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alt title(s): Japanese Animation; Animu

Subjective
TearJerker: Anime

Some scenes in anime just know the right way to tug at your heartstrings. Yes, Sacchin... we know. It is sad, isn't it?
The following series/franchises have their own pages:

Other examples

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     Most Triumphant Example 
  • Grave Of The Fireflies is perhaps the ultimate example of this.
    • Believe it or not, AMV Hell 4 managed to make it worse. How? Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars". "If I lay here... If I just lay here... Would you lie with me and just forget the world?" If you've seen the movie, you can probably guess the visuals for this one.
      • Given the overall tone of AMV Hell, this troper was giggling furiously at that scene, though he agrees that if someone made an AMV of Grave of the Fireflies using that song, he too would be bawling.
      • Done.
      • * sob* fuck.
      • Try watching the movie, followed by that AMV, and then hear the song several times throughout the day on Pandora Radio. You will feel very down for the entire day, but strangely unable to skip the song or turn it off.
    • Try watching the film, and then read about the real-life story that inspired it. Then find out that the author of the original book wrote it as an apology to his sister. If you aren't bawling after knowing that, then you're really not human.
    • Bonus Fridge Logic tear jerker: remember what the man found in that sweet tin at the start? Remember what the boy used it to hold.
  • Grave of the Fireflies. So sad that it's worth mentioning twice.
    • Grave Of The Fireflies. It's worth repeating.
    • No, seriously: Grave Of The Fireflies.
    • And finally, Grave Of The Fireflies.
      • This troper watched Grave Of The Fireflies because of all the mentions it got on this page, and would like to say that this movie is not being overhyped. It has earned the title of the tear jerking grand master effortlessly, and everything else on this page doesn't even come close.
      • Seconded. This film is most definitely as sad as everyone here says. In fact, this troper decided to get his parents to watch it, as they really didn't think anime was any good. By the end of the film, they were in tears. And so was this troper, even though it was the second time he'd seen it. He's not sure he can take it a third.
      • I actually never cried during that movie. It was far too depressing to allow for that kind of catharsis at the end.
      • I didn't cry either. Not because it wasn't sad, it was undoubtedly the saddest movie I have ever seen. But no, this movie was so sad I couldn't cry. You read that correctly.
      • I didn't cry. Unlike most people who find it sad, everyone's idiocy ticked me off instead. Considering how angry it made me, it's still equally profound.
      • Which was somewhat the intention of the director - he wanted people watching the movie to feel frustrated at how much pride Seita had, rather than humbling himself and asking for his Aunt's help.
      • This troper remembers watching Grave of the Fireflies with her senior year Japanese class. There wasn't a dry eye in the place. Even the big, burly football players in the back of the classroom were bawling like babies.
      • For this troper, Graveofthe Fireflies prompts equal parts Manly Tears and girly giggles, mostly because of a female friend of ours who, at the moment me and my buddies sat staring blankly at the screen with tears welling up, suddenly wailed, "SHE'S DEAAAAD!" and started bawling so hard we got the giggles trying to comfort her. . .

     0- 9 
  • .hack//SIGN has a tears of joy moment right at the end, when the players behind the game characters Tsukasa and Subaru recognize each other in the real world for the first time and joyfully rush toward each other... and for the only time in the entire series the depiction of the real world changes from drab black and white to vibrant color.
    • This troper still remembers a moment early in the series that still makes him mist up. The scene where, after hours of looking for a cure for a terminally ill baby Grunty and actually finding it, Tsukasa learns he's too late to save the baby. It spent its last moments whimpering in Tsukasa's hands as the disease slowly kills it.
    • When Macha/Maha dies. The look on his(?) face when he holds up the twig...
  • 20th Century Boys: Koizumi and Sadakyo visit the elderly teacher, and he tells Sadakyo that he remembers him and gives him the only picture of Sadakyo's face. This troper cried like a baby.
    • Kenji's song manages to be this without there being any background music (because we all know comics can't make sounds). The scene where we first hear (or see... whatever) him perform it is so beautiful that the volume it's in comes with a CD containing a recorded version (and this was before the movie was made).
    • 21st Century Boys:
    Sadakiyo: I did a good job, right?
    Kenji: Yes you did, Sadakiyo, yes you did.
    Sadakiyo: I...Will you let me be in your group?
    Kenji: What are you saying? You've been with us the whole time.
    • The movie makes the sequence of Kenji and his friends gearing up to battle the Humongous Mecha incredibly moving with the golden age style heroic music playing through the whole thing. These guys know they're not heroes, and they probably won't be able to do anything to stop the mass destruction taking place, and they'll also probably die in the attempt. But damn if they're not going to give everything they have anyway.
    • This troper was choked up reading Father Nitani's backstory. A Yakuza member on the run in China, he meets a priest who needs to deliver a truck full of medicine to a village in the heavy storm, but can't drive it. Nitani helps him, but only so he can get away from the police. Along the way, he finds out just how much faith the priest has in God. They eventually come to a flooded river, but the bridge over it is too damaged to hold the truck's weight. So the priest gets out and steadies the beam so the truck can drive over. When Nitani gets across, he sees that the priest was washed away, his faith in God not protecting him at all. Nitani manages to get to the village and deliver the medicine, and is hailed as a hero, but he's still depressed about the death of the priest. Despondent, he starts to weep as he holds the bottle of wine he and the priest were going to share when they arrived. Then he sees the priest limping towards him. * sniff*

     A-D 
  • Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai. The fact that the tearjerking moments stand out so much against the comedic feel of the series makes them quite poignant indeed.
  • "I love you, my brother."
  • Ah My Goddess is filled with these. Many of the episodes are just so touching that they not only do they pull at your heart strings, they play them like a fucking violin.
  • Ai-Ren - story of a terminally ill teenage boy who gets an Ai-Ren - an artificial person designed to provide companionship for people with terminal diseases - who has an even shorter lifespan than he, and their love.
  • Ai Yori Aoshi (Imported from the show page): The episode Moonlight. Tina lets everything out to a sleeping Kaoru, since she's leaving tomorrow, and couldn't bear to tell him it's supposed to be for good. She kisses him partway through. He then turns over and mutters Aoi's name. Tina now knows where Kaoru's love lies, though they've been hiding it out of necessity the whole time. Her expression says it all. The fact that she's still shown to love them both dearly despite this is Tina's Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
    Tina: "Kaoru ... I have just one favor to ask. Never ever stop loving Landlady-san. A favor for the girl who can never be your girlfriend."
    • There are many moments in Ai Yori Aoshi that are TearJerkers, mainly of the Happy Tears kind. The chapter with Aoi-Santa-san giving Kaoru a dream of being with his mother ... Ocular Gushers here.
    • Kaoru finally introducing Aoi as his beloved fiance to all their friends.
  • Air. Just Air. Especially the "Goal" part, which gets many people every time. Even just showing the video of that scene in an AMV has managed to make them cry. (Seriously, this troper tried it on her mother with the video completely out of context, and it worked splendidly.)
    • The song "Aozora", cued at the highlight of the "Goal" scene, heightens the effect even more, especially with Lia's mournful vocals. Man, they sure unleashed the sadness of the moment in full force, no punches pulled.
    • As if that weren't enough, the penultimate episode had the scene on the beach where Misuzu, about to be taken away from Haruko by her father, cries out for her Mama and runs back to her newly-acknowledged mother. The shift to complete silence instead of screams and tears in the audio only intensified the effect.
    • This troper saw an AMV of the last few episodes set to Alice in Chains' "Nutshell". Dear God... that was the saddest thing I have seen...
    • This troper had a similar reaction to Kanna's death.
    • Same with Michiru's "death" (or disappearance).
    • The montage at the end was probably the only time in his life this editor has been or will be reduced to tears by a picture of a tyrannosaurus.
  • Sakiyama Kaori from Air Master, whose extreme temper and confidence is a source of comedy, gets two of the most touching moments within the series. In her second fight with blood knight Maki, she refuses to give up, even after losing badly, her unstoppable rage becoming useless, and on the brink of death. Sakiyama Kaori is saved from Maki's killing blow by Maki's friend Renge. Sakiyama tearfully holds an unconscious Renge, realizes she can never defeat Maki, thanks Renge for saving her life, and falls asleep. A few episodes later, Sakiyama confronts her rival from high school. A flash back reveals that Sakiyama was made deaf in one ear by this rival, a fact the rival uses to torture her. If you know what kind of person Sakiyama is, it will break your heart. However, the following beat down makes it all better.
  • In Akira, there's the death of poor Takashi, which happens right when it seems things may start getting better and as he happily goes towards Akira, calling out to him and asking if he remembers him from the past. And right when he's extending his hands to touch the kid he's so happy to see again... BANG, courtesy of Nezu. No wonder Akira has a terrible Heroic BSOD as he sees Takashi die, completely loses control of his powers, pretty much blows up the whole Tokyo by himself and, in few words, It Gets Worse.
  • The last episode of Alien Nine. It's sad enough seeing Kumi and Yuri (along with their teacher) being mind-raped into thinking that they're all alone in the world. None of them can see or hear the others, and Kumi actually breaks down and begins to scream and cry for her mother and father, sobbing "Don't leave! Please, don't leave me!" over and over again. Then at the end of the episode, as the ending theme song plays (which is already sad in itself) we see Yuri go sit at their usual meeting place, Kasumi suddenly running, all intermingled with images of bookshelves flying by faster and faster.. and then we see that Kumi has killed herself by skating at top speed into a book-case, which has actually bent in on itself from the force. Kasumi and Kumi's Mon Borg discover the body, we're treated to a close-up on Kumi's blood-stained, tear-streaked face, and then Yuri awakes from her nap. Having apparently witnessed what has happened in a dream, the camera zooms in steadily on her face as tears spill over from her eyes instantly, and she lets out a heartbroken scream. This troper never fails to get misty-eyed, or shivers down her spine.
  • Alive The Final Evolution deals a lot with death, especially considering that the whole plot starts off with essentially The Happening, well...happening, but it was definitely driven home in two specific places with two specific Kick The Dog moments. This Troper was bawling after reading these chapters of the manga.
    • Seeing Nami's backstory and exactly why she hates all power users: Her younger brother, who had a heart defect but tried to be tough and protect his older sister anyways, gets killed horribly when he's trapped in a car that Kanon exploded and burns to death while crying out to her to save him.
    • When Hirose casually kills Haruka because she snapped Taisuke out of his Super Powered Evil Side.
  • Angel Beats has quite a few, considering everyone's already dead and they all had shit pasts when they were alive, but episodes 3 and 10 get special mention out of a million. Episode 10 especially because it gets you out of nowhere with Hinata accepting Yui's proposal, the explanation of how he'll marry her, the visuals of the would-be love story and Yui's disappearance, all too beautiful-but-tearjerking song by Yui. Even girls will cry manly tears, if they don't flat-out bawl - the men have already shed their fair share.
    • The ending of episode 6 definitely qualifies.
      Otonashi: Your life was real too!
    • Also, the end of episode 12. Yurippe resists accepting her past and disappearing, but then we get this little gem from her siblings. It does NOT help that the depressing ending theme plays over this exchange.
      Yurippe's siblings: It's okay. You've done enough. You don't have to suffer by yourself anymore. Thank you for thinking about us for so long, Onee-san!
    • The final episode is by far the worst. The graduation scene was sad enough, with everyone leaving and quite likely never going to see each other again. But then, Kanade and Otonashi stay behind and go outside, where Otonashi confesses that he loves Kanade, and asks her to stay with him to help whoever enters the world after all of them. Unfortunately for everyone, she declines (though she does reciprocate the feeling), and reveals that her last regret is not being able to thank the donor of the heart transplant she received - and that donor happens to be Otonashi. They embrace, and there is an ensuing combination of Kanade thanking Otonashi over and over again and Otonashi screaming "KANADE! PLEASE DON'T DISAPPEAR! KANADE——!". The accompanying music doesn't help in the slightest. Pretty much makes this a candidate for Bittersweet Ending 's Most Triumphant Example. (The after-the-credits scene of them meeting in a next life helps a bit (depending on your definition of "help" - it might make you cry more); but it's almost like the producers were watching the final product and realised that that was just too much, and threw together something at the last minute to mitigate the pain.
  • Angel Sanctuary has them as well... at least to this troper it was when Kato took his final, final, final Heroic sacrifice in front of Heaven's door. The moment he held up the door for Setsuna to slip through and then waiting for his meteor to smash him... Damn man, why are the good guys always dying???
    • The tragedy of this scene is amplified when Kato closes his eyes, and a vision of Kira lighting the end of his cigarette manifests.
    "Is this my dream? Is this the wish the falling star granted? Really, a guy like me..."
  • This troper doesn't see how anyone could watch Angelic Layer's last few episodes without crying. The way Misaki and Shuuko meet and talk and just communicate after such a long, awkward time of no communication whatsoever just leaves me a wreck.
    • That scene in the rain is just utterly heartbreaking.
    • And let's not forget the explosion of roses in their battle. That was just beautifully well done.
      • Angelic Layer's 25th episode is a tearjerker the entire way through when Misaki realizes her mom, who she hasn't seen in years, is Athena's deuce. She then spirals into a depressed state thinking that her mom didn't want to see her and she regrets saying that it's alright all these years. Even more saddening is how her mother Shuuko tries to find Misaki but then she starts crying when she realizes she doesn't know her own daughter. Finally when they meet, Misaki begins to cry in the middle of a crowded walkway.The episode ends on a happy note and then makes you cry for joy. The show has a few other sad moments, but that episode takes the cake.
    • Beyond that, there was episode 16, which featured an absolutely straight use of Ill Girl and Dead Little Sister in the form of Sai Jounouchi's younger sister Rin. I've never felt sadder to see one of Misaki's opponents lose, particularly the final flashback where we hear Rin, in whose memory Sai has been fighting for, say "I'll always be with you, Big Sister!" To top it all off, we learn at the end of the episode that the secret to withstanding adversity is "To cry as much as you want to, when you need to cry."
  • The scene in Angels Egg when the man and the little girl are talking in the girl's "house" and he says something along the lines of "maybe we aren't real, maybe we're all just a memory of someone else, and it's raining outside".
  • Arakure /Wild Ones. The postcards. That is all.
  • Arashi no Yoru Ni has numerous moments, but one sticks out in this editor's mind: when Mei asks Gabu to eat him so Gabu will survive the snowstorm. This editor bawled.
    • The ending was what made this troper cry happy tears.
  • ARIA is a happy, sweet series, but some moments made this troper tear up.
    • The two-parter in Natural where Akari has to say goodbye to her gondola. It hadn't been treated as a character, but as you see the history behind it and come to realize how important it really was, the dream sequence where the gondola's spirit, as an old man, asks Akari "Could you row me for just a little longer?" gets me teary-eyed. In the next episode, when the spirit places an umbrella over a sleeping Akari, while the lyrics "Safe on a rainy day/ I'll miss you..." play, it's just so beautiful and sad at the same time.
    • Alice's promotion in Origination. First we see her throughout the whole episode showing how she'd grown since she was that shy, quiet girl way back in Animation. Then, she shows how great an Undine she is as she takes Athena for a tour. In the lock, Athena tells her not to worry about her singing, and just to sing. Then, on Hope Hill, where all her friends have gathered, she sings a beautiful song. Seeing Athena take off Alice's first glove gives a sense of fulfillment to the episode. Then, she took Alice's other hand, and Athena gives a short speech about how important young Undines are. With that, she takes off the other glove, and dubs Alice "Orange Princess." The clincher comes when Alice bursts into tears and thanks her friends for everything they've done The promotion is so incredibly well-done, and Alice happens to be my favorite character, it was just too much for me.
    • The last episode. Dear god, the whole episode. Every part of the whole episode. Just... I can't describe it. The mailman... the ceremony... the flashback scenes and the hug... and Ai too. All of it. Just... wonderful. All the wonderful things on Aqua that you've seen in the past 52 episodes just flow through you like Neo-Venezia's canals, spreading love. And you just can't help but cry...
      • Embarrassing remarks are forbidden!
      • Ehhhhh?
    • Though people think that it's not as good as the previous episode, episode 12 of the first season made this troper cry. Just...the scene where the water is released.
  • The second half of episode 8 in Ashita No Nadja, which deals with Raphael's backstory. Told to Nadja by Sylvie, who deeply and selflessly love Raphael but can't tell him. And Nadja actually aknowledging that love isn't only joy and happiness... Ouch, so sad.
    • And practically every single episode in the more character-driven last arc, where Nadja has to fight damn hard to undo Rosemary's Xanatos Gambit and reclaim her right to see her mother. I cried every single damn one.
  • Azumanga Daioh and its bittersweet graduation episode. By the time you get to it, you've gotten to know these girls, been with them for three years of their lives and about a month of yours, and then you're saying goodbye and never seeing them again. Osaka's question about dying in the Post Episode Trailer leading up to the episode, while obviously meant as a joke, did not help. The really heartbreaking part, though, was the "curtain call", in which the girls bow and thank the audience against a plain white background.
    • Hey! The anime had runtime of half a year and the manga had THREE years in Japan! And the manga was a strip too! (Side note: This troper cried on both).
    • Not to mention Yukari's answer. (And it could very well be as little as a day or two, depending on how quickly you go through the DVDs. But that could be considered "having too much free time".)
    • It just hit me... A whole year's worth of Japanese high-schoolers probably started class at about the same time the manga started running, and doubtless some followed the manga to the end... And wound up saying goodbye to Yukari and her class at the same time as they parted ways with their own real-life classmates. That had to be heart-breakingly poignant.
    • Sakaki right before and during their departure from Iriomote Island.
      • And her finding a news story that Maya's mother got run over and killed, as well as Maya's Heroic Near-Sacrifice and the thought of him traveling halfway up Japan just to be reunited with Sakaki.
      • That part may also double a bit as a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming, since as soon as he shows up, it is to defend Sakaki against the mean local cats. Indeed, his whole journey just to be reunited with Sakaki is one big CMOH as well as a Tear Jerker.
  • Barefoot Gen, which depicts the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
    • "Father, are you out there? Eiko? Shinji? The baby's here, everybody! Can you see her? You were wrong, Shinji, it's a girl! Oh, why aren't you here? Father! Shinji! She's the prettiest baby girl in the whole world, and you never even saw her."
    • The "what's happening?!" right after that speech broke my heart.
      • The mother picking up her newborn daughter and raising her in the air slowly showing her the destruction of the bomb "take a good look around little one. You see? this is the war that killed your father remember it."
  • In Basilisk, the end of the "fight" between Oboro and Gennosuke, specially when she stabs herself to die with honor after seeing she won't be able to kill him, for not only she loved him but their duel was unfair and completely manipulated by external forces had this editor crying for hours.
    • Hotarubi's death was as sad as this one as well. I bawled when she, almost dead out of blood loss coming from having both of her arms cut off and being stabbed in the chest, weakly calls out to her dead husband Yashamaru with her last bits of strength, so her own murderer doesn't have the heart to say he's not Yashamaru so he just nods and lets her die in peace..
    • On the same note, this troper found Yashamaru's death quite saddening as well, especially after he dies after spending several episodes promising to himself that he would get back safely to his wife, the abovementioned Hotarubi. Needless to say, this troper found his killers' deaths quite satisfying, especially when one of the two murderers was stabbed to death by mere non-ninja mooks.
    • And it may generally come in behind all these, but Koshirou's death in the manga really got to me, along with Akeginu's undignified and miserable end.
    • I wonder how I could forget the scene in the last episode where Oboro imagines how her wedding would have gone through, if only things didn't go as... wrong as they did.
    • Actually, every single damn death in the whole anime was sad in a sort of way. If not because of the actual character, then for the clan. Inside the clan, all of them were likeable characters and kind of a family. And just with the death of one family member, it will never be like before. For this troper, Akeginu's death was the saddest moment. She was so close to avenging Jingorou and Koshirou, but is stopped by Saemon/Tenzen, whom she believed to be at her side, gets stabbed with a blade, told that she would go to hell and Oboro would soon follow, then she is thrown down a bridge. What a disturbing and sad end. Thinking of the events of Basilisk as a whole, I can only think "What A Senseless Waste Of Human Life". Damn shogun.
    • And if we go to something else than deaths, seeing in the anime how Kasumi Gyoubu became the ruthless Bare Fisted Monk we know... Damn, it hurt. Poor child Gyoubu and his Disappeared Dad. Damn it.
  • Battle Angel Alita has a few, but two stand out particularly sharply:
    • The fifth volume of the original manga, at the conclusion of Alita's battle against Berserker-fied Zapan. Before the fight, a mob gathers to coerce - then later beg when Alita proves beyond their capabilities - her to give up her life to Zapan, which will stop him from rampaging through the Scrapyard. Though she knows she has little chance, she goes anyway, engaging Zapan in a brutal slugfest that she barely stops from becoming a total one-sided loss by sacrificing bits of her body to escape each time she is pinned. It ends with Alita, torn almost to pieces, shakily crawling to a sprig of sweet pea - a sprig she planted with Koyomi at the beginning of the volume, and seemingly dying. It was shown not to be exactly the case in the next volume - though very close - but it did bring forth tears.
    • Then, the ninth volume of the Last Order storyline has its finale, when Caerula almost breaks down upon seeing how ruthless and bitter Arthur Farrell became in the years since her near-death. Apart from trying to make him see reason, however, she also visited to give him a gift: half of his fiancee Haruka's flute, which had been broken when Caerula's lover, Victor Byron, bit and ultimately killed her. While only minutes earlier he appeared as entirely a remorseless tyrant, his face immediately softens as he gently reaches into his coat...and pulls out the other half of the flute, which he had kept immaculately preserved. As he presses the halves together, he holds the completed flute to his head and murmurs "My Haruka..." It was a terribly humanizing moment, full of bittersweet thoughts of what might have been. Cue the waterworks.
  • Berserk, when Schierke's teacher Flora dies.
    • Also when Guts meets Griffith again, and Griffith said that he met Guts to see if he'd feel anything, but realized that nothing would sway his heart, and Guts yells "Nothing?! All that you did?! Everyone you betrayed?! And you don't feel one thing?!" What makes this even worse is the whole scene takes place at the graveyard of the Band of the Hawk, the people that Griffith betrayed and killed. OUCH.
      • Not to mention poor Rickert would brought Griffith up there having no clue what he had done and was overjoyed to tears at his return only to have to watch as Guts appears and tries to kill Griffith in confusion and try to stop the fight only to be told of the Hawks fate by Guts afterwords.
      • Worst of all for me was the grimly inevitable death of Rosine, Dark Magical Girl and Big Bad of the Lost Children arc — an imaginative little girl runs away from her abusive father, seeking the fairies she's always dreamed of, eventually selling her soul in an attempt to find happiness, only to be cut and shot to pieces in the bloodiest, most brutal fashion possible. And the real kicker? It's Guts that kills her, to stop her from hurting anyone else in her madness.
      • No...I'd say the real kicker is thinking back to the first few volumes and remembering that selling your soul to the Godhand is a guaranteed ticket to Hell.
      • That's less of a kicker than a cheerful guarantee that Griffith himself might eventually get what's coming to him.
    • Judeau's death, while declaring his love for Caska.
      • Made all the more tragic in the manga, where he isn't even able to tell her. Instead of telling her, he ends up saying "I'm glad to see you cry...", much to his regret.
      • "Thats it? Those are my last words?"
      • "And you only thought of me as someone useful"
    • Pretty much the entire Eclipse. A rare example that manages to seamlessly weave Tear Jerker with High Octane Nightmare Fuel.
    • Poor Griffith after his year of torture. When Guts finally rescued him and they saw each other for the first time in a year, Griffith raised his hand to Guts' neck. Guts was too stricken with grief to notice that Griffith hated him now, and he just cried over his disfigured body. At this point, stuff like this happened regularly, such as Griffith learning of Guts' and Casca's relationship, and his pathetic attempts at suicide. Despite all the stuff he's done after, sometimes one can still feel sympathy for the poor sucker.
