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Tear Jerker / hololive ERROR

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Even a horror miniseries by hololive will let you shed tears by the girls' misfortune.


  • After being treated poorly by Nanase in Episode 4, and told by Shiina to stay away from the protagonist whom she wants to get closer to, Shino states her belief that she has bad luck while talking with Sakura in Episode 6. In spite of Shiina trying to salvage the situation in Episode 5, Shino is very clearly hurt and dejected by the suggestion of having to give up on her interest.
  • In Chapter 7, Shino and Nanase appear to become friends. This is flipped on its head later, where when checking to make sure that Nanase is okay after coming down with a headache, Shino is met with unwarranted hostility and vitriol, being labelled as a nuisance and that she should disappear by Nanase (or the thing possessing her). The poor girl justifiably sounds utterly hurt and heartbroken, with her voice wavering as she tries to process the ice-cold action.
  • Chapter 8 starts with Shino awakening in the middle of the destruction from the landslide. She is absolutely overcome with grief at the scene and lifelessly wanders to the shrine, where she breaks down in tears as she prays, her mouth and hands trembling, asking the God of Aogami for her friends to be saved.
  • Chapter 16 is rife with this, from the present Shino undergoing an identity crisis at her desire of wanting to have friends, driven to despair as she begins to doubt her friendship, and after leaving the train, she is horrified at the visage/reflection of her being the 19XX Shino, before running towards Aogami only to find it deserted and overgrown, and the fact that she may or may not be Dead All Along based on the newspaper on the floor.
  • Mari's state when her friend and classmate finds her in the Art Prep Room at night. She's haggard, thoroughly struggling to breathe, covered in blood, and has just enough strength to smile in delight before she collapses mid-sentence as she tries to say she made her Magnum Opus. The poor girl is a victim of the woods just like Nanase was implied to be some chapters prior, and one can only wonder what went through her friend's head as she watched Mari expire.
  • The Reveal that Shino uncovers in the library in Chapter 19, and her subsequent Despair Event Horizon. Though part of her line "I [obscured text] that day" indicates her acknowledgement that she died on the night of the Test of Courage from the landslide, it's clear how hard it hits her as she immediately tries to play it off as a dream and dejectedly stalks the school corridor until she encounters another version of her whom takes advantage of her weakened mental state to entice her into the "Perfect World" alluded to a few chapters prior. Judging by the pinned comment for Chapter 19's video, it's heavily implied this isn't the first time these series of events has happened, making her position as The Woobie more solidified, as the time loop ensures she cannot catch a break whichever 'world' she is in.
  • The Downer Ending of Chapter 20. With the frequency of how often an Ominous Visual Glitch occurs and it pulling in Inari, Hanabi, Kaoru, Saya and Miku in to overwrite Kana, Kanade, Hotaru, Mitsuki and Yuki (to the point that Kanade is explicitly referred to as Inari), it is clear how fake the latter quintet are, but Shino is that dedicated to having friends that she eagerly approaches them and is warmly accepted by them, that in her admission of being happy, the scene around her cuts to the ruined classroom of 19XX Aogami High from the key visual animatic, with her ultimately alone as the five girls around her were removed during the transition, and she's in such a state of bliss, she's unaware of it...
    • ...until the next chapter reveals that she's become aware once again of her state of being and that the world she's in is nothing more than an illusion, but she chooses to be around her "friends" for a sense of happiness more than moving on.
  • Sakura. Revealed in Chapter 21 to be one of the survivors of the landslide and heavily implied to be the one whose footsteps could be heard when Shino begged the God of Aogami to save her friends, she is seen to be hunched over, weeping at the shrine that night when Shino identifies her, blaming herself for not being "able to do anything about it" and clearly a shell of her former self. Her journal that Shino finds in the lab reveals that her life changed that day along with an inferred bad parting between her and the Transfer Student who left Aogami, and that she hasn't recovered since that day, shifting from being a shrine maiden to being an environmental scientist to solve the landslide threat along with the cursed woodland and prevent another case like Nanase (and Mari), as she couldn't find a way otherwise to reconcile the shift without one element getting worse. Shino can't help but identify with the poor woman's plight over not moving on.
