Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann/Tear Jerker

Later, buddy.

• Kamina's death. Cue Manly Tears, Girly Tears, and ALL other kinds of tears, dammit. The moment deserves it.
  • This troper would like to add that what makes it even worse is the Hope Spot. You'd really think it's a Disney Death, what with his snarky "Can't a guy get any sleep around here?" line and then performing Giga Drill Breaker for the first time...except that through the whole thing, his voice is straining, and instead of a long, drawn-out death speech to kill to mood, he sums it all up in two gut-wrenching words: "Later, buddy"... followed by Simon's "Bro...? Bro...?"
    • Or in the Japanese version: Abaiyo, tachiko. Followed by Simon's Aniki? ... Aniki?.
    • It gets worse. After Thymilph's death, Simon is watching the sun come up with a massive smile on his face... and then he realises that Kamina's dead.
  • Pay close attention to Gurren's status screen in the episode. Notice the icon representing its pilot? It's black. He was already dead. Which, actually, makes that even more tear-jerky when you realize Kamina refused to die until he was absolutely sure Simon and his team were safe.
    • The pilot icon being black doesn't necessarily mean death. Could just mean unconsciousness.
      • Word of God stated that Kamina did indeed die, and that he came back to life to avenge his own death and save his team. Kamina is now my Jesus
  • I knew it was coming, I was sad when it happened, but it didn't really hit me. That he was gone. Gone for good. I realized this later, when he came back, and I then I cried. No manly tears, just crying.
  • This Troper bawled his eyes out of his fucking SKULL when he heard Kamina screaming in immense pain from being run through,both mech and body, by Thymilph's Condemn Blaze attack. His mom was certain that his sister had hit him or something.
  • Kamina's death was a Flat What moment for this troper, who it didn't fully hit until Nia was introduced. For some reason, it was that moment that turned on the waterworks. Perhaps it was because my first thought when I saw her was that she was Kamina reincarnated, not having quite accepted his demise yet. And the she started talking like she was all new to this earth... Out of left field, that was.
  • This troper knew the moment was coming, because he reads this website with the spoilers off, and still cried when Kamina died. Then he cheered when he got back up again, before continuing to cry with the last words of the episode.
    • Seconded. There is no "prepared" to see it. In fact, I think knowing what was happening made it even sadder.
    • This troper also knew it was coming because Netflix decided to mention it in the description for the movie. It actually still managed to be a shock for me though, since Kamina got up and kept fighting with a quick funny line. I immediately thought his death would be in a later episode. And then he was gone.
    • I pretty much knew it was coming because Kamina had a "When I get back..." line. Whenever a character says that before a big battle or something, they're pretty much signing their death warrant.
  • Simon's Heroic BSOD in the following episode was almost as tear jerking. Seeing him so broken, utterly distressed and hopeless was enough, but then this line comes... "I killed my brother. So I'll become stronger. I've got no choice but to become stronger. I'll fight on behalf of my brother, too." His breakdown a second after that was heartbreaking too.
  • Again, seconded. This troper was crying for episodes after Kamina's death watching Simon and Yoko grieve. She could feel their heartache. It was not helped by the entire crew's utter lack of belief in Simon the entire time. Not surprisingly, when Simon overcomes his grief, understands that he has to believe and have confidence in himself, and literally shakes off the tears after his emotional speech, this troper found herself at tear jerker danger level 2.
    • An absolutely horrible moment comes right before that, too. Kittan is arguing with Simon about the latter's refusal to treat piloting Gurren-Lagann as a team effort, and Simon snaps that he never asked for anyone to replace Kamina as Gurren's pilot, and that it'd be better if he just operated Gurren-Lagann alone. Kittan then grabs Simon by the collar and yells, "If you'd have held it together, Kamina wouldn't be dead right now!". Simon's expression, and the fact that Kittan had just explicitly placed the blame on him for what had happened the week before, when Simon was already in the depths of despair blaming himself, drove this troper to angry tears.
  • This troper, thanks to this site, knew his death was coming. I sat there, the whole episode, reveling in the explosions and hot-bloodedness, but the whole time, I was chanting, "He can make it, he can make it." I have only cried at a small number of things, but the moment the episode ended, I was sniffling back things that were most definitely not tears. No sir.
