Higurashi no Naku Koro ni/Tear Jerker

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  • Plenty in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, notably Keiichi remembering a past iteration of their Groundhog Day Loop where he went insane and murdered Mion and Rena. Rena's "Believe me" as she stretches out her hands to Keiichi (right before he bludgeons her with a baseball bat) makes it heartbreakingly clear that the events leading to this end were a series of terrible mistakes. Luckily, the scene that follows turns it right around into a massive Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
  • The ending of Onikakushi is tragic enough in the game and the anime, but the manga pushes it right into Tear Jerker territory when Keiichi's final letter is read over a montage of flowers being placed on Keiichi's desk, the teacher announcing the deaths to a shell-shocked class, Keiichi's parents mourning their son's death, and as if you aren't getting misty-eyed already, it finally ends with Rika comforting Satoko as she sobs her eyes out over losing three of her best friends.
  • This still-image video kicks the Tear Jerker factor up a notch. Or ten. It's Onikakushi from Rena's perspective, and shows just how saddening and confusing it was for her to see Keiichi look so scared and not be able to do a thing to help him.
  • The original scene of Rena and Mion's death itself is pretty heartbreaking too. Especially for me, who went into the series not knowing about the series hitting the Reset Button with each new arc. Revisiting that scene, seeing Keiichi break down and apologize to Mion (who is unaware of what he is crying about), and especially witnessing Rena's last moments and words in the flashback threatened to bring me to tears.
  • The entire Yakusamashi-hen made me cry, if only because nothing bad actually happened until the Yamainu came for Rika, and especially the scenes with poor Satoko near the end when she sees the corpses of everyone in the entire village in her school. Oh, and the first episode of the second season that shows the true ending of Tsumihoroboshi-hen. The flashback with that music playing in the background... * sniffle*
    • For me, Rena screaming her last breath as the scene of her death cuts to the cliff next to her and her hat falling to the river below did it. It left me wondering, Why? Why would the Yamainu do such a thing to her?!
      • The answer is that the scene is taken from Tsukiotoshi-hen and really... doesn't make much sense in the new context. Originally, Rena had reached L5 and was running away from having trapped Keiichi in a burning house. Presumably, the Yamainu killed her in order to both destroy evidence and keep her from becoming a danger to others. ...Probably mostly to destroy evidence.
      • The assumption for Yakusamashi-hen is likely that she happened to come upon the same thing Satoko did... just in progress.
  • The end of the Minagoroshi-hen.
    • It's more of a tear jerker in the sound novels, as this piece of music plays the moment Takano shoots Keiichi in the head and it continues throughout the murders.
  • Towards the end of the Meakashi-hen arc when Shion remembers Satoshi's last words to her, just a little too late. She only recalled them after she has tortured Satoko to death... and Satoshi actually asked her to protect his sister.
    • This troper finds Satoko's last words about her nii-nii even more sad. She just... felt so bad...
    • The manga version of this is pretty tough to sit through. After the rush wears off, Shion has this kind of dazed and disbelieving look on her face, which gets worse when she sees a vision of sorts of Satoko and Satoshi, who sternly reminds her of his last request. She then touches the stab wounds, and when the full full realization of what she's done hits, she embraces Satoko's body and absolutely bawls her eyes out over what she's done and become. Of course, that all goes right out the window a few minutes later when she's all "Screw it", but still, tough to watch.
    • Despite everything she did in this arc, this troper bawled at Shion's death, and her last minute promise that next time, things would be different. They somehow mangaged to make it worse in the manga, where after falling from her balcony, Shion has a series of fantasies about being part of the main group; having lunch with them, treating Satoko like a little sister, all the things she never got to do because of her estrangement from her family. This culminates with her asking, "But... is this okay? Is something like this... really okay?" Cut to her shattered, lifeless body at the foot of the building.
      • And of course her final words printed on that page over her lifeless body: "im sorry for being born"
    • This troper still has of yet to get the visual novel for Meakashi-hen, so she doesn't know when it plays, but she wonders what the anime would have been like had this piece of music played during the last moments of the arc.
  • The ending theme of the anime always makes this troper shed a few tears, or at least sniffle a little, despite the fact that it seems the sort of thing he would be laughing at for the hilariously bad english. And this troper barely ever cries at anyting.
