The Kung-Fu Kid is a child or teenager with a very high level of skill in martial arts, whose skills are particularly noteworthy in the context of the story. Sometimes the skills are first acquired during the course of the story, and sometimes the character begins the story already having a significant level of martial arts talent. If it is a Sports Story, the Kung-Fu Kid will likely be working toward a major tournament. In a Fighting Series, this guy will regularly battle against enemies, often in tournaments, but sometimes in deadly serious combat. In Spy Fiction, the Teen Superspy is often one of these. In Fantasy or Superhero stories, a character's martial arts skills might be sufficient to qualify them as a Badass Normal that can stand toe to toe against more supernatural enemies. Some characters may have martial arts skills that could be classified as Supernatural Martial Arts, or even as a Charles Atlas Superpower. Sometimes the kid combines spell casting with martial arts to be a Kung-Fu Wizard.
No Real Life examples unless this kid is considered particularly exceptional and famous in the martial arts world. This should not turn into a listing of everyone with a black belt. Nor should it list every young character that takes a karate class but only has the fact mentioned in one or two episodes and gets into perhaps one fight against an untrained person using a minor example of martial arts skills. Mark Taylor of Home Improvement would not qualify, for example.
This is the martial arts equivalent to the Child Mage or the Kid Detective. Compare to Kid Samurai, Ninja Brat, Cute Bruiser, and Waif-Fu. This character might also be a Kid Sidekick or a Kid Hero. If female, she may be a Little Miss Badass.
Not to be confused with The Karate Kid, though the movie series does provide several perfect examples.
Examples:
- Clamp School Detectives has Suoh Takamura, an elementary school-age martial arts expert with a 3rd dan black belt in Karate, Judo, Aikido, and Kendo. He is also the descendant of a Japanese ninja clan.
- Dragon Ball - Goku, Krillin and Chichi
- Dragon Ball Z - Gohan in the first few seasons, later Goten
- Fullmetal Alchemist - May Chang, despite her young age, can handle herself well enough in fights (including with state alchemists and homunculi) through a combination of martial arts and alkahestry. Justified, as she Had to Be Sharp to avoid assassination attempts back in Xing.
- Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple - A number of characters, most notably the titular Kenichi Shirahama. Elementary-school aged Chikage Kushinada is easily the youngest fighting character.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid - As this is essentially a Fighting Series with Magical Girls, several characters fall under this, including the main character Vivio and her main rival Einhart.
- Mahou Sensei Negima! - Many of the major characters would qualify, particularly Ku Fei. Negi Springfield combines Child Mage with this trope to become a Child Kung-Fu Wizard.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi - Many of the major characters qualify, particularly Ku Fei. Negi Springfield combines Child Mage with this trope to become a Child Kung-Fu Wizard.
- Ouran High School Host Club - Mitsukuni "Hani (Honey)" Haninozuka. In a subversion, he's already 17/18 years old, though he's Older Than They Look as well.
- Ranma ½ - Almost the entire teenage cast, except the older two Tendo sisters.
- Ramen Fighter Miki - Deconstructed with protagonist Miki and The Rival Megumi, they were Kung-Fu Kids in their childhood, and at their 20s, they are One of the Kung Fu Kids.
- Tekken Chinmi - The titular young boy Chinmi trains to be a world class kung fu master.
- Tiger & Bunny - Pao-Lin Huang aka Dragon Kid uses kung fu against criminals at least as much as she uses her lightning powers.
- Batgirl (2000): Cassandra Cain is a teenager trained to be an assassin, but whose empathy for human beings prevents her from ever actually going lethal.
- Super Kung Fu Kid - Man Lung
- The Karate Kid - Daniel Larusso, from the original 80s films, is the Trope Codifier. Notably, the first film also provides a justification for Daniel's ability to improve as fast as he does - he practices basically all day, every day, under Mr. Miyagi, putting himself through borderline Training from Hell. By the climactic tournament, the results show.
- The reboot has Andre "Dre" Parker, who's even actually a practicioner of kung fu.
- 3 Ninjas - Samuel Douglas Jr., Michael Douglas, Jeffrey Douglas, Miyo
- Sidekicks - Barry Gabrewski
- The Black Belt Club
- A children's book series about four young martial artists who go on secret missions.
- Cobra Kai, being a Sequel Series to the aforementioned The Karate Kid, unsurprisingly features a number of youngsters skilled in martial arts. However, five of them in particular - Miguel, Sam, Hawk, Tory, and Robby - stand out even by the show's standards.
- Kung Fu Kids: A Philippine TV series tells the story of seven kids of different personalities united by a prophecy. The Kung Fu Kids train under the village idiot who turns out to be a Kung Fu master from China.
- Kung Fu Kid: A 1987 Sega Master System video game about a kid that uses his knowledge of kung fu to fight enemies.
- The Pokémon Kubfu (introduced in the 'Isle of Armor' DLC of Pokémon Sword and Shield) takes this trope and applies it to a bear cub. It can master one of two fighting styles upon evolution, determined by which tower it was trained through; the Dark-type Single Strike style, or the Water-type Rapid-Strike style.
- How I Killed Your Master - The stories with the younger versions of the main character are something of a deconstruction since he still has to spend a great deal running away or being rescued. Then again some of the rescuers count as this trope as well.
- Xiaolin Showdown - Though the protagonist ages are never given, they don't seem to be older than 14
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Both the young heroes and villains qualify, though proficiency in kung fu is pretty common in that world regardless of age.
- Toph Beifong was born blind and learned her own (vastly superior) earthbending without her parents ever finding out. Not only that, but she invented- invented - a brand new form of bending thought to be impossible (metalbending)... at twelve years old.
- A straighter example of this trope is present in the Sequel Series The Legend of Korra. Korra, the new Avatar, first started earthbending when she was five years old, something completely unheard of in the history of the Avatar. Even Aang, the youngest Avatar to ever master all four elements, didn't start learning his second element until he was twelve; and most Avatars don't even find out their identity until after they turn sixteen.
- Referenced by name in the Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness episode "The Kung Fu Kid", starring Peng the young snow leopard... who although he claims to have had no formal kung fu training and is just a potter, is able to go toe-to-toe with Po, Temutai, and even Shifu and the Furious Five while under More than Mind Control. Justified by it being In the Bloodnote
