Yanagi's Heroic Sacrifice. His body was injected with parasite eggs that have hatched, and begun to move him, but he managed to gain enough control over himself to set himself on fire and burn down the entire nest of those things, just so the rest of his team can escape.
Takashi Sugurono, during the Ryugu Shelter arc. One of the executives has left with his lackey, both infected with the parasitoids that are currently killing off the population in the titular shelter. Takashi, himself also infected, heads after them and turns on the giant fan that was previously used to cull people. He grabs the executive and lackey, intent on making sure this infection doesn't spread to anyone else, and his final thoughts go to the members of the 7 Seeds project, including his daughter, and throws himself into the fan.
In Angel Beats! there are both humorous and dramatic examples.
In Episode 2, TK holds off the Descending Ceiling so everyone can go through.
Masami Iwasawa plays her last song, the summation of everything she ever wanted to say and do, and passes on in peace.
And then there's how Otanashi died in real life. A rather horrible train wreck leaves him and multiple other passengers trapped in a tunnel, and many are injured pretty badly. Despite having some serious internal injuries himself and severely limited resources, Otanashi, on his way to entrance exams for med school, uses what he studied to keep the rest of the passengers alive for a week. Then, once he's reached his limit, he, as his final act, fills out a card to become an organ donor, in hopes that, should he not make it, he'd still be able to save someone's life, which inspires the others to do the same. When help finally arrives, he succumbs to his injuries and dies. To recap, an aspiring med student with no training beyond independent study saves the lives of all but two people and gives them all hope that their lives can save someone else's. Dying Moment of Awesome indeed.
The Reveal at the end of the series turns this into one of the most powerful series-encompassing Dying Moment of Awesome. "You gave me your heart." Which means that after Otonashi's death, his harvested heart is what allowed Kanade aka "Angel" to live a little longer, then setting almost everything in the series since her Ghostly Goal was to find whoever did such a kind act for her... Also one of the biggest tearjerkers of all time.
Ian Dietrich's last act is to dive into a Titan's open mouth to pull another soldier from it.
Erwin Smith and the Survey Corps recruits, who mount a suicide charge against the Beast Titan to distract him from Captain Levi's effort to kill him from behind. The Beast Titan fires fistfuls of small stones at the recruits to shred them to pieces. Erwin is killed by the first stone volley, but the remaining soldiers — who are not experienced soldiers but fresh, terrified new recruits — continue the charge until they are all dead anyway.
Special mention to Marlowe Freudenberg, who despite being a naive new recruit, briefly assumes charge of the charging soldiers for a matter of seconds after Erwin is killed, during which he rallies the remaining troops and commands them to continue the attack. He is killed by the next volley of stones.
After the second volley only three (visibly terrified) soldiers are left. They continue the charge anyway, and are all killed by a third volley.
Mobilt Berner. When the equivalent of a minor nuclear bomb is fired on the battlefield, Berner's last act is to save his comrade Hange Zoe from the blast by pushing her into a well.
Later on, Hange's own demise would be equally as awesome and heartwrenching after taking on an army of Wall Titans all alone in order to make time for the Survey Corps seaplane to take off. With Hange successfully killing 7 of the Colossal Titans before getting incinerated by the exhaust heat.
Bleach: Several of the Espada die in awesome ways. Barragan's death in particular would make Starscream himself shed a tear. In short, he throws his axe at his Big Bad boss Aizen, while slowly disintegrating as a result of his own powers. He even manages to get Aizen to turn around and notice the attempted assassination, which is saying quite a bit. Ulquiorra probably counts as well, and Stark had a nice send off.
City Hunter: Hideyuki. Attacked by a man dosed with a drug called Angel Dust and surprised at arms length by what was by now a killing machine almost Immune to Bullets and capable to tear down a car bare-handed, he somehow succeeded in killing the zombified man, and, while mortally wounded, managed to walk to Ryo's home, warn his friend about the danger, and give him a ring for Kaori before finally succumbing. Becomes even more awesome when later appearances of people dosed with Angel Dust make clear that anyone else but Ryo will die in terror when attacked by those people.
Kosetsu Urabe of the Four Holy Swords sacrifices himself to save Lelouch from an extremely powerful prototype Knightmare, inspiring him to keep fighting as he stabs his own Gekka to take out said Knightmare, the Vincent, behind him. Ironically, he is protecting Lelouch from Rolo "Lamperouge", who up until that point had been posing as Lelouch's brother.
In the final episode, Lelouch himself arranges his own assassination and is killed by "Zero" (actually his friend Suzaku wearing the Zero costume), impaled by a massive sword during what was supposed to be a public execution of the Black Knights. After being stabbed, he slides down the front of his parade vehicle next to his little sister Nunnally, as his subjects cheer over the death of Emperor Lelouch. Combined with bittersweet yet triumphant music, and Nunnally's cries of realization and grief, Lelouch's sacrifice is pretty touching.
Cowboy Bebop: Spike Spiegel's one-man assault on the Red Dragon building and his final duel with Vicious in "The Real Folk Blues (Part 2)", all the way to the end. "Bang." See you, space cowboy...
Crest of the Stars has the Gosroth go down with all hands fighting against ten enemy spaceships of approximately the same class. They destroy nine of them.
In Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, David Martinez lays waste to most of Arasaka and Militech's forces and rescues Lucy from Faraday. After he helps her and Falco escape, he mocks Adam Smasher and provokes him into ignoring Falco's car while engaging in a Hopeless Boss Fight. Finally, just as he's about to die, he refuses Smasher's offer to have the Soulkiller used on him and embraces his fate knowing Lucy is safe.
