Rurouni Kenshin/Tear Jerker

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• Just about everything in the second episode of the first OVA.
  • Screw that, the whole first OVA series is a big Tear Jerker. And the original manga/TV series had its moments as well.
• The First TV Episode. Kenshin has had enough pretending not to be the Battousai, and shows for the first time why he has such a strange philosophy to fighting:

"A sword is a weapon. The art of swordsmanship is learning how to kill. That is the truth. What Miss Kaoru says is sweet and innocent talk that only those whose hands have never been stained with the blood of men can believe. But to tell you the truth, I much prefer Miss Kaoru's sweet and innocent talk over the truth, that I do."

• The funeral for Kaoru who wasn't really dead at the time but, hey, we didn't know that!
• Don't tell me you didn't die a little inside when Misao entered the place where Okina and Aoshi fought just in time to see her beloved Jiya collapse before her eyes.
• Towa no Mirai, the ending theme for the movie, tends to do this to a lot of people.
• Don't tell me you didn't cry at least once during either episode.
  • • The Seishohen (Reflections) OVA's ending is also sad because Kenshin and Kaoru die. Of course, if you read the original manga you just might be pissed instead, because the manga's ending is Happily Ever After.
      • The Seishouhen OAV did have genuinely sad moments, like the last time Kaoru and Kenshin make love before he leaves and share a very sad pillow talk, Megumi trying to urge the deathly ill Kaoru to live a bit more so she can see Kenshin a last time, or Sanosuke doing the same to an amnesiac Kenshin in China.
• Soujiro's steady breakdown during his fight with Kenshin is heartbreaking...
  • One can't help but tear up when he pleads with Kenshin. "If you claim to protect the weak, then where were you when I needed you?"
• Kenshin's farewell to Kaoru before he goes after Shishio. No wonder poor Kaoru got depressed (if perhaps excessively so) after that.
  • Surpassed by Kenshin's backstory from the Rememberance arc (animated as the Trust and Betrayal OVA) in which Kenshin accidentally kills his wife Tomoe after being temporarily blinded, by a group of ninjas. She was trying to help him and to not lose her second chance to be happy, and then SLASH. The shock of this causes Kenshin to swear to never kill again, and Tomoe's brother Enishi to swear revenge and to turn Kenshin's life into a living hell.
  • In the series, there are also Yumi's death in Shishio's arms after he fatally stabs her with his own katana and then comforts her as she passes away, and Kenshin's first visit to Tomoe's grave in years. Both of them with the Adagio Cantabile of Beethoven's Path étique Sonata as background music. This troper can't hear said sonata anymore without crying.
  • WTF, people. You have not mentioned the manga scene where Kenshin finds Kaoru's (supposed) corpse and completely breaks down as he believes Enishi has finally gotten his revenge on him? COME ON, I still sob when I remember.
• The end of the first Tsukiokuhen OAV, depicting how Kenshin and Tomoe met. Years have passed since the first time I saw it... and I still am brought to tears like in the beginning.
  • And Sayo's death. God, poor Sayo. The Shimabara arc was the last good part of the anime, and despite having a Bittersweet Ending, Sayo's fate remains a Tear Jerker.
    • The flashback where Shogo and Sayo watch their father die fighting the shogun's forces, then told by their mortally-sick mother to leave her and "become strong as iron", shortly afterwards seeing her shot dead on the beach, and then sailing away with their uncle... past the crucified bodies of everyone in their village is one of the few times this troper cried Manly Tears while watching an anime. And then young Shogo made an oath to become "as strong as God!" and the source of his messianic complex was made painfully obvious.
  • This troper felt tears well up when the oniwabanshuu died protecting their leader. And God, the look on Aoshi's face...!
  • Another Aoshi-related one: when Okina openly asks Kenshin to kill Aoshi since he believes he's gone beyond any chance of redemption. Seeing Misao's absolute heartbreak at that makes it even worse. Poor, poor child.
    • I can keep it together for Okina's request and Misao's inner turmoil. But Kenshin's answer and Misao's response put a lump in my throat, but for a good reason.
  • And what makes me cry just as much, if not even more... Anji Yukyuzan's horribly depressing backstory. My God, Anji's screams of fury and pain when he sees the shrine burned down and his stepchildren dead, specially the teenage girl with a Precocious Crush on him... it never fails to bring the water works for me.
    • Even more when either Anji uses the ashes he pulls from Tsubaki's corpse's burned hands to paint on his own face, with a look of pure hatred in his eyes or when Sanosuke calls out to Anji ("Don't you see these kids crying over the blood you've spilled?!"), then he realizes how gone he has been for years, sees the spirits of Tsubaki and the kids reminding him of his true purpose in life... and is defeated. Waaaah!
• Iwasaki Taku's heartbreakingly gentle and heartfelt musical score for the ending of Rurouni Kenshin: Memories.