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One Hit Kill / Anime & Manga

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Examples of the One-Hit Kill trope in anime and manga. Expect to hear the phrase "ichigeki hissatsu!" (literally, "One Hit Certain Kill") thrown around when invoking this sort of attack.


  • In Akame ga Kill!, Akame uses the phrase "One slice, certain death" for a reason. Anytime she slashes someone with Murasame, that person dies instantly if she manages to draw blood. On the other hand, if you accidentally cut your finger with Murasame itself, you yourself die instantly. Since it works by a special, deadly poison, it also doesn't do squat against zombies or anything that doesn't have a heart.
  • Aquarion Logos, the Aquarion Logos Genesis can do this to virtually any and every opponent simultaneously just by erasing concepts from reality. The lesser "black angel" mecha also use this power with their feathers.
  • In Assassination Classroom, Lovro's "secret killing technique" is designed to turn the tide of a battle between a skilled combatant and an assassin to the latter's favor. It's extremely effective, but only works under very specific conditions. He teaches it to Nagisa, who eventually uses it to defeat Takaoka during their rematch at the climax of the Assassination Island arc. And when the "Reaper" demonstrates his advanced version of the technique, it's revealed that pulling it off at just the right moment will paralyze the opponent for a few minutes. It's appropriately dubbed the "clap stunner".
  • Berserk:
    • Most swings with Guts's ginormous Dragonslayer will instantly kill a man... and the horse he was riding on, as well as anyone standing too close by. Most Apostles can't handle the full swing of this hunk of steel though stronger Apostles can usually tank it or have a Healing Factor. Guts can also kill a man instantly with his metal arm either by punching them or using the hidden cannon. Of course, this is not a matter of technique; when so much steel gets in so much motion, the laws of physics will have no choice but to let you die.
    • Griffith's first victory of Guts, was a single stab to the shoulder blade to the awe of the Band of Hawk.
    • Most Apostles can effortlessly kill humans with simplest movements, e.g Wyald crushed a man's skull by pinching it. Zodd in his beast form took Guts down with a single back hand when he first transformed in the series.
    • The Skull Knight, Berserk's resident Big Good, has the Sword of Actuation with which he can split dimensions with a single swing; it could've killed Femto had the latter not redirected it at the last moment.
  • Black Clover: By condensing his Mana Zone even further to cover only his arm, Yami can unleash his attack Death Thrust, which destroys Dante's entire torso. It would have killed him if not for his boosted Body Magic.
  • Bleach:
    • Sui-Feng's zanpakutou in bankai produces a nuke. Its special attack is a One Hit Kill loaded with only one hit, and it takes her days to recuperate. Her shikai kills in two hits that occur so fast the victim only feels one. However her bankai being a One-Hit Kill is unfortunately an Informed Ability; when Soi Fon first fires it, her opponent easily avoids it, and while her second shot hits in convincing fashion, it appears to do little to her opponent but make him angry. To be fair to Sui-Feng, she did have the misfortune of breaking out her bankai in a battle against the former God-King of all Hollows, whose Story-Breaker Power was second to Aizen.
    • Ichigo is a thankful target of One Hit Knock-Outs in the fan-made parody The Truth About Bleach.
    • Mugetsu would have been a One-Hit Kill if it wasn't for the Hougyoku.
    • Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryusai's Bankai Zanka no Tachi has at least two attacks that can assure an opponent's demise in one strike: "Rising Sun Edge", which concentrates the flames of the sword upon the edge of his blade, burning to death anyone who gets cut by it, and "Tenchi Kaijin" (Heaven and Earth Reduced to Ashes", or something like that), which sends a concentrated flame/heat slash to incinerate the target immediately (more "kill outright" than "ensure demise"). In both cases, the flames are quite literally as hot as the sun, guaranteeing that nobody could No-Sell a hit from them.
  • In A Certain Magical Index, Fiamma of the Right has "The strike that ends everything it touches", which annihilates anything it hits without any destructive force, meaning it cannot be blocked, and "The strike that reaches everything when swung", which reaches the target without any speed, meaning it cannot be dodged.
  • In D.Gray-Man, several of the Noahs can do this. Tyki Mikk can stick his hand in your chest and remove your heart, or easily sever limbs. Wisely can make your brain explode just by looking at you. The Millennium Earl can devour your soul if he pierces you with one of his tendrils.
