Sad Anime: Top 100+ Saddest Anime of All Time
We've gathered the top 100 saddest anime in this list for you. These are some of the best masterpieces of all time, and whether you're already familiar with this type of anime or just looking for some new anime to watch, this list will give you great inspiration in finding amazing shows that allow you to experience strong emotions. Sad anime shows of this list come from a variety of genres, but one thing they have in common is the sad and depressing atmosphere. Many shows are like this throughout their whole storylines, but sometimes just a single death or a character losing interest in life in an anime can cloud the whole series with depression and sadness. Take for example the case of Kōsei Arima leaving the piano untouched for a long time after her mother died in the show Your Lie in April, which makes many anime fans feel deep sadness. In case your favourite sad anime is not included on the list, you can vote it up to share it with other anime lovers.
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1
Black Butler
Black ButlerCiel Phantomhive, a thirteen-year-old boy (as of chapter 14) head of the Phantomhive household, an aristocratic family known as the Queen’s Guarddog. He is tasked with solving crimes in London’s underworld. Ciel has formed a…
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2
Ouran High School Host Club
Haruhi Fujioka is a scholarship student at the prestigious Ouran Academy, a fictitious high school for rich kids located in Bunkyo, Tokyo. Looking for a quiet place to study, Haruhi stumbles upon the abandoned Third Music Room, a…
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3
Sword Art Online
Sword Art Online (Japanese: ソードアート・オンライン Hepburn: Sōdo Āto Onrain) is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. The series takes place in…
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4
Naruto
A powerful fox known as the Nine-Tails attacks Konoha, the hidden leaf village in the Land of Fire, one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries in the Ninja World. In response, the leader of Konoha, the Fourth Hokage, seals the fox inside…
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5
Tokyo Ghoul
The story follows Kaneki Ken, a college student who barely survives a deadly encounter with Rize Kamishiro, his date who reveals herself as a ghoul. He is taken to the hospital in critical condition. After recovering, Kaneki discovers that he…
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6
One Piece
One Piece (Japanese: ワンピース Hepburn: Wan Pīsu) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha‘s Weekly Shōnen…
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7
Death Note
Death Note (Japanese: デスノート Hepburn: Desu Nōto) is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. The story follows Light Yagami, a high school…
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8
Naruto Shippūden
Naruto (ナルト) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, an adolescent ninja who searches for recognition from his peers and the village…
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9
Fairy Tail
Fairy Tail is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. It was serialized in Kodansha‘s Weekly Shōnen Magazine from August 2, 2006 to July 26, 2017, with the individual chapters collected and published into…
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10
No Game No Life
Sora and Shiro are two hikikomori step-siblings who are known in the online gaming world as Blank, an undefeated group of gamers. One day, they are challenged to a game of chess by Tet, a god from another…
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11
Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan (Japanese: 進撃の巨人 Hepburn: Shingeki no Kyojin, lit. “Advancing Giant”) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. The series began…
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12
Steins;Gate
Steins;Gate is set in 2010 in Akihabara, Tokyo, and follows Rintaro Okabe, a self-proclaimed “mad scientist”, who runs the “Future Gadget Laboratory” in an apartment together with his friends Mayuri Shiina and Itaru…
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13
Your Name
High school girl Mitsuha Miyamizu lives in the town of Itomori[note 1] in Japan’s mountainous Hida region. She is bored with the country life, and wishes to be a handsome boy in her next life. She begins switching…
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14
Sena Kashiwazaki
Sena Kashiwazaki is the female tritagonist of the Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai series. She is the first recruited member of the Neighbor’s Club and the daughter of Tenma Kashiwazaki, headmaster of St.…
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15
Charlotte
Charlotte takes place in an alternate reality where a short-period comet called Charlotte passes near Earth once every 75 years. As this happens, it spreads dust onto the Earth, which causes a small percentage…
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16
Your Lie in April
Piano prodigy Kōsei Arima dominates various music competitions and becomes famous among child musicians, but also controversial. When his mother Saki dies suddenly, he has a mental breakdown while performing at a piano recital which resulted in him…
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17
Assassination Classroom
Assassination Classroom (Japanese: 暗殺教室 Hepburn: Ansatsu Kyōshitsu) is a Japanese comic science fiction manga series written and illustrated by Yūsei Matsui. The series was serialized…
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18
Toradora!
