This is an increasingly common tactic used by
Manga and
Anime authors who have created thoroughly unsympathetic
Tsundere characters yet still wish the audience to sympathize with them, or merely wishing to convincingly give a feminine side to an otherwise overly-masculine or unemotional girl.
Perhaps she has been emotionally cold one times too many to the hero's affections, too damn cruel over the smallest of mistakes, or simply revealed her vulnerable side too damned late for the audience to care any more. Either way, no amount of garden-variety dere-dere moments is going to earn any tangible amount of audience sympathy.
Time to go for the big guns.
Show that the Tsundere is a girl after all by
turning on the waterworks.
There is an inexplicable phenomenon that the tougher a character is, the more
adorable they will be when
Sparkling Stream Of Tears pour out of their eyes, windows that prove they have souls. The tyrant instantaneously becomes
The Woobie, whose endearingly vulnerable sobs and pleas for sympathy makes the coldest of hearts want to
hug her till she feels better. This is considered
Moe beyond belief by fandom in general, even those who are not fans of the
Moe sub-genre.
Occasionally this moment acts as a roadstop, a turning point in which the character
starts to slowly becomes a better person.
Nine times out of 10, unfortunately (
especially if the story in question is a
Rumiko Takahashi romantic-comedy), having felt embarrassed for daring to be vulnerable, the once adorable woobie
immediately turns into a
tyrant of epic magnitude worse than the mere
Tsundere she was to compensate for her brief moment of weakness.
Note that this can also occasionally apply to a male character. What differentiates this from
Manly Tears is that whereas
Manly Tears shows the sensitive attributes of an
already decent male,
Cry Cute used on a man character is as a rule in the
Alas Poor Villain context that humanizes an unforgivably evil male. See also
Tender Tears, where tears are part of a consistent sensitive depiction, and
Water Works, where tears inspire contempt and not sympathy.
Sometimes includes
Biting The Handkerchief. Contrast
Inelegant Blubbering.
Examples:
- Lampshaded in Full Metal Alchemist, when Roy fondly remembers the generally stoic Riza crying and tells her he'd like to see her 'pure tears' again.
- Franziska Von Karma at the end of Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All.
- Evangeline of Mahou Sensei Negima, Thousand-Year-Old Vampire-Tyrant and Evil Sorceress, cries adorably as she asks Nagi to pat her on the head like a little girl one last time at the end of the Mahora Budokai Tournament.
- C.C of the Code Geass franchise, when her Deadpan Snarker facade slips and she shows her Kuudere colors.
- Aunt Haruka, Narusegawa Naru and Aoyama Motoko of Love Hina.
- Especially Aoyama Motoko, in accordance with the Toughness/Tears inverse relationship mentioned above.
- The death of Prince Vegeta in Dragonball Z is the definitive male example that makes you cry for a villain.
- Asougi Rin of Mnemosyne.
- Also voiced by Noto Mamiko, Asagami Fujino of Kara No Kyoukai.
- Every girl (especially Nagi, voiced by Rie Kugimiya) and even Hayate himself of Hayate No Gotoku.
- Even Jerkass Tsundere Hiiragi Kagami can be The Woobie of woobies on the few times she cries in Lucky Star.
- Kagamin is NOT a Jerkass. A grouch certainly, but nothing worse.
- Cagalli Yulla Athha, a most admirably brave Warrior Princess, weeps in Athurns arms in the first season of Gundam Seed after her father's Heroic Sacrifice.
- I've never seen Cagalli listed as a "thoroughly unsympathetic" character before. And she ends up weeping in Kira's arms, not Athrun's.
- Louise (voiced by Rie Kugimiya) of Zero No Tsukaima. Too bad she needs to be under the influence of a magical drug to allow herself to be so emotionally honest.
- The roar of a wounded tiger in Toradora: "Ryuuji is MIIIIIINE!!" AGAIN voiced by Rie Kugimiya.
- Miu of Ichigo Mashimaro, though she's more of a Jerkass than a Tsundere.
- Vita crying in Hayate's arms during the finale of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's.
- Arguably Faith in the episode of Angel she first appears in, though a much more extreme example.
- Faith is more of a woobie. Rewatch Buffy Season 3, particularly Faith's first appearance and the Xmas ep "Amends."
- Tsugumi in Ever17 as an example where the character genuinely stops being a jerkass. There were signs beforehand that she wasn't, sure, and they were even getting more common. Seeing her cry basically makes you forget her doing stuff like pretending to push Takeshi down an elevator shaft for shits and giggles or randomly sucker punching him at the beginning, though. Mostly applicable to Takeshi's routes so they could spring a whole bunch of surprise reveals on you by letting her stay a jerk in The Kid's.
- Blue when confronted by Ho-oh in Pokemon Special. And immediately after that, when Silver is captured. Of course, the first crying was all just an act...
- Blue's crying is more believable when you realize that she was kidnapped by Ho-oh at a young age as part of the Mask of Ice's recruitment program. The fact that she was using Fake Tears was not only part of the act, but also a demonstration that she has, in fact, come to control her ornithopia. Cue CMOA and Will and Karen in an awkward situation.
- In one episode of Taz Mania, Digeri Dingo uses this tactic as a kid for Taz to get his ball that he kicked off a cliff.
- Carlos Santana. That's all.
- Hiyoshi Wakashi from The Prince Of Tennis, after losing to Ryoma in the manga.
- Also, Akaya Kirihara in the very last OAV.
- And Ryoma himself in the anime, when his beloved cat Karupin is brought by home after spending a whole day outside.
- Arthur/England from Axis Powers Hetalia is a diehard Tsundere (and extremely heavy on the 'tsun', especially when America is around), but his tears in "Cleaning Out the Storage" were so damn genuine that everyone in fandom cried for and with him, tagging him as an Defrosting Ice Queen and sort of Woobie.
- In Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novel Small Favor, Harry demands of Rosanna how many knights she's murdered with her trick of getting her eyes to well up with tears and looking helpless.
