Non-key Related Tear-jerking Animes! (series and movies)

Off-Topic
#1

We all know that when it comes to feels and tears shedding stories, key is the absolute king but centainly, there are plenty of animes capable of making cry to even the most cold public!. So this is the place to talk about all those animes ( including series and movies) that made u cry like a baby and you would recommend wholeheartedly.

Since I’m the one proposing this topic, I’m going to start with my personal selection of the animes which managed to made me ball my eyes out the way I thought only key works could do!

The first one is a really popular one called ano himita hana no namae o bokutachi wa mada shiranai ( anohana for short). Man I can’t understand how an 11 episodes series could get me that much into an story!!! I mean, it is imposible to not get feels overloaded when (anohana spoiler) menma says “u found me”. It’s ending song (secret base) is also touching.

The second one is shigatsu wa kimi no uso ( your lie in aprill). I watched it like a month ago and I’m still having tons of feels everytime (shigatsu mayor spoiler) I see a kaori image or listen the melody of the last concert. ( I strongly recomend u to read the las part of the story from the manga as well to get the full experience).

talking about movies, 5 centimeters per second and hachiko the dog are also touching!!!

If you’re into drama and feels, I strongly recommend you to leave this window on the spot and go to watch them!.

Since this topic covers such a wide range of shows, please use common sense and remember to use [spoiler] tags!

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#2

My 2 favorite drama anime besides key are:
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
It’s about a young girl and her little brother who are together away from home when a devastating earthquake hits Tokyo. Prayed for the character’s safety so many times during the anime.

H2O Footprints in the Sand
Also based on a visual novel. The way Kohinata is treated is just way to cruel.

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#3

I’m not sure about “feels.” I really can’t think of an anime that has been a tearjerker… But I think I know what you mean. I’ll try not to dig up too many old shows, because I know people have problems with older animation.

First, The Dog of Flanders. Any literature buffs should recognize that name. There is both an old movie and an old anime, both of which are based on an even older novel. The anime is better, but it’s 52 episodes, so if you just want a quick story, watch the movie. The novel is always the best, but meh reading.
A young Belgium boy moves to a small town to live with his grandfather. One day he finds an injured dog, and decides to take care of it. It’s simple, but that’s why it’s so famous.

While we are at it, I’m gonna recommend the World Masterpiece Theater… All of it. This was a show where they’d take a classic story, and make it into an anime. If you look at the early years of my recommended anime chart, you can see how hard I tried to not make every entry a show from the WMT. There are lots of great things here, and a lot of big names worked on it.
For anyone who has seen Shirobako, this was Mushi Pro’s thing! Rocky Chuck was the result of this! Oh, and the first anime I watched, Moomin!
For any Ghibli fans, Miyazaki and Takahata helped out for a bunch of the anime shown.

Barefoot Gen. I don’t even have to describe this one. It’s a story about the bombing of Hiroshima… from the perspective of a child.
You know what? Watch Grave of Fireflies too. Ushiro no Shoumen Daare too.

Okay okay, enough old stuff.

“I don’t want to disappear from your heart…”
ef - A Tale of Memories. This show is such a great show, especially if you watch it leading up to Christmas. It’s visuals were mindblowing for it’s time, and it still looks pretty today. It has multiple stories with multiple protagonists, and multiple ending songs, and each one of them is great. I’d argue that one of the stories is a lot better than the others, and… I think most would agree with me.
ef is also known universally as the show with the OMG I LOVE THIS GODDAMN OP SONG PLAY IT AGAIN opening. Shout “FLY HIGH, MAKE IT!” into a crowd of anime fans and hear the chorus shout back.
There was a time when ef was almost as famous as CLANNAD in the western anime scene… so it’s pretty great.
This show has a sequel, but I’ve never been able to finish it ^^;

“Take care of yourself!”
Chobits. That’s right. Chobits. The anime that everybody and their mom knows. It’s by those famous Cardcaptor guys, Clamp, and is set in the same universe as Angelic Layer, so bonus points to those who watched manly cartoons as a kid (it’s totally a shounen show. Ignore the cute colors and frilly dresses.)
Chobits was, in my belief, the greatest romance story in anime for quite a while. It’s early 2000s, so there’s quite a bit of ecchi to get through (luckily it’s not as bad as DearS) but once you do get past it, there’s an amazing story. Chobits is a show that everyone should know and love. You can even get DVDs that have dual audio so that you can switch between sub and dub, and the menus are as adorable as the opening song.
As always with Clamp stuff, the manga is so much better, but the anime is still amazing.

