Tear Jerker / Saint Seiya

Moments subpages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned!

• Shunrei's tearful pleas for help to a terribly battered Seiya to save Shiryu's life during the galactic tournament after they beat the living crap out of each other.
  • Seiya's reaction? Another tear jerker, since he immediately says that he never intended Shiryu to die, gets up from the stretcher despite how he's this close to die as well, and does his best to honor Shunrei's pleas and save Shiryu. It works.
• Cassios' death in the Sanctuary arc. Seiya might be The Scrappy of the series, but even then you bawl with him when he calls Cassios his friend (despite the other hating him, only pulling his Heroic Sacrifice for Shaina and telling Seiya so before he dies) and tearfully begs him not to die.
  • And in the anime, it's made even worse when Shaina finds out what happens from Aiolia (Cassios's Brainwashed and Crazy murderer, who heavily regrets what he has done even when it's not completely his fault)... and she bawls too.
• Same goes when Shiryu gouges his own eyes out to defeat Algol (whose weapon, the Medusa shield, petrifies you on sight) and save the petrified Seiya and Shun, and they both bawl when they realize what happened. Made worse in the anime, when at the end of the episode, they're told that the doctors couldn't save Shiryu's sight, and Seiya screams in utter despair as he falls into an Heroic BSoD.
• Shaina, just Shaina. She's fully aware that her love for Seiya will never be reciprocated, but that won't stop her from throwing herself between him and a most certainly fatal attack, and even when she's heavily injured she still pours her heart on Seiya. Hell, the first time, she even apologizes because she feels she doesn't deserve to love him.
  • There is another moment in the Poseidon Arc where Shaina and Seiya shield each other with their body, using one of the saddest tracks from the Abel movie, selling the moment as Seiya gathers his Heroic Resolve one more time, knowing he HAS to push on even though he or Shaina might very well die.
• NOOOOOO! MASTER! DON'T LEAVE ME!. Oh, Hyoga...
• Cancer Deathmask's attack on Shiryu's Patient Childhood Love Interest Shunrei during his fight against Shiryu. Now, THAT was merciless!
  • Even more so in the anime, where the scene is brilliantly paced and set. First, we have Shunrei praying for Shiryu's sake in Rozan, focusing on sending her best wishes to him; her kind words ''actually reach Shiryu'', who's about to lose ''everything'' in the fight. Then Deathmask starts using his Psychic Powers, locates Shunrei (who is totally defenseless), and begins lifting her up in the air several meters above the Rozan cascade, giving a truly chilling Evil Laugh as poor Shunrei struggles and Shiryu screams at him to stop. Then the (really creepy) Background Music completely stops... and Shunrei lets out a cry as she plummets to what's surely her death, with Shiryu screaming in horror as Deathmask forces him to see how he kills his adoptive sister/prospect girlfriend, and he can't do anything about it. And it's even worse because of both the really cute flashback at the start of the episode, where we find out their shared backstory and for the massive, awesome, and heartbreaking scene that follows, one where the always kind, honorable and quiet Shiryu TOTALLY LOSES HIS SHIT and launches the mother of Roaring Rampages Of Revenge against Deathmask. Kudos to the anime team for giving us this heartbreaking and beautifully done scene.
  • Moreover, in the anime Shiryu regains his sight after literally sending Deathmask to hell. And he's in tears because Shunrei died for it. Which is followed by a tear jerker of a happier kind when we find out that thanks to Dohko, poor Shunrei's actually alive and kicking.
• Deathmask being rejected by his Cloth in the first place. At some point in the past he was a loyal Saint of Athena, but in time his constant interactions with the dead have made him grow into believing power is justice and care almost nothing about everything else while still protecting humanity from other threats... And then one day, when he's following the orders of the Pope, his Cloth suddenly abandons him and forces him to face the truth of his actions.
  • The novel Gigantomachia makes this worse by showing he still had some good in himself, training Mei in the ways of the Saints and arguably making him the strongest of Kido's children without imposing his skewed morality on him. And then one day Deathmask went for the Sanctuary to fight Saori's Saints, died, and without him Mei went and got himself possessed by Typhon.
