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Asskicking Pose (view source)

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{{trope}}
[[File:akp_1.jpg|link=CharliesCharlie's Angels|frame|Synchronized Ass Kicking = [[Pure Awesomeness]]]]
 
 
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== Anime & Manga ==
* Masane Amaha from ''[[Witchblade (Animeanime)|Witchblade]]'', after transforming for the first time, does the "come hither for your ass kicking" version, namely the defiant stance coupled with index finger motioning for the asshole to step forward for their aforementioned asskicking.
* It is pretty common among [[Super Robot Genre|Super Robots]]:
** ''[[Mazinger Z (Anime)|Mazinger Z]]'' asskicking pose was pretty simple: upon activation, Mazinger flexed his arms over his head. Most likely it is a [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[Gigantor (Anime)|Gigantor]]'', what did the same thing. ''[[Great Mazinger (Anime)|Great Mazinger]]'' and ''[[UFO Robo Grendizer]]'', on the other hand, had not one.
** ''[[Getter Robo (Manga)|Getter Robo]]'': Getter Robo G stood upright with its arms folded across its chest. It was so popular and badass-looking it was reused by a lot of mecha shows, ''Anime/Gunbuster'' being the best known.
** ''[[Kotetsu Jeeg (Anime)|Kotetsu Jeeg]]'' used the same pose when it was assembled.
** ''[[Combattler V (Anime)|Combattler V]]'': Combattler flexed one arm backwards as it stretched its another arm forward.
** ''[[Voltes V (Anime)|Voltes V]]'': Voltes crossed its arms across its thorax before spreading them outwards. Electromagnetic energy crackled from its hands and formed a "V" letter.
** ''[[Daimos (Anime)|Daimos]]'': Kazuya was an expert karate fighter and its robot mimicked his motions, so Daimos used asskicking poses the whole time.
** ''[[Go Lion (Anime)|Go Lion]]'' adopts such poses during [[Stock Footage]] transformation sequences, particularly when creating weapons.
* ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. About every character, but special mention go to the [[Super Sentai Stance|Ginyu Force]] and "The Great Saiyaman!"
* ''[[Transformers]]''. Pretty much every version of ''[[Transformers]]'' ever, in fact.
* Most of the HiME from ''[[Mai-HiME (Anime)|Mai-HiME]]'' (except [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|Yukino]]), after they draw their weapons [[Hyperspace Arsenal|out of thin air]]. Gaze upon [[Lady of War|Shizuru's]] spear stance, ye lowly, and despair!
* ''[[Naruto (Manga)|Naruto]]'' has Rock Lee, whose combat stance involves a mid-to-low center of gravity, left hand held behind the back (potentially to grab kunai and such), and right hand ''held forward in the classic "[[Bring It|come and get me" gesture.'']] Definitely a sign of rampant [[Badass|badassery]], whether or not it ends up [[The Worf Effect|working]].
* In just about every episode of ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'', before kicking some ass Ken's shirt would explode off and he would crack his knuckles.
* Parodied in the ''[[Azumanga Daioh (Manga)|Azumanga Daioh]]'' Supplementary Materials. Tomo asks Chiyo what a cool pose would be. She responds with an exaggerated [[Asskicking Pose]], prompting Kagura to ask, "What's with the cool pose?"
* Parodied in the [[Comic Book Adaptation|supplementary manga]] of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] StrikerS'', which had a huge background picture of the [[White Magician Girl]] ''Caro'' doing this while [[Squishy Wizard|Hayate]] mentioned how she might lose to her too since she's undergone Nanoha's [[Training From Hell]].
** Played completely straight in Episode 25 of ''StrikerS''. Nanoha stomps the ground "to brace herself." In the DVD adaptation, the stomp cracks the ground underneath her feet. Immediately thereafter, the [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for the entire series happened.
