Tear Jerker / Silver Spoon

• Butadon (Pork Bowl) being taken away to be slaughtered. Even Tokiwa shed a tear for the poor thing.
• It becomes apparent that Hachiken's parents are very distant. After a few months away from home, his only interaction with them is short text messages composed of one or two school-related questions. Later, Hachiken ends up lost in the woods after dark and his first thought is how Mikage's family will be mad at him for missing out on work. It doesn't even occur to him that anyone might actually be worried about him being lost in the woods after dark until Ichiro points it out.
  • It becomes worse after he collapses after all the hard work he has done for the Yezo High Festival and ends up in the hospital. They aren't just distant. Hachiken's dad doesn't have faith in what his son chose for his education. In fact, the bacon that he sent to his family? He didn't approve of it. It's heartbreaking. And Shingo? Let's say that he is also distant from his father.
  • All of the above was hinted in the Pizza Oven Arc when Yugo's middle school home teacher comes to visit him. The teacher was worried because the last time he had seen Yugo, has was the perfect picture of the overburnt student, with no life beyond studying, in total disconcert and despair when asked about life aspirations beyond that, one bad grade from snapping into hikikomori. It says something when the teacher is more concerned about the poor kid's mental well-being than his own family.
    • There's more to worry about if you think about it.. Remember that Japan has one of the highest rates of suicides committed by students because of their grades. He was worried that, at the rate Yugo was going, the poor boy would've eventually killed himself.
  • Latest chapters show that his mother is at least caring enough to be considered a normal parent, and actually shows up at school to see how he's doing, and is relieved to see that he's in good hands. Just that her parenting style is more "free range" in a sense, as evident from Hachiken's older brother.
  • In episode 8, when Hachiken's brother visits he talks to their mother on the phone about Hachiken. Their father takes the phone away to tell him that sees both of his sons as failures.
• The stunned looks on everyone's faces - teammates, audience, friends and family watching from home, and Komaba himself - when the champion team wins the qualifying match against Yezo High at the last minute. The moment drags on for pages, and it's absolutely agonizing to watch as the consequences of what just happened sink in for everyone.
  • Followed up by Komaba's quietly dignified thank-you-for-everything to his equally devastated teammate, and the reveal that he didn't show up to school the next day...or the next week. Twist the knife harder, Arakawa, we're not crying tears of blood yet!
  • Yet, indeed. A few chapters later, it was revealed that the Komabas have been on the verge of losing their farm to bankruptcy for months. The loss damaged Komaba's chances of going pro at exactly the wrong moment, forcing him to drop out of school and find work to support his family.
  • Additionally, some of Komaba’s expressions in Chapter 64 are utterly heartbreaking.
  • The look on several of the characters' faces as Komaba's family cows are being sold off in episode 9 of season 2, all while sad music plays.
• Aki bravely setting aside her own grief and telling Hachiken, with a beautiful and well-chosen metaphor, that he can't fix all his friends' problems and needs to let the Komabas sort out their own fates before he gets dragged in and badly hurt.
• Chapter 99: The Komaba twins' determination to succeed without the help of their brother so that they'll be the ones looking after both their mother and brother really was heart breaking, considering that they're only barely into elementary school and already mature enough to understand the hardships their family is going through and are willing to sacrifice their childhood to attain a greater good! Real-life manly tears inevitable.