This can be realistic if the guy is attempting to maintain his balance after being glomped, or if the glomper is significantly shorter than the glompee (a pretty common occurrence due to the One Head Taller rule). However, it really shouldn't take a full 360-degree spin for him to get his footing back, or else one would expect if it does take that long that the guy should have simply fallen over before it reached the 360-degree point. The extended period of time that the twirl goes on tends to carry this trope into Rule of Romantic territory.
Compare Orbital Kiss and Roundabout Shot.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- A platonic version is seen in the Shin Captain Tsubasa OVAs, when Tsubasa and Misaki run into each other at the base of the Eiffel Tower. Since they've been separated ofr several years, both are very happy to run into each other, with Misaki jumping on Tsubasa to hug him and Tsubasa twirling him around a couple times.
- Akira and Ryo do this in episode one of DEVILMAN crybaby since it's the first time they've seen each other since they were kids.
- Dragon Ball Z:
- During a sweet moment, Goku and Chi-Chi do this
◊, when Goku recovers from the Heart Virus that nearly killed him. Goku does nearly throw her into space, but she’s so happy he’s back to health Chi-Chi doesn’t care.
- Later Gohan does this to Videl out of joy when she tells him that’s she’s pregnant with his baby.
- During a sweet moment, Goku and Chi-Chi do this
- In the last episode of The Familiar of Zero's second season, Saito and Louise do this when Saito returns from the battlefield after being presumed by Louise to be dead.
- Seen in the final episode of Hungry Heart: Wild Striker between Kyosuke and Miki before the former departs to play abroad. Somewhat plausible since Kyosuke is rather tall and muscular and Miki is a lot smaller than him.
- Tamaki and Haruhi do this in one of Tamaki's Imagine Spots in Ouran High School Host Club. Because it's Tamaki's imagination, the twirling is ridiculously dramatic and syrupy.
- Kei and Mizuho do this when they get back together on the beach in the second-last episode of Please Teacher! right before Kei lapses into his biggest standstill.
- The titular characters in Romeo × Juliet do this at some point in the anime. Juliet jumps into Romeo's arms and they whirl around twice.
- There's an aerial version of this in the Series Finale of Urusei Yatsura. When Ataru and Lum run together and hug, Lum lifts Ataru into the air and they whirl around.
Fan Fiction
- In the The Legend of Korra fanfic Book 5: Legends, Bolin does this to Opal after she accepts his proposal, overjoyed at his good fortune.
- Interestingly played with in The RWBY Loops. Blake glomps Yang with a kiss, and Yang obligingly goes through a full three and a half revolutions before noting that Blake is unusually happy. This is because a recent expansion revealed that Blake was not an orphan, as had been previously assumed by everyone...
- In Yugioh EQG: XX, Flash and Twilight do this when they reunite. When Twilight returns to Canterlot to compete in the Double X, after having studied abroad in France, she and Flash rush toward each other and meet halfway, with Twilight wrapping her arms around Flash's neck as he spins her around before Twilight leans in and they share a kiss.
Film — Animated
- Anastasia combines this with a Bridal Carry. In what is nearly the final scene of the film, Anya and Dimitri's Dance of Romance turns into a Twirl of Love when Dimitri lifts her off the ground and spins her around.
- In The Book of Life, Manolo and Maria do this as an attack on Chakal.
- A Puppy Love version happens in Castle in the Sky. Upon reaching the titular Laputa, Pazu and Sheeta embrace and spin although it's more due to their excitement that they finally made it. They almost spin right over the side!
- Disney Animated Canon:
- In Aladdin, at the end of the movie when the Sultan proclaims that Jasmine can marry anyone she deems worthy, she runs to Aladdin in joy and he picks her up this way.
- In Beauty and the Beast, Beast twirls Belle during their dance in the ballroom.
- Kristoff and Anna, just before the end of Frozen.
- They do another one again after the former's proposal in Frozen II.
- In The Little Mermaid, Eric and Ariel do this during a dance, and then again when her father changes her back into a human for good so they can be together.
- In Elemental (2023), Wade lifts up Ember and spins her around as they share their first kiss.
- In The Prince of Egypt, Moses twirls Tzipporah after his experience with God in the Burning Bush.
- Derek and Odette in the original The Swan Princess movie, as they embrace after he finally finds her again.
- In Wolf Children, Hana and the wolf-man share one when she reveals that she's pregnant.
Film — Live-Action
- A non-romantic version happens in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, where Gromit joyously jumps into Wallace's arms and they both spin round. The physics of this one work, as Gromit (being a somewhat anthropomorphised dog,) is much smaller than Wallace, and was standing right in front of him when he jumped up, rather than having a long run to build up momentum.
- In Fifty Shades Darker, Christian ecstatically twirls Anastasia after she accepts his first proposal.
- Also non-romantically is Julia hugging Thomas in Heart and Souls. It's still an incredibly important moment for her, however. As a ghost, she's never been able to touch him physically. Having just declared to him that her business on Earth is to help him amend his relationship with his girlfriend Anne, she is bittersweet about how she would have to leave him without any comfort beyond words, but then her hands contact his shoulders; the hug swiftly follows amidst her cries of joy.
- Sometimes done in Jane Eyre after Jane and Mr Rochester admit their feelings and set to be married. Done in the 2011 adaptation.