    • Serpico and Farneze's story.
  • Binbou Shimai Monogatari. The last episode practically clubs you over the head with tearjerkiness and the makers don't eschew using a cliche or two. Still, the two sisters' characters somehow hold it together, making the series quite an emotional rollercoaster ride.
    • I'm a cynical little bastard, and I still started sobbing at just one line: "It wasn't looking at the dandelions that always made Mom smile. She was... looking at me."
  • The deaths of Hanzel and Gretel in Black Lagoon. Since the series usually consist of over the top action scenes where dozens of Mooks are gunned down by our Heroic Sociopath "heroes" without a second thought, an arc that could actually be taken seriously was a severe case of Mood Whiplash. The arc following it was so over the top ridiculous that it actually seemed like an apology to the viewer for putting them through that.
    • The worst part? That was about as close to a happy ending as they could get. The only way to improve it would be for Hansel's death to have been less painful. That is how screwed up these two were. They are little kids.
    • Worse still, the ending of the Tokyo arc, the deaths of Yukio and Gin, and Rock's apparent realization that he's one of the bad guys now.
      • That arc also gives us Balalaika's Start Of Darkness. It's especially poignant when you realize that the song playing while Balalaika decides to join the Mafia is the same song that played during Hanzel and Gretel's death scenes.
  • Blue Gender is mostly an action/horror series, but this troper found himself tearing up when Yuji is being driven mad by his overactive B-cells and Marlene is trying to talk to him and bring him back to his senses. The way Marlene speaks, suggesting that she knows she's in danger of losing the only person who matters to her, is especially poignant.
  • At the end of Blue Submarine No 6, if you don't shed a tear for Verg even though he is a bastard, you have no heart.
  • Many, many parts of Bokurano qualify...
    • This troper already had a soft spot for Yoko Machi after Chizu's battle, so when we get to her arc toward the end of the manga and the shot her in the head, the tears started coming fast, especially when Dung Beetle says he * has* to kill his sister and finally starts to become likable when telling her goodbye.
    • The penultimate chapter, 64, is possibly the saddest chapter in the whole manga. We see a shot of all of the children that have died so far, walking in a line against a white background, chatting and laughing with one another. The scene goes over several double pages, and right at the back we see Ushiro running to catch up at the rear, with his sister Kana, his friend Kanji and Machi, the girl who loved him, turning and smiling as he arrives. They continue to walk out of sight, and the next double page is completely blank. They were gone. They'd moved on, and the sheer beauty of the scene stayed with this troper for a long time afterwards.
    • It's hard to pinpoint a sure heartwarming moment in such a sad series, but Daiichi's chapter sure is a peak. He's so compelled in being the nicest person as possible to everyone around him, especially his brother and sisters after his father ran away from home that it's just depressing to see him try his best to hurt as few people as possible and not damage the theme park he was going to take his siblings to on that same day the battle occurred. His fight ends in awesome, but the chapter itself ends in even more tears as he choses not to have his corpse brought back to his family, so they'd think he just "disappeared".
    • And then there's Maki's fight... Not only we see the kids forced to watch the destruction of the universe the defeated pilot comes from, but then we have Maki breaking down... then she manages to see her baby brother's birth through Zearth and even gets to briefly hold the baby in her arms, before she passes away almost in peace. SNIFF.
    • No mention of Chizu's backstory (or heck, her story full stop) in the manga? It's especially distressing to see her pounding on the door of the hotel room she's been locked in and screaming at Hatagai-sensei to let her out, just after he's revealed his true colours as a Complete Monster and set her up to be gang raped by his friends. Then there's her final words just after her battle, where she regrets that the baby she's carrying, which is doomed to die along with her, couldn't have been born to her older sister instead.
    • "I learned to talk like you... by watching you on the TV..." Oh, Anko, you poor baby...
      • Speaking of Anko, her fight in the manga brings out further tears of an almost uplifting kind. As footage from inside Zearth is broadcast of her bravely fighting on even after both her legs have been burned off by acid, the public comes to see her as a hero. She may never have gotten to be an idol like she'd wanted, but in a way, she's gotten to be something even better. *sob*
    • And then there's Komo's pre-death World Of Cardboard Speech in the manga, in which she plays the piano as a part of the trap for the other pilot, thinking about how she has come to notice the world around her... and after the Batman Gambit works, she smiles and falls dead on the floor while her father calls out to her. Made even worse when Admiral Komoda quietly asks if he's even worthy of holding his daughter's body in his arms, and his assistant tells him that he is, because Komo passed away happily.
  • The otherwise Squickful yaoi manga Boys Next Door pulls out all the stops angsty past-wise, but hearing one of the main characters talk about being abandoned by his mother at a carnival downright made this troper tear up. ("The jester's giving away balloons!" comes to mind... "Mom, is there no balloon for me because I'm a child nobody wants?") It's supposed to be his Start Of Darkness more or less but comes across as perfectly horrible.
  • Buso Renkin has many ridiculously sad moments, especially since it gets more emotional each time Kazuki "dies". But the entire episode "No One Can Ever Replace Him" is undoubtedly a Tear Jerker.
  • Captain Tsubasa isn't the best in regards of Character Development, but some moments are huge tearjerkers. Matsuyama and Yoshiko having to say goodbye to each other as she's leaving to USA, Misaki giving up on living with his Missing Mother because he doesn't want to lose his dad, Schneider's struggle to deal with his parents's inminent divorce and his tears of joy when Mom and Dad decide to not split up, Tsubasa's rejection of Kumi's feelings and her choosing her friendship with him and Sanae over her love for him and then running away in tears, Misaki getting reconciled with his formerly Missing Mom and her new family after his half-sister begs him to visit her, Santana's tale of Parental Abandonment that made him an Emotionless Boy, Hyuga's mother temporarily becoming an Ill Girl, Matsuyama telling Tsubasa that he'd rather be with his unconscious girlfriend in the hospital rather than playing against the Swedish team and Tsubasa supporting his decision, Levin losing the fiancee he loved so much in a car accident, Santana meeting up with his Missing Mom and immediately accepting her back in his life...
  • Cardcaptor Sakura, "Sakura and the Calendar of Memory", wherein Nadeshiko's great-grandfather Masaaki reconciles with Fujitaka, after Sakura learns of their relatiosnhip and gets him a birthday present.
    • Also, "Sakura and Her Memories of Her Mother." Specially when Sakura cries happy tears after seeing that the cause of the troubles was not her mother's spirit.
    • And the Final Judgement, before Kaho's Bell of the Moon eliminates Sakura's loss to Yue, and she and everyone she knows forgets whomever they loved the most.
    • Don't forget Sakura crying in Syaoran's arms after she pulls her own I Want My Beloved To Be Happy on Yukito and encourages him to hook up with his beloved Touya. She's almost completely happy and cheery when speaking to Yukito himself, but once she's with Syaoran in the park, she explains what she just did, and then she starts crying and saying that even if she did the right thing, and she doesn't regret it, it still hurts...
      • And Syaoran in the same scene in the manga. The look on his face when Sakura said that she told Yukito she loved him. He knew she liked Yukito, but that really had to hurt! And then in the next chapter, he decides that he won't tell Sakura how he feels, because he doesn't want to upset her. Dang!
    • Another mix of Tear Jerker and I Want My Beloved To Be Happy in the series is Meiling's return to Japan, where breaks off her engagement to Syaoran and tells him to go for Sakura, but then she bawls her heart out on Tomoyo's lap because she loves both Sakura and Syaoran too much to hate them for her heartbreak.
    • Sakura witnessing Clow's death is a double Tear Jerker: not only you get Clow saying goodbye to his creations, you get to see Sakura's face when she hears Kero and Yue claim no one will ever be as good as him. Ouch.
    • The following episode, where Yukito (now aware of Yue's existence and his status) angsts because his whole life as a human is a lie, but Touya reassures him that their common memories are true, and this happens right before Sakura's aforementioned I Want My Beloved To Be Happy moment towards Yukito and Touya, followed by her breakdown in Syaoran's arms brought even more tears.
    • Sweet lord... The end of the episode with The Mirror had me bawling. That particular card starts as a trickster with shades of Jerk Ass, but when Touya shows her genuine affection and she's so guilty after her Heel Face Turn that she drops Sakura hints about her identity so she can seal her as atonement, she becomes The Woobie. Poor, poor Mirror card. * sob*
  • The end of The Castle Of Cagliostro, when Clarisse begs to go with Lupin and embraces him. He's about to hug her back, but forces himself not to, and lets her down gently, almost brotherly. That right there? Is the reason I'm an Arsène Lupin III fangirl. I don't care if it isn't technically canon, it's canon for me.
    • Twilight Gemini. Quicksand. That is all.
    • The second TV series had the episode "The Rose and the Pistol" ("Shot Through the Heart" in English) In it, Jigen, of all people falls for a Spanish dancer. Sadly, she's just acting as part of the villain's plot to kill Jigen and Lupin. In the resulting car chase, Jigen is the one to fire the bullet that sends the bad guys' car into the ocean, killing one of the few women he ever loved.
  • Chi's Sweet Home, episodes 102 and especially 103. When it hits Chi that Blacky isn't coming back, it hits like a truck.
  • Chobits, when Chii is pseudo-killed at the end of the series. Although she gets better.
    • For this troper, Chii's entire story wasn't nearly as tearjerking as the backstories of Takako Shimizu ( the teacher whose husband became enamored with their persocom, driving her into the arms of one of her students, and the owner of Tirol, who fell in love with a persocom, married her, watched her degrade due to irreparable memory loss, and finally saw her die while saving his life in one last moment of mental clarity.
    • The latter has a particular pang when you realise it's not too far from watching a spouse suffering from a case of dementia.
    • There was also the story about Minoru's big sister and Yuzuki.
  • Chrono Crusade. Just...Chrono Crusade. The ending of the anime is particularly notorious—even having one of the scenes in an AMV can bring people (or at least this troper) to tears.
    • The ending of the manga also brings out the tears, starting with these words: " Rosette's life...came to an end in March of this year."
    • Not to mention the near volume-long flashback that reveals Chrono's long avoided backstory. Particularly the completely silent section—no dialogue, no sound affects, no narration—showing Mary Magdalene's death at Chrono's hands. It's a shame the anime rushed through it.
    • This manga full of it. When Chrono realized what he had done during his rampage in San Francisco, when Rosette awakens Chrono from his self-induced coma, when Satella freezes herself together with her older sister, when Joshua rips out his horns realizing that he don't need it to become strong, Rosette's near death experience, and the effect it has on Joshua and Chrono, and in the epilogue where Satella watching Azmaria's tape.
  • Cowboy Bebop: At least one of the episodes "Jupiter Jazz", "Hard Luck Woman", or "The Real Folk Blues" (and by extension the numbers "Space Lion" and "Blue") will make you cry. No exceptions.
    • When Spike dies...This troper was not expecting that. This troper was watching it while her father was outside mowing the lawn. He came in and was positive someone in real life was dead, she was shaking and bawling so hard from the shock!
      • "You're going to carry that weight..."
    • Not to mention the final scene of "Speak Like a Child".
    • On "Pierrot le Fou" on Youtube almost every single comment lampshades the trope: they're all about how horribly sad the ending was and how NO viewer could stop the tears when Pierrot, in his Villainous Breakdown, screams and cries like a little kid upon being wounded by Spike.
    • Or the closing moments of "Waltz for Venus."
    • The ending of "Hard Luck Woman" deserves special mention: after spending the entire series with no memory and only a few teasing hints about her past, Faye finally remembers who she is and where she came from. As she's preparing to leave the Bebop - smiling and genuinely happy - tells Ed that having a place to belong is the best thing there is. When she gets to her old home, she finds it abandoned and destroyed, with only the foundation remaining. As "Call Me Call Me" plays, we see Faye using a stick to draw the outlines of where the furniture used to be in her old room, and then lie down on the spot where her bed used to stand, staring up at the sky.
    • It's somehow made worse by the shot of Spike and Jet in the ending montage of 'Hard Luck Woman', after Ed and Faye leave. Having set out dishes of hard-boiled eggs for dinner, Jet and Spike sit in total silence, cramming the eggs into their faces. When they finish their own bowls, they start in on Faye's and Ed's, which doesn't seem very sad — until you realize that they're avoiding talking about their friends' departures.
  • Cross Game — First. Episode.
  • 007's backstory in the last Cyborg 009 series is an absolute Tear Jerker. So is the episode with Joe and his dog, the one with Albert and his dead girlfriend, the deals with poor 0013, and poor 0011.,Cynthia Finder and the conflict with her father, Joe's time jump with Arisu and his wish to see his dead mother... not knowing that the person he's telling that is his mom as a little girl, the end of the Psychic Assassins arc, and the whole last Pu'awak episode, which has the deaths of the five sisters (Viina's is the worst, in Alber's arms just like it happened to him and Sylvia) and Joe and Jet's almost deaths in the atmosphere.
    • Oh let's not forget the 2001 arc when Joe finds several of his friends from childhood... Who have been kidnapped and made into cyborgs and blame him. They all live and work together and try to kill him together but Joe keeps trying to tell them to join the cyborgs. Unfortunately they don't listen and tell him to go away, because they were made into living BOMBS. They instantly say "Bye!" as the huddle and die, the house they all share burns down RIGHT in front of him. Doesn't help another Tear Jerker and Nightmare Fuel arc begins right after that. This troper then even cried when the Psychic Assassins arc ended... and the kid dies of premature aging, 001's father dies, Lena and Kain vanish into The Labyrinth and only Mai escapes. Then she's watching the burning lair and suddenly she starts to vanish, saying "Well we've changed the past."
    • Episode #2 of the 1968 series...You actually would be quite surprised.
    • And the episode of the 1968 series where Albert befriends this German girl named Leena, who is actually a Robot Girl, whom her father/creator wants to use as a Soul Jar for the soul of Adolf Hitler. Holy shit, the end is sad.
  • Cyber Team In Akihabara - Episode 20, from start to finish, details Tsubume suffering an emotional breakdown when she sees how a loving family behaves. Even the Dub actress captures it perfectly.
    • Tsubume Utorii: "You're nosey, Hibari... It's not fair! Why should you have everything? Why is it always about you? Hibari has a father who loves her! Hibari has a mother who loves her! Everyone is doting all over her! Hibari has a place to go home to! Why do I have nowhere to go? No one doting over me? It's just not fair! All I want is..! ...Is..." * sobbing*
  • The deaths of Bertha and Itzhak in Darker Than Black.
    • Not just that part. The whole episode. Every bit of it. ** sniff**
    • Episode six. It gets this troper every single time. Poor Havok...
    • And, asuming you can figure out what the hell is going on, the last episode. Amber was doing the whole thing to try to make Hei happy, and he never wanted to kill anyone in the first place. Perhaps also the bit after Amber turns back time a couple of minutes to give Hei another chance, when we see the Syndicate completely ignoring the fact that there obviously isn't a threat in favor of trying to wipe out every contractor on the planet.
    • How in the world is the end of episode four not here yet? "I'm back." "Welcome home, dads."
  • The Demon Ororon made this troper weep bitterly from volume one. I cry every time I see Ororon die. The sheer number of deaths in this manga is incredible considering it's only four volumes long.
    • Seconded. This troper has read the fourth volume once, and cannot seem to read it again. Also, the story of Othello and his wife. He had to kill her himself!
  • Detective Conan has a general policy of making its large amount of murderers sympathetic and the victims Complete Monsters. As a result, this series is full of tear-jerking Motive Rants. Just a few examples pulled out from elsewhere of this wiki:
    • The case of a certain villain of the week in a(filler) case: he was the ghost writer for the Victim Of The Week (a very eccentric murder mystery author who dressed up as a vampire) so that the said writer who used to pay for his Ill Girl younger sister's hospital bills in exchange for the guy's hard work. We later learn the horrible truth: the poor girl actually died six months ago, because her older brother's Complete Monster boss actually bribed her doctor into keeping her on painkillers only instead of paying for crucial and expensive treatment abroad (as per his end of the bargain), so the brother could remain indefinitely time as his subordinate, which ultimately killed her. And when the poor brother found out from the guilt-ridden nurse who used to tend to the girl, he went nuts with pain and murdered said boss. Asshole Victim seems a bit... lenient.. Conan himself lampshades the trope as he thinks "It's said that when a person is bitten by a vampire, they become vampires as well. He killed his boss and now is guilty. Poor guy! Revenge completely drained his body, mind, and soul..."
    • Seiji Asou aka Narumi Asai in Moonlight Sonata— the tear jerking part is not the motive rant on how he took revenge for his murdered family, but the fact that after that he decided to burn himself to death with his father's old piano, despite Conan's repeated appeals against that.
    • Hiroki Sawada of the Non Serial Movie is Deus Angst Machina to tear jerking levels: Child Prodigy who was a bit too much for Japanese schools to deal with, two separate Parental Abandonments, and his stepfather, despite recognizing his ability, deprived him of socialization— and a later case of his DNA tracking his stepfather provoked the latter's In The Blood response— which culmulated in his pretty epic suicide in th movie's opening— at the age of 10.
    • The Poor Communication Kills episode where A Jerk Ass Idol Singer is killed by his beautiful ex-girlfriend and manager because of his mental abuse towards her. It's then revealed that he was a Jerk Ass out of guilty because the girl got plastic surgery to be beautiful for him, but he loved her just the way she was before fixing her face.
    • Ran's Broken Pedestal episode, where the killer was her favorite teacher at middle school, and she had to relay Conan/Shinichi's deductions (which he sent to her through a hidden microphone). Seeing Ran shake and cry as she "resolved" the case, with Conan mentally kicking himself as he tells her what happened... sniffff..
    • "I wish you were Shinichi" ...sniff...waaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!

  • In the original Devilman manga, this editor was both Squicked and misty-eyed when Akira Fudo aka Devilman gets out of the Makimura's wrecked and burned house after killing the mob who brutally murdered and dismembered his Action Girlfriend Miki Makimura (who desperately fought for her life until the last moment) in his Devilman form, weeping softly as he returns to his human state and hugs Miki's severed head against his chest. Now you know where CLAMP got their ideas for Kotori's death in X.
    • Almost as intense is when Akira is visited by his cheeky little friend Sachiko from his old neighborhood. In an almost Elfen Lied -like inversion to all the horror, they playfully flirt almost to the point of disturbance (heavily hitting that old cultural barrier), with maybe-tweener Sachiko taunting Miki that she and Akira are 'almost lovers', and it gets Miki's dander up. But all is innocent, and he sees her off to the train station. Then all goes to hell, though not as much as in the series finale , like anything really could. Aboard the train, Sachiko and the other passengers are set upon by demons, with the train tunnel itself being the mouth or orifice of something nasty. Akira then receives a phone call telling him that his 'little friend tasted wonderful'. Akira kills the demon Jinmen responsible, but not before seeing the faces of the monster's dead victims on the back of its tortoise-like shell, wailing about the horror of their fate. Sachiko is among them, painfully and tearfully describing her horrific death, and all she has lost as a result. At her urging, Akira recognizes their fate and sees past the demon's taunts and plunges his hand through Sachiko's face, enabling him to tear off Jinmen's shell, leaving him vulnerable. As a final reminder of Akira's loss, the shell hardens with the faces still on it, including Sachiko's smashed visage. And for all this, it is only a light prelude or foreshadowing of horrors to come.
  • The ending of the various incarnations of A Dog Of Flanders is usually considered one of anime's top Tear-Jerkingest moments. Other World Masterpiece Theater series tend to be loaded with these as well.

     E-H 
  • Escaflowne had quite a few.
    • The cat girls and Folken, Van in the barn dealing with Hitomi and Allen, and the epic final battle followed by Van and Hitomi having to part and never see each other again, because without the pendant she can never return to Gaia
  • There's no way this troper is the only one who needs to lie down for a while at the end of FLCL.
    • The manga is one hell of a tearjerker. Haruko leaves Earth, having left behind her Vespa scooter for Naota to follow her in the future. However, the modified scooter is far too difficult to handle for him, and drives so fast that his fingernails start to rip off. The final pages show him trying again and again, crying his eyes out all alone whilst cats watch him.
  • ef: A Tale Of Memories has its share of very sad moments, in particular anything involving Chihiro Shindou's Ill Girl condition. Especially heart-breaking is the scene where Chihiro rips out the pages of her diary in which she mentions Renji, so she will forget him.
    • The spot that really hit this troper was when Chihiro said "I just can't not think about you for 13 hours". Then, the for a second watch through, when Renji first finds Chihiro before running off to find the pages, and she claims doesn't recognize him, you know she's acting and when you think about how impossibly difficult and heart-breaking for her to be doing that...
    • The scene in which Miyako fills up Hirino's cell phone with increasingly desperate messages after he stood her up on their date also qualifies—especially since all we see is her standing still and her messages written out on the screen. Pretty intense. Kudos to the voice actors, too.
    • A Tear Jerker on its own, but twins especially will probably be hit hard during the flashback of the accident that caused Chihiro's amnesia. Seeing poor little Kei crying in the hospital and obviously believing it was all her fault made me cry more than the two above mentioned scenes.
    • And for the second season, Yuuko's backstory in episode 6 (crossed over with Mind Screw) and Yuu's and Yuuko's meeting in the final episode. God dammit Yuuko, why didn't you Look Both Ways?
    • Speaking of not looking both ways, when Yuu finds Yuuko's body and then picks her up, carrying it with Miki? Yeah, that's bad. Then Ebullient Future begins to play. I bawled.
  • El Cazador de la Bruja is quite refreshingly fun for the most part after the studio's heavy previous works Noir and Madlax. But episode 25 still has a big one: "If you have any last words, say them now." "I love you so much, Nadie."
  • Say what you will about Endless Eight, but this troper can't be the only one who felt so sad for poor Yuki every time the camera panned in on her visibly sad face. Extra significance because she's the Emotionless Girl.
    • I cannot be the one who felt her heart ping a little when Kyon told Haruhi that she should find herself a nice guy to walk with and give up on all of this weird business, and Haruhi went unusally bitter as she replied with the following rant:
    Haruhi: Men are worthless. Feelings of love are just a temporary lapse in judgement. Like a kind of mental illness. Even I... get in the mood for that stuff every now and then. I am a healthy young girl, after all. My body has its urges...
  • Eureka Seven: When Ray fails to avenge her husband Charles' death and her ship is falling to pieces around her. Suddenly her eyes snap open and she says, "Where? Where is it?" Her arm has been torn off in the burning wreckage, and she slowly crawls with one arm across the bridge to where her severed arm lies... for the wedding ring that lies on it. And then, just as she's about to reach it, with a sad, hopeful smile on her face, the ship explodes. Not to mention this is all combined with flashbacks of Charles promising they'll have a great future together even after she turns out barren.
    • Oh, yes. It probably wouldn't have been so bad had there not been a few episodes showing how much of nice people they are and how they genuinely loved Renton and were even planning to adopt him.
    • This troper had to explain why she was crying when her friend pointed out the moon was full, a few days after seeing the ending to Eureka Seven.
    • Anemone's behavior when she goes out to pilot theEnd for the last time. In a brutal contrast to her normally spastic behavior, she alternates between listless self-hate and wistful regret. And to make things worse, she finally admits her love for the boy she's treated horribly for most of the series, but concludes that it's far too late.
    Anemone: "If, after this ends, someone were to tell me 'It's okay to live', I'd buy just one small mirror and practice smiling. I'd practice over and over, to meet you again. Maybe, if someone were to tell me 'It's okay to live without hurting anyone', I'd pull back my hair as it tossed in the wind, and I'd take a giant step. I'd push out my chest and go see him. I want to live... I want to tell him 'Thank you'. I want to live to show him my feelings. I want to live... It would've been better if I hadn't discovered this feeling."
    • That little girl and her parents on the plane.
