Top 30 Best Saddest Anime [2024]

Sometimes, you need a good cry. Sometimes you need a take a sip of your mug of misery and depression.

A moment of connection to fictional characters that suffer through the ups and downs of life that ends in heartache and waterfalls of tears.

Cuddle up with a warm cup of cocoa and your most cuddle plushy and experience the saddest anime ever! Enjoy a good cry!

Best Saddest Anime

30. Mirai

4-year-old Kun Oota has always been spoiled rotten by his parent’s love, but soon he will have to learn how to share.

One day, his mom brings home a baby that is his new sister named Mirai.

Kun hates Mirai, who is taking away his parents’ time and attention. Escaping into his backyard, Kun comes face-to-face with a schoolgirl who claims to be Mirai from the future!

Together, Kun and Mirai travel through the past and future and what it means to be a family and an older brother!

29. Air

Yukito Kunisaki finds himself in a small town on his journey to find the Winged Maiden his mother talked about in stories.

On his way to move on from this town, Yukito runs into Misuzu, a strange girl with long yellow hair and big blue eyes.

Misuzu invites Yukito to move in with her, and Yukito suddenly finds himself warming up and growing up to the small town and its people.

Getting closer to Misuzu, is he closer to the Winged Maiden than he thinks?

28. The Place Promised in Our Early Days

The only things Hiroki Fujisawa and Takuya Shirakawa have in common are the vast and boundless Ezo Tower and their classmate Sayuri Sawatari.

They both love her, but one, day Sayuri suddenly disappears. Sayuri has a secret sleeping disorder and has been comatose for three years.

Hiroki and Takuya find out Sayuri’s condition and how it has a weird connection to Ezo Tower and work together so that they be reunited with Sayuri again!

27. Orange

On her first day back at high school, Naho Takamiya is excited to see her friends again.

However, she is surprised to find a letter that morning addressed to herself—from her future self!

Her future self tells Naho that a boy will transfer to her school today and asks her to become friends with him.

Naho laughs this off as a prank but is surprised to see that her letter comes true.

Kakeru Naruse is a new transfer student, and Naho listens to her letter and invites him into her close-knit group of friends.

Naho has to be there for Kakeru because, in the future, he’s not alive…

26. Bokurano

In a summer camp, there are 15 kids, 8 boys, and 7 girls. Together, they discover a mysterious grotto by the beach.

They find a strange room of computers and the owner named Kokopelli. He is working on a game where the player is inside a giant robot fighting 15 different alien invasions.

The kids agree to play the game, but things take a dark turn when Kokopelli doesn’t mention what energy source it takes to power the giant robot…

25. Colorful the Motion Picture

In the train station of death, a soul that is pronounced impure will forcibly get another chance at life!

One of these souls is reincarnated as 14-year-old Makoto Kobayashi, who had just committed suicide.

The soul must figure out the boy’s greatest sin before six months! Living as Makoto, the soul begins to see all the emotions and complexities of human lives and their actions and the meaning of living!

24. Plastic Memories

After failing his college entrance exam, Tsukasa Mizugaki is desperate for any job to make ends meet.

He is able to get a job at Sion Artificial Intelligence Corporation.

They create “Giftias”: humanoid androids. Giftias maximum lifespan is 81,920 hours, and Tsukasa is assigned to collect Giftias before their expiration date.

If he doesn’t, the Giftias will lose all of their memories and go berserk!

23. The Garden of Words

A high schooler in Tokyo, Takao Akizuki can’t wait to finish school and go on to become a shoemaker.

Skipping class to draw designs in a garden, Takao crosses paths with a beautiful young woman named Yukari Yukino.

Takao offers to make Yukari new shoes, and the two begin to meet throughout the season at the same place.

To two try to hide it, but both begin to develop feelings for each other.

However, who they are outside of their garden in the rain could destroy their fragile relationship forever!

22. Penguindrum

Himari Takakura is twins Kanba and Shouma’s younger sister who suffers from poor health. No top of losing both of the parents, Himari becomes their sole focus.

When Himari is discarded by the hospital, they take their sister to the aquarium. While they are there, Himari collapses.

Miraculously, she is revived by a penguin. But her death is only being put on hold.

To save their sister, Kanba and Shouma have to find the mysterious item known as the “Penguin Drum”!

21. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

Sick of her family and her life, out of anger, Mirai Onozawa wishes everything would just to torn apart!

Little did she know that a magnitude 8.0 earthquake would hit Japan and destroy everything she ever knew!

Alongside her little brother, Mirai and Yuuki get caught up in the earthquake together.

Trying to walk through the aftermath of the quake, the siblings find a motorcyclist named Mari Kusakabe and her single mother.

They take the two siblings in and promise to reunite Mirai and Yuuki with their family!

20. When Marnie Was There

Anna Sasaki has always been a quiet and unfriendly girl who suffers from her asthma attacks.

She’s never had many friends and always worries her foster parent. To better her health, Anna is moved away to the free air of the countryside to live with her aunt and uncle.

One day while exploring outside of town, Anna discovers an isolated mansion called the Marsh House.

