Tear Jerker / JoJo New Universe

As is the case with all pages detailing Tear Jerker, Spoilers Off

Just because the series is Lighter and Softer doesn't mean the tears don't flow. After all, if there was no tragedy in the world, there'd be nothing to spur the Joestar family to justice.

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Phantom Blood

• The reason why Twilight is joining the Joestar home? Her father tragically died from a disease that couldn't be cured.
• While Twilight is able to help Jonathan evade much of Dio's evil, he still loses Danny when Dio secretly has the dog killed.
• Dio gets in another one years later, managing to kill George Joestar when he gets in the way of Dio's attempt to use Jonathan's blood to activate the stone mask. Twilight is especially distraught, since that makes two fathers she's lost.

Battle Tendency

• When first meeting Applejack and Smokey, Joseph recounts how he lost his father and his mother disappeared shortly afterward. Just remembering it makes him somber.
• Twilight becomes distraught when she learns that Straizo might have killed her husband Speedwagon. It later turns out Speedwagon is alive, but that still shows how much they mean to each other and how strong their marraige became over fifty years.
• William Zeppeli may have survived the events of Phantom Blood, but as he recounts to Jonathan, his own son still died trying to keep Caesar away from the slumbering Pillar Men, accidentally falling onto the mural holding them to save his own son and getting consumed as a result.
• After Speedwagon dies from heart complications, Twilight dies three years later, implying she died from a broken heart. Jonathan proves stronger, continuing to live even after Erina's death due to old age, but it's heartwrenching to know he'll have to live life without her for a while. Even more when he becomes the last of the Phantom Blood crew to still live since Zeppeli also passes on.

Steel Ball Run

• The first few paragraphs of the story detail Sadao Kujo's life, and there is one sad moment in it... That his father died in the bombing of Nagasaki during World War II. Sadao was only three years old at the time.
• It's kinda sad to hear that Jotaro actually wants his father to be around more often, but Sadao just winds up too busy with his music career.
• It can be heartbreaking seeing Joseph spiral into despair upon learning that not only is Dio back, now as DIO, but he's using the body of Joseph's father, George Joestar II.
• Antoinette turns out to have been the best friend of Sherry Polnareff, one of J. Geil's victims. The only reason Antoinette survived is because she was able to use her Stand to escape after suffering a serious hit from Hanged Man. Even worse, while the local police believed that her friend was killed, only Polnareff believed the specifics, meaning it's likely Sherry's case will never be truly solved in the public's eye.
  • To make things even worse, she's lost contact with Polnareff, her mentor and best friend (by this point he's already been brainwashed into DIO's forces).
• What started Rudy down the path to homelessness was PTSD following the Vietnam War, where he lost many friends and ultimately wasted his pension in sorrow.

Stardust Crusaders

• The scene where Holly starts to fall ill due to manifesting a Stand she's not ready for is heartrending. Avdol shows concern, having encountered this before. Fluttershy is distraught, since Holly has been a close friend ever since Fluttershy started dating Jotaro. Joseph might be the most heartbroken, since this is his daughter and oldest child. Jotaro, while not showing any outward signs, is clearly concerned for his mother's life, practically demanding to know if there's any way to save Holly.
• A minor case, but on the boat ride prior to the fight with Dark Blue Moon, Jotaro notes that he asked the Speedwagon Foundation doctors to tape Choujuu Sentai Liveman for him, hoping the titular team will be able to save their friends. Anyone who's seen Liveman knows Jotaro's in for some heartache.
• When Jotaro hears N'Doul's backstory just as the man is dying, he gives the man a burial with his cane as the marker, thinking the two could have become friends under different circumstances.
• Just before the final battle, we see Sadao and Suzi Q heartbroken at seeing Holly's condition. It's a severe reminder of just what's at stake if the Joestar team doesn't kill DIO in time, and it really hits home. Especially for Sadao, who has a better idea of what's happening to Holly than Suzi Q does.
• After a hundred years, DIO finally manages to kill Jonathan Joestar. Yet even then he doesn't win, since Jonathan wanted to die before DIO. He explains that if DIO had died first, then Jonathan would have become the source of Holly's illness. Beyond that, he was feeling his age due to being the last living hero from Phantom Blood, and wished to reunite with the others in the afterlife. DIO's reaction to this just says it all.
  DIO: "Even in defeat... You find a way to win... JOJO!"

A Gentleman, A Thief, A King, and A Hero

• Considering this story crosses JoJo over with Fate/Zero, naturally it starts off with a few tearful deaths to get the ball rolling. We see All Might finally dying of all his injuries (though not without Passing the Torch to Izuku Midoriya), Evan dying of old age as he passes his crown and the duty of uniting the world to his son Ferdinand, Lupin getting shot and killed with one last goodbye to his old team, and finally a retelling of the final battle between Jonathan and DIO from Stardust Crusaders, this time from Jonathan's perspective.
• As Goemon explains, Lupin's death resulted in his friends Breaking the Fellowship. Lupin regrets leaving the team like that. For anyone who's a fan of Lupin the Third, the idea that these guys could ever be forced to go their separate ways would bring a tear to the eye.
• You can't help but feel bad for Tokiomi. Not only is it shown that, in this story at least, he knew nothing about Zouken's true plans, but his sense of control is starting to slip and it's leaving him frantic. And it's not like he's prioritizing Akasha over his family, he made sure his wife and daughter were out of Fuyuki during the Grail War due to how dangerous it can be, so it's clear he has a heart. Which makes the fact that it's breaking even worse.
• There is sadly one downer to the battle with Pycal; Tokiomi gets caught in an explosive mine and a shard of wood hits him right in the liver. Rin winds up having to watch her father die in the hospital, swearing to uphold the Tohsaka family lineage.

