Razor Wind



Also known as Kamaitachi, it's an attack commonly used in anime and video games. The user is able to use air itself to slice enemies, focusing a current of wind, or in some cases sound, to the point where it takes on a sharp edge, which the caster launches at foes.

If it requires swinging around a bladed weapon to perform, this is also a Sword Beam.

Sometimes the user has other wind-based powers along with the razor wind, but it can also be used by sword-wielders who are skilled enough they can make a sword's cutting power extend beyond the blade itself in a shockwave. This form is basically a way to give someone with a BFS a ranged attack. It's also handy if they're not allowed by the censors to actually strike people and bleed them, or just cheaper to animate.

Named after the move from the Pokémon video games, ironically termed a Normal-type attack, not Flying.

This is Older Than Steam, thanks to Shakespeare. Japanese folklore included the wind yōkai Kamaitachi, weasels with razor sharp claws that attacked in groups to knock people down and leave bloodless cuts on their legs -- all while moving with such blinding speed that the victim never saw his attacker. This was originally just a pun on "kamaetachi," which meant roughly "attacking tachi (sword)," bringing the trope full circle.

Sometimes related to Make Me Wanna Shout.

Anime and Manga

 * In Dragonball Z, after Vegeta and Goku fuse to fight Super Buu, Vegito spends a few seconds punching and kicking until Buu lets his guard down, then he lets off one of these and slashes his cheek open.
 * Limdo/Uruki from Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden has this as his Celestial Power; he's even known as the "Merciless Wind Slasher."
 * Kagura the Wind Sorceress from Inuyasha uses this ability, calling it "Dance of Blades". And then of course there's the hero's own "Wind Scar".
 * This allowed for a possible subversion. As the Wind Sorceress, Kagura can manipulate air currents in such a way as to prevent the Wind Scar from occurring, defanging Inuyasha's best (at the time) attack.
 * This is the main use of any Nanto Sei Ken style in Hokuto no Ken.
 * Ikaruga in Fairy Tail is so good with her sword that she can slash a deck of magical cards in midair without even touching them.
 * Erza to a certain extent
 * In Naruto, Zaku, one of the Sound Ninja, has an attack called "Slicing Sound Wave". Temari also makes active use of various wind cutting techniques with her giant iron fan. Multiple times she has decimated entire forests with just one wave, earning her the nickname "The Ninja Lumberjack". She can also summon an actual kamatachi.
 * Asuma can channel his wind element into weapons like the two knives he uses. Not only does it give the knives an extended reach, but it makes them much sharper.
 * The Rasengan on the other hand is more like a Drill Wind. Naruto recently has created a new form that creates so many tiny blades that it destroys the nerve cells of the target as well as his own.
 * The normal Rasengan though, creates wind as an after-effect of the loss of energy compression. Much like a bomb going off, it's just concussive force mixed with the broken spinning 'rings' that form its stable state.
 * With wind being the main element within the Hidden Sand Village, most of its high ranking ninjas are probably able to pull off razor wind-like attacks. Baki for example can use a ninjitsu called the Blade of Wind, which is a technique that works exactly as it is named.
 * Danzo also has a wind release attack similar to the one in the above pic, and it is capable of mortally injuring multiple people at once using a vacuum.
 * To sum up, wind chakra moves generally rely on sharpening the chakra, so the series takes this trope and runs with it. The only exceptions are a couple (like Orochimaru's Great Breakthrough or Kakuzu's Pressure Damage) which rely more on concussive force than cutting.
 * GEKIGAN CUTTER!
 * Onimaru simply loves this tropes: he uses a this a lot in battle, and at least once in order to send his Butt Monkey servant from Tokyo to Ganryujima. He later manages to do this with Lightning ans "Dark energy".
 * In [[Ranma Â½, Tatewaki Kuno demonstrates he can perform a move like this which is capable of shattering stone at a considerable distance. In this unusual variant, however, there's no slicing involved; Kuno is able to stab with his sword with such strength and speed (a sword-thrusting variant of Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs is his only legitimate special technique) that it can create a concussive beam. In the anime, when having been put through unintentional Training From Hell by Happosai and believing himself to be under the effects of a speed-boosting elixir, Kuno also develops the ability to create horizontal wind vortexes by whirling his sword around in a tight spiral.
 * Later on, the rival martial artist Ryuu Kumon can send out razor-sharp waves of vacuum by spreading open his arms with great force. These can demolish even a solid bronze Buddha statue several stories tall.
 * In the anime version of the climax for the Phoenix Pill storyline, Cologne demonstrates two wind-based attacks (conjuring and controlling a whirlwind, and creating a freezing horizontal blast by twirling her staff) in place of the manga's Shark Fist. Anime-only character Natsume is also able to generate freezing cold concussive blasts of wind by swinging her carpetbeater.
 * Ranma's final attack against Saffron and the Dragon Tap involved a Razorwind.
 * Kuno also received a temporary powerup in both manga and anime. By taking the Smashing Watermelons game into Training From Hell levels, he became able to send out a devastating whirlwind of (invisible) Razor Wind that not even Ranma could penetrate. Unfortunately, he can only do it as a reflex action caused by seeing watermelons.
 * The favored attack of overpowered wind mages in Kaze no Stigma. Slice and dice everything from demons to hotels in seconds!
