An attack with some resemblance to a Macross Missile Massacre. Unlike normal shrapnel, which expands out in all directions, reverse shrapnel focuses its explosive, glowy death into a protective ring or sphere around the character who brought it forth, with the fragments then homing in on nearby enemies. It could be floating weapons, shards of Pure Energy, or other kinds of fragments.
Contrast Flechette Storm, where the pointy things go for a target, and Orbiting Particle Shield, where the pointy things circle the character as defence.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Bleach:
- Captain Byakuya's shikai technique can be interpreted as a LITERALLY reverse shrapnel: his sword breaks down into flecks of metal which may surround his opponent and cut him to death with millions of tiny pink bits of sword. (His Bankai conjures a couple dozen giant swords that each shatter into millions of tiny blades.)
- The Bount Gō Koga has an Empathic Weapon named Dalk which takes the form of a metal, insect-like creature. It can separate into hundreds of small spheres and levitate through the air to home in on the opponent.
- In Dragon Ball Z, Piccolo uses this against Android 17, firing off several ki blasts until he has the cyborg trapped in the ki-ball variant of a minefield. He then controls the ki blasts to converge onto 17 all at once.
- From Lyrical Nanoha, we have Fate's Photon/Plasma Lancer, and Chrono's Stinger Blade. Both spells produces blades of energy that float around their target for a moment before launching.
- The spell 'Bloody Daggers' used by the Book of Darkness is a closer fit, and she can also do a nasty alternate version where the ring of doom appears around the enemy and implodes instead.
- The Sniper in YuYu Hakusho turned leaves and a cutlery set into reverse shrapnel.
- In Crest of the Stars, the antimatter-filled mines used by the Abh can be utilized this way. Or they can simply be launched in a Macross Missile Massacre.
- Magi: Labyrinth of Magic: Al-Flash, Apollonius's Dark Metal Vessel, is a variation. It takes the form of large black beads which can separate into smaller beads that float around Apollonius or his opponent. However, the beads fire blasts of light rather than physically attack the enemy.
Tabletop Games
- Earthdawn: The Earth Daggers spell summons a volley of pointy crystal daggers, which home in unerringly on the target.
- So many Dungeons & Dragons spells; the classic one is Melf's Minute Meteors (which conjures a number of flaming rocks around the spellcaster, which can then be hurled at enemies).
Video Games
- Castlevania:
- Castlevania: Lament of Innocence: Joachim is telekinetic, and does a remarkable "Weedwacker of Death" impression with his five swords.
- Pokémon: Razor Leaf works like this, but with leaves. They hover around the Pokémon before flinging. Same with Flame Wheel (though with fire).
- Valkyrie Profile: Icicle Edge, Fire Lance, Dark Savior, Crystal Strike, and Nibelung Valesti all do this with different objects or elemental forces.
- Suikoden II: Jowy's Hungry Friend spell does this with many, many, swords.
- Metroid:
- Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: The Dark Beam this effect on targets when charged, looking like ice shrapnels (it makes sense, since the beam was programmed with the Ice Beam from the first Prime as a basis).
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption: Ice missiles act like this, when they freeze something sharp ice crystals from in a sphere then snap onto the target.
- Grandia II: The Crackle spell is kind of like this. Thousands of little icicles shoot up from the ground into the enemy, then a pause, then one massive icicle pierces them through entirely. Not floating, but still lots of little things stabbing from all directions.
- Mega Man:
- Mega Man (Classic) loves these. Stone Man's Power Stone is a good example, as is any shield weapon, to an extent. They tend to be hard to aim.
- Mega Man 7: Junk Shield can be fired in multiple directions at once. The best example would be the Water Shield; it creates eight water orbs which can then be fired out in a spiral pattern.
- Mega Man 8: The Final Boss has one of these attacks as well.
- Rockman 4 Minus ∞, a ROM Hack, has the Hell Wheel, a buffed version of the Skull Barrier which propels Mega Man forward when it is activated and does not disappear after hitting an enemy.
- Mega Man Legends 2: The first form of the final boss does this. Except it explodes on contact.
- Xenogears: Elly's Aerods attack is technically an Energy Weapon, but otherwise fits this trope to a T.
- Clive Barker's Undying: The Skull Storm spell causes cackling, burning skulls to burst out of the ground one by one and hover in front of you until you let them all go flying off to explode on their target.
- Touhou Project: Many danmaku barrages expand radially before converging on the player.
- Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening's Vergil does this as Nelo Angelo during the final showdown with Dante in Devil May Cry 1, often summoning them around Dante before cutting loose. It is by far his deadliest attack.
- Nero in DMC4 gains a similar ability after Yamato comes into his possession — the magical blades are fired at the enemy(ies) whenever Nero shoots with his gun Blue Rose.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Ghirahim will occasionally summon rhomboid blades in a ring around himself, which then fly toward Link one at a time and must be deflected or dodged. Later, he creates a similar ring around Link himself, who must use the right kind of Spin Attack to take them all out or they'll simultaneously converge on him.
- Judge Dredd for the SNES has one: Dredd receives one of these in the last level, but it's made up of Dark Judges and malevolent.
- Fable II: The Magic Swords spell works like this: when cast, it summons blades that either individually stab the nearest targets, or all home in on one target.
- Magical Battle Arena: Ruru's super move, where she creates a protective ring of giant drill missles around her before launching them in every direction.
- Neverwinter Nights 2: The Sword of Gith pretty much lets you do this, with many of its abilities involving breaking into tiny, flying, silver shards that tear your enemies apart.
- Star Control: Kohr-Ah Marauders send out rotating blades that can do this—but it takes some skill to position them well.
- Shadow the Hedgehog: Black Doom does this. Even combined with flame breath and beam shooters, it's not enough to stop Shadow.
- Fate/stay night: Archer is, of course, the master of the technique. Both Archers, really. Seeing as Gil's is made of real swords and Archer's is all projected.
- Final Fantasy IV: Golbez's "Genesis Rock" attack works like this using boulders in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
- Trials of Mana has the basic earth element spell Diamond Shards which causes shards of diamond to rip out of the ground and spin around for a few seconds before homing in on, and impaling, the target. If cast on multiple targets, instead of shards appearing out of the ground, huge diamonds will appear above each target and be shattered by a shockwave before impaling their respective targets.
- League of Legends:
- Talon's ultimate ability is sending out a ring of shurikens that stay in position independent of his movement. After a few seconds, they home back in on Talon himself or into a single target he damaged with an auto attack or Noxian Diplomacy (his Q skill), slicing anyone in between them to ribbons.
- Cave Story has this in the form of the Bubbler; at level 3 it can be used to create a shield of bubbles around you, which will lightly damage anything it touches. Also the Whimsical Star item to a much lesser extent.
- Rogue Squadron: Cluster Missiles act like this once the homing technology is picked up. Since each submissile can track a different target, these become ideal for taking out entire fighter squadrons in a single shot.
- Bounty of One: The Undertaker has an attack where he emits multiple waves of damaging soul orbs that travel outwards. Halfway through, it turns into Orbiting Particle Shield when they stop moving outward and start orbiting him for a few seconds, before he reverses the attack and pulls them back into himself.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Katara creates a cloud of floating ice spears around her mother's killer, readying herself to strike - but doesn't go through with it.
- The Bad Future episode of Gargoyles has this during the Goliath vs. Xanatos VR battle, with an added helping of Pulling Himself Together.