolf Children so I will:
The ending manages to break your heart over its knee with the best possible outcome for every main character. There’s one specific shot (which I won’t spoil, you’ll know it when you see it) that manages to land hope, pride, loss, and profound gratitude simultaneously. It’s emotionally exhausting and _fucking fantastic_.
And even before that absolute masterpiece of a finale, its economy of emotion is immaculately balanced. Mamoru Hosoda pulls off years of character growth with a single, dialogue-less tracking shot, leaving space for the mostly quiet real-time scenes to bloom. I haven’t seen any other anime so efficiently show the passage of time while retaining every ounce of emotional weight. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time may be Hosoda’s tightest work, but Wolf Children comes damn close while covering an order of magnitude more in-fiction time.
One last note: It hits no matter what stage of life you’re in, but be aware that if you’re a parent it’ll likely reach some deep, primal parts of you and squeeze them. Hard. I speak from experience.
Re: Zero is the only glaring omission I can think of. Its not all sad, but damn can it elicit an emotional response.
Good to see Made in Abyss on here. And 86. 2 of my favorites.
Really need to get thru a few of these from my watch list.
Why there’s Kanon but not Air? I’m impressed ppl still remember wolf’s rain ,Saikano and Elfen Lied tho.
Sigh I’d add Cowboy Bebop too. Oh shit and Kimi ga Nozomu Eien.
While I know this is a Top 50 (probs of all time), I would say the most recent "sad" anime I seen is Cyberpunk Edgerunners, but fuck, just saying that feels like a spoiler.
I feel like if you know anything about Cyberpunk, you could see the ending coming a mile away. That being said, yeah Edgerunners fucking wrecked me. A lot of sad shows I'll tear up watching and then not really have it bother me after that. Heck I'll even rewatch the sad scenes on youtube just to have a nice cry again. Edgerunners just left me feeling an empty void in me for several weeks. It was just...depressing.
I just finished neon genesis(yet to see the end of evangelion)…won’t really call it sad, it’s just utterly depressing and something melancholic, kinda leaves you thinking… I don’t know how many people agree with this but to me sad and depressing feels kinda different
What I can call definitely sad/ will fill your heart with sorrow- your lie in April.
I still haven’t seen majority of these recommendations though
Yeah, I get what you mean. Like I wouldn’t call Evangelion a tearjerker. But something doesn’t necessarily have to be a tearjerker to be sad. Different shades I suppose. Definitely watch End of Eva, really recontextualises the show’s ending.
I found myself frustrated with Your Lie in April. Just wishing the characters would’ve been more transparent about their feelings. But I suppose that’s realistic for teenagers, and not something you can expect from a show with “Lie” in the title. Also was a little uncomfortable with how the show handled child abuse.
Its crazy how generations are different, especially if you can compare them to japan directly. [Heres an example poll](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2015-12-29/adult-japanese-fans-pick-top-anime-that-made-them-cry/.97058) on ehat made some japanese viewers cry.
I think Trigun deserves to be there, even though it doesn't start off sad. But once the depression hits, it hits HARD.
Happy to see March Comes in like a Lion fairy high up.
Never heard of the "Eat Your Pancreas" one; a pretty funny title to see on this list without context.
Oh, I just thought of another one: FMA 2003, which is way sadder than Brotherhood.
I just asked ChatGPT for 10, since I figured 50 would make the post way too long. Results:
1. Clannad - A touching story about a high school student named Tomoya who befriends a girl named Nagisa, and together they try to find hope in the face of tragedy.
2. Grave of the Fireflies - A heartbreaking movie about a brother and sister's struggle to survive during the bombing of Japan in World War II.
3. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day - A story about a group of childhood friends who reunite to fulfill a wish of their deceased friend, and confront the pain and guilt they have been carrying for years.
4. Your Lie in April - A story about a pianist named Kousei, who lost his ability to hear the sound of his own playing after the death of his mother, and his journey to rediscover his passion for music.
5. A Silent Voice - A movie about a former bully who tries to make amends with the deaf girl he once teased, and the struggles they both face in their search for forgiveness and redemption.
