Line #24 TearJerker/TigerAndBunny


1	!!Season One
2	* Episode 15:
3	** [[spoiler:Sky High, after believing that he finally connected with the girl of the week, goes to thank her, unaware that she was the robot he destroyed the night before. The episode ends on him sitting down at the park bench where they'd previously met, with a bouquet of flowers, waiting. Oh, ''Keith.'']]
4	** It's even more depressing than that: [[spoiler: His love existed only in his head. The girl was a broken {{Deceptively Human Robot\|s}} that only gave him programmed answers, Keith was basically just projecting his own feelings onto an object.]] Oh, and [[spoiler: he was thinking of her and the motivation to go on she "gave him" while (unknowingly) destroying her.]]
5	* Episode 16:
6	** Not just the fact that [[spoiler:Kotetsu is losing his powers]], but [[spoiler:Yuri's backstory, the fact that Mr. Legend wasn't the hero we thought he was, and the juxtaposition against what is happening to Tiger, and how it makes it seem like everything Kotetsu wanted and believed in is being unraveled. Furthermore, not only did Yuri end up killing his own father, his own mother hates him for saving her from his abuse. Added all together, it's thoroughly heartbreaking.]]
7	** The shot of Kotetsu's [[http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/5947/unled2lgh.jpg notebook]] detailing his [[spoiler: gradual power loss]].
8	*** It's so sad how you see his entries change from a matter-of-fact [[spoiler: '3 second decrease' to questioning what's happening "...can't be so sure, should I prepare for the worst?" The dates also show how regular the changes are.]]
9	** The opening bit with [[spoiler: Lunatic/Yuri and his parents are bad enough, but his poor mother is even worse; doesn't realise her husband is dead, ''still'' believes he could have gotten better, ''terrified'' of her own son who killed his dad to protect himself and his mother. The troubled backstory is to be expected, but the way they choose to depict it is a nasty surprise. One heck of a Wham Episode, and a great one.]]
10	** At [[TheStinger the end of the episode]] we have [[spoiler:Kotetsu still lying in the dumpster after being on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle with the Lady Killer. Just... everything about that scene is soul-crushing.]]
11	* Episode 17:
12	** [[spoiler:A flashback shows the hospitalized Tomoe encouraging Kotetsu to leave her side to answer an emergency call, making him promise her to keep on being a hero. She dies before he can get back.]]
13	** [[spoiler: And his crying while looking at her picture after said flashback, remarking, "I don't think I can keep my promise..."]]
14	* Episode 18:
15	** [[spoiler: Kriem's]] backstory is all about this.
16	** Also Barnaby [[spoiler: having a mental breakdown in TheStinger, where the murderer of his parents is replaced with pretty much everyone he knows, ''including himself''. Not only has the wound of his parents' death been re-opened, but he has less to go on than he did before.]]
17	* Episode 19: [[spoiler: The "kind" person who took in and helped raise Barnaby, Mr. Maverick is revealed not only to be his parents' killer, but a NEXT as well that tampered with Barnaby's memories to cover his tracks. And he did it just for the sake of ratings. ''And he's going to erase Barnaby's memories again.'' It doesn't help that Barnaby's helpless on the floor with his phone right next to him and Kotetsu calling him.]]
18	* Episode 20:
19	** [[spoiler: Kotetsu finding out that his whole life has been erased from everyone's memories thanks to Maverick. Worse yet, all of his friends are now hunting for him, his family doesn't know what to think, and he has nearly nobody else to turn to, short of Ben Jackson. Poor guy.]]
20	** [[spoiler:Kaede's reaction to her father's arrest warrant.]]
21	** [[spoiler: Anju's reaction is just as tear-jerking. Despite it being partly off-screen, you can hear her dropping her glass, and then she begs Kaede not to look at the news.]]
22	** [[spoiler: Barnaby. His caretaker Samantha is murdered and his tie to Kotetsu is completely severed, leaving him with only one friend/role model left. Who is the one who just destroyed his link to the other two. And thanks to the memory tweaks, Barnaby has no idea it ever happened.]]
23	* Episode 21:
24	** [[spoiler: Kotetsu realizing that nobody remembers him.]]
25	** [[spoiler: Kotetsu ready to give up when the other heroes and the false Wild Tiger have him cornered.]]
