Razor Wind

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.

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. Versions of Razor Wind that require swinging around a bladed weapon to perform might also be Sword Beams.

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

This is Older Than Steam, partly thanks to Shakespeare. Before him, Japanese folklore tells of the wind yōkai called 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 sword", bringing the trope full circle. Another term is kazekiri, a rough translation of "wind cutting".

Sometimes related to sound-based abilities like Gale-Force Sound and Make Some Noise. Tornado Move is a similar technique.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Air Gear, those on the Fang Road use this to attack enemies.
• In Angelic Layer, Ranga (Ringo's Angel) does a "Dance of Death" in which she attacks an opponent from a distance using wind.
• There's two with this power in Bakuten Shoot Beyblade. The bit-beasts Falborg, a falcon, and Scissorswing, a kamaitachi, can turn moving air into a weapon. Both are sicced not just on another bey or bit-beast, but also on the other blader.
• 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.
• 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.
• Serpico from Berserk receives an enchanted feather that creates gusts of wind that allow him to cut up foes from a distance.
• Black Cat. Leon's control over the air lets him do this.
• In Black Clover, several of Yuno's spells are this, such as Crescent Moon Sickle. As he develops his magic, Yuno favors forming blades out of wind.
• In Black Jack, a rocket launching project accidentally creates incredibly strong Razor Wind in a certain area, leading the police to believe there was a serial killer on the loose.
• Bleach:
  • Captain Kenpachi Zaraki can incidentally shear buildings in half by drawing his blade after removing his energy-devouring eyepatch.
  • Kensei Muguruma's shikai can produce both Razor Wind and energy blast attacks.
  • Jin Kariya from the Bount arc uses Razor Wind in several fights.
  • Baraggan can swing his axe hard enough the Razor Wind cleaves a building that looks like it's about a mile away from him in two. And that was a missed swing from trying to hit Soifon.
  • In the Lost Substitute Shinigami arc, a de-powered Ichigo gets his powers restored, and fires his signature Sword Beam Getsuga Tenshou at the arc's Big Bad, who promptly shrugs it off and gloats that while it's admittedly a bit stronger than before, it still isn't strong enough to beat him. Ichigo then says that he didn't fire a Getsuga Tenshou at all, that was just the air being displaced from a normal sword swing. Suddenly the bad guy isn't so cocky anymore.
• In Blue Exorcist, Shura's Serpent Fang attack fires multiple wind blades from her sword.
• Mitchell's ability in Bungo Stray Dogs is described as a "weathering wind". It's basically this.
• 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 Doukyuusei No Macho Kun, Yuu is a Gender Flipped Huge Schoolgirl who is so ludicrously muscular that he can shoot blasts of Razor Wind just by vibrating his abs. He sometimes does this accidentally when he gets upset or sneezes.
• In Dragon Ball 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. There's also Freeza's Death Wave technique (although that's actually a Ki Manipulation).
  • According to Daizenshuu 7, Cell cut a mountain into tiles to make his arena using shock waves created by swiping his fingers.
• 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, too.
• In Fist of the North Star, practitioners of the Nanto Seiken family of martial arts styles can rip opponents to shreds this way with their bare hands. In fact, it's one of the defining aspects of the style - whilst Hokuto Shinken, The Hero Kenshiro's martial arts style and Nanto Seiken's direct opposite, rips you apart from the inside out, Nanto slices you up from the outside in.
• 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.
• Limdo/Uruki from Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden has this as his Celestial Power; he's even known as the "Merciless Wind Slasher."
• 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 Heaven's Lost Property, Sohara slashes down several bamboo shoots by karate chopping the air.
• 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 sliced Nube himself in half) until he lets it go back to its family.
• 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".
• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency, Wamuu's final attack, Atmospheric Rift, functions as a this and as a whip, sucking in tremendous amounts of air and then expelling it through a fine hole to create an razor-sharp, high-pressure jet capable of cutting through stone, at the cost of slowly tearing himself apart from the friction and heat that the attack generates.
• Jujutsu Kaisen: Ryomen Sukuna's Cleave and Dismantle is a slicing cursed technique that cannot be blocked in nearly every instance it is used. It can cut a Curse in the size of an adult man into vertical slices faster than the eye can see with one use.
• Fate of Lyrical Nanoha can do this with Bardiche's Zanber form, slicing a Humongous Mecha's Combat Tentacles with the wind from her sword swing.
• 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.
• Fu-gi of MÄR uses wind as an attack, usually forming it into blades.
• Martian Successor Nadesico as the Gekigan Cutter.
• Naruto:
  • Wind techniques generally rely on sharpening the chakra, so the series takes this trope and runs with it. Temari from the Hidden Sand also makes active use of various wind cutting techniques with her giant iron fan; the kamaitachi she can summon is capable of decimating an entire forest in seconds. In fact, her village in general has wind as its main element; for example, Baki can use a ninjutsu called "Blade of Wind", which is a technique that works exactly as it is named.
  • The Hidden Leaf also has a few wind users; Asuma can channel his wind element into the two knives he uses, giving them an extended reach and making them much sharper. Naruto had a once-used variation of the Rasengan that worked like a Drill Wind, and his Rasenshuriken creates so many tiny wind blades that anyone hit by it is destroyed on a cellular level (initially it damages his own arm too, but he develops several ways around that drawback). Danzo also has several Razor Wind-type techniques, including one similar to the one in the above pic that is capable of mortally injuring multiple people at once.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Setsuna 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. It's one of the few techniques that Negi's Black Magic is weak against.
  • Other examples include the Griffin Dragon's Breath Weapon and the ability of one of the mage-teachers to produce razor wind with just a snap of his fingers.
• 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).
• One Piece:
  • This is one of The Lancer 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.
    • Other swordsman in the series also make use of this. Notable examples include Dracule Mihawk, Ryuma, and Brook (post-Time Skip). The overall technique is often translated from Japanese as "Flying Slash".
  • Filler Arc villain Eric The Whirlwind can create these at will thanks to his Kama Kama no Mi (Sickle-Sickle Fruit) powers.
  • Every member of CP9 can also do this with the Rankyaku (Tempest Kick) technique...and to a lesser extent, the Shigan (Finger Pistol) technique.
• Establishing her badassery, "Twilight" Suzuka of Outlaw Star pulls this off with a wooden sword.
• This is Stocking's signature move in Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.
• Ranma ½:
  • 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. 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 manga-exclusive 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. His ultimate attack involves spinning whilst firing these off in multiple directions.
  • 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 able to generate freezing cold concussive blasts of wind by swinging her carpetbeater.
  • Ranma's final attack against Saffron and the Dragon Tap involved adapting his Hiryu Shoten Ha technique, which normally creates a tornado, to compress down into what is functionally a wind drill.
• 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, though 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.
  • In Raijuta's case (and probably others), it's also given a more realistic explanation of not being "sharp air", but rather a vacuum/shockwave formed from the speed of the swing.
  • 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.
• Shin of Saint Beast uses wind attacks that can cut.
• All of Kyo's attacks in Samurai Deeper Kyo, except for Genbu.
• Amidamaru from Shaman King has the Shock Wave Buddha Giri, though it is sometimes treated like a Ki Manipulation.
• Toriko starts using a "Flying" variant of his Fork and Knife attacks after eating some Blue Blood Corn. Zebra can do something similar with his voice. As can Komatsu with his Derous knife.
• 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.
• The Kamaitachi Siblings from Ushio and Tora.
• Yaiba has Onimaru doing this frequently: 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".

