Sad anime movies are some of the most powerful films in animation. They create intense emotions, whether it’s heartbreaking love stories, loss, or the pain of war. The best tearjerker films don’t just make you cry, but they create unforgettable experiences with characters and scenes that make you feel and think about your life in different ways.
These saddest anime movies blend different genres like romance, drama, and even slice-of-life stories. They deliver perfect emotional timing with beautiful and calming animations that stay with you even after finishing the movie. There is something in them for anyone looking for a deep and meaningful experience.
I’ve shared my top picks for the saddest anime movie experience in this list. with so many tearjerker films out there, it might be hard to know where to start. Let’s explore the most emotional and unforgettable films in anime!
If you’re interested in more anime recommendations, don’t forget to check out related lists like Top 20 Best Action Anime and Top 20 Best Comedy Anime.
15. Ride Your Wave
This romantic fantasy film can completely damage you emotionally, and you won’t see it coming. The movie starts off happy and cheerful; it follows Hinako, a college student who enjoys surfing, and Minato, a firefighter who saved her from a building fire. After that moment happened, they fell so deeply in love with each other, and their relationship feels so true and sweet, which will make you love watching this movie and bring a smile to your face! Minato even learns to surf just to be with Hinako, and everything seems so happy and bright; you’d never expect that anything could go wrong in this film. Then tragedy strikes unexpectedly, and the story turns heartbreaking, completely changing everything, and it’s just painful to watch. It shows the heartbreaking journey of Hinako through grief and trying to learn to live life without the person who meant the world to her. The way this movie shows her loss in a true and honest way almost feels like a personal attack. Ride Your Waves will make you realize that love means letting go and finding the strength to ride life’s waves alone.
Series Details:
- Release date: 2019
- MAL Rating: 7.61
- Studio: Science SARU
- Director: Masaaki Yuasa
- Streaming: Crunchyroll
14. The Garden of Words
The Garden of Words hits you with a quiet sadness that slowly comes over you and sticks with you. It tells the story of Takao, a teenage boy who skips school on rainy mornings to sketch shoe designs in a peaceful and quiet garden, where he meets a random 27-year-old woman, Yukino, who skips her work and drinks beer and eats chocolate. Their short meetings on rainy days create an unexpectedly deep and emotional connection. It shows the feeling of loneliness that we all understand; that’s what makes this movie so touching. Both characters suffer in their own ways. Takao is lost about what to do with his life, whereas Yukino runs away from her problems. Rain is constant in this movie and acts like another character, uniting them together while also reminding us how short-lived those precious moments are. With the end of the rainy season, their little escape from reality and life ends there.
Series Details:
- Release date: 2013
- MAL Rating: 7.86
- Studio: CoMix Wave Films
- Director: Makoto Shinkai
- Streaming Service: Prime Video (based on your location)
13. Colorful
Colorful is one of those underrated saddest anime movies that will surprise you with its raw emotion. It begins with a soul given a second chance at life by taking over the body of Makoto, a 14-year-old boy who attempted suicide. This makes the entire story so moving, as we see the lost soul gradually discover what really drove Makoto to such despair, such as family problems, bullying, and the challenges of being a teenager that feel extremely real. The animation style may seem simple at first, but it is the best representation of the dark reality of everyday life moments in modern Japan. The protagonist learns to appreciate and enjoy life’s small joys and relationships that make life worth living. It will make you think about your own life challenges and victories. It’s one of the saddest anime movies, which shows how the most broken situations can find healing and reminds us that even in the darkest moments, life is clearly colorful.
Series Details:
- Release date: 2010
- MAL Rating: 7.74
- Studio: Sunrise, Ascension
- Director: Keiichi Hara
12. 5 Centimeters per Second
This is another emotional masterpiece from Makoto Shinkai. 5 Centimeters per Second feels more real and painful than most anime movies. This is basically a three-part story that follows Takaki and Akari from childhood friendship to adulthood, showing how people naturally grow apart even though they still care about each other. The sad and emotional thing about this movie isn’t some dramatic tragedy but the everyday pain of distance, missed opportunities, and lives that slowly pull them in different directions. The title 5 Centimeters per Second refers to how fast cherry blossoms fall, which is a soft but sad reminder that some things, like certain relationships, are temporary and short-lived. The animation is just outstanding and beautiful; it shows both the loneliness of Tokyo and the nostalgia of the countryside, which will make you feel the snow or summer heat. This film will make you realize that sometimes love isn’t enough to keep people together.
