MY TOP 10 SADDEST MOMENTS IN JAPANESE FICTION

It's no surprise that anime and Japanese video games with lots of story elements will always have those select few titles that will gouge out your chest cavity and play your heartstrings like a guitar with one of your rib bones as the pick. For me, I am a very emotional person. I am much more driven by my heart when it comes to fiction than I am by my brain. But in the grand scheme of fiction, what series have done so much that they've actually gotten me to sniffle, cry or flat out BAWL like a little baby? Well we're here to celebrate those series today, the series that made me break out the tissues and turn on the water works.

Please keep in mind that this is MY top ten. I HAVE a heart and it is pulled by human emotion that I feel. Your list will be drastically different than mine.

As always, I am keeping the 1 per franchise rule. Also, for it to have MADE this list, I personally had to shed tears over it. It doesn't matter if it's one of the saddest things people talk about in anime or videogames, but only if it feels that way to ME! Hell, I could REALLY have thought a scene got me right in the feels with a nasty gut punch, but it actually has to go that extra mile to squeeze out some salt to qualify for this list.

Oh and you DEFINITELY WANT TO BE CAREFUL

SPOILER WARNING: IF YOU SEE A SERIES YOU DON'T KNOW, SKIP OVER IT. I WILL BE MENTIONING THE SERIES BEFORE I MENTION THE NUMBER AND I WON'T BE PROVIDING VISUAL AIDS THIS TIME (i.e no images) SO IF YOU SEE A SERIES YOU DON'T RECOGNIZE, SKIP OVER IT! I ADVISE SCROLLING SLOWLY SO AS TO AVOID BEING SPOILED AS TO THE ACTUAL EVENT! I know I usually ask that people read everything, but in this case I need to make an exception.
Please note that I will still be explaining and building up each entry for those who are ignoring the spoiler warning

Anyway, I've done enough beating around the bush, let's begin







NUMBER 10



SERIES: NEON GENESIS EVANGELION [manga only]




EVENT: THE DEATH OF REI AYANAMI




Oh good lord and heaven, first event in and I already feel terrible. Neon Genesis Evangelion, along with Bleach, was one of my gateway animes. And how did this series ease me into the genre? By killing one of my favorite characters and giving me my first case ever of "oh, she's just hiding. She'll be back, right? ........No? You evil bastards! How could you?" And then they had the gall to give us a hope spot. F*ck you NGE.









NUMBER 9


SERIES: CODE GEASS [R2]




EVENT: THE DEATH OF SHIRLEY FENNETTE




More than Euphie's death and Nunnally's death, Shirley's death is really where the waterworks started to come. People who got caught up in the emotional roller coaster that was Code Geass, will recall the most tragic--and wholly unnecessary f*ck you Rolo--death in the series' history. Nunnally's death was certainly a shocker, buuuuuuuuuut it was then later retconned that it didn't happen soooooooooooo doesn't count, really. I'd also put the ending of the series right here, but continued exposure to the series has proven that it's only due to the ending theme Continued Story that the scene really has any impact for me. That fucking flute man.
Shirley's death is all the more tragic because of the timing. She just remembered everything about R1 and you THINK, you honestly to goodness think that she's going to finally get her act together and join the black knights. And then Rolo shoots her because he's an asshole. What's worse is that being shot like she was IS survivable given she was shot in the stomach and the wound wasn't through and through. So for a moment you think, like Lelouch said "I'll call an ambulance, you'll be okay." And then Shirley gives a speech about meeting him in a better life, I'm reminded of Orihime's "five lifetimes speech" and Oh HELL! BWAAAAAAAAAAAAH









NUMBER 8


SERIES: BLAZBLUE [CONTINUUM SHIFT]




EVENT: HAKUMEN'S "OLD FISHERMAN TALE"