  • "I just want to live a happy life, that's all I want. I want to have fun, and laugh, and spend my days surrounded by all my friends. Nothing more than that. Am I asking for too much and I just don't know it? ...I don't want to have to die." Oh, Rika...
  • This troper gets misty whenever any character asks the question, "Why did it become like this?" In her opinion, this is the most tragic line in the entire series.
  • This one has wet teary eyes when thinking about the ending of Himatsubushi-hen. when Rena finally realized that her friends were there for her and helping, they all died and left her the only person alive
  • This troper burst into tears upon seeing Shion torturing and stabbing poor little Satoko to death in front of the imprisoned Mion, because of Satoko's attitude towards the whole thing. "Nii-nii! I'm strong now!"
  • In episode 13 of Kai, Keiichi getting shot by power-crazy Takano; the fact that he tells everyone to make a run for it and Mion crying and then sacrificing herself as well doesn't help things at all.
    • The VN and Manga version is worse. Hanyuu stops time, so everyone sees the bullet before it hits him, and talks about it. Keiichi gives a speech, everyone is either bawling or ready to bawl, and then time strats flowing again. He's shot, and Takano's men go at the gang for the last kill.
  • Hanyuu's past in a game-exclusive arc, where her own daughter calls her a demon and then kills her. The fact that said daughter cries at the end and says she loves Hanyuu makes it worse.
  • FINGERNAIL. PUNISHMENT. That is all.
    • It Gets Worse: The third fingernail Shion had removed was not for Satoshi. It was for herself. The Sonozaki family had absolutely no sympathy for anyone in the Houjou family. Even children that had nothing to do with the dam project, other than being descended from people who were. It's no wonder Shion goes batshit and leaves dead the village head, her grandmother (by accident), Satoko, and (presumably) her own twin sister.
      • That last one is confirmed, when Keiichi is asked if he was sure it was really Mion who gutstabbed him, since her body was found in the well and had been dead for some time by then.
      • Later on, in Kai, we find out that the Sonozakis weren't involved at all in Satoshi's dissapearance. Still, if someone empathizes with Shion, who has no idea about this, and never seems to find out...
  • Heck, almost every time a character's Dark and Troubled Past is revealed, it's a Tear Jerker if you like the character enough, the strongest ones being Shmion's past, Satoshi's dissapearance and Miyo's life in the orphanage.
  • The ending of Watanagashi-hen in the manga was absolutely heartbreaking to this troper. Keiichi had bought another doll just for Mion and was wishing that things hadn't screwed up so badly so he could give her the doll and they could be happy. When he sees Mion, actually Shion, standing outside, he goes to give her the doll, only to be stabbed in the gut. The last pictures with him trying to clean his blood off of the doll almost made me burst into tears.
    • Likewise with the sound novels. Not so much with the anime though... He doesn't bring a doll in that adaptation.
  • While this troper considers himself a jaded stoic who didn't break down during the series (plenty of Heartwarming Moments, but not Tear Jerkers) the song "You" and its lyrics did the work instead, and now becomes teary-eyed whenever hearing it, recalling the Good End they finally earned.
  • Miyo's arc in itself is a Tear Jerker. Also in this arc we see Satoko's parents, and how, and why, they died in an almost-flashback.
    • The manga version of Miyo's arc is honestly one of the most heartwrenching things this Troper has ever read. The punches start when the recently orphaned Miyo is dropped off at her new orphange. The anime plays this fairly ominously with the orphanage worker glaring at her as soon as the social workers leave, but the manga version decides to have a brief Hope Spot to make things worse. "Oh, oh look! He's patting her head, just like her dad used to do to! Surely this guy can't-" SMACK.
      • But what's truely the saddest thing in this arc is seeing Miyo trying to adjust to life with her "grandfather". After he rescues her from the Orphanage of Fear there's a scene showing the two eating, and remembering her punishment, the girl vomits. She then freaks out and tries to clean it up, thinking he won't want her if she's "dirty". And when the man tries to comfort her like her dad did, little Miyo can only remember the jackass from the orphange, and recoils in fear. This shouldn't happen to a little kid.