  • It's been summed up in Death Note that no matter what, as long as a name's been successfully written down, the victim can't escape their fate. All in the name of Anyone Can Die. The only variety is in how the death takes place:
    • The death can be delayed by at most 23 days. In the live-action movie adaptation, this is how L beats Light: he writes his own name in the Death Note with a time of death 23 days later, thwarting the Gambit Roulette that led to Light's victory over L in the anime and manga versions.
    • Simultaneous (within .06 seconds) use of at least three Death Notes on the same victim will not result in death for either the victim or any of the Death Note holders, within 23 days or otherwise. Practically impossible and never occurs in the storyline, but still there.
    • Another exception is if the user of a Death Note unintentionally misspells a person's name at least four times, which is far more plausible (particularly with Japanese names, which can have a lot of homophones). The one time it came up, Light was lucky enough to have spelled it right on the first attempt.
    • Some of the rules do reveal some more limitations. For example, any one younger than 780 days old or over 124 years old cannot be killed with a Death Note. It also can't kill anyone who's only got 12 minutes of their natural lifespan remaining.
  • In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, with Zenitsu’s signature Iaijutsu discipline for his Thunder Breathing, his fights against demons who don’t measure up to him usually end in a single attack of his, a swift slice through the neck, instantaneous decapitation.
  • Dragon Ball is full of One-Hit Kill techniques:
    • Krillin's Kienzan/Destructo Disc from Dragon Ball Z, a move so deadly that Word of God confirmed that it can cut through anything, with its only flaw being that it can't be controlled once it's thrown. However Krillin’s attack did meet its match with Perfect Cell as it shattered harmlessly against the villain’s neck without him even noticing.
    • One of King Piccolo's conceived servants, Tambourine, has a deadly move called Super Marengeki, which makes one of his hands glow orange and impale his opponent to kill them instantly. He kills Giran with it, and would have done the same with Yamcha if King Piccolo hadn't interrupted him telephatically to warn him about Cymbal's death.
    • Piccolo’s Makankōsappō/Special Beam Cannon has a high record of success being powerful enough to give two Saiyans a Torso with a View and in the Cooler movie it’s able to kill foes from miles away. The only real times we see it fail are when it’s used by other characters (e.g Cell and the Cell Juniors), in Dragon Ball Xenoverse it’s even an unblockable move. Piccolo could’ve used SBC to easily defeat Frost in Super, had not Frost cheated by drugging Piccolo.
    • Dragon Ball Super introduces the "Hakai" technique used by Gods of Destruction, which simply erases whatever it's pointed at. There is no known way to block it or avoid it, and it has been shown to work on entire cities at once. It even destroys the target's soul, ensuring that they stay Deader than Dead. Of course, Gods of Destruction only use this on things they really want dead; most of the time they destroy things in more mundane ways. Interestingly, Hakai can be countered if the person is stronger than the attack as both Golden Frieza and Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta Evolved have done.
    • Done by Ultimate Gohan during his encounter with a reborn Freeza in Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn, after Freeza recognizes the grown-up Gohan and orders the villain army to attack him and Videl. Gohan just flies through them, straight to Freeza and well... "One Punch Great Saiyman". Not surprisingly all the villains freak out at Freeza’s easy demise and run away.
    • In the same movie Gogeta’s “Stardust Breaker” proves to be kind of Holy Hand Grenade as in some translations it’s inferred it destroys evil souls which is why Gogeta was able to disintegrate Satanic Archetype Janemba with it. It failed to work on Broly in canon when Gogeta used it, however it this may have been due Broly not being genuinely evil like Janemba or his original movie counterpart were.
    • Goku ends more than a few fights this way: Pirate Robot, Drum and King Piccolo in the original series. Goku became more of a Technical Pacifist in Z, and instead of One Hit Kill it was One Hit K.O like with Nappa and Reccome. In the movies, the Genki Dama/Spirit Bomb was the go to kill-move, in Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13! Goku destroyed the titular antagonist with one punch after he absorbs it. Goku does the same with Broly when he absorbs all the energy from the Z-Fighters and punches straight through Broly's torso... he got better though as it wasn't lethal.
