A Japanese Visual Arts Trope. Rather than using mops, the characters take a wet towel in their hands, put it against the floor, and run back and forth putting pressure on it. Looks unusual to Westerners in that their backs are straight while their legs are running; most Westerners would either be on their knees scrubbing, or use a mop.
Often a Genki Girl or other energetic character is shown running insanely fast while doing this.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Ah! My Goddess: Keiichi is forced to do this to pay for his room and board to a Buddhist monk in the anime.
- AKB49 – Renai Kinshi Jourei: Subverted. Minori picks up a wet rag and tries to use it to help Sakura clean the stage, but she stops him.
- Angel Beats!: During Operation High Tension, Takamatsu, Noda, Hinata, and Otonashi reject using mops and opt to use dust clothes to clean and race around the hallways.
- Bleach: Filler episode 312 has Soi Fon doing this—but because she's Soi Fon, the "sprint" turns into The Flash-style superspeed.
- Digimon Adventure: Patamon and Takeru do this when they help clean Piccolomon's house.
- Elfen Lied: Lucy (as Nyu) does this in the anime. In the OVA, Nana tries this, but trips and loses her arms.
- Hanasaku Iroha: Ohana has to do this. And so did her grandmother Sui during the latter's younger years.
- Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Maihitoyo: Akane is spotted doing this at one point (nearly running over Shimon in the process).
- Love Hina: Scrubbing the floor quickly is part of Motoko's efforts to "become a normal woman" after she (temporarily) abandons bushido.
- X/1999: Sorata is shown cleaning his temple this way.
Films — Animated
- From Up on Poppy Hill: During the remodeling of Quartier Latin, a few background characters are seen doing this.
- My Neighbor Totoro: A montage shows the two girls scrubbing by running with a towel placed on the floor.
- Spirited Away: This is how the bathhouse workers clean. To demonstrate Chihiro/Sen's status as the new girl, she's shown lagging behind as the rest of the workers sprint past her twice.
Films — Live-Action
- Hausu: Sweet cleans the floors this way as a kind gesture to the infirmed spinster who lives in the titular house. It does nothing to save her. The house eats her by smothering her under futons in the linen closet.
Live-Action TV
- Avataro Sentai Donbrothers: Sonoshi threatens the trio with eternal floor-cleaning duty and has an Imagine Spot of the tree scrubbing the Layer's many floors by hand while rushing around.
- Juken Sentai Gekiranger: Done by Jan as a form of training using weighted cloths in an early episode.
Video Games
- Bakeru: It's used offensively by a type of enemy that will charge like this at the player, all the while scrubbing the floor.
- Kirby's Dream Land 3: Nago can do this (by using Kirby as the towel) with the Clean ability. This attack can also be done in Kirby Star Allies.
Real Life
- Recruits going through basic training in the United States Marine Corps use this in place of mops to clean the floor of their squad bays each morning. This is done for a few reasons: it builds discipline, it acts as a form of exercise, and it actually gets the job done faster than a mop and bucket.
- Many martial arts academies, particularly karate dojos, also do this for the same reasons.