Despite the real tragedy of the previous two events, I'd like to think that Hakumen's little stunt here is a real tearjerker if you're a die hard BlazBlue fan like I am. I can't remember if this is during his story mode or Tsubaki's, but either way this is some heavy shit.
In the words of Linkara:
TIME
4
BACKSTORY
For those of you that don't know Blazblue and are ignoring my spoiler warnings, Hakumen is--and this isn't really a spoiler--Jin Kisaragi from the future who traveled into the past. The reason for that goes like this: In the original BlazBlue timeline (basically the BlazBlue of the series is a relaunched timeline that to go into full explanation would require me to explain the entire series so just know that I'm talking about what would essentially be like Days of Future Past to the X-men or any "fucked up future that got rebooted" trope) Hakumen--then Jin Kisaragi--fought Ragna at the cauldron on his way to fight and kill Nu-13. Jin, obsessed with killing his brother, neglected the woman he cared about most: Tsubaki Yayoi. After stomping over Jin, Ragna continued after Nu, but was stopped by Tsubaki, wanting revenge for Jin. Unfortunately, Nu-13 is one of the biggest winners of the Yandere trophy and thought that Tsubaki, a girl, just because she was talking to Ragna, meant she had a thing for him. Jin was powerless--in his current state--to stop Tsubaki's demise and for Ragna to then fall into the cauldron along with Nu.
Jin then later, having lost his brother and the woman he loved, moped around for a bit before Rachel set him straight. Jin decided to time travel in order so that he might undo the past. And for several thousand time reboots, Ragna has continued to become the black beast, Jin has continued to become Hakumen and Tsubaki has continued to die.
So why is this so ungodly tragic and sad?
Well, in Continuum Shift, the existence of Noel Vermillion allows for the end of this Groundhog Day Loop and Tsubaki gets to live. Hakumen, who hasn't seen her in so very long given how many years he spent in the past, this is the first time he's SEEN Tsubaki since she died and--as far as Tsubaki knows--he is a completely different person from the man she loves. Hakumen masks the names of the people in his past and tells Tsubaki basically an entire summed up rendition of the "Wheel of Fortune" timeline as its known as, all while staring right into her eyes, cupping her chin ever so slightly while he looks at her. The two are kneeling down on the ground and you KNOW Hakumen just wants to come out and tell her the truth outright, but won't because "Jin Kisaragi is dead and I don't deserve you for my foolishness". It's the most tragic thing I've seen and it's unfortunate this moment was not captured in the anime adaptation. It was a REALLY POWERFUL SCENE! Enough to make me cry.









NUMBER 7


SERIES: FIRE EMBLEM [AWAKENING]




EVENT: LUCINA VS ROBIN (LOVER VERSION)




Considering I've only played 3 Fire Emblem games including Awakening--including limited knowledge of Path of Radiance--it doesn't mean much when I say FEA has the best story out of the bunch compared to the others, but it does it in such spades that FEA needs its own anime adaptation. However, that's neither here nor there at the moment.
What's important is that Robin--the default name for the player unit in the game--shares a scene with Lucina, Chrom's daughter from the future, who believes that Robin is going to kill Chrom by being brainwashed by Validar to do so. Lucina pleads and begs with Robin that she MUST kill him in order so that Chrom may live.
On my first playthrough of the game, I felt Emmeryn's death had a lot more impact to the series than this scene.
However, then I played the Female avatar X Chrom playthrough in which Matricide IS brought up for that scene and makes it all the more poweful of Lucina, to save her father, intends to kill her own mother who will be brainwashed to destroy the world and WHOO BOY is that a hefty burden she's taking. Ultimately though, she knows she can't go through with it.
I've played the game several times through and for playthroughs 3 and 4 that scene was little more than a nusiance.
Playthrough 5 is different though.
During the scene, you are welcome to either accept or deny Lucina's judgment and depending on your choice will depend on the dialogue.
I've always chosen to deny it just because I feel saying "Yes" looks incredibly emo and, really, no realistic person would willingly let themselves die, especially if their might be options we're not considering.
So, since you can romance ANYONE, I wanted to see, since the dialogue changes for when you are Lucina's mom, if it changes if you're her lover/husband.

