Sparkling Stream of Tears

"What's this? Those sparkles... they're my tears."

— Trowa Barton, after destroying Duo Maxwell's Gundam Deathscythe, episode 20, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

When a girl (or, occasionally, a sufficiently Bishōnen boy) has been upset and runs off while crying, the same mechanism responsible for Ocular Gushers ejects her tears with sufficient force that they become a visible trail in the air behind her, each one sparkling like a gem.

A Sub-Trope of Everything's Better with Sparkles.

Compare Tender Tears, Beautiful Tears. Contrast Inelegant Blubbering, Single Tear.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Played for laughs in Metal Fight Beyblade. Tetsuya is locked up by Daidoji because he thinks that Tetsuya crushed Gingka's bey point counter, and he cries sparkling tears which he uses to draw a crab on the wall of his cell.
• Full Metal Panic!:
  • Kaname Chidori in one of the later episodes. On seeing this, even Handsome Lech Kurz Weber is angry at the person responsible.
  • Tessa in one of the biggest Tear Jerker scenes in The Second Raid, though she's actually sitting still.
    Tessa: "It would be some much easier on me if you just came right out and said it: 'I WANT TO BE WITH KANAME! SO STAY OUT OF THE WAY!'"
• Eve in the "Give Me Secret" music video sequence during the climax of part 2 of Megazone 23.
• Mai in the opening credits◊ of My-HiME.
• Hitomi from The Vision of Escaflowne.
• Alice from Please Save My Earth.
• Eren Yeager of Attack on Titan sheds sparkling tears as he's carried away with Mikasa and forced to watch helplessly as a Titan eats their mother.
• Another opening credits example: Mikuru in Haruhi Suzumiya. At least she has a reason, given what she's subjected to by Haruhi.
• Meru does this in Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, after she was insulted on her small bust size.
• Pokémon: The Series's Ash does this occasionally when he releases a member of his team, and Dawn when she doesn't make it to the battle round of a Contest.
  • Seen in episode 12 of Pokémon: The Original Series, "Here Comes the Squirtle Squad", when Ash tries to get the Squirtle Squad to untie him so he can go to a nearby store to buy a Super Potion for his injured Pikachu.
  • Occurs rampantly in Pokémon: The First Movie. If anything gets mention for sparkling streams of tears, the climax of that movie gets it. Not only are there a few dozen sparkling streams of tears, they are magical, moving sparkling streams of tears!
• Cue N's first appearance in the Black and White arc of Pokémon Adventures. And he does it again during his battle with Black.
• In the Yu-Gi-Oh! Toei anime, Yugi cries sparkly tears when Jonouchi reminds Yugi that he and the others are going through Kaiba's theme park of Death Traps with him because they're friends.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL: When III turned away from Yuma after saying he didn't want them to be friends anymore before going off to fight Mizael, he shreds these. He only attempted to sever their friendship because he was planning on sacrificing himself and didn't want to cause Yuma more pain.
• In episode 12 of Mahoromatic, Mahoro leaves a Sparkling Stream of Tears behind her as she flies Suguru home. Played straight, as Mahoro has just promised to stay with Suguru forever, but she hasn't told him that she will stop functioning in just under 300 days.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji Ikari. All the time, particularly in the earlier episodes, the most "glaring" example being at the end of his encounter with Touji and Kensuke at the the train station, in Episode 4.
• Haruhi in Ouran High School Host Club gets one of these in one of her dreams.
• Rena in the opening of the second season of Higurashi: When They Cry Kai.
  • Also Satoko, to a point, in the first season's opening. And tons of times within the actual show
  • And Keiichi in the very first arc, combining this with Berserker Tears.
• Ayeka in the final episode of Tenchi Universe.
  • In the OVA, Ryoko's double, Zero, sheds a few of these too right after she fails to kill Tenchi.
• Trowa (after destroying Duo's Gundam Deathscythe) and Quatre (after destroying a colony with Wing Zero) in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. Somewhat more plausible here, as they take place in zero-G.
