Boobs Of Steel - Television Tropes & Idioms

With great strength comes great lung capacity

When you have a larger group of females who may be involved in some action (...err, as in, fighting), the one with the biggest breasts will be the strongest one. You'd think that those giant knockers would impede her in some way... another one of the big advantages of the Most Common Superpower?

The simplest explanation is that the woman is simply bigger than the other female characters, or simply older and thus more fully grown and developed, or both at once. In any case, her greater general size leads to both larger breasts as well as greater muscle-mass and leverage.

If all of the female characters are physically active and she is the oldest, it can also be assumed she's been actively building strength and learning how to use it longer than her juniors have.

Sexually, this could be boiled down to a function of fanservice: a Law of Skin-To-Strength Ratio. Take the classic barbarian of either sex — they wear little and bare a lot of skin, but are incredibly reliant upon brute strength. The more flesh they have to bare, the more strength they have to bear. While this trope doesn't rely on explicitly bared skin, the female's attire will seldom hide her impressive shape, and instead tend to emphasize it. (Or, in the more extreme cases, perhaps they merely need to be that strong in order to stand up straight.)

Visually, it's a fairly simply design point: the artist wants to indicate and reinforce the notion of physical strength. A large-breasted female tends to look larger overall, and more solidly built. The other route for showing obvious physical strength would be giving the woman a massive bodybuilder physique. As the former is more commonly appealing, and the latter is more commonly intimidating, you can see the obvious choice.

Of course, neither route is particularly realistic. The goal and result of bodybuilding is to achieve the largest possible muscles — while this does grant more strength, it is not the same as achieving the most possible muscle strength; in fact, it hinders that. The strongest men and women are commonly quite wiry.

However, women athletes also tend to be quite modest in cup-size as well, due to the other reality - milk-producing mammary glands are a very small percentage of the breast; most of it is actually composed of fat tissue. This is also why you rarely see Olympic athletes with anything above a B-cup. This may also be because it is hard to adjust for a large set of breasts, actually forcing one prodigy gymnast to drop the sport when she developed.

But there are two counter-realities that can keep this trope aloft, logically speaking. Working out can make breasts perkier, because it tightens the muscle they're against. And if a woman is less concerned with her total weight than with her actual health and personal appearance, maintaining a reasonable layer of healthy fat can help her retain soft, flattering curves over her hard, strong muscles — the best of both worlds. Olympic athletes probably neglect to do so because the additional, unnecessary weight would negatively affect their performances.

However, one must note that a good pair generally comes with more weight, usually not of the breasts only, either. And, admittedly, unlike sports, where weight slows one down, a heavy yet sufficiently mobile frame is an advantage in a fight. There's a reason for weight categories in most combat sports: even among boxing superstars, next to none of the lighter weights have a one-hit KO punch, and are instead highly agile and technical fighters (notable exceptions like Kostya Tszyu, who is both, notwithstanding). A manageable amount of extra weight simply boosts power.

It should be noted that the Greco-Roman ideal of beauty and health for men and women not only involved physical fitness, but also included such a layer of fat. The person's curves denoted vitality and wealth, as poorer individuals could not afford to eat so well and thus suffered from a lack of strength and energy.

A physically strong female without Boobs Of Steel is most likely a Cute Bruiser.

