Top 12 Saddest Anime Movies of All Time

Animes are known for their realistic appearances and expressions, intense characters and story backgrounds. They have kept the Japanese culture and history alive in this rapidly changing world with very high competition. They have captivated the audiences, leaving them mesmerized through their stories and intricacies.

If you start watching animes, the first genres you come across are action and romance. But tragic and sad animes are an intricate part of animes, giving deeper insights into their culture and in general the human behaviour. Following is the list of saddest animes ever made that are total tear-jerkers.

12. Jin-Roh: Wolf Brigade (2000)

After the end of World War II, anti-terror policeman Fuse gets suspended after a young terrorist girl’s self-detonation during an operation. He had failed to shoot her in time. When he begins gathering some information about her, he meets and befriends her sister. Both get dragged into the rivalries between the police administration and the counter terrorism commando unit ‘Jin Roh’ (human wolves). The movie is so surreal and beautiful that it will make a dent in your heart with its story and will leave you searching for tissues.

11. The Place Promised In Our Early Days (2004)

The story takes place in an alternate period, in 1996, where Japan is divided into two. Hokkaido is ruled by the ‘Union’, while the southern islands are under US authority. In the summer of 1996, three middle-school students make a promise that they’ll cross the border with a self-constructed plane. But their project was abandoned, after a girl, Sayuri Sawatari, became mysteriously ill and had to be transferred. At the brink of another war, Hiroki Fujisawa finds out that Sayuri had been in a coma since then, and he asks Takuya Shirakawa to help him find a way to wake her up.

10. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

This story takes us back to the year 1945, after Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II. The movie is unraveled in flashback, leading right to the beginning of the story where Seita dies alone at the train station. The story is about Seita and Setsuko, two siblings, whose mother is killed by burns suffered during an American bombing, and father who is working in the navy, struggling to make ends meet. It is a tragic story of a time when compassion and basic requirements are both scarce. The movie shows the horrors of war and how it affects citizens of a country. It is a very well-directed movie, the ending of which will leave you in tears.

9. A Silent Voice (2016)

After bullying a deaf girl in his youth, a now victimized Shoyo must find a way to make amends. As he tries to seek her out, what follows is the most tearjerking portrayal of redemption and forgiveness we have seen in an anime. The character of Shoyo is so realistic and derivative of reality that it can be felt like it was the a real person.

8. Clannad (2007)

Tomoya Okazaki is a young third-year high school student who has distanced himself from his father who works at a night shift. Tomoya’s mother died when he was very young. He goes to school and seems to have no interest in the life around him. One day, Tomoya meets Nagisa Furukawa, who is repeating the third year due to her ill-health the previous year. She befriends him and follows him to school every day. While helping Nagisa to organize the drama club, Tomoya finally begins to enjoy his life. All the characters in the movie have sad, realistic and sympathetic stories which makes the movie more relatable. A sequel to the movie “Clannad: After Story” was a year later which too was heart-braking to watch.

7. Millennium Actress (2001)

In this animated movie, filmmaker Genya Tachibana begins work on a documentary about famed Japanese actress Chiyoko Fujiwara. Now well into old age, Chiyoko has become reclusive and shy about any publicity, but she eventually warms up to Tachibana and starts to relate her life story. As the decades pass, Chiyoko is transformed from a teen with big dreams into a full-blown celebrity, while her cinematic characters span various eras, from ancient Japan to the distant future. The movie treats us with a heartbreaking look at how fame and fortune can steal the light out of a person.

6. The Wind Rises (2013)

Kaze Tachinu is the story of the man who created the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter, the most famous airplane in Japanese history. From his childhood in Fujioka, Jirou dreamed of designing flying machines like his hero, Italian aviation pioneer Giovanni Battista Caproni. Through disaster, romance, war and loss, Jirou continues to chase that dream – learning along the way that once released into the world, dreams can take on a very different shape.

5. Whisper of the Heart (1995)

Shizuku Tsukishima is a free-spirited and cheerful 14-year-old girl who is currently enjoying her summer vacation. She loves spending her free time at the local library where she notices that the books she reads are often checked out by a boy named Seiji Amasawa. One day while riding the local train, Shizuku notices a strange cat sitting near her. Shizuku decides to follow the mysterious cat to see where it goes, and soon stumbles upon an antique shop run by a violin maker named Nishi, the grandfather of the mystery boy who shares her taste in literature. Seiji and Shizuku soon become friends and while Seiji is sure of his dreams and how to follow them, Shizuku is still unsure of her own talents. However, when she sees a strange cat statuette, “The Baron,” in the shop, it seems as if that statuette whispers something to her, tugging at her heart and giving her the inspiration she so desperately needed. One voice pushes Shizuku further than she could have ever imagined, changing her life forever.

4. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)

This movie is a loose sequel to a novel of the same name by Yasutaka Tsutsui, which was published in 1967. It shares the same basic baseline of a young girl who gains the power of time travel. Makoto (one of the central characters) begins using the time-leaps frivolously to fix problems, but soon discovers that her actions can adversely affect others. Her reckless time traveling takes its toll; a powerful climax in which one of her friends pays with his life. The movie beautifully shows the affect of trying to change the world using your powers without thinking about the consequences.

3. Air (2005)

This movie is based on a novella of the same name by ‘Key’. The two stories run parallel to each other. One is of Yukito Kunisaki and Misuzu Kamio in the present timeline, and the other is of Kanna and Ryūya in the past. Kanna and Ryūya’s love had a tragic end, and have been reborn as Yukito and Misuzu. Yukito promises as he leaves town that he will break the spell that has kept the two apart for both the lives. This is a very sad love story spanning two lifetimes but the love only increases between them and their struggles will make you eyes wet.

2. Wolf Children (2012)

A nineteen-year-old college student, Hana, falls in love with a classmate who is secretly a werewolf, and can change into a wolf as per his wish. He and Hana have two wolf children, a daughter Yuki and son Ame. Soon after Ame’s birth, their father dies, leaving Hana to look after the two werewolf children. She takes them to the country side, away from prying neighbors. The children are unable to control their transformation, and Hana struggles to make ends meet while dealing with her children’s choices.`The movie shows the toll parenting takes on the parents and that too when there is only one of them and children are not normal but require special attention.

1. Into the Forest of Fireflies’ Light (2011)

This is a romantic-sad anime movie, and is the story of a six-year-old girl named Hotaru Takegawa, who gets lost in a forest inhabited by a mountain spirit, as well as yōkai. She is found by a mask-wearing, human-like entity named Gin, who warns Hotaru that he will disappear forever if he is touched by a human. Gin leads Hotaru out of the forest. Hotaru returns to visit Gin in the forest over the next few days, and they become friends despite the limitations. At the end of the summer, she leaves Gin, but promises to return to visit him every summer holiday. As the years go by, Gin and Hotaru struggle with their budding romance and their uncertain future together, while Gin wishes to touch her. Gin takes her on a date to a forest festival hosted by the spirits. A young boy sneaks into the spirit festival, and touches Gin. Before he disappears, Gin and Hotaru embrace and confess their love for one another.