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The video game series:

  • Accidental Innuendo:
    • The two new gameplay mechanics in 5 are called "Power Blow" and "Critical Burst". Yeah...
    • In one of Honoka's win poses, she says: "Why am I so hot?" Uh... (In context, she is referring to how she might have an Evil Hand that is emanating an aura... but still.)
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Christie, a Psycho Lesbian for Helena or a badass who fell In Love with the Mark? Or is she more Ambiguously Bi who is willing to go after anyone? (That and there is the occasional scene where she acts seductive toward Eliot namely whether if she only does it just to fluster the boy or if she really is quite the cougar).
    • There is also Lei Fang on whether if she has a strong Belligerent Sexual Tension issue with Jann Lee or she genuinely is annoyed by his Jerk with a Heart of Gold nature and their rivalry is platonic at best. That and due to how Lei Fang can be with the other ladies especially Hitomi have given her plenty of Ambiguously Gay moments as well. So in other words while all the ladies in the series have been in Yuri pairings, Christie and Lei Fang (and to a much lesser extent Tina and Lisa) are considered to be biggest cases of Ambiguously Gay or Ambiguously Bi in the series.
    • And that's before the introduction of Mila in 5 who may just be an ascended fangirl for Tina, or could have a celebrity crush on her.
  • Americans Hate Tingle:
    • Marie Rose is, according to fan polling, the most popular girl among Japanese players by a significant margin, but in Western communities she is quite hated. Looking and acting so much younger than eighteen and being just as sexualised as the other female fighters leaves a lot of western players feeling really uncomfortable, and the fact she is given tons of exposure in publicity material thanks to her fame in Japan doesn't help her case. In communities aside from Japan and the west, reception varies.
    • Honoka is another character who is widely popular in Japan, but gets hate from western players, who complain that the character is too much of a "walking moeblob Japanese schoolgirl" stereotype to be interesting. Again, reception varies elsewhere.
  • Awesome Music:
    • DOA2 had a pretty impressive soundtrack. "Blazed Up Melpomene" and "Excelsior" would be the best examples.
    • Xtreme 2 had a collection of extremely catchy pop music, including the Baha Men rendition of Double Lovin' (more specifically, their cover of the Spencer Wiggins version of the classic Osmonds song).
    • Ayane's theme "Prismatic Butterfly" from DOA3 is a gorgeous and exciting tune that is high-paced enough to keep you on your toes while fighting against her.
    • Marie Rose’s DOA5 theme, “Bloody Nocturne,” sounds pretty hardcore for such a cute small girl like her, which is probably intentional.
    • Speaking of DOA5, Honoka’s theme, “Our Little Secret” sounds a lot like an idol anime intro.
    • Christie’s DOA4 theme, “Serpent Dance” is appropriately intimidating for a coldblooded assassin.
    • Tina’s theme “I Feel For You” from DOA4 is perfect for a bombshell of a wrestler like her.
    • Kasumi's DOA6 theme (Purity) is her best one yet, a fast-paced track that seamlessly blends techno music with Eastern flute chords.
  • Badass Decay: Ayane's fighting ability and competency has steadily declined ever since the retcons caused by DOA: Dimensions. The subsequent games added insult to injury by having her lose effortlessly to a drunk (Brad Wong, in DOA5) and a childlike housemaid (Marie Rose) in part 6. You'd have a hard time believing Ayane once defeated Hayate, Kasumi, and Genranote , or that she slew the reincarnation of Obaba on her own in Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword.
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Eliot. He may have been good gameplay-wise, but many people just don't like him. Possibly because his 4th costume in DOA4 looks like something by Square Enix at its zipper-laden worst. At the same time, many like Eliot because he isn't a giant muscular man and has a calm, nice personality.
