http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/doa.jpg
[[caption-width:250:[[JigglePhysics BOING]]]]
A 3D Fighting Game franchise akin to ''{{Tekken}}'' and ''VirtuaFighter''. Even though the male fighters outnumber the female fighters by a slim margin, it's the women who are the real stars of the show.

The actual story is about the dealings of the sinister DOATEC corporation, who hold the Dead or Alive tournament as a front to finance the genetic research in creating the ultimate fighter. A runaway ninja named Kasumi gets tangled in the struggle, using the tournament as a means of escape and to look for her lost brother Hayate, and take revenge on her traitorous uncle, Raidou. Other characters enter the tournament for their own personal reasons, but all get sucked into DOATEC's larger scheme. Ayane, who is also looking for Hayate, is required to kill her half-sister Kasumi (as desertion from a ninja clan is punishable by death); Ryu Hayabusa ([[NinjaGaiden remember him?]]) is looking for him as well; Hayate is trying to recover the memories he lost after being experimented on by DOATEC; Zack's just doing it for the money; and it builds steam from there.

Of course, nobody plays the game for ''[[JigglePhysics that]]''.

Despite the vast quantities of JigglePhysics, the game actually has a great deal of independant merit of its own, being much more fast-paced and kinetic than the 3D fighters that it competes with while remaining technical and reasonably well-balanced.

After the fights, they tend to [[GoKartingWithBowser get together and play beach volleyball.]]

[[Characters/DeadOrAlive The character sheet]] is under construction.
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!!This series provides examples of:

* AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield (vs. Omega/Genra)
* AntiHero (Ayane)
* ArrogantKungFuGuy (Jann Lee)
* AuctionOfEvil (In TheMovie)
* BadassBack (Ayane has a whole set of moves based on this, and so does ''[=DOA4=]'' newcomer Kokoro.)
**Brad Wong also has quite a few backward attacks as well.
* BattleButler (Christie, to Helena)
* BoobsOfSteel (Tina)
* {{Brainwashed}} (Ein who after being dumped by the villains is revealed to be [[spoiler: Hayate, Kasumi's brother and Ayane's half-brother]]
* BrotherSisterIncest (Implied with half-siblings Ayane and Hayate.)
* BruceLeeClone (Jann Lee)
* ButNotTooForeign (Hitomi has a German father and Kokoro who is the child of DOA sponsor Fame Douglas and a Japanese Geisha)
* CainAndAbel (Ayane -> Kasumi)
* CanonImmigrant (Ryu Hayabusa, who actually pre-dates this series by at least a decade.)
* CherryBlossoms (Kasumi's motif)
* ChickMagnet (Zack, who even buys an island that sets the tone for the Xtreme side-series. Why does he do it? Because he ''[[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney can]]''.)
* ChineseGirl (Lei-Fang)
* ChinesePeople (Jann Lee and Lei Fang)
* {{Combos}}
* ContractOnTheHitman (Kasumi and, from the third game onward, Bayman)
* DrunkenMaster (Brad Wong)
* {{Eagleland}} (Tina and Bass. Possibly Zack too.)
* [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas Even Bad Girls Love Their Adopted Fathers]] (Ayane, see ManlyTears below)
* ExcusePlot (Xtreme Beach Volleyball)
* {{Fanservice}} ("She kicks high", indeed. The only female character who avoids this is Nicole, the DistaffCounterpart of ''{{Halo}}'''s Master Chief.)
* FoeYay (Helena and Christie; Kasumi and Ayane)
* GaidenGame, (The two "Xtreme Beach Volleyball" games dispense entirely with the male combatants and put the women on an island with volleyball nets and the thinnest bikinis known to man.)
* GenreShift, (In Xtreme Beach Volleyball; guess what they do instead of fighting...)
* GoKartingWithBowser (Again, Xtreme Beach Volleyball: they love playing with their enemies.)
* HeroicBastard (Ayane, the result of Kasumi's mother being raped by the boss of the first game, eventually fits this trope.)
* HoukoKuwashima (voice of Kasumi from the 3rd game onward)
* HuskyRusskie (Bayman)
* IdentityAmnesia (Hayate)
* IntercontinuityCrossover (Nicole's story in [=DoA=] 4 suggests that the ''{{Halo}}'' series (or at least the ilovebees AlternateUniverse thereof) occurs in [=DoA's=] far future)
* JigglePhysics (Not only is the series sold on it, but the series takes the ball, runs with it, and spikes it in the end zone... to cause even more jiggling.)
* JiggleShow (While the whole genre often has plenty of examples of MostCommonSuperPower in general this series is still often deemed the Queen of HotterAndSexier in Fighting Games, though the Extreme Beach Volleyball series helps on that.)
* JuggleFu (Christie InNameOnly from TheMovie, with her bra.)
* KotonoMitsuishi (voice of Christie)
* LadyOfWar (Helena)
* LargeHam (Tengu)
* LesYay (Lei Fang and Hitomi are shown to be ''very'' friendly to each other)
* ManlyTears (Ayane in her ''Dead Or Alive 3'' ending)
* MistakenForMurderer (Helena is convinced that Ayane was the assassin that killed her mother, [[spoiler:but it later turns out that Christie did it, and she was sent to kill Helena, as well]].)
* {{Ninja}} (Nearly half the cast!)
* OldMaster (Gen Fu)
* OlderThanTheyThink (Some internet posters think Jann Lee's yellow tracksuit is a ShoutOut to ''KillBill,'' but it was actually first worn by Bruce Lee in ''Game of Death'' (which ''KillBill'' was referencing)
* ProfessionalWrestling (Tina, Bass, and Lisa/La Mariposa)
* RedOniBlueOni (Kasumi and Ayane)
* RelationshipValues (In the ''DOAX'' games, giving the other girls presents will make them more likely to partner up with you.)
** Provided you give them something they like. Some items (like all {{Stripperiffic}} swimsuits) will make them ''less'' likely to partner up with you.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge (Helena)
* RyuAndKen (Kasumi and Ayane)
* SlipknotPonytail (Kasumi)
* SmokeOut (Kasumi can do this with cherry blossom petals)
* SNKBoss (All of the final bosses appear to suffer from this to varying degrees, the worst of which being Kasumi Alpha-152 from ''Dead or Alive 4''.)
* SoBadItsGood (The movie very, very much so.)
** [[YourMileageMayVary Some people think it's]] SoBadItsHorrible.
* {{Stripperiffic}} (Again, just about every female other than Nicole, who you can really only tell is female by her voice).
* TakeThat (Tomonobu Itagaki, Team Ninja's former lead designer, really doesn't like the ''{{Tekken}}'' series.)
**He has later said that he expects good things from Tekken 6
* TheScrappy: Eliot. He might be good gameplay-wise but many people just don't like him.
** Especially since his 4th costume looks like something SquareEnix would do.
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou (Christie is psychotically devoted to protecting Helena, so she can kill her herself.)
* TheOjou (Helena)
* TheRival (several: Ayane/Kasumi, Lei Fang/Jann Lee, Hayabusa/Hayate, Leon/Bayman)
* TheSmurfettePrinciple (Subverted; there may be more guys, but the girls are clearly in charge here.)
* TookALevelInBadass (Jann Lee's backstory. [[spoiler:He spent his childhood as a weak, bullied kid that can only escape the harsh reality by watching BruceLee films. Then he became an AscendedFanboy. And the rest is history.]])
* VideoGameMoviesSuck (It took a full year for the ''DOA'' movie to be released in North America ''after'' being shown in Europe, and even then it quietly slipped in and out of theaters with zero promotion; given the nature of the game itself, this may be a GuiltyPleasure to some.)
**This troper is watching it right now. It turns down many an opportunity to go for [[RuleOfSexy copious jiggling]], and [[RuleOfFun clearly is just in it for the cheesy one-liners and the computer-game violence]] instead. And the shots of butts.
* WaifFu
* XtremeKoolLetterz (The Xtreme side series.)
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