- In Jason's Lyric, Jason twirls Lyric while slow dancing on their first date in an abandoned bus station and later, on their second date in the bayou.
- In The Phantom of the Opera (2004), Raoul and Christine do this during their "All I Ask of You" duet on the opera house roof.
- In TRON, the title character does this to Yori after he helps her off Sark's derezzing ship.
Literature
- By the same author, this occurs at the end of Castle in the Air when Howl and Sophie are reunited after a long and involuntary separation. The narration also notes that she does almost knock him over.
- Done in the novel Deep Secret, between Rupert and Maree. To be fair, one of the participants was Only Mostly Dead for a significant portion of the book, and this is the first time they're wholly themselves in a long time, so it's deserved.
- At the end of Destinys Star by Elizabeth Vaughan, Ezren does this to Bethral when they finally make it home. Bethral is amazed at how strong Ezren has gotten because she's wearing a suit of armor and is a lot bigger than him.
- Katniss and Peeta do this a couple of times in The Hunger Games. Always in front of the cameras to sell their pseudo-fake romance. Unlike many examples where the male character should probably overbalance and fall over, this one makes sense; since it's staged, they are both going to be making sure it will work properly, and Peeta is explicitly stated to be very strong due to a life spent lugging heavy sacks of flour around.
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who: In "The Day of the Doctor", the protagonist gets to do a spectacular twirl with Clara as a way of greeting her at the start of the episode. Being short has its advantages.
- Robin Hood: A bittersweet one in the Grand Finale considering Robin and Marian are dead by this point, and the twirl is part of their Together in Death scene, after Marian comes to greet him in the afterlife.
- UFO (1970): Foster does this to a Girl of the Week, giving the audience a nice panty shot in the process.
Theatre
- Miss Saigon: Chris does this to Kim at the conclusion of "Last Night Of The World".
- In The Phantom of the Opera, Raoul does this to Christine at the conclusion of their duet "All I Ask Of You".
Video Games
- Final Fantasy:
- Squall and Rinoa do this in Final Fantasy VIII when she glomps him when they meet in Timber. This is early enough in the game that they haven't even learned one another's names yet, but it's one of many clues that they're destined to be the Official Couple.
- Shown in a flashback in Final Fantasy VII, which contrasts with the narrator's husband not being able to come back and do the same for her.
- In Katamari Damacy, you can roll up couples like this.
- Kingdom Hearts:
- Non-romantic version in Kingdom Hearts II, where Riku picks up King Mickey and twirls him when they are reunited in the ending.
- One that is romantic in Kingdom Hearts III, when Sora and Kairi reunite after the former uses the Power of Waking to restore the other Guardians of Light.
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask has a platonic version when Exposition Fairy Tatl reunites with her brother Tael toward the end of the game. Fairies in the series are traditionally portrayed as glowing balls of light with wings, so we don't actually see one grab the other, but they do bump up against each other and twirl around.
- One of these was added to Hunter and Bianca's final cutscene in Spyro Reignited Trilogy.
- Happens at the start of the third act of Tales of Vesperia. When Estelle reunites with Yuri, they end up doing a 180-degree version of this.
- Happens in Tomodachi Life when an Outgoing Mii confesses its love and their crush accepts, or if a Mii is given a hat or clothes that they love.
Visual Novels
- This trope is discussed by Mayuzumi and Satoru in a flashback in Remember11 by referring to it as the "round-and-round thing." During the conversation, Mayuzumi tries to get Satoru to do it with her (and succeeds, as shown by the page image).
Western Animation
- Code Lyoko: Jeremie and Aelita twirl around when they think they found Aelita's antivirus software.
- Familially done in DuckTales (2017) where Scrooge, upon seeing Della after a decade of separation, jumps at her, hugs her in his arms, and twirls her around at the outside entrance to his mansion.
- In an episode of Garfield and Friends, Garfield temporarily falls in love with a female cat and daydreams about doing this with her; later he dumps her when he sees some lasagna and promptly has an identical daydream, replacing the girl with an anthropomorphized tray of lasagna (albeit without the twirl at the end).
- Mako and Korra have one at the end of the Book One finale of The Legend of Korra, complete with a love confession and a passionate kiss.
- Luz and Amity do this several times in The Owl House:
- The two work in a quick twirl into their Grom dance in "Enchanting Grom Fright".
- When Amity puts on her tournament Glamour in "Reaching Out", Luz spins her around a few times while Squeeing at how pretty she looks.
- In "Clouds on the Horizon", upon reuniting after having been apart for the past 5 episodes, Luz and Amity hug and twirl around in excitement.
- A platonic version occurs when after months of being trapped in the human realm, Amity's reunion with her siblings starts with her older sister Emira picking her up and spinning her around.
- Lampshaded a couple of times in Phineas and Ferb. The most notable one is when Buford does it with... his pet goldfish!
- Steven Universe:
- In the episode "Jail Break", the Gems Ruby and Sapphire do this for a literal Fusion Dance producing Garnet. Since Gems normally have to do an elaborate dance to sync up and fuse, this is a big sign of just how close the two are.
- Ruby and Sapphire have a habit of doing this, but special shout-out to the Season 5 episode "The Question", where Ruby launches Sapphire about twenty feet in the air.
- In "Cry For Help", Pearl and Garnet do this as well, though not as a part of the Fusion Dance itself, but afterwards out of sheer exuberance from being fused.