  • This Troper just made an account so she could say something about this. When Kamina died, I cried, and not just any cry. I did the ugly cry. The cry when your face gets all twisted and your nose is running but you probably don't notice because you're so freaking sad. I've cried over movies, video games and anime before, but never like this.
    • Thank you for giving me the perfect way to put into words what I did countless times throughout this series. "The Ugly Cry." There's no better way to put it.
  • This moment was reenacted in Super Robot Wars Z 2 and there's nothing you can do to stop it.
  • This Troper did not know this was coming the first time I watched it, so it was really a shock for him! (Like the above Troper who "cried ugly," I made an account just to mention this.)
• This single line from episode 27 sums it up quite nicely, and is also a CMOH "Well Nia, I'm here, Just as I promised."
  • Also, this troper found Nia´s disappearance right after her wedding to Simon, especially the aplomb she faced it with - smiling until the very last second so as to not make Simon sad - to be a huge tear jerker in its own right. Goddamnit, Gainax, give one of your series a genuinely happy ending for once.
    • They did.
      • Twice.
        • And if we go to video games... Multiple times!
    • I can't cry, at anything. Ever. I don't know why, I just can't. But when I saw Nia disappear, even I shed a few tears for the first time in a very long time. Even worse is the credits sequence right after, which has Simon walking alone with Boota. Even though it's the exact same as it was in the other post-timeskip episodes, it has a whole new subtext behind it that made me even sadder. I can't even hear the music that plays on it anymore without thinking about that. And now I'm desperately trying to write a fanfic that brings her back without Spiral Power or plot holes. I normally hate fanfic. What the hell is happening to me? DAMN YOU, GAINAX, STOP MAKING ME FEEL THINGS!
    • This troper must have cried about six times in the last five episodes, but Nia disappearing while telling Simon she loves him had her crying the hardest.
• This troper teared up at the brief shot of Viral playing with his daughter in his alternate reality dream.
  • This troper found herself saying, "Oh, come on! Oh my god, no!" repeatedly aloud during that scene. It pushed her over into small fits of uncontrollable tears. And it was not the first time either.
  • Which is made even sadder when you realize that that's the only thing Viral ever really wanted.
  • And yet, it's the one thing he can't ever have.
    • This troper would like to add almost the entirety of the alternate reality for her, including the above scene and the fact that when Yoko and Kamina stand together for the last time, they're in the same place they were in when they kissed before Kamina died. This troper isn't sure why this is so damn sad to her.
      • Seriously? She had just seen any number of possible turns her life could have taken on a TV. Famous and loved Bounty Hunter, amazing beauty queen, and her and Kittan on their wedding day right before the first kiss of their wedded life together, before she turns off the tv playing them and then you throw in the above. The only way it could have twisted the knife harder was to have another guy there standing silently as she said goodbye.
    • This troper totally seconds Viral's alternate reality dream as one of the best moments from that sequence, but certainly not the only to invoke his Manly Tears.
      • Just to add context Viral is a beast man and therefore can't reproduce due to their lack of Spiral energy.
      • To make it even worse, Viral managed to go Beyond the Impossible and make Spiral energy to form Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, but still won't ever be able to have a family because there will never be another Beast(wo)man who also has it. He does get a wife in the epilogue, but no children and he'll outlive her due to his Immortality.
      • Oh god, seconded/thirded/whatever. This Troper hadn't cried at any of the previous scenes in the series, but the entire dream sequence, combined with the music, just made him completely lose his composure and start sobbing like a baby.
      • Also worthy of being mentionned is the dream sequence of Lord Genome where he is seen in a school as a teacher. He didn't live the life he would have liked.
  • And this editor teared up at both the above scene as well as during episode 25: Kittan's death, the former because it was so unexpectedly heart-wrenching, and the second because it was heart-wrenching in addition to being completely awesome.
    • Shortly before that, when the team discovers the Death Spiral Machine, a slow piano-and-violin song^[1] plays in the background that doesn't appear in any OST releases. It accompanies the scene's dialogue so perfectly that the emotional impact is like being hit in the chest with a sledgehammer.

