Mecha Anime - Television Tropes & Idioms

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Because Humongous Mecha are awesome all by themselves, we had to split up the anime section of "Crowning Moments" just for them. Chicks dig giant robots, you know.

Please move series with large number of examples to their own page. Or folder them.

Examples:

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Asuka's came in The End of Evangelion, when she took on nine Evas, each with unlimited power and a weapon that could slice through an AT field like it wasn't there, at once, armed only with a progressive knife and three and a half minutes of battery power. And won. Once.
- This troper prefers the earlier part where she takes on the JSSDF. Y'know, by tossing a NERV battleship at them. With the JSSDF's weaponry having no effect on her Eva. (After cowering at the bottom of a lake for a while, she realises that the Eva contains her mother's spirit and snaps out of it. Then we see the humongous battleship slowly rising from the surface...)
Shinji gets his own moment in episode 19, against the 14th Angel. Whatever happens with the other Angels, whether it's Yui going berserk and not him, whatever may happen in the other fights, in this one it's all him. He's brave and he's crazy and he just won't quit. And whatever you thought of him before, he demonstrates here that he's a warrior and a hero. And yes, this being Eva, the next several episodes and EoE likewise see our expectations brutally subverted. But just this once, we get to see him go out to do battle, "fangs out and hair on fire," and kicks ass like an action hero and saves the world. Not to mention performing a Dynamic Entry in a Humongous Mecha.
- He gets another one at the end of Rebuild Of Evangelion, where despite being fried by Ramiel and being in intense pain, he gets back up. This, after Shinji spent most of the movie running away and crying / being depressed, had this editor cheering. Misato's speech of confidence (to Gendo) also deserves a mention. On further reflection, Ramiel himself also deserves an award, for melting his way through a god-damn mountain to get at Shinji.
- Rebuild reinterprets the battle with Zeruel and begins what has to be Shinji's greatest Crowning Moment of Awesome with three very terse words: "Give Ayanami back...". Cue an beatdown of divine proportions and a "Take My Hand" scene that is as badass as it is touching.
  - In Episode 3, Shinji gets another when he just goes into batshit insane, Unstoppable Rage mode and fucking destroys an Angel against his orders.
  - Shinji also defies the odds and whatnot when he reaches into the volcano to save Asuka from certain magma-related death in episode 10, despite the risk of he himself joining her.
  - Ramiel deserves yet another entertaining mention in the simple fact that until Shinji shoots it, it's absolutely blowing through anything and everything without effort. It predicts Unit-01's arrival and shoots it in the chest. When a shield comes up, it simply shifts over to another, even more powerful beam, and blasts the shield apart effortlessly. In an odd way, it almost seems to have a twisted sense of humor with its action. Until it gets shot, snaps, and proceeds to melt a mountain.
  - The particle cannon he was shot with deserves a mention too. It's a weapon that focuses the power output of an entire nation into a coherent beam of energy, that blasts through an AT field that's powerful enough to bend visible light in a single hit! In the original NGE it also oneshots Ramiel. In Rebuild he took two hits, which again warrants another Crowning Moment of Awesome. He gets hit with the power output of an entire nation and lived! Course then it gets subverted and the second hit kills him.
  - Rei also gets a Crowning Moment when she jumps in front of one of Ramiel's blasts to protect Shinji, using a fricking space shuttle as a shield. Which leads to a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming when Shinji rescues her from the smouldering wreckage of Unit-00. Let's just face it, the entire Ramiel battle is Made Of Win.
Ritsuko and Maya get one in episode 13, when they defeat the Eleventh Angel by reprogramming a computer. This being Maya, Ritsuko gets excessively fangirled for her contribution.
The 3 EVA pilots working together (in episode 11) to defeat the Ninth Angel, Matarael, was truly awesome. They're even allowed to enjoy the victory afterwards! Asuka gets double the awesome, of course, because the plan was her idea, and she actually led the others without acting like a pompous know-it-all like she had throughout the episode.
- Gendo also has one here, as he masterminds and participates in a method to launch the EVAs completely by hand after the base's power is shut down.
Misato gets a grand moment in End of Evangelion when she guns down several well armed JSSDF members with nothing but a pistol, without bothering to take cover, then kicks one against the wall and shoots him in the head and point blank range. Keep in mind, she is not a trained soldier by any means, at least not on the level of the several men she effortlessly killed.
- Actually, given that she holds the rank of Major and the billet of Chief of Operations in a paramilitary organization, it is inconceivable that she had not had any training. This in no way invalidates her Moment, however, as such a move normally results in a stupid death, rather than a cool line and a win.
When supporting character Ryoji Kaji is about to be shot by a SEELE assassin, he just turns around and calmly asks, "What took you so long?"
This troper smiled when Misato bitch-slapped Ritsuko for saying it didn't matter if Shinji lived or died.