• In anime filler, a seriously wounded Ikki is about to let himself die at the hands of Agora and Shiva, Shaka's disciples, but then he feels a small hand touching his own. He opens his eyes and sees that Helen, a Naïve Everygirl that his opponents had thrown into a volcano as a cruel and twisted mercy kill, after her grandfather had been killed by the soldiers sent to lure him out, was actually ''alive'' and struggling to not fall into the lava pit. ''While still calling out to Ikki''. Touched by this, Ikki gathers his Heroic Resolve, rescues the little girl from danger and fights back, soon earning yet another Moment of Awesome.
• Ikki vs Shaka fight, when Shaka has finally opened his eyes and taking away Ikki's senses one by one. This is one of the few scenes where we see that Ikki is powerless and vulnerable and he's basically BEGGING Shaka to not take away his last sense. As the scene in the anime keeps going, you really see that Ikki is all alone. All the Bronze Saints are knocked out and Saori can only do so much to help him, along with the dramatic rain to help the mood. And as Shaka finally takes away his last sense, Ikki falls into full darkness and can only cry for Athena's name out of helplessness. The ending of the scene shifts to a statue of Athena with a flash of lighting to make the rain on her eyes look like as if she's crying for Ikki's suffering as well.
  • Though it's subverted because Ikki actually had planned to get his senses taken away from Shaka in order to awaken his seventh sense, but still his reactions were definitely genuine.
  • Also the scene afterwards where Ikki sacrifices himself in order to take out Shaka. All the Bronze Saints have woken up and see that Ikki is prepared to die for them. With Shun crying and begging him not to go and Ikki can only give a few words of encouragement to him before he and Shaka finally are taken out by the explosion of Ikki's cosmo only leaving behind the Virgo cloth and Shun, heartbroken, staring back at its reflection.
  • Turned into a more heartwarming scene afterwards as Shun gets over it and understands the sacrifice Ikki made for them and moves forward with this head up while remembering Ikki in their memories.
• Lots of people decry the Asgard Saga as pure wangsty Filler, but it has many genuinely good tear jerkers. Thor's backstory and his first encounter with Princess Hilda, as well as his last words when he aknowledges his loss and begs Seiya to help the Brainwashed and Crazy Hilda return to her senses. Fenrir's backstory as a whole; Freya attempting to make Hagen pull a Heel–Face Turn and failing as well as her reaction to his death (even Hyoga cries); Volker's Suicide by Cop at the hands of Mime and Mime's reaction when he finds out the truth about him; Sid and Bud's Cain and Abel backstory as well as Sid telling Bud that he always knew they were Separated at Birth and always loved him, ultimately to die together frozen in an embrace when they abandon the palace; Siegfried's Heroic Sacrifice for his beloved Hilda from the Bronze Saints and Poseidon's Siren Sorrento, Seiya's Heroic BSoD when he thinks he killed her, Hilda recalling her Mind Rape at the hands of the Nibelung Ring as she invokes Odin's power...
• Shiryu's Heroic Sacrifice, whereas he uses the forbidden Rozan Proud Dragon Lord on Shura, because he too will die along with him. As he and Shura ascend into the sky everyone realizes it's Shiryu who is leaving them. Seiya and the squad start weeping and Shun tearfully cries out Shiryu's name. Then the scene goes the Ancient Peaks where Shunrei desperately asks Roshi if the comet in the sky is really Shiryu, with his silence confirming it. Upon hearing this she falls on her knees and starts sobbing and then to add more pain to it, we finally see that even the stoic Roshi too, is crying heavily for the loss of his student who he also sees as his own son.
• Capricorn Shura's death was deeply sad. Watch the episode and weep, if only for his commendably tragic Heroic Sacrifice after realizing everything he'd ever believed in was a lie.
  • Adding more to this, Shura gives a genuine happy smile about finally helping the real Athena and doing what is right. Though the scene leads us to believe that it might have been too late for him to help Shiryu, later it is shown that he had actually given up his Gold Cloth to save Shiryu from burning up when he sent him back down to Earth, saving his life.
