Clannad (visual novel)/Tear Jerker

CLANNAD. Where you can cry along with the characters.

Clannad, Dear, GOD, CLANNAD....

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Kyoto Animation seems to enjoy making the first arc as tear-inducing as possible, which is simple enough for a Key Visual Arts game.

• Case in point: The ending of Fuuko's arc in Clannad. This troper was in tears upon hearing Fuuko's sister explain that her condition had worsened and she might never wake up, almost guaranteeing that she would disappear from everyone's memories. The next episode managed to be even moreso. Clannad may not have as many Tear Jerkers as other anime, but damm it has the most tear jerking ones.
  • In Fuko's arc, there was one particular scene that got me; it was when Sanae started to forget her after she'd visited Fuko's body in the hospital. What made it worse was that she knew it was happening, and was inconsolable, on the floor, asking through her tears if Fuko was there and if Fuko knew that she'd always be welcome at the Furukawa house... It's ramped Up to Eleven when you notice that Sanae is basically acting like a newly-blind person reaching out to someone she knows is there, but of course can't see anymore before she breaks down. Dammit, TV shows shouldn't be able to do this to me.
    • Whenever Nasiga is reminded of how she may lose her memory of Fuuko eventually, she holds onto her like a teddy bear! *sniff*
    • The Japanese version of that scene is especially heart-wrenching thanks to Kikuko Inoue's superb performance. She sounded absolutely destroyed by the fact that she couldn't see Fuko. She was screaming and sobbing to an incredible extent. It was a very hard scene to watch for me, personally.
    • Only thing that might top that that I can think of is when, the morning after their impromptu party with Fuko, Tomoya and Nagisa wake up--and wonder what the two of them had been doing there.
    • It's even worse when you remember that Fuko was lonely for a very good percentage of her life and just recently got new friends for support. Then the memories of her disappear from her friends' minds more quickly than they appeared; she was, once again, alone. However, through that, she still stood by their side in wait until they could see her again, and sure enough, they eventually do. It was at that moment when this troper completely lost it.
  • Another Fuko moment, though more in a tears of joy sense, is when the starfish Fuko has been handing out through her entire arc finally pay off, succeeding in getting the entire school to attend her sister Kouko's wedding. And this is only capped by Kouko herself getting a starfish from Fuko.
• Nagisa the character is basically a Tear Jerker with legs. She's a shy, timid, ill girl from a happy family who is gentle to a fault, gets emotional easily, has unclear ambitions, sings an old children's song that no one appreciates, and occasionally gets so sick that she has to skip a good chunk of school, which leads to her having to stay back a year. Twice. While seeing all her other friends graduate and leave her. It explains a lot when the whole show is about her. Poor thing...
• Not to mention Ichinose Kotomi. She's basically every element of Tear-Jerking Nagisa has Taken Up To Eleven. Let's see...she's about forty times as shy, timid to the point of being incapable to so much as hear anyone but Okazaki, her first friend who's completely forgotten about her, much less speak with anyone. She's just as gentle, being the only female love interest who doesn't actively force anything on Okazaki. She also sings an old childhood song...in an attempt to have her first friend and first love Okazaki who was Put On A Bus, remember their past time together-and he doesn't remember. Her parents are dead after breaking a birthday promise- YMMV leading to her attempting to burn down the house with her in it. AND she's been living alone since that, which is at least 5 years ago. And since she's so shy/smart no one's approached her in that time except Okazaki, she's been alone in her grief for all those years as well. To further twist the knife Okazaki winds up choosing her newfound best friend Nagisa over her, even though she's been in love with Okazaki since she was a kid. Broken Bird indeed.
• Yusuke Yoshino's got a bit of Tear Jerker combined with Fridge Horror. Pop star whose career dies after he takes to singing about the plight of the sick and dying? What does that say about us? It gets worse when you consider that he was driven to drugs specifically BECAUSE he cared.
• Oddly enough the ending song, Dango Daikazoku, while fairly happy in actual content, also evokes sadness for some reason.
  • Just wait till you see who sings it to whom in After Story.
    • It also comes back when Tomoya invokes the Reset Button Ending. Cue to both Nagisa and Tomoya singing the Dango Daikazoku song to newborn Ushio. This Troper was crying tears of joy when that scene occurred.
      • Probably would have killed myself if he hadn't reset.
• Kappei's arc in the Visual Novel where Ryou and Tomoya visit him in the hospital to convince him to have the operation on his leg. It goes as far as Ryou talking about marrying him and having a family. As touched as he is, when he mourns over the fact of losing it, what does Ryou say next?