Close Neon Genesis Evangelion

Vandread

Escaflowne

Van getting a quick crash course in psychic powers, then proceeding to walk straight into an ambush set by entirety of Dilandau's elite bishonen squad, and hacking through them at a rate of roughly one per second, despite them being invisible, while their omnicidal psychopath leader more or less goes catatonic.
- For that matter, Balgus parrying blows from a Guymelef on foot, with his opponent and both of the involved swords being a few times his size.
- This troper was impressed beyond words by the scene near the end where Van dumps Escaflowne, which refuses to stop the killing, and to go save Hitomi, and sprouts his own wings to fly to her.
Don't forget Hitomi Kanzaki running through half an Astorian city wearing a fancy gown, ripping her long skirt when it gets in the way and managing to tackle Van to the ground to save him from a surprise attack from Dilandau.
- And when everything comes crashing after Hitomi tried to use her tarot readings to make sure Millerna would marry Dryden instead of running away with Allen, whom Hitomi also loves, what does Hitomi do? Instead of going into an Heroic BSOD, Hitomi briefly explains to Millerna what was going on, then thinks "What am I doing? I've got to go already" and, as Naria and Eriya demand to have the "girl from the Phantom moon" handed over, she bravely goes to them and yells "I'M THE GIRL FROM THE PHANTOM MOON! GO AND TAKE ME AWAY ALREADY!" For an Ordinary High School Student who's got no Action Girl skills, Hitomi demonstrates lots of guts.
Princess Millerna working her ass off to save Allen's life and pretty much bring him back from the dead. Since this is a Medic who's NOT a Staff Chick and was using a very old manual as a guide as she raced against the clock... wow.
Merle gets her own moment when she fearlessly stands up for Van in front of the Cat Girl twins Naria and Eriya, shielding him and yelling at them to leave Van alone. And they do, reminded of how similar they were to Merle when they were children.

Eureka Seven

Though just about everything Holland does with the TB-303 Devilfish toward the end of the series is awesome, the absolute coolest moment has to be in the penultimate episode, in which he slams it straight into the bridge of Dewey's flagship and proceeds to unload his entire arsenal into it.
Speaking of Holland, he gets another one very early in the series. When a couple of thugs try to rape Talho, Holland pulls one of them off of her by grabbing him by the nose. When another thug tries to crush Holland and Talho with the foot of his pimped-out mech, Holland beats the guy up. He does so by running up the mech's arm, throwing the manual release for the cockpit, and then beating the crap out of the punk when the hatch opens.
Anemone's (or rather, her robot's) dramatic Heel Face Turn in episode 49: just when it seems like everything's over, The END suddenly turns white and begins moving on its own, shields Dominic and Anemone from a deadly blast, and basically redeems every evil deed it performed throughout the whole series over the course of a couple of minutes.
- Also during that episode, when Anemone and Dominic are falling through the air, reach to grab each other's hands, and they're not going to make it...but then Gulliver grabs Dominic's hand with one paw and Anemone's hand with the other, pulling them together. Now we know why Gulliver weighs so much: he is made of win.
During penultimate episode, Holland and Dewey are fighting on the bridge of the Ginga, and it looks like Dewey is about to kill Holland, until he looks out the window and gets a wonderful Oh Crap face as Talho and Moondoggie stab the bridge of their ship through the bridge of the Ginga, sending Dewey flying across the room.

