Crying scenes in the anime, what do they imply?

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Cybersai

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I was discussing this with someone else on another forum, but I want to know what the people here think. What do the main character crying scenes represent in the anime?

I'm talking about scenes such as Ash crying when he lost to Richie in the Pokemon league, May crying when she lost the Kanto GF, Dawn crying when she lost her first Contest, Max crying over Ralts, and Misty's various crying/sad scenes.

One element that came up was, is crying a sign of weakness? I've noticed that some people didn't understand why May cried when she lost the Kanto GF, and actually try to make it seem like her crying made it look like a sign of inferiority. Is this what the writers were intending wich such scenes?

Was Ash crying and running off stubbornly when he lost to Richie a sign of weakness, or an excellent character moment? If you remember, he spent the beginning of the next episode staying in bed and wouldn't get up even when Misty asked him to.

Does crying imply weakness, (especially for the characters that cried after they lost a tournament), or is it a valid reaction for kids who were expecting success and were shot down? And do you think the writers intended us to sympathize with these characters, or think that they were "crybaby losers" (that quote is something a person actually used on another forum), and so forth.

What are your thoughts on the various crying scenes in the anime?
 
Uh... why would the writers make us want to think Ash and May are "inferior losers"? It's perfectly valid for them to cry about these things. Ash was just ten years old, a bit of an arrogant hot-shot, fighting in his first official tournament, and he just lost an important battle, for a ridiculously stupid reason, and to his new friend, no less. I know plenty of people, even Ash bashers, who felt really bad for him. It's the same for May. It may have been her second Grand Festival, but it's quite possible that she was feeling a little overconfident after beating her biggest rival. It's easy to understand why she was so crushed.

It's just something the writers use to have us sympathize with the characters. Nothing more. It works on me, in any case. Even when I was a lame little Ash hater, I still felt bad for him when he lost the battle against Richie.
 
Crying IRL isn't a sign of weakness, so in a show it isn't neither. But theres different types of crying. You could be crying because you just broke up with your boyfriend/girlfriend or lost someone close. Or you can be doing it to get attention. Or your just doing it cause your a spoiled baby. Or you could because you failed at something you were confident about (which is what most of the real crying scenes in Pokemon are).

I think crying just shows that people actually have feelings/emotions. I mean, who wouldn't cry when they tried so hard practicing for a tournament and they were confident about it? I mean, I'm a 16 year old girl with a little Misty attitude, but I would be crying my eyes out if that happened to me.

Just saying, everybody cries. It doesn't show a sign of weakness. It just shows that a person has feelings, which is good. So I just think the people saying the scene where someone cried is weak and stupid and makes a character look like a baby...I think they just hate the character and want to make them look bad. Most people who bash characters do really have bad reasons on why they hate the character. (Especially the people that bash May for her GF crying scene.)
 
I don't see why people bring up May crying as a horrific character-ruining thing, as she's a friggen 10 year old girl with a passive personality.

Hell, it's not wrong to cry!
 
Most ten year olds I knew growing up got treated like crap if they cried, and heaven forbid it in a teenager. I'm sure that isn't what the writers were going for - but really, are you so shocked people saw it that way?
 
I've never really thought much of crying scenes for having any hidden meaning, it's just what kids do. I think an important point is that alot of openings have shown the main characters crying anyway, such as Ash in PSM and May in Battle Frontier. It's pretty much just showing that they can do better I guess.

I do find it interesting though how I can't remember seeing any of the crying scenes in the English openings. Maybe that's trying to imply to Americans, probably since alot of boys watch the show, that you shouldn't be crying.
 
Yeah, no, there's nothing bad about crying, and it's actually a good and oftentimes powerful moment for a chacter. And it can say a lot about them. (Heck, just the other day I was rewatching Little Big Horn while sending the episode to a friend - and it really struck me, like it tends to do, at that one part when Brock starts shaking a little like he's fighting back tears, particularly since they don't tend to show him crying seriously at all, just comedically when he's getting his heart broken by a girl.)

Even I thought the crying was a good part of character development for May. Hell, I'm a bit of a crybaby myself sometimes, so that was one of the ways she seemed the most realistic to me.
 
Crying is human nature, I cry all the time too. Crying because your happy and crying because your sad. Team Rocket quite often 'cries' buckets but they are quick to recover. When one of the main character cries, its usually to increase the dramatic storyline for the episode.

As was discussed here earlier, one of the most notable crying scenes in the anime is when May lost the contest battle at the end of Battle Frontier. Made you almost feel sad for her and want her to have won.

There are two times that I have cried in real life when watching the anime, both at the end of the series. When Misty left the series and when May and Max left. When Chiisaki mono plays in the background as Haruka and Masato are on the boat heading back home, made me crack up.
 
I don't think that the characters crying makes them weak It makes them more believable and more investible as characters
 
SSJ said:
Does crying imply weakness, (especially for the characters that cried after they lost a tournament), or is it a valid reaction for kids who were expecting success and were shot down? And do you think the writers intended us to sympathize with these characters, or think that they were "crybaby losers" (that quote is something a person actually used on another forum), and so forth.
Click to expand...

A litle bit both. Crying is normal and should be allowed, but anime writers generally against that, they want everyone to be "Stepford Smilers".
 
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