Drama Anime Series: 18 Best Shows That Will Make You Cry

Honey and Clover is the gentlest pick on this list, and I mean that as high praise. It follows five art-college students fumbling through love, art, and the terrifying jump into adulthood.

Above all, what I love is how real it feels. The humor stays light, the heartbreak stays quiet, and the whole thing nails that bittersweet stretch from adolescence to adulthood better than almost anything.

Watch it for: a warm, slice-of-life coming-of-age drama.

Fruits Basket blends fantasy, romance, and a surprising amount of trauma into one of the most beloved drama anime out there. Tohru Honda, possibly the kindest girl alive, ends up living with the Sohma family, who transform into zodiac animals when hugged by the opposite sex.

It sounds goofy, and at first it is. Then it slowly peels back layers of abuse, grief, and healing until you are completely invested. Of course, the 2019 remake is the version to watch.

Watch it for: found-family healing and a slow-burn romance drama anime.

Makoto Shinkai made this years before Your Name, and the genius is already on full display. 5 Centimeters Per Second is one film told in three connected short segments, following Takaki and Akari as they slowly drift apart over the years.

Really, it is about distance, time, and the love that slips away while you are not looking. The animation is jaw-dropping. The ending quietly took me apart.

Watch it for: gorgeous visuals and the ache of growing apart.

Steins;Gate starts slow, then becomes one of the best thrillers anime has ever produced. Self-proclaimed mad scientist Rintarou Okabe and his friends accidentally invent a way to send text messages into the past.

What begins as goofy fun spirals into a gut-wrenching race against time, with real stakes and a tight friend group at its core. Stick past the first few episodes, because the payoff is enormous.

Watch it for: a science-fiction psychological drama with a huge emotional payoff.

Welcome to the NHK is the rawest entry here. Tatsuhiro Satou is a twenty-two-year-old shut-in, a hikikomori, who has spent four years convinced a shadowy organization is behind his isolation.

Underneath the conspiracy jokes, it is a dark comedy about depression, addiction, and social anxiety that refuses to flinch. Still, funny, uncomfortable, and weirdly hopeful, it lands hard if you have ever felt stuck.

Watch it for: an honest, uncomfortable look at isolation and mental health.

Banana Fish is a brutal crime drama set on the streets of New York. Ash Lynx, a teenage gang leader, stumbles onto a dangerous secret: a drug called Banana Fish that shatters the human mind.

With Japanese photographer’s assistant Eiji at his side, Ash digs into the conspiracy while fighting his own traumatic past. Be warned, though, it is violent, tense, and emotionally devastating by the end.

Watch it for: a gritty crime drama with a heartbreaking bond at its center.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 imagines a massive earthquake tearing through Tokyo and follows two young siblings trying to get home through the wreckage. Mirai and her little brother Yuki team up with a kind stranger and walk across a broken city.

It is a grounded, realistic look at a natural disaster and the grief that follows. In the end, the final stretch shook me more than I expected.

Watch it for: a realistic disaster drama about family and survival.

Violet Evergarden is the prettiest show on this list, and one of the saddest. Violet is a former child soldier who, after the war ends, takes a job writing letters for other people while slowly learning to understand her own feelings.

Each episode works as a small, self-contained tearjerker. Made by Kyoto Animation, it might be the most beautiful television anime ever put to screen.

Watch it for: stunning animation and quiet, devastating emotion.

Plastic Memories asks one cruel question: how do you love something with an expiration date? Tsukasa lands a job retrieving androids called Giftias before their time runs out.

The catch is that every Giftia lives a fixed lifespan, and his partner Isla is already close to hers. Naturally, you can see the heartbreak coming from a mile away, and somehow it still gets you.

Watch it for: a bittersweet sci-fi romance about saying goodbye.

Orange mixes drama, romance, and a touch of the supernatural. Naho receives a letter from her future self, begging her to save a new transfer student, Kakeru, from a tragedy that has not happened yet.

The show deals openly with depression, regret, and the guilt of wishing you had done more. In the end, the time-travel hook is really just an excuse to talk about looking out for the people around you.

Watch it for: a sensitive romance drama about regret and mental health.

Your Lie in April is music, color, and grief all at once. Kousei is a piano prodigy who can no longer hear the notes after his mother’s death, until a fearless violinist named Kaori drags him back into the world.

The soundtrack is gorgeous and the story is a slow emotional ambush. By the final episodes I was a wreck. Of course, I still rewatch it anyway.

Watch it for: a beautiful, devastating romance set to classical music.

Clannad starts as a fairly standard high-school romance, then After Story turns it into one of the most powerful family dramas anime has ever made. Delinquent Tomoya finds direction after meeting the gentle Nagisa Furukawa.

The first season builds the relationships. After Story then follows the pair into adulthood, marriage, and loss. That second half is the real reason this show is legendary.

Watch it for: a high-school romance that grows into a profound family drama.

March Comes in Like a Lion follows Rei, a young professional shogi player carrying a heavy load of loneliness and depression. Slowly, he finds warmth through a kind family of three sisters who take him in.

The result is a quiet, gorgeous study of mental health and healing. In fact, few shows are this patient or this tender with a struggling main character.

Watch it for: an introspective drama about depression and finding family.

Grave of the Fireflies is the heaviest film on this list, and one of the greatest antiwar stories ever told in any medium. During the final months of World War II, teenager Seita tries to keep his little sister Setsuko alive after a firebombing destroys their home.

Made by Studio Ghibli, it is beautiful and almost unbearably sad. I can only watch it once every few years, because that is exactly how hard it hits.

Watch it for: a masterpiece antiwar drama you will only need to watch once.

ERASED is a tight thriller wrapped inside a drama. Satoru has a strange ability he calls Revival that throws him back in time moments before a disaster strikes. After he is framed for murder, it flings him all the way back to 1988, into his own childhood.

There, he gets a chance to stop the abduction of a lonely classmate named Kayo. As a result, it plays as tense, warm, and surprisingly moving for a mystery.

Watch it for: a time-travel mystery with real emotional weight.

Nana is the most grown-up drama on this whole list. Two women, both named Nana, meet on a train to Tokyo and end up sharing an apartment. One chases punk-rock stardom, while the other chases love and stability.

As a result, it is messy, mature, and brutally honest about friendship, ambition, and heartbreak in your twenties. Few anime ever feel this lived-in.

Watch it for: a mature drama about friendship and adult life.

Anohana is grief wrapped inside a ghost story. Six childhood friends fell apart after one of them, Menma, died in an accident. Years later her ghost reappears, and the group reunites to help her finally move on.

At only eleven episodes, it is short, yet it earns every single tear. The finale is one of the most cathartic things I have ever watched.

Watch it for: a short, powerful story about grief and old friendships.

A Silent Voice closes the list, and it might be the most important film on it. Shoya once bullied a deaf classmate, Shoko Nishimiya. Years later, drowning in guilt, Shoya sets out to make amends.

The film handles bullying, disability, depression, and forgiveness with real care, and the animation is stunning. So if you watch only one title from this list, make it this one.

Watch it for: a moving film about bullying, disability, and redemption.