Juzo Sakakura's death in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School. He dies after shutting off all the power in the facility, thereby destroying the videos that made the previous victims commit suicide, and removing the character's bracelets, essentially ending the game in its entirety. Not to mention that they did all of the above after being impaled by a Hot Blade and cutting off his own arm in order to remove his bracelet without activating its poison countermeasure.
Most of the crowning moments in Darker than Black are these. For example, November 11 taking down a room full of heavily-armed guards with a bottle of brandy before succumbing to a bullet wound, Huang luring The Syndicate enforcers chasing him into a car chase so he could blow them all up once he'd gotten the pursuit away from Hei, and Amber Ret-Gone-ing herself to let Hei Take a Third Option and stop the genocide the villains were planning without erasing Japan from the map.
Upon returning to the Digital World, the Digidestined found themselves up against all four Dark Masters at once. After a Heroic Sacrifice by Chuumon buys them one free pass, there is seemingly no hope...until Piximon shows up, puts the Digidestined in a bubble and sends them flying as far away as possible, and performs a You Shall Not Pass! to prevent the Dark Masters from pursuing them. That's one Ultimate trying to hold off four Megas.
Grani in Digimon Tamers. Originally a simple program made to transport the kids and their Digimon in the Digital World, he gained a new appearance and served as Gallantmon's steed when the conflict with the D-Reaper crossed over into the real world. When too badly damaged by the D-Reaper to continue, Grani reminds the protagonists that they're his friends, and deconstructs himself to enable Gallantmon to enter Crimson Mode.
Grani: Do you want to fly? I will give you my wings.
Goku's deaths. His first death consists of him holding Raditz in order to make sure he doesn't dodge Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon. His second death is even better: With Cell threatening to explodeand destroy the entire Earth, Goku merely smiles to his friends hinting on what he plans to do, teleports to Cell, and says his last words to his son Gohan before disappearing to King Kai's planet where Cell explodes, killing him, King Kai and his pets Bubbles and Gregory. YMMV on that one since, as many have pointed out, Cell didn't immediately explode and there should have been no reason Goku couldn't teleport back.
Vegeta's spectacular death scene during the Buu Saga, arguably the best part of the entire saga. Nearly completely breaking down from his back-to-back catastrophic losses, he reflects soberly on his life and, for the first time, hugs his son. He asks Piccolo if he'll meet Goku in the afterlife, and Piccolo candidly tells Vegeta that he will very likely not go to the same afterlife as the heroic and selfless Goku. Vegeta shrugs and sends his son away with Piccolo, gives a Big Scream, and consumes himself in an apocalyptic inferno (that can be seen from space) that reduces Buu to vapor.
Vegeta almost gets another one near the end. Kid Buu has just finished pounding Vegeta into the dirt, Goku can barely hold his own, and no one else is powerful enough to even scratch Buu. Goku, the rival who Vegeta has been trying to prove is inferior for 200+ episodes, says he can win but he'll need an undistracted minute to gather power. "I've got it covered." "What?" "Your minute. I've got it covered." Vegeta steps back into the fight, knowing quite well he'll get his ass handed to him, just to buy time for the man he has finally admitted is the better fighter.
Even in Dragon Ball GT, Goku's death is awesome. Once his power runs out COMPLETELY, meaning he no longer has the ability to maintain his SSJ4 form, let alone fuse back into Gogeta, Omega Shenron kills him. Goku stands up (still dead) and contacts King Kai to make the biggest Spirit Bomb of all, one powered by the entire freakingUNIVERSE. Then Shenron carries him to Heaven. Even GT had it's Moment of Awesome as a series.
Android 16. Unlike the other characters in this series, this ginger had no soul, and almost certainly knew it. Yet his reassuring smile to Gohan never leaves his face even as Cell crushes him. His last words to Gohan are what inspire him to go all out against Cell and save the world:
"Gohan, let it go. It is not a sin to fight for the right cause. There are those who words alone will not reach; Cell is such a being. I know how you feel, Gohan; you are gentle, you do not like to hurt. I know because I too have learned these feelings. But it is because you cherish life that you must protect it. Please, drop your restraints. Protect the life I loved. You have the strength, my scanners sensed it. Just... Let it go."
Piccolo spent the last two arcs of Dragon Ball as the main villain, slaughtering thousands, including quite a few main characters. But his first death in Dragon Ball Z has him throw himself in front of Gohan to block a blast from Nappa. Extra points for surviving the blast in one piece and remaining on his feet for a few seconds just to stick it to Nappa, and then spending his last minutes telling Gohanhow he changed his (Piccolo's) life for the best.
Captain Falcon in F-Zero: GP Legend goes out in one of the most awesome ways possible, destroying Black Shadow with a FALCON PUNCH at the cost of his own life.
Raoh's death. He sends his fist towards the heavens, says, "Of this life... I HAVE NOT A SINGLE REGRET!" and projects all his energy into the sky, bringing light to the desolate waste lands and becoming a statue in the process. He commits a Heroic Sacrifice for the whole world. The death is so awesome that every case of Died Standing Up in manga since the 80's is likely a reference to this scene.
Kaioh's death is nothing to scoff at either. He kills himself by standing in the middle of a volcano with his brother Hyo's corpse in his arms, says "Farewell" to Kenshiro and is engulfed by lava, turning them both into fossilised statues.
And then there's Rei's death. While it is the most Cruel and Unusual Death any of the heroes suffers in the series, inflicted as it was by Raoh and his Hokuto Shinken, his final three days on the planet were just enough for him to finally take down his longtime rival and nemesis Juda and pull one of the most awesome Screw Destiny moments in the entire series on behalf of Mamiya, the only woman he's ever loved, giving his life so that the Star of Death (which is normally an inexorable Portent of Doom for anyone who sees it in the Fist of the North Star universe) no longer appears for her.