Ryuji Takasu is frustrated at trying to look his best as he enters his second year of high school. Despite his gentle personality, his eyes give him the appearance of an intimidating delinquent. He is happy to be classmates with his best friend…
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19
Noragami
Hiyori Iki is a normal middle school student until she was involved in a bus accident while trying to protect a stranger. This incident causes her soul to frequently slip out of her body, and she becomes aware of the existence of two parallel…
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20
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Japanese: 鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Hepburn: Hagane no Renkinjutsushi: Furumetaru Arukemisuto) is an anime series adapted from the Fullmetal…
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21
Blue Exorcist
Blue Exorcist (Japanese: 青の祓魔師エクソシスト Hepburn: Ao no Ekusoshisuto) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kazue Katō. The manga has been serialized in Jump…
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22
Future Diary
Yukiteru Amano is a 14-year-old shy, daydreaming loner who observes life and jots down the events on his cell phone. His only friends are Deus Ex Machina, the God of Space and Time, and his assistant Muru Muru. Deus transforms Yukiteru’s…
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23
Angel Beats!
Angel Beats! takes place at a high school acting as a limbo for teenagers who have died, but experienced hardships or traumas when alive that they must come to terms with and accept before being given a second chance at life. Those in the…
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24
Bleach
Bleach (Japanese: ブリーチ Hepburn: Burīchi) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tite Kubo. Bleach follows the adventures of the hotheaded teenager Ichigo…
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25
Elfen Lied
Elfen Lied takes place in Kamakura and Kanagawa, and focuses on the “Diclonius”, a newly mutated species. Their appearance is similar to humans, but with several differences, namely horn-like protrusions on the…
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26
Akame ga KILL!
Tatsumi is a fighter who, accompanied by his two childhood friends, sets off to the Capital in search of a way to make money to assist his poverty-stricken village. After being separated from his friends in a bandit attack, Tatsumi…
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27
Heaven’s Lost Property
Tomoki Sakurai is a perverted teenage boy whose motto is “Peace and quiet are the best”, and often has dreams of meeting an angel. He finds it difficult to live in comfort when he has to put up with Sohara Mitsuki, his next-door neighbor…
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28
Blue Spring Ride
Futaba Yoshioka is a 17-year-old high school student who has an inferiority complex, as she has the need to fit with her female friends by acting brash towards the male students, due to a history of attracting the latter which made other girls…
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29
The Fruit of Grisaia
Yūji Kazami transfers to Mihama Academy, a school with only five female students and prison-like features. Every student in the school has their own “circumstances” for being there, but Yūji is not required to do anything about their…
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30
The World God Only Knows
At the start of the series, Keima receives an e-mail offering him a contract to “conquer” girls and, thinking it is an invitation to a game challenge, he accepts. In response, a cute demon from Hell named Elsie appears: a…
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31
Fruits Basket
When high school student Tohru Honda’s mother dies in a car crash, Tohru decides to live with her grandfather. Renovations on the house and unsupportive and unkind family members cause her to move out of her grandfather’s house…
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32
Clannad After Story
The first half of the story takes place primarily at Hikarizaka Private High School, a fictional school located in Japan. Outside of the school, frequented locations include the bakery run by Nagisa’s parents, and the dormitory…
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33
Golden Time
Banri Tada is a newly admitted male student at a private law school in Tokyo. Due to the after-effects of a fall from a bridge shortly after his high school graduation, he has lost all of his memories prior to the accident (retrograde amnesia).…
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34
Sword Art Online II
In 2022, a virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online (SAO) is released. With the NerveGear, a helmet that stimulates the user’s five senses via their brain, players…
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35
Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
A group of six sixth-grade-age childhood friends drift apart after one of them, Meiko “Menma” Honma, dies in an accident. Years after the incident, the leader of the group, Jinta Yadomi, has withdrawn from society, does not attend high…