Dayakka: So many Laganns were sacrificed...
Leeron: The space ocean is where the Spiral race's tears end up...

• • • That moment has a bit of uncomfortable humor, at least in the dub. I'm pretty sure Kittan knows he's not coming back, and immediately tries to set himself apart from Kamina in saying "I ain't sayin' no showy crap, like 'Later, buddy' or something lame like that!" It's funny because after everything that's happened he's STILL trying to one-up the guy! And it doesn't even work, since the fans still talk about Kamina's death a lot more than Kittan's.
  • This Troper found a different moment within Episode 26 to be a true, straight-up Tear Jerker. Kamina and the adult Simon are standing side by side on the hill where Simon first found Nia. Kamina looks curiously over at Simon, leans over, and with a smile on his face utters the words "Looks like you've grown taller than me." Kamina's not just talking about his height, but also commenting that Simon's become a man greater than Kamina was in life. The scenes after are heart-twisting, to be sure, but that one alone, that single acknowledgment never fails to send a shiver down my spine and threaten my eyes with water.
    • And yet, nobody in the fandom seems to recognize that Simon is the greater man than Kamina, thanks to the latter's status as a Decoy Protagonist, Memetic Badass, and Ensemble Darkhorse. But Kamina himself did.
  • The episode where Rossiu tried to kill himself.
    • This was REALLY bad for this editor. He constantly compared him to his brother in an odd sort of way. Can you guess what happened? When that scene happened for me - FLOOD. GATES.
  • This TTGL AMV,set to "Welcome to the Black Parade". Compresses all the CMOAs and Tear Jerkers into 5-and-a-bit minutes and syncs them to a song that could have been written for the series - "He said / Son when / you grow up / would you be / the savior of the broken / the beaten and the damned?". The tears really flow at the end when it shows you Nia's grave adorned with her wedding bouquet and veil.
    • This troper is usually stone-faced during tearjerky moments. That video made him cry Manly Tears by the gallon, though.
  • Episode 2: Kamina finds his Dad's skeleton in the desert. Going back from the end of the series, other than Nia's death, this is probably the saddest moment in the series. Kamina's death non-withstanding for awesome factors.
    • Seconded. Just listening to him scream "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!" at the top of his lungs like that is heart wrenching. Dammit, why?
    • Third. The fact that finding out about the fate of Kamina's father foreshadows Kamina's death later on makes it even worse.
  • Episode 27: everything from the very beginning to the Title Card, including the greatest In the Name of the Moon speech ever in a work of fiction. Like so many other things in this series, the awesomeness is enough to bring you to tears, but this is the culmination of everything that's happened so far and the start of the Final Battle, so it deserves special mention.
    • This troper burst into happy tears at the moment when from the gigantic Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Simon finally emerged inside Lagann itself to pierce through the Anti-Spiral King's heart with its drill, bringing everything full circle in a way that was just so goddamned perfect.
      • It gets better when you realize that it was the same attack that Simon used to destroy the first Gunman in the first episode. Full circle indeed.
    • For some reason, this troper was fine for the entirety of that episode, even through Nia's disintegration and Simon's farewell, up until the point in the epilogue when Simon helps the kid open the nut or whatever that was. The kid says that Simon's really something, and Simon begins to respond with, "Of course, who the hell do you think I--" and cuts himself off with, "Well, I guess I'm not really anyone important..." when he sees the kid isn't paying a bit of attention. Somehow, that's what got me sobbing uncontrollably.
    • This troper agrees with the above. Somehow, if there is one idea I find far, far sadder than killing off the main character, it's revealing that they just aren't needed anymore.
    • The moment right before Lordgenome sacrifices himself, when he comments that, he wants to use his temporary body to ensure a future for the Spiral races. Cue Nia looking down sadly and agreeing with him, then briefly fading, warning us of what's going to happen at the end of the episode. The first time I watched it, I was too hyped up on the awesome to really catch the meaning, and it was a bit of a Flat What for me. Ever since then... Especially with the look on Simon's face when he realizes that winning means that the love of his life will cease to exist. And then she gently reminds him that he doesn't really have any other choice.
  • In episode 10, Simon recalls a time in the past when he, Kamina, and several other people became trapped underground. He mentions that while he kept digging and digging desperately, quiet and fearful, Kamina kept on laughing and talking and joking in high spirits, keeping everyone cheerful throughout a situation that would terrify any sane person -- and Simon wishes that he had the power that Kamina had to inspire people and keep them from giving up. Then, in episode 11... there is a flashback to the night before Kamina died, when he and Yoko were "alone" under the moon. Kamina recalled the same incident to Yoko: while he was just fooling around and talking, Simon kept steadily drilling with his back to them, never stopping or taking a break, and eventually got them out of the cave-in... and so he wished that he could be like Simon -- "I wanted to be a man whose back would never break". For the mutual admiration that had existed between the two "brothers" all along, and for Simon's never having really recognized his own strength, however different it was from Kamina's, this troper came dangerously close to completely breaking down in happy/sad tears at the latter flashback, and the Crowning Moment of Awesome that followed.
    • Not to mention, Kamina was actually putting up a facade the entire time.
• In episode 26, Simon's multidimensional labrynth scene. Specifically when Kamina appears and gives him the whole "don't you remember you were the method to my madness?" speech, and Simon chokes out "is it really you?" Made me choke up, and I'm definitely not the kind of person who often gets emotional from watching anime. Part of it is that this scene is really well-acted in the dub.
• One line from The Movie actually made me feel bad for Viral, after the heroes have killed all the Spiral King's generals and their henchmen:

Viral: Why...why am I the only one left alive? ...You'll pay for this, human scum.

• The aftermath of the battle with the Anti Spirals in the movie. We see what happens when they get back to earth, with the bittersweet scene of Nia recieveing her dress from the butler... then there's a sudden cut to Kittan's picture, with flowers, and then it pans out to reveal a silent scene all three of his normally cheerful and stoic sisters bawling their eyes out uncontrollably, to the extent that one of them has even collapsed on the floor. Those few seconds makes this troper tear up every time.
  • There's a milder version in the series. When Nia receives her wedding gown from Coco, the background has Dayakka hugging Kiyoh with Kinon and Kiyal (latter with her back to the camera, almost completely off-screen) standing next to them, wiping their eyes with a sad expression.
• What really made me tear up was the end of the "alternate universe" sequence in Lagann-Hen when we see Simon's alternate realities. As Simon snatches his core drill, we're teased with the image of him smiling as he's holding a baby. While it's not specified who's child it is, it's safe to assume that it's Simon and Nia's baby. Those few seconds get me every time.
• The one scene in Lagann-Hen when Nia tells her body "Just a bit longer. Okay?" made me tear up. She knows that she can't hold out much more before she vanishes. After that Nia hands Yoko her diary as a sort of farewell gift. The latter could also qualify as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming. But once you realize that Nia's diary was composed of letters to Kamina, Yoko's long deceased lover, it just makes the exchange even more bittersweet.
  • Seconded. While Nia's disappearance in the original anime was depressing to watch, it wasn't enough to make this troper cry, due to having heard spoilers that depicted the scene as a lot more tragic than what was actually shown. However, the moment Nia tells her body to hold out, the tears began to flow and only got worse as the scene went on.
• Parallel Works 2's "A Sense of Wonder." While there's no spoken dialogue other than some lyrics towards the end of the song, it made me cry the first time I watched it. Like they say, a picture (or an animation in this case) is worth a thousand words.
• The second confrontation between Adine and Nia borders on Break the Cutie, and Nia's only been in the show for two episodes.

Nia: That is what happens when someone dies. People suffer. And yet here you are, saying two grieving parties should hurt each other! Don't you think there might be something wrong with that?!

• "Listen, Simon. Never forget this. Believe in yourself. Not in the Simon that I have faith in. Not in the Kamina that you believe in either. Believe in the Simon...who believes in you." The first time, the speech is delivered while Kamina is dying. Three episodes later, it returns with even more impact. After Simon spends three episodes blaming himself for Kamina's death and trying to find a way to take up his Bro's mantle, Simon remembers Kamina's words and finally finds the strength to resume moving forward.
• This troper might be alone in this one, but a particular scene that made him tear up was the scene before the battle that led Kamina to his unavoidable doom. The scene being, Kamina and Yoko kissing... and Simon seeing them (having, then, a crush for Yoko), then running to Lagann, putting his head between his knees, and repeating to himself: "it's none of my business. It's none of my business. It's none of my business". Ever happened to you, a girl/guy you liked choosing your friend over you? It hurts. You can't hate your friend, but you can't pretend it doesn't bother you either. And the scene just capture that feeling so well...
  • You're not alone.
• Kinon explaining to Simon how Rossiu really felt when he sentanced Simon to death. We see him in his room, bawling his eyes out. You realize right there that that was the hardest thing he's ever had to do.
• Yoko Littner's love life in general is massive double whammy in sheer hell for her, but the real Fridge Horror comes in the end, where the Distant Finale shows her having aged pretty poorly, with her figure having taken a considerable hit and her face presumably not shown because of the ravages of time, but the real knife twister is the fact she's basically withdrawn from others and it's obvious she's given up on love due to the pain she's gotten as a result.
  • This troper has to say that this interpretation of that scene seems to be assuming too much from one glimpse.
  • That may be looking a little too much into it. While it's true that she probably did give up on love, she's still teaching the future generations of surface children, which is really what she had planned to do prior to the whole anti-spiral crisis.
• Every single member of Team Dai-Gurren went out with a smile. Every single one. And every single smile brings forth a torrent of tears. This made episode 24 the most difficult to watch for this troper, because six characters died, and they were all just so happy they they could help. The worst was probably Makkan's. He sacrificed himself to save his wife and kids, and didn't even get a chance to say something cool. He just knew it's what he had to do and he did it with gusto.
  • Made so much worse by Leite whispering "Darling..." as her husband died...and still managing to hold it together in a situation that would practically destroy most of us.
    • In the original she says "Daddy" which is almost humorous in that it still makes this troper break down.
• When Simon finally snaps out of his Heroic BSOD, his rousing My bro is dead... speech made this troper summon all of his Spiral Power to hold back the tears... I succeeded with great difficulty.
• This troper cries when he hears "Libera Me from Hell." No specific reason, it just fills me up with so much... emotion, you get it? I hear it, and then it's like I'm feeling everything I felt while watching TTGL. The sadness of Kamina's death, as well as Kittan's, the sheer hot-blooded joy of beating Lordgenome, the raw hope and happiness when Simon gives his "My Bro is Dead," speech, the despair of fighting the Anti Spirals, the rage against Roiusseu, and the wide range of emotions that the finale caries. All of this... unlocked in a single song.
  • Made worse when the Libera Me is translated. A prayer that petitions for God to allow a sinner to be saved from the fires of hell entirely by mercy... (Eternal rest grant unto them, oh LORD, and may perpetual light shine upon them)
• This troper broke when the entire team Dai-Gurren was imprisoned, about to be executed, and freaking out... Until they saw BSOD'd Simon steadily drilling through the rock.
• This troper is too emotionally distraught from reading this page to remember the specifics but in the episode when Nia is being called to the Anti-Spiral government for analysis after Simon has realized why she has shown up at such crucial moments earlier, Simon gets through to the Nia we know. When her voice suddenly returns to her normal, gentle one, combined with what she says, it sets this troper off.
• This troper assumes that this wasn't particularly common among fans but she cried repeatedly seeing all the characters aged the first time alone. Explaining it is difficult but it's something to do with their youth being over. Probably not so subtly tied to her own nostalgia for the past.
• Honestly, this troper cried so frequently and hard throughout the entire series that she was seriously concerned that something was wrong with her hormone balance. Ironically, the show devastated her core drill.
• Yoko is about to get into Gurren's cockpit for the first time since Kamina died, and she pauses and looks at the seat and you just know exactly what she's thinking.
• While most of the examples involving Nia focus on events in the last third of the series, her introductory arc deserves some mention as well. Seeing a girl with a sweet and sunny disposition learn the truth about her birth, awakening, and abandonment is hard to take. To borrow a phrase from another show that aired in the same season, there's a reason she's a "walking pillar of moe."
• This troper has been an anime fan for years now, and no other show has made me go through such a wide range of emotions like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has. Even still, every time I rewatch the series I shed manly tears the same as I did the first time I saw the show (ie. Kamina and Kittan biting it EPICALLY, Yoko's fate, Simon and Nia's fate, every fight scene EVAR, etc.) As an IRL example of a CMOA, I'd like to express my delight to find this page and find out that I'm not the ONLY PERSON IN THE SPIRAL UNIVERSE to love TTGL so much! This show is so AWESOME that it affects the real world.

1. ↑ resembling one of the One-Woman Wail sequences of Libera Me from Hell