Series Details:
- Release date: 2007
- MAL Rating: 7.55
- Studio: CoMix Wave Films
- Director: Makoto Shinkai
- Streaming Service: Netflix (based on your location)
11. Millennium Actress
Millennium Actress is Satoshi Kon’s brilliant masterpiece that shows perfectly how reality and dreams blend in the most beautiful way. The film follows a documentary crew interviewing Chiyoko Fujiwara, a retired actress whose life becomes an epic journey through different movie genres and time periods. The amazing thing about this movie is how Chiyoko’s real memories mix with her film roles, creating a dreamlike experience that makes you question what’s real and what’s fiction. Chiyoko’s lifelong search for a mysterious painter she once fell in love with drives the whole story, making each scene feel romantic and sad. The storytelling of this film will feel like you’re experiencing cinema history yourself. You will understand that sometimes chasing something is more beautiful than actually catching it.
Series Details:
- Release date: 2002
- MAL Rating: 8.24
- Studio: Madhouse
- Director: Satoshi Kon
- Streaming Service: Prime Video (based on your location)
10. Your Name
Your Name is a very popular anime movie and highly praised by the fans around the world. It’s a masterpiece film created by the legendary Makoto Shinkai that will make you believe in destiny. Two strangers, Taki and Mitsuha, start switching their bodies mysteriously while they sleep. They both live completely different lives. Taki is a busy boy in Tokyo, while Mitsuha is from a small countryside town. But their bond develops into something special that will make you fall in love with this movie and will make you dream of unexpected relationships like this. It is shown in this movie that fate can bring soulmates together even across time and space in ways we can’t explain. With beautiful visuals and emotionally unreal animation, which will literally make you experience the story with someone in real life. Your Name isn’t just a romance story. It’s a story about finding a part of yourself in someone else, and understanding that will leave you feeling a little sad and emotional.
Series Details:
- Release date: 2016
- MAL Rating: 8.83
- Studio: CoMix Wave Films
- Director: Makoto Shinkai
- Streaming Service: Crunchyroll (based on your location)
9. In This Corner of the World
It’s a quietly devastating war story that starts gentle but ends up being really sad. The story follows Suzu, a dreamy young girl who loves to draw and marries into a family in Hiroshima during World War II, and she tries to live a normal life despite the war times. You will see the war from an ordinary person’s view in this movie. They struggle to face food shortages, which makes everything harder and scarier around her. Suzu has a childlike way of seeing the world, and she keeps her love for art alive, even during the dark times. This will make you care and feel emotional towards her. But when the atomic bomb drops, everything changes forever. It’s deeply one of the saddest anime moments, and the emotion will hit hard, like a punch. This film is not just about wartime; it shows you about finding hope and humanity in impossible situations, leaving you both heartbroken and amazed by human resilience.
Series Details:
- Release date: 2016
- MAL Rating: 8.22
- Studio: MAPPA
- Director: Sunao Katabuchi
- Streaming Service: Crunchyroll (based on your location)
8. Hotarubi no Mori e
In just 45 minutes, this movie will leave you heartbroken. It is a bittersweet fairy tale that follows young Hotaru, who gets lost in a forest of the mountain god and meets Gin, a mysterious masked person who will disappear forever if he’s touched by humans. They become friends, and their childhood friendship develops into deep love as Hotaru returns to the forest every summer to meet Gin, while Hotaru grows older but Gin stays the same. The sad beauty of their friendship comes from knowing that they can never be truly together forever. Every moment they spend together is precious because a single touch means losing him completely. The magical forest setting feels both relaxing and sad, and their innocent friendship grows into romantic feelings and love. Their emotional conversations under sunlight and during summer festivals create soft and heartbreaking moments that are almost painful to watch. This short film proves that brief stories can leave the deepest emotional impact.
