Anohana has been considered the most enthralling anime which not only made the viewers cry like kids but also gave them the importance of friendship. The story follows six friends, one of them being Menma who was the acting leader of this group of friends.
Menma’s death took a heavy toll on each person in the group, making them distant from each other.
However, Menma’s spirit tries to bring them all back together as her final wish, and eventually, she will be able to pass on into the afterlife. Anohana received praise from all over the globe for its endearing heartfelt storyline.
Here are a few anime that hold somewhat of a resemblance to Anohana, which are also widely acclaimed for making viewers cry.
Anime to watch if you like Anohana
8) Kokoro Connect
Kokoro Connect is a supernatural rom-com anime that is popular for its captivating plot and fascinating characters. The story follows five students of Yamaboshi Academy who congregated together and formed the “Student Cultural Society,” to compensate for the fact that the academy doesn’t have a club.
On a fated day, two of the characters Yui and Aoki experienced a strange phenomenon where both switch their bodies for a while out of the blue. Later, randomly each person in the group experiences the same anomaly.
Everything that was happening was amusing to them until they discover each other’s painful scars that they kept buried within them.
7) Erased
Satoru Fujinuma possesses the ability of “Revival” where he can go back in time to prevent life-threatening situations from occurring. When Satoru’s mother gets murdered, he travels 18 years back in time to find the culprit and to prevent her death. He also prevented the kidnapping of his friends that occurred in 5th grade.
Satoru’s constant efforts to make everything right as well as altering the future for a better tomorrow set him on the path of saving everyone he holds dear to himself.
6) Orange
Naho Takiyama, a high school student, receives a strange letter from herself, 10 years from the future. In this letter, she states everything that happened and is going to happen. Naho Takiyama's future self, hopes her past self can make a difference by not repeating the same mistakes.
She also mentioned the new transfer student Kakeru Naruse, who must be protected because he is no longer around in the future. Now while she knows everything that’s going to happen, she has to take careful steps towards along with protecting Kakeru.
5) Clannad
Clannad centers on a third-year delinquent named Tomoya Okazaki from Hirazaki High School. Tomoya likes nothing particular in his life or anything else. He has a self-reserved personality where he avoids conversation with his classmates. One day, Tomoya walks into Nagisa Furukawa, who is muttering to herself.
Nagisa claims they are friends to which Tomoya had no reaction as he walked away. Witnessing more of her presence lately, he eventually befriends her. Tomoya finds out that Nagisa is held back a year due to her illness and also gets to know about her dream of reviving the school’s drama club.
Along with four girls, he tries to help Nagisa accomplish her dream. As Tomoya witnesses a drastic change, he finds out life is not that dull.
4) Angel Beats
Otonashi wakes up and the only thing he realizes is that he is dead and has no memories of himself except his name. He sees a girl named Yuri carrying a rifle who explains that he is in the afterlife and identifies herself as the leader of an Afterlife Battlefront where she wages war upon Gods and their underlings.
Yuri especially aims to destroy Tenshi, who is a servant of God. Otonashi tries to talk it out with Tenshi believing she might not be that evil but she proved him wrong by attacking him.
Otonashi later tries to figure out a place in the afterlife and find his purpose. He eventually joins the Battlefront to fight Tenshi, but in the process, he develops feelings towards her.
3) Into the Forest of Fireflies
Hotaru who gets lost in the forest gets rescued by a masked forest spirit named Gin. She comes to know that if the spirit came into contact with a human's physical touch, he would disappear.
Hotaru promises Gin that she will visit him again with a gift. Both of them developed a strong bond as Hotaru visited Gin every summer. The story is about two people who are closer to each other yet so far away.
2) A Silent Voice
As an elementary school bully, Shoya Ishida used to kill time by hurting those who are weaker than him. Shouko Nishiyama, a transfer student who was deaf, tried to become friends with Shoya as he is her classmate. However, he showed her nightmares by bullying her along with his friends. Soon, he was ostracized by everyone and blamed for everything he has done to her.
He later set out on a path of redemption to atone for what he did to Shouko. He realizes that he was indeed not a good person in the past, which drives him to an extent where he tried to commit suicide.
A Silent Voice is a story of a person who regretted his every action in the past. As he gets reunited with Shouko, he tries his best to amend what he did.
1) Your Lie in April
Kosei Arima, who is a prodigious pianist, abandoned his skills after his mother’s death as he wasn’t able to hear the sound of his own piano. One day he meets Kaori Miyazano, a brilliant violinist who enters his life and tries to set him right back on the track of music again.
He rediscovers his lost art and comes to know about Kaori’s secret which turns his world upside down. Your Lie in April isn’t just a story about the affection between two characters. It’s about taking control of your own life even while everything feels redundant.