    • Vegeta does it a lot too especially in the Namek saga where he cuts a bloody swath through Freeza's Quirky Mini Boss Squad and always end the fight with one attack, like the time he punched straight into Zarbon's chest and then blasted a Ki blast through him. Vegeta's Big Bang Attack is sure-kill move annihilating Android 19 through it didn't work on Broly in the Non-Serial Movie, Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan, only triggering his Unstoppable Rage. Final Flash also likely would've killed Cell instantly, if Vegeta hadn't had to change it's direction so he woudn't blow up the planet.
    • Piccolo deserves another mention for slicing Babidi in half with one hand... the annoying ass little wizard would've died if Buu hadn't healed him.
    • “Super Dragon Fist” is Goku’s surefire method of instantly destroying any villain with a punch similar to “Penetrate” but way more flashy. Only Yi Shenlong/Syn Shenron In GT came back from the full force of the attack due to his Healing Factor.
    • Zen'o has by far the most powerful attack in the entire franchise: Erase. With this ability, he can not only destroy individuals, but also planets, solar systems, and even entire universes. Hell, he can even obliterate the entire multiverse if he wanted!
  • Durarara!!: Shizuo Heiwajima against basically everyone. Since this is a series with mostly human-level power, and then Shizuo starts throwing cars at people, it's a miracle everyone he fights isn't reduced to a fine red paste. At one point, Masaomi insists that he "get even" for wronging Shizuo earlier, so Shizuo flicks him in the forehead. Masaomi is knocked head over ass and is left dazed on the pavement.
  • In Eyeshield 21, Seijuro Shin perfecting his Spear Tackle into Trident Tackle. The tackle is so overwhelming that if the player didn't go out on stretcher, they're so traumatized that they refuse to touch the ball ever again. Of course there's players that can shrug it off, but most of them are not exactly "normal" to begin with.
  • Fist of the North Star's eponymous school of martial arts. You don't get much more of an instant kill than "make the other guy's head explode" — and that's just one of the simplest techniques...
  • The second summoning of Suzaku and the presence of all Suzaku Seishi notwithstanding, this is how Taka ends the battle with the fake Suzaku in Fushigi Yuugi's third OVA, Eikoden. Sure, being able to send an evil being into oblivion with one punch is awesome, but in terms of action, Tamahome's reincarnate doesn't live up to his standards much.
  • Yui demonstrates a unique ability to see the growth point of any plant so long as its in her memory in Green Worldz. Hitting that growth point will instantly kill any plant.
  • Gundam:
    • In principle, this the effect for anything with beam weaponry in the franchise. In the original Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeon held the advantage over the Earth Federation because their Mobile Suits could practically No-Sell anything short of battleship beam weaponry (which were too cumbersome to reliably hit a fast-moving mobile suit). Once the Gundam and Guncannon, the first Mobile Suits to use beam weaponry, were made, Zeon was forced into a game of catch-up and saw their numbers quickly dwindle because of the Newtype kid in the beam weapon-carrying Mobile Suit.
    • In later Universal Century stories, mobile suit designers all but give up on the idea of armor, since even the thickest armor is ineffective against beam weapons, instead focusing on making them as light and agile as possible. When everything can kill you with one hit, after all, the only viable defense is to not get hit.
    • In Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny, the Destiny Gundam's Palma Fiocina is made out to be this. Whether on a basic mobile suit, or the gigantically overpowered Destroy Gundam, if this attack lands, the fight is over. The only time it fails is when it doesn't hit. It's a Shout-Out to the Shining Finger and Bakunetsu God Finger attacks in Mobile Fighter G Gundam, which always end the fight in one hit when landed successfully. During the preliminaries of the Gundam Fight, any Gundam that has its head destroyed is eliminated. Thus, the Shining Finger involves grabbing the opposing Gundam's head and melting through it. During the finals, the corrupt Prime Minister Wong Yunfat changes the rules so that a Gundam can be rebuilt after a battle even if its head is destroyed. Cue the Bakunetsu God Finger, which disintegrates the entire enemy Gundam.
  • Yuki Nagato in Haruhi Suzumiya — "Commence termination of data link". Pwned. This is also the reason why she won against Asakura, who was busy jumping around, throwing metal spears, while Yuki hacked the time-space program (whatever that is). It's also why Yuki was so seemingly weak for the bulk of the fight: she was devoting all of her attention to setting a single winning move.
