Best Depressing Anime Movies | Top 27+ Most DEPRESSING Anime That Will Make You CRY!

Most Popular Depressing Anime Movies And Saddest Anime Movies Of All Time

1. Perfect Blue

Release Date: Feb 28, 1998
Studios: Madhouse
Duration: 1 hr. 21 min.
Genres: Avant-Garde, Adult Cast, Psychological, Drama, Horror

Characters:
Main: Kirigoe Mima
Support: Hidaka Rumi, Sakuragi, Uchida Mamoru, Murano, Actor, Mima Fan C, Rei, Co-Director, Doi Tadashi

Summary:
A pop singer gives up her career to become an actress, but is haunted by obsessive fans and ghosts from her past, and slowly goes mad. Many of his fans were dissatisfied and disappointed with the change from his clean-cut image, and some rabid fans known as Mamoru Uchida or May-Mania began to follow him.

J-pop idol group CHAM! has been entertaining his fans for the past two years. We got to see one member, Mima Kirigoe, leave the group to pursue a career as an actress. Mima’s choice has received mixed reactions, but she hopes her fans will continue to support her.

Best Animes You Should Be Watching in 2023

2. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Release Apr 16, 1988
Studios: Studio Ghibli
Duration: 1 hr. 28 min.
Genres: Drama, Historical

Characters:
Main: Seita, Setsuko,
Support: Mrs. Yokokawa, Aunt, Farmer

Summary:
Grave of the Fireflies is part of a genre of post-World War II literature that focuses on the wartime experiences of ordinary Japanese people. The story takes place in 1945. At the end of World War II in 1945, Japan suffered widespread devastation from American bombing, city after city destroyed. Grave of the Fireflies, also known as Grave of the Fireflies, tells the story of Seta and his sister Setsuko, two Japanese children whose lives are destroyed by a brutal war. They lost their mother, father, home, and hope for a bright future. All these are the tragic consequences of war.

3. A Silent Voice

Release Date: Sep 17, 2016
Studios: Kyoto Animation
Duration: 2 hr. 10 min.
Genres: Award Winning, Drama, Shounen, Romantic

Characters:
Main: Ishida Shouya, Nishimiya Shouko,
Support: Nagatsuka Tomohiro, Ueno Naoka, Nishimiya Yuzuru, Ishida Maria, Pedro, Ishida Miyako, Sahara Miyoko, Mashiba Satoshi

Summary:
A Silent Voice is a coming-of-age story about a teenage boy who tries to make amends for the hurt he inflicted on a deaf girl through ruthless bullying. Elementary school student Shouya Ishida tries to overcome boredom in the most brutal way possible.

But when his mother reports him to school, he is held accountable for everything he has done. Shouya is at the mercy of his classmates after Glass transfers to another school. From elementary school to junior high school, he is brutally ostracized while his teachers turn a blind eye.

4. Paprika

Release Date: Nov 25, 2006
Studios: Madhouse
Duration: 1 hr. 30 min.
Genres:: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Award Winning, Fantasy

Characters:
Main:Tokita Kosaku, Chiba Atsuko, Konakawa Toshimi, Paprika
Support: Jinnai, Osanai Morio, Shima Torataro, Inui Seijiro, Kuga Mr., Himuro Kei

Summary:
The story depicts the battle between a dream terrorist who steals a device that allows people to share dreams with others and brings people nightmares, and a research psychologist who enters the dream world and transforms into the dream detective Paprika.
The dream world can be an incredible window into the psyche revealing a person’s deepest wishes, desires, and repressed memories.

A certain Hope Technology Research Institute has developed a device called ‘DC Mini’ that gives the power to dig into other people’s dreams. Atsuko Chiba and Kosaku Tokita are working tirelessly to develop this technology, hoping to delve deeper into patients’ minds and help treat mental illnesses.