Diamond is Unbreakable

• Unfortunately, mtnetsurfer had to maintain the death of Josuke's grandpa, since that's what spurred him to justice to begin with. The scene of Tomoko being unable to sell her father's things due to grief will certainly open the floodgates.
  • Especially heartrending since not even Pinkie can use her Stand to bring Ryohei back. Powerful as her Stand is, it can only do what cartoons are capable of, and while ignoring death is possible, coming back to life isn't.
• Poor Nijimura Senior only has one real photo to remember the life he once had. His sons are grown up and his short-term memory is too addled to recognize them, and by the time he starts to, he's already lost Keicho when he gets killed by Red Hot Chili Pepper.
• When Josuke notes that he has to protect a father he never even knew (Joseph), Pinkie points out that Josuke's lucky his father is even alive. She reveals that her father was mysteriously killed prior to the story, with his body never found. Her mom wound up a completely nervous wreck afterward, leaving Pinkie having to do a lot by herself.
• Seeing Avdol concerned for Joseph as age starts to catch up to him really hits home how much he's been broken. You almost can't see the cocky young Hamon Master from Battle Tendency.
• When traveling through the Ghost Alley, Pinkie recognizes some of the names on the houses as families who moved away from Morioh because they lost a female family member that disappeared mysteriously. Already we're getting hints as to the consequences of Yoshikage's actions and it is heartrending.

Golden Wind

• The team becomes somber upon learning that Pericolo committed suicide in order to keep Trish's location out of La Squadra's hands.
• While it doesn't excuse any of his current actions, Diavolo's backstory is truly just one series of heartaches after another. If not for his rampant paranoia, you could almost feel sorry for the guy.
• And then you do feel sorry for him when you realize the whole story is about Doppio rather than Diavolo! The poor guy's lost fifteen years of his life while Diavolo was in control, even having a daughter he doesn't even realize exists.
• Angelica's terminal illness is treated with absolute seriousness. Not only is it causing her tremendous pain, it's genetic, so not even a Stand like Crazy Diamond or Gold Experience can heal it. Even Vittorio, a Combat Sadomasochist who believes pain is life, realizes Angelica is suffering and dying from her condition rather than becoming stronger.
• You gotta feel for Zucchero and Sale. All they wanted was to make up for attacking their new boss by dealing with the narcotics team, and what happens? Sale, who had been a longtime friend and partner to Zucchero, winds up dead. The most Giorno can do to comfort Zucchero is offer him a place of honor at the funeral. At least the manner of death allows Sale to get an open-casket funeral.

Stone Ocean

• Rainbow's backstory is that she's being incarcerated for beating up a bunch of punks who physically abused this world's version of Scootaloo. Whatever they did isn't specified (for all we know they could have just beaten her up badly), but fans of the Cutie Mark Crusaders will be bawling their eyes out for sure.
• As nice as it is that Ermes got revenge in a satisfying way, the fact that she collapses afterward and has her friends scrambling to get the guards' attention so she can be taken to the medical ward will leave you wondering if she'll make it in the end.
• Throughout the final arc of the story, Tomomi has been busy dealing with the other three brides, hating them for looking down on Giorno despite him being far more successful than their sons. But when she gets to Enya, all she finds is a broken woman, suffering from being unable to age but finding it meaningless without DIO. So instead of the gory mess she left Midler and Mariah in, Tomomi gives Enya a clean Mercy Kill.

Spirit Tracks

• This story is not afraid to delve into the idea of people dying in conflict. From the attacks on villages to massive wars, only named characters are ever truly safe from death in these scenarios and it is treated with absolute seriousness.
• Joker's backstory, when he went to check on his old orphanage to reassure himself that his Deal with the Devil with Baron Kelvin was worth it, only to find the orphanage was already shut down. You can just feel Joker's heartbreak in his narration.

Jojolion

• Natsumi's murder at Honami's hands is kept, and the sight of it just breaking most of the class is enough to briefly get you to forget that this is a JoJo story, not a Danganronpa one. This is probably the only real despair that shows up in the entire story.
• The sad story Leviathan tells regarding the unfortunate fate of the Contiellos. Especially poor Squigly, who was only killed because she shared the same name but had nothing to do with the conflict between her family and the Medicis.
• Hearing the poor treatment the wrestling promotors gave Grendel. Despite his rivalry with Beowulf proving that humans could defeat Gigans on their own merit, the promotors had Grendel drugged to ensure Beowulf won during a time when both races were in a rare conflict. It resulted in Grendel's death.
  • Even worse was when his mom went berserk, forcing Beowulf to put her down too. It's noted that said mother is even older than Kars, so what it basically boils down to is that Beowulf was being tricked into killing an old lady. No wonder the guy thought something was wrong with the fight.
• The backstories of the Sin Stand users. All they wanted was a better life, only for others to take advantage of that and force them down a dark road. All for the sake of preparing the ritual of the Original Sin. You will definitely feel Sympathy for the Devil reading what happens to these guys, even ones like Gallerian or Sateriasis.
• In the end, it's hard not to feel at least slightly bad for Sato. Due to a lapse in judgment and paranoia, she killed Natsumi and destroyed her own life, being disowned by her parents and being wanted dead by the Kuzuryuu Family. Then the Steering Committee makes her their new host for the Kamukura Project and she accepts since she feels she has nothing left to live for. She then tried so hard to be able to create a world for her and Mahiru to be together, only for it all to amount to nothing in the end. It's hard to blame her for completely losing it at that point.

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