Asian Animation

• BoBoiBoy: BoBoiBoy Cyclone, an evolution of BoBoiBoy's Blow You Away form, can fire boomerangs called Wind Discs that are sharp enough to shave off Mukalakus' armor.

Comic Books

• In Aero, the titular superheroine can focus her wind powers to create sharp winds capable of cutting through concrete and steel.
• Winddancer of Academy X used this once.
• In Crossing Midnight, Aratsu, god of knives, controls a tornado of wind with knives flying through it.

Fan Works

• The Return of Hatsune Miku: Nekomura Iroha has this as her pin psych. During a discussion with other players, she describes it as "anime-style flying blades wind".
• Second Wind:
  • Luffy is capable of using the Rankyaku (Tempest Kick) technique in this fic.
  • Additionally, as it is in canon, Zoro is capable of creating these with his swords. So is Mihawk.

Film — Live-Action

• In a scene of the Chinese movie Hero (2002), 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 does... the assassin only reacts after having a little hair cut, by using her sword to create winds that whip all the leaves in the area into dazzling displays. Seems in this case that the wind is just a way to shove her opponent around harmlessly.
• "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.

Literature

• In A Certain Magical Index, Ouma Yamisaka's main combat spell shoots an invisible wind arrow from a small bow on his arm, which then splinters into a vortex of shredding blades.
• The favored attack of overpowered wind mages in Kaze no Stigma.
• Omi in Kanokon has this as his main attack technique. This makes sense, as he is actually a kamaitachi in human form.
• In KILL KILL KILL, the ninja Yoshida Tanaka, employs exactly this technique several times, most notably while fighting a killer cyborg.
• 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.
• In Worm, this is Eligos and Stormtiger's main superpower.
• In The Zombie Knight, Parson Miles can use Pan-Rozum to amplify his oxygen transfiguration by accessing the materialization power.

Myths & Religion

• Japanese Mythology:
  • The Kamaitachi from Japanese folklore are said to resemble weasels with sharp, sickle like claws, the attacks happen instantaneously, with the weasels moving faster than the eye can see. Accounts of their attacks vary; some claim that they attack in trios, the first sickle weasel attacking with a strong gust of wind(or a whirlwind) knocking their victim to the ground; the second weasel attacking using it's sickle-like claws to cut a deep gash into the skin, and the final weasel then applies a medicine that numbs pain temporarily and stops bleeding. While others claim the monster works alone attacking with razor sharp wind that cuts the victim, and the Kamaitachi then licks the blood off the victim till the wound is dry, and continues to do this till the victim is dead.
  • The legend of the Kamaitachi was originally thought to come from the cuts on skin created by the vacuum in the center of whirlwinds. However the established theory now is that the sudden cooling, caused by the vaporization of moisture on exposed skin, in very cold, windy conditions causes the skin to split open and become chapped. That's why the Kamaitachi legends are common in snowy regions and is why there is little to no blood, and the pain will set in later, and you’ll suffer for days as the wound heals.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons 3/3.5ed :
  • The Blood Wind spell enchants a character's natural weapons, allowing them to make melee attacks with them at range.
  • Flaywind Burst creates a blast of wind that knocks enemies back while also damaging them. However, the actual cutting is done by dust and grit that's summoned along with it (the spell has both the Air and Earth descriptors).
  • The Yari of Air spell from Oriental Adventures creates a spear out of condensed winds, which can be wielded as a normal weapon.
• The Razor Wind spell in Iron Kingdoms is exactly this.
• Mage: The Awakening has a Space ability called "Ranged Blow", which allows you to do this with any melee weapon.

Theatre

• 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)