Fafner In The Azure Dead Aggressor

Ill Girl Shouko Hazama getting in the Fafner to fight. She proceeds to absolutely thrash the Festum which was attacking, before tying herself to it and blasting off into the sky, where she proceeds to self destruct, simultaneously destroying her own unit and the Festum, killing herself in a BIG Heroic Sacrifice.
Maya Toumi spends the first two thirds of the series on the sidelines before getting to pilot. When she does, she gets put as a backup, and when she goes into battle for the first time, the rest of the cast is worried about protecting her. In said battle, things start going south when a Festum starts assimilating Sakura - the rest of the cast tries to stop it to no avail... until Maya arrives and nails it with a perfect sniper shot into its weak point. The remaining Festum tries to dive down on Maya from above, and she easily shoots that one down as well. Those at Mission Control are left in awe.
Soushi in the final episode:
"That, Festum, is pain! Would you like to know the name of the tactic I showed you? It's the War Of Attrition! The tactic of enduring pain!"

Full Metal Panic

In The Second Raid, Sousuke manages to defeat five Codarls without taking a hit, finishing with a Lambda Driver punch to Gates' red Codarl.
- This needs some elaboration- he took on five mechs, all with Lambda Drivers, by himself, with minimal armaments. He finally managed to make the Lambda driver work when he wants it - and not only make it work, but completely obliterate Gates's Codarl right through Clouseau's M9, which Gates is using as a shield, without touching the M9 at all. Epic is truly the word.
Opening moments of the first season, before the opening song, where he uses his Humongous Mecha to grab the Russian attack helicopter pursuing a girl, and then proceeds to throw it into the distance, where it crashes and explodes.
In an episode of Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, Kaname is being held hostage by a high-school gang. Sousuke tortures the details of the gang members' personal lives out of one of them, ties up the leader's little brother, and threatens him (and those close to the other gang members). The gangsters leave in a hurry, and the boy and Kaname are released from their respective captors. The best part? The kid had been bribed to be a decoy.
Meanwhile, Kaname's Crowning Moment comes in The Second Raid: left alone and vulnerable after Sousuke is forced to give up acting as her bodyguard, she succeeds in outwitting both the Mithril Intelligence agent shadowing her and the professional assassin sent to kill her.
- She follows it up by making the Intelligence agent take her to Hong Kong so that she can deliver an epic Get A Hold Of Yourself Man to Sousuke, snapping him out of the Heroic BSOD he'd been in for half the series just in time for him to deliver the first Crowning Moment mentioned in this section.
- This Troper prefers to think of it as literally beating some sense into him.
In the tenth light novel, Approaching Nick of Time, Kurz Weber gets his moment: sniping his former mentor Wilhelm Casper in order to save Sousuke and Tessa - in the process breaking a record set by Casper, which Casper had previously told him he would never be able to match. If that weren't enough, he accomplishes it while dying from the horrific injuries he suffered when Casper destroyed his M9, including crushed legs and a broken back.

Martian Successor Nadesico

Ruri skirts this a lot, but she about tops herself for good when she wrests control of the Nadesico's computer from Nergal, then proceeds to hack into United Earth Forces network and lock down the entire base, trapping everyone inside, appearing on all their security screens in a silly-looking cat costume and apologizing in advance ("Please keep quiet for a short while") for good measure.
Subverted courtesy of Gekiganger 3. Joe coming Back From The Dead is intended to be this, but, for Akito at least, the moment falls flat.
- But you can watch how it would have gone in some of the Nadesico-featuring Super Robot Wars games.
Ryoko Subaru gets one in her first appearance by doing an Outofthe Inferno moment, whilst towing three mechs, tied together with a white bow so that the Nadesico know that she's friendly. The fact that she does this despite not knowing if the rest of her Amazon Brigade are alive or dead... they're alive
"Where else? In the box."

