Tear Jerker / Kamen Rider Gotchard

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Main series

Episode 4: Antrooper Labyrinth

• Rinne learning about her father's death. She takes it as well as you'd expect.

Episode 5: Burn! Fight! Wrestler G!

• Gouriki essentially ruined wrestling for Asahi's students, driving them away from his gym without even trying. Asahi, whose dream is to train the next generation of wrestlers, was most likely heartbroken at seeing the sport he loved become something his students feared because of one man.
• Asahi's rising star. He had a promising career in the ring, and Gouriki destroyed that future by crippling him.
• Wrestler G has to be parted forever from Koichiro, who will subsequently have his memories erased. As the Chemy tries to follow him, Koichiro harshly yells at it to stay back, saying that its place is now with Gotchard. Before he says goodbye, Koichiro thanks the Chemy for reinvigorating his fighting spirit and how he will rebuild his school. And this is while an orchestral rendition of the Gotchard theme is playing.
  Koichiro: (as Wrestler G flies to him) Get back! This place isn't for you anymore! But thanks...Because of you, my dream came true once more.
  (walks into his gym and closes the door behind him while Wrestler G sobs in Hotaro's hands)
  • Even Houtarou cannot bear to see the two separated, seeing how happy they were together. Rinne, Renge, and Sabimaru don't like it either, but this is one rule that can't be bent no matter what. It's also implied Asahi himself is about to break down as well, which is why he keeps his back towards the Chemy.
• The end of the episode has Wrestler G sobbing while it pans to an empty ring with the sounds of a cheering audience, a bittersweet yet hopeful ending that Asahi's dream will come true.
  Tumblr post: Only in Kamen Rider would a card saying "Wrestler G" in a mournful tone make you wanna curl up into a ball and cry

Episode 8: Great Bond

• Riku revealing his past as to why his father wants to ditch Saboneedle. Riku's father is strict, uncaring, and only wants Riku to focus on his studies. Thus it's tragic that, just like with Asahi, Riku and Saboneedle have to be separated for good. Even sadder is that Riku is still wearing the cactus flower he plucked from Saboneedle after his memories were erased.
  • That is however on the heartwarming side by the end of the episode: Riku's father honestly regrets all the things he did and apologizes, with Riku willing to forgive him and understanding his sentiments as well, while asking him to let Riku take it easy once in a while, and that his father needs it as well. Saboneedle then gave him the flower as a way to be always with him, even after their memories were erased.
• Happyclover is anything but happy and is clearly in great distress as Lachesis holds it.

Episode 10: Kyoto on Fire! ~Tragic Love: The Chemy Thunder Affair~

• One can only imagine how Hijiri must feel, hearing her beloved brother tell her to her face that not only did he commit those crimes, but that said brother always hated having to take care of her and wished she was gone.

Episode 12: Runaway Liner! The Dark Rider!

• Isaac screaming in horror and anguish as Clotho forces the DreaDriver on Sabimaru.
  • It doesn't get any better once we account for the fact that the chemy-loving Sabimaru is forced to sacrifice replichemies as Dread.
  • Unable to speak for himself, Isaac is the one who has to say everything for Sabimaru, which results in some heart-wrenching words:
  Isaac: (speaking for Sabimaru) I don't want to fight... I don't want to fight Hotaro... I don't want to use... the Chemies' powers like this...! Help... Help me...! HELP ME!
• How much pain is Sabimaru going through? When Gotchard is about to use his new weapon on Dread, the helm pulls back to show Sabimaru in tears. Gotchard hesitates because of this. There's also the fact that every time he transforms, Sabimaru's life force is reduced, not to mention those sounds of bones breaking with every movement he makes.
• Houtarou's attempts at freeing Sabimaru ultimately fail, with Sabimaru just barely able to wrestle enough control at the last second to stop Dread from killing Houtarou.
• The fact that the episode ends in Sabimaru still in the Dark Sisters' control as Kamen Rider Dread. The Academy's staff and students are all very downcast and quiet as they process what happened.

Episode 13: Get It Back! United × Forever!

• We see a shot of Renge looking mournfully at Sabimaru's tablet after the last episode. The one screenshot of the scene says multitudes about her feelings at the moment.

Episode 17: Moonbreak Messenger

• This episode gives us the unsettling reveal of Minato betraying his students and donning the Dreadriver. It shakes Houtarou to the point had it not been for Sabimaru giving Spanner a card to use, Spanner might've lost his ring and memories.

