Top 15 Anime Movies So Sad You’ll Never Forget Them: ToonStream
You have watched many animated movies. Most of them are action or fantasy movies. But here, I bring you a list of top 15 sad anime movies. These sad animated movies don’t only make you cry, but they also leave an imprint in your heart forever. Even after the end of these movies, you keep thinking about the story, characters of the movies. You will always remember the emotions you felt while watching these movies. The stories of these movies not only make you sad, but also reflect true love, life, illness, war, and death that exists in life.
For this article, we prepared the Top 15 Sad Anime Movies, ranking them according to the depth of emotions, the reactions from audiences, and the depth of the story. All the anime movies included in the list here have shattered the hearts of millions of people worldwide. And yes, No. 1 is the greatest sad anime movie of all time, so sad that some people claim that it is impossible to replay more than once.
If you’re ready to discover the best sad animated movies, then let’s start. Stay till the end.
What are sad anime movies?
Sad anime movies refer to animation movies that emphasize serious feelings and emotional narration. Such movies usually involve drama and excitement with subjects such as love, suffering, sickness, war, death, solitude, and sacrifice.
Instead of action or adventure movies, it portrayed reality and emotional experiences in a straightforward and honest way. Sad anime movies connect strongly with viewers because the characters feel real and their pain feels personal. After the end of the movie, viewers keep thinking about the story, the characters and the emotions they felt while watching it.
Which movies are called sad animation movies?
An animated movie is sad due to emotions and situations portrayed in the movie, not due to the fact that it is a cartoon animated film. The reasons behind sadness while watching an animated film can be stated below in simpler words:
- Emotional story – The plot is about love, loss, loneliness, or sacrifice and it relates to the heart.
- Well-developed characters – It becomes easy to relate when you care about the characters and their struggles.
- Loss or Separation – Death, goodbye, or separation from loved ones adds emotion to the story.
- Relatable moments – Feelings that are reflected back at us through the movie like failure, regret, and longing.
- The sad song and background music – The emotional effect is heightened by slow music.
- Unfulfilled dreams – When characters are unable to fulfill their dreams, sadness is generated.
- Strong ending – The kind of ending that is bittersweet or tragic tends to linger within your heart for a very long time.
If an anime movie has these features, it makes you feel sad. These types of movies are very attractive and memorable.
Top 15 sad anime movies for you
Here is the list you asked for. Read about these best animated movies and start watching whichever you want.
15. Ride Your Wave
⭐ IMDb Rating: 6.8/10
📅 Released: June 21, 2019
🎬 Director: Masaaki Yuasa
Hinako is a bright college girl, loves surfing, and lives freely at the seaside. She meets Minato, a kind firefighter and falls in love gradually. Their love brings happiness and emotional adjustment to Hinako’s life. But their happiness is short-lived as Minato dies saving others. Hinako cannot take his death as reality and plunges into her melancholy. Later, she finds that Minato’s spirit seems to appear with water, allowing her to once again talk with him. This odd and entangled relationship teaches Hinako an important lesson on the process of mourning, letting go of those people most loved, and finding strength to move forward in her life.
This movie demonstrates how love, loss, and healing are all intertwined. The animation technique is very unique and powerful so that all emotions appear to be real. It is all about moving on once someone dear to a person is gone.
14. Belladonna of Sadness
⭐ IMDb Rating: 7.2/10
📅 Released: June 30, 1973
🎬 Director: Eiichi Yamamoto
The film is based in medieval Europe, where it revolves around a woman named Jeanne. The protagonist of the film is Jeanne, a young woman. She gets married to the man of her dreams. However, her life soon turns into hell when she gets subjected to severe violence by the upper class of society. Betrayed by everyone, Jeanne finds herself alone in life.
However, her suffering eventually metamorphoses her, making her question morality, religion, and justice. She eventually develops into a symbol of revolt against repression. The film portrays the tragic life of suffering, cruelty, power, through symbolic imagery.
This film is known for having very bold and artistic graphics and themes that are very mature in nature. It deals with themes of suffering, oppression, and female empowerment in an immensely symbolic manner that is very tragic in nature and has very experimental graphics.
13. Hello World
⭐ IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
📅 Released: September 20, 2019
🎬 Director: Tomohiko Ito
Naomi is a shy teenage boy living a peaceful life. Then a mysterious man shows up who claims to be Naomi from the future. He tells Naomi of the tragic incident that will occur to Ruri, whom Naomi loves. Using technology, both Naomi attempts to alter the course of events. As the drama progresses, Naomi understands that the world is far from being straightforward. Science fiction, drama, and love have been interwoven in the film. Issues of memory, fate, sacrifice, and love have been addressed. This results in Naomi finding the truth confusing but emotionally fulfilling.
