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"Did I get him? I think I got him... I must have gotten him!" (smoke clears) "No! I missed again!"
Either a Macross Missile Massacre, a plethora of Ki Attacks , or The Worf Barrage are sent towards the enemy. This results in a cloud of smoke or dust obscuring the opponent.
If those attacking really want to doom themselves, they can make comments to the effect of " No One Could Survive That!"
The cloud dissipates; and either the enemy is revealed without a scratch (often surrounded by a Beehive Barrier), or they're not there anymore, having jumped into the sky when nobody was looking, and are quickly descending upon the attacker's head. They may even be running on the edge of the opponent's sword if it was what he used!
See Out Of The Inferno for the even more badass version.
Examples:
- Nabeshin did this against a helicopter in Excel Saga.
- Happened more times than one can count in Dragonball Z. If our heroes are lucky, the bad guy and/or his clothing is scuffed up and they manage to provoke a Minor Injury Overreaction. During the battle with Buu, they manage to blow him to utter pieces and then burn the remains to make sure he doesn't regenerate... but then he regenerates from the ashes. (They missed one cell.) Something similar happened with Cell.
- Frieza. From his very introduction to when Goku goes Super Saiyan, he just waits until the smoke clears, with no visible damage. If he was matched, he just said he wasn't going all out, and proceeded to beat the crap out of his match. After being hit with an attack that consumed his own planet burster and that could be seen from space, all he lost was half his tail.
- The battle with Cell bumped this trope up a notch. After one massive attack, our heroes wait to see the results while the smoke clears. Cell's not interested in waiting that long to reveal his continued existence, and fires a beam out of the cloud that mortally wounds one character.
- Not just any attack, but his OWN self-destruction.
- This is, of course, lampshaded in Affectionate Parody Buttlord GT
 . "Haw! He is obviously finished. No one could survive that much dust."
- Happens quite often in both Yu-Gi-Oh! series; when the smoke clears, the monster/opponent that was believed destroyed is still there, but saved by one or more Trap Cards activated in the nick of time.
- Starts happening in Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer once they introduce the terrain layers.
- So far, Firebending masters Jeong Jeong and Princess Azula have pulled the disappear-in-the-Smoke Shield trick using swirling flames on Avatar The Last Airbender.
- Happens frequently in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. In the first season, Fate uses Photon Lancer: Phalanx Shift to attack Nanoha, the smoke clears and Nanoha is revealed to be (mostly) unharmed. In A's Nanoha used Divine Buster Extension to snipe Vita, but when the smoke cleared it was revealed a third party had intervened and shielded Vita from the attack. And finally in StrikerS Dieci tries to snipe the Mobile Section 6 Helicopter, and seems to score a direct hit, but the smoke clears, and Nanoha is revealed to have gotten there just in time to block the shot.
- In the 2007 Transformers movie, happens in the fight between the soldiers and Scorponok before he is finally seen escaping by burrowing under the sand after being damaged by an AC-130 Spectre gunship.
- Similarly, this trope sort of happens in season 2 of Beast Wars to reveal Optimus Primal's new body. However, it is admittedly a borderline scene, possibly fitting some other trope better.
- Frequently used in Narutaru. After a while, this troper began wondering if the japanese defence forces had stuffed all their missiles and shells full of sand, because obscuring dust was just about all they produced.
- Happens a fair amount in Bleach, at least once every few fights. For example, this happens not just once but twice during Ichigo's fight with Yammy at the beginning of the Arrancar arc. In both cases, the smoke clears to reveal that Urahara interposed himself and nullified the attack.
- Ushers in the final fight scene in Pokemon The First Movie After an overloaded cloning machine explodes, Mewtwo delivers his speech about how he plans to used his army of cloned Pokemon to annihilate humanity and the Pokemon who serve them. This is where Ash Ketchum steps through the smoke, the real Pokemon in tow, and ballsily declares, "You can't do this. I won't let you."
- Happens at least once in El Goonish Shive, where Damien explodes into fiery doom, possibly destroying Grace. The smoke clears to reveal that A wizard did it.
- In the 1953 version of War Of The Worlds the "smoke" is caused by an atomic bomb being dropped on some Martian war-machines. It still doesn't work.
- Kei in Special A walks out of a smoke shield created from an exploded rocky cliff, completely unharmed. (Though Akira did think he was dead, if only for a few minutes.) He walks out carrying a lion on his shoulders.
- In the game UFO: Terror From the Deep the Lobster Men are so tough that the entire squad of ten to fourteen soldiers will often have everyone in throwing range throw explosives at one of them while the rest shoot lasers and rockets at him. The explosives go off together and then the Lobster Man gets his turn.
- Adventurers uses it three times. The first has a lampshade hanging. The second is a lampshade hanging followed by a subversion ("Never been so glad I was wrong!", and the third is, of course, a parody. The first and third are also kind of inversions, as the source of the smoke was a blast that made its targets stronger.
- A Dangerously Genre Savvy filler opponent in Naruto exploits this - he has a technique that creates a smokescreen whenever he's attacked. Unsurprisingly, he survives being attacked by the entire main cast.
- Likewise with a filler enemy in Bleach, barring that he doesn't last anywhere near as long.
- Lampshaded in Neon Genesis Evangelion when Shinji engages the fourth Angel with an automatic cannon, shrouding it in smoke. For a moment it appears the assault was successful, but then Misato yells at him, saying "You idiot, you hid the enemy behind your own smoke!". Cue the counterattack.
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