Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann/Tear Jerker



"Dayakka: Leeron: The space ocean is where the Spiral race's tears end up..."
 * . Cue Manly Tears, Girly Tears, and ALL other kinds of tears, dammit. The moment deserves it.
 * This troper would like to add that
 * Or in the Japanese version: Abaiyo, tachiko. Followed by Simon's.
 * It gets worse. After Thymilph's death, Simon is watching the sun come up with a massive smile on his face... and then he realises that
 * Pay close attention to status screen in the episode. Notice the icon representing its pilot? It's black. He was already dead. Which, actually, makes that even more tear-jerky when you realize
 * The pilot icon being black doesn't necessarily mean death. Could just mean unconsciousness.
 * Word of God stated that  and save his team. Kamina
 * I knew it was coming, I was sad when it happened, but it didn't really hit me.  I realized this later, when he came back, and I then I cried. No manly tears, just crying.
 * This Troper bawled his eyes out of his fucking SKULL when he heard
 * was a Flat What moment for this troper, who it didn't fully hit until  was introduced. For some reason, it was that moment that turned on the waterworks. Perhaps it was because my first thought when I saw her was that she was  .   Out of left field, that was.
 * This troper knew the moment was coming, because he reads this website with the spoilers off, and still cried when
 * Seconded. There is no "prepared" to see it. In fact, I think knowing what was happening made it even sadder.
 * This troper also knew it was coming because Netflix decided to mention it in the description for the movie. It actually still managed to be a shock for me though, since
 * I pretty much knew it was coming because Kamina had a "When I get back..." line. Whenever a character says that before a big battle or something, they're pretty much signing their death warrant.
 * Simon's Heroic BSOD in the following episode was almost as tear jerking. Seeing him so broken, utterly distressed and hopeless was enough, but then this line comes... "" His breakdown a second after that was heartbreaking too.
 * Again, seconded. This troper was crying for episodes after watching Simon and Yoko grieve. She could feel their heartache. It was not helped by the entire crew's utter lack of belief in Simon the entire time. Not surprisingly, when Simon overcomes his grief, understands that he has to believe and have confidence in himself, and literally shakes off the tears after his emotional speech, this troper found herself at tear jerker danger level 2.
 * An absolutely horrible moment comes right before that, too. Kittan is arguing with Simon about the latter's refusal to treat piloting Gurren-Lagann as a team effort, and Simon snaps that he never asked for anyone to . Kittan then grabs Simon by the collar and yells, "If you'd have held it together, ". Simon's expression, and the fact that Kittan had just explicitly placed the blame on him for what had happened the week before, when Simon was already in the depths of despair blaming himself, drove this troper to angry tears.
 * This troper, thanks to this site, knew  I sat there, the whole episode, reveling in the explosions and hot-bloodedness, but the whole time, I was chanting, "He can make it, he can make it." I have only cried at a small number of things, but the moment the episode ended, I was sniffling back things that were most definitely not tears. No sir.
 * This Troper just made an account so she could say something about this. When, I cried, and not just any cry. I did the ugly cry. The cry when your face gets all twisted and your nose is running but you probably don't notice because you're so freaking sad. I've cried over movies, video games and anime before, but never like this.
 * Thank you for giving me the perfect way to put into words what I did countless times throughout this series. "The Ugly Cry." There's no better way to put it.
 * This moment was reenacted in Super Robot Wars Z 2 and
 * This Troper did not know this was coming the first time I watched it, so it was really a shock for him! (Like the above Troper who "cried ugly," I made an account just to mention this.)
 * This single line from episode 27 sums it up quite nicely, and is also a CMOH "Well Nia, I'm here, Just as I promised."
 * Also, this troper found - to be a huge tear jerker in its own right. Goddamnit, Gainax, give one of your series a genuinely happy ending for once.
 * They did.
 * Twice.
 * And if we go to video games... Multiple times!
 * I can't cry, at anything. Ever. I don't know why, I just can't. But when I saw  even I shed a few tears for the first time in a very long time. Even worse   I can't even hear the music that plays on it anymore without thinking about that. And now I'm desperately trying to write a fanfic that   I normally hate fanfic. What the hell is happening to me? DAMN YOU, GAINAX, STOP MAKING ME FEEL THINGS!
 * This troper must have cried about six times in the last five episodes, but  had her crying the hardest.
 * This troper teared up at the.
 * This troper found herself saying, "Oh, come on! Oh my god, no!" repeatedly aloud during that scene. It pushed her over into small fits of uncontrollable tears. And it was not the first time either.
 * Which is made even sadder when you realize that that's the only thing
 * And yet,
 * This troper would like to add almost the entirety of the alternate reality for her, including the above scene and the fact that  This troper isn't sure why this is so damn sad to her.
