Tear Jerker / Ōoku: The Inner Chambers

If Ōoku: The Inner Chambers does not brings one to tears at least once per volume....

• The firing of Manabe, in hindsight: as we find out later, Yoshimune's older sisters had been poisoned, and considering the oldest had been a rival candidate for the shogunate against Ienobu, Yoshimune probably thought she was finally avenging her sisters' deaths by getting rid of her. And the worst part is Manabe was actually innocent: it was Yoshimune's own retainer that poisoned them.
• The end of chapter three, where the merchant's daughter O-nobu is reunited with Yushonin, who entered the Shogun's Harem rather than be married off to someone else first lays eyes on the tradesman Shinkichi who seeks her hand.
• The flashback in chapter nine, giving more detail on the life of the girl now known as Shogun Iemitsu is something that should wring one dry, but then we see Arikoto offering the her the womanly overrobe she made him and the other men in her incipent harem wear for her amusement.

  Arikoto: <draping it over her shoulders> "Here. It doth look so much more beautiful on you, my lord."

  <Iemitsu breaks down in tears>

• Chapter twelve gives us Arikoto's and Iemitsu's response to Kasuga ordering the former to vacate the Shogun's bedchamber after a year without a sign of conception. They pledge to be Together in Death once it becomes clear that Iemitsu is in fact barren... then it turns out that she is not.
• Hiraga Gennai's breakdown when she learns that the men that raped her also infected her with syphilis, meaning she only has a few years left to live, and before she dies she'll be in a ton of pain, lose her sight, and lose her grasp of sanity.
• Iesada didn't have a happy life either. She's regularly raped by her own father, her one hope of escaping him (via marriage into another family) is dashed when she's named next in line for the shogunate (ensuring that she stays with her father), her father poisons her first husband, then poisons her along with her second husband, which has left her with steadily debilitating health and a literal fear of having sex, which means she's currently heirless. Volume 14 ends with her finding out she's pregnant, but she ends up dying in the middle of her pregnancy. We only learn it was actual liver disease (and not an assassination) by the very end of the story.
• There's a certain sadness to be had to see Sutezo, a ladykiller and carefree boy, jump for joy at the birth of his own daughter, only for him to slip, paralyze himself, and then die of the Redface Pox. Trauma Conga Line doesn't even begin to describe it.
• Chikako's entire existence: she was born missing a hand, so she was hidden from the only family she had, her mother ignored her when she gave birth to her brother Kazu, she was given away to a man for political favours but couldn't even marry him because she technically doesn't exist, and she only gained importance in her mother's eyes when she took her brother's place as Iemochi's husband. Even then, she's seen as an outsider to the Ooku, with only Iemochi giving her anything resembling respect, and she sees that her mother (who came along disguised as one of her advisors) is eager to go back to court because she hates it at Edo and wants to be closer to her son (who's in hiding at a Buddhist temple). In the end, Kangyo-in can't even deny she prefers Kazu over Chikako and spends the final days of her life reunited with Kazu at the temple.
• Iemochi's death from beriberi-induced heart failure: It was long, drawn out, and painful, and Iemochi spent her final days crying that she wasn't ready to die, and how she wanted to see Takiyama, Tensho-in, and Chikako one last time, finally expiring with Chikako's name on her lips.
  • Chikako's reaction to Iemochi's death. She has to be forced to eat and she sits around like a doll in numb shock. Then she has a breakdown when she finds out about Iemochi's last words and receives her final gift.
  • Katsu had actually been in love with Iemochi. So despite the fact that he doesn't get along with Yoshinobu and had the freedom to resign from his naval commissioner position and do whatever he liked, he stays and tries to work with him because Iemochi's wish was for him to help the Tokugawa family.
• And the worst part of the above? That was only the beginning of the end of the Tokugawa shogunate:
  • Iemochi's desires for her succession are completely disregarded as her heir is a child and the lords feel the adult Yoshinobu is needed to keep them together (and let's not forget many of them wanted Yoshinobu as shogun in the first place).
  • Yoshinobu sent Katsu to negotiate a cease-fire with Choshu, all while secretly negotiating with the imperial court for an armistice, making the cease-fire moot and making Katsu look like a fool (at best) and the shogunate look like it doesn't keep its word.
  • Emperor Komei, who was willing to negotiate with the shogunate, dies. The official cause of death is given as smallpox, but Chikako gets a secret message from her half-brother saying that the plotters were Iwakura and Satsuma, and she realizes to her horror that he had been poisoned by anti-shogunate officials to make room for Komei's more malleable teenage heir, Sachi (known to history as Meiji).
  • In a last ditch effort to maintain his life and power, Yoshinobu relinquished his right to rule as shogun back to the emperor, with the intention of taking away the anti-shogunate faction's arguments and being asked to take power back because of Sachi's youth. He didn't anticipate the anti-shogunate faction believing him and convincing Sachi to enshrine the return to imperial rule in a decree.
  • Volume 18 ends with Tensho-in, Katsu, and Takiyama sitting, looking defeated, as they realize the Tokugawa shogunate-and indeed the concept of the samurai as the ruling class in Japan-has been wiped away completely.
• The Tokugawa matriarchy is ultimately blamed for Japan falling behind other countries in scientific and military advancements. They're not entirely wrong either: It was Iemitsu that imposed isolationism on the nation that caused them to fall behind.e
• Tensho-in thanks the remaining Tokugawa retainers for their years of service before Edo Castle is turned over to the Imperial government, and as his final gift to them, invites all of them to view the final blossom viewing party as equals.
  • On that note, many merchants, including the head confectioner asks for no payment for his services for this party, saying that it was an honor for his family to serve the shogunate for 150 years.
• For the final party, Takiyama wears a kimono reminiscent of Arikoto's infamous one, and Chikako finally wears women's kimono.
• The series ends with Takiyama and Tensho-in looking at replicas of Arikoto's kimono, noting that as he was the one that truly started the traditions of the Ooku, it was fitting that he saw the end of the Ooku.
  • And then the Meiji forces burn them, along with the Chronicle of a Dying Day, to hide any evidence that there had ever been women shoguns or a male harem.
• Takiyama attempts suicide before surrendering to the Imperial forces, but not before naming Nakano his heir. Which hurts more for Nakano, since he already lost his biological parents to fire. It becomes a Happily Failed Suicide, and he becomes a successful international merchant (almost by accident!) but still.
• All records of the Tokugawa matriarchy, and any indication that the Ooku had been a male harem, is erased entirely to maintain the delusion that men always ruled Japan.
• Tensho-in finally finds out that Iesada died of natural causes, namely jaundice induced by her pregnancy. And that Iesada was more upset that her child could not be saved.
• For all that she chose to go to America, O-Ume is still only six years old and separated from her family. And Tensho-in lets her in on a secret...once upon a time, Japan was ruled by women...