A family taken away by tragedy
While the series is all about our protagonist trying to bring smiles to everyone, sometimes not everyone can smile. And sometimes tragedy will strike and crying will happen instead. open/close all folders
Episode 3: The Ultra-Ancient Light and Darkness
- Chairman Mitsukuni feared that Yuna would become Yuzare's host and end up on the line of danger, as she is his only family left and is now under the threat of the Dark Giants' ambitions. It's not a surprise that he requests Akito and Kengo to keep quiet about her true identity from that point on.
Episode 5: Akito's Promise
- We discover why Akito is as sour as he usually is: Both his parents were killed years ago fighting Deathdrago, the first kaiju to appear in modern times. We get a flashback showing a young Akito (who judging by his appearance was no older than 13 at least) crying out for his dead parents as the scene cuts to Akito's family photo burning, symbolizing what the little boy lost that day. In the present day Deathdrago is so much of a sore subject for Akito that even though he could get killed fighting it, he won't hesitate to rush and fight it if it costs his life, all too caught up in desiring revenge for anything else, even Tatsumi shows a lot of sympathy for him despite Akito's insubordinate insistence on fighting the monster.
- Mitsukuni Shizuma lost two of his friends that day and has had to raise their son ever since, even worse is that they both helped him defeat the kaiju and died protecting Earth with the help of the Chairman, that must've left some really bad survivor's guilt on Shizuma.
Episode 6: The One Hour Demon
- We're shown why Ignis hates Hudram so much: Hudram commited genocide on his kind, the Lishurians, and left him wallowing in misery in his now dead-world purely out of sadistic enjoyment. We're treated to a flashback which depicts the last event and even shows Ignis' point of view with him futilely crying as Hudram departs laughing off the destuction he caused. In the present he even tears up at reminiscing of his past when he starts recounting to himself how he wants Trigger's light to stop Hudram.
Episode 12: The 30-Million-Year Miracle
- Akito is shaken up as he is hesitant to destroy Trigger Dark, as he still sees Kengo within the out of control Dark Giant, Yuna is equally distressed and it's clear that Tatsumi and GUTS-Select are also torn up about actually destroying their ally.
- Yuzare's sacrifice is rather hard to watch, realizing that the Eternity Core will go out of control, she decides to sacrifice her lifeforce to empower Trigger and stabilize the Core, letting Trigger defeat the Dark Giants and petrify them at the cost of her life. After watching her and Kengo bond through the episode it is rather tragic to see her give up her life and die, especially as she shares one last look with Trigger and apologizes before sealing him with the other Giant and disappearing into light as she dies.
Episode 19: What Makes a Savior
- Kengo appears to genuinely find it hard to see just how deeply fallen Carmeara is into her obsession with Trigger, especially now that her original Trigger Dark is gone. He tries to sympathize with her, and his kindness and sympathy actually impact her enough to leave in bewilderment.
Episode 21: Demons Rampage Again
- The sight of Darrgon sitting all alone and lamenting how united humanity is in their fight, while the Dark Giants are too divided to even work together anymore is surprisingly somber as despite the Dark Giants being rotten in their cause, Darrgon's helplessness in keeping those he considers his friends to remain together is all kinds of tragic.
Episode 22: Last Game
- Hudram tricking Darrgon into thinking that he was trying to rekindle the mostly broken bond of the Dark Giants only for it to be a trap to leave him and Carmeara helpless to stop Hudram from taking over the universe. Considering Darrgon's grief at the fact that his allies are too broken up to work together getting betrayed by someone he considered a friend should've hurt even more.
Episode 23: My Friend
- Darrgon is noticeably horrified to learn that Carmeara killed Hudram, fully and utterly shattering his faith on his side and prompting him to call it quits and join humanity... Sadly Carmeara instantly prevents him from leaving and infects him with her darkness.
- Darrgon's death, when Akito is forced to kill him to prevent him from killing Yuna under Carmeara's brainwashing. His last words "My Friend" made it hurt even further.
- To make matters worse, Carmeara eats Darrgon's dark essence and comments that it tastes awful due to being "tainted" by Darrgon's love for Yuna and respect for humanity and unlike the borderline comical remark on Hudram's taste last episode, this one is rather stinging on how spiteful she sounds.
Episode 25: To the Ones Who Believe in Smiles / Pull the Trigger
- In spite of all that she did Carmeara's end is rather pitiable as she spends her last moments asking Kengo and Trigger why did they reject the darkness, in other words her, as her life starts to fade away; her last moments are spent in Trigger's arms as she dissolves into nothing.
- Kengo's sacrifice at the end of the episode, as he sees that the Eternity Core has gone out of control he decides to give his life to re-stabilize it. When his friends realize what he's going to do, they give him one final goodbye as they tearfully part ways, the most notable being Akito who started out the roughest of all GUTS-Select but is tearing up visibly at Kengo's sacrifice.
- After the credits roll, Akito looks at the photo Kengo took with the other GUTS-Select members and remarks that thanks to Kengo the world will be filled with smiles before the scene cuts to Kengo within the Eternity Core, slumbering as his Color Timer light ups.
