History Main / LudicrousMeleeAccuracy

* In the 1998 film ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'', Antonio Banderas's {{Franchise/Zorro}} relieves Catherine Zeta-Jones's character of her night-dress with a few sword slashes. In all film incarnations of the character, he leaves the classic ZorroMark on a number of people, which only cuts their clothing and does no damage. Zorro is very good at killing cloth.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', when Zoidberg and Fry square off in a ritualized dual over a woman, Zoidberg showboats for the crowd by using his claw to slice a letter "Z" into Fry's shirt without touching the skin, then quickly adding a "DR" above it, presumably so as not to be confused with ''Literature/{{Zorro}}''.

* Goemon from ''Manga/LupinIII''. DefeatByModesty is a frequent cause of victory for him, and he can cut ropes and handcuffs away from trapped allies with single swipe and no sign of blood. In one episode of ''[[Anime/LupinIIITheItalianAdventure The Italian Adventure]]'', he stabs someone ''through the chest'' with his katana, in order to [[spoiler:remove a bomb planted in her heart]], without killing her.
* In an episode of ''Anime/TheWallflower'', the main character makes a single leaping attack against her opponent, lands and sheathes her sword. Then the clothing of said opponent falls to pieces in a manner that suggests he had been attacked from all sides at once.
* Performed by ''Manga/{{Yaiba}}'' in a filler arc against a small band of Samurai.
* ''Manga/{{Shigurui}}'': The Kogan school of swordsmanship has an initiation ceremony in which the new student is made to kneel before Master Kogan, and a sticky bean is placed on the new student's forehead. Kogan cuts with his sword, [[DiagonalCut a moment of suspense passes]], and then the bean splits while the forehead turns out to be unharmed.

* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'', Heero spends some time posing as a student in Relena's school. He gets into a fencing match with a classmate of Relena's who obviously didn't like him[[note]]and is apparently an {{Expy}} of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam''[='s=] LovableCoward Kai Shiden[[/note]]. The match ends with Heero breaking his foil against his opponent's with a ''tip to tip clash'' and then buries it in his facemask, the broken blade stopping roughly an inch from his nose. He understandably freaks out. He does the exact same thing much later in the series, to [[TheMole Dorothy Catalonia]]. To Dorothy's credit, she doesn't even flinch.
* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED''[='=]s Kira Yamato is able to cleanly slice off mobile suit heads or limbs while leaving the chest area where the pilot is intact, typically in only the fraction of a second he's flying by them. He does the same thing in the sequel, ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny''. It sometimes verges on BladeSpam territory, as we'll see something like one (visible) downward slash, and the target mecha will have all four limbs, its head, and its backpack cut off -- while leaving the torso intact. [[spoiler:Shinn exploits this, using the [[DiscardAndDraw easily replaceable limbs]] of his Impulse Gundam and knowledge that Kira never goes for kill-shots in order to defeat him.]]

* In the works of Creator/KenAkamatsu the [[SupernaturalMartialArts Shinmeiryu school of swordfighting]] has a line of advanced techniques subtitled ''Nii no Tachi'' ("Second Blade"), all of which can pass through an obstacle in their path to strike something behind them. The most famous example, ''Zanmaken: Nii no Tachi'', applies this variant to an AntiMagic attack - originally designed to kill [[DemonicPossession possessing demons]] without harming their hosts, it has also been used to DispelMagic, as an UnblockableAttack version of the regular ''Zanmaken'', and to [[TheNudifier destroy an opponent's clothes without hurting them]].

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* This is how a ''teenage boy'' dispatches a FakeUltimateMook in ''Film/ThreeNinjas''.
* In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Anakin strikes the manacles off of Chancellor Palpatine's hands with his [[LaserBlade lightsaber]] without touching Palpatine himself. The chancellor flinches noticeably.
* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'', Barbossa draws his sword and slashes at Jack Sparrow's forehead in one quick movement, cleanly slicing off the lock of hair with his Piece of Eight, while leaving nothing more than a small cut in Jack's Bandanna.
* In ''Film/Hero2002'', the nameless protagonist demonstrates his skill with a sword by throwing a bundle of reeds into the air, then holding his sword so that only a single reed is cut perfectly in two as it falls. He also boasts that he can stab someone in such a way that the sword can pass clean through their body without damaging any of their organs, [[spoiler:a trick which he uses to fake the death of a wanted assassin]].
* The 2017 Filipino comedy-action film ''Extra Service'' contains a ClothingDamage example, in which one of the three heroines is apprehended in her mission by a man in a balaclava, and a katana-fight ensues. She promptly strips him to his boxer shorts by slicing the rest of his clothes off in a few quick katana-strokes, without landing even a scratch on his body. However, this does ''not'' lead to DefeatByModesty.

* In Creator/TanithLee's ''Literature/{{Piratica}}'' books, this is practically a signature move for Art and her pirate crew. [[spoiler:Almost all of them are actually actors, and have only been trained in stage combat.]]

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber'': Benedict does this to a shadow ghost of one of the premier fencers of the Courts of Chaos when Merlin needs to have him kept occupied.
* The climax on ''Literature/MidnightTides'' includes a swordfight between Rhulad Sengar, who has the blessing (or curse) of a god restore him to life and heal his wounds when he is killed, and [[MasterSwordsman Brys Beddict]]. Brys wins the duel with literally surgical precision, cutting Rhulad's tendons and motive muscles while avoiding the major blood vessels to keep him from bleeding out.
* In ''Literature/LadyOfTheLake'', Geralt the witcher unshackles Yennefer with a single strike of his dwarf-made sword. The show [[IntimidationDemonstration is enough in itself]] for a bunch of {{mook}}s approaching them to immediately [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere pack up and leave]].