 * Amidamaru from Shaman King has the Shock Wave Buddha Giri, though it is sometimes treated like a Ki Attack.
 * Starscream from Transformers Cybertron can use this more as a defensive technique. While it's a blast of wind created by slashing the air with his blades, it's a wider shockwave that isn't as sharp, and is mostly used to deflect laser attacks by causing them to explode prematurely on hitting the air wave. It can also knock down or disorient opponents. This ability overlaps with Blow You Away, but it's here because it's a single attack created by a blade rather than a more general powerset.
 * In One Piece, this is one of Roronoa Zoro's most powerful attacks.
 * Which he developed explicitly to have a ranged attack after being constantly put at a disadvantage by guns, thus consciously fulfilling the main use of this trope.
 * There's also a Devil Fruit user who has this as his main ability.
 * Every member of CP9 can also do this, with kicks and Finger-Poke of Doom.
 * Motoko from Love Hina specializes in this. In the second OVA she masters the Exorcising Blade technique, which allows her Razor Wind to leave flesh unharmed but cut spirits.
 * Setsuna of Mahou Sensei Negima also further shows these techniques, such as the Zan Kuu Sen (roughly Air-Cleaving-Flash), an attack that fires a blast of compressed air in a spiraling manner to cut far away targets.
 * The "Exorcising Blade" technique reappears in Negima..
 * Also, the Griffin Dragon's Breath Weapon.
 * One of the mage-teachers also has the ability to produce razor wind with just a snap of his fingers.
 * Toji from Battle Angel Alita: Last Order has a punch-variant of this. His "Slaughter Master Reverse Punch" creates a massive shockwave that is enough to kill one hundred people in a single blow. Even those who survive suffer severe vertigo for a time afterwards due to the shock to their ear canals.
 * Omi in Kanokon has this as his main attack technique. This makes sense, as he is actually a kamaitachi in human form.
 * One of Fuuko's most common attacks in Flame of Recca. She once used this on herself to cut herself free from the Razor Floss binding her.
 * Fate of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha can do this with Bardiche's Zanber form, slicing a Humongous Mecha's Combat Tentacles with the wind from her sword swing.
 * All of Kyo's attacks in Samurai Deeper Kyo, except for Genbu.
 * In Angelic Layer, Ranga (Ringo's Angel) does a "Dance of Death" in which she attacks an opponent from a distance using wind.
 * Grenadier. The Jester and one of his agents use incredibly powerful Razor Wind weapons, killing people with them effortlessly (and often). Rushuna is the first to realize the weapon is air-based; the gouges it leaves behind look more like they were made by a massive drill.
 * In Bleach, Captain Kenpachi Zaraki can incidentally shear buildings in half by drawing his blade.
 * Kensei Muguruma's shikai can produce both Razor Wind and energy blast attacks.
 * Jin Kariya from the Bount arc used razor wind in several fights.
 * Raijuta from Rurouni Kenshin uses wind as both a close-range and long-range attack. In a subversion, it's not a particularly effective technique, since the destructive power behind it doesn't mean anything if you're as fast as Kenshin. Also, Hiko Seijuro, Kenshin's teacher, while he never uses it as an attack, uses this with a casual wave of his sword after taking off his weighted cloak, and it manages to tear a massive rift in the ground.
 * Kenshin himself does this in a filler episode when he disables a number of crude hand-thrown bombs by slicing their fuse threads in midair with only the wind from his sword swings.
 * Serpico from Berserk receives an enchanted feather that creates gusts of wind that allow him to cut up foes from a distance.
 * Jubei exhibited this in the Ninja Scroll movie. In the TV series, it was flanderized into being his main form of attack (mainly so he wouldn't be bloodily cutting people with his sword every episode).
 * Establishing her badassery, "Twilight" Suzuka of Outlaw Star pulls this off with a wooden sword.
 * Fu-gi of MAR uses wind as an attack, usually forming it into blades.
 * This is precisely what "Fuuhazan"/"Wind Slash" attack does in Harukanaru Toki no Naka de (also counts as a Sword Beam). In the TV anime, Yorihisa performs the move the very moment he receives the Dragon Gem (albeit without the associated incantation the first time around).
 * In Beyblade, Bryan's bit-beast Falborg can turn moving air into a weapon.
 * In Hell Teacher Nube, one of the Youkai Of The Week is a family of kamaitachi, three lightning-fast weasels that cause a minor commotion in Doumori. The largest one knocks people down with his iron cudgel; the middle one cuts them up with her scythe-shaped arms; the child mends the wounds instantly with a magical balm. When Makoto takes the latter as a pet and hides it, the two others make a mess out of everything and everyone (especially since the cuts can be lethal, and the cutting one ) until he lets it go back to its family.
 * Toriko starts using a Flying variant of his Fork and Knife attacks after eating some Blue Blood Corn.
 * While neither precisely fit the traditional anime version, two Darker Than Black Contractors have similar powers. Luc had the ability to form wind into weapons like throwing knives and whips, all of which had an amazing cutting ability. Amigiri also had a wind-like ability, that of firing concussive bursts of air, which works sort of like a cattle gun.
 * In Black Jack, a  accidentally creates incredibly strong Razor Wind in a certain area, leading the police to believe there was a serial killer on the loose.
 * In Air Gear, those on the Fang Road use this to attack enemies.
 * The Kamaitachi Siblings from Ushio and Tora.
 * Shin of Saint Beast uses wind attacks that can cut.
 * Chikuma Koshirou from Basilisk has a technique that doesn't so much cut his enemies as rip them to shreds by creating miniature vacuums. It's still named Kamaitachi though.

