Kick Chick

She's got legs! She also knows how to use them.

"Chun-Li's always kickin', kickin' is for girls

I bet you Chun-Li kicks 'cause Chun-Li can't do curls"
—"Balrog 24/7", Man Factory

A character (Always Female, hence the name) who fights almost entirely with kicks for the purpose of showing off her legs. She may occasionally throw a punch, but kicking is her primary means of offense. Why do some fighters do this? Perhaps it's because kicks have better range, or feet with shoes are less sensitive to pain than bare hands, or they have stronger legs than arms. However, in her case it's partly due to the Rule of Sexy.

In reality, women do generally have much stronger lower bodies than upper bodies, which means that they're naturally more inclined to use kicks than punches. Also, as the first instinct of any attacker is to bind or otherwise incapacitate the arms (and leave the legs relatively free so that you don't have to carry her), it's quite practical to deal damage with your means of locomotion. And every girl knows the classic "kick 'em in the nuts" move for self-defense—it works on women too, by the way.

Primarily an Action Girl trope. A sub-trope of Extremity Extremist, one that requires the character is female, that her fighting style is almost entirely kicks, and she has an essence of Fan Service to her kicking as well. Sometimes (but not always) have strapping lower bodies as a result of the reliance on and muscular development of their legs. See also Waif Fu, and contrast White Magician Girl. Compare Roundhouse Kick.

Examples of Kick Chick include:

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Anime & Manga

  • Former Shinigami Lieutenant Mashiro Kuna from Bleach has kicks so powerful a single "Mashiro Kiiiick!" can destroy a gigantic Hollow. When going berserk through Hollowfication in "Turn Back The Pendulum", Captain Shinji Hirako had to block her kicks with his sword, which didn't even scratch her shoes.
  • Crystal from the Pokémon Special manga primarily used kicks to throw her Pokeballs instead of using her hands. This was due to at one time being unable to use her arms and hands for the task.
  • Kisara Nanjo from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple is trained in Tae Kwon Do, a kick-heavy fighting style.
  • Inner Moka from Rosario+Vampire.
  • Lenalee Lee of D.Gray-Man fights exclusively with kicks, due to her Empathic Weapon being a pair of supernaturally empowered boots.
  • Nove of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. While she will occassionally use punches, most of her attacks are kicks. This is probably done to contrast her to the mostly punching Subaru, who is the Abel to her Cain.
  • Several female characters from One Piece. CP9 member Kalifa, anime-only character Arabelle, and the Warlord of the Sea Boa Hancock.
    • Another example will be the Okama Kenpo and the Newkama Kenpo, two martial arts practiced by men with hearts of women (and some women with hearts of men, probably) which rely heavely on kicks.
  • Nakajima Sanae from Sumomomo Momomo.
  • Shinatsu Azuki from Maken-ki!.
  • Esmeralda from ADAMAS.
  • Abe Rio from B-Reaction.
  • Suzumebachi from Maoh Juvenile Remix.
  • Valerie from Saga Of Queen Knight.
  • Imawano Shizuru from Ga-Rei.
    • Urushiba Rinka of Tokyo ESP. Aside from being kick chicks, Shizuru and Rinka are nearly identical in appearance for some reason.
  • Angel Densetsu's Ryoko's favorite move is a high kick, though it's far from her only attack.
  • Umineko no Naku Koro ni has Gaap spin-kicking at George with Combat Stilettos.
  • In the Trigun movie, Amelia kicks the crap out of two bounty hunters to the point that they try to grab her legs to stop her. Later, though, like most characters in the series, she mostly uses her gun.
  • Ringo in Banana no Nana has, for lack of a better word, the superpower of incredibly strong legs. This results in fast running, high jumps, and, of course, this trope, typically applied directly to the face at maximum power.
  • In Darker than Black spin-off manga Shikkoku no Hana, a highschool girl named Tsukimori Azusa has gained contractor ability in a form of super strong legs. She proceeded to leap through city blocks In a Single Bound and kick people apart.
  • Brillheart from Defense Devil.
  • Yaida Kirin from Dragon's Heaven.
  • Sailor Moon's Sailor Moon Kick. More prominently, Sailor Venus's Sailor V Kick, which she employed quite often in the manga.
  • Ayane Mitsui from Ayane-chan's High Kick.
  • Elenore Baker from Madlax (especailly ep. 6 and 24).
  • Haruka from Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel Finishing Moves the Angel Tornado.
  • Subverted in Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? you'd expect Mystletainn Kick to be well a kick but...

Anyone being hit with it: "THAT'S NOT A KICK!!!!!


Comics


Film

  • High-Kick Girl. She... kicks high.
  • Zen in Chocolate.
  • Paula Garces in Clockstoppers as Francesca kicks Dr Dopler right in the face, and it has a lot more effect than hitting him - turns out she knows ballet. It wouldn't be worthwhile mentioning if they didn't threaten him with doing it again.
  • B-movie queen Cynthia Rothrock has made her career around flipping about and kicking bad guys.


