In most action mangas, why does the attacker announce the name of their attack before attacking?

If you ever watch Ayako-Fansubs' NEEDLESS anime, when Setsuna (the striped-panties, supersonic speed, Dean Drive Fox Hound girl) fought her first real battle, and she called out all her attacks as well, they had a little translator's note in that scene.. something along the lines of: "We suspect the point of calling out your attacks when you're moving faster than the speed of sound."

i just suspected that calling your attacks adds massive damage.. then i found a term used in Japanese martial arts: KIAI. it is an example of many types of battle cry in any other culture.. in the Japanese arts of war, 'kiai' or the battle cry is usually linked to an inner gathering of energy released in a single explosive focus of will.

maybe this type of technique is alien to those who's not familiar with Japanese culture.. but this is their rules of how to be a cool fighter.. ^_^

It's been explained like this in a few animes I've seen. One was Street Fighter and I think they say this in Bleach too. To truly understand the techniques and get the full power of the attack you have to know the name of the attack. So when you speak the name of the attack you get the peak performance out of the attack.

Really though its just for us readers/watchers to know the name of the attacks. It would be boring to look at blank panels of attacks.

I only watch anime, and don't read the manga, but I get what your saying...

The reason they do this (In my opinion) is because it really gets you familiar with the attacks. If the character didn't shout them, you really wouldn't remember them. Not to mention, the name yelling can become somewhat of a catchphrase. I mean cmon now... if you've watched/read Naruto, don't tell me you arent amused by yelling "rasengan" or "chidori"

And hell, if my opponent never reacted to the move I yelled out, I'd be yelling out my strategy all fight too. XD