History TearJerker / PokemonTheSeries

* Ash's final battle during the Indigo Conference. First, he's kidnapped by Team Rocket after they impersonate his friend Ritchie. While he escapes, he almost gets disqualified from his match and has to battle with his team tired from their escape, giving him a disadvantage. Finally, when he sends out his final Pokémon Charizard, the Pokémon just lays down and considers the battle to be beneath him, resulting in Ash being ruled as not having any Pokéemon able to battle. After everything he went through, Ash loses not with a bang like his future Conferences but a whimper.

** "Mom." The way Rebecca Soler delivers the line said by the tear-stained and grief-stained Mallow to her mother when she is crying is very heartbreaking to hear.

** The episode Tears for Fears. You will be bawling by the end, [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments for more reason than one]].

*** If you know (and sympathise with) Cyrus' backstory and believe it applies in the anime universe (the verdict's out on whether it does or doesn't), then it becomes even worse.

* The final episode of the Diamond-Pearl series, [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/DP191 "Memories are Made of Bliss!"]]. Brief summary: "Ash, Dawn and Brock arrive back in Twinleaf Town, and while waiting for a ferry back to Kanto the gang become depressed knowing they'll soon be going their separate ways. While everyone tries to keep their sadness at bay, it proves to be too much for Piplup..."Piplup takes it very badly. Since [[ResetButton the party just can't move from a region to another without splitting]], ''there is no way this is gonna end well.''
** Piplup breaking down in front of Pikachu...indeed; the realization of leaving one of his best Pokémon friends became too much for Pikachu as well, and the TeamMom Togekiss has to comfort them both.

* We hear a lot of Paul's treatment of Chimchar, but remember Paul's crushing defeat by Brandon. When he heard that Ash defeated Brandon, Paul was in shock, even his brother was never able to defeat him, but Ash, the one trainer who at this point, never came close to beating Paul, did. Paul was in his absolute best against Brandon, and while Brandon did take the fight seriously, he defeated Paul with total ease. It is also the fight that we see why Paul is the way he is. He was there when Reggie lost to Brandon, and it's here that he decided that power was the only way to win battles, and to his credit, he got results and became an exceptional trainer. Just to see him lose one Pokémon after another, losing his cool in the process, only for it to come down to his Magmar going up against Regirock, the battle was already over. Just to see Paul, the most powerful rival Ash has ever met by this point, being backed up to a corner and lose, especially with the BackgroundMusic, you feel nothing but pity for him, coming in demanding a fight, only to basically be put in his place. He at least took his defeat with stride.

** This special also hits on a meta level, since this was released around the time of the announcement that Ash would be leaving once and for all. It's often stated that the episode seems to be a meta-commentary about leaving Ash behind and moving on from the older anime.

* In episode 140, Bewear is ''in pain for the first time.'' Stufful is thrown off her back while fighting Guzzlord and she deliberately puts herself in front while Guzzlord starts brutalizing her.

** One moment is that even though Pokémon like Larvitar and Ambipom show up, Haunter isn't included despite the fact that it helped Ash against Sabrina. Also, when Kingler, Muk, Swellow and Boldore appear, they use archived audio clips of the late Creator/UnshoIshizuka for their PokemonSpeak.
* [=JN145=]/[=MPM09=]: The Team Rocket trio splitting up at the end of the episode after blaming each other for their constant failures as their Pokémon watch. Fortunately by the final episode, it doesn't stick for long, as they realize even a successful life would be empty [[TrueCompanions if they couldn't share it with each other.]]

