Do you want to cry? Or want to feel like someone stabs you in the heart and sends you off the theatre crying like a baby. Romance is the genre of joy, happiness, heartbreak, and sadness, and it often explores those emotions far more deeply than other genres might. You never know what you’re going to get with a romance anime, which is why they’re so addictive! We bring you the 10 best sad heartbreaking anime that will make you cry. So, sit back and get ready with a box of tissues.
Here are the 10 best sad heartbreaking romance anime that will make you cry
Romance is one of the most complex genres in all of fiction. It has the power to make the strongest of men weep like children. From tragic love stories to the death of a loved one, romance animes have a lot to offer in the sad department. We will not focus on popular titles like Silent Voice or Your Lie in April in this list. Instead, we will be focusing on underrated gems on sad anime that you should watch. Here are your top 10 picks.
10. She, The Ultimate Weapon
This time we got cyborgs. Come on, who doesn’t love cyborgs and who doesn’t love when their girlfriend suddenly sprouts a gun from their hand and starts shooting down enemies like Call of Duty. “She, The Ultimate Weapon” is about a girl who gets turned into a weapon, and the sad thing about this is that her boyfriend can do nothing about it.
Chise and Shuuji are a couple living in a peaceful town, spending a peaceful life until the war comes along and as soon as the war hits them. Shuuji realizes her girlfriend had been turned into a cyborg to fight the war. The sad thing about the whole story is how our guy Shuuji can do nothing to save his girlfriend even when she’s pushed into the war over and over again.
It’s going to be depressing and by the time you finish this anime, you’re going to need a cyborg heart to replace your original one.
Dubbed – Yes
Season – 1(13 Ep.)
09. Looking Up At The Half Moon
Two children at a hospital falling in love, we all know where this is going, but if you are searching for the sad animes and reading this, you probably want a story like this. Well, my dear sadist, this story is about Ezaki Yuuichi and Rika Akiba, both of who are hospitalized with terminal diseases.
The two meet each other while wandering in the halls, and since they’re both far away from their loved ones, a bond strikes between them. But as we all know, time is running short and their hearts are going to get ripped off along with ours.
The girl might first be on your gotta punch her and take the boy’s side list, but soon you’ll start to like her. Of course, that makes the pain only worse.
Dubbed – No
Season – 1(6 Ep.)
08. Air
Here we have a guy searching for the winged maiden. What winged maiden? Is that a new boss in Dark Souls? Nope, it turns out the winged maiden originates from a childhood tale our main character Yukito Kunisaki learned from his mother and ever since he heard that story, the poor guy had been searching for her.
Why can’t he understand it’s just a fairy tale? I don’t know, ask the guy. Anyways, he meets this girl called Misuzu and things start to change. He gets to know more about the town folk in Misuzu’s town, and he decides to help all of them and stop finding this weird lady called the winged maiden.
When you look at this anime’s art style, you can already tell where this is heading. Come on, fellas, girls with big eyes with animation done in a color palette ripped off Microsoft Paint. It’s a good old sad anime vibe again.
Dubbed – Yes
Season – 1(12 Ep.)
07. True Tears
The anime is named “True Tears” because the tears that’ll be coming out of your eyes after watching that final episode won’t be crocodile tears that’d be true tears. The plot follows Shinichirou Nakagami as he finds himself in a situation that many people would wish to be in.
Imagine having a crush on a girl and sharing a house with her. However, his expectations are shattered when he finds that when she gets home from school, she is an entirely different person.
In contrast, Hiromi is usually athletic, academically successful, bright, as well as popular. She suddenly turns cold and distant when she returns home. MC called the nearest mental hospital, and it turns out that he needed to call the nearest heart surgeon for heart replacement. Watch the anime and find out why.
Dubbed – No
Season – 1(13 Ep.)
06. Nana
As a person who holds a Ph.D. in romance anime, I can pretty much tell Nana is one of the most realistic romance anime I’ve ever seen. The characters feel real and interact like real human beings, which is very different from your average harem interactions and this anime is about cheating.
