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ith their philosophical teachings, their unusual movements, and the outstanding feats of some of their practitioners, martial arts have captured the imagination of the world at large. Japan is the birthplace of many of the styles that the media made popular at the end of the 20th century; karate, judo, and aikido created the

neces-sary suspension of disbelief for the public to accept the quasi-supernatural feats of ninjutsu and samurai swordsmanship. Shounen manga and anime exploited this and used the trappings of martial arts to create the closest thing that these media have to superheroes: martial artists.

fOllOWERS Of ThE WAy

Just as there are many martial arts styles, there are many kinds of martial artists in fiction, popular in their particular subgenres. What they all have in common is the self-discipline and talent they pour into learning ancient techniques and inventing new ones, whether it’s a new type of kick that exploits the practitioner’s speed or a new way to convert inner energy into concussive, explosive force.

ThE WUxIA

The true seeds of the martial arts genre (as well as martial arts themselves) are not in Japan, but in its larger neighbor, China. We owe the portrayal of martial arts as entertainment to wuxia, a literary genre that narrates the exploits of masters of the martial arts, their secret underground world that rebelled against the strict Confucian regime of Imperial China, and the very personal conflicts that arose between them.

The term “wuxia” is similar to the concept of the knight-errant, with a literal meaning of “hero of the martial arts.” A wuxia is a hero that uses his supreme skills in combat in the defense of the innocent, although evil wuxia serve as antagonists, as do evil nobles, bandits, and on a grander scale, ghosts, ogres, and demons.

The earliest example of the martial arts genre is the classic novel, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Written in the 14th century, it’s a fictional-ized account of the chaotic state of China during the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

This novel portrays detailed descriptions of combat, even if its focus is the history, politics, and grand strategies of the kings and generals of the age.

The novel and its period serve as a direct inspiration and background for the Dynasty Warrior videogame series.

The work that truly cemented the wuxia genre was, however, the novel Water Margin, compiled and written one century later. Water Margin is a collection of tales that follow the adventures of brigands and outlaws, all

of whom know martial arts, as they rebel against a corrupt government. The importance of this novel is that it sets down the main concepts of martial arts fiction, namely the code of the warrior, the brotherhood between mar-tial artists, master-student relationships, marmar-tial arts sects, corrupt powers, and different martial arts styles.

Another influential work, which is part of the four classic novels of Chinese literature, next to Three Kingdoms and Water Margin, is Journey to the West, written in 1570. The story follows a monk as he travels to India to retrieve the holy Buddhist scriptures, aided by a trio of “disciples” that truly bring the fantastic into the genre. The most famous of these disciples is Sun Wokung, alias the Monkey King, whose extreme supernatural powers and fighting abil-ity provide the spiritual tale with a good dose of action and adventure, as well as light-hearted moments, thanks to his mischievousness. Journey to the West has inspired a great number of fantasy and martial arts movies and TV series, both in China and Japan as well as in the Western world. Its most important contribution to manga and anime, though, was to serve as the inspiration to Dragonball (with a protagonist called Son Goku, a Japanization of the Monkey King’s name), the manga by Akira Toriyama that became popular all over the world and was translated into many languages, establishing the image of the martial artist that could shatter even the Moon with a secret technique. Its sequel, Dragonball Z, had the villains destroying entire planets and the heroes training under the pressure of 100 gravities.

ThE SAMURAI

The direct descendants of wuxia, samurai occupied a much more central spot in Japanese society than wuxia ever did in China, and thus they enjoyed more exposure. Samurai also were mostly instruments of the state, while the wuxia were in covert or open rebellion to the establishment.

Despite these differences, samurai fiction took the wuxia concept of honor and married it to the code of bushido, the Way of the Warrior. The intricacies of this code of honor and how it made people’s lives complicated is a true spawning pool of story ideas. In a way, the samurai and wuxia genres have a lot in common with westerns, starring lone, righteous warriors in a lawless land. It’s no surprise, then, that some of the classic westerns are actually remakes of samurai films; The Magnificent Seven is nothing but The Seven Samurai with guns, and Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars is doing a great impression of Toshiro Mifune in Yojimbo.

A particular icon that was born from those complications was the ronin, or masterless samurai. All samurai served a master, and it was their honor and life to do so; to be left without a master was a disgrace and the ruin of samurai. A popular story, called The 47 Ronin, narrates the misfortunes of a band of samurai who plotted revenge for their slain master, assuming the ronin lifestyle to slowly make their plans come true.

While the kung fu of the wuxia centered on unarmed combat and a pleth-ora of exotic weapons, the samurai’s art revolved around a single weapon: the sword. The katana is reputedly one of the best swords ever forged in history, and the samurai never parted with it, inventing many ways to use it and many forms in which to shape it. Legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi wrote in his Book of Five Rings that all such styles are just made to impress people;

the true style is, to sum up his philosophy, the one in which you kill the other guy. Impressing people, though, is exactly the business of manga and anime, and the idea of different styles translated beautifully onto the page and the screen, giving samurai characters a distinct way of fighting as well as looks and personality, and it echoed the wuxia tradition of pitting different martial arts schools against each other to prove which is superior.