    • Similarly, La Mariposa/Lisa also gets quite a bit of hate for her personality and fighting style. Also, how Lisa was originally introduced as Tina Armstrong's gal pal/Heterosexual Life-Partner in the original Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. However Lisa became an Ascended Extra in the Main Series by suddenly becoming a prominent scientist with DOATEC who played a fairly big role in the storyline. Some are glad about this development as Tecmo is taking the story a bit more seriously while others complain that it has caused retcons and other odd continuity issues in the story. So in other words some like the idea of Lisa becoming a more prominent character as a DOATEC scientist while others wished that she stayed as Tina's close friend instead. (That and on how after 4 Lisa's relationship with Tina has been substantially downplayed as while Lisa gets a bigger role in the storyline Tina's role is a lot smaller).
    • Marie Rose is hated by some because she looks and sounds like a prepubescent girl in the cast full of hotties, and that her design is a very standard Elegant Gothic Lolita + Tsundere Twintails combo seen in Japanese games. Others love her because she is adorable and the idea of a little girl taking on opponents twice her size is both awesome and hilarious.
    • Nyotengu got a split reception too, due to her concept itself. Some people think it refreshes the character of Tengu, while other see it as a cheap attention-grabber and/or unnecessarily pandering.
    • Phase-4, hands down. Some people like her because of her fighting style, which looks awesome due to its Teleport Spam up to eleven. Others are annoyed that her character design is just a Kasumi clone. Again.
    • Honoka follows the trend. Having both Marie-Rose's face (as in, the same 3D model), being arguably an Expy of a character from an unrelated anime (with the same name to boot) and a fighting style made out of movements from the rest of the roster, some people called "lazy" on Team Ninja for reusing assets. Others appreciate her, arguing that characters made of other character's moves is pretty common in fighting games, and the mix is pretty well thought out. Also, as surprising as this sounds, she's the first female character in the series that embodies the Schoolgirl archetype.
    • Some fans dislike the inclusion of the Virtua Fighter guest characters and would rather they not have been included at all, or at least had more work done to them, due to having less fluid animations and using old voice clips. Jacky's addition in 5U just annoyed these fans even more. It gets ridiculous though when they start complaining about the VF characters' models and faces looking out of proportion. Any kind of comparison with the main DOA cast will show the differences are extremely minimal. On the other hand, the inclusion of said VF characters has also attracted more fans to the series, noting that it's one of the more logical ideas for a fighting game crossover. Team Ninja and AM2 are also on good terms with each other.
    • Venus Vacation has two in the form of Nagisa and Fiona:
      • Nagisa's introduction immediately gives you an impression that not only is she an overtly overprotective big sister, she's also an extreme Tsundere where she has more harsher moments with the player, up and including, confiscating a picture of Misaki that just happen to be lying around, and her immediate dislike of the player despite Misaki's fondness and working on the island. Some players find her to be an aggressive bitch while others find her refreshing in the setting of Venus Vacation and her seiyuu being Maaya Uchida.
      • Fiona is a Nice Girl princess who tends to come off as too nice, since she never lashes at the player and very polite to the player and other girls. Some fans dislike this, since she comes off as unoriginal with a creepy face, but others don't mind her and that she's voiced by Kaede Hondo. Yes, that Kaede Hondo.
  • Best Known for the Fanservice:
    • Many have a hard time remembering that it's a Fighting Game series. The vast majority of people only remember the female fighters's curvy model-esque bodies and Jiggle Physics, for better or for worse. Mind you, Tecmo isn't trying to mask it or anything. They ran straight to the endzone with that knowledge (and zero regret) when promoting Dead or Alive 3.
    • The Xtreme series as a volleyball/jet ski game is the video game development equivalent of an Excuse Plot. Watch and observe. Did you notice much sports action in that trailer?
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
    • Many, many combat scenes only show the immediate prelude to combat and provide minimal context, so it can be easy for encounters to be random, unexplained, and later ignored.
    • The final cutscene of Helena's DOA 4 story and Dimensions' story-line, in which everything's going to Hell but the proceedings are interrupted by a shot of some never before seen woman being shot in the head.
    • Many endings from the first four games qualify, and some even look completely out of character. Why does Kasumi dream of being a (naked) mermaid in what looks like a J-Pop music video?
