Awesome / Sentou Yousei Yukikaze

• Rei's Establishing Character Moment in the first episode/first chapter. After spotting an unknown bogey on the radar, Rei is prepared to destroy it until it flies by them and his Guy in Back (Lt. Burgadish in the anime) identifies it as a Super Sylph, a.k.a. a friendly aircraft. Despite this, Yukikaze's radar still identifies it as "Unknown." When their attempt to contact the Sylph fails, Yukikaze changes her target designation from "Unknown" to "Enemy". As soon as this happens, Rei's mind is completely made up, and he immediately launches missiles at what by all rights should be an ally. He's doing all this solely based off of Yukikaze's intuition, proving he trusts her far more than even his own two eyes. Future events prove him right, as this Sylph was almost certainly a JAM copy.
  Rei: Yukikaze says... it's an enemy.
  • Rei's actions were even more extreme in the novel version of this scene and more morally questionable. In the novel, the plane was tentatively identified as a Sylphid, not a Super Sylph ^note This is significant because there are only 13 Super Sylphs in existence, whereas the Sylphid is a common front-line fighter, so the chances of it possibly being a friendly are much higher. Yukikaze's IFF also never designates it as an "Enemy" but remains as an "Unknown." Despite this, Rei destroys it anyway. Later, Major Booker even brings up the possibility that the aircraft may have been a United Nations spy plane trespassing on Faery, and not a JAM at all. Rei may or may not have killed a fellow human in that engagement. We never find out.
• The Aerial Canyon Chase between Yukikaze and the Copy Sylph in Operation 01. Followed by Yukikaze flying backwards in order to shoot down a nuclear missile!
• The Antarctic battle in Operation 04. Beginning with Yukikaze doing a somersault fall and then activating its Super Phoenix engine only a few meters above the ocean, which completely stuns the Japanese Navy pilots escorting her, followed by Rei effortlessly shooting down the JAM planes attacking the Japanese fleet. And then we see just how strong the Super Phoenix engines really are, complete with a rainbow and a cheering audience.
• In Good Luck, Yukikaze, one thing that Yukikaze does in particular when trapped in the JAM alternate dimension and it is clear they intend to capture her, Rei, & Katsuragi, she fires off two missiles, one targeted at the Copy Super Sylph and the other at herself... and then lets the JAM know exactly what she intends to do, playing a deadly game of chicken to see who caves in first. The JAM blink.
  Yukikaze: This is not a warning shot.