(AfroGamers.com) In more action-oriented anime, there tends to be special attacks. These are the ones that are always in the pocket of the heroes—or villains. It’s their Stone Cold Stunner, basically. Let’s look at five of the most iconic special attacks in old school anime.
Anime Special Attack O.G: The Kamehameha (Various, Dragon Ball series)
We might as well go on ahead and scoot this one out of the way. The Kamehameha is used by Son Goku, the main hero of the Dragon Ball franchise. It works just like Ryu and Ken’s Hadouken only it fires a beam of energy and can be popped as many times as possible.
Well, if the user has the energy and skill to do it. There are a couple of other characters who use the attack such Goku’s teacher Master Roshi, Krillin, and Yamcha—who totally had a disrespectful nickname before I edited it.
Compared to other attacks learned in Dragon Ball, it’s not the most difficult to execute and isn’t much different for other beam attacks in the franchise. There are more powerful versions of the Kamehameha such as when done in tandem with the Kaioken Technique.
Ultimately, it’s a stock attack compared to other blasts you’ll see between Dragon Ball Z, GT, and Super. It’s just the franchise’s mascot attack—if attacks could be mascots.
Moon Spiral Heart Attack (Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon series)
When I was younger, I had my gripes with the original Sailor Moon anime that aired in the U.S in the 1990s. This was before I found out what “shoujo” is as well as manga and anime having very specific demographics.
When we got the 1995 wave of anime, it just popped up. There wasn’t even an ABC Saturday Morning Fall Preview episode. We just had anime on syndicated TV all of a sudden. Sailor Moon was one of them and stood out like a sour thumb.
The animation quality wasn’t the problem as these were older shows that went under editing for kids. It was just that we had Sailor Moon and the Sailor Scouts fighting trash villains in equally trash fights.
This is in comparison to the fights in Ronin Warriors, Teknoman, Dragon Ball, or even Samurai Pizza Cats. The fights were more fluid versions of the fights you would see in Eagle Riders or on Power Rangers.
Before she joined up with her fellow Scouts, Sailor Moon was bodying villains and monster left and right with a little Moon Tiara Action and that got boring quickly. Then there was an episode where it had zero effect.
When the inert tiara hit the ground, this piqued my interest. She only had one powerful move at that point. In reality, she had more than one as she defeated that week’s monster with the Moon Spiral Heart Attack.
Seeing this attack for the first time made it worth sitting through a couple of episodes of mediocre fights.
Spirit Gun (Yusuke Urameshi, YuYu Hakusho)
It took me forever to finally sit and watch YuYu Hakusho when it first aired in the U.S. Early on, it seemed like it was going to be a different series than the ones airing for years. I figured it would continue to be more “Spirit Detective” but it became “Spirit Sheriff” pretty early in the series.
Despite the shift from adventure to action-adventure, YuYu Hakusho gave us of the most epic anime special attacks in the Spirit Gun. It’s basically the show’s Kamehameha only he fires it from a finger gun.
It looks dope no matter how many times I see it. Actually, it has the same satisfaction once he finally fires it in the earlier episodes and chapters. As the series advances, he gains more control over the Spirit Gun and spirit energy in general.
He goes from firing it at just the right time to firing it whenever he wants. Just like Goku continuously unloading the Kamehameha, it adds a level of danger to it.
Also, more battles have been finished with Yusuke’s Spirit Gun than Goku’s special.
Rasengan (Various, Naruto franchise)
The Rasengan is an attack that is used by different characters in Naruto to different degrees. In the titular character’s hands, it’s a special attack rather than attack that is broken out when needed.
In the series’ progression, it kind of replaces Naruto’s Shadow Clone Jutsu as his go to technique with the two being used in tandem. I always liked this aspect of Naruto as a series.
While ninja in the series operate more like Z-Fighters in Dragon Ball in battles, the training and use of a technique is thoroughly explained. Often times, it’s overexplained but you will know exactly what the attack does and how when the scene is done.
In the Rasengan’s case, it involves forming chakra—ki, chi, internal energy—into the shape of spiraling ball that fits in the palm. Naruto doesn’t grasp this initially and this results in the need for his Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Throughout the early parts of the first series, Naruto is viewed as something as a clown and failure by his peers but everything about his control of Shadow Clones and how he uses it to form the Rasengan point to him being a prodigy of sorts.
Naruto’s training of the Rasengan is one of the more interesting side stories in the series as it’s an extremely important side story. This move becomes extremely important going forward.
Wind Scar (Inuyasha, InuYasha)
Series creator Rumiko Takahashi managed to get a series on one of these lists and it’s not an “underrated” list. Don’t worry, we got you on that and Ms. Takahashi is there as well.
In this case, we’re talking about the Wind Scar attack which is the main attack of Inuyasha’s sword Tessaiga. Inuyasha unleashed the attack by accident when attempting a weaker attack in the same family of techniques.
Once he learned it, he made good use of it throughout the series and eventually mastered it and the more powerful Backlash Wave. Inuyasha is no slouch of a fighter but it’s really impressive to accidentally discover two powerful attacks.
Like, he could’ve just as easily used the move that one time and not be able to do it again.
What are some of your favorite anime special attacks? Also, hang around for our list on Underrated Anime Special Attacks!
Staff Writer; M. Swift
This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.