History Main / ImCryingButIDontKnowWhy

* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''. Claes has this reaction to seeing a movie that subconsciously reminds her of her previous handler, Raballo, who has been wiped from her memory by the Agency.

* In ''Literature/ScrappedPrincess'', Pacifica starts crying when her [[spoiler:accidental protector and surrogate big brother Fulle]] is killed elsewhere, even though, due to a case of LaserGuidedAmnesia, she doesn't have any memories of him anymore.
* In the ''Manga/{{Karin}}'' manga (not the anime), Karin's vampire family [[LaserGuidedAmnesia removes all knowledge of them from her mind]], so she can live happily without their burdens on her shoulders. When Kenta (who knows about the memory adjustment) asks about her family, Karin starts crying, but she doesn't know why. Cue Kenta's marriage proposal to Karin.
* [[EmotionlessGirl Rei]] does this on two occasions in Episode 23 of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''.
** The first is after her conversation with the sixteenth Angel after it forces her to feel sadness. It's not that she doesn't know what sadness is, just that she's actually feeling physical manifestations of emotion.
** The second is after she [[spoiler:tries to destroy Gendo's glasses, having lost her memories of her time as Rei II]]. She feels sadness, but she doesn't know why.

* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'', when Trowa is pretending to be an OZ soldier, he is ordered to shoot down the (unpiloted) Deathscythe Gundam as a test. He does so without hesitation, but is surprised to see his tears floating in the cockpit afterward.
-->(paraphrased)"Tears...? Are these my tears, really...?!"

* In ''Anime/{{Noein}}'', when Fukuro is killed, across town Ai starts crying without knowing why.
* In ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'', after [[spoiler: Miata's surrogate mother Clarice sacrifices herself to save Miata and, with her last strength, manages to erase Miata's memories of their time together]], Miata still bursts into tears and cannot understand why she is crying for her mother who was killed by yoma years ago.
* In the episode "Runaway Tachikoma" in ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'', Motoko dives into an unknown cyberbrain to try and recover the technician who went in before her and hasn't come back. What she finds inside is a movie theater, and all the inhabitants inside it can't stop talking or watching it. The result of a director who's trying to create the perfect form of entertainment that never gets boring no matter how many times you see it. [[TheStoic Motoko]] watches it herself, and is started to find that she is crying. Hardly anything gives her such an emotional response.
* In ''Manga/TokyoGhoul :Re'', AmnesiacHero Sasaki begins crying suddenly after [[spoiler: tasting the coffee from the titular shop, '':Re'']]. He's immediately puzzled, with no idea why something so simple would bring him to tears. [[spoiler: It's because the shop is run by the survivors from Anteiku, and he unconsciously recognizes the taste]].
* In episode ten of ''Anime/{{Tokyo Magnitude 8}}'' Mirai begins crying when she visits her brothers classroom. She doesn't understand why she is crying at the time. [[spoiler:Yuuki had died a day or two earlier but as a coping mechanism her mind blocked it out and she could still see him as if he was alive. The scene is the start of her remembering he has died]].
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'''s Thriller Bark arc, Chopper learns that the zombies, rather than people brought back to life, are actually just corpses that have been animated by a Devil Fruit power. He gets especially infuriated when the evil Dr. Hogback treats his zombie maid Cindry like an ExtremeDoormat, lamenting Cindry's current state and that a human has more freedom than that. At some level his words strike a chord, causing tears to pour from Cindry's eyes, but, as she says, she doesn't know what's going on. As Robin says afterward, it was probably the only ''true'' miracle on Thriller Bark.

