The Heartbreaking ’80s Japanese Drama That Inspired Futurama’s Saddest Episode

“I went to see that movie knowing that, okay, this is going to be the biggest tear-jerker of all, I’m not gonna cry, I am not going to cry. I don’t care, at the end when the dog dies I will not cry,” Groening described. “The movie starts, the dog’s a puppy, I started bawling. So when [David Cohen and Eric Kaplan] said, ‘We’re gonna kill the dog,’ I said, ‘You can’t kill the dog!’ And not only is the dog dead, [but] apparently the dog waits for Fry and doesn’t move! For season after … he gets snowed on!”

Groening’s not the just one to sob throughout “Hachikō.” The film was the biggest Japanese film of 1987, and the real-life tale it’s based upon is widely known in the nation. To “Futurama” followers, the tale will undoubtedly seem acquainted: a young Japanese Akita pet would certainly take a trip on his very own to the close-by train terminal to consult with his proprietor on his means home from job. One day …