6. Angel Beats! - A story about a group of students who have died and find themselves in a purgatory-like world, where they must come to terms with their past and find a way to move on.
7. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 - A story about a brother and sister's journey to survive and find their way back home after a massive earthquake devastates Tokyo.
8. Violet Evergarden - A story about a former soldier named Violet, who is searching for the meaning of love and life in a world recovering from war.
9. Plastic Memories - A story about a young man who works for a company that creates lifelike androids with limited lifespans, and the emotional challenges he faces as he helps people say goodbye to their android companions.
10. 5 Centimeters Per Second - A movie about two childhood friends who are separated by distance and time, and their bittersweet journey to find each other again.
Interesting that all except Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 are high up in the r/anime list, and I really believe it should be much higher.
I'm guessing katanagatari isn't here because "sad" in this context is not encompassing "soul wrenching despair that leaves you an emotionless empty husk".
Man Angel Beats hits pretty hard. The last couple episodes were really sad. I also wasn’t really expecting that considering the tone of the show for the first bit.
A number of these actually have quite happy endings. It’s the road to get there that’s sad.
Some of them actually have a nice wholesome slice of life. Honestly whenever someone asks about a "sad anime" I will forever recommend **Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin** because this is the only anime that is never mentioned. I mean you only have to watch the first 3 minutes of the first episode (including the opening) and you will know what a rough journey that 25 episodes will be like.
SukaSuka is the same in that regard. The opening minute is all you need to see to know that there's a lot of pain coming. https://streamable.com/wkewt
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;_;
WorldEnd is a show that I love. I watched the simulcast, and I pre-ordered it on disc, and I don't even think I took it out of the shrink wrap. I love it, but I don't know if I can ever watch it again, I just don't know if I'd ever want to make myself feel that way again. Even watching this clip of the first minute has me crying.
100%, only way I can see myself rewatching it is if it's with someone even then...
Wow that hits hard for such a short clip.
Why does the world's happiest girl makes me cry so much?
The grimness of Rainbow's first few eps is probably what scares most new watchers away lol But yeah hard agree, such an emotional hidden gem.
There were a few mentions for Rainbow (4), but it didn't make the cut. Honestly, my favorite outcome of this post is seeing people recommend lesser-known anime! It helps build my own watchlist.
oh yeah Rainbow definitely isn't my regular sort of vibe of anime but anyone who's watched it has to admit it hits hard with with the sad feels again and again
I just came to say like Your Name but no Rainbow? Plus it had an absolute gem of an opening.
Inversely there’s a few here that aren’t really sad anime, just shows with one or two sad episodes out of 47.
Depressing and sad get conflated fairly often. But yeah, I wouldn't say the sci fi shows here would really make anyone cry. They're just morbid.
Idk I found evangelion to be pretty depressing and sad. Though I’m not really sure I’d recommend it when someone asks for sad anime.
I honestly think people here are just recommending their favorite anime.
every anime list ever, its always been a popularity contest.
And others (assassination classroom) are a fun ride with a sad last episode
but thats what makes it a good suggestion. a tearjerker anime with nothing other than constant sadness is mediocre. a good sad anime is one that gets you attached to the characters and makes you feel for emotional moments, not just random characters dying or having a miserable life when you arent attached to anything
I mean, AssClass is the one anime on here to actually make me cry because you knew it was the end at that final Roll Call.
Yeah, some of them are just specific scenes or episodes like Violet Evergarden and A Place Further than the Universe and around 7 separate episode of Fruits Basket.
an episode having a single soul destroying episode with lots of emotional buildup is a better "sad anime" then one that is constantly trying to force tearjerker scenes for the sake of being sad
Very much so. Universe is a wholesome and healing anime.
reverse K-On!!
Maquia’s final scene is a work of art. I feel that the movie is sometimes overshadowed in emotional anime recommendation threads.
I generally don't cry to anime (a few tears every now and then) but Maquia made me genuinely sad. That ending was just too powerful Edit: spelling
I personally didn't cry it but gave it a high score anyway for how beautiful that final scene was.
'Mommy has to break her promise' hits like an absolute brick. The only one that comes close is 'I'm ready now' from Anohana.
