Although it's much more idealistic than Yoshiyuki Tomino's other directing credits in the Gundam saga, Turn A can still hit you in the heart pretty hard.
- The aftermath of the attack on Vicinity is pretty bad, especially the funeral of Diran Heim. Sochie and the household's servants are overwhelmed with grief, as is Loran, over the death of a good-natured man who didn't do anything to deserve it. Worse, there are so many casualties in the town that they have to bury him right away, before they can even contact Kihel and her mother.
- Teteth Halleh's death. Although she was a Moonrace spy for Agrippa Maintainer, she did so to save her mother from poverty. She's shot in the head trying to take the gun she used to take Loran and the Turn A Gundam hostage, by accident no less! The worst part came several episodes later: Several moonrace citizens are released from their stint in cryosleep. One of them is Teteh's mother, Linda, asking around futilely for her daughter...
- Gavane Goonny's death. When you consider that he was about to marry Sochie the very next day, he goes off on a night-time raid to acquire some newly uncovered Moonrace technology out in the mountains. He and his Borjarnon (Zaku II) team find the tech, but don't realize that the are ACTUAL ARMED NUKES that will detonate at the slightest disruption. After a battle with the Moonrace suits, Loran tells everyone on the area to run away as far as possible, but Gavane was underground and unable to hear Loran's message. Gavane manages to set off one of the nukes by mistake, causing four more to cook off and create the episode's titular 'sunrise at midnight' while the rest of the cast watch in horror... Cue a tearful Sochie in her wedding dress in the following scene.
- Episode 10, when they return to Vicinity and pay a visit to the Heim household. Dianna is forced to maintain her masquerade as Kihel and realizes that her actions caused Mrs. Heim's illness and insanity, while Kihel is forced to pretend that she is a stranger. It ends with Dianna bowing before Diran Heim's grave begging forgiveness and doing her best to say the things Kihel would, and Kihel is finally able to shed her own tears because Dianna would have at witnessing such a scene.
- The death of Will Game in Episode 15. After two episodes of Dianna mourning the loss of the first Will Game and desperately trying to keep the grandson out of a war he doesn't belong in, he dies in his first battle without even getting close to the Moon. Even Sochie, who hates Dianna Counter, is upset by seeing his lifeless hands clutching the edge of the cockpit.
- The entire ending sequence in the last episode can evoke tears, but especially Sochie facing rejection by Loran when he chooses Dianna over her. And her wailing into the night and throwing away his toy, her last memento of him, is heart wrenching.
- And to make it worse, it may not even be a romantic love - Loran follows Dianna out of duty, and she in turn sees him as a subordinate. It's wholly possible that their relationship is akin to that of a person dedicating his life to taking care of an aged superior, and that both of them chose this by virtue of the former realizing the latter has no true support on Earth. In other words, choosing convenience over affection.
