The 20 Saddest Anime To Watch That Will Make you Cry

Sad Anime To Watch: Here is Recommended List of The Top 20 Best Saddest Anime TV Shows that will Make you Cry!

What are the Saddest Anime tv shows that will probably make you cry? The answer will be in this list. We will be covering those sad animes, with heartbreaking stories that will really make you feel sorry.

While we were looking for some good sad anime tv shows to add to this list, we have come across many titles, that if you got the chance to watch! you will never forget it!

Since life isn’t always shiny, let us show you some tear-jerking anime series, be it sad anime characters, awful tragedies, or deep cathartic stories, seeing these kinds of anime will sometimes teach you much better than the typical light and pleasant stories.

Let yourself discover the hardships of others, and brings tissues for this ultimate saddest anime list that will make you shed tears.

20. True Tears

• Genre: Romance, Slice of life
• Studio: P.A.Works
• Episodes: 13

Kicking off the list of the saddest anime series with True Tears. This is a series that follows Shinichiro, a high school student who aspires to be a picture book author. His classmate Hiromi came to live with his family after her mother died. Since then, she’s bottled up her feelings and has an aura of melancholy around her.
Shinichiro wants to cheer her up but doesn’t know how. Also, one day, Shinichiro will meet Noe perched up in a tree. Noe’s got weird rumors going around about her… The story goes from there!

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19. Penguindrum

• Genre: Mystery, psychological, supernatural
• Studio: Brain’s Base
• Episodes: 24

Penguindrum kicks off the story in a very sad way! Their little sister Himari is very nice to them; until the calamities come. They have lost their parents and the beloved Himari is gravely ill. A terminally ill Himari Takakura is miraculously saved from death by a strange spirit who resides in a penguin-shaped hat.

However, in exchange for extending her life, the spirit tasks Himari’s brothers, Kanba and Shoma, to seek out an elusive item known as the Penguindrum with assistance from a trio of strange penguins. Penguindrum is an underrated but good sad anime with action that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

18. School Days

• Genre: Romantic, Comedy, Supernatural
• Studio: Silver Link
• Episodes: 17

This is by far one of the best and saddest anime tv shows on our list. School Days is a sad series that focuses on the life of Makoto Itō, a first-year high school student living with his divorced mother in the fictional town of Haramihama.

He is attracted to Kotonoha Katsura, a classmate who shares the same train as him to get to campus. After a change in the class plan, he becomes familiar with Sekai Saionji, an optimistic girl who will help him build a relationship with Kotonoha by giving them reasons to meet.

17. Kokoro Connect

• Genre: Romantic comedy, supernatural
• Studio: Silver Link
• Episodes: 17

This is among the saddest anime that will definitely make you cry. Kokoro Connect is sad romance series that mainly focuses on five high school students at Yamaboshi, and they are the only members of the cultural research club for high school students they attend — Taichi Yaegashi, Iori Nagase, Himeko Inaba, Yui Kiriyama, and Yoshifumi Aoki-.

They all face various supernatural, sense-altering phenomena in their daily lives, all seemingly caused by a cryptic entity that refers to itself as ‘Heartseed’, who is intent on using the phenomena to test the characters for an unknown goal. As the five undergo these phenomena, they begin to realize that it is not just fun and games. Also, the relationships between the five students also begin to change!

16. Guilty Crown

• Genre: Action, Fantasy, Thriller
• Studio: Production I.G
• Episodes: 22

Guilty Crown is among those sad animes that will make shed tears. The story is set after the outbreak of the unidentified virus “Lost Christmas” in 2029, Japan has been under the control of a multi-nation organization called GHQ, an independent military force dedicated to restoring order.

Ohma Shu is a 17-year-old boy who has a psychic power in his right hand. He can use the power “Ability of King” an ability that allows the wielder to draw out the manifestations of an individual’s personality, or voids. He must learn to control his newfound power if he is to help take back Japan once and for all.

He has been avoiding making trouble for others but his life changes when he meets a girl Yuzuriha Inori, a key member of a resistance guerrilla group called “Funeral Parlor”, whose members pilot mecha weapons to fight against the government.

15. Code Geass

• Genre: Action, drama, mecha, military
• Studio: Sunrise
• Episodes: 25

Code Geass is an anime series that features a sad past, betrayal, rebellion, and revenge, through the eyes of  Lelouch vi Britannia, a former Britannian prince, son of Emperor Charles Zi Britannia and his royal consort Marianne vi Britannia. Marianne was brutally murdered in the palace and Nunnally vi Britannia the sister of Lelouch, who witnessed the murder of their mother, was so traumatized she lost both her sight and ability to walk.