Episode 20: Smiling Angel (Angel), Serious Truth (Joke)

• It is revealed that before Kyoka had saved him, Spanner had lost his parents to Geryon, a fact that the Angel Malgam mercilessly exploits. Worse is how Kyoka had to erase the memories of Spanner's parents dying to save him. When Supana learns of this, he begins to feel nothing but vengeance towards Geryon and is about to turn into a Malgam, forcing Madwheel to take over before the corruption can take over. Alas, Supana turns into the Wheel Malgam.
  • To make this even sadder, Supana seeing his parents is one of the only times we see him happy. To see that forcibly yanked from him is downright unfair.
• He spends the moments leading up to their second deaths just pleading to anyone and everyone to save them, even Minato... who genuinely looks to be considering doing so, if he wasn't simply acting there. You know it's bad if Supana is not only asking for help, but he's asking Hotaro for it!
  Supana: Ichinose... Kudo... Help! HELP ME!
• We also learn how Kyoka got her trademark scar. She was trying to comfort a grieving Supana who was suddenly erupting in a black aura, causing black spikes to form around him, one of them cutting through her arm. There's also the scene of her having to deal with the PTSD young Supana obtained as she races to see him screaming upon remembering his parents are dead.
• After Supana transforms into a Malgam for the first time, he coldly tells Houtaro and Rinne that the Supana they knew is dead. And when he learns the truth from Kyoka, he coldly tells her that he never wants to see her again.

Episode 21: Mad Warrior! Black Flame Valvarad!

• The definitive death of the seniors Kurogane (which they did to ensure the Angel Malgam can't torture them) causes Supana (as Wheel Malgam) to weep and trash about in sorrow while clutching their Alchemy rings. It took Fire Gotchard having to knock him out with a Rider Kick to make him stop.
• Minato breaks Supana further by claiming to have killed Kyoka and delivering him a ruthless beatdown, to the point the Wheel Malgam meekly crawls to the rings of his parents and holds onto it into a sobbing mess, apparently having given up on fighting.
• The end of the episode is sweet than bitter, but it still has Supana saying his farewells to his parents as they enter the afterlife.

Episode 22: Love Is A Blade (Saber)! Suddenly Chemy Story

• In a bit of Mood Whiplash, it looks as if Renge fell in love with Supana and he even has a bouquet with him. But it's not for her, it's for his parents.

Episode 23: Zukyun Always in My Heart

• Zukyunpire realizing that his attempts to make people happy was actually killing people by draining their energy. Even worse when we learn why he's doing this; he just wanted to make Yua, a woman he met who was going through a bad breakup, smile. Yua herself realized what she did was wrong but she didn't want to break his heart by telling him what he was doing.

Episode 24: Sud-Ten Turn! Forbidden Steel Rider!

• Hotaro pays for his naivety badly as following a letter "sent" by Minato made him lose almost every single Chemy he has in his possession with SteamLiner the only one spared. Yes, you can say that this was kinda bone-headed for him to fall for the trick, but still. Made even worse when Hopper1 pops out of their card to push Hotaro back before being sucked into the void.

Episode 25: Young Sensei's Mistake

• It's revealed that Geryon killed Minato's best friend during his academy days in the midst of a Malgam attack, and Minato's behavior stemmed from severe Survivor's Guilt. To further tug at the heartstrings, said best friend was all-too-similar to Houtarou in behavior.

Episode 26: Habam Away the Malice, the Pitch-Black Wind

• That scene of Rinne hugging her dad? That's not the real one. Fuga made homunculi bodies in order to interact with others so Rinne is nowhere closer to reuniting with her father.
• Lachesis begging with Minato. Note that during Kamen Rider Dread's debut, she treated him with contempt and a clear superiority complex and saw him as an inferior weakling who couldn't do anything to save the world. Here, she's practically a scared toddler asking for protection from a dangerous stranger, which is a complete 180 from before. As vile as Lachesis had been, it does little to take away from how saddening it is to see the damage Geryon has caused.
• After Geryon renders Fuga's efforts All for Nothing, his dying Remote Body dissolves surrounded by the Riders and their allies, and not only is it heartbreaking to see Houtarou watch as the man behind his powers dies a second time, but gut-wrenching to see Rinne watch her father die before her own eyes.

