Dangerously-Short Skirt



"Jerry Lawler: "Whoever she is, I like what she's not wearing!" Coach: "...the crowd seems delighted." Jim Ross: "That woman can fight!""

- Mickie James debuts, Monday Night Raw

A Fan Service trope, where Action Girls wear short, above-the-knees skirts.

This is a great way to show off her long legs, but the anticipation of getting an eyeful underneath is also welcomed, despite the bruises that might come from trying to sneak a peek. Sometimes, it doesn't have to be a skirt -- it could be a minidress, a miniskirt, or a torn-apart garment that conveniently serves as a skirt. In addition, getting a Panty Shot isn't always guaranteed, but it can compensate by including Zettai Ryouiki, Stocking Filler or Thigh-High Boots, to further emphasize the legs.

A skirt qualifies as dangerously short if it's high above the knees, prone to swirling aside (despite physics saying otherwise) and appears tight enough to ride up for a Panty Shot. Being an Action Girl is an added bonus, and a common subversion is to have her as a Faux Action Girl or a Neutral Female.

This trope does make a tiny bit of sense: if you're wearing a tight skirt into combat, you'd want it to be pretty short. The longer it is, the more it'll restrict your leg movements. However, wearing a looser, longer skirt would work just as well. Or wearing, ya know, pants. Or shorts.

Sub-Trope of She's Got Legs, Stocking Filler and Zettai Ryouiki.

No Real Life Examples, Please

Anime and Manga

 * Yuri Nakamura, Kanade Tachibana, Shiina and Yui from Angel Beats
 * Beet the Vandel Buster has Milfa wears micro-miniskirts, Poala as well.
 * This regularly shows up in Bleach:
 * Tier Harribel, after she goes One-Winged Angel, dons a more stripperific outfit which leads this.
 * Loly Aivirrne qualifies by wearing a schoolgirl-themed skirt despite being an Arrancar.
 * Rangiku Matsumoto enjoys wearing one when she's in the human world.
 * Lisa Yadomaru wore both a ruffled miniskirt as a lieutenant, and a schoolgirl skirt as a Visored. She's fought in both outfits.
 * Riruka Dokugamine sports a minidress, but surprised fans (who thought of her as a Faux Action Girl) by being a gun-toting Combat Pragmatist.
 * Ying and Yang, the Bodyguard Babes of Kusaka in the second movie, wear and fight in schoolgirl-type skirts.
 * Rukia Kuchiki one kicked Shrieker in the jaw while wearing a school uniform. The skirts' length is even lampshaded by Kon when he looks up at her after she kicks him to the ground.
 * Orihime Inoue wears one in the tenth opening theme song, called Shojo S. She also wears a schoolgirl uniform, complete with Zettai Ryouiki following the Time Skip, but when she tried to fight, she was taken by surprise and ultimately lost.
 * Cirucci Sanderwicci wears a gothic lolita-style dress. Pesche Guatiche even tried to take a peek since her skirt was so high up.
 * Even Senna isn't exempt from such a fashion choice, but she's never fought while in it.
 * Homura from the third movie has her Shihakusho modified in such a way that the lower half is turned into a miniskirt. Like Senna, Homura herself never fights in it.
 * When Nelliel turns back into her adult form, her clothes don't change with her leaving a cropped top and a miniskirt.
 * Nemu Kurotsuchi wears a miniskirt so far above her knees that it's a wonder why she hasn't received a Panty Shot yet, especially since it fully shows off her legs.
 * Nozomi Kujo from the Invading Army filler arc.
 * Lenalee of D.Gray-man wears one with Modesty Shorts underneath.
 * Anri's skirt in Durarara is ridiculously short.
 * FLCL. Mamimi Samejima wears one of these, but she's not an Action Girl.
 * Fresh Precure has Cure Peach and Cure Berry.
 * Mobile Suit Gundam 00 has Louise Halevy, in the second season. She almost qualified as a Dark Action Girl, though, what with her (admittedly justified) level-upping in jerkassity.
 * In Hellsing, Seras Victoria has a short miniskirt, but only one Panty Shot.
 * Highschool of the Dead is a famous example, where every Action Girl has a skirt.
 * Any of the girls in Ikki Tousen.
 * Kagome Higurashi from Inuyasha. That's supposed to be her school uniform.
 * Similarly, the female Ashford Academy uniforms in Code Geass.
 * Togame in Katanagatari has a very short ripped-up skirt.
 * In the anime version of Love Hina, Motoko wore a school uniform with Girlish Pigtails, slight Zettai Ryouiki and a Dangerously-Short Skirt while holding a book. However, she doesn't get to fight in it, and it's used against her by the resident Clingy Jealous Girl, who seduced her while disguised as Naru as part of a Batman Gambit.
 * Running absolutely rampant in Mahou Sensei Negima, where about 98% of the female characters wear them.
 * Ino Yamanaka on Naruto has a short skirt, and while she's proved herself to be an Actiongirl, she wears bandages under it. Temari (who's more like a Lady of War) could qualify as this as well, with all but one of the outfits she's worn that's incorporated a short skirt.
 * One Piece has this as one of Nami's outfits. The next one is even more questionable.
 * Robin also qualifies, particularly when she wore Thigh-High Boots and a Nice Hat.
 * Pokémon anime has Dawn Hikari and her hip-length skirt, disturbing considering her age. She's not an Action Girl, though, since she leaves most of her fighting to her Pokémon.
 * Queen's Blade has Captain Liliana.
 * In Rosario to Vampire, this is the source of much of the Fan Service in the anime. A Dangerously Short Skirt is apparently required by the dress code. At one point, the Moral Guardians attempt to require all female students wear much longer skirts (ankle length), which fails due to intense opposition from the students.
 * In Sailor Moon, the sailor scout superhero uniforms qualify.
 * Shakugan no Shana has the eponymous Shana.
 * Zakuro, from Tokyo Mew Mew.
 * Dark Magician Girl from Yu-Gi-Oh!.
 * Yumekui Merry
 * The eponymous Merry Nightmare wears such a skirt.
 * Isana is another one, but she's far from an Action Girl.
 * In Dance in the Vampire Bund, Mina wears one.
 * Agnese Sanctis from To Aru Majutsu no Index, which is strange considering that she's a nun and she gets really offended if someone looks up her skirt.
 * In Soul Eater, Maka's skirt doesn't leave much to the imagination.

