Troperville
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This hand of mine glows with an awesome power! Its burning grip tells me to defeat you! Now, here I go! 'SHINING FINGER !!!''
—Domon Kasshu, Mobile Fighter Gundam
Baron Diamond: Diamond Knuckle!
Shadehawk: Oh come on. That didn't deserve a name! It's just a punch!
If you can do something more impressive than just throw a punch, your attack(s) must have an equally impressive name. More than that, you have to call it out as you launch the attack. It doesn't matter if it's a martial arts move or a magical spell, if you can't say its name, it just isn't nearly as cool or effective. Also, expect plenty of echoing to come with it, and (if a fighter is feeling particulary bombastic) dramatic...*pauses*...WITHAYELLATTHEEND! A standard feature of practically every Magical Girl, high fantasy, or martial arts anime.
The origins of this phenomenon are arguably Older Than Print. The idea that words can grant power is a cross cultural phenomenon that shows up frequently in the earliest tales of swords and sorcery. Members of the sinic language families in particular tend to ascribe special importance to the power of written characters, and the belief that special words can invoke control over supernatural power permeates their folklore (just ask your local shinto, buddhist, or daoist practitioner if they've donated to a shrine or temple to have a talisman written lately).
In terms of realism, this has some ground as traditional and even some current practioners of martial arts hold the belief that accompanying statements and/or vocal noises alongside execution build up their chi, thereby increasing the power and efficacy of their moves and techiques. Put less spiritually, saying a phrase at the right time during an attack ensures proper breathing. A call used for this reason is known as a kiai. The naming of attacks also served a more practical purpose as many martial arts schools, Chinese ones in particular, used to be secret societies. The passing down of techniques was done orally and giving them esoteric names often facilitated this transmission.
This is also often combined with a spellcaster's Invocation, with the final part of the incantation being the name of the spell, cried out just as the spell is triggered (Spirit of Fire, gather into my hand and incinerate my enemies! FIREBALL!). A character who grows in power will eventually graduate to being able to do the initial incantation mentally, turning the final trigger into this trope completely.
A variant has a Combat Commentator recognizing the attacks being used (usually with a line like "That's the legendary something-or-other technique!") and explaining them to any other characters watching (and the audience, of course).
Another variant, primarily found in video games, displays the attack name on screen as it is being executed, without a vocal "call". This typically happens in games where there is no voice acting; the call is implied. In fact, flamboyant attack/technique names are pretty much a trope in and of themselves.
To be fair, though, used properly and skilfully it can be an effective and compact narrative device. There isn't really a simpler way to let the audience know that Captain Kirk's next phaser blast isn't supposed to kill the alien, or that Judge Dredd's next bullet is supposed to go "boom".
Especially in manga, it's particularly difficult to let the reader know what special attacks are used without either motion or color, so having the characters say it is probably the most practical solution.
Brother of By The Power Of Greyskull and the Invocation. Cousin of the Screaming Warrior and Roaring Predator.
For a very villainous variation, see To The Pain. For battle cries or shouts, see Kiai. When violently subverted, it's Talk To The Fist.
Examples
Anime
- We could save you time and just say every Magical Girl and Shonen anime ever, but if you prefer specific examples, keep reading.
- Naturally, we gotta start with Kouji Kabuto, the protagonist of Mazinger Z, who may very well have started this. "Rocketto Punch!" "Breasto Fire!"
- Justified in Getter Robo: the reason attacks are called out is because the robots' operating system uses them to ACTIVATE the attacks, which makes a LOT of sense. What's easier, shouting "GETTER BEAM!" and having your robot fire? Or having to press switches, throw levers and turn knobs to do the same?
- Only in the Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo OVA. The other series don't bother with this, or at least don't mention it outright.
- I just had to put this in here: Domestic Violence!
- The Dragonball series are famous for this.
- Parodied with Hercule/Mr. Satan, a normal human who shouts a ridiculously long name for a normal punch.
- In a tournament arc when Goku was a kid, he called a punch, a kick, or a chop with Rock, Paper, or Scissors. When his opponent revealed that he knew the technique, and was able to defend against it (having actually been the man who trained Goku's grandfather), he switched it up.
- The majorly cocky "Gotenks" who actually created a huge list of attacks with comedic names. None of them were any bit more successful than Hercule's. Except maybe those two attacks. But those didn't really happen.
- Dragon Ball Z loves to parody this trope. Reecoom, a member of the Ginyu Force, has a silly name for every one of his attacks.
- Krillin, in keeping with his Butt Monkey status, is the only character who seems to actually be hindered by calling his attacks. He has what would be an incredibly broken technique, the Kienzan, that can literally cut through anything (the only time it ever hit yet failed was in filler). Even people vastly stronger than he is. Naturally, since he's not The Hero, Krillin never lands a good hit with it, in part because he's compelled to loudly yell "KIENZAN!" whenever he uses it... even when trying to ambush somebody from behind!
- Lampshaded in Team Four Star's Dragon Ball Z Abridged with Piccolo pointing out how shouting out their attack stratgey for the enemy to hear probably isn't the best idea.
- Special Beam Chop! Galikk Fingers! Awesome Tailslice! Kamehame.. oh screw the attack name! Kaioken times over 9000! Whisperhameha.. in other words, Alternate Reality DBZ.
- Parodied in Mahou Sensei Negima (which otherwise is full of these) by Jack Rakan, who invents then charges absurd amounts for new, unique Finishing Moves. One of his ideas for Negi is "Extreme Ruler Burning Heat Thundering Dragon Erupting Flash Demon Tempest Rakan Fist", which he immediately discards for being too long to use in a fight.
- Later on, we see him during a battle, making up names as he goes, such as "Hidden Blade Surfing Rakan! (Newly Named)".
- And the Rakan For-The-Hell-Of-It Right Hand Punch.
- Most of his called moves are "(newly named)", except any kind of skirt flipping or general female harassment ones.