Ryou: Even if you lose your leg, you'll still have arms to hug me.

• • Awwwww ;_;...
• The ending of Kotomi's arc also did it for others. "Father... Mother... Welcome home."
  • The Teddy Bear in the suitcase is a huge one. Your plane is going to crash and you and your wife are going to die. You have a suitcase that will most likely make it through the crash in one piece and you can either save potentially world changing research or the gift you promised your daughter for her birthday; the last gift she would ever get from you. What do you do? You make sure that your baby girl gets her goddamn gift no matter what!
• Misae's arc in Clannad After Story. "I'm sorry I couldn't be with you until the end of the festival."
• Episode 16 of After Story, namely, the part where Nagisa dies.
  • This troper was so heartbroken by the end of the episode, that he thought he was going to die from uncontrollably crying for five minutes straight.
  • Heck, just watching the OP with all the Nagisa images on the next episode is heartbreaking. Way to twist the knife there Kyo Ani.
    • I'm not entirely sure that does it justice. This Troper still breaks down in tears over the OP, even knowing how the series ends. God, that music...
    • Want to make it worse (or better, depending on how much you like the feeling)? Read the lyrics. "Making breakfast for three" . . .
  • This Troper has only cried twice watching anything, the first was when he was five watching The Land Before Time, when Little Foot's mother died, and at the end of this episode, watching the preview. He thought Tomoyo was going to become like his father, and almost couldn't bare to see how his daughter would turn out.
• Episode 17 was equally unbearable. All the cutsie anime antics could barely cover up the fact that Tomoya is still recovering from a Heroic BSOD that lasted five years. That, and his daughter and he are barely speaking to each other, very much like how Tomoya's father emotionally abandoned him after his mother's death.
• Episode 18 got this troper, who laughed at the ending of Grave of the Fireflies, to burst into uncontrollable tears for the next five minutes. Just... "Daddy."
  • This troper lost it when Tomoya finds himself unable to finish telling the tale of Nagisa to Ushio, breaking down in tears and crying out her name. ^[1]
  • The whole second half of Episode 18 is the ultimate combination of Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, Tear Jerker, and it drives the whole spirit of the anime straight into your heart. It truly has the potential to change your view on life forever. (It did to me)
    • This troper agrees it did change her view on life.
    • This troper found himself holding tears almost whole episode (18). Once it ended it wasn't possible to hold them anymore... Literally collapsed... Major Tear Jerker... You have been warned.
    • What broke it for this troper was how damned cathartic the whole thing was, given its Generation Xerox Taken Up to Eleven . This troper found he couldn't move for at least half an hour.
• Episode 19 was equally heartwarming. "It's great... it's... great..."
  • Remember Nagisa's parents? Yeah, those comic relief ones. Watch this episode.

Akio: It's all right, you know? You've done well. Now it's your turn to cry.
Sanae: Akio-san...
Akio: Even with all hope gone, I'll still help you. I'll be here until you stop crying. So it's all right now.

