Series Name. Clannad. One of the most acclaimed animes of the sad subgenre, Clannad follows a motherless boy whose father drinks and gambles. Clannad After Story. A sequel to Clannad, After Story follows the struggles and heartbreaks of a young married couple.
Since she did not get enough exposure to the world outside as a child, she has now become extremely emotionally fragile. Although this “shallow” crying does not necessarily make her depressed, as tears are a necessary part of the whole emo anime girl stereotype, she has secured a place on this list.
The point is, crying is good, even for anime fans-- especially for anime fans but not many anime centers around making the viewers cry. For that, a specialized sub-genre of romance anime exists and is better suited for drawing out one's tears.
Rumbling Hearts is a romance anime that makes good use of a typical romance trope: comatose. It all started when Haruka Suzumiya, one of the main characters, confesses her love for Takayuki Narumi and they ended up together. That didn't last long since Haruka got into an unfortunate accident and went into a coma.
Ai Enma is the main protagonist of ‘ Hell Girl ‘ who is a spirit with a sense of sadness on her face all the time. She was not originally this way but now, after being the Hell Girl since ages, she has developed a very cold demeanor towards the world around her. She barely says a word and in the rare situations when she does open her mouth to talk, she only says things that are absolutely necessary. Later in the series, her dark past is revealed where she was sacrificed by the people of her own village to the mountain god. This is one big reason why she has so many emotions trapped inside her. And it this depressing backstory that makes her a worthy mention on this list. You’ll find all other depressed characters smiling from time to time but you’ll be lucky if you even get to see the slightest change in Ai’s expressions.
Iwakura Lain is by far one of the most depressed anime characters out there and almost everything about her just screams “emo”. Even performing simple tasks such as checking emails makes her anxious and she often wears a teddy bear suit that helps her cope up with things that intimidate her.
However, in Mizore Shirayuki’s case, because of her lack of control over it, it is more of a curse as it forces her to stay away from people. She is lonely, depressed and often misunderstood by the people of her school. In the first semester, she even tried dating her own teacher who started taking her for granted.
This alone tells you how utterly sad and depressed she is as a character. She is often referred to as “doll” because of how emotionless she is all the time. But just because she seems emotionless on the outside, does not really mean that she doesn’t feel anything at all.
While it may seem this way in the beginning, it is later revealed that deep down, she is crying for help all the time and has been so weighed down by her own depression that she’s not even afraid of dying anymore.
Tsubaki (Mirai Nikki) In ‘ Marai Nikki ‘, Tsubaki Kasugano is the owner of the sixth diary known as the “Clairvoyance Diary”. Initially, she is introduced as a very polite girl who has no intentions of killing anyone in the survival game and she even forms a friendship with Yukiteru.
Princess Shirahoshi from ‘ One Piece ‘ is a giant mermaid who is the youngest child of King Neptune. But despite being so huge, she is very fragile and even the pettiest of things can make her cry. She has always been pampered by her family and no one has ever raised their voice at her. That’s why one day when Fluffy gets annoyed and yells at her, she bursts out crying.
8 GOLDEN TIME - 7.79. Much like Rumbling Hearts, Golden Time is an anime that toys with the idea of unfortunate love triangles due to health circumstances. In this case, it's amnesia (another common plot device in romance). This time around though, its the male protagonist, Banri Tada who got the short end of the stick.
In the end, it was Sakura who ended up saving Haruki from his painful existence though sadly, he couldn't save her.
It's a tale not usually covered in most slice-of-life anime and prominently highlights the difficulty of adulthood through the lens of two Tomoya and Nagisa.
It's about a piano prodigy named Kousei Arima who sadly lost his affinity and passion for music after his mother died.
It's an anime film but it can't be helped, this one is just hard to exclude. For fans of romance anime with mystical and fantasy elements, Hotarubi No Mori E is the perfect fit . As always with sad romance anime like these, it's a lovely tale of a love that cannot be because of unfortunate circumstances.
The point is, crying is good, even for anime fans-- especially for anime fans but not many anime centers around making the viewers cry. For that, a specialized sub-genre of romance anime exists and is better suited for drawing out one's tears.
6 THE WIND RISES - 8.14. It's a Studio Ghibli film-- one of the lesser-known ones but the point is, one can't go wrong with them. The Wind Rises is a wartime period piece by Studio Ghibli that features the story of a real-life engineer named Jiro Horikoshi and the woman he loves, Naoko Satomi.
The 16 Saddest Anime Ever. One of the most acclaimed animes of the sad subgenre, Clannad follows a motherless boy whose father drinks and gambles. A sequel to Clannad, After Story follows the struggles and heartbreaks of a young married couple. Angel Beats!