  • Relena does this in two instances: in episode 48, after crying out Heero's name after he takes off in Wing Zero to fight Zechs, and in the Japan-only OAV, Operation Meteor II: Odd Numbers, as shown here.
  • Catherine demonstrates this in in episode 13 (the aptly-titled "Catherine's Tears"), after she punches Trowa in the face, preventing his self-destruction attempt. She does this again in episode 38, "The Birth of Queen Relena", when Quatre confronts her.
  • Wufei does this after killing Treize.
• Not really tears (or even water, for that matter), but the Exia is shown with one of these in the opening sequence of Mobile Suit Gundam 00.
• Sailor Moon. For example at the end of season S after triggering her emergency transformation to save Sailor Saturn.
• Bleach:
  • Rukia gets one of these during a flashback in the Soul Society arc, when Renji pretends to be happy that she's being adopted by the Kuchiki clan. She thanks him for letting her go, and then...*sparkle*
  • Orihime has this as well: her tears sparkle as they fall while she's crying over the unconscious Ichigo after her inability to kiss him.
  • The Arrancar Dondochakka Bilstin does this whenever he's upset.
  • Keigo Asano has been known to do this, such as in anime episode #229 when Ikkaku and Yumichika arrive to stay with him.
• Miaka of Fushigi Yuugi has a couple of these moments (though she has many more "realistic tears" moments).
• A rather unusual version of this is used in Spirited Away. Upon learning Haku's real name (the Kohaku River) Chihiro/Sen and Haku go into a freefall, both crying in happiness, leading to a beautiful, glittering, stream of tears... going upwards. Although to be fair, Haku's nature as a river-spirit would naturally have odd effects on water.
• Lynn gets one in the first opening sequence to Fist of the North Star.
• Polly/Pururun does this in the Samurai Pizza Cats episode "The Big Comet Caper, Part 2" when Speedy/Yatarro takes off by himself to destroy the comet.
• Risa of Lovely★Complex does this at one point.
• During the fifth opening in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Winry and Riza are shown doing this while set to the theme, Rain.
  • In episode 34, when Ed and Al tease that he's just received his last promotion, 2nd Lieutenant Falman runs away while performing this trope. And they're up in the far north, it's so cold there that his tears turn to snow.
• Variation: at one point in the opening of HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, Yuri displays a stream of tears going forward rather than behind her.
• Done hilariously in the Azumanga Daioh anime during one of the School Festival episodes. The person running around in the cat suit is revealed to be Mr. Kimura. Cue Sakaki turning dramatically, sparkling tears streaming from her eyes... and then running away at a ridiculous speed.
• Mew Lettuce (Lettuce Midorikawa) does this in at least one episode of Tokyo Mew Mew.
• In Urusei Yatsura, Lum does this when she catches Ataru in her arms and flies away with him.
• The characters of The Rows of Cherry Trees have very sparkly tears, to the point where they're more sparkle than tear.
• Ranma ½:
  • Akane gets this after she becomes disappointed and sad because of her failure at learning how to swim.
  • Happens in one of Ranma's dreams. Ranma turns into a frog and Akane runs away with a sparkling stream of tears.
• The iDOLM@STER - Kotori, whenever she gets out of one of her Imagine Spots.
• YuYu Hakusho: Yusuke and Yomi have matching streams of fat tears as they charge for the final strike, apparently at having to end a fight in which they've each rediscovered themselves and come to greatly respect each other.
• Goku did this in the original Dragon Ball. After Krillin is killed by one of Piccolo's children, Goku runs out to avenge him. As he leaves, he leaves a twinkle of tears behind.
  • The Funimation dub tries to paint Bulma in this light at the very end of the first episode of the anime, when actually the sparkles are from her peeing herself in fear. Your mileage may vary as to how convincing this is.

• Final Fantasy: Unlimited has Kaze and Aura doing this in a Flashback. While standing still. With Aura being The Faceless.
• My Hero Academia in the anime. During the battle between Deku/Midoriya and Gentle Criminal, Gentle Criminal's assistant La Brava has a string of sparkling tears spray from her eyes as she leaps through the air and worries about him.

