Text by Alejandro Arroyo Cano
One of the saddest moments in Japan’s history was the atomic bomb explosion in the town of Hiroshima. In a matter of seconds, thousands of people died in a hellish blaze. Some of those who survived perished little by little due to the radiation.
This catastrophic event left a deep regret in all the inhabitants, and to try to heal the wound, they created different anime denouncing the destructive power of the explosive. This fact shows that cartoons in Japanese culture are so important for society that they’re even used to educate, divulge and raise awareness among people.
Anime began as a new model of visual entertainment and gradually became a universal genre that encompasses themes as deep as any movie or program made in the West. People think that they are simple cartoons for children or young people, but that only shows total ignorance of the subject because anime is an incredible journey through the deepest feelings of human beings.
Being drawings or digital creations, the author has total control over the theme, stories, and characters. For this reason, anime can become a highly reflective product, even surpassing any film created with the Hollywood formula. A great example of the importance of anime is the famous Studio Ghibli. Eight of their films are among the fifteen highest-grossing films of all time in Japan. Spirited Away holds the record for the highest-grossing film in Japanese history!
Although all Studio Ghibli’s works are well-known for their sorrowful and meaningful tones, there is much more in the genre. If Hayao Miyazaki taught something, is that this genre focuses on the introspection of feelings to bring out all the demons we carry inside to heal our soul. Here’s a list of the saddest anime of all time:
1. Clannad
Okazi Tomoya is a melancholy third-year high school student living in prolonged despair and confusion since his mother died. His father, also disheartened over the loss, loses himself in alcohol and gambling. The father-son relationship is so complicated for both of them that Okazi becomes more and more detached from reality, until one day he meets Furukawa Nagisa, an enigmatic girl who will change the way he sees the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odGSQebH7tU
2. Angel Beats!
Otonashi is a teenager who wakes up in a gigantic schoolyard. His memory is blank, so he doesn’t know who he is or how he got there. Soon after, Otonashi meets a girl named Yuri, who tells him that he is dead and that he is in a strange place is the halfway point between heaven and hell, called purgatory. Eventually, he remembers that he was a good and caring boy in life, granting him entrance to heaven. But since he lost his memory in the accident that took his life, his soul went astray on the way to Paradise. Now he will have to face all the beings that inhabit that scenario to reach glory.
3. Searching for the Full Moon
4. Your Lie in April
Arima Kousei spent his entire childhood practicing piano following the orders of his mother, a frustrated pianist who never achieved glory. When his mother falls ill, Arima gives up the piano and plunges into a strange depression. When Kousei’s mother dies, he enters a severe emotional crisis that prevents him from playing the piano, even though it is Arima’s only way to honor his mother. When everything seems to have no solution and giving up music is near, Kousei meets Kaori, an extroverted violinist who loves sounds and will try to return Kousei’s illusions.
5. Steins; Gate
6. Puella Magi Madoka Magica
One day, Madoka Kaname dreams of a mysterious girl who fights strange creatures. The next day she encounters that same girl at school, who comes from a faraway place and has just entered the school. The series of strange events culminate – or begin – when she encounters a mystical creature named Kyubey, who offers to grant her any wish in exchange for her soul. What Madoka didn’t know is that she would also have to become a magical being to fight some fearsome enemies: the “witches.”
7. Air
8. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
A solid group of friends suffers a rift after the death of a cute and innocent girl named Menma. Ten years after her death, Jinta, former leader of the group, has an encounter with her spirit who asks for help in fulfilling a pending wish she left behind in life so she can go to heaven. Jinta must gather all his childhood friends, convince them that he can see Menma, and achieve his last wish.
9. True Tears
10. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
This anime is set in Tokyo after an earthquake of magnitude 8.0 on the Richter scale shook the city. In this apocalyptic scenario, siblings Mirai and Yuuki have to overcome a myriad of obstacles to return home and find their parents, as they were out of town when the tragedy happened. On the way back, they meet Mari, a motorcyclist who also needs to return home. From this moment on, the three of them must grow up and become as strong as they can to endure the landscape of death that surrounds them.
11. Haibane Renmei
12. 5 Centimeters Per Second
Takaki Tono and his friend Akari Shinohara have to separate when the school year ends, as their parents will start working in distant cities. The two decide to keep in touch through letters, but as time goes by, the promise becomes weaker. What grew in their hearts was the feeling of love and need. When they manage to see each other, they declare their love for each other; but they also understand that their relationship will not work from a distance. Life goes on for both of them, and they mature, but there is still an illusion in their hearts. Will fate bring this tireless love together again?
13. Chrono Crusade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip6rLB_sK_Y
14. One Week Friends
Yuuki Hase is a high school sophomore who takes an interest in Kaori. She gently rejects him as she says that every week her mind resets, and she forgets all people. Despite this warning, Yuuki is determined to get to know her and stay in her heart. Thus, every Monday, he has to start his recognition work all over again. Over time Yuuki’s memory begins to improve, but something is always left behind, yet Hase clings to her because he knows that feelings engraved in the heart last longer than those that stay in the head.
15. Kanon
16. Grave of the Fireflies
“Grave of the Fireflies” is the story of two children struggling to survive in wartime Japan. The event of tragedies begins when the city of Kobe turns into an inferno when American planes bomb the place. Seita, 14, and Setsuko, 5, are saved from the attack, but their mother is not. From this moment on, the siblings will have to live severe events that will damage them little by little. The film turns into a tragedy that doesn’t seem to end although the end comes with the demise of their bodies.
17. Plastic Memories
18. Now and Then, Here and Now
While Shu was on his way home, he encounters Lala-Ru, an innocent young girl that is being attacked by some kidnappers. Despite his attempt to help her, both boys are captured and taken to a distant and strange land. In this new place there is a shortage of food and water, and to make things worse, women are mistreated and captured for reproductive purposes. The plot of the anime focuses on how the protagonist will flee this apocalyptic region, saving his new friend.
19. Elgen Lied
Anime allows working with more extreme and decadent situations, just as these series and movies do. The anguish is present in each story to leave a reflection in their viewers, something that conventional films fail to do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJz1YsnIwaw
Translated by María Isabel Carrasco Cara Chards
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