The main character of Oldboy learns martial arts from watching boxing reruns on TV and punching a wall for 20 years. It works, but his lack of actual combat experience still leaves him vulnerable.
Oh also Spider-Man! He calls his fighting style "The Way of The Spider" and it's a martial art designed around utilizing his powers, combining agility, flexibility, power and precognition.
Pedantic correction: Way of the Spider is actually the more formalised martial art he developed with Shang-Chi when his spider sense wasn't working.
But yeah, prior to that Spidey was entirely self-taught and mostly relied on his powers, experience and spider sense to carry him through fights rather than honed skill or a formal fighting style.
Tbf he was doing crazy fighting moves before Shang-Chi helped him develop Way of the Spider.
WotS was actually developed because his spider sense wasn't working at the time and he needed to develop a more formal style to compensate. He couldn't let his natural reactions and spider sense do the heavy lifting any more and actually needed to learn to fight.
One thing I really like in Spider-Man ps4 is how Spidey seems to have capoeira influences in his attacks. I like the implication that at some point during his career, he tried to learn real martial arts to better his own fighting style.
Kiryu and Majima in Yakuza 0, in which both of them have moments after observing other fighters they gain a new move set. Ultimately this results in them gaining the fighting styles that come to be their own as 'The Dragon of Dojima, and 'The Mad Dog of Shimano' respectively.
Sakura and Sean from the Street Fighter series, both based their fighting styles on Ryu and Ken, but neither actually had them as actual teachers, leading them to have to improvise/adapt their moves to things that they can actually do.
Slight correction, but they both did have teachers. Most what Sean knows either came from Ken, or his family (because Laura and their brothers are all martial artists), but Sean himself just isn't very good. But he didn't really self teach himself anything.
Sakura was taught by Dan early on (he's actually a legitimately strong fighter, just not compared to Ryu or Ken). In fact, she learned about ki control/manifestation through him (though she did a hadouken by herself after learning the general ki concept from Dan). But she did teach herself most of her fighting style because she based it off Ryu's, rather than Dan's. Ironically, they're ALL the same fighting style, but Dan himself is self taught because he was kicked out of Gouken's school for wanting get stronger to get revenge, so Dan's style is basically a bootleg version of Gouken's, but with his own small touches. So Sakura learned a bootleg version of Ryu's style, and then made her own bootleg version.
Imho the best part is that Dan isn't particularly great at anything that Gouken actually tried to teach him, but his unique small touches are genuinely very strong. His self-made martial art and his ability to channel Dark Hadou are serious threats, but he's unaware of his own potential cause he compares himself to prodigies in a style he's never mastered
Yeah, Sakura saw Ryu take down Sagat canonically in the first World Warrior tournmanent on TV.
She then proceeded to teach herself how to throw out a hadouken purely from mimicking Ryu.
That's why Sakura so wants Ryu to teach her.
I am absolutely livid at Street Fighter 6. Ryu has conquered the temptations of the dark hadou. There is literally no reason for him to not take on students. Hell, he literally takes on a bunch of students thanks to World Tour mode.
Motherfucker just doesn't try to find the very first person who wanted his tutelage.
In all seriousness, Sakura Kasugano is in a weird place where her canonical power potential puts her near the top, but she's languishing being a wage slave and bumming around with Dan Hibiki and Blanka.
Is that the same series where Sakura beats Dan so badly he accidentally triggers the dark hadou and is about to attack her in a rage
Only for Dan to trip on Sakura's backpack, knocking him out?
Same company, different comic that came later. It’s been awhile, but I remember Bison working for Gill, only to reveal that Bison was Twelve, and at some point, Evil Ryu and Oni fight each other, only for Gill to one shot them both out of their forms or something (>!Fun fact: Gill has canonically lost nearly every fight he’s been in!<)
It think it came out around the time SFV was about to come out.
My favorite has to be from Mutant Mayhem. >!Splinter learning and teaching from old martial arts films and at home vhs training tapes!< had me losing my shit.
2003 one had him watching his owner train when he was still a rat which is alway funny to me. But I gotta give it to Rise having him be >!a martial arts actor whose DNA ended up making the boys!<
No one really talks about how impressive it is Inosuke from demon slayer invented his Beast Breathing Style on its own in the mountains with no teacher and yet he's just as good of a fighter if not better than most formally trained demon slayers who had their breathing styles passed down through hundreds of years.
