Tornado Move

Behold! The power of spinning really fast!

Tornados are frightening natural phenomena, and characters may use them in combat, possibly deflecting missiles or containing explosions. The fighter usually creates them by moving in circles (or spinning) with Super-Speed or air-controlling powers.

Compare Razor Wind, Spin Attack, and This Is a Drill. Related to Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud. Not to be confused with Hurricane Kick.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Ranma ½:
  • One of the most famous examples, especially among older anime fans, is Ranma's Hiryuu Shoten Ha (Flying Dragon Rising Heaven Blast), which consists of, basically, keeping oneself very cool while goading a very hot-running opponent into a spiral, then delivering a spinning uppercut at the nexus, creating a temperature difference between the two Battle Auras that explodes into a localized tornado.
  • Another instance is the ultimate technique of Rouge in her Asura form: when freed of the debilitating pain of having six arms attached to her back, the demigoddess takes to the sky, then spins in place and unleashes fire from her arms to create a gigantic fire tornado.
• One of the later episodes of El Hazard: The Wanderers has TV Ifurita whip up a monster-sized tornado, on Jinnai's orders, to wreak havoc on Roshtaria's allies. But, being a ditz and a Minion with an F in Evil, it soon spirals out of her control, leaving her trapped inside it, with no idea how to stop it. In the end, the wind priestess, Afura Mann, sets aside her differences with Ifurita to help her, by listening to the wind's "voice". Then they combine their powers to calm it, dispelling the tornado.
• Berserk: The Kushan sorceror attacks Vritanis during a storm, so waterspouts are already forming naturally. He manipulates one to take the form of a giant watersnake.
• Onimaru with his "Tornado Attack", which was powerful enough to drill his way across a generous portion of the Earth's crust and kept going for a while in outer space.
• Digimon Tamers: Terriermon's Terrier Tornado generates a tiny tornado by spinning his ears like a propeller.
  • Digimon Frontier: Agunimon combines this with Wreathed in Flames for one of his attacks.
• Variable Geo: Yuuki's "Mach Spin" loosely resembles Chun Li's "Spinning Bird Kick" from Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Except hers creates a whirlwind effect around her body.
• One Piece:
  • Zoro's "Tatsu Maki" (Dragon Twister), where he spins with his swords to create a dragon-like tornado that both slashes and blows away the target(s). Post-timeskip he has an even more powerful one called, Kokujo: O Tatsumaki (Kalasutra: Great Dragon Twister). He also has a version of both that he can use without swords and a similar attack with two swords called Sai Kuru (Rhino Revolve).
  • Hatchan was able to make one in the anime using his six swords.
  • Crocodile's Sables (French for "Sand") combines this with sand.
  • Kaido can make one simply by spinning his body while in his dragon form. For extra damage, he can breathe wind blades into the tornado.
• In HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, one of Cure Blossom's one-off attacks is the Blossom Flower Storm, where she spins in a circle and envelops herself in a tornado of petals.
• Getter Robo, the Getter-2 line (-2, Liger, Shin-2, Shin Liger) can create the Getter Whirlwind attack by spinning their drill at high speeds. Getter Poseidon, Shin Poseidon and Neo Getter-3 create tornadoes from their collar fans.
• Dragon Ball: Goku tries this in the First Tournament Arc. It works at first, but then he gets dizzy and falls over.