The Big O

Pretty much every second of "The Greatest Villain" is a Crowning Moment Of Awesome for either R. Dorothy Wayneright or Jason Beck.
Norman gets his when he pulls a machine gun taller than him from nowhere in the first series, and again in "Eyewitness," when he breaks out a rocket-launching motorcycle.
Schwarzwald gets one after his death in series two. His mecha, Big Duo, has been refitted, rebuilt and given to Psycho For Hire Alan Gabriel, and is about to finish off the titular mecha, when Schwarzwald somehow takes control of Big Duo, appears as a ghost to inform Gabriel he isn't fit to pilot it, and suffocates the maniac with wires before flying off into the distance as (presumably) part of Big Duo. And then hitting a stagelight and exploding. Really.
- Better still, the way Gabriel's fate is foreshadowed a few seconds before it happens. The main character's mecha always starts up by running the phrase, "Cast in the Name of God, Ye Not Guilty." Having skipped that little step in starting up Big Duo, Gabriel is surprised to see the screen in his cockpit suddenly sticking on that line; "Cast in the Name of God, Ye Guilty."
- This is Scwarzwald's Ultimate Crowning Moment of Awesome though
Near the end of the series, police chief Dan Dastun is informed that the Military Police have been ordered by Alex Rosewater not to interfere in the fight between Big O and Big Fau (piloted by Rosewater). Angrily, Dastun tears his badge right off his uniform, commandeers a tank, and goes off to help Roger anyway. His attacks prove ineffective, but just before Rosewater can blast Dastun to kingdom come, he's barraged by an entire fleet of tanks, piloted by the entire Military Police force, all of whom resigned and came to help Dastun. A great day for Red Shirts indeed.
Roger gets one in every episode her fights another mech, but when he pulled out the Final Stage beam cannon this troper got up and cheered.

Bubblegum Crisis

Largo's confrontation with Quincy in episode 6, where he demonstrates what he can do with the satellites. Quincy finally realizes Largo isn't human:
QUINCY: Are you a superboomer?
LARGO: Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Largo. I am the maker of the new world.
Also, the introduction of Priss' new Motoslave, where, shortly after Largo's hyperboomers destroyed the old one, pays them back in full by taking two of them out all by itself before Priss even gets into it.

GunBuster/Diebuster

Noriko's Big Damn Heroes moment in the fourth episode, where the audience finds out what she and the Gunbuster can do.
Noriko and Kazumi in Gunbuster ripping apart the alien fleet in episode 5.
In Diebuster, Nono being revealed as Buster Machine #7.

Tekkaman Blade/Teknoman

After Blade exceeds his time limit and goes on a rampage, Milly/Tina putting herself in his path to stop him, and managing to bring him back to normal.
- Followed immediately by Blade flying up to the orbital ring to Voltekka Evil/Saber's ass.
Miyuki's Heroic Sacrifice at the halfway point of the show, even though it turned out the Radham Tekkamen survived.
Blade's evolution to Blastor Mode/Teknoman Plus and ownage of Lance (The video is the Teknoman version, but still awesome). Lance had been talking shit the entire episode and some of the episode before, so to see him get his butt kicked like that was immensely satisfying.
The climactic battle of David's arc in Tekkaman Blade II. Rather, the ending of it, since the battle itself is just Blade and Tekkaman Dead lancerfighting while Yumi babbles. Anyway, Blade finally overpowers his opponent. Dead is a Death Seeker of the highest order, so he begs Blade to stab him and finish him off. Instead, Blade swings his blade with perfect precision and neatly bisects Dead's eye mask, then declares, "You have now died. Let Tekkaman Dead be dead." Result: perfect Heel Face Turn to end the OVA.
Balzac gets one in the third-last episode when he manages to take out a Tekkaman by himself, at the cost of his own life. Score one for the human race!

Giant Robo

Chief Chujo challenging the armed-to-the-teeth, several hundred foot tall Monster Sphere by himself, with just his bare hands. His special technique, the Big Bang Punch would have utterly destroyed it had Gin-Rei not teleported him away before he could really get a hit in. It still caused an enormous explosion though.
Shockwave Alberto jumps out of Giant Robo before it's engulfed by the Monster Sphere's energy blast and blocks it with a shockwave (which he even lights his cigar on). He then absorbs the entire blast and keeps going, even while he's disintegrating from the strain, until the Monster Sphere's shields drop and it completely powers down.

