Japanese anime fans forced to admit which anime reduced them to tears supply an intensely tragic ranking sure to wet the eyes of even the sternest anime aficionado.
The ranking can sensibly be divided into late-night anime (i.e. what most non-Japanese regard as the “anime” genre) and mainstream Japanese animation (i.e. animated films and cartoons) – first the late-night anime:
1. CLANNAD
2. AIR
3. Evangelion
4. Gurren Lagann
5. Eureka Seven
6. Fruits Basket
7. Saikano
8. Kanon
9. Twin Spica
10. Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha
Other high placements in this genre are Nadia, Toradora! and Utawarerumono; pure mecha anime also did well with high placements from Gundam, Macross and Code Geass.
The mainstream anime ranking is predictably dominated by Ghibli and childhood classics:
1. Grave of the Fireflies
2. A Dog of Flanders
3. Crayon Shin-chan: The Adult Empire
4. Laputa – Castle in the Sky
5. Doraemon: Nobita’s Dinosaur
6. 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother
7. Heidi
8. One Piece
9. Crayon Shin-chan: Appare
10. Toki o Kakeru Shōjo
See also the top 10 anime movies, or for a late-night selection the top 10 unmissable anime.
Grave of the Fireflies & Laputa – Castle in the Sky & Doremon FTW! Cried buckets
Missing:
1) Wolf’s Rain
2) Akagi / Kaiji (manly tears anyone)
3) 5 cm per second
4) kimi ga nozomu eien
5) chrono crusade
6) Saikano
can’t think of the top of my head but there was more.
no Suzuka? and Kare Kano?
Were is Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood on that list i mean seriously you missing all the great anime with some dumb moments that aren’t even really sad not talking about the clannad because that was one the saddest anime ever
Really wat about Van hohenheim of light and his wife when she died al and ed both toyed to bring her back to life at almost the expense of there own life al gave up his whole body and ed gave up an arm or leg i cant remember which
I wish K-ON S2 was up there. It made me cry because it wasn’t like the 1st season. so i stopped watching it.