    • Eliot's penultimate fight in DOA4 occurs, completely without explanation, at the DOATEC helipad where he does battle with Christie. What he's doing there and why she levitates down to meet him go completely unmentioned, even when they encounter one another again in DOA5.
    • The story modes for DOA5 and DOA6 are saturated with these, with numerous events that should logically have ramifications for the characters and the plot having nothing to show for it. One example is Lisa Hamilton's unauthorized entry onto the DOATEC oil platform, which provokes a fight with her boss Helena... and goes completely ignored later.
  • Broken Base:
    • The Fanservice, which this series is infamous for. On quite a lot of levels.
      • There's plenty of people who call the series one of the most notorious cases of Best Known for the Fanservice ever and has occasionally (but consistently) been accused of sexism. The franchise in general, and the Xtreme spin-offs in particular, are among the most common negative examples used by media critics and commentators whenever the issue of sexism and/or sexual objectification of women in video games is brought up. Many fans are very frustrated by this, as saying "I play Dead or Alive for the gameplay" has become the video game equivalent of I Read It for the Articles (even though it's mostly agreed that it's a great fighting series on its own merits). The fact that Team Ninja toned down the fanservice for DOA5 just to tune it back up after alleging fan request didn't help. DOA6 made more waves for Team Ninja wanting to tone it down but then the director Yohei Shimbori went back on these statements and said they wouldn't back down in regards to the fanservice.
      • However, there are also plenty of folks who state that the series is so tongue-in-cheek about its fanservice that it's not as harmful as the detractors claim, if at all. They also argue it's really not that much worse than any other series like Street Fighter and Soul Series. In fact some even argue that the series is actually a bit too tame to be M-Rated as the M-rated Dead or Alive games are barely anymore explicit than the earlier T-Rated games. So in other words it does raise the question on whether if Tecmo can actually play up the Fanservice more and still maintain an M Rating or would it be for the best if they did not.
    • The fanbase is split into two main factions: Those that prefer the original fighting series, and those who prefer the soft-porn beach side-series. Similarly, the second faction is in itself split over whether or not to include an official nude option (which, aside from various hacks within those games and an April Fools Day joke from EGM, no such option actually exists).
    • There's a split based on the toned down fanservice (and breast sizes) in Dead Or Alive 5. Which got even bigger when the devs brought back the standard fanservice elements due to fan requests... and then kept at it for years, resulting in over a thousand DLC costumes with varying levels of fanservice.
    • Going hand-in-hand with the fanservice is the preferential treatment that female fighters get over the male fighters both in-game and out. This being a series that's nigh infamous for its female fanservice, many have a hard time remembering that Dead or Alive even has males to begin with. Within the fandom, some dislike the male characters just for not being female while others wish they were treated better in comparison to their female counterparts. The fact that Team Ninja refuses to make DLC male fighters likely out of fear that no one would buy them has also been a point of contention. Either the focus on the female characters in the series is its biggest strength that separates it from other fighters, or its doing harm to the series by further establishing the stereotypes of the DOA gamer, depending on who you ask.
    • The less obvious but arguably most important split is about the counter system:
      • Detractors, who tend to be elitist competitive players, believe this system is the real reason why the series never got the same amount of respect as Street Fighter or Tekken (after all, when you get down to it, Fanservice is very high in practically every single popular Fighting Game franchise). They think it kills off any sort of offense in the game since everything can be countered. Worst case scenario, they say it completely breaks the gameplay, and makes it shallow and cheap. Defenders, on the other hand, consider it way deeper than its detractors give it credit for, in a "easy to learn, hard to master" way. Plus, it gives the combat an unique fast pace and sense of unpredictability that no other fighting franchise has. Specially since, in practice, countering everything is next to impossible. You really need to study your opponent's moves in order to counter more than a couple of them per round, so if you lose due to receiving too many counters, either your rival earned it, or you deserve it for using the same moves again and again.