Video Games

• Tempestas, the Arcana of Wind from Arcana Heart, uses circular razor wind attacks for its projectiles.
• 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.
• One of Crono's skills in Chrono Trigger is Kamaitachi, confusingly re-titled into "Slash" and properly re-translated 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.
• Devil May Cry has 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, especially during cutscenes.
• Disgaea:
  • The sword technique "Wind Cutter". 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.
• This is an ability open to two-handed sword users in Dragon Age II. Called Giant's Reach, it, predictably, increases your reach with said sword.
• The Sega Saturn game Dragon Force 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.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest III: The only direct-damage spell the Cleric gets takes the form of a line of wind-based spells, the Woosh/Swoosh/Kaswoosh type.
  • Dragon Quest VIII: The Hero's fists can produce extremely sharp cutting wind if leveled properly.
• Dynasty Warriors had this for some time in the form of the Wind Scroll item, which causes an invisible blade to extend out from your weapon, allowing the character to hit enemies from roughly 25% further away. Given the name, it is meant to invoke this trope—weapons so sharp that the air they cut can harm enemies. This became the skill "Havoc" in the eighth Western iteration, the same release that saw several weapons that did damage with slashes of air instead of a blade of some kind (most notably, Sima Zhao's Striking Sword moveset).
• Misaki Kawana of Eternal Fighter Zero has the wind-based powers variant for her "Half Gush" special.
• 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.
• Final Fantasy:
  • The Air Render knife 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.
  • 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.
• Fire Emblem:
  • 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, Fire Emblem: 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.
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones: The sacred tome Excalibur's 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. The Wind Sword's ranged attack uses the exact same animation. There was also a B-rank tome called Alacalibur that was a lesser version of Excalibur, but it got Dummied Out.
  • Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon: Merric 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.
• Genshin Impact: The Wanderer's basic attack are sawblade-like wind blasts he aims at enemies.
• 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 aforementioned Kamaitachi youkai-weasels that do this with their claws.
• Gotcha Force: This is the only way for the Musha Borgs (and Vampire Knight) to attack from a distance.
• Harukanaru Toki no Naka de: The "Fuuhazan"/"Wind Slash". 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).
• Hollow Knight: Mantis Petras attack by creating "wind-scythes", blades of compressed air, by slashing with their claws, which spin towards the Knight before retrating back towards their sender.
• The King of Fighters:
  • Krizalid can do a kick that creates a circular razor wind attack that almost fills the whole screen.
  • 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.
• 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. The second character has a razor wind uppercut as a Charged Attack, and a ranged attack that consists of conjuring up basically flying lawnmower blades.
• The Mystic Art Wind Shear in The Last Remnant.
• The Yiga Blademasters in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild wield large katanas called Windcleavers which can launch shockwaves of sharp wind at enemies.
• LostMagic features "wind blades" as a basic spell.
• 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.
• Zanetsu Swords from Metal Slug six and seven.
• Princesses in Miitopia use their elegant hand fan to unleash powerful wind cutters to their foes.
• 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 Doppelgänger Attack that would make Naruto proud in order to shoot razor wind and other sword beams practically everywhere, ending with a massive yellow wave.
• 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.
• Onimusha series:
  • In Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, this was the magic ability of Samanosuke's Kuuga long sword. Bonus point if you turn the violence level to high.
  • In Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, this is an ability of several weapons if they are upgraded enough.
• Chaz, the hero of Phantasy Star IV, has the Airslash. Gryz has a move called "Sweeping" that works in the same way.
• Simon Blackquill from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies is able to cast this with his fingers, and with enough range and precision to slice a feather in front of someone's face from across the other side of the courtroom without hurting them.