Examples

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Anime and Manga

In Mahou Sensei Negima, it's common among the stronger fighters to enhance one's strength with chi or magical energy. But Kaede is the most physically powerful living human student in Negi's special class before resorting to such enhancements. She has the second or third largest breasts in the class. It wouldn't be surprising if Mana, who rivals Kaede in chest size, must also be strong, to handle the recoil on her firearms enough for her Gun Kata (using Desert Eagles, no less). But even Chizuru, who is apparently a total noncombatant, delivered an Armor Piercing Slap to a powerful demon that bloodied his nose and earned his respect. It should be noted that hers is the biggest chest in the class. All of them are also somewhat taller than their alleged ages would suggest.(which is Lampshaded for the former 2 at one point)
Sailor Jupiter of Sailor Moon is the most talented of the group in more ways than one.
In Azumanga Daioh, Sakaki is a Huge Schoolgirl with the most impressive physique and appearance. In fact, fans have noticed a direct correlation between boob size and athletic ability in this series. The only exception is Nyamo, who's a superb athlete but modestly endowed.
- Chiyo < Osaka < Tomo < Yomi < Kagura < Sakaki. It does make perfect sense.
  - Osaka's even slower than Chiyo is, and Chiyo's struggles are mainly due to being forced to compete with high schoolers with the body of a 10-12 year old; Yomi even suggests that Chiyo's chest might not stay flat for long.
Tsunade from Naruto. She's physically the strongest character introduced in the series yet, and can beat the snot out of guys her own age and relative skill level. With ease. (And don't forget the fight with Kabuto where, at least in the manga, she recovers fast from an attack that cut off her air, and he wonders how that happened, and focuses his gaze at her chest. Layer of fat, indeed.)
- It's unknown which girl among the Rookie Nine is physically the strongest. However, Hinata hides the largest chest underneath her eskimo-style jacket, and perhaps the best combat skills underneath her Shrinking Violet insecurity. After the timeskip, she's still easily the biggest chested rookie, but it's highly unlikely she can match Sakura's new Super Strength. However, it's possible that she still retains her edge in combat ability, but this hasn't been determined.
  - The latest chapter proves it. Ahh, Fan Service...
  - According to the Databook, Sakura has the best statistics in Part II. Tenten and Hinata follow her, as they have fairly good taijutsu and intelligence, but quite low physical strength and stamina (both having 1.5 and 2 out 5 respectively). Then again, since the style Hinata uses is "gentle fist" it's not likely physical strength is of great importance (as is evident by Neji's low strength listing despite having the highest statistics of the former genin besides Naruto, Sasuke and the Sand Siblings). Ino has somewhat lackluster statistics all around, typically around 3/5 or lower in most areas.
- As a side-note, Hinata's little sister Hanabi was said to be stronger than her (although this is never definitively shown), and is also eyebrow-raisingly endowed for her young age. This feminine "talent" has actually been suggested to be "the REAL Hyuga Bloodline Limit," as opposed to the Byakugan.
Tenjho Tenge: Maya Natsume (in her adult form), is kind of ridiculously large-breasted, and easily the most powerful of the main characters. Her younger sister Aya is only a little smaller (but still rather large), and is hopelessly outclassed by Maya. There's also a subversion with Emi Isuzu, who gives Maya a run for her money... However, her breasts are large because she's very, very fat (though she can kind of suck it all in to become slender).
- Lampshaded during a fight with a shapeshifter: after she takes Aya's form, she notes how large her breasts are and that it's a miracle she can fight so effectively.
Inverted in Berserk with Hot Amazon Casca and Farnese. Casca is the third best fighter in the Band of the Hawks, after Griffith and Badass Guts. She wears sensible plate armor (for all the good it does in Berserk...) and has a practical short haircut. Her physique is realistic, with a toned athletic build, defined muscles, and an average sized bosom. Knight Templar and Faux Action Girl Farnese is less muscular and slightly more busty than Casca (though still average), and correspondingly, she can barely fight at all. Interestingly, more characters in Berserk find Casca attractive, though this has very, very unfortunate consequences...
Simca in Air Gear is one of the most skillful riders in the series, and has the largest bust of any major female character.
Signum, the leader of the Wolkenritter, is one of the best melee-combatants of the protagonists in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, and also the one with the most height and pure muscle strength. She has also been dubbed "Boob Monster" by Vita during that one time in a public bath.
- The civilian Suzuka, who has a humongous chest after the first timeskip (that's when they're age 15, for those counting at home), but although she doesn't fight per se, her amazing strength in PE and the fact that she wasn't expelled from a magical barrier hints that she could. The Expanded Universe hasn't elaborated past that, but the prevailing theory is that she's a vampire, like her sister was in Triangle Heart 3 Sweet Songs Forever.
In Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome, Haruka possesses the largest bust of any of the females (even topping Mai, though Haruka's assets are rarely subject to the same humor as Mai's) and among the non-superpowered members of the cast she's physically the strongest. This is especially apparent in Otome and the manga version of HiME, when her weapon consists of a ball and chain that Haruka swings around with pure brute force.
- The manga version of Mai-Otome takes this to new heights, as the normally meek Coral Otome Erstin Ho actually learns to use her breasts as weapons.
  - Rena Sayers is no slouch in the bust department either, as Mai-Otome0Sifr makes rather, uh, abundantly clear and according to a recent statement from the Word of God , she's the most powerful Otome ever.
Kallen/Karen of Code Geass. Undoubtedly, she is the most endowed, and she's easily the most physically active member of the Black Knights, being their elite mech pilot. In fact, she's pretty much the only woman in their ranks who's involved in any actual fighting. (C.C. does occasionally wander in the danger zones, but usually doesn't actually fight.)
- On the other side, Cornelia was far from shortchanged in the chest department, and she's one of the more threatening and competent mech pilots. And, as recent episodes can attest, is a pretty good swordswoman.
- According to the sources, the one with biggest measurements in the whole series is not Kallen, but Millay, followed by Marianne. It may fit Marianne well enough, but Millay is seriously not included in any fighting. At all. It's lampshaded in one of the season 1 extras, where Millay comments on Shirley's well-endowed yet athletic figure, to which Shirley replies that Millay's more voluptuous by comparison.
  - This troper finds it worth noting that Marianne is regarded as the best pilot to ever grace a Knightmare.
Kannazuki No Miko's Chikane Himemiya seems to fit in this trope. While it's never explicitly shown, but she does have a good size of boobs, to the point one of the Orochi Necks called her "Lunar Boobs". And where does her power show? She practically took down all the Orochi Necks except one, all by herself, outside the mecha.
Neon in Flame Of Recca, apparently the one most well endowed at the current point (perhaps surpassing Ms Fanservice Fuuko), and amongst the women in Uruha in Kurei's reign, she is probably one of the strongest (though she is not the only Uruha Jyuushinshu women, psycho bitch Mikoto also shares this spot, though she is definitely not the strongest, but the trickiest and slimiest)
Ryoko of the Tenchi Muyo series. Very well endowed (and proud of it) ... and in some realities is able to fight off the local galactic superpower. Slight subversion, as well, since Mihoshi is pretty close (or even bigger), but doesn't have the raw power of Ryoko.
- Not true, or at least not always. According to the background material in Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy, Ryoko has a bust size of 78cm, while Mihoshi is 88cm. And in the same book, Aeka has a 79cm chest. Also, depending on your point of view, Mihoshi may be the MOST powerful Non-Goddess member of the cast.
It was a common joke with the first Hellsing TV series that apparently vampirism made ones breasts grow, as Seras' assets became much more noticeable after she became a vampire. The OAV avoids this, as she's always had large breasts, and isn't the strongest vampire.
- Then again, her first appearance is in a police uniform with a vest - not exactly the most flattering outfit - so it's probably more because she switched to that Stripperiffic Hellsing agent uniform.
Grenadier. The absurdity of the senshi's figure is surpassed only by her skill in combat.
Very much Kanokon. The sealing of Chizuru's power is represented by her breasts shrinking. When her power returns, so do the breasts.
In Basilisk, there are three kunoichis who are not only top fighters for their clans, but also had huge breasts and were not afraid to use them to their advantage. In the Koga group, we have Okoi and Kagerou. In the Iga group, Akeginu.
Sekirei, which is best described as a "battle harem", deals with an assortment of cute, scantily-clad girls duking it out. All of them appear to have the same breast size, which is "large".
Klan Klan in Macross Frontier is probably a serious contender for the largest breasts in anime history (it helps that she's sixty feet tall), and is the show's leading female ace pilot.
- Also notable is Grace O'Connor. When she downloads into a combat-focused instead of infiltration-focused cyborg body, she just happens to pick up even bigger breasts, and she's quite eager to fondle them.
All the female fighters in Ikki Tousen are outrageously well-endowed, as if the powers of the ancient warrior spirits manifest themselves in certain physical aspects (one wonders what the guys got - although it's perhaps best not to go there). Of special mention is Sonsaku Hakufu, whose breast-size appears to be indicative of her tremendous power and even appeared to get an upgrade in the third season. Now if only her mental capacity would be of the same level.
- If you're either a Distaff Counterpart or a Gender Flip of the Chinese God of War Guan Yu, you're pretty much guaranteed to have these. It happened in Ikki Tousen, and then Koihime Musou repeats this.
Inverted in Mahoromatic where Mahoro's tiny breasts are instrumental in her defeat of the much more endowed Shikijo-sensei during the town's annual battle royale.
Tomoyo Sakagami in Clannad is pretty much the girl who does the most ass-kicking, and her size was definitely amongst the biggest (if only Key would not be that secretive about the girls' measurements). If you are still unconvinced, maybe this will convince you◊.
