Tear Jerker / Peacemaker Kurogane

• There are two major ones involving Ayu: both when she begs Tetsunosuke to befriend her brother and help him in her place, and later when she was tortured and then left dead in the street. Having her voiceover for the episode preview didn't help either.
• Suzu cradling Yoshida's body after Ikedaya.
• Yamanami's end. After Yamanami can't bear the strain in the Shinsengumi anymore, he and Akesato plan to run away and start a new life together. The plan goes awry and as Yamanami flees on horse, he runs past her as she is making her way to their meeting place. Akesato realizes that it's him but it's already too late. Then Yamanami goes back to the Shinsengumi with Okita later only to kill himself on Okita's blade. Everyone is devastated.
  • The lead up to the execution. Yamanami mistakenly believed that Kondou and Hijikata want to get rid of him (due to Suzu's mechanisms), but realized that they are nothing but upset and confused by his actions. He suddenly attacked Hijikata, only for Okita to stab him from behind. Then Hijikata and Okita realized that Yamanami's sword was nothing but a harmless bamboo sword and Yamanami simply wanted to prove a point how ruthless the Shinsengumi had become. Hijikata's Thousand-Yard Stare during the whole scene made it worse.
• Heisuke's death.
• Hijikata's reaction when he sees that Okita's sick with Tuberculosis.
• The prologue of the Peace Maker Manga. If going by actual history, by that point of time Okita, Kondou, Yamanami, Heisuke and Susumu are dead, Sano is presumed dead, and Hijikata knows he won't make it out of the war. He sends Tetsunosuke away to Hino to spare him. Historically, Hijikata Toshizo died by a gunshot wound while on horseback.
• Chapter 31 has a Flash Forward of eleven months ahead in which we follow a young boy Gin who wants to meet the "Shinigami" page of the Shinsengumi. When we see Tetsu, his eyes are just dead and no longer has any of his usual life or cheerfulness. War, loss and death has made him a shadow of what he used to be.
• Okita, in the advanced stages of tuberculosis, is lagging behind in the rest of the squad on the way to Kofu, with Kondou ordering everyone not to help him as a way to deter Okita from continuing with them. Okita finally collapses on the road and breaks down into tears and begs Hijikata to tell him what does he need to do in order to be useful to him. Hijikata then tearfully embraces him.
  Hijikata: Breath, Souji, breath. That's all you have to do. As long as you are breathing, it's enough.
• Hijikata's reaction to Kondou giving himself up and reverting back into calling Kondou by his childhood nickname of "Kacchan" as he tries to chase after Kondou's boat.
• Tatsu lying to Tetsu about Hijikata's orders and trying to get them to safety because Tatsu can't trust the increasingly desperate Hijikata to realize he can't save Kondou and the Shinsengumi are done for. Tetsu refuses to abandon Hijikata and it culminates with the two brothers fighting and ends with Tetsu and Tatsu pointing guns at each other. When Tetsu manages to escape, Tatsu realizes to his horror that he just threatened his little brother whom he swore he would always protect and Tetsu was actually frightened of him.
• Kondou's execution and Hijikata's ensuing Heroic BSoD as he curled in bed for weeks, blaming himself for Kondou's death, to the point that Tetsu and the others were understandably fearful that he would try to kill himself in his grief.