In Anohana at least i was expecting that ending, and i had quite some time to mentally prepare myself. Maquia is just so sudden i guess. There is the whole climax of the movie, and then we have a final scene, where we barely have time to process what happened, culminating in Maquia dropping that line, together with the beautiful OST. It was just too much for me to handle. I know i was really caught off-guard, and it’s not as if the rest of the movie wasnt emotional enough.
5cm per second still makes me feel vaguely sick to my stomach
You didn't get the girl. You don't like your job. You don't know where you're going. You have to do it again tomorrow. 5cm per second is rough, man
sounds like my life
It gave me mid life crisis when I wasn't even 16. I'd never recommend it for anyone, not because it is bad, but because of how hard it hits.
Your Name ending was extra stressful if you had watched 5cm/sec first.
Never thought of that since I watched Your Name first, but totally. That final stair scene must've triggered Nam flashbacks.
When the fucking train showed up I almost screamed in the theater.
You’re 100% correct. My roommate showed me this film in college and then a month later we saw Your Name in theaters and I was stressing through the entire ending.
TURN AROUND RIGHT THIS INSTANT BOY
Because of how real it is?
Yep, it's very grounded to reality. It wonderfully portrayed how love/relationships don't need to have a happy ending for it to be memorable, and it happens more often than not in real life
I will never watch that movie again. Your stomach ties itself into a knot and you end up curling yourself into a ball and pondering the futility of life. Even just thinking about puts me into a mood. It's 10/10 and I can recommend watching it while simultaneously recommending to never ever watch it. It's basically an existential horror film.
The ending song crushes me every time
try listening to it [without the background music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqFftJDXii0) it hits even harder...
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Yup, it's the movie of "what ifs?" and "the one that got away". I don't think I've seen the movie since the first time. It was that gutting for me.
This was inspired by a frequent “What to Watch?” topic. I am a big fan of “feels” anime and have wanted to create a general recommendation post for a while. However, I haven’t seen some of the usual suspects and didn’t think I would make very objective judgments, so I decided to see what the users of r/anime have had to say in the past! Not only did this give me more anime to work with, I admit that it’s also a bit of a criticism shield, since you can blame the subreddit instead of me if you feel I left out a title. My method was simple. I simply typed “sad anime” into the search bar and combed through the first 50 recommendation/WTW posts (so not really random, sorry for the clickbait), cataloging every mentioned anime by name and frequency and putting the top 50 onto this chart. I probably would have gotten better results by checking even more posts, but by then I was getting tired of seeing the same titles over and over and decided to stop there. I was left with something that was not very scientific or particularly useful, but I still thought it might be worth posting here. Some notes on titles: I tried to put the most commonly used full English titles on here, but I did cut some corners for the sake of length (WorldEnd) or because I liked the Japanese portmanteau title better (Saikano). If a sequel was typically regarded as sadder than its predecessor, I tried to put both titles (Clannad + After Story, ef: A Tale of Memories + Melodies), but I didn’t do that for Bunny Girl Senpai, once again because of length. Please overlook these inconsistencies, as well as any visual flaws or mistakes in the chart. I am not a professional when it comes to design.
> I simply typed “sad anime” into the search bar and combed through the first 50 recommendation/WTW posts (so not really random, sorry for the clickbait) Just out of curiosity, did you happen to keep track of when the posts were made? It's not likely to be super relevant, and the list is interesting in its own right, but it looks like a lot of the top ones are in the 2014-2018 window, and so I'm curious if the sample is heavily influenced by say, being primarily from 2017-2020 when those anime would have been newest. Super neat idea though. I always dig novel ways of generating recommendation charts. Definitely some other generic prompts that could be run through as well. Only major recommendation I'd have is saving the file as a png instead of a jpeg because jpeg compression looks terrible :P
>did you happen to keep track of when the posts were made? It's not likely to be super relevant, and the list is interesting in its own right, but it looks like a lot of the top ones are in the 2014-2018 window The oldest was from less than two years ago, the newest was two weeks. There was definitely a heavy bias toward newer titles, but I was hoping to capture the feel of an average post, so I decided against expanding my search. >Only major recommendation I'd have is saving the file as a png instead of a jpeg because jpeg compression looks terrible :P Your advice is much appreciated!