- Likewise, during the first Tournament Arc, when the host specifies that spell incantations are forbidden, one of the martial artists participating in the event asks if Calling Your Attacks is allowed... and everyone responds with glee when he is informed that it is.
- Everyone in Saint Seiya, almost allways
- In Pokémon, it's the trainers who call the attacks to order the Mons.
- And the trainers also call "Dodge It!" , dodge it, no, really. Mons only get hit if the trainer doesn't tell him to dodge. This makes one wonder about the competence of wild Pokémon.
- Meowth typically calls out his own attacks... Although this leads to wondering if there's any difference than him clawing peoples' faces, and him clawing peoples' faces while yelling "Fury Swipe," each time leaving identical marks.
- The cast of Ranma 1/2 call their attacks a lot.
- While most of the time this is played straight, there is the issue of Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire. That is the name of a training exercise to increase hand speed, but Ranma still calls the name out when delivering a flurry of attacks.
- And naturally, characters in Ranma Abridged tend to call out their attacks as well... usually "Boot to the head."
- Also heavily spoofed by many of the attacks Genma comes up with - typically the more frightening the name, the more ridiculous the "attack." For example, "Howl of the Wild Hound" is yelling insults at your opponent, while "Crouch of the Wild Tiger" is bowing and scraping for mercy.
- In Sailor Moon attacks can be thrown without naming, if one needs the element of surprise. One episode had Minako / Sailor Venus impersonating Sailor Moon — in this case, she used her own normal attack, but with a different incantation. They do name their attacks most of the time, though, leading to phrases such as "Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss!" and "Star Gentle Uterus!". The Codename wa Sailor V manga gave Minako a lot of such phrases — some are genuine magical incantations, some are just said for extra coolness. Such incantations also tend to be spoofed in side stories ("Garlic Attack!").
- Every
major character in One Piece who makes an attack more complicated than shooting a gun or punching... and sometimes even then; this includes poking them with a finger (of course the "poke" has the force of a bullet behind it). Occasionally subverted by Usopp, who will miscall his attacks to throw his enemies off.
- Also averted by Don Krieg, who is famous as a master of sneak attacks and duplicity. Krieg has names for his various attacks, but they are given in public Just Between You And Me speeches after he has already used them. He also pulls Usopp's trick of announcing the "wrong" attack to throw opponents off guard.
- In Yu Yu Hakusho, not only are attacks called, but the first time an attack appears, its name is also given in a caption, often accompanied by a freeze frame while the narrator explains the nature and history of the attack.
- May Wong from Kaleido Star almost always calls out a name whenever she's doing a stunt, and anything alse for that matter.
- "Gekigan Punch" and all the other attack names used by some pilots in Martian Successor Nadesico from its Show Within A Show, Gekiganger 3. In actual fact, the attacks in question are perfectly ordinary science-fiction (or mundane!) devices like Deflector Shields and machine guns, and the pilots call their attacks for the simple reason that they happen to be otaku. One (non-anime-fan) character in the show actually wonders whether the weapons are voice-activated.
- In Super Robot Wars, Gai (and only Gai) has all of his Aestivalis' attacks renamed to things like "Gekigan Shoot", "Gekigan Sword", "Super Gekigan Sword", and so on, on the menu.
- Spoofed in Rune Soldier Louie: Louie is little more than a brawler to start with, but he's already named his basic right cross; he calls this attack enough that it practically counts as a Catch Phrase ("Louie Punch!").
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha doesn't always call her attacks, but her computerized magical wand does, combining this trope and Robospeak.
- The girls in Yumeria made up calls to go with their attacks because it was traditional for sentai/Magical Girls.
- Nearly every Humongous Mecha series has at least one scene where the pilot of a Mech will call out the attack, even if merely by its name. For example "High mega cannon! HASSHA!" — basically, "High Mega Cannon! FIRE!" — all the way up to Sousei no Aquarion's Mugen Punch (Infinite Punch) — a punch with effectively infinite range (in one episode, it actually punches an enemy into the surface of the moon, becoming the "Moon's Surface Infinite Punch" if I recall) among others. By far the most common called attack in the Humongous Mecha genre however is the good old Rocket Punch, where the forearm detaches and flies at the enemy before returning.
- The Super Robot Wars series have tried to integrate this silliness into the traditionally more realistic Real Robot genre by making these attacks voice-activated. Then there's mecha Fanboy turned mecha pilot Ryusei Date, who not only calls out his attacks, but will often rename them. If the player assigns him to pilot a different mecha, he'll rename that mecha's attacks too. In the most recent games, his "disease" has apparently spread to Mai Kobayashi ("Queen of Kicks") and Latouni Subota ("Tonfa Princess"), both of whom adopted this habit because they have a crush on him.
- The Macross functions as a truly epic-scale Humongous Mecha for purposes of this trope, including a Megaton Punch attack that is always called. The climactic moment of the war in both the series and The Movie involves another called attack. Although this is somewhat justified, as a commanding officer is giving an order to be carried out by the crew.
- For that matter, firing the main cannon of the Cool Ship always involves a direct (and yelled) order from the captain, which typically names the weapon explicitly. "Lohengrin, FIRE!"
- However, this troupe is not only justified but necessary for attacks with a particularly large effective range - it does the good guys no good to shoot their own troops, and calling it out can be a sort of warning.
- Brilliant, brilliant spoof: the Marmalade Boy movie features a memorable scene where five small neighbourhood boys encounter the protagonist as she's practicing tennis, and pretend to be a Super Sentai Five Man Band, including a formal introduction of the entire team and lots of highly stylized called Ki Attacks. The teenage girl in question decides to be the Cool Big Sis, and cheerfully pretends to be the Monster Of The Week in response.
- Done in all the incarnations of Digimon — to the point that some have theorized a Digimon literally cannot attack without saying the attack's name. They added several attack calls in the dub.
