Dive Kick

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"Dive Kick" is a colloquial term for any of several similar moves -- such as the Flying Drop Kick or the Flying Side Kick -- that are used in fights and action sequences, regardless of whether they are practical combat maneuvers or showy stage fighting. It is a near-ubiquitous trope in any sufficiently action-based media, and many characters in games revolving around fighting, like Beat 'em ups and Fighting Games, tend to have a dive kick of some kind. This may appear in one of two forms:

• A sometimes-literal diving kick performed from the air or after a jump, often used to make an entrance or else make an impact (literally). This is seen mostly in Martial Arts Movies and wrestling, and in real life is called a "flying drop kick" or a "flying side kick".
• A splendid and powerful Finishing Move that occurs more often in Tokusatsu. This latter form of Dive Kick is used at the climax of a fight before a "Defeat Equals Explosion" in Tokusatsu fights with a Monster of the Week. Usually, the move is called out by the user or one of the narrators for added impact.

Not to be confused with the fighting game Divekick, which naturally has an awful lot of dive kicks.

Examples of Dive Kick include:

Anime and Manga

• Daitarn 3 has the Daitarn Crash, done by Daitarn 3 to punch a hole through his opponent after the Sun Attack leaves them vulnerable. The attack is called out by Banjo Haran as a sign the battle is about to end. In the Super Robot Wars franchise, Daitarn 3 usually has a dynamic kill animation with this move, complete with a hole being punched out of their opponent.
• Fist of the North Star: As Kenshiro is an homage to Bruce Lee, a famous martial artist celebrity back in the day, he was bound to do one someday. His most famous Dive Kick moment was during his final clash with his first archrival, Shin; Arc System Works used this scene for the Attract Mode of their Fist of The North Star licensed fighting game.
• Gunbuster has the suitably devastating Inazuma Kick and Super Inazuma Kick as homages to Kamen Rider, complete with Noriko Takaya and Kasumi Amano calling their attacks.
  • The sequel Diebuster has Nono, who is a big fan of Nonoriri and will do anything to emulate her Inazuma Kick and other techniques. The climax of Diebuster one-ups Gunbuster with an Inazuma Double Kick.
• As Nyarlathotep/Nyarko-san of Haiyore! Nyaruko-san fame is a massive Kamen Rider fangirl, she tries her best to recreate variations of the Rider Kick to the best of her ability.
• As a creation of Gainax, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is bound to make a few callbacks to Gunbuster; both Kamina and Simon have their takes on the Inazuma Kick. The move is even part of Gurren Lagann's arsenal in the Super Robot Wars series.
• In Neon Genesis Evangelion, the seventh Angel, Israfel, needs to be killed by destroying its two cores. This requires a synchronized blow that comes in the form of Shinji and Asuka double dive kick after a synchronized sequence. The Angel was destroyed, but they didn't stick the landing.
  • In Evangelion 2.0, the seventh Angel was destroyed through a sortie with Asuka using flight equipment and a magnetic crossbow. She then finished off the Angel with an Inazuma Kick that used the arrows to break through the AT Field straight to the core of the Angel, thus killing it.
• Physical attacks are rarely used in the 1990s Sailor Moon anime, but "Sailor Kick" does make an appearance on rare occasion. The episode "Art is an Explosion of Love: Chibi-Usa's First Love" shows Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi-Moon executing a synchronized "Double Sailor Moon Kick".
• Kinnikuman:
  • One of Terryman's signature moves is the Texas Condor Kick. He leaps into the air and dives into them like a condor.
  • Curry Cook's finisher, the Chakra Sting, has Curry Cook impale his opponent with a deadly dive kick, punching a hole in them in the process.

Fan Works

• In episode 16 of the Final Stand of Death, Redd goes for this, along with Spur when dealing with Twiggy Ramirez, who got in their way of going after Marilyn Manson and Tyler Bates. The move results in Ramirez's mech being sliced in two.

Live-Action TV

• The Kamen Rider franchise has the Rider Kick, the move that sparked many homages, variations, and tributes by fans who grew up to create other works, some even in the Kamen Rider franchise itself. The Riders themselves even shout it loud and proud. As expected, this move is done to signal the end of a fight against the Monster of the Week.

Professional Wrestling

• This move is known as the Drop Kick. The attacking wrestler leaps into the air and attempts to kick their foe in the face with the soles of their feet.

Video Games

• Fighting Games are guaranteed to have at least a couple of characters with these, where they're informally known as "dive kicks".
• Divekick is a two-button fighter where the characters' only attacks are... dive-kicking. It satirizes both the concept and the fighting game community as a whole, and the goal for both players is to get the drop on their opponent with their dive kicks and KO them before the other does the same.
• King of Fighters: As May Lee Jinju is a Kamen Rider fan, her Desperation Supers involve a Rider Kick at the end, complete with a heroic pose.
• Pokemon has the fighting-type moves Jump Kick, High Jump Kick (former Signature Moves of Hitmonlee) and Blaze Kick (the former signature move of Blaziken).
• Street Fighter has many dive kicks among the fighters' arsenals, with the concept described in detail on the unofficial Street Fighter Wiki.
  • Special moves include Cammy's Cannon Strike.
  • "Unique" attacks (so named because they are usually character-specific normals) that use dive kicks include Rufus's Falcon Kick (no, not that one); Yun and Yung's Raigeki Shu; Akuma's Tenmakujinkyaku, which is also used by Evil Ryu/Kage and Gouken; and Necalli's Road of the Sun.
• Super Robot Wars
  • The Gespenst line of mecha is known for the Gespenst Kick finisher move. If you give certain Gespenst a different pilot in the Original Generations subseries, all of the characters that can pilot a Gespenst have unique recorded lines. As the Gespenst's first outing is Hero Senki, a crossover game featuring the Kamen Rider, Mobile Suit Gundam, and Ultraman franchises, it can be theorized that Gilliam Yeagar, creator of the Gespenst line in the Super Robot Wars multiverse and constant Dimensional Traveler, paid homage to the Rider Kick in-universe with the Gespenst Kick.
  • As a Kamen Rider homage, Raioh and its upgrade Dairaioh have an upward variant in the form of the Rising Meteor and Rising Meteor Inferno finishers.
• Super Smash Bros. has Captain Falcon's Falcon Kick, which becomes a dive kick if done in midair.

Real Life

• As martial arts tend to influence fighting styles within various media, a dive kick is bound to show up as one of the techniques. However, it isn't as flashy as the ones done in fiction as the rules of reality still apply. A trained master pulling off one of these still looks pretty cool.