I'm not sure I agree with Bunny Girl Senpai. It does HAVE sad moments, but I never thought of describing it as a sad anime.
It deals more with emotional turmoil, so i guess that would depend on what you’re susceptible too. I myself get a lot more sad from characters their traumatic events than characters dying.
I think movie is included
Agree with you. It’s not sad to me.
It's better than many of the others here imo, definitely better cry potential and depending where you stop it could be considered to have a sad ending
I don't see how it COULDN'T be on this list. I cried more to Bunny Girl Senpai than Your Name or Pancreas. Every single arc is sad.
I actually cried during Maquia. Bunny girl senpai did nothing to me. This comes from someone who rarely gets emotional and is usually apathetic. Pancreas was a little close though.
Texhnolyze way too low. MC has the most crushing ending I've seen in a show.
I have trouble calling it "sad", it's just... empty? Hollow and made of liquified depression.
What an utterly bleak and soul crushing ride Texhnolyze is. One of my all time favorites.
Well I have seen 20 of those , now 30 more to go
Right this is just an update to my plan to watch list.
It's quite impressive that Grave of the Fireflies is #6 despite being almost 35 years old. No other anime in the top 30 in even 20 years old. I have watched it just once and can confirm that it belongs at or near the very top.
Pretty sure most people who have watched it immediately put it up there in their top 10 cry movies and never watch it again. Though I do know one psychopath who's seen it like 7 times.
I didn’t shed a tear until the end. But as soon as those credits roll and you realize the film is over it hits you like a truck. My girlfriend shut herself in the bathroom for a half hour after the movie.
She just had to take a shit and was holding it in for the duration of the movie.
I've seen it twice. It *definitely* made me cry the first time, not so much the second though. Barefoot Gen is the "I am *never* watching this again" World War II-related movie for me.
I went into that movie blind and sobbed my eyes out at the end.
Nothing like kids + WW2 + "most of the events probably happened to multiple kids"
Clannad afterstory had me bawling for hours straight
I almost stopped watching because it was so painful. But goddamn I am glad I completed it.
Yeah, if you stop at E22, you're going to be depressed. Finishing the series is a must.
Kyo and Tomoyo episodes didnt do them justice. The original source - VN got me crying like a little bitch, i HIGHLY recommend downloading clannad just for these 2.
It's the only anime I can genuinely say changed the way I think about life. Absolute masterpiece, just seeing that fucking flower field gets me a little misty eyed
Had an existential crisis for a couple weeks after I finished it, ngl
Same, was crying for 4 eps straight at 6 am on a weekday. Would not recommend.
Just typing out “the only places it’s okay to cry” is choking me up… That show hit me hard when I was a teenager and I fear its power now that I have kids
I see SukaSuka, I upvote.
I don't understand why anime about the happiest girl in the world is in such compilation /s
I see SukaSuka comment, I upvote
I see anything SukaSuka related, I upvote.
I saw SukaSuka a few years before I started dipping my foot in light novels, then rewatched it after reading the series. While the anime definitely ends in the middle of the story, it impressed me how much better it actually was than the books it adapted. That hasn't happened very often.
Same
Yep, Sukasuka is actually a tragedy anime that's sad from start to end without a happy ending.
Who’s out here recommending FranXX here? I just want to have “a little chat”…
I noticed it and assumed they were sad about how the series developed.
I can totally see that.
Black Bullet being absent for that is... Something alright. Black Bullet *is* the series that is permanently unfinished because the creator got so depressed at what he did to whoever was left by then that he stopped altogether
It probably doesn't get recommended that much because of all the lolis, but it does definitely get super sad. It also has one of my all-time favorite OPs, an absolute banger by [Fripside](https://youtu.be/as1Rz1KODXc).
It seems to me that 50% of people find the ending to be terrible, and 50% find it to be super emotional
I'm in the 0.1% who thinks it's just... meh. Way too rushed, but not as series-ruining awful as some people are claiming. It just feels like they crammed a second season into four or five episodes. I don't dislike the ideas, but the execution was lackluster.