Inside the mansion is a mysterious girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes named Marnie.

Anna and Marnie become fast friends. But, Anna is set to move back home soon, and Marnie holds a secret from inside the walls of the Marsh House that could tear this new friendship apart forever!

19. Angel Beats!

Yuzuru Otonashi doesn’t remember anything. All he knows is that he’s dead, but he doesn’t know how or why.

Otonashi wakes up in the afterlife—a high school with a girl pointing a sniper rifle at another girl with strange white hair.

The sniper, Yuri “Yurippe” Nakamura, invites Otonashi to join the Afterlife Battlefront, a group of teenagers who rebel against god!

To stop from disappearing, they plan to illuminate the white-haired girl named Angel.

Brushing Yurippe off, Otonashi goes up to Angel—and immediately gets stabbed in the heart! Maybe he will join the Afterlife Battlefront.

18. In This Corner of the World

Suzu Urano has always been a pure-hearted girl with her head in the clouds and spending her days peacefully drawing.

When able to help her grandmother in her nori business, Suzu is more than willing to help.

However, now that Suzu is of age, she must leave everything she knows to be married off to a total stranger named Shuusaku Houjou!

Now, Suzu has to navigate her new household, new husband, and her new life! Will Suzu be able to learn to love her husband and life—or be destroyed by it?

17. Naruto Shippuden

The tragic and harsh reality of being a shinobi is made clear in the continuation of the Naruto series.

Despite being born with a demon inside of him, Naruto becomes a shinobi to earn his village’s respect and become Hokage: the village leader!

Wanting to protect his home becomes more complicated when the Akatsuki show up!

A group of rogue shinobi from the entire village has banded together to destroy the entire shinobi world!

It’s up to Naruto and his teammates to stop the Akatsuki’s plans and make peace with all of the other villages to do so!

16. Millennium Actress

With Ginei Studio planned to be demolished, filmmaker and ex-employee Genya Tachibana plans to make a documentary about Ginei Studio’s greatest actress: Chiyoko Fujiwara!

Dragging along cameraman Kyouji Ida, the two go up into the quiet mountain to find Chiyoko.

Genya and Kyouji go through all of Chiyoko’s career and rolls throughout the years and ends with her retiring at the age of 30.

Genya is determined to bring Chiyoko back into the spotlight and remind this millennium of their greatest actress!

15. Into the Forest of Fireflies’ Light

When visiting her uncle up in the mountains, 6-year-old Hotaru Takegawa gets lost in the ancient forest.

Panicking and crying, Hotaru is approached by a boy wearing a mask.

The boy leads Hotaru out of the forest, but Hotaru wants to continue to see him.

It turns out the boy is a forest spirit named Gin and cannot be touched by a human being, or he’ll disappear!

Despite this, year after year, Hotaru continues to come back to the forest to see Gin.

As time passes and Hotaru grows up, romantic feelings begin to bloom between them. A feeling so strong that could make them break Gin’s one rule…

14. Erased

When Satoru Fujinuma was a child, his hometown was tormented by a serial killer who murdered three kids—including two of his own classmates. They arrested a man, and the case was put to rest.

Now, as a 29-year-old man, Satoru is wrongly accused of murdering his mother by the serial killer that was never actually caught.

Suddenly, Satoru finds himself 18 years into the past back before any of the murders ever happened!

Satoru is determined to save his classmates and find the real serial killer!

13. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

As young kids, Jinta, Naruko, Tetsudou, Chiriko, Atsumu, and Menma were all the best of friends and enjoyed playing together every day.

But, after Menma suddenly dies, Jinta and the rest of his friends disband.

Many years later, one hot summer, Jinta finds himself in the presents of the ghost of Menma! Stating that he needs to grant a forgotten wish, Jinta has to bring all of his friends back together to allow Menma’s spirit to rest in peace.

But, with many secrets, guilt, and pain from Menma’s death, will these old friends have to strength to help Menma move on?

12. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

Maquia is an Iorph: a being that lives for hundreds of years. Maquia separates herself from the rest of mankind but lives a very lonely and sheltered life because of it.

One day, the kingdom of Mezarte attacks her homeland with the king wanting Maquia’s Iorph blood to become immortal!

Maquia’s captures die trying to bring her to the king, and Maquia finds herself wondering alone.

Approaching a destroyed town, Maquia finds a human baby!

Naming him Ariel, Maquia vows to raise the child despite not knowing anything about the human world! Knowing that she will one day outlive her child, what will Maquia do?

11. To Your Eternity

An unknown being drops an Orb onto the earth to learn and grow.

The Orb makes a stone and then becomes moss before a wolf dies in front of it and takes on its form.

Becoming a wolf, the Orb gains consciousness. Wondering through the snow, the Orb is found by the wolf’s owner, a young boy

. The two live together, and the Orb learns and grows.

But, when tragedy strikes, the Orb takes on the form of the boy and goes on to continue to learn and stimulate its mind.