5. Colourful (2010)

Release Date: Aug 21, 2010
Studios: Sunrise, Ascension
Duration: 2 hr. 7 min.
Genres: Award Winning, Drama, Supernatural

Characters:
Main: Kobayashi Makoto,
Support: Purapura, Saotome, Sano Shouko, Kobayashi Father, Kobayashi Mitsuru, Kobayashi Mother, Kuwabara Hiroka

Summary:
A soul awakens in the body of a suicidal Makoto and must find a way to adapt to his presence. Spirit must solve two mysteries: the mystery of the deadly sin he committed in his previous life and why Makoto killed himself. After reaching the station of death, impure souls are given a second chance at life against their will.

The soul reincarnated in the body of Makoto Kobayashi, a 14-year-old boy who recently committed suicide, has been given a six-month deadline to identify the greatest sin of the boy’s life. Although he is reluctant to continue living as Makoto, Spirit eventually begins to realize the complexity of human emotions and actions.

6. Belladonna of Sadness

Release Date: Jun 30, 1973
Studios: Mushi Production
Duration: 1 hr. 27 min.
Genres: Avant-Garde, Drama, Historical

Characters:
Main: Jeanne, Jean, Devil,
Support: Clown, Lady, Lord, Narrator, Priest

Summary:
After being raped by an evil lord and later banished from her village, a peasant girl makes a deal with the devil to gain magical powers and get revenge. The film follows the story of Jeanne, a peasant woman who makes a Faustian bargain with the devil after being raped by a local aristocrat on her wedding night.

Beautiful Jean marries a man named Jean, and the happy newlyweds head to the owner’s castle to seek the cow’s blessing. However, the Demon Lord was taken aback by their offer and ignored their desperate and poor pleas. John must become his master’s winner that night in a melon-smashing ritual.

7. 5 Centimeters Per Second

Release Date: Mar 3, 2007
Studios: CoMix Wave Films
Genres: Drama, Romance

Characters:
Main: Toono Takaki, Sumida Kanae, Shinohara Akari
Support: Sumida Sister, Mizuno Risa

Summary:
A three-part story about her relationship with her best friend, Takaki Tono. Akari Shinohara is tested when Akari goes to another city to shoot a movie. They keep in touch but have trouble explaining their true feelings for each other. It’s a tear-jerking coming-of-age anime about unrequited love and lost connections.

Five Centimeters Per Second is filled with beautiful imagery and insightful observations about how people who were once so close slowly drift apart. Takaki Tono and Akari Shinohara are childhood friends, but circumstances are beyond their control. The two promise to keep in touch, and as time passes, the distance between them grows, but the series of memories remains.

8. Your Name

Release Date: Aug 26, 2016
Studios: CoMix Wave Films
Duration: 1 hr. 46 min.
Genres: Award Winning, Drama, Supernatural, Romantic

Characters:
Main: Tachibana Taki, Miyamizu Mitsuha,
Support: Yukino Yukari, Okudera Miki, Miyamizu Yotsuha, Teshigawara Katsuhiko, Fujii Tsukasa, Natori Sayaka, Miyamizu Hitoha, Takagi Shinta
Summary:

Two teenagers discover they have switched bodies and share a deep and magical connection. Things get even more complicated when the boy and girl decide to meet in person.

Mitsuha Miyamizu, a high school girl, wants to live like a boy in the bustling metropolis of Tokyo, as opposed to her current life in the countryside. Meanwhile, in the city, Taki Tachibana dreams of a future in architecture and lives a busy high school life with a part-time job.

One day, Mitsuha wakes up in a room that isn’t hers and suddenly finds herself living a dreamlike life in Tokyo, but her body is Taki’s. Elsewhere, Taki finds herself living the life of Mitsuha in the humble countryside. In search of answers to this strange phenomenon, they start looking for each other.

9. Hans-Christian-Andersen’s-The-Little-Mermaid-(1975)

Release Date: Mar 21, 1975
Studios: Toei Animation
Duration: 1 hr. 8 min.
Genres: Fantasy, Romance

Characters:
Main: Marina, Fritz, Fjord

Summary:
The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen is a fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid who is willing to give up her identity as a mermaid in order to gain her life in the sea and a human soul.

