Awesome / Tokyo Ghoul

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

Tokyo Ghoul examples:

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• Touka completely curb-stomping Nishiki after the latter attempts to attack Kaneki for straying on his turf. She moved too fast for Kaneki and Nishiki to even notice.
• Kaneki using his Kagune for the first time in chapter 8 to save Hide, curb-stomping Nishio by getting in Nishio's blind spot and repeatedly stabbing him in the stomach.
  • Touka overpowering a crazed Kaneki to stop him from eating Hide.
• As crazed as he comes off, there is something to be said about Kureo Mado's abilities as an Investigator. His perceptiveness, skill and control over every confrontation with a ghoul is something to behold and impresses many of his co-workers. There is a reason this man is well respected within the CCG despite his sadism.
• Touka fighting Mado in the sewers during the Dove Investigation arc while trying to protect Hinami. Bear in mind that by this point, Mado had murdered Hinami's mother right in front of her, and has expressed no mercy when dealing with ghouls. He has Hinami, a little girl, cornered and is about to do her in until Touka comes to the rescue just in time.
  • As Mado has Touka in a compromising position, he raises his quinque and swings it towards her to deal a fatal blow. Only it never hits. Instead, in such a flash that he took a moment to even register it, his hand is severed. By whom, you may ask? Hinami, who has revealed her kagune for the first time.
  • Mado turns his attention to her now, and without even thinking about it, Hinami is swinging her kagune left and right and manages to entangle Mado, cutting off his leg to incapacitate him.
• Kaneki loses control of himself and attacks Yomo, who came to bring him home. He literally stabs him straight through the stomach with his kagune. It doesn't even faze Yomo.
• Touka fighting against Tsukiyama for Kaneki's life. Especially when she takes a bite out of Kaneki's shoulder in order to fuel her kagune, causing Tsukiyama to angrily rant about how Kaneki is his. Touka's response?

  Touka: He belongs to you? Don't make me laugh. There is not a single thing in this room that belongs to you.

• Kaneki finally beating the living hell out of Yamori. After being kidnapped, forced to endure some of the cruelest bits of torture and going through a lengthy mental reevaluation to cope, Kaneki accepts Rize and ultimately his own ghoul side. As Yamori attempts to finish the job by consuming Kaneki, he busts out of his chains and swipes a bite from Yamori's cheek. Thus begins one of the most famous and well-deserved fights in manga/anime history.
  • Even more so in the anime where the fight is accompanied by the fricking opening, Unravel!
  • The fact that Yamori is forced to use his kakuja in the fight. A ghoul uses their kakuja only when under extreme stress and in a crazed state. Yes, Kaneki pissed Yamori off enough to force him into it. And Kaneki's reaction? To keep a completely blank face as he continues ducking and dealing blows, as though it's nothing to him.
  • As the intense battle draws to a close, Kaneki finally gets the upper hand and forces Yamori to the floor, where he proceeds to not only impale his limbs, but forces him to count backwards from 7, a torture technique Yamori previously used on him. By the end, Kaneki now has HIM crying and screaming while he sits atop... And opens his mouth to consume his torturer. An oh-so satisfying end to the bastard.
    Kaneki: You tried to devour me. So you have no room to complain if I devour you. CHOMP
• In the midst of all this, we have the Anteiku crew infiltrating Aogiri Tree's hideout in order to rescue Kaneki, dressed as the enemy while swiftly and silently taking out any lackey that gets in their way.

  Aogiri Mooks: Hey! Which team are you with?!

  [Our heroes immediately kill them before they can fight back]

  Touka: Anteiku.