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** [[Boisterous Bruiser|Jack Rakan]], one of the strongest people introduced in the manga, in his tournament final fight against Negi, struck a totally serious combat pose. This man blew up a mountain on accident and one of his first attacks in the series was mistaken for a terrorist bombing. and he even held back on that one to keep from turning the opponents to dust. When the smile gets wiped off his face and he gets serious...It's scary.
* [[Inuyasha]] often cracked his knuckles before a fight. One handed. Open in a claw hand, not clinched into a fist.
* In the ''[[Lucky Star (Anime)|Lucky Star]]'' OVA, 3/4 of the main characters and their teacher are playing a MMORPG, and discuss finishing poses. What they wind up with is the end of the [[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya|Hare Hare Yukai]] dance, with a random passerby filling the needed position. They quickly agree that it doesn't work.
* Parodied in ''[[Mahoujin Guru Guru]]''. The "Cool Pose" is an actual ability that can only be used by [[The Hero]]. Nike strikes a pose while a sphere of yellow light surrounds him. Though it's noted the ability has no actual function besides making everyone stare at him in awe.
* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' has a couple. Kensin's Battousai glare is one, notable for scaring the bejeezus out of Kurogasa and several small-time villains. There's also his battou-jutsu stance, which looks so ridiculously cool that it has reached the level of being [[Rule of Cool|powered by its awesomeness.]]
* ''[[One Piece (Manga)|One Piece]]'' has a lot of these:
** The Straw Hats use them a lot obviously. Luffy typically cracks his knuckles or stretches before a fight. Zoro usually puts his sword in his mouth before fighting, but the real [[Asskicking Pose]] comes when he takes the bandanna off his arm and puts it on his head. Robin most often crosses her arms in front of her and closes her eyes when she's using her powers. Chopper's arms-folded-in-front-of-him [[Death Glare]] is not even slightly ruined by the tiny blue knapsack and [[Real Men Wear Pink|pink hat]] that he always wears.
** Franky and his "SUPER!" pose.
** Sanji lights a cigarette before his ass kicking.
* In the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!'' manga, Yami no Yugi would usually point at people before giving them a punishment game and driving them ''fucking insane''.
** For full effect: One Pointer Finger + [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]] + [[Slasher Smile]] + [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner]] = You going insane.
* The eponymous [[Gun BusterGunbuster]] has an iconic stance of standing with its armed folded. It's [[Badass]].
* ''[[Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]'' has these everywhere. You can't go a single chapter without seeing one.
* Parodied by ''[[Angel Blade (Anime)|Angel Blade]]'', whose heroines do this [[Full-Frontal Assault|in the buff]].
* ''[[Code Geass (Anime)|Code Geass]]'' had quite a few for a lot of different people. The one that strikes this troper the most is the pose that the new Guren SEITEN Eight Elements is in during the Second Battle of Tokyo. After fighting its way to Lelouch's position (and slicing through dozens of other Britannian Knightmares) Kallen floats her way down in front of Lelouch. After she stops, her energy wings swing out and a pink circle starts pulsing out from the Guren for [[Rule of Cool|no reason other than to look awesome]]. During her "fight" with Suzaku's for-once inferior Lancelot, she almost never leaves this position. Said pose can be seen [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091105015636/codegeass/images/5/52/Guren-shouten-hakkyokushiki.jpg here.]
* About every episode of ''[[Sailor Moon (Manga)|Sailor Moon]]'' has the title character doing such a pose at the end of any [[In the Name of Thethe Moon]] speech.
* ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn (Manga)|Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'': If you see [[Butt Monkey|Sawada]] [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|Tsunayoshi]] raise both his hands up, one in front pointing at you, the other [[Playing Withwith Fire|creating a massive fireball behind him]], get down on your knees and pray for a swift death.
** If he crosses his hands and flames start pouring from the vents on the backs of the gauntlets, there's no need to pray; your swift death is coming. And it's coming ''very fast''.
