History Main / CleanCut

Animating and detailing realistic [[SwordFight battles with edged weapons]] is remarkably difficult. Real-life edged weapons usually leave rough, horrible wounds, and severing arms, legs, or the neck of an individual is a very difficult task requiring either brute strength or significant time to saw at the wound, and that's assuming you manage to line the cut up with a joint, because you are ''not'' going to cut through solid bone. But quite aside from the simulation issues, if realistic blade wounds were done, then a SingleStrokeBattle would be far more difficult to conceive of as trying to go all the way ''through'' your victim would be nearly impossible. [[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2810/could-historic-japanese-samurai-swords-cut-a-human-body-in-two-with-one-stroke Nearly.]]

Animating and detailing realistic [[SwordFight battles with edged weapons]] is remarkably difficult. Real-life edged weapons usually leave rough, horrible wounds, and severing arms, legs, or the neck of an individual is a very difficult task requiring either brute strength or significant time to saw at the wound. But quite aside from the simulation issues, if realistic blade wounds were done, then a SingleStrokeBattle would be far more difficult to conceive of as trying to go all the way ''through'' your victim would be nearly impossible. [[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2810/could-historic-japanese-samurai-swords-cut-a-human-body-in-two-with-one-stroke Nearly.]]

* Students of Sword Lore in ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'' are capable of doing this through learning the act of [[MundaneOminousness Cutting]]. ''Skilled'' students of Cutting can do this without using a sword at all, as Maya demonstrates [[spoiler:by cutting through an entire building -- including the extremely irate angel standing in the middle of it -- using only a scabbard]].

* In the ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'' Dreamblade's sword ''always'' produces clean cuts... mostly because it isn't a real sword, but rather a very focused, very specific form of telekinesis.

* Taken to the logical extreme with [[TheGrimReaper Death]]'s scythe in the ''{{Literature/Discworld}}'' series - so thin and fine that it sharpens on ''daylight'' and can cut a person's words to pieces. His sword too, introduced in ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'' is only visible at the edge, due to it cutting tiny pieces of the air in half. Said sword cut through, without any effort on the part of the wielder, in fact by accident, a large portion of the dining table at UU, as well as numerous forks, knives etc. So little effort was needed, in fact, that the wielder was rather surprised to find a large chunk of table falling away.
** In ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'', a highly trained assassin uses a karate chop on an opponent and ''decapitates him with his bare hands''; At least, that's what it looks like, until we find out later about his palm dagger. Which was apparently remarkably sharp.
** In ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum'', a rather unimpressive priest completely decapitates a vampire with a simple axe without harming a baby the vampire was holding or even knocking the vampire's head off his shoulders. Said vampire is told not to nod quickly. It's suggested that [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality narrative causality]] and/or Granny Weatherwax had something to do with that, though.
** {{Lampshaded}} in ''Discworld/InterestingTimes''. A messenger delivers bad news to Lord Hong. Lord Hong picks up the sword he's working on. The messenger, who can't bear to look, shuts his eyes and hears the swish of the blade. When he opens his eyes, he's still alive. He gingerly touches his neck... "you heard terrible stories about Lord Hong's swords." Turns out he had cut the head off a would-be assassin.
** Toward the end of ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'', Carrot's sword is used to block another sword. The attacker's sword is cut clean in two, leaving its wielder flabbergasted. It's never been used for such, but imagine what it could do if turned against a villain (in a cut, not a thrust, which it ''has'' been used for).

* IDW's''[[ComicBook/GIJoeIDW G.I. Joe]]'' gives us the ninja Snake-Eyes. He slices up some practice dummies and seemingly misses. Until he stomps the floor and they slide apart.

* IDW's'']]ComicBook/GIJoeIDW G.I. Joe]]'' gives us the ninja Snake-Eyes. He slices up some practice dummies and seemingly misses. Until he stomps the floor and they slide apart.

* ''ComicBook/GIJoe'' with the ninja Snake-Eyes. He slices up some practice dummies and seemingly misses. Until he stomps the floor and they slide apart.
** In the same issue, one of the characters referred to Snake-Eyes as the "Master of the Subtle Cut". "True subtlety is when you have to remind the target that it's been cut."

* ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'': The first time Will Laurence fights with an exquisite sword he was gifted in [[LandOfDragons Imperial China]], he is shocked to [[OffWithHishead decapitate a man]] with almost no resistance.

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* In the ''Dagorhir'' system of foam-padded swordfighting, any solid hit to a limb with a slashing weapon is considered to have cut it off. In this game, your limbs are essentially your {{hit points}}, and the only other damage that's tracked is damage to shields and armor; therefore there's no middle ground between OnlyAFleshWound and DeliberateInjuryGambit.
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* An episode of ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' featured a corpse killed by a cut so clean that the wound wasn't obvious until the body was moved, at which point the head fell off. It turned out to have been made by a [[KatanasAreJustBetter katana]].

* As the link above shows, Japanese swords that can cut through several bodies in a single stroke aren't unheard of. "5-body blades" as they're called are out there, and fetch a ridiculously high price at auctions. In fact, it's not too unreasonable to assume that some of these swords can cut through MORE than five--the executioners only ever stacked up to five men, so who knows how many people they can actually cut through? Probably the same people who know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.

* ''GIJoe'' with the ninja Snake-Eyes. He slices up some practice dummies and seemingly misses. Until he stomps the floor and they slide apart.

* A deleted scene from Creator/TomCruise's ''Film/TheLastSamurai'' has the lead character, Nathan Algren, witness a samurai named Ujio walking along a street, who gets hassled by a pair of businessmen. The samurai takes their insults for a few moments, as they insult his heritage and his swords, but when one of them pokes him with a cane, Ujio slices off the head of the man in a clean, swift fashion, and sheaths his katana in one fluid movement while the other scrambles backwards.

* ''Film/{{Underworld}}'': Selene slashes the BigBad as she leaps over him, and he has time to turn around, draw two swords, then look shocked before half of his head slides off.

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* A Xenomorph falls victim to this in {{Film/AlienvsPredator}}

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* Curari in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' has a sword that can cut through ''anything'' (e.g. cutting a moving car in half). Examination by Wayne reveals that the blade terminates in an edge thinner than a molecule.

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* ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' features the Vorpal Sword. Capable of removing the head of a Jabberwock with little more than a snicker-snack.

** Toward the end of ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'', Carrot's sword is used to block another sword. The attacker's sword is cut clean in two, leaving its wielder flabbergasted. To my knowledge, it's never been used for such, but imagine what it could do if turned against a villain (in a cut, not a thrust, which it ''has'' been used for).

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' has this as one of its [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMdu_dUzjfE newest gameplay features.]]

See also the delayed version, the DiagonalCut, and cousin trope HalfTheManHeUsedToBe. See also PaperCutting. Contrast LikeCannotCutLike.

* Nanto practitioners from ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' are more than capable of doing this with their [[RazorHand bare hands]].

* Averted by Guts from ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'' in that the wounds (pieces?) left by his {{BFS}} are generally fairly rough around the edges.
** Played straight by swords used by Casca or Griffith, as well as the sword made by Godo that Guts used immediately before the Dragon Slayer, which cleanly sliced through another sword and the edge of an anvil before it broke on an Apostle's hide.