- Kyou Fujibayashi, who is second only to Tomoyo in the butt-kicking department, is also pretty well-endowed. Still, Nagisa and Kotomi are not as small-chested as their meek attitude might suggest, so this is perhaps somewhat of an aversion. (Thank you for the small bit of revelation, Fanservice scene.)
In the Mazinsaga, at least three female-shaped Super Robots have their missiles nested on the robot's chests. If we go to the female characters, both female leads Sayaka Yumi and Jun Honoo are quite well endowed.
In AKIRA, this applies, mostly because the other female warrior is a girl armed with a handgun, but also because the Boobs Of Steel is huge and can carry enough guns to arm a small militia, the corresponding ammo and an unconscious boy while firing. She is however, also quite a bit older than the heroine - probably in her forties - and not really Fan Service material. (Which doesn't stop her from getting a shower scene.)
Scrapped Princess has some of this going on, especially among the Peacemakers.
Although Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch has little-to-no physical fighting and, thanks to the art style, everyone has a D-cup by thirteen, even it does this at the end of the manga. When Lucia gains the powers of Aqua Regina, she also appears to have grown another cup size.
An unusual example in Steel Fist Riku. Martial artist Riku binds her respectably-sized breasts out of embarassment, so she often appears flat-chested. But the cornerstone of her martial art style uses proper breathing techniques for power, and binding her chest so restricts her breathing. Removing the chest bindings releases her true power, and also frees her breasts to be their true size. Thus, her breast size is indirectly linked to her power level.
Natsumi from the You're Under Arrest series. Always portrayed as being unusually strong due to the amount of exercise she does, she has been somewhat flanderised in the third season with strength best described as superhuman. She even wins an pushing contest with a suspect - and both of them are pushing a car at the time.
Inverted in Suzumiya Haruhi. Mikuru, who has the biggest boobs, is adorably pathetic and the only thing she seems to be good at is brewing tea. Haruhi, who also has a nice rack, is multi-talented in every way. Yuki, who's something of a Pettanko is clearly a Game Breaker.
- And Haruhi isn't Gamebreaking?
  - Nope, because she doesn't know it. Yuki openly uses her abilities, while Haruhi does it subconsciously, and thus the results are totally random.
The female characters in Aiki are all pretty busty, but the (only) Pettanko is among the weakest.
Get Backers only has three female Recurrers who can fight, and 99-year-old witch Maria Noches is definitely the bustiest. Himiko might be more dangerous than her by the end, though.
In History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi, almost all of the strongest female martial artists have huge busts with the sole exception of Kisara. No woman who is not a martial artist has breasts comparable in size to those who are.
- Li Raichi is also built rather modestly, but unlike Kisara, not much attention is called to it (well, except for one brief bit in her battle against Kisara (of all people).
Inverted in Shakugan No Shana. Of the three major female Flame Hazes, the Ms Fanservice Marjory Daw is primarily a spellcaster, the Meido fights with her remote-controlled ribbons, but pettanko Shana is mostly a melee fighter.
Momoe, the (very) female coach of the Nishiura baseball team in Ookiku Furikabutte demonstrates her baseball skills in the first episode by hitting a ball straight up for several dozen feet. She also squeezes some intense orange juice◊.
Maki from Airmaster fits this trope perfectly — six feet tall,muscular,a superlative street fighter... and she's only beaten in breast size by Mina's Gag Boobs.
Ibuki and Angela in Asu No Yoichi! are very busty and near the top tier of characters in terms of martial arts mastery.
And then, there is Yoko, who is the only character in the show able of destroy Humongous Mechas without having one herself... while her only rival in chest size, Kiyoh, is a housewife...
Played straight and subverted in Strike Witches, as whilst Charlotte is the largest and has the highest non-magical physical strength, her magical ability is increased speed; Gertrud's magical ability is enhanced strength, but she rarely has the opportunity to use it. Minna and Lynette are well-rounded but have sensory and sniping skills respectively.
Ranma Saotome. Sorta. Shampoo is probably one of the few more well-endowed than Ranma's girl form, and though it's uncertain if Ranma's girl form is as strong/stronger she is otherwise the physically strongest female in the series by a wide margin.
While there are a lot of busty characters in Bleach, the best examples of this trope are probably Halibel and Nel. Both of them are very well endowed and have held the rank of Third Espada. While it's still a bit unclear how strong Nel is in comparison to other characters, Halibel has shown herself to be capable of taking on Hitsugaya quite easily.
- Not that impressive a feat.
Rosario+Vampire has the sweet and cheery vampire, Moka Akashiya, but take off that Power Limiter of hers, in the form of a rosario around her neck, and watch her kick your ass as a super-vampire, the strongest being in the series thus far, and to boot, her chest size increases a few cups once this limiter is released.
Cool Big Sis Julia from Rave Master is the sole female melee fighter in the group. She's second only to her lover Let in unarmed combat.
Mostly averted in Bakuretsu Tenshi. Well-endowed Meg is an useless Faux Action Girl, Sei is ridiculously endowed and can hold her own in a fight, while Jo is totally flat chested and the most badass Action Girl in the series.