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Mangamanga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'':
** There's Ed's clap pose and Roy's finger-snap-ready stance.
** Also when Ed takes his [[Badass Longcoat|red cloak]] [[The Coats Are Off|off]], and/or his [[Shirtless Scene|shirt]].
** [[Large Ham|Alex]] [[Boisterous Bruiser|Louis]] [[Bishie Sparkle|Armstrong]]; nearly everything he does when sparkling, during a fight or not, is his Asskicking Pose.
* The Shinobi Five, a freelance ninja squad from ''Gintama''.
* Subverted/parodied in ''[[Bleach (Manga)|Bleach]]'' with a lesser shinigami flailing his sword impressively only to get knocked out with a single punch from Chad.
* In ''[[Soul Eater (Manga)|Soul Eater]]'', Death the Kid has his "Sin" and "Punishment" stances. Cue beat down.
* Like ''[[Sailor Moon (Manga)|Sailor Moon]]'', every main heroine in the ''[[Pretty Cure]]'' series does this. It leads to one hilarious moment in ''[[Pretty Cure All Stars]] DX 2'' when the five teams (classic/Max Heart, Splash Star, Yes! 5 Go Go, Fresh and the rookie Heartcatch) strike a asskicking pose... then Cure Blossom and Cure Marine start wondering what they just did.
 
 
== Comics ==
* While [[Batman (Comic Book)|Batman]]'s combat stances tend to be more practical than showy, he does like to use his cape -- along with his imposing physical stature -- to devastating psychological effect.
* [[Superman]] has his Ass-Kicking Pose, which is unique, as it is largely him floating silently with his hands [[Badass Arm-Fold|across his chest]]. This being Superman, ''this works''. When he ''really'' wants to scare someone, or if he's really pissed off, expect the [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]]. If the [[Mook]] in front of him is holding a gun and tries [[Shooting Superman]], Supes likes to melt it down with his heat vision as a warning shot.
* [[Spider-Man]] has his characteristic contortionist/three-point-crouch thing going on.
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== Films -- Live-Action ==
* Trope name comes from ''[[CharliesCharlie's Angels]]: Full Throttle'', where the term was used in a decidedly derisive tone. Both ''Charlie's Angels'' movies were rife with these poses, commonly struck in choreographic unison.
* ''[[Star Wars]]''
** Darth Maul's famous lightsaber stance in ''[[The Phantom Menace]]'' would qualify.
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* Bruce Lee was the master of the [[Asskicking Pose]]. Just watch ''Enter the Dragon'' and stand in awe.
** Oh, and he LOVED the Crane Stance. Specifically, when his opponent used it. One push, falling crane.
* In ''[[Romeo Must Die (Film)|Romeo Must Die]]'', one of the black guys uses the Crane Stance to mock Jet Li, complete with screeching "waaaa" sound. Cue immediate [[Groin Attack|kick in the fork.]]
* The last shot in the first ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' movie.
* Totally averted by ''[[Fighter in The Wind]]''. Choi's favoured stance is a simple boxing guard. The few opponents stupid enough to try elaborate stances get unpleasant things done to them. Then subverted; at the end {{spoiler|Choi and Kato are so evenly matched that they take a moment's time out to limber up and [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|get into their preferred stances again]].}}
* The Ass-Kicking Smile also appears in ''[[Superman (Comic Book)|Superman]] Returns'' in the scene where a thug [[Shooting Superman|shoots Superman in the eye]].
* The film version of ''[[Undercover Brother]]'' parodies this trope by using awkward-looking stances.
* Of course, ''[[The Matrix]]''. Of particular note is Neo's continual use of the "[[Bring It]]" hand gesture throughout the series.
* The [[Gun Kata]] style of ''Equilibrium'' relies extensively on these to position the body ''just so'' while gunning down enemies.
* ''[[Serenity (Film)|Serenity]]''. After River {{spoiler|slaughters the entire Reaver horde}} the doors open to show her in a very simple stance, legs spread apart and and axe and a sword in her hands that pretty perfectly conveys the fact that many, ''many'' people just got ''pasted'' by a [[Waif Fu|ninety pound girl]]. When the Alliance troops bust in moments later, she doesn't even shift her stance, instead just very slowly turning her head to face them - the implication being that, even with their heavy body armor and a dozen guns pointed at her, she is going to massacre ''them'' too, just as easily.
