Grave of the Fireflies
this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2025
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Same same.
First I can think of is the end of K-On! I watched the show for the first time in my senior year of college, so that feeling of having to go away from the friends I had made in my time there was pretty significant.
Some random others off the top of my head:
Frieren for kind of the same reason.
Violet Evergarden, especially the episode about the mom writing to her daughter.
Grave of the Fireflies.
Probably some others I’m forgetting.
Grave of the Fireflies
OMG, back home I watched this movie with some friends, 3 of us were crying while others were complaining trying to figure out how to overcome a hypothetical situation if we were there... Life works in weird ways; we've seen kind of similar situations in past 20 years and some of us have been volunteering/advocating while others just complain but in the end, it's hard not to feel something with that.
Probably some others I’m forgetting.
I have to confess that I've cried more with anime than traditional movies.
I cannot watch grave if the fireflies again. I have only seen it once
Your Name. Yes, I'm basic.
It’s okay, I did too.
Basic can also mean approachable. My partner doesn’t usually like anime and she enjoyed that one a lot.
Violet Evergarden. Specifically, the episode with the mother and daughter.
Episode 10. I didn't (but almost) cried on the first watch. Rewatching it broke me.
That season was brutal with The Place Further Than The Universe having similar themes for their episode on the same week. I went in expecting some slice of life joy after being destroyed by Violet Evergarden, only to be destroyed yet again.
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It was either Anohana or Your Lie in April
The Pokemon movie when Ash turns to stone.
I just found this looking for people to talk to about that stupid octopus. Guess I'm not one to cry anymore. Not more than a sparkle, at least.
What hit me hard was the end of Fushigi Yuugi: The Mysterious Play. I don't even remember any one episode, and seeing the artwork brings me a total blank.
Pokemon: The First Movie back in 1998.
(Most recently) First episode of Frieren. I have regrets about how little I've connected with the people around me and it just hit hard.
Edit: ohhh, FIRST time? Fullmetal alchemist maybe, or Elfen Lied (little teenage me went in because boobs and got a lot more than i bargained for; i don't even remember it beyond it being sad)?
Clannad After Story in the sunflower field 😭
Stein's Gate. I cried so much that I had to pause the episode.
Probably CLANNAD, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was SAO S1, god forbid.
Death of Going Merry.
One piece has just so many of these…
Here’s mine:
Tap for spoiler
For real. I gave that as an example, but I've probably gotten at least teary eyed most arcs at some point or another.
Don't honestly know what the first time would have been... perhaps it was the first pokemon movie?
meta spoiler; anime title
elaboration
I managed to survive the sequence where My Most Precious Treasure played, but the last episode got me good.
Thankfully, the ending appears hopeful / happy.
Hard to remember them, Eureka 7, I think the whole ppl on the other side adopting him and really treating him like a son after he ran away, scenes with his grandpa would make me tear up (I was like 14/15 when I watched it so renton was very relatable, he was like me at 13, then by the end he grows and matured past me at the time after all the sht he went through) I really like how all the characters are written in that show, they actually have real emotions, change over time, feel real, hella diversity.
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Saikano.
guy i know watch it cause i said it messed me up. Dude was locked in for 4 days afterwards... seriously I liked it but my God thst show breaks you down. Only show i watched where fan subber said stop here if you want happy ending. That was like episode 5.
I also cried at Saikano… my friend told me I would, and I’m like “nah I never cry”
I was wrong.
Cowboy BeBop or FMA before Brotherhood came out. There's a few emotional moments in both that'd probably still get me.
There are 8 anime that made me cry, in order from ~2019 to 2024:
- Sora yori mo Tooi Basho
- Hibike! Euphonium 2
- Mawaru Penguindrum
- March comes in like a lion
- Clannad: After Story
- March comes in like a lion 2nd Season
- Toradora!
- Spirited Away
Highly recommend all of these
As a husband to a spouse with chronic medical issues and kids who share them, Clannad destroyed me.
"Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song"... even more after rewatching it, now even the intro song hits hard enough for tears.
can't remember the first time. but I can tell you when I cried the hardest.
To Your Eternity.
the whole first season was a cry fest.
when the boy died, it broke something inside me. he tried the best he could, and it was still not enough.
when the little girl was practically tortured and sacrificed. I had to pause the episode and bawl for like 30 minutes.
I cried so much that my wife asked me the next day why my eyes were all red and puffy.
it's the only story that inflicted serious psychological damage to me. it took me a year to work through the damage, and even now I'm misty-eyed remembering everything.
I was going through some really rough times at work with an abusive boss and my emotional state was probably not very stable. watching human suffering just...broke something in me.
Violet Evergarden, episode 9. You know the one.
Though since you mentioned the movie, I nearly cried over how angry I was that this was the ending they decided to go with.
First time? No idea. Maybe one of those iconic sad moments from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Most recent was LOOK BACK though. What an emotional movie.
Edit: first might've actually been Erased, in the scene at the end of Episode 8 where Kayo has a decent breakfast for the first time, which is really funny because growing up I usually just had breakfast cereal and that's really not that great either. Maybe it was the music that got me. I liked Erased's soundtrack.
Had to bring this gif from the vault for this one, you glorious bastard.
.
First time was probably Angel Beats, as it was one of my first shows.
Though I still rewatch and shed tears at the end of Madoka (2nd movie). Just the best piece of media I've ever enjoyed.
Fruits Basket. “Rice ball!”
Suprised no one has said angel beats. I think it was the first time one of the main cast spoiler
reincarnated
Totally scrolled past the spoiler tags just looking for the title lmao.
I was watching Sora No Otoshimono and they were treating a character horribly. There was a scene where she was forced to kill her pet. I couldn't believe it, I cried my eyes out.
Fruits basket, and the whole thing with foster care and bio dads. I work with foster kids and it absolutely wrecked me.
I cried while watching Yuri on Ice, when yuri perfectly executed his eros performance ;_; those were wild times
Quite possibly Elfen Lied, but not for anything in the show itself. It's kind of an edgelord relic for violating every taboo it can get away with.
But the fucking gorgeous OVA, "Lilium," has an extended version... which I did not realize I was listening to. So when the choral section continued past where the Gustav Klimt references would have ended at two minutes, I was not prepared. Admittedly this video also continues into the much-less-effective instrumental and music-box versions. The web is an archive the way a grocery store is a food museum.
If we're counting anything short of outright weeping... yeah, Eva-01 going feral. A wave slapping against a van, and whats-her-name covering her face.
Lilium has an even bigger impact if you contrast the lyrics with the manga - because unlike the anime, the manga shows themes like: "what's even a human being?", "does evil come from nature or nurture?", "is redemption even possible?".
...and the lyrics are basically a prayer for redemption, I'll coarsely translate them here:
The mouth of the just will repeat wisdom
And his tongue will utter the evidence (i.e. declare judgment)
Blessed the man who endures temptation
Since he was tested, he'll get the crown of life
Oh Lord, [you are the] source of goodness
Oh Lord, [you are] divine fire, have mercy [of us]
Oh, so holy, so serene
So benign, so delightful, the one believed to be the Virgin (Mary)
Oh, so holy, so serene, so benign, so delightful
Oh, lily of chastity
It fits perfectly once you identify Lucy with the sinner: she knows she's guilty, and she's asking God for redemption. With Kouta intervening in her favour, always showing compassion, much like the Virgin Mary would do in Christianity.
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Probably not the first, but... Edward.
And later "It's a terrible day for rain"
I can't believe I forgot grave of the fireflies. I watched that so long ago and it's something you can only watch once.
Anybody else remember Haibane Renmei? or (more depressing, but less sad) Wolf's Rain?
Probably the first season of Re:Zero or Neon Genesis Evangelion. I don't remember which I watched first.
Probably Nausicaä, although it woulda been the ~85 English dub Warriors of the Wind.
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