Osamu Tezuka/Tear Jerker
The god of all anime and manga Osamu Tezuka. All of his more famous works were aimed towards children right? There's no way that he'll put in stuff that's so depressing, that will turn even adults into a mess of tears right? Heck, his works that aim towards older viewers probably isn't that bad either. I'm all out of tissue paper, but I think I'll give some of this anime of his a watch...
- There is a reason many are traumatized by the 1997 Jungle Emperor Leo movie.
- And the manga, some episodes of the sixties series, the eighties remake was built on this, and even the slightly fluffier 2009 remake is brutal in some parts, using friggin' Toto to boot. It's safe to say the purpose of the series is to reduce you to a blubbering mass of tears.
- Really makes you feel worse if you watch the 1989 ED with Leo and Lyra as downright adorable cubs, considering what happens to them in the end of the manga and movie.
- Quite a few scenes involving music count for this. For instance here's Snowene/Eliza's poem. For context, this plays as a very young Kimba swims from the only comfort he's ever known as his mother drowns. Yet the poem itself....manages to make the scene painful and uplifting at the same time. Done again when Kimba sings to his dead father's pelt trying to find inner strength.
- The ending of Unico and the Island of Dreams. While the villain is soundly defeated and everyone returns to normal, Unico is swept away to another land, never to see his friends on the island again. And keep in mind, he gets his memories erased whenever he's sent off to a different land!
- One chapter had a medical student whose entire family had died of cancer and whom was also dying of cancer. His goal was to successfully treat one cancer patient before he died. In the end he succeeds, but when the operation is over, it's revealed that he died at some point in the middle of the surgery and miraculously completed it anyway. Black Jack notes that he died with a smile on his face, having accomplished his goal, and comments "He's probably bragging about it to his family right now." *Sniff*.
- The laughing classmate anime adaptation. Or basicaly everytime a mention of his past friends is made.
Other Works
- Pretty much anything by Osamu Tezuka has at least one moment that could do this. This troper is fairly certain that his lifework, Phoenix, has about two Tear Jerker moments per volume.
- In Future, Rock's final, almost flippant acceptance of his death turning a surprisingly heartwrenching Go Out With A Laugh (even though you're crying) moment; plus Yamanobe's eternity of solitude and failure, followed by the realization that really, all he can do is dump the genetic beginnings of life into the ocean and hope it does something on its own.
- His take on the life of the Buddha lives and breathes Tear Jerker moments. You'd think after eight double-thick volumes it would get old and Narm-y. You'd be wrong.
- The Inescapable Cycle of Karma thing can be pretty hard to grasp, both from an in-universe and a meta-perspective. The fourth or fifth time you see someone suffer or die unnecessarily because it is their fate to suffer or die, you may have to take a break to mop up your tears/curse the futility of living.