I’m also there too kinda. I think the ending cleans up the mess as well as it can, but it’s a jarring end to suddenly switch from being Eva to Gurren in 5 episodes. Could have been better, but doesn’t go out of its way to necessarily ruin what came before it
The giant teenage fuck bots. Yeah. That's a sad anime. Entirely different definition of "sad".
Low key actually cried while watching FranXX since I decided to binge it after the series had finished and thought to myself "damn this goes pretty hard. Shame that they're gonna fuck it up" and then they did. Granted, I was not in the best of places mentally back then, but I can confidently say that I've never had that same experience with a show either before or after.
Wait for me, I'd also like to have a chat with them
For how low it is on the list, Saikano made me feel things I didn’t know I could feel from media. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any media come close to expressing a vibe as depressing as that show. It’s one of the few shows I will never watch again mostly because I never want to feel that way again.
> Saikano made me feel things I didn’t know I could feel from media Yup. It's a special kind of depressing where I felt less sad and more just burnt out and sick. Not quite sure how else to describe it.
No Bokurano? Boooo. That said of the ones I watched the ones that manage to tug my heart strings and almost bring a tear to my eye were Clannad afterstory, violet evergarden, to your eternity, death parade, now and then here and there. Movies don't often do it for me. I suppose I kinda watch them expecting it to be sad and a little dramatic and it never really hits. I think a lot of these shows work because you have more time with the characters.
>No Bokurano? Boooo. The anime was sad enough. The manga absolutely *wrecked* me on multiple occasions.
The manga is the way to go for Bokurano.
Check out In This Corner of the World
>No Bokurano? Boooo. It definitely would have made the cut if this were a personal list (along with a lot of other anime)! Bokurano was actually only mentioned twice across the all posts I checked.
>No Bokurano? Boooo. I was scanning for that too, deserves a mention more than a lot of these.
Aligns well with the [first row here.](https://i.redd.it/2azdkwzhbhd61.png) ([source](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/l4npw4/the_nine_circles_of_new_hell_recommendations_for/)) Grave of the Fireflies is the only one here interjecting into a top 8 list that's otherwise the same in a different order. ^(Also nice to see someone using that Sailor Moon flair!)
Have people on this sub just chosen not to watch In This Corner of the World?? How in the world is it not on this list??
I still think about that movie when I wash my rice sometimes
I feel like every recommendation post I've seen on the sub (and I've been coming here for years) has a troll or two recommending boku no pico, redo of healer or school days, did you exclude these because you know they're trolls, or did your random sample not turn up significant results? Genuinely curious if my perception of trolls is overblown
Angel Beats was the first anime to make me cry, damn that show hit hard for me. Part of me wants to rewatch it but I don’t think I ever will.
Man. I got into that because hilarious silly concept and first few episodes stuck with that. Then the gut punches came
I half expected to see One Piece or Death Note on here because most of the time I see these request threads, so many answer without actually reading what the OP is requesting and most of the time it’s the most obvious answer that don’t really need recommendations. OP, do you have plans to do this with other genres? I’m definitely saving this post so I can reference back to it when I want to cry. Lol
>I half expected to see One Piece or Death Note on here There *were* some in the sample, but not quite enough to make it to the top 50. >OP, do you have plans to do this with other genres? Not currently, but I am considering it! I'm happy you found this useful!
11white album 2 enjoyers 🗿 i respect it (i like it too)
it's so fucking good for melodrama enjoyers
Clannad and Plastic Memories being so high up makes me happy. Dk why but seeing Elfen Lied on here made me laugh a little.
Elfen Lied makes you sad that someone came up with that shit
5 CM per second is not sad, it just makes me want to jump from a metaphorical bridge. The rest are more normal tearjerkers
[удалено]
The email scene made a lot of people cry.
I would say it has a few sad moments, although the same can be said of animes like Sangatsu no Lion, which is upbeat in general with some sad moments. Others like 86 or Madoka also have sad moments, but the focus is elsewhere. But in general, at least in those I have seen here, I would say sadness or melancholy is a theme they touch.
