Anime is a great way to escape because you immerse into a world where anything can happen. But my favorite part about anime is when it can bring emotions out of you like laughter or tears. I've created this post to dedicate the most memorable anime by noting the scenes that made me cry the most, ranking from tear-jerker to bawling breakout.
Lvl 1. Kagome Returns To The Feudal Era (InuYasha)
This scene made me tear up for a ton of reasons. For one, you grow so attached to these characters. Rumiko Takahashi really dragged this anime out for way too many episodes and so many years. This, however, is what makes this anime special. You feel as though you are friends with the Inu Yasha characters and watch them grow as people. In the final episode, Kagome and Inu Yasha defeat the ultimate evil (and about time, too). Inu Yasha returns Kagome to her original time, but in doing so this seals up the well, forbidding Kagome and Inu Yasha to ever see each other again. She continues her last 3 years of high school and on graduation day, after feeling as though she had completed all that she needed to do, she visits the well one more time, truly wish to see Inu Yasha. The well miraculously opens up, allowing her to make the ultimate decision to leave forever into the feudal era. At first she is a bit hesitant, but the heartfelt goodbye from Kagome's mother urges her to go on. Inu Yasha, who senses the moment she returns to his time rushes to the well and embraces his love. Sango and Miroku have 3 kids and everything just seems to end like it should.
Lvl 2. Sekai Kills Makoto (School Days)
While this anime is brutal without the photo, this scene really was sad for one reason. Just a bit of background, Makoto (the dude lying there with not a drop of life left in him) was friends with Sekai (the girl straddling him). Sekai, being a good friend, helps Makoto get a date with his crush, Kotonoha. In helping him, she realizes she loves him. While Makoto plays with her feelings for a little, he ultimately chooses Kotonoha over Sekai, setting off a ridiculous rage in which she invites him over and butchers him to death. The reason this scene is so sad, is right before Makoto dies he reaches up to Sekai, grabbing for her. Though the English subtitles say he mutters "Thank God..." (which was proven to be an error), he actually mutters her name, hinting to her that he never meant to break her heart. Sekai, realizing what she had done, freaks out and leaves the messy scene.
Lvl 3. Nana Catches Shoji Cheating (NAna)
Nana is a very sensitive girl. She is in love with the idea of love and falls in love with nearly any charming boy who looks at her. The one boy she becomes completely obsessed with a boy she meets in high school named Shoji. They date for a while before Shoji moves to Tokyo to study. Nana, desperate to be with Shoji, finds a reason to move to Tokyo to go be with him. At first, he seems happy to see her, but you (the watcher) notice he doesn't really like her at all. Especially when it shows he is cheating on Nana with a girl from his work. Though Nana isn't aware, she still is crazy for Shoji, which breaks your heart because you know she's too sweet for him. Anyway, this poor girl waits outside in the cold from his shift to be done, only to witness Shoji and his girlfriend smooching before they suddenly realize she's there. She cries and is so upset, but blatantly tells him she doesn't want him anyway and that she never wants to look at him. A typical scene for a breakup, but it's so powerfully done, you can't help but cry.
Lvl 4. Mariko Blows Up With Kurama (Elfen Lied)
Mariko hardly is featured in the entire anime, but when she is, you fear her a little. She has these invisible arms called vectors that she can control and tear people up, making her a deadly weapon. She is a from a dangerous breed of humans called Diclonius. Since her vectors are the longest and she also wields the most of all Diclonius, she is considered the deadliest of all and she is locked away for her entire life. Kurama, who is revealed to be her father in the final episode, takes his daughter into his hands, showing her the first ounce of human love and compassion she ever witnesses. Kurama, believing it was cruel to give up his daughter to such circumstances leaves with her, knowing that she had dozens of explosives hidden throughout her body in case she tried to escape. Though they both know about the explosives, they run away together, ultimately blowing up. This scene made me cry so hard, even though you never see them blow up, you only hear it.
Lvl 5. Haruka Says Goodbye To Takayuki (Rumbling Hearts)
Haruka has been through a lot. She throws her hearts out for her high school crush named Takayuki, who doesn't even seem to like her at first. However, on their first date, Takayuki runs late and she is unfortunately involved in an accident that leaves her in a 4 year coma. To make matters worse, she awakens and believes that absolutely no time has passed at all, that she is still dating Takayuki and she is still in high school. What she doesn't know is that Takayuki has moved on, believe she would have never awoken from her coma, and actually starts dating Haruka's friend, Mitsuki. To make things easier for her, Takayuki pretends to date her again, awakening old feelings within him. Mitsuki, who originally doesn't want to hurt her friend, eventually tells Haruka that she had been dating Takayuki. This severely damages their friends but damages Haruka even more. She is determined to make Takayuki love her again and she goes on a limb to try and walk again, almost destroying herself. As the final scene approaches, Haruka asks Takayuki to take her on her wheelchair to the beach. When they arrive, Haruka does something no one expects: she lets him go. Stating that the Takayuki she loved once no longer exists, she lets him go to Mitsuki. This makes you unbelievably upset for many reason. For one, Haruka is the sweetest girl and you feel like she deserves Takayuki. Two, Mitsuki is a bitch! This scene will leave you depressed.
Lvl 6. Kanade Crosses Over (Angel Beats)
This anime is strange, because all of the characters are dead. They are in purgatory, waiting for themselves to accept their deaths and move on to Heaven. Yuzuru (the boy in the photo) dies, having no memory of why, and is sent to purgatory. He quickly joins a rebellion called the 'Not Yet Dead Battle Front', which involves a lot of teenagers fighting the other inhabitants of purgatory in order to not cross over. Yuzuru befriends and falls in love with Kanade (the angel in the photo), a girl who doesn't talk much about how she dies. On the final episode, with the battlefront completely watered down to about 6 people (all of the rest of them have crossed over to Heaven), they have a graduation ceremony, since none of them finished high school and they felt like having one. At this point, they are the only 6 remaining teenagers in purgatory, the rest have crossed over to Heaven, leaving the entire place seeming painfully empty. After the graduation, 4 of them cross over immediately, leaving Yuzuru and Kanade as the only ones left. Yuzuru confesses his love for Kanade, who merely cries. Yuzuru asks Kanade to stay in purgatory with him to help other teenagers pass on to Heaven, but Kanade cries more and says she loves him, but she doesn't want to. The two hug, crying histerically. And then Kanade crosses over, leaving Yuzuru hugging nothing, grabbing the air and begging for her to appear again, but she is already an angel. This scene made me cry like nothing before and left me depressed for the entire night.
Another part that makes you cry is the credits. You see this photo?
This is a photo that plays during the credits. This shows the 'Not Yet Dead BattleFront' and all it's members. As the episodes whittle down, more people begin to disappear from this photo as they cross over to Heaven in the show. At the final episode, you see only Yuzuru and Kanade. Kanade dissolves from the photo, leaving Yuzuru there by himself. The credits roll and show the lonely photo of Yuzuru. And the tears start flowing again when Yuzuru dissolves shortly after, marking that he too crossed over to Heaven. A perfect yet tearful ending to a terrific anime.
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