Marina, the most beautiful mermaid of the Merman royal family, is interested in the human world. One day, she saw a handsome prince on a boat. Suddenly a storm came and he was thrown into the sea. Marina rescues the handsome prince and guides him to shore. Marina falls deeply in love and desperately wants to be human. Despite the danger, she is ready to risk everything for love.

10. Angel’s Egg

Release Date: Dec 22, 1985
Studios: Studio Deen
Duration: 1 hr. 11 min.
Genres: Avant-Garde, Drama, Fantasy

Characters:
Main: Girl, Boy

Summary:
A mysterious girl wanders through a desolate parallel world carrying a giant egg. In a desolate, dark world full of shadows, there lives a girl whose only job is to collect water in a pot and protect a large egg that she carries everywhere.

The surreal world of Angel’s Egg is devoid of darkness and the traditional hustle and bustle of everyday life. Instead, the world is filled with strange occurrences, including floating shells filled with statues of goddesses, giant military tanks that drive unmanned, and armies of fishermen chasing the shadows of nonexistent fish. There are caves filled only with glass vessels with water.

11. Barefoot Gen (1983)

Release Date: Jul 21, 1983
Studios: Madhouse
Duration: 1 hr. 23 min.
Genres: Award Winning, Drama, Historical

Characters:
Main: Kondou Ryuuta, Nakaoka Gen, Nakaoka Kimie
Support: Nakaoka Daikichi, Nakaoka Eiko, Nakaoka Shinji

Summary:
With incendiary bombs dropping on Japanese cities and Japan surrounded by American troops, Japan crumbles under immense pressure. Gen Nakaoka is a brave and free-spirited boy living in Hiroshima. Suffering from wartime shortages and barely making ends meet, the general and his family hope for a quick end to the conflict without Japan’s imminent defeat and their city safe.

But, unbeknownst to them, their fate is sealed by the imminent drop of the American nuclear bomb “Little Boy”, which will change Japanese society forever.

The Japanese animated feature film Barefoot Zen tells the story of Zen(pronounced with a hard “G”), a boy who, along with his mother, survives the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The story describes their struggle to rebuild their lives from the ashes of the bomb.

12. The Garden Of Words (2013)

Release Date: May 31, 2013
Studios: CoMix Wave Films
Duration: 46 min.
Genres: Award Winning, Drama, Romance

Characters:
Main: Akizuki Takao, Yukino Yukari
Support: Aizawa, Matsumoto, Akizuki Satomi, Itou Souichirou, Teramoto Rika, Satou, Akizuki Shouta

Summary:

When a lonely teenager decides to skip her morning classes and live in a beautiful garden, she meets a mysterious old woman who shares her sense of isolation. On a rainy day, a 15-year-old boy and a 27-year-old woman form an unlikely friendship in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. On a rainy day, a 15-year-old boy and a 27-year-old woman form an unlikely friendship in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.

There, he meets Yukari Yukino, a beautiful but mysterious woman, for the first time. Takao, who offers to make new shoes for her, continues to meet with Yukari during the rainy season, and the two of them unknowingly begin to work out their hidden concerns together.

However, their personal conflict has not completely disappeared, and as the end of the rainy season approaches, their relationship will be put to the test.

13. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas (2018)

14. Wolf Children (2012)

15. Hal (2013)

16. Children Who Chase Lost Voices

17. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

18. Ride Your Wave (2019)

19. Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011)

20. To the Forest of Firefly Lights (2011)

21. Weathering With You (2019)

22. The Wind Rises (2013)

23. When Marnie Was There (2014)

24. In This Corner of the World (2016)

25. The Dog of Flanders

26. Whisper of the Heart (1995)

27. Summer Ghost

28. The Anthem of the Heart

29. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

30. Giovanni’s Island (2014)

31. The Anthem of the Heart (2015)

32. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)

Conclusion:

In this article, Best Depressing Anime Movies of all time.

