Not everyone can kick this high. But someone with a Martial Arts Uniform can!
Sub-Trope of Costume Tropes
The East, a land of culture, of beauty, and of numerous Martial Arts. These forms of combat are well known throughout the world, and are respected by many. But we're not here just to talk about Martial Arts, no, we're here to discuss the uniforms the Martial Artists use, the clothes that make you say "That guy/girl knows ______".
This trope is about characters who are seen wearing these uniforms at one point or another at ANY point in series. Hell even background characters count. Keep in mind, the characters don't have to wear these uniforms at all times (although some do), they just have to wear them once to be an example.
This trope is often invoked when a show wants to bring generic Martial Arts enemies or when a writer wants to show how or why someone is so good at fighting.
Often identified as Keikogi, Karate Gi, Dobok, Judo Gi, etc.
NOTE: The uniform can be from a totally made-up (or even Alien) Martial Art, as long as the character is wearing the uniform and not his normal clothes. Another thing is that the people wearing these don't have to be Martial Artists. They could just be pretending, although this is uncommon.
Examples:
Advertising
The new Fruit Loops commercial has Toucan Sam's nephews in Gis.
Anime and Manga
Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl and most other judo practioners in her series wear judogi◊ when practicing or participating in tournaments. At one early point, Yawara forgets to wear an undershirt with her gi, causing some embarrasment.
A few characters in Natsuki Crisis, mainly the titular character, wear Karategi◊ even when outside the dojo.
Kenichi◊ and Miu from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple. Kenichi's masters are a category of their own, since the Limited Wardrobe of some of them can be seen as both a custom-made MA uniform and a traditional "civilian" costume.
All of Miu's training/combat uniforms, of course, ''have'' to be with short tight pants. Also notable the fact that on field combat missions she actually usually wears something which resembles a mountain biking outfit (without helmet), instead of a MA uniform.
In the chapter 145, Kenichi gets a custom-made training uniform (replacing the standard one which he used to wear while training), and this is also the point at which he starts going on combat missions regularly. Of course, on these missions he always wears this new custom uniform.
And child!Ichigo and child!Tatsuki in an early episode flashback, to when Ichigo's mother was still alive, were wearing them at their karate training. It was on the way home from said training that Ichigo's mother was killed.
Her father and Ranma's father (when he's not a panda anyway) wear these as everyday wear. Ranma at least owns one, or used to anyway since he's seen wearing it during flash backs to Jusenkyo.
Kuno◊ is also seen wearing the kendo version (with the wide, pleated trousers) more often than not. Also plays into the samurai image he has going since the style is based on day wear from Japan's past.
In Kurenai episode 5 of the anime, when Shinkuro goes to train with Yuno they both wear this, intersetingly enough in the manga only Shinkuro wears this while Yuno wears something resembling a miko's outfit.
In an Archie Comics story, Mr. Weatherbee opposes Archie's new school karate club. He changes his mind after Archie, as a result of the usual klutzy clothes-ruining mishap, lends him a Karate outfit in which to walk home, which ends up saving Weatherbee from a mugging because the crooks assume that if he's wearing the outfit, he must be able to kick their asses.
There's actually a decent◊ amount of examples from Archie Comics, although most are played for laughs◊, like the one where Archie is tossed by a much smaller girl. There was also a story where Betty was wearing a karate gi to make the kids she was baby-sitting think she was an expert.
There's the Kung Fu Fighter comic series in which the titular character◊, among others◊, wears a karate gi for most of the series. Oddly enough, he started out as a thief trying to rob the school where he eventually trained!
The movie Kuro-Obi has most of the characters in Karategi◊ for a good duration of the film. To add to that, the lead characters are played by some of Japan's leading black belt Karate experts.
Note: There is an older film from 1992 with the same English title (Black Belt). It also features one or two characters in Gis.
In the film Bloodsport there are a few characters who wear a Gi, or something similar to a Gi.
In the sequels there's another few characters who wear Gis.
In the film Dragon Princess}, there's a few people who wear Gis as well.
The movie Fighter In The Wind is based on the real-life Martial Artist, Mas Oyama, and follows the things he did when he went into the mountains to train in Karate. The movie follows him as he goes around the country, fighting masters of each martial art, and defeating them to show his skill.
In numerous Kung-Fu and Martial Arts movies, the hero will often enter a dojo full of fighters in Gis◊. The hero will often defeat them all, before challenging their master.
There are a couple of sitcoms that briefly show a young girl with a gi and a yellow or orange belt under a jacket, generally to show how harried and busy the mom that drives them back and forth is, rather than any martial arts ability on the kid's part.
Seinfeld: Kramer wore one while taking karate lessons. He dominated the class, because the other students were all 10 year olds. ("But we're at the same skill level.") Then they saw Elaine just push him down and they all ganged up on him in a Dark Alley.
Katoya makes his students wear an alien version of these in an episode of Farscape. Except, of course, for Scorpius.
In Path Of Neo the Videogame, during a training stage, Neo fights against enemies in Gis. Also, there's the fight against Morpheus that plays out like the film.
The New Adventures of Batman had the episode "Sins of the Father" where the new robin is training with bruce and barbara at the end of the episode.
In the episode of South Park when the boys buy weapons and pretend to be ninjas, Stan's alter ego is wearing one.
In Futurama, when Bender becomes a pro wrestler, Leela has flashbacks to when did Karate. She ends up facing her old master after a slight plost twist.
In Kim Possible, when Ron is transferred to Japan, he ends up becoming a Ninja. The Ninja uniforms actually look a lot like Gi's here.
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