Lightning Wings

**Lightning Wings** (桐覇とうは 光翼刃こうよくじん, **Tōwa Kōyokujin**?, lit. *Touwa Light Blade*) is one of Genjuro Kibagami's special signature movements in the Samurai Shodown series since his debut on *Samurai Shodown II*.

## Description

When the command in performed Genjuro makes a turn holding his sword, crouches down and gets up fast to do a jump, while he do a slash attack. The swing of his sword causes a tail of pink energy to appear, including a figure that resembles the head of a bird related to the chinese phoenix *Hō-ō* (鳳凰). After reaching a certain height with his attack, Genjuro takes a front flip to be able to land back on the ground.

From *Samurai Shodown III* onwards the head of the phoenix was removed from the Lightning Wings animation. Now the pink energy tail is wider, and the face of a woman is now displayed in such energy tail. Because of this the kanjis 桐覇 where dropped from the official lists of special moves, preserving only the kanjis 光翼刃.

In *Samurai Shodown IV* and the 2019 self-titled game the Lightning Wings special move can be enhanced when the Rage Gauge is full, or if Rage Explosion is active. When hit successfully, after the first slash Genjuro makes another slash in the air, and then he finishes off with a third slash that quickly directs the opponent towards the ground, whipping him/her. In *Amakusa's Revenge* the maximum number of hits are 10, inflicting 15% damage, and for *Samurai Shodown 2019* the number of hits are 9 with an approximate 14% damage.

For *Samurai Shodown V* (including the updates *Special* and *Perfect*) this special move had some adjustments. When using Light or Medium Slash Genjuro makes a short jump that moves him forward a little. If the player uses Strong Slash Genjuro will do such jump but this time the forward progress will be longer, being able to jump over opponents that are standing on the ground. This causes Lightning Wings to be unable to hit most of the opponents (except tall characters like Kusaregedo, Kyoshiro, Gaira, and Liu Yunfei). This time the special move is not enhanced by Rage Gauge or Rage Explosion.

In games like *Samurai Shodown VI*, *SNK vs Capcom: SVC Chaos*, and *NeoGeo Battle Coliseum*, the performance is the same as *Samurai Shodown III*. In the late 2 titles the players needs to press the Punch buttons (weak or strong) to do Lightning Wings.

## Tips and strategies

* Lightning Wings is able to mixed with some cancelable basic attacks like Medium Slash or Kick (when press while standing Genjuro make 3 kicks, and the second one is cancelable).
* Similar to most of the classic "Dragon Punch" attacks, this special move is able to catch opponents on-air.
* Right when performing Genjuro has few animations that provide him invulnerability, being unable to be hitted by any attack by the opponent.
* When Genjuro makes the jump and while landing the speed is very slow. So, if the opponent blocked the attack he/she will be able to punish the player on air or waiting for him before land on the ground.

Lightning Wings on *Samurai Shodown II*The "enhanced" version from *Samurai Shodown IV* providing extra hits.*SamSho V Special*. If the rival's character is not tall enough the attack will be not effective.Animation from *Samurai Shodown (2019)*.