12. Colorful
⭐ IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
📅 Released: August 21, 2010
🎬 Director: Keiichi Hara
A lost soul that has committed an enormous sin is granted another opportunity in life. This soul finds itself in the body of a boy named Makoto, who tried taking his own life through suicide. The soul has forgotten every detail of its previous life and has got to live Makoto’s life in an attempt to comprehend his reasons for deciding to take his own life. In his process, he realizes his real life by understanding human feelings and appreciating the significance of life despite the pain that comes along with it. Makoto is able to grasp the moral that life is indeed precious and should be respected despite the pain it may cause.
11. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms
⭐ IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
📅 Released: February 24, 2018
🎬 Director: Mari Okada
Maquia is a woman from a race that lives forever but is undone by war in a span of hundreds of years. Maquia escapes and later discovers a human child that she decides to bring up as her own son. Maquia ages not a bit in all these years, while her son ages in a normal manner. As Maquia observes with increasing observations in all these years to follow, her son becomes a young man and also ages in his later life. This anime movie is a telling presentation of a wonderful observation about motherhood and a terrible observation about time.
10. 5 Centimeters Per Second
⭐ IMDb Rating: 7.6/10
📅 Released: March 3, 2007
🎬 Director: Makoto Shinkai
The film portrays the life of Takaki and Akari, friends since childhood and in deep love with each other. When they are parted away due to the transfer of their families, they decide to meet whenever possible. But with the passage of time, the feeling of being apart and the responsibilities of life make their love weak. In spite of the intense love they have for each other, they are not able to meet correctly. The film has been presented in various phases of Takaki’s life where the love is remembered while the relationships are broken.
9. The Dog of Flanders
⭐ IMDb Rating: 7.7/10
📅 Released: March 15, 1997
🎬 Director: Yoshio Kuroda
Nello is an orphan boy who stays with his grandfather in a village. He aspires to be an artist and has a dog, Patrasche, as his only comfort and friend. Kind and hardworking, Nello nevertheless has to face such hardships in life as poverty, hunger, and cruelties from people. His situation gets worse with the death of his grandfather. Winter is approaching, and Nell’s dreams gradually collapse in the face of injustice and neglect. This story depicts the sufferings of innocent people in the hands of a harsh world. It has one of the saddest anime movie endings and depicts such themes as poverty, kindness, and cruelty of humans.
8. In This Corner of the World
⭐ IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
📅 Released: November 12, 2016
🎬 Director: Sunao Katabuchi
Suzu is a tender and caring young woman who gets married and settles in a new town in the vicinity of Hiroshima during the time of World War II. She tries to have as much of a normal life as possible through cooking, painting, and caring for her family members and her husband. However, because of the war, everything around her gets affected and destroyed slowly and silently. Food is less, and the loss of loved ones begins to happen, and even the simplest life becomes painful and unbearable. Despite having undergone severe loss, Suzu still presses ahead somehow silently.
This film showcases the effects of the war on the common public and not the armed forces but the impact of the war that silently removes happiness, innocence, and dreams even from the lives of the common public in the background of Japanese culture.
7. Hotarubi no Mori e
⭐ IMDb Rating: 7.9/10
📅 Released: September 17, 2011
🎬 Director: Takahiro Omori
A girl named Hotaru loses her way in a forest and meets a spirit named Gin. However, this spirit has the trouble of not being able to be touched by a human since he will vanish. Hotaru keeps on revisiting the forest every summer. This leads from a spirit and a girl being friends turns into love. But with Hotaru growing older comes the realization of the sadness of being in love with someone they will never be able to be with. This is a very emotional yet very straightforward film. The loss of pure love with conditions not controlled by mankind is displayed.
6. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas
⭐ IMDb Rating: 8.0/10
📅 Released: September 1, 2018
🎬 Director: Shinichiro Ushijima
A shy boy happens to realize that a cheerful girl, Sakura, has a terminal pancreatic disease. He, a complete opposite of Sakura, finds a friend in her. Sakura spends her final days in life as a positive person, while the boy develops as a human being emotionally. The movie contains fun times as well as extreme sorrow. The sad times finally come, but they are shocking to realize for a while.
The film teaches that life is unpredictable, meaning that life can take any turn at any point in time, and it could sometimes change forever in a split second.