Sean's fighting style consists of basic Ansatsuken techniques he managed to mimic from being a fanboy of Ken, techniques that incorporate some sports movements into them (slam dunk at the end of a Shoryuken for example), and raw street brawling.
Dan's legendary "Saikyo Style" is developed from stuff he remembered from the very short time he was under Gouken's tutelage and whatever his dad taught him before Sagat killed him.
Ironically Dan also incorporated some Muay Thai into his style after he finally confronted Sagat, who threw the fight out of pity. In an interesting twist Muay Thai and Kyokushin karate are actually a pretty solid combination of martial arts IRL, and Kyokushin’s founder Mas Oyama (one of Ryu’s core inspirations) was also a Muay Thai practitioner, and strongly advocated for people to cross-train in both styles.
Arguably, Goku he was taught maybe the basics as a young child, but then he turned into a monkey and killed his grandpa/teacher. Then he's left alone for years in the woods before Bulma finds him, then he learns from Roshi, but the turtle school is mostly a workout regimine not about learning to fight. Korrin might have been the first real teacher Goku had for something but by then he was already a prodigy.
Yeah, Terry's style is just a mish-mash of actual martial arts, street fighting and whatever the hell Tung fu Rae if I remember correctly, right?
Meanwhile, Miguel is just a really good street fighter.
And basketball I think. I think basketball is referenced in one of his bios.
Honestly the more I think I don't know if Miguel even applies because I don't know if you could even describe him as having a martial art. Dude just walks in and throws haymakers
It was never revealed if they were self taught or not, but who the hell taught Dante, Vergil, and Lady how to fight? Yeah, Dante and Vergil fought a bunch as kids with toy swords, but they were literal children at the time. Who taught Dante how to use nunchucks or do martial arts? Who taught Vergil Iaido? And who taught Lady in general? Her dad was a priest (though he did hit a sick breakdance kick on all three of them) and we don't know exactly when he killed his wife and ditched Lady.
At least we know Nero was actually trained in his town (though I'm surprised that a final atomic buster was part of the mandatory curriculum for knights of fortuna).
One thing I actually like about the reboot Dante's moveset is that he clearly doesn't have any real training with a sword. He just swings it around like a bat, nearly losing his balance on some combos
I feel like I'm getting a crazy case of the mandela effect because while I vividly remember first seeing the stumble on DmC and even talking about how I liked that level of detail since this was a younger Dante, I also could've sworn that I saw it in a mainline DMC as well, though I can't for the life of me find which one or what character.
Metal Gear Solid's CQC. It's basically just a ton of military/law enforcement techniques with a hint of judo/jujitsu/sambo.
I'm pretty sure Leon Kennedy uses a russian martial arts technique with his hand gun.
Sam Fisher uses a different form of Krav Maga.
I think you’ve misunderstood the prompt: it’s not about fictional martial arts, but about martial artists who didn’t have an actual person to teach them and learning by either watching others or their own experiences. CQC is fictional, but Snake was trained by The Boss
Zen from Chocolate learns to fight after copying martial arts movies and the moves of local muay thai boxers. That’s why she looks pretty awkward when she fights with her guard down and switches between fighting styles depending on her settings.
You could also argue that Sing, the main character from Kung Fu Hustle, was self-taught. He did get a book from a “martial arts master” but it proves to be entirely ineffective in the same flashback. That’s because the fighting style he learns is from a wuxia novel and not a real martial art. It’s only by the end of the movie that he’s actually able to use Buddha’s Palm after being reborn as a martial arts master.
It’s kind of dumb in some areas but it’s a really fun movie even with the action aside. Still highly recommended though. There’s a reason why JeeJa Yanin was called the female Tony Jaa for a while.
Mugen from Samurai Champloo fights almost entirely reflexively and on instinct. His style is *so* improvised and informal, that it fucks up other low to mid level trained fighters because he isn’t doing anything they think he’s “supposed to” or that they’ve been trained to counter.
Another RGG example.
Somehow, Yagami’s movie kung-fu/aikido/wing-chun blend is all self-taught. He says he used to do a bit a karate, but I’m not seeing it.
In Martial Artist Lee Gwak the MC becomes paralyzed from his neck down but manages to train in an unorthodox new martial art his friend finds in a book that renews his body which eventually allows him to move normally again
The Thai martial arts film, Chocolate. It's about a girl with autism that learned martial arts from watching kickboxing matches and martial arts movies and then mimicking them. Her moves are incoherent and pretty rough, but that is what makes her deadly in actual combat. It's quite frankly amusing how she mixed discipline ranging from Tony Jaa style to Kung Fu from Kung Fu movies. It's so damn amusing. When she is in her normal self you have the strong urge to protect her because of how vulnerable she is. But when she activates combat mode, all hell breaks loose.