* In ''[[Anime/Danganronpa3 Danganronpa 3: Side Despair]]'' Izuru Kamakura does this [[spoiler: after Chiaki dies in front of him. The tears show that at least some small part of Hajime's personality survived the transformation into Izuru, as while Izuru had no real attachment to Chiaki, Hajime had a significant crush on her.]]
* ''Anime/DevilmanCrybaby'' has Ryo Asuka suddenly shedding tears over [[spoiler: Akira's death -- [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone which he was responsible for, mind you]]]] -- and all the while he's questioning what exactly he's feeling that it's even making him cry.
* ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'': Seeing Garaku's painting of a tree made Suzu tear up and feel nostalgic, even though the tree was torn down over a century before she was born. [[spoiler:She's reacting to subconscious PastLifeMemories of hanging around the tree.]]
* In ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'', Ichika [[LockedInARoom gets accidentally trapped in a storage room]] with Fuutarou, and the two start talking about the bonfire dance the next night, that they're supposed to attend together. Coming to the conclusion that it was all a misunderstanding, Fuutarou suggests they should cancel it, and this causes Ichika to start crying, since she actually ''did'' want to dance with him.
* An episode of ''Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries'' has Ash start crying while eating dinner due to coming to terms with his friend Haruto being DeadAllAlong.

* This is implied to be the reason why [[SatanicArchetype Mephisto]] wanted Peter and Mary Jane's "marriage" instead of their souls in ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay''. He claims that if he took their souls, the eternal torment he would put them through would be tempered by the irrefutable fact that they gave up their souls out of pure altruism. By using a CosmicRetcon so that Peter and Mary Jane never would have married, a small part of them will be forever screaming out that they have lost something precious without even knowing it. [[FanonDiscontinuity You can see why its so popular]].

* In ''LightNovel/ScrappedPrincess'', Pacifica starts crying when her [[spoiler:accidental protector and surrogate big brother Fulle]] is killed elsewhere, even though, due to a case of LaserGuidedAmnesia, she doesn't have any memories of him anymore.

** The ''Distant Lands'' special "Together Again" has Finn crying, to his own confusion, in response to Jake telling him "you did it! Everyone's alive!". This is because [[spoiler:Finn is actually trapped in a LotusEaterMachine and subconsciously knows that Jake and everyone else in the dream has long since died in the real world.]]

* In ''[[Fanfic/MirrorMirrorMyNextLifeAsAVillainess Mirror, Mirror]]'', Sophia has far more incidents of DreamingOfTimesGoneBy [[spoiler:of her past life as a modern Japanese]] than in the ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' canon, and as a result this is a relatively frequent occurrence to her and often needs comforting from her brother Nicol.

* In a ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' side story, Sophia ends up crying unconsciously after having a sad dream, unaware that she was dreaming of [[spoiler:[[DreamingOfTimesGoneBy her past life, Atsuko, coming to grips with the death of the girl who became Catarina]]]]. In the novel, it is loud enough that her maidservant comes in to check for her well-being.

* [[https://bg-redrum.tumblr.com/post/188910247129/im-sorry-i-didnt-upload-yesterday-i-arrived This parody]] of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' has the titular character [[BlatantLies claim that he was more obedient than his son at his age]]. Cut to Sakura having no idea why she's laughing so hard.

[-[[caption-width-right:250:"...I think it might have something to do with the phrase "[[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-10-04 solid fire that doesn't burn]]""]]-]

* ''ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsJLA'': After their attempt to conquer Earth fails when they are [[WeaksauceWeakness found vulnerable to fire]], fifty White Martians face the ComicBook/MartianManhunter. At the end, the narrator tell us of a man that, every morning just after awakening, feels like he had once incredible power [[BroughtDownToNormal that is forever lost.]] This feeling of loss and frustration is shared by [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood fifty other humans]] scattered around the planet, and is so big, he wants to cry. [[DefiedTrope But he doesn't, because he is an adult and has no time for such nonsense]]. So he smiles, goes out and [[LaserGuidedKarma begins his working day as a fireman]].

