Melee Tornado
Much like how a tornado isn't that deadly from far away but horribly letal up close, this trope is about characters who are very proficient at melee range, but have limited if any long range abilities. At an extreme, the Melee Tornado relies on maneuvering an Instant Death Radius properly.
Contrast Glass Cannon.
Examples of Melee Tornado include:
Anime and Manga
- Neji in Naruto, accordingly fighting his first real battle with a guy with good long range abilities and consequently almost loses (wins only because he tricks his opponent to get close enough to him to use his palm jutsu).
- Also Naruto, Lee, and some other characters. Higher ranked ninja are usually Dangerous Genre Savvy and mostly fight long range, to avoid direct contact (however strong you may be, if a S level ninja touches you, your chances of survival are minimum, to say the least).
- Bleach: Soifon has a "stealth" zampaktou that she can only use at very close range but is a One-Hit Kill; subverted with her Bankai, which is long range incarnate.
- Grimmjow is the only member of the Espada who fights hand-to-hand, as seen during his first battle with Ichigo, where he literally beat him from one side of Karakura Town, to the other....even though the latter was using bankai!
Video Games
- Meta Knight, Marth, Ike, Roy, Donkey Kong, Captain Falcon, and Sonic in Super Smash Bros.
- Flame Vets in Battalion Wars
- Mamkutes and Laguz in Fire Emblem
- Monks and monsters in Little Magic (an obscure NES game)
- Kid Icarus Uprising has, in general, clubs, claws, and arms.
- Zero in the Mega Man X series starting from 4
- Kingdom Rush has the Tesla x104. It attacks faster than other Artillery, hits harder using Chain Lightning, and can buy Overcharge, an Area of Effect attack that hits within its range every time, but in return, it hits a limited number of enemies with the Chain Lightning, is expensive for a tower with "Average" range, and doesn't have any attacks beyond Overcharged and the Chain Lightning.