Elfen Lied/Tear Jerker

• Most of Elfen Lied, but particularly the heart-wrenching last episode. Who'd ever thought you could care so much about regretless killers?
  • Read the manga for a double helping of melancholy.
  • Mayu's past does it for this troper, as does Mariko breaking down when she realizes her father is (seemingly) about to kill her. And from the manga, Diclonius #28. Poor, poor #28...
  • The scene where Mayu's puppy gets taken away was the one that got me. I made it through the backstory, and then there was this, and I couldn't hold it in any longer.
  • The entirety of Kouta not being able to forgive Lucy for killing people (namely, his father and poor Kanae), despite that she had been living nothing but a never ending hellish nightmare ever since she was born, and was dealing with an uncontrolable, psychotic side within her, but she still just wanted to be loved by someone (Kouta) is what makes this troper break down and cry.
    • While certainly a very sad scene, and possibly the only real failing Kouta ever showed, I don't believe he ever knew about the details of the puppy's death or her torment,and possible betrayal by the little ditz/friend. In fact, I don't think either anime or manga has him told, outright or perhaps at all that it was his innocent lie about his cousin's gender, meant to protect Lucy's feelings, that triggered the tragedy at the fair, and onboard the train. Or if he did somehow know or guess, its important to recall that her stated reasons for killing Kanae and their father, as well as threatening Yuka, were to have Kouta all to herself. As far as he was concerned, he gained a new friend, one he loved deeply, and the last time he saw her, she casually ripped his little sister in half. Him cradling her upper torso was a real tear-jerker. Kouta calling her out on her psychotic inner voice may have been insensitive, but this was the first time he'd heard of this--I'm certain it sounded like an excuse, though it might very well have been truer in her case, due to her status as Diclonius Queen. Perhaps a later talk with Nana might have shown him that there was something to what she said, after all.
      • Kouta doesn't know anything about Lucy's past. Hell, NO ONE except Lucy and the viewers know about her past in full. Arguably, this makes the whole situation even more tragic. Had she not killed Kanae and Kouta's dad, not only Kouta would've still had his daddy and Kanae (who knows how different things would've been), Lucy would've been through less heartbreak... and specially one that she brought upon herself, unless the other things that happened.
  • Five words (manga only): "And then, I killed Nyuu."
  • For this troper, it was in the final episode where Kurama and Mariko hear the timer go off and close their eyes, and we see a grainy film of still shots from the life they could have had, with Kurama and Hiromi raising her. It was the last one, with her going happily off to school and them waving to her...
  • What does it for me is Mariko starting to giggle as she begins to torture Nana. She was born a perfectly normal little girl with a mother who loved her. She could have grown up in a nice house by the ocean and gone to school. She could have had friends and a favourite novel. But instead she was locked up away from any hope; they made her into this irreversibly broken creature with no joy in life other than beating the brains out of someone else.
  • This troper is heavily emotionally affected by stories involving homelessness and abandonment, so he teared up for most of Mayu's scenes (especially the scene when Kouta and Yuka give her a birthday cake).
  • For this troper, it was Nana's final line at the end of the series: "There are so many wonderful things in this world. So many... good things..." The line was just so powerful after Nana is get beaten half to death, watches the man who has given her reason to live commit suicide with his real daughter, and finally finds the capability to connect with fellow diclonius Lucy just moments before she faces the music.
  • How about in the anime when Nana was being sent to battle by Kurama... and she asks for the pretty ribbon around his neck? (his tie)
  • Young Lucy:

"I wish somebody would hold me close now"

• • • broke my heart
  • Also at the very end of the manga when Kouta finds Lucy/Kaede's letter

See you again!!!
I will always, always treasure this stone.
Ah, I want to wear a wedding ring...
To Kouta
From Kaede