After the Lelouch and Nunnally are sent to Japan to lull the Japanese government. Japan is attacked and defeated by Britannia. With the ruins of Japan as a background. Lelouch vows to his Japanese friend Suzaku Kururugi that he will one day obliterate Britannia as an act of vengeance against his father. All that you will see in this saddest anime will make you cry.

See Also: َ25 Best Anime to Watch During the Quarantine Period

14. Plastic Memories

• Genres: Drama, Romance, Science Fiction
• Studio: Doga Kobo
• Episodes: 13

The story revolves around Tsukasa Mizugaki who manages to land a job at the Sion Artificial Intelligence Corporation the leading android production company and is responsible for the creation of “Giftias” highly advanced which are almost indiscernible from normal humans. After he has failed his college entrance exams.

However, unlike humans, Giftia can only live for a maximum of 81,920 hours roughly nine years and four months. Tsukasa is assigned to Terminal Service One, responsible for collecting Giftias which has fulfilled their expiration date before she loses her memories and becomes hostile.

Tsukasa falls in love with a beautiful Giftia named Isla. She is a Terminal Service veteran and considered the best in Giftia retrievals. Slowly, their relationship progresses, and as both slowly fall in love, Isla is revealed to be nearing the end of her own lifespan.

This is one of the best sad anime tv shows, where you will learn how to deal with the inevitable sad ends that approach every day.

13. Angel Beats!

• Genres: Action, Fantasy
• Studio: P.A.Works
• Episodes: 13

Otonashi who one day wakes up to the news that he’s dead. A rifle-toting girl named Yuri explains that they’re in the afterlife, and Otonashi realizes the only thing he can not remember is anything else but his name. Yuri tells him that she leads the Shinda Sekai Sensen and wages war against an evil girl named Tenshi. Unable to believe Yuri’s claims that Tenshi is evil, Otonashi attempts to speak with her, which turns out to be a very bad idea.

Otonashi decides to join the SSS and battle Tenshi, but he finds himself oddly drawn to her. While trying to regain his memories and understand Tenshi, he gradually unravels the mysteries of the afterlife. This one is among the top emotionally saddest anime series that will make your eyes cry for sure. What makes the series even sadder is the perfect music and amazing visual effects, which makes Angel Beats one of the saddest animes you’ll ever see.

12. Sword Art Online 

• Genres: Adventure, Romance, Action
• Studio: A-1 Pictures
• Episodes: 25

In the year 2022, a massive online role-playing game called Sword Art Online will be launched! where players can control their avatars within the game using nothing but their own thoughts. Kirito, the principal character in this sad anime, is among the lucky few who get their hands on the first shipment of the game.

When the game started, he found himself in front of ten thousand others, in a scenic and elaborate world, full of fascinating medieval weapons and hideous monsters, called “Aincrad”. As time passed, players realized that they could not check out. The game creator stuck them in his new world until they complete all 100 game levels.

In order to escape Aincrad, Kirito decided to cooperate with fellow players. Some are allies, while others are enemies, such as Asuna Yuuki, who leads the lead group trying to escape the cruel game.
What makes Sword Art Online among the saddest anime tv shows, is that if the characters die in the game, they die in real life. It’s inspiring and painful at the same time.

11. Orange

• Genres: Romance, Slice of life
• Studio: Telecom Animation Film
• Episodes: 13 

After waking up late, Naho Takamiya finds a letter written by herself 10 years in the future warning her to be careful with a number of things, and her future life is filled with regrets. At first, Naho is skeptical of the letter, but after witnessing several events described, she realizes the letter is from her 26-year-old self. and she begins to live her life according to the letter.

She hopes that her younger self can correct the mistakes that were made in the past. The letter also warns her to keep a close eye on the new exchange student Kakeru Naruse. She must be careful in making decisions involving him because he is not around in the future.

With the letter as her guide, Naho now has the power to protect Kakeru before she comes to regret it once more. Orange is one of the best romance sad anime stories of all time, In the end, it makes you more appreciative of life and gives it more importance.

10. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

• Genres: Drama
• Studios: Bones, Kinema Citrus
• Episodes: 11 

This is a breath-taking anime, that will hit everyone right in the feel! The story follows Mirai Onozawa Middle school student, who is fed up with her family circumstances.

She wishes to tear everything apart. Unfortunately, these frustrated thoughts seem to come true when a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck just a few moments later. The fury of a major earthquake shakes the Kanto region; shocked, two little siblings Mirai and Yuuki witness the wrecking power of this natural disaster as it tears the city apart.

Later, They met  Mari Kusakabe, a motorcyclist and single mother who decides to help the kids. who wants to find their families. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is among the top saddest anime series about love and desperation. It makes you imagine the terrible things people might go through, stuck in the middle of an 8-magnitude earthquake.

