Tear Jerker / The Kindaichi Case Files

Kindaichi cases has tons of this moments in each and every cases especially when the murderer reveals his/her true intention in the series. Warning! The list below reveal much spoilers throughout the series and will be hidden.

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• General:
  • Even if the murderer isn't particularly regretful of their killing, Kindaichi still pointed out that they wasted their future to pursue revenge and consumed by hatred instead of seeking justice or finding ways to make peace with their past. In many instances, the killer is a genuinely good person who's been driven to extreme measures because they or their loved ones were deeply wronged and the ones who did it went unpunished, or even profited from their actions.
• The Mummy's Curse Case:
  • The revelation of the Ryuichi Rokusei, or the fake Odagiri Susumu as the real culprit. He managed to kill every member of the Rokakku Village who murdered his mother's entire family (except Kazamatsuri, who saved his mother from burning), and even killed his supposed lover, Wakaba. However, both of them actually loved each other and Ryuichi even starts to cry when Kindaichi rebuked his murder of Wakaba, who did not deserve his revenge. Exemplified further during the flashback of Wakaba's murder, she shows no restrain or struggle and lets Ryuichi kill her. After that, he buried her head somewhere on top of the mountain as her grave. Kindaichi realizes this and cries, knowing their love is real.
  • Everyone in the Rokakku Village dies even after Odagiri fulfills his vengeance by shooting Kabuto Reiji dead. Renjo Hisahiko dies from internal wounds when attempting to save Miyuki while Kazamatsuri kills Odagiri, his own son, to stop him from committing further crimes. After he burns the marijuana field, to atone for his past crimes, he shoots himself in the head.
• The Santa Slayings Case:
  • The death of Ryuta Saki after he manages to get a critical evidence in his video tape. Kindaichi cries because Saki ended up dying, even though he has nothing to do with the murder.
• The Headless Samurai Case
  • Shino's entire life is just plain sad. Her father died when she was young and left her family in debt. She and her mother struggled to make ends meet and Shino tried very hard to do well in school to escape her fate. However, her brilliant academic performance drew the jealousy of her Rich Bitch classmate, who started bullying her. When her mother died, she was forced to withdraw from school and work to support herself. At some point, she was seduced by a man, who abandoned her when she got pregnant. She later met her former school bully in the hospital, whom she learnt has become a millionaire's wife. To spare her child from living a difficult life of poverty with her, she traded her own baby with her bully's child, whom she subsequently raised as her own. Later, she worked as a servant for the Tatsumis, her former bully's new family, so that she could watch her own son grow up, despite the latter treating her with contempt because he saw her as a mere helper. She became the master's second wife when his first one died, but was still treated as an outsider by her step-children and her biological son. When the master died and left the inheritance to the son Shino brought with her, she murdered the boy she had raised his whole life in order to let her real son get the money. Then, her biological son, who didn't know of his true parentage tried to poison her, but even in her dying moments, she still defended him by saying that she poisoned herself. Her last words was to wish that her son would live a happier life than she did.
  • There's also the My God, What Have I Done? moment Ryunosuke had once he realised that he had just poisoned his own mother. According to his siblings, this previously proud and entitled Jerkass had become quiet and subdued following the incident. It's quite telling that Kindaichi and Miyuki, who clearly disliked the guy, had to feel at least a little sorry for him.
  • Also, the murderer was Kenmochi's childhood friend, who invited Kenmochi to the village to take advantage of his kindness, knowing that he would come to their defense. When the murder was exposed, Kenmochi despairingly asked why they had done all this, and they merely replied that the friend he once knew was gone, and all that's left is a vicious wild beast.
  • Worst part about her false son's death was that it was caused by him gloating that he would kick out the step-siblings once he is made heir, his facial expression giving her memories of the time she was bullied by his biological mother. He was being an asshole at that moment, but he did it because he was tired of the mistreatment he and his "mother" received; he died in complete confusion, wondering why the only mother he knew stabbed him.