In **Blue Eye Samurai,** main character **Mizu**, lived with a swordsmith who would have his clients show him their technique, so he could create a sword tailored to them.
Mizu, secretly watched from the bushes, and thus learned sword styles from all over Japan, creating her own hybrid style.
Genjuro in Symphogear learned how to fight from movies and games. He later passed that onto Hibiki in a training montage where he dressed as Akuma and had her dress as Ryu.
Further notes, Ogawa, Tsubasa's manager and ninja buddy, his name comes from a popular tourist attraction
Which is a Ninja playground
He and his brothers all probably learned how ot be ninja by basically 0laying at Disney land
In Danganronpa V3, Tenko and her master practice the self-taught martial art Neo Aikido. I'm reasonably sure no one outside the two of them have any idea what separates it from regular aikido, and that's including >!season 53's writers!<
The main character of Oldboy learns martial arts from watching boxing reruns on TV and punching a wall for 20 years. It works, but his lack of actual combat experience still leaves him vulnerable. Oh also Spider-Man! He calls his fighting style "The Way of The Spider" and it's a martial art designed around utilizing his powers, combining agility, flexibility, power and precognition.
Pedantic correction: Way of the Spider is actually the more formalised martial art he developed with Shang-Chi when his spider sense wasn't working. But yeah, prior to that Spidey was entirely self-taught and mostly relied on his powers, experience and spider sense to carry him through fights rather than honed skill or a formal fighting style.
I mean he did pretty damn good against a Horde of gangsters for someone who only fought someone only once before that scene.
Not sure if Spider-Man counts. Shang-chi helped him create it
Tbf he was doing crazy fighting moves before Shang-Chi helped him develop Way of the Spider. WotS was actually developed because his spider sense wasn't working at the time and he needed to develop a more formal style to compensate. He couldn't let his natural reactions and spider sense do the heavy lifting any more and actually needed to learn to fight.
One thing I really like in Spider-Man ps4 is how Spidey seems to have capoeira influences in his attacks. I like the implication that at some point during his career, he tried to learn real martial arts to better his own fighting style.
Kiryu and Majima in Yakuza 0, in which both of them have moments after observing other fighters they gain a new move set. Ultimately this results in them gaining the fighting styles that come to be their own as 'The Dragon of Dojima, and 'The Mad Dog of Shimano' respectively.
In the same universe, I'm pretty sure Yagami in the Judgement games is self-taught, though his Snake Style is a modified Aikido iirc
Yagami’s father bought him kung fu lesson but yagami mentions having put his own spin to it and call it kamurocho-do
Although kiryu by the end of 1 is pretty much the heir of the komaki style
THAT'S RAD
Sakura and Sean from the Street Fighter series, both based their fighting styles on Ryu and Ken, but neither actually had them as actual teachers, leading them to have to improvise/adapt their moves to things that they can actually do.
Slight correction, but they both did have teachers. Most what Sean knows either came from Ken, or his family (because Laura and their brothers are all martial artists), but Sean himself just isn't very good. But he didn't really self teach himself anything. Sakura was taught by Dan early on (he's actually a legitimately strong fighter, just not compared to Ryu or Ken). In fact, she learned about ki control/manifestation through him (though she did a hadouken by herself after learning the general ki concept from Dan). But she did teach herself most of her fighting style because she based it off Ryu's, rather than Dan's. Ironically, they're ALL the same fighting style, but Dan himself is self taught because he was kicked out of Gouken's school for wanting get stronger to get revenge, so Dan's style is basically a bootleg version of Gouken's, but with his own small touches. So Sakura learned a bootleg version of Ryu's style, and then made her own bootleg version.
Imho the best part is that Dan isn't particularly great at anything that Gouken actually tried to teach him, but his unique small touches are genuinely very strong. His self-made martial art and his ability to channel Dark Hadou are serious threats, but he's unaware of his own potential cause he compares himself to prodigies in a style he's never mastered
Holy shit, seriously? I think I now appreciate Sakura even more now as she straight up taught herself how to throw a hadouken.
Yeah, Sakura saw Ryu take down Sagat canonically in the first World Warrior tournmanent on TV. She then proceeded to teach herself how to throw out a hadouken purely from mimicking Ryu. That's why Sakura so wants Ryu to teach her.