9. Violet Evergarden

• Genres: Fantasy, Drama, Slice of Life
• Studios: Kyoto Animation
• Episodes: 13 

Violet Evergarden, a young girl a.k.a “the weapon,”  her sole mission was annihilating enemy lines, now she left the battlefield, wishing for a new life. She starts working at CH Postal Service, where she goes on assignments to create letters that can connect people.

So begins her adventure as an Auto Memories Doll, and discovers various people’s emotions and shapes of love. It’s one of the best drama sad anime series that will make you cry, and also of the most stunning saddest anime on Netflix, you’ll ever watch.

8. Erased

• Genres: Mystery, Psychological, Supernatural, Seinen
• Studio: A-1 Pictures
• Episodes: 13

Satoru Fujinuma 29-year-old is sent back in time to 18 years to prevent a series of kidnappings that lead to his mom’s death, which began with a series of kidnappings in his 5th-grade year. This young man possesses an ability known as “Revival” to save many lives.

Soon, he realizes that his mother’s murder is somehow linked to the abduction and killing of his childhood friend Kayo Hinazuki. now he wants to rectify everything. Boku Dake ga Inai Machi focuses on Satoru who wants to correct the wrongs of 18 years ago while saving those he cares about in the present. Erased is one of those good and saddest anime that will bring a tear or two into your eyes because it has an intense and chilling story and fantastic characters.

7. Death Parade

5. Shiki

• Genres: Mystery, Horror, Supernatural, Thriller, Vampire
• Studio: Daume
• Episodes: 22 

When many sudden deaths occur in the quiet village of Sotoba, doctor Toshio Ozaki initially suspects an epidemic but soon becomes convinced that something strange is the.

Shiki tells the tragic tale of survival in a world where one cannot easily distinguish between good and evil. The Shiki, as the vampires call themselves, have only their will to live as they clash with the fear of the paranoid unbelieving villagers. Shiki explores the boundary that separates the man from the monster.

Read Also: The 20 Best Japanese Anime Movies to Absolutely Watch Right Now!

4. Terror in Resonance

• Genres: Mystery, Psychological, Thriller
• Studio: MAPPA
• Episodes: 11

Among the best sad anime series is Terror in Resonance. The story is set in Tokyo, which is under a devastating terrorist attack and the only clue is the word “VON” and a strange Internet video.

The streaming video shows, two teenage boys who directly challenge the police, threatening to wreak havoc across Tokyo. , and which causes paranoia throughout Japan because they can’t act, and the police are searching for ways to know the identity of the terrorists. Yet, they face the world of deception and secrets while they cause the destruction of the city, all in the hopes of burying their own tragic truth, it’s a very sad anime.

3. Anohana

• Genres: Slice of Life, Supernatural, Drama
• Studio: A-1 Pictures
• Episodes: 11

Next up we have Anohana is one of the most successful tear-jerking sad anime series of all time, that will make you cry for sure. The story centers around a group of friends in their teenage years. Jinta and his group of childhood friends grew apart over the years following the death of one of them named Menma in an unfortunate accident.

Jintan is currently aimless in life spending his days missing school and playing games. One day the died Menma appears in front of him, She states that he may be able to see her because of a wish she would like fulfilled but is unsure of what that may be. Due to Menma appearance, we will see the group gather once more, their mission is to fulfill Menma’s last wish.

2. Your Lie in April

• Genres: Drama, Music, Romance, School, Shounen
• Studio: A-1 Pictures
• Episodes: 22

Your lie in April is a good romance but is also certainly one of the saddest anime series ever created. The story is around about Kousei Arima, a piano prodigy who lost his ability to play and became unable to hear the sound of his own piano after suffering a traumatic event in his childhood and is forced back into the spotlight by an eccentric girl with a secret of her own.

Kousei lives his music career behind and starts living a boring life, with no goal at all. until one day, everything will changes when he meets a pretty violinist, Kaori Miyazono. Kaori will turn his life upside down and forces him to face the world of music once again. Your lie in April focuses on the process of Kousei’s recovery as he discovers that music is more than playing each note perfectly, and a single melody can bring in the fresh spring air of April.

1. Clannad 

• Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, School, Slice of Life, Supernatural
• Studio: Kyoto Animation
• Episodes: 48, Two Seasons

Clannad is one of the saddest anime of all time, although it will make you cry and depressed, but is a series that cannot be ignored on this list. The story follows A high school delinquent student who cares little about school. One day, he meets a lonely girl who had to repeat a year while all her friends finished high school.

Nagisa claims they are now friends, but Tomoya walks away passing the meeting as nothing. He decides to hang out with her and soon meets more friendly students. As Tomoya spends more time with these friends, he learns more about them and their problems. He decides to help each one overcome her obstacle, thus, he begins to think that life isn’t as dull as he once thought.

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