My kneejerk reaction to the question is "Grave of the Fireflies".
this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2025
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Ditto. I like a lot of sad stuff and that is just another level.
It really is in a class all its own. I don't think I could ever watch it again.
I haven't been able too either, ~17 years later. I honestly feel like it gave me PTSD.
It's been more than 25 years for me. That movie is like a punch to the gut. And I don't even like kids.
Fun fact: originally a double feature with My Neighbor Totoro.
Which one played first?
Apparently it was Totoro (or so I recall from a really old Usenet post). Makes you wonder about the thought process involved.
That sounds like a roller coaster of a ride.
My Neighbor Totoro is really sad also (or can be).
Grave of the Fireflies
Voices of a Distant Star. It tops Your Lie in April for me.
I came to say this. Holy hell it's brutal.
A Place Further Than The Universe was so gorgeous oh lord. I was watching it on the exercise bike - big mistake - and was just openly sobbing at gym.
For my picks:
Shigatsu Wa Kimi No Uso or Your Lie In April is an absolutely heartbreaking story but its so beautiful. Strong contender.
Also Kimi No Na Wa or Your Name if movies count - I still cry like a baby every time I watch it, but it has a few of the story tropes that I'm an absolute sucker for so I'm biased. Its still incredibly moving even with that in mind.
Your Lie in April. Easiest choice I've ever had to make.
Your lie in april
Lot's of anime are sad but most of them end on a positive or hopeful note. That's why I consider anime that end on a bleak note to be sadder. Stuff like Grave of the Fireflies or the recent Look Back.
I don't usually watch sad stuff so Welcome to the NHK is probably the saddest I've seen.
Next Stop Anime Postpartum Depression
- Angel Beats
- Death Parade
- Steins;Gate S1
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
- Eureka Seven (happy with the conclusion, sad that the journey is completed, doesn't help that E7 AO and the movies are also trash)
- [C] Control: The Money of Soul and Possibility
- Princess Principal (next movie when augh please release soon🙏🙏🙏)
All of the anime mentioned above are honestly great🤌 please consider giving any of them a watch if you're bored🤗
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Trigun. Vash is just getting shit on for almost 2 centuries and all he's doing is trying to help humans, but his brother is just out to make him miserable.
I haven't seen a TON like I assume most on this comm have, but for me Grave of the Fireflies. It was too real for an animated film. Not in the sense that kids can't handle reality, but just in the fact that it's NON-STOP misery for the characters. There's literally never a high moment in the movie, just tragedy after tragedy happening to children.
And it even continues after the movie ends when you look it up. First you see that the lights on the movie poster are not fireflies but incendiary bombs and then you read further and learn that it's based on the real-life experiences of the author and was written as an apology to his dead sister. I mean it was his pride that led to her very slow and miserable death, so I can see him having problems coming to terms with that. It's a movie that just keeps on giving. I always say it's the best movie I only watch once.
Without knowing it was directly a true story about specific people, I knew it was more or less the truth for loads of unfortunate souls throughout history. Agreed on never watching it again.
Clannad After Story, Liz and the Blue Bird, Phantom: Requiem for a Phantom, Violet Evergarden, A Silent Voice.
I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. The only anime that made me cry.
Not overall sad but had moments that absolutely wrecked me.
Elfen Lied
Listen to Me Girls, I'm Your Father
A Silent Voice
Your Name
Cowboy BeBop
Listen to Me Girls, I’m Your Father
Is this like Higehiro, where it starts out really suggestive but turns into a kind of decent story? Because I'm getting nothing but red flags from the first episode.
Yes.
A silent voice
Bible Black.
It's been 20ish years but the name that sprang up to mind was Now and Then, Here and There. I don't remember much except it was pretty bleak and sad.
I couldn't finish that one. Still have the box set. But it was just too much.
Distant-future apocalypse with child soldiers and a scenery-chewing madman (not of the fun type) in charge. The adjective that comes to mind for me is "grim", but "sad" works too—no one escapes the story unscathed. I have the original DVDs around here somewhere.
Japan Sinks 2020
Wolfs Rain
The first 10-ish episodes of "To your eternity" has seriously fucked me up.
I cried for days.
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