Samurai manga and anime start from the realistic, like Lone Wolf and Cub (manga and movie series), pass through the implausible, like Rurouni Kenshin (known in American TV as Samurai X), and end in the ridiculously over the top, like Samurai Deeper Kyo. Due to the subject matter, samurai stories tend to stick close to actual history, so if you want to run a samu-rai series, you better brush up a little on the history of Japan around the Sengoku, Edo (also called Tokugawa), and Meiji periods, which saw the rise, peak, and decline of the samurai caste, respectively. You don’t need to be a scholar, though; manga and anime issue a wide-scope artistic license that gives you flexibility to play sci-fi samurai (Samurai 7), school life samurai (Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School), and even hip-hop samurai (Samurai Champloo).

ThE NINjA

An honorable mention of the martial arts genre belongs to Japan alone, and that is the mythic figure of the ninja. While secret orders of martial arts assassins (or their rumors) have existed since the early Chinese dynas-ties, it was the ninja that leapt out of the shadows and into the media.

The ninja acquired a mythic stature, as their history was never recorded and most of their exploits were more hearsay and folktale than actual historical accounts. In the minds of scared shogunate guards, the ninja were capable of supernatural feats, such as walking over water and becoming winged shadows. Sometimes they were even considered tengu, mythological raven-like demons with supreme martial arts skills.

One of the main elements of a ninja story is the ninja clan. Ninja clans do have their roots in history, when ninja originated from outlaws and disen-franchised peasants. The most “famous” groups of ninja originated from the Iga and Kouga regions (and the manga Basilisk made the Iga and Kouga into full-fledged ninja clans), and it wasn’t long before the feudal lords saw the use of warriors not bound by a code of honor that could be hired to perform the province’s dirty work.

As portrayed in movies and manga, a ninja clan is a strict organization.

Its facilities are hidden deep inside a forest and are very often a full village that doesn’t exist on any map, complete with its own peasants and working class tending to the everyday needs of the ninja, who hire out and bring in the money. The clan has a patriarch or matriarch and a clear hierarchy based on age (as a normal clan would) as well as martial arts expertise.

Strict rules prohibit ninja from leaving the village without permission, in a way giving the same chances for personal conflict that the samurai’s code provides, as a young ninja may be forced to disobey the clan and become an outcast. The difference between a ronin and a runaway ninja is that the clan is very much actively trying to kill the ninja.

Another staple of ninja series is the importance of female ninja, called

“kunoichi.” The kunoichi is the symbol of female empowerment against a strict chauvinistic regime, and she doesn’t need to disguise herself as a man (like samurai women in many stories) to gain the respect and fear of her ninja peers. In fact, kunoichi are portrayed wearing as little as possible, which also makes them the (sometimes very chauvinistically so…) sex sym-bols of the martial arts world.

American media suffered a ninja invasion in the ‘80s, with a collection of incredibly bad movies. Around the same time, Japan was reading the ninja adventures of The Legend of Kamui, made into an anime movie called The Dagger of Kamui, which are classics of the ninja sub-genre. They later assaulted the West with the distribution of Ninja Scroll, which put a super-natural gore spin to the adventures of semi-historical warrior Yagyu Jubei.

fAcT OR fIcTION?

One of the most fascinating things about martial arts and their history are how they are perceived as a mix of real world history and practices with ancient legend and modern myth. Discussing the real aspects of martial arts is completely out of the scope of this book, so this chapter centers on martial arts in popular media, including books, movies, cartoons, comics, manga, anime, and even videogames. Any resemblance to real-world martial arts is just a coincidence.

Comics adopted the ninja with glee, and many popular heroes can trace their backgrounds to some ninja order or another, such as Daredevil, Batman, and Elektra. The differences between a comics ninja and a manga ninja are profound, however. In Western comics, ninja characters are superb hand-to-hand fighters, specializing in stealth and trickery; they use a variety of weapons, tricks, and tools to fit different situations. They are, basically, the model for the Dark Knight of Gotham.

In manga, ninja characters are also magicians, illusionists, and bona fide superheroes with their own special powers attributed to ancient ninjutsu secrets. They activate these secret powers through a series of hand seals, ges-tures they perform with their hands and fingers, very much akin to the idea of magic spellcasting. Ironically, manga ninja do not use as many weapons as their comics equivalents, preferring to specialize in a single weapon, or a small group of weapons, much like the old wuxia did, but choosing much subtler and discrete tools, like the shuriken (the infamous throwing stars) and the kunai (funny little knives with a ring at the handle’s bottom).

STREET fIGhTERS

Street fighting has more to do with chaotic brawling than martial arts, but ever since Street Fighter became the monolith of the fighting videogame genre, the concept of the irregular fighting master became popular.

If samurai and wuxia are the knights of the martial arts genre, then street fighters are the rogues and loose cannons, wandering around using their skills for personal gain and following a personal set of guidelines, instead of a strict code. Under the concept of “street fighter,” any sort of person could become a martial artist powerhouse without anyone batting an eye. No longer needed were the remote monasteries or the

traditional dojos where natural talent could evolve into superior fighting skills or where exiled and

wan-dering masters were willing to teach young enthusiasts in back alleys.

