Dive Kick

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A Dive Kick is a splendid Finishing Move in many media, having its roots in works based in the Tokusatsu, Martial Arts Movie and Wrestling genres. As such, it has plenty of reverence among fans of all three genres.

A 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, this move is called out by the character using the attack or by one of the announcers of the fight for added impact.

Many fans of these genres end up as writers and creators for other forms of media. To pay Homage to all three, there are many moves based around the mighty Dive Kick. As a result, many characters in games revolving around fighting, like Beat 'em ups and Fighting Games tend to have a dive kick of some kind.

Not to be confused with the video game Divekick.

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 makes his foe 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.
• The sequel to Gunbuster, Diebuster, has an Inazuma Kick as well. Nono is a big fan of Nonoriri and will do anything to emulate her techniques. The climax of Diebuster one-ups Gunbuster with an Inazuma Double Kick.
• 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 his final clash with his first archrival, Shin. They both do rising dive kicks at each other to show that their fighting styles are reflections of each other. This moment was so amazing, Arc System Works had to place it in their licensed fighting game attract mode screen intro.
• Gunbuster has the Inazuma Kick and Super Inazuma Kick as an homage to Kamen Rider. Noriko Takaya and Kasumi Amano even shouts it loud and proud. This move usually devastates the Space Monsters with ease.
• As Nyarlathotep/Nyarko-san of Haiyore! Nyaruko-san fame is a massive Kamen Rider fangirl, she tries her best to homage 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 needed was destroyed through 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.

Fan Works

• 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 said fans who grew up to create other works, some even in the Kamen Rider franchise itself. The Rider themselves even shouts 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

• Dive Kick is a Fighting Game based around the concept of the Dive Kick itself that satirizes the fighting game community. Both players attempt to get the drop on their opponent with their dive kicks and KO their opponent before the other does the same to them.
• 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 fighting-type moves, which are special moves based on the concept of melee fighting. The dive kick itself is a move that can be learned by various Pokemon. It comes in the form of Jump Kick, High Jump Kick and Blaze Kick. Jump Kick and High Kick used to be the Signature Move of Hitmonlee, and Blaze Kick used to be the signature move of Blaziken.
• Street Fighter: As Street Fighter is a fighting game, dive kicks are among the fighters' arsenals. The concept of the dive kick is even described in detail on the unofficial Street Fighter Wiki. It'll be easier to list the moves of the characters who have dive kicks instead.
  • Cammy's Cannon Strike
  • Rufus's Falcon Kick (not to be confused with Captain Falcon's Falcon Kick)
  • Yun and Yung's Raigeki Shu.
  • Akuma's Tenmakujinkyaku. It was one of his unique attacks, but Evil Ryu/Kage and Gouken have it in later games because they share the same fighting style as Akuma. It was first introduced in X-Men vs. Street Fighter.
  • 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 Gespensts 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.: Captain Falcon's Falcon Kick, if done in midair, becomes a dive kick. This works as Captain Falcon is a superhero-type in the Smash series, and heroes tend to have heroic moves like a dive kick.

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 looks pretty cool.