• • • Especially touching when we see Kouta breaking down in tears after reading the aformentioned letter. This proved this troper that despite all the horrible things she had done, he will never stop loving her.
    • I can't even write this entry without crying... Just to think about how things could have been, and how desperate young Kaede must have been for any kind of love at all to be so grateful for even the little bit of warmth and comfort she received from Kouta.
    • What really got this troper weeping was the few pages before that. We see Kouta along with the rest of the characters at the spring festival. He then leaves stating that he has to meet up with a friend. Cut to Kouta standing in front of the stone where he and Lucy used to meet and where he promised to meet her after the spring festival before he had to leave. The next panels then show him coming alone regardless of weather to the same place year after year showing that he hadnt forgotten his promise and continuing to keep it despite Lucy already being dead. Of course the ending shows that she was reincarnated but Kouta didnt know that and it was heartwarming for this troper to see his waiting pay off though she continued crying for a time afterwards.
    • And then... Kouta's daughter sees her two twin friends arrive and they tell her that they've been waiting for a friend for a long time, which basically implies that it's Lucy reincarnated. Just seeing the now older Kouta turning around and crying because he found Lucy again had This Troper sobbing long after the manga ended.
      • They were wearing ribbons in their hair, weren't they? This troper took them to be two new Diclonious from the virus who escaped persecution.
      • It couldnt be a coincidence that they happened to come to the same spot where Kouta and Lucy used to meet.
• Pretty much everything that involves Kurama, Nana and Mariko and Mariko's clones in the same scene. Especially near the end when Kurama mentally breaks down after the death of the original Mariko, who committed a Heroic Sacrifice Redemption Equals Death to save him. And Nana sees him like this.
  • That Mariko tells Nana to take care of Kurama for her before going off on her Heroic Sacrifice. After that happens, Nana breaks down crying over Mariko and all the wonderful things she'll never be able to experience now, and later puts flowers at her grave. That it took till the moment of Mariko's DEATH for Mariko and Nana to finally feel for one another as sisters....*Sniff!*
• More from Lucy's past, when her Start of Darkness begins and she begins seeing hellish hallucinations. This troper has always felt shunned and mocked for being different, so needless to say, it touched a very sore and emotional spot.

"Hey horned-girl! You're not a human, you're nothing but an ox."
"Stupid girl. It's because you trust humans, even though you aren't one yourself. You're different from us because you're not a human... even betraying you doesn't hurt inside that much."
"Could I ever feel anything close to love for a weird girl with horns?" "Then why... have you been so nice to me?" "Because I adore strange animals."

