Just like in other media, Anime has epic moments in abundance, maybe even moreso than the other forms. These moments are badass and epic and often change your perception of the character in question. These moments are done by characters who aren’t stereotypically badass.
Non anime moments can be seen here:
Kuwabara’s Death Speech (Yu Yu Hakusho)
Kazuma Kuwabara is one-fourth of the Spirit Detective Team. He’s a bonafide warrior who gives it his all and even a little bit more in every situation. Kuwabara is also the only ‘normal’ human of the group and is thus the weakest and usually used as comic relief. However this wasn’t the case in the Dark Tournament in the final fight, Yusuke vs. Younger Toguro, when Toguro targeted Yusuke’s friends to try to spark Yusuke to use his true power. Instead of bracing himself for an attack or running or anything of the sort, Kuwabara instead charges forward, accepting his death and wanting to die a warrior’s death, moving forward rather than backwards. For reference, Toguro is hundreds of times stronger than Kuwabara and can (and does) kill him in one blow. But Kuwabara doesn’t care one bit.
There it is. The epic quote “A Mulberry is a Tree, Kuwabara is a Man” and everything after it. Unexpected but truly awesome and badass in every way.
Tien holding off Cell (Dragon Ball Z)
Tien AKA Tenshinhan used to be a badass…back in the original Dragon Ball series. He was as strong as Goku (the main character), if not stronger, and able to defeat Goku albeit with some luck. As Dragon Ball continued and Dragon Ball Z started, Tien became…less and less badass. Or rather he became weaker in comparison to the other characters. Tien fell behind and eventually became just one of the group, one of the humans that weren’t strong enough to compare with the Saiyans.
So when Cell, a new villain that’s stronger than any other, a villain stronger than the Saiyans (for the most part) came along and tried to absorb another character in order to get stronger, Tien is the last person anyone expected to step up. The other stronger characters happened to be pre-occupied, some training to beat Cell, and others allowing Cell to absorb the character. Nevertheless Tien, someone hundreds of times weaker than Cell, someone who couldn’t care less about the character who’s about to be absorbed, someone who no one expected to show up, shows up and holds Cell off and allows the character to escape.
Tien does so using a technique that allows him to use life energy to boost his power and thus gives his own life just to stall Cell and save the day. In doing so, he cements himself as part of one of the most incredible moments in the show and as a badass once again.
Leorio Punching Ging Freecs (HunterXHunter)
In HunterXHunter, Leorio has always been one of the guys. He’s the oldest of the main group of four (between himself, Kurapika, Gon, and Killua), as well as the most normal and the weakest. In reality Leorio isn’t much of a fighter compared to the other three, and is closer to a business man. He’s always been far behind them all.
Enter Ging Freecs: Gon’s father and someone hyped as one of the strongest fighters ever. Many fans believe he may be number one.
Now the situation is extreme, Leorio’s in the arena and recognizes Ging as Gon’s father (mostly due to his name being announced and spoken constantly). Ging is sitting amongst other elites, answering questions while Gon, his son, is sitting in a hospital bed all-but dead with no recovery in sight. Justifiably agitated, Leorio gets up on stage and asks Ging why he hasn’t visited Gon. Gon’s entire mission is to find his father again and now that he’s dying, it may help him heal and such. Ging blows him off with a nonchalant answer that says ‘his friends are enough’ basically and Leorio gets pissed. This is where the badass moment comes.
Angry at the answer, Leorio activates his Nen and PUNCHES Ging in the jaw from across the room using a cool portal-punch technique. It’s so cool that Leorio becomes the favorite to become the president of the entire Hunter Association (Ging, Gon, Leorio, Killua, etc. are all Hunters). To think that a business man and somewhat weak fighter would have the gall to lay out one of, if not the strongest man in the world is unthinkable.
Hawk Saves Meliodas and Sparks Elizabeth’s powers (Seven Deadly Sins)
Hawk is…a pig. Literally. He’s a small pig that thinks highly of himself for…no particular reason and mostly is just the companion to the protagonist of the Seven Deadly Sins, Meliodas. Hawk eats leftovers and apparently can sometimes eat the…flesh or meat of different animals to gain different powers.
All in all Hawk is lovable yet annoying and just a weak sidekick for Meliodas and the crew.
Hendrickson on the other hand is a Holy Knight, one with great training who’s one of the most powerful fighters in the country. Hendrickson enhances this power by eating demon’s flesh, and not just any demon, but a Grey demon (who’s much more powerful than a Red demon, who Hendrickson ate earlier to successfully fight off most of the Sins).
Hendrickson dominates the fight, with the Sins (the strongest fighters in the world at the time) being able to damage him somewhat, but ultimately leave him unharmed in their efforts. Hendrickson takes the time to demolish them and then try to erase Meliodas from existence as he did to any others before him. The only one standing in his way is who else but Hawk.
Meliodas lays immobile on the ground as he begs Hawk not to do this, and Elizabeth, Meliodas’ girlfriend/companion at the time mirrors the sentiment. Yet and still Hawk stands his ground and saves Meliodas, ‘dying’ in the process. This unleashes Elizabeth’s powers, allowing her to heal everyone and allows Meliodas to go serious to defeat Hendrickson.
It’s a touching moment as even with Elizabeth’s healing, Hawk’s form remains blackened and charred, as he truly sacrificed himself to save them all. A badass ending for a usually not-so-badass character.
Of course he does come back as a super small, baby pig somehow but the moment still stands.
Chouji Sacrifices his life to stop Jirobo (Naruto)
Scene set: Jirobo is part of four villains who have presumably kidnapped one of Chouji’s friends in order to take him to their leader: Orochimaru. Orochimaru is renowned as an evil, sick, twisted fiend who wants to literally swap bodies with Chouji’s friend Sasuke in order to become more powerful. Chouji goes along with his friends Shikamaru, Naruto, and Kiba, to stop these four and save Sasuke.
The first one to break off from the other villains is Jirobo, who drains the group’s chakra (energy), causing Chouji to save the day with his food pills, specially made for and by his clan. Jirobo also proves to be super strong, picking up large rocks and launching it at the team, but still Chouji opts to stay behind as not to slow the team down too much by having them all fight him.
Long story short, Chouji is grossly outmatched against someone who is older, more experienced, and more powerful around. And then the guy uses his Cursed Seal as a power up. Chouji barely keeps up by using his clan’s special food pills which give him extra chakra and power. However it’s not enough so he takes the third and final pill, which transfers his fat (he has a lot of it) into energy and will kill him.
Still, Chouji does it, not allowing Jirobo to insult his friends and their mission, and turns skinny, giant, and awesome with chakra-made butterfly wings sticking out of his back. In this form he crushes Jirobo, completing his mission and keeping with his resolve to stay and fight even if it kills him. The self-sacrifice and the power itself is quite unexpected from the kid who usually does nothing but eat chips all day or get OHKO’d previously.
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