 * Seriously? She had just seen any number of possible turns her life could have taken on a TV. Famous and loved Bounty Hunter, amazing beauty queen, and, before she turns off the tv playing them and then you throw in the above. The only way it could have twisted the knife harder was to have another guy there standing silently as she said goodbye.
 * This troper totally seconds  as one of the best moments from that sequence, but certainly not the only to invoke his Manly Tears.
 * Just to add context
 * Oh god, seconded/thirded/whatever. This Troper hadn't cried at any of the previous scenes in the series, but the entire dream sequence, combined with the music, just made him completely lose his composure and start sobbing like a baby.
 * Also worthy of being mentionned is the dream sequence of He didn't live the life he would have liked.
 * And this editor teared up at both the above scene as well as during episode 25:, the former because it was so unexpectedly heart-wrenching, and the second because it was heart-wrenching in addition to being completely awesome.
 * Shortly before that, when, a slow piano-and-violin song plays in the background that doesn't appear in any OST releases. It accompanies the scene's dialogue so perfectly that the emotional impact is like being hit in the chest with a sledgehammer.
 * Shortly before that, when, a slow piano-and-violin song plays in the background that doesn't appear in any OST releases. It accompanies the scene's dialogue so perfectly that the emotional impact is like being hit in the chest with a sledgehammer.

"Viral: Why...why am I the only one left alive? ...You'll pay for this, human scum."
 * That moment has a bit of uncomfortable humor, at least in the dub. I'm pretty sure knows he's not coming back, and immediately tries to set himself apart from  in saying "I ain't sayin' no showy crap, like   or something lame like that!" It's funny because after everything that's happened he's  ! And it doesn't even work, since
 * This Troper found a different moment within Episode 26 to be a true, straight-up Tear Jerker.  The scenes after are heart-twisting, to be sure, but that one alone, that single acknowledgment never fails to send a shiver down my spine and threaten my eyes with water.
 * And yet, nobody in the fandom seems to recognize that . But   did.
 * The episode where.
 * This was REALLY bad for this editor. He constantly compared him to his brother in an odd sort of way. Can you guess what happened? When that scene happened for me - FLOOD. GATES.
 * This TTGL AMV,set to "Welcome to the Black Parade". Compresses all the CMOAs and Tear Jerkers into 5-and-a-bit minutes and syncs them to a song that could have been written for the series - "He said / Son when / you grow up / would you be / the savior of the broken / the beaten and the damned?". The tears really flow at the end when it shows you.
 * This troper is usually stone-faced during tearjerky moments. That video made him cry Manly Tears by the gallon, though.
 * Episode 2:
 * Seconded.
 * Third. The fact that.
 * Episode 27: everything from the very beginning to the Title Card, including the greatest In the Name of the Moon speech ever in a work of fiction. Like so many other things in this series, the awesomeness is enough to bring you to tears, but this is the culmination of everything that's happened so far and the start of the Final Battle, so it deserves special mention.
 * This troper burst into happy tears at the moment when
 * It gets better when you realize that . Full circle indeed.
 * For some reason, this troper was fine for the entirety of that episode, even through  up until the point in the epilogue when   Somehow, that's what got me sobbing uncontrollably.
 * This troper agrees with the above. Somehow, if there is one idea I find far, far sadder than killing off the main character, it's revealing that they just aren't needed anymore.
 * The moment right before The first time I watched it, I was too hyped up on the awesome to really catch the meaning, and it was a bit of a Flat What for me. Ever since then...
 * In episode 10, Simon
 * Not to mention, Kamina was actually putting up a facade the entire time.
 * In episode 26,  Made me choke up, and I'm definitely not the kind of person who often gets emotional from watching anime. Part of it is that this scene is really well-acted in the dub.
 * One line from The Movie actually made me feel bad for Viral, after the heroes have :

"Nia:"
 * The aftermath of the battle with the  in the movie. We see what happens when they get back to earth, with the bittersweet scene of Nia recieveing her dress from the butler... then there's a sudden cut to  to the extent that one of them has even collapsed on the floor. Those few seconds makes this troper tear up every time.
 * There's a milder version in the series. When Nia receives her wedding gown from Coco, the background has Dayakka hugging Kiyoh with Kinon and Kiyal (latter with her back to the camera, almost completely off-screen) standing next to them, wiping their eyes with a sad expression.
 * What really made me tear up was the end of the "alternate universe" sequence in Lagann-Hen when we see Those few seconds get me every time.
 * The one scene in Lagann-Hen when Nia After that  The latter could also qualify as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming. But once you realize
 * Seconded. While in the original anime was depressing to watch, it wasn't enough to make this troper cry, due to having heard spoilers that depicted the scene as a lot more tragic than what was actually shown. However, the moment, the tears began to flow and only got worse as the scene went on.