• 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). It used to be a Normal attack in the first generation. Second generation onwards saw its type changed to Flying.
  • Palkia's signature move Spacial Rend is like this, but instead of wind, it weaponizes distortions in the spatial continuum. In the anime it's depicted like a Sword Beam, but in the 3D titles onwards, it acts more like Judgement Cut complete with Dramatic Shattering.
  • The Pokémon Sneasel and Weavile are based off of the yokai kamaitachi... though they ironically cannot learn Razor Wind.
  • Interestingly, the trope-naming move is borderline useless (especially in the first generation), being a two-turn move that has only 80 base power, no "semi-invulnerable" period like Fly or Dig, and being Normal type, it wasn't super effective on anything. In Gen I it had only 75% accuracy (and no increased critical hit ratio, like it would have in later generations); to put this in perspective, using Tackle twice would be more effective than this move.
  • Pokémon Mystery Dungeon features a variation called Vacuum Cut, which sends out an array of these in every direction to clear a whole room.
• In Quest 64 the Wind Cutter attacks, and the Large Cutter, are razor-sharp attacks of the wind element, shown as a curved green circular arc.
• 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 Series, the Blast spell (renamed to Tornado in Shining Force 3) does exactly this.
• The blast spell in Shining in the Darkness.
• 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.
• Sonic the Hedgehog's signature Sonic Wind.
• FromSoftware seem to like this trope, as it shows up fairly often in the Souls games and their spinoffs.
  • Demon's Souls has the Storm Ruler, a greatsword with no stat requirements that is found in the Storm King's boss arena. As long as it's used inside the area, every attack generates a huge, massively damaging slash of razor wind, which is pretty much the only way to do any significant damge to the boss, and the only way for melee-focused characters to even hit the damn thing at all, since it's flying.
  • Dark Souls: The Iron Golem can do this with its axe, and so can you if you make its axe out of its boss soul. The Drake Sword and Dragon King's Greatsword can also do this.
  • Dark Souls III: The Storm Ruler returns, this time being used to take down Yhorm the Giant. Rather than every attack generating razor wind, it's limited to the unique weapon skill of the weapon, which must be charged for a few seconds before it can fire razor wind. This means that you can fire razor wind anywhere, not just in the boss arena. However, it does absolutely no damage to anything except Yhorm, even other giants, despite the lore saying giants are weak to it, which is the entire reason it works on Yhorm in the first place.
  • Elden Ring features this trope quite a lot. The Ashes of War "Storm Blade" and "Vacuum Slice" both fire razor wind from your weapon, "Beast's Roar" is a Make Me Wanna Shout version, and the game even has its own version of the "Storm Ruler boss" seen in previous games, although the weapon has a different name and is a greatspear instead of a greatsword.
• 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, and Albel in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.
• 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 Manipulation like everyone else's moves.
• The Wind Cutter and Air 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".
  • Kyle Dunamis' Azure Edge and its related extensions in Tales of Destiny 2, is a wind-based projectile blasted straight from Kyle' sword. It'd later be used by Yuri and Ludger, with Yuri showing off the Final Gale arte in Tales of Vesperia, a boosted version involving firing one Azure into another for a huge energy shot.
  • 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-mounted crossbow Soma for range. Both have the above spells too.
• Leonardo's "Shining Cutter" in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters.
• In Temtem, the Wind-type attacks Wind Blade and Boomerang are both depicted as blasts of air slicing the opponent.
• Touhou Project:
  • Youmu Konpaku from the 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.
• Amusingly enough, Turok's "Razor Wind" weapon is anything but.
• 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 the remake Wild ARMs: Alter Code F.
• World of Warcraft's Shaman have this in Windfury (formerly a weapon enhancement before being made passive), which would randomly cause tornadoes to appear, in gameplay this translated to the shaman basically hitting the enemy three times with a basic attack. In the game's infancy, the attack could proc off of itself, resulting in 40 man raid bosses being one-shot. Monks also have a version in Rushing Jade Wind, an upgrade to the channeled Spinning Crane Kick that removes the kick, allowing the Monk to continue attacking while still doing AoE damage.
• 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.

