Tear Jerker / Air

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• 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. The scene is even more depressing now, when you consider what happened to Misuzu's voice actress a few years later.
  • 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.
  • The death of Tomoko Kawakami is a Tear Jerker in its own right, especially when you watch the scene.
• As if that wasn'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.
• Same with Michiru's "death" (or disappearance).
• Misuzu's breakdown when she tries playing cards with Yukito.
• From the movie, where there isn't a rift between Misuzu and Haruko, you have Haruko trying to convince herself that giving Misuzu back to her father was the right thing to do.
• The curse basically make Misuzu feel pain whenever she becomes close to someone she loves or befriends and if she keeps pushing through that pain it will eventually kill her. Imagine unable to form any close bonds because the curse will cause you pain and can kill you if you persist. Not only that if a person becomes too close to you the curse could potentially end up causing their deaths also. That would include your own family and would be a very lonely and sad life.
• Minagi's mother was so distraught about the loss of her unborn daughter that she began to delude herself to believe that Minagi was her younger sister. When she accepted the sister's death, it also effectively wiped Minagi out of her mind for a time as she had connected Minagi to her deceased sister to her mind so when she accepted that death Minagi doesn't exist at all in her mind. While Minagi's mother eventually accepted Minagi back in her life for a time Minagi basically had no home for a time.
• The fate of the characters from the year 1000. Kanna just wanted to meet her mother, but was cursed and doomed to always be reincarnated but unable to ever give or receive love from anyone. Ryuuya just wanted to help Kanna, but was affected by the curse and died soon after her. Uraha was the last one left of the trio and could only ask Ryuuya to impregnate her in the hopes that their descendants could find a way to free Kanna. Talk about a Downer Ending.