Comic Books

• The Flash: Thanks to their Super-Speed, Flashes can do this by running in circles or moving their arms rapidly.
• The Avengers: Villain Whirlwind can generate whirlwinds by spinning around. Sometimes, he can simply launch them or ride on top of them while his upper body remains stationary.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
  • One issue had Sonic take out a patrol of Swat Bots by sticking his arms out and spinning around, creating a tornado. However, Sonic starts bragging while he's still spinning, causing him to crash right into a nearby rock.
  • He's also created tornadoes by running in small circles.
• Superman:
  • In "Who Took the Super out of Superman?", Superman takes care of a swarm of killer bees by spinning around until forming a whirlwind that drags the bees away from Metropolis.
    Superman: I'll have to treat this swarm as a single unit— spiral around the bees... like a whirling football... and sweep them up... in my own backdraft! I'll count on any stray bees not caught in my wake... to follow the bulk of their friends by instinct!
  • "Two for the Death of One": At the start of the final battle, Lord Satanis hurls a barrage of giant boulders at Superman, who has lost his invulnerability at the time. So, he ricochets the boulders away by creating a whirlwind.
    Superman: "No! Those boulders flying at me— They could kill me! I can be super-strong, but my invulnerability has been absorbed into Satanis. But, if I can create a super-fast whirlwind, use wind-force to ricochet those rocks away before they perforate me— Did it!"
  • In "Demon Spawn", Supergirl spins around at Super Speed to create a whirlwind and put out a fire burning a building down.
  • "The Immortal Superman": As visiting a future Metropolis, Superman diverts an explosion by spiraling around the exploding building, simultaneously preventing the blast from spreading and channeling the explosive force upwards.
  • In "Must There Be a Superman?", Superman de-pollutes a sea by spinning quickly over the surface, creating a tornado which sucks in the junk littering the waters.
  • In Supergirl (1984), the titular hero defeats the witch Selena by spinning into existence a whirlwind which drags Selena, her shadow demon and her cronie upwards and shoves them through a portal to the Phantom Zone.
  • "The Unknown Legionnaire": In order to drive a herd of ambushing Proteans away from Cosmic Boy and Phantom Girl, Unknown Boy creates a miniature cyclone by whirling at super-speed.
  • "Superman vs. Muhammad Ali": Superman must stop a couple of giant missiles from blowing St. Louis up, but he cannot touch them. So he uses his super-speed to create a massive vortex which catches the missiles, deviating their course into the ocean.
• Marvel Universe super hero Texas Twister can generate tornadoes around his body.
• Wonder Woman (2011): When Siracca thinks her sister Diana has allied herself with Hera, who horrifically murdered Siracca's family as part of subjecting Siracca to a Fate Worse than Death just for being born, she attacks her with a tornado.

Fan Works

• Code Geass: Awesome of the Rebellion has Suzaku gain a variant of his Spinzaku move, the Spinzaku Tornado, where he creates a tornado, and throws it at his foes.
• In the Naruto fanfic Sugar Plums the character Ume and Minami have a move like this where basically Ume runs fast enough producing wind to make a mini tornado out of air full of flour, and Minami lights it making a flaming tornado.
• Being a pegasus trained for combat, Gray Ghost in Manehattan's Lone Guardian has this as part of her arsenal. During her duel against Leviathan, she whips up a tornado to defend herself against the Reploid's attacks and force her out of the water.

Films — Animation

• In Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Superman does this to simultaneously overpower Captain Atom, Starfire, Black Lightning, Major Force and Power Girl.
• In Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, Superman attacks Darkseid with a flurry of punches and heat vision blasts so fast it generates a tornado around them.
• In Superman vs. the Elite, Superman does this to The Elite while having Glowing Eyes of Doom. Cue Curb-Stomp Battle.
• In Justice League: Doom, Flash uses this against Mirror Master at one point.
• At the end of Rock-A-Doodle, the evil Duke of Owls actually turns into one of these as part of his One-Winged Angel act as a last-minute attempt to kill all the animals living on Chanticleer's farm since none of them drowned in the flood the Duke sent to destroy the farm.

Films — Live-Action

• In Mystery Men, Dr. Heller has invented a "Tornado in a Can". He uses one to get the heroes' attention when they have decided he is a crackpot and go to leave.

Live-Action TV

• In Smallville: Homecoming, future Superman puts out a nuclear plant fire by flying around it really fast.

Roleplay

• CXRP and RPers has Tornado Man, who moves around inside a giant tornado.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons has several examples:
  • Both air elementals and djinn would turn themselves into whirlwinds (small tornadoes) to attack opponents.
  • The 1st Edition magic item called the Cyclocone allowed its user to create a small tornado.
  • The Weather Summoning spell could create real tornadoes.
  • High level Kineticist Psions can blast you with a tornado created on the spot.

Video Games

• In Awesomenauts, one of Froggy G's special moves is a tornado made of water. It can damage enemies and, with the right upgrades, shield or reflect enemy fire.
• In Cuphead, Hilda Berg can conjure up a tornado to fire it at the player's direction.
• DC Universe Online:
  • The Flight (as well as Skimming) and Super Speed Movement Modes feature attacks that involve circling enemies so fast that they take damage.
  • The Armored Robotic Custodian does a spin attack that flings everyone and everything all around the chamber while doing incredible amounts of damage.
• Dante from Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening can do this with Agni and Rudra. It actually makes sense since one sword has a fire element and the other has a wind element. When spun at superfast speeds, this creates a tornado of fire.
• One of the possible spells that can be cast by Invoker in Dota 2 is the aptly named Tornado, which tosses a tornado to a line that tosses anyone caught in its path upwards. Perfect to set up for his next spell.
• Dragon's Crown:
  • Used by the Killer Rabbit boss, it also tosses up weapons and armor from the pile of dead knights around it, which rain down on you after the attack.
  • The Wizard also gets the Storm spell, which summons forth tornadoes, and both the Wizard and Sorceress can make a single tornado that does ice damage with the proper staff.
• Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters:
  • Joe Higashi's moves set includes multiple attacks of this nature. Beginning with his "Hurricane Upper" and "Twin Hurricane", which are two of his basic attacks. Followed by his HDMs "Screw Upper", and "Exploding Screw Upper". He first gained "Malestrom", which unleashes two Screw Uppers at once, in Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium. And last, but certainly NOT least, there's his NEO MAX, "Screw Straight"! They call him "The Human Storm" for a reason.
  • Wulfgang Krauser's Senpuu-kyaku first made its appearance in the anime adaptation of Fatal Fury 2, where both he and Terry Bogard could use it (00:45-01:09). It became a case of Throw It In!, when SNK added it to Krauser's moves set, as his HDM, in Real Bout Fatal Fury Speacial, where it was renamed "Gigantic Cyclone".
• Aero in Final Fantasy is usually a tornado. Final Fantasy Tactics A2 adds the Illusionist spell Tornado. Several games in the franchise also include the Weak/Cyclonic/Tornado/Maelstrom attacks, which are typically enemy-exclusive HP to One attacks.
  • Final Fantasy IV has Barbariccia (Valvalis in the SNES version), the Fiend of Wind, whose hair is said to be three times the length of her body! She uses her killer tresses to whip up wind storms, including a tornado around her own body; which deflects all outside attacks. Attacks from above, on the other hand...
  • Final Fantasy VII's Cloud can learn the Limit Break Finishing Touch, in which a spinning sword slash creates a tornado that is then flung at the enemy party and sucks it up into the sky. Depending on the foe, it's either an instant-kill or delivers massive amounts of damage. His cameo in Final Fantasy Tactics can also use this technique freely, but it has significant charge time.
  • In Final Fantasy X, Auron's final Overdrive Limit Break also involves creating an ENORMOUS enemy-sucking tornado with a sweep of his sword... the difference is, if the player inputs the right button sequence, he also throws his jar of booze into the twister, which explodes into flames.
  • Final Fantasy XII is particularly fond of tornado effects in many skills and Limit Breaks, but, two specific characters stand out: the Esper Chaos uses Aeroja, the highest manifestation of the Wind element, during its boss battle; as a summon, it uses Whirlwind, which is basically a cosmic-level tornado. Vaan's White Whorl Quickening is a tornado riddled with lightning.