- A notable exception is in Digimon Frontier where the dubbers removed an attack's call. In this case, Kazemon's "Love Tap" was never formally announced (just once, informally, the first time it was used); presumably because they didn't want to call extra attention to a Stripperiffic character doing a butt-thrust. Since it made it seem like Kazemon did this on her own apart from her standard attack list, this made for weird Dub Text.
- The special attacks of the twelve zodiac family in Sumomo Mo Momo Mo need long incantation-like names to be yelled before use. Amusingly enough, the names seem to be made up each time; rarely are the same ones used twice.
- Spoofed in Scrapped Princess, where the mechanics of magic rely on the user speaking the name of the spell aloud; the magician Raquel is virtually unbeatable in a magical fight because her spells all have really short names.
- The original novels explain that she's actually running an emulator spell all the time which enables her to cast long spells with a few words (think of it as a macro) but requires an incredible skill and capacity for magic.
- Motoko on Love Hina always does this.
- In Naruto, this may or may not be required to pull off the series's "jutsus"; certainly, Naruto himself seems to be able to do his Kage Bunshin with a single hand gesture when calling the attack would take too long (like, say, in midair).
- Shikamaru may have lost a fight (Chuunin exams) because he may have done one attack name (or afterattack explanation) too many; his technique burns chakra quickly and he would have won if he had, say, 5 more seconds of it. Shikamaru is too clever for such an error, one would wonder if he lost on purpose to avoid (what a drag!) more combat or if attack names are more of a strong compulsion/tic.
- Naruto subversion: Ino fakes Sakura out by calling her possession technique (complete with sound effect!). Sakura dodges... into a trap, which holds her down so Ino can use the real technique.
- Naruto Kakashi takes life-threatening risks to figure out an enemy's power is gravity based, despite the fact the enemy is calling it a gravity wave (translations may vary, but it's definitively "gravity"). Which contradicts the previous example where Sakura does hear the attack name calling...
- Naruto has always been a bit weird on this. Kakashi has specifically told Naruto (and Naruto later reiterated his advice) that you shouldn't "announce your Jutsu", yet everyone seems to do it. To be fair to Kakashi, Naruto lost more time on it than other regular ninja do, complete with posing... Jarayia did it even more of course, he enjoys naming it slowly when intimidating some low level amateurs.
- Around 4:30 into the episode 115 (season 5), there is a spider-themed ninja who can shout his battlecry and spit spiderweb-based attacks at the same time. The ability to shout with a mouth full must be convenient since most of his attacks are done with a mouth full... (or perhaps the translators were just n00bs)
- This troper assumed he was thinking it or something.
- He was thinking it. Sasuke ( and other characters who use fire-breathing attacks ) also thinks it.
- Brilliantly spoofed in the anime Blazing Exchange Student. The hero's opponent and rival in love uses his 'Insect-Squashing Punch' to knock the hero out. Later, when the hero is preparing for a Rocky training, his stuff gets run over by a train, inspiring him to create a new attack for the rematch and prepares to demolish his rival with his 'Takizawa Kokugen (Railway) Punch', only to be promptly K.O'd by the 'Sacchu (Insect-Squashing) Punch' again because it takes less time to say. The girl they're trying to impress, however, is dissatisfied by the name 'Insect-Killing Punch', and convinces the rival to rename it the 'Ibuki Finishing Blow Golden Victory Finish', and he goes into the next match with tears pouring down his face because he knows he'll be clobbered before he can finish saying it.
- Spoofed in Muteki Kanban Musume, where the heroine defeats one opponent simply by calling one move and executing another while the opponent prepares for the move she called.
- The titular mecha from Gear Fighter Dendoh has reality itself declare the name of the attack, in stylized lettering visible only to the audience.
- Bleach takes this a step further, by explaining that knowing the name of an attack is required in order to access its full power. This is especially true for kidô spells, the strongest of which cannot be used properly without reciting an extremely long-winded incantation.
- Additionally, in order to transform their swords into stronger forms, Soul Reapers must call out a short phrase followed by the name of their swords. Activating one's Bankai is also called out, but simply in the form "Bankai: <name of Bankai>". Apparently Soul Reapers that can perform Bankai are skilled enough to perform Shikai without the activation phrase, but all characters that can say the phrases anyways.
- Bankai activation is achieved merely by saying "Bankai", though they still tend to say the Bankai's name after releasing it.
- To activate her powers, Orihime Inoue must call the names of the "Shunshun Rikka" in her magical hairpins, adding a somewhat ridiculous catchphrase for what she wants them to do. Later in the series, she demonstrates an ability to call them forth quickly without speaking, hinting this may not be a requirement, but a tool for focusing her will.
- "Beautiful Charlotte Coolhorn's final holy wonderful pretty super magnum sexy sexy glamorous... cero!" "That's just a regular cero!"
- Zangetsu tells Ichigo that his Getsuga Tenshō actually becomes more powerful once he knows its name.
- Subverted partially by Yumichika, who calls his zanpaku-tou with a fake name in order to annoy it enough to not transform into it's true form, which would cause his fellow members of Squad 11 to look down on him, because it is a kido-type zanpaku-tou.
- 'Howl! Zabimaru!' can be heard at least six times per minute when Renji is fighting.
- Though only because Renji seems to like saying it rather than because it's necessary.
- Spoofed in the Gunnm manga — While in the middle of an emotional conversation, Gally (or Alita, depending on translation) is attacked by a guy on a motorcycle. She throws him, bike and all, off of a balcony, without a pause in the conversation. When asked what the name of that throw was, she responds, "Um... the Two-Wheeled Biker Throw."
- Lampshaded in Asagiri No Miko, where Seiko constantly mocks the nonsensical names of the other characters' signature moves. She also refuses to name her own move, but the other characters do it for her.