FAQ’s

What is good about Perfect Blue?
Perfect Blue is unlike any animation I’ve ever seen. This is clearly a work for adults with complex themes, situations, nuanced characters, and a very complex overall story.

Is Perfect Blue a feminist film?
This article uses Kon’s 1997 film adaptation of Perfect Blue to highlight how violence against women was viewed socially and legally in Japan in the late 1990s.

Is Firefly an anime?
Firefly is an American space western drama television series produced by writer and director Joss Whedon under his Mutant Enemy production label.

Is Grave of the Fireflies kid-friendly?
This movie is very sad and can be very scary for children. This film shows the brutality of the victims of war, and its important message, you must be old enough to handle it maturely. Very violent and disturbing.

What kind of anime is Paprika?
Science fiction psychological thriller movie.

Is Belladonna of Sadness worth watching?
The trippy watercolor animation is sure to grab everyone’s attention, so even if you don’t like these aspects, the story is worth watching at least once.

Is Garden of Words worth watching?
The animation is great, the plot is great, and Makoto Shinkai’s quality is proven once again. The animation is really amazing, you can compare it with reality and you won’t be disappointed. The textures, details, and intricate landscapes are so breathtaking that you won’t be able to take your eyes off the screen.

What is the age gap in Garden of Words?
On a rainy day, a 15-year-old boy and a 27-year-old woman form an unlikely friendship in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. On a rainy day, a 15-year-old boy and a 27-year-old woman form an unlikely friendship in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.

Is Barefoot Gen a kid’s movie?
This film is highly recommended for anyone interested in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath. This is not a children’s movie.

Is The Garden of Words a masterpiece?

The Garden of Words is a masterpiece of cinema that depicts the complexities of the human heart beautifully and gracefully. It reminds us that even in moments of loneliness and despair there is always the possibility of connection and love.

Is Your Name based on a true story?
itomori inspiration
However, even though the town is based on a real location, Itomori Town itself is a fictional town. Many of the cities are inspired by real cities in Hida City, Gifu Prefecture. The city said that the number of tourists has increased due to the great success of ‘Your Name’.

Did Mitsuha and Taki marry?
There, he meets Hina Amano and Hodaka Morishima, and advises Hodaka to find a present for Hina’s birthday. At this point, Taki has not yet reunited with Mitsuha. In 2024, director Makoto Shinkai clarified in a directorial interview that Taki and Mitsuha were actually married.

What is the message of your name?
There are many messages that this movie tries to convey, but they mainly boil down to the ideas that “love is timeless” and “everything is connected”.

Is “Silent Voice” a love story?
A Silent Voice is more than just a really good high school romance drama. It’s a lovely love story that deals with nostalgia and friendship in a very relatable way.

Did Akari and Takaki end up together?
As shown at the end of the movie, Takaki has moved on. He only liked the glow of her youth. As Akari has changed over the past few years, Takaki decides to accept reality and move on with his life.

Do Shoya and Shoko fall in love?
Gilas eventually falls in love with Shoya, and one day she tries to accept him. However, he could not understand her due to her speech impediment. At the end of the manga/film, Glass spends some time studying in Tokyo before returning to his hometown on Coming of Age Day and reuniting with Shoya.

Is Angel’s Egg worth watching?
It is a symbol of injustice, a drop of malice over which we are powerless. You should never miss this meaningful, thoughtful, and beautiful film. If you appreciate the art form of movies, watch Angel’s Egg and be amazed.

What happened to the girl in Angel’s Egg?
For the Stone Men and the Crusaders, water is a prison locked inside a ship, but for girls, water is life and rebirth. He drinks the water happily as if he had a holy meeting. In the end, she falls to her death but meets the water with a kiss and is reborn, laying dozens of eggs.

Is 5cm per second a good anime?
For me, it’s probably one of the most moving anime I’ve ever seen and one of the most touching movies I’ve ever experienced. Basically, 5 Centimeters Per Second is a short film that is divided into three parts: the first episode is 30 minutes long, the second episode is 20 minutes long, and the last episode is 15 minutes long.