• Genshin Impact: The Anemo Traveller's Elemental Burst creates a tornado that sweeps smaller enemies away. However, as this makes it harder to finish off said enemies, it is one of the reasons experienced players will use Anemo characters like Venti, Kazuha, and Sucrose instead, as their Anemo powers group enemies together which makes it easier to kill them.
• Deimos from * Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance will summon a tornado made of swirling dark energy around herself during her boss fight.
• All the Jupiter adepts of Golden Sun have access to a trio of spells called Whirlwind, Tornado, and Tempest. Also available to Venus and Mars adepts are the spells Gale, Typhoon, and Hurricane. All six of these spells attack the enemy with electrified tornados. In addition, the third-level Jupiter summon sucks enemies up in a tornado before a bird-like goddess beats the snot out of them.
• Heretic: The monsters known as Iron Liches can create tornadoes to attack you. The tornadoes sweep you up into the air and do a great deal of damage besides.
• Barnak, the Final Boss from Hype: The Time Quest, can create blue tornadoes. They follow Hype around, trying to hurl him into the air.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, one of the commands available to Ventus creates a huge tornado that he can control called Tornado. It sucks in enemies that come in contact with it and damages them repeatedly, but it leaves Ventus vulnerable to attacks from enemies that aren't affected by it. Tornado also appears as a sleight in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, where it works pretty much the same way as it Birth By Sleep except that unless an enemy pulls off a card break, they won't be able to attack Sora for the duration due to how the card mechanics work.
  • Raging Storm is a command exclusive to Aqua in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and a sleight used by Sora in Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories that generates a trio of fiery whirlwinds that circle the caster and while they move around the battlefield, usually obliterating anything in their path.
  • The King of Toys Heartless from Kingdom Hearts III has an attack where it creates a tornado around itself and goes on a rampage around the entire battlefield, sucking up the block city that comprises said battlefield as it goes. The block city resets to an intact state afterward.
• A recurring Copy Ability in the Kirby series is one called "Tornado", which allows Kirby to turn into a tornado for a short while. Meta Knight also has an attack called "Mach Tornado", which allows him to spin around in the air for a little while, and even has an attack that creates a huge tornado from his sword.
• League of Legends has two champions with Tornado Moves: Janna and Yasuo.
• Kawashima from The Legend of Tian-ding can summon a gigantic pink tornado larger than herself as an attack during her boss battle.
• Starfy from The Legendary Starfy has this as standard attack.
• Artea's standard attack combo in Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals has one attack involve casting a horizontal tornado from his hand. When Dekar uses Artea's guns, the tornado attack is replaced with...a puff. That still does damage.
• In Magic Pockets, the Bitmap Kid has the power to pull bouncing whirlwinds out of his pockets.
• The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable games give Shamal a variety of these as part of her wind magic arsenal. These include the Wind Shackles (multiple small tornadoes that slowly track her opponent which she could remotely 'detonate' into bigger whirlwinds), the Swirling Storm (a tornado she fires towards her opponent from her hands), and the Surging Storm (a tornado she creates around her after grabbing her opponent).
• This is Luigi's special ability in Mario Super Sluggers. He can encase the baseball in a tornado, which makes it VERY difficult to catch.
• Air Man from Mega Man 2 fires swarms of miniature tornados at the player, pushing them backwards against the wall in the process.