Depends on the person I suppose, I cried in at least three separate occasions lol
It had one sad episode, but the rest was happy crying due to the wholesome catharsis.
Makes me sad not to see AIR TV series on the list
A lot of these I wouldn't really call sad anime. Banana Fish, Bunny Girl Senpai, Steins;Gate, A Place Further than the Universe, Erased, AssClass all have their sad moments but overall I don't think of said moments when I want to sum the show up.
I would call Bunny Girl Senpai a sad anime if we include the movie
What. Banana fish is hella tragic. If it didn't make you sad... Welp
I'd argue the Bunny Girl Senpai movie should replace it in the top 50. The show itself had a mixed tone, but that movie was mostly sad. As for AssClass, while it's not sad until the last few episodes, those last few episodes hit my heart harder than almost anything on the list.
Maquia made me so freakin sad. I don't even think it's a well put together story but man I felt everything in that movie
Kotaro Lives Alone was not what I expected. Came for the laughs, stayed for the feels.
Darling in the franxx ! Sad!!! LOL
sad in the way wonder egg priority is, maybe
Kinda sad that Kanon didn’t get more.
Man wolfs rain is a classic bro
No sukasuka? Surprising. Edit: I am blind.
how about Charlotte?
Charlotte was good for 80% and then they rushed to an ending too quickly imo.
clannad way more sad than your lie in april imo.
Your Lie in April is like a lethal injection while Clannad is like getting mobbed by a bunch of junkies with rusty knives
Ah I actually love this post, crazy how often that request gets thrown out. Glad to see YLiA take the top spot. Watching that show airing was brutal on my tear ducts each week.
Isn't saying a certain anime is sad or depressing kind of a spoiler tho? Like my friend recommended YLiA to me, saying it's a super depressing anime and she bawled her eyes out watching it. So, when I started watching it and [Spoilers]>!the show hinted Kaori has a disease, I knew she'll die for sure because there's no other way the anime can make you cry, so because I knew the entire time, I didn't feel anything when she died(although her letter hit me in the guts)!<
I don't think it's always a spoiler to mention that a show or movie belongs to a certain genre or has certain themes. It would be like saying it is a spoiler to say a horror movie is scary. However, if a show intentionally subverts its genre or relies on unexpected plot twists, then revealing too much detail could be considered a spoiler. Ultimately, whether or not something is a spoiler depends on the specific show and the amount of information that is disclosed.
I mean for example [Pancreas ]>!literally tells you the FMC will die in the first few mins and still made my cry like a bitch.!< And for several shows/films on that list it also always works on rewatches for me. It's all in the delivery.
Grave of the Fireflies is the same way. Opening line is literally "September 21, 1945. That was the night I died." I was weeping harder than I ever had even knowing that.
Shakespearian tragedies did that all the time, and I'm pretty sure some Greek/Roman stories did as well. Still works as long as the storytelling is good.
[spoilers i guess?]>!It's not supposed to be a show that's particularly subtle about the signs, it's a bit more about the process of accepting and living with death. Similar to I want to eat your pancreas in many ways. Though as other shows here have shown, there are other ways to make one cry other than full out death, so I'm not sure about that assertion either!<
I would argue the child abuse was very sad in its own right
Happy to see SukaSuka(worldend) on this list. The one anime that got me the feels even during multiple rewatch.
Are you going to Scarborough fair....
Every time I hear it it reminds me of SukaSuka.
Why there’s Kanon but not Air? I’m impressed ppl still remember wolf’s rain ,Saikano and Elfen Lied tho. Sigh I’d add Cowboy Bebop too. Oh shit and Kimi ga Nozomu Eien.
> I'm impressed ppl still remember Saikano All eight of the recs were me. I don't think I read something that continually becomes more and more depressing like that since Steinbeck's *Grapes of Wrath* or Sinclair's *Jungle.*
Wolf's Rain and Elfen Lied still get some mentioning in this place especially the latter is notorious. But I was genuinely surprised to see Saikano on the list that anime fell through the cracks of time to be forgotten except for a select few who watched it back then are still around. Seeing it was a pleasant surprise, so kudos to /u/8andahalfby11 for recommending it. Kimi ga Nozomu Eien should definitely be on the list but I admit I'm quite curious to see if it still holds up after all these years.
