Heartwarming / NEO: The World Ends with You

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• Rindo's and Fret's friendship in general is full of this. From Fret's Affectionate Nickname for his buddy "Rindude" to Rindo being legitimately heartbroken over Fret's death (to the point that he awakens his time-traveling powers in order to save his friend), you can tell just how much the two care for each other.
• NEO has a Joke Brand in the form of croaky panic, being a single shop on Takeshita Street run by a grumpy old lady, consisting of the most random threads with 'descriptions' that are basically the shopkeep's own rambling and Stylistic Suck-y pins featuring a poorly-drawn frog. One of the last threads to be unlocked therefrom is a floatation tube covered in said frog... whose description is that the mascot was drawn by the shopkeep's son in his youth. Sure, she used the design because she reckoned it'd be an Cash-Cow Franchise In-Universe (and by her own account, she was right), but the decision to keep making Joke Items because it's her family's work is still heartwarming in its own way.
• Rindo asking Shoka to join the Wicked Twisters after she reveals she's no longer a Reaper. Despite her constantly teasing and snarking at them for most of the game Rindo is willing to let her join the team.
• Later how quickly Shoka is Easily Forgiven by the rest of the Twisters after its revealed she was forced to be The Mole. It helps that she flat out refuses Shiba's offer to rejoin The Reapers and emotionally admits her desire to stop Shibuya's inversion.
• Beat and Neku's short exchange when Neku returns in Week 3, Day 4.
  Neku: *offering his hand to help Beat up* Here-let me help you.
  Beat: Can't believe you're back.
  Neku: Believe it.
• After spending the entire game being a jerk to Fret, Nagi finally lets up and shows her support for him once Kanon kicks the bucket and the team is forced to fight the Plague Noise that resembles her. She reassures the whole team that the Plague Noise they're fighting aren't the people they once knew, and it's especially poignant with Kanon and Fret.
  Nagi: That is not Lady Kanon!
  Fret: Say it again.
  Nagi: That is not Lady Kanon!
• Similarly, after Shoka has to deal with the pain of dealing with Ayano's Plague Noise doppelganger, Nagi reaches out to her in her own way, offering to introduce her to Elegant Strategy. Shoka, touched by this, occasionally calls Nagi "sis."
• After three years—both in-universe and in real life—since "A New Day," Neku returns from his forced sojourn into Shinjuku and gets to reunite with his friends.
  • Beat is initially frustrated when Neku comes back, the latter having saved him mere moments before, yelling that he looked everywhere for him. For three years. All Neku does in response is smile fondly. Beat quickly calms down and introduces him to the rest of the Twisters, and the two are tight as glue for the rest of the game. Some highlights include Beat checking on Neku the day after and promising to keep him from getting lost when Neku expresses confusion over where they are because of how much Shibuya has changed over the three years he was gone, Neku translating Sho's mathematical jargon for Beat to relay to Rhyme, and Neku teasing Beat at the start of the final day.
    Beat: Psh! You ain't scared.
    Neku: Yeah, I am.
    Neku: The only one who isn't on edge is you.
    Beat: Am too! I'm nervous as hell!
    Fret: Okay, you definitely don't look nervous.
    Nagi: I must agree.
    Neku: I bet you don't even know what the word "nervous" means.
    Beat: 'Ey, why you gotta call me out like dat, Phones?
    Neku: Heh.
    Beat: Heh.
  • Both Uzuki and Kariya can barely hide their joy that Neku has returned and wasn’t erased. Compare that to how Uzuki was in the first game. Neku has had a positive influence on them as well.
  • Neku's conversation with Joshua in the ending really outlines how much has changed between them—we learn Joshua went out of his way to try and protect Neku from Coco (even if he was also trying to protect his own secrets), admits he should have just trusted Neku, and was willing to intervene himself in the struggle with Kubo if necessary. Neku acts much more warmly towards Joshua, only expressing mild frustration at getting trapped in Shinjuku but letting go of that fairly quickly. And when Neku asks to return to the RG, Josh does it no strings attached.
  • The real highlight is probably Shiki, though. Upon her first appearance, she's seemingly able to sense Neku's presence despite him being stuck in the UG. She's just happy he's there, and Neku is certain they'll be able to reunite properly soon. And after Neku's return to the RG, she gets to see him for the first time in years and is visibly and audibly overwhelmed with happiness. And topping it all off is a Call-Back to the reveal of her RG appearance in the first game's ending—except now we can see her eyes, complete with Tears of Joy.
    Neku: Sorry it took me so long.
    Shiki: It's okay. Waiting wasn't so bad. All that matters is that you're here now.
