It’s 2025, and we can all agree that anime has come a long way. The medium is no longer something for kids; It is a full-blown juggernaut with Hollywood’s attention. While there are plenty of anime series that feel rather shallow, there are just as many striving to say something interesting and make you feel something real.
Anime is capable of far more depth than people give it credit for. When done with care,some of the best anime are the ones that will destroy a person on an emotional level.Happy or sad, it doesn’t matter. An emotionally resonating anime is very powerful given how cathartic its story trails. A good deal of anime with this weight have become classics with fans, so anyone looking for thebest emotional and tragic animewould be silly to pass them over.
10Carole & Tuesday
Anime Series By Bones Film; Directed By Shinichiro Watanabe
Bones Film’sCarole & Tuesdaystars Carole Stanley and Tuesday Simmons, an orphan and a runaway who become friends on a terraformed Mars over their love of music. With Carole on keyboard and Tuesday on guitar, the two become a duo with the hopes of taking Mars by storm, and despite the odds stacked against them, they just might have a shot at it.
During its run,Carole & Tuesdaymasterfully weaves together a touching tale about friendship, creativity, and finding hope when the world around you is at its worst, and by the time of the climax that it had been teasing from day one, it’s able to end everything on as emotionally cathartic a note as possible.Carole & TuesdayisShinichiro Watanabe’s most underrated anime, by far, and it deserves far more praise for its phenomenal emotional storytelling.
CoMix Wave Inc.’s5 Centimeters per Secondstars Takaki Tono and Akari Shinohara, two friends with romantic feelings for each other, but are never in the right time or place to act on them. The film is split into three segments focused primarily on Takaki as he slowly makes his way into adulthood, with each new milestone bringing with it plenty of challenges for him and the people around him.
As simplistic as its story may be,5 Centimeters per Secondstill does an excellent job of selling the emotional weight of Takaki and Akari’s star-crossed relationship and how that affects them for years, and worst of all, the fate ofTakaki and Akari’s relationship makes the anime tragically bittersweet.5 Centimeters per Secondwaslegendary anime director Makoto Shinkai’s big film beforeYour Name, and overall, it’s easy to see why.
The eponymous hero of Kyoto Animation’sViolet Evergardenis a former orphan turned soldier who spent her entire life fighting in a war that’s only now ended. Now needing a new purpose in life, Violet becomes a special type of ghostwriter called an Auto Memory Doll in the hopes that writing for others will help her better understand people, and she especially hopes it will help her understand why her commanding officer told her he loved her before he died.
While only having a single season and a movie to its name,Violet Evergardenhas been praised as an emotional masterpiece for its thoughtful and mature examinations of love and human connections, all of which are beautifully expressed through the gorgeous visuals of Kyoto Animation.Violet Evergarden’s emotional storytelling has it regarded as one of thebest Kyoto Animation anime to watch, and overall, it’s hard to argue with that.
Belle
Cast
Belle is a film exploring the journey of Suzu, a 17-year-old high school student who discovers a vast online world called “U.” As her avatar, Belle, she gains widespread attention, ultimately encountering a mysterious, dragon-like figure amidst her virtual experiences.
Studio Chizu’sBellestars Suzu Naito, a socially awkward girl plagued by trauma and self-doubt who finds release moonlighting as Belle, the idol who’s taken the virtual world of U by storm. During one of her concerts, Belle is inexplicably drawn to a violent player called Dragon, also known as the Beast, and her quest to get to know the Beast just might be what both of them need to overcome their respective pain.
Academy Award-nominated director Mamoru Hosodais known for his emotional films likeSummer WarsandWolf Children, andBelleis no different, asthe wayBellecombines trauma with music makes for a stunning narrative that leads to a fantastically cathartic climax for its lead. Add in the gorgeous 2D and 3D visuals, and it’s easily one of the most emotional anime movies of recent years that anyone would be remiss to ignore.