      • Among people who like the system you have a similar split between people who prefer the system in games 2 and 3, since counters were easier to execute. However, considering Team Ninja wanted to put that system back in 5, but decided not to after the reactions to the Alpha version, it seems this group is smaller and smaller.
    • Dead Or Alive 4 as a whole. Most competitive players hate the game and blame it for the stigma attached to competitive DOA. On the other hand, the more casual fans love it due to its unique online mode and flashy aesthetics.
    • Some fans don't like the story mode of Dimensions and DOA5 because of their clunky narrative and nonsensical plot. Others like them because they present a neat tutorial to get into the game mechanics little by little.
    • The up-and-sudden removal of Leon (and to a lesser extent, Ein and Tengu) in 5 caused quite a bit of controversy with fans. So much, that Team Ninja, who didn't even think the fans wanted him, put him back in DOA5: Ultimate.
    • The DOA5 tournament scene eventually moved to have the more Fanservice-y costumes banned from tournament play, which divided the base in a few ways. Supporters said that it's an effort to avert Distracted by the Sexy and move away from the series' reputation as fanservice fodder, while detractors called it a petulant and hamfisted attempt to win respect from the larger FGC. Not helping matters is the fact that the officially approved costume choices are bizarrely contradictory; This costume is banned for being "too distracting" despite being a full-body ninja outfit with minor Sideboob, while this one is still considered tournament legal even though it's one of the most Stripperiffic outfits in the entire series.
    • The PC release of Dead or Alive 5: Last Round. The initial announcement that a mainline DOA game was coming to the PC platform was met with positive reception... until the Steam Store page for the game went online and revealed the game would launch without online modes, and that online would be patched in within 3 months after the release. This caused a three way split between those that were simply happy the game was coming to PC, those that thought the PC version should be delayed until the online modes are ready, and those that thought Team Ninja should have put in the resources to have the PC version's online ready alongside the console versions' launch. The further delay of the PC version to a month after the console versions, with no guarantee that online would be ready in time for the later release date, did not help this situation.
      • And then things got a whole lot worse when it was revealed that the port's quality will fall somewhere between those of PS3/360 and PS4/One. Two notable features that it would be missing are the two new stages and the Soft Engine, both of which are exclusive to the current-gen consoles. Some fans are not bothered by this and are happy that a PC version is coming anyway, some decide to put their purchase on hold until something comes up, and others see this as another bad PC porting from a Japanese game developer and have either canceled their pre-orders or refused to buy it.
    • The decision to not bring Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 to Western territories, allegedly because Team Ninja wanted to avoid controversy regarding the representation of female characters in video games, split the fan base and even the gaming community in several factions. This all mostly depending on whether they were supporters or detractors of the sub-series in the first place. Long story short, there were people who were upset, people who didn't care much, and people who were glad. All three to different degrees.
    • Venus Vacation's gacha system and its RNG divided the fans when using stones in attempt to unlock an SSR bathing suit for the girl of your choice. Due to the nature of gacha, you'll have extremely low chance of unlocking an SSR outfit or a girl you want to unlock. This includes Luna, who still has a rare chance of showing up if you paid real money to buy stones to unlock her.
    • Various developer interviews indicated that Dead or Alive 6 would be steering away from sexual content, with the subsequent gameplay videos shown toning down the series' iconic Jiggle Physics, which immediately became a point of contention. And then the director started walking back those initial statements and said there'd be more sexual content, and Team Ninja kept saying they'd lower the sexual content, which resulted in the left hand contradicting the right hand and confusing a lot of folks. 6 also subverts Beauty Is Never Tarnished, as all characters including females can get bruised and bloodied over the course of a fight. Some claimed this helps to add more realism and focus to the actual fighting, and thus are happy with it. Others claimed this is Fan Disservice and doesn't suit the series at all. The game has an option to turn this feature off, so both sides' complaints were addressed.
  • Contested Sequel:
    • DOA4, especially in the eyes of the high-level play community.
    • DOA6 failed to catch on with either casual or competitive players, leading official support for the game to cease only a year after launch.
    • Xtