Whether immediately, or you didn’t notice at first until you went “oh… crap 😭”.
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One that I haven’t seen mentioned yet is the finale of AnoHana. The writers did a great job pulling the 10-years-before and current day storylines together, and then the little hide-and-seek game capping off the story just absolutely destroyed me.
Assassination Classroom!. It starts off so goofy and cartoony, and as it goes on, it contextualises all of its silliness in the universe it’s built, and by the ending, well, it was the first time I had to leave a room full of friends to go cry my eyes out
Your lie in April,
it hit a little too close to home
“Journal with witch” Aka “Diary of a Strange Land” which is a much better name fuck you localization team
Violet Evergarden, episode 10.
Same. That episode destroys me. I rewatched it recently and it got me as much as the first time.
My best single anime episode 😭
Of course Grave of the Fireflies. Kiki’s Delivery Service gets to me in a very different way.
As for series, Trigun (old one), end of episode 23.
Grave of the Fireflies is kind of the wrecking-ball version of this. Powerful, not subtle, and leaves you utterly devastated.
(Runner-up for me might be Gurren Lagann.)
Gurren Lagann is one of my favorites, and the ending always tears me to shreds. Also the space portions during the big battles against the Anti-spirals (should be fairly obvious why). Strangely, the mid-season-1 drop (just before Nia was introduced) never got to me.
I’ve yet to see Grave of the Fireflies (when I was younger I was scared of what I’d heard, nowadays I’m just overworked and probably depressed) but I will cry every fucking time I watch Kiki’s Delivery Service. Moreso at the people being nice than anything else. I’ve become such a softie as I’ve aged.
Ditto for Trigun, I assume I know the episode you’re talking about offhand. Look up Trigun Hallelujah AMV sometime if you want a nice feels trip.
first season of “To Your Eternity”.
the early episodes were difficult to watch because they showed a true world where the characters tried their best and it just wasn’t enough and they ultimately paid with their lives.
I was going through a pretty hard emotional time when I watched it and it struck a nerve. I cried for like two hours. It made me realize that something was very broken in my life and unfortunately there wasn’t anything I could do to resolve it. but, the show made me feel “seen” somehow and that was enough.
Ooh, I forgot To Your Eternity got an anime. I got the first 7 volumes on some Humble Bundle ages ago and remember getting all emotional reading them. Any idea how much of the manga got adapted? Because it really takes a while for the manga to catch its stride.
no idea it even had a manga. I would assume all of it because the second season took quite awhile to be released.
didn’t finish it though. the second season felt broken and unfinished or rushed.
Gurren Lagann. “So, this is the power of the spiral? Not bad”
So glad you mention that scene in particular. I tend to get more emotional at the final scene (“I guess I’m nobody…”) but both of those actually get a reaction out of me whereas the turning point of season 1 that’s supposed to, doesn’t.
Angel Beats
I barely remember anything about it because I watched it like 15 years ago. But I remember sobbing
I felt most of the show was quite tonally inconsistent and a little too rushed, but the latter half of the final episode absolutely ruined me.
I once had a friend say much the same about Angel Beats and maybe that, like, ruined what should have been emotional turns for me but I did not end up feeling anything during Angel Beats. It felt like it was trying way too hard to actually affect me.
Maybe it was. I was a hormonal teenager 15 years ago maybe that’s why it got me lol
Funny, it was also like 15 years ago for me and that may be why I didn’t feel anything
╮ (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) ╭
I wasn’t a hormonal teenager 15 years ago but I was still bottling up my emotions like I’d been taught as a child back then. I’ve become much more prone to crying over stories nowadays and usually telling people when I do, because while I do cry often it’s not everyday a story comes along that can do it so I take it as a good thing when it can.
A place further than the universe
I cry at the drop of a hat these days.
First, the ones others have mentioned:
- Clannad – but only the first season
- Gurren Lagann – but not the dramatic moment in the first season that’s supposed to have that impact
- Kiki’s Delivery Service – everyone is so nice (╥﹏╥)
- Trigun (original) – Hallelujah
As for my own:
- Haibane Renmei – everyone is so nice ( ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥)
- WorldEnd (AKA SukaSuka AKA What Are You Doing at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?) – a tragic romance but it still got to me as it was meant to
- Cowboy Bebop – the ending of Ed & Faye’s stories always get me bawling
- Millennium Actress – just destroys me more than any other of Kon’s works
- The Light of a Firefly Forest
EDIT: I was trying to ignore movies but how could I forget to mention Koe No Katachi (AKA A Slient Voice)? I watch that one every year or two when I need a good cry to kinda reset.
Only the first season of Clannad? I know theres some great parts of S1, but
After Story spoiler
“Sanae-san said the only places I can cry are in the toilet and in daddy’s arms”
absolutely destroys me every time - I’m welling up just typing it out lol. There’s plenty of other great scenes in S2 that at least put it on-par with S1 IMO.
Yeeeaaahh… I thought S2 was trying way too hard to actually get a reaction. Actually I still didn’t care for parts of S1. The arc that still sticks with me is starfish girl, that one made me a gibbering wreck.
Not that I’m saying any of that soured the experience, but with how obvious it was being, it couldn’t actually move me.
For me it has to be LOOK BACK. What a great movie.
Definitely not Clannad. You can go ahead and watch that, it’s just a happy-go-lucky slice of life comedy!
Maybe hot take, but the only bit that actually got me in the heart was starfish girl in the first season (sadly, I cannot recall any of the characters names anymore). The second season felt too drawn out and trying too hard.
That said I have the ending theme burned into my brain. 🎶 Dango, dango, dango, dango, dango daikazoku 🎶
most recently–Love Unseen, halfway through the season (no spoilers)
They started the season saying it was going to be a tragedy but it still got me when it happened.
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. After one of the last episodes I was just left staring at the wall blankly for a little, tears running down my face.
