Awesome / Ōban Star-Racers

• Prince Aikka, Rick Thunderbolt, Sul and even Eldritch Abomination Spirit are all pretty badass racers.
  • Eva/Molly gets a special mention from how she started off as an inexperienced pilot to a skilled one. She goes from winning the rematch against Groor through sheer luck to winning Oban. She was in dead last, the newest pilot, and had underwent a Heroic BSoD. However, even with all of that, Eva/Molly managed to win the last race. And thus getting the entitlement of becoming the next Avatar.
• Maya Wei. Period. Badass pilot who managed to be the first Earth pilot, the first human female pilot, to have three titles under her belt before 30. Romantic wife. Loving mother. All around nice woman. In her final (and tragic) race, she even told Spirit to leave her because she didn't want him to get hurt.
• When the Whizzing Arrow first uses Super Mode, very cool.
• "Optimised Like Ondai", when the Earth Team finally wins a race on Oban after not placing in three races in a row.
  • This is even more awesome when you consider that Ondai spent the whole episode bragging about his superior intelligence as a robot compared to their "tiny brains"... and then got crushed by a rock. Score 1 for Earth Team, 0 for Ondai.
• The second race against Toros. Molly pushes the newly rebuilt Arrow 3 to its limits with the new hyperdrive, passing Toros... until they come to the home stretch along the beach. Toros seems to have the race won, but Molly engages the hyperdrive again, pushing the ship forward at such speeds so ludicrous that even Toros backs off. And, making it more awesome, Molly manages a perfect turn around the arena to slow down, shocking absolutely everyone. Nobody - the Scrubs, former racers, and especially not the Earth Team - can believe their eyes!
• How does Sul respond to the galaxy's equivalent of the Antichrist beseeching him for an alliance? ''By mocking him to his face,'' pointing out that he's not very powerful if he's relying on lesser beings. He then follows this up by (briefly) blowing away the bird-monster. It costs him dearly but the fact that Canaletto recognized him as a true threat to his plan says a lot.
  Canaletto: I'm offering a rare alliance. Imagine two great beings standing together. We would be magnificent.
  Sul: Alliances are for the small and weak. And if you truly are Canaletto, you will have no power here, not yet.
  • Canaletto follows this up by warning Sul he's making a mistake before seemingly being banished. Then Sul hears his laughter, revealing he's just humoring his rival, before banishing the most powerful being in the race to another dimension. And keep in mind, Canaletto is weakened and imprisoned. It really drives home the point that unlike the other antagonists, he is not screwing around.
  Canaletto: (chuckles) I'm not as powerless as you believe. Why did you think I brought you here?
• Just about everything about Canaletto is pure Creepy Awesome. The guy is in a cage for most of the show and has no armies or minions like any other Big Bad, but he's still a truly ominous threat regardless. To put it in perspective, Satis, basically the God of the Universe in this setting, is terrified if he were to escape, and with damn good reason.
• Eva/Molly's epic Calling the Old Man Out moment with her father, Don Wei after he FINALLY figures out she is his long lost daughter.
• O holding the line against two giant guardians, by himself, so Molly, Jordan, and Aikka can get into the Temple of Heart. Despite the two on one odds, he succeeds, though he doesn't survive.
• Jordan completely blindsides Canaletto by sneaking close to the Pyramid of Power despite his injuries and jumping onto it, becoming the new Avatar and obliterating Canaletto with the World-Healing Wave that restores Oban. While it's a tear-jerking moment in that his sacrifice would separate him from his friends for 10,000 years, it was no doubt a fitting blow to the monster who would obliterate countless worlds just because he saw life itself as a mistake.
• The announcement from lead artist Thomas Romain that a Sequel Series to Oban: Star Racers was being "seriously considered", a full ten years after the original series ended. A few days later, this was followed by Yeatman-Eiffel himself posting a bit of concept art depicting Eva Wei and Prince Aikka after a Time Skip.

---