Tear Jerker / Eureka Seven AO

• During a flashback in episode 2, Eureka dyes her hair and tells her crying son that she's sorry, shortly before disappearing.
• The discrimination Ao and his mother face in Okinawa can be horrible to behold.
• Near the end of episode 3, we see the photo Ao took from his adoptive grandpa. It's Eureka with black dyed hair, holding her baby in her arms and looking happier than ever.◊ As the Nirvash starts up, Ao tears up and is relieved that his mother remembered her son.
  Ao: "I see...you remembered me this entire time..."
  • Made incredibly worse when you realize what normally happens to Human-Coralian hybrids (if the stillbirth of Ao's sister is anything to go by).
• Chief Bruno's death, as well as his conclusion about the Iwato Island incident.
  Never let children die!!
• In episode 8, Ao says he wants to beat up his father when he finally meets him, which brings to mind how Renton must be affected by the separation.
• Endo, a Japanese soldier, met Eureka 10 years ago, where she asked him to look out for her son, Ao. In episode 13, seeing her cry out Ao's name, he remembers his promise and sacrifices himself by distracting Truth long enough to save Ao.
  • Worse, they place the blame on Ao.
• The unceremonious scuttling of the Gekko in episode 14 is enough to bring any fan of the original series to tears.
  • Nirvash releasing Eureka to hold off Truth & getting trashed.
  • Naru leaving Ao once again.
• Episode 16 subjects Team Goldilocks to a Ret-Gone by Ao's own hands. He's the only one who remembers and it is killing him.
• Christophe Blanc's sacrifice in episode 19. Incredibly badass or not, Fleur had to watch her father sacrifice himself for her.
• The Posiden being destroyed after we get some time with Team Harlequin realizing their impending doom. They escape, but 200 crew and family members do not.
• Episode 20 has Fleur finally breaking down after seeing her father's Video Will and being abandoned by Elena.
• Episode 22 has the Bad Future, where Renton walks upon a mother and child dead and decayed, wrapped close together.
• Episode 24 has Ao's sister revealed to have died at birth. And Ao displacing himself in time to the point he may no longer exist in his own time period.
  • Ao can never actually enter his parents' universe. If he does, the scubs will poison his body. That's a whole extended family he'll never get to see.
• Episode 25 manages to fix some of the sad points of 24, and sees Truth and Ao on an emotional Quantum Leap-esque journey trying to find a way home. Ao visibly ages and grows weary from being trapped in his IFO, which is severely damaged and now just a broken, armless upper torso with a head. Then comes the big climax, revealing Ao has returned to being able to interact with his native time and his parents' after finally breaking free from the effects of the quartz gun. The sheer emotion Ao releases upon getting to the end of his long journey is what makes it so tearful, quite literally so.
• The negative publicity caused by AO and its detrimental effect on the Eureka Seven fandom. It received heavy criticism and turned a lot of fans off the franchise for betraying the original series at its roots. Further developments have only continued to run away from the original Eureka Seven timeline, resulting in further division of fans and even more complaining.