Hurricane Kick

Tatsumaki-senpuu-kyaku!

"The deadliest move known to man, the spinning foot... of death."

—Splatterhouse 3 review

This is basically multiple consecutive roundhouse kicks. Often involves jumping in the air.

How practical is it? It doesn't matter, because Everything's Better with Spinning.

A Sub-Trope of Roundhouse Kick.

Compare Shoryuken and Kamehame Hadoken, the other staple moves of the Shotoclone, and Spinning Piledriver, another move made more awesome by spinning.

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Examples of Hurricane Kick include:

Video Game Examples

Action Games

• Devil May Cry 3 has a move that's literally called Hurricane Kick (or Tornado, depending on version). For extra trope points, it's a follow-up to a Shoryuken move that involves stopping in mid air twice while ascending.

Beat Em Ups

• Guy's Senpūkyaku and Cody's Double Kick in Final Fight.
  • It should be noted that when they crossed over to Street Fighter Alpha, Guy's Senpūkyaku functioned akin to a Shoryuken, whereas Cody stopped using his Double Kick (aside from the end of his Lv.3 Dead End Irony super in Alpha 3).
• Every Double Dragon beat-em-up since Double Dragon II gave Billy and Jimmy the "Cyclone Spin Kick". Double Dragon III in particular gave them a "Double Cyclone Kick".
  • The Lee brothers did had a spin kick in the first arcade game, but it was not a rotating move like the one in the sequels. Instead, it was a jumping sobat that functioned as a back attack. A similar move was featured in the NES version which replaces the roundhouse in a kick combo when the player reaches the highest level.
  • Randy and Andy, their expies from River City Ransom, also had the Cyclone Kick.
• Wade in Violent Storm. Kyle from the same game do a spinning kick, fitting his Extremity Extremist style.
• Scott's special move from Scott Pilgrim vs The World is an EX Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku.
• Gene of God Hand has this as one of his Roulette Wheel specials.
• Asura from Asura's Wrath has this as a counter move in his special DLC Crossover with Street Fighter.

Fighting Games

• Named from the move in Street Fighter that Ryu and Ken do, also known as the "Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku" ("Tornado Whirlwind Kick").
  • In addition to Ryu and Ken's move, Chun-Li has her "Spinning Bird Kick", which is this, only upside down and with a full split.
  • Sakura also has one, of course, since all her moves are slightly odd copies of Ryu's. Her version (the "Shunpukyaku") is marginally more realistic, since she can't do the "floating-though-the-air" bit and has to jump in an arc instead.
    • Sakura's "Haru Ichiban" is a sweeping hurricane kick (flying vertical hurricane kick in Marvel vs. Capcom). In some earlier versions, it counted as a low attack, making it a very powerful move due to being hard to block.
  • Akuma ("Tatsumaki Zankuu Kyaku") and Sean (Tornado Kick) who also have movesets related to Ryu's, have proper floaty versions.
    • In the VS. Series Akuma's variant is electrified.
    • His second ultra combo in SFIV, the Akumacopter, takes this up to eleven: Akuma kicks his opponent into a dark void, then spins so fast that it looks like he isn't spinning and is surrounded by a white "ring" of kicks. He then flies into the void and stabs his foot into the opponent's chest.
  • Resident Butt Monkey Dan has the Dankuukyaku ("Gale Kick"; also "Dan's Wind Kick"), which travels in a similar arc to Sakura's and is likely the only respectable move Dan has in his repetoire.
  • In Street Fighter IV, Gouken has an even more awesome version where he flies upward.
    • Also Juri second special does this
    • Fei Long as well though his "Shienkyaku" is a very narrow, FLAMING cyclone, which hardly moves.
• Donatello in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters on the SNES has a spinning kick where he spins on his head.
• The main characters in the Hiryu no Ken series (which includes Flying Dragon and Flying Warriors) typically have this kind of kick as an ultimate special attack.
• Liu Kang's "Fatality" in the original Mortal Kombat was a Helicopter Spin Kick, which basically involved him bending at the waist and twisting around to deliver two powerful kicks to the face, followed by an uppercut (which could throw people into the spike pit). While technically possible in Real Life, it telegraphs what you're doing far too much to be of any use.
  • Apparently works well to finish off a dazed enemy that can't protect themselves, though.
• Captain Falcon does this as his "get up and knock everyone away" move in the Smash Bros. series. Slightly justified, given Falcon's style trends toward Muay Thai/Muay Boran, not to mention his absurd strength.
• Hinata Wakaba of Rival Schools has two variants. A regular attack where she's floating forwards and does 3 spinning sidekicks, and a super where she's floating stationary and dishing out a rapid volley of spinning back heel kicks. The super version gets remade into a rising attack in the sequel Project Justice.
  • Hideo, being the series most blatant Shotoclone, also has this move.
• Orchid has a shortened version of this move in Killer Instinct.
• Tekken has its fair share with Kazuya and Heihachi's Spinning Demon.
• Yoshimitsu in both Tekken and Soul Calibur. He gets dizzy if he performs it too many times.

