Top 10 Saddest Anime

While on a quest to find a “girl in the sky” his mother told him about before she died, Yukito comes to a town to earn money through his puppetry skills. He meets three girls, all of whom might actually be the girl his mother might’ve described to him. It may look like a harem Anime, with one boy surrounded by cute girls, but Air is much deeper and more personal than that. As much as it is about love, it’s about a boy finishing a story his mother wanted to see completed.

A literal ghost from the past reunites five old friends, years after a tragedy tore them all apart. It’s never an easy thing when friends drift apart, and Anohana examines this life lesson with heart and a small dash of hope. After all, it’s not everyday someone from beyond the grave returns to see her final wish granted. As the group comes back together to see this wish fulfilled, it some becomes apparent that they are still unable to get past the death of their beloved friend.

When Otonashi wakes up to find he’s dead, he meets the SSS, students seeking to eliminate a seemingly indestructible entity known as Angel. Don’t let the first, very funny episode fool you. Angel Beats quickly changes its gears going forward and delivers a power punch of drama and seriousness. The tragic backstories of Otanashi and his friends are just that.
Factor in a finale that crushes your heart to pieces and you’ll see why Angel Beats brings a wealth of tears.

One of the central messages of the Gundam franchises is a simple one: war is hell. Look no further than 0080 to make that point ring true. Putting the focus on a young boy named Al, War in the Pocket shows the naive young boy just how brutal the One Year War has really been. A likeable cast is introduced and then put through the ringer as Al watches helplessly, and in total shock. Few series can make you cry with just six episodes like 0080, making it one of the most powerful entries in the franchise.

It's your typical love story, right? Boy meets girl. Girl is actually the most human-like Android ever created, called a Giftia. Girl also has about 9 years before her memories get wiped for good. Ok, so not quite typical. There’s an air of tragedy to the relationship between the Giftia, Isla (pronounced eye-la) and her human partner Tsukasa. How do you make a romance last when it’s destined to be forgotten? This lingering question will make you want to cherish every tearful moment of this title.

Nana follows two girls with the same first name, who end up becoming roommates and, eventually best friends. The journey to kindling that friendship and the emotional trials of their personal lives make for some good drama. Neither Nana has the easiest of lives and they need each other more than they know. The series isn’t without its share of nice laughs to break the tension. Plus you’ve got an awesome J-Rock score that compliments to story, and both lead protagonists, quite nicely.

The fact that this kind of event actually happened in Japan not long after this Anime’s release makes this one all the more rough to sit through at times. Seventh Grader Mirai is separated from her brother after an 8.0 Magnitude earthquake hits Tokyo Bay. It’s a powerful story about how seemingly uneventful lives can change unexpectedly in a heartbeat. Mirai’s journey to reunite with her brother and get home gets the heart racing, especially seeing all of the devastation around. But despite all this tragedy, hope pervades.

When a child prodigy named Kousei loses his mother, he also loses the drive to continue his piano playing. Then he meets the energetic and beautiful violinist, Kaori, and that spark Kousei thought he lost, begins to reawaken. If the musical performances alone don’t generate some kind of emotion, Your Lie in April’s in depth character study will do just the trick. Kousei’s pain runs far deeper than his mothers death and Kaori isn’t without her fair share of skeletons in her closet. And yet, Your Lie still fills the heart with hope as these two endure.

This movie finds two siblings, Seita and Setsuka, homeless and struggling to survive after their home is destroyed during World War II. Studio Ghibli takes a step back from it’s fantasy adventures for a hard look at life during the worst of times. Watching this kids trying to get by with almost nothing is almost too hard to watch. They are after all, suffering day in and day out to make it a little bit longer. And yet they always find a way to make each moment count, even if it's looking at a night sky filled with fireflies.

Picking up where the first Clannad series leaves off, our number one pick follows Tomoya and Nagisa, as their seemingly happy lives hit roadblock after roadblock. The original Clannad pushed the limits of how much the heart could take. After Story removes the limits and goes for broke on the emotional spectrum. When tragedy after tragedy keeps befalling this couple, how much more can they (and the audience) endure? The answer to that question will leave you sobbing like a baby.