Sword Art Online fans know that the survivors of Aincrad have endured pains most humans will never know. Kirito was one of the survivors—and heroes—of Sword Art Online but that title came with a heavy burden that only got heavier once he was thrust into the Underworld. Now in this new world, Kirito has suffered even more loss—like Eugeo’s death—and his own fear of becoming a burden to those around him.

Luckily, Kirito’s friends and loved ones rally together to reawaken our hero—who was set into a comatose-like existence after the first War of Underworld arc—and he regains his past strength. Yet, watching Kirito suffer internally with numerous images assaulting his psyche was a powerful moment in the Sword Art Online franchise that we won’t forget for quite a while.

Subaru’s pain in the Re:Zero world has been cemented time after time thanks to his Return by Death ability. What’s worse, Subaru has been unable to confide in anyone due to the strange curse that appears if he even thinks about mentioning Return by Death.

That all changed in the second season of Re:Zero when Subaru had his second meeting with potential waifu Echidna. Despite the fear of the curse appearing, Subaru was able to finally reveal his ability to Echidna without having the curse appear! This tear-jerking moment had Subaru in sobbing and us viewers as well as we finally felt a weight lifted off our isekai hero.

The God of High School has been a pretty action-heavy series since episode one but one moment of the series revealed that this show has the ability to convey some strong real-world emotions. Dae-Wi Han has been considered the most reserved fighter of our main trio in The God of High School tournament/series but his stoic exterior was cracked when we see his best friend dying in the hospital despite all of his efforts to help him with his medical treatments.

Dae-Wi almost enters a numb state but thanks to his newest friend—Mo-Ri Jin—Dae-Wi is able to recover his sanity and push past his sorrow. It took us weeks here at Honey’s Anime to stop thinking about that sad scene…

The beauty of anime originals—like Deca Dence—is that there is no source material to base ourselves on. We don’t know what will happen because of a previous manga chapter or light novel entry. Deca Dence surprised its fanbase with a big revelation occurring in episode 2 of the series when we learned that the world we thought our Gears were surviving in was actually a simulation! That’s right readers, alien lifeforms have fabricated a virtual world where our “characters” survive for their entertainment! Since then, many viewers have either fallen in love with Deca Dence or have been turned off by this revelation but we here at Honey’s Anime can only say this was truly an emotional turn of events for this anime original! Seriously, imagine your life and its struggles being just for entertainment…that’s truly scary as heck folks!