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Comic Books

Lampshaded in Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do in which, while questioning a villainess they just defeated, Spidey makes a crack about how Cat shouldn't be able to flip around the way she does with her chest size. Felicia retorts that her breasts act as a ballast.
Power Girl. It helps that she's Kryptonian, giving her (theoretically) exactly the same strength as Superman (or maybe more, since she's shown to work out more than he does). Starfire, Big Barda, and Wonder Woman also count, and again, their not-exactly-normal (at best!) origins come into play.
- Power Girl also has the advantage of being an older Supergirl (literally), and Supergirl is said to be stronger than Superman, So...yeah.
  - Supergirl is only stronger because of the World of Cardboard thing. Superman's learned to hold back over the thirty-some years he's been on Earth, and Supergirl basically woke up one day with all her powers intact. But it may make sense for Power Girl to be stronger: after all, Kryptonians absorb sunlight or whatever, and her impressive bust probably gives her a lot of surface area.
- Shortly after Power Girl was introduced, her creators actually took the time to explain that element of her characterisation was not merely purient but because they thought it gave a greater impression of physical power. Since the late '80s, she's also been portrayed with a very muscular physique as well (at least, depending on the artist).
- It's worth mentioning that Big Barda's appearance is based on a young Lainie Kazan, who was gorgeous and quite buxom back in the seventies. Well, she's still pretty well-endowed, but at 68 and with forty or so pounds added on, the effect isn't really the same.
Astro City takes this to its logical extreme with Beautie, a human-sized robot Barbie doll whose proportions border on freakish at that size: "My skin is ferro-styrene over an omnitanium frame. My breasts and buttocks are rigid. And I have no genitalia." She's also one of the strongest members of the Honor Guard...
Gen13's Caitlin Fairchild. In fact, she acquired the Most Common Superpower at the same exact time that she acquired the Super Strength and Nigh Invulnerability that would make her the team powerhouse.
- Lampshaded when Grunge tried to copy her super strength. He gained the rest of her assets too, If You Know What I Mean.
Ms. Marvel (and for that matter Rogue when she had Marvel's powers), She Hulk (though not her alter ego, Jennifer Walters), Titania, and Psylocke, all of Marvel Comics. As with Power Girl and other DC heroes, above, their physique... well, except for Psylocke's... has little to do with their actual physical strength, as it is simply impossible for any human, let alone one of their build. Aside from her psionic powers, though, Psylocke is pretty much a Badass Normal—though a very Badass Normal. This troper prefers to think that she has the body of a really good stripper, and the best strippers are in excellent shape and have big boobs (even if they're fake 99.99% of the time).
- She-Hulk fits this to a T - as she is officially the proportionally-largest human woman in the Marvel Universe - which tends to make Titania, who is usually stronger than She-Hulk, a slight aversion.
  - That's pretty much nonsense, She-Hulk is officially in the 100 strength class and probably the strongest female character in the Marvel universe. So... Titania is not stronger... and She-Hulk has repeatedly wiped the floor with her.
  - The first several of those floor-wipings took place when She Hulk was still in the 75-tons range. Titania, at that time, could lift 85 tons.
- Rogue had Ms. Marvel's powers a great many years, and the three early ones she was nearly flat-chested. So she did not absorb Ms. Marvel's breast size; she was just a late bloomer, apparently.
Rob Liefeld◊. Note that in Rob Liefeld's case this also applies to male (NSFW!)◊ characters (Can you say "Squick"?)
Red Sonja, although this varies according to the artist.
Julie, the protagonist of Terry Moore's Echo, has Boobs of Plutonium. Which seems to give her superpowers.
Channon Yarrow from Transmetropolitan: journalist, bodyguard, assassin-for-hire, occasional nun, ex-stripper, and the person to have around if you want to beat up a squad of Mooks or get a cab to stop for you during a thunderstorm in a riot zone.