- Similarly, in El Hazard The Magnificent World, priestess Afura Mann performs an impressive air-based attack which fellow priestess Shayla-Shayla calls the "Big Sucker Gas Slash." This prompts Afura to complain, "It's my attack! I want to name it!" Later in the OVA she does name it, calling it the "Badger Slash".
- Rurouni Kenshin's Himura Kenshin generally will call out "Hiten Mitsurugi", the name of his swordfighting school, and then the name of the technique he's using, most commonly "Ryu Tsui Sen".
- It is never implied that he calls it with the later techniques. Instead, the name seems to just appear in the panels, while Kenshin has his mouth gritted shut.
- Of course, they have to make him say it in the anime since there's no other way without omitting it or making it even weirder.
- Aoshi Shinomori describes his Kaiten Kenbuu technique while he's using it, only announcing the name after the attack.
- Many of the spells from Slayers require a Magical Incatation that ends with the name of the spell being shouted out. On one occasion, Lina scares off some bad guys by casting what looked and sounded like a fireball spell, but is revealed to be a simple light spell after they've run away. Also spoofed by Love Freak Prince Phil, who practices what he calls "Pacifist Martial Arts", with absurd called attacks like the "Pacifist Crush", "Goodwill-Towards-Mankind Smash", and the "Joyous Reunion Bearhug". Subverted when Lina begins the lengthy incantation for her famous Dragon Slave spell, blurts out "etc. etc. etc." in the middle and then rapidly casts it with no apparent difference. Other times in the series, it's shown that a spell can be cast with just calling out the name, but is usually less powerful.
- In interviews with the creator, how this ties into the rules of magic in the world were even more blatantly spoofed, with the creator mentioning that Gourry Gabriev, well known Idiot Hero, has nearly the same magic capacity as Lina, but would never make a good sorcerer because he's so stupid as to be incapable of memorizing the incantations necessary to utilize it.
- Although the anime loves to have fun with Calling Your Attacks and incantations in its filler and comedy episodes, in the more serious story arcs the exact phrasing of the incantations has a big effect on the effectiveness of the spell: after learning the true nature of the Lord of Nightmares, Lina subtly changes the incantation of the Ragna Blade and makes it much more powerful (and more difficult to use). In the novels she does the same to create a perfect version of the Giga Slave (in the anime the incantation for the perfect Giga Slave is unchanged).
- More explanation on the rules of magic in the Slayers universe: mastery of magic in the Slayers setting is accomplished by skill with "Chaos Words", the incantations. The more powerful a sorcerer is, the less words they need; simply invoking the name is all the good wizards actually need to cast a spell. And if they use more Chaos Words then they actually need, the power of the spell is amplified further. This also means that only the very best wizards in the world can actually cast a spell without even speaking its name.
- And let's not forget Gourry at his most Badass: "LIGHT COME FORTH!"
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has both normal and subversive calls. The most impressive attacks are called normally ("Giga Drill BREAKER!!!!"), but characters do occasionally call normal fighting moves with ridiculous names, e.g. "Who the Hell Do You Think I Am Kick!".
- This seems to be a necessity in the Rule Of Cool-driven world of TTGL. Pre-Time Skip, the only time that an attack's full name isn't fully shouted (Certain Kill Giga Drill Breaker) or accompanied with a motivational speech, it fails epically.
- My-Wife-is-the-Best-In-the-Universe Swing!
- Fist Of The North Star does this often, prominently displaying the kanji of the technique's name at the bottom of the screen as it is said. However, the attack names are typically shown after the attack has been completed (there are exceptions, though), and in some cases the names are spoken by a narrator rather than the character.
- Attack names must be read out of a spellbook in Konjiki No Gash Bell, although when an attack is read for the first time, an unnecessary "The first/second/third spell" is frequently added.
- A bit of a subversion, since the person calling the attack isn't the attacker, but the attacker's partner.
- Most of the main characters in InuYasha call their attacks. Kagome doesn't actually name her sacred arrow attack, though she frequently utters the catchphrase "Hit the mark!" when firing.
- Parodied constantly in Bobobobo Bobobo where every single attack is given a name, often ridiculous.
- G Gundam- Domon's Shining Finger (and, later, the Erupting
Burning God Finger) is not only accompanied by its name, but also always, without fail, is preceded by a chant, which has gained Internet popularity. Other fighters call their attack names, but most do not take nearly as long to recite.
- Card Captor Sakura does this; however, it is necessary for her to call the name of the card in order to summon its powers. Indeed, there are times when she can barely get the word out in time to perform the necessary action.
- The Prince of Tennis is filled with these occurrences. More recently, one character has named his move "Super Ultra Great Delicious All-Out Mountain Storm". Yes, the adjective 'delicious' used for a tennis move. Some say this is a sign that the author has lost it.
- The Flash anime Xin subverts this: the only guy who calls his attacks is the weakest one there.
- Tokyo Mew Mew not only calls their attack, but their weapons. "Strawberbell! Reborn... Strawberry Check!" Strangely, though, they only seem to actually call out the weapons just before they attack, not every time they summon them. Also, in at least one episode four Mew Mews were shown using their attacks without incantations. Pai, one of the aliens, has a variety of named attacks — unlike the Mew Mews', these are "called" in Japanese, not in Engrish. In the manga, even Ao no Kishi got one of these.
- Pretty much all duelists in Yu-Gi-Oh! call the attacks of their duel monsters, as well as any magic or trap cards they play. This is even parodied/lampshaded at one point (at least in the English dub) by The Pharaoh himself in his duel with Dark Marik. His opponent is so busy calling out his monster's attack that he fails to notice that Yugi has played a magic card which negates the damage.
- In Loveless, this trope is justified in that the words are the spells themselves.
- Like so many other anime tropes, spoofed in the first episode of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu with the 'Mikuru Beam'. Haruhi, our resident unconscious Reality Warper, gets so into it that the supposedly fictional attack temporarily becomes a real ability.
- Also, on the Remote Island two-part episode, Haruhi calls out her table tennis serve.