Al's death. He sacrifices his own life and body (which is now a living Philosopher's Stone) to resurrect his brother.
Ed possibly tops this when, just after being brought back, he makes the exact same sacrifice, reviving Al (and giving his brother his body back, no less)... without the use of a Philosopher's Stone.
Even Kimbley's death counts. Shortly after Scar blasts a fatal hole through his chest, he grabs onto Al and turns him into a bomb. When an outraged Scar demands to know what he has done, Kimbley smiles maliciously and says "I want him to think about how useless his efforts have been," before dying.
The death of Scar. At this point in the series, Scar's grand plan was to realize his revenge against the Amestrian military by turning the town of Liore into a Philosopher Stone transmutation circle, intending to use the soldiers as sacrifices for the stone. Before he is able to do so, Kimbley engages him, and blows off Scar's right arm. Scar still kills him, but as mentioned above, he turns Al's body into a bomb. Scar decides that the only way to save him is to transfer the tattoo on his arm to Al's body, not only making Al the recipient for the Philosopher Stone he intends to create, but destroying his OTHER ARM in the process. Shortly thereafter, he lures the military into the town by dropping Kimbley's body from the top of a building. Stop and think about that one for a second. Scar has NO ARMS, and managed to somehow bring Kimbley's body onto the ROOF OF A BUILDING and DROP HIM OFF IT. After sustaining gunshot wounds (which he received while protecting Lust), he finally collapses on the gap between the lines of the transmutation circle he's carved, completing and activating the circle using his OWN BODY. In the end, Al becomes a Philosopher Stone, setting the rest of the plot into motion. Scar originally intended to use the Stone he created. But he still goes through with the plan even when it's clear he's not going to make it OUT OF PURE SPITE. And also to save Al, which is also pretty badass.
Buccaneer and Fu's deaths, since they did wound Wrath for the first time.
Lust also deserves a special mention here. She gets the most badass death out of the homunculi by sheer aesthetics, and her finger lance wasn't even an inch away from Roy's head. As she goes down, she just taunts him that there's going to be hell later.
The Promised Day Arc was one for King Bradley. He manages to cause serious issues for the heroes, gets Father his last sacrifice by working with Pride (Utterly Curbstomping Mustang in the progress), and almost indirectly stopped Hohenhiem's Spanner in the Works (If he killed Scar, he wouldn't have been able to activate the reverse transmutation circle). All while taking increasingly savage injuries. By the time he fights Scar, he's half dead. And he manages to almost kill him despite Scar being at his best. It culminates with him giving a near fatal wound to Scar after his arms were blown off (Using a sword held in his teeth no less!), before contemplating his life, getting one last laugh against Lan Fan.
Solf J. Kimblee, who had previously had his throat ripped out and the rest of him devoured by Pride, calmly emerges from Pride's internal torrent of lost souls to interrupt the homunculus's Grand Theft Me on Ed, tells it off, and then strolls off into oblivion as Ed takes the opportunity to crush Pride's head. The man's got class.
The Second Greed's death; Father, undergoing a Superpower Meltdown due to using up too much of his Philosopher Stone, decides to recall Greed and use his Stone as a replacement. Greed goes willingly (as doing otherwise would kill his host, Ling), and then reverses his Ultimate Shield to turn Father's body into frail carbon. Father destroys Greed for this, but his sacrifice weakens Father enough for Edward to punch a hole through Father's torso and release the souls he still has control over.
Future Diary: There's no doubt about Akise's badass status when in chapter 51 despite having just been stabbed by Yuno and sliced across the throat, he gets back up out of sheer determination and texts an important message to Yukiteru even though Yuno ends up cutting off his head completely.
Musashi Tomoe in Getter Robo gets one in every single alternate version he is. In the manga and in the beginning of Shin Getter VS Neo Getter, he pilots the Getter Robo in its three forms alone and fights the entire Dinosaur Army, and when the titular robot can no longer take it, he makes it pull out its reactor and make it blow up, pulverizing him and the rest of his enemies. In the 70's animated series, he pilots one of the aircrafts with a bomb strapped to it, and crash it in the core of the Dinosaur Army base. While sustaining heavy fire and piloting through narrower and narrower corridors.
Almost all the deaths in Ginga Densetsu Weed and Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin — the dogs almost always Died Standing Up in a way, at least the good ones, a few of them fulfilling the aforementioned trope very literally. Most of them die in some kind of kamikaze attack, flat out saying that they don't mind dying at all, so long as their enemies go down with them.
Walker too gets one, despite being just the Red Shirt of the day, he shows himself repeatedly to be an extremely honorable soldier. He even goes on fighting against Heavyarms without any chance of winning: "COME GET ME, YOU MONSTERRRRRRRR!!!!!"
Amuro Ray at the end of Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, where he overloads his and Char's Psycoframes to stop the mother of all Colony Drops, a massive sattelite base filled with nuclear arms. The sight is this is so inspiring to both sides, finally realizing that the Earth and all it's citizens are at stake, that Red Shirt suits pile in by the hundreds to help Amuro Atlas Lift the Axis Base out of Earth's gravitation field. Amuro ends up abandoning his physical form in the process and Amuro's psychics-breaking feat of willpower was so inspiring that it more or less brought world peace.