* The [=JNS05=] special, ''The Distant Blue Sky'', begins with a fun adventure with Ash Ketchum meeting a young boy named Sunny, and having them both go on wacky hijinks, even saving Pikachu from Team Rocket. Ash then runs into a house in the forest, but then he notices that strange thing are with Sunny (he disappears when they reach the house and reappears once Ash walks away from it and he refuses to eat the bread Ash offers him). Soon, Ash ends up at the house again, with Sunny's cap, and meet his parents. They reveal that Sunny ''[[DeadAllAlong died]]'' from an illness a year ago, and that he had always wanted to be a trainer when he grew older. Crossing over with [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Heartwarming]], Ash soon meets up with Sunny again, who is revealed to be a ghost, and uses his aura abilities to allow Sunny to touch Pikachu. Sunny vanishes after that, implying his spirit has finally moved on.

* Charmander's story in general is quite sad, though it does get better. It was good friends with Ash, but when it evolved, it suddenly became hostile and aggressive, which got worse when it evolved into Charizard. However, at one point, it is weakened during a battle, and Ash spends the entire night trying to keep it warm, getting blisters all over his hands in the process. The next day, for the first time, Charizard fought for Ash.

* The entire "Team Shocker!" episode is a huge tear jerker. Dawn, the resident [[TheCutie cutie]] is [[BreakTheCutie broken]] all of a sudden, after 2 lost appeals in a row. Soon after, it cuts to a scene where her mom Joanna is shown disappointedly glancing at a wall full of photos of both her and daughter participating in contests. Next, Jessie goes and '''[[KickTheDog rubs]]''' her victory in Dawn's face! And Dawn later cries herself to sleep..

** It's made even worse. For around a dozen episodes, [[BrokenBird the broken self esteem'd Dawn]] doesn't want to enter in contests anymore, thinks she's failing her Pokémon ''and'' tries to [[StepfordSmiler fake happiness]]. [[HealTheCutie She does eventually recover]] after winning the Wallace Cup, but still, and just imagine if it hadn't happen...

* Ash's Chimchar got this while being owned by Paul. [[AbusiveParents He pretty much abused it]] so it would get stronger from its UnstoppableRage induced Blaze ability.

* The part when Ash had that crushing loss to Paul -- the fact that Chimchar evolved into Monferno and tried so hard to pull another win for Ash and the fact that for the last bit of that episode you do not see Ash's eyes at all...
** And then the next episode... Ash's in a depression. Not only has Paul defeated his pokemon, but his philosophy and beliefs in what brings out a strong pokemon. He has to watch all of his Pokémon get treated, then lays on the side of the hill, remembering the battle over and over and ''over'' with the flashbacks having an echo effect that makes the PokemonSpeak ''worse''. He was in a depression for a good 25 minutes of the episode! Not even ''GARY'' beat him that hard. Thank goodness his friends cheered him right back up, and good thing it was soon, because Team Rocket tried to insult him AFTER he recovered.

* We hear a lot of Paul's treatment of Chimchar, but remember Paul's crushing defeat by Brandon. When he heard that Ash defeated Brandon, Paul was in shock, even his brother was never able to defeat him, but Ash, the one trainer who at this point, never came close to beating Paul, did. Paul was in his absolute best against Brandon, and while Brandon did take the fight seriously, he defeated Paul with total ease. It is also the fight that we see why Paul is the way he is. He was there when Reggie lost to Brandon, and it's here that he decided that power was the only way to win battles, and to his credit, he got results and became an exceptional trainer. Just to see him lose one pokemon after another, losing his cool in the process, only for it to come down to his Magmar going up against Regirock, the battle was already over. Just to see Paul, the most powerful rival Ash has ever met by this point, being backed up to a corner and lose, especially with the BackgroundMusic, you feel nothing but pity for him, coming in demanding a fight, only to basically be put in his place. He at least took his defeat with stride.

* Tepig's background story is just as bad. After Tepig loses a battle, his trainer abandons him in a rather cruel way; the porker is tied to a fencepost and forced to watch his trainer walk away on him, all because he lost to a Deerling despite the type advantage. To make matters worse, he still loves his trainer; Tepig literally breaks down into tears and tries to chase after the guy. Before Don George can free him, however, Tepig shoddily bites through the rope and promptly sets off to find said ex-trainer. Oh, and some of the rope gets caught around his snout. When Ash finds him, Tepig is on the verge of starving to death, being dirty, dangerously thin and with the rope wrapped around his snout.