  • Tengu Man from Mega Man 8 has Tornado Hold, which throws a spinning blade that generates a tornado. If this gets Megaman, it traps him and allows Tengu Man to follow up with a Meteor Move.
  • Tornado Man from Mega Man 9 launches miniature tornadoes upward from the floor, which also boosts the player's jump height due to the updrafts. When Mega Man appropriates the weapon, it instantly eliminates small enemies by flinging them out of the screen.
  • While he never actually uses it himself, Wind Man from Mega Man 6 will give the Wind Storm upon his defeat. This weapon fires a small tornado that travels rapidly across the ground, grabbing weaker enemies and flinging them skyward, never to return.
• Mega Man X gives us the Storm Tornado, obtained from Storm Eagle. The normal version fires a horizontal cyclone, while the charged version triggers a large, normally-oriented wind spiral with infinite vertical range. The remake Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X gives Vile a leg weapon called Splash Hit that is effectively a charged Storm Tornado.
  • Mega Man X4 has Storm Owl, where one of his Desperation Attacks has him generate three tornadoes that cover a wide area. The charged version of the Double Cyclone (obtained from Storm Owl) allows X to fire a horizontal tornado from both sides.
  • Mega Man X5 has the Wing Spiral, obtained from Spiral Pegasion/The Skiver, which causes a tornado to fly up from X's fist after he does a jumping uppercut. Charging the Wing Spiral causes a tornado to form around X that grows as it flies across the screen.
• One of the enemy types of Miitopia are tornadoes. One of them has a move which created another tornado that blows one of the Miis away.
• Ōtengu in Onmyōji whose skills include casting a huge tornado that deals impressive damage to all members on the opposite team.
• Path of Exile: The Tornado spell launches a tornado that goes forward and homes into enemies to rapidly hit them for physical damage, but you can also attack it with your own projectiles, causing it to deal extra damage. It also changes colors when you hit it with elemental damage.
• Multiple moves in Pokémon are depicted as this, including Gust, Twister, and Whirlwind. These moves do double damage to Pokémon that are on their first turn of Fly.
• In Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction one of the weapons is called the Tornado Launcher, a controllable tornado that sucks in any enemy and debris in it's path.
• In RuneScape, players may cast the spell "Storm of Armadyl" to conjure a tornado, which counts as a powerful air attack. There is also its weaker version "Divine Storm".
• The -dyne level (maximum level) spells in the Zan (Force) and Garu (Wind) family of Shin Megami Tensei and Persona franchises, respectively, tend to have this effect, especially when using the Ma- (group) version. Persona 4's Magarudyne is specifically impressive as it generates a huge green tornado that covers the battlefield instead of just individual small blasts for each enemy. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne also has the specific Tornado (random damage to enemies) and Whirlwind (Dante's exclusive, damage to all enemies). Shin Megami Tensei IV, despite lacking a lengthy visual effect, has Tornado of God, the strongest possible Force skill which also pierces all elemental immunities.
• Sonic The Hedgehog.
  • In Sonic Heroes, he and the other Speed characters can even whip up a tornado by rapidly moving in a circle.
• Street Fighter V newcomer Rashid's moveset is based on this; he can create tornadoes at will like as a projectile, his V-Trigger I creates a larger one that sticks around for a bit, pressuring the opponent and adding to Rashid's offensive capabilities, and his Critical Art has him ride on top of one as it tears into his opponent.
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl:
  • Now with the Gale Boomerang, Link can throw it to create small tornados to attack opponents with.
  • One of Meta Knight's attacks is spinning himself rapidly to become a tornado, a la Taz-Mania.
• Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U:

  • The game brings Mega Man into the mix and gives him Air Shooter as an attack that hits enemies above him in the air multiple times. Additionally, Tornado Hold is one of his Up-Special recovery variants, which has him drop a device that generates a tornado to lift him into the air and damage opponents caught in it.
  • Donkey Kong also gets Storm Punch, a familiar variation of his Giant Punch smash attack.
  • Mii Swordfighter has the Gale Strike, which sends a small damaging whirlwind out from a single slash of their sword.

• The Cyclone spell in Tales Series is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. It also has a variation called Tempest that combines it with Shock and Awe.
  • In Tales of Vesperia, Karol's Ultra Punishing Typhoon arte has him perform a spin attack with his axe/hammer that forms a tornado, raising both him and his foes skyward.
  • In Tales of Xillia 2, Ludger's Fearful Wing arte has him fire a spread of tornados from his handguns. He can also perform the Tenshou Fuubakusatsu dual Mystic Arte/Hi-ougi with Jude, which has the duo assail their victims with a flurry of attacks quick enough to form a massive tornado that raises them high into sky, before spiking the foe back into the ground with a synchronized Diving Kick.
• This is the signature ability of the Twister car from the Twisted Metal series, which spins around to create a devastating whirlwind strong enough to pick up entire vehicles.
• In Tornado Outbreak, players assume the role of Zephyr as he utilizes the ability to transform into a destructive tornado to capture mischievous fire elementals known as Fire Flyers.
• Warcraft series:
  • Warcraft II: The Whirlwind spell moves slowly and randomly around an area, damaging everything it touches.
  • Warcraft III:
  • The Bladestorm causes the Blademaster to spin around, dealing damage to all enemies and buildings near him. He's also immune to magic while it lasts, so it can't be interrupted.
  • The Cyclone spell creates a tornado under a unit that propels it into the air, unable to move, attack or be attacked.
  • The Tornado spell channels a large, slow moving tornado that does large amounts of damage to buildings it passes over, and randomly casts the aforementioned Cyclone on units that get too close.
  • World of Warcraft: Monks have an attack called Spinning Crane Kick which can be upgraded by way of investing a talent point into Rushing Jade Wind; the former is a basic spin-kick attack, the latter summons a destructive whirlwind around the player for 6 seconds.

Web Animation

• Dead Fantasy II. During the fight on the ice, Rinoa Heartilly creates a huge tornado that sucks all of her opponents into itself.
• Dreamscape:
  • Not only can Jasmine create small whirlwinds, but also a HUGE funnel cloud!
  • Liz can breathe a sideways tornado from his mouth. He can also create a hurricane by flying around and around.

Web Comics

• Coga Nito has Eric attempting this. It just hurls him through the air in a mostly-uncontrolled fashion.
• John Egbert from Homestuck gets the ability to create tornadoes after reaching Heir of Breath God-tier. They range in power and size from one strong enough to drill through a planetary surface, to smaller combat size ones. Due to the odd way Homestuck battles work, they don't really seem to throw enemies about much, just cause damage.

Web Videos

• Flander's Company:
  • Cindy and Gladys can perform one as a Combination Attack with their Super-Strength.
  • Alternate Armand can create a tornado on his own thanks to his Super-Speed.

Western Animation

• Justice League:
  • The Flash does this all the time. He usually uses it to shield others from harm, but he once froze a battalion of demons just with the icy winds.
  • Red Tornado could ride on tornadoes and generate them with his hands. One memorable episode had him doing a Beam-O-War with three Wind Dragon clones.
• Aang sometimes does this in Avatar: The Last Airbender, using it to directly assault opponents, levitate himself or shoot rocks as if from a cannon. Korra is also seen doing this. In Book 4 of The Legend of Korra, Jinora leads a group of airbenders to form a giant tornado.
• Ralph Bakshi's The Mighty Heroes: Tornado Man could turn himself into a tornado. He would suck villains into his vortex and shoot them into the nearest wall.
• The Godzilla: The Series episode 2x11 "The Twister" had a giant rodent that could surround itself with a tornado.
• Ben 10: XLR-8 can use his super-speed to generate small tornadoes for attack purpose. It's also Terraspin's typical way to attack.
• Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders: Kale conjuring tornadoes with the stolen magic harp in "Song of the Rainbow".
• Rainbow Dash of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic can fly around in small circles to create a twister. It's later shown that pegasi in general have this ability, and that teaming up can create a massive tornado.
• Ninjago (pictured) is based on this trope. Spinjitzu practitioners can use their weapons to generate elemental energy and attack their enemies by spinning around wildly. It's still possible to do without any elemental power, but it becomes drastically less effective, even with a weapon.
• Looney Tunes has Taz, the Tasmanian Devil. For him, being in tornado mode is more a way of locomotion rather than an attack, though.
• Supa Strikas: Twisting Tiger's signature move
• Trulli Tales: Zip can create tornados with his wand.

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