“I awoke to your voice.”
Kaiba isn’t as feelsy as some others, and I think that the second half of the show is awful, but for a while, it holds the same charm that Kino no Tabi did. There are some beautiful episodic stories, much better than those of the recently finished Plastic Memories, and as a bonus, it’s sci-fi, so there’s some world exploring too~

“It’s just that I’ve gotten used to this kind of lifestyle through the years. Because if I didn’t, it’d be too hard on me.”
Sola. Remember the guy who did Kanon and Sora no Method? Well before he was bad, he made this. The main character loves the sky, and one night, he meets a girl with a similar love for the sky… but then she vanishes. When they next meet, the girl is under attack…
The girl is cute, so watch the show.

Kowarekake no Orgel is a one episode ova of a doujin work. It got forgotten over the years as stories executed the same idea better, but it’s worth a watch. It’s a story of a robot who was found in the trash, but it’s not Chobits. The robot keeps a diary though, so get hyped.
In a nutshell, this anime has a female lead who is small and has light blue hair. If that doesn’t scream tearjerker, I don’t know what does.

Can I recommend Zegapain too? It’s not really “overloaded” but I like to recommend it whenever I can >.>

Yay, my favorite anime (that I can’t actually recommend or rate higher than 7/10.)
It released at the perfect time I think. People were like “ef, CLANNAD and H2O. Go cry to them now.”
There are some big problems with it, and personally I think only one of the characters is likeable, but in a way, that’s part of it’s charm. It has a very strong atmosphere… It’s similar to the feeling AIR gives off in a way; it creates a strangely powerful sense of presence. Obviously it’s just something on a screen that you watch from outside, but the scenery, and the soundtrack, and the way characters are… characterized. It blew young Taka away more than CLANNAD did. I re-watched it either late last year or early this year, and I still love it.
I don’t rate it as high as I enjoy it though. I think it’s a show that I praise more than it really deserves.

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#4

Well, I’m sold. You have gained 7 Kaze points in my book, whatever that’s worth. Seriously, I know so few people who like it but it’s one of my favorite romances. I was actually trying to hype Sora no Method because he wrote Sola but, well, meh.

I really need to re-watch this some time (haven’t seen it since it aired) to give it a more fair judgment, but I think this is an accurate view of the show. I recall it being very moving and powerful in its presentation and themes but also littered with problems… which is more or less what you already said. In other words, I agree completely.

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#5

This isn’t quite along the same lines as the other suggestions. However.

Mawaru Penguindrum: Two brothers trying to save their sisters life after she dies and is resurrected by a penguin hat that demands they hunt down the ‘Penguindrum’ in order to truly save her life. It is a show about fate, terrorism, and family. Also features alot of Night on the Galactic Railroad references / homages if you’ve seen that. Isn’t exactly structured like Key works though, but it’s use of world building isn’t dissimilar. And it’s ending basically punches you in the stomach for several episodes in a row.

#6

Hmm, I cry too easily, but as some already mentioned Sola and Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 are definitly high on my list. I cry at pretty much every anime, hell, I also do in Naruto. Sometimes they are tears of sadness, sometimes tears of happyness, it happens all the time.

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#7

What’s the exchange rate on Kaze points?
Sola has some really good moments, especially towards the latter half of the show. There was some nice comedy too, and parts of the cast really fit together well.

It’s unfortunate. There are some episodes that just bring down the quality of the whole anime. Luckily they can just play Yakusoku no Nin! in the background and I’m invested again, but it doesn’t make up for the amount of time it spends being mediocre.