  • In Holyland, Chapter 29 mentions that the best way of taking on multiple opponents if you absolutely must is not to go for a decapitation strike by trying to take out the leader or strongest fighter first, but rather to use one hit knockouts to quickly scythe through the lesser fighters. It also carries the benefit of demoralizing the remainders.
  • Ichika's Infinite Stratos is capable of only this, its ability basically amounting to "rush in to disable the opponent".
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • During the first two parts, a single Hamon-powered punch was often enough to kill a zombie or vampire. The most difficult part was landing the blow, since undead monsters possess abilities exceeding those of human beings, putting this trope in use for both protagonists and antagonists.
    • In Golden Wind, Diavolo's favorite fighting style consists of using King Crimson's time erasure ability to simultaneously disorient his opponent and position himself in the right spot to kill them in one hit, often by sending King Crimson's fist straight through their chest.
  • Keijo!!!!!!!! has Hanabi Kawai knocking her opponents out in 1-hit due to hitting the vital areas. She even has a signature move that guarantees a 1-hit kill called BUTT GUILLOTINE !
  • Kill la Kill:
    • There's Nui Harime easily destroying an active Three-Star Goku uniform by simply pinpointing one of its vital Life Fiber threads and tugging on it to snap it in half, causing the entire uniform to fall apart. She tries the same on Senketsu, but Senketsu has so much Life Fiber that cutting one thread doesn't really impact him.
    • Ryuko only needed one solid hit on Inumuta to defeat him. The problem is that, between Inumuta's Awesomeness by Analysis skills allowing him to predict Ryuko's movements and his invisibility, landing that one hit required a lot of creative thinking from Ryuko.
    • Inumuta himself eventually performs a One-Hit Kill on a clone of himself by pressing the power button on his opponent's uniform.
  • Lyrical Nanoha:
    • In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS this used to be Subaru and Teana's SOP before they joined RF6. Nanoha, of all people, had to teach them restraint.
    • The Administration Bureau's ultimate weapon, the Arc-en-Ciel, is also a One Hit Kill by its very nature. Though it looks like a Wave-Motion Gun, what it actually does is twist space-time around its target, seal everything within a hundred-kilometer radius into a pocket universe, then allow said pocket universe to Big Crunch itself. The weapon is far more deadly used on planets than in space, due to the vacuum effect that so much suddenly vanished air/land would leave behind.
  • Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai: Medoroa, the ultimate offensive spell, combines the most powerful fire and ice-based spells. The result is an energy arrow that makes the target vibrate at the exact frequence required to disintegrate it. Nothing, not even the Big Bad, can tank or deflect the arrow.
  • My Hero Academia:
  • Naruto:
    • A quick scan of the jutsu catalogue reveals that virtually all offensive techniques ranked A or S are one-hit kills.
    • Tsunade's punches are enough to kill anything that isn't an Edo Tensei immortal zombie, but even Madara was worried about being hit by that.
    • The first thing we see Gaara doing in the Chunin Exams is bloodily murdering other Genin with Sand Waterfall Funeral. He even has an umbrella for all the blood that "waterfalls" down.
    • Gaara'a older brother Kankurō, who also has a kill-move literally called "Black Secret Technique: Machine One Shot", which involves trapping an opponent in one of his puppets and stabbing numerous blades into them.
    • Temari's summon, a giant sickle-wielding weasel, was only summoned once. It destroyed everything in about a square mile, including her opponent.
    • Naruto's perfected Wind Release: Rasenshuriken disintegrates its target's body upon contact.
    • The Jyuken (Gentle Fist style) is an entire taijutsu form based around one-hit kills. Hiashi, Neji and Hinata kill many Zetsu clones with one well-placed strike throughout the Fourth Shinobi World War. Since the Gentle Fist can target the internal organs of a foe directly, a simple jab to the heart is instantly lethal.
    • Itachi Uchiha's Susanoo wields the Totsuka no Tsurugi, a sword that seals anyone it pierces in an eternal genjutsu. To date, Orochimaru and Edo Nagato, two of the strongest shinobis in the world have been subjected to this treatment.
    • Kakashi has the technique Kamui, which can warp its targets to an alternate dimension. This can be used on an opponent's entire body, or just part of it.
    • For Rinnegan users, the Human path grants the ability to extract a person's soul, killing them instantly. While it is possible for someone to resist the extraction; the requirements to accomplish are so high and specific that it's nearly impossible to successfully pull off. Naruto was the only person who managed to pull this off, and he still would have died had Itachi not interrupted a reanimated, and therefore weakened, Nagato.