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36
My Little Monster
My Little Monster focuses on the relationship between Shizuku Mizutani, who has absolutely no interests except in studying and her plans for the future, and a boy named Haru Yoshida, who sits next to Shizuku in class but rarely attends school.…
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37
Darker than Black
Ten years ago, a mysterious spatial anomaly now known as “Heaven’s Gate” appeared in South America, shortly followed by the opening of “Hell’s Gate” in Tokyo altering the sky and wreaking havoc on the landscape.…
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38
Soul Eater
Soul Eater (Japanese: ソウルイーター Hepburn: Sōru Ītā) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Atsushi Ōkubo. Set at the “Death Weapon Meister Academy”, the series…
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39
Clannad
The first half of the story takes place primarily at Hikarizaka Private High School, a fictional school located in Japan. Outside of the school, frequented locations include the bakery run by Nagisa’s parents, and the dormitory…
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40
Dusk Maiden of Amnesia
The story revolves around a first-year middle school student, Teiichi Niiya who had just enrolled at Seikyou Private Academy. When he gets lost in one of the school’s old buildings, he meets a girl named Yuuko Kanoe who reveals herself as a…
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41
Vampire Knight
Yuki’s earliest memory is of a stormy night in winter, where she was attacked by a rogue vampire and rescued by Kaname Kuran, a Pureblood vampire. Now ten years later, Yuki Cross, the adopted daughter of the headmaster of Cross Academy, Kaien…
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42
Plastic Memories
Plastic Memories takes place in a city in the near future, in which humans live alongside androids that look exactly like humans and have human emotion and memory. SAI Corp, the leading android production company, has introduced the…
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43
The Pet Girl of Sakurasou
Sakura Dormitory is a dorm of the high school affiliated with Suimei University of the Arts (often shortened as Suiko), which hosts the strangest, most trouble-making students. After being kicked out of the normal dorm for keeping a stray cat,…
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44
Berserk
Guts (ガッツ Gattsu) is a wandering mercenary who has known war and death since he was born from a hanged corpse and saved by his adopted mother, who died from the plague when he was only three years old. He was raised and trained…
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45
Code Geass
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ Kōdo Giasu: Hangyaku no Rurūshu), often referred to as simply Code Geass, is a Japanese anime series created by Sunrise, directed…
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46
Orange
The series focuses on Renton Thurston, the fourteen-year-old son of Adrock Thurston, a military researcher who died saving the world. He lives what he considers a boring life with his grandfather in a boring town. He loves lifting, a sport…
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47
Neon Genesis Evangelion
In 2015, fifteen years after a global cataclysm known as the Second Impact, teenager Shinji Ikari is summoned to the futuristic city of Tokyo-3 by his estranged father Gendo Ikari, director of the special paramilitary force Nerv.…
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48
Guilty Crown
High school student Shu Ouma encounters a wounded girl named Inori Yuzuriha, the vocalist of a popular internet group Egoist, taking refuge at his film club’s workshop. The GHQ Anti Bodies storm the workshop and arrest her for involvement with…
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49
Spirited Away
Ten-year-old Chihiro Ogino and her parents are traveling to their new home when her father takes a wrong turn. They unknowingly enter a magical world that Chihiro’s father insists on exploring. While Chihiro’s parents begin to devour the…
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50
Fullmetal Alchemist
Fullmetal Alchemist (Japanese: 鋼の錬金術師 Hepburn: Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, lit. ”Alchemist of Steel”) is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu…
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51
Shuffle
The story takes place in a fictional universe where humans live in harmony with gods, resembling humans with slightly pointed ears, and devils (demons in the English dub of the anime), who have more prominently pointed ears. Despite their…
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52
White Album 2
White Album 2 takes place in the same setting as its predecessor with approximately ten years having been elapsed since the events of the first White Album.[5]Introductory Chapter begins during the second half of October.[6]Closing…