  Shura: ''Shiryu, I don't want you to die, but it seems I've acted too late. Soon our bodies will be destroyed and become dust, drifting through the universe for eternity.In time, perhaps you and I will become a star watching over Athena, eh, Shiryu? Shiryu... Shiryu...''
• And what about Shaka's Heroic Sacrifice/ Suicide by Saint in the Hades chapter?
  • Also, Shaka's Heroic Sacrifice and using the last bit of his energy to send a message to Saori. She breaks down in tears, and soon after all the other Gold Saints follow suit, including the three who killed him.
• On that note, Saga's, Camus' and Shura's first Athena Exclamation—they knew they'd be shunned by the rest of the Saints, and would go down in history as unconscionable brutes, but they STILL did it anyway to complete their mission. They cast away their honor as Saints, to do what they had to do. I teared the hell up, man.
• Sanctuary arc. Seiya and Shiryu. Seiya and Shiryu feel Shun's Cosmo explode, and then they realize that Shun has pretty much sacrificed his life to save Hyoga's. They're appalled and almost in tears, and so are the viewers. And even more tearfully, in the anime Hyoga arrives in the middle of the Curb-Stomp Battle that Milo is giving them, with Shun's comatose body in his arms, and explains what happened. Then he urges them to get up, go to the next Temple and carry Shun with them, which they do. All my tears, and all the audience's. Even Milo can't help but stare in silence, visibly moved by the gesture even though he does not quite lose his composure.
  • In regards to the last point... The next Temple? Sagittarius's. The Sagittarius cloth subjects Seiya, Shiryu, Hyoga and the now awake Shun to a Secret Test of Character, and once they pass it, they find Aiolos's last will... one in which he asks all of the Saints of the future to take care of Athena. If you can ignore the way their tears are animated, it's one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking moments ever of the series.
• In the Poseidon arc, when Ikki pulls the killing blow on Lyumnades Kasa disguised as his brother Shun in a perfect illusion, it is tearjerking on several levels.
  • Lyumnades DID grab the Idiot Ball by impersonating his brother when the real article was lying NEXT TO HIM, but based on his experiences with previous foes, he knew it should at least cause hesitation. This gives us one more glimpse into how Ikki has been shaped in a near-inhumane monster by his experience on Death Queen Island... The soundtrack used in the anime for the moment when Kasa collapses in abject incomprehension, calling out Ikki for having cast out all emotion, sells it... It is truly heart-wrenching to have Ikki flatly state his point, while the soundtrack had been used so far for very tense moments of emotion and sacrifice.
  • Then, Ikki goes and proves that there is ONE thing that could convince him to let go and die at the hands of even someone like Kasa... The memory of his Lost Lenore, Esmeralda... You kind of want to give the poor man a hug.
• In the Poseidon arc, it is truly tragic how Shun tried so hard to keep Scylla Io alive, yet the man threw himself in harm's way and pulled a Senseless Sacrifice by being skewered by the Libra Cloth's weapons... This serves as a lesson for Shun that every side of a war is prepared to pull what they hope will be a Heroic Sacrifice.
• In the Hades arc, Shun throttled Hades from inside his body so Ikki can kill the god along with him. Ikki's flashback of his cry-baby brother growing up into a saint worthy of Andromeda's name as he tearfully attacked him is heartbreaking.
• The death of Pandora on the Hades arc in front of Ikki's eyes; it's worse by the fact that they are beginning to get chummy (or even more); keep in consideration that this is something that 1. Never happens with Ikki; and 2. Happens to a girl that is beautiful. Damn! None of those guys is going to be able to have a girlfriend EVER!
  • Don't forget that Ikki had loved and lost before with Esmeralda, making this doubly frustrating.
• When Ikki is summoned to Hades' chamber and has the opportunity to kill Hades himself by killing his host body, which is Shun, Ikki is actually shown to hesitate. Ikki, who doesn't have any compunctions about harming women, or as many restrictions on killing as the other Saints; Ikki, who had no problem killing a perfect illusion of his brother in the Poseidon Arc, and was also fine with digging into Shun and taking out Hades in an illusion, hesitated when he was given the chance to kill his own brother. Hades even mocks him for this before defeating him.