And in the original Mobile Suit Gundam the episode "Big Zam's Last Stand" serves as one for Anti-VillainDozleZabi. With The Federation closing in, and his troops cornered, Dozle sorties in the Big Zam, goes One-Man Army on The Federation and buys his men time to escape. Then as the Gundam tears the Big Zam apart, he climbs out, pulls out an assault rifle and continues shooting at it until he's killed. Defiant to the End indeed.
Not just Dozle Zabi, but a lot of characters in the original Gundam went out in blazes of glory. Dozle's little brother Garma was first, piloting a crashing Gaw in an attempt to destroy the White Base despite being drawn into a trap by Char. Denied resupply due to political rivalries among his superiors yet still obligated to continue his attack on White Base, Ramba Ral resorts to an under-manned infantry attack on the Cool Starship...and almost succeeds against all odds, then blows himself up in a final act of defiance when defeated. A wounded Ryu Jose slammed a Core Fighter into the Dopp of Crowley Hamon when she went on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge for Ramba Ral's death, Matilda Ajan knocking a Dom away to save Amuro and the rest of the White Base from the Black Tri-Stars, Sleggar Law damaging the Big Zam enough for Amuro to break through... there's plenty there.
Natarle smiled to her terrified Bridge Bunnies as she sent them away from Azrael's madness, was shot 4 times by him, and when then she wasn't able to stop Flaga's Heroic Sacrifice, she still got Azrael trapped in the Dominion as Murrue finished both of them off.
In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, the one who gets an awesome and heartwrenching send off is Lacus's Body Double Meer Campbell, who takes the bullet for her of and dies begging her to not forget her song.
(The first) Lockon Stratos in Mobile Suit Gundam 00, you gotta love the way how with his dying breath, he looked at Earth and pointed his hand towards it like a gun, and declared that he hated it.
Graham Aker's Heroic Sacrifice, blowing open a way for Setsuna to end the conflict as well as his attitude about it.
Graham: "Young man! The pilot to the future! I, Graham Aker, will gladly take on this task! This... is not death! It's for humankind to live on!"
In Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, Commander Bruzar gets one in Episode 3. Already badly injured and with the colony falling apart around him, Bruzar makes it to the emergency controls and turns the colony core loose. Unfortunately, it's jammed by wreckage. So Bruzar climbs into a spaceship and crashes himself into the wreckage, freeing the colony, and preventing protagonist Flit from having to risk his own life to do so. All this, despite dealing with a sucking chest wound from about five minutes it.
The next one is Don Boyage's in Episode 10. He ends up doing a Self-Destructive Charge right into the UE's battleship. Subverted in that it didn't even scratch the paint...then double subverted when it turns out his Rousing Speech galvanized the rest of the pilots fighting to the point where they won the battle.
Yurin L'Ciel has one in Episode 14. After finally freeing her mobile suit from Desil's mind control, she sees Desil preparing the final blow against Flit. In what is quite possibly the most heroic (and heartbreaking) scene in the series thus far, she takes the hit and saves Flit's life at the cost of her own.
Then there's Badass Normal Woolf Enneacle. Desil had just taken control of two Zedas Ms to hold the Gundam AGE-2 in place for a killing blow...when Woolf flies in, destroys both mobile suits, and knocks the AGE-2 out of the way. What results is one of the most tear-jerking moments in the series...followed by one of the most awesome.
Even a minor villain gets one! Daz Roden, who had previously embarrassed himself in the eyes of the fans for losing to three old men, a sprinkler, and a rocket launcher while in a Dorado, proves that he wasn't harmless after all by overloading his mu-szell and ramming what was left of his Dorado L into the Gundam AGE-1. The Gundam survived, but it was severely crippled, and so Flit was taken out of the fight.
Two words: Obright Lorain. He kills Leil and then engages Fram, well aware that he's within the Digmazenon Cannon's line of fire, and that it'll be able to fire soon. He's doing this to buy time for the Gundams to escape. And as if that weren't awesome enough, he manages to defeat Fram after being mortally wounded, by being quick on the uptake with a reverse-gripped beam saber. And finally, he goes out with a smile as the Digmazenon Cannon envelops the two mobile suits.
The crew of the Reinforce Jr. in Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, all of them old men who know they are going to die anyway and, with their ship badly damaged, they decide to go out in a blaze of glory: armed with a damaged battleship and a damaged Gunblaster, they fight their way towards the Motorad Squad, telling the young ones to get out and live.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans: In the second season, Naze Turbine is framed for possession of illegal weapons (armor-penetrating railcannons) and it becomes clear that Gjallarhorn is going to come down on him full force. What does he do? After ensuring that they'll be taken care of, he sends his crew-slash-family off and prepares to face the fleet by himself...at which point his wife Amida Arca makes it clear she's not leaving him behind. What follows is a truly epic battle sequence where Amida curb stomps Gjallarhorn's MS, even smacking Julieta's Super Prototype and delivering a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, only getting taken down because Iok, the commander, orders his men to attack while she's grappling with Julieta — and even as she's dying, she manages to fire off a shot that nearly destroys the bridge of Iok's ship. As for Naze, he single-handedly pilots his battleship Hammerhead, running interference to protect the escaping shuttles, and finally ramming and destroying one of the enemy ships.
And in the final episode Mikazuki and Akihiro choose to stay fighting to ensure the rest of Tekkadan can escape safely. When their Mobile Suits are almost torn to pieces by a barrage of Dainsleif rail cannons, they stand up and continue to slaughter Gjallarhorn's mobile suits. Akihiro succeeds in killing Iok Kujan (who had escaped death all season) by crushing his cockpit, avenging Naze, Amida and Lafter (who got killed indirectly thanks to Iok), before dying. While Mikazuki continues fighting, and would have killed Julieta had he not bled out seconds before finishing her.
