History Main / RazorWind

* In part 2 of Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure Wamuu's [[DesperationAttack final attack]], Atmospheric Rift, functions as a this and as a [[WhipItGood whip]] at the cost of slowly tearing himself apart.

* Toji from ''[[Manga/{{Gunnm}} Battle Angel Alita: Last Order]]'' has a punch-variant of this. His "Slaughter Master Reverse Punch" creates a massive shockwave that is enough to kill one hundred people in a single blow. Even those who survive suffer severe vertigo for a time afterwards due to the shock to their ear canals.

[[folder:Mythology and Folklore]]
* The Kamaitachi from Japanese folklore are said to resemble weasels with sharp, sickle like claws, the attacks happen instantaneously, with the weasels moving faster than the eye can see. Accounts of their attacks vary; some claim that they attack in trios, the first sickle weasel attacking with a strong gust of wind(or a whirlwind) knocking their victim to the ground; the second weasel attacking using it's sickle-like claws to cut a deep gash into the skin, and the final weasel then applies a medicine that numbs pain temporarily and stops bleeding. While others claim the monster works alone attacking with razor sharp wind that cuts the victim, and the Kamaitachi then licks the blood off the victim till the wound is dry, and continues to do this till the victim is dead.

* The Air Render knife in the various ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games would occasionally do this to all enemies, and was a part of the GameBreaker combo known as "Wind God Gau" in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''.

** ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games also have the aero spell.
*** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' spinoffs VideoGame/CrisisCore and VideoGame/DirgeOfCerberus have more specific examples. Though not necessarily wind, Sephiroth will slash the air and produce a kind of white shockwave that travels for a long distance (called "Draw Slash") in Crisis Core. In Dirge, Rosso the Crimson attacks primarily with slicing blades heavily implied to be wind, and since Weiss the Immaculate has (almost) everyone's powers, he is an example of this trope, as well.
*** Sephiroth retains this shockwave attack in ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' as well. He also has three Brave attacks which involves swings that produce slashing currents to deal consecutive damage.
* The Geomancer job in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' will sometimes use "Wind Slash," one of the job's more powerful attacks, and there is a samurai sword that will randomly trigger it too.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' with Dante's Drive shockwave, created by slicing into the ground. It actually comes out rather slowly, contrary to expectations. Closer to the "ideal" is Vergil's Judgement Cut, where he uses battojutsu to "create" purple spheres at a distance to cut opponents. Also seen in the fourth game, where Dante uses Vergil's sword to cut through a building in the distance. In fact, Razor Wind is the Yamato's standard form of attack.

This is OlderThanSteam, partly thanks to [[JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples Shakespeare]]. Before him, Japanese folklore tells of the wind yōkai called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamaitachi kamaitachi]], weasels with razor sharp claws that attacked in groups to knock people down and leave bloodless cuts on their legs -- all while moving with such blinding speed that the victim never saw his attacker. This was originally just a pun on "kamaetachi," which meant roughly "attacking sword", bringing the trope full circle.

** After Vegeta and Goku fuse to fight Super Buu, Vegito spends a few seconds punching and kicking until Buu lets his guard down, then he lets off one of these and slashes his cheek open. There's also Freeza's Death Wave technique (although that's actually a KiAttack).

* Amidamaru from ''Manga/ShamanKing'' has the Shock Wave Buddha Giri, though it is sometimes treated like a [[KiAttacks Ki Attac]]k.

* All the sword-wielding characters in ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' use variations of the trope as a standard long-range attack in battle. Vyse's is relatively orthodox, but Enrique, being aligned with the Moon that governs electricity, shoots out [[KiAttacks a glowing energy ball from the tip of his sword]] with a single well-aimed thrust.

** [[{{Woolseyism}} Early localizations]] implied this to be the source of Guile's ''Sonic Boom'' and ''Somersault/Flash Kick'' special attacks, as a result of him swinging his arms/legs at super sonic speeds. Nowadays they appear to just be regular KiAttacks like everyone else's moves.

** Wind techniques generally rely on sharpening the chakra, so the series takes this trope and runs with it; Zaku, one of the Sound {{ninja}}, has an attack literally called "Slicing Sound Wave". Temari from the Hidden Sand also makes active use of various wind cutting techniques with her giant iron fan; the kamaitachi she can summon is capable of decimating an entire forest in seconds, earning her the FanNickname "The Ninja Lumberjack". In fact, her village in general has wind as its main element; for example, Baki can use a ninjutsu called "Blade of Wind", which is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a technique that works exactly as it is named]].

* ''Franchise/{{Onimusha}}''

* High pressure air guns used for blowing debris off work materials are capable of cutting skin.