• The entire series is a cavalcade of constant sadness; the mere fact that Athena puts herself in harm's way is precisely because she doesn't want her Saints to be hurt in the first place. Everything that happens after that is because she always refrains from fighting back at all... which is why she always needs the Saints' aid when she gets kidnapped. Judging by the Tenkai Hen Overture, Saori is just content to be able to take care of Seiya on her own.
  • Which is kinda messed up, considering that she treated them as dogs when they were just kids.
    • Nope, it actually shows how much she has grown from back then. Which Seiya himself acknowledges at the start of the original manga/anime. Therefore, how she treated them as dogs as a kid but is ready to go through Hell and Heaven for them as a teenager makes perfect sense. And refusing to acknowledge because she's not a popular character might be... what's actually "kinda messed up", one could say.
• Many melodies from the series are Tear Jerkers on themselves, making the emotional moments of the series even sadder. Some examples are Inside a Dream, Asgard´s Brothers and Sisters, For the Lovely Earth and Athena Revived .
• In the anime, when Moses and Asterion hold Marin hostage and almost kill Seiya when he tries to rescue her, Moses gets ready to kill him and mockingly tells him to say hi to "his older sister". (Marin isn't Seiya's long-lost sister Seika, but that won't be revealed until much later) Seiya's increasingly desperate thoughts before he goes Heroic Second Wind on Moses and kills him fit perfectly here:
  Seiya (paraphrased): "W-what? They said... Marin is my lost sister...?! Oh Gods... It cannot be... But what if it's the truth? What if it IS true? ... What can I do...?! Marin... MARIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!!!"
• Non-Serial Movie it might be, but the Abel movie has its load of such moments:
  • Athena turning against Abel, Abel realizing he has no choice but to kill his own sister, and being in visible pain and angst over this...
  • Which prompts This Is Unforgivable! on the part of the resurrected Gold Saints in service of Abel, in shock at Abel killing Athena. Abel's face might look stoic at a glance, but it is obvious he is distraught at what he just had to do.
    • Camus and Shura try to pull a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, and get a Curb-Stomp Battle for their trouble, calling out to Athena with their dying breaths...
    • Saga has a Red Eyes, Take Warning flash indicating he is NOT fine at all with what happened, but smart enough to bide his time... Even going as far as playing the part of the condescending villain towards Seiya... To ultimately pull a Heroic Sacrifice to restore Seiya's Heroic Resolve, and let him go to Abel, taking out Jao with him. (Something he would eventually pull again in the Hades Arc)
  • To say nothing of how all the Bronze Saints take learning of Athena's death which could be felt all over the world. Seiya and Shun took it the hardest. Just look at the page image.
  • Frankly, Seiya is in the sorriest mental state ever throughout the whole movie, having lost his sense of purpose and will to win and live on. Atlas mercilessly destroying him both physically and mentally could bring many to tears.
    • Culminating in Seiya losing all feeling as he lays on the ground, musing with happy tears that if he dies he will be able to join Athena in death...
  • The Bronze Saints all getting their asses handed to themselves by Atlas, only for their last hope, Seiya, to come to the fight... to be taken down mercilessly. Then, the most depressing track, Deucalion's Big Flood, kicks in, as everything looks lost and Abel claims all remains now is to burn down the surface to cinders.
  • And THEN, a good variant of Tear Jerker happens as Seiya refuses to lay down, and STILL finds the Heroic Resolve to stand up, surrounded by the now golden glow of his Cosmo. His Heroic Resolve being so contagious that Shiryu and Hyoga join him in summoning Gold Cloths to take the fight to Abel.
  • After Abel inflicts a Curb-Stomp Battle upon Seiya by merely using an Attack Reflector, Seiya muses once more that maybe the will of the Gods can't be broken or countered... but he refuses to break down, for the sake of his friends who were born in this era with him, and eventually their Cosmo call out to Athena, bringing her back from the brink at the very last moment. Athena is herself moved to tears as she comes back to life.