    • Madara Uchiha's Shattered Heaven summons a gigantic asteroid, which is fully capable to destroy an entire army. The problem is that its area of effect is so huge, that the user has pretty much no way to avoid being hit.
    • Kaguya Otsutsuki possess All-Killing Ash Bones, bone stakes that, when impaled into the target, causes their body to immediately rot and crumble until they're literally reduced to ashes, and it's impossible to recover from. Even Naruto's massive healing abilities after gaining the Sage of Six Path's powers can't reverse the effects.
    • Subverted in that most of the conventional attacks in Naruto that would be a one-hit kill (impalement, shurikens, poison) are typically ineffective due to the frequent usage of clones, body doubles, illusions, and regeneration.
  • Nasuverse:
    • This is why Shiki Tohno from Tsukihime is described as "the greatest wild card" (not the trope): since his Mystic Eyes perceive the concept of Death as lines and dots over everything, all he needs is one chance to kill his opponent. Given his natural killing abilities and inborn assassins' skills, all of his fights begin/end with this. In some scenarios, he has been able to kill hallways, a vampire infection (before it takes over his body), and the poison inside someone else's body; although this requires it to be Cast from Hit Points.
    • Shiki Ryougi from The Garden of Sinners has even more hax, she can stab magic to death, like ghosts or telekinetic blasts.
    • Technically, Shiki Tohno is capable of doing this as well, except Ryougi doesn't seem to have the Cast from Hit Points issue. She also doesn't seem to have the problem of having to understand the nature of something's existence first before she can use her eyes to kill its existence. This is because the two Shiki's eyes work slightly differently. Shiki Tohno's eyes perceive the point of death on something, which when attacked, unravels what makes the object considered to be "alive", and in turn results in death. Ryougi Shiki, on the other hand, perceives the fundamental existence of something, allowing her to kill anything. Ryougi isn't weakened because after her accident, her "male" personality basically "died" and the space it occupied in her consciousness was filled instead by Akasha, the Origin of Existence itself, allowing her to understand everything that exists in the universe, and giving her complete control over her Mystic Eyes.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
    • The invaders during the Battle of Mahora arc switched from stripper rays to "time displacement rounds" that send the target three hours forward in the future to when they've already lost for the ultimate in battlefield removal when things got serious.
    • Asuna's fan also inflicts one hit kills on shikigami and summoned beings. Since she can do this anyway, she replaced it with a BFS which can do it from a short distance.
  • One Piece:
    • It was assumed by the characters that Bartholomew Kuma's main attack was this, until it was eventually revealed that it merely sent its target flying away so fast that it looked like they vanished.
    • Subverted with Usopp, who uses the term "hissatsu" before every single projectile attack. None of them are ever certain hits, and definitely not kills. Then again, this is him being smart, because the enemy is supposed to think they are. Usopp's attacks might not be one hit kills, but he has never missed a target since he joined the Straw Hats. While disguised as Soge King, he used a large slingshot to accurately snipe at and disable marines over a mile away.
    • Impel Down's Chief Warden Magellan has the ability to produce lethal poison from his body. When he fights, he simply floods the room with it, making him absurdly powerful.
    • While Bellamy's crew, minus the first mate, was utterly horrified that they had just irritated someone with a hundred-million beri bounty, Bellamy himself was convinced that Luffy had just created a false bounty poster to make himself seem more threatening. So, when Luffy comes around, he decides to put that theory to the test. Luffy takes him out with one punch. Just note how brutal it was Bellamy had Luffy's fist mark imprinted on his skull. Luffy does actually kill Baron Omatsuri the titular antagonist of the non-canon movie 6 with one punch to the face, justified since he was feeding the crew to his horrifying plant monster and very nearly succeeded so Luffy’s brutality is understandable but still jarring since he never kills anybody in the show.
    • Luffy's Red Hawk was a surefire (literally) K.O punch prior to Dressrosa, case in point Byrnndi World and Hody Jones who each took one to chest and stopped fighting abruptly. Doflamingo, however, when facing Luffy, shrugged off a Red Hawk to the straight to the gut only getting slightly damaged, and kept on fighting no problem.