Kyoto Animation’sClannadstars Tomoya Okazaki, a high school senior with no ambition for anything after graduating due to his troubled home life. On a whim, Tomoya helps reestablish the drama club with Nagisa Furukawa, a girl who’s had to repeat her senior year due to illness, and their time together inevitably changes them in ways they never could have imagined.
Few anime of the 2000s are as iconic asClannad, and sure enough,Clannadmore than earns its stellar reputation thanks to its gorgeous visuals and how well it sells its romance, whether it’s trying to be heartwarming or it’s trying to be dramatic. Even with the anime being almost 20 years old now, it’s still one of the best Kyoto Animation anime of all time, and it’s perfect for anyone looking for something equal parts tragic and uplifting.
CoMix Wave Films’Your Namestars Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyamizu, two strangers who suddenly discover that they swap bodies whenever they fall asleep. Taki and Mitsuha must learn to balance each other’s lives amidst their bizarre circumstances, and as their relationship becomes romantic, the distance between them becomes far from the biggest obstacle they have to overcome.
Your Nameis the film that made Makoto Shinkai go from a cult director to one of the biggest names in anime, and it’s easy to see why, as not only is the animation still gorgeous after almost a decade, butYour Name’s strong sense of character writing gives it a devastatingly emotional narrative with one of the best payoffs a person could ask for from a romance story. Few movies in recent years are as iconic asYour Name, and it deserves every bit of that praise and more.
In Shaft’sPuella Magi Madoka Magica, after a chance encounter with a monster called a Witch, Madoka Kaname learns of the existence of magic and, of course, magical girls. Kyubey, the magical girls’ talking animal-like supervisor, offers Madoka a chance to become one herself and help protect her home from Witches, and as Madoka ponders over the decision, she quickly discovers that being a magical girl is nowhere near as good as Kyubey first made it out to be.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica’s dark and deconstructive story makes for poignant and all-around excellent writing from start to finish, and even after over a decade, it still features some of the most creative animation of any anime. Few magical girl anime reach the emotional highs and lows asMadoka Magica, and withMadoka Magica’s final movie releasing later this year, there’s no telling how far that can go.
Studio Ghibli’sThe Tale of the Princess Kaguyais a retelling of the classic Japanese myth,The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. Just like the original story, Kaguya is a girl whose divine origins have her whisked away from the countryside into a life of nobility, and she’s quickly forced to deal with not only the pressure from that, but from the truth of her birth and what that means for her future.
The Tale of the Princess Kaguyais one of Studio Ghibli’s most emotionally devastating films to date, thanks to how it never lets up on its tragically bittersweet narrative, all of which is coupled with some of their most unique and all-around gorgeous animation of any Studio Ghibli movie. It was the last film Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata worked on before his tragic passing, and overall, there was no better film to earn that honor.
In A-1 Pictures’Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, five friends calling themselves the Super Peace Busters were broken up by the sudden death of one of their own, Menma. Five years later, one of those friends, Jinta, suddenly encounters Menma’s ghost, and to help her properly pass on to the afterlife, he and everyone else will have no choice but to confront their various traumas and make peace with each other and themselves.
Not only doesAnohanaboast incredible art and animation, but with its emotional and thoughtful writing,Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Dayhas some of the most heartwrenching and emotionally fulfilling writing of any anime, with its final big scene especially standing out as one of the best scenes in anime. Mari Okada is famous for her emotional storytelling, andAnohanais easily the work that best captures why she’s such a celebrated creator.
Studio Ghibli’sGrave of the Firefliesstars Seita and Setsuko, a pair of siblings left as orphans near the end of the Pacific War. Seita tries to make the best of things and support Setsuko the best he can, but the reality of their situation quickly catches up with them, and it isn’t long before their lives become even more tragic than they were before.
Grave of the Firefliesopens with a flashforward to Seita and Setsuko already being dead, and sure enough,Grave of the Firefliesis Studio Ghibli’s most devastating film,with no illusions about how the only solace Seita and Setsuko can find in life is that they will be together in death.Grave of the Fireflieshas a reputation for being one of the saddest films of all time, and there’s no better contender for a top-tier anime that will destroy someone emotionally.
