Having a good cry sometimes is good since having a good cry relieves stress, lowers body temperature, removes toxins, reduces manganese, and embraces your emotions to others. This list will take you on an unexpected emotional journey that touches upon themes like romance, drama, death, loss, and regret.
- Clannad
Producers: Pony Canyon, TBS, Movic, Animation Do
Episodes: 24
Aired: Oct 5, 2007, to Mar 28, 2008
Signature music
• Clannad | Dango Daikazoku | Ending song
Summary:
Clannad’s story revolves around Tomoya Okazaki, a third-year high school student who dislikes his life. Tomoya’s mother (Atsuko) died when Tomoya was young, leaving his father (Naoyuki) to raise him. After the accident, Tomoya’s father turned to alcohol and gambling and had frequent fights with his son.
Tomoya Okazaki wonders if his mundane boring lifestyle will ever change and then he meets a timid girl talking to herself on the way home named Nagisa Furukawa. Tomoya offers her advice to go out and find her own happiness and that initial connection starts their uphill journey to recruit people into the drama club they’re trying to revive. Despite the problems of each character in the series, the story is quite wholesome since you feel a sense of satisfaction when continuing through the plot through his school relationships and his new friend Nagisa. As Tomoya spends more time with his friends, he learns more about them and their problems. As he attempts to help each one of them to overcome their respective obstacle, he begins to realize life isn’t as dull as he once thought. If you’re into a nice slice of life anime with a strong sense of emotional self-reflection this anime is highly recommended.
- Clannad After Story
Producers: Pony Canyon, TBS, Rakuonsha, Animation Do
Episodes: 24
Aired: Oct 3, 2008 to Mar 27, 2009
Summary
The sequel to the first anime, Clannad. After confessing his love for Nagisa Furukawa, life for Tomoya goes on. As he continues to meet and help more people with their own family problems, Tomoya’s relationship with Nagisa grows to a greater level than ever before.
This season shows Tamoya entering the world of adulthood and starting to share a life with Nagisa. Together, they experience the emotional rollercoaster of growing up. Despite the problems they are facing, they are persevered to move forward. This series is also where Nagisa gave birth to Ushio and the story moving forward will depict the importance of forgiveness, acceptance, family, and most importantly loving someone regardless of the outcome of the future.
- Angel Beats
Producers: Pony Canyon, TBS, Movic, Animation Do
Episodes: 13
Aired: Apr 3, 2010, to Jun 26, 2010
Signature music:
• Lia feat. IA – My Soul, Your Beats
• Girls Dead Monster – Crow Song
• GirlDeMo(Angel Beats) – My Song
Summary
Angel Beats! is set in the environment of a high school in the afterlife, a type of limbo where people have experienced trauma or hardships in life and must overcome them before passing on and being reincarnated. The story follows Yuzuru Otonashi, a boy with amnesia who ends up in the afterlife.
The awesome part about Angel Beats is in the few episodes that they dedicate to specific characters and learning their tragic stories before they died. The series is about regrets, acceptance, and moving on, with the school comedy undertone which serves the purpose of trying to make it relatable in a realistic environment and letting our guard down transitioning to moments that will hit us heavily. This anime knows how to do justice for its characters it knows how to give each character development in just a few episodes.
- The Garden of Words (Kotonoha no Niwa)
Producers: The Answer Studio, TOHO animation
Episodes: 1
Aired: May 31, 2013
Signature music:
• Motohiro Hata – Rain
Summary
“The Garden of Words” is a short film depicting the romance and relationship between a 15-year-old boy and a 27-year-old woman. Takao, the boy, feels. Concurrently, Yukino feels lost in an adult society where she feels she does not belong.
The anime is light romantic with captivating art made by CoMix Wave Films. The anime shows a realistic story about life as a normal human that seems realistic and relatable but making sure to have a level of fantasy. The story revolves around Akizuki, Takao, and Yukino, Yukari despite being completely different ages the two characters are very similar where Akizuki skips school while Yukari skips work. They both use the sheltered park bench to find solitude and peace of mind. Despite the fairy tale build up it isn’t love at first sight as you may expect. As said, the story took an approach to a realistic environment and the 2 main characters didn’t interact at first. All of the urges might be there to interact would go completely against the rules of society to do so. As the story progresses, the story ponders whether it’s okay for the 2 to be in love even if they clearly are, both the characters are victims of the harsh reality of life and society.
- Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day (Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai)
Producers: Aniplex, Dentsu, Fuji TV, Fujipacific Music
Episodes: 11
Aired: Apr 15, 2011, to Jun 24, 2011
Signature music:
• Galileo Galile – Aoi Shiori
• Kimi ga Kureta mono – Secret Base
Summary
On the surface, Anohana is the story of Menma, a girl who dies in an accident, then returns as a ghost to haunt her best friend, Jintan, five years later. The two are quick to latch on to the “unfinished business” school of thought and decide that they need to grant Menma’s wish to get her into heaven
Anohana cannot be excluded as one of the most tearjerking anime of all time. The anime is a show about emotional high school students coming to terms with guilt dealing with their struggles. The main character Yadomi, Jinta is an introvert and he used to have a lot of friends but everything went south when his mum and Meiko “Menma” Honma passed away, he started slacking in school and intentionally failed his exams putting him in the lowest tier of schools within his area. One day, he actually sees Menma in his house and thinks he is hallucinating until he starts interacting with her. This show really touches home with nostalgic feelings of the past with flashbacks of wholesome memories with everyone as kids when life is easier. As you progress the story you will feel an emotional roller coaster as the high school students retrace their steps into their forgotten bonds of friendship
- Your Lie in April (Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso)
Producers: Aniplex, Dentsu, Kodansha, Fuji TV, Kyoraku Industrial Holdings
Episodes: 22
Aired: Oct 10, 2014 to Mar 20, 2015
Signature music:
• Wacci – Kirameki
Summary
Your Lie in April is about a pianist and a violinist that perform together, changing each other’s life.
