These shows often deal with complex issues such as grief, trauma, and loss, and can be emotionally challenging to watch.However, they also offer powerful stories and characters that can resonate deeply with viewers. If you’re looking for anime shows that will touch your heart and leave you thinking long after the credits roll, then keep reading.
Here are the 10 anime shows that we’ll be discussing:
1. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
Image Courtesy: IMDb
Anohana The Flower We Saw That Day is a devastating anime that follows a group of childhood friends who are reunited after the accidental death of one of their own. The ending is heartbreaking, but the hopefulness and renewed bonds between the characters are truly moving.
2. NANA
Image Courtesy: IMDb
NANA is a love story that tries to find a way to wrap up a story in which everything goes wrong and everybody gets blown apart by misunderstandings and resentments. Despite the unfinished manga, the anime manages to end on a hopeful note.
3. Wolf Children
Image Courtesy: Wolf Children Official X account
Wolf Children is a sweet anime about a single mother raising two children who are half-wolf. The anime follows a mother who is grieving the loss of her husband and also struggling to raise children who aren’t fully human.
4. A Silent Voice
Image Courtesy: A Silent Voice Official website
A Silent Voice is a hopeful story of forgiveness and the power to change, dealing with issues of mental health and bullying. The story follows an elementary school boy who maliciously rips the hearing aids out of his classmate’s ears and later befriends her.
5. Orange
Image Courtesy: Orange Official X account
Orange is a slice of life story with a slight fantasy element, following a main character who receives a letter from her future self to prevent a tragedy from happening. It’s a story of second chances and making difficult choices.
6. Erased
Image Courtesy: Erased Official X account
Erased is a time travel anime in which the main character is able to go back in time to prevent a tragedy from happening. The story ends with him and his friends not quite getting it right, but at least coming to a point where they can put an end to the time travel and devastation.
7. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Image Courtesy: IMDb
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is a melancholy series that deals with genocide, grief, and trauma. Despite the comic relief and joy, the overall tone is very melancholy, but the teenage boys at the center of the story manage to beat the odds.
8. Haibane Renmei
Image Courtesy: IMDb
Haibane Renmei takes place in a mysterious world that seems to exist as a kind of afterlife, in which the characters all have wings and wear halos like angels. The story follows two young women living in this mysterious town, as they consider what it means to have committed sin and how it feels to be bound by feelings of guilt.
9. Paranoia Agent
Image Courtesy: IMDb
Paranoia Agent is a bizarre anime that tells the story of a baseball bat-wielding child on roller blades who assaults people who seem to be at the end of their rope. The main character’s penance for an accident she caused allows her to make Lil Slugger disappear.
10. Angel Beats!
Image Courtesy: IMDb
Angel Beats! is a series that takes place in a limbo-like world in which all of the characters are already dead. The characters can’t pass on until they deal with an unresolved trauma, making for a melancholy but ultimately hopeful story.