 * Parallel Works 2's "A Sense of Wonder." While there's no spoken dialogue other than some lyrics towards the end of the song, it made me cry the first time I watched it. Like they say, a picture (or an animation in this case) is worth a thousand words.
 * The second confrontation between Adine and Nia borders on Break the Cutie, and Nia's only been in the show for two episodes.


 * "Listen, Simon. Never forget this. Believe in yourself. Not in the Simon that I have faith in. Not in the Kamina that you believe in either. Believe in the Simon...who believes in you." The first time, the speech is delivered . Three episodes later, it returns with even more impact. After Simon spends three episodes , Simon remembers Kamina's words and finally finds the strength to resume moving forward.
 * This troper might be alone in this one, but a particular scene that made him tear up was the scene before the battle that . The scene being, Kamina and Yoko kissing... and Simon seeing them (having, then, a crush for Yoko), then running to Lagann, putting his head between his knees, and repeating to himself: "it's none of my business. It's none of my business. It's none of my business". Ever happened to you, a girl/guy you liked choosing your friend over you? It hurts. You can't hate your friend, but you can't pretend it doesn't bother you either. And the scene just capture that feeling so well...
 * You're not alone.
 * Kinon explaining to Simon how Rossiu really felt when he . We see him in his room, bawling his eyes out. You realize right there that that was the hardest thing he's ever had to do.
 * Yoko Littner's love life in general is massive double whammy in sheer hell for her, but the real Fridge Horror comes in the end, where the Distant Finale shows her
 * This troper has to say that this interpretation of that scene seems to be assuming too much from one glimpse.
 * That may be looking a little too much into it. While it's true that she probably did give up on love, she's still teaching the future generations of surface children, which is really what she had planned to do prior to the whole
 * Every single member of Team Dai-Gurren went out with a smile. Every single one. And every single smile brings forth a torrent of tears. This made episode 24 the most difficult to watch for this troper, because six characters died, and they were all just so happy they they could help. The worst was probably
 * Made so much worse by ...and still managing to hold it together in a situation that would practically destroy most of us.
 * In the original she says "Daddy" which is almost humorous in that it still makes this troper break down.
 * When Simon finally snaps out of his Heroic BSOD, his rousing  speech made this troper summon all of his Spiral Power to hold back the tears... I succeeded with great difficulty.
 * This troper cries when he hears "Libera Me from Hell." No specific reason, it just fills me up with so much... emotion, you get it? I hear it, and then it's like I'm feeling everything I felt while watching TTGL. The sadness of  the sheer hot-blooded joy of beating Lordgenome, the raw hope and happiness when Simon gives his   speech, the despair of fighting the Anti Spirals, the rage against Roiusseu, and the wide range of emotions that the finale caries. All of this... unlocked in a single song.
 * Made worse when the Libera Me is translated. A prayer that petitions for God to allow a sinner to be saved from the fires of hell entirely by mercy... (Eternal rest grant unto them, oh LORD, and may perpetual light shine upon them)
 * This troper broke when the entire team Dai-Gurren was imprisoned, about to be executed, and freaking out... Until they saw BSOD'd Simon steadily drilling through the rock.
 * This troper is too emotionally distraught from reading this page to remember the specifics but in the episode when Nia is being called to the Anti-Spiral government for analysis after Simon has realized why she has shown up at such crucial moments earlier, Simon gets through to the Nia we know. When her voice suddenly returns to her normal, gentle one, combined with what she says, it sets this troper off.
 * This troper assumes that this wasn't particularly common among fans but she cried repeatedly seeing all the characters aged . Explaining it is difficult but it's something to do with their youth being over. Probably not so subtly tied to her own nostalgia for the past.
 * Honestly, this troper cried so frequently and hard throughout the entire series that she was seriously concerned that something was wrong with her hormone balance. Ironically, the show devastated her core drill.
 * Yoko is about to get into Gurren's cockpit for the first time since, and she pauses and looks at the seat and you just know exactly what she's thinking.
 * While most of the examples involving Nia focus on events in the last third of the series, her introductory arc deserves some mention as well. Seeing a girl with a sweet and sunny disposition learn the truth about her birth, awakening, and abandonment is hard to take. To borrow a phrase from another show that aired in the same season, there's a reason she's a "walking pillar of moe."
 * This troper has been an anime fan for years now, and no other show has made me go through such a wide range of emotions like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has. Even still, every time I rewatch the series I shed manly tears the same as I did the first time I saw the show As an IRL example of a CMOA, I'd like to express my delight to find this page and find out that I'm not the ONLY PERSON IN THE SPIRAL UNIVERSE to love TTGL so much! This show is so AWESOME that it affects the real world.