5. Wolf Children
⭐ IMDb Rating: 8.1/10
📅 Released: July 21, 2012
🎬 Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Hana is in love with a husband who has a wolf transformation ability. Unfortunately, he dies abruptly in a wolf transformation accident. This leaves her alone to care for their two half-wolf children. However, she faces all these tasks alone in order to conceal their secret from the world. As her kids grow older, they face a challenge of whether to continue living among humans or among wolves. The film is realistic in describing a mother’s unconditional love and strength. It is sad owing to the everyday struggles of life and not some terrible events.
4. A Silent Voice
⭐ IMDb Rating: 8.1/10
📅 Released: September 17, 2016
🎬 Director: Naoko Yamada
Shoya was a bully in his childhood days. He bullied a deaf girl named Shoko in his school. But after some years, he is full of regret and loneliness in his life. He tries to again connect with Shoko to apologize for his wrongdoing. This film contains both protagonists with depression and a life of isolation. As they begin to grasp this newfound understanding in their lives, this film portrays how hurting words and actions in life can leave a deep impact. It also emphasizes forgiveness of oneself.
3. Violet Evergarden: The Movie
⭐ IMDb Rating: 8.3/10
📅 Released: September 18, 2020
🎬 Director: Taichi Ishidate
Violet is a former soldier that finds it difficult to comprehend emotions after the end of the war. She is a letter writer; this helps other people write down their feelings that they are unable to convey themselves. Through this activity, Violet begins to learn about love and other human emotions. In the animated film, Violet is searching for an important figure in her life in addition to progressing in her process of understanding emotions related to love. The film uses stunning animation to present an emotional closure of Violet’s experience in an impactful way that affects those that watch it emotionally.
2. Your Name
⭐ IMDb Rating: 8.4/10
📅 Released: August 26, 2016
🎬 Director: Makoto Shinkai
Taki and Mitsuha are two young teenagers living in different locations, and they start exchanging bodies mysteriously. They share a deep emotional bond without meeting physically. The bond ceases suddenly, and Taki realizes that some terrible thing has happened. He decides to start a desperate quest to Mitsuha and even attempts to alter the course of fate. The film uses love, fantasy, and tragedy wonderfully. The source of its emotional depth includes love which persists despite the instances of time, space, and calamity. The tale includes thrilling as well as heartbreaking moments, making this anime movie one of the most unforgettable ones ever produced.
1. Grave of the Fireflies
⭐ IMDb Rating: 8.5/10
📅 Released: April 16, 1988
🎬 Director: Isao Takahata
This film portrays the life of two siblings, Seita and Setsuko, as they wrestle to stay alive amid the ravages of World War II after their mother’s death in an air raid. Without any kind of adult care, their life goes from bad to worse every day as they face poverty, disease, and isolation. As if it were all not enough, no one in society pays attention to them. The reality of war from the perspective of a kid makes it all the more real. This film has no characters of heroism or villains, only victims of war. This film stands out to be the most sorrowful animation film produced.
It is available on Netflix. Just start to watch these movies.
Most sad anime movies are available on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyroll, or through digital rental platforms, depending on your location.
Conclusions
The Sadness of Sad anime movies are more than simply crying and being emotional. These movies show the truth of life, love, loss, wars, illnesses, loneliness, and hopes. Through this article, you have learned about the Top 15 Sad Anime Movies and the story of the movies. This information will help you choose the movie that suits you best.
If you found this list helpful, don’t forget to share this post with your family and friends who love anime movies. Also, stay connected to our website for more exciting as well as emotional anime movie lists, reviews, and recommendations.
Frequently Asked Question’s:
Which is the saddest anime movie of all time?
Ans – Grave of the Fireflies is widely considered the saddest anime movie ever made. Its emotional story about war and survival has made millions of viewers cry.
Do sad anime movies always have tragic endings?
Ans – Not always. Some movies end with hope or emotional healing, while others have heartbreaking endings. The sadness often comes from the journey, not just the ending.
Where can I watch sad anime movies?
Ans – Most sad anime movies are available on platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyroll, or as digital rentals on Google Play Movies and Apple TV, depending on your region.
Are IMDb ratings reliable for choosing sad anime movies?
Ans – IMDb ratings are helpful because they reflect audience opinions worldwide. However, emotional impact can be personal, so a lower-rated movie can still feel very sad to some viewers.
Will watching sad anime movies make me depressed?
Ans – No. While they may make you cry, many viewers find them emotionally healing. These movies help people understand emotions and appreciate life more deeply.
Which anime will make me cry?
Ans – Grave of the Fireflies, Your Name, Violet Evergarden: The Movie can make you cry.