    • One of the biggest tearjerkers in the series didn't come from the anime, but rather its manga adaptation. Despite defeating the Big Bad, Eureka eventually succumbs to her wounds. The final interaction between the two lovers and Renton's reactions makes it brutally difficult not to cry.
  • Excel Saga actually advertises episode 24 as a Tear Jerker. And as promised, not a single joke in the entire episode. Still, for fans of this Gag Series it's usually rather uncomfortable to see Excel get a really drawn out death scene while she's bleeding and monologuing. Not that she seems to know about such things though, given her "something is flowing out of my body" comment. The rest of the episode isn't much more cheerful, with most of the characters actually getting a bit of character development.
    • To specify, that was the following episode which was serious. But the real tearjerker occurs in the previous Wham Episode where, after an episode that was mostly a parody of Fist Of The North Star, the last couple of minutes has Excel banging on the door of Il Palazzo's base until her fists are bloody and crying out for Il Palazzo to let her in, only for Il Palazzo to shoot her through the chest and leave her to die in the desert. It was just so pathetic and sad.
    • There's also the episode 8 where Cossette is assigned to an assassination mission. Her mark is a lady that Cossette can't kill after realising she has a daughter; this triggers Cossette's memories of her own mother's death. All fades to black, Cossette sees her mother's spirit at the distance, waving goodbye. Cossette wants to follow her but Pedro shows up to pull her back. Oh, Cossette's mother gets better by way of Izi-chan.
    • This troper, who rarely cries, was in tears at the systematic elimination of of Wolf and the Dog Pack in episode ten. The subsequent betrayal by Inchiki and Menchi's kind previous owner had him crying. And Menchi's sad song during the credits, after all that, had him full-out bawling.
  • In Eyeshield21, when Devilbats lost from Gunmen. Suzuna, can't believe what she seen, begin to said, "this is a joke, right...? Hey... Hey...." And tears begin flowing from her eyes. It's just the beginning.
    • Subverted while Hiruma revealed that they had not lost their chance yet.
    • Chapter 245... "Humans having a dream only ask for trouble..." It doesn't help that the Wild Gunmans are this troper's favorite team in the series, excluding the Devilbats...waaah...
    • Devil Bats lose to Shinryuuji when Kurita trips and can't make it to the ball for the next set. After being called a useless fatty with no speed the entire game. They still win because of CATCH MAX!
    • Habashira breaks down because his team chooses not to continue a losing game, starts crying to Hiruma because the two were not much different at all.
    • Apollo, of all people, when he sends Panther out because he reminds him of his non-playing days in the NFL.
    • When Monta doesn't make the baseball team, and makes a promise to his idol that his catching expertise will go to football instead.
    • Taki, realizing he hasn't done anything that great since he joined despite what he has thought, uses his flexibility to overcome the tackle-technique used by the enemy.
  • In Fairy Tail, everytime there is a flashback involving Lisanna, you can prepare yourself to wipe some tears from your eyes, because it is either this or a slightly less depressing Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming. The anime expands her role and only makes it worse.
  • Figure 17 has a good few: Hikaru almost dying in the battle against the 7th Maguar, Tsubasa's reaction to Sho's sudden off-screen death at the end of episode 9, and of course Hikaru really dying at the end of the last episode. Try watching the ending credits after all this and watch as what was once cheesy becomes heartbreaking.
  • Flint The Time Detective gives us Artie, whose bond with a young Auguste Rodin was incredibly close, and who clings, sobbing, to Auguste when the time comes for Flint and co. to take him away forever. The boy promises to never forget him...before having his memories forcefully wiped clean. For the remainder of that episode, Artie never stops crying. Honestly, it's like seeing Pikachu taken away from Ash with a little Mind Rape thrown in for good measure.
  • The last TV episode of Fruits Basket, and also the part with Momiji talking about his mother, which they later topped with his sister Momo — whose plea to get to know Momiji even made Tohru bawl. Hatori's backstory has also managed this on many people.
    • And Kisa's backstory! This troper was in tears throughout the explanation of how she transformed into a Cute Mute, but what really started the water works was when she finally spoke again, running toward Tohru and crying "Onee-chan!" It took months for this troper to stop crying whenever she saw that page.
    • Akito. And the Kyoko/Katsuya backstory made this troper bawl. Actually, she bawled at pretty much every bit of backstory. But especially Akito and Kyoko/Katsuya.
    • What about the last few episodes of the anime when Kyo reveals his true form to Tohru? This troper watched them all in the same day and was sobbing pretty much the whole time.
    • How has no one mentioned Hatori wiping Kana and Momiji's mother's memory? This troper cried their heart out.
      • The tears cried over Hatori's flashback in episode 8 of the anime completely sold this troper on Fruits Basket as a quality series.
    • Despite the number of undeniably heartbreaking parts in this manga, this troper also found themselves crying quite a few tears of joy as well, particularly Kana telling Hatori she doesn't care what his form is while toweling his hair dry, A smiling Tohru carrying Kyo home in cat form after he reveals his true form, and Haru's "Welcome home" to Rin as he carries her.
    • The grandaddy of them all: the origin of the series title made this troper huddle in a little weepy ball.
    • I still cry when I remember Hanajima's backstory. Specially when Uo and Tohru learn about the incidents surrounding Hana's past, Hana herself pleading with them to leave her alone since she could kill them with her powers like she almost did with the kid who bullied her... but they insist they're her friends. And Hana-chan can finally smile.
      • For this troper, it was the line "The sunset doesn't seem sad anymore. Maybe because now I'm not staring at it by myself..."
    • The most tearjerking moment in the series IMO was the end of Chapter 135, full stop. First, we hear Kyoko's dying thoughts, her concerns for Tohru's well-being ("Tohru, did I love you enough?" AUGH!), and what she meant when she told Kyo "I won't forgive you". Tear-jerking enough, right? No way. In the final pages Kyoko dies and finds Katsuya waiting for her on the other side. At this point, this troper broke down at her computer and many nearby family members felt it necessary to inquire about her mental health.
  • All of Full Moon O Sagashite, from start to finish.
    • Specific moments occur in episode 42, where, after becoming an Idol Singer, overcoming hardships and traveling to America to find him, Mitsuki finds that her childhood friend Eichi died a year and a half ago. This is either better or worse in the manga, in which Eichi died in a plane crash and Mitsuki knew from the very beginning that he was dead, but was in serious denial and became Full Moon to find him anyway.
    • Then, of course, there's the last episode, where This Troper cried in despair for the first half and in happiness for the second.
    • Izumi's backstory in the manga where we find out that he killed himself when he was six standing in a railroad crossing, because he felt that his mother didn't want him. It turns out that his mother let him go because she felt like she wasn't able to love him.
  • The entire latest arc of the Gakuen Alice manga, from about chapter 90 on, made this troper bawl like a baby. First, Hotaru's older brother telling her that he really does love her, and he never forgot about her like she assumed he did. Then, the main characters go back in time to observe how Mikan's parents met. This culminates in her father's violent death, caused by a boy he essentially helped raise but orchestrated by the Big Bad. Then, flash forward nine months, to Mikan's birth, and a daydream/vision of her father's ghost holding the baby he never even knew was conceived. "Look, Yuka, it's a girl! She's so beautiful... Our Mikan..." SOB.
    • Far earlier on, there was a tearjerker that basically amounted to: "I am not crying over a penguin. I am no—- PENGUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNN!!"
  • In Gankutsuou, the death of Franz.
    • As a matter of fact, Edmond's past and the last two episodes, especially when Haydee attempts to stop the Count, when Albert hugs him, and when he dies.
    • This Troper was particularly affected by the glowy flashback scene showing Edmond, Mercedes, and Fernand during their younger years, with Mercedes' hat flying off and the two of them going after it. Just the whole way that Mercedes acted like a cute Tsundere, and the playful and innocent way that they got along made for a rather depressing contrast to what you know happened later.
  • A major moment of tears in the Gantz manga is the death of Tae Kojima. She is the only character who REALLY it contributed on the change of personality of Kei Kurono. She is revived lately, but that´s not the point.
    • The death of Takeshi. God fucking DAMN is that sad.
    • The deaths of the little boy and his grandma during the Tanaka aliens mission really got to this troper. They see the aliens coming for them while hiding in a garage, so grandma makes the boy leave, saying that she'll protect him and get him home safely. Moments later, the boy comes back to find grandma slumped on the ground with her eyes and ears bleeding from the aliens' attack. The boy goes to hug grandma one last time, disregarding the aliens in front of them. And as the aliens prepare to finish them both off, grandma hugs the boy one last time.
      • This trooper it saw another tear moment after the Nurarihyon Mission: The love declaration of Reika to Kei, who rejected her because he loves Tae. she hopelessly decide to obtain the 100 points, to make a clone of Kurono for her. this trooper it cried by pity
  • Ga-Rei -Zero- has a huge one with the main character, Yomi. Just two episodes or so before this particular scene, Yomi's adopted father was brutally murdered and then her inheritance was taken away from her. After losing everything, she loses even more when she's almost killed in an attack by the Big Bad, who purposely aims for her nerves, pharynx, and tendons, rendering her practically motionless and mute. A despondent Kagura weeps for her after trying to feed Yomi her favorite snack, and in a very emotional and tear jerking scene, she demands why Yomi has to suffer so much and wishes that they could've been born as normal sisters living a normal live. Yomi doesn't seem to mind though, since she still has Kagura... but then Kagura abandons her after learning about Yomi's incident with her sister. Coupled with her being abandoned by her fiance, the only man she loved, she really does lose everything at this point. The following scene where she completely breaks down into tears, but is unable to call out for Kagura because of her voice, makes this one of the saddest moments ever.
  • Gash Bell has several such scenes, notably Gem's final words to Yopopo in episode 22 and Kid saying good-bye to Dr. Riddles before going out in a blaze of glory in episode 73.
    • Oddly enough, it was Byonko that did it for this troper. Particularly, Demoruto burning Byonko's toy clock, and the implication that Alvin would be all alone again.
    • There are two other moments that always hit this troper: Danny's goodbye to Mr. Gold, in volume 7/episode 27, and Albert bringing Leila back from the stone illusion, in volume 16/episode 78.
    • Kiyomaro's apparent death at the hands of Leo. Full stop.
    • One name. Kolulu. Damn.
    • The end of the Zophise arc, seriously. First, there's Sherry and Koko's reunion with the latter thanking the former from the bottom of her heart. When Sherry leaves the room, even her butler is bawling like a baby. And, as if that moment alone wasn't enough to make us cry, we have Sherry, in tears, pledging her loyailty to Brago, swearing to make him the king while we see shots of how he developed through the story. I mean, seriously. Even thinking about it makes my throat go dry... Wait, Sand In The Eyes.
    • Towards the end of the manga Papipurio, one of the closest characters you'll find to a scrappy in the series, gets a surprisingly touching moment when his partner nearly sacrifices her life to ensure his safety, acknowledging that she always treated him like her own son who had died years ago. They get a temporary reprieve, but end up getting bumped off shortly afterwards along with one of the manga's major characters. (Which is one hell of a Tear Jerker on it's own)
    • Dear God how has no one mentioned the second to last chapter yet. After finally winning the kings battle Gash and Kiyomaro have to say goodbye forever. It gets worse when you realise that they knew this was coming for months and they still can't keep straight faces. Just to round it off in the background there's Sherry bawling her eyes out because she's lost Brago too. It was the most emotional thing this troper has ever read in his life.
  • Joe's dying speech to the team in the first series finale of Gatchaman.
    • And Kentarou Washio aka Red Impulse's death. Made even worse some episodes later when Ken is tricked into believing he may be alive, but it was just a trap from the enemy. Seeing Ken watch the sunset in tears and being unable to finish his usual afterthought speech is just cruel.
    • How about the end of episode 3? Ken befriends a boy in a similar situation to his, but unlike Ken this boy's father is dead and Berg Katse has taken the man's identity. Ken fights him, drives him off and lets the boy hate him for making his "papa" go away again because he knows the boy's pain all too well. He just doesn't have the heart to crush his dreams even when they've already been crushed, and the sad music accompanying a more melancholy "hang in there, Gatchaman" doesn't help.
    • Ryu quitting the Science Ninja Team after his mistake of oversleeping gets the team in trouble. Once again we hear the sad music as he sits alone on the train, mentally apologizing to the team. "I'm sorry, guys, but I just can't let this go". This troper gets teary-eyed just remembering that train scene.
  • Remmy's death in Geneshaft, especially when she still manages to contact her crew after she got shot, so they can witness her last moments.
  • The end of the Genshiken manga gets this troper. The second-to-last chapter is the worst, actually, because it's one extended silent scene showing the whole group together for what'll probably be the last time in a long time. This troper relates to Genshiken (particularly Madarame) pretty strongly, and is absolutely terrified of that day coming when he'll probably never see all his friends together again, especially since it's the first group of friends he's ever felt all that close to.
    • Also, the fact that Madarame doesn't confess his feelings for Kusakabe for the sake of their friendship, even though in his heart he knows he might never get another chance. My god, Madarame is my favorite character, so to see him choke back his emotions instead of acting on them...
  • Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex.
    • Most of "A Tachikoma Runs Away" breaks this troper into pieces.
    • The death of the Tachikomas. Goodbye Mr. Batou. * cries*
      • What you have is certainly not weak.
      • The melodramatic oil tear dents the moment slightly for this troper, but oh God... I was still choking up. I thought it was even more effective than the 2nd Gig ending.
    • This troper adopts a quivering expression identical to Batou's, only more so, at the end of 2nd Gig's "Trans_Parent." The VO who provided the little girl's voice earned her pay.
    • 2nd GiG later has two practically back to back, the first is: Motoko asking Kuze if he can fold cranes using his left hand — with all the implication that has. Then, right after that hearing the Tachikoma sing this cheerful song about butterflies and living things while they send the satellite containing their collective consciousness plummeting into the path of a launched nuke.
      The earthworm, the cricket,
      the water snake
      everything, everything is alive
      and are friends
      We all are alive
      We laugh because we're alive
      We all are alive
      We are happy because we're alive
      • "I don't believe it. Do you want to know something? I'd bet anything that all of you have ghosts."
    • Most of the flashback portion of episode 11 of 2nd GIG (AFFECTION), but especially the one line toward the end:
      "I'm going to practice folding paper cranes so that I can make them for you someday, okay?"
      • Cue the song Take a Little Hand, and this troper consequently bursting into tears.
  • All of Gilgamesh, assuming you can manage to even cry given the utterly apathetic tone of the series.
  • How has no one mentioned Ginga Densetsu Weed? This troper never really cared about Ginga Nagareboshi Gin, but John's death brought her closer to tears than any other scene in the series. This troper wanted to reach through the screen, tear out Hougen's intestines and see how he liked it!
    • I thought both series were chock full of tear-jerker character deaths. It's weird how a very violent and gory talking-dog anime would have that sorta effect on anyone. I was also a bit teary-eyed when Bat and Kite's lives were spared and you see them shed tears.
    • Jerome's death. You don't learn about it until after the fact, but this troper and all her friends wept over him, as he was their favorite character, not to mention he had one of the more touching backstories/subplots. Weed imagining him returning at the end of the final episode is a particularly cruel tease.
    • What about GB's death in the manga? Really, I think that beats every other scene in the entire series. GB dying in his godson's arms after giving his life to save him from the Hybrid Bear... it's pretty damn depressing, especially since it was just around that time when GB was beginning to get over his cowardice and realize his full potential. That poor sweet dog...
  • There's a reason why this troper and her friends call Okita's sister Mitsubaaaaaawww... damn you, Gintama!
  • Makoto's final Time Leap in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
    • And again, when Chiaki reappears for a few brief seconds after just leaving Mokoto sobbing her heart out and tells her he'll be waiting for her in the future. Mokoto's response is a bright, if extremely tearful smile and a quiet, "I'll come running."
  • God Child has several. Cain's childhood is one big Tear Jerker, as is Jezebel's. Then there's the chapters about Marjorie and the Coffin-Maker. Marjorie is sending the man to kill the men who ruined her father's good name, driving him to suicide, and even though the Coffin Maker works for Delilah, he genuinely cares about Marjorie. (it's even implied, in a few pages, that they slept together.) The kicker comes when Cain and the Coffin Maker confront each other in the funeral home where Marjorie lives/works, and it catches fire. Marjorie wants to stay and die with the Coffin Maker, but he knocks her out and tells Cain to take her to her aunt's house. "It's been kept a secret, no one will find her!" As he dies in the fire, he thinks to himself that he will carry the building with him to Hell, and that "a sinner like me can have...at least one day of happiness." The tears get worse when there are Marjorie's screams of denial, and at the end of that arc, when Marjorie, now living with her aunt, receives a letter that the Coffin Maker had written and mailed to her before his death, knowing he would die soon. He tells her that she is loved, and signs it "Yours Eternally, Grifford." Marjorie, who had always asked him his name and never gotten it, breaks down into tears, as do we.
  • Gun Buster's final episode - "Welcome Home". It never fails to make this troper cry. When our heroines go down into the Black Hole Bomb to activate it manually, Jung, their last remaining friend, promises to give them a big welcome home when they get back. But they're in the center of the galaxy, and with Time Dilation in full effect, they don't make it back to earth until 12,000 years later, only to be greeted by a dark, silent Earth. But as they're thinking that they are the last humans left... the entire planet lights up in a continent sized "Welcome Back" sign. Jung kept her promise.
    • And of course, the corresponding scene from the opposite side in the sequel Diebuster, bringing the epic full circle.
  • During the last few episodes of Gungrave, Grave is in the safe house with Mika, and he is preparing his guns for the final battles with Bunji and Harry. Mika is trying to ask him why he has to leave. Grave naturally doesn't respond, but Mika hugs him from behind. To her shock and horror, she has discovered that Grave's body is literally falling apart (the lack of blood transfusions has caused Grave's body to become fragile and literally cracking) as he only has about ten days' worth of blood in his system, donated by Dr. T. before his death. Grave turns around and tries to console her, and Mika throws herself in his arms, crying her heart out and begging him to not leave her alone, because she doesn't want to lose anyone else. She confesses how much she loves him, how she just wants them to be together always, and pleads with him to just forget about his vendetta and go far, far away from the city and the Millenion in order to live together in peace. She even offers to study the technology Dr. T. used to maintain Grave's body and find a way to save him. But Grave must turn her down, as he knew he was living on borrowed time and his time will end soon, and despite being a silent, tactiturn man for almost the entire series actually says something that's more than two words, in the most heartbreaking way:
    Grave: * kneels down and puts his hands on Mika's shoulders* Mika. I'm sorry. I don't have a future, not anymore. My future is dead, just like me.
    Mika: No! * crying* You're not dead! You're not...I know it!
    Grave: You're the strongest person I know. You can make it on your own.
    • Grave goes on to tell her that she's a strong and brave girl, and that she'll lead a great life, today, tomorrow, and ever after. Mika by now is completely hysterical and Grave has to knock her unconscious, doing so with a punch to the solar plexus. When Mika comes to, Grave has already left and it is the last time that she will see Grave "alive". This troper was sobbing heavily when she saw that scene, and is tearing up right now as she's typing this.
    • Gungrave in its entirety. The whole story's set up to have the watcher care about the characters in it, and one by one all of them are broken to pieces. Every character has a tearjerker towards their end, even those set up as enemies. And the final scene, as Brandon and Harry finally resolve their differences, and once forgiven shoot each other having resolved to 'go home' to all the friends and lovers they had lost in their ultimately futile struggle on the way to their golgotha, had this troper inconsolable and in tears for an age. Even remembering it now brings tears, a true masterpiece, without one single happy ending.
      • The montage after Bear Walken's execution at Grave's hands. He realy loved his daughter...The background music (I think it's called "Pieta" on one of the OS Ts) just adds to it. * sob*
    • I had played both of the video games first before watching the anime (the games follow a different continuity) but it didn't make the anime any less heartbreaking. This line gets me every time:
    "Brandon! Brandon! ...I know now...that we're a family...and we always will be. Forever...and ever."
    • Was very teary-eyed watching poor Brandon/Grave visibly and slowly decomposing in the final episodes. His arm falling off and crumbling to pieces cinched it.
  • Gunparade March had a few heartbreaking moments, but there is this moment when two characters talked about how Nonomi is a genetically created human being that won't grow up from being a seven-year-old, both in body AND mind, and that she is used as a weapon against the monsters that are bent to utterly destroy humanity, because she and other kids like her are the only thing that works against them. While showing Nonomi acting all happy. This troper, who disliked her up to that point, cried so much she had to stop the DVD for a few hours before going back where she left.
  • Numerous portions of Gunslinger Girl, especially the backstories of the titular assassins, make almost any reader cry, cringe, or both. Triela's past in Snuff Film in particular made this troper wonder how much of a blessing the Conditioning is in a lot of these cases. Of course the mental disintegration of the kids is not easy to watch either — and neither is Angelica's eventual death after she protected her handler from a bomb attack. They really drive the point home by letting her tell that Fairy Tale to cheer up her handler, right before she dies. Doubly so as she doesn't even remember who he is, telling him the story that he told her.
    • Triela's eventual discovery of how she and her handler came to the "Social Welfare Department", and how they choose to face her approaching mortality.
  • Ray's dying fantasy in Gun X Sword. The instant "Calling You" starts up, the tears will begin to flow.
  • The whole second half of H2O Footprints In The Sand, especially the last episode in which Hayami dies, just as Takuma recovers from his child-like regression and blindness. I cried my eyes out for a full five minutes wathcing the rest of the episode, only to have them bring her back to life by grace of God. There was much tearful swearing, but plenty of relieved laughter too. In all fairness, it could have been worse (they could have left her dead). Which would have been totally pointless, as it was a bizarrely familiar series of events that triggered Takuma's recovery, making Hayami's death mere seconds later something of a kick the puppy moment.
  • Haibane Renmei. Too many instances to list, including the entire last episode, but especially Kuu's Day of Flight.
  • Hayate The Combat Butler. Both Hayate's reaction when he doesn't get into the school he wants and Athena's time sitting next to the Despair Event Horizon after her and Hayate's break up. ;;
  • Hell Girl shows us many sad situations, but the end of the 2nd season takes the crown; the last episodes are a real avalanche of Tear Jerkers.
  • Hellsing. The death of Pip Bernadotte. Your only consolation is the immediate Crowning Moment Of Awesome that follows as Seras takes a level in badass, and the Unstoppable Rage commences.
    • This troper was already crying at Pip's speech to his men. It was impossibly badass, yes, but it was clear that they knew they were going to die.
    • Father Anderson's death is painful. Even Alucard is taking it brutally hard, having to be chided for crying by the dying priest, and Iscariot members, some of whom he probably even raised, are visibly falling apart, especially Yumie. Then Walter, having officially gone evil, has to come in and ruin the moment, driving Yumie into full berserker rage and killing her without a care just seconds after he ground what was left of Anderson's ashes under his boot.
    • This editor teared up when Alucard absorbs Schrodinger and begins to fade from existence. Emphasized even further when he smiles warmly at his master Integra before he goes ''poof'', the only thing left behind is the Hellsing pentacle.
      • It takes him 30 years, but he gets better.
    • Underated Admiral Penwood performing a genuine Herioc Sacrifice, and telling the other staff members to leave the soon-to-be-invaded base. Only for them all to volunteer to stay behind and die with him, organising a last line of defence, rather than leave him. It makes up for EVERY cowardly action made by Penwood.
    • This troper had just finished watching Death Note when she read the manga chapter "Castlevania." Words cannot express how perfect/wrong her headspace was for that flashback. It made Alucard The Woobie, for Christ's sake. Also, Integra having to give the order for Walter's execution was brutal.