• The Kindaichi the Killer!? Case:
  • After The Reveal of the murder of the initial victim and subsequent Frame-Up of Kindaichi, the culprit discloses that the criminal records that would have been made public in the novel manuscript were criminal activities done by him and a physician who roped him into said activities, all in the hope of getting a spare kidney for his daughter, who has acute kidney failure. He had donated one of his own kidneys for her kidney transplant surgery, but a mistake by the hospital staff caused the operation to fail, and his wife was already deceased, so the prospect of a matching spare kidney donation was grim. A physician approached him for help smuggling human organs with the claim that his daughter would be saved should they find a matching spare kidney, and he agreed because he didn't have any other available option. After confessing to his crimes, he stabs himself and dies from his mortal wound, though not before requesting that his remaining kidney be used for kidney transplant surgery to save his daughter, saying that he should have done so in the first place.
• The Gentleman Thief Case:
  • One of the saddest moment in the entire case. When Sakura was exposed for the murder of her step-parents, she kills herself and despite Kenmochi's call for ambulance, they could only arrive in 2 hours, thus unable to save her. Her last dying words is a love confession to Kindaichi in which Kindaichi cries "WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO THIS?!"
    • Kindaichi and the others leaving the painting of Sakura in the Lavender House as an indirect way to grant Sakura's final wish while her last word was narrated in the background.
  • Sakura's backstory and motive for the killings is equally tearjerking. When she was a child, she lived what she thought was a perfect life, with her parents in the mountains. One day, her father left to work as a ghost painter for a rich man. He was able to make money for his family that way, though Sakura didn't like him never coming home. Then, one day, he simply stopped calling or trying to contact his family. Sakura's mom ended up dying and she went off to live with some relatives, until she finally managed to track her father to a hospital... where she found him sick and hurt, unable to speak or remember who he was or basically how to do anything besides paint. Sakura doesn't give up on saving him though, and fixes herself so she looks just as she did when she was younger. Her father paints her picture and says her name, showing he is finally able to remember her... and then he dies. And then, Sakura is horrified to discover that the rich man her father worked for is passing her father's paintings off as his own, and that he injected her father with something to make him lose his mind, just so he couldn't tell who was really making the paintings.
• Legend of Amakusa Treasure Murder Case.
  • This is the first (and maybe last) time we see a sad Itsuki. One of the participant of Amakusa Treasure hunting expedition group, Mogami Hazuki, was Itsuki's former girlfriend who broke up with him from the last different, albeit related treasure hunt. At first they showed signs of Belligerent Sexual Tension and it was clear for Miyuki that both of them still loved each other. It was later confirmed before both of them found the third victim, only to find her as the fourth victim along with fake suicide note. Itsuki who had been putting strong front since his first appearance was seen drinking lots of canned beer in sorrow and crying... prompting Kindaichi to utter his Catchphrase.
  • Heck, how the victim acted after the reveal was also somewhat heart-wrenching. The reason the killer killed all those four people was to eliminate rightful heir in getting inheritance for his daughter who turned out to be the granddaughter of a famous company's CEO. After it was revealed that the inheritance he sought was no more since the CEO had been broke the entire time, the killer fell down on his knee, muttering that he killed those four people for nothing followed by an enraged Itsuki attacking him for killing his former girlfriend. The killer's response was... begging Itsuki to kill him while smashing his head on the wooden floor with his eyes full of tears. The sole reason he needed the money was to cover her daughter's surgery fee he couldn't afford. He even had gone so far as signing up for life insurance and trying to kill himself by jumping in front of an incoming truck. Seeing how a father tried his best for his child, although it resorted badly (murder) can be one hell of heartwarming moment too.
