Mobile Suit Gundam AGE/Tear Jerker

Despite the series' controversial art style, Gundam AGE has turned out to be a pleasant surprise for the Gundam fandom with its sheer number of moments of awesome and heartwarming. It has also caught Gundam fans off-guard with truly devastating moments.

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• The flashback showing "The Day the Angel Fell." While working in an office, Grodek hears from one of his colleagues that the UE have destroyed his home colony. His reactions from the horrible realization that his wife and daughter were still in the colony makes it hard not to cry.
• The second half of episode 14, specifically when Yurin gets forced into a pink UE mobile suit and fights Flit against her will. One can't help but feel horrible for the poor girl as her mobile suit is tearing up the only boy she ever loved no thanks to Desil mind-controlling her mobile suit.
  • Which leads to Yurin's death itself. She takes Desil's blade for Flit not unlike Four Murasame. Not long afterwards, we're treated to a forest farewell scene, which then cuts back to Yurin's cockpit, where she's reaching for the Gundam. As her helmet cracks and the mobile suit explodes, she goes out with a smile. The music did not help.

Yurin: Flit, living is hard, isn't it...?

• • Gundam AGE probably wouldn't have a Tear Jerker page that is separate from the main Gundam Tear Jerker page if it weren't for Yurin's death. Yeah, it's THAT heartbreaking.
  • And as if that wasn't enough, Flit has another vision of Yurin in the midst of fighting Gerra Zoi and the Defurse. He sees her standing in the middle of the forest of Colony Minsry and races towards her. He reaches her, and the two of them share a loving embrace... that lasts for all of a second before Yurin dissolves into dust in Flit's arms. Good LORD.
• Episode 15 had a lot of depressing moments as well.
  • Sure, Yark Dole might have had zero regrets over the destruction of the Angel Colony (Grodek's home colony.) But he was shown to be a genuinely loving father for his son Arabel and a loyal commander for Vagan. To see Arabel mourn over his father's death is utterly heartbreaking.
  • Pictured above: While searching for Flit, Woolf runs into a dying Vagan soldier. Seeing Woolf realize that the Unknown Enemy are human and befriend the Vagan soldier as he slowly dies in Woolf's arms is devastating to watch.
    • Woolf could barely keep himself together when Adams asks him if the war against fellow people is going to continue. He quietly responds "I think so..." as he clutches to the necklace the Vagan soldier gave him. ;-;
  • And lest we forget, we see Grodek dreaming about returning home to see him reunite with his dead wife and daughter as he's about to get sent to prison for treason. One can't blame him for shedding Manly Tears.
  • Yes, Emily might have been The Scrappy for being concerned about Flit a little too much. But one can't help but feel terrible for her when she comes over to the hangar only to hear Flit mourn Yurin's death as he holds her pink ribbon. The fact that Emily will always be second-best to Flit regardless of what she does, or will do in the second generation, can break one's spirit.
• Episode 18 has Zeheart revealing himself as the pilot of Zedas R to Asemu after defeating the Gundam. Seeing Zeheart trying to explain himself as his friendship with a devastated Asemu collapses is a prime example of why War Is Hell.

Zeheart: (bears a sad smile) Perhaps we could have remained friends. However, as a warrior, there is a burden I must bear. I have a reason to fight. One that I can never forget. ...Do you have something like that? Something that gives you such resolve? Could you shoot, knowing it was me?!

• Grodek's death in Episode 24, full stop. He's about to deliver evidence on a Vagan spy when a grown-up Arabel Zoi stabs him in the back. The final speech Grodek makes to Arabel is even more saddening, considering how his obsession with avenging his family ruined Arabel's and Flit's lives. And to top it off, Arabel himself is killed shortly thereafter, denied the chance to live the remainder of his life free of revenge.
• Episode 26. Woolf's death, full stop. He uses his last moments to offer one final encouraging speech to Asemu even as he loses the strength to speak. I´m expec… great thin…
  • When the Diva registers the loss of the G-Bouncer, they immediately open a channel to Asemu. All they hear is the sound of him sobbing.
  • Even Flit, who by this point is a ruthless and unfazeable commander, tears up a bit at this event.
• Episode 27. Obright trying to rescue Remi from her ruined repair unit after Mink's attack. He desperately tries to convince her that she's going to be okay while she talks sadly of the family they could have had. He even gets out of his Genoace and reaches her cockpit to pull her out, only in time to see her last moments.
• Episode 32 Shanalua flatly refuses Kio's plea to return to the Diva because she'd be executed for spying, which is bad enough for the kid. When they both come under attack moments later, she defends him from a Vagan mobile suit at the cost of her life and tells him that he has to be strong and live, while she reaches for the photo of her sister taped in her cockpit.
• Episode 34: Glatt Otto of the Phantom Three dies whilst almost avenging his fallen comrade Deymon. He even cries upon his own death because he could not avenge him. Then their leader cries having lost two comrades to a Gundam. It's made even more poignant when Zeheart tells Fram Nora the names of the soldiers who died and to remember their names.