  • Hell Teacher Nube has the episode with Hiroshi's Missing Mom being reincarnated in a kindergarten girl, Reiko-chan. The last part of the episode is pure tearjerking of the highest quality in the whole series: ( Hiroshi rejects his "mom" and runs away since she's treating him like a baby despite being in the body of Reiko-chan, who is as much five years old. His girlfriend Kyouko finds the runaway guy and convinces him to return... yet they find out that Nube had to exorcise Mrs. Tachida's soul from her reincarnation as Reiko-chan, so the child wouldn't be unfairly burdened with memories of her past life. Hiroshi falls to his knees and breaks down in tears, but then Reiko-chan channels Mrs. Tachida's soul one last time so she can say goodbye to Hiroshi and let him know she'll be okay in Heaven. When it's all resolved, Reiko-chan's mom comes for her daughter and they go home... and Reiko-chan (who's supposed to not have any memories of this) swears she'll find herself a husband just like Hiroshi, who hears this and smiles).
  • Sai disappearing in Hikaru No Go. Saddest moment of the series, hands down.

     I-L 
  • Remi (Ie Naki Ko), which became popularized in Latin American countries in the 80s, was an unending sobfest, but standing out was the scene in which the performing monkey dies on the the snowy streets. See it here. (Audio in Spanish)
  • Ikki Tousen is mostly a Panty Shot series with lots of humor and action, but then Goei aka Hakufu's mom, after she met the happy and tomboyish Ukitsu... the girl destined to kill her daughter. She acted composed in presence of Ukitsu, but as soon as she was gone, the Hot Mom fell to her knees, in the verge of an Heroic BSOD. "How did Hakufu look when she left this morning? Was she happy? Was she angry? I gotta remember that... because it could be my last memory of her EVER..."
    • And we can't forget Chinkyuu's death in the anime. Ryoufu's reaction is heartwretching, specially when she kisses the dead Chinkyuu and leaves the hospital room, saying "You won't be alone for long... because soon, I will go with you!"
    • In the manga the above scene plays out differently, but no less heartbreakingly. After Chinkyuu is raped by Kaku's goons , and Ryofu realises that her disease is gonna kill her soon, she decides to go down fighting against her destiny. After a desperate battle against Myousai, she collapses and Myousai goes in for the kill, only for Chinkyuu to stop her at the last minute. Then, Chinkyuu is soundly thrashed by Myousai, and Sousou offers her the chance to join him and escape with her life. She loudly rejects his offer, and then crawls over to the fallen Ryofu, and while they talk, Ryofu finally dies. Chinkyuu then quietly takes off her and Ryofu's magatamas and breaks them, and then kisses Ryofu, killing herself at the same time. Her last words during that scene are quite heartbreaking.
    Chinkyuu: We tried. There's that much. The magatama won. Again. But we tried. That counts. Maybe there's a better place out there. No magatamas... no fighting... I'd like that. Did I mention I'm going with you? Did you think you'd be rid of me so easily? Do you see Kaku? More importantly, do you understand? There are greater things than conquest, watch and learn. Together. We go together. Same's always. Ryofu... and Chinkyuu... Together.
  • Despite being a rather mediocre anime, Innocent Venus manages to pull this off when Jin dies. Even after a rather sudden but nevertheless brutal Face Heel Turn, his former best buddy Jo still had feelings for him believed there was a chance that he wasn't really evil. In the inevitable Duel To The Death of the finale, Jin breaks down screaming in his mecha during a Phlebotinum Overload... only for Jo to pull him out and hold him in his arms as he died. This troper usually hates Foe Yay, but this was the one instance where it made her cry.
  • Any dog lover will bawl plenty while reading Inu Baka. The story usually is fun and cute, but times like Chizuru's old dog Ricky dies, right after she said something making the reader think she really didn't care whether he died or not. had this troper bawling her eyes out. And of corse in the recent volume when Kanako's dog Czerny died and almost killed herself because of it. She went into a slight depression and tryed to forget about it by drinking and going out with strange guys until Suguri suggested she get a new dog that owner had just been killed because of an earthquake. Couldn't stop the crying.
  • In Inuyasha, Sesshomaru destroying the youkai that had impersonated Inuyasha's mother upon his orders but had a Heel Face Turn since she came to think of Inuyasha as her child per her motherly instincts .
    • The episode with Mayu the angry ghost girl, whom Kagome helped to go to Heaven instead of being devoured by the flames of Hell ("Kagome-san... you think my Mama is still angry with me?" "No, she's not... she's still your sweet and gentle Mama, after all!").
    • There's the scene where Kagome, after her Fall Out with * both* Inuyasha and Kikyou that made her come back home for several days, fell to her knees in front of the tree in the Higurashi shrine, cried and finally admitted that she loved Inuyasha after all. Higurashi Mama's story of how she and Higurashi Papa declared their mutual love in front of the same tree, which also happens to be the tree Inuyasha was pined to with Kikyou's arrow, definitely does not help. ;-;.
    • Add Jakotsu's last moments, right in between his defeat to Inuyasha and Renkotsu killing him. He resigns himself to die but is happy anyway, because his second life might be over but he lived it at its fullest and had no regrets. .
      • It's just a small line, but it's tearjerking to hear a smug snake like Renkotsu tell Jakotsu to forgive him right before he removes the shard, especially since he's the one that set up Jakotsu to be slaughtered by Inuyasha. There's no one around (or so he thinks), he just feels that he has to ask for Jakotsu's forgiveness. And when he does, she replies with nothing but a smile, basically saying "I know what you're doing, but it's ok."
    • The last few minutes of "Sango, Kohaku, and a Secret Garden." Kohaku and Sango's near-miss tugs on the heartstrings enough on its own, but Sango's return at the end of the episode, set to a swelling orchestral version of her musical theme, makes it a Tear Jerker.
    • The death of Kagura in "Wind," possibly the most beautiful and certainly the most poignant chapter of the manga to date, topping even Kikyou's death later in the series thanks to the very effective layout of the pages.
    • The ending. Ep. 557: "I'm... not going to wish for anything. Inuyasha will come...! I believe in him!" In particular, pages 15 and 16
    • One of the chapters near the very end, whilst most of the gang are Fantastic Voyage-ing inside Naraku's giant spider body, has Sango and Miroku completely giving up all hope, and lying down together to eventually be killed together by Miroku's Kazaana/Wind-Tunnel/Air-Rip.
    • In the anime, a mind-wiped Kohaku believed that Sango (who he didn't recognise or remember) had been killed - 'She's dead then, that woman...' - and starts crying without even knowing why.
  • Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. Fuse shoots Kei, as she's tearfully quoting from Little Red Riding Hood.
  • Jonathan Joestar's death at the end of the first part of Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure where he dies to save his wife and unborn child, on his honeymoon no less, taking Big Bad Dio down to the bottom of the sea with him. Made all the sadder by the smile on his face when he dies, directed at his wife, the readers, and Dio himself.
    • Caeser's death in Part 2. Lisa Lisa and Joseph try their hardest not to cry, trying to stay strong...but then they see his body and it becomes too much to bear.
    • Iggy and Kakyoin's deaths in Part 3 were sad for this troper as well. It makes it worse that you get to hear Kakyoin's final thoughts, and they're about his unseen parents, who have no idea where their son is and what's happened to him. Iggy's is almost worse since he died saving Polnareff, the guy he'd spent the entire series bickering with.
    • The end of part 5 where Giorno, despite being hardened for the series finally starts to tear up at the loss of his friends he faught alongside, until Buccarati's spirit talks to him and encourages him along with Narancia and Abbachio departing. He mans up and takes hold of his (and Buccairati's) dream for them.
    • Jolyne's death in Part 6 where she smiles at Emporio before standing up to Pucci one last time as he closes in. Then a page and a half later, you see her getting ripped apart like tissue paper by Pucci's stand as Emporio breaks down in tears. All that remains is her stand's sunglasses, which quickly disintegrate under accelerated time as a colony of butterflies flutter off.
    • Don't forget about, FF's death. "Look at me Jolyne. This is my spirit. This is my intellect. I was alive."
  • Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu — Basically, the entire Back Story of Weda, and thus, that of the whole series. Made even stronger when you consider this is a crazy comedy! Turns out Weda had been disowned by her father for getting pregnant at the age of 14, and her mother never tried to approach her or comfort her or anything, so Weda fled to the jungle — the Hare in the title is the son she had been raising and truly loving in a way that her own mother never did to her (she thought). Fast-forward to Episode 14, where 11-year-old Hare himself finds it out not from Weda, but from an old friend. Hare feels that all of his mother's suffering was HIS fault, and sheds tears. But that's when Weda tells him that is untrue, and that she "loves him more than words can describe". This troper was as teary-eyed as the onlookers in the scene.
  • The end of episode 20 in K-On's second season has the seniors breaking down in tears after their final festival concert, realizing they're approaching the end of their high school days.
  • Kaiba has a few examples of this, but there's one that stands above the rest. Chroniko, a cheerful and optimistic girl, decides to sell her body in order to feed her family (literally, because memories can be transfered). She's killed when a Bastard scientist releases her memories after extracting them from her body. Her surrogate mother, her aunt, couldn't care less, since she considers it one less mouth to feed, and that she's taken care of her sister's kid long enough. However when her aunt restored her memories, the truth finally came out. She loves Chroniko, too much until she had to remove her memories of her loving Chronico so she can let her sell her body. Cue sad piano theme, tears, and name screaming.
  • Episode 14 of Kaiji registers with many viewers as a Tear Jerker: Kaiji and co. are crossing the electrified bridge, and nearly everyone's dead except for Kaiji, Ishida, and Sahara. Ishida realizes he is not cut out to cross the bridge and hands Kaiji his ticket for 10 million yen. We learn that the reason that Ishida gambled in the first place was to save his wife from his own debts. He asks Kaiji to win and give that money to her. Ishida then remarks how his life was pointless and how he lost, and falls off the bridge in silence so as to not agitate Kaiji. Kaiji's paraphrased response "In your final moments, you were concerned about someone else from the bottom of your heart. You didn't lose! You won a brilliant victory!" makes this troper tear up every time.
    • Oh god. As if that isn't bad enough. This troper was already wibbling from Ishida's death, but when Kaiji and Sahara finally make it across the bridge, triumphant at their victory... and Sahara is pushed off the ledge by the wind from behind the door? I don't know a single person who wasn't completely broken by this scene.
  • In Kaleido Star, when Sora finds out that performing the 'Great Legendary Maneuver' with an almost broken shoulder injured Layla so badly that she won't be able to perform again in the Stage, she starts bawling. It's hard not to join in.
    • And what about Anna's Day in the Spotlight episode involving her fight with her father? When Jack performs the little trick with the hankie that he invented so many years ago to make little Anna laugh, I cried.
    • May Wong started as a pushy Spoiled Brat, but the episode featuring her fall from grace and subsequent Heroic BSOD is so well-done that you can't help feeling sorry for her.
    • Same goes to Leon, when he shows the first signs of his defrostment by panicking as he sees Sora almost being hit by a car just like it happened to his sister Sophie, pulling her away from danger in a Diving Save and, right after this, looking at her tenderly and asking "...Sophie, are you hurt? I'm so glad you're alive...", mistaking Sora for Sophie.
  • Kannazuki No Miko's final episode is a rollercoaster of emotion that has caused many to cry tears of sorrow then joy then continuously switch between those two states over the course of thirty minutes.
  • Kanon 2006. Ending of the Makoto arc.
    • Oh, sweet mercy, yes (cue crying self to sleep while hugging pillow). Heck, it seems like every other episode of the entire series is alternate CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming and "Crowning Moment Of Heartbreaking", sometimes (like the scene mentioned above), both at once.
    • The second to the last episode of Kanon 2006. Especially if you've never read any of the manga, visual novels, or seen the first series, like I did.
    • Mai's arc: snow-bunny zoo. That is all.
    • Three little words with the unending ability to induce tears: Happy Birthday, Shiori
  • Kara No Kyoukai - "I was here." That is all.
  • The end of the Karin The Chibi Vampire manga. Not only does Karin's older brother wipe all her memories of her family but he does it with his last and only sign of brotherly affection. A pat on the head, because 'you don't like it when I'm rough, do you?' And we learn that all those times he gave her noogies were to help the memory whiping process and Dear God, her family was planning this from the start because she wasn't a normal vampire. And then, on top of that, we get the most bittersweet moment in the manga when Usui Kenta asks Karin if she remembers her family and she replies 'I don't have a family' while crying without knowing why, making Kenta cry aswell- and then, he finally proposes making it so so wonderful and painful at the same time.
  • The last episode of Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, where Hazumu and Tomari say their farewells at the river, is a heavily emotional ending to an already pretty melodramatic plot. Too bad the makers managed to screw it up with that silly OVA they released later.
  • Katekyo Hitman Reborn had one of these in Gokudera's Varia fight for the Storm Ring. The end where Gokudera sacrifices the Ring he's been beaten near-death for, because he wants to survive another day for his friends, gets this editor every time. "I wanted to see the fireworks again, so I came back..." Every. Damn. Time.
    • For this troper, it's when Tsuna arrives in the Future in his own coffin and those pained faces Gokudera makes.
    • I can't believe the fight with Gamma hasn't been mentioned yet. Gokudera's line after Gamma reveals that the Tenth Vongola Boss was gunned down in plain view of many of his subordinates gets me teary every time, especially since you know it's gonna make the poor boy dive into a fight he definitely won't win. Made even worse by the fact that when he loses, Gamma tortures him for information and Gokudera responds by spitting in his face. I started crying again because I thought he was gonna get curb-stomped to death right then and there.
    "How dare you...HOW DARE YOU BASTARDS! UNFORGIVABLE!"
    • When Squalo appears in the Sky Battle and begins talking about Xanxus' past all the while trying to tell him he understands what he feels like... every single time they read/watch it.
  • Some backstory: in the Boys Love manga Kaze no Yukue, seme Kento has had to deal with the death of his parents, being raised by his grandparents. He tries to propose marriage (Or, at least, registry adoption) to his boyfriend Akira, but Akira turns him down, because of Kento's grandparents' opposition to their relationship, among other things, and says that he'll only go along with the adoption when Kento's grandfather (Their biggest opponent) dies, as a bad joke. Kento's ex-girlfriend announces that she's going to be married, and moving far away with her new husband, and then his grandfather slips and falls, injuring himself enough to have to go to the hospital and scaring just about everyone in their family, including Akira. In a drunken mess, Kento tearfully confesses to Akira that he fears everyone abandoning him someday, and he's terrified of Akira going away, too. The way Akira's feelings about the situation are presented.
  • Kaze To Ki No Uta pretty much IS this trope.
    • That little sentence doesn't do this woefest justice. Everything about Kaze to Ki No Uta is tragic; Serge's orphanhood and the continued racism against his gypsy mother, his seemingly-futile relationship with Gilbert, Gilbert's own psycopathic, destructive and promiscuous tendencies, which, when explained in great detail only become too sad for words, Pascal's very own Dead Little Sister, the reason Rosemarine hates Gilbert and can't sleep with the boy he loves (it's all Auguste's fault), the general permeating hatred of homosexuality that abounds due to the time and setting, Gilbert's eventual prostitution, drug addiction and death...even Serge's cheerful optimism and kindness become tragic at times.
  • Kekkaishi has a lot: episode 4 where Yoki turns evil because of the power but still pushes Yomi out of the way of a fireball and the way he whispered her name just before he dies was heartbreaking. Makes you cry happy tears when he's re-incarnated into his small form. The ending of Episode 7, where the Patissier ghost's little brother gives him a farewell so that he can move on disturbs your tear glands. And whoever DIDN'T cry at Episode 37 when Gen died does NOT have a soul, heart or TEAR GLANDS!!!!!
    • That one in 37 gets even worse when we find out he never received any of the letters his sister sent him, meaning he died thinking she hadn't forgiven him.
  • Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple:
    • In the chapter 192, when the suppressed memory of her mother's death suddenly breaks into Miu's consciousness ( She got killed by her own husband while trying to protect little Miu).
    • Chapter 264 - The tragical self-sacrificial death of Sho Kano, together with the scene where he makes Kenichi promise him to protect Miu. Although, it's still questionable if he's really dead, since his body was immediately taken away.
  • Kiddy Grade had a large number of these:
    • Éclair singing a lullaby to the little child
    • Eclair, in a flashback, banging on the door of a jail cell until her fists are bleeding, screaming to be let out
    • when Eclair, shown in a flashback, is bandaged, very depressed, and even somewhat suicidal, yet Lumière continues to stand behind her emotionally and say that people like them cannot die
    • Eclair, just having waken from amnesia, first interacts with Lumiere, and questions who she (Eclair) is and even tries to punch Lumiere in frustration
    • the photos on Éclair's wall, after you realize she keeps them because she doesn't want to forget anymore
    • a scene in episode 20 where Lumiere is dying, and even Eclipse admits that there's nothing she can do to help, and Eclair flashbacks her memories of Lumière, and says things like "I'm a G-class ES member and I...feel so helpless...!"
    • the big reveal at the end where Chevalier reveals that all he wanted to do was to protect his adoptive mother, and then there are flashbacks to several Tear Jerker moments of Eclair raising Chevalier, along with more of Eclair's lullaby theme
    • Near the end, where Chevalier asks Éclair "Can you smile for me, mother?", and then she forces out a smile so that he can die happy.
    • Don't forget How Dvergr spends the last few moments of her daughter Alv's life as the latter cries out for her mother...
    • The lyrics of both the opening and ending themes, once you figure out the bigger spoilers in the setting.
      • And heck, the ending theme as a whole. Once the lyrics make sense, the song it self becomes so beautiful, meaningful, touching, and overwhelmingly sad...
  • In the Kimagure Orange Road movie, one phrase is enough to make you cry. "Goodbye, Hikaru-chan".
  • Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (AKA Rumbling Hearts) is a series of connected, sequential tearjerkers. The saddest moment is probably in the 14th and last episode, when Haruka tells Takayuki that they can never be together, even though Takayuki spent years pining for while she was in a coma, practically going insane and nearly ruining his relationship with Mitsuki over her. It was especially bad for this troper because he expected the series to be another light-hearted high school slice-of-life drama. Big mistake.
    • It had this troper crying, especially the opening theme AND the finale episode.
  • Kimi Ni Todoke has regular, though never excessive, moments.
    • Most prominently, Sawako lies and tells Kazehaya she's not romantically interested in him to protect his reputation, which causes him to backpedal over his confession of his love. Basically, anytime these two hold back their feelings to protect the other tends to qualify as a tear-jerker.
    • Also, all the little moments where Sawako makes friends and earns recognition by being herself, whereas a lesser story might require her to get dolled up or force herself to act happy.
  • The Kirby anime had a few that come to mind, the first being 'Birth? Kirby's Little Brother' when the (robotic) dog exploded. Even worse than that is when Kirby is sitting on the beach that night, looking almost as though he's unable to comprehend its death. Than he sees it as a constellation, running away from him. I'm tearing up just typing this!
    • Don't forget the death of Chilly the snowman in 'Goodbye, Snowman Chilly!' and the near death of the baby Galbo in 'Kirby's Mysterious Egg. It was implied Chilly would eventually return, but you still couldn't help but shed a tear at his apparent demise.
    • I have never cried so much for an anime than I have for Kirby of the Stars! Where do I even begin? I had this on a Kirby forum I joined, so I'll recap here.
      • Episode 7: When Dynablade saw her baby and was all teary-eyed and stuff, made me cry. For two seconds, but still. XD; The baby was all like "mama", and Dynablade felt happy! Scenes like that are so touching...
      • Episode 15: Like everyone else said, the robo-dog loved Kirby too much in the end, and self-destructed alone, so Kirby wouldn't be hurt. Kirby sounded like he was crying....it made me cry too. ;~;
      • Episode 19: I had shed a few tears when Meta Knight was telling Knuckle Joe about his father, how he had always loved him still, even in the end...man...
      • Episode 20: I know how hard it is to try and preserve the last snow of the year. :( When I was little, I tried to save a "snowman friend", too, and cried when he melted...Kirby is young, and had to say goodbye to a snowman friend too. I could understand and feel how Kirby felt, and just cried...
      • Episode 30: What can I saw? D: I thought Galbo died, and so did Kirby. He cried, I cried...I cry when I see someone else cry, so it's no wonder I cried here. XD;
      • Episode 42: After Dedede had built the playground and showed it to Kirby...Kirby getting so happy and swinging...Dedede having a good reason to feel good about himself for once...As someone else had put it earlier, it was...good in a heartbreaking way? Either way, just seeing Dedede and Kirby swing and Dedede sining while all who where there looked on with teary eyes.......need I say more? -wipes eyes-
  • The Back Story of the death of Aki, Rin's mother in Kodomo No Jikan (squicky as the series can be). The scene with Rin kneeling beside her dead mother, who is covered in paper origami kranes that Rin folded in the hope it would help her recover is truly heart-wrenching.
    • It's even worse when you read it online—the scene in question takes up two pages, so when you click on the image to skip to the next page... it zooms in on her face. Twice.
    • Call this troper crazy, but she tears up during the first season's OP, when Rin looks at Aoki and the spirit of her mother appears. * sniffle*
  • In Kodomo No Omocha, we have the revelation of Hayama's broken home life, and how Sana pulls a small Batman Gambit to help Natsumi and Fuyuki see how bad they're doing.. Also, when Sana pulls her I Want My Beloved To Be Happy by urging Rei to reunite with his New Old Flame Asako, and Rei then sings a lullaby and cuddles with poor Sana so she'll go to sleep happy and not cry. With the adorably heartwretching Good Bye Love song in the background.
    • Don't forget Sana reuniting with her real mother and meeting her half-sister Mariko. Even though Sana refuses to live with Keiko, she's still thankful for her birth.
    • Near the end of the manga when Akito breaks down crying over having to leave Sana for America and ultimately causes her to recover from the depression that had been causing her to lose expression in her face. I still cant read that scene without crying and its been four years.
  • Koi Kaze isn't the happiest manga out there to start with, but there are still some extra tearful moments:
    Koshiro: "I don't plan on trying to contact you again. This is the last time we'll be together like this."
    • Shortly after, when Nanoka begs Koshiro for a kiss before he leaves forever:
      Nanoka: "Only if you give me a kiss ... I'll promise never to see you again"
    She closes her eyes and lifts her tear-stained face to Koshiro and he ... kisses her on the forehead, says "Goodbye" and starts to walk away. She yells "Unfair!" to which he responds "Just appreciate it." Before he walks off, she wipes her eyes, gets his attention one last time and gives him a happy smile and waves goodbye, then turns and runs home with tears streaming down her face.
    • Koshiro and his co-worker wind up in a store that sells wedding dresses with Nanoka tagging along. Nanoka is persuaded by the oblivious co-worker and the shop-keeper to try one on. Koshiro is stunned by how beautiful she is, while also knowing that this is the only time in her life she will get to wear one if they keep their relationship. Then, they get their picture taken next to each other, as if they were bride and groom. Nanoka keeps the picture in her journal and looks at it often.
    • Koshiro makes up his mind and tells Nanoka:
      Koshiro: "I ... don't need anything else ... if you don't need anything else either."
    Which is his way of finally telling the rest of the world to go to hell about their relationship
    Nanoka: "If I could be reborn, and not be your sister ... so then ... I could be your bride."
    • Most of the ending seems to imply that their relationship is doomed. The manga is slightly more upbeat, but during the last couple of chapters Koshiro admits that one of his childhood dreams was to get married and have children, and says that he will never have that dream come true in exchange for what he really wants.
  • Luciola's death in Last Exile. Having spent the whole series as an Extreme Doormat, his defiance of Delphine's will for the sake of Dio was truly inspiring. Then he demands that she truly set him free, and she asks what Dio is worth to him just before killing him.
    Luciola: He... He is my friend, and I will not betray him.
    • It Got Worse for the viewers once they learned the name of the incredibly heartrending song played during Luciola's flashbacks of his earlier times with Dio, as well as during his death scene: "Lost Friend." This troper cannot listen to that song without crying.
    • After this, Lord Dio in the final episode. The reference to the earlier race where Dio shouted for Luciola to jump out and lighten the load in order for him to win is mirrored when Dio, having beaten Claus, turns around to celebrate his victory with Luciola only to find that he's not there. This really drove home Luciola's death to this Troper.
