When your Battle Aura is sufficiently charged and you're preparing to call your attack, or if you're a mage and you're invoking a particularly complicated spell, a wind will almost always whip around your feet, kicking up little wave-like peaks of dust in a perfect circle around you, possibly flaring out the hem of your Badass Longcoat or Badass Cape, if you have one. Female invokers of this trope with sufficently long hair will also have it billow and lift from the wind, but it'll rarely ever do so unfashionably or inconveniently (like obstructing their face).
If the writers have to surpass whatever power is responsible for swirling dust, they'll frequently resort to a Chunky Updraft. The guiding principle behind both of these is Sphere of Power. Not to be confused with Smoke Shield, when large amounts of dust shield attackers. May also occasionally manifest as trail from the use of Super Speed.
Examples:
- Dragonball Z. All the time. Sometimes to the extent of giant swirling clouds.
- In Ah! My Goddess it's not dust, it's all of Keiichi's possessions.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi shows a swirl of dust kicking up around Negi as he casts a spell in the title sequence.
- In My-HiME, several of the girls get a dust swirl when they use or activate their HiME powers.
- In the Tales of Phantasia OVA, this happens around the edges of Klarth's summoning circle right as he finishes "purifying the area."
- All Chakra does this in Naruto, for varying levels of dust. For example, a simple jutsu to walk on water might make nearby grass bend slightly. Naruto in his fourth level of
BadassDemonic Possesion flattens a metal bridge and a square mile of forest. As a side effect. - In the One Piece anime, Luffy's use of Haki causes a mild form of this. Generally as a rapidly expanding wind or pressure wave that causes loose items such as paper, dust, leaves, or hair to blow away as if caught in a sudden gust.
- As with many other tropes, End of Evangelion shows us just how it's done
. Too bad Shinji was angsting at the time.
- In Juuni Senshi Bakuretsu Eto Ranger, Bakumaru does this when preparing his special spinning sword strike.
- Bleach does this from time to time, though most notably when Ichigo uses his Bankai for the first time, which creates a massive tornado of dust visible from miles away.
- In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, as Peter finally taps into his powers.
- Used in Breath of Fire IV, whenever Ryu or Fou-Lu shapeshift into their dragon forms.
- Exploited in Alice and the Nightmare - Traumen powers entail manipulating dream dust.
- Justified on Avatar: The Last Airbender. Aang, as the Avatar, can control the four elements, so when the Avatar State kicks in, the wind, water, and/or earth around him are going to swirl.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In the season 4 finale "Twilight's Kingdom", when Twilight Sparkle is powered up with the magic of three other alicorns, she's so overloaded with power that just getting ready to fly causes this effect.