Overman King Gainer

After the Overdevil has either defeated (Gain) or turned the entire main characters into its slaves (Gainer, Cynthia. and Sara, the minor characters and army of Yapan City Units show up and start blasting the Overdevil, and Brainwash And Crazy members away.
Asuham Boone gets his when he gets in the boxing ring, and just destroys Gain, and captures Gain.
- Which leads to Hughes Gouli revealing that his a ninja and starts killing Siberian Railroad officials with shurikens while Calling Your Attacks.
The Students get one when they help Adette raid a Siberian Railroad train while only Sara and Gainer are actual soldiers.

Mazinger Z and related shows

The entire final act of Mazinkaiser: Shitou!! Ankoku Daishogun is one big Crowning Moment of Awesome as Kouji Kabuto Pilder Ons Mazinkaiser as it's descending from space, crashlands, then goes off tearing the Mikene Empire apart. When Ankoku Daishogun crashes his ship into Mazinkaiser, it tosses it off, then slices it in half with the Kaiser Scrander. And when Daishogun has them on the ropes, Kouji's egged on by the spirits of those who died and he has his And This Is For moment before decapitating Daishogun with a point-blank Turbo Smasher Punch and gutting his body with his own sword!
- Mazinkaiser is dropped from space, re-enters the atmosphere and crashlands so hard that the surrounding enemy robots are melted by the resulting explosion. Then it climbs out of the crater without a single scratch, due to being Nigh Invulnerable.
In Shin Mazinger episode 3, Baron Ashura is so pissed by the appearance of Mazinger Z that he runs across water, jumps hundreds of feet through the air and then dropkicks it in the face. This is followed by a Master Asia style beatdown of Z and Aphrodai A with just his/her BARE HANDS.
Also in Shin Mazinger, Juzo snaps Kouji out of a Heroic BSOD by surfing a Rocket Punch through the air and using it to punch a hole through the enemy robot that had Kouji pinned down, just so he could access Z's cockpit.
Viscount Pygman finds out that he can't direct any attacks against Tsubasa, because of some kind of biological programming she did to him. So how does he get around it? He stabs his eyes out so that he won't be able to recognise her, enabling him to attack.
Pretty much all of episode 10 following Cross' Robotic Reveal. The true nature of the Kurogane House members is revealed and they deliver a huge beatdown to the Gamia sisters with their crazy weapons and super abilities.
In Shin Mazinger Zero, Kouji takes the Rocket Punch to a whole new level by RIPPING HIS OWN ARM OFF and throwing it at the enemy, fist still clenched. It busts a hole right through them.

Sora Wo Kakeru Shoujo

In episode 7, when ~~Giren Zabi~~ Nerval Colony Drops (actually, Colony Suplexes) ~~Lelouch~~ Leopard.
- In the same episode, Takane gets one by saving Akiha-tachi with her hands shackled... and then tops it by slicing an asteroid in half.
In episode 15, Nami is kicking Akiha's butt (despite Akiha being in her QT-ARMS), ranting about how their family didn't care about her and how she hates Akiha. She tries to smash Akiha over the head with her staff-thingie... and Akiha ''catches'' it, and tells her, "Nami, shut the hell up!"
Imo-chan gets one in episode 21 by kamikaze-ing herself into an antimatter missile heading for Kirkwood. Also a Tear Jerker.
In episode 22, After Benkei decides to turn against our heroes, Tsutsuji (who was implied to have been blown out of the colony during their trip to the sun) reappears, kicks him (activating his chainsaw in Xanthippe's face), and verbally browbeats Benkei into staying on the heroes' side. Who knew henpecking could be awesome?
- Also, Takane gets another Big Damn Heroes moment.