    • Zoro's Single Sword: "Lion Song" technique, which cinched the battle with Daz Bones (though it did not actually kill him) and is suspected would have taken out Kaku had he not dodged. Zoro uses Lion Song on Bartholomew Kuma during Thriller Bark but only succeeds in damaging Kuma's shoulder, Zoro uses a snazzy Haki-version on Dice in Film Gold.
    • Zoro's later attack: "Daishinkan" appears to be a killing stroke when he uses it to bisect Monet but it turns out Zoro was just screwing with her and the strike was non lethal.
    • Sanji's "Concasser" aka spinning ax-kick to the top of the skull, is definitely a one-hit K.O the first guy Sanji used it on: Satori was never seen getting up again. The horizontal version Sanji used on Blueno was strong enough to break through his Tekkai and the Diable Jamble-Concasser Sanji unleashed in Whole Cake even made Luffy pass out when he took it to the cranium.
    • Sanji's Anti Manner kick course is also a good example as when he first used it, he effortless one-shot a Bananawani. But the flying horizontal version he used in Thriller is 10x more awesome as Sanji used it to topple the humongous Oars. Hell even with a normal kick, Sanji can kill a T-Rex in Little Garden.
    • A minor character example is King Elizabello the Second, whose "King Punch" is so powerful it pierced the wall of a fortress, and is said to be capable of bringing down a Yonkou. However, charging it makes Elizabello basically helpless, and can only be used once per hour. When we see it in action, it definitely lives up to its reputation: The punch's shockwave extends for a considerable distance all around him (despite it being a punch), this blast alone instantly taking out anyone caught in it regardless of their fighting skill. The only person seen to withstand Elizabello's dreaded King Punch is a Barrier Warrior who saw it coming and prepared accordingly.
    • Jimbei's Gosenmaigawara Seiken a Elemental Punch that K.O-ed a Jailer Beast in Impel Down and later took out Charlotte Opera in Whole Cake Island. But that's nothing compared to his "Buraikan" technique which blew away the small mountain-sized Wadatsumi and much impressively knocked back Big Mom. Elizabello's King Punch just got played.
    • Trafalgar Law's Gamma Knife. It requires both him and the target to be inside one of Law's ROOM note ; it consumes a high amount of stamina; and it has point-blank range. But it flays the internal organs of the target while completely ignoring its skin. Thus, it bypasses any armor, no matter how strong — including Haki. Unlike the above example with Luffy, when Doflamingo took this attack straight onnote , explicitly the only reason he managed to survive was using his string powers courtesy of the Ito Ito no Mi to stitch his damaged organs together, the result of which would plague him for the duration of his final fight with Luffy later on.
    • Examples from the Yonko, the Emperors of the sea.
      • Whitebeard had his power establishing moment during Marineford, where despite being dwarfed by John Giant he took the gigantic marine out with a single quake punch. World's Strongest Man indeed.
      • Kaido turned one of his mooks into A Twinkle in the Sky from deep inside a cave with one swing of his club. Another swing felled Gear Fourth Luffy in one hit.
      • Big Mom can instantly rip the soul out of you with her devil fruit but her monstrous strength shouldn't ignored given she one-shot Jimbei with one swing of her BFS Napoleon. Big Mom also took out Vinsmoke Judge with a single stroke using her Weather Manipulation.
      • "Red Hair" Shanks takes down Eustass Kid in a single sword stroke, while the latter was charging up his BFG.
  • One-Punch Man
  • Pokémon: The Series: On occasion, some Pokemon will instantly knock out their opponent with a single attack. This isn't always consistent — sometimes The Worf Effect comes into play, or it can break the series' logic by having Pokemon with a type advantage lose to the weaker of the species — but it has happened.
  • Psyren has Kyle doing this to Dholaki, by psychically boosting his speed so he can shatter the weak points on his body, killing him almost instantly.
  • Ranma ½:
    • Ranma's encounters with Herb and Saffron ended this way, as he turned their own power against them in devastating variations of the Hiryu Shoten Ha. More notable in the case of Herb, who was knocked out instantly from this one attack (he had been punched in the face earlier, but it hardly even hurt his skin.) In Saffron's case, the technique froze him solid and shattered him.
    • Ryouga and Ranma both believed that the Bakusai Tenketsu ("Exploding Point-hole," or "Breaking Point" in the English version) is one of these, since it consists of making rock, soil, and (non-living) wood burst into pieces with the touch of a finger. However, after having her fun watching the two teens struggle, Cologne revealed that it doesn't work on living things.
