Friday Sad Hours: My Top 5 “I-Want-To-Drown-In-My-Own-Tears” Music from Anime

[Another Remaster, nice]

Hi, I am the Luminous Mongoose, and I cure my depression by listening to depressing music.

Hey, I’m honest, it works for me. Whenever I feel down, listening to downer music helps me relax and tune my inner angst to something more productive, like making a blog post about things that make me cry so strangers on the internet know my emotional frailty.

Well, if it means anything, making me cry is honestly not that hard. It’s still the most effective stress relief method I have to this day.

Without further ado, these are the musical pieces that make me want to bawl my eyes out whenever I hear them.

I got the idea after seeing Shokamoka’s music posts, check him out!

5. Lost My Pieces – Toradora

Link to Listen

Arranged by Yukari Hashimoto

I have very strong feelings about stuff. Maybe my emotions got all out of whack because I used to suppress them all the time back when I was a kid and I only recently learned to accept them, but it has reached a point where seeing titles of certain songs tugs at my heartstrings.

Lost My Pieces is such a fitting title for this piece. The soft piano melody at the beginning is mimicking Taiga’s soft and sad acceptance of letting Ryuuji go. However, as the violins start to build, the emotions of Taiga grow stronger as well, until the music reaches a crescendo as Taiga bursts into tears and runs for Ryuuji befire he loses him forever. It’s literally a song about Taiga breaking down and “losing her pieces.”

This hurts moreso now than ever before,lol.

4. My Song – Angel Beats

Link to Listen

Again, titles mean a lot for a song, even one as simple as “My Song.”

“sad_song.mp3” would probably too far, though.

This is Iwasawa’s own song, the very essence of her passion and sadness imbued into one gut-wrenching song.

I don’t have much to say about this as Iwasawa already tells you herself everything you need to know, all the pain that people go through and how to move on from it with our heads held high, with every word and pluck of her guitar string plucking your heart strings.

I have much to say now. Iwasawa’s song was a lot more than just fulfilling her last wish. It was her final way of pushing against the life that forbade her from fulfilling that wish. All of us have had passions be squashed without fanfare. Iwasawa’s song reflects how despite everything going wrong, the one thing that won’t ever go away is her love of music. It’s a bittersweet melody that shows us that while she’s angry at her own misfortune, it won’t let her be distracted from what truly makes her happy.

Made her happy. Damn it, man.

3. Shelter – Shelter

By Porter Robinson and Madeon

Link to Listen

To be honest, the reason why this is depressing is because of how ingrained the music video was for this song is in my head. Just hearing it makes me visualize it. I always listen to the music video version with the little girl Rin. It’s heart wrenching and yet the message at the end does drive home humanity’s will to survive as long as hope and memories can exist, vegetative state in a floating hunk of metal in the endless vacuum of space aside.

Well, that’s a cynical way to put it. I now see Rin as kind of like the Voyager for the entire human race. She is everything we have left, and her unwavering goal to never forget her father, and by extension, humanity, is what provides hope for us in the many futures to come.
I’m a sap, I know.

2. lit – Koe no Katachi

Composed by Kensuke Ushio

I have already talked about the song a bit here in my analysis of Koe no Katachi’s beautiful sound design, so here’s my quick thoughts on the piece.

It’s a very subdued and melancholy song in the first half, until the second half starts when it starts being clearer and louder. To me, it’s a song about lifting your spirits from drowning. That’s the reason why the muffled sounds of a piano gives way to the clear and loud orchestra by the end.

Considering this is Kenzaki Ushio’s first foray into orchestral music, this is a very wonderful piece and really gets the tears going for me.

Get ready for this amazing segue-

Oh, and speaking of an Ushio getting the tears going for me:

1. The Palm of a Tiny Hand – Clannad: After Story

Link to Listen

Do I even need to say anything? I think seeing that pic alone with that music is enough to turn anybody who has watched Clannad into a crying wreck. It’s an amazing song for one of the most heartwarming scenes in anime, period. Any analysis of I attempt of this song would be impossible as I would be too busy hitching breaths and getting my screen wet with my tears.

I love this song, I love this show, and I love you, dear reader, for crying along with me on this blog post.

Hope I didn’t ruin your day!

I super did.

– Lumi