• Kaneki, white-haired and "fresh" from the torture, "half-kills" Ayato by breaking exactly exactly half of his bones.
• Kaneki and crew wiping out the restaurant.
• The "Centipede" being born. As terrifying as it is to see Kaneki losing his mind as his kakuja activates for the first time, there's no denying it is still awesome to see how incredibly agile, swift and brutal he is.
  • "I am fucking strong."
• The entirety of the Anteiku Raid with many for both sides.
  • The Devil Ape and the Black Dog coming out of retirement to protect their home from the CCG's army. Even though they both fell in the end, they put up a fearsome fight and remained defiant.
  • Yoshimura's speech, spoken directly to a group of exceptionally skilled investigators. Talk about Creepy Awesome.
  "...The act of taking is equally evil... We, from the moment of birth, continue to take. Food, connections, even fellow bloods. Living to the outmost, continuing to kill, slaughter, take. Life is to constantly sin. Life is evil itself. I am aware I am evil... and so are you all. Now, come kill me. AND I SHALL DO THE SAME!"
  • Following straight away from that is his fight against several high ranking Investigators. He is able to hold his own against all of them for quite some time. Regardless of the fact that he eventually loses and falls, the fact that he alone could do this is nothing short of admirable.
  • During said battle, Kuroiwa loses an arm and simply grunts in response, calling it unavoidable and entering right back into the fray.
  • Kaneki fighting his way through the CCG force that has several Special Class Ghoul Investigators, all without killing any of them, instead just destroying all their weapons and managing to rescue Kaya and Enji. Special note goes to when he saves the former, after she's about to be executed by Investigator Hachikawa.
    Kaya: I'll see you in hell.
    Hachikawa: [Almost offended] There is no afterlife for ghouls.
    [Kaneki arrives in the nick of time and with one blow, knocks the investigator out before facing his team]
    Kaneki: [cracks his finger] Is there even one for humans?
  • Amon fighting on after losing his arm, taking on Tatara and before that refusing to die so Kaneki doesn't become a murderer.
  • Arima's entrance into the battle against the One Eyed Owl, perhaps the most infamous and feared ghoul for the CCG at this point. This is a ghoul that has killed so many Investigators in the past and has just taken out the group that was dealing with Yoshimura. Arima simply locks eyes with his target. The man doesn't even flinch during their ensuing fight. And in the end? The Owl is forced to flee! The man truly earns his nickname of Shinigami.

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Tokyo Ghoul:re examples:

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• In Ch. 6, Sasaki arrives to rescue his team from Orochi and goes Papa Wolf on him. However, he quickly realizes he won't be able to win without using his full strength. Cue him cracking his index finger as his kagune begins to form. The fandom EXPLODED in excitement.
• Chapter 7, we see Sasaki get serious and give a curbstomp to Orochi/Nishio.
• In Chapter 18, Suzuya's grand debut at the Auction involves him breaking out the knives hidden in the special compartment in his prosthetic leg and immediately stabbing Uta repeatedly in the face. Suffice to say, the fandom celebrated.
• The Auction infiltration in general features a series of awesome moments:
  • Sasaki, Shirazu, and Urie defeating Kanae to rescue Mutsuki. The Quinx reunion is one as well, crossed with Heartwarming Moment.
  • Sasaki vs. Takizawa, with him holding the Ghoul off to allow his subordinates to escape.
  • Takeomi Kuroiwa displaying Super-Strength by twisting a Ghoul's head almost completely around with his bare hands.
  • Shirazu, Saiko and Hayashimura taking down Nutcracker, with Shirazu figuring out her traps and using them against her.
  • Juuzou Squad's Big Damn Heroes entry and dominating Big Madam. The SS rated ghoul doesn't even manage to touch one of them.
  • Hinami rescuing Haise from Takizawa.
  • Haise seemingly fighting Takizawa to a standstill after the latter has put a smackdown on anyone he goes up against.
• Chapter 32: Iwao Kuroiwa is still serving as a Special Class Investigator despite losing his arm.
• Chapter 40: Urie's Took a Level in Badass moment when his months of extra training pays off and he utterly dominates Kanae in a fight, cutting through his arms at the elbows and throttling him.
• Chapter 41: Haise curbstomping the group of White Suits, killing three and forcing the other two to flee. Urie is suitably shocked.
• Chapter 49 is this pretty much from beginning to end.
  • The Quinx proving themselves to have evolved into a Badass Crew, absolutely tearing Noro to pieces within moments. Too bad it doesn't stick for long....
  • Mairo's Dying Moment of Awesome, as he leaps into the path of Ihei's blast and uses the momentum to decapitate her on his way down. He follows this up by using the last of his strength to pin Kijima down, allowing Matsumae to cut off his arm and kill him with his own Quinque.
• Chapter 51: Shirazu finally using Nuts.
  • To elaborate, Itou squad and the Quinx actually taking down Noro, Aogiri Tree's Implacable Man known for it's abnormal Healing Factor and slaughtering a score of CCG's investigators by using Nuts' expanding properties to bisect him to multiple pieces. Negated when it's revealed that Noro survived the attack.
  • Haise missing an arm and being held over the edge of the building manages to kick to slip free and kick Kanae's head off...
    • Which is immediately reversed as Kanae's head re-attaches itself in a manner eerily reminiscent of Tsukiyama, Uta and Yomo fighting Noro in the first series.
• Chapter 54: Shirazu and Urie finally manage to put Noro down for good.
  • Haise laying a beatdown on Kanae and telling Eto to shut the hell up
• Let's be completely honest: Chapter 56 may have been crazy as fuck, but Kaneki defeating Eto in a one-on-one, and quite handily at that, was an unprecedented feat of awesomeness that not even Arima pulled off. That is, of course, unless you subscribe to the theory that Eto was holding back with the intention of getting killed.
• Chapter 58's Big Damn Heroes moment, with Touka, Yomo, Mirumo, and Chie showing up to rescue Shuu.
  • Eto in hindsight earns one for proving how adept she is at shaping events according to her will. Not only is she shown to be completely fine while taking a bath, she implies forcing Haise into letting Kaneki take over and being defeated by the latter was all planned, just so a starved Kaneki would feed on her discarded kakuja and obtain a new powerup.
• Hinami rescuing Kaneki from Furuta's attempt to gouge out his eyes with his thumb with her kagune.
  • When Kaneki hits Furuta hard enough to knock out his tooth Furuta simply shakes it off and puts the tooth back where it was knocked out.
• In chapter 66 Furuta is implied to have a sexual interest in Eto, and he's so callous and immoral that he talks down and acts cruelly towards her. Rather than get creeped out she doesn't take this sitting down and she hits him in his Berserk Button with her words about his family and he responds "Die...die...die...die...die...die..." Because of her dismissal of him he also plots to torture her personally later. She notably doesn't seem freaked out by this but keeps a level head.
• Ch. 75: Eto using a massive Kakuja to smash the Compactor Machines to pieces, rescuing everyone in the process. She quickly kills all the V members surrounding Furuta, and then promises him that he's next while sporting a Slasher Smile.
• Ch. 76: Furuta cowers at fighting Eto, who begins chasing him down a hallway. He pleads with her to spare him, and when she corners him she . . . has her Kakuja cut to ribbons by Furuta's kagune, as he reveals himself as a One-Eyed Ghoul, much to Eto's shock.
  • This also gives Furuta a second CMOA - so far throughout the entire story, Eto has been more or less in complete control of everything going on. This is the first time she seems to have been blind sided by anything in the story.