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Film

Live Action TV

Myth And Legend

Video Games

Tifa is the fighter in Final Fantasy VII most reliant on the strength of her "muscles", as opposed to the giant Scary Black Man with arms the size of her waist - he's a Gunslinger instead.
- Putting aside the fact that Tifa is for all intents and purposes a Monk class (and Monks are always on the smaller-medium to small side), Nomura made the comment some years back that rendering Tifa's character design into polygons increased her bust size, a claim backed up by his original character designs, where she has a large (but not overly huge) bust.
Even by Dead Or Alive standards, Tina's boobs are huge. And being a wrestler, she is the physically strongest, as proven by her knocking girls over with the volleyball in DOAX.
Rainbow Mika from Street Fighter Alpha comes to mind. She's slightly (but noticeably) better stacked than Chun-Li and Cammy, and is a female wrestler who relies more on heavyweight throws and slams than fancy techniques. It's hard to say whether she's actually stronger than the rest of the female characters, but she's certainly more strength-based.
- Chun-Li herself is no slouch in this department either, especially as compared to Cammy and Sakura.
The Nasuverse: Arcueid Brunestud (the titular Tsukihime, or Moon Princess) is the strongest of any central character, and has one of the largest busts (though they don't seem that big in the visuals).
Among the female cast of Fate Stay Night, Rider (voiced by the same woman who played Sakaki above) is physically one of the most impressive in every single way, including curves. However, Leysritt has any even larger bust — the biggest among all of the female characters in the Nasuverse — and can wield a giant halberd with ease. Leysritt never actually fights in the game, but according to notes she's actually physically stronger than most of the Servants.
- Played with, with Saber; in general, Saber is one of the strongest Servants in terms of physical power (being able to go toe-to-toe against Berserker and such), but pretty humble as far as her assets are concerned. However, her physical power is the result of her "Mana Burst" skill, which uses bursts of magical energy for bursts of physical power. When not using this skill, she's actually weaker than Shirou or Rin.
- It doesn't seem like Rider qualifies at first, but that's because of being saddled with a poor Master who can't provide her enough energy. But in , going toe-to-toe with Saber's Superpowered Evil Side, even when she's supplied with mana from Sakura, who is practically the best one when it comes to mana supply and Master capacities, and Rider at the moment was with Shiro (though he has taken a level in badass and be more capable compared to his Fate route self). The reason why she doesn't seem to look strong despite those huge tits was due to the patheticness of her 'Master', Shinji.
In the Galaxy Angel Game Verse, Forte has the highest firepower and also the largest chest, making this fit even for people that fight in spaceships. When not flying her fighter, Happy Trigger, she indulges in an obsession with Rare Guns, and blows a few people up with them in the anime, too. Still, she doesn't fight hand-to-hand, so there's no reason besides this for her chest to be that prominent (or shown off).
- In the Anime and Manga, however, Forte can and does fight up close - and extremely competently, able to wrestle the very combat capable (and yes largest-chested of her group) Lily C. Sherbert of the Rune Angel Troupe.
Considering Signum from Nanoha is an Expy of Lamia Loveless of Super Robot Wars, Lamia also adheres to this trope. She's probably the female character with the biggest boobs between all other Banpresto Originals thus far, and the most physically strongest, despite not using it too much (she uses more for piloting) because...well...she's an android.
- Subverted by Aschen Brodel from Endless Frontier. She's an android too, very powerful, literally has Boobs Of Steel...but she's still outboobed by the heroine Kaguya "Dairy Cow Princess" Nanbu.
  - Subverted? Kaguya has the Zankantou. If anything, she's the example here.
King Of Fighters has Shermie, Angel, Blue Mary and Vice (who are grappler/power characters) who all have larger bust measurements than Mai Shiranui. Also, in the first KOF Maximum Impact, Lien Neville (no official 3-sizes given) actually has the largest in-game breasts and is fittingly, the strongest female character. And funny/disturbing enough, the final boss from the second Maximum Impact game, Jivatma, has "another model" that looks female and has probably the largest bust in the game.
On fighting games, Guilty Gear plays this straight with Baiken◊, who seems to put a lot of force into her attacks, and VERY stacked. Dizzy◊, by comparison, relies on magic for her powers and is rather modest in her proportions.
- But there's also May, the game's token loli. Proportionate to her size, she may well be the strongest character, wielding an anchor as big as she is with ease.
Prier of La Pucelle, who was capable of kicking a hole in a lead door when she was Human, then became a Demon Lord, has pretty much the largest chest of any major character in a Nippon Ichi game.
Salome from Makai Kingdom might have bigger breasts than Prier, but she might be taller, too. She's a fairly tough Overlord in the game, and she'd be even more powerful if she wasn't feeding her power to Zetta.
Ayla the cavewoman from Chrono Trigger has the greatest strength of any party member. She can do more damage with her bare hands than Crono can with his Infinity Plus One Sword. And the more you Level Grind them, the larger the strength gap between Ayla and everybody else gets.
- As Spekkio puts it, she might not get to use magic, but she makes up for it with other assets.
Averted in Tales Of The Abyss. Tear Grants is the Staff Chick, being heads and tails behind Anise in combat ability. Story-wise, as far as the female members go, she could be the strongest physically and the one with most battle experience, having received war training from her home. And obviously, they never miss picking a joke about her melons...