Series Details:
- Release date: 2011
- MAL Rating: 8.27
- Studio: Brain’s Base
- Director: Takahiro Omori
7. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is one of Studio Ghibli’s saddest anime movies and yet its most unique films. It was Isao Takahata’s final masterpiece for cinema. This film feels like watching a living watercolor painting. This movie follows the legendary moon princess, who’s discovered as a tiny baby hidden inside a bamboo stalk by an old bamboo cutter. Watching Kaguya struggle between her simple and happy life in the countryside and the pressure to live like a noble, as her adoptive father wants, is pretty heartbreaking. The hand-drawn animation style is really beautiful. It looks like soft brushstrokes that show deep emotion. Each moment gives off a natural, sketchy beauty that perfectly shows Kaguya’s wild, free spirit. As she faces impossible marriage proposals and the unavoidable call to return to the moon, you will feel her desperate desire to remain human and experience earthly love. The ending will completely break your heart, and you will see that some souls are too pure for this world.
Series Details:
- Release date: 2013
- MAL Rating: 8.21
- Studio: Studio Ghibli
- Director: Isao Takahata
- Streaming Service: Netflix (based on your location)
6. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms
This movie is one of the most beautiful and saddest anime movies ever. It is a well-written fantasy story that shows the struggles of motherhood and will make you realize how important the love of a mother is. The story is about Maquia, an Iorph tribe member who ages slowly; she saves a human baby boy while escaping from soldiers who attacked her peaceful homeland. Their mother-son relationship grows into something very wholesome as they live together, with Maquia raising Ariel even after knowing that she will remain young forever while Ariel grows old, which is pretty sad. The movie beautifully and yet heartbreakingly shows that everyday moments of parenthood can be both wonderful and painful as time passes differently for both of you. A lot of scenes will touch your heart with emotional music and fantastic animation. After finishing the movie, you will understand the true meaning of a mother’s love and how mothers struggle in order to raise you. Highly recommended for all anime fans and mature audiences around the world.
Series Details:
- Release date: 2018
- MAL Rating: 8.39
- Studio: P.A. Works
- Director: Mari Okada, Toshiya Shinohara
- Streaming Service: Netflix, Prime Video (based on your location)
5. Wolf Children
Wolf Children is a story about single motherhood and the struggles of a mother that will make you appreciate your own mom much more, just like the movie Maquia. This beautiful and emotional story is about Hana, a young woman who marries a Wolf Man and has to raise her two half-wolf children, Yuki and Ame, alone after their werewolf father dies. The story shows the actual struggle of a mother dealing with the impossible challenges of parenting kids who can turn into wolves, like keeping their secret and handling their very different personalities. Ame is quiet and prefers being human, while Yuki is energetic and loves being a wolf, creating unique parenting problems you’d never expect. This movie shows both difficult and joyful moments of motherhood that will make you laugh and cry at the same time. When the time comes, children choose their own path, and then you will understand the sad reality of parenting: that in the end, letting go and letting your kids become who they’re meant to be, even when it hurts.
Series Details:
- Release date: 2012
- MAL Rating: 8.56
- Studio: Studio Chizu
- Director: Mamoru Hosoda
- Streaming Service: Crunchyroll, Prime Video (based on your location)
4. Violet Evergarden: The Movie
Violet Evergarden is an absolutely beautiful anime series; the sequel was released in 2020, which turned out to be the saddest anime movie that will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible. This masterpiece film continues Violet’s journey as an Auto Memory Doll who writes letters for people, but now she’s finally learning what “I love you” truly means. The story focuses on her bond with Gilbert, her former major, whom she believed was dead, and their emotional reunion after years apart, which is one of the most heart-touching and yet heartbreaking moments in all-time anime; it feels like your heart is both breaking and healing at the same time. Every scene feels like a beautifully true piece of art with relaxing and stunning animation. I highly recommend watching the anime series of 12 episodes before watching this masterpiece film. The movie is a beautiful, unforgettable ending to Violet’s story.