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53
Fate/Zero
The story of Fate/Zero takes place ten years prior to the events of Fate/stay night, detailing the events of the Fourth Holy Grail War in Fuyuki City.[5] The Holy Grail War is a contest, founded by the Einzbern, Matou, and…
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54
Deadman Wonderland
A massive anomaly caused a great earthquake that ravaged Japan‘s mainland and destroyed most of Tokyo, sinking three-quarters of the city into the Pacific Ocean. Ten years later, the story shifts to Ganta Igarashi, a seemingly…
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55
Erased
The story follows Satoru Fujinuma, a young man who somehow possesses an ability known as “Revival” which sends him back in time moments before a life-threatening incident, allowing him to prevent it from happening again. When his mother…
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56
Parasyte
Parasyte centers on a male 17-year-old high school student named Shinichi Izumi, who lives with his mother and father in a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo, Japan. One night, strange worm-like creatures with drills as a ‘head’…
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57
Gin Tama
The story is set in an alternate late-Edo period, where humanity is attacked by aliens called “Amanto”, and the samurai of Japan join the battle against the aliens, but when the shōgun realizes the power of aliens, he betrays the…
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58
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
In the fictional city of Mitakihara, Japan, a middle school student named Madoka Kaname and her friend Sayaka Miki encounter a small, cat-like creature named Kyubey. It offers a contract in which a girl may have any wish…
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59
Love Hina
The story is a shōnen comedy that takes place in the Kanagawa Prefecture, and centers on Keitarō Urashima and his attempts to fulfill a childhood promise that he made with a girl to enter the University of…
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60
Accel World
Haruyuki “Haru” Arita is a short, overweight boy who is frequently ridiculed by delinquents at the Umesato Junior High School. Using his Neuro Linker to escape the torment of real life, he logs onto the school’s Local Network…
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61
One Week Friends
High schooler Yūki Hase notices that his classmate Kaori Fujimiya is always alone and seemingly has no friends. After approaching her and becoming better acquainted, Kaori reveals that every Monday she loses all memory of her friends. Despite…
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62
A Silent Voice
Shōya Ishida sets his affairs in order and walks to a bridge, intending to commit suicide. Coming to his senses at the last minute, he hears fireworks as he recalls his days in elementary school and the events that have led him to this point in his…
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63
Death Parade
Death Parade is a 2015 Japanese anime television series created, written, and directed by Yuzuru Tachikawa and produced by Madhouse. The series spawned from a short film, Death Billiards, which was originally produced by Madhouse for the Young…
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64
Nagi no Asukara
Since long ago, human civilization had lived on the ocean floor. However, there were many humans who wanted to live above the surface and they moved to land creating a fundamental separation between the two. After their school closes down, four…
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65
Princess Mononoke
In Muromachi Japan, an Emishi village is attacked by a demon. The last Emishi prince, Ashitaka, kills it before it reaches the village, but its corruption curses his right arm. The curse gives him superhuman strength, but will…
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66
Rurouni Kenshin
In the early Meiji era, after participating in the Bakumatsu war as the assassin “Hitokiri Battōsai“, Himura Kenshin wanders the countryside of Japan with a reverse blade katana, offering protection and aid to…
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67
Hotarubi no Mori e
The original Hotarubi no Mori e shōjo manga[1] and subsequent film tell the story of a six-year-old girl named Hotaru Takegawa, who gets lost in a forest inhabited by a yamagami, or mountain spirit, as well as yōkai (strange apparitions from…
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68
Grave of the Fireflies
On 21 September 1945, shortly after the end of World War II, a teenage boy, Seita, dies of starvation in a Kobe train station. A janitor sorts through his possessions and finds a candy tin, which he throws into a field. The spirit of Seita’s…
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69
5 Centimeters Per Second
5 Centimeters per Second (Hepburn: Byōsoku Go Senchimētoru) is a 2007 Japanese animated film produced, written and directed by Makoto Shinkai. The film was finished on 22 January 2007.[1] The first part of the film was released on Yahoo! Japan as…