A popular anime subgenre is sad or tearjerker anime. These anime make the viewer feel for the characters and even make them cry. With tragic scenarios, emotional scenes, and heartbreaking (even depressing) themes, these stories are powerful.
Twelve-year-old Kouyama Mitsuki is devastated when she is diagnosed with a malignant tumor of the throat. She had made a promise to the boy she loves that she would one day become a singer, but the illness makes singing impossible. To make matters even worse, two angels of death, Takuto and Meroko, appeared to Mitsuki and informed her that she only had one year left to live. Now Mitsuki is even more motivated to fulfill her dreams, and with a little bit of divine intervention, she begins her quest to become a professional singer.
Because they are dangerous, they are held in captivity in laboratories. Lucy is a young and psychotic Diclonius. She manages to break free and brutally murders most of the guards in the laboratory, only to be shot in the head as she escapes. Wounded, she makes her way to a beach where two teenagers discover her.
Grave of the Fireflies. Fourteen-year-old Seita and his four-year-old sister Setsuko are orphaned after their mother is killed during an air-raid by American forces in Kobe, Japan. After a falling-out with their aunt, the children move into an abandoned bomb shelter.
Kanon. A young man suffering from amnesia returns to the city of his youth and begins to recall his past. Chrono Crusade. Set in New York City just before the Great Depression, Chrono Crusade follows two exorcists as they fight demons and search for a missing friend.
We like to have a good time here at Nerdist, but sometimes you just need to open up the old eye-queducts and let loose with a good cry.
Imagine waking up to learn that you’re dead. Now imagine waking up to learn not only are you dead, but you’re in high school too. In purgatory. With a bunch of restless spirits whose regrets and unfinished business won’t let them pass on to the afterlife. So basically just high school.
Ask anyone on the internet which anime makes them cry, and they’ll tell you Cory in the House. Ask anyone else and they’ll tell you Clannad, and more specifically Clannad: After Story. If you thought high school was the end of the world, then buckle up because life comes at you fast and that’s exactly what happens in After Story.
Have you ever had a dream you could have sworn was real? High school student Alice Sakaguchi has been having dreams about a group of scientists on the moon that feel less like dreams and more like memories. What’s weirder is she isn’t the only one having these dreams — some of her classmates are too, as well as her seven year old neighbor.
There’s something incredibly visceral about seeing families rent asunder by natural disaster and how they cope with the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event. That goes doubly so for earthquake stories. Hell, I even got misty during San Andreas after having a bunch of tiny wines on an airplane.
Dealing with the death of a loved one is never easy, but it’s even more difficult when their ghost comes back to haunt you. Such is the plight of Jinta Yadomi, who is plagued by visions of his deceased childhood friend Menma. Her death devastated Jinta and tore his group of friends apart.
Remember the old saying about how you shouldn’t use alchemy to resurrect your dead mom? Well Edward and Alphonse Elric certainly didn’t, and it cost them an arm and a leg! Literally. Edward lost his limbs and Alphonse lost his entire body, leaving little more than a soul bound to a suit of armor.
Quick pitch: In the future, robots can be programmed with complete human emotion. After Kurumi is left heartbroken after a tragic plane crash, a robot named Q01 is sent to Kurumi to help mend her broken heart.
Quick pitch: Hotaru was six when she met the forest spirit Gin. It was forwarned that if Gin makes physical contact with anyone, he will disappear. As time goes on, the two start to form a strong bond.
Yuki Nagato From Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu. She appeared to be one of the saddest girls in anime. She is the humanoid interface in the series but looks like an ordinary human she has no emotion towards anyone, she rarely speaks with anyone.
Her character, in the beginning, seems in a typical tsundere way, yet later revealed that deep down, she is crying for help and has been so weighed down by her depression.
And that thing turned her into dark and depressed.
Rei is known as a “doll” because of her no emotions & no affection of nature towards anyone. Her Alone and Utterly sad behavior make her stay on the list.
Her shy character and socially awkward personality due to her power and intelligence make her stand and lonely. Hotaru grew up very alone, sick, and an outcast, bullied by her classmates who were frightened of her.
Princess Shirahoshi is a mermaid daughter of King Neptune. But the fact that she is so giant and at the same time very emotional you really can’t believe she cry out for small and pettiest things.
Despite the fact she introduced her polite side first but after she revealed her evil side she started harming people and killing other people in the survival game. Tsubaki the owner of the sixth dairy Known as the “Clairvoyance Diary”