    • Additionally, Sophia launching the attack on the Guild ship, only to hear Alex speak just as the attack was launched. Alex having killed the Maestro only moments before meant that the missile attack was meaningless, and he died at the hands of his second-in-command.
  • Ittou's speech to Daigorou shortly before the final battle in Lone Wolf And Cub. ("Though my eyes shut, my lips close... do not fear. In that world of rebirth, I'm still your father. In that world and all worlds, * you* are my * son* !") Daigorou remembering this speech at the end of the battle, when realising his father is dead, is even worse.
  • Love Hina: Christmas Special. This troper can't help it. After an entire series of Keitaro's ass getting kicked, Naru's reveal that she'll go to Tokyo U with him gets 'em flowing every time.
    • And in the TV series, the story of Moé the automaton and her awakening, restoration, and descent back to motionless silence provides a surprisingly emotional diversion in a normally lighthearted story. The scene that plays out to Yui Horie's "Yakusoku" song in episode 24 qualifies too.
  • And even though it was a comedy series, the episode of Lucky Star that talks about Konata's mother brought out the Kleenex for quite a few people.
    • "Doesn't count as a leftover. 'Cause I bought one." * sniff, sniff*
    • "My people... are everywhere." Cue Manly Tears.
    • And then there was Tsukasa's volleyball game in the OAV. Poor girl gets pwned and still can't win the game.

     M-P 
  • Macross Frontier episode 20: Sheryl sings a haunting remix of "Diamond Crevasse" as Michael and Alto defend a macronizing Klan from Vajra first stage drones. However they are flanked, and Michael rushes back to defend the macronizing tube. He has the Theme Music Power Up, he's defending the women he loves, he should win... but the music cuts off as one manages to dodge his bullets and impales him. He coughs up blood. It turns away, thinking him dead, but Michael, not dead yet, tackles it using his jetpack, and fills it with bullets. "Diamond Crevasse" restarts as it explodes, but it blows a hole in the ship's hull in its death throes... the song continues, but Michael barely has time to tell Klan that he does indeed like her back, and might indeed love her, before he is blown into space as the rest of the main characters scream his name, all as the slow music reaches a crescendo... Michael flew the blue plane. He deserved better
    • Macross Frontier, one episode later Ranka leaves Alto, her friends, and her bright future behind to the lonely melody and lyrics of Ao no Ete-ru (translated: "I'll give you one of my names, did you take care of it? May I have a word from you, that isn't goodbye...").
    • The original Macross series, for that matter. Misa's discovery about her first love and Victorious Childhood Friend Riber's death and Roy Fokker's death, specially in regards to Claudia's and Hikaru's reactions are still punches to the gut, more than 20 years after.
  • Then, there are the final arc of Madlax:
    • First off, Carossea discovers that he has been Dead All Along and disappears utterly. The kicker? His entire existence after his original death was based around a single goal: protecting his beloved Margaret Burton. But by discovering just this, he makes it impossible for such existence to continue.
    • The second bang is Vanessa, easily one of the most sympathetic anime characters ever, Taking The Bullet for Madlax... where there was absolutely no need at all. Only that she didn't know that Madlax is Immune To Bullets and genuinely hoped to protect her. The subsequent scene in Madlax's head where Vanessa bids her goodbye and reunites with her dead parents left This Troper sobbing uncontrollably. And the worst part? You can't even really blame Limelda for that (no, you can't): it was Vanessa's own choice to learn firearms and Madlax tried warning her to no avail.
    • The third shot, just to make sure you don't get up again comes with Plucky Girl and Ninja Maid Elenore fighting through all of Big Bad's defenses and getting lethally shot in the back, just to meet Margaret. Who doesn't recognize her because she's brainwashed by Monday. And subjects Elenore to Mind Rape. Which she withstands, making Margaret remember her, after all. And then dies of her wounds... Just let that sink in for a moment.
    • But the real Tear Jerker comes in the very end. Just when you thought that Madlax sacrifices herself for the sake of Margaret's psychological integrity, Margaret reveals herself Wise Beyond Her Years and makes the only possible decision that leads away from the Downer Ending towards at least a Bittersweet one: splitting herself in three again, letting Madlax and Laetitia live their own lives, and even taking Laetitia in as her younger sister. This Troper nearly died of dehydration and had to be rescued by paramedics on the way to the hospital.
  • Magic User's Club of all shows has a fair share of Tear Jerker moments. Such as the episode where Sae prepares for the cultural festival but everybody else is off doing their own thing. At the end we see a very disappointed Sae begin to cry.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has several moments of this, most revolving around Fate. Also, Reinforce sacrificing herself to break the Vicious Cycle in the last episode of A's did this for a decent number of people and some found themselves teary eyed when Nanoha promised to be a true mother to Vivio in StrikerS.
    • Speaking of Fate, any scene involving both her and Precia. If it isn't a completely monstrous moment for Precia it's a Crowning Moment Of Awesome for Fate, and all of them are heart-wrenching.
    • Hayate. Break The Cutie. Those who watch the series know exactly what I'm talking about.
    • StrikerS Sound Stage X. Disc 2, Track 19. "1000 years". Subaru and Ixpellia spending time together, with Ixpelia going to sleep in Subaru's embrace as she falls into a coma she won't wake up from for ten years... or a thousand.
      • And just to jerk more tears, the Sound Stage ends with a little song titled "My Friend".
    • For this troper, it was the scene in episode 25 of StrikerS with Signum and Zest.
    • I always break up at the Rune Lettered "P.L.E.A.S.E" at the end of Episode 3 of A's, Where the Devices are requesting the potentially-dangerous Velkan Cartridge System to be installed. It just comes across as such a powerfully moving moment that the devices are taking dangerous measures that they know is the only way to help their wielders.
    • The eyecatcher from Episode 10 of A's, which shows a picture of Hayate with the Wolkenritter (who had just been absorbed into the Book of Darnkess), and one of the now deceased Clyde Harlaown with Lindy and a young Chrono, while appropriately sad music plays in the background. The Wolkenritter may get better, but Clyde's still dead.
    • The dialogue between Signum and Fate in Episode 9 of A's. When Signum started to cry, this troper teared up as well.
      "Stop... We guardian knights decided we'd even throw away our honor to save our mistress' smile. You can't stop us!"
    • HOW are we forgetting this? A's, Episode 11: Fate's time in the Book Of Darkness' dream world. She knows it's all just a dream, but when it hits home that , in this world, she is truly loved by her mother Precia and has Alicia as the sweet older sister she never knew, she breaks down in tears. And then later, as she prepares to leave the dream-world to help save the day, she and Alicia share a heart-wrenching goodbye, Fate crying and apologizing as Alicia calmly fades away into light in her arms, her last words being of love to her sister.
      "It's all right. I'm your big sister, after all. Your strong and gentle friends are waiting for you, right? ...Then, take care... Fate... I wish... that we could've been like this in reality, too...
      • Oh god yes. This troper, having always had a soft spot for fate, started sniffling when i realised where she was. When that scene happened, I just broke down and started sobbing Manly Tears. It's just so sad.
    • The last scene in the fifth chapter of the movie manga.
      Nanoha: "I couldn't help anyone at all, could I?"
  • The Grand Finale of the first season of Magic Knight Rayearth is a most definitely heartwrenching scene.
    • The second season's own finale is even worse. Voice actors for all versions (including the original Japanese version) were reputedly driven to tears. If it can affect the cast like that, think about what it could do to the viewers...
  • The final two episodes of Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful, with Mahoro self-destructing to save Suguru from an android attempting to kill him and later on in a somewhat Dystopic Future, an older Suguru is badly wounded and wishes that he could see Mahoro one last time before he dies (he lives though). Mahoro comes back to life, they stare at each other much like in the first episode, and they walk along a road, holding hands.
  • Sora's terminal illness and death in Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~ is simply heart-wrenching, especially since the show was so happy until it was announced.
  • Mahoutsukai Sally. After spending the entire series making friends in her school, Sally is forced in the end to reveal her powers to put out a fire. Day saved... except, because people now know she's a witch, she has to wipe everyone's memory and never return.
  • Mai-HiME episode 8, when Akane watches her boyfriend Kazuya get killed and is rendered functionally comatose for a good portion of the series, episode 20, when everyone starts fighting each other and poor Takumi becomes the next casualty, evaporating in Mai's arms after Akira's CHILD is struck down (even Mikoto broke down into tears when she realizes it was her fault), and episodes 24 and 25, where Yuuichi dies in a way that seems so coldly logical when you see it and still manages to die with a smile on his lips, and where Natsuki and Shizuru kill each other in an inevitable double-KO both saw coming. At least one of those will get tears from you, though with the first two, the sheer awesomeness of the twist might leave you too stunned.
    • Even if Akane losing Kazuya leaves you too stunned for tears (and it did for me), the following events are utterly heart-wrenching: No-one knows what happened, they think Akane and Kazuya just eloped, and the high school comedy continues as normal. Then, when we finally see what happened to Akane after that scene....
    • This troper believes that (and even has to reiterate) episode 20 trumped every other episode in how utterly cruel it was to Mai. Mai learns that Nao has attacked her younger brother, who said that he didn't need her anymore, regardless of how much she cared about him. After finally catching up to Akira and Takumi, Gennai is slain, killing Takumi. He dies in Mai's arms and she screams at the heavens in a voice that could jerk tears on its own. Her body doesn't even seem to be functioning properly as she turns to face Mikoto, the same girl who lovingly glomped Mai every chance she got, who only slowly realizes what it is that she'd done. Mai on the other hand is so enraged that her face twists up in the most pained expression I've ever seen, to the point where she drew blood from biting her lip so hard. As if it wasn't bad enough, when Mikoto finally stops, and stares at Mai, crying her eyes out, Kagutsuchi blasts Mikoto full on, APPARENTLY killing her. Mai could do little to stop it. And she literally walks away like a living doll, her head limply falling from side to side. This troper was in fact so choked up that it was hard to breathe.
      • Talking of Takumi, how about the scene shortly before where he decides he won't go to America for a possibly life-changing but very expensive operation because he knows how much of a burden he is to his sister — unaware that she's listening? This troper, who knows what it's like to care for a sick relative, cried so much that when it came to the actual death scene he had no tears left.
    • The episode where Nao loses her eye during her battle with Natsuki might also count, but you only realize it afterwards, when it's revealed that she was framed, and Natsuki was tricked by Sister Yukariko into fighting her - putting Nao's loss of an eye and tearful/furious/revenge-swearing exit in a very different light.
      • Nao's definitive defeat at the hands of Shizuru is even more tear-jerking. Specially when Nao has an Heroic BSOD, starts crying and screaming for her Missing Mom, who spent several years comatose and was killed when Shizuru killed her CHILD.
    • Don't tell me you forgot Haruka's death and the flashback to her and Yukino's childhood?
    • The ending of episode 15 might count, too, after Alyssa is shot to death and passes away in Miyu's arms, and then Miyu takes her corpse and seals herself in a lake in despair. The choice of ending music for this episode doesn't help at all.
    • Let's talk about episode 23, with a defeated Midori staring into the distance after basically sacrificing the man she adores to preserve what might or might not be a chance for someone else to live. "I'm sorry, Professor, but you would be proud... right?"
  • Erstin's death in Mai-Otome. You know the writers are serious when they play a montage for you, replete with equally sad music.
    • And then, over the next few episodes, It Got Worse as all the cheerfully irresponsible behavior that used to be played for laughs stopped being funny. This troper was depressed for hours.
    • Also when Arika meets her mother for the first and last time in her life: (Arika twirling around girlishly) "Hey, mom! I'm a real Otome! It suits me, doesn't it?" And then the vision where Arika runs into her mother's loving embrace for just a fleeting instant. Both Mashiro and the viewer has a hard time keeping the promise not to cry.
  • Maison Ikkoku: The ending, when Godai finally proposes, Kyoko's response made me cry: "Promise me one thing. Promise that, even if it's only for a day, you'll live longer than me. I don't want to ever live alone again."
  • Towards its end, the manga version of Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro pulls out all the stops. Sasazuka's death at the hands of Sicks, Honjou's suicide, Yako's subsequent breakdown and the death of X shortly after he finally regains his memories of Ai. It's really hard to choose which is worst.
    • Don't forget Sai's last transformation being Sasazuka and his "I don't regret anything" speech.
  • Marmalade Boy had several moments qualifying as glurge or narm, but didn't lack of good Tear Jerkers. If you watched either the scene between Meiko and Namura in the train station, or Miki and Yuu's scene at the airport, both with the already depressing Saigo no Yakusoku in the background, without at least going teary eyed, you should consider searching for the rest of your soul.
  • Martian Successor Nadesico: "I've waited a long time to see you again, mister."
    • The third episode of Nadesico. Gai Daigoji is introduced in the first episode as a lively, comical mecha otaku with a Super Robot protagonist's personality, despite the show being Real Robot. And indeed, the tone of the first three episodes is quite Super Robot... until the closing minutes when Gai is, out of nowhere, suddenly shot dead
  • Osamu Tezuka's short films, despite usually not having any dialogue, frequently become this. M Mermaid is about a boy who falls in love with a mermaid that everyone says doesn't exist.
  • Mega Man Star Force had the anime episode where Wolf Woods is hiding from Mega Man and the police, so takes on the form of a household dog and sneaks into a house... not knowing a little girl is there. He decides to keep playing up the role of a pet dog to keep hiding, at first hating it, but becoming attached to the girl, and decides to stay with her. This works out until Omega-Xis finds him out at a dog show, and Mega Man battles Wolf Woods, eventually triggering his unstoppable rage, and leaves the girl. He decides that he is too much of a monster to be with her, and gives her an actual pet dog (well, digital one). During the season one finale, when the FM-ians are trying to enjoy their last day on Earth, Wolf Woods goes to visit the little girl...until Gemini kills him for energy. Quite a literal version of Kick The Dog.
  • Metropolis. "Cant Stop Loving You". Soundtrack Dissonance. That is all.
    • The people watching with this troper laughed. She glared at them and refused to speak to them for the rest of the night.
    • Additionally, when Kenichi finds Tima's heart. I was tearing up!
  • Michiko To Hatchin has the end of episode 19. Hatchin is being taken away by Satoshi on Michiko's bike. Michiko runs after them, yelling for Hatchin to jump, which is sad enough. Atsuko stops her ("What about my feelings?"), but Michiko explains that she's going after Hatchin no matter what, and "if you try to stop me I'll go all out". Atsuko coldly tells her that the next time they meet they are strangers. As Michiko leaves, she walks back to her men - sobbing - and stops them from pursuing her.
  • Midori Days with the second-to-last chapter or so. It took the entire damn series, and with tons of screw-ups, preparations, teases, training, and possibilities, but Ayase finally confessed her love for Seiji. But, Seiji stays true to Midori, having denied her love the entire time. This troper started crying when she looked up to the street light saying, "It's OK! I did it!" while crying herself.
  • Tsubaki's backstory in Mirai Nikki is both this and Nightmare Fuel Unleaded.
    • As well as the captured Yuno's screams of "No! My first time will be with Yukki!" as Tsubaki orders her followers to gang-rape her to lure Yukiteru out and as revenge for all the pain she went through.
    • And Akise's death, if you liked that character. If not, it was one of the better CMOA's.
    • And just before that, all of Yuki's friends dying. The exact circumstances behind it make the whole thing so much worse.
    • No mention of Minene's death? Poor girl has to see Nishijima die in front of her eyes first, then does a Heroic Sacrifice for Yukki...only for it not to do anything whatsoever. And for worse, she would've led a peaceful life with Nishijima, if not for his death.
  • The death of Wolfgang Grimmer in Monster. This troper cried every damn time she sees it.
    • "So the Magnificent Stiener appeared." "No, he didn't. I did it on my own."
      • "I'm sad. I'm not sad that I'm dying. I'm finally sad that my child died." This. Troper. BAWLED.
    • Tenma pleading to a BSOD-ing Nina to not kill herself.
    • Additionally, Eva's Doomed Appointment with Martin. That one second of pure joy she experiences when she thinks that he actually did come only serves to make the scene that much more painful when she realizes the truth. Naoki Urasawa apparently feeds off of crushed hopes and dreams.
    • Now, let's sit down and think- whose twin did Johan's mother not want?
    • Once upon a time there was a detective (Richard Brown). We saw him for just, like, three episode, but we grew fond of him, after all. He had a lovely daughter that he was finally going to meet. He didn't drink anymore, and had finally found peace. Then Johan happens, and something inside us dies.
      • In the manga, they even name the 7th book after the guy and make him the main character in it...adding to the attachment and subsequent sadness. This MAY have been more bearable if Johan had been gruesomely killed at the end of the series, but...
    • "Say my name." "We don't have names."
    • Nina... you bastard... why didn't ya just... forgive... him?
    • All right, let's say that the second part of the anime is a big, giant tear.
    • Karl emotionally reading to Schuwald on the phone for what he thinks is the final time, which is quickly seamlessly married to a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming as Schuwald arrives and reveals that he knows Karl is his son.
    • Probably very subjective, but this troper shed a few tears for Roberto when it's revealed shortly before his death that he was the boy Grimmer befriended in 511 Kinderheim. Made even worse when one realizes that since the children there decided to remember details about each other rather than themselves, it was very likely that Roberto knew Grimmer's real name.
    • Speaking of Grimmer: "Doctor Tenma... What does my face look like right now?"
    • The entire Ruhenheim arc for this troper, because she knew what was coming. Ditto the elderly couple shown previously who show brief kindness and warmth to two lost, wandering children, and are killed for it.
  • The season two Downer Ending of the Monster Rancher Anime was a killer, especially for a children's series. In the space of a single episode all the Mons sacrificed themselves to resurrect the Phoenix, the Phoenix sacrificed itself to kill the Big Bad and the resulting explosion threw the main character off the back of the dragon he was sitting on... to collapse straight onto his back in the real world once again, rain falling onto grey streets. The sight of the Angst What Angst main character breaking down into tears over the trauma had this troper crying along with him.
    • This troper was able to hold it together until we saw the spirits of the Monsters saying goodbye to Genki, before they fused. What really nails it is Mocchi's "I love you, Genki..."
    • The episode that introduced Golem had one, too, when it was revealed why he was in the lonely castle. He was guarding the Lost Disks of monsters that couldn't be revived.
      • Later, in an Unstoppable Rage, Golem destroys some Jell troops, including one that begged for mercy. When he finally snaps out of it and realizes what he's done, he starts crying...and a tear lands on a flower and makes it bloom.
    • The episode 'Eternal Worm' had one, too. For the most part, Allan came across as an Anti Hero at best and a jerk at worst, abusing and insulting his Worm monster. It got so bad that when the Monsters Of the Week asked Worm if it wanted to join the baddies, it accepted. However, it cut Genki and the others free instead, still loyal to its master. Enraged at being tricked, the enemies sucked the life out of the Worm and made it a Lost Disk...and Allan realized just how much he'd done with the Worm and how much he loved it.
      • After defeating the baddies, Allan placed flowers on the Worm's grave, still remembering the good times he'd shared with it. Then, Genki and the others walked up and showed him the monster they'd just unlocked...It was a baby Worm, and they said he could keep it—as long as he treated it right.
    • "Goodbye, Baku". Even if you're not a dog-lover, you will be BAWLING by the end. Basically, Genki and company found a Baku, a monster who's like a big friendly dog. It latched onto Genki immediately, protecting him from harm. As it turns out, the Baku's owner had been killed by Moo's forces. And his owner looked like Genki. As a puppy, he tried to fight them off, but failed...
      • It gets sadder. The Centaur monster that destroyed the village Baku lived in came back to attack the heroes. Baku defeated him, but was mortally wounded in the fight. So he went back to the house and curled up in front of a picture of his owner before dying. The last image we see in that episode is a flashback of him and his owner, happily playing...
  • The 2nd episode of Mushishi. It's the story of a little girl, Sui, who has a strange and apparently incurable disease in her eyes. The sunlight hurt hers to the point his family locks her in a warehouse with no windows. Biki, her friend, who visits her everyday, brings her food, and plays with her, says: "Maybe they made it for her sake, but it looked like they were abandoning her.".
    • One day, Sui tells Biki that she already knows the cause of her disease, there are Mushis, mysterious beings and the focus of the series, living in her eyes. She also tells him that when she closes her "second eyelids", she can see a light river. When she tries to get closer to the river, a mysterious man tells him to not to. Meanwhile, Biki's mother is worried because nobody knows if the disease is contagious, and Biki spends a lot of time with Sui. Then Biki catches the same illness as Sui. His mother brings Sui food instead of Biki the next day:
      Sui: Biki? Biki? What's wrong?
      Biki's mother: Biki is... I'm not going to let him come here ever again. Your disease has infected him. It's not your fault. It's our fault for feeling pity of another person.
    • While Biki's mother ends talking, the light of the light river shines around Sui. She gets too close and she is sinking while repeating "Biki... Biki... I'm sorry... I'm sorry".
  • My Neighbor Totoro/Tonari no Totoro is about as uplifting as you can get in anime, but the scene where calm, level-headed Satsuki breaks down sobbing and asking what she'll do if her mother dies jerks every heartstring this troper has. Seeing Mei lost and crying for her sister is no emotional picnic, either. Also, even though they don't need him anymore, the knowledge that they never see Totoro again after the end of the movie is bittersweet to the taste.
    • Oh god, that scene made my eyes fill up. Nanny's attempts to comfort Satsuki to no avail also add to the tearjerker factor.
  • Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok: in the fourth-episode flashback, chibi!Mayura wanders, apparently at random, through the city, until she finds a "House of Jack and the Beanstalk" at an amusement park, and starts to climb through it. She's almost at the end when we see that it's under renovation, and the way to the exit has fallen apart. She tries to reach it, falls, and bursts into tears. The reason? Her mom used to bring her there and meet her at the exit, and she thinks if she can just get to the end of the ride, she'll see her again.
  • The ending of Nadia The Secret Of Blue Water was the only anime scene that successfully made this troper cry. Although the series had a number of touching moments, the latter half of the final episode was one long bout of tear-jerking: First off, Nadia's mind-controlled cyborg older brother overcomes his powerless metal body and sacrifices his life to save her. The villain sends her boyfriend Jean tumbling to his death, prompting the remaining spirits of the Atlanteans in the Blue Water to sacrifice the artifact to bring him back to life. During this, Nadia gets her first, last and only glimpse of her deceased mother, only realizing who she is at the very last moment before she and the others disappear. To top it off, Red Noah is exploding and the crew of the Nautilus can't escape. They have an escape shuttle but someone needs to stay behind to blow their way out with the Nautilus' weaponry. Captain Nemo sneaks off to be that someone, shooting open the giant spaceship and yelling at her daughter to "LIVE!" The other characters escape, with Nadia never getting the chance to make up with her father. Then follows a heartfelt and (slightly Squicky) epilogue, explaining how the surviving cast lived happily ever after. The whole sequence was beautiful and heart-rending, not least because of the sad tune "Kokyou he..." (Going Home) playing.
    • That is indeed true, but other episodes deserve mention:
      • Episode 5: Little Marie tells Nadia and Jean about how her parents were shot by Gargoyle's soldiers, ending her recollection in tears. Later, Nadia and Jean dig graves for Marie's parents, and tearfully reveal to the little girl that she'll never see her mother, father, or pet dog again. The episode ends with all three weeping at the graves, with Marie lamenting, "I want to go to Mama and Papa!"
      • Episode 15: The climax of this episode involves a genial sailor, Ensign Fait, sacrificing his life to save the Nautilus both from a lethal gas leak and from being captured by the American battleships. What makes this moment truly heartwrenching is how Jean gradually becomes crushed when he vainly argues for the sailor to be rescued. (Fait's death scene, incidentally, is truly terrifying, in which the sailor coughs uncontrollably to his death after screaming "Oh no! I don't wanna die! There's so many more things I wanted to do!" Even more heartbreaking when it ends with Jean wailing hysterically over the whole thing.)