...whoo boy.
This has to be the FIRST VIDEOGAME EVER to get me to cry like a little bitch. Oh don't get me wrong, the Hakumen scene was done beautifully, but it got me to sniffle at best. This was a two tissue job.
The feels you get when you tell Lucina--when you're her lover--that you won't accept her judgment and that you'd rather die than point a blade at your own wife is just so heartwrenching and Laura Bailey's fantastic "*hyperventilation* I can't do it!" is just so perfectly delivered that you MUST see this scene with your own eyes. I actually had to get to this scene MYSELF because no one had it recorded on YouTube. Pansies.









NUMBER 6


SERIES: MIRAI NIKKI (aka Future Diary)




EVENT: THE DEATH OF YUNO GASAI




When this series was first presented in the manga, I didn't think much of it, since I saw Yuno's death coming. However, both in the Japanese version with English subtitles AND in the dub version, I shed tears for Yuno saying she was going to stay in the third world and asked Yukiteru to kiss her before she passed on. There is a lot to be said here about what music and ambiance can do for a scene, but there's something to be said that even when I KNOW a scene is coming that it is DAMN IMPRESSIVE to get me to cry not once, but TWICE to it.









NUMBER 5


SERIES: FATE/ZERO




EVENT: THE ENDING




Originally the entry to this list was going to be Fate/Stay Night with the very end of THAT anime having this spot, but having heard the relaunch was going to be this coming October--i.e a week or so from now--I started to playback Fate/Zero in my head and while I WAS again going to put the death of Irisviel on this list, the ending got me MUCH harder. The very last scene--or one of them anyway--to Fate/Zero is when Kiritsugu finds a young Emiya and takes him in and Emiya asks him "why did you want to stop being a hero?". This same scene happens in Fate/Stay Night and Kiritsugu's answer remains the same "I grew up". The reason this scene is so POWERFUL in Fate/Zero is because unlike in Fate/Stay Night you KNOW Kiritsugu's backstory and you understand what he means when he says "I grew up". HOLY HELL DO YOU UNDERSTAND! For someone like me who SAW the original Fate/Stay Night and saw this scene already, especially since I know the events to come--mostly. Again I don't know what they're going to change--it really got me to just do one of those pathetic bronchial convulsions where you don't know if you're crying or laughing. I really hope the new Fate/Stay Night captures the magic of the original and expands upon what Fate/Zero brought to us. Come on anime team! You can do this!








NUMBER 4


SERIES: ONE PIECE



EVENT: NICO ROBIN'S BACKSTORY





Oh sweet merciful crap where do I begin here? Ummmmmmm, I was told by a friend of mine that Nico Robin's backstory was the most tragic thing I would ever see as a test to me to say "Hey is Kasumi's backstory sadder than this?". Need I remind you all that when I first started reading One Piece I wasn't at the Permanent Sinner arc yet. The answer for those of you who care is: Yes, but that doesn't stop Nico Robin's history for really slamming me over the head with the metaphorical baseball bat. I don't need to go into detail for those of you who ARE One Piece fans you know what happened to her and for those of you who aren't, well this is an event best seen to be believed. I'll just say this: it was not overhyped for me by my friend in the slightest. It was one of the saddest things I ever saw and it didn't fail to make me cry a river of tears.









NUMBER 3


SERIES: PUELLA MAGI MADOKA MAGICA [MOVIE 3: REBELLION]




EVENT: THE ALMOST DEATH OF HOMURA AKEMI




I say "almost death" because if you've watched the movie then you know that Homura didn't actually die, but you don't know that as you're watching the scene unfold and watching as Homura is watching Madoka to come down and rescue her dying soul is just SO POWERFUL for one of my favorite Yuri ships--one of my only Yuri ships actually--is something I cherish. Sure, the movie then does a complete dark turn and goes 180 Homucifer on us all, but hey we didn't know that as we were watching and that's what matters.