%% Image moved to this page per Image Pickin' thread:

[[caption-width-right:250:"...I think it might have something to do with the phrase "[[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-10-04 solid fire that doesn't burn]]""]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* This is the premise behind the [[SomewhereThisIndexIsCrying Somewhere An X Is Crying]] trope names.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In "Steven's Dream", [[TheEmpath Steven]] starts crying heavily in his sleep while having dreams where he's SeeingThroughAnothersEyes. What he sees in his dreams doesn't directly explain what's going out, but he follows the clues to find [[spoiler:[[BigBad Blue Diamond]] (who is later shown to have EmotionBomb powers) mourning on the site of Pink Diamond's death]].

* This happens in the end of ''Manga/KannazukiNoMiko''; then Himeko, after her love Chikane is erased from existence, (including from Himeko's memory) looks at pictures that used to be of her and Chikane, but now are only of her because of the erase, she starts to cry and she does not know why.

'''Professor''': I... I'm not ''sure''...

* The WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck cartoon ''Ain't That Ducky'' has Daffy and a hunter (a [[InkSuitActor caricature and voice of actor Victor Moore]]) confronting a little yellow duck who does nothing but look into a satchel and cry pathetically (except when someone asks him about it, and then he gets [[BigShutUp belligerent]]. Nobody knows why until the end when Daffy and the hunter get hold of the satchel. A piece of paper that says "The End" is in it.

* The WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck cartoon ''Ain't That Ducky'' has Daffy and a hunter (a [[InkSuitActor caricature and voice of actor Victor Moore]]) confronting a little yellow duck who does nothing but look into a satchel and cry pathetically. Nobody knows why until the end when Daffy and the hunter get hold of the satchel. A piece of paper that says "The End" is in it.

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake '' Cloud Strife has multiple experiences of headaches and intense visions of both past and future events, along with hallucinations. The visions are often accompanied by strong emotions, such as confusion, fear, or anger. One such episode is triggered as he watches Aerith walk away from him. He clutches his head, his breath shudders and he suddenly sheds a [[SingleTear tear]]. Cloud is caught off guard and left momentarily bewildered, clearly not understanding why he just cried for seemingly no reason. [[spoiler: The implication is that he may be subconsciously aware of Aerith's eventual fate.]]

* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'': After their attempt to conquer Earth fails when they are [[WeaksauceWeakness found vulnerable to fire]], fifty White Martians face the ComicBook/MartianManhunter. At the end, the narrator tell us of a man that, every morning just after awakening, feels like he had once incredible power [[BroughtDownToNormal that is forever lost.]] This feeling of loss and frustration is shared by [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood fifty other humans]] scattered around the planet, and is so big, he wants to cry. [[DefiedTrope But he doesn't, because he is an adult and has no time for such nonsense]]. So he smiles, goes out and [[LaserGuidedKarma begins his working day as a fireman]].

* In ''[[Anime/Danganronpa3 Danganronpa 3: Side Despair]]'' Izuru Kamakura does this [[spoiler: after Chiaki dies in front of him. The tears show that at least some small part of Hajimes' personality survived the transformation into Izuru, as while Izuru had no real attachment to Chiaki, Hajime had a significant crush on her.]]

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake '' Cloud Strife has multiple experiences of headaches and intense visions of both past and future events, leading to strong emotions of confusion, fear, or anger. One such episode is triggered as he watches Aerith walk away from him. He clutched his head, his breath shudders and he suddenly [[SingleTear tear]]. Cloud is surprised and obviously confused, clearly not understanding why he just cried. [[spoiler: The implication is that he may be subconsciously aware of Aerith's eventual fate.]]

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake '' Cloud Strife has multiple experiences of headaches and intense visions of both past and future events, leading to strong emotions of confusion, fear, or anger. One such episode is triggered as he watches Aerith walk away from him. He clutched his head, his breath shudders and he suddenly [[SingleTear tear]]. Cloud is surprised and obviously confused, clearly not understanding why he just cried. [[Spoiler: The implication is that he may be subconsciously aware of Aerith's eventual fate.]]