In the last episode of Gungrave when the dying Brandon Heat and Harry Macdowell went into an all out fight with Millennion's forces. Even with the odds against them, they still put up a massive fight only for them to kill each other in the end.
Jonathan Joestar from Part I is ultimately slain by Dio Brando, but he doesn't go down easily. After Dio pierces his throat, Jonathan uses the last faint Ripple in his body to cause the ship they are on to explode. Then he uses his own body to shield Erina from incoming shrapnel. Finally, when Dio desperately tries to claim Jonathan's body, Jonathan rips out shrapnel from his back and stabs Dio with it, giving Erina the opportunity to escape. He dies Peaceful in Death, secure in the knowledge that Erina will survive while hugging Dio, whom he always considered a brother. While he doesn't kill Dio, he does manage to drag him to the bottom of the sea for 100 years.
Narrowly avoided with Joseph Joestar in Part II. When Kars gets his hands on the Red Stone of Aja and becomes the Ultimate Life Form, gaining a nigh-unstoppable Adaptive Ability, he prepares to finish off Joseph with Ripple. Joseph — exhausted and missing his left hand — manages to use the stone to amplify and redirect the attack into the volcano they'd been fighting on, causing it to erupt and sending them flying on a chunk of rock. The blast sends Kars flying out into space while Joseph remains behind, fully expecting to die as he plummets back to earth. Luckily, he survives.
A more straightforward example from Part II is Stroheim. The manga establishes that he dies after the part ends during the Battle of Stalingrad. The anime shows how - he holds off a Soviet counterattack by himself; his death allows the rest of the German forces in the area to successfully retreat.
Noriaki Kakyoin from Part III also dies at Dio's hands, but as he's bleeding to death, he manages to piece together the secret of Dio's stand, The World. He then uses the last of his strength to send a message to Joseph, which, while he doesn't live to see it, proves instrumental in defeating Dio.
Bruno Bucciarati in Part V manages to pull off two of these. First is when he learns the Boss of Passione, Diavolo, is planning on killing his daughter Trish. Bucciarati tries to take him on and, even after he gets impaled and almost cut in half, he manages to gather enough strength to outsmart Diavolo, save Trish and get to Giorno. The second is after Giorno heals his body, not knowing he's already dead. Bucciarati proceeds to will his soul back into his body and spends the next few days leading his team on a mission to bring down Diavolo, all while his body is slowly failing. During their final fight with Diavolo, when everyone's souls are swapped thanks to Chariot Requiem, Diavolo very nearly gets his hands on the Stand Arrow before Bucciarati destroys Chariot, sending everyone back into their bodies aside from him. With his body too far gone, Bucciarati ascends to heaven, but his sacrifice allows Giorno to take the Arrow uncontested.
Guld Goa-Bowman in Macross Plus. After realizing that he was the one who assaulted Myung, Guld sacrifices himself to stop the Ghost unmanned fighter, by cutting out the limiter on the YF-21 and ramming it at such speed that in the movie version, we see his head explode from the G-force.
Macross 7: "What is Diamond Force if I can't bring down one battleship?!... Here's your love heart!"
Mikhail Blanc of Macross Frontier went out like a man. In order to save the woman he loves from being killed while she was vulnerable, he charged into the enemy Vajira and got impaled, then proceeded to open up a Can of More Dakka on the enemy while choking on his own blood and was finally able to admit his feelings to the woman he loved before succumbing to his wounds and being sucked out into open space.
Macross Delta has two in the series: Messer in episode 10, flying and matching Keith in combat to protect Kaname and the rest of Walkure (and even managing to dodge all of Keith's shots in Passionate Walkure), and Keith in the final episode, pulling a Taking You with Me by stabbing Roid to death in his exploding ship.
In the second Delta movie Absolute Live, Freyja's final performance; while she succumbs to crystallisation as a result, her final song boosts Hayate and the others enough to defeat Heimdall's drones and stop their plan to blow up the Megaroad-01.
After Shizuru takes out Yukino's Child in My-HiME, condemning Haruka to destruction, Haruka takes one last chance to headbutt her in the face for everything she's done.
Natsuki goes to fight Shizuru, gives her a Cooldown Hug, a kiss and a little speech that calms her down...and then commands her Child to destroy Shizuru's, fully knowing that since they're each other's Most Valuable Persons, they will go down together. They do.
Zabuza Momochi. His arms are useless, he's exhausted, and there's an army of mercenaries between him and his goal. What does he do? He takes a kunai in his teeth, cuts a path through the army while getting impaled, and proceeds to behead his target. With a kunai in his teeth.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage died fighting the resurrected First Hokage, Hashirama, his younger brother and Second Hokage Tobirama, and their summonerOrochimaru. And he won. While the battle appeared to have become Overshadowed by Awesome as the series progressed and fights got ever increasingly epic, the fightsagainst the likewisely revivedMadara Uchiha, who was supposedly Always Second Best to Hashirama (at least pre-Edo Tensei), and the one against the Kin-Gin brothers, who killed Tobirama, put that battle into a new perspective.
Deidara used a jutsu which transformed him in a Fantastic Nuke in his fight with Sasuke, who had no intent to kill Deidara. Deidara didn't kill himself for a Heroic Sacrifice or Taking You with Me, but to spite the Uchiha and make himself his final work of art.
Jiraiya managed to disable one of the paths of Pain and sent a dying message that was crucial to his defeat. Some of this occurred after he had already briefly died.