• Beat in general deserves special mention for how much he embraces his Big Brother Instinct in this game, acting as a supportive and loving Team Dad to the Wicked Twisters and they ADORE him in turn, with Fret in particular embracing Beat as his fellow comrade-in-arms. After the Trauma Conga Line he had to go through in the previous game, it’s especially nice to see.
• Rindo and Shoka's relationship after Week 2. Rindo is clearly glad that Shoka has chosen to side with the team and that she is their friend. He admits that when he told her to leave in his angry outburst at her temporary betrayal, he didn't mean it, showing that he already grew to consider her a friend before that. They both encourage each other and look out for each other. Shoka even calls him fearless leader. It's through their friendship that Rindo begins to appreciate Shibuya. Through their friendship, he realizes how important his friends are to him. By helping Shoka come to terms with having to fight Ayano, Rindo learns that he needs to make efforts to understand his friends. Through their friendship, they both take strides to becoming better people.
  • Especially after the reveal that Shoka is Swallow. Because Shoka is Swallow, that means she was helping Rindo not only during the Reaper's Game but before it, and that in Week 3, she gets to keep helping him, just without her Swallow account.
  • When Replaying Week 2 Day 3, Rindo has to help Shoka realize that they'll have to fight Ayano. The best way to do that is not to bluntly tell Shoka what she must do, but to help her arrive at that conclusion on her own by reminding her that Rindo and the others support her.
  • During the final battle, Shoka can't help but note how much Rindo has grown, despite not wanting to reveal that she's Swallow, which adds to her calling him fearless leader.
• After the battle with Phoenix Cantus, we learn an unpleasant clause in the Shinjuku rules: Reapers cast out of the Reaper hierarchy are erased at the end of the Game, which means Shoka - who doesn't want to keep running the Game anymore - is doomed for erasure. Rindo is shocked, Shoka is desperately trying to hide her tears... and Joshua is waiting for the opportune moment. After introducing himself as Composer, he thanks them for saving his city by reviving Shoka in the RG like any victorious Player, no strings attached. Sure, he drops her off at a random location and makes Rindo look for her, but that's nothing that couldn't have been solved if Rindo had bothered to check his friend requests instead of keeping his eye on her Swallow account.
• The ending. Rindo and Shoka can finally be friends with no secrets between them. Rindo is also finally comfortable with having personal in-person connections too.
• NEO's Secret Reports are written by the same guy as the previous game's: Sanae Hanekoma, Producer of Shibuya. He last reported being the Fallen Angel who taught Minamimoto how to make Taboo Noise, and he was in hiding from his other selves because he thought he was going to get struck down unless his sins were deemed justified. What does his first Report in this game say? That he's been forbidden from directly speaking to anyone in Shibuya, so he's stuck observing. If he was still on the run, he wouldn't exactly be under restrictions, which can only mean one thing: Hanekoma's no longer Fallen. Even if it turns out that the Higher Plane isn't quite as happy with Shibuya's current state as he thought, they still gave him a second chance.
  • Throughout the Secret Reports, it’s clear that he is still the Nice Guy he was from the first game because he desperately wants to help. It’s also clear that he wants to help Rindo grow as a person like he did with Neku. So if things were different, Hanekoma would have been a Big Brother Mentor to Rindo too.
  • By the last Secret Report, it’s also clear that even though he didn’t get to meet Rindo, he’s proud of Rindo for his courage in going back to save Shibuya and his friends and would like to meet him one day.
  • There’s a moment of awesomeness from Rindo in this regard. He didn’t need a direct mentor like Joshua and Hanekoma to eventually learn the lesson he needs to learn to save the day, which supports the lesson of the game, that one needs to look at their circumstance and take action. This lesson would have been undermined if someone came and told Rindo the lesson.
• Another Day is as much a Bizarro Episode as it was in the previous game, but it still manages to have some heartwarming involved. The start of the episode is the group getting hyped up to attend a concert at Shibuyapalooza, and waiting for Fret to show up with the tickets... which, it turns out, he has inadvertently thrown out with the receipt. As reactions of rage and/or despair fly out, Neku speaks up and asks everyone to lay off, pointing out that Fret is probably angrier at himself than any of them are at him... then, to himself, admits that that's a pretty high measure, because he planned his entire summer around this. He's not stoked about it either, but he knows when not to get upset with someone.
  • The fact that the team gets to be friends in this universe with no strings attached or the Reaper's Game.
• One seemingly shady Social Network NPC shows a hidden kinder side when he helped out croaky panic when it went bankrupt.