Black Lagoon/Tear Jerker

• The deaths of Hansel and Gretel. Since the series usually consist of over the top action scenes where dozens of Mooks are gunned down by our heroic sociopath "heroes" without a second thought, an arc that could actually be taken seriously was a severe case of Mood Whiplash. The arc following it was so over the top ridiculous that it actually seemed like an apology to the viewer for putting them through that.
  • The worst part? That was about as close to a happy ending as they could get. The only way to improve it would be for Hansel's death to have been less painful. That is how screwed up these two were. They are little kids.
  • There is a reason the ending of episode 15 is different from normal. Every time you listen to The World of Midnight tears start flowing, otherwise you really are heartless.
• Worse still, the ending of the Tokyo arc, the deaths of Yukio Washimine and Ginji Matsuzaki, and Rock's apparent realization that he's one of the bad guys now.
  • That arc also gives us Balalaika's Start of Darkness. It's especially poignant when you realize that the song playing while Balalaika decides to join the Mafia is the same song that played during Hansel and Gretel's death scenes.
  • And it's not just the ending or Balalaika's backstory. There's also the scene with Yukio telling her kouhai Maki good-bye and asking her to take care of her mother before she abandons her school and takes over the clan, leaving the poor girl in tears and screaming "Sempai, sempai!"... *SOB*
• YMMY, but at the end of Roberta's long arc, it's very sad to see all those genuinely decent soldiers get brutally murdered by her, when they were just following orders. This troper lost all hope for Roberta at that point.
  • This is anime only, but at the end of Roberta's Blood Trail, upon seeing the Nigh Invulnerable Ninja Maid reduced to a half-blind wheelchair-bound cripple with one arm and leg missing one can't help but feel a little sad.
• Near the end of the Hansel and Gretel arc, Gretel tells Rock what she and Hansel went through, relaying her bleak, nihilistic philosophy about life and the world. Absolutely horrified, Rock gives her a hug and tells her that the world can be a beautiful place and should be a beautiful place, especially for children like her. Unfortunately, having had her humanity stripped from her at such a young age, Gretel doesn't respond in the most healthy of manners. Given how disturbingly common Gretel's situation was in Ceaușescu's Romania, it made even this most jaded troper feel something in his eye.