Hara-Kiri

A Hara-Kiri is a finisher introduced in Mortal Kombat: Deception and Mortal Kombat 11.

Overview

A Hara-Kiri is an alternate finisher where the losing player would cause their own death by using an input combination similar to performing a Fatality. While the player who's victorious will still win, the Hara-Kiri serves as a method of the losing player to be able to end the match on their terms instead of allowing the winning player the opportunity to finish them off. Hara-Kiri, in Japanese, (腹切) literally means "disembowelment."

Trivia

• Kenshi is the only character in Mortal Kombat: Deception who performs the traditional Hara-Kiri which involves self-disembowelment; while a Hara-Kiri is typically performed with a Tanto, Kenshi will use Sento to perform the Hara-Kiri.

• While the Hara-Kiri was introduced in Mortal Kombat: Deception, there has been suicide-based finishers in other games in the Mortal Kombat series. A few examples of suicide based finishers include; Cyrax's "Self Destruct" Fatality in Mortal Kombat 3 (and all ports) has Cyrax enter a code into his arm panel and subsequently explode, killing both fighters. One of Raiden's Fatalities in Deception has him releasing a ball of energy and throwing it at his opponent resulting in both of them exploding from the energy burst. Cyber Sub-Zero has a Fatality where he enters a code into his arm panel and jumps onto his opponent and grab them, the two freeze and quickly burst into shards of ice. In Mortal Kombat X, Predator has a Brutality where he presses a button on his arm panel before laughing with a timer being heard, ending with both fighters exploding.
• In Mortal Kombat X, Kotal Kahn has a Brutality titled Offering, which has the hallmarks of a Hara-Kiri. In it, Kotal does not harm his opponent in any way but will rather commit suicide by cutting his upper torso open, granting victory to his opponent.

Gallery

Kenshi performing the traditional Hara-Kiri.

Hotaru pulling his own head and spine off.

Mileena stabbing herself in the head with Sais.

Havik pulls off his own head and shows it to the player.

Sub-Zero freezes himself before shattering onto the ground.

Nightwolf killing himself with his own tomahawk.