- Koizumi's attacks in "Mysterique Sign" are Shout Outs to Full Metal Panic.
- There's actually a justified version of this, although it's hard to catch. As a living interface with the data entity that runs the galaxy, Yuki Nagato's power comes from incanting SQL commands really, really fast.
- Required for certain Noble Phantasms to activate in Fate Stay Night, particularly those that have one-shot effects, as you need to call their "true names". "Gae... BOLG!"
- Happens to a lesser degree in the prequel Fate Zero. Still, EX... CALIBUR!!!
- Kekkaishi is one of the worst offenders here. Making a kekkai and bringing it to Metsu without saying anything would probably be faster.
- Happens with most protagonists in D.Gray-Man, except for the ones whose weapons are actually part of their bodies.
- Though even many of them call out their attacks, for example protagonist Allen Walker's "Cross Grave" or Suman Dark's "Break Wind" and "Break Storm."
- While most attacks are called in Busou Renkin, Captain Bravo once memorably subverts the usual pattern by attacking first, and then calling it.
- Tokiko lampshades Kazuki's tendency to do this during his fight against Washio, telling him that calling his attacks gives his opponent an ample opportunity to counter (something at which Washio excels).
- Averted (most of the time) in Mai-HiME. The girls never shout out their attacks when simply using their Elements, and even only Natsuki and Midori use vocal commands when preparing their CHILDs' most powerful attacks. The manga version, on the other hand, plays the trope completely straight.
- Used after the Magic Music finishes in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch. "Love Shower... Pitch! ♥"
- In Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Eagle Ken likes to punctuate his special boomerang attacks with "Birdrang!"
- This also commonly happens whenever the team performs one of their "Science Ninja Techniques" such as the most prominent one "Kagatu Ninpo Hinotori" which temporarily converts their God Phoenix battle aircraft into a shrieking giant firebird.
- Played (surprisingly) straight in the Pretty Sammy series. Oddly enough, everything that Sammy does is accompanied with "Pretty Coquettish Bomber" regardless of what effect it does. Pixy Misa also has Calling Mistakes/Mystics and Pixy Sexual/Lovely Fire (depending on what translation you go by), but significantly less variety in her abilities.
- Every GGG brave robo calls not only their attacks, but supporting tools, like the Dividing Driver, Dimension Pliers, and Eraser Head.
- Arguably subverted with the uber-Hotblood GGG Chief, Taiga, who has been seen calling his own attack when he pulls a club out of his golf bag to beat on some zombies. "TITANIUM HEAD DRIVER!"
- In Rockman.EXE, Operators name all their chips, declaring "Slot IN!", as they... well, slot them in. It's possible that this is done to warn the Navis that their arm is about to change into a bladed yo-yo of death or some such. The Navis themselves call out not only their chips, but their default attacks.
- Azumanga Daioh:
Tomo: Yomi's crazy flexible 'cause her body's made of almost nothing but fat!
Yomi: DOUBLE CHOP!
(Yomi double-chops Tomo on the head)
Yomi: Quit being so damn rude!
- Blade Of The Immortal has what could be a parody of this; the only called attack is Rin's FLIGHT OF THE GOLDEN WASPS! ...Which almost never works the way it's supposed to, and is called out as useless by other characters at least twice.
- Parodied in Seikimatsu Darling. When Shikibu and Ogata play ping-pong, Shikibu finishes with an incredibly dramatic wind-up to his "Super Special Ultra High-Grade Certain Kill Shikibu Smash." It sends the ball across the table at an extremely slow speed, so, naturally, Ogata misses and loses the game.
- Characters in Transformers Super God Masterforce call many of their special attacks. Diver is particularly fond of these.
- Transformers: Robots in Disguise had the same set of The Powers That Be as Digimon. Naturally, almost all attacks were announced, some as simple as naming the weapon, and some a bit fancier. (In fact, in one episode, Sky Byte was unable to transform because his mouth was carrying the Mac Guffin and he couldn’t say “Sky Byte, terrorize!”) The other Japan-original Transformers series do it to some degree, but Ri D takes it the farthest.
- Jojos Bizarre Adventure has a few examples, though the characters do eventually refrain from yelling every attack (unless you count "ORAORAORAORAORAORAAAAAAAAAA!" as an attack yell). Sometimes this can be fun due to the Theme Naming. Trish in Golden Wind has the Stand Spice Girls. Her attack? "WANNABEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
- The names of any of the powers used in The Law Of Ueki have to be verbally called upon. Which makes this troper wonder how a character whose power requires him to hold his breath for it to work seems to do both with no problem.
- The Area88 TV series had calls like "Fox Two" and "Guns" being added to the English dub, possibly to fit audience expectations from American movies.
- In UFO Princess Valkyrie, Sanada calls her attacks of: "NEKOMIMI PUNCH! and NEKOMIMI KICK!" in the style of one Captain Falcon.
- Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle is usually serious about this, but spoofs it on one occasion: Kurogane uses his Hama Ryuuojin without shouting its name, and Fai calls him on it.
Fai: You could at least announce your technique's name, Kuro-sama!
Kurogane: Screw that.
- In Death Note, Light prefers to smile silently while writing in the Death Note, whereas Mikami Teru loves to shout 'Sakujo!' ("Eliminate!") after writing each name.
- Also spoofed in Shinkon Gattai Godannar, which is itself an Affectionate Parody of Gao Gai Gar (most obviously) and other Humongous Mecha series. It's rare to hear the same attack called out twice (beyond the trademark SOUL BREAKAAAAAH! and HEART BREAKAAAAAH!)...and a large part of the opening song in both seasons is dedicated to singing about the attacks.
- If it's worth doing in Gao Gai Gar, it's worth shouting about.