Series Details:
- Release date: 2020
- MAL Rating: 8.85
- Studio: Kyoto Animation
- Director: Taichi Ishidate
- Streaming Service: Netflix (based on your location)
3. A Silent Voice
A Silent Voice is an emotional masterpiece film with a lot of valuable life lessons and has the potential to change the way you see life. It explores great themes like bullying, redemption, mental health, and self-forgiveness. It follows the journey of Shoya Ishida, who once bullied Shoko Nishimiya, a deaf girl who was a new student in elementary school. She transferred out of the school because of bullying by Shoya Ishida and his friends. Years later, Shoya grows up filled with guilt, loneliness, and depression. These regrets made him try to make things right with Shoko. It shows both characters’ struggles in an honest and true way. Shoya’s anxiety is shown through X-marks on people’s faces around him, and Shoko remains strong despite the pain she’s been through. It’s a healing journey showing the importance of forgiveness and how people can change. A must-watch movie for everyone, and I recommend reading the manga after you watch the movie. There’s more to the story!
Series Details:
- Release date: 2016
- MAL Rating: 8.93
- Studio: Kyoto Animation
- Director: Naoko Yamada
- Streaming Service: Crunchyroll Netflix (based on your location)
2. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas
Don’t let the weird title fool you. When it comes to romance, I Want To Eat Your Pancreas is the saddest anime movie and bittersweet romance masterpiece that will leave you emotionally in tears. The story follows Haruki, an introvert who likes reading books. He accidentally finds out about his popular and cheerful classmate Sakura, who is suffering from pancreatic disease. As they spend time together, their strange friendship grows into something truly special, crossing items off her bucket list before her time runs out. The movie is sweet and sad; it beautifully shows how spending ordinary moments with someone you care about can forever change us. Many scenes will hit you like a rock in your heart with calm and smooth animation and heartbreaking soundtracks that will fill you with the joy of friendship and the pain of losing someone. By the end of the film, you will be emotionally devastated and realize how some people leave a permanent impact on our hearts even after they are gone, despite living their lives for such a short time.
Series Details:
- Release date: 2018
- MAL Rating: 8.55
- Studio: Studio VOLN
- Based on: Shin’ichirô Ushijima
- Streaming Service: Apple Tv
1. Grave of the Fireflies
Grave of the Fireflies, without any doubt, is the saddest anime movie ever, not just in anime but one of the most heartbreaking films in all fiction. Hardly anyone has the heart to watch this movie a second time. It shows the brutal reality of war and survival in a way that stays with you long after it’s over. The story follows Seita and his little sister, Setsuko, trying to survive in Japan during the final months of World War II after their mother is killed in an air raid. As the days pass, their situation grows more desperate, and their fight to stay alive becomes even harder to watch. They face sickness, hunger, illness, and the cold indifference of others, which will break your heart while watching the movie. This film shows that the true victims are always the innocent children who lose everything to a world they never asked to be part of. There are a lot of scenes that will leave you in tears, and you’ll be emotionally exhausted. Grave of the Fireflies doesn’t just show the tragedy of wartime, but it will make you feel it.
Series Details:
- Release date: 1988
- MAL Rating: 8.53
- Studio: Studio Ghibli
- Director: Isao Takahata
- Streaming Service: Netflix (based on your location)
Conclusion
These are my picks for the sad anime movies that demonstrate how much animation can touch our hearts and make us feel emotions we never expected. These saddest anime movies, whether they’re emotional masterpiece romantic stories like Your Name and I Want to Eat Your Pancreas or heartbreaking war story films like Grave of the Fireflies, prove that anime can move us and mean as much as live-action drama. If you want to experience great storytelling or simply feel something deep, these films are must-watch at least once in a lifetime.
Feel free to share your favorite anime film or show in the comment box! And in case I forget to add any emotional masterpiece, let me know in the comments as well! For more anime recommendations like this, don’t forget to check out the Best Anime To Watch Recommendations!