    • Chapter 22 doesn't let up on this in the slightest. Full of Survivor Guilt, Sakura, in her own words, throws herself at her research to create an all-new Aogami Forest, having learnt that it was the air coming off the polluted trees that had brought harm to Nanase and Mari. She notes that had she never told Honoka about the rumour, nobody would've died that night. Then she can hear Shino's laughter, begging to be left alone because it's torturing her out of guilt. Some time later, she manages to complete her goal - a seed that can grow plants to replace the toxic ones plaguing Aogami, but with the town abandoned, she doubts that her work would even bear fruit even with that. She goes to the shrine to pray that everything will work out... only to collapse from the stress put on her body from implied overworking and exposure to the pollution herself. Sakura finds herself in a hospital, unable to move, as staff discuss her bleak situation: she's in a vegetative state while she's got just enough in her to overhear this conversation, and that they don't know what to do with her having few close relations. She recognises its the end of the road, and as she passes, laments that she cannot join the other girls without having followed through on her life's goal, apologising emotionally as the world fades away. Shino, having watched her memories, tries to comfort her due to seeing the similarities of being haunted by regrets between them, all while the spirit Sakura remains despondent.
  • Chapter 23:
    • Picking up where Chapter 22 ended, Shino informs Sakura that she's found her own way to be happy, and leaves the poor scientist to wallow in despair at the shrine. When Shino and her friends notice Kanade asleep at the desk, Shino starts doubting her capacity to be happy around them, and finally remembers the prayer she made on the night she died, she makes for the shrine to convince Sakura to let her take over, stating the latter had spent the rest of her life working so hard for everyone and that she's earned her rest. When Sakura meekly iterates that she can move on, she's flanked by the other girls who died in 19XX, who lead her into the light, with it being her final moments in her (not-so-)vegetative state as she passes.
    • Nanase's attitude during her brief moment on-screen, revealing that everything Yae knew about her, her very pleasant demeanour towards Shino early in Chapter 7, and what her character bio stated, was all her true persona, and that the pollution of the woods only harmed her by way of the exposure in the school built from its trees. It makes her own death, as well as those of at least Shino and Yae, in the landslide worse as her last actions weren't through her own lucid control. At least now she's free of the toxicity that took root in her.
    • With Sakura, Yae, Shiina, Honoka and Nanase having moved on, Shino addresses her friends if they'll all be her friends again; not just those in the "Perfect World", but those from earlier in the series from July and February 20XX. The scene transitions back to the classroom at Aogami High, with Shino flanked by Kana, Kanade, Hotaru, Mitsuki and Yuki, with Inari, Hanabi, Saki, Touka and Suzune in front of her. She thanks them for bring her happiness, but that it's time for her too to move on. Hanabi and Inari warmly send her off. Cutting to the train, Yuka sadly wishes she and Akane could've spent more time with Shino, all while Akane, Uzuki, Kaoru, Saya and Miku see Shino off with a smile as she returns to Aogami Station. As brief as her time was with some of them, and in spite of the madness that kept cropping up particularly during the Train Arc, Shino did make some real connections with those she met in the afterlife Aogami.
  • The Final Chapter: Welcome to Aogami High brings a much happier kind:
    • Aogami is now a bustling city filled with life and modernity, and truly rid of the pollution and curse that has haunted it for years, for good. Not only are the 19XX Students alive and well, but so are those from the Perfect World and all of the 20XX Students as well. Nanase asks Shino out for a movie, only for her to refuse and say that she has something to do in the Teacher's Room. As Shiromi and Honoka ask her, Nanase notes that she felt like this has happened before, implying that the resurrected students don't remember anything about their past lives.
    • She then encounters the July 20XX Students before the sakura petals are carried inside Aogami High by the wind, before catching a glimpse of Sakura passing by her as quickly as the petals before disappearing, confirming that she has now become the Guardian Entity of this Aogami. While it's heartwarming to see Sakura one final time, it still stings to see that in order for Shino's wish to be granted, Sakura's death is the one that sticks. She's never coming back.
    • After heading back to class, Shino thinks back to everything she's been through, reflecting on her past life, and noting how she's changed from before.
      Shino: I know I have to take action. It's just... I get the feeling... that I didn't use to think that way.
      This is so much fun. I'm glad I had the courage to talk to everyone when I first came here.
    • The final shots of the animated Manga reinforce the above as the Sakura trees are in full bloom, they were indeed named after Shinomiya. Rest In Peace, Sakura Shinomiya. You've earned it.
    • Not only that, Shino's smile at the final photo brings a sense of finality that Shino's tale has finally come to a close. Pass the tissues, please.

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