- Whenever Hughes Gouli of Overman King Gainer uses Ninpou he shouts out the attack, its spoofed when Gouli does this while hotwiring a train transporter and calls it "BLAZING CAR", later spoofed when while fighting a Brainwashed And Crazy Gouli, Adette uses "Female teacher Ninpou Shedding Sking", after she escapes from Gouli using her Winter Coat as a decoy (she still had her Stripperiffic outfit on underneath) and defeats Gouli by kissing him.
- Despite being a mostly serious mecha series, once in a blue moon, someone in Code Geass may call an attack. Episode 10 of R2 was notable for having two such occurrences in one episode; Tohdoh's "Shadow Longsword!" and... something else this troper can't remember from Kallen.
- Mercilessly spoofed in Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai. At one point the protagonistic duo get to pilot a giant robot, which they control... by shouting random stuff. "Wossname juuuuuump!"
- GEAR Fighter Dendoh's attacks are called so hard the name is usually visibly flashed across the screen as they're being performed.
- Subverted in Battle Programmer Shirase, when Shirase used his Double Compile technique for the first time in the series: the background turns into a yellow blur, the camera pans around him, he called "HISSATSU!! Double compile!!"... and sat back again, listless as usual, stating "that's really unnecessary"... before overloading a top-of-the-line supercomputer, causing it to blow up, with a cellphone.
- In Fushigi Yuugi, Tasuki's fan requires an incantation for it to shoot fire, so he's one of the few characters who regularly gets to call his attack.
- In Hunter X Hunter, Gon is very adamant about calling the names of his attacks, because otherwise it wouldn't look like a secret attack.
- Spoofed in Dragon Half. When the King gets angry, he pulls a nearby rope and yells, Crushing Press!, dropping a huge weight on his target (usually his incompetent advisor) labeled "Ye King's Wrath."
Comic Books
Film
- Played with in the movie Once Upon A Time in China and America. The hero's assistant gets in a fistfight with a non-Chinese speaking cowboy, and (atypically) doesn't call his moves, but simply howls abuse at him. Later, when the cowboy switches sides and picks up a few moves, he "calls off" the moves by shouting what he heard before. ("Who the hell do you think you are?!")
- There's also one scene where, as a part of his strategy, Wong Fei Hung calls out the name of a move and then does a completely different, which causes his opponent to complain. When the opponent attacks again, Fei Hung calls out the same move and actually does it this time, nailing the opponent. When the opponent complains again, Fei Hung mocks him, basically saying "Yeesh, you complain whatever I do! You sure are hard to please!"
- In the Austin Powers series, Austin always says "Judo chop!" whenever he chops a Mook on the head. Despite the fact that Judo is a martial art based on ''throwing people to the ground'', and doesn't ''have'' chops. Other characters do this as well, such as Felicity Shagwell to Fat Bastard right before she kicks him the groin.
- This may be a spoof of the James Bond novel Goldfinger, where the villain describes Karate as "a branch of judo".
- More likely, it's from a The Flintstones James Bond parody episode where Fred and Barney are hauling ass through a villain's secret base and plowing through the biggest Mooks with judo chops while yelling "A Judo Chop Chop!"
- This Troper always thought it was because Austin wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.
- The western comedy The Villain, features a scene where protagonist "Cactus Jack" Slade is in a bar gratuitously punching people in various ways, and naming the attacks: "Uppercut. Right cross." Finally, he gets a taste of his own medicine and then some: "And that's a two-by-four."
Literature
- The Harry Potter Series, all spells must be called until the pupils learn to cast them non-verbally to increase their sneak factors.
- In Eragon, spells must be cast by saying their name. These casts are even context-sensitive: saying "Brisingr" while preparing a campfire will ignite it, whereas screaming "Brisingr!" while firing an arrow will make you fire an explosive arrow. This is a result of the local rules of magic.
- I think that context is only an aid. It is the word itself which matters most, not how it is said.
- Originally, it was entirely based on what you willed to happen. When someone gets distracted, this could be very bad. After a particularly horrible accident, an entire race used all their life force to make it so you could just say what you were going to do (in a language that is now only used by elves) and that's what would happen. It still wasn't foolproof. Eragon gave a baby a blessing that was supposed to shield her from misfortune. His grammar wasn't very good, so he accidentally made her a shield from misfortune, but it's easier to learn good grammar than to never get distracted.
- It wasn't the magic system's fault that Eragon didn't know the grammar rules of the language.
- Captains of especially large vehicles in the Warhammer 40000 novels often shout orders a good deal louder than they might really need to. But then, if you had the chance to yell "Nova cannon! ACTIVATE!" would you pass it up?
- And God said "Let there be light." Boom. Not actually an attack, but close enough to the spirit of the trope.
- Of course, the Word of God is His power. The way God's power works is He says something and then it's true. See Dogma. (Or read the Bible, but that's not nearly as fun.)
- In the Belgarion Saga they use The Will and The Word to perform Magic. This trope is partially subverted by the fact that it doesn't really matter what word is used.
- Example:
Belgarath: Push?
Garion: You said to say push.
Belgarath: I said to push. I didn't say to say push.
Garion: It [the rock] went over. What difference does it make what word I used?
Belgarath: It's a question of style. Push sounds so—so babyish. After all, Garion, we do have a certain dignity to maintain. If we go around saying 'push' or 'flop' or things like that, no one's ever going to take us seriously.
- In the second series, Belgarion restores a shattered door with "door". Belgarath is not particularily impressed then, either.
Live Action TV
- The Combat Commentator version is present in most promotions of Professional Wrestling, with the ringside commentators talking about the move, its history, and how utterly devastating it is. As well, most wrestlers, while not explicitly calling their signature moves, do have a particular pose or set-up they perform to signal it. The late Mr. Perfect actually did call his signature move, turning towards the camera and saying, "Now, you're going to see a Perfect-Plex," before executing the maneuver.
- Perfect's call was parodied/subverted by jobber Reno Riggins, who would have a brief surge of offense, then pause to shout "Get ready for... a RenoPlex!". This would inevitably give his opponent more than enough time to recover and beat the tar out of him.