Comic Books

 * Supergirl.
 * Shazam: Mary Marvel
 * Rachel Summers from the X-Men, after she took up her mother's mantle as Marvel Girl. She wore a version of her mother's green miniskirt costume (slightly modified to fit current fashions, since the dress didn't age well from the 60's).

Music
"I pick all my skirts to be a little too... sexy."
 * The title character of Sexy, Naughty, Bitchy by Tata Young. It's the first line of the chorus, even.

Toys

 * Monster High has Draculaura, Clawdeen Wolf and Abbey Bominable. Since the franchise is targeted at kids, all three have Magic Skirts.

Troper Works

 * The Trope Namer and Trope Maker comes from Soundscape, where a large amount of female Action Girls wear skirts when they fight. When one of the villains points that out about his female opponent, she says that it makes her legs more exotic, and a Panty Shot (ideally) distracts guys enough for a slash to the neck.

Video Games

 * Batman: Arkham Asylum has a subversion. Harley Quinn definitely has the short skirt down, but she's an Anticlimax Boss.
 * Blaz Blue has Noel Vermillion, who's often said to be Going Commando.
 * Trinity wore two, one with pantyhose as a member of the Six Heroes, and another as Platinum.
 * Makoto Nanaya's costumes only had straps keeping her skirt held in place.
 * Disgaea has Etna.
 * Terra of Final Fantasy VI is one of a long line of Dangerously-Short Skirt-wearers in the Final Fantasy series; particularly noticeable in Dissidia. In her original game, it looks more like she's wearing a Leotard of Power, but it's close enough to her official art that it may be the case that it's just that short.
 * Final Fantasy VII's Tifa Lockhart wears a leather mini as animating a skirt that covered her legs was too technically complicated.
 * Most of the gals in Skullgirls.
 * Final Fantasy VIII gives us Selphie, who does get the occasional Panty Shot when the camera zooms in.
 * Final Fantasy X 2's Rikku provides the page image.
 * Ashe of Final Fantasy XII rivals Rikku for skirt shortness.
 * And in Final Fantasy XIII, Vanille's fur skirt-thing is like this in the front, but it's longer in the back.
 * Guilty Gear has Valentine, but she leaves the fighting to her gigantic skull-head thing.
 * Juliet Starling, zombie hunting cheerleader heroine of Lollipop Chainsaw.
 * Soul Calibur has Sophitia Alexandra, an Athenean maiden who habitually wears short skirts.
 * Cassandra Alexandra, Sophita's sister, also qualifies, as of Soul Calibur 2.
 * Shiki from The World Ends With You.
 * Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines has Jeanette Voerman, but she never fights on-screen.
 * La Pucelle has Prier wearing a dress so short, it's actually the apron in front that prevents her from flashing everyone. She's also a Kick Chick.
 * The Succubus boss in Vindictus.

Web Original
"A skirt that is at least 1 inch shorter than one's finger tips."
 * An exaggerated version is conversed in the Urban Dictionary article on miniskirts.

Put your hands at your sides, if your finger tips can touch your thigh, you're in a mini.
 * Male version with The Nostalgia Critic in Suburban Knights. When he walks up a hill, that thing is nearly at his hip. The Fan Service and the pain he was in from the cold has been lampshaded by nearly all the cast commentaries.

Western Animation

 * The third season of Avatar: The Last Airbender has the famous Beach Episode with Ty Lee and Azula. While both are Action Girls, the only fighting they've done in those skirts, is by playing volleyball. Rather intense volleyball, but still.
 * Starfire in the animated Teen Titans show.
 * Gender-flipped variant: Him of The Powerpuff Girls had this, combined with Zettai Ryouiki, Thigh-High Boots and abundant Fan Disservice. The whole design of the guy (?) puts Doctor Frank-n-Furter to shame.
 * Most of the female characters of the DCAU are Action Girls. But one that stands out the most is Mercy Graves. Her dress is insanely short, and only kept down by virtue of being a Magic Skirt.