Your lie in April touches on the subject of death, mourning, and how to move on in life. The main protagonist is Arima, Kousei who is a piano prodigy, he eventually loses his ability to hear his own piano notes after the death of his mother. The very thing he is good at becomes meaningless until he meets Miyazono, Kaori one day who is a lively violinist. Kaori helps Kousei to fall in love with music all over again and how it should be freely played at the same time conveying his feelings on every notes. The set-up may start as a regular slice-of-life romance anime but it doesn’t take long for melancholy and tragedy as the story progress.
- Your Name (Kimi no Na wa)
Producers: Toho, Sound Team Don Juan, Amuse, JR East Marketing & Communications, Kadokawa, voque ting
Episodes: 1
Aired: Aug 26, 2016
Signature music:
• RADWIMPS – Sparkle
Summary
Two teenagers share a profound, magical connection upon discovering they are swapping bodies. But things become even more complicated when the boy and girl decide to meet in person.
Miyamizu, Mitsuha is a high school girl living in a small rural town called Itomori. She is bored with the small-town life and wishes to be a handsome Tokyo boy in her next life. One day, she begins to switch bodies intermittently with Tachibana, Taki who is a high school boy in the busy town of Tokyo whenever she wakes up. After realizing that they are switching bodies, they communicate by writing messages on paper, phones, and sometimes on each other’s skins. As the story progresses, the two of them are trying to figure out how to spend a day in the other person’s body, and how to figure out why this is happening, and eventually, they kind of grow to appreciate one another as they learn about each other’s lives.
- A Silent Voice (Koe no Katachi)
Producers: Shochiku, Pony Canyon, Kodansha, ABC Animation, Quaras
Episodes: 1
Aired: Sep 17, 2016
Signiture Music:
• Aiko – I fell in love (aiko- 『恋をしたのは』)
Summary
During middle school, Ishida, Shouya is a bully. When Nishimiya, Shouko, a girl who is deaf, enters her middle school class, she becomes their favorite target, and Ishida and his friends goad each other into bullying here. But the children’s cruelty goes too far. Nishimiya is forced to leave the school, and Ishida ends up shouldering all the blame. Six years later, they meet again and sets Ishida out to make amends with Nishimiya.
Years later in high school, Ishida completely isolated himself from his peer, therefore, doesn’t have any friends. He walks the hallways looking a the ground while covering his ears to diminish the sounds of everyone around him parallel themed to what Nishimiya is experiencing. One day Ishida comes to the conclusion that if this what life has in store for him, he might as well die sooner or later. Before Ishida kills himself, however, Ishida wants to cut all loose ends one thing being he wants to give back Nishimiya’s notebook. The notebook she uses to communicate to the classmates with before Ishida threw it in the water. Instead of giving back the notebook and apologizing, he even learned sign language to do and asked Nishimiya if he and she can be friends which is what Nishimiya kept asking during middle school. With that, his plan on taking his life takes a turn.
- Violet Evergarden
Producers: Lantis, Pony Canyon, Rakuonsha, ABC Animation
Episodes: 13
Aired: Jan 11, 2018 to Apr 5, 2018
Signature Music
• Minori Chihara “Michishirube” MV Full Size “Violet Evergarden” ED theme song / “violet-evergarden” Ending Theme Michishirube (茅原実里「みちしるべ」 MV Full Size 『ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン』ED主題歌 / “violet-evergarden” Ending Theme Michishirube)
• TRUE “Sincerely” MV Full Size “Violet Evergarden” OP theme song / “violet-evergarden” Opening Theme “Sincerely” (TRUE「Sincerely」 MV Full Size 『ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン』OP主題歌/”violet-evergarden” Opening Theme「Sincerely」)
Summary
Violet Evergarden’s story revolves around the life of Violet, a humanoid (even though her state of being is not very clearly defined in the anime) whose purpose is to perform as a flawless weapon of war. For some reason, she is also blonde, with luscious long hair, and looks less than fourteen years old.
Violet is a soldier perfected to be a tool of war whose very way of living is dictated by the orders that are given to her by her commanding officer Gilbert. However, Gilbert died during confrontations in one of the final battles of the war. As she tries to cope in a world without him and his orders she finds herself contemplating the last three words that he said to her “I love you”. But Violet, being a child with a very closed outlook of the world cannot fathom the meanings of those words or the feelings behind them. In order to learn the meaning of I love you, She decided to become an auto-memories doll so that she can experience other people’s emotions hopefully learn for herself how to feel them as well. I would like to emphasize episode 10 since this episode really left a big impact on me as a viewer and as a person. If you manage to get in this episode, I hope the message that you will take away will give you some sort of emotional reflection of valuing time with your loved ones.
atsixesandseven 