Yu Yu Hakusho/Awesome

• Yusuke absorbing the Spirit Wave Orb and saving Puu with a super charged kick!
• Yu Yu Hakusho has Hiei debuting the Dragon of the Darkness Flame (Black Dragon Flame in the original Japanese, or Blazing Fist of the Overlord: Black Dragon Hell Fire) and reducing Zeru, who had been build up as a powerful opponent, to a victim shadow on the wall of the arena. Well, that was quick.
  • Technique's actual translation from the Kanji? Jaō Ensatsu Kokuryūha?, lit. Tyrant-King's Blaze-Murdering Black-Dragon-Wave, otherwise Tyrant-emperor Jao Blaze murdering Black dragon wave. Long winded, aint it?
  • There's a lot of different translations, made all the more confusing by anime Kuwabara's bumbling.
  • Before that, Kurama hitting Roto with the Death Plant. Buh-bye!

Roto: "You believe in mercy, don't you?!"
Kurama: "No."
Roto: *instand flowerbed*
Kurama: "What irony. Such beauty sprung from such an ugly soil..."

• • • In the original, Roto was rambling off some excuses, ending with:

Roto: "I was only kidd--"
Kurama: "Die."
Roto: *instant flowerbed*

• • Also, when Hiei absorbs the freaking attack, thus detroying half the stadium...it gets hard to beat that. Except maybe when Bui SENDS IT BACK and thinks he kills Hiei, only to find that the Black Dragon is NOT an attack but actually a way to take a level in badass. Hiei then beats the crap out of him, refuses to kill him, and faints.

Hiei: "Only I had the will, the daring, and the ABANDON to truly master this technique."

• Kuwabara's victory over Elder Toguro, probably the most monstrous bad guy in the series up to that point. Anyone who says that Kuwabara is any lesser a badass than the rest of the team can SUCK IT.

Kuwabara: "SPIRIT FLYSWATTER!"
Elder Toguro: *squashed into pudding*

• • Is it a coincidence that this is the first time we see Kuwabara in his white Badass Longcoat?

"Always expecting nothin outta me. Just makes for a better surprise..."

• Old Master Genkai's is when she beats the crap out of the Uraotogi Team in the Dark Tournament. After she's given most of her power to Yusuke. 50+ year old Action Girl, anyone?
  • Particularly notable is that she defeats the final opponent Suzuki, who was at the time buffed up to bodybuilder levels (AKA about three times her size), with nothing more than her BARE HANDS. His face pretty much looked like ground hamburger by the time she was done.
  • I particularly enjoyed what she says while beating Suzuka's face in. "YOU JUST DON'T HAVE WHAT IT TAKES!" And then softly. "That's enough!"
• See also Yusuke's defeat of Suzaku, where he exhausted tactic after tactic trying to give the guy what he had coming to him for endangering Keiko, after being repeatedly (and painfully) subjected to Suzaku's ultimate technique. The clincher? As he lay dying on the ground, Suzaku laments that he finally understands Yusuke. "You didn't defeat me because you weren't human. It's because you were."
• Any time Sensui switched off personalities. And all of Itsuki's deranged Fauxlosophic Narration speeches, especially the one where he explains how he and Sensui became lovers, or the one he gives when Sensui dies.
• And we can't forget Toguro's power going to 120 percent.
  • The original doesn't have that, so Toguro's Crowning Moment is when he deflates to 0% power, before jumping immediately to 100%, which is every bit as powerful as it was made out to be.
    • I'm pretty sure that the original is the one with the 120%, while the line in the dub is "What I've been telling you is 100% is really more like 85."
    • The Spanish dub takes it Up to Eleven and he says something like "This is the 100% of the 100% !". Yeah, it was Narmy but still cool.
  • Yusuke punching out Toguro and causing him to be flung like a rag doll and when he finally gets up, Yusuke had fired the biggest Spirit Gun thus far at him, cue Oh Crap. Even more impressive, since he had undergone a severe No-Holds-Barred Beatdown just earlier.
• If "A mulberry is a tree, and Kuwabara is a man!" ("Just as the cherry blossom is a flower among flowers, Kuwabara is a man amongst men!") and the subsequent suicide charge wasn't enough, Toguro doesn't actually kill Kuwabara. He's still smart enough to sell it, though, and gets everybody to act like he's dead in order to motivate Yusuke. And he doesn't expose the ruse until Yusuke has fallen down crying over his inability to save his True Companions. And he exposes it by jumping up and down, dancing around like a lunatic.
• Botan whacking demons around with a metal baseball bat. And karate kicking one of the posessed humans as well.
• Yuusuke after being possessed by Raizen in the final fight with Sensui. That's got to be the most epic pwning I've seen in shounen anime.
  • Link to a video of that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n2N4AOa7q8&feature=related and a particularly awesome AMV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qaxCszhB7s .
  • A bit earlier, he scared the piss out of some stuck up Spirit Police, which is directly followed by Koenma's finest moment in the dub.