Episode 29: Night Tale of The Crying Village

• Houtarou bawls his eyes out when he sees the monster has caught Kajiki and that he is frozen too. He gets better by the end of the episode, but for a moment Houtarou really thought his friend was dead.
• The perspective of the guardian deity of the village is quite painful too: due to its nature as an enshrined statue, it sees malicious people wanting to see the village go under, and the pleas of the villagers for protection and prosperity for their village, but is unable to do anything, other than stay there being a powerless listener. Had the Ninetail Chemy never crossed its path, it would have lost everything it cared for.

Episode 30: A Rival Sol-journs!? Gotcha and Juliet

• Clotho attacks the Alchemist Academy not to steal their Chemies, but to try and convince Lachesis to come back to her. Lachesis refuses, however, seeing Atropos' sadism and role as Geryon's successor to be a bridge too far.
• After Supana easily handles Clotho despite her usage of Dread Type-Three, Lachesis stands in his way when he tries to finish her off with the Valvarusher. Even with their differences, Lachesis still feels a bond with her sister. What makes this even more tragic, however, is that Supana is still willing to dispatch the both of them even if Lachesis is taking steps towards a Heel–Face Turn and Clotho is all but helpless. Minato is forced to intervene to prevent his junior from murdering the sisters especially Lachesis in cold blood, and Clotho's cry of anguish at coming so close to reuniting with Lachesis then having it all taken away at the last moment speaks volumes.
• The reason the 4 Malice Dolls fused into the Mammoth Malgam and Atropos took revenge on the Alchemist Academy is because they killed the most important person for her and the Malice Dolls: Geryon. Though she doesn't convey it in expression and tone, her flashbacks has her remind of Geryon's care for her.

Movies and spinoffs

Kamen Rider Gotchard VS Kamen Rider Legend

Part 2

• We get to see the start of Kaguya's crusade, and while it gets better at the end, it's a bitter pill to swallow at the start. As any refugee will tell you, having any of your loved ones, let alone your grandfather, die under flaming rubble in a warzone is very distressing, even more so when it happens while they hold your hand.

Kamen Rider Gotchard × Geats — The Strongest Chemy ☆ Gotcha Grand Operation

• How the movie starts? With someone mourning their dying dog. What a more heart-wrenching way to start a movie than having a pet death?
  • If that's not bad enough, towards the end it is revealed to be Ace's dog, Konstantine, that had died, and even after all those years he still feels the pain of his death, as evidenced with Ace insisting he is not a pet person.
• Neon gets a bit uncomfortable when the Chemies are mentioned to be artificial life, due to her own status being an Artificial Human. Becoming the Na-Go Chemy only makes this worse.
• Geats Chemy sacrifices himself to shield Ace from the Wizard Malgam's sword and gets fatally wounded and absorbed. After being freed from Geats Killer he reminisce with Ace that even after dying he still longed to be with him, but couldn't be seen or felt for a long time.
• X Wizard's story reveals that he only wanted to play with humans again, and that is why he made the DGP Riders and the Alchemists play his game. After having been exposed, he reveals how he used to play games with kids as well until one day the kids left him.

Other

• A stageshow has Ankh find himself in Gotchard's world after the events of Kamen Rider OOO 10th: Core Medal of Resurrection. What would be a welcome surprise return soon turns sour after it quickly becomes apparent that film is still canon, and Eiji is still dead:
  • We soon find out why Ankh has come here: he's spent all of his time after the film trying to find a way to bring Eiji back, and he hopes that, like how King had previously manifested in OOO: Final Stage through parallel worlds, there is some forbidden alchemical technique in the world of Gotchard that can resurrect the dead. Sadly, even after talking to Houtaro and Rinne and defeating a new Yummy that had leeched off of Ankh's Core Medals and his grief, he finds there is no such thing that would ever be worth it, and before leaving decides Time Travel is the only thing that can save Eiji.
  • Throughout the show, Ankh tries to gain the favor of a villain to learn the alchemy required to revive Eiji, after being tempted by a fake OOO. However, they soon backstab him, creating the aforementioned Yummy, and when he finds out they know who he is, Ankh can only react in disgust, seemingly because it reminds him of Goda and his first betrayal at the hands of the King.
  • Finally, there's how Ankh gains the power needed to defeat the Yummy: in a reversal of Kamen Rider Heisei Generations FINAL: Build & Ex-Aid with Legend Riders, he reaches out and grabs the hand of the fake OOO, turning it into a real Tajador suit while the "8 Years Later" version of "Time Judged All" plays in the background. It's as every bit as awesome as it is a heartbreaking show of how badly Eiji's death has weighed on Ankh.