If you're looking for some heartbreaking romances, we've compiled a list of the most tragic anime couples. Remember to bring tissues!
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Hatori and Kana from Fruits Basket
Fruits Basket is filled with tragic storylines, with some of the secondary ones being just as memorable as the main characters' struggles.
Hatori, one of Yuki and Kyo's older cousins, is among the series' most tortured characters. His ability to erase others' memories means that he's witnessed the tragedy of every Sohma family member.
Unfortunately, Hatori himself is not exempt. When the head of the family traumatizes Hatori's girlfriend, Kana, Hatori erases her memories of him to give her the chance to heal, ending the relationship most bitterly.
Lucy and Kouta from Elfen Lied
Elfen Lied's Lucy has led a tragic, brutal life. Once, Kouta used to be her one solace, but humanity's cruelty brought out the worst in her, causing her to irrevocably scar her favorite person in the world.
Kouta tried very hard to move on, and tragically, he and Lucy met again as young adults, with no memories of each other.
Rather than being an opportunity for a new beginning, this reunion brings even more tragedy.
Ash and Eiji from Banana Fish
Ash and Eiji's relationship could have been taken out of one of the modernist masterpieces from which Banana Fish derives its episode titles.
Their chance encounter is one of the most heartwarming and ship-worthy we've ever seen.
Unfortunately, luck is rarely on their side. Forget the stories where the morally superior protagonists are rewarded for their efforts.
Ash and Eiji's star-crossed love is full of modernist nihilism, with tragedy ensuing consistently without a particular reason.
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Rean and Gugu from To Your Eternity
Gugu is such a loveable character whose devotion made us cry. As a child, he got permanently disfigured trying to save his love interest, Rean, from what would have been a fatal accident.
Rean grows up not knowing who her savior is. Her and Gugu's paths cross again, and the two develop a heartwarming relationship.
However, Gugu is unable to express his feelings, and she only realizes her own when it's too late, making their story one of the saddest in To Your Eternity.
Ozma and Salem from RWBY
Some relationships cause pain to no one but the participants. Some anime relationships, however, can ruin the world.
Later RWBY episodes reveal that Salem's obsession with her dead lover led her to increasingly desperate actions.
Ultimately, Salem's attempts to bring Ozma back to life angered the gods and destroyed the world's balance, changing everything.
Worse still, Salem becomes a bitter, angry part of the new world known as Remnant, and she's still very much a threat.
Suzaku and Euphemia from Code Geass
What makes Suzaku and Euphemia such a tragic anime couple is that, for a while, you think they might achieve their shared dreams.
He's a deuteragonist whose moral compass is in stark opposition to Lelouch's end-justifies-the-means philosophy, while she's one of the few Britannian royals not to be a violent colonizer.
Naturally, Suzaku and Euphemia become a team and share their vision for a kinder world.
Lelouch's Geass puts an end to their hopes, bringing the plot of Code Geass to a point of no return.
Lelouch and Whoever You Ship Him With
Lelouch might be the reason Euphemia and Suzaku never got a happy ending, but his own life is also very complicated.
Given his devotion to his goal to destroy Britannia, no love interest could ever live safely by his side. That makes any possible relationship of his tragic.
Arguably, the one who had it worst was his classmate, Shirley. Her nonreciprocal love for Lelouch makes her life sad enough.
To make matters worse, she had the opportunity to forget about him and therefore remain safe from his machinations.
Socializing with Lelouch anew, with all her memories of him erased, didn't change much, as Shirley fell in love with him all over again, sealing her tragic fate.
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Jintan and Menma from AnoHana
Menma and Jintan from AnoHana might not have been a long-term couple. Their tragedy lies in the fact that they'll never know because Menma died in childhood.
As a child, Menma was in love with Jintan. In all probability, it wouldn't last, as few people marry their primary school crush. But it would have been a sweet memory, and Menma never got to have that due to her accident.
Yuzuru and Kanade from Angel Beats!
Angel Beats! is full of tragic storylines, and those of the main characters, Yuzuru and Kanade, are no exception.
For most of the anime, the two young people are trapped in a purgatory-like situation and they don't know what each means to the other.
To make matters even more heartbreaking, they only have a short moment together when Kanade realizes what Yuzuru did for her in the past.
Jirou and Naoko from The Wind Rises
The Wind Rises is among the saddest Ghibli films. A sad biopic, it will make you consider the nature of war and the place of science and technology in an era of endless violence, much like Oppenheimer.
Much of the anime movie revolves around Jirou's fascination with airplanes, but his relationship with Naoko is also an important part of his life.
Unfortunately, Naoko develops tuberculosis at a time when the disease was most often a death sentence, making The Wind Rises a harrowing experience.
Kousei and Kaori from Your Lie in April
Your Lie in April is notorious amongst fans of romance anime, with some viewers fearing that ongoing romances with similar vibes could get equally tragic endings.
Kaori and Kousei help and inspire each other. However, Kaori's illness means that their relationship is doomed from the beginning.
Sakura and Haruki from I Want to Eat Your Pancreas
In the mid and late 2010s, heartwrenching romances in which one or both love interests suffered from an incurable disease were common in Japan and the rest of the world (think The Fault in Our Stars).
The oddly titled I Want to Eat Your Pancreas is one such sad anime movie.
To make matters even more complicated, what ends this particular romance isn't the disease itself, but another tragedy, forcing us to ponder on the randomness of life.
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