#8

The anime pre-Key that was a great bridge is one called Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica
It may not work for you, but if you watch the entire series (specially the BD edition), it may surprise you.

Series, then watch the films if you want.

#9

it is one of my faves!!! indeed, I feel like rewatching it in this days!!!

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#10

Well, me being the drama nut I am, I’m going to go ahead and take everyone’s suggestions into mind when figuring out what anime is worth picking up~

Now then, onto my suggestions; at least, the ones that haven’t been suggested yet:
White Album 2: A very human story of love and desires. The reason why I think it’s so good is because it’s so down-to-earth, and you end up feeling the immense emotions of the characters by the end.

Kimi no Iru Machi: Not very many people think highly of this anime, but when I look back and try to ask myself which anime made me cry, I can’t deny that this was successful in doing so. Both in the middle and the end are two huge dramabombs, both somewhat dealing on having to move on from something/someone. The choices that the characters make and them finally doing it are what make this such a big tearjerker in my book.

Toradora: I’m surprised nobody had suggested this yet; it’s pretty well-known in the drama scene. But yeah, this is a pretty well-written story, and the way everything fits is just nice. Unlike the previous two suggestions, this is more adolescent in nature, I feel.

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#11

I thought about them and Golden Time, but I don’t remember them being particularly feely outside of one scene in Toradora. They are amazing dramas… but they didn’t feel fitting with what I’d already brought up. Still pretty confused about what counts as a tear jerker ^^;

Woah, I totally forgot about that one. Never actually finished it though >< There were some really nice AMVs of it on Youtube that kinda spoiled bits, but that’s just the way of AMVs.

#12

If it made you cry, it’s a tearjerker, plain and simple :wink: On that note, yeah, Golden Time did make me cry! But the rest of the series isn’t worth it to just get to the tearjerker ending so I wouldn’t really recommend it.

#13

anything able to make different kind of public shed tears ( but onions) XDXD

#14

I rarely watch drama these days unless it’s KEY related. I think the last one that almost made me cry was Shin Sekai Yori. I found it eerie and strange at first but I love how varied each arc is and the tone slowly gets darker as the episodes roll by. It is, in retrospect, simply a story about kids growing up and it’s just sad and beautiful and I like how it takes its time portraying this.

#15

Eh, I think the show gets more hate than it deserves. Personally I thought it was great until the last couple episodes.

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#16

I liked it a lot despite the fact that they say tada banri like a fuckton times!!

#17

The only anime that have made me cry besides key-related works are Tokyo Ghoul and Vividred Operation. The former because too much tragedy, the latter because it’s tragic such an abomination exists.
Is Elfen Lied a tearjerker?

#18

Hmm, I don’t think Tokyo Ghoul got much of a reaction out of me that wasn’t hype. Ah, I felt bad for Hideyoshi, Touka and Hinami at times though.

Elfen Lied could be for some people I suppose. I don’t remember empathizing with it much, but I might have been too young to understand it at the time.

It’s such a satisfying name to say though!

#19

My favorite movie ever is Wolf Children, and I must say, it brought me tears. The story is great, the characters lovable and the themes approached are well developed. Get ready to laugh and cry if you want to watch this heart warming movie.

I highly recommend grave of the fireflies if you want a good cry. It’s a pretty amazing movie, and it is really sad.

If you are looking for a series, i recommend Tokyo Magnitude 8, it’s about people who survives a magnitude 8 earthquake in japan. I really like the originality of the show, and I’ve heard that most of what is depicted in the show actually happened after a real earthquake that happened in Japan a couple of years after the show was released. i don’t know if the rumor is true, but the series stays amazing. It is very realistic and tear jerking.

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#20

Wolf children is very similar to Clannad in terms of what makes it so great and popular. It adresses a huge audience, too.

I have watched Tokyo Magnitude just recently. I made a huge mistake though: I accidentally watched the recap, thinking it’s just a long first episode. By the time I noticed my mistake, it was already too late to turn back >_<

But even the recap managed to hit me pretty hard, so I’m sure the real thing is amazing.

Incidentally, I have also watched Sola and Kimi no Iru machi when they were mentioned in this topic.

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