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70
Violet Evergarden
The story revolves around Auto Memory Dolls (Jidō Shuki Ningyō): people initially employed by a scientist named Dr. Orland to assist his blind wife Mollie in writing her novels, and later rented out to other people who needed their services. In…
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71
Made in Abyss
The story is centered around an orphaned girl named Riko who lives in the Belchero Orphanage, which is located in the town of Orth on an island in the sea of Beoluska. The town surrounds a strange, giant hole going deep into the earth, which is…
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72
Kanon
Budding composer Tendou Kawahara flees to Mongolia after being belittled by renowned composer Gen Mikami. In Mongolia, Tendou meets Kanon, a Japanese girl who has a talent for playing the violin. After her mother’s untimely…
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73
Peach Girl
Momo Adachi is a former member of the high school swim team. She tans easily and her hair is bleached out; unfortunately, she is stereotyped by her ignorant classmates and is forced to endure rumors about being an “easy girl” who has had…
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74
Bokura ga Ita / We Were There
Nanami Takahashi, a teenage girl in her first year of high school, hopes to make new friends quickly. The center of attention at her school is Motoharu Yano, a very popular boy, whom Nanami dislikes at the beginning, due to his apparent…
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75
07-Ghost
Teito Klein is a former slave who now attends the Barsburg Empire’s military academy due to his ability to use Zaiphon, a type of supernatural power. The ability is rare and thus highly prized. Teito is an amnesiac who frequently has…
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76
Wolf Children
In Tokyo, Japan, college student Hana falls in love with an enigmatic man. One night, the man reveals that he can transform into a wolf, and they later have two wolf children: a daughter, Yuki, year later a son, Ame. Soon after, their father is…
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77
Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu
Subaru Natsuki is a hikikomori who does nothing but play games. One night, after visiting a convenience store, he is suddenly summoned to another world. With no sign of who summoned him, he soon befriends a silver-haired half-elf…
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78
Air
Air‘s story revolves around three girls whose lives are connected to the same man. In the first story arc, Dream, Yukito Kunisaki is a showman traveling across Japan, continuing his late mother’s search for the…
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79
Hakuouki
Chizuru Yukimura heads to Kyoto to search for her father, finding herself attacked by mad men before they are cut down by members of the Shinsengumi who take her into custody for interrogation. Upon learning that she is a girl and the daughter of…
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80
Chobits
The series centers on the life of Hideki Motosuwa, a held-back student attempting to qualify for university by studying at Seki prep school in Tokyo. Besides a girlfriend, he dreams of having a persocom: an android used as a personal…
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81
Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi
Ritsu Onodera, a literary editor, resigns from his father’s publishing company, due to his coworkers’ jealousy toward his success, claiming that he is simply riding his father’s coattails. He applies for a position at Marukawa…
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82
Brynhildr in the Darkness
Ten years ago, Ryota Murakami along with his childhood friend Kuroneko set out to search for signs of alien life. Although Ryota is skeptical about her theory, Kuroneko insists that aliens are real. During their search, a tragic accident occurs…
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83
Children Who Chase Lost Voices
Asuna Watase is a young elementary school girl who has been forced to grow up quickly ever since her father had died, while her mother, a nurse, works long shifts at a hospital. Asuna spends her solitary days listening to the mysterious music…
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84
Terror in Resonance
In an alternate iteration of the present, Tokyo has been hit by a terrorist attack that has devastated the city. The only evidence of the culprits is a cryptic video uploaded to the Internet, which sparks paranoia across Japan. Unbeknownst to…
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85
Nana
Nana Komatsu has a habit of falling in love at first sight all the time, and depending on other people to help her. When her friends, and then her boyfriend, leave for Tokyo, she decides to join them a year later after having saved enough money…
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86
Little Busters!
