Single-Stroke Battle: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"Now, Superstar Funana, we will retreat to opposite ends of the arena. We will run at each other. We will pass the other in mid-air. And fifteen seconds later, you will burst into blood."''|'''Rick''', ''[[Shortpacked]]''}}

Two enemies of nearly equal skill meet, about twenty yards apart. They may be [[Ninja]] or [[Samurai]]. They observe each other from a distance. The aspect ratio is widescreen, letterboxed if the show is shot in 4:3. They stand at opposite ends of a very wide, low-angle shot.

 

 

Reaching critical distance, they leap. Each is shown leaping in a closeup, probably from the waist down, although the leap is simultaneous.

* Most of the duels in ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' end this way, after quite a bit of preliminary sparring.

* Any number of battles in ''[[The Hakkenden]]''.

** In one of the last episodes, Jin and [[Master Swordsman]] Kariya Kagetoki charge each other dramatically on the docks. In a flashback later in the episode, {{spoiler|Jin is seen plummeting to the waters below while Kariya nonchalantly sheathes his sword.}}

* Erza's final showdown with Ikaruga in [[Fairy Tail]].

** Happens to an even greater extreme in a match between Brook and Ryuuma - both characters are so adept at launching attacks faster than the eye can follow that they do so while appearing to walk casually past each other.

** Brook has an attack that prolongs how long the strike takes to be visible to the audience, allowing Brook to walk around as this trope is slowly killing his opponet.

* Also parodied in the first Slayers TV series, when Zelgadis fights Dilgear. Neither can be hurt by normal swords.

* Considering that the non-leaping non-ninja version of this phenomena is essentially the most extreme form of Iai or Battoujutsu, it's rather surprising that ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' doesn't make heavy use of the technique; whenever Kenshin uses a battou attack, the location of the weapon in his opponent is clearly shown. That may have something to do with the fact that being a blunt weapon, he's not exactly capable of cleaving enemies to pieces.

** Except when using Amekakeru Ryu No Hirameki, in which case it was always a double lens flare. We saw the immediate after effects, but never the sword physically connecting. Given the nature of the attack, this is justified.

* Setsuna in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' suggested she and Negi do this to finish their match in the [[Tournament Arc]] seeing as they only had 15 seconds left in the match.

* in ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' Saber and Assassin end their fight with a Single Stroke Battle.

** Alternatively:

{{quote|'''Koromon''': "Uh, I think you forgot something when I was Wargreymon!" *Top third of Machinedramon slides off and disintegrates, then the middle, and then the bottom disappears*}}

* ''[[Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin]]'' and all it's sequals are known to do this, in tune with the idea that ''The dogs are like Samurai. [http://www.onemanga.com/Ginga_-_Nagareboshi_Gin/16/03/ For example.]

* Ital wins most of his fights this way in ''Genesis Survivor Gaiarth''.

* The climax of the final battle between Heero and Zechs in ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' is one of these... ''in giant robots with light sabers!!!''

* The fight between ''[[Afro Samurai]]'''s father and Justice ends with one of these coupled with a [[Diagonal Cut]]... with the winner using a ''revolver''. {{spoiler|It is not until the last episode that we learn Justice has a hidden third arm with a blade.}}

** The duel between Afro and Kuma {{spoiler|aka Jinnosuke}} ends with one of these. {{spoiler|Just before the clash, Afro switches to a thrust, allowing him to fully utilize the greater length of his sword as well as strike faster than even the cybernetically-enhanced Kuma.}}

* In [[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's]], Mizoguchi's Samurai Deck has a trap, ''Pause of the Certain Kill'', that turns battle between monsters into this. [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|It even has Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro in the illustration]].

* The second duel between Guts and Griffith of ''[[Berserk]]'' is carried out this way. Guts wins by breaking Griffith's sword with one strike.

* The climax of the final showdown between Spike and Vicious in ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' is one of these, with an additional [[Shout-Out]] to ''A Better Tomorrow II'' (Spike has Vicious' sword, Vicious has Spike's gun). {{spoiler|After both weapons are returned to their original owners, and the final attacks are made, both men fall, but Vicious goes down first, with Spike living just long enough to deliver his final line to the Red Dragons gathered before him: "Bang."}}

== Comic Books ==

* [[Usagi Yojimbo]], lives and breathes this trope... although considering how much it owes to Lone Wolf and Cub, along with the classic samurai films, that's hardly surprising.

* The last issue of [[Batman|Robin's]] solo title has Tim Drake being challenged to a duel to the death by his teacher, Lady Shiva. They meet, and have what looks like one of these, after which Tim is stumbling, with three broken ribs, while Shiva is standing triumphantly. {{spoiler|Then, Shiva collapses, and Tim explains that he slipped her a paralytic poison, activated by a heightened heart beat, ''before she even made the challenge''.}}

* The duel between [[Scott Pilgrim]] and Roxanne is a direct [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'', ending with a [[Diagonal Cut]].

* ''[[Kill Bill]] Volume One'''s showdown between the Bride and O-Ren Ishii concludes with one of these.

* Played for shock value in ''Equilibrium'', where a confrontation between Preston and [[The Dragon]] Brandt is teased throughout the film. When the time finally comes for them to face off, {{spoiler|Preston chops Brandt's face off without any effort at all and barely breaks stride.}}

* The final fight in the pulpy ''Underworld'' is this trope down to a tee, although somewhat more drawn out than usual.

* The face-off between Kyuuzo and an anonymous opponent early in [[Akira Kurosawa]]'s ''[[Seven Samurai]]'' is probably the West's first exposure to this.

