Azumanga Daioh/Tear Jerker


 * The bittersweet graduation episode. By the time you get to it, you've gotten to know these girls, been with them for three years of their lives and about a month of yours, and then you're saying goodbye and never seeing them again. Osaka's question about dying in the Post Episode Trailer leading up to the episode, while obviously meant as a joke, did not help. The really heartbreaking part, though, was the "curtain call", in which the girls bow and thank the audience against a plain white background.
 * Hey! The anime had runtime of half a year and the manga had THREE years in Japan! And the manga was a strip too! (Side note: This troper cried on both).
 * Not to mention Yukari's answer. (And it could very well be as little as a day or two, depending on how quickly you go through the DVDs. But that could be considered "having too much free time".)
 * It just hit me... A whole year's worth of Japanese high-schoolers probably started class at about the same time the manga started running, and doubtless some followed the manga to the end... And wound up saying goodbye to Yukari and her class at the same time as they parted ways with their own real-life classmates. That had to be heart-breakingly poignant.
 * Hearing 'Raspberry Heaven' for the final time in the series. "I'll say goodbye to sad faces". *Sob*.
 * The song that plays during the very last scene as all the characters walk away DOES NOT help at all as it's both somber and happy, a musical cue that things are truly over. Appropriately enough it's called We Will All Stay Together Forever.
 * Sakaki right before and during their departure from Iriomote Island.
 * And her finding a news story that, as well as Maya's.
 * That part may also double a bit as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, since as soon as he shows up, it is to defend Sakaki against the mean local cats. Indeed,.
 * Any of the episodes focusing on Sakaki's fruitless attempt to pet a cat. Admittedly, it makes the ones with Maya sweeter, but still...
 * A lot of the little things are tearjerkers in AzuDai. A really good example is one episode when, near the end, the girls are going home through a park and find a jump rope abandoned by some little girls. What do they do? They start playing with it, and soon enough everyone other student in the main cast is just there playing in the fading sunlight. Somehow just seeing these characters and the friendship they deep down really have for each other is one of the most poignant in the series.
 * Kagura, after she (and Tomo) made the marquee to collapse... ;_;
 * Kagura again, when she asks whether she could bring a souvenir home from school after graduation.