Comic Books

• The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye has Tailgate do this in Issue 13. He's already prone to tears (in a case of Non-Standard Character Design, since the other 'bots don't normally cry), but when he finds out that he has only three days to live, he's shown sprinting down a hallway, ribbons of blue tears trailing all the way down the corridor behind him.

Fan Fiction

• The title page of the Cuphead fan comic from DeviantArt, "Cagney Is a Carnation" by fuyuflowga, has the title character spreading out a sparkle of tears silently while he's trying to stay calm.

Video Games

• Sakura and Rin in the second opening of Fate/stay night.
• Final Fantasy VI example. If you fail to nurse Cid back to health and he dies, Celes cries a Sparkling Stream of Tears both when she realizes he's dead, and shortly after when she attempts to commit suicide by jumping from a high cliff into the ocean.
• This happens to Haruko in one of the last episodes of AIR, during the dramatic scene at the beach when she runs towards Misuzu.
• For certain reason, in Super Robot Wars Z, Sparkling Stream of Tears is involved when Setsuko Ohara finally receive her upgrade, as if those tears evolved her Humongous Mecha.
• At the end of case 4 of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney this happens when Maya Fey leaves.
• A non-human one now: In Final Fantasy XII after you defeat The Fury in the Necrohol of Nabudis, his death animation includes one of these.
• Rise Kujikawa will cry these if she loses a round by time-out in Persona 4: Arena Ultimax.
• In the opening to Namco × Capcom, Valkyrie is standing on a windswept cliff with tears welling in her eyes. When the wind picks up and she suddenly turns her head, the tears fly into the air, producing the glittering trail.
• Zelda in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks does this after Byrne sacrifices himself to save her life.
• Dante's tears are quite sparkly in the first Devil May Cry game when Trish (supposedly) sacrifices herself.
• In Yarudora series vol.2: Kisetsu o Dakishimete, main heroine Mayu does this while running towards, and tackling a drunken geezer, as, as the (unbeknownst to her at that point of the storyline due to Identity Amnesia) Spirit of the Cherry Trees, she feels the pain of the cherry tree when the geezer starts breaking and shaking cherry tree branches in a drunken fit of rage.
• Litchi Faye-Ling from BlazBlue invokes this trope more and more as the story progresses. She cries in her CP arcade ending (where she learns Kokonoe is doing her best to save Roy, too), in the CF game opening (where she's fighting Arakune), in her Act 3 Arcade ending (waking up from a dream where she talked to Roy once again) and towards of the CF story arc after meeting Roy for the last time. She'll also shed these should she lose by time-out during a round.
• In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team, after the reveal that Gengar's claims of you being the human mentioned in the Ninetales legend are false, your partner gets emotional, and then circles around you with glee...or at least that's what happens in the originals. The DX remake instead shows your partner jumping forward at you as your partner sheds these, knocking you to the ground in the process.

Webcomics

• Fighter in 8-Bit Theater gets one when Black Mage dies.
• Tedd in El Goonish Shive leaves a stream of tears while glowing and leaping to embrace Grace after learning about "...the sweetest, most twisted thing anyone's ever done for me..."

Western Animation

• In The Powerpuff Girls pilot "Meat Fuzzy Lumkins," sweet little Bubbles exhibits this trope after receiving a Traumatic Haircut courtesy of the bad guy's Meat Gun. But not in a "run away crying" sort of way.
• The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Secret of My Excess" has Rarity displaying this as she and Spike are falling.
• Parodied on The Simpsons when Lisa makes Lady Gaga cry.
  Lisa: Are you crying glitter?
  Lady Gaga: Tiny diamonds. Hurts like hell.
• Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie Done painfully by Leo as he floats through the prison dimension after pulling a Heroic Sacrifice, leaving his family and friends behind but safe while dooming himself to die at the hands of Krang.

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