Hold up, don’t leave. Remember how he said the relationships were realistic? That means the cheating is portrayed in a more realistic sense as well. We’re shown the characters react to it instead of making it a train wreck like school days.
The entire world the manga author created feels addictive to the point you wish the anime stopped being realistic. If you’re tired of romance anime that repeat the same old plots and character tropes over and over again, give Nana a shot.
Dubbed – Yes
Season – 1(47 Ep.)
05. Ef: A Tale Of Memories
Who will win the heart of our main character? Is it the girl he met on the street one day, or is it the childhood friend who is jealous of the girl who is suddenly getting closer to our main character?
Ef is another one of those gems that was buried along with the modern anime and never appeared again. The good thing about this show is how it has several love stories, so if you’re bored with the one, you can always skip to the next.
Yeah, this is based on a visual novel. When I say this is based on a visual novel, you know where this is heading. We’ve got multiple routes, multiple love stories, and in the end, you end up crying like a little baby because the anime knows how to portray people struggling with their dreams in such a unique way.
Dubbed – Yes
Season – 2(24 Ep.)
04. Rumbling Hearts
Rumbling Hearts is not about the rumbling but it knows how to keep a colossal step on your heart and squash it into bits. Rumbling Hearts is a story that starts with everyone’s favorite word, coma.
These days you can label coma in anything and call it a tragedy but back when Rumbling Hearts thought adding a coma was a good idea. It made sure the viewer wished he had a coma because the pain was too much. Just like Nana, this involves a bit of cheating but once again, it doesn’t end up in a disaster like school days, but that doesn’t stop the anime going from comedy to tragedy.
After one event ends, it either ends in a tragedy or leads to another event. Throughout its 14 episodes, the anime keeps slapping the viewer within the face with levels of tension that could pop out a couple of human brain cells.
Dubbed – Yes
Season – 1(14 Ep.)
03. H2O: Footprints In The Sand
Are we about to deep dive into science? I mean, look at the title, what’s next? Dive because of the loss of O2 but don’t worry, this is the good old went to a village found a bunch of girls started a love hexagon sort of anime we all need once in a while.
Now the sad thing is that it doesn’t keep pushing you with the comedy. It all starts with a boy named Takuma Hirose visits a village and meets three girls called Hayami Kohinata, Hinata Kangura, and Otoha. Now the problem is our boy Takuma is blind and he has been sent to this village to heal, but it turns out the village has more pain.
Yes, the good old twist your heart several times kind of pain. Can our boy Takuma heal when every girl he falls for brings up some tragedy? Watch the anime and find out.
Dubbed – No
Season – 1(12 Ep.)
02. Hotarubi No Mori E
This is one of those underrated movies that stabs you in the heart and sends you off the theatre crying like a little baby. The story revolves around Hotaru Takegawa, a six-year-old girl who gets lost in an ancient forest while visiting her uncle.
In a dire circumstance, he seeks assistance from Gin, a masked forest spirit. She discovers that when it comes to spirits in humans, there is just one rule: human contact will cause the spirit to vanish due to the delicate nature of magic in the human realm.
Yeah, you know where this is going. I won’t dive into spoilers but let me tell you, go with a box of tissues.
Dubbed – Yes
Season – Movie
01. Plastic Memories
At number one, we have Plastic Memories that makes you want to turn your heart into a plastic memory. Here we have a guy called Tsukasa Mizugaki, who goes to work in a company called Sion Artificial Intelligence Corporation.
This company is well-known for developing Giftias, extremely evolved androids that are nearly equal to actual people in every regard. The only drawback is that they only have an 81,920-hour lifespan. This corresponds to around nine years and four months. So, all’s good until the key doesn’t fall in love with one of those androids, right? But that’s exactly what happens.
Tsukasa was paired with a beautiful Giftias named Isla for his job and the guy becomes infatuated with her, but the sad truth is Isla is about to die someday and there’s nothing Tsukasa can do to prevent it. That’s why ladies and gentlemen, you should never fall in love with your android. You never know when they’ll expire and fade away.
Dubbed – Yes
Season – 1(13 Ep.)
Also, Check Out
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10 Best Underrated Romance Anime To Watch
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