Comic Books

 * Winddancer of Academy X used this once.
 * In Crossing Midnight, Aratsu, god of knives, controls a tornado of wind with knives flying through it.

Film

 * "The Harpists", the two blind musician assassins from Kung Fu Hustle, could play notes on their Chinese harps that would result in injury to anyone hit by them. The attacks were shown on-screen as ghostly swords and knives flying out of the harp. At its most powerful, the attack is visualized as flying skeleton warriors.
 * In a scene of the Chinese movie Hero, an assassin who just killed her lover is pursued by a vengeful disciple of his. She doesn't want to fight, but the Dual-Wielding disciple really wants... the assassin only reacts after having a little hair cut, by using her sword to create Razor Winds that lift all leafs in the ground. Hard to describe, I know.
 * The Wuxia films of the Nineties were generally made of this trope, to the point of absurdity: a character could deal environmental damage by going through what essentially amounted to a form (the Chinese equivalent of kata). Really, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero are models of understatement and restraint when compared to its predecessors.

Literature

 * In Sword of Truth, wizards regularly use their will to focus the air into blades or spikes, rending their victims limb from limb with invisible weapons.
 * Older Than Steam: In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the Player King has a line to this effect in his fall of Ilium speech: "Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide; / But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword / The unnerved father falls... (Act 2, Scene 2, lines 481 - 483)

Live Action TV

 * Nearly every Super Sentai/Power Rangers character or Humongous Mecha ever to wield a sword or other bladed weapon (and a few with staff-like weapons, in fact) is capable of an attack like this. As the show continues to stand the test of time, these attacks become more and more elaborate to keep it interesting, such as arcs of energy that fly around crazily before striking the opponent, or the wielder slashing several times at once (as several ghostlike images occupying the same space in a manner resembling The Matrix's bullet-dodging.) When a Ranger goes from real space to a fancy background, you know his bladed weapon is about to finish what lasers, cannons, fireballs, and Humongous Mecha could only start. Even, no especially, if the enemy is about twenty yards away.
 * Kamen Rider Hibiki's Armed Saber was capable of this.
 * Pretty much any Kamen Rider with a sword can do it. Kamen Rider Double doesn't have a sword until they get Xtreme Form, but they manage to do it with the Metal Shaft using the Metal Twister Maximum Drive.