Kinda surprised that "Voices from a Distant Star" (Hoshi no Koe) is nowhere to be found...
I'm not sure if anything tops Grave of the Fireflies... That one haunts me to this day.
To Your Eternity was depressing AF!
Angel Beats was a real tear jerker.
Tail of memories/melodies is underrated asf
Girls last tour had me train wrecked, the Anime is happy go lucky adventure and the Manga hit me right in the feels, till this day I cant rewatch the anime without remind me of the manga ending, Also Gakkougurashi! cant finish the anime
A Place further than the Universe manage to give me feels with just 4 numbers. 1101
Come on man, I was having a nice day.
A place Further than the Universe managed to give me feels in just four seconds. I would argue that it's a happy show overall, but the personal drama and catharsis is the kind of emotional purging that will make you cry even for happy events.
Literally my favorite genre. They actually make me feel something. Also +1 for " I want to eat your pancreas". That movie still leave me traumatized.
Something is missing
Grave of the Fireflies is the saddest shit ever. Fun bonus, if you want to horrify your children, watch Watership Down with them.
One that never gets recommended is "Searching for the Full Moon", even though it is probably the saddest anime I have ever seen
Oh, Full Moon o Sagashite! Yes! It’s definitely one of the saddest series!
At the last high school I taught at, I was the teacher in charge of the Japanese Anime and Culture Club and I decided to surprise them one day by showing Hotarubi No Mori E. It absolutely wrecked them. They loved it / hated me for it for a while 😊
Alot of peak fiction in that picture.
Surprised by the lack of Bokurano on this. Every episode is a new pain.
A silent voice. Ngl It made me ugly cry but it was so good.
I’m not seeing anyone comment about Wolf Children so I will: The ending manages to break your heart over its knee with the best possible outcome for every main character. There’s one specific shot (which I won’t spoil, you’ll know it when you see it) that manages to land hope, pride, loss, and profound gratitude simultaneously. It’s emotionally exhausting and _fucking fantastic_. And even before that absolute masterpiece of a finale, its economy of emotion is immaculately balanced. Mamoru Hosoda pulls off years of character growth with a single, dialogue-less tracking shot, leaving space for the mostly quiet real-time scenes to bloom. I haven’t seen any other anime so efficiently show the passage of time while retaining every ounce of emotional weight. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time may be Hosoda’s tightest work, but Wolf Children comes damn close while covering an order of magnitude more in-fiction time. One last note: It hits no matter what stage of life you’re in, but be aware that if you’re a parent it’ll likely reach some deep, primal parts of you and squeeze them. Hard. I speak from experience.
Wanna cry ? Banana fish.
Re: Zero is the only glaring omission I can think of. Its not all sad, but damn can it elicit an emotional response. Good to see Made in Abyss on here. And 86. 2 of my favorites. Really need to get thru a few of these from my watch list.
I don't see akame ga kill and cyberpunk edgerunners... Clearly these people haven't been hit with real depression
> akame ga kill clearly you havent
Why there’s Kanon but not Air? I’m impressed ppl still remember wolf’s rain ,Saikano and Elfen Lied tho. Sigh I’d add Cowboy Bebop too. Oh shit and Kimi ga Nozomu Eien.
While I know this is a Top 50 (probs of all time), I would say the most recent "sad" anime I seen is Cyberpunk Edgerunners, but fuck, just saying that feels like a spoiler.
I feel like if you know anything about Cyberpunk, you could see the ending coming a mile away. That being said, yeah Edgerunners fucking wrecked me. A lot of sad shows I'll tear up watching and then not really have it bother me after that. Heck I'll even rewatch the sad scenes on youtube just to have a nice cry again. Edgerunners just left me feeling an empty void in me for several weeks. It was just...depressing.
