History Heartwarming / HigurashiWhenTheyCry

* Shion's dream at the end of the arc, [[spoiler: moments before her death]]. She dreams of a world where she [[spoiler: remembers her promise to Satoshi, which is to protect Satoko. She gets along with the rest of the club members and is even a part of the club. Her wish comes true in Minagoroshi-hen.]]

* Surprisingly, [[AbusiveParents Teppei Hojo]], the abusive, selfish, violent ''Teppei'', ends up having a big moment of this. After having experienced visions of two alternate timelines where he died, Teppei realizes that he will most likely die alone due to his life choices. He ends up running into Satoko, who's rightfully disturbed to see him again, he offers her some food with some sweets without asking for anything in return.
** He then interferes and protects her from a gang of delinquents who harassed her, and Satoko vouches for his actions soon after. The duo then walk home, and Teppei asks Satoko voices a wish to start over, wanting to at least share a meal with her some time. However, a SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome happens and Satoko has a minor freak out when Teppei tries for a handshake. He can only accept this is a result of his own actions and lets her be, only wishing to perhaps chat with her when she's ready.

* Mixed with TearJerker, Rena's [[spoiler: determination to save Keiichi as revealed in a flashback of Onikakushi. Even as he slammed her fingers into the door and possibly broke them, even as he spoke to her in the coldest voice possible, even as he pushed her away countless times, even as he rejected the dinner she worked so hard to make, even as he was beating her to death with a baseball bat, she never gave up on him. Her image song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk7sQjcoqdc Dear You -Cry-]] resembles her determination very well.]]

** Shion [[spoiler: remembering her promise to Satoshi and taking care of Satoko for him.]]

* Shion's dream at the end of the arc, [[spoiler: moments before her death]]. She dreams of a world where she [[spoilers: remembers her promise to Satoshi, which is to protect Satoko. She gets along with the rest of the club members and is even a part of the club. Her wish comes true in Minagoroshi-hen.]]

* Rena and Keiichi, who [[spoiler:think they]] know that [[spoiler:"Mion"]] has comitted horrible crimes continue to support her, only asking that she rightfully turns herself in for the thing's she's done. Rena doesn't entirely forgive her for the crimes at all, but she still greatly mourns her unjust fate as head of the house to the point Keiichi hears her crying. On top of this, Keiichi, who had been greatly spooked by the events of that year's Watanagashi [[spoiler:has "Mion" ask him to come see her crimes if he wants to, and regardless of how much it could destroy his idea of Mion he]] ''decides to steel himself for what horrors he's about to see'' just so she's not alone. [[spoiler: It's actually Shion pretending to be Mion,]] but that's still incredibly amazing considering it's coming out of Keiichi's and Rena's hearts and Keiichi is of especially weak constitution.

* When Shion's inner demon is first awakened, she holds her sister Mion down and strangles her, demanding she tell her the truth about Satoshi. She then notices that Mion has three fingernails missing, exactly like her due to her "distinguishing." Mion tearfully explained that, despite her stoic exterior during the actual moment of Shion's fingernail removal, she was appalled and outraged at their grandmother for being so unfair and demanded that she get the same treatment as her twin sister, because as Shion's twin, she wanted to suffer through the same thing along with her rather than see her suffer it alone.

* There's a part towards the end of Matsuribayashi-hen where the group thinks that Shion has been killed (she hasn't), and Satoko calls her her "Nee-Nee", admitting that she thought of her as a surrogate sister, which causes Mion to embrace her and break down. The effect is enhanced by the knowledge that in Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen, Shion killed Satoko in a particularly bloody and sadistic way.
** Also, Shion's last words before making her attempted sacrifice is a request to let her twin sister Mion know how much she loves her.

* The manga-only Hinageshi-hen chapter is a cross between this and a TearJerker. Mion has gone to a cram school away from Hinamizawa to get into Tokyo University, but stress and homesickness makes her do badly. Returning home out of desperation, she ends up believing that the rest of the club is plotting to kill her. However, it's cleared up as a misunderstanding, and no-one dies. Mion starts crying in happiness that her friends are still with her... Cut to the real world, where it is revealed that Mion has been catatonic after the Great Hinamizawa Disaster. Oiishi and Akasaka are at her side, [[ComatoseCanary having tried to question her]]. As her body starts crying, Oiishi says that it is the first time she's reacted since the disaster, and that they should leave. He notes that a flower placed in a nearby vase (a hinageshi) has faded. As he tells Akasaka, the meaning of a hinageshi in flower language is 'consolation'.

* There's no "Crowning Moment of Cute" page, so this example goes here: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycwByy67HDc Akasaka first meets Rika]]. "Nipaa~"

* During the Atonement Arc, the support Rena's friends give her after they find out that Rena killed the people who were conning her father out of a substantial amount of money. They tell Rena that she could have and should have come to them for help, and they make themselves come to terms with how Rena responded to her situation. Lastly, Rena's friends help her hide the bodies. Of course, they should have reported Rena to the police and made sure she got psychological counseling]], but they got most everything else right.

** Special mention goes to Rika in this as she was the only one to understand Keiichi's sudden memories of killing Mion and Rena.]] It's the first time she ever speaks to him onscreen as her true self and one of the few times her usual AffectionateGestureToTheHead isn't in a mocking way.

* The last episode of the first season has Rena prepared to kill everyone in the school because she's suffering a delusion about an alien invasion. Keiichi disables the makeshift time bomb she set up and challenges her to a fight (his baseball bat against her billhook), and although she's clearly willing to kill him, [[IKnowYouAreInThereSomewhereFight he peppers the duel with friendly banter reminiscent of their water gun fight earlier in the series]]. When she disarms Keiichi and pins him down, he tells Rena to finish him off, and instead she breaks down and cries at the realization of what she's done. He hugs her and tells her everything's going to be okay. It was enough to bring CreepyChild Rika to tears.]]. Their whole dialogue just before the end of their fight and the way he manages to snap her out of her paranoia by taunting her as if it was a game is impressively well-rendered, especially in the sound novel.

* The end of the last arc, as it is the only arc where [[EverybodyLives nobody dies]]. It's very rewarding after having sat through many arcs in which people die in pretty horrifying ways.]]

* There's a brief scene in which a beaten, broken Takano runs into Hanyuu in the woods. Everything is reversed from the usual perspective. Takano is distraught and vulnerable, while Hanyuu has discarded her usually shy and cute demeanor for something more in keeping with the god she represents. She speaks with authority, listens to Takano's sad story, and declares that Takano is forgiven. It's a powerful moment, and it reminds us that despite all the misery Takano caused, she herself was ultimately another victim and a pawn in someone else's sadistic game. That Hanyuu is able to see that and look past everything Takano has done (albeit first ensuring that her powerbase was eliminated) can inspire some tears.]]

* Rena and Keiichi, who [[spoiler:think they]] know that [[spoiler:Mion]] has comitted horrible crimes continue to support her, only asking that she rightfully turns herself in for the thing's she's done. Rena doesn't entirely forgive her for the crimes, especially one of them, but she still greatly mourns her unjust fate as head of the house to the point Keiichi hears her crying. On top of this, Keiichi, who had been greatly spooked by the events of the Watanagashi [[spoiler:has "Mion" ask him to come see her crimes if he wants to, and regardless of how much it could destroy her idea of Mion he]] ''decides to steel himself for what horrors he's about to see'' just so she's not alone. [[spoiler: It's actually Shion pretending to be Mion,]] but that's still incredibly amazing considering it's coming out of Keiichi's and Rena's hearts and Keiichi is of especially weak constitution.