Saddest Anime Death

I feel at this point I will be treading over familiar territory as we have had “most shocking moment” and “saddest scene”. Now while those other categories don’t necessarily include saddest death, they don’t exclude it either. So I will, instead of naming the “Saddest Death” (because Steins;  Gate and Clannad dominate that for me),  name another sad death moment without weighting it against others.

Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

The final scene.

Now, arguably, Menma was already dead. However,her spirit was not at rest.

The group of childhood friends held on to their grief, guilt, and pain, never letting Menma truly die. Her spirit returns to finish her business so she can move on, but this means her friends, in life, needed to find a way to let her go and let go of their own pain associated with her death. And in this way Menma, finally, actually dies.

 The final scene is beautiful, sad, and joyful all in one. It gets me every time.

Excuse me….got something in my eye (*sniff*)..Happy Viewing!