Tabletop Games

 * One of the melee-based charms in Exalted enables the use of an energy-shockwave variant.
 * Iron Raptor Technique specifically (the 'Sandstorm Wind Attack' variant). Ironically, Shining Razor Wind is *not* this trope, just really deadly.
 * The Wind Shear spell of Magic: The Gathering.
 * Mage: The Awakening has a Space ability called "Ranged Blow", which allows you to do this with any melee weapon.
 * Dungeons and Dragons 3/3.5ed features the Blood Wind spell, which invokes this trope to allow melee attacks to function as ranged.

Video Games

 * Pokémon has both the aforementioned Razor Wind, Air Cutter, and Air Slash moves.
 * Gust was once portrayed this way in the anime (by Ash's newly evolved Pidgeot). Like Razor Wind, it used to be a Normal attack in the first generation. Second generation onwards saw its type changed to Flying.
 * Spacial Rend is like this, but with distortions in the spatial continuum.
 * Also, Sneasel and Weavile, who are based off of the yokai kamaitachi.
 * Though they ironically cannot learn Razor Wind.
 * The Wind Cutter and Wind Thrust spells in Tales (series) are the most recurrent examples of this.
 * A good example of this trope is made by Suzu from Tales of Phantasia who has a move that dices an opponent standing in front of her up with several quick air slashes. Heck, it's even called "Nimpo Kamaitachi".
 * Yuri's Final Gale arte in Tales of Vesperia.
 * Garr/Woodrow from Tales of Destiny makes an entire fighting style out of this with his sword Igtenos. Hisui of Tales of Hearts combines it with his arm cannons for range. Both have the above spells.
 * Sort-of demonstrated in Devil May Cry with Dante's Drive shockwave, created by slicing into the ground. It actually comes out rather slowly, contrary to expectations. Closer to the "ideal" is Vergil's Judgement Cut, where he uses battojutsu to "create" purple spheres at a distance to cut opponents.
 * Also seen in the fourth game, where Dante uses Vergil's sword to cut through a building in the distance. In fact, Razor Wind is the Yamato's standard form of attack.
 * This is an ability open to two-handed sword users in Dragon Age 2. Called Giant's Reach, it, predictably, increases your reach with said sword.
 * Chaz, the hero of Phantasy Star IV, has the Airslash. Gryz has a move called "Sweeping" that works in the same way.
 * The old Sega Saturn game Dragon Force (video game) gave this move, called "Sonic Boom/Wave/Blast" to most basic Soldier and Knight generals, allowing them to cut a swathe through ranks of enemy soldiers.
 * In Fate/stay night, Berserker (the demigod hero Hercules) is capable of a form of this. Given his excessive brawn, madness-induced strength, and his simply enormous sword, he violently displaces air with * every attack* . Dodging just the sword isn't enough -- you have to dodge the shockwaves as well to avoid getting cut. These shockwaves are much shorter in range than normal for this trope, so it can't be used as a distance attack. (Ironically, he actually has a skill that might have allowed him to completely fulfill the trope and more, if he wasn't in the grip of constantly induced madness.)
 * Saber's Invisible Air: Barrier of the Wind King. This noble phantasm's main purpose is to make Saber's sword invisible by surrounding it with light distorting wind, but it also has a secondary ability where the stored wind can be discharged as a short ranged razor wind attack.
 * Youmu Konpaku from the Touhou games is another noted exponent; as a player-character she can use a constant stream of rapid-fire Razor Wind, and as an opponent she has a couple of attacks which basically fill the screen with it.
 * Komachi does it too. With a scythe.
 * Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance introduces the twin legendary swords Ragnell and Alondite, both capable of creating a wave of energy that allows them to attack at range. They return in the sequel, Radiant Dawn, and bring with them a set of blades that give this ability to the previously incapable set of generic swords. Not to be confused with the spellcasting swords in the series as a whole, which perform magic attacks when used at range.
 * More obviously, the mage class in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn uses wind as one of their three types of attack magic (most notably Soren and Bastian), the other two being fire and lightning.
 * Also in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn is the laguz king of the Raven tribe, Naesala. One of his exclusive skills, named Vortex, enables him to attack the enemy at close or long range with a wind spell.
 * And in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones there is the sacred tome Excalibur, whose animation is a green-tinted, razor-HURRICANE. It can only be used by an S-Level mage, and it grants + 5 speed. The combat animation is slightly impractical, but incredibly fun to watch--especially when used by a sage, since they have ankle-length capes.
 * It IS called the Wind Knife in certain promotional or other references.
 * There was also a B-rank tome called Alacalibur that was a lesser version of Excalibur, but it got Dummied Out.
 * Marik in Shin Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Tsurugi joins with an Excalibur tome which fires blades made of air and magic that are strong against basically everything. It's a B-rank tome with an ability that lets Marik alone use it at a magic rank of E.
 * The Air Render knife in the various Final Fantasy games would occasionally do this to all enemies, and was a part of the Game Breaker combo known as "Wind God Gau" in Final Fantasy VI.
 * Final Fantasy VI also had this as once of Sabin's Blitz techniques, except he generated razor wind with his fists.
 * Final Fantasy Tactics has "Kamaitachi" as one of the Geomancer's Geo Effects.
 * Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has Air Render, a melee class ability that damages enemies at a distance, although despite the name, the attack isn't considered as Wind.
 * It's also in the sequel, Final Fantasy Tactics A2.
 * Final Fantasy games also have the aero spell.
 * Final Fantasy VII spinoffs Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus have more specific examples. Though not necessarily wind, Sephiroth will slash the air and produce a kind of white shockwave that travels for a long distance (called "Draw Slash") in Crisis Core. In Dirge, Rosso the Crimson attacks primarily with slicing blades heavily implied to be wind, and since Weiss the Immaculate has (almost) everyone's powers, he is an example of this trope, as well.