• The return of a certain song in Episode 20. "Daddy, can you sing Mommy's song?"
• Kyo Ani and Key are sadistic bastards. Episode 21: Ushio dies in Tomoya's arms from the same sickness that claimed Nagisa.
  • "Daddy? I love you".
  • Tomoya later dies as well.....because of a broken heart.
• Earlier on for this troper was Tomoya's marriage proposal to Nagisa.
  • Which, like another game, is more sadder when you know what happens to Nagisa
  • For this troper, it was Tomoya finally snapping after visiting his father in prison. His marriage proposal lightened the mood, but not before he bloodied his knuckles and Nagisa struggled to calm him down.
• Let's just agree on the entire After Story
  • I'll do you one better: the whole damn show.
    • Yes. The whole damn show.
      • No. The game, the show, the manga and everything else in between.
        • Everything related to Clannad (No matter how small) definitely counts.
• To show you just how tearjerking it is, it moved this troper to a Heroic BSOD, and at times, nearly this close to crying. And all he did was watch 3-4 clips (Drunk Nagisa, Nagisa Dies, Ushio Dies, and the Reset Button Ending.). When he talked to a friend about this, he summed the show up in these lines: "This girl, who just graduated from High School after having to be held back for a few years, dies giving birth, and five years later, her child dies, then the main character, who was her dad, dies of a broken heart." His response was perfect, almost a mirror to Psyga, mind completely blown. When he spoke of What happened to Tomoya he had this to say: "Broken Heart? Screw that, if I were him, I would have killed myself." And when Psyga told him about the Reset Button Ending he thought Psyga was making it up. That is the power of Clannad.
  • I agree with your friend. Tomoya's life is one massive Player Punch!
  • He did kill himself in a way. After his daughter died, he just laid there in the snow, holding her until he froze to death.
• Tomoyo's route in the game is unusual in that Tomoya and her hook up quick and you're lured into a sense of peace with Tomoyo waking Tomoya making him lunch and helping him study in between sessions of sweet nothings and kissing...then the game destroys this by apparently the entire student body working to break them up; and they do. The most painful part? Watching Tomoya return to his old ways punctuated with the heart-wrenching line "and now the last thing Tomoyo gave me...is gone." When they get back together in the ending this troper cried different tears
• Thanks to watching the movie, this troper stopped watching After Story after episode 15. And when he finally decided to watch the whole show from start to finish he found even funny or heartwarming parts to be tear-jerkers thanks to knowing that nagisa dies without knowing about the grand finale. In particular: in Fuko's first appearance after her arc Nagisa asks if they've met before and fuko says that she doesn't have to remember now since they will meet natually someday this troper thought they never did and every time Nagisa promises to be with Tomoya forever.
• Kotomi's breakdown upon seeing a bus accident. Serious props to the voice actor- this was the scene that made me realize that the series was worth watching.
  • It's Less Disturbing in Context, Kotomi's parents died in a plane crash and the thought of another loved one dead freaked her out.
    • About that? Kotomi never got to say goodbye to her parents and in fact, said that she hated them instead. Thus is why she fears the worst if such an accident happens again. Less Disturbing in Context? More like in-story Harsher in Hindsight!
• For me, the parts that really made me cry were Tomoya's father's arc (it made me wanted to call my parents and tell them how much I love and appreciate them), the moment when father and daughter hugged each other for the first time, and when Tomoya was telling Ushio about her mother and starting crying halfway through, quietly repeating "Nagisa..." (perhaps the most tear jerking moment in the entire series, less so in the game since its a lot more powerful to hear Tomoya's voice.) Essentially though, everything in After Story after and including Nagisa's death.
• This troper actually cried more on Tomoyo After's ending. When, after 5 years of memory resets and without remembering Tomoyo, Tomoya decides to have surgery. He actually then remembers Tomoyo... but after five minutes, he dies. And I was actually a supporter of Tomoyo x Tomoya.
• After watching this show, listening to some of the music such as Distant Years, Snowfield, The Places Where Wishes Come True II, Uminari, and Nagisa's Theme will make you cry.
  • Think that's sad? Listen to this mash-up after watching the series.

1. ↑ This very moment is pictured above. T___T