      • Episode 16: The entire episode involves a trip to the Atlantis graveyard, in which the heroic sailors are laid to rest. Here, Jean discovers that his father has been killed by Gargoyle. As if he hadn't already been brokenhearted, he becomes extremely depressed and even considers giving up inventing. Then, in a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming, Nadia comes by and tries to comfort him; the episode ends with her weeping on his shoulder while they stand beside the funeral.
      • Episode 22: Electra's entire flashback scene. And the ending of that episode.
      • Episode 35: Nadia tearfully reveals that she feels like a totally selfish, unloveable person and tries to commit suicide to escape from her fate. Instead, she is gently lowered to the ground by her Blue Water ala Sheeta's crystal in Castle In The Sky (although this is revealed, not seen). Her friends are all traumatized by what she has done (Grandis slaps Nadia across the face, while Sanson calls her out for "playing this tragic little game of yours!"), but Jean kindly tells Nadia that he doesn't care about who she thinks she is, or even about her origins as an Atlantean—he loves her anyway. Nadia is so moved that she tearfully apologizes. Later, they discover that it's Nadia's birthday and have a wonderful celebration.
  • NANA. This troper can't even give specific examples - every single episode left her in tears.
    • This troper teared up at the scene where Nana and Hachiko go to Trapnest's concert in Hachiko's hometown, and Nana sees Ren for the first time in two years.
      • It doesn't help that the song Trapnest performed was the extremely touching A Little Pain, either.
    • This troper also bawled when Hachiko saw Shouji hugging Sachiko. She (Hachiko) was so shocked that she refused to fight for Shouji, and broke up with him.
      • Just thinking about this makes this troper feel sad and depressed.
    • Another tearjerker scene was when Hachiko broke up with Nobu because she got pregnant and decided that Takumi was the better choice since he would be able to support the child without any trouble. She also thought that she was in love with Takumi.
    • Don't forget when Ren died.
  • At the end of the ninth episode of Nanatsuiro Drops, events take a turn for the Tear Jerker. It only gets better just in time for the Happy Ending.
  • Naru Taru's manga ending is massively depressing. Also, the last three volumes in general have too many tearjerker moments between them to make a full list...
    • To start with, there's Shiina's death near the end of volume 10. Seeing the beloved character literally cut in half by Vulcan rounds just after the insinuation that she might not be the main character after all is all but guaranteed to leave an impression, even on readers who aren't the crying type. That death scene and the words Returning Home in a Bag may well permanently burn themselves into your mind.
    • And from the same volume, one certainly can't forget Norio's death. While the way it happens is more likely to bring out tears of pure horror than anything else, Norio's singleminded determination to protect Takeo no matter what HE himself is being put through, as well as his eventual regret that not only can he no longer protect his friend, but he can also never tell him his true feelings bring everything together to make the scene genuinely sad. Those last words, along with that ironic smile, are painful.
    • Volume 11 begins with an extremely miserable chapter - which, as it so happens, is directly related to the above two moments. You know the rest of the volume isn't going to be much happier when, not too long afterwards, Takeo of all people starts crying.
    • For an example that's not from the last three volumes, there's Hiro-chan's arc. Watching her break down just after the test tube incident, unable to cope with any more suffering hurts. So does Hoshimaru being forced to kill Hiro-chan to save Shiina's father, traumatising Shiina in the process, which the anime version manages to make even sadder by having Hiro-chan shed one more tear just as she dies. Actually, the whole arc is pretty harrowing. Poor, poor Hiro-chan.
    • Perhaps one of the hardest-hitting moments of all comes in chapter 65, just two chapters short of the end, which has Shiina going into a severe state of denial over the death of her father, to the point where she says that she'd like to go home and have dinner with her dad and Akira, and perhaps invite Hiro-chan too. When you remember that Hiro-chan died six volumes ago, it's absolutely heartbreaking to read. Right after that Akira, wounded and in tears herself, begs Shiina to come to her senses and make peace with her mother, the last family Shiina has remaining... and finally, just to twist the knife even further, a few pages later there's final images of deceased characters like Hiro-chan and Norio. God. Damn. You. Kitoh.
  • The treatment of the baby Ohmu in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind gets this devout insect-lover wibbling like crazy. The humans capture it, spear it all over, and drag it through the air, squealing pathetically and bleeding, as bait to draw out the parents, because Humans Are Bastards. Sure, everything turns out okay in the end, but the moment is definitely there.
    • When Nausicaa tries to keep the baby Ohm from moving and her foot its the acid lake ... lets just say that it is hard to forget her heroic pleading screams. Pass the tissue please.
  • When Yuu fades to dust in Haruka's arms and is blown away in Shangri'la while Haruka starts to cry in Noein. Especially sad considering that Karasu and Haruka just stormed through Shangril'la to rescue him, only to fail at the last moment. When Yuu reappears seconds later, those tears become tears of joy.
    • So much of this show; for instance, Atori, once he gets past his bastard phase. Just try not feeling sorry for him after his backstory.
  • Noir had an episode with a retired Soviet general who helped people to atone for his crimes. Bonus points for him having a convincing Freudian Excuse and calmly accepting his fate. Chloe's death is also quite gut-wrenching.
    • Hey, how can you leave out Morning Without Dawn? The whole episode just rips your heart out and stomps on it over and over. By the ending with Kirika collapsing to the ground begging Mirielle to kill her, we're right there with her.
  • Now And Then Here And There. As Grave Of The Fireflies will teach you, war is not kind to children. Not even in a vast Crapsack World slowly dying in orbit around a star in the early stages of its own death. I (this is too important to be impersonal) suggest you set aside an entire day to watch it if you plan to. It's only 13 episodes long, but it can leave you unable to act for hours afterwords. And don't let the first episode fool you.
    • For this troper, it wasn't even a part of the series, but in the opening, at the realization that the photo of the carefree Sara, in her own world before the series starts, is the only time in the entire series she's shown smiling.
  • Ojamajo Doremi seemed to have at least two of these a season — the second movie even ended in a heartbreaking Tear Jerker... and appropriately enough, it factored into Aiko's goal to reunite her parents late in Dokkan. Runner up is a 3 way tie between the Motto Christmas Episode, Littlest Cancer Patient Non-chan's death in Naisho episode 12, and the series finale.
  • If Ooku: the Inner Chambers does not brings one to tears at least once per volume....
    • The end of chapter three, where the merchant's daughter O-nobu is reunited with Yushonin, who entered the Shogun's Harem rather than be married off to someone else first lays eyes on the tradesman Shinkichi who seeks her hand.
    • The flashback in chapter nine, giving more detail on the life of the girl now known as Shogun Iemitsu is something that should wring one dry, but then we see Arikoto offering the her the womanly overrobe she made him and the other men in her incipent harem wear for her amusement.
      Arikoto: <draping it over her shoulders> "Here. It doth look so much more beautiful on you, my lord."
      <Iemitsu breaks down in tears>
    • Chapter twelve gives us Arikoto's and Iemitsu's response to Kagura ordering the former to vacate the Shogun's bedchamber after a year without a sign of conception. They pledge to be Together In Death once it becomes clear that Iemitsu is in fact barren... then it turns out that she is not.
  • Tamaki's back story in Ouran High School Host Club about him being forbidden to see his mother due to his grandmother's meddling. Made that much more of a Tear Jerker by the fact that Tamaki not only doesn't resent his grandmother for her horrible treatment of him and his mother, he is honestly happy to see her and calls her a "beautiful person." Aw, punkin.
    • As well as Haruhi's Mother turning out to be the "queen" in the Haruhi in Wonderland episode. Considering how it was handled in the comic, this episode was quite an unexpected tear jerker.
    • Recent chapters of the manga have pushed Tamaki's woobieness past the breaking point (though he'd deny it for his friends' sake), not to mention his superiors doing something that was in the finale of the anime: Putting a stop to the Host Club.
    • Did no one else well up at the final animé episode? "We all love the Host Club! Even I love the Host Club!"
    • I found Kaoru's metaphor about Tamaki keeping the Host Club as a family fairly heart-wrenching.
  • The episode "Cats and Girls and Spaceships" from Outlaw Star, where Jim unknowingly kills the girl he had liked, and when she understandably fails to show up for their date afterward, he assumes she stood him up and never finds out the truth.
    • Am I the only one who cried when Hilda died?
    • Am I the only one who cried when Harry died?
      • God, I bout bawled my eyes raw. It's not just that he dies. It's the way he says goodbye to Melfina.
  • Towards the end of the Paradise Kiss manga, it gets clear that Yukari and George's relationship just isn't working - it's very passionate, but they also can't stand one another. They split up, sadly but without any hard feelings, and George goes to Paris in order to finish his education as a designer. Yukari receives a mysterious package with a key inside. The key goes to the room where he keeps all the clothes he made, and he's left them all for her - including the graduation dress. She didn't cry when he left, but she does now.
  • Paranoia Agent. Taeko. Just... Taeko.
    • How about when Detective Ikari is in the 2D world with Tsukiko and he sees his wife, who tells him she is about to die? Cut to a scene of her flatlining holding a photograph of her husband. Hand me a hankie, please.
    • Tsukiko apologizing to Maromi The sight of her holding her dead puppy made this troper go hug her cat.
  • Peacemaker Kurogane, in this troper's eyes, had two involving Ayu: both when she begged Tetsunoske to help her brother in her place, and later when she was tortured and then left dead in the street. Having her voiceover for the episode preview didn't help either.
  • Believe it or not, this troper cried during the climax of Perfect Blue, when Rumi/Mima's Evil Twin was trying to kill Mima. Not because there was anything sad about it, but because at that point, the insanity was too much, especially to the overly-curious 16-year-old I was back then. I know, the insanity of that part wasn't as bad as the forces of Chaos, but it was pretty up there.
    • "I guess I went to Harajuku today..." turned this troper's face into a heap of snotty mush, because it signifies Mima's absolute lowest point in terms of sanity - she doesn't trust her own perceptions at all any more (although, who can blame her? It's a Kon-sensei movie). Conversely, Mima's climactic cry of "Like I even care! I AM MYSELF!" was a thing of beauty that made this troper weep with joy.
      • What makes these moments more tear-jerking is that the movie is a rather disturbing example of Break The Cutie. In the first half of the movie, Mima is a very nice and pleasant lady (albeit a little ditzy), and I don't know if it was just in the English dub or not, but she only swore once in the whole movie even while the other characters were cursing like sailors. Plus she's kind of hot, especially in that costume she wore for the concert. I'd go out with her (if she weren't a fictional character, that is).
  • Petite Princess Yucie: Normally a cutesy and goofy series, but Elmina's backstory was enough to make this troper teary-eyed, partially due to her own parent's high expectations. But in the episode when she went home to Fluffy Cloud Heaven, the scene where she imagines a bunch of disembodied faces laughing at her while she tries to do the dance she couldn't do as a child, causing her to mess up and break down crying, saying "I made...a mistake..."...* sniff* .
    • What about the second-last episode, where Yucie's friends gave her no choice but to use the Tiara to save Arc, after secretly making a promise that would erase all her memories of them?
  • Pet Shop Of Horrors is full of them if you're an animal lover. Or if, y'know, you have a soul.
    • Angelica and P-chan, in the very first chapter. You can see the ending coming a mile a way. Note: this does not help!
    • Dreizhen's ears. That is all.
    • Mellow's reaction to Jody's death:
    Mellow: What is "dead"?
    D: It means... you won't be able to see him again.
    Mellow: Won't... see...? But... why? He... was... my... only... friend...
    D: Mellow...
    Mellow: He... promised... If there's no... Jody... There's... no... me...
    • Chris' adoptive parents arriving at Christmas and demanding to be allowed to take him home, bringing up all the logical reasons he shouldn't be living at the shop. It just kills you, because you know they're right, and yet you also know they're dead wrong.
    • The entirety of Catherine's story.
    • The finale; D's father's 'last memory', Q-chan's true identity, the contents of D's suitcase, and worst of all, grown-up Chris meeting the new D.
Chris: I was wondering... 20 years ago, my older brother, Leon, left to return something to Count D. Something that the Count had left behind. Do you know if he ever made it?
* sniff*
  • The episode of Planetes where we find out why Yuri became a debris collector.
    • Also, the conclusion of episode 7: "Extraterrestrial Girl" always gets me. "This is my ocean."
    • For this troper, it's near the end of the series when Ai, who has been carrying an injured Claire - who she knows is a terrorist - cross-country over the moon and she sees the lights of the dome just as she runs out of air and she screams.
    • There was also the glorious subversion in Planetes. After the Wham Episode "Love," and the equally powerful episode 25, Hachimaki and Ai have returned to Section 7 for one last tour, the latter having recovered from her severe injuries. As they stand on the hull of the Toy Box, they begin a word game, naming objects that start with a specific letter. This is how Hachimaki proposes to Tanabe.
  • Death of Robbie the police robot in Pluto, complete with Gesicht visiting his wife. Mind you, it's only chapter 1. This editor already has several bedsheets handy, just in case.
    • Oh, yes. When they started this scene, this troper was like "robot families? And they want to make this sad and moving? Are you kidding?" Few more panels had this troper cry like a baby. Other scene worth mentioning is main character's "child" getting cruelly and pointlessly killed by some fanatic
    • There's also the scene where Heracles recalls seeing a shell-shocked robot after a battle desperately trying to wash his hands saying "It just won't come off."
    • Chapter 6 is like this too. "Don't sing out there. Come back to me. It's time to practice your piano." Sorry, got something in my eye...
    • Chapter 24. The robot dog. The little robot dog trying to stand up and play as it's DYING. Hackeneyed or not, DAMN YOU URASAWA.
    • Chapter 47, especially the ending. "Excellent. It can be for pretend, first...The pretense will turn real with time. You will learn to truly cry, as I do.".
      • I was close to tears (then crying)during chapter 54, especialy the last few pages Epsilon throwing his arms away to protect Wassily now defenceless against Pluto. Then wondering where "myself" is killed. What tipped me over was the guard robot saluting such a brave robot. And then It Got Worse.
    • "Even if the world ends I won't let you go."
  • While Ponyo On A Cliff By The Sea is in general a fun and happy movie, the part where Sasuke finds his mom's empty car and he starts crying tore this tropers heart out. Especially hard if you've ever lost a parent.
  • Potemayo's last episode. It's been all Widget Series fun and games before this, then the penultimate episode hits us with a flashback to Sunako's Parental Abandonment and some foreshadowing, suddenly changing to a more serious tone and showing how he lost his mother in the first half of the finale. It's worse for the genre savvy - the premise is simply, logically set up, you can see this coming a mile off and you're actually pleading with the makers "Don't do this to them, please, don't" because by this point, you've grown to love these bizarre, Moe characters and it's going to devastate everyone. It does. Even Sunao breaks down crying when Potemayo "blooms" to the narration of his mother saying "Flowers bloom, fall and bloom again.", leaving her lifeless body in his lap and Mikan going overboard with Please Wake Up, whilst over at Kyou's house she and her family's sobbing their heart out over Guchuko's. It leaves it juuust long enough for you to start thinking "They did it?" before the moeblobs open their eyes again. This troper has never been so happy to see a Deus Ex Machina activate.
    • "I finally get to hold you. But I don't like this..."
    • This troper sniffled over thefact that the narrator is also Sunao's mother. The idea that she's watching over her son, seeing him come to life again through caring for a child of his own...
  • Mawata's breakdown in Pretear. Specially when Sasame, whom she loved, ends up abandoning her for Takako. In front of her family. After Mawata snapped on them. And then Takako steals Mawata's heart and makes her a Barrier Maiden by locking her in the Tree of Fenrir...
    • To make things worse, right before that we had Natsue's flashback to her first husband's death. Where Mawata was Wise Beyond Her Years and was the one comforting Natsue and Mayune. How... ironic, to say at least. And coupled with the aforementioned scene, a BIG ASS tear jerker.
    • In the second-last episode, we get Mayune, Natsue, Kaoru, and Himeno going to save her from the Tree. We're shown clip after clip of them pulling on the vines surrounding her, calling her name. Even when Takako physically attacks them with lightning, and they've been pulling on regenerating vines for a long time, they still don't give up. And when you consider Mayune and Kaoru were comic relief characters it deals an even bigger blow.
    • There's also the scene in the final episode after Himeno and Hayate merge to battle the Tree of Fenrir and rescue Takako. Hayate repeatedly takes blows for Himeno until ultimately she is pinned down and unable to move, begging him to stop shielding her; he refuses to stop, and ends up sacrificing himself to protect her, using the last of his strength to cut her free before he collapses, then telling her to escape.
      • Before that, there's also the scene where Sasame is dying after protecting Takako. "Am I finally able to be your knight?" And then he actually dies, and Takako starts repeatedly calling out for him in despair. The particular piece of BGM that plays during that last moment makes things even worse. Let's just say most of the final episode is a Tear Jerker, until the True Love's Kiss.
  • Princess Mononoke. The ending of the movie always makes this troper start to cry uncontrollably; between Joe Hisaishi's sublime score of Ashitaka and San, the message that despite the fact that humans can be bastards and have serious flaws, there is always hope for them, and the last shot of a Kodama appearing in the ruined, yet rejuvenating forest, one line of dialogue is all it takes to kick it off:
"...I never knew the Forest God made the flowers grow."
  • Princess Tutu. The last few episodes of the second season will bring anyone to tears. Namely Rue's backstory, Rue's confession and giving herself up to save Mytho, Mytho choosing Rue over Ahiru, and Ahiru giving Mytho up willingly.
    • Not to mention Fakir and Ahiru's pas de deux in episode 25. This troper cries just hearing the music featured during that scene.
    • Don't forget about Edel's death in the first season finale. The fact that as she burns to death, her last request is that Mytho and Ahiru dance for her does not make it any happier.

     Q-T 
  • Ragnarok: the Animation has one such moment when Alice becomes a monster and Maya-chan kills her with her own hands before realizing who she is. The subsequent episode was a Tear Jerking episode after Maya realizes what she's done and apologizes to the already dead Alice.
  • Kamina killing a dolem in Rahxephon, only to find out that Asahina was linked to it and he just killed her as well. And her last words are "Ayato... I love you", spelled out in the lights of the buildings, and not only that - before Asahina died, we could see how she wrote them out as she was dying, desperately trying to relay her last message while Ayato was killing her without knowing it. The episode really went out of its way to milk the scene for as much tragedy as it was worth, fortunately without going too far and just making it cheesy.
    • This was the only anime that has ever made me cry. I was watching it with anime club and literally everyone was either crying or watching it. Even in the manga my eyes were watering up when that chapter came around.
    • My personal favourite is "It's not fair! You've known him much longer than I have!"
      • Adding on to that is "Ayato Kamina! Megumi Shitow used to have a bit of a crush on Ayato Kamina! But she doesn't anymore! That's what she's decided!"
      • There's also the bit in the last episode where Ayato answers the phone in the sea of mud and sees all of his friends giving him support. His facial expression when Asahina appears says it all.
    • Episode 15, the Children's Night. "I wonder if that clay doll ever found its parents." Makoto Isshiki, you are a bastard. Makoto Isshiki, you need a hug.
    • The Movie starts with one, with the shy-yet-chirpy, adorable young Haruka watching in abject horror as Tokyo Jupiter forms right in front of her.
  • Ryu Kumon's backstory in Ranma 1/2, due mostly to Mood Whiplash: This is a series where pretty much no one ever died, and we don't even see any other death in the past, but he saw his father accidently kill himself and destroy his house when he was six
    • The final two episodes of the anime has this troper in tears from start to finish. It just sums up Ranma's life, caught between his sense of honour, his curse, and Genma's jerkassery.
    Ranma: It's okay. It's better this way.
  • In Rave Master, Sieg Hart tortures Elie with lightning and tries to pull an Hannibal Lecture on her, telling her repeatedly that she's just Experiment 3173 and that she should just let him kill her. Elie is about to accept this as true... until the flashbacks to her childhood and her connection to Resha Valentine kick in. But she's already so weakened and injured that she simply can't fight back.. And then, Haru comes to rescue her, but can't do anything but hold the almost fatally injured Elie in her arms as she falls into a coma and he thinks she's dead. Cue to him screaming Elie's name.
    • While trapped in a Stable Time Loop in the past, Sieg Hart sent Haru and Elie who we now know is Resha Valentine back into the present, at the cost of him remaining in the past for good. Before he sent them, he wished Elie that he wished her a happy life. And knowing what he had did to Elie before (just see the above), it is both a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming and a Tear Jerker.
      • But the real Tear Jerker comes as Sieg waited alone by Resha's grave, knowing he can't meet with anyone in case he altered the present, he incidentally met up with Resha. She was holding a necklace that had belonged to Elie. He asked her for it, because he knew he would never see Elie again. Resha handed him the necklace and before she left, she told him that whoever the necklace belonged to, they must be really happy to have such a good man cherish their friendship. Then, he put on the necklace and sat down in front of Resha's grave to do the last thing he could for Resha/Elie. Remember the skeleton that the gang found way, way back sitting on the rock as if protecting Resha's grave? That was Sieg Hart. For fifty years, he watched over Resha/Elie's grave, long even after his death. Haru and Elie's expressions as they realized who the skeleton is was utterly heartwrenching and painful to see.
    • Also when Lucia has a flashback of being found imediatly after his mother was murdered in cold blood. You can hate him all you want, but if you didn't cry when you saw the misfortune he experienced as a child you have no heart.
  • Read Or Die the TV has one particularly poignent scene wherein Anita loses both of her sisters. She throws up FIRST, and THEN starts crying.
    • There was also the episode where Maggie and Nenene are in hiding from the British Library, separated from Anita and Michelle. Maggie's then found out by Wendy, who reveals that the Library already knows where the other two are, and forces her to turn over Nenene to them. Being a big fan of Maggie, this troper found it heartbreaking seeing her on the verge of tears as she's forced to betray Nenene. And then comes the end of the episode, where the Library reveals to Maggie that all her time with Anita and Michelle prior to the beginning of the show had never really happened, and she finally breaks down sobbing.
  • Revolutionary Girl Utena: Utena, Anthy, and the coffin during the finale. Not to mention the kiss and the sword.
    • Before that got this troper. Seeing Utena gravely wounded, unable to get up, and utterly helpless as she watches her friend get stabbed by a million swords, begging and crying for her brother to save her, while the background music is mourning the meaninglessness of life, and Dios telling her she did pretty well "for a girl" was nearly UNBEARABLE. But then there were tears of a much more triumphant kind when she got up.
    • What, no tears were shed at Anthy's suicide attempt? This troper started sobbing right when Anthy did.
    • The very, very end as Baiser plays and Anthy steps out of Ohtori while the bells ring, signifying her victory because Utena gave her the courage to take HERSELF back. "Now it's my turn to go to you. No matter where you are, I'll find you for sure. Wait for me, Utena." Then the music slammed into the triumphant ''Rose and Release'.
    • To say nothing of the manga finale. "My name means 'calyx'... the cup that shields the young flower," and seeing Himemiya in the boys' uniform were both the limit for this troper.
    • Utena playing badminton with Miki, Juri, and Nanami, once you realize this is the first and last time we see them all as friends.
    • Seeing Shiori in her room after Ruka loses the duel against Utena and cans her. Despite the fact that Shiori is an incredibly unpopular character in the fandom, there is something absolutely heartbreaking about someone being kicked when they're down. As if the humiliation of being dumped publically wasn't enough, the wound is only salted further when Juri swallows her pride and visits Shiori. Most fans see this through Juri's perspective and consider Shiori to be harsh needlessly— this troper didn't feel that way.
    • Utena's final scene with Touga in the movie. That elevator and that kiss...
    • Speaking of Touga, the end of Utena's first duel with him, the destruction of everything Utena thought she knew about him and Anthy and the accompanying Heroic BSOD made this troper start welling up. And start wanting to beat Touga into pulp.