** Another sad thing is that Tepig still had some issues to overcome after he was abandoned, which included his low self-esteem. When he would win battles, Tepig would be overjoyed. When he lost battles, however, unless they were unofficial training battles, he would become sad due to fear of letting Ash down or being abandoned again. Thankfully, Tepig overcame this problem when he evolved into Pignite.

* During Ash's double battle with Olivia, Rockruff was gaining an adrenaline boost from its impending evolution, giving it a very aggressive, nasty disposition throughout the battle. When Ash calls for Rowlet to fly up Rockruff for a team maneuver, Rockruff doesn't recognise it and mauls it. When it sees Rowlet savaged and unconscious from the attack, Rockruff immediately [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone returns to its senses and is horrified at what it's done]]. Even after Ash is understanding towards Rockruff's current nature and it manages to win the trial, it spends the rest of the episode visibly downbeat and remorseful.

* The origin of why Gengar was at the Laboratory in the first place. Long before it was a lab, it's trainer told it to wait there as it will come back for it, he never did. Gengar waited patiently, even scaring off potential house buyers, but eventually his loyalty grew into anger and sorrow, knowing that he was abandoned and betrayed. And the reason why Gengar was abandoned? Its trainer believed it brought him bad luck!

* [=JN093=]: The English dub has an InMemoriam to Ren's first voice actor Creator/BillyKametz, who passed away after recording this episode.

* [=JN132=]: In the heat of the final battle between Ash and Leon, it's all come down to Pikachu and Charizard, with both sides giving it their all. However, after Charizard manages to land a massive blow with Fire Blast, Pikachu's desperately trying to stand, doing everything he can to stay conscious and keep fighting... But despite his efforts, Pikachu collapses and blacks out, with Ash ''[[SayMyName screaming]]'' [[SayMyName out Pikachu's name]] once the screen cuts to black. Viewers wouldn't be blamed for believing this final battle had ended in Ash and Pikachu's defeat after all of their hard work over all of their adventures... Though it turns into a TearsOfJoy inducing TearJerker moment when Pikachu sees visions of ''all'' of Ash's Pokemon over the years and regions, both new, long-time, and former teammates, along with Ash himself, encouraging him to keep going and leading to his triumphant HeroicSecondWind.

* [=JN082=]: Tiara's Cleffa was turned into a star recently, and she wishes for a night sky just to find it.

* "''The Pirates of Decolore!''" features a quartet of water Pokémon consisting of a Croconaw, Octillery, Azumarill and Ducklett, who steal food from people, the FreudianExcuse behind it all? They were all abandoned by their [[KidsAreCruel uncaring and mean trainers]]. Croconaw for losing too many gym battles and for not evolving, Azumarill ''for'' evolving, Octillery for being considered useless, and Ducklett because it wasn't sad over losing a battle. The Pirates were able to find a happy ending with the Officer Jenny that was pursuing them, but still...

* "''Team Plasma and the Awakening Ceremony!''" has Pikachu getting mind-controlled by Colress's machine for the second time. While Pikachu manages to regain control via Ash's voice during the first time and then the third time during the episode that comes after this one with help from Ash and the others, this time, Pikachu doesn't respond to Ash and instead hits him twice with a point-blank Thunderbolt, knocking him unconscious in the process, forcing N to give up the Light Stone to free Pikachu from the mind-control. When Pikachu snaps out of it, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he immediately realizes that he had almost killed his best friend and collapses in his arms in complete guilt, fainting as well]]. At least they both turn out to be ok, but yet again, Pikachu just had a terrible experience from being controlled by someone or something.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzwHs9PhJwY "Your heart's beating around the clock... Time ticking away, it doesn't stop."]]