    • Urek Mazino all the way. In what little screen time he had up till now in Tower of God, he one shot certified BAMF Viole, killed two Rankers in an instant and took another down with a simple kick. And this is just all the fighting we have seen on screen.
  • In Rosario + Vampire, Akuha Shuzen of Fairy Tale has this ability. Using a magical technique which 'delays her existence by a second' every one of her attacks can just cut through people like paper, taking them apart by basically cutting the reality they're standing in. Three people so far have shown resistance to this attack method, and two of those do it by blocking it with the same technique (the third uses a separate technique designed for the sole purpose of defending against Akuha). Two other people survive it because cutting them in half isn't enough to kill them: One is already dead, and the other simply put the two pieces of her body back together and let her extreme Healing Factor handle the rest.
  • After consuming the blood of a Gray Demon, Hendrickson from The Seven Deadly Sins demonstrates two of these attacks: first, a slow-moving shower of balls of dark energy he dubs Dark Snow, and another larger, fast-moving sphere of darkness called Dead End. Both instantly kill their target.
  • Slayers:
  • Tenchi Muyo!'s Light Hawk Wing Sword. One cut and you die. Even if you have an otherwise perfect Healing Factor.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
    • The Winged Dragon of Ra, whose ability is actually referred to (in the Japanese version) as "One Turn Kill"
    • There are various ways to pull off an 'Automatic Victory' in the card game, such as with the infamous Exodia (get all 5 pieces in your hand and you win, period; once that happens there's no possible defense).
    • Sartorius, the Big Bad of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX's Season 2, took this a step further, managing something called a "Zero Turn Kill" in one episode, winning the duel before he even got one turn. (The method he used is impossible in the actual game, seeing as he used two cards that only exist in the anime. There are ways that this can theoretically be done in the real game, such as drawing all five of Exodia's components in your opening hand, but it is unlikely.)
    • In the romantic tag tourmanent, Jaden defeats every pair except Hassleberry and Blair in one turn without Alexis' help, which is the one of the reason why she switches partners in the middle of the final duel.
    • In a particularly famous event from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, where Yusei was pitted against three goons who had an amazingly simple and solid effect-damage strategy going against him, dishing out a lot of damage on each of their first turns. On his second turn, however, he proceeds to unleash a combo that allows his Nitro Warrior monster to execute three One-Turn Kills in rapid succession. The goons' boss even refers to it (in blatant Engrish) as a "One Turn Three Kill".
    • Yusei loves doing this, especially with Nitro Warrior. In fact, he only fails once with this monster. Though, Yusei also manages to do this with other monsters, such as Stardust Dragon (or its evolutions), Turbo Warrior, and sometimes with Junk Warrior, too.
    • There was also a very-near One-Turn Kill with Wiraqocha Rasca's anime effect.
    • In Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, Yuma's deck is referred as an "Xyz One-Turn Kill"-Deck.
    • In Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, most of Yuya's finisher combos are One-Turn Kills.
      • Especially blatant after getting Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon. If the opponent controls a monster that has at least 3000 ATK, Yuya is probably going to win with a single strike.
      • Yuya performs a "One-Turn Three Kill" against the Obelisk Force.
    • Julia defeats Zuzu in her second turn with an One-Turn Kill.
    • Shay Obsidian also performs to do a "One Turn, Three Kill" with his "Raidraptor — Rise Falcon" against Julia, Dipper, and Kit.
    • Gong's duel with Grizzlepike ends with "Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo" striking down the latter's ace monster and all of his Life Points in one strike. While in Defense Position.note 
    • Zuzu does this against Olga and Halil in one turn. Although it's not a true One-Turn Two Kill, as both opponents had already lost some Life Points prior to it.
    • Yusaku/Playmaker in Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS has done this the most times out of any character in the franchise, with a record of nine duels he's won via a One-Turn Kill.
  • In YuYu Hakusho: Kuwabara does this to Risho in the Dark Tournament arc, due to a huge powerup when Yukina arrived. With one punch, he destroys Risho's Armor of Clay, and with the next he launches him across the stadium. In the manga, Kuwabara simply Megaton Punches Risho, sending him flying and destroying the Armor of Clay at the same time.


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