DOWNERS -or- Anime that Need Not Be Watched While Depressed, Melancholy or Blue

As an erudite anime aficionado, one would assume I could select a series to scrutinize without much trouble.  Not so.  In a blue mood, somewhat melancholy of late, do I do the smart thing and pick something rousing to lift my spirits (say, Samurai Champloo or Full Metal Panic!), or amusing to tickle my funny bone (like Ghost Stories or Cromartie High), or even something mindlessly entertaining (perhaps Lucky Star or Karin)???  . . . . . No, rather than an informed choice, I pick out a series carefully crafted to deepen depression and solicit sniffles, sobs and snotty noses.

What would possess me to pop Air into my DVD player? 

Oh, it may look all happy and loving and smiley right now. 

Just wait until age-old curses and supernatural beings come into play. 

Every one of those characters will be crying like a hungry baby with a shitty diaper.

I may as well have chosen 5 Centimeters Per Second, Neon Genesis Evangelion or Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal.  Air follows a cursed main character who is destined to die if she ever gets close to anyone.  She has fits when she starts to care about friends, loses the ability to walk, and is racked by great pain.  She was abandoned by her parents and left in the care of an aunt who, in turn, refuses to get close to her (because she's afraid the little girl will eventually be taken away from her).  Her ancestor (sort of) was a "winged creature" and cursed centuries ago.  The story follows her trying to have a happy summer, trying to fill her picture book with "happy memories" and her trying to make friends and often failing.  It is beautifully animated and has a score clearly contrived to coax more tears from unsuspecting viewers (like me).

** SPOILER ALERTS**

For heaven's sake, the main character ends up in a wheel chair, has 24 hours of happiness, and then dies.  DIES!  What's more, she dies after rising from the wheelchair, walking about 20 feet to her aunt, embracing her and then dies while the aunt holds her on the beach in the surf. 

The entire series is designed like Steel Magnolias on steroids.  Hardly an episode goes by where something depressing doesn't happen.  And something nonetheless possessed me to continue requesting the next disk from Netflix.  Other series are depressing in bursts....  The last few episodes of Cowboy Bebop get me crying every time.

See you, space cowboy.

Multiple episodes of Samurai 7 get me teary eyed.

Don't DIE on me, Heihachi!  I don't care that you don't mind being "in the rice!"

The last episode of Moribito has to get you misty if you have a heart.

SERIOUSLY.  You better get choked up, you heartless bastard.

Even shows that are majority tinged with sadness usually mix in enough good spirits and laughs that you aren't left feeling emotionally drained.  Fruits Basket manages to be heartfelt but still enjoyable.

See?  Open arms!  Smile!  Happy ending!!!

So, lesson learned.  Viewing choices must be made sensitive to one's mood.  And I can't imagine under what exceptional circumstances watching Air would ever be conducive to any mood or situation.  Well, except maybe if you have something caught in your eye and nothing to flush it with.  In that case, this series will probably have you weeping enough that all foreign bodies will be expelled from your eye.  Besides that, just pop in some Sgt. Frog and try to forget your troubles.

Dude, it's a frog-alien-invader with an Afro.  What's not to love?