Tear Jerker / Food Wars!

• Megumi's expulsion during the Training Camp. What makes this even more heart-wrenching is that she tries to calm down Soma while trying to smile and repress her tears at the same time. It only makes Soma angrier.
• After Soma and Megumi lose against Koujirou, and therefore are about to get expelled, Soma's first words are to apologize to Megumi.
• Shinomiya's backstory and how he was discriminated by French chefs for being Japanese. Sadly, this is Truth in Television for a lot of Japanese people who want to learn French Cuisine.
• Even if Subaru was a creepy stalker obsessed with winning, the reasons for his personality flaws are comprehensible: His father was so envious of his skills that he challenged him to a cooking match. When Subaru fixed his father's recipe to get his approval, the man's immediate response is to send him far from home to Tootsuki, practically abandoning him out of pure pettiness.
• Akira's childhood: He was an orphan who didn't even have a name or an identity, only had an incredible sense of smell that couldn't be appreciated by others and had to beg for food, where he got hit a lot by people at the slums. It's because of Jun that his life changes and he discovers his new passion and purpose to live.
• The Reveal of Erina's Dark and Troubled Past: Since her mother is nowhere to be seen, and her cousin Alice left to Denmark, she is left alone to be abused by her own father, having constant nightmares of him disposing of her if she isn't worthy of his approval. Even In-Universe all the residents of the Polar Star Dormitory start crying after learning about this.
  • Even though Alice and Erina have a very vitriolic relationship, both girls had very hard times believing the other never wrote back during their separated childhoods, unwillingly creating a rift between them. Of course Alice quickly forgave Erina as soon as she realized that Azami was responsible.
• Azami's new regime of Tootsuki includes [disbanding all clubs, Research Societies and other groups related to the school. It's painful considering that most of these RS have very close bonds, Ikumi finally embraced her membership and became a central figure of Don RS, the Chan RS is still determined to open again. Even the more painful panel to watch was Jun's heartbroken expression at the prospect of her only home and lifetime work being about to disappear.
• After being ordered to vacate the Polaris Dorms, everyone tries to stay happy by remembering their good times together... Until Yuuki finally breaks down crying. Both Megumi and Ryoko start crying too, watching her and the boys while Erina can't help but feel useless.
• Chapter 160 has flashbacks of a young Alice telling Ryou excitedly about how many letters she is going to write to Erina. As time passes, Alice becomes more disappointed when she realizes that Erina isn't replying to any of her letters. It was because Erina didn't get those letters that she didn't reply back, Azami took those letters and destroyed them.
  • Even Ryou's face when he remembers those moments from his point of view is heartbreaking.
• Chapter 170: Though the readers get a pretty good idea that Erina isn't exactly... socially savvy, it's both chilling and sad to realize how isolated she's been for so much of her life when she cannot comprehend why people keep checking in on her when she's working until Soma has to rather bluntly inform her that it's because they care about her.
• Chapter 179: Despite the heartwarming moments between Hayama and Jun during the Fall Classic tournament, this chapter reveals that Hayama either abandoned Shiomi Seminar or failed to defend it during the purge. This is especially jarring after watching the anime episode where he won the tournament.
• Chapter 183: Hayama's reveal he joined Central for Jun's sake, and we still don't know what happened to the Shiomi Seminar. Just how much has Hayama had to sacrifice for her since Central took over?
• Chapter 184: We see exactly what forced Hayama to join Central, Azami purposely put Hayama into a spot where he could literally destroy the Shiomi Seminar's data with a squeeze of his hand... he has the disc with all of its research.
  • Worse? Before this, many were going to support the Shiomi Seminar only for Central causing all the deals to be broken off. When you realize Hayama's victory at the Fall Classic were why they had gotten those deals, it means all his efforts were for nothing.
  • In addition, Soma's opinion about Hayama's actions is also sad, considering that they started to form a Friendly Rivalry after the tournament, because even though Soma just learned that the administration blackmailed him into siding with Central if he didn't want Jun's research destroyed, Soma got more disappointed and angry that Akira never thought about fighting his way to protect Jun rather than play right into Central's game.