* Surprisingly, ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' downplays this significantly. The only Airbender seen using such a technique is Aang. He rarely uses it and one of the times he did was in a fit of rage after his bison, Appa, got kidnapped. He did it to kill a buzzard-wasp for trying to eat the other TeamPet Momo and it is the only time he [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness outright kills anything in the entire series]]. Razor ''water,'' on the other hand, is a common move for Waterbenders.

* Surprisingly, ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' downplays this significantly. The only Airbender seen using such a technique is Aang, and only rarely. Razor ''water,'' on the other hand, is a common move for Waterbenders.

** Ranma's final attack against Saffron and the Dragon Tap involved a Razorwind.
** Kuno also received a temporary powerup in both manga and anime. By taking the SmashingWatermelons game into TrainingFromHell levels, he became able to send out a devastating whirlwind of (invisible) RazorWind that not even Ranma could penetrate. Unfortunately, he can only do it as [[CongruentMemory a reflex action caused by seeing watermelons]].

* Motoko from ''Manga/LoveHina'' specializes in this. In the second OVA she masters the Exorcising Blade technique, which allows her RazorWind to leave flesh unharmed but ''cut spirits''.

* In ''Manga/BlackJack'', a [[spoiler: rocket launching project]] accidentally creates incredibly strong RazorWind in a certain area, leading the police to believe there was a serial killer on the loose.

* In ''VideoGame/RocketKnightAdventures'', and in its AlternateContinuity SNES counterpart, ''Sparkster'', RazorWind is Sparkster's basic attack. However, in ''Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2'', this attack was removed and ordinary swordplay is the primary attack.

* [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Several series of sword skills]] in ''VideoGame/MuramasaTheDemonBlade'' can do this. Special mention goes to the [[InfinityPlusOneSword final sword's]] secret art, Disturbance, which uses a DoppelgangerAttack that would make Manga/{{Naruto}} proud in order to shoot razorwind and other sword beams practically everywhere, ending with a massive yellow wave.

* There's two in ''Anime/BakutenShootBeyblade''. The bit-beasts Falborg and Scissorswing can turn moving air into a weapon. Both are sicced not just on another bey or bit-beast, but also on the other blader.

* In ''Anime/{{Beyblade}}'', Bryan's bit-beast Falborg can turn moving air into a weapon, and he has no qualms about using it against his opponent as well as their blade.

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'':

** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance]]'' introduces the twin legendary swords Ragnell and Alondite, both capable of creating a wave of energy that allows them to attack at range. They return in the sequel, ''Radiant Dawn'', and bring with them a set of blades that give this ability to the previously incapable set of generic swords. Not to be confused with the spellcasting swords in the series as a whole, which perform magic attacks when used at range.

** Marik in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon]]'' joins with an Excalibur tome which fires blades made of air and magic that are strong against basically everything. It's a B-rank tome with an ability that lets Marik alone use it at a magic rank of E.

* ''SonicTheHedgehog'''s signature ''Sonic Wind.''

** Baraggan can swing his axe hard enough the Razor Wind cleaves a building that looks like it's about a mile away from him in two.

** In the Lost Substitute Shinigami arc, [[spoiler:a de-powered Ichigo gets his powers restored, and fires his signature SwordBeam Getsuga Tensho at the arc's BigBad, who promptly shrugs it off and gloats that while it's admittedly a bit stronger than before, it still isn't strong enough to beat him. Ichigo then says that he didn't fire a Gestuga Tensho at all, that was just ''the air being displaced from a normal sword swing''. [[OhCrap Suddenly the bad guy isn't so cocky anymore]]]].

* Jack's Sonic Buster from ''[[VideoGame/WildArms1 Wild ARMs]]'', a Fast Draw technique he created based on the strong mountain winds. And from the same game, Zed's Garyu Ichimongiri/whatever it might be called in the remake ''[=WildARMsAlterCodeF=]''.

* Jack's Sonic Buster from ''[[VideoGame/WildArms1 Wild ARMs]]'', a Fast Draw technique he created based on the strong mountain winds. And from the same game, Zed's Garyu Ichimongiri/whatever it might be called in ''VideoGame/WildARMsAlterCodeF''.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'' has the sacred tome Excalibur, whose animation is a green-tinted, razor-HURRICANE. It can only be used by an S-Level mage, and it grants + 5 speed. The combat animation is slightly impractical, but [[RuleOfCool incredibly fun to watch]]--especially when used by a sage, since they have [[TheCape ankle-length capes.]] There was also a B-rank tome called Alacalibur that was a lesser version of Excalibur, but it got DummiedOut.

* Shriek on ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond''.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', naturally, though only Airbenders can do it. They also do this with water. And dirt. And fire. [[HermitGuru Guru Pathik]] wasn't kidding when he said the elements were really one and the same.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Onimusha}} Dawn of Dreams'', this is an ability of several weapons if they are upgraded enough.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Onimusha}} 3'', this was the magic ability of Samanosuke's Kuuga long sword. Bonus point if you turn the violence level to high.