Tokyo Afterschool Summoners/Tear Jerker

"I hate you. I wish you had never come into my life. I should've never given you a place to stay. I should've turned you away the very moment I first saw you! I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you!" - Mononobe

• The reason why the protagonist arrived at Tokyo in the first place: each of their 24 souls were banished from their own world and having no home to return to.

• In general, any form of Parental Abandonment that happened in the characters' backstory, either implied or directly stated. Made worse due to them representing/being metaphors for children with birth defect.
  • The original God of Fisherman Hiruko/Ebisu was casted off the heaven because he was either born without bones or as a quadruple amputee. Despite Ebisu himself appears to not possess any of the stated disabilities like his origin, he was still casted off by his parents because of him not being a able to meet their "expectation". Made even worse when it's hinted in Virtual Summer Memories 2020 that the reason he was casted off is because he was also deemed "unnecessary" by the world of Takamagahara.
  • Kagutsuchi's backstory becomes even more sympathetic as the original God of Flames Kagutsuchi (who he was based on) was killed by his very own father for that his mother died giving birth to him.
  • Even worse once the nature of the world of Takamagahara is revealed. In this world, if anyone is perceived to have committed anything deemed to be "sinful" then they're not allowed to live there and banished away from the world, without mercy and understanding of why said sin was committed nor if it is their fault in the first place. That's right, children with birth defect and alike are deemed to be sinful in this world.

• Tezcatlipoca's backstory and how his brother Quetzalcoatl was exiled. To elaborate, the brothers fought many wars together to create their world the Land of Eldorado, with Tezcatlipoca losing one of his legs. Though Tezcatlipoca didn't mind about it, as he and the rest of residents of Eldorado believed that "one own sacrifice for the greater good is what allowing the suns of their land to shine for eternity" and continued to sacrifice more of his body parts, Quetzalcoatl had long grown disillusioned with such belief and its practice of sacrificing one to save others. When their third brother Xolotl was chosen to be the sacrifice despite him not wanting to, Quetzalcoatl let him go and pleaded Tezcatlipoca to end the practice. This resulted in a battle between the brothers and Tezcatlipoca emerged as the victor. Before Quetzalcoatl was exiled for his action, he used his power to remove all presence and memories of himself within Eldorado, causing everyone except Tezcatlipoca to forget that he ever existed to show Tezcatlipoca that not only there are people that not want to be sacrificed, the pain and suffering of those that loved them will continue to remain and no happiness born from such action will compensate, ever.

• Due the loop shenanigan going around, unless you're a World Pillar, every Character Development that the characters from the past loops experienced will get reset. Thus, things like Behemoth unable to taste, Ebisu's insecurity, and Sitri's denial of his love for chocolate will continue to happen in any of the loops that they didn't met the protagonist.
  • Not that it is any easier for the World Pillars either, as those such as Surtr, Azathoth, Wakan Tanka, Kijimuna, and Mononobe can testify, as being able to remember is much more painful, since those that couldn't will revert to treating them like strangers each time the loop comes to past. Case in point, even a Nightmare Fetishist like Azathoth who likes to experience every possible bad endings has to tell the protagonist to go and grab that "long awaited future" back for everyone.

• A minor one: Breke and Cthugha's artworks don't feature any of the miniature version of their friends which the characters normally have when getting a limited variant, something very prominent when compared to Kurogane's which features all of his Kamata friends (and Musashi), signifying how lonely in the life they are. To drive the point home, Daikoku actually has miniature version of his co-worker/"friends" in his event variant's art, and Cthugha is the only one from Old Ones whose miniature version doesn't show up in Halloween Azathoth's art (though at least his broach is featured).

• The revelation from Shiva in Chapter 11 put the Valentine Event into an in-universe Harsher In Hindsight. Namely, his Valentine event can only happens on the one particular loop that he and the protagonist spend their time bonding together until the inevitable end of that loop came and took away the protagonist's life. Now, recalls that Transients, especially from those of Three True Guilds, all have a Valentine scene each with the protagonist no matter how antagonistic they're in the main story, meaning that they also have at least one of the loops that they had gotten a chance to bond with the protagonist as well. With this information, the fact that each of them wants to be one and only person to be with the protagonist make their motive a bit more sympathetic, if still possessive and misguided.

• As revealed by Mononobe in Chapter 12, while the player's survival chance had gotten better since the loop that they enrolled at Shinjuku Academy, they would still always die with 2 years of each loop up until before the current and last loop and never manage to properly graduate, which tragically embittered Mononobe to the point that he decided to use any mean to break apart this repeating fate for the protagonist to take their future back, even if he has to sacrifice his own existence.

• Given their extremely unique circumstances, it is implied (if not directly stated) Tangaroa and Wakan Tanka Infinity each has only **one** loop out of trillions that they were able to come to Tokyo and be with the Protagonist as themselves and not as the normal Tangaro and Wakan Tanka, something that they lament as they will no longer be able to see the Protagonist again until the end of the Game, which they've to separate from them for good.

• Jacob's past loop's memory reveals that even if no one try to kill the Protagonist, either directly or indirectly, the world itself would still find a way to screw them over, with the ground cracking from nowhere and the Protagonist falling to their death within it being among one of such ways.