- Wrestlers frequently "signal" the impending move with signature gestures (Ex: Shawn Michaels will "Tune Up The Band" - a long, drawn out, ring stomp - before attempting his "Sweet Chin Music" superkick.)
- Toku shows (Power Rangers, Super Sentai and Kamen Rider) love this kind of thing. Even if most of the time, the attack is pure Stock Footage.
- Has been taken to the extreme in the Power Rangers seasons under Bruce Kalish where even the guns are voice activated. That's right. Whether you call them guns or blasters or anything else, these weapons with quite noticeable triggers (y'know, devices which are operated via the finger) require the user to shout: "LASERS!" in order to make them fire.
- In general, though, it's more common for the name of the weapon to be called, rather than the effect. “Delta Max Striker!” “Power Sword!” However, there were a few situations where it would be done both ways - which made the use of more tricked-out weapons painful to watch. “Lunar Cue!” [Takes out weapon] “Break mode!” [Re-forms it] “Laser Pool!” [Creates phantom pool table, puts Power Crystals on it] “Lunar Break!” [Launches them] Can we say overkill? This Troper thinks that it’s part of the show’s Merchandise Driven nature: gotta make sure everything gets its name announced so the kids know what to beg the ‘rents to go buy.
- It seems as if the trend is being toned back down after Kalish's departure. In the first two episodes of RPM, the Yellow Ranger noticebly stays silent while firing her Nitro Blaster, although each ranger's personal weapon still seems to be voice activated. Furthermore, RPM handwaves at least some of the gratuitous shouting as a voice recognition-based security system.
- Somewhat lampshaded by Ryotaro in Kamen Rider Den-O. Kintaros, the team's Gentle Giant, calls out the name of his attack ("Dynamic Chop.") after using it, causiing Ryotaro to question this. Later on in the show, Ryotaro's Imagin partners criticize the name of his Liner Form attack that he made up himself ("Densha Giri"/"Train Slash") as being unoriginal.
- In the same vein of the above Spider-Man movie example, in season 2 of Heroes, when Peter is trying to figure out how to shoot lightning from his hands, he says things like "Lightning! Go, Lightning!"
- One Word: Exterminate.
- Then there was Johnny B in the short lived Misfits Of Science blasted stuff with his electric powers while singing 'Johnny Be Good'.
Tabletop RPGs
- In Dungeons And Dragons it is entirely possible, with a high enough roll, to scream out "SNEAK ATTACK!" loud enough to shatter windows while sneak attacking an opponent, without the target realising you are there until the hit happens.
- 4th edition actually invites this, with all attacks having names like "White Raven Strike". They even suggest how to refluff it to make it anime-styled...which, this troper presumes, has to involve shouting "WHITE RAVEN STRIKE!" at the top of your lungs as you behead that troll.
- Parodied in Forgotten Realms novel Silvefall, though in such context it may be joke about RPGT/cardgames as well. But they said this after respective attacks.
"Wild magic stone brings down antimagic shell," the Red Wizard said calmly, for all the world as if he were describing a move in a chess game. [...] "Laeral's Cutting Hand," she announced, her tones a mockery of his own.
Video Games
Web Animation
- In Naruto The Abridged Series, they parody this by having all the characters call their attacks with such entertaining names such as "Old Man Monologue Attack" and "Pudding Dragon". Then it's subverted with the "Heart Exploder Death Seal", with actually steals people's souls.
Webcomics
- In an early El Goonish Shive strip, when Elliot attacks the Goo for the first time, he uses a ridiculous name for an equally ridiculous attack. After he defeats it later, Tedd points out that he forgot to shout out a "pointless Japanese name" for the last attack he used; mortified, Elliot asks for a do-over.
- The Order Of The Stick does this, as parody, for both spells and special combat maneuvers, having characters ironically shout out "Sneak attack!" and the like (which is fine as the other person failed their spot check), and, after a "Great cleave!" attack is used overly much, snickering about great cleavage.
- Subverted and lampshaded later by Elan's evil twin Nale, when he performs a Sneak Attack without calling it out, then says "Oops, I was supposed to say "Sneak Attack" there, wasn't I?"
- Also subverted by V calling his attack without actually casting anything.
- Recently, Haley was drawn into combat with a group of thieves who have a tendency to yell out "Sneak Attack!" when they perform a sneak attack. With the introduction of a fighter class mook, said mook yells out "Power Attack!" when he attacks and is immediately informed that he shouldn't yell out his attacks. The fighter then complains that the rogues get to yell out things when they attack.
- This Commissioned strip "Fur Thong Ninja vs Cthulhu Ninja Zombie" parodies this, calling all the attacks and defences, including "The Stab On The Road To Madness!" and "Mandatory Crotch-Exposing Opening Strike Leap Of Doom!"
- This Dr. Mcninja strip. Though it's a demonstration rather than a proper attack.
- Both played straight and subverted in Molten Blade. The second time Fred tries this, his target hears him in time to dodge the attack.
- In Antihero For Hire, Baron Diamond takes this to absurd extremes, with "Diamond Knuckle" ("That's just a regular punch!"), "Diamond Pivot", "Diamond Wall Grabbing Move," and so on in that vein.
- Played straight during fight sequences in Circumstances of the Revenant Braves but also parodied by Sol, who calls out various attack names, both as ShoutOuts and just at random during other parts of the story.
- Cardboard Tube Samurai does this at least once in Penny Arcade, at the end of "Cardboard And Steel".
- Mocked in this Exterminatus Now strip. BEAM SWORD HURL ATTACK!
- Mocked quite entertainingly in these three strips of Exploitation Now. Tentacle Monster to captives: "Anybody up for a game of Monopoly or something while we wait for her to finish shouting the name of her ultimate attack?"