* ''[[Fight Club]]''. Brad Pitt's character Tyler Durden does several of these during {{spoiler|his final fight with the narrator}} and another one when the narrator is on the phone with Marla for absolutely no reason except Brad Pitt being bored and wanting to try it out.
* ''[[Indiana Jones (Franchise)|Indiana Jones]]'' has this as a recurrent joke: in ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark (Film)|Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'', a swordman offers a good pose and demonstration of skills, and Indy answers by shooting him dead; the pose was useless. In the following movie, several thugs do the Ass-Kicking Pose, Indy reaches for his gun again and... he had lost the gun somewhere. Oops.
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Filmfilm)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' movies have a fair share of these as well; a notable example would be Gandalf's "[[Punctuated for Emphasis|You! Shall Not! Pass!]]" stance while facing the Balrog.
* A subversion in the 1989 ''Batman'' film, when one of the mooks threatens Our Hero with a series of flailing martial arts poses. The technique is about as useless as it appears, since Batman manages to flatten the guy with one punch. On ''two'' separate occasions.
* Again subverted in ''The Cannonball Run''. During the Big Brawl scene, Roger Moore (essentially playing himself) squares off against one thug, adopts an Ass-Kicking Pose... and promptly gets his lights punched out.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Power Rangers]]'', both humans and mecha. The concentrated awesomeness of these poses will often cause explosions and bursts of colored smoke.
** There's a lot of ceremony behind it: each Ranger has his or her own personal pose, with a little routine of a few moves before snapping into the final pose (with optional smoke clouds.) Some teams have an entire routine where each gives his or her Ranger designation while posing, and then all pose together after the team's [[In the Name of Thethe Moon]] phrase -- this is known to fans (well, some fans) as the "roll call". When Rangers return for a [[Reunion Show]] years or even a ''decade'' after their most recent appearance, the poses are always done just as they were before. Z of ''Power Rangers SPD'' had a habit of quickly taking on her final pose ''without suiting up'' just before running in to take on [[Mooks]], though the full routine was saved for roll call scenes.
* ''[[Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide]]'' [[Playing Withwith a Trope|played with]] this and then [[Lampshade Hanging|hung a lampshade]] on their playing with it, when Ned and Cookie fought. {{spoiler|They imitated every cliche [[Asskicking Pose]] possible, then made up before throwing any actual blows. The [[Combat Commentator|Combat Commentators]] left in disgust.}}
* Parodied in the TV show ''Vanishing Son'': the hero (seeking the Villain of the Week) kicks down his office door, to reveal a gigantic man behind a desk. Said man jumps up, puts his hands in front of him, shouts "I'm a ''temp''!" and runs past the hero.
* ''[[Kamen Rider]]'', one word: "Henshin!" Parodied in ''Kamen Rider G''. After the title Rider finishes his pose, the building behind him has half of its windows blown out to form his logo. Hope he has [[Hero Insurance]].
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== Video Games ==
* When the boss Elvis tries an elaborate one of these in ''God Hand'', Gene [[Lampshade Hanging|mocks it]]: "You can 'wax on wax off' all you like, I'm still kicking your ass." Gene himself has a much simpler set of poses used before major battles.
* Almost every robot master/Maverick from ''[[Mega Man (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mega Man]]'' and ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|Mega Man X]]'' does one of these, right after making their grand entrance.
** Starting with X4, X and Zero do this as they enter a stage. Also, X's armor warps into place.
* Many ''[[Super Smash Bros]]'' taunts are of the [[Asskicking Pose]] variety. Lucario and his Aura poses, Captain Falcon's "Show me ya moves" and Wario laughing at his opponents for example.
** The Subspace Emissary adventure mode's cutscenes are positively ''saturated'' with them. One of the more spectacular examples involves [[Donkey Kong|DK and Diddy]] posing while a ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVQJk55ET7o&feature=related Bullet Bill explodes behind them.]''