Other

The final episode of Metal Armor Dragonar featured the two rival characters Kaine and Maio teaming up to exploit a glaring weakness in the most dangerous Humongous Mecha in the series, piloted by the series biggest Jerk Ass. Result? The two people who have clashed violently up to that point pull of a combination attack that would make many Super Robot pilots jealous, with the only real lead-in comment being a generic "follow my lead" kind of thing from Kaine. This attack has only once appeared in any Super Robot Wars game with the exact same choreography as the series, and has been altered to appear even more Bad Ass in all other appearances.
- Dragonar also featured a scene in which the three main characters, using "borrowed" mecha, grab an enemy unit, carry it high into the air, fly toward the ground at top speed, and send the enemy unit flying straight into the ground, letting go only a few feet above the terrain below.
The premiere of the Mugen Punch in Genesis Of Aquarion, knocking the Shadow Angel into the moon!
In the final battle of Aura Battler Dunbine, Elle, one of the leaders of the protagonists and a powerful psychic, tries to mentally disable one of Bern Bernings's ultimate attacks. She succeeds, but in retaliation Bern launches his own mental attack, despite having shown NO psychic ability before, to not only kill her, but tear off her clothes and flail her body around like a puppet in the process. Not to mention he was fighting in a mecha far away from Elle's flagship at the time.
- This troper's favorite moment was when Shou faced the incredibly huge and powerful Leprechaun piloted by the show's Psycho For Hire, and finally destroyed it, getting everybody rid of Jerrill's worthless existence, with one telling blow. The Hyper Leprechaun seemed to be invincible, but he did it nonetheless.
The ending of the final episode of Reideen, seen here. Pulling your final weapon out of the Moon surely qualifies as your crowning moment.
The second-to-last episode of Kotetsushin Jeeg, a sequel to the original Kotetsu Jeeg, has both the original Jeeg's pilot and the new series' pilot both become their respective Super Robots and beat the ever loving hell out of everything around them.
- Seeing Hiroshi Shiba shout out "CYBORG CHANGE!" for the first time in aeons is... beautiful.
- Much agreed - but this troper think the scene could only have been more epic (if that's possible) if they'd kept the original voice actor for Hiroshi. It doesn't lessen the scene, but damn it would have been awesome.
  - Even if you were too young for the original, you could tell this was the stuff of legends.
- Speaking of Hiroshi himself, earlier in the same episode while he has to protect Big Shooter: "I can no longer become Jeeg. My fists are more than enough for you! Come at me, Haniwa Phantom Gods!", and when Kenji and Tsubaki return from their objective, you briefly see a pile of shattered clay phantoms in the foreground.
- Not to mention the line he gives before the double Jeegs fight. "Hey, there's no air out there!" "I don't need it." Before jumping out of his spaceship and onto the moon.
A mention must also be given to Combat Mecha Xabungle and it's infamous ICBM catch.
In Gravion Zwei, a trip to a hot springs resort is interrupted by a Zeravire attack. As the team scrambles to take it on, Sandman has the maids sing the transformation theme as Gravion dives down into a volcano, fights the Zeravire, throws it out of the volcano (the hard way), and finishes it off.
- He actually preceded it... When Mizuki has been dominating a ping pong match with Alex... there comes Sandman challenging them, with just Leele as his assistant... except she's just there for formalities of a match. Sandman then goes on to completely beat them with perfect score... while calling out attack names of his strikes... using SANDALS. That episode certainly shows that even without mecha, he gets one soon, though, Sandman is beyond awesome.
Kannazuki No Miko, especially on Chikane Himemiya. After in the early episodes serving as a Mac Guffin character, she betrayed Himeko, kicks the curb out of Souma; who practically has done all the fighting by himself, corrupts his mecha, took it to the enemy home base, and even without her mecha, she wipes out the Quirky Miniboss Squad on foot by herself (except the said squad's leader, but he still loses). And after the end, it's later revealed that it's all just a Xanatos Gambit due to her reasoning of I Want My Beloved To Be Happy.
In episode 23 of Bokurano Yoko gets several: First, shooting Dung Beetle several times, allowing the characters contracted to Zearth to gain full control over it (including who goes next) and thus joining the contract herself (having not been contracted previously) and making herself (with a bit of help from the others) the next pilot. And then during her fight teleporting Zearth somewhere else (with the oponent following) and blowing up two buildings containing the Zearth program (a threat to mankind). Her actuall fight is made even more awesome by the airforce bombing the two robots, creating a huge inferno around them.