NUMBER 2


SERIES: INUYASHA




EVENT: THE DEATH OF KAGURA




Okay the MOMENT I said what series it was--especially given my favorite antagonists list--you guys should've seen this one coming. Hell, I said all I've needed to about this scene in the past and I care not to relive it yet AGAIN! Here are the cliffnotes:

1. I think Takahashi is a hypocritical C U Next Tuesday for letting Kohaku live and Kagura couldn't.
2. The scene absolutely crushed my heart into tiny little pieces.









I think you're all surprised that I got this far and I've already played the Kagura card, the Code Geass card and what should've been an obvious entry for Mirai Nikki (I mean until Claymore started having Teresa being awesome it was my favorite series).
Of course, those of you who know me really well, know that I still have one more card to play.

A card that, again, should be obvious for all of those involved.

I am not even going to TRY and drag this one out.

Let's get this over with.









NUMBER 1


SERIES: CLANNAD




EVENT: THE DEATH OF USHIO




*sniff* God...fucking...dammit.
I hate this scene. I absolutely hate this scene. I hate how it never fails to get me to cry like a little baby every single fucking time I watch it. And yet it's the most precious scene to me of all. Clannad is still on my top 10 despite everything it did to me, through thick and through thin, despite constant vibrations of other series simply for being JUST THAT GOOD! And there's a reason for that. THIS FUCKING SCENE!

I'm going to write this as I explained this to people after I saw the show:
Right after the death of Nagisa--another really sad scene--Tomoya has a 5-year emo period and let's his daughter Ushio get raised by his in-laws so that he can cope with Nagisa's death. Tomoya is then tricked by his in-laws to taking Ushio with him on a little trip. During the trip you can tell that Tomoya would rather be anywhere else but there since Nagisa's death hit him JUST THAT HARD!
But after a scene where Tomoya realizes he's turning into his father--which is a bad thing for those wondering--he realizes he needs to do a better job being a father to Ushio to be the father to her his dad never was to him.
Then he finds out that the toy her bought at the train station is missing. And he says he'll buy Ushio a brand new one, but she doesn't want one.
Why?
"But I don't want another one I want that one! Because it was a gift. It was gift you got for me, daddy!"
It was the first time she ever called him that since they'd been on screen together and I just goddamn lost it. She hugs him, he apologizes and Ushio starts crying.
"The only places I can cry are in the bathroom or in daddy's arms."
So, Tomoya and Ushio are back on the train to go home and as Ushio asks Tomoya about Nagisa, Tomoya starts to cry as he starts to remember everything about his wife, how he met her and everything we've seen in the series.

But as evident of the above of course that's not the end of it, that's just the precursor. After that, it looks like everything's going to be all right. Clannad goes back to its usual goofy nature, hell Tomoya even meets up with Kyou who turns out to be Ushio's schoolteacher--small universe.
But then Ushio gets sick
The exact same sickness Nagisa had.

And all throughout her being sick she tells Tomoya that she wants to go on another trip, but Tomoya tells her that "we'll go when you're all better Ushio."

But at one point Ushio tells him "No, it has to be right now."
So there they are, out there in the snow, with little Ushio looking so adorable in her snow suit.

She tells Tomoya she can walk by herself until she suddenly can't move anymore and the snow is coming down hard.
"Daddy, are we at the train station yet"
Tomoya lies to her and tells her that they're already at the meadow they were a few episodes ago and that they're already on the train there. He says this as he's hugging her to his chest with the most pathetic look on his face.
Then Ushio's eyes swell up and she says "Daddy, I love you."

And she dies, just like that. It's one of the most fucked up scenes I've ever seen and it doesn't fail to just make me cry like a little bitch, hell I'm already on the verge of it just TALKING about the damn thing.

I don't know what it is about Clannad in general or this scene in particular that gets me so emotional
Maybe it's the score to Snowfield and that's why I constantly use it for background music when writing the saddest shit I have for fanfiction or maybe it's just the "Adult Fear" it plugs into you with Ushio's death and everything leading up to it, but one thing is for certain: this is going to go down in history as the saddest fucking thing I've ever seen until another anime DARES to challenge it.



Well, that's all I got for you tonight folks.


I'm going to bed.



Ja ne!