Top 10 Most Powerful Anime Attacks Only Used Once

“Yu Yu Hakusho” (1992-94) Granted if there ever was a time for Kurama to pull a brand new insta-kill seed out of the bag, it would have been the time when he was getting his body blown to pieces by Karasu’s endless parade of spirit energy bombs. While he’s put through the absolute wringer, the sly fox of Team Urameshi isn’t one to give up without unleashing every last gardening product of death at his disposal. Unluckily for Karasu he got stuck with a rather aggressive plant that was way too eager to drain him of his blood.

“Ultimate Muscle” (2002-04) You can’t end the finale of a tournament arc with a lacklustre move, especially if its intergalactic wrestling! Despite getting both his arms and most of his spirit broken by the seemingly superior skill of Kevin Mask, Kid Muscle finds a way to fight back. Managing to reset his ligaments, he successfully pushes his power of Ultimate Muscle further than ever before, granting him the strength to reverse Kevin’s Big Ben Bash, and turn it into a brand new attack that sends the pair of them hurtling into the mat below, concluding the tournament with one hell of a smash.

#8: Final Stage

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“The Big O” (1999-2003) Not that a Mega Deus isn’t armed to the teeth, but this sudden shift takes the cake in terms of firepower. As the battle with Alex Rosewater and Big Fau continues, Roger Smith finds an unexpected trump card in the form of Dorothy, who after linking herself up with Big O’s mainframe, is able to access its ultimate form, which just so happens to turn the death machine into a giant gun, one capable of blasting away is brethren with a single push of a button. Now that’s some top notch negotiating.

“One Piece” (1999-) It’s fair to say that Ace exhausted every option he had during his fight against Blackbeard, exploiting the full force of the Flare Flare Fruit in the hopes of burning away the traitorous former member of Whitebeard’s crew. Who knows, maybe if he started with unleashing this little supernova, the results would be different. After learning the hard way that the rest of his flames aren’t enough to incinerate Teach, Ace goes all out by summoning a giant fireball that nearly consumed an entire island. Just a shame it wasn’t quite as potent as the Dark Dark Fruit.

#6: Dark Young

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“Overlord” (2015-18) We all know that the Sorcerer King has no end of top tier spells under his robe, ones that have wiped out monsters and men instantly, combined with villain mentality and meticulous planning, Ainz Ooal Gown was able to subjugate whole empires to his will. Though after seeing him unleash giant, Lovecraftian tentacle goat demons, we’re left wondering why he even had to bother with all the scheming in the first place. If you can sacrifice seventy thousand of your enemies in order to summon these nightmares on a dime, you’ve pretty much won the game already.

“My Hero Academia” (2016-) We can only imagine how strong this attack was back when All Might was in its prime, because even in his weakened state with his Quirk on the verge of dying out, the Symbol of Peace was able to unleash a punch of such force and magnitude that it was able to crush the likes of his nemesis All for One, despite their staggering difference in strength. Given how the blow burned out all that was left of One for All, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see All Might use this technique ever again, Deku on the other hand…

#4: Zero Hand

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“Hunter x Hunter” (2011-14) There’s never been a greater testament to the strength of the Chimera Ant King than the fact he survived THIS attack. As the clash between Netero and Meruem continues to escalate, the veteran Hunter is left with no choice but unleash the deadliest Nen ability at his disposal – crafting a construct that imprisons his foe before unleashing a blast with the force of a star. Had he used this technique on any other Ant, they wouldn’t have lived to see a new dawn, though even then the drawbacks for such a move are so astronomical its hard to say whether or not the geezer would have had it in him to perform the Zero Hand a second time.

#3: Final Kamehameha

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“Dragon Ball Super” (2015-18) We already knew Vegito was a beast, but then we saw him go Super Saiyan Blue. Due to the time restraints of the fusion earrings, we were never going to get to see this Saiyan fully flaunt his stuff, but at least he made up for it during his confrontation with Fusion Zamasu by unleashing a combination of both the Kamehameha and the Final Flash, which by itself should have been a game ender for the deity, but then that stupid immortality trope had to come into play and spoil the fun!

“Bleach” (2004-12) Given his ascension to godhood following his merger with the Hogyoku, it was going to take something insanely powerful to stop Aizen by this point. Thankfully, Ichigo had just the thing on standby – one hell of a deus ex machina known as the Final Getsuga Tensho. By throwing his own Shinigami powers on the line, Ichigo was able to turn himself into a weapon capable of one-shotting the butterfly of death with a single sword swipe, cleaving both his tyrannical plans and his mullet in half. Considering there’s no redos on a move like that, we’re just glad Ichigo landed the hit!

#1: Super Tengen Toppa Giga Drill Break

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“Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Lights in the Sky are Stars” (2009) It’s the technique that saved the cosmos from annihilation, the drill that broke through stagnation personified and forged a new future for humanity and all other sentient life. Pretty sure you can only pull that shit off once. As the battle with the Anti-Spiral reaches its apex, Team Dai-Gurren pull out all the stops to secure victory, and in this instance that happens to involve forging a drill large than whole galaxies in order to tear right through the walking extinction event with one hell of a bang.