• Yukikage Village Murder Case:
  • The tear-jerking part can come from Kindaichi's agony alone. That's right, no Kenmochi, Itsuki, Akechi, or even Miyuki, the Childhood Friend who almost certainly accompany Kindaichi everywhere. Here we see Kindaichi's reunion with his old friends but he couldn't have a happy one; He come to attend his old friend's funeral (from suicide, no less), his friends changing with the hardships they faced (most of them unable to pursue their own dreams; One ace baseball player injured his shoulder causing his fellow baseball friend from the same circle quit, one aspiring tennis player couldn't play anymore because tennis club in her school abolished, one aspiring guitarist ended up helping his fisherman father, one even changed from a cheerful individual into sad, moody person). To make things worse, the victims come from his circle with the possible culprit among his remaining friends. It's after seeing changes in his friends that second victim, the one relatively closer to him appeared. It's one rare time when he said his Catchphrase in mixed anger and sadness.
  • The Reveal can also be agonizing. The truth in Kindaichi's friend's suicide, the killer's motive, the subtle implication that both of the victims regretted their actions that caused said friend's suicide and the rest of Kindaichi's friend gathering in the climax despite his best effort to confront the killer alone (manga only). The whole thing and this case's Aesop that people will change as time goes on leaving their past memories were enough to make this one of the most emotional cases in Kindaichi universe. Here is Kindaichi's narration after the case ends.
    "Today, this year's last snow blossom turned into rain, washing away snow covering the ground."
    "Memories from 5 years ago began flooding my thought. Those are memories of us, happily playing in the snow with faces full of smiles,"
    "Those times were probably short yet blissful illusion, before we all faced pain of adults' life..."
• The Vampire Legend Murder Case
  • An unusual case where (one of) the intended victim is actually more of a woobie than the murderer. Basically, the killer, Aoko, committed the crime to avenge Yuria, her half-sister, whom she believed was killed by her 3 doctors — Futagami, Kaitani and Hiiro — so that they could sell her rare bloodtype to an injured girl at a high price. But while Yuria's death was indeed caused by blood loss after donating her blood to save that other patient, the circumstances behind the incident was not like what the killer assumed. When the injured girl first arrived to the hospital, bleeding profusely and desperately needing transfusion, Futagami and Kaitani actually intended to sell Hiiro's blood, as he was also a Bombay Type. They almost bled him dry for that purpose, but apparently his blood wasn't enough to save the girl. So Yuria, who was present in the hospital for her medical check-up, voluntarily offered to donate her blood despite the doctors' warnings of the possible risks of doing so because of her poor heart condition. Yuria insisted on making the donation because she only had 6 months left to live anyway, and she felt that the other girl should receive a higher priority than herself. Of course, she died after making the transfusion, and Futagami and Kaitani faked the circumstances of her death by making it seem like she was killed by a vampire. Hiiro only found out what happened after the other two completed their cover-up scheme. Despaired by her loss and, feeling partially responsible for her death (as he was the one who told her that she didn't have much longer to live), he became a Death Seeker, and answered the killer's "summon" fully intending to die so that he could be with his lover again. Kindaichi later tells the murderer that the pain he suffered from Yuria's death was greater than the loss the killer experienced.
• Drifting Fox Fire Murder Case. May double as Recycled Script since similarity can be found in "Heresy Mansion Murder Case".
  • This is one of cases which involve Kindaichi's childhood friend, and Kindaichi will be all sentimental after The Reveal. This one, though, aside from reminiscing what happened during his childhood aventure with his friends, Kindaichi had this train of thought: If Kindaichi hadn't given suggestion to use empty plastic bottles tied together with shoelace as life vest, Kamikouji Riku, the killer, wouldn't have refused to give his shoelace, thus 3 victims in the case wouldn't have thought of pranking Riku by filling his thermos with bees, thus wouldn't have made his mother died of anaphylaxtic shock, thus the murder case couldn't have happened. Of course the first victim could have prevented it if she had just apologized to Riku (she indeed felt guilty but didn't know that Riku's mother died because of the prank) instead of mocking him thus enraging Riku, but the whole thing did happen indirectly because of Kindaichi's idea in helping a friend bitten by a snake which turned out to be not poisonous after all. The fact that Riku smiled with a smile he once saw during his childhood before going to police station didn't help Kindaichi's already guilt-ridden thought, then the tears started to fall... which Kindaichi shrugged off in front of his friends (manga) or Miyuki (anime) with a rather painful smile.