 * Sephiroth retains this shockwave attack in Dissidia Final Fantasy as well. He also has three Brave attacks which involves swings that produce slashing currents to deal consecutive damage.
 * Final Fantasy XII: Gabranth's signature attack Innocence where he uses both of his swords to send out dual blades of wind. Also present in Dissidia.
 * The Geomancer job in Final Fantasy V will sometimes use "Wind Slash," one of the job's more powerful attacks, and there is a samurai sword that will randomly trigger it too.
 * There is a spell in the game Ninja Gaiden 2 called Art of the Wind Blades. The in-game description refers to razor-sharp areas of vacuum created by incredibly fast movements of the caster's hands. Usually ends up taking off enemy arms and creating a huge mess.
 * The Fiend Spider Ninjas can do it too, though to a much lesser extent.
 * All the sword-wielding characters in Skies of Arcadia use variations of the trope as a standard long-range attack in battle. Vyse's is relatively orthodox, but Enrique, being aligned with the Moon that governs electricity, shoots out a glowing energy ball from the tip of his sword with a single well-aimed thrust.
 * Misaki Kawana of Eternal Fighter Zero has the wind-based powers variant for her "Half Gush" special.
 * Jack's Sonic Buster from Wild ARMs, a Fast Draw technique he created based on the strong mountain winds.
 * And from the same game, Zed's Garyu Ichimongiri/whatever it might be called in Alter Code: F.
 * In Rocket Knight Adventures, and in its Alternate Continuity SNES counterpart, Sparkster, Razor Wind is Sparkster's basic attack. However, in Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2, this attack was removed and ordinary swordplay is the primary attack.
 * In the Shining Force series, the Blast spell (renamed to Tornado in Shining Force 3) does exactly this.
 * Sonic the Hedgehog's signature Sonic Wind.
 * In Gotcha Force, this is the only way for the Musha Borgs (and Vampire Knight) to attack from a distance.
 * The Mystic Art Wind Shear in The Last Remnant.
 * One can only assume this is what Wolverine does in his projectile attacks in the older X-Men video games, even though he never displayed such abilities in the comic.
 * In The King of Fighters Krizalid can do a kick that creates a circular razor wind attack that almost fills the whole screen.
 * And before Krizalid, there was Goenitz. His main attack, the Yonokaze, was a tornado that drew blood like any other blade attack, but he also had the Wanpyou, where actual wind blades would appear from his hand.
 * Kirby has a few abilities that do this. When using the "Cutter" ability at close range, the final attack in the combo is a wave like one of these. This is also his Up-B in Smash Bros.
 * One of Crono's skills in Chrono Trigger is Kamaitachi, confusingly retitled into "Slash" and properly retranslated into "Wind Slash" for the DS version. Perhaps if it was that way from the start, Masamune would have been easier for a certain generation of gamers.
 * Tempestas, the Arcana of Wind from Arcana Heart, uses circular razor wind attacks for its projectiles.
 * The sword technique "Wind Cutter" in Disgaea. It's explosive razor wind.
 * Some levels of the Wind spells, as well as some of the unique wind attacks possessed by the Mystic Beast, Cockatrice, and Alaraune monsters slice the target, as well.
 * Both of your swordsmen in Star Ocean the Second Story can learn an ability like this, fittingly known as Air Slash.
 * So can Roddick in Star Ocean 1, and Albel in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.
 * Cornell the werewolf in the Castlevania series has this as his primary attack, using nothing but his bare hands and claws. He can rapid-fire it as well, basically using it as a wind-based machinegun. AND he can use it in human form as well (though he does have small claws as a human).
 * Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia has the Pneuma Glyph, which grants Shanoa the ability to throw around wind attacks and is listed as dealing Slash damage.
 * Amusingly enough, Turok's "Razor Wind" weapon is anything but.
 * Golden Sun does this, both with the Slash-Wind Slash-Sonic Slash line of wind psynergy, as well as with the item Weasel Claw, which creates a Wind Slash, not making sense to players who know nothing of afformentioned Kamaitachi youkai-weasels that do this with their claws.
 * Leonardo's "Shining Cutter" in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters.
 * Zanetsu Swords from Metal Slug six and seven
 * In Onimusha Dawn of Dreams, this is an ability of several weapons if they are upgraded enough.
 * And before that in Onimusha 3, this was the magic ability of Samanosuke's Kuuga long sword. Bonus point if you turn the violence level to high.
 * Several series of sword skills in Muramasa: The Demon Blade can do this. Special mention goes to the final sword's secret art, Disturbance, which uses a Doppelganger Attack that would make Naruto proud in order to shoot razorwind and other sword beams practically everywhere, ending with a massive yellow wave.
 * Technically all swords can do this, in the form of the quick draw, which releases a slash across the screen whenever the protagonists draw blade after waiting a certain period of time or breaking a sword. Leads to the logical conclusion during the Boss Fight where
 * In the Street Fighter series, Early localizations implied this to be the source of Guile's Sonic Boom and Somersault/Flash Kick special attacks, as a result of him swinging his arms/legs at super sonic speeds. Nowadays they appear to just be regular Ki Attacks like everyone else's moves.
 * In the 1992 Macintosh beat-em-up Kung Fu Chivalry, the first character has a special move ripped straight from Guile's Flash Kick, as well as a projectile version.
 * In Lunar: Silver Star Story, Kyle has a ranged sword move called "Sonic Riser" that is this trope. The description of the move is "release weasel" in case you had any doubt as to its nature.
 * The blast spell in Shining in the Darkness.
 * The "HowlSlash" attack in Grandia II.
 * Dark Souls: The Iron Golem boss does this when it can't find a target in range of its melee attacks. The player can also perform one by using the two handed strong attack of the Drake Sword, Dragon Greatsword, or the one handed strong attack of the Golem Axe.
 * The Storm Ruler sword in Demon's Souls has this power as long as it's wielded in the area it's found. This gives melee-oriented characters a fighting chance against the boss and his flunkies who spend all their time in the air out of melee range.

