Ki Attacks: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Dragon Ball|Dragonball Z]]''. Damn near everything the main characters do in a fight is based on ki, from simply enhancing their speed and strength to flying and throwing around energy blasts.

** The exception being a group of [[Artificial Human|Artificial Humans]], who due to their cybernetic nature have no ki (despite 3 out of the 5 being enhanced humans rather than completely artificial constructs). This presents its own problems for the heroes, whose ability to sense ki is obviously useless against enemies who don't have any.

* Used sparingly in [[Fist of the North Star]], at least at first.

** Raoh can use his aura to attack others, making his ki attacks essentially a punch in the face. Some of his attacks border on Kamehamehadouken, though. Given that with Hokuto Shinken a punch in the face can make a guy [[Made of Plasticine|explode]] and destroy objects like battle tanks, this is still quite useful.

* Motoko in ''[[Love Hina]]''.

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', though essentially set in the same universe as ''[[Love Hina]]'', has both [[Onmyodo|Eastern]] and [[Hermetic Magic]] in addition to traditional "ki"-based fighting. It compares and differentiates the two Magic styles in detail (eg. Eastern styles favor lone-wolf operatives, Western styles put emphasis on teamwork), as well as the differences between using Magic and Ki in combat.

* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' is an example of characters not having just "ki" attacks, but specifically reiki (spirit energy, used by humans) or youki (which is the energy of the youkai).

** Sensui also used some sort of holy energy.

* In ''[[Immortal Iron Fist|The Immortal Iron Fist]]'', the titular character and his fellow Immortal Weapons all use chi as the foundation for their superpowers. These range from merely increased strength, speed and durability in the case of Fat Cobra, to the Prince of Orphans' slightly less-realistic ability to turn into green mist and possess people.

** Actually John Aman's ability to turn into green mist is completely seperate from his ki attacks. That's just good old fashioned golden age super science.

** To say nothing of his son Temugin, who is an even more powerful chi manipulator and martial artist.

* Then there's the new [[Legacy Character|Power Man]], Vic Alvarez, who possesses the ability to absorb chi and channel it into devastating strikes.

* Recent [[Wolverine]] villain Soulstriker had the ability to [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|phisically hit his opponent's life force]], thus weakening and torturing them. {{spoiler|Until Wolverine cut his hands off.}}

* ''[[Gold Digger (Comic Book)|Gold Digger]]'' has chi as a variant of magic used by some war mages and martial artists, especially ninja. The most major chi user in the series is Ryan Tabbot, who likes to throw in pop-culture references to other chi-users with his attacks (Hadoken!).

 

== Literature ==

* Kylie Chan's ''[[Dark Heavens]]'' books have chi-fuelled martial arts and wuxia.

* ''Keeper of Light and Dust'' by Natasha Mostert has a chi-stealing martial artist as the antagonist.

*** The Ki power source has now been merged with Psionic. Say hi to [[Internet Backdraft]].

*** Although listed as "psionic," they use it more in the form of "mind over matter" (in fact that's the name of a feat for a certain build.) This trope still applies, because instead of using a weapon or staff or magic wand, the implement of choice is a "ki focus": heavy on the fluff and often with different effects than normal enchantments (such as "increase number of squares you can shift" or "use such-and-such power twice per round instead of once" rather than "do X amount additional fire damage") it basically amounts to something the monk prays/meditates/trains with to turn his entire body into [[Invulnerable Knuckles]].

** The Charms have cool names, too, like "Venomous Whispers Technique" and "Excellent Emissary's Tongue."

* ''[[Feng Shui]]'''s Fu Powers tend toward this, though this being a Hong Kong action movie game, many of them are fairly low-key, with only paths like Shadow's Companion, Brilliant Flame, high-end Healthy Tiger, Leaping Storm and Storm Turtle approaching the kind of supernatural powers often associated with martial artists in the setting.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Street Fighter]]'' and ''[[Darkstalkers]]'' from [[Capcom]]. "[[Kamehame Hadoken|Hadoken]]!"