26	** Kaede crying.
27	* Episode 22: [[spoiler: The heroes surrounding Kotetsu, who's trying in vain to make them remember him. Only Karina refuses to arrest him.]]
28	** [[spoiler: Kotetsu just giving up and finally letting Sky High arrest him.]]
29	* Episode 23:
30	** The same deal as Episode 22 only this time [[spoiler: it's only Kotetsu and Barnaby]].
31	** Kotetsu [[spoiler:crying as he desperately tries to make Barnaby remember and recalls the times they spend together. And then again, later, when he continues crying and doesn't stop as he seemingly fails and completely gives up on trying is a heartbreaking sight.]]
32	* Episode 24:
33	** Two words: [[spoiler:Kotetsu's (apparent) death]].
34	** [[spoiler: Made all the more heartbreaking by the conversation Kotetsu and Barnaby are having, where Kotetsu declares how happy he got when Barnaby started calling him by his name, all while Barnaby holds him and tells him that giving up is not like him.]]
35	** It's times like those when you realize just how much good voice actors are necessary, as [[spoiler: Barnaby chokes out his words and his voice breaks]].
36	--->[[spoiler:'''Barnaby''': [''sobbing''] I've been learning to make fried rice and that's your favorite dish! So you have to live so you can try it!]]
37	* Episode 25: The whole scene in which [[spoiler:Barnaby visits his parents' graves]].
38
39	!!''The Rising''
40	** Nathan's backstory. [[spoiler: They've had to work through a lot of self-loathing with regards to their gender and sexuality, and despite being ThePollyanna for the most part, they still have scars on their heart from it. At least until Pao Lin's words of admiration snap them out of their nightmare.]] Painful RealitySubtext aside, it's really hard to see the usually impervious Nathan suffer so badly.
41	*** It was also heavily implied that [[spoiler: their parents disowned them after they came out to them]].
42
43	!!Comics
44	* ''Tiger & Bunny: The Comic'' Volume 6 has two chapters that involve both Tiger & Barnaby working as Police Chiefs for the day. In the former chapter, they help a little girl who lost her wallet trying to give her parents a gift, under the eye of a hero distrusting detective. Meanwhile, the detective's former mentor, dealing with PTSD, starts to hunt the recently released Barbed Wire Menace, a man who permanently scarred young women with a coil of wire. Including a young woman who tried to get help ''because'' her boyfriend turned out to be the Menace and got scarred as a result, due to the mentor not focusing on her. Thankfully, the duo and the detective manage to stop the mentor from killing the criminal, who wanted to die because he had a compulsion to hurt people and wanted it to end. The waterworks come when the little girl turns out to have been the child of the scarred woman... who never blamed the mentor, not even once.
45
46	!!Season Two
47	* In Season 2 Episode 3: While Ryan's near death experience and being left for dead veers on a more NightmareFuel situation, Ryan's emotional wounds are definitely more profound: While the miscommunication he has about Blue Rose and Wild Tiger starts out as comical, as the episode progresses one can see that Ryan is legitimately hurt by the notion of being replaced, quietly lamenting an apparent betrayal of trust while solemnly talking to his pet, the fact that the normally proud and egotistical turns sullen and defeated shows that not only has he got physical scars, he's got serious psychological ones too.
48	* Season 2 Episode 13: A given, seeing how this results in [[spoiler: the deaths of Fugan and Mugan, who are pawns just wanting to make their father proud and keep him safe, but also Brahe, who was very loving dad to them.]] The former two's stories are fleshed out enough to make them feel three dimensional and pitiable, even if they were unrepentant in what they did. The latter however, is forced to endure something utterly heartbreaking. [[spoiler: His last moments sees him in an utter breakdown from the loss of Fugan and Mugan, and he can't even properly mourn them or avenge them as he's shot to death moments later. The sight of him weeping and holding his sons in his last moments are absolutely heartwrenching.]]
49	* Season 2 Episode 25: [[spoiler: Kotetsu completely losing his powers. His colleagues are all visibly upset over this and with his powers gone, it truly means that the adventures of the iconic Tiger & Bunny duo is finished for good both in-universe and in the real world.]]

Context TearJerker / TigerAndBunny