Webcomics

• In Kill Six Billion Demons, Juggernaut Star's favorite martial arts style, Pattram Sword Hand, includes a technique called Winds of Obliteration. Using it, a few hand movements can create a maelstrom of cutting winds that can shear a solid granite plateau into fragments.

Web Original

• Slash from Darwin's Soldiers has the power to turn air into invisible blades.
• Dreamscape: Jasmine can send out slashes of wind, and its her preferred method of attack.
  • Liz can start a storm of razor wind by flapping his wings.
• Qrow Branwen from RWBY seems to be able to launch a sonic wave from his broadsword.
• Rayte from Trinton Chronicles could create sharp-as-knives air blades.

Western Animation

• Surprisingly, Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra downplays this significantly. The only Airbender seen using such a technique is Aang, and he only did it thrice — and one of those times was to kill a buzzard-wasp for trying to eat Team Pet Momo, which is also the only time he outright kills anything in the entire series. Razor water, on the other hand, is a common move for Waterbenders.
• 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

• Akson Engineering Co. manufactures a knife that uses hot pressurized air to cut synthetic yarn.
• High pressure gas is capable of cutting skin and even clothing.
• The Pistol Shrimp, which uses a pressure blast from its claws with enough force and friction to superheat the water.
• Pinhole leaks in pipes under sufficient pressure, such as found in some heavy industry, oilfield, etc, become a terrifying version of this. An invisible gap smaller than a tissue paper in a pipe under 10,000 PSI will slice body parts off like a laser if they come close.

---