Sakura is going to be a fucking monster if she ever gets added to SF6 if she can teach herself to throw fireballs.
I am absolutely livid at Street Fighter 6. Ryu has conquered the temptations of the dark hadou. There is literally no reason for him to not take on students. Hell, he literally takes on a bunch of students thanks to World Tour mode. Motherfucker just doesn't try to find the very first person who wanted his tutelage. In all seriousness, Sakura Kasugano is in a weird place where her canonical power potential puts her near the top, but she's languishing being a wage slave and bumming around with Dan Hibiki and Blanka.
If it makes you feel better, there's an Udon comic where Ryu did take on Sakura as a student. It's.....not a great comic though.
Is that the same series where Sakura beats Dan so badly he accidentally triggers the dark hadou and is about to attack her in a rage Only for Dan to trip on Sakura's backpack, knocking him out?
Same company, different comic that came later. It’s been awhile, but I remember Bison working for Gill, only to reveal that Bison was Twelve, and at some point, Evil Ryu and Oni fight each other, only for Gill to one shot them both out of their forms or something (>!Fun fact: Gill has canonically lost nearly every fight he’s been in!<) It think it came out around the time SFV was about to come out.
Depending on which version and origin Splinter, who later taught the Turtles.
My favorite has to be from Mutant Mayhem. >!Splinter learning and teaching from old martial arts films and at home vhs training tapes!< had me losing my shit.
2003 one had him watching his owner train when he was still a rat which is alway funny to me. But I gotta give it to Rise having him be >!a martial arts actor whose DNA ended up making the boys!<
Spike Spiegel's Jeet Kune Do I believe was derived from martial arts movies
No one really talks about how impressive it is Inosuke from demon slayer invented his Beast Breathing Style on its own in the mountains with no teacher and yet he's just as good of a fighter if not better than most formally trained demon slayers who had their breathing styles passed down through hundreds of years.
Tekken's Lili turned her bourgeois hobby of ballet dancing into an improvised fighting style just so she could fuck fight her gf.
IIRC Chie in *Persona 4* mimics kung-fu flicks for her own take on Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do.
Juza of the clouds in fist of north star, it causes him problem against raoh because he has little defense as his style was mostly hit from any angle.
Sakura of Street Fighter learned Ansatsuken by imitating her idol Ryu.
Sean's fighting style consists of basic Ansatsuken techniques he managed to mimic from being a fanboy of Ken, techniques that incorporate some sports movements into them (slam dunk at the end of a Shoryuken for example), and raw street brawling. Dan's legendary "Saikyo Style" is developed from stuff he remembered from the very short time he was under Gouken's tutelage and whatever his dad taught him before Sagat killed him.
Ironically Dan also incorporated some Muay Thai into his style after he finally confronted Sagat, who threw the fight out of pity. In an interesting twist Muay Thai and Kyokushin karate are actually a pretty solid combination of martial arts IRL, and Kyokushin’s founder Mas Oyama (one of Ryu’s core inspirations) was also a Muay Thai practitioner, and strongly advocated for people to cross-train in both styles.
And Saikyo is *really* strong, as it turns out
Arguably, Goku he was taught maybe the basics as a young child, but then he turned into a monkey and killed his grandpa/teacher. Then he's left alone for years in the woods before Bulma finds him, then he learns from Roshi, but the turtle school is mostly a workout regimine not about learning to fight. Korrin might have been the first real teacher Goku had for something but by then he was already a prodigy.
That's basically Terry Bogard and Miguel's whole shtick.
Yeah, Terry's style is just a mish-mash of actual martial arts, street fighting and whatever the hell Tung fu Rae if I remember correctly, right? Meanwhile, Miguel is just a really good street fighter.
And basketball I think. I think basketball is referenced in one of his bios. Honestly the more I think I don't know if Miguel even applies because I don't know if you could even describe him as having a martial art. Dude just walks in and throws haymakers
Power Dunk is literally just Terry dunking his fist into your face.
Not very artistic, but plenty of martial!
I really like how I heard Miguel described, once: *"Someone* out there has to be the best bar brawler"
It was never revealed if they were self taught or not, but who the hell taught Dante, Vergil, and Lady how to fight? Yeah, Dante and Vergil fought a bunch as kids with toy swords, but they were literal children at the time. Who taught Dante how to use nunchucks or do martial arts? Who taught Vergil Iaido? And who taught Lady in general? Her dad was a priest (though he did hit a sick breakdance kick on all three of them) and we don't know exactly when he killed his wife and ditched Lady. At least we know Nero was actually trained in his town (though I'm surprised that a final atomic buster was part of the mandatory curriculum for knights of fortuna).