Kakashi subverts this by using the last bit of his chakra to stop Pain from killing Chouji, which would normally fit here... but he's brought Back from the Dead a few chapters later.
Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage and his wife Kushina Uzumaki sealing the Nine-Tailed Fox in Narutoand themselves into his seal. They do this after successfully forcing Tobi and the Fox back. And just to ensure their death was as spectacular as possible, the fatal wound wasn't any of the other crap that happened, but them willingly using their own bodies to slow and then catch the claw of the Nine-Tails, saving their son's life.
Konan being the first person since Minato to give Tobi a run for his money to the point that he has to bring out the big guns just to ensure she didn't blow him TO BITS.
Kisame bit through his tongue, trapped himself in a water prison, and summoned three sharks which he let eat him alive so that he wouldn't divulge any information on Akatsuki to the good guys.
Shikaku and Inoichi, knowing that a blast from the Ten-Tails will kill them shortly are less afraid of death and more angry about not being able to do more. Even as the attack is closing in, they use their remaining time to forward their final strategy to the Shinobi Alliance and even say "We're So Proud of You" to their children Shikamaru and Ino.
Might Guy, resident Bunny-Ears LawyerBadass Normal of Konoha, opened the Eight Gates to fight Madara and fought with him to the point where even such a smug asshole like Madara Uchiha acknowledged him as a Worthy Opponent, even though Madara was at the pinnacle of his strength after becoming the Ten-Tails' Jinchuuriki. Guy lost the fight only because he ran out of time, and he came within inches of winning. This trope is subverted, however, in that he didn't die... he would've if Naruto hadn't saved him, using his Yin-Yang nature to revitalize his life force. The damage he did to himself left him wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life and 'killed' his career as an ninja in the most spectacular way possible.
Obito Uchiha commits a Heroic Sacrifice for the sake of Naruto and Kakashi. Why is this a moment of awesome? Nearly any blow this son of a bitch has suffered in the series was either no selled like it was nothing or he managed to survive through due to his determination, or having a back up plan. The fact that it took a one-hit kill from a goddess to finish him for good should speak for itself. Also, before he crumbles into dust, he gives Naruto an inspiring speech and dies with a smile on his face. But the best part? After his death he proceeds to TELEPORT OUT OF THE AFTERLIFE temporarily and passes his chakra to Kakashi to give him the Mangekyo Sharingan that ultimately allows Team 7 to get an opening on Kaguya and seal her again.
Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Jack Rakan managing to hammerFate Averruncus into a huge crater while being erased from existence. Depending on the reader's interpretation, it could be argued that he went out PUNCHING GOD IN THE FACE... And if Jack Rakan has to die, that's exactly how it should happen.
Misato's death in End of Evangelion wasn't the most dignified way to go, despite being heartbreaking. She gets a new, decidedly more awesome send-off in the manga adaptation: After sending Shinji off in the elevator with a heartfelt pep-talk, she waits calmly for SEELE's soldiers. When they break through the door Misato sealed off earlier, they prepare to fire, and Misato... gives them a small smile, and holds up a pinless grenade.
Also, special mention should go to Asuka's death, which occurs less than twenty minutes later. After her Last Stand against the MP Evas, she finally runs out of power, gets stabbed through the skull, disemboweled, harpooned, dismembered, and finally eaten. The entire time, not only is she still alive, but she's still trying to fight back! This is either one of the most kick-ass moments in the series or one of the most disturbing... She gets better 'tho... If waking up in a ruined post-Apocalyptic world as one of possibly the only two people alive can be called "better". Oh, and the other person is trying to strangle you to death.
Kaji knows that he's about to be shot dead as punishment for releasing a jailed Fuyutsuki. But he smiles at his unseen murderer and then says "you're a little late, aren't you?"
Similiar to Misato, Ritsuko's death in the anime was even sadder and more undignified, because at least Misato accomplished something with her's. In the Manga, Gendo tells her that he really did love her before shooting her. It's revealed that she didn't die a few issues later and she manages to shoot him in the throat telling him that he never loved anyone before dying.
Rei II death was awesome as well and cute and quite disturbing all the same.
Future Bunmei defeating the alien invaders in Occult Academy.
The Pirate King, Gold Roger. The man spent the last few years of his pirating days with a terminal illness. Rather than letting the disease take its course, he finished exploring the Grand Line, and allowed himself to be captured by the World Government. Obviously, they sent him to be executed, publicly, with the spectacle transmitted to the entire world, just to warn aspiring pirates what awaits them. Roger took advantage of this, and the moment comes with his last words, which turned his execution from a warning, to the moment that sparked the golden age of piracy. And then, he simply laughed as they took his head.
"You want my treasure? You can have it! I left everything I gathered together in one place. Now you'll just have to find it!"
A lot of the posthumous characters in the series get some heroic and/or heartwearming send offs. To name a few, Belle-mere takes her death with dignity as she tells Nami and Nojiko she loves them. Dr. Hiriluk gives a great speech about his view on life and declares his pride in his adopted son Chopper as he faces down Wapol's guards, before he suicides via an explosive elixir. Tom gave a soul-stirring speech to his apprentice Franky just before being taken away to his fate. And Brook's crew, including himself, spend their final moments singing their favorite song, Binks' Sake, in tribute to their long-lost friend Laboon the whale, as they slowly die from poisoned arrows.
And then there's Corazon, aka Doflamingo's brother Donquixote Rocinante and Trafalgar Law's Big Brother Mentor, who was fatally injured but willed himself to stay alive as long as possible as he bled out in the snow so the silencing-effects of his Devil Fruit would aid a young Trafalgar Law's escape . And it works. His heroism is what motivates Law to this day.