  • Robotech The Shadow Chronicles also has such moment, when Marcus, pushes Maja's escape capsule towards Archangel and stays behind to hold off the shadows, seemengly doomed to death.
  • When Juliet and Romeo meet and fall in love in Romeo X Juliet. Because in this version they're actually likeable characters, and the knowledge of what's to come just kills you.
  • Rose Of Versailles. Pretty much all of it, really. Or at least most of the second half. I won't even go into the actual ending.
  • Rozen Maiden is a masterwork in this regard:
    • It spends an entire episode watching Hina Ichigo slowly winding down to her eventual death, complete with stuttering movement and speech towards the end.
    • This troper always breaks down watching Suiseiseki desperately trying to talk Souseiseki out of fighting and Sou's consequent death, and then Sui grabbing her body first before reaching for her rosa mystica
    • The raw despair and lack of a will to live demonstrated by Ill Girl Megumi aka Megu, a medium of Suigintou, who she begged to use up her life force. Did I mention she calls Suigintou "Angel-san"?
    • Suigintou counts too, at least when she's not in Axe Crazy mode (Ouverture in particular). Despite being brought Back From The Dead repeatedly, her death scenes make it as far from Death Is Cheap (or Narm) as it can be.
      • Suigintou's entire back story counts, at least where Rozen Maiden: Ouverture is concerned. You feel so sorry for her, and then realize it was because of Shinku and Souseiseki belittling her, and their revelation that she is an incomplete doll that turns her into the Big Bad of the first season.
    • This Troper's favourite tear jerker is in episode 6 of Traumend, when the newly resurrected Suigintou returns to Shinku's dream to issue her standard Badass / Archnemesis challenge, and Shinku responds in tears "Thank goodness you're still alive" and then "I'm sorry, I was wrong to ever call you junk". This results in a significant 'warming up' of both characters, even if not to each other. The most heartwarming tearjerker I've ever seen... because late is better than never.
  • Kenshin's farewell to Kaoru before he goes after Shishio. No wonder poor Kaoru got depressed (if perhaps excessively so) after that.
    • Surpassed by Kenshin's backstory from the Rememberance arc (animated as the Trust and Betrayal OVA) in which Kenshin accidentally kills his wife Tomoe after being temporarily blinded, by a group of ninjas. She was trying to help him and to not lose her second chance to be happy, and then SLASH. The shock of this causes Kenshin to swear to never kill again, and Tomoe's brother Enishi to swear revenge and to turn Kenshin's life into a living hell.
      • The Seishohen (Reflections) OVA's ending is also sad because Kenshin and Kaoru die. Of course, if you read the original manga you just might be pissed instead, because the manga's ending is Happily Ever After.
      • Even with all the suck, the Seishouhen OAV did have genuinely sad moments, like the last time Kaoru and Kenshin make love before he leaves, Megumi trying to urge the deathly ill Kaoru to live a bit more so she can see Kenshin a last time, or Sanosuke doing the same to an amnesiac Kenshin in China.
    • In the series, there are also Yumi's death in Shishio's arms after he fatally stabs her with his own katana and then comforts her as she passes away, and Kenshin's first visit to Tomoe's grave in years. Both of them with the Adagio Cantabile of Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata as background music. This troper can't hear said sonata anymore without crying.
    • WTF, people. You have not mentioned the manga scene where Kenshin finds Kaoru's (supposed) corpse and completely breaks down as he believes Enishi has finally gotten his revenge on him? COME ON, I still sob when I remember.
    • The end of the first Tsukiokuhen OAV, depicting how Kenshin and Tomoe met. Years have passed since the first time I saw it... and I still am brought to tears like in the beginning.
    • And Sayo's death. God, poor Sayo. The Shimabara arc was the last good part of the anime, ad despite having a Bittersweet Ending, Sayo's fate remains a Tear Jerker.
      • The flashback where Shogo and Sayo watch their father die fighting the shogun's forces, then told by their mortally-sick mother to leave her and "become strong as iron", shortly afterwards seeing her shot dead on the beach, and then sailing away with their uncle... past the crucified bodies of everyone in their village is one of the few times this troper cried Manly Tears while watching an anime. And then young Shogo made an oath to become "as strong as God!" and the source of his messianic complex was made painfully obvious.
    • This troper felt tears well up when the oniwabanshuu died protecting their leader. And God, the look on Aoshi's face...! ;_;
    • Another Aoshi-related one: when Okina openly asks Kenshin to kill Aoshi since he believes he's gone beyond any chance of redemption. Seeing Misao's absolute heartbreak at that makes it even worse. Poor, poor child.
      • I can keep it together for Okina's request and Misao's inner turmoil. But Kenshin's answer and Misao's response put a lump in my throat, but for a good reason.
    • And what makes me cry just as much, if not even more... Anji Yukyuzan's horribly depressing backstory. My God, Anji's screams of fury and pain when he sees the shrine burned down and his stepchildren dead, specially the teenage girl with a Precocious Crush on him... it never fails to bring the water works for me.
  • Iwasaki Taku's heartbreakingly gentle and heartfelt musical score for the ending of Rurouni Kenshin: Memories.
  • "Trista ... Maybe in another lifetime... you and I will be friends. * Real* friends. Poor, poor April
  • Saikano as a whole. The fansub literally warns you at the end of 10 that the rest of the series is going to be nothing but flowing tears.
    • Even the opening can be a Tear Jerker after watching a few episodes, especially if you understand the French phrases.
    • But specially, when Chise and Shuuji have sex in the manga. Some few parts skirt the line with Narm specially when Chise pets Shuji's cock and refers to it as "poor little thing" since he can't make her come, but overall... GAH. ;-;
    • This needs reiteration. Basically, imaging 13 episodes of Grave Of The Fireflies crossed with Gunslinger Girl, then increase the scale and scope. The anime removed the rape. because that would've been too depressing.
    • This AMV, set to Tori Amos' "Winter" (which is a sad song in itself), exemplifies just how gut-wrenching and tear-inducing Saikano is.
  • The season one finale of Saiunkoku Monogatari combines Shuurei's triumphant return to her home in the capital city with a series of painful illustrations of Ryuuki's growing estrangement from the people around him. It becomes particularly wrenching when Shuurei and her father throw an impromptu party in the palace archives and all of the friends and allies Shuurei has made over the course of the season drop in to have a good time... except Ryuuki, who we see still at his desk doing paperwork, while Shouka talks quietly to Reishin about how the people who see him as "Ryuuki" instead of "Emperor" are growing fewer and fewer, and how in order to be a good emperor, Ryuuki is no longer able to pursue his own desires. "Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
  • Oh, god, Saiyuki... where to begin?
    • Just about anything to do with Koumyou Sanzo, mostly due to one we see early on:
    Sanzo: I couldn't save him...
    • "I want something I don't have to protect."
    • Sanzo's prayer for the living
    • The entire manga chapter "10 Years Ago."
    • In the manga, after Gojyo leaves alone to go after Kami-sama, Hakkai gets into an actual argument with Sanzo. After reading seven full volumes of him alternating between Stepford Smiler mode and cold-anger mode, watching him shout is like watching your mom shout; it's scary and not right and you want it to stop. Now, please?
    • Gaiden. When Nataku is ordered to kill Goku, just as Goku has finally been given a name and had been looking forward to telling it to him. Also the scene where Goku is stuck in his Super Powered Evil Side, and Konzen, despite having three trained soldiers nearby, refuses to back away, kneels and clutches Goku, pressing their foreheads together and declaring that ever since Goku put his hand in his, he hasn't been able to let go. Also also, Kenren, Konzen and Tenpou explaining a Pinky Swear to Goku, and they all swear that they'll be together forever on Earth. This series makes an amazing use of Foregone Conclusion, because even as you're getting attached to the pre-incarnations of these characters you already love, you know that they HAVE to die for the rest of the story to be possible... even though they're all so happy! And devoted to each other!
  • Pretty much all of Sakura Gari is very dramatic, Sakurako's terrifying Villainous Breakdown (bridget dropping included) and suicide takes the cake, alongside Souma revealing his Break Thecutie years to Masataka and his death in the last chapter
  • Sakura Taisen. Iris's backstory and her first ever birthday party in charge of the Hanagumi. Full stop, go for your Kleenex.
  • Mugen's near death flashbacks in the second Misguided Miscreants episode of Samurai Champloo. It wouldn't be nearly as potent if it weren't for the hauntingly beautiful song that plays during it all. The final episodes had their moments, too.
  • The end of the Samurai Shodown's Nakoruru OVA. Specially when Nakoruru speaks to her mother and asks her if she's crying.
  • Chapter 20 of Sasameki Koto, where we learn exactly why Kazama is so painfully Oblivious To (Sumika's) Love: the last time Kazama confessed seriously to someone, it was another Tall Dark And Bishoujo best friend back in middle school, and said friend rejected her outright and called her disgusting. Kazama had to move and transfer to another school to get away afterwards. She's now so afraid of Sumika rejecting her in the same way that she fights against acknowledging her own feelings for Sumika and won't — perhaps can't — recognize Sumika's for her, to the point that she gives herself the Just Friends speech.
  • Even the normally over-the-top ridiculous Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has one of these in Episode 11 of the second TV series, when the girls sadly explain what has driven them to murderous insanity. "But... he never chose any of us".
  • In Scrapped Princess, Fulle's death made this troper the saddest she's ever been in a long time. The way he was crawling on the streets while it was raining, while thinking he must not die, with the beautiful montage of all the sweet moments he had with Pacifica flashing... simply heartbreaking.
    • Add onto the fact that Pacifica's mother dies at the end of the episode, and her last request is Pacifica's name, so she can finally know her daughter's name. Pacifica yells back "Pamela!" Which is the name that Fulle gave her, and that is the last thing her mother hears before she dies. Take your pick about what is more tragic—a mother dying without seeing her child's face who's in the cell RIGHT NEXT TO HER, the child never knowing that she was her mother, or that the mother never actually knew Pacifica's real name before she did. Either way, it's tragic beyond no end.
    • Then there is Pacifica's long lost brother STABBING Pacifica in the back and killing her as soon as they meet for the first time before killing himself as an atonement. Of course the Reset Button is pushed at the end but it doesn't take away from the sadness.
  • It's easy to miss in the middle of all the hotbloodedness, but the finale of Scryed easily counts as one of these.
  • Serial Experiments Lain, when it's not being Mind Screw or downright Nightmar Fuel.
    • When Lain returns to find her home abandoned, and her fake dad says goodbye for the last time.
    • The second-to-last episode.
      Lain: I'm so sorry... I just mess up everything for you. (Cue Reset Button.
  • Shakugan No Shana has one very early on; not even halfway through the first season, we are treated to the permanent disappearance of Yukari Hirai. And here, "permanent disappearance" is NOT a case of Never Say Die. Her very existence will slowly vanish from everyone's memories, and when everyone forgets her, it will be as though she never existed at all. We get to watch Yuji try to prevent this. We get to watch her go from The Cutie in one appearance to Emotionless Girl in the very next. To the point where she barely acknowledges the same guy she was hopelessly in love with, and Yuji is happy because this is better than her now-usual reaction. Yuji at one point gets her to take a photo with her aforementioned Love Interest, which she is holding...when she finally disappears. And when Yuji picks up this photo, he doesn't see her in it, despite the fact that she just vanished right next to him. Damn.
    • It's made even worse because the entire sequence of Yuji trying so hard to help Hirai is set to happy, hopeful music, as though maybe, just maybe, she might have a chance, and every little sign of excitement or happiness from her is so heartbreaking, because it shows that Hirai really is in there somewhere, but she's fading so fast...
  • Pretty much anything from Makoto Shinkai. Hoshi no Koe is just... so... sad. Ditto 5 Centimeters per Second and The Place Promised in Our Early Days, both also Makoto Shinkai works.
    • 5 Centimeters per Second deserves its own bullet point. That movie is one of the saddest, most wretched, most beautiful things ever made, with a touch of Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming at the very end, where Tohno may—may—find Akari again. But she's engaged to someone else by then.
  • Shuffle: Episode 14. That is all.
  • Though not quite as sad as some of the other stuff listed, in Shugo Chara, I was almost in tears when after Tadase confesses to Amu, and is later at her house. Ikuto walks out of her room and confesses that he'd been there the whole time, including during Tadase's confession. Tadase's reaction was heartbreaking for everyone involved, including the audiance. Then, there's also what happened to Tadase's dog, Betty.
  • Everything involving Rodoreamon and Mamiina's subplot in Simoun, particularly when it intersects with Yun's subplot. After Mamiina dies, Onashia and Yun can apparently talk to her dead spirit; they tell Rodoreamon that Mamiina loved her, give her Mamiina's braid, and, after Yun Mercy Kills Onashia, she spends eternity gazing wistfully into the Spring while holding Mamiina's braid in a cradle as Rodoreamon is shown to wear her hair like Mamiina's and implied to remain celibate and spend the rest of her life waiting patiently to be with Mamiina in death. The fact that this is one of the few fictional subplots of its type where the expected Wangst doesn't occur is a testament to how good the show is.
    • Pretty much from episode 18 on is one ride of tears. Tears of sadness, tears of anger, tears of happiness, and tears of beauty. Tissue box is suggested to be in reach.
  • Sister Princess, more specifically Episode 25. Despite all the good times with his sisters, Wataru still decides to leave Promised Island with Akio whom he looks up to. Seeing the reactions of all the sisters makes this troper cry every time. This troper truly bursts into tears when Wataru seemingly said he's not going back.
    • Another moment in the series was in Episode 3 where Karen talks to Wataru about her thoughts of having siblings. The way she walks away after that with hands over her eyes is so sad, but this troper cried when Wataru decides to stay in Promised Island and then they both walked back home together.
  • Sket Dance, although primarily a comedy manga, is also a very touching Slice Of Life manga, and, beside many heartwarming moments contains also examples of this, mostly in the Backstories of various characters:
    • Switch's backstory.
    • The backstory about Bossun's parents.
    • The backstory about their client in the one-shot introductory episode.
  • Slam Dunk, in the end of the arc when Mitsui finally rejoins the team. The build ups on his past, his descent to be a Delinquent, and culminating on him eventually trying to destroy the club and gets severely reprimanded by... Kogure, in which he spouts off a lot of truth. And then there's Anzai coming into the gym and all of Mitsui's flashbacks come off together. In the end, this troper remembers he almost held a tear when Mitsui eventually fell to his knees, crying and said to Anzai: "I... I want to play basketball..."
  • In Slayers NEXT, if you don't feel bad for little Amelia when she thinks her dad is dead (he's just faked his death to uncover a complot, but she doesn't know that yet) and breaks down crying in Phil's library as she finds the book that her dad used to read to her when she was a little girl, you have no soul.
    • And what about in TRY, when Valgaav dies at the end? Even though he's reborn, the only character who isn't depressed by this is, of course, Xellos.
    • Or how about- back in Slayers Next, right after Lina defeats Phibrizzo, and everyone is waking up only to find that "Lina" does not exist anymore. The way that Gourry stands there watching her and then says "I don't know what's going on- but you are taking Lina away, I want it undone! I WANT IT UNDONE!" And everyone joining in to tell of the Lord of Nightmares- it always makes this troper tear up a little.
    • In fact, NEXT has a lot of these. One you need to backtrack on. In episode seven, a chef tells Amelia that he wants to help her and her friends catch the dragon and make dragon cuisine because he was unable to make some for his late granddaughter, who looks like Amelia. It turns out that he told every member of the group the same story, telling Lina that she looked like his dead daughter, that Gourry looked like his dead son-in-law, and that poor Zelgadis looked like his wife. At first it seems like it's a false tearjerker meant to get a laugh, then we find out at the end that he was telling the truth. If you watch that scene again and now know he's telling the truth, you may be inclined to tear right back up, especially with the music playing during the scene.]]
  • The very end of the last episode of Sola. "Hey! Sky! I love you! I really love you!"
  • Solanin is an entertaining manga about the trials of post-college twenty-somethings trying to figure out what they want out of life. Sure a few problems come along but it's still relatively light. Then the halfway point comes: Taneda accepts a full-time graphic design job and decides to go back to Meiko. Unfortunately, he's hit by a car and the next chapter is a flashback detailing how his and Meiko's relationship started... and at the end of the chapter he dies. The next opens a few months later Meiko is finally working another job, going through everything like she's perfectly fine. But as the chapter goes on, you see her fall asleep on the couch while Katou and Ai decide to go home in the pouring rain. Katou stops and looks up and Ai gets the idea, Meiko proclaims that it's not fair and Taneda's a jerk for dying and the chapter ends with a simple shot of Katou standing in the rain with his head down while Ai has her face buried in his jacket.
  • Solty Rei had more than its share towards the end of the series. The episode after Celica's death in particular had this troper tearing up.
    • And when Solty prefers to pull an Heroic Sacrifice and Roy cries when he tries to disuade her? That HURTS.
  • The ending of (what was intended to be) the final season of Sonic X when Sonic takes Chris's arms and tells him to hold on tight while he takes him for one final run before returning home. Sonic crying and the tears blowing into Chris's face just clenches it. This is quite something to pull off when you're The Scrappy.
    • Speaking of Sonic X, there's also the time that Scarlet Garcia and Franklyn speak with the old man in the retirement home who sobs as he recalls to them his memories of the ARK and his murdering twelve year old Maria Robotnik, after Scarlet all but begs him to explain so that she can finally understand what happened to her father, who also investigated the Space Colony incident years earlier, and was presumably killed to keep the secret quiet. This Troper is still tearing up right now at even that. Particuarly touching are the next words are spoken.
      Old Man: I joined the army because I wanted to give back to the country I loved, but...
      Scarlet: (takes his hand) I understand now. Thank you.
    • Another Sonic X Tear Jerker is when the revolutionary Molly flies her ship into the Metarex fleet, effectively committing suicide, albiet heroically as she went down fighting for the planet she loved. She pauses to look at Shadow as she passes, smiling and with tears in her eyes. The look on her face, and on Shadow's as he realises what she's about to do, are heart wrenching.
    • And may I please also note Cosmo's death scene and Tails utterly chilling heartbreak as he has to fire the gun that kills her.
      • Also, Sonic's later inability to do anything but stand there after returning the only thing he could find of her, a single seed, and Tails literally collapses at his feet in tears after punching him a few times had several people screaming at their television sets: Hug him Sonic. It's not that damn hard, just hug him.
      • Made even worse by the dialogue; I can't remember exactly what, but it went along the lines of, "No! Just a few minutes ago, that was Cosmo! I believed in you, I thought you could save her!"
      • This troper saw an AMV version of that scene set to 'Far Away'. I went into a friggin' breakdown.
  • Sorcerer Stabber Orphen has several. Specially Majik and his first love Fienna, Orphen telling his backstory to Cleao and Majik, the Poor Communication Kills incident with Hartia, Hartia and Cleao's talk about Orphen which makes Cleao realize she's been harboring feelings for her companion, Orphen's Heroic BSOD when he finds out the truth...
    • The second season whas a HUGE case of Adaptation Decay, but it had an excellent Tear Jerker towards the end. Lycoris is in Cleao's house as a guest and she behaves normally and well, until Cleao's mother asks her about her family. She finds out that she can't remember and makes up an excuse. But when she's alone, she repeats to herself "I'm Lycoris Nielsen... I have no family... I've never had a family... I work for the Royal Cavalry and must take Mr. Orpehn there..." Later, however, she does regain her true memories (Orphen stopped Esperanza when she was playing the piano melody that renews Lycoris's Fake Memories), and as she remembers, she quietly places her hand on the mirror she was sitting in front of and whispers something by these lines: "Thank you... thank you for everything, Esperanza... my older sister".
  • Soul Eater has a few that come to mind:
    • Crona's flashbacks of having the brutal Medusa for a mother who used her/him as a test subject. And the following scenes of Maka finally getting through to Crona.
    • Tsubaki being forced to kill her own brother, Masamune, to avoid him killing even more people.
    • Mifune's death after the situation between him, Black Star, and honour comes to its jarring conclusion. And he then dies while Tsubaki is helping him back to Angela, turning into petals as Masamune did earlier on.
    • The Clown chapters, when Maka's hallucination starts out as what looks like a cute flashback to her as a very little girl, talking to her Papa. We even see a similarly little Black Star. And then, out of the blue, Spirit falls to the floor and Maka can't get him to wake up. Another Maka with half a mask on her face turns up (the Clown causing this vision), and tells little Maka that her daddy is dead.
    • Episode 48, with Shinigami being shot by Asura to protect the bystanders, and Kid's reaction.
  • The flashback sequence in episode 22 of Speed Grapher, where Chouji Suitengu is finally reunited with his long lost sister Yui... only to find out that she's been forced to work as a prostitute, has become an insane and broken wreck, and doesn't even recognize him anymore, ending in him killing her out of mercy. This scene gains the distinction of being the one and only time this troper felt sorry for that bastard Suitengu, and actually rooted for him when after the flashback he brutally slaughters the Prime Minister of Japan, who was responsible for the whole thing.
    • Shizen Tennouzou was a terrible bitch. Kagura's absolutely heartbroken reaction to Suitengu killing her, as well as Shinzen realizing in her last moments that her hate of Kagura and the whole world was based on a lie and Shinzen's backstory as a whole still made me cry.
  • This troper hardly ever cries at anything in fiction, but one scene in Spirited Away gets me every time: the bit when Haku has just taken Chihiro/Sen to see her parents in the pig stable, and he gives her a rice ball to eat, and she starts tearing up as she takes the first bite, and then halfway through finishing, just begins bawling from all the trauma she has accumulated over the past 16 hours or so. I can't help but bawl along with her, poor kid—I just want to reach into the screen and hug her and let her know everything'll be all right. My eyes are watering right now just from thinking about it.
    • If Chihiro crying her eyes out when it hits her that she is by herself in a strange world with only three people who actually care about her doesn't get you, the Bittersweet Ending will.
  • Star Blazers: An early episode has the crew lined up to take their turns using the video phone to talk to their families left behind on Earth. It's limited so each crew member gets something like 1 hour every week. Derek Wildstar (The Hero) isn't there for his turn when his name is called, so Venture (The Lancer) and Derek's only friend decides to go find him. He and Nova (Derek's Love Interest) find Derek, and he tries to brush it off saying it's not important. They insist he talk to his family (after all, Earth is dying, and who knows how much longer they'll be able to stay in contact) and they physically drag Derek to the communication room. Venture is waiting for his turn outside with several other crew members when they decide it's rather quiet. They peak into the room, and see Derek staring at the blank screen. There's just this look on Derek's face, though Venture doesn't notice it as he begins scolding Derek for not caring about his family, and why doesn't he just talk to them... Derek's stoic face finally breaks and he yells back "Because there's nobody left for me to talk to!" His family and friends are all dead. Most of them died when Earth got Nuked, and his only surviving family member, his older brother, had died in the episode. It was just, wham. It's been 20 years since I saw it, at the age of 8, but I have never forgotten it.
    • Venture had his own Tearjerker, as he was at the video phone talking to his family as they moved out of communication range. His family was trying to put a good face on whatever was happening back on Earth cause they didn't want to worry him, while Venture was doign the same thing for his own problems. The picture started to cut in and out and you could just tell, they were looking at each other, and suddenly there were all these things that they had put off saying to each other because it just wasn't the right time, and now suddenly, there was no more time, and they couldn't say it to each other anymore.
    • In the original Japanese, the speech Wildstar/Kodai gives about how sorry he is for utterly destroying Gamilon. Desslok gets one at the end of the second season when he gives a speech about how he had never loved and all he had wanted was to inflict pain. In The New Journey, the ravaged Gamilon explodes, and then Desslok's ex-girlfriend kills herself to stop him from killing himself and he completely loses it and starts screaming and pulling his hair and gnashing his teeth in an epic tear-jerking Freak Out.