  • Tatarigoroshi-hen's ending in the manga. Keiichi and Satoko find Rika's half eaten open corpse. After a few moments of crying, Satoko notices Keiichi is holding a hooked machete (Rena's too). Enter more crying and pleading here. Then Keiichi being pushed off a bridge. To make matters worse, a few hours later a battered Keiichi wakes up and walks to town. He sees the dead body bags and after a bit comes to notion that his friends and everyone he loves are dead. His life can never go back to normal. The arc ends with Keiichi saying he wants everyone to die.
  • How about most of Meakashi, mixed with Nightmare Fuel?
  • This Troper may be alone on this, but she cried when,in the Tsumihoroboshi manga and VN, Rena denies she's sad, and keeps saying that she finally got her happiness.Then she tries to laugh,but ends up crying.This made this Troper bawl her eyes out.
    • The entire duel between Keiichi and Rena on the school roof. Especially when Rena says, "If I win, I'd like for it to be the same reward as yours... I'd like you to greet me in the morning with "Good morning", and "Good night" at night" as well as her breakdown and recovery afterwards.
  • Okay, final arc of Kai, the nakama is in the Sonozaki basement, and Kasai and Shion are buying them time to escape. Mion starts yelling for Shion to come down already. Gunshots. LOTS of gunshots. Rika, on the verge of tears, says "No, no, I don't want to give up anyone! ...This is the final world. I don't want this! I don't want a future in which Shion or Kasai die!" and starts bawling. That's bad enough, right? But it gets worse. When Irie is about to give himself up so everyone else can escape, Rena says, "If you go, then what did they (Kasai and Shion) fight so hard for?" and Mion shouts back, "Then what? Are you saying Shion should die?", Satoko delivers this tear-jerking masterpiece: "Please, stop it, Mion! My heart is about to burst as well. After all, Shion is my Nee-Nee." Mion, and this troper, BURST into tears.
    • I was pretty much used to the violence and death at this point, and didn't care much that Shion and Kasai might be dead. After all, everyone is always okay again in the next world, right? Right? Then I remembered that this was the final world, and started being terrified.
  • Episode 4 of Rei when Rika wakes up in the hospital to see Irie there. I started shedding tears believing Rika had actually done the action. The rest of that scene was so heartwarming though.
    • There's still a chance that she actually did it though.
  • A bit of Fridge Horror for you: In Watanagashi/Meakashi, This Troper just didn't forgive Shion because of two characters that suffered a bit too much: Mion and Keiichi. Mion never wanted the Yakuza Princess position, felt really guilty of taking Shion's place because of an accident both caused, was completely unable to do anything for Satoshi, which we see she tried (same for Rika there), stripped three nails because of this very same guilt, has to see her sister become crazy because she fell in love with someone (needless to say, more guilt), and has to see all her friends murdered and tortured by Shion. Keiichi thought he had hurt a girl that liked him and made her go crazy (not at all wrong), tried all the way to make things right and died thinking all the killings were his fault, and that Mion was the culprit, when it was Shion that did it all. And more: There are people on the internet that say that all the killings by Shion were completely justified. Then why did she stab Keiichi, who knew nothing about her backstory and was actually trying to set things right, just wanting to see Mion smiling again? Nice job there, Shion.
    • Let's not demonize Shion. That's the tragedy of this series. If there's a series that personifies Poor Communication Kills, it's Higurashi. Also, how is that Fridge Horror?
    • Not demonizing, just not completely justifying.She does learn from her mistakes and helps the cast in later arcs.And this Troper think the person above tried to do a failed Take That to the aforementioned Fan Dumb.
    • I actually believe that most of the deaths, save the last two caused by Shion were somewhat justified. We have a Yandere who just lost their love. I would have been surprised if they weren't dying if Shion thought they caused it. Mion and Keiichi's deaths can only be explained with "temporary" insanity, but just because It can be explained doesn't mean I think the last two were justified.
  • There were a few fanfics that won a contest and were officially made into non-canon manga. "Limit" mixed Nightmare Fuel with Tear Jerker, however Hinageshi-hen and Nienagashi are this. In the former Mion is off at college and comes home for a festival. A myth is that if a doll is not set, then the person will die. Mion returns, but her friends are avoiding her. She finds where the dolls are one day, and finds hers is missing. She becomes paranoid. Turns out hers broke and they were fixing it. The Tear Jerker is the end, which is post "gas accident" and Mion is the only survivor. For the latter, the Tear Jerker comes when Satoko almost drowns in a river. Keiichi comes to get her, but due to the rapids and the fact he can't swim he isn't much help. Keiichi remembers a story he heard on how a boy let go his friend to save himself in that river some time ago, and he begins to think of that. He lets himself go. He ends up in class, but is a ghost. He thinks everything is fine until he sees his friends crying, then figuring out how stupid his decision is. Turns out it was All Just a Dream after he sacrificed himself to save Satoko, and both of them are safe.
  • I, truly, almost never cry. But this song, I feel, could very well be a Tear Jerker or a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming for some people.
  • In the penultimate episode of Kai, Satoshi is revealed to be alive but comatose due to a high level of Hinamizawa Syndrome. Irie says he's too far gone to be cured (though he promises to keep researching). Shion begs to be allowed to visit him and read stories to him, and insists she'll be there for him until he wakes even if it takes years.
    • If the lyrics in the series of songs in the Yours album (Sorayume, Sora no Mukou, Confession, Thanks) are to be believed, and if they're canon, then Satoshi does indeed recover.
  • YMMV, but this troper always feels a little sad when Shion beats Satoko in episode 16. I mean, Satoko annoys the hell out of me, but SHE'S A LITTLE KID. She and her family have been shunned by all the people in the village except for a few people, and now one of her friends (Shion disguised as Mion) is beating her up and telling her to suffer and die alone.
    • She tried to kill her, so she does deserve sympathy.
  • Most of the versions of Dear You are this, but hope, Rika's version, is the worst.
  • Kokoro Musubi. Now the song itself is heartwarming, but then there's that very last verse that represents Shion telling Satoshi that everyone is waiting for him to wake up. Cue the escaped tears.
  • Rena's confession about the murders of Rina and Teppei Houjou to her friends in Tsumihoroboshi arc. When Keiichi asks her why she did not tell her friends about her struggles, her response is especially heart-rending.

Keiichi: Why didn't you ever talk to us about it? We're your friends right? We're supposed to be like family! If you had talked to us, we could have helped! We wouldn't have let you get your hands dirty! If we had worked together, we might have reached a better future than this one!
Rena: A future better than now? There's no such thing. This is the best future.

  • Also, her belief that you can't rely on your friends for help; that you have to suffer alone and solve your problems by yourself. Who knew that under her cheerful facade; Rena was feeling so much sorrow and bitterness?
  • It was only a brief moment, but this troper found Mion's death at the end of Minagoroshi-hen, which was as if she was following Keiichi at that. But what really got me was when Mion silently waves goodbye to her sister, right before getting shot by Takano. Poor Mii-chan.
    • What really got this troper was when Mion touches her blood-covered hand just before that, the one that Keiichi held when he was dying. That made my heart break. Really, poor Mion.
  • I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet but this from Tatarigoroshi-hen definitely counts. Expecially heartwrenching for this tropette because she'd just started liking Sotoko in this arc.
  • Takano's breakdown after Tokyo has abandoned her research, and the Yamainu are being arrested. She's scratching at her throat from repressed level 5 Hinamizawa Syndrome, Okonogi smugly tells her to shoot herself (because her sponsor plans to make her a scapegoat anyway), and when the Banken come for her, she desperately screams and grabs at her grandfather's notebook. Luckily Tomitake notices she's sick and arranges for her to be sent in for treatment, but damn was that pitiful. "I just wanted someone to tell me...that it was okay for me to be alive..."
  • "Which is green? Broccoli or cauliflower?" "Broccoli." "Correct." For those who don't understand, Takano is about to shoot Satoko but will spare her if she gets this question correct. Why this question? Satoko is said to be a bit color blind so she can't tell the difference between the vegetables. However, even if she did make the right choice, Takano still kills her.
  • For some reason, the ending song of the first season (Why, or Why Not?) always makes me feel sentimental and depressed, especially when I realized that the lyrics sounded like they were describing Hinamizawa Syndrome. "The sound of footsteps became louder every day, then I realized the fact that there was no time."
  • Shion's breakdown while asking if she can visit Satoshi and talk to him (despite the fact that he's in a coma) is one of only two things in this show that made me cry. It's hard to tell in the anime, but it looks like Satoshi starts crying while she's talking.
  • Any time Keiichi brings up His awakened memories of his situation in Onikakushi-hen in Tsumihoroboshi-hen is this
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