The romance genre is one that has existed for centuries and has captivated audiences over the ages. Humans do love love, and enjoy seeing its depiction on the screen, stage, or in the pages of their favorite books.

Romance can be feelgood stories, and beautiful to behold. However, there does seem to be something special about a tragic romance story. Even with centuries gone by, there is still an endless fascination with Romeo And Juliet. Doomed love holds the attention of an audience more than any other. But how about it in anime and manga? Many such stories have made readers and viewers shed tears for their protagonists, and have become classics in the process.

10 Orange

MAL Rating: 7.62

• Type: Anime
• Episodes/Chapters: 13
• Year: 2016

Orange follows Naho Takamiya, a highschool girl who receives a letter from her future self 10 years later. In the letter, she is warned to keep an eye on the new student, Kakeru Naruse.

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In the future, Kakeru had committed suicide, and now Naho was in a race to ensure history didn’t repeat itself. In the middle of this, she develops feelings for Kakeru, and the two enter into a romantic relationship. Orange is heartbreaking, and explores some pretty mature themes. The mix of the time travel element and romance is a tired trope, but it works very well in Orange.

9 Clannad: After Story

MAL Rating: 8.93

• Type: Anime
• Episodes/Chapters: 24
• Year: 2008

Clannad: After Story is infamous for its very sad themes, but it is an absolutely beautiful piece of art. For anyone who followed the story of Tomoya and Nagisa,After Story was something of a fulfillment of everything that had come before.

Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last long as, while Tomoya and Nagisa are now married, her sickness takes a turn for the worse. Even more depressing is the fact that their daughter also has her mother’s disease. Death comes for Nagisa, and eventually, for Ushio, their daughter. Tomoya, torn to shreds, apparently dies along with his daughter. The end of the anime did offer some hope and, while controversial, it does give the option of a happier conclusion.

8 A Song To The Sun

MAL Rating: 7.59

• Type: Manga
• Episodes/Chapters: 4
• Year: 2006

A common trope in the tragic romance genre is a health issue, and the reader or viewer will come across all sorts of examples. In A Song To The Sun, the disease in question is quite unique and is known as Xeroderma Pigmentosum. This disease makes it impossible for the sufferer to stay in the sun.

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The protagonist, Kaoru Amane, is afflicted, and therefore only goes out at night. She eventually develops a relationship with Fujishiro Kouji, a boy who she had been admiring from afar. Their relationship is a sweet one to witness, and while the reader might know what’s coming at the end, it doesn’t make the journey any less enjoyable.

7 Will You Marry Me Again If You Are Reborn?

MAL Rating: 8.61

• Type: Manga
• Episodes/Chapters: 26
• Year: 2019

Toranosuke Ibuki and his wife Kaoru Okouchi are in love with each other, and have been that way from the very beginning. Even with Toranosuke bedridden in the hospital, and advanced in age, Kaoru stays by his side.

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The story is a painful one, but the beauty is in that pain. It's a story of ordinary people going through some of the most traumatic things imaginable, but love still being able to shine through is one of the big themes in the manga. Toranosuke would meet his end, and was soon joined by Kaoru, but the ending leaves a bittersweet feeling as the reader gets the sense that they both had a life well spent.

6 Ride Your Wave

MAL Rating: 7.61

• Type: Movie
• Episodes/Chapters: 1
• Year: 2019

Typically, in many of the tragic romantic anime and manga out there, the female protagonist is the one to bite the dust while we follow a male lead trying to come to terms with their loss.

Ride Your Wave flips that on its head, as the female protagonist, Hinako, is the one who suffers the loss of her beloved Minato. The story follows how Hinako picks up the pieces of her life as she works towards one day moving on from her great love. It’s a story of love, loss, and letting go. As a movie, it's a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and will leave many viewers broken hearted at its end.

5 What Do You Do At The End Of The World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?

MAL Rating: 7.67

• Type: Anime
• Episodes/Chapters: 12
• Year: 2017

Simply called WorldEnd, because obviously, writing out the name in full is a bit of a chore, the story follows Willem, who is the last human alive after the near extinction of the species.

Willem falls in love with Chtholly, a fairy he meets after waking from a 500-year petrification, and the two take on the mysterious beast monsters that plague the world. While the sci-fi elements of this show are strong, the romance is perhaps stronger, as Chtholly is completely devoted to Willem and vice versa. The end sees the lovers separated by death, although it seems Chtholly was reincarnated and, according to the novel, Willem also gets to come back.

4 Saikano

MAL Rating: 7.14

• Type: Anime
• Episodes/Chapters: 13
• Year: 2002

The story of Saikano is heart-rending as it explores themes of love and what it means to be human. At the center of it is Chise, a shy girl who is in love with her childhood friend, Shuuji. Unknown to everyone, Chise is actually a weapon of mass destruction, made that way against her will.

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She and Shuuji date as they both question the validity of their circumstances and the vagaries of war. Saikano is a beautiful story that will wreck a lot of people and again shows the perfect mix between love and war.

3 Sola

MAL Rating: 7.18

• Type: Anime
• Episodes/Chapters: 13
• Year: 2007

Sola features a lovely romance between the artist, Yorito, and Matsuri, a mysterious girl who is actually something known as a ‘Yaka’. Yorito loves taking pictures of the sky, while Matsuri is a bit clumsy and believes anything can be fixed with a good kick.

The relationship between the two is the driving force of the story, but as viewers peel back the layers of Yorito’s tragic past, they will become horrified by an inevitable end for the doomed lovers.

2 Tokidoki

MAL Rating: 8.02

• Type: One-Shot
• Episodes/Chapters: 1
• Year: 2016

This one-shot written by the creator of Nisekoi, is a short, sweet, and painful read as the reader grapples with the question: if life could be measured by heartbeats, how would life be lived? Hatsu has a rare disease where her heart is weak, and her heartbeats limited, so she avoids anything strenuous and isolates herself to try to live longer.

But she meets Hato, who is determined to shorten that lifespan by making her heart beat faster. He helps her truly live even when the flame is soon to be snuffed out. The reader should prepare for a gut-wrenching reveal which truly leans into the tragic elements of the story.

1 Half & Half

MAL Rating: 7.76

• Type: Manga
• Episodes/Chapters: 14
• Year: 2012

Tragic romance stories seem to work really well when they are short and sweet, and so it was with Half & Half. Shinichi Nagakawa and Yuuki Sanada both die and are given seven days to live as dictated by God, who also adds the condition that they will share their lives together while doing so. This means anything one feels, the other also feels. This enables the mangaka to explore some fascinating themes.

The tragedy was always set up from the beginning, but was executed satisfyingly, in a way that leaves the reader depressed, but with the tinge of a smile. With only 2 chapters, this is a story worth reading in one go.

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