Shadow Star/Tear Jerker

One top of being one of the most disturbing animanga series ever,  also has no end of gutwrenching Tear Jerker moments.


 * To start with, there's Hiro-chan's arc. Watching her hurts. So does, which the anime version manages to make even sadder by . Actually, the whole arc is pretty harrowing. Poor, poor Hiro-chan.
 * This troper found the chapter about Shiina's first day of middle school to be really sad, but in a semi-heartwarming way. When Shiina fills up the tub and asks her dad if they can take a bath together, like they used to, and he says that they can't, it's already sad enough. But what really made me tear up was the next page, with Shiina crying and telling him that she wants to be his "little Shiina" one last time.
 * The last three volumes have too many tearjerker moments to count, but one of the most memorable and scarring is . Seeing the beloved character literally cut in half by Vulcan rounds just after the insinuation that   is all but guaranteed to leave an impression, even on readers who aren't the crying type. That death scene and the words Returning Home in a Bag may well permanently burn themselves into your mind.
 * And from the same volume, one certainly can't forget . While the way it happens is more likely to bring out tears of pure horror than anything else, bring everything together to make the scene genuinely sad. Those last words, along with that ironic smile, are painful.
 * Volume 11 begins with an extremely miserable chapter - which, as it so happens, is directly related to the above two moments. You know the rest of the volume isn't going to be much happier when, not too long afterwards,.
 * Perhaps one of the hardest-hitting moments of all comes in chapter 65, just two chapters short of the end, which has When you remember that, it's absolutely heartbreaking to read. Right after that ... and finally, just to twist the knife even further, a few pages later there's . God. Damn. You. Kitoh.
 * And of course, the manga ending is incredibly depressing. Shiina started out so cheerful and naive, and by the end,