Love is a theme often explored in many types of anime. The more common trope that fans see is when the main character gets the girl after overcoming adversaries one after the other and goes to great lengths to be with them.
However, there are also anime shows where the main character loses the girl they love despite their best efforts. These stories can be heartbreaking and emotional, but they offer a unique perspective on love and the human experience.
6 Erased
The Erased anime series follows the story of 29-year-old manga artist Satoru Fujinuma, who has a unique ability called Revival. His ability sends him a little while back in time to prevent a tragedy from occurring. However, one day, Satoru’s ability sends him 18 years back in time as an opportunity to save his mother while preventing a kidnapping incident that took the life of his friend, Kayo Hinazuki.
After a long and arduous process to prevent the kidnapping and eventual death of Kayo Hinazuki, Satoru succeeded. Unfortunately, he entered a coma shortly after, and his coma lasted for 15 years. When he woke up, his childhood sweetheart, whom he saved, was married to someone else with a child. Although no one would expect Kayo to wait 15 years for Satoru, he had wholly lost her to someone else.
5 Your Lie In April
As a touching musical anime show, Your Lie in April portrays the life of Arima Kosei, a child prodigy who lost his musical talents after the passing of his mother. Fast-forward to high school, where Arima meets the enigmatic and cheerful violinist Kaori Miyazono. From strangers, the duo becomes friends, and Kaori becomes a strong force in restarting and pushing Arima’s music career.
As the duo interacts, feelings of love begin to blossom between them. However, Kaori sidelines Arima’s advances. Meanwhile, Kaori’s health rapidly degenerates, and she is hospitalized. To play with Arima once more, she attempts a risky surgery but ultimately does not make it. While playing in a piano competition, Arima realizes she is dead and becomes dejected. After his performance and during Kaori’s burial, Arima is given a letter from Kaori by her parents. Through the letter, Arima learns how Kaori knew of her impending death and her love for him.
4 School Days
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The School Days anime series shows the love triangle between Makoto Ito, Kotonoha Katsura, and Sekai Saionji. Makoto falls in love with Kotonoha Katsura, who rides the same train with him to school every day. As Kotonoha knows little of Makoto’s existence, he employs the help of his friend, Sekai Saionji. Unknown to Makoto, Sekai is in love with him but helps him in his attempts to get Kotonoha. To do this, she engages in sexual practices with him in the name of training.
By a twist of fate, Kotonoha notices and falls in love with Makoto. However, Seiya is now pregnant with Makoto’s child, but he rejects her and the pregnancy. After multiple rejections from Makoto, Seiya stabs him with a knife, ultimately killing him. Soon after, Kotonoha discovers Makoto’s corpse and deceives Seiya into meeting with her. From there, she kills Seiya and sails away with Makoto’s decapitated head. At the end of the series, Makoto lost not only both girls but his life as well.
3 Anohana
Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day is an anime series that follows a group of childhood friends who have grown apart since the death of their friend Menma. The story revolves around Jinta Yadomi, the protagonist, who starts seeing Menma's ghost, and she tells him that she cannot pass on to the afterlife because there is a wish that she wants to be fulfilled. To fulfill Menma’s wish, Jinta regroups with his childhood friends as he confronts his feelings for her.
Jinta ultimately loses Menma when she is finally able to fulfill her wish and move on to the afterlife. In a poignant scene, Menma appears before Jinta one last time to say goodbye. She tells him that she loves him but that she must go, and she disappears into the sky. Jinta is left with a bittersweet feeling, both sad and relieved that Menma has finally found peace.
2 I Want To Eat Your Pancreas
The protagonist of the story, Haruki Shiga, stumbles upon a diary in a hospital waiting room. Upon reading it, he discovers that the diary belongs to his classmate, Sakura Yamauchi. In the diary, Sakura confesses that she is suffering from a fatal pancreatic illness but is determined to lead a normal life. Haruki’s calm and composed demeanor in the face of her illness draws Sakura to him, and they begin spending time together, eventually becoming friends.
As friends, Haruki and Sakura begin to spend time together. From there, it does not take long before the duo develops romantic feelings for each other. However, as soon as Sakura enters the hospital, a string of unfortunate incidents begin to happen. Although Haruki expected to lose Sakura, fate was crueler than he imagined and took her away long before he was ready.
1 Toradora!
Toradora! is a romantic comedy anime series about two high school students, Ryuji and Taiga. Ryuji is a gentle and kind-hearted guy, but his appearance makes him look like a delinquent. Taiga, on the other hand, is a small, petite girl with a fierce personality. Despite their differences, they both have a crush on each other's best friend and decide to team up to help each other confess their feelings.
In a twist of fate, Taiga helping Ryuji works out, and her best friend, Minori, eventually falls for him. However, at that point, Taiga had also fallen for Ryuji, and Minori, realizing it, rejected Taiga’s advances for the sake of her best friend. In this way, Ryuji lost his first love interest before going for Taiga.