Web Original

 * Slash from ~Darwin's Soldiers~ has the power to turn air into invisble blades.
 * Rayte from Trinton Chronicles could create sharp-as-knives air blades.

Western Animation

 * Avatar: The Last Airbender, naturally, though only Airbenders can do it. They also do this with water. And dirt. And fire. Guru Pathik wasn't kidding when he said the elements were really one and the same.
 * Shriek on Batman Beyond
 * In season 5 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) Donatello, who, like all of the turtles had temporarily gained access to several super-abilities via Upgrade Artifacts and magical weaponry, would occasionally call upon the "cleaving wind" as his super-move.

Real Life

 * While not exactly the same as the trope the company Air-Spade manufactures tools that use a supersonic jet of air to excavate trenches.
 * Aksons Engineering Co. manufactures a knife that uses hot pressurized air to cut synthetic yarn.
 * While not exactly this trope, a sufficiently strong wind carrying dust and sand particles -- a sandstorm or a dust devil for instance -- can feel a lot like sandpaper to exposed skin.
 * Even worse, tornadoes can cut one to shreds with their debris. It gets even more worse if there's material such as glass, which can conceivably decapitate someone with no problem.
 * Tornadoes have been known to launch blades of grass at high enough speeds to cut through wood and metal.
 * Sufficiently powerful sandstorms are often compared to sandblasters, and having paint stripped off of cars is not unheard of.
 * High pressure air guns used for blowing debris off work materials are capable of cutting skin.