    • Not to mention all of Farewell Space Battleship Yamato: Soldiers of Love. At least from Talan's death on.
  • The country house scene from Strawberry Panic, in which Shizuma bemoans the death of her lover and breaks down crying has an unexpectedly raw sadness, compared to the silly fanservice-laden nature of the rest of the show.
  • In regards to Tekkaman Blade, if you guys say you didn't atl least get a bit teary-eyed with Ill Girl Miyuki/Rapier's last stand and mix of Family Unfriendly Death and Senseless Sacrifice, I refuse to believe you.
  • Ten, the series to which Akagi is a prequel, proves that author Fukumoto Nobuyuki loves bringing his characters down (see also: Kaiji). In the end volumes, Akagi (who, by this point in his life, is quite the mentor to the main characters), a terrifyingly skilled mahjong player armed with his considerable wits, unstoppable will to win, and preposterous luck develops Alzheimer's. In his early fifties. Akagi decides that this is a Fate Worse Than Death and that it's Better To Die Than Be Killed by a disease that will eventually make him into an empty shell of the man he is. So Akagi calls upon his closest friends to talk with them about his death, his life philosophies, and so on...hooked up to assisted suicide machine. The very last page of Ten is a shot of Akagi's headstone, which is covered with tributes to the legend himself and considerably damaged due to aspiring gamblers wanting a little bit of his talents.
  • How is Tenchi Muyo not mentioned? Specially, two Washu centered scenes from the OAV. First, when she is petting Tenchi's little cousin, who calls her "mama", and she says "no, little child... I'm not your mama..." and hugs him. Second, when after the baby is taken back home, and Washu explains a part of her backstory to Tenchi and the girls - mpore specifically, about her husband and her estranged child. Yep, I know the second one dissolves in a Crowning Moment Of Funny as Washu cheers herself up by showing off her adult form , but right before that... T_T
    • Ryouko is mortally wounded and keeps it a secret from Tenchi (even when hugging him goodbye), flies him into Jurai's defence zone, drops him off at the palace, but cannot go on due to blood loss. She pretends she won't go to rescue Aeka with Tenchi and leaves in her ship. Later she dies of blood loss in the cockpit with an odd smile... I shed manly tears.
  • If we go to the controversial Tenchi In Tokyo, there are some moments that stand out:
    • Sakuya's Heroic BSOD when she realizes that she's got no real memories of her own;
    • Yugi's backstory, specially as she's imprisioned inside a dark tomb after almost destroying Jurai, crying and screaming because she's scared of the dark. Made worse when Empress Hinase, the one sealing her away, is shown crying too, since she hates the idea of doing this to Yugi but can't do anything else
    • When Yugi confronts Sakuya and tells her who she really is. If you don't feel minimally sorry for her (regardless of your side in the Ship To Ship Combat) when she looks at Yugi in tears and whispers "no, no... Tenchi, help me... NOOOOO!" right before she's absorbed back into her, or with the Really Dead Montage in the end of the episode, full of happy Sakuya scenes, I doubt you have a real soul.
      • Sasami visting Yugi in the final scene is a tear jerker for this troper. 'Good night, Yugi. Sleep tight.'
  • The entirety of Texhnolyze.
  • Pretty much anything by Osamu Tezuka has at least one moment that could do this. This troper is fairly certain that his lifework, Phoenix, has about two Tear Jerker moments per volume.
    • His take on the life of the Buddha lives and breathes Tear Jerker moments. You'd think after eight double-thick volumes it would get old and Narm-y. You'd be wrong.
  • Even though one troper already knew the ending to Tokyo Babylon, she still cried.
    • And even before the ending, there's the chapter in which Subaru befriends a kindly old man whose daughter, with whom he lives along with her husband and their two children, considers him a burden. The chapter follows one heartwrenching moment with another, until finally the old man, hurrying to get some bananas for his daughter because she's gotten sick, is hit by a truck while crossing the street and dies in Subaru's arms, asking Subaru to take the bananas to his daughter to make her happy. Which Subaru does, still covered in the old man's blood, and he makes very clear to the old man's daughter how cruel she's been been to her father, causing her to break down in tears of regret and remorse, begging her father's forgiveness.
  • Tokyo Mew Mew has one when Taruto dies.
  • Toradora has left this troper crying even when seeing the scene where Taiga realizes she loves Ryuuji and tries to run after him for the third time.
    • This Troper was actually much sadder when Minori admits she's loved Ryuuji this whole time, but hasn't done anything about it because she realized Taiga and Ryuuji had feelings for each other, even before they did. I was on the verge of tears almost every time she was on screen after that.
  • Toward the Terra. This troper doesn't usually cry all that much over fictional things—a tear or two here or there, usually—but god, the last four episodes. Gut-wrenching, screaming, curled-in-the-corner-of-the-couch sobs. Particularly Matsuka's death and the last episode, in which, oh, half the cast dies.
    • The tearjerkers start way back in about episode nine, with Shiroe's breakdown and death at Keith's hands juxtaposed with Keith's painful confusion about his emotions. Not to mention episode eleven, in which Sam and Jomy finally meet again... only for Sam's brainwashing to kick in, causing him to try to assassinate Jomy, and pretty much destroying Sam's mind. Then the next episode rubs salt in it by showing Keith visiting Sam, who survived, but with his mind regressed to that of a young child. Owww.
  • Transformers Cybertron with Vecter Prime dissappearing after reversing time to let the Autobots fight Galvatron after the space bridge at Gigantion was destroyed.
    • What really hammered this home for this troper wasnt so much the act... as it was the youngest of the kids being so deep in denial and grief that he couldn't even comprehend why everyone else was crying their eyes out at first, and then he completely breaks down too.
  • The death of Wolfwood in Trigun.
    • I remember finding it really sad, but not crying. Then I saw poor Milly and Meryl crying, and Vash quietly and very seriously waiting outside, and I couldn't stop the tears.
      • It always got to me when the big girl cried.
    • After that scene, the song that plays, "Rakuen", is difficult to listen to just on the OST.
      • Let's not forget Wolfwood crying and breaking down prior to all of this, and Milly hugging and comforting him. And maybe some more.. Doubles as Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming, as much as the episode allows.
      • Vash crying and praying for God to do him one favor in the manga as he and Wolfwood sit in the ruins of Wolfwood's childhood home and share one last drink before Wolfwood dies. And as the children he just saved fly to safety, they get one last message to him: welcome home.
    • And Vash and Knives's childhood.
    • "These... are really good... * sniff* " I'm not going to be able to eat a donut again anytime soon.
    • And much of the Trigun Maximum manga, especially Tesla's story and its impact on the twins, the post-apocalyptic world that follows Knives's collecting of most of the plants, the past of characters such as Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Livio, and Legato, and the ending of the manga -especially the powerfully symbolic (but potentially Narm-inducing) scene in which Vash and Knives fly away hugging each other.
    • Not to mention the death of Rem.
  • Chapter 210 of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, in which C!Syaoran dies. It wasn't until he said "Kurogane-san... Fai-san... Mokona..." that it hit this Troper that this wasn't the unstoppable, murderous clone that was dying, but the Syaoran we started the series with. Needless to say, the tears came fast.
    • Oh, pretty much half of Tsubasa is like this, if you take into account just how much they all have to sacrifice along the way. Fai is pretty much a walking Tear Jerker once you find out why his smiles are all fake. This Troper never cried harder while reading a manga than at the words "I want to die I want to die I want to die! But before that, I want to find someone who loves me." And lets not even start with the relationship between him and Kurogane after the I Hate You Vampire Dad thing.
  • Kurogane's backstory is very potent, especially since he's been a simple Jerk Witha Heartof Gold up until now. It even has Syaoron weeping, and consider his backstory...
  • Twin Spica starts out dramatically with the crash of a rocket on Yuigahama and keeps it up for most of the series. Sure, there is some light-hearted material too, but the tearjerking moments prevail throughout. One of the saddest stories in the anime is told during the flashback about Asumi, her first love Takashi and the big Sakura tree. This troper wept. Hard!
    • This troper wept highly and mightly with Lion-san's backstory, about how he indirectly asked Ms. Suzunari's (who is also Asumi's teacher) hand in marriage the day before the accident that killed him. And how she only noticed that the wedding ring was inside the keychain several years later, and crying over that. It was sad in every single page of the manga chapter, and every single second of the anime episode.
  • The Twelve Kingdoms has the death of Rangyaku, Enho's maid. Seeing Youko's reaction that bordered on an Heroic BSOD as she cradled her dead body and realized that the poor girl did her best to his the Seal of Kei, which ultimately got her killed didn't help.
    • Also, Suzu's story. Poor, poor Suzu. Made even worse when her friend Seishuu first loses his sight ("Sis... I cannot see anything... I think I'm dying!") and few later dies in Youko's arms. Seeing Suzu find his corpse and then weep while holding him...
    • And when Shoukei stops an innocent man's unfair execution by throwing stones at the killers. What makes it a Tear Jerker is why she's doing that: she recalled the peasant woman's story about her son being killed for doing exactly the same thing.
    • Yuka wasn't the most likeable character, but her goodbye to Youko as she returns home and her talk with Youko's mother were pretty sad for me.
  • Just being that sort of manga, The Tyrant Falls In Love is rarely very sad, preferring to bounce between funny and heartwarming. However, volume 6 got a pretty good one: After Tomoe and Kurokawa announce their relationship for the first time to Souichi's dad, who accepts them fairly readily, Morinaga slips off in the commotion to be alone. Souichi finds him crying in the bathroom, because Soujin's understanding only threw into relief how Morinaga's own parents rejected him after they found out he was gay, parents whom he's not even on speaking terms with anymore. Though he otherwise tends not to make a big deal of it, it's obvious in this moment just how much he cares, and it's hard to resist crying a little with him in sympathy.

     U-W 
  • Uchuu No Stellvia takes place in a world where war is such a distant memory that most of the teenage main characters don't even know what it is. This makes it all the more tragic when a confrontation with alien spacecraft turns suddenly, devastatingly deadly. The slow, haunting rendition of the opening theme playing in the background — a more upbeat version of which previously played in-show during moments of triumph — doesn't help. Neither does finding out later that the aliens were actually trying to help humanity, and only killed in self-defense. If the Foundations hadn't fired first, no one would have died.
  • The last episode of Utawarerumono: This troper has a weakness for Aruruu, and so was already crying at "But... Daddy won't be here!" It got even worse when Eruruu, smiling, tells Hakuoro that they'll be okay without him... before breaking down in tears and telling him she loves him.
  • Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust has a scene at one point where D and Leila, both alone, muse that no one will likely mourn the other. Leila suggests that whoever lives longer should visit the grave of the other, and D agrees. At the end of the film, D keeps his end of the bargain, arriving just after Leila's burial sixty years later (he's immortal). He runs into her granddaughter, and then we see that she didn't die alone after all - her grave is surrounded by her family. This troper cried until he had trouble breathing.
  • Vampire Knight often makes me cry: when Ruka comes to Akatsuki in tears because Kaname is is being a Magnificent Bastard (which he usually is several people felt sad, because Ruka is usually shown to be a bit of an emotionless bitch. (Incidentally, after that scene she became a Broken Bird, poor thing). Also, and this is weird, but whenever Kaname slaps Aidou. For some reason (particularly when Ichio first turns up. Just Kaname's line of "I haven't taught him enough manners," and Aidou's expression of I will not cry, he does this to me all the time, dammit! made me want to MURDER Kaname Kuran. But, the weirdest Tear Lerker for me was at the end of the Fourth Volume's Night Class Side. Just... The fact that Aidou (again. He always makes me sad!) is sitting just staring blankly down, looking as though he's about to cry, and, because for that whole Night Class Side, he'd been all chirpy and hyper... The contrast was what made me sad...
  • Vampire Princess Miyu. The four OAV. Either that, or Miho's episode in the TV series. Or the Grand Finale. Get your tissues and hankies ready.
  • The Littlest Cancer Patient Shirley in the second season of Vandread.
  • The last Video Girl Ai OAV, specially Ai's good-bye to Youta, how he actually gets into the Video World to not abandon Ai, and his last stand to Rolex as he literally walks on broken glass to rescue Ai and bring her back home. The last one, with Maki Kimura's "Suki nan desu" in the background.
    • If you go to the manga, Natsumi's death (specially when her Jerk Ass boyfriend Shimizu finally goes to see her at the hospital and is crushed when he arrives just moments before she dies and Moemi offering herself to Youta in despair some time after her Near Rape Experience, but he can't accept her offer and they hug and cry together will make you bawl. If that doesn't do it for you, there's also the second-to-last chapter where Youta frees Ai from Rolex's control by smashing the VCR playing Ai's tape, but also dooms her to disappearing for good in the process; the two of them at long last share a tender kiss as Ai disappears into sparkling motes of light. But even after all that, if you don't cry at the Grand Finale where Ai comes back to life as a human being and finally gets together with Youta as he finishes his picture book dedicated to her, you have no soul.
  • Vinland Saga has the death of Thors and Prince Canute's dream after his father figure is killed.
    • That's it? Never mind Thors being cruelly murdered in front of his young son, pleading for the lives of the boys he had taken with him, then Ari desperately trying to avenge him as tears stream from his eyes, only to be smacked down by Askeladd. Askeladd's entire crew being slaughtered by Thorkell's men. Ylfa, struggling to take care of her mother after both her father and brother are gone, Thorfinn presumed dead, Thors murdered, and only breaking down into tears after several months of hard living, keeping up a tough front for her mother's sake. The English woman watching in disbelief as Thorfinn's countrymen sack her village, after she had saved his life and treated him as if he were her own son, Thorfinn begging her to run for her life as she just stands there staring at him. The girl found in the snow, holding onto the ring she stole, after fleeing the slaughter of her entire family. Bjorn, dying in Askeladd's arms. The slave dying after Thors had tried his hardest to keep the man alive. Askeladd's mother telling him the story of King Arthur and Avalon, then showing him carrying her as she was dying, returning her to Wales after living as a slave for years. The whole story is one great tearjerker, and it isn't even finished yet!
  • Lute's backstory in Violinist Of Hameln (manga). This Troper, who NEVER cries, ended up actually wailing as she sobbed her heart out.
    • This Troper has diagnosed dry eye and still ended up tearing.
  • Vision Of Escaflowne had a few such scenes. Mostly revolving around Van and Hitomi.
    • Or the one with Allen and his Dead All Along Disappeared Dad.
    • Even worse, Jajuka's death and his flashbacks to the day when he was separated of his former charge Selena... who would soon become Dilandau.
  • Voices of a distant star. This troper, having seen it, is unable to go back to it again for how devastating it was. Just one long, beautiful cry of despair.
    • It does have a happy ending thank goodness. The anime hints at it and the manga comes out and says that Noburo is on the rescue ship, Mikako survived, and she is waiting for him ... can you pass me a tissue please?
  • Tot's death in Weiss Kreuz and Nagi's subsequent Freak Out, in which he uses his telekinetic powers to revive her at the cost of his own life. Of course, then he shows up alive a few episodes later with no explanation...
    • Don't forget the death of Maki, the Hooker With A Heart Of Gold whom Yoji had befriended during a case, who reminded him of his ex-partner and girlfriend Asuka. Not to mention Yoji's Freak Out as he finds Maki's lifeless body and cries for her.
    • This troper cried a lot when Ken let Yuriko go off to Australia without him.
    • Most of the last episode of Weiss Kreuz Gluhen qualifies, but in particular, the scene in which Aya calls his little sister from a phone booth across the street from her job, just to hear her voice, having removed himself from her life for her own protection. Somehow, although he hasn't spoken, she guesses that it's him and pleads frantically for him to talk to her, prompting him to ask simply whether or not she is happy.
      • For this troper, it was even worse when he got knifed and didn't bother to defend himself because his killer was a kid.
      • "Omi, Ken, Yoji... Let's go together..."
    • Poor Asami in Gluhen, whose efforts to be a good and caring teacher to her students get her killed when she trusts the wrong person and Aya arrives too late to intervene.
    • Second-to-last episode of Gluhen, the whole sequence with the Temple of the Underworld crumbling and Youji telling the others "Home is where you guys are," when Omi begs for him not to die and Ken asks that they go home together. Aya's response is to smile and tell him they'll be waiting. Cut to sunrise and Aya is standing on a hill overlooking the school complex, waiting...
    • Weiss Side B is full of those:
      • When Ken is showing talking to Yohji, who once was his best friend and now doesn't remember who Ken is and when Omi says he found his place in life as Mamoru Takatori, and that he wishes Ken to find the place where he belongs. He just lost two of his only friends, and yet he can't help but think he should be happy for them. It's even more heartbreaking when Ken goes to Aya and says he wants to stay by him, specially knowing that Aya abandoned him in Gluhen.
      • Another one with Ken is when he finally breaks down and, while kicking a soccer ball, says hardest thing for him is being close to his dream, yet not being able to reach it. I'm a sucker for Ken, but the way he confess this to Aya of all people, while managing not to cry - damn, it made me bawl like a baby.
  • Hisae Iwaoka's One Shot "White Clouds" does it in an unusual way. Told from a dog's point of view, it narrates the life of an old couple and their dog. The grandma has passed away time ago and the old man and his dog realize that the same fate is coming closer to them. If by the end of the 16th page you haven't felt moved at least, you seriously need to start looking for your soul.
  • This troper cannot believe the manga With the Light has not been mentioned. There are so many moments, including Hikaru-kun's first time saying "Mommy", his face when he's scared, and just the generally adorable things he does. He tries so hard. Even typing about it...
  • In Wolfs Rain, the death of Toboe. This is only one of several tragic death s that occur during the show's 4-episode OVA conclusion, but is arguably played (or possibly just a little overplayed) by the writer and director for maximum emotional value. Toboe dies unsuccessfully trying to defend Quent, a man who has always hated wolves. Only at the very end are the wolf and human reconciled. As he dies Toboe dreams of being reunited with the old human "Granny" whom he loved but accidentally killed. Later on, Jerk With A Heart Of Gold Tsume loses it and weeps for his fallen friend, which is the point at which if you haven't shed a tear already you will. And then (after a bunch of other stuff happens) that closing theme finally kicks in... "Been a long road to follow..." Gulp... Excuse me... (But one final word: Reincarnation!!!)
    • 'Yeah, I know, kid. I know.' Excuse me while I sob in a corner...
    • Topping that scene off is the soprano renedition of Toboe's theme, followed by Cheza's lullaby. This troper usually can hold the tears in until that moment...
    • There is also another one earlier on the series when Jagara kills Harmona and Darcia goes totally insane, first dancing one last time with Harmona (her corpse anyway), then completely going mental and smashing his forehead against a pillar several times. A remarkably powerful (and unexpected) scene.
  • World Record, one of the Animatrix shorts, doubles as both a Tear Jerker and Crowning Moment Of Awesome. At the end, Dan Davis is left crippled having broken his own 100m record and temporarily escaped the matrix through sheer willpower. As he's being pushed in a wheelchair by a nurse he starts mumbling "free" and stands up, snapping his metal leg-braces in the process, again all through sheer willpower. As an observing agent starts to tell him to sit down he begins to levitate before finally dropping to the floor, all to a soaring, heartrending score. See for yourself.

     X-Z 
  • Seishirou's death and the aftermath in X1999.
    • Kotori's death made this troper cry so much in the manga.
    • This troper, who saw the movie first, still cried at every death and Face Heel Turn, but absolutely wailed at the end of the TV series when she saw the different finale.
      Kamui: So... I'll die... and entrust my wishes to you...
  • In xxxHolic, more than one person teared up when Himawari, while smiling trying not to cry, told Watanuki about her bad luck and said goodbye to him after causing a nearly fatal accident. Watanuki stopping her and telling her that he cares about her and doesn't want her to go away regardless of that made her cry after she left. The fact that she willingly took his scars is just icing on the cake.
    • I'm now tearing up at manga chapter 177, when Wakanuki sees the two Sakuras and the two Syaorans. And one of the Sakuras (his "mother") sees him, smiles and says "Don't worry, it'll be all right!"..
      • What really gets me about that part is that Watanuki doesn't remember her. He feels like he should know her, but any memory he had of her is gone. That look of desperation on his face as he tries to remember who she is just kills me.
    • Six words: "I'll die like this too. Alone."
      • Four more words: "I want to change!" Bonus points for being the only mini-arch with a distinctly happy ending.
    • SOMEONE had to have teared up a little at chapter 71 of the manga. Seriously
    • Oh, Jesus, and now there's chapter 181. With time beginning to move properly for Yuuko again, she's now dying, and insists to a despairing Watanuki that it's alright, because she was supposed to be dead long before he was even born. He screams at her that her belief that she's not supposed to exist is wrong, because for all he didn't believe in her in the beginning, she did change him for the better. And all she can do is smile and thank him for that. Crying, Watanuki says she can't go away because he hasn't granted her wish yet, as he promised. Yuuko says that her only wish is for him to go on existing. He promises to do this and to wait in the shop until she comes back, no matter how long it takes.
    • Ohgod, Chapter 184. Warning, massive spoilers.
  • This troper was horrified the first time she got misty-eyed at the end of Yami No Matsuei volume eight, when the major villain winds up Killed Off For Real. Never mind he's a despicable, no-good sadistic son-of-a-bitch, she still cries. Every time.
    • This troper still cries with the scene featuring this phrase: If you don't have anything to live for... at least live for me!. Oh, Hisoka.
      • This troper remembers crying tears of joy at the end of the episode in question, when it became apparent that the two Yaoi Guys were getting a happy ending. Seriously, how often does that shit happen?
  • The ending of the fifth Yukikaze episode with Jack running down the corridor begginn Rei Fukai to return from battle again, just as he always has.
    • Actually, no scratch that, Yukikaze is filled with moments like this, including the Yukikaze jecting it's pilot before shooting him and telling hom "good luck", and the very ending of the series where the writer character sees an image of Rei standing on the hillside with Jack, when he really can't be there.
  • Zero no Tsukaima has a lot of examples. A short list:
    • Second season: The episodes dealing with the Queen's Lost Love, the Prince of Albion. She wants so badly for him to be alive, but in the end we find out that it's just a crude copy, animated with a bit of his soul. The mini-arc ends with her giving his body an Anguished Declarationof Love. Given her role in the series so far, this seems to be a prime example of Break The Cutie.
    • Second season finale: Most scenes following the reveal that Louise is planning to make a Last Stand / You Shall Not Pass so that everyone important to her can escape Albion (including Saitou).
      • The bit where Louise tells Saitou to leave without her... especially when you get a look at her face.
      • And then when Saitou's sleeping potion takes effect right as she's about to finish her part of their wedding vows with the critical "I love you" (though we get to see her mouthing it as she passes out).
      • When Siesta realizes that Saitou used the sleeping potion she had given him previously (with the intent that he drug Louise and run away from the war) to instead take Louise's place as the decoy defense, because, as far as he's concerned, he's [[Moreexpendablethanyou more expendable than she is. The poor girl suffers a Heroic BSOD as a result.
      • A second later, the full meaning of what Julio said hits Louise and she nearly throws herself off the airship they're on in an attempt to get back to Saitou.
      • There's a very brief Hope Spot when the brightly shining Eclair D'Amour falls out of Louise's robes... only for that hope to be squashed a second later as the flower withers and dies. This scene's potential for Tear Jerkingness is sealed when Saitou and Louise scream each other's names... as hundreds of arrows and fireballs fall on Saitou's already mortally wounded body.
      • Finally, there's the scene afterwards back at the Academy, where all of the named characters appear to be in feeling varying intensities of depression, largely dependent upon how close they were to Saitou. Louise is the worst off, staying confined in her dark room, having apparently done nothing but cry since her return from the war.
    • Tabitha's past. Oh Good, poor Tabby's past.
  • Zero Seven Ghost has Mikage's death. Teito surely isn't the only one who can't stop crying after that * sob*
  • Zone Of The Enders: Dolores, I. The whole freaking half of the last episode.

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