In the anime, Ushiro fights for an entire day in Zearth to die smiling for saving the earth and his sister more specifically. In the manga, after witnessing the death of his best friend, then his mother and his sister (both happen on the same day), he decides to sign the contract, so that his half-sister can live on. This marks a drastic character development for Ushiro, who goes from an uncaring jerk to someone willing to give his life for others.
In the anime, Kirie being the only pilot to pilot Zearth twice, proving during his second fight that he's easily the best pilot in the entire series, and then unmasking Machi as the uncontracted pilot. That last one doubles as a Dying Moment of Awesome.
Also in the Anime. Machi, how does she redeem herself? By helping Ushiro save Kana from the contract, killing Koyemshi and then forcing her way into the contract, fully replacing Kana.
In the manga, Anko gets at least three during her turn to pilot. First she saves Machi from certain death when a corrosive substance starts leaking into the cockpit, but she gets get legs burned off because of it. Even then, she manages to continue fighting bravely and finally beats her opponent while using its own weapon against it! Finally, with her last strengths she delivers an incredible Rousing Speech to make people understand that Zearth and the pilots are not the enemy.
Anko gets another in the anime. When her turn comes, she's faced with the triple whammy of not only knowing that she's going to die, but also learning that her father cheated on her mother (thereby ruining his career in the process), and facing a veteran opponent. Despite being one of the most emotionally fragile of the pilots, she holds together and even manages to Face Death with Dignity
While piloting Zearth, Waku, despite being wrapped in the grip of the enemy robot, puts his soccer playing experience to good use by delivering a powerful knee to the robot's weak spot until the robot falls over, then stomping it until it's defeated.
Also, in the manga Komo is the only pilot who wins without piloting Zearth, using her last piano recital as her Thanatos Gambit. She manages to get through to her opponent by playing the piano, giving a "No More Holding Back" Speech monologue while she does. Her opponent then decides to allow Komo's father to kill him, saving Komo's universe, rather than running the clock out and letting both her universe and his be destroyed.
She's also pretty awesome in the anime, as Representative Komoda has been murdered mere hours ago... and she goes out to fight anyway, refusing to give into despair and saving us despite how shitty her deal is.
In the anime, Moji, when faced with a robot that has two seemingly identical halves, manages to find out which one has the cockpit, destroying it in a risky but successful gambit. In the process, he also deduces that humans are piloting the robots.
Shortly before that, Mako secures Koyemshi's cooperation by blackmailing him, claiming that she knows the identity of his accomplice. She's wrong about it being Moji, but even the threat of telling the others manages to unnerve Koyemshi enough to get him to help her out.
Mako's mother (who is an ex-prostitute) gets one in the manga, during neighborhood clean-up. The mothers of Mako's classmates had come to verbally harass her, and not only does she throw their insults right back in their face, but when one of the moms slaps her, she slaps her right back.
A neighbor actually comes to her defense, flinging dirt at the moms and proclaiming, "If you're that jealous, why don't you try prostituting yourself, too? Then maybe your husband would actually sleep with you for a change!" Buuuurn.
In the manga, Tanaka pulls off a clever ploy to save Kirie from his bullies. She calls him by his first namenote Usually, she calls him the significantly more formal "Kirie-kun", claims to be his aunt as she introduces himself to his "friends," and casually notes that they can call her if they're having trouble, since she's a police officer.
During Daichi's fight, he succeeds in picking up the enemy robot Drum, a cylinder that spins and can shave away Zearth's armor, a feat that Koyemshi says is made possible by Daichi's strength of will. Daichi then carries the enemy robot to a safe place, and uses the enemy's rotation against it by stabbing it and ripping a hole in it as it rotates, enabling him to hit its weakness and finish it off.
While Kanji has many regrets about the collateral damage inflicted and sacrifices made in his battle, he managed to use fragments of Zearth's armor to parry missiles coming from thousands of kilometers away to protect Zearth and the Ascension Towers, continuing to do so even after Zearth loses a leg, and was mostly successful in holding out over a period of 34 hours. To make things even better, he manages to get what he wants in the end- his father ends up taking responsibility for the problems with the towers' construction, and they get torn down.
Seki's Heroic Sacrifice- he and 22 other volunteer soldiers sneak up on Javelin, acting as living targeting beacons for Zearth's lasers. Kanji then shoots through the Earth itself to destroy Javelin's weak spot.
, the opening theme. It seems the more depressing the Super Robot show, the more amazing the music.