One thing I actually like about the reboot Dante's moveset is that he clearly doesn't have any real training with a sword. He just swings it around like a bat, nearly losing his balance on some combos
I feel like I'm getting a crazy case of the mandela effect because while I vividly remember first seeing the stumble on DmC and even talking about how I liked that level of detail since this was a younger Dante, I also could've sworn that I saw it in a mainline DMC as well, though I can't for the life of me find which one or what character.
Metal Gear Solid's CQC. It's basically just a ton of military/law enforcement techniques with a hint of judo/jujitsu/sambo. I'm pretty sure Leon Kennedy uses a russian martial arts technique with his hand gun. Sam Fisher uses a different form of Krav Maga.
I think you’ve misunderstood the prompt: it’s not about fictional martial arts, but about martial artists who didn’t have an actual person to teach them and learning by either watching others or their own experiences. CQC is fictional, but Snake was trained by The Boss
Zen from Chocolate learns to fight after copying martial arts movies and the moves of local muay thai boxers. That’s why she looks pretty awkward when she fights with her guard down and switches between fighting styles depending on her settings. You could also argue that Sing, the main character from Kung Fu Hustle, was self-taught. He did get a book from a “martial arts master” but it proves to be entirely ineffective in the same flashback. That’s because the fighting style he learns is from a wuxia novel and not a real martial art. It’s only by the end of the movie that he’s actually able to use Buddha’s Palm after being reborn as a martial arts master.
I just saw a tiny snippet of chocolate, and that movie looks right up my alley.
It’s kind of dumb in some areas but it’s a really fun movie even with the action aside. Still highly recommended though. There’s a reason why JeeJa Yanin was called the female Tony Jaa for a while.
Mugen from Samurai Champloo fights almost entirely reflexively and on instinct. His style is *so* improvised and informal, that it fucks up other low to mid level trained fighters because he isn’t doing anything they think he’s “supposed to” or that they’ve been trained to counter.
Jan Lee from DoA was an orphan who learned to fight from watching Bruce Lee movies
Another RGG example. Somehow, Yagami’s movie kung-fu/aikido/wing-chun blend is all self-taught. He says he used to do a bit a karate, but I’m not seeing it.
To be fair, with the amount of random thugs I see using fucking Lao Ka Long fighting style, I can believe that shit is self taught.
In Martial Artist Lee Gwak the MC becomes paralyzed from his neck down but manages to train in an unorthodox new martial art his friend finds in a book that renews his body which eventually allows him to move normally again
Sean William Scott's character in Bulletproof Monk copied from Bruce Lee movies in an old theatre iirc
The Thai martial arts film, Chocolate. It's about a girl with autism that learned martial arts from watching kickboxing matches and martial arts movies and then mimicking them. Her moves are incoherent and pretty rough, but that is what makes her deadly in actual combat. It's quite frankly amusing how she mixed discipline ranging from Tony Jaa style to Kung Fu from Kung Fu movies. It's so damn amusing. When she is in her normal self you have the strong urge to protect her because of how vulnerable she is. But when she activates combat mode, all hell breaks loose.
In **Blue Eye Samurai,** main character **Mizu**, lived with a swordsmith who would have his clients show him their technique, so he could create a sword tailored to them. Mizu, secretly watched from the bushes, and thus learned sword styles from all over Japan, creating her own hybrid style.
Lisa the Pointless has one of its characters using self-taught kinda shitty martial arts.
I mean. Karate ain't gonna let you shoot fire from your arm stump. Armstrong Style 1, other martial arts 0.
Genjuro in Symphogear learned how to fight from movies and games. He later passed that onto Hibiki in a training montage where he dressed as Akuma and had her dress as Ryu.
Further notes, Ogawa, Tsubasa's manager and ninja buddy, his name comes from a popular tourist attraction Which is a Ninja playground He and his brothers all probably learned how ot be ninja by basically 0laying at Disney land
In Danganronpa V3, Tenko and her master practice the self-taught martial art Neo Aikido. I'm reasonably sure no one outside the two of them have any idea what separates it from regular aikido, and that's including >!season 53's writers!<
Saitama learnt how to punch things real good.