Literature

  • Kylaia Al Jmaa from Tamora Pierce's Tortall Universe short story Student of Ostriches. She starts developing her self-taught fighting style by watching ostriches kicking a wild dog (although she does develop and use techniques other than kicks).
  • Ninette from Reserved For The Cat borders on this when she kicks an attacker into a wall. Justifiable because ballet requires both strong legs and precise movements with them.
  • Kate Daniels prefers to fight with a saber most of the time, but when she and the local head Werelion engage in some Good Old Fisticuffs, she really prefers kicking because it's the only thing she's got that can put a dent in his regeneration.
  • The Honored Matres in the Dune universe have this as their signature style of unarmed combat, and have developed it to the point where a single kick can be instantly lethal. They are also, for reasons connected with specific training and possibly selective breeding, extremely fast. Some of the best Bene Gesserit adepts are a match for them, but that's about it.


Live Action TV

  • Kat in Power Rangers Turbo.
  • In Batman, Batgirl (played by trained ballerina Yvonne Craig) never threw punches, relying on kicks and the occasional Improvised Weapon.
  • Lori from Big Wolf on Campus took kickboxing so that was how she usually fought.
  • When Seven of Nine is kidnapped to fight in a gladiatorial arena in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Tsunkatse", her fighting style included rather more kicks than most of the other combatants seen on-screen.
  • In Alias, Sydney Bristow is primarily a kickboxer.


Professional Wrestling

  • One of WWE wrestler Trish Stratus' finishers was a roundhouse kick dubbed the Chick Kick.
    • And when Mickie James was playing her fan/stalker and was copying all of her moves, she called it the Mick Kick.
      • The Long Kiss Goodnight finisher also used by Mickie James was a vicious spin kick to the back of the head
  • In All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling, Toshiyo Yamada and Yumiko Hotta used a lot of kicks.
  • Stacy Keibler.
  • Joshi wrestler Kana. Like Yumiko Hotta, she's also known for being extremely stiff with them.


Video Games

  • The possible Trope Codifier: Chun-Li from the Street Fighter games, pictured above.
  • Sarah Bryant from Virtua Fighter. Included in her arsenal are the knee, jumping knee, jumping spin kick, legsweep, flamengo stance kicks, kickflip, and the beat gatling throw.
    • In addition of Sarah, Pai-Chan mainly uses kicking attacks in the anime adaption of the game. However, the bad guys catch up with her fighting style, and she's ended up useless in any non-Mooks battle.
      • More exactly, Pai's Enseiken fighting style is said in-TV series to be useless in some battle conditions. The Genre Savvy Big Bad, Liu Kowloon is also a martial artist so knows about this very well—so often sends out non-Mooks that are specially trained into creating said conditions and neutralising Pai so they can bring her back to him (there's even a whole scene in the beginning in which Kowloon explains this to Pai). Said conditions don't apply in the games for obvious reasons, so she retains her fighting competence.
  • Jam from Guilty Gear.
  • Wakaba from Suikoden II does this, and her personal weapon is a pair of shin guards to protect her legs.
  • Carmelita Fox has this in the third Sly Cooper game as a secondary attack option when enemies get too close for her to effectively employ her shock pistol. Her roundhouse kick is powerful enough to send mooks twice her size flying several feet.
  • Chie from Persona 4 lives this trope. Taking out items is the only thing she'll do with her hands, but beyond that, attacking, invocation, or even defending are all done with her legs.
  • In the character creation mode for Soulcalibur III, the Grieve Edge weapon is essentially a metal shoe with a blade attached to it. Although none of the characters in the main storyline use it, the busty shopkeeper Valeria is an unlockable character who uses this weapon.
  • Lucia from the third Final Fight game almost exclusively uses kicks.
  • Nayuki Minase (awake) from Eternal Fighter Zero fights exclusively with kicks, given that she's the captain of the school's track team.
  • Sheva of Resident Evil 5 mainly uses kicks as her physical attacks, in contrast to Chris, who uses his ridiculously large arms for all his melee moves.
    • Also to contrast Chris, Jill uses kick physicals but are straighter then Sheva's acrobatics.
  • May Lee from The King of Fighters. Justified Trope: she's a Taekwondo practitioner, so her instructor and idol Kim Kaphwan is as much of an Extremity Extremist as she is.
    • Ditto Chae Lim, of KOF's Spin-Off Alternate Continuity Maximum Impact. As a matter of fact, she fights so much like Kim, that she might as well be his Distaff Counterpart. When Kim appeared in the sequel, they had to readjust her moves so that she fought at least a little differently from her teacher.
    • And before either of them was King, who despite being a kickboxer, almost never uses her arms for attacking. She's so thoroughly a Kick Chick that she even throws out her Ki Attacks with her legs!
      • Did everyone forget the lovely Momoko who combines this with Foot Focus?
  • Kaori Yanase from Variable Geo is another Taekwon user. Like King, she also throws out her Ki Attacks through her legs.
  • Two girls from Arcana Heart fight with kick based styles : Tsuzura Saki and Inuwaka Akane. While Saki has some punches in her arsenal, Akane relies on kicks exclusively.
  • Garnet from The Rumble Fish is a sexy nurse who fights only with kicks.
  • Eve from Daemon Bride is a miniskirted dominatrix rock singer who fights by kicking with blades on her boots. She throws Ki Attacks from her legs as well. Those blades were actually the Demon she made contract with and she abuses him like a dominatrix, said Demon (Beelzebub) doesn't seem to mind.
  • Liu Yungmie from Fighter's History Dynamite is probably the very first Fighting Game chick to kick with punch buttons, block with her legs, throw opponents with her legs, and send out Ki Attacks with her legs.
  • Kurokishi from Denjin Makai series.
  • Cisty from Dungeon Magic or Lightbringer depending on where you live.
  • Arcia Rinslet from Chaos Legion.
  • In the second Nicktoons Unite! game, Sam Manson primary uses kicks, as opposed to Danny, who prefers punches.
  • Kohak from Tales of Hearts, also known as "dat ass".
  • Karin from Enchanted Arms - her weapons are boots, and her techniques are either kicks, water elemental attacks, or healing skills.
  • Iji uses either her BFG or her cybernetically-enhanced legs. She can kick enemy soldiers across the room.
  • The Williams sisters from Tekken do quite a bit of damage with their high-heeled kicks, but the real damage is done when they grab the opponent and start breaking bones.
    • If you're not spinning together a near-endless series of sweeping Capoeira kicks from Christie Monteiro, you're doing it wrong.
  • Maria from Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time.
    • From the same game, Mirage Koas.
  • The Nekomata in the Disgaea series fight almost exclusively with kicks, only using their hands to deliver Ki Attacks in most of the games.
  • Rouge the Bat in Sonic Adventure Series 2 uses attacks with kicks rather than punching. It becomes even more evident in Sonic Battle where her entire fighting style is centered around kicks that make her attacks both powerful and fast.
  • Wind goddess Fuuka from Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns. The only available weapon type she can use is a set of boots, so she has little choice but to use her feet as weapons.
  • Prier from La Pucelle, to the extent she neglects to use (for the most part) the rod she's TRAINED how to fight with. Of course, with legs like this...
  • Bayonetta's default fighting style combines this with Guns Akimbo, although her kicks also fire guns in the enemy's face.
  • Homura Akai of Tokimeki Memorial 2, whose signature attacks are the "Dragon Kick" and the "Kaichou Kick" (Student Council President Kick), complete with Calling Your Attacks.
  • Leggy school nurse Kyoko Minazuki from Rival Schools.
  • Katt's fused form from Breath of Fire II trades away her Simple Staff in favor of kicking enemies to death.
  • Sun Sun Xiang in Dynasty Warriors 7. Her Limit Break even involves her stretching her bow using her legs.
  • Renamon, though only theoretically female, in Digimon Rumble Arena. Aside from her Diamond Storm special, all of her attacks are kicks.
  • Natasha from Rusty Hearts uses flip-heavy kicks along with guns.


Visual Novels

  • Tomoyo and Kyou from Clannad have both dealt great physical harm to Sunohara using their kicks. Tomoyo has been known to deal a combo attack for over 100 kicks to Sunohara before he even hit the ground.


Web Original

  • Sasha from Greek Ninja, when not using her katana, resorts to kicks.
  • Melanie Malachite and Neo from RWBY. As of V5, Yang seems to be adding some Kick Chick moves to her fighting style, although she remains primarily a brawler.


Western Animation

  • To an extent, Blackarachnia from Beast Wars. In her first appearance, she let Cheetor shoot away all her ranged weapons as he charged at her, only to stick her foot out and kick him to the ground. Later, she KO'ed a mode locked Dinobot by kicking him in the face repeatedly. Though she did not actually have hands for much of her life.
  • Careful viewers will note that in Justice League Unlimited, Black Canary uses her legs way more than her fists when fighting. Not that she can't punch - she just uses sweeps and kicks noticeably more.
  • Jade of Jackie Chan Adventures seems to have a penchant for launching into useless flying kick attacks and using her feet in combat.
  • Leela in Futurama has a pretty hard punch, but she uses kicks a lot more. "Hiiiii-YA!"
  • Mercy Graves from Superman: The Animated Series almost exclusively uses high kicks, except for her gun. She also wears a short minidress which almost always gives the viewer a great view of her legs even when she isn't fighting. No Panty Shots, though.
  • From the The Looney Tunes Show episode "Eligible Bachelors", Granny as a spy during World War II was a Kick Chick, throwing exactly one punch during her flashback, performing kicks the rest of the time.
  • In Teen Titans Go! Raven becomes this under the alias of "Lady Legasus".


Other

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