Saikano
Madoka

Cowboy Bebop.
ToraDora made me tear up but it's not really "sad".

kanon
its like clannad except not shit

Angel Beats, definitely.

If I'm being 100% honest with you guys, I've seen the finale at least twice, and I still get misty-eyed just thinking about it.

It's by the guy who writes for Key, so, naturally, it's going to bum you the fuck out. They also did Clannad, so there's a connection there. It's a bit of a romance. I say 'bit of' because the 'romance' doesn't really begin per se until the last half of the series.

I don't know, maybe it's me being a faggot, but I haven't been into a series that much in so long. Something about it just resonated with me.

>>2591
Angel Beats and clannad are small time Key.

You can try Makoto Shinkai's other works, The Place Promised in Our Early Days and Voices of a Distant Star. I don't think either are as good as 5 cmps but they're still good.

A couple non-romance anime I found sad were Kaiba and Rainbow. Actually Kaiba does have some romance to it now that I think about it.

I'll also second Angel Beats, though I can't recommend other Key anime because they're adaptations and the source material is much better.

>>2593
What? Clannad is Key's magnum opus.

>>2591
And I love Key just for the fact that they make delicious, tasteful girls somewhere during and after Clannad.

>>2595
are you bad mounting every vn key made before clnnaids? becuase it sounds like you're bad mounting every vn key made before clnnaids, you better not be bad mounting every vn key made before clnnaids if you know what's good for you, or you'll find out what happens to guys that bad mounting every vn key made before clnnaids around here.

>>2594
clannad is when key started to go down hill.

Seconding ToraDora, but you either absolutely love it or absolutely hate it. The soundtrack really made it for me.

Wow, I must really hate romance. I thought most of the series mentioned here (sans Kaiba, Rainbow and Cowboy Bebop; then again, those aren't romance series) are pretty bad. Oh well.

As for recommendations a slight hint towards Honey and Clover (the protagonist's romantic interest is a proto-moeblob; the other love traingle is more interesting, though) and a bigger one towards Nana (don't expect 'sad romance' - we're talking downright drama here).

Also Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo and Tsumiki no Ie/La Maison en Petits Cubes if you haven't seen those already.

>>2599
That's because they were pretty bad, in both terms of over all quality, with many shows here being a joke in terms of romantic content.
most of the shows named here are more comedy/harem then romance
to say shows like toradora and angel beats are romantic? ...really now?

>>2600

Yeah, I always said ToraDora! is a rather standard RomCom harem fare. Not sure why so many people like it so much.

As for Angel Beats!... I think I have never seen a show so poorly executed. It felt as if they came up with the whole story doing one of those threads where once person starts a story and then other people write the next part. What usually happens in those threads is that everybody has some nice ideas but at the same time everybody tries to selfishly pull the story towards that one particualr idea in hopes other will write a follow up to it. It never happens and there is absolutely no focus to be found it them. That's what AB was all about.

Angel Beats!:

- began with a somewhat interesting premise which the writer apparently forgot about by third episode (at best)
- introduced a dozen of characters, most of whom got no screen time at all and felt cardboard thin
- was very formulatic at times, to the point when one had to wonder 'is it really this poorly written or is the author trying to lampshade the poor formula?'
- changed the format of the show every two episodes, going back and forth between episodic and plot-focused series
- up until the very last episode couldn't decide whether it was supposed to be a serious and somewhat touching story or a poor high school comedy
- was littered with plot holes
- had terrible pacing which resulted in episode long stories about some characters and a 20 seconds long scene where some 200 people disappeared

Etc. etc. etc.

>>2599
Honey and Clover is great, easily my favorite romance anime, but I didn't find it particularly sad. OP should watch it anyway.

>>2600
The guy only called Angel Beats "a bit" of a romance. As for Toradora it is romance. How good of one is debatable, but that's a different matter.

>>2601
>Not sure why so many people like it so much.
It was a rather mediocre season, as always the masses needed something to be the "it" anime for the time being.