Through its travels, the Orb will learn the bittersweet life of humanity and all the laughs and heartache that goes with it…

10. Graveyard of the Fireflies

Taking place in 1946 Japan during World War II, siblings Seita and Setsuko experience the atomic bomb destroying their home and killing both of their parents.

Soon, Seita and Setsuko find themselves living on the street and struggling to find a place to sleep and anything to eat.

Taking across the countryside, Seita and Setsuko learn the dangers of disease and starvation.

Through the cruelty and kindness of the world, Seita and Setsuko live day by day—but they might both meet an inevitable fate…

9. I Want To Eat Your Pancreas

Haruki Shiga has always been an introvert who couldn’t care less about human connection. He’s never been interested in someone else, and no one has been interested in him.

One day, Haruki stumbles upon a diary called “Living with Dying.” It turns out the diary belonged to his popular and cheerful classmates Sakura Yamauchi.

Giving her book back to her, Sakua tells Haruki that she has secretly been fighting a terminal pancreatic disease.

At first, Haruki couldn’t care less, but as Sakura spends more time together, Haruki begins to open up to Sakura, and the two mean what it truly means to live!

8. Wolf Children

In college, Hana falls in love with a mysterious man who turns out to be the last werewolf to exist. Despite turning his heavily guarded secret, Hana stays with them.

The two went on to have two children: Yuki and Ame.

However, a tragedy will take the father away from his two kids. Hana makes the decision to move the family away from the dense city to the open countryside!

As Yuki and Ame begin to grow up, Hana lets them decide who they want to be: a wolf or a human.

7. One Piece

The life of a pirate isn’t a calm wave. Bloodshed, pain, and tragedy will always follow them across the big blue.

When the “Pirate King” is executed, his final words claim that all of his greatest treasure is found in “One Piece,” and whoever can find it will be the next Pirate King.

At a young age, Monkey D. Luffy knew he was going to be a pirate, find One Piece, and be named Pirate King!

Taking to the seas at just seventeen, Luffy will put together the greatest crew that will take him across the sea and on the world’s greatest adventures!

6. Violet Evergarden

At a young age, Violet Evergarden was a soldier caught up in a war.

Before the war came to an end, Violet lost both of her arms and the life of her major and guardian Gilbert Bougainvillea. Before he died, Gilbert told Violet, “I love you,” but Violet didn’t understand what that meant.

Now, Violet works as an “Auto Memory Doll,” a ghostwriter to those desperate to get their thoughts and feelings across.

As a girl who never properly understood emotions, Violet works get best to learn feelings of being human and learn what “I love you” means.

5. Your Lie in April

After the death of his mother, pianist prodigy Kousei Arima loses the ability to hear the piano and stops playing.

Years later, a blonde violinist walks into Kousei’s life that could pull him back onto the stage!

Kaori Miyazono has a crush on Kousei’s best friend Ryouta Watari and becomes a part of Kousei’s close-knit group of friends.

As Kousei gets closer to the stubborn, cheerful, and tempestuous girl, his monochrome life becomes full of colors he’s never experienced before.

But when the past repeats itself, will Kousei lose his love for the piano again?

4. Demon Slayer –Kimetsu No Yaiba– The Movie: Mugen Train

Tanjiro Kamado’s family was murdered by a demon. His young sister, Nezuko, was the sole survivor but was turned into a demon.

Tanjiro joined the Demon Slayer Corps to fight demons and find a way to turn Nezuko back into a human!

Along with his new friends Zenitsu and Inosuke, the team boards the Mugen Train to find the Flame Hashira, Kyoujurou Regoku, and get caught in a trap set by a powerful demon.

Putting the whole train passengers to sleep, Tanjiro has to face an illusion that he wishes was real…

3. Your Name

Mitsuha Miyamizu lives in a small town working at her family’s shrine. She wishes to be born as a boy in the big city of Tokyo.

Meanwhile, Tokyo high schooler Taki Tachibana works a part-time job with his crush and wants to pursue a future in architecture.

Soon, the opposite lives will join together. Mitsuha and Taki begin swapping bodies with each other!

Finding a way to communicate with each other, Mitsuha and Taki try and fail with messing up the others’ lives!

One day, the body-swapping suddenly stops, and Taki finds himself traveling out of Tokyo to find Mitsuha!

2. Clannad ~After Story~

The sequel series to Clannad has much more tearful moments. Following Tomoya Okazaki and Nagisa Furukawa, both have graduated high school.

Together, Tomoya and Nagisa will experience the ups and downs of adulthood.

Tomoya struggles with getting a real job and understanding the importance of a good work ethic and the importance of Nagisa’s support.

Trying to move on from their past, Tomoya and Nagisa will soon face the grief that could tear both of them apart forever!

1. A Silent Voice

When Shouya Ishida was a kid, he and the rest of his class viciously bullied deaf Shouko Nishimiya. Changing schools, Ishida finds himself as the new victim in class.

Now in high school, Ishida has no friends, suffers from crumbling social anxiety, and thoughts of suicide for what he did to Nishimiya.

Before taking his life, Ishida meets Nishimiya to make amends. Instead, Nishimiya might be Ishida’s reason for continuing to live.