Another "person" was, strangely, the Going Merry. After having its keel damaged beyond repair, dropped into the sea during a typhoon from several feet, and getting washed up onto the rocks, it still manages to show up to save all the heroes at Enies Lobby during the largest bombardment that is capable by the Marines, and sailing through about a dozen battleships, finally falling apart after getting the crew to safety. It manages to make the following scene one of the biggest tear jerkers in the series.
Kozuki Oden's final moments are spoken of as "the Hour of Legends" for a good reason. After failing to save his country from Orochi and Kaido, Oden and his 9 vassals are given the death penalty by boiling in oil. Oden makes a deal with the two leaders that if he survives the oil for an hour, he'll go free. He dives in alone, and when his retainers try to follow him he grabs the platform and holds them all up over his head. Even with Orochi increasing the temperature, Oden does not falter and manages to last the entire hour. When Orochi reneges the promise and decides to execute them by firing squad, Oden tosses his vassals away and stands alone. With his body destroyed, he tells Kaido off and that his dream will come true, before getting a bullet to the head. His final actions spurred the Wano revolution 20 years later.
In PandoraHearts, two honorable mentions go to Elliot and Alice. Elliot is mean and aloof to the main character, Oz, However, when Elliot has a Tomato in the Mirror moment where he realizes HE is the one who murdered his family and his chain controls him into murdering them, he realizes he has to do something, so he rejects Humpty Dumpty within him altogether, which eventually kills him. His last words are about his servant.
RahXephon: Kunugi pulls this off in Episode 23 against a dolem controlled by Kuki. He arms a device that can create a second Tokyo Jupiter around Nirai-Kanai.
Hiroko Asahina manages to mix hers with quite the Dying Declaration of Love. Seriously, how many love interests of either gender can keep their wits enough to write a last love message to the person they love as he's killing them without knowing it via pummeling the Golem they're linked to, and finish said message before kicking the bucket so these love words can reach the guy no matter what? .
Orson in the anime adaptation of Record of Lodoss War always was something of a badass and so gets a suitably epic death. He takes back the Spirit of Anger and unleashes his berserker side to save Shiris. Despite being impaled multiple times by the elven necromancer's skeleton warriors, he trashes them all, then runs up to the Dark Action Girl Amazon warrior who beat Shiris, shatters her swords with a single strike and impales her through the chest with such force that he picks her up and rams her into a boulder, and finally he rushes the necromancer and slices him clean in two. With every enemy dead, Orson walks over to Shiris and collapses dead.
Sailor Moon has many, but two stand above all the others:
The deaths of the sailor senshi against the DD Girls, the strongest Youma around, at the end of Season 1 of the first anime. Jupiter uses a super-charged Supreme Thunder and annihilates two of them before dying; Mercury, who has fairly weak offensive abilities, walks into certain death to destroy the source of the illusions that make them almost invincible; Venus survives the DD Girls' strongest attack and responds with a Crescent Beam that kills her but also disintegrates one of them, the latter happening only because the other two ran in terrorwhen they saw Venus was still alive; and Mars, who has been left for dead after a combined attack, burns the last two to a crisp before dying from exhaustion and the injuries she has already sustained.
Gold Saint Shaka of Virgo — having discovered the secret behind the Eighth Sense, the only way to enter Hades (the place) without falling under Hades' (the god) thrall, he allows himself to die at the hand of his Specters. It still took the combined might of Gemini Saga, Capricorn Shura, and Aquarius Camus to kill him, and they had to resort to the ultimate taboo, the Athena Exclamation.
Gemini Aspros, who manages to defeat and seal the god of time who's been responsible for all the major events in the series, definitely earning his redemption.
Samurai 7 loves to play this trope to the samurai. Gorobei dies from protecting the farmers, and when Kanbei asks if he fulfilled his task, he merely replies "You gotta be kidding!"
Also when Kikuchiyo holds the falling capital from crushing the village with only his BARE HANDS, he manages to stop the capital though it destroys his entire body in the process, leaving only his feet behind.
Joe "The Condor" Asakura in Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. When told that thanks to a terminal sickness he had ten days left to live, he rushed into Galactor's HQ and fought them, then saved the world from destruction before he died at the feet of his teammates.
In Shadow Skill, Blackwing's last stand against Darkness is so impressive, he's actually posthumously awarded the title of champion of his magical kingdom, which is the highest honor a warrior of his nationality can attain, which includes resurrection and transformation into an unkillable immortal.
In "Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato", a giant space fortress assaults the surface of the Earth with ferocious energy blasts. With the Earth Defense Forces wiped out and most of Yamato's crew dead or evacuated, Kodai seeks advice from the spirit of Captain Okita and, surrounded by the spirits of the dead or still living crew, pilots the Yamato into a collision course with the Comet Empire ship to end the movie.
The recent live-action movie ends in an almost identical way: the Wave-Motion Gun's muzzle is jammed so firing it will blow up the Yamato. After evacuating the ship's remaining crew, Kodai stays behind on the bridge and does a Self-Destructive Charge at the Gamilas Meteor Bomb, finally firing the WMG that blows them both out of the sky while the old Yamato Overture from the original anime's first season plays in the background.
Kamina gets bonus points for avenging his own death in the most awesome way possible. Oh, and it's even more epic in the manga.
Kittan takes this even further, not only giving out a badass speech, but managing to pull off the spiral eye level of power (which only Lord Genome and Simon, at their heights, pull off otherwise) and the signature move of Gurren Lagann... with a broken drill.