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* In ''Film/MuppetTreasureIsland'', Captain Smollett (played by Kermit the Frog) deftly slices all the buttons and gold trim from Long John Silver's pirate coat. Subverted when Silver gets visibly bored and folds his arms, then says "Excuse me", distracting Smollett enough that the sword flies out of his hand.
[[/folder]]

* In ''Webcomic/HomeStuck'', Bro Strider is so great with a katana that as he lays a beatdown on Dave, he cuts the disk on Dave's shirt in half... without cutting Dave's shirt.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': One of the first things the Blue Spirit does on screen is cut right through the manacles binding Aang's ankles and wrists without leaving a single mark on his limbs or clothes.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' has this as a core game mechanic. Blade Mode [[BulletTime slows down time]] and allows you to closely align the direction of your slash, creating a CleanCut on any enemy sufficiently weakened. While this is usually used to Zandatsu (remove the power source of enemies to recharge your own), you can also use it to [[AnArmAndALeg sever a cyborg's limbs]], reducing them to a useless torso, and awarding you extra points for a "[[PacifistRun Pacifist]] [[TechnicalPacifist Run]]"

** His [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist anime equivalent]] uses his swords to cut Mustang's gloves to pieces while leaving his hand mostly intact, after demonstrating that he's able to disrupt Roy's alchemy by cutting any concentrations of Oxygen Roy makes into pieces before they reach flammable levels.

* ''VideoGame/SoulCalibur'''s Siegfried (the BFS wielder) sometimes says "I've missed your vitals. You'll be fine." In general, intentionally missing vitals is an impossible thing to do, but it's to demonstrate his incredible skill that his opponent won't die from their wounds. Given his fighting style features stabbing someone through the brain it's a...dubious claim.

* Displayed in the very first ''Manga/SamuraiExecutioner'' story, where a criminal takes no pains to defend himself, because he's found an impossible-to-beat way to save himself from decapitation: tattooing the name of a deified emperor on his neck, which the authorities cannot injure in any way. Despite being even more of a ByTheBookCop as his superiors, Asaemon simply and quickly resolves the issue by cutting out the tattoo in a single stroke, ''then'' decapitating the criminal.

* The 2017 Filipino comedy-action film ''Extra Service'' contains a ClothingDamage example, in which one of the three heroines is apprehended in her mission by a man in a balaclava, and a sword-fight ensues. With several quick sword-strokes, she strips him to his boxer shorts and reduces the rest of his clothes to a pile of rags on the floor, without landing even a scratch on his body (however, this does ''not'' lead to DefeatByModesty.)

* Manga/{{Shigurui}}: The Kogan school of swordsmanship has an initiation ceremony in which the new student is made to kneel before Master Kogan, and a sticky bean is placed on the new student's forehead. Kogan cuts with his sword, [[DiagonalCut a moment of suspense passes]], and then the bean splits while the forehead turns out to be unharmed.

[[quoteright:273:[[WebComic/GirlGenius https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hatblade.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:273:I really liked that hat!]]

* Manga/{{Shigurui}}: The Kogan school of swordsmanship has an initiation ceremony in which the new student is made to kneel before Master Kogan, and a sticky bean is placed on the new student’s forehead. Kogan cuts with his sword, [[DiagonalCut a moment of suspense passes]], and then the bean splits while the forehead turns out to be unharmed.

* In ''Film/{{Hero}}'', the nameless protagonist demonstrates his skill with a sword by throwing a bundle of reeds into the air, then holding his sword so that only a single reed is cut perfectly in two as it falls. He also boasts that he can stab someone in such a way that the sword can pass clean through their body without damaging any of their organs, [[spoiler:a trick which he uses to fake the death of a wanted assassin]].

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Goemon from ''Manga/LupinIII''. DefeatByModesty is a frequent cause of victory for him, and he can cut ropes and handcuffs away from trapped allies with single swipe and no sign of blood. In one episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/LupinIIITheItalianAdventure The Italian Adventure]]'', he stabs someone ''through the chest'' with his katana, in order to [[spoiler:remove a bomb planted in her heart]], without killing her.

* King Bradley from ''Manga/{{Fullmetal Alchemist}}'' cuts through Fu's headband and later [[spoiler:[[CutTheFuse cuts the wicks]] on the [[ActionBomb dynamite]] sticks [[TakingYouWithMe strapped to Fu's chest.]]]] He does cut skin in both instance, but it still shows ridiculous precision.

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''Film/MuppetTreasureIsland'', Captain Smollett (played by Kermit the Frog) deftly slices all the buttons and gold trim from Long John Silver's pirate coat. Subverted when Silver gets visibly bored and folds his arms, then says "Excuse me", distracting Smollett enough that the sword flies out of his hand.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':

* In WebComic/HomeStuck, Bro Strider is so great with a katana that as he lays a beatdown on Dave, he cuts the disk on Dave's shirt in half... without cutting Dave's shirt.

Ludicrous melee accuracy is when someone makes an impossibly precise melee attack. Given the InverseLawOfSharpnessAndAccuracy, this often means a highly skilled MasterSwordsman with a high-quality blade will demonstrate their skill by ''not'' hurting an opponent -- but making it clear that they could have if they wanted to. Causing ClothingDamage is popular for this purpose (which may result in DefeatByModesty all by itself), as is slicing [[CloseCallHaircut hair]], while grittier works will opt for a [[PaperCutting single, shallow cut to the face]], which will bleed prettily without actually causing any real harm. The end result is the same either way: it demonstrates that the attack CouldHaveBeenMessy... and the only reason it wasn't is the peerless skill of the attacker.