The films of Makoto Shinkai are some of the most well known and well-loved anime out there. He is consistently able to create stories and worlds that tug at the heartstrings and show us a side to life that is emotive and heartfelt, and the up and coming filmmaker has been labeled as the next Hayao Miyazaki to boot.

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What really sets Shinkai's films apart though, are those moments that completely break our hearts. He pulls no punches when it comes to the heavy side of life, and it's hard to watch any of his films without being brought to tears at least once, but these ten moments are the ones that get us crying without fail every time.

10 Kanae And Tataki: 5 cm Per Second

During the second story of 5 cm Per Second, Tataki has moved schools and is pursued by one of his classmates, Kanae. While she finds many aspects of her life difficult, having trouble deciding what to do with her life and staying standing on her surfboard, her biggest struggle is telling Tataki she has feelings for him.

This journey comes to a head when she finally realizes that no matter what she does, Tataki will never see her the way she sees him, and silently prays for Tataki to stop being nice to her so she can get over him. The entire movie is relatable on some level or another, but unrequited love is something most of us have experienced at some point, and it makes the scene of the two walking home that much harder to watch.

9 The Stairwell Confession: The Garden of Words

Garden of words yukino

This short film centers on Takao and Yukari, two people who use the excuse of a rainy day to relax in a park. What starts as a fated meeting soon becomes the most anticipated part of the lives, until it is revealed that Yukari is, in fact, a teacher at Takao's school, who has resigned to escape the horrific bullying she endured at the hands of her students.

Their friendship and budding relationship comes to a bitter end when Yukari reveals she is moving away, shortly after Takao confesses his love for her. She immediately regrets trying to push him away and chases him down to a stairwell, where she tearfully admits that he is the reason she was able to get through such horrible experience and move forward with her life.

8 Mitsuha Realizes Taki Doesn't Know Her Yet: Your Name

Just after Mitsuha has set up Taki to go on a date with his co-worker, she realizes that she is in love with him and goes to Tokyo alone to finally meet him in person. Wondering the entire trip about how he would react, she never anticipated that when she finally came face to face with the boy she had been swapping bodies with throughout the film, he would have no idea who she is.

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This was when Mitsuha discovered the temporal aspect of their body swaps, and while trying to tell Taki who she is, she gives him her red hair tie and tells him her name. Taki wears this around his wrist for the majority of the film, believing it to be a lucky charm from a friend, although he can't remember who it was.

7 Daru Passes Away: She And Her Cat: Everything Flows

There are many difficult aspects to this short series, covering a girl's struggle with life after her friend moves out of their joint apartment, leaving her only company to be her pet cat, Daru. The series is told from the perspective of Daru as he watches his master try to get a foothold on being an adult, knowing he can't do much to help her but doing the best he can.

In the final episode, it is implied that Daru manages to call his owners mother, who is worried about her daughter, and peacefully passes away in his owner's arms in a short but incredibly heartbreaking moment.

6 Ikari Moves Away: 5 cm Per Second

Long-distance friendships can be tough, and that can be made even hard when both people don't have many other friends. As the instigating event for the entire film, Akari tearfully calls Tataki and tells him she is moving away with her family, and that they won't be able to see each other again.

What makes this scene even harder to watch is Tataki's recollection of the moment, as he can't think of a single thing to say to Akari to comfort her, and ends up sitting on his bedroom floor in silence with the receiver pressed hard against his ear.

5 The Train Ride: 5 cm Per Second

Everything about this scene is heartbreaking, as, from the moment Tataki steps on the train, everything goes wrong for him. Transport is being constantly delayed by the snow, and his 7 pm meet time comes and goes before he even makes it halfway to meeting Akari, and to top it all off, he loses the letter he intended to give her while waiting for a transfer line and breaks down in tears.

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What brings this all together is when, after finally making it to Akari's town nearly five hours late, sees that she has waited all this time for him, and they both cry for finally being able to see each other after so long.

4 Mitsuha Doesn't Finish Writing Her Name: Your Name

During the climax of this film, Taki and Mitsuha try to organize an evacuation of Itamori before the meteor impact, and are finally able to meet in person during "magic hour". Realizing that they don't have much time left together before the magic hour ends, Taki suggests that they write each other's names on the other person's hand so they don't forget.

As Mitsuha presses the pen to his hand, however, magic hour suddenly ends and he is left with only a single line drawn on his palm, and Mitsuha has disappeared back to her time. What makes this even harder is when we find out that Taki didn't actually write his name on Mitsuha's hand like the audience was led to believe.

3 Taki Didn't Write His Name: Your Name

Once the magic hour has ended, Mitsuha races back to see her father to try and convince him to evacuate the town before it's too late. As she tumbles down a hill, trying desperately to remember Taki's name before the memory is gone forever, she remembers that he wrote on her hand and finally turns it over to remind herself what it is. In an absolute tear-jerking moment, we see that Taki wrote "I love you".

While this is a moment so cute it defies worldly description, it also doesn't help Mitsuha in any way remember the name of the boy she fell in love with. Couldn't he have written his name somewhere in there too?

2 Hina Disappears: Weathering With You

Weathering With You is definitely more heartfelt than heartbreaking, although there are several tear-jerking moments throughout the film. The penultimate spot, however, goes to the moment when Hina is taken by the sky as a sacrifice to normalize the weather, and Hodoka wakes up to find her missing. This would have been bad enough on its own, but then we are treated to a scene of Hina laying in on top of a cloud, as the rain washes away the ring Hodoka gave her for her birthday, and her transparent body doesn't allow her to keep hold of it before it falls back to Earth.

1 Taki Finds Out Itamori Was Destroyed: Your Name

Possibly the single most heartbreaking moment in all of film history is the moment when Taki, after becoming unhealthily obsessed with finding Mitsuha and meeting her, discovers that not only were they swapping bodies from different times, but that she has been dead for three years. The shot of Taki being told what happened to Itamori, looking on at the massive crater the meteor left in its wake is almost too hard to watch.

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