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_3EX9haTFU&feature=related The Five Warriors.] Pose as a team [[Super Mario Bros.|CAUSE]] [[The Legend of Zelda (Franchise)|SHIT]] [[Kirby|JUST]] [[Kid Icarus (Video Game)|GOT]] [[Yoshis Island (Video Game)|REAL.]]
* ''[[Viewtiful Joe]]'' has poses that are so awesome it destroys enemies!
** The recent [[Power Rangers]] game ''Super Legends'' does this as well, giving the rampant posing in the TV show a significantly better use.
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* In what can only be an affectionate parody or lampshade hanging to ''Charlie's Angels'', the three heroines of ''Final Fantasy X-2'' kick the game off by appearing in an ass-kicking pose stolen directly from the movie (plus the exotic FF weaponry)
* In most main-series ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games as a whole, players can expect to see poses when the character enters battle, when they just stand around waiting for their turn, and of course the Victory pose when they win.
* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'', after you kill a boss, Link twirls his sword and then sheathes it, looking particularly bad ass.
** It can also happen when you bead a stronger monster and time putting the sword away just as it poofs away.
*** Combine this with the Mortal Draw for some nice showy iaijitsu.
*** Technically, Link [[Older Than They Think|originally did the sword twirl]] in the [[The Legend of Zelda (Animationanimation)|Zelda cartoon]]. However, it was no where near as impressive as in Twilight Princess or any other example here, possibly due to the size of the blade and where the holster was.
* [[Sonic the Hedgehog]], whether after clearing a mission, beating the big bad, or just to piss off [[Big Bad|Dr. Robotnik/Eggman]], will likely do a bunch of fancy stuff, but will always end his pose with a thumbs up.
** In ''[[Super Smash Bros|Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'', this is proven, as his entrance is to roll/bounce onscreen and flash a smile and thumbs up.
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== Webcomics ==
* In one fight scene from ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'', Elliot berates Nanase for striking what he calls a "Look at me, I just kicked Elliot" pose.
* Parodied in ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' when preparing to fight a major villain, Red Mage, ever the role-player, calls for everyone to adopt "battles poses" and to make it look good.
* Bun-Bun from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' gets these a ''lot''. "Ka-click!"
* [[Problem Sleuth (Webcomic)|Problem Sleuth]] from ''[[MS Paint Adventures]]'' has a panel entitled "Pose as a team CAUSE SHIT JUST GOT REAL!". And then later, "POSE AS A TEAM AGAIN CAUSE SHIT JUST GOT '''MORE''' REAL!" In all, there's about four panels, where shit continues to get increasingly real.
** Despite the fact that it's actually getting [[Mind Screw|LESS real]].
** And in the end {{spoiler|"Pose as a team. The world is real."}}
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* Ron in ''[[Kim Possible]]'' has a tendency to invoke random, ridiculous poses in futile attempts to mimic Kim's stances. Kim, Shego and assorted ninjas could pull it off, though.
* Mocked lightly in an episode of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', where MetaBrawl has degenerated into a pathetic, bingo-hall level company, complete with fighters who spend all their time doing Neo's "just bring it" pose and comparatively little time fighting each other.
* In ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'', Cyborg prepares for a fight by cracking the cartilage in his neck. Additionally, Robin often struck these in preparation for a fight.
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' makes frequent use of this, and it can be argued that for most of the characters, Ass-Kicking Poses are essentially their fighting style, since most of the actual combat is done with whatever element they happen to be bending at the time instead of actual hand-to-hand. Toph also has a pretty awesome Ass-Kicking Smile in a few episodes.
* Done quite a bit with the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (TV series)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'', especially Triplicate Girl in her three selves -- justified in that she's one of the only ones who fights hand-to-hand. Bouncing Boy always pulls his goggles down before he smashes into someone or does a particularly daring maneuver on the ship -- more of an Ass-Kicking Ritual than pose, but still.
 
 
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