[General] Most Depressing Anime?

How about Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien and Saikano? Mad depressing stuff.

Nah nah nah, dun dun dun, bem bem bem.

Makoto got exactly what he deserved in the end.

Reading this thread makes me really depressed. It confirms my fear that the new generation really is *that* dumb.

Didn't you guys watch anything made more than 5 years ago? You know stuff that was actually hand-drawn, had a captivating story with twist and turns, characters with a somewhat more shaded personality and most importantly less - or to be precise NO - pandering to fan boy services like moe, mecha porn and immature teenage girl stereotypes.

(Tsun-/yan-/kuu-dere, loli, ojou-sama, pantyshot, boobshot etc. the list is infinite. Keep in mind that just like with tropes the mere usage of these ingredients isn't what counts. The exclusive subordination of the show to these - ergo pandering - to the demerit of story and characterization IS).

Stuff like:

Ayashi no Ceres a classic shoujo manga remade into a bit lengthier series. While retaining most shoujo traits - pretty boys, the show's focus on the main heroine's romantic/love exploits - it was a fairly entertaining show that underneath it's pretty surface told a dark tale about fate, preordained destiny and the irritation and sheer fear one must feel when they're no longer in control of their life.

The story is juxtaposed through a classic (Japanese) fairy tale placed in a modern setting with a lot of funny as well as sour moments coming from their clash. Finally when one realizes what society and what mores - one where prearranged marriage and conforming to your peers and society as a whole - produced this tale the show even has something meaningful to tell.

Oh, and despite the myriad cheerful characters and initial light tone the show has some really dark moments and pretty fucked up turns in store for you.

Grave of The Fireflies: a show from Ghibli that for once is definitely *not* a family movie. This is something so good, or better phrased "powerful" as the story will punch you, jump up and down over you K.O.-d body and desecrate your remains. It *will* leave a lasting mark.

It's about a pair of (freshly) orphaned kids in Japan during World War 2. Their trials and tribulation and ultimate tragedy shows a different kind of war drama then what you're used to. It's not about fighting, weapons or even the grievous offenses committed during war (a tale that Japan still owes us as their war crimes are pretty close, and on some occasions out-shadows Auschwitz in cruelty, yet pretty much "unmentioned" in the West).

This is just a story about a young teenager and his much younger sister trying to survive in a country where charity is hard to come by and hardship is aplenty.

Infinite Ryvius: Lord of the Flies in SPACE! It's better than it sounds, and although there is some techno-bable and Evangelionish psycho-bable in the end this is a solid character study with a cast of dozens. Unfortunately this also means that most of the characters are barely portrayed, but the core cast - a handful is given a more thorough study.

Just like the book this is a depressing tale of how humans act when the safeties of society are finally stripped from them. One can bitch about the hip-hop soundtrack, the character designs of Hisashi Hirai (which is something of a fad among elities circles nowadays) in the end Ryvius is still a solid shows. Sometimes the execution may falter, sometimes the pieces may not fit neatly but in the end it manages to depict a great arc and tell a meaningful story through it.

Jin-Roh, The Wolf Brigade: Mamoru Oshii's last film to be entierly hand draws and a pretty depressive piece at that. It takes place in the same universe as his Panzer Cops manga - an alternative history where Japan was occupied by Germany not the USA in the '50 and failed to revitalize its economy.

It centers on a special gendarmerie, a Panzer Cop member who's has second thought about his life and a girl from the radical opposition, the Cult who likewise no longer sees her cause as something worth to live for. However neither of them is what they seem and they're on a collision course that can only end on tragedy.

Key The Metal Idol: another oddball title that just can't be stuffed into a single genre. It's about Key, a girl who's convinced she's just a puppet with no soul of her own and her friend Sakura who tries to help her on her quest to "become a proper girl". In a twist however Key needs the "adoration" of others, she needs to make friends - in other words she needs fans. However she holds some secret of her own that has a lot to do with her delusion(?) and others are out to get that secret regardless the cost.

Beyond this "mere" Pinocchio level we have several most allusion to artificial humans from Pygmalion to Jewish golems. The whole series screams "cyberpunk", without once using technical the staples of the genre like VR or cybernetics it still manages a good study of the edges and limits of "what is a human?" that is the core of the genre.

...and as usual, better prepare your heart as both the likable as well as the repugnant have tragedy ahead them in this story.

Neon Genesis Evangelion & The End of Evangelion: WTF! Do I actually need to introduce this? It's fucked up, it's full of judeo-christian symbolism that has nothing to do (you HEAR ME?!? NOTHING!) with the actual meaning or mores of the show as usual Gainax ran out of budget and most importantly it has made anime history.

Now and Then, Here and There: another show that does not pull it's punches.

You know the usual drill? Our protagonist is taken to an exotic world, where he meets cool people with whom he has fantastic adventures.

Now reverse all of the above.

He's taken to a crapsack world, to meet fairly ordinary people who will still manage to scare with what they do either out of necessity or greed. He does have adventures but they're desperate and things rarely go as he would with them to.

The show touches several sensitive topics from child abuse and child soldiers to rape and war. It never goes for mere melodrama, the characters act in a believable way that reinforces what's seen. Don't let the fact that the show ends on a hopeful tone fool you. Although things finally seem to get straitened out by then neither you the viewer or our hero is the same, innocence has been irrevocably stripped away.

Why is schooldays depressing?

its so bad compared to its novel form, i laughed at some of the scenes there.

The thing that quite made it depressing for me is what caused the mental breakdown of Kotonoha. D=

For the most depressing anime for me is Gundam Seed.