- The magical girl variety gets mocked pretty thoroughly in this Cheer strip:"Pretty Cosmic Crystal Rainbow Overhead Smash!"
- Lampshaded in One Over Zero, when Marcus tries to make a spark.
- In Sluggy Freelance, Zoe, of all people, invokes this trope.
Zoe: You gave me enough time to set a trap. A little trap I like to call ... MISSILE BARRAGE!
Web Original
- In the podcast audio drama The Account, being knighted grants a person a number of special abilities, among them a "weapon" of magical energy that's traditionally named and proclaimed when it's used. The protagonist's is Burst Punch, which more experienced knights find a tad lame.
- The web fiction serial Dimension Heroes makes fun of this trope in one scene where Rob tells his fellow Dimensional Guardians that they must make up attack names to shout out while in battle. When asked why, he's unable to give a good reason. He then asks the much more experienced warrior Wyn why he does it. The Guardians wait intently for the warrior's response, and are subsequently disappointed when he mutters simply, "Because it's cool."
Western Animation
- Inspector Gadget's command of "Go, Go Gadget—(insert gadget name)" could count; he's warning people that he's about to activate a gadget, knowing full well that it might not work according to plan...
- This would actually be a subversion, since whenever Gadget actually needed a gadget to work, it didn't. So he would call his attack, only to attack in a different way, and fail nonetheless.
- In the Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon series, the villain Hak Foo usually calls his attacks, and the names can be pretty funny. Examples: "Bunny Flees from Vicious Jackals," "Slumbering Bear Greets the Dawn," "Octopus Fists of Fury," "Minnow Wallops Whale," and "Snake Cuts Grass."
- Lampshade hung in one instance, where the called attack is purposefully not the name of the attack about to be executed; it helped to fool his opponent.
- Subverted in another instance, when Hak Foo calls his attack while fighting Uncle; Uncle counters the attack easily as he shouts, "Thanks for sharing!"
- And in another instance of Lampshade Hanging, Hak Foo performs a large series attacks against Toru. In the middle of the sequence, Toru interrupts and asks "What was that last one again?" Hak Foo stops his attack to repeat the attack name and gets slammed for his efforts.
- Another time in the middle of a fight he shouts "flying monkey grabs magic box!", which sounds like a name for one of his attacks but is actually him stating something he just saw happen.
- Let's face it, Hak Foo's whole purpose is to lampshade and spoof this trope up the yin-yang. Once after being on the receiving end of some of these attacks, Jackie adds one of his own: "Baboon Leaves Tuckus Exposed".
- In the Legion Of Super Heroes animated series ep "Champions," Jo Nah (aka Ultra Boy, who has all of Superman's powers but only one at a time) calls out his powers as he activates them so viewers can know what the hell he's doing, straddling the line between this trope and By The Power Of Greyskull.
- A good half of the dialog that occurs in a typical episode of Xiaolin Showdown consists of various characters calling their elemental attacks and shouting out the names of the various Shen Gong Wu. Justified in the case of the latter since saying the name of the Wu is what activates its powers.
- In later seasons, largely starting when Chase Yung enters the picture, Omi in particular begins to call his nonmagical attacks as well, since Chase teaches him how to do it. The most famous one is "Repulse the Monkey" which is Chase's, and later Omi's, signature move (indeed, at one point Omi realises that someone is allied with Chase when he uses Repulse the Monkey), but later on the moves become more ridiculous, with such moves as "Grasshopper doing Doggy-Paddle", "Dogs Playing Poker" and "Spider doing the Hokey-Pokey".
- Ah, yes. "Sparrow Eating Hot Dog". Good times...good times...
- One of the oldest western examples is Hanna-Barbera's Peter Potamus and his "Hippo Hurricane Holler". In this case, the call is the attack, but still...
- Parodied similarly to The Order Of The Stick in an episode of Avatar The Last Airbender. When the gaang are sparing, Sokka tries to get Aang from behind (who can tell he's there anyway) while yelling "Yaaaaaaaaw, SNEAK ATTACK!" to be instantly blocked by Aang who responds, "Sokka, sneak attacks don't work if you yell it out loud."
- There was also the very poorly performed bit where Katara pretended to be an Earthbender, and when Aang lifted up a rock, she yelled "Earthbending Style!". It even had the background made of streaks.
- The Wonder Twins and the Justice League Unlimited homages in "Ultimatum."
- Phil Ken Sebben of Harvey Birdman Attorney At Law did this when he attacks Birdman, thinking he's trying to steal away Birdgirl's affection.
"Hit! Uppercut! Uppercut! Jab, jab!"
- On Swat Kats, Razor would usually shout out the missile being fired, as he fired it, even if it wasn't a new one. Though that could be justified because of the nature of some of their missiles so T-Bone would know what not to do maneuver-wise to keep from disrupting it.
- The characters in Huntik: Secrets & Seekers do this whenever they cast a spell or call out a titan.
- Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Heart!
Real Life
- According to Wikipedia, Wong Fei Hung "was known to state the names of the techniques he used while fighting."
- In kendo, naginata, and similar arts, one must call out the body part one intends to strike as the blow hits, or one does not receive points for the hit.
- In many live-action roleplaying games, it is necessary to call the damage done by an attack before it lands.
- Pilots of Western Air Forces typically call out warnings when launching weapons. A call of "Fox Two!" for example, warns nearby friendly aircraft that the pilot has fired an infrared guided missile.
- Although, considering that only friendlies and not hostiles can hear the radio calls, there is considerably less risk of warning the enemy of what's going on. Apparently this doesn't translate to the less realistic flight sims, though, where every aircraft seems to be broadcasting on the guard (public) channel.
- Then there's the story which claims Babe Ruth pointed to the center field bleachers in the fifth inning of Game Three of the 1932 World Series. On the next pitch, he hit a home run over the center field bleachers.
- "Fire in the Hole!". translation: somethings about to explode real soon so you'd best find some cover and block your ears.
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