  • And then it turns out Jun felt the same as Soma about it, though she reasoned that Azami would never uphold his end of the blackmail. Hayama not getting this and just brushing her off led Jun to leave him, leaving him without his passion for cooking... and leaving him open to a loss by way of Soma.
• Chapter 191: "Ikumi Mito, Isami Aldini and Hisato Arato, you're expelled."
• Chapter 192: All the rebels save Souma, Takumi and Megumi lost their matches and are therefore expelled.
• Chapter 197: We see just what Azami means by "The cooking world that ruined Jouichirou." In his youth, because of his talents, Jouichirou put himself through the wringer due to the expectations everyone expected him to meet and surpass. Eventually it became too much for him and he left Tōtsuki without a trace on the day of a large competition. The last page he appears in shows the mental reflection of him bruising and exhausted.
  • We also see that Gin took Jouichirou's breakdown very hard. The man is reduced to tears at realizing he had failed his best friend by noticing something was wrong, but failing to act on it.
• Chapter 199: The Reveal of Azami's plan, to create a world where chefs would never lose their way and be crushed by stress like his idol Jouichirou was. His intentions are good, but they're tainted by his cruel, abusive, obsessive ways. It really gives one the feeling that Azami's a Fallen Hero who fell hard.
• At first Kuga's issues with Eishi seems to just stem from Kuga's It's All About Me mentality, but it's actually quite deeper than that: Kuga was good enough to be personally challenged by First Seat Eishi. Note that with some exceptions, like Erina's early takeovers, being challenged is essentially a mark of respect. When Kuga lost, it was clear that he was looking forward to a long and fierce rivalry, which, let's face it, is how a lot of friendships are formed in this school. Then as he's running to re-challenge his new rival, he learns that Eishi barely even remembers him. The look on Kuga's face...
• Chapter 240: Despite her best efforts, Megumi loses to Momo in a 2-1 vote. At first she tries to play it off by acting cheerful about her loss, but when her face is out of sight of her friends, she sheds tears knowing that she failed despite her best efforts. Soma internally points out that there's no way anybody wouldn't be bitter over a result like that.
• Chapter 251: Azami has not only taken over judging for the Shokugeki, but has brought in two loyalists to his cause from the WGO who are well-regarded. The sheer tooth-grinding fury you might feel at that revelation might be paired with frustrated tears over the fact that that human-shaped sack of bastard keeps stacking the deck.
• Chapter 290: Imagine the frustration of the Light Chefs when they find out that the Chief Bookman of the WGO has given up all hope on them, planning on using them as just foils for the Midnight Chefs.
• Chapter 300: Both of Erina's parents suck! Her father's a controlling, abusive jackass and her mother doesn't give a damn about her at all! Of course, Soma's comment may hint instead that Erina may be trying to prove herself to her mother to reverse that.
• Chapter 313: With Erina facing Soma in the finals, the pressure of cooking a "dish never before seen on Earth" for her own mother is riding on her mind heavily. At first she was hoping that Asahi would be the one to reach the finals with his Cross Knives ability, seeing it as the optimal way to make such a demand feasible. But with that option thrown out the window, Erina feels the need to pull off a "dish never before seen on Earth" on her own, even though she has severe doubts of her capabilities. As the final match starts, Erina goes straight to cooking, but has no idea where she's going. The pressure starts getting to her, and she starts doubting herself, believing that she will only end up just like her mother, finding no enjoyment in cooking, and starts tearing up while still cooking.
• The final chapter of Le Dessert, while ending for the most part on a happy note, still reveals one sad moment: the death of Soma's mother. It came as a shock to everyone, as she suffered of an undetected heart disease, losing her battle against it after an entire month.
  • In the anime, it's shown how Jouichirou dealt with Tamako's death. He started to move on when Soma challenges him to a cooking duel. The heartbreaking part is that everyone in the family was devastated, and even Soma's eyes look like he had been crying a lot, until he decided to be strong and cheer up his dad.

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