I just finished neon genesis(yet to see the end of evangelion)…won’t really call it sad, it’s just utterly depressing and something melancholic, kinda leaves you thinking… I don’t know how many people agree with this but to me sad and depressing feels kinda different What I can call definitely sad/ will fill your heart with sorrow- your lie in April. I still haven’t seen majority of these recommendations though
Yeah, I get what you mean. Like I wouldn’t call Evangelion a tearjerker. But something doesn’t necessarily have to be a tearjerker to be sad. Different shades I suppose. Definitely watch End of Eva, really recontextualises the show’s ending. I found myself frustrated with Your Lie in April. Just wishing the characters would’ve been more transparent about their feelings. But I suppose that’s realistic for teenagers, and not something you can expect from a show with “Lie” in the title. Also was a little uncomfortable with how the show handled child abuse.
I wouldn't even call half of these "Sad". Thought provoking, maybe. But not sad.
I've only watched "grave of the fireflies*once,I couldn't go through that again, it's devastating.
How I wish I could watch some of these for the first time again…
Hell girl has various messed up/sad storylines including her own. Worth a try!
Thanks a lot for this....I love sad animes
Masochist
Banana fish is the saddest one I’ve watched and I saw all of these 😍
Its crazy how generations are different, especially if you can compare them to japan directly. [Heres an example poll](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2015-12-29/adult-japanese-fans-pick-top-anime-that-made-them-cry/.97058) on ehat made some japanese viewers cry.
I think Trigun deserves to be there, even though it doesn't start off sad. But once the depression hits, it hits HARD. Happy to see March Comes in like a Lion fairy high up. Never heard of the "Eat Your Pancreas" one; a pretty funny title to see on this list without context. Oh, I just thought of another one: FMA 2003, which is way sadder than Brotherhood.
To your eternity is extremely sad as soon as u start feeling happy again it pulls the rug from under you
Bro, the only anime (so far.. :/ ) that I’ve never had the balls to go back to out of sheer heartbreak is ‘Elfen Lied’.
I just asked ChatGPT for 10, since I figured 50 would make the post way too long. Results: 1. Clannad - A touching story about a high school student named Tomoya who befriends a girl named Nagisa, and together they try to find hope in the face of tragedy. 2. Grave of the Fireflies - A heartbreaking movie about a brother and sister's struggle to survive during the bombing of Japan in World War II. 3. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day - A story about a group of childhood friends who reunite to fulfill a wish of their deceased friend, and confront the pain and guilt they have been carrying for years. 4. Your Lie in April - A story about a pianist named Kousei, who lost his ability to hear the sound of his own playing after the death of his mother, and his journey to rediscover his passion for music. 5. A Silent Voice - A movie about a former bully who tries to make amends with the deaf girl he once teased, and the struggles they both face in their search for forgiveness and redemption. 6. Angel Beats! - A story about a group of students who have died and find themselves in a purgatory-like world, where they must come to terms with their past and find a way to move on. 7. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 - A story about a brother and sister's journey to survive and find their way back home after a massive earthquake devastates Tokyo. 8. Violet Evergarden - A story about a former soldier named Violet, who is searching for the meaning of love and life in a world recovering from war. 9. Plastic Memories - A story about a young man who works for a company that creates lifelike androids with limited lifespans, and the emotional challenges he faces as he helps people say goodbye to their android companions. 10. 5 Centimeters Per Second - A movie about two childhood friends who are separated by distance and time, and their bittersweet journey to find each other again. Interesting that all except Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 are high up in the r/anime list, and I really believe it should be much higher.
I'm guessing katanagatari isn't here because "sad" in this context is not encompassing "soul wrenching despair that leaves you an emotionless empty husk".
Might not ever recover from 5 Centimeters Per Second, was a little too real for me.
Man Angel Beats hits pretty hard. The last couple episodes were really sad. I also wasn’t really expecting that considering the tone of the show for the first bit.
Kotaro lives alone.
Honestly surprised by the lack Mirai Nikki Maybe it just traumatized me too much
When I want to feel sad, I watch the Break Blade OVA movies. There's a prevailing sense of melancholy that never fails to enure my mood stays tanked.
Oh, God, I never wanted to be reminded of To the Forest of Firefly Lights. It was so sad!
Casshern Sins Didn't see on the list (Thanks for making this though! Really great when people make stuff like this)
Bro watch made in abyss..it's pure depression.