** As an easter egg, ''[[Mega Man X]]'' has been known to perform ki attacks from Street Fighter. This seems to imply that X has ki, and therefore a soul. Of course, easter eggs are rarely ever canon.

** Toni "Chaka" Chandler, one of the original main characters, has the mutant ability to use ki, plus the ability to see how ki flows in other people (which lets her do - among other things - the paralyzing nerve punch), and also the ability to heterodyne her ki with ki energy flowing through the earth so she can pull as much ki as she needs from the ground. She's regarded as one bad mamma-jamma by her superpowered classmates at the [[Super-Hero School]] Whateley Academy, but suffers from a bad case of [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]], having added a ki blast attack to her existing super-strength, super-agility, super-speed etc.

** [[Badass Normal]] Chou "Bladedancer" Lee develops her ''chi'' more conventionally, through meditation, tai-chi exercises, and regular training, to empower her martial-arts, heighten her senses, heal herself and others, and so on.

* These types of attacks became one of the main staples of modern stick-figure fight animations when extreme martial art violence and extreme acrobatics would no longer cut it. Although never explain as such, these are most likely Ki Attacks due to the heavy Oriental influence that pervades the genre as a result of [[Xiao Xiao]] 's influence.

* This is one way that Aura can be employed in ''[[RWBY]]''.

** {{spoiler|The [[Grand Finale]] reveals that before people learned to bend the elements, they used their own energy. Aang then finds a way to bend the energy within Ozai, removing his bending forever. This is never actually called ''chi''-bending, though, it's called energy-, spirit-, or soul-bending by the fans.}}

* In ''[[Yin Yang Yo!|Yin Yang Yo]]'', Woo Foo a special type of martial arts that involves might and magic, with just a smidge of [[Green Rocks]].

** Then in one episode they found a Chinese Vampire, which drains victims of chi. Once a person is sucked of chi they need a chi transplant to survive. The person takes on the personality of the chi donor. For example, when Jade got drained, Uncle donated some chi, and she began sprouting Uncle's [[Catch Phrase|catch phrases]] and had a hankering for mung beans. She did not, however, gain any of Uncle's knowledge of chi but still volunteered researching ways to kill the vampire. [[Reset Button|Everything went back the way it was]] [[No Ontological Inertia|when the vampire was killed]].

 

== Film ==

** Shifu also demonstrates being able to use something akin to wind powers with his chi, and several characters are shown using nerve attacks. The titular Panda defeats Tai Lung with a huge blast, which Shifu threatened to use earlier in the film.

*** '''[[Memetic Mutation|NOOOOO! Not the Wu Xi Finger Hold! Pleeeease! ANYTHING but that!]]'''

*** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEDaCIDvj6I&feature=player_embedded Here] is an example of someone who believes that they can use ki attacks. See the second part of the video to see whether or not he actually does.

** Related: martial arts like Tai Chi Chuan and Aikijutsu are heavily based on the concept of ki/chi/qi, but in those instances, it's more like a case of creation and conservation of momentum and leveraging physics (something like 90% of what you do in aikido is based in forcing your opponent to continue their motion, throwing them off balance, and then reversing their direction just as they start to regain their balance, throwing them to the ground).

** See also Derren Brown.

* [[wikipedia:Kizeme|Wikipedia]] on Kizeme goes on about Ki projection and such. While video shows a fairly primitive, yet well-executed feint, which requires no supernatural abilities to preform and is known, in one form or another, in most martial arts, with weapons or without them.

 

== Webcomics ==

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', Sensei Greg's Anime-Style Martial Arts dojo is {{spoiler|(or was)}} the only known place for one to learn to tap into their ki.

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] (sort of) in that it is revealed that Elliot, Nanase, and to a lesser extent, [[The Woobie|Justin]] are the only students in the class that have shown any progress in [[Supernatural Martial Arts|performing actual anime-style techniques]].