Platformers

• Jak and Daxter can both do a Spin Kick.
• This is one of the R-Trigger tricks in the Sonic Advance series starting in 2.
• Courtney Gears and her backup dancers in Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal.
• Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu has a variation in Jackie Chan's special Tornado Attack, which lets him damage enemies by somersaulting in mid-air.

Role-Playing Games

• In Final Fantasy X, the Jecht Shot seems to involve doing twenty-some revolutions while hovering at the apex of your jump for five seconds. What's interesting is how the shot is used both underwater and on land, and is just as implausible in either scenario.
• Noa's strongest Hyper Arts attack in Legend of Legaia.

Non-Video Game Examples

Anime and Manga

• Suzaku Kururugi's patented Spinzaku kick in Code Geass gracefully covers the Martial Arts Do Not Work That Way page.
  • Spinzaku isn't the only one. Kallen does it too. Bonus points go to the time when she was wearing a bunnygirl outfit and took out a few huge guys with Waif Fu.
    • She also uses it in the final knock-down, drag-out battle between her and Suzaku in the series finale.
• Sanji of One Piece is particularly guilty of this trope.
• Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Akasaka pulls off one of these in his fight against the Yamainu in Matsuribayashi-hen, kicking out a guy who was coming at him from behind and facing front again by the time he lands.
• Nove of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha performs one in her battle against Teana in StrikerS. In her case, not only is she a Magitek Cyborg, but in the DVD version, she's also shown needing the jets of her skates to do the "sail through the air while spinning multiple times" part.
• Naruto's Rock Lee's Leaf Hurricane.
  • Naruto himself has performed spinning kicks...underwater.
• While in the video games the appearance of Blaze Kick is variable, in the anime it's always depicted like this.
  • In the games and anime, Hitmontop is built around this, being designed after a top and Capoeira practitioner. Its Signature Move is Triple Kick.

Film

• Parodied in the beginning of Kung Pow, when the Chosen One jumps in the air and does one of these. Of course, the attack looks like a mannequin spinning while suspended on a wire.

Literature

• Lampshaded in Artemis Fowl: when Butler drops a dockhand by this method, Artemis comments that his sensei must be spinning in her grave. On the other hand, Butler was being particularly showy for a reason.

Live-Action TV

• Tommy Oliver of Power Rangers was introduced this way in the show, as a demonstration of his skill and featured in the opening credits. Although it was a legitimate skill done by Jason David Frank and landing in between the consecutive kicks.
• Super Kakure Dai Shogun can pull this off, too.
• Kamen Rider Double FangJoker's Finishing Move involves him sprouting a blade on his heel and spinning to hit the Dopant.
• Kamen Rider Den-O Sword Form's new Finishing Move exhibited in the Onigashima Battleship movie.

Web Original

• In Homestar Runner, the climax of "Dangeresque" has Homestar held up by a rope that spins him around as he kicks.

Homestar: The pipes are broken!

• Gyro, a villainous spinning speedster from the Global Guardians PBEM Universe uses this sort of attack as a matter of course. He's a trained ballet dancer, so he can keep his leg extended for a long while... and he whips it around his body at almost supersonic speed.

Real Life

• Capoeira practitioners often pull a variant of this, basically Chun-Li's Spinning Bird Kick done with handstands instead of Chi levitation. This was also the way Chun-Li pulled it off during her battle with Vega in the very-slightly more realistic Street Fighter II anime film.
• Certain martial art styles practice kicking with both legs right after each other, rotating 360 degrees in the progress. Most commonly performed with a roundhouse kick and a following backwards roundhouse kick. Crescent kicks are pretty common too.
  • Truth in Television: They also tend to be some of the most powerful kicks widely taught, but are more or less useless in sparring unless they are used as a fake out - because the opponent can see what's happening just as much as the audience can.
• The windmill in breakdancing, which is supposedly adapted from a kung fu move.
• Daniel Graham's Hurricane Kick. Practicality is far less important to tricking than is style and pulling off these sorts of "video game" moves. The "flash kick" in tricking is also similarly derived from Guile / Charlie's move in Street Fighter.