Single-Stroke Battle: Difference between revisions

* 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|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*}}

* Parodied in ''[[Ranma Half]]''. Happosai wants Ranma to wear a one-piece [[Playboy Bunny]] outfit. Ranma wants to beat him up in righteous anger (and also because his mother is in the next room, waiting to meet him for the first time.) They lunge at each other, cross fists, land in a crouch... and Happosai collapses, knocked out. But Ranma's entire outfit has changed into a schoolgirl's sailor uniform, which Happosai dressed him in ''[[Instant Cosplay Surprise|without Ranma even noticing]]''.

* One of these occurs in the first episode of ''[[Real Bout High School]]'' between Ryoko and the last member of the Amateur Ninja Club. Ryoko wins.

* Signum and Zest of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' finish their duel with this. {{spoiler|Signum won of course, since by the time they did this, she had reduced Zest to his fists after [[Wrecked Weapon|chopping his weapon in two]]}}.

* In the 22nd episode of ''[[Macross Frontier]]'', Alto and {{spoiler|Ozma}} ''somehow'' manage to pull this off, even though both are flying [[Humongous Mecha]] that [[Beam Spam|fire energy beams]]. They charge at each other in their respective space-planes, and fire at each other as they barely avoid collision, and follow this trope closely by only showing the results a few seconds afterwards. {{spoiler|They both suffer damage, though only Alto is crippled.}}

* ''[[Ginga Nagareboshi Gin|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 (Anime)|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.}}

* Much of Goemon's battles from ''[[Lupin the Third]]'' are like this. One of the best examples is in the movie ''[[Main/Mystery/Of Mamo/Recap|The Secret of Mamo]]'' where he faces off against Mamo's lead henchman Flinch; when they land Goemon has a deep cut on his arm and a broken sword-tip. Flinch laughs at him only for his head to separate into three pieces -- the broken sword was still plenty sharp.

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

* Done at the climax of "The Duel" (part of ''[[Halo Legends (Anime)|Halo Legends]]''). It results in a [[Mutual Kill]].

** Something worth noting: that episode was heavily based on a samurai legend.

== 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 final battle between Leonardo and the resurrected {{spoiler|Shredder}} ends this way in the first volume of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage (Comic Book)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage]]''.

 

* 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.

** Its arcade predecessor, featuring Ryu versus one of the hockey-mask [[Mook|Mooks]]. The Continue screen is just as dramatic.

* 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.

** Except for Meta Knight, who you attack with your sword. He's damn near impossible to beat, as well.

* 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.

== 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.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJLA_e8gOds&t=1m25s This boxing match] from the 90s between fringe heavyweight contender [[Awesome McCoolname|Jimmy Thunder]] and Crawford Grimsley. Grimsley made the mistake of trying to come right at the [[Meaningful Name|powerful Thunder]], and Thunder's first punch was a smashing right hand that laid Grimsley out in what would have been record time if the referee hadn't insisted on doing a full 10 count.

* PRIDE 10. Garry Goodridge vs. Gilbert Yvel. Two [[Scary Black Man|scary black men]], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky9VTC4QeRk one well timed head kick], fight over.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Sniper Index]]

[[Category:Single Stroke Battle]]