I’d say Gurren Lagann. I mean, it doesn’t evoke the same amount of raw emotion as Grave of the Fireflies (because I don’t think anything does), but . . . well. You’ve just gotten past the final fight, and everyone’s celebrating, and . . . then that wedding, and the closing part of the framing scene. It’s like a punch in the gut, and it absolutely makes sense in the context of the story. That was not easy to pull off.

LOOK BACK always hits me right in the feels. Just a really sad story about losing a friend, but does it do a good job of showing just how much was lost! A great watch; highly recommended if you can find 50 minutes to spare.

My favourite tragic anime would be Sword Art Online if all they adapted was the seventh book, Mother’s Rosary, but since it started as a .hack//SIGN knockoff, it’s not really tragic, it’s just redundant. I say that as a fan — I mean, they’re both a stack of MMO tropes from the 90s. SAO is actually good, though. But you can’t call it tragic because of seven episodes, unless you also mean the stuff about the Moonlit Black Cats (i.e. the true mother of Kirito’s and Asuna’s child), the fate of Eugeo, and a few other things. Anyway, I still think it’s well written, though, more so the books than the anime. (I swear, I’m a fan, I just never drank the Kool-Aid.) (Also, season 4 was fine.) (Really calling down the thunder with that last one. It’s like telling Tokyo Ghoul fans the second season was better than the first.)

But my real favourite tragic anime is Your Lie in April. Does it have the best writing though? I mean, they signpost the ending in the OP of the first cour. That’s not very good. Love it to death though. A close second is Angel Beats!, but the ending kinda confused me a bit. That’s gonna be the honourable mention.

For my money, it’s Clannad, but Clannad isn’t without its problems. First, the name. The anime is named after Enya’s family’s band, over in Ireland, but has nothing to do with them. They thought the band name meant “family” in Gaelic so they rolled with it, and did not change the name when they were corrected. They just doubled down, so we have an anime called Clannad that has nothing to do with Clannad. THIS is Clannad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zHTcxVjX0I Yeah, you’ve heard it before. I think it’s a law in Eire (Ireland), if you make a movie about Irish people, it has to have Theme From Harry’s Game by Clannad in it. You get an exception if you use another Clannad song, an Enya song, or a U2 song. I’m sure that’s a law. Okay, anyway, there’s also this kinda bullshit thing the second season has going on that makes no sense. And the ending is dumb. But they tried. It was based on a visual novel (one of those point and click games where you try to get your character to bang the girl you think is the hottest), except it was sad. If you ditch the ending and you ignore the robot stuff, yeah, it’s pretty solid.

If you’re not willing to make those concessions, it’s Angel Beats!. Your Lie in April had the better ending, and probably has the best ending of any anime, ever, at least since Sword Art Online got a third season. We can’t say best show ever, because Six Feet Under is still a thing. I mean holy shit, if you wanna get wrecked and don’t mind live action, the first 55-ish episodes won’t hurt you much, but those last few, and especially the last 10 minutes of the last one… I’m still not okay hearing that Sia song. (Though it’s awesome and I love how they did the video.)