Little Busters!’ story revolves around the main protagonist Riki Naoe, a young male high school student. When Riki was a child, his parents died, leaving him hopeless and depressed. He was saved by a group—three boys and a girl, all his…
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87
Black Bullet
In the year 2021, mankind is ravaged by the epidemic of Gastrea, a parasitic virus, and is forced to live within the Monolith walls, which are created from Varanium: a metal that is able to subdue Gastrea. Soon, children who were born with the…
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88
Hell Girl
Each episode typically follows the format of a self-contained short story where a person has been suffering torment from an acquaintance to the point that he or she accesses the Hell Correspondence website and submits a request to get rid of the…
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89
Chrono Crusade
Chrono Crusade is set in the height of the Roaring Twenties, where jazz is king, bootleg liquor flows freely, and the mob rules the streets. It is a time of prosperity, luxury and decadence, and the division between rich and poor grows even wider in…
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90
Serial Experiments Lain
The series focuses on Lain Iwakura, an adolescent middle school girl living in suburban Japan, and her introduction to the Wired, a global communications network which is similar to the Internet. Lain lives with her middle-class family, which…
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91
School Live!
Yuki Takeya is a cheerful high school girl who lives at Megurigaoka Private High School (Megurigaoka Gakuin Kōtō Gakkō) and spends time with the School Living Club alongside fellow members Kurumi Ebisuzawa, Yūri Wakasa, and Miki Naoki. After…
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92
Shiki
The story takes place in a particularly hot summer in the 1990s, in a small quiet Japanese village called Sotoba. A series of mysterious deaths begin to spread in the village, at the same time when a strange family moves into the long-abandoned…
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93
Pandora Hearts
Oz is the heir to the Vessalius house, one of the Four Great Dukedoms given excessive power by the country’s royalty. He lives a luxurious life alongside his younger sister Ada and valet and best friend Gilbert. This extravagant lifestyle is…
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94
Mushishi
Mushishi is set in an imaginary time between the Edo and Meiji periods, featuring some 19th-century technology but with Japan still as a “closed country”.[5] The story features ubiquitous creatures called…
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95
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
After a massive earthquake in Tokyo 25 km under the sea at a magnitude of 8.0, two young siblings Mirai and Yūki, who were visiting a robot exhibition in Odaiba at the beginning of their summer vacation, struggle to reach their parents in…
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96
Wolf’s Rain
According to an old legend, when the end of the world comes, a place known as Paradise will appear. However, only wolves will know how to find it. Although wolves are believed to have been hunted to extinction nearly two hundred years ago, they…
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97
Colorful
Colorful is a Japanese manga series by Torajirō Kishi. It was eventually adapted into a 16-episode anime television series by Triangle Staff. The episodes are composed of vignettes typically involving men and teenage boys attempting to catch a…
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98
Sunday Without God
The story is set in a fictional world, where, fifteen years earlier, human beings lost the ability to have children and to truly die. Those who have died continue to exist, regardless of injury and decay. According to legend, God abandoned his…
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99
Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess
Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess is a 2012 Japanese animated fantasyaction film based on the shōnen manga and anime series Fairy Tail by Hiro Mashima.[2] It was directed by Masaya Fujimori, and its screenplay was written by anime staff…
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100
Rainbow: Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin
Rainbow: Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin (RAINBOW Reinbō: Ni-sha roku bō no shichi-nin), is a Japanese manga series written by George Abe and illustrated by Masasumi Kakizaki. It began serialization in 2002 in Shogakukan Publishing’s Weekly Young…