• I can't believe nobody has mentioned Kouta's last words to his sister before she is killed by Kaede on the train. "Don't say that about my friend! I will hate you forever!", she turns around and begs him not to hate her but before he has a chance to reply the person that Kouta was DEFENDING uses her vectors to rip her head off. She had seen Kaede slaughtering people at the festival and was trying to warn her brother, but he just called her a liar and said he hated her a few seconds before her murderer proved her right. No wonder he was so messed up afterwards.
  • Then there's thinking about the scene from Kanae's point of view. Once she sees Kaede on the train rather than run away and hide her reaction is to push Keade away and place herself between her brother and Kaede as a shield telling him to get away. Let me reiterate this: A 6 TO 8 YEAR OLD GIRL WENT OFF AGAINST A PSYCHIC MASS MURDERER WHOM SHE KNEW COULD KILL AT A DISTANCE TO SAVE HER BROTHER FROM DYING. That took guts and it was tearjerking to hear her yelling at Kaede not to kill her bro only to her efforts rewarded with a slap to the face by the brother was trying to protect and him saying he hated her. At that time this troper wanted to slap Kouta himself and yell: "Hey you, your sister's telling you the truth about that horned girl. You know, the horned girl who tried to strangle you for no reason not a while ago followed by a promise to kill her if she started killing people, implying that she was homocidal. Yeah that girl. So dont you hit your little sister whose trying to spare you a gory death and say you hate her."
• For This Troper, the tears always start flowing when watching the OVA when Aiko Takada, one of Lucy's only friends, dies taking a bullet for her. Lucy's reaction and her pleas to Aiko to hold on really drive it home; you can see her world falling apart as her only other best friend dies right there in her arms. The manga chapters that cover this are even worse, showing just how close the two girls had been to reuniting Aiko with her mother before she died.
  • What really pulled at this troper's heartstrings was the scene where after Lucy reveals her powers to Aiko, her respond is not to reject her but take it in stride and later ask her to go on a painter's retreat with her which they sadly never got to take. It is terribly tragic since Lucy finds a new friend willing to accept her for who she is and had seemed to learn from her past relationship with Kouta making her less Yangire: she refuses to kill Aiko's father to avoid making her cry, is willing to take the blame when her friend accidentally kills her father, encourages Aiko to seek out her mother and allows herself to be captured without a protest in exchange for Aiko receiving medical care. She dies anyway leaving Lucy to spend several years of living hell for nothing
  • What makes it even worse for this troper is that near the end of the manga when Kouta takes the bullet for Lucy at the top of the lighthousethere are two side-by-side panels of the shootings.
• The several breakdowns in the manga. Mayu crying for her father to stop, when Unknown Man tries to rape her and Nana crying over her dad come to mind.
• The scene with the puppy in Lucy's childhood. Earlier on it was stated that Kaede had suffered constant bullying at the hands of Tomoo and his gang, which had gone to the point of driving her to shut off her emotions in order to deal with the constant misery, refusing to become like them and start tormenting someonne else. Then one day, she finds a stray puppy and grows attached to it, then she proceeds to tell her new friend about the puppy, what does said friend does? She tells the bullies, that's what she does! Cue Kaede being forced to watch as Tomoo and his croonies beat the little cub to death. This ultimately becomes the last straw that pushed Kaede over the edge, leading her to awaken her deadly powers and slaughter everyone in the room. Now, while this moment can be see as her rightfully punishing the little devils that made her life a living hell, one has to remember that here is where Lucy begins her deadly quest to terminate mankind, ultimtely leading to one of the most tragic love stories in existence. Just to know that her plight could've been so easily averted by the staff of the Orphanage (Who ignored it all because they found Kaede's horns disgusting and her stoic attitue creeped them out) makes me want to break down.
• Several minor characters get harsh or sad send offs. Kisaragi is introduced in the first chapter/episode, as a clumsy, somewhat ditsy secretary. When confronted with Lucy, she is about to be killed, and hopes her death will be noble, Lucy proceeds to rip off her head and use her as a human shield.
  • Saito was a scientist at the research facility, whe is one of the few people to actually like Mariko, as she acts as a mother to her, even though they've never met and communicate over a speaker. When she finally meets Mariko, she is delighted, but Mariko rejects her, and rips her in half. Saitou's last act is to detonate a bomb in her "daughter's" arm (placed there incase she goes homicidal), stopping her from killing everyone. She dies feeling betrayed by what she thought of as a daughter.
    • But in Saito's case, the manga reveals she played with Mariko's head, telling her *neither* of her birth parents loved or wanted her. Certainly, this was a lie in Hiromi's case, and Kurama, his initial intent aside, was kept away from Mariko, the very reason for his 'adoption' of Nana.
      • Saitou's death is indeed subject to debate (Not as much in the anime, where the love was more unconditional). She did manipulate Mariko, but she did seem happy to finally see her, and said she liked her as a daughter. She isn't elaborated on enough for us to know if she was lying about that.
  • Isobe, Kurama's assistant, is portrayed as reserved about his work, and trying to apply morals, when he is sent as Mariko's caretaker, he controls the bombs in her limbs (which he sees as excessive, cruel, and won't stop the girl). She rips off his arm in a rage, but then reveals that she regrets her life of being locked away, and cruelly treated. As she is about to die, Isobe tells her the codes to stall the bombs, wanting her to live. She thanks him, calls him a fool, and reveals that she was joking, and will just keep killing, as Isobe realizes this, he gets decapitated.
    • In the anime, he was just a cruel scientist who didn't appear as much, and had more of a Karmic Death.
• Shirakawa she was a scents who worked in the facility and was subordinate to Kurama. In reality, she's a spy sent by the government (before the Agent), and is in love with Kurama. She collects data on Kakuzawa, and sends Mariko after Lucy, placing the bombs on her. She does this because she feels that if Mariko dies, Kurama will lose his old life and go to her (in addition to Mariko being, well, Ax Craxy and murderous). Her spying is found out, and she is quite graphically raped by the Director in a scene that comes right the fuck out of no where. In the end, she goes to assist Kurama, and tries to save Mariko from Lucy. Lucy decapitates her. Her death wasn't entirely meaningless, her death (along with Isobe and Kisaragi) finally motivated Kurama to just kill Lucy. In addition, her data was enough for the government to recognize Kakuzawa's plan and deploy the Agent.
  • This was tragic because of the Humiliation Conga she suffers, and her death being so unceremonious
• The Agent she breaks into the laboratory, as all of the clones are rising up and killing everyone. She rescues the only living scientist, Arakawa, and saves her from the still functional Mariko clone who had just been released from mind control (the last one released killed Nousou, another scientist). She fights through several clones, running out of room, ammo and hope, and gets to the roof, opting to send Arakawa down a workman pulley. She stays at the roof to operate the controls, sacrificing herself to save Arakawa, in the hopes that she can cure the virus. The Agent just slumps against a wall as the clones surrounding her, dropping her stoic demeanor, and crying, fearing the end, as they execute her.
  • she survives, as the ground gives way, and she falls into an underground passage, still alive. It's notable in that she isn't an important character, and doesn't even have a name, but she still survived in a series where Anyone Can Die
• The closing theme of the anime. It's a very cheerful song about unrequited love.