• While terrifying, Mutsuki gets one when its revealed he was probably the one to get revenge on Torso for mutilating and possibly sexually assaulting him by dismembering him, putting his penis where his nose was cut out, cutting out his eyes and tongue, and cutting off his limbs and head.
• Kaneki and Arima's fight is just a sequence of CMOA for both participants:
  • Arima claims to have been able to fatally wound Kaneki 645 times.
  • Hide shows up inside Kaneki's mind to give him a pep talk. It's super effective!
  • In the previous round he was fighting to stall, which is why he was so weak. Now he's fighting to win, and Arima had to get much more serious.
  • Kaneki takes advantage of Arima's failing eyesight to break his quinque, Owl. Not only does he destroy Arima's last quinque, harvested from Yoshimura. Kaneki has driven Arima, CCG's greatest investigator, into a corner. Even Arima is in disbelief and admits out loud that this was the first time in his life he couldn't do anything more against an opponent.
• Marude confronting Yoshitoki in Chapter 83 over the latter being a ghoul. And promptly shooting him point-blank in the head.
  Marude: These are words from an old friend. I don't particularly like using them myself. But this is... Just my intuition.
• Touka protecting an injured Ayato by stopping two Special Class Investigators' attacks just with the sheer force of her emerging kagune.
• In chapter 86, the One-Eyed King's identity is revealed: Ken Kaneki. Eto and Arima had been working together all along to make Kaneki king so that he could change the world.
• In an unexpected turn of events, Takizawa jumps in to rescue Houji and his squad from Tatara, speedily killing the powerful ghoul by ramming him through with his kagune!
• The Clown attack on the CCG is a devastating event for the organisation, but we do get to see Saiko show off just how skilled she's become against a berserk Urie by shaping her kagune on a level unseen in the series so far, forming multiple little fists to beat him up with before forming two massive fists for the last round.
• Chapter 144. On one hand, it rears into Tear Jerker and Nightmare Fuel territory due to what occurs, but on the other hand, it has Kaneki coming back from the brink, disregarding the morality that's held him back for so long and fucked up everyone's lives around him as a result, and basically eliminating Furuta's entire Oggai force and Furuta, without any limbs. He literally bites them to death. Just as well, for all of the differences and conflict all of Kaneki's numerous personalities have had, they ultimately come together to get the job done and save Touka, no matter what.
• The entirety of Dragon's rampage on Tokyo. While it may have been terrifying, seeing Kaneki’s massive kagune form destroy a large section of the city looks fucking cool. The scale of the scene combined with Ishida’s artwork made it one of the most visually stunning chapters to date.
  • Dragon!Kaneki vs the JSDF. There’s nothing more satisfying than a giant monster crushing tanks and helicopters like they were bugs. Kaneki basically takes on the entire Japanese military and wins.
• The team-up of the ghouls and the CCG is truly an epic moment to behold. The ghouls, along with Hide, Amon and Akira, show up right at the CCG's front door in an effort to collaborate in order to stop Dragon. Multiple investigators are quick to disagree with the whole idea. In unison, the ghouls discard their masks and denounce the investigator's "honour".
  • Marude leaves the final decision up to Juuzou of all people. The human who had been seen in the last series gleefully slaughtering ghouls left, right and centre, simply smiles and says yes to the plan.
• Chapter 161: Touka, along with Saiko, Urie, and Toru, brave the Dragon and its army of eldritch abominations to rescue Kaneki.
• Chapter 168: The chapter ends with two long overdue confrontations, namely between Donato and Amon, and Uta and Yomo.
  • Amon finally managing to best his past by not only taking down Donato (with a giant cross-shaped quinque, no less), but also admitting the attachment he has to him. Donato himself is actually moved by this.
• Chapter 172: We finally see Kaneki and Furuta face-off. Though Furuta gets the first hit in through the same surprise attack he defeated Eto with, Kaneki then gets up and cracks his index finger...
• Chapter 176: Furuta, defeated and bleeding to death, gives Kaneki a speech about how everyone dies in the end, and the only option is to treat the world like a big toy box. Kaneki, in a true testament to his Character Development over two full series, tells Furuta that despite all the crap he's been through, the allies, friends, and loved ones he's made along the way have made it worth it. He finishes by stating that even if it all "comes to naught" in the end, he's still going to strive forward.

Other examples:

• This MV that won a Tokyo-Ghoul themed contest. The creator of the MV was then asked by Ishida Sui to create the equally amazing promo for Tokyo Ghoul:re. (Spoiler warnings for both videos.)
• The sequel title is as layered as the Book of Isaiah. The relevant meanings of ":re" revealed so far: "red eye" expressing Touka's wish to reunite with Kaneki, "re-" the prefix meaning repetition or going back and the hundreds of parallels and foreshadowing between the first and second series, and the word for king in many, many languages. The planning involved in all the applications of this one word is a staggering accomplishment in itself.