* Maximus in [[Gladiator (film)|Gladiator]] does this against a soldier on a horse. It even includes Maximus falling to his knees from the attack before the soldier falls off, dead.

* Nameless and Long Sky engage in this after first playing out a battle in their minds in [[Hero (film)|Hero]].

* In the opening scene of ''The Impostors'', we are introduced to two con-artists who fake an altercation in an outdoor diner, culminating with a knife fight. At the climax of the fight, they both rush each other, simultaneously cry out, and then one of them falls "dead" and the other runs off without paying his bill. In the next scene we see them argue over the fact that the wrong man "died".

* At the very end of ''[[Legion]]'', between the angels Michael and Gabriel.

** In the [[No Export for You|Japan-only]] ''[[Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition|Final Mix+]]'' version of the game, {{spoiler|the same applies to their controller, Roxas (now a boss, instead of a cutscene). Initiating the Duel Stance reaction command shows a scene of the two charging at each, Keyblades at the ready and in slow-mo. If Sora selects the right command in time, he'll knock Roxas into the air and telekinetically ''steal'' his Oathkeeper and Oblivion Keyblades, using them in tandem with his regular combos for a short period of time until Roxas (now reduced to his [[Light'Em Up]] powers) steals them back. If Sora fails, let's just say he'll be feeling sore in the morning. [[For Massive Damage|Or not.]]}}

** After fighting Luxord in the World That Never Was, the battle ends when {{spoiler|Luxord tries to put up a wall of cards around himself, but Sora just sprints right at him and slices through the cards (and Luxord) with one swing.}} Cue Sora's [[Asskicking Pose]].

** Terra in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep|Birth by Sleep]]'' can meld together other commands to get Zantetsuken to use in normal combat. Much like its ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' origins, it can take out a normal enemy in one swing, if you're lucky. Otherwise, it just does regular damage. It's ineffective against bosses though.

* At the end of the "YMCA" level of ''[[Elite Beat Agents]]'', a ship captain engages in this against a pirate skeleton. The level "La La" also uses it, as a white blood cell ([[Anthropomorphic Personification|portrayed as a nurse]]) fights a virus this way... several times. Yes, it's a weird game.

** Not to be outdone, the "Julia ni Shoushin" level of ''[[Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan|Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2]]'' features a Single Stroke Battle between two rival barbers. The winner shaves the kanji for "loser" into his opponent's head.

* The opening to the NES game ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' features such a scene. It plays out almost exactly as the scene described in the main article.

* Capcom's cutesy arcade fighting game''[[Street Fighter|Super Gem Fighter]] [[Super-Deformed|Mini-Mix]]'' features the ninja Ibuki from ''[[Street Fighter III]]''. One of her Supers in this game was to dash at the enemy (all kitted out for it, too!): contact results in a single stroke that slices the enemy into tiny cubes (it's all very cartoonish).

* Parodied in the ''Samurai [[Kirby]]'' minigame where Kirby and his opponent [[Cosplay|dress up]] as samurai and attack each other with [[Improbable Weapon User|silly weapons]] such as paper fans and frying pans.

* This shows up a lot in ''[[Samurai Warriors]]''. Notable instances of the trope are the endings for Ranmaru Mori, Mitsuhide Akechi, and [[Oda Nobunaga]].

** The closely related ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' series also has a few examples, such as Guan Yu's death in ''DW5''.

** Read: It works on mooks. Doesn't kill the armored lizards let alone dark nuts. So much for armor not mattering.

** It also works on mini-bosses; once you've used whatever item you need to stun them and expose their weakpoint, you can use the Mortal Draw to finish them quick.

* The ''[[Bushido Blade]]'' series may do this trope the best for video games. Any attack can be fatal, so while some battles involve extensive parrying or countering, others end with a single, perfectly placed stroke.

** This editor and his cousin used to accidentally do the same basic leap attack at the same time about one duel in five. See the trope description.

* The third mission of ''[[Vanguard Bandits]]'' features a duel between [[The Obi-Wan|Kamorge]] and [[Big Bad|Faulkner]] that ends this way. There is also a move called the Wind Strike, which essentially allows players to do this to enemies.

* ''[[God Hand]]'': The Daisy Cutter [[Limit Break|God Reel move]] looks like this. Gene blows the target into the air, slides past it, then punches his fists together, causing an explosion. {{spoiler|Azel kills off the Three Evil Stooges this way.}}

== Real Life ==

* Supposedly, this is how Miyamoto Musashi defeated Sasaki Kojirō.

* The fleche, a fencing move, works like this. It's basically a way to make a running attack relatively gracefully. The point of the move is that the referee will halt the match and allow both fencers to reassume their stance if one fencer passes the other without scoring, solving the obvious problem that if you miss you're going to end up in a bad position. Sabre fencers especially became notorious for turning matches into jousting contests until the fleche was banned for that sword.

** Sabre was practically reduced to this trope until the ban - which was ''not'' on the fleche (though this was the primary cause for the ban), but specifically on crossing one's feet while advancing (which effectively rendered the technique impossible), through crossing on the retreat remains legal. Here's a breakdown of pre-ban sabre: "En garde! Ready! FENCE!" *both sabreurs meet in the middle* "Halt! Simultaneous action. En garde!" If this repeated three times (which it often did), the president would activate a "coin toss" function on the score box, which would randomly indicate one of the sabreurs, who would then have priority and thus be awarded the hit if the next action was simultaneous. The ban has improved the quality of sabre fencing beyond measure - not only is it more technical than it had previously been, it has become the fastest, most energetic weapon and now boasts the best footwork of any weapon as a result.