Despite being so open, the street fighter concept is also limited. Most of the characters considered “street fighters” actually learned their styles in a traditional way and later somehow abandoned their traditions.

Improvised martial artists who gain their skill from accidental sources also fall under the “street fighter” concept; they can have the suppressed memories of a martial arts past life suddenly dominating their conscious mind, or they can come into the possession of a magical artifact that turns them into kung fu masters.

The main thing about street-fighting martial artists is that they aren’t bound by an ancient code of conduct. If they follow any rules at all, these are new, and evil martial artists keep pushing their limits.

GUN fU GUNNERS

Gun fu may not be considered a “martial art” in the traditional sense, since all it does is make handling guns look cool. Then again, a “martial art” in the cinematic sense is all about making bashing heads look cool, so the master gunslingers who can do things with firearms that no other can do classify as martial artists. Like other martial arts, gun fu originates from Chinese action movies, particularly the work of John Woo, who brought his craft with him to Hollywood for the movies Face Off and Mission: Impossible 2. However, the best example of gun fu can be found in the movie Equilibrium, where gun fighting is truly taken to the heights of a well-studied practice.

There are not many gunslingers in manga and anime, but the few there are have some things in common.

For one, they do not belong to any ancient tradition, and their techniques are mostly made up as they go, fitting the particular abilities of each gunfighter. Also, they favor “small” arms; that is,

guns that they can carry in one hand, although very large caliber pistols and sawed-off shotguns are popular. Wielding two weapons is also very com-mon, with some gunners actually having a melee weapon in their main or off-hand, depending on preferences.

The trick of gun fu is not so much fancy moves; after all, getting a shot out pretty much seals the deal if you’re aiming in the right direction. The secret of gun fu lies in superhuman reflexes and complete awareness of the battlefield. The most spectacular gunners share other martial artists’ pen-chant to treat gravity as a suggestion rather than a universal constant, with walls becoming tactical tools for gaining new vantage points, and midair twists giving them wider fire arcs.

With no defined style, no recognized masters, and no established centers of learning, practitioners of gun fu teach themselves from many backgrounds.

They can be bounty hunters, mercenaries, demonslayers, or just about any other vocation that requires skill, firepower, and a big load of attitude.

chI bENDERS

Not quite a category on their own, chi-benders are an overlay to other types of martial artists, able to tap and harness a source of power that can be mystical, magical, or purely scientific, but all for their taking. This power is called chi, or “breath” in Chinese, but each series puts its own spin on it (as

well as a new name), treating it as a purely external power that the martial artists brings into herself, a completely internal energy that can be molded and increased by training and discipline, or a combination of the two.

Regardless of its explanation and name in a particular series, chi gives martial artists the ability to perform superhuman feats of prowess. It is their chi that wuxia weave to make their footsteps lighter than air. Samurai chan-nel theirs through the edge of their blades to cut through stone. The ninja use it as a tool to obscure their victims’ minds.

Chi is the excuse for anything supernatural in a martial artist’s arsenal, and it will be the descriptor for most of the powers chosen by a martial arts hero. A master attuned to the flows of chi can sense his enemies with his eyes closed, while others simply learn to concentrate it to create demolish-ing blasts of pure energy. In some series, chi will be inextricably linked with an elemental power, such as wind or fire, and in others, it will exist in a pure state that defies classification.

The best thing about chi in a manga or anime series is that a martial artist doesn’t really need to have a deep philosophical or spiritual side; chi can be a tool anyone with the talent or will can learn how to use, and if it’s widely accepted that chi mastery lets people perform the impossible, people will be open to accepting incredible stunts from heroes and villains alike.

Ultimately, the concept of chi serves to increase the powers of any mar-tial artist, without having to come up with explanations like gamma rays, unlikely mutations, or radioactive spiders.

MARTIAl ARTS ThEMES

While martial arts have infiltrated almost all the other action and adven-ture genres, there is actually a martial arts standalone genre with its own conventions, themes, and clichés, and it’s a genre that literally reaches back centuries.

ThE pATh Of INNER STRENGTh

The core of any martial art is to master the power within. Whether to simply gain superior speed or to learn how to concentrate ambient energy to shoot concussive blasts, the power of a martial artist is inside her.

The concept of chi will always have a place in any martial arts story, regard-less of genre, tone, and power level, and understanding how it works and how it can be channeled is the basis of every technique, power, and attack.

Chi doesn’t need to be a central part of the setting in order to influence its martial arts. The members of a high school’s kendo club will never worry about perceiving the hidden flows of chi, but most of the time, they will recognize by sight the strength of their club’s captain or admire the new-comer’s natural talent. They will not call their innate qualities “chi,” but they

Chi doesn’t need to be a central part of the setting in order to influence its martial arts. The members of a high school’s kendo club will never worry about perceiving the hidden flows of chi, but most of the time, they will recognize by sight the strength of their club’s captain or admire the new-comer’s natural talent. They will not call their innate qualities “chi,” but they

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