Tear: M-m-melon, what do you mean melons!? Are you stupid?! Can't you be a little more quiet!?//
- Mint in Tales Of Phantasia is also the Staff Chick, although it wasn't until the remake that a truly competent female physical combatant (Suzu) arrived. At least Arche had occasional combat prowess outside of spellcasting. (No, seriously, there are certain enemies that can be rendered entirely powerless by spamming her broom attack at them. And some of them even reside in the bonus dungeon.)
- Played straight with Judith, who is easily the best stacked of the three female PCs in Tales Of Vesperia (Estelle wishes she could bounce like Judith) and is also the only melee fighter among them.
- Gets more straight later in Tales Of Hearts with Innes Lorenz, who is also the token Mighty Glacier character. And she can also lift objects way more heavy than she is, with ease. It's also lampshaded repeatedly, as first the Boobs Of Steel and her massive axe blade are the subject of an Innocent Innuendo skit. Later in another skit, Beryl theorizes about Innes' super strength, and the player is allowed to choose her guess: "It comes from her breasts!" or "Innes is a Mechanoid!"
The Touhou series subverts, follows and plays with this trope at its whims: The vastest majority of characters are utterly flat, regardless of power level. Characters commonly depicted with large chests by the fans include both some of the strongest characters in setting (Yukari Yakumo, Eirin Yagokoro) and two of the weakest (Letty Whiterock, ~~Hong Meiling~~China). Sakuya Izayoi is regularly accused of padding her chest, and is probably the most powerful human in the setting - as if padding actually increased her power level.
- And if we talk solely about physical strength... Suika Ibuki is probably champion in that department, and she basically looks eight.
  - Conversely, Yuugi Hoshiguma, who is probably Suika Ibuki's equal in terms of strength, is largely regarded as having a very large bust.
Lara Croft, obviously.
Vanessa of Virtua Fighter not only has the biggest breasts of the female characters, but she's almost a Mighty Glacier.
Robot Girl Mei-Fang from Arcana Heart is a literal example, being the physically largest playable character all around and strongest unarmed fighter. Of course Kira's pet blob and Fiona's BFS put said full-blown lolis ahead of her in the raw damage category.
While we're on the topic of Robot Girls, Xenosaga's KOS-MOS is strong enough to punch out Humongous Mecha, swing a fifty-foot grabber arm as a giant three-section staff, and fire a triple .50-calibre minigun in each hand without even bracing. She also, particularly in her final form, is built with the largest bust in the cast.
Suikoden has two notable examples in the first two games.
- The first one has Ronnie Bell, who is called "the giant woman" for a damn good reason (she's at least seven feet tall and might actually be half-giant), and whose chest, due in part to her sheer size, is noticeably the largest of the entire cast, including Jeane. And she's a monstrous bruiser who fights with her fists.
- Suikoden II has Oulan, who is by far the most stacked female in the game (she noticeably bounces in her battle animation) and one of the top five tanks in the game as well as, thanks to her personal Rune, a bruiser who can dish out absurd amounts of damage repeatedly if properly set up. Her job? Bodyguard. And she does it well. Barehanded, of course.
- Subverted in Suikoden III, where Ronnie Bell's daughter, Emily, is the strongest fighter in the game bar none, but has a modest bust size. Then again she's just 16...
- Suikoden V has Nikea, a Hot Amazon Big Eater martial artist who keeps up the tradition of dealing tons of damage with just her fists. Also notable is Kisara, an Action Mom who almost borders on Gag Boobs — and passed on a great deal of 'talent' to her daughter, Lun.
  - Borders? Kisara is built enough to make most Gag Boobs look like Pettankos. How she can even walk without slipping a disc every time is beyond me. And according to Oboro, Lun is still growing and could surpass her mother. That poor girl is going to snap like a twig.
Selvaria from Valkyria Chronicles is incredibly well-stacked, and is invincible the first time you fight her. And even when she's not invincible, she'll easily kill everything short of tanks.
Inverted in Castlevania (mostly shown in Judgment) amongst the good guys. Shanoa, despite being the most physical oriented girl, has modest boobs (but outset with her tremendously Sexy Back). On the other hand, Sypha has very big ones (And Maria is... well...). Played straight by Carmilia, who proves that Evil Is Sexy.
In Bunny Must Die, the main character is normally a loli. In game, she can get an item which gives her the ability to cause a sizable increase to breast size. As part of the transformation, her weapon strength and ability to take damage improve at the cost of agility.
In the Battle Team Lakers series, Natsume is consistently the strongest (physically) of the eponymous team. And despite being a series of H-games, she's the only one with notably large breasts. (The others have "large-but-within-reason" busts typical of Silver Age comicbook heroines.)
The only female fighter in the Resistance group from The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess fits this trope somewhat literally — she wears a steel corset as part of her body armor, which enhances her cleavage considerably.
In Rumble Roses, this is... pretty randomly done. The one with the biggest breasts, Dixie, IS very strong...stronger than most of them. However, the physically strongest one(not the best wrestler but the hardest hitter) is Aigle(a Mongolian) who has pretty small breasts for a game that's practically softcore porn.(Which means she has normal breasts for real life.) And the ones that rely on speed rather than strength, like the ninja...still have surprisingly big breasts. Played straight that the Judo Babe has the smallest ones...and fights very tactical instead of just punching people out. Actually, except for Aigle, it seems to generally fit. (Ignoring Lady X/Lady X Substance, but that's a cyborg so she doesn't count.)