Starscream duels Galvatron, calls him out on his failings as a leader, and then takes a shot at Unicron, provoking him to attack and disintegrate him, finally convincing Galvatron of the threat of Unicron and prompting him to team up with Optimus against him.
Starscream, who goes down in a Battle Aura enhanced Punch Parry so massive it creates an explosion sufficient to destroy a small planet (and leaves a pretty big crater in the large planet they are actually on).
Wolfwood in the Trigun manga. After a massively badass fight against his former mentor and the triple-Punisher-wielding Livio/Razlo that forced him to chemically push his body past all limits, Wolfwood sees the children from the orphanage to safety, shares one last, quiet drink with Vash in the ruins of December and dies.
A teenage girl named Rangyaku is huddled in a corner, shivering and crying Tears of Fear as she mentally begs her Action Girl friend Youshi (actually the Queen of Kei, Youko, in disguise) to help the Kei kingdom before she's stabbed to death. Not very awesome, huh? It's best to think twice. When Yoshi/Youko arrives and finds Rangyaku's lifeless body, she sees that Rangyaku hid something among her clothes... The Seal of Kei, which is vital whenever Youko needs to show her authority. So the poor girl couldn't fight her killers back, but managed to protect something that Youko cannot act with in the end.
Another lady died even more awesomely: Ribi, one of King Shoryuu's counselors. She and the "Sacred beast" Enki have been captured by the enemy and are forced to wear magical red cords that react to one another: if one tries to take their cord off, it'll create a fatal backlash that will kill him/her. For worse, Enki's cord actually sealshis beastly powers, making him completely helpless. So as soon as she and Enki are alone, Ribi tells Enki to run away as soon as he can... then cuts off Enki's cord herself, clearly knowing that she will be hit and killed by the backlash. And yup, Ribi has her head sliced in half offscreen and dies, but Enki is released and escapes from their prision.
Used repeatedly on Umineko: When They Cry, throughout the series, although obviously none of them stick (from the audience perspective anyways). Also used at least once in Higurashi: When They Cry with Rika in the Shion arc, though there even she wasn't expecting it to stick.
Rosa's stand against the army of Goatmen in the second arc. Made even more awesome in that anime by the fact that she wasn't forced to take a final stand (in the Visual Novel she broke her ankle and had to stay), but chose to.
In Valvrave the Liberator Marie's backstory is given all in one episode, explaining her amnesia, which had been brought up only a few episodes before to, in turn, explain her strange behavior. With the Valvraves pinned down and the heroes on the verge of being completely wiped out, she pilots Valvrave Unit 1 and kicks lots of ass-but the Valvrave is absorbing Runes from her in the form of information-her memories. By the time its over, her memories, and then her life have been completely drained.
Kyuma Inuzuka who solos three advanced mechs with his machine being blown apart to save his friends in Episode 21, after being betrayed by their other friends who sold them out.
Lucius Artorious Castas in Vinland Saga, cuts off the head of King Sweyn then challenges the entire assembly of Viking nobles, is finally taken down after killing dozens of soldiers. As bloody as it was, it was also the first selfless act the man had ever committed in his life.
Let's tell the whole story here! Sweyn was going to have Lucius, AKA: Askeladd's beloved homeland of Wales attacked as a diversion and blackmailed him with the offer: Kill Prince Canute or Wales is invaded. In front of EVERYONE, Askeladd draws his sword, declares his true name and beheads Sweyn. He only dies when he allows CANUTE to stab him, making Canute a respected king and saving his homeland at the same time, as he knows Canute will protect it. Magnificent!
Chtholly's death in WorldEnd: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us? may have been tragic considering the circumstances involved, but you can't deny that she went out like a badass by wiping out the hordes of Timere the entire crew (which included her equally capable fellow leprechaun friends plus Willem) had trouble with for the previous episodes in the area they were assigned in. Even after tanking all the Timeres' fatal attacks against her (which inevitably led to her death), she still had enough energy in her to calmly walk towards Willem and an unconscious Nephren to deliver her final parting words to him.
Kirschwasser gets one in the Xenosaga anime, when she stays behind on the crashing space station Merkabah to make sure it falls apart and burns up in the atmosphere, preventing a global catastrophe. With a massive Tear Jerker song playing in the background. "Although the darkness may prevail..."
Also, almost immediately thereafter, KOS-MOS subverts this trope beautifully by saving the heroes' spaceship from disintegration in a manner awesome enough for ten death scenes... and surviving. Which makes it even more awesome.
Atem's death in Yu-Gi-Oh!. It happens offscreen and before the series even starts, but he manages to seal the evil of the shadow realm and the power of Zorc Necrophades inside the Millennium Items whilst using his soul and name to maintain the seal, destroying his body and his identity in the process. The seal stands for 3,000 years until the protagonist solves the Millennium Puzzle.
Kaiser's death in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. He quadruples the ATK of his favorite monster, and despite him losing the duel, it snaps The Protagonist Judai out of his Heroic BSoD, something that three other Heroic Sacrifices had failed to do previously.
YuYu Hakusho's main character Yusuke dies rescuing a child from being hit by a car (doesn't seem much on this page, but the Powers That Be were so completely thrown for a loop that he received the chance to be resurrected), Kuwabara fakes one in the Dark Tournament Saga, and then Yusuke takes one for the team in the Chapter Black arc. He gets better, but he didn't know that he would. Raizen's death is pretty cool too.
Specifically Yusuke wasn't supposed to do anything AT ALL that first time. He actually defied fate to die helping the child who would have been fine without his intervention... not that he knew any of that. In fact, his actions only served to make the accident worse and to give the child a bunch of scrapes from being pushed out of the way.
