As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
- The manga is largely a string of Moments of Awesome for the main character, Ogami Itto. Simply hearing his name is enough to make a grown man scream in terror. But the epic nature of the series leads up to one of the most Awesome endings ever printed. His quest has led him to battle the Kurokuwa ninja many times throughout the series. By the time the final battle with his nemesis, Retsudo, rolls around, Itto has quite literally killed his way through every ninja in Japan. Most of them in the last couple of chapters. Also worth mentioning is the episode Will of the Fang, where Itto is forced to fight Masatsune, one of his old sword students who never quite finished his studies. Now the local lord, Masatsune leads his whole army against Itto. After hacking his way through them all, Itto kills Masatsune in a Single-Stroke Battle.
- While the main character, Itto, seems to have an existence made entirely out of the transition between these moments, other characters get them too; e.g., Abe-no-Kaii - after suffering a life of being utterly pathetic throughout the book - is sentenced to commit Seppuku, where he redeems himself. When he loses his nerve, guards attempt to force the knife into him themselves, at which point he gains new strength, beats and kills several of them, and refuses to go down despite further injuries and a gaping wound in his stomach. Only after Itto reveals that after him, Itto is next, followed by Abe's master (who framed him in the first place so as to have him put to death). Abe calms down, and graciously accepts a beheading from his nemesis, the Lone Wolf... and his head does not stop guffawing with laughter until five minutes after falling from his body.