- Could we give an honourable mention from the manga version to Seki going to his Heroic Sacrifice singing an anime theme tune, badly?
- I'd also like to mention Waku's fight early in the series. He tears a robot in half with his robot's knee.
In Zone Of The Enders Dolores, I, when the Link arrived at Earth Orbital Elevator, the situation had turned grim, while the officer in charge can't do anything since he didn't get any order. Rachel explains the situation, that they had to give up most elevator structure to preserve it. While the officer still in doubt, (well, it is a several million dollar infrastructure being sacrificed in process) they decide to take matters into their hands: They wrestle their control from said officer, who can't do or say shit. Then, Rachel gives her speech:
"If any of you wants to evacuate, go right now. BUT REMEMBER, between them and us is the life of more than 6 billions of people on Earth. If we failed, there's no more Earth we know. Now, what's your choice now?!"
- Needless to say, all the officers choose to stay behind.
The end of Iczer One, when Iczer-One and Nagisa finally synchronise with one another, and proceed to unleash massive amounts of butt-kicking. By the way, this was over twenty years before Gundam 00 did the same thing.
The final battle in Raideen is remarkably well done for a 70s mecha show. Particularly awesome is the finishing blow, where Raideen, in its bird form, is stabbed through both its wings with two giant swords. So what does it do? It flies into the enemy monster then moves upwards, dragging the blades through the monster's body and killing it.
A perfect example from Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu would be in the 13th episode where Face Open is used for the second time, since it was obvious the first was nowhere near epic enough to live up to its namesake. This was.
- Though its obvious in this anime you don't need a giant robot to be awesome, as Captain Garis shows when he has to save his daughter Lulu (or Ruru depending on preference of spelling) from Proist. Of course when he has to get past Proist herself who is in Raiking, and him just being a regular man, what does he do? He throws a grenade at it, and whilst Daiya distracts it, battles his way through the army of Robot Lizards - one of which nearly killed him by itself - his own daughter threatens to shoot him out of revenge for her mother, and still ends up saving her. No wonder, since Gar is a part of his name.
- Anything involving Gaiking the Great can be called awesome. Its only ever used three times, each one is epic. First one here has it kicking the *beep* out of an enemy thats power was so strong, it tore open holes between dimensions. Next has it lifting an entire CITY out of the way of an erupting volcano here. And then to top it all off in its final appearance, Daiya is being overwhelmed by King Darius 18, and is on the verge of defeat. Then we learn he's actually been holding back the entire time to give the others time to free Proist's hostages, as well as shut down all the portals she had opened. As such Daiya can now pull out his trump card, Face Open the Great. The sudden burst of power allows him to catch Proist off guard, and when she catches Gaiking the Great, Daiya ejects the head and combines back into regular Gaiking, before unleashing a Hydro Blazer straight to King Darius 18's face, point blank.
In Basquash, we have the last scene of Episode Seven. To describe it without giving anything away, let's just say This Troper hasn't been this pumped after a mecha series scene since Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. It's just that epic.
- To describe it more thoroughly, the previous episode and a half had been focusing on MagnificentBastard James Lowe's plan to sterilize Street Bigfoot Basketball with rules, referees and lines. To make matters worse, when the fan response is a little less than lukewarm, his only notion is wanting to train them to accept and like these new rules. Cue Sela and Haruka's plan to start disrupting things by distributing scandalous pics of themselves... followed promptly by Dunk Mask, previously in a funk being torn over joining this new league to get the money he needs to make it to the moon and cure his sister and playing the game that fulfills him, showing up to completely disrupt the farce. CUE OPENING THEME AND FOUR MINUTES OF BASQUASH AT ITS ABSOLUTE FINEST. It concludes with Dunk Mask heaving a basketball filled with the diamonds offered to him by Lowe in the most outrageous rebound pattern barrage yet, bouncing every which way until it shatters the glass office that Lowe is watching from. KICK. ASS.

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