"And you can tell King Daddy he can fire me, or disown me, or put me up for adoption!"

• • • Koenma's CMOA was even earlier than that, when he confronted Sensui and delivered the ultimatum of "Stop, or I'll trap us both here for eternity." Unfortunately Sensui had already Xanatos'd Koenma into draining his power; if he hadn't, we would have had Koenma defeating Sensui and taking full responsibility for the whole affair. The fact that his secret weapon was his pacifier was icing on the cake.
• Kurama using the Janen Juu/Sinning Tree against the Elder Toguro. Hell, pretty much anything Kurama does.
  • Kurama seems to have a Crowning Moment of Awesome every single time he fights, without exception. He's just that good.
  • His "fight" with Kaitou also deserves a mention. Kurama's not just a Badass, he's a clever Badass.
    • Kurama is so badass that he can turn making a funny face into an awesome, soul-stealing final attack.
• The scene where Kuwabara willingly let a gang of ruffians kick his ass so that his friend could keep his job?
  • Or the time he manifested his Jigen-Tou/Dimensional Sword the first time, then carried the unconscious forms of all three of his friends, plus the kid who attacked them, back to Yuusuke's house by himself?
    • Let's not forget what he said when said kid asked why did he spare him. "Yeah. I could've let you die there. I almost wanted to. But I could sense it. You needed help so bad that I just couldn't leave you down there"
    • Let us neither forget that he later saves said kid from being shot full of projectiles. Compounded by the fact that he is the one who realizes that the kid is in danger in the first place and gets to him just in time to flying-tackle him out of the line of fire.
  • This Troper personally believes the above two examples are some of Kuwabara's best Establishing Character Moment 's.
  • The defining Kuwabara Crowning Moment was the stuff he says to Tarukane after seeing how he tormented Yukina so much.

Kuwabara: "Disgraceful! And you call yourself a man?"

• • Another one is his fight against the Brainwashed and Crazy martial artists in the Tournament. He may have lost, but he still was willing to die to save them and break their brainwashing, and he was able to temporarily get through to them. Thank God Yuusuke and Genkai finished the job for him.
    • And when he singlehandedly carries the entire team through in their final fight versus Team Masho. Think about it - up until a certain point, Kuwabara's at the ropes - and right when you think he's gonna whip out the Heroic Sacrifice, he hears someone call his name... and just like that he backhand-slaps Risho across the stage. You already know who's gonna walk away winning (a misnomer, because he didn't really walk off the stage afterwards) after that scene, as anticlimactic as it was.
      • It wasn't entirely anti-climactic; Kuwabara had fallen out of the ring as he KOed Risho, and had to make his way back into the ring within the 10 count. As you expect, he did make it back, but he avoided falling to Love Makes You Dumb by doing so.
    • Monster Beast Donut anyone?
    • The ultimate Kuwabara CMOA (coupled a truly tearjerking Crowning Moment of Heartwarming) was Kuwabara's second manifestation of his Dimensional Sword: Watching Helplessly as Yusuke is beaten to death by Sensui, Kuwabara weeps for his rival and only friend to not die, so that HE may be the one to defeat him. He tearfully looks back to all the times Yusuke has saved him, mustering the courage and will to bring forth his world-cutting blade, splitting the extradimensional beast that entrapped the True Companions to join Yusuke in battle.
    • The (second) time he killed Byakko. Kuwabara has run out of platforms above the magma that he's capable of jumping to, and with Byakko's projectile coming for the one he's standing on, he's forced to try a jump toward the demon's own platform. The jump turns out to be too short, but before Kuwabara can fall into the lava, he uses his spirit sword as a polevault to reach his opponent and deliver a flying punch that knocks them both off the platform. He survives only because his bandages get snagged in a crack in the rock.

Kuwabara: I'm just glad I got to hit you. Now let's go to Hell together!

• Even Keiko gets a few, though they tend to be limited to the manga.
  • In one chapter, she demands that the thug who pushed her friend apologize, and then slaps him so hard he falls to the ground bleeding from the mouth when he taunts her. His friend yells at her and she says that the guy had it coming. When Kuwabara's gang (sans Kuwabara) show up and tell the girls to split while they take care of things, Keiko has to be dragged away by her two friends because the thug has still not apologized. A second moment comes almost immediately after when a third thug shows up and makes quick work of Kuwabara's gang and then kicks them while they're down for good measure. Keiko, unable to leave the guys this way, whacks the thug upside the head with her school bag and tells him to back off. Arguably as awesome is when she goes along with the thugs quietly to keep them from hurting the guys or her friends further.
  • Only mentioned by Botan, but Keiko's offscreen Crowning Moment was when Botan told her about the Dark Tournament, her response was to say "Take me there!" without blinking, flinching, or fainting at all. This moment is actually shown onscreen in the anime but dimished by Keiko feeling faint for a few seconds upon hearing the news.
  • The scene in the manga where Atsuko, Keiko, Shizuru, Yukina and Botan are trying to get into see the tournament. The demon bouncer indicates he might be willing to let Botan and Yukina (the latter being a demon, the former... well, she's not human, so she's good) in for a fee, but the human women aren't having it. In one motion, Atsuko kicks him in the gut, Keiko socks him, and Shizuru smashes a bottle over his head. Botan, who is a Shinigami previously seen whacking demons around with a baseball bat, and Yukina, a demon with extensive powers over snow and ice, just sort of laugh nervously as they go around into stadium. What really sells it, though, is Keiko's miffed look at her knuckles, noting that she's out of practice... while Atsuko and Shizuru keep beating the crap out of the poor dude in the background. The equivalent scene in the anime, while it elevated Shizuru to levels of badass hitherto unequaled by any girl on the show, was incredibly disappointing to fans of Keiko. There, the demon bouncer kind of leans in suggestively, and Keiko gives the typical "eww, pervert!" shriek and accidentally delivers an Armor-Piercing Slap. Hear that, Studio Pierrot?
  • The anime seemed to be pretty determined to portray Keiko as someone who just gets in the way whenever she tries to be there for Yusuke. In the manga, she puts off seeing him at the Tournament specifically because she doesn't want to distract him, even after ordering Botan to take her into the Makai to see him (and smack him one for running off into danger without a word to her).
    • What'chu talking 'bout, Willis? Name one, just one, incident in the anime when Keiko and Yusuke meet face-to-face, and he isn't lying on the ground, dead, or otherwise flattened by Keiko. The man is afraid of a little bitty girl, and he's the Prince of Demons!
  • Can't forget Keiko running into a burning building to save Yusuke's body, can we? And her calling out everyone who was against her going in as "cowards!" Badass even in the anime.
  • For this Troper, a smaller moment for her was her talk with Yusuke after the Dark Tournament's third round, which consisted of her chewing him out for abandoning her again, giving him a brutal Armor-Piercing Slap, and finishing the ensuing conversation with

Keiko: "If you die, I swear I'll kill you. (does spirit gun gesture) Bang."

• "Do you know a plant called the mimosa? It's annual plant from South America that closes up its leaves in response to fire, physical contact, and vibrations. The mimosa of Makai are a bit more short-tempered than the normal variety."
  • Note that in the manga he says something slightly different, but the general effect is the same.
  • This troper nominates every moment Youko Kurama is on screen. He's practically a walking CMOA. Especially during the fight with Karasu.
  • "Bang."
  • When Yusuke steps into the ring after Kurama's Defeat to Bakken. Proceeds to destroy the man's technique and then beats him around like a rag doll for what he did to Kurama.
• Kuwabara vs Risho. After having his ass handed to him due to severe injuries from his last fight, Kuwabara turns the tables and completly owns Risho with The Power of Love.

Kuwabara: "You're just a no-good cheater Risho! So get out of my ring!!"

• • What about when Risho does the worst thing and calls Kuwabara's feelings as "blabbering" Kuwabara proceds to pimp slap Risho out of the stage

Kuwabara: "IM NOT BLABBERING SHES MY GIRLFRIEND!!

• Kuwabara, Kurama and Hiei charging Sensui after he temporailly kills Yusuke. Even Hiei, the coldest and most uncaring of the group, is enraged, and shows it by opening with his Dragon of the Darkness Flame.

Hiei: "Here's a one way ticket for you straight to hell, YOU BASTARD!!! "

• • Eariler, another sign of unusual emotion from Hiei (alongside Kurama) was when Kuwabara was weeping inside of Itsuki's dimension realizing that Yusuke is planning on dying. After this goes on, Hiei and Kurama finally turn to Itsuki and pull out their weapons, demanding to be let out or they'll torture him in any possible way until he releases them.
• For this troper the moment that always got me was in the final fight against Yomi when Yusuke starts firing demon gun shots at Yomi who is blocking it with a shield that blocks all demonic energy. As Kurama, Hiei, and Koenma watch on commenting how foolish the action is cracks start to form in the shield as we see small sparkles of blue spirit energy in the demon energy and Yusuke's plan is finally revealed he's mixing spirit energy with demon energy to pierce Yomi's barrier. Cue shock from the most cynical and unfazeable pair of fighters in the series and from Koenma as they comment on what a brilliant move it is.
  • Yusuke vs Yomi. This fight is a Offscreen Moment of Awesome in the manga and THIS one for the animators in making it one of THE best fights in the ENTIRE anime.
• Personally, what really grabbed my heart about Hiei caring was how he mentioned he'd never risk his life or anyone. When Kurama fights Touya, Hiei is overtly concerned, checks to see if he can form the dragon in case he needs to jump in and help, despite this being against the rules. Also, after the fight whenever Kurama passes out and Bakken has his way with beating Kurama's unconscious body, Hiei is scolded by Rukka telling him to not even think about it. Afterward, Genkai comments he was about to release the dragon. Hiei would have definitely died if he had, but he was ready to risk his life.