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Webcomics and Other Web Originals

The Blonde Marvel, in her webcomic story "The Coffee Shop Incident'', stops a bullet with her chest. Warning: Story contains nudity, bloody gunplay and swearing.
Mostly averted in the Whateley Universe. The girl with the biggest breasts in Whateley Academy (at least of those introduced so far, anyway) is Mindbird (a psychic who is not super-strong at all). The best-endowed superheroine we've seen so far is Valley Girl, who isn't super-strong either. Hippolyta (the strongest girl at the school) and Lady Astarte (the greatest superheroine around) are curvy but not overdone.
In Crossworlds, the biggest boobs belongs to Narhm, who also happens to be 'bout 7 feet tall (counting the horns) and muscled like a bodybuilder, thanks to her day-job being a Blacksmith. In combat, she wields a huge, two-handed warhammer with devastating effect. Interestingly enough, the second-place for boob-size probably goes to Lilly, her ditzy apprentice, who is quickly building up a similar level of raw strength from the hard work. Whether being a Centaur gives her an edge, strengthwise, over a Minotaur is hard to say...
- It's worth noting, however, that if you start to compare the chest-sizes with the body-sizes, Narhm scores significantly lower - while the other female characters are mostly smaller in the chest, they're also all MUCH smaller in the body, and usually quite slender. Evidence from elsewhere in the 'verse (Specifically, The Accidental Centaurs) also suggests that by Minotaur standards, Narhm is actually somewhat modestly endowed. She just happens to be the only female Minotaur in the comic so far.
- Also worth noting is that in the background material female minotaurs are described as being very matronly (read "bosomy") and not as action-oriented as the males. Nahrm is very much an apparent exception to the general rule.
There is a lot of artwork over at Deviantart in which heavily muscled (as in "could be female version of any male WWF heavyweight") women also sport boobs that are so impossibly gargantuan that any real-life woman would have had reduction surgery. Although that might count as Did Not Do The Research for the reasons mentioned above, this is Truth In DeviantART to some degree, as female wrestlers, being quite ripped and thus having very little fat, often use silicone implants for obvious reasons.
Alice apparently has this boob based power according to this Loserz post.
DiDi in Menage a 3 verges on Gag Boobs territory, and is astoundingly strong.
In the League Of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions Hamburger Pattie had big boobs & bulletproof skin.
Buxom Gal, natch. Her cup size varies in direct proportion to how much energy she's absorbed.
Fa'Lina from Dan And Mabs Furry Adventures is a The Dumbledore mostly non-combat example, but instead has incredibly powerful magic, and the largest bustline in the comic. At one point she wonders why she bothers, since most people are intimidated by her great power and eccentric conduct.
Adharia Kuvoe is heavily implied to have the largest breasts of the female Last Res0rt cast. The fact that she's also a lion-esque centaur only justifies this further, because she's already one of the larger cast members, period.
- Veled is also Large And In Charge, If You Know What I Mean. The odds that we'll ever get a straight answer as to whose are actually larger is next to nil, since the argument is not only academic (Veled IS the larger character, but also has a smaller cup size), but, well... who would actually have the nerve to tell Veled the truth?
Erika from Megatokyo, according to Largo, is "r4ck3d". She's introduced breaking Largo's arm after groping her, and later, she breaks at least one of his bones multiple times.
- He didn't grope her (at least, not at their first meeting), he just wouldn't shut up about how her boobs had to be fake. Erika has a very short temper (and real boobs).
The Magnificent Milkmaid as well as Chocolate Milkmaid both have breasts that enlarge as they power up by drinking milk, to truly ludicrous sizes. (links not provided as the entire site is adult comics...) Fortunately, they can instantly manifest clothing...usually just before they enlarge, though. Pretty much everybody else in the comic has massive breasts, that being one of the site fetishes...
Mel'Arnach Val'Sarghress from Drowtales. Apart from being probably the nicest adult drow around (and being considered insane for it), she is much larger than most and also extremely well-endowed. And not bashful about it.
Subverted in SchlockMercenary, with the ever-deadly Elf. The most buxom character in the strip is by far and away Dr. Edward Bunnigus, by comparison to whom Elf could be (and occasionally has) been mistaken for a teenage boy. Nevertheless, Elf is fully capable of doing considerable damage in hand to hand.

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When this editor was at a certain Army school at Fort Lewis, WA, the bustiest of the eight females (yup, that's what we call 'em) in his platoon was also the strongest and most muscular. And the coolest, and had the best command presence, partly because she had a slightly deeper-than-normal voice. And she was pretty busty.
This troper knows a girl who, while rather short, is incredibly fast, and I mean like track star fast, particularly strong for her size, and you guessed it, has massive boobs.
Female bodybuilders, because they burn off most of their body fat, tend to look like men with long hair. To offset this effect, many have opted to get breast implants. The side-effect to this is that in order for a woman with pectoral muscles the size of Texas to even BEGIN to look feminine, the implants have to be TREMENDOUS! (Joanie "Chyna" Laurer had to have hers custom made and they were subsequently used as the model for the Chyna 2000s, which are marketed to large-framed women, female body builders and, presumably, large-framed male-to-female transsexuals.) Fortunately, these women have the lower back strength to compensate for large masses of silicone and saline.
A certain girl I know is short, very well proportioned, and very very much the stereotypical German housefrau. Including being able, if pushed, to wipe the floor with just about anyone who crosses her.
Gina Carano: Muay Thai and MMA female fighter (and occasionally part of the cast of American Gladiators), muscular... and very, very busty. Look◊ here.
- Carano's fighting weight is around 140lbs, her 'walking around' weight is thought to be at least 155lbs. And she's only 5'8", so even with her exceptionally powerful Muay Thai-trained leg muscles, all that weight had to be somewhere...
Yet another American Gladiators example: Jennifer Widerstrom aka Phoenix. Pretty much everything mentioned for Crush except she's known for her muscles, and she has has bigger bust than even Crush.
Robin Coleman, known to American Gladiators fans as Hellga, is the largest of the female gladiators in more ways than one.
The Australian navy pays for enlisted women to have breast augmentation, reasoning that it boosts confidence, making them better fighters, Or So I Heard.