As usual, there are about 15 favorites I have to choose from. Madoka becomes a god in Madoka Magica. Lelouch’s death in Code Geass R2. Shirou continues his idealism and fights Archer in Fate/Stay Night: UBW. In Higurashi season one, Rena fights Keiichi on the rooftop. Tenma faces off with Johan Liebert in Monster. Akane beats Makishima, overcomes the desire to kill him, and arrests him in Pyscho-Pass. Eren saves Trost by carrying the boulder to block the hole in the wall in Attack on Titan. Kiroumaru defeats the Fiend in Shin Sekai Yori. Utena takes Anthy’s place, saving the princess but dooming herself. Okabe’s message from his future self inspires him to keep trying in Steins;Gate.

Not one of them is more or less epic than the others, so I have to pick one at random. I choose the scene where Yuri destroys the computers in Angel Beats episode BLANK. Let’s recap. The Angel Beats world runs like a computer program. The original programmer, essentially someone with godlike powers, programmed himself to forget, and left a stand-in “god” in his place. That god begins to adjust the programming near the end of Angel Beats, creating shadow monsters that eat the souls of the students and prevent them from reaching fulfillment and passing on.

Until just recently, Yuri, the leader of the main group in Angel Beats, had been against Angel (Kanade). She thought Kanade was a servant of a god who wanted to make everyone’s souls disappear. However, Kanade eventually reaveled she was just another student, and the people she “made disappear” actually passed on to the next life peacefully. All along, she was helping people. It’s no longer Yuri’s job to stop Angel or to keep people from disappearing, because they only disappear after they reach fulfillment. For a few episodes, Yuri has no enemy. But then the shadow monsters appear. She has a reason to fight again.

As a reminder, Yuri’s past was tragic. Her younger siblings were all slaughtered and she felt like she failed to protect them. So, the only way Yuri can be fulfilled and pass on is if she feels she has succeeded in protecting her new family in the afterlife– everyone who fought by her side. In Angel Beast episode 12, Yuri discovers the computers and the stand-in “god” responsible for the shadow monsters. After a brief talk with that being, Yuri makes her decision. She draws her guns and then starts shooting everything, utterly destroying the monitors, the CPUs, and the program. She saves everyone iwho was fighting the shadow monsters. Because she successfully protected them, Yuri was able to find peace and pass on after saying goodbye to Kanade in episode 13.

I always get a chill up my spine when I watch the scene where Yuri destroys the computers, rejects god, and protects her family. It’s amazing. It’s one of the 10 or 15 mot epic moments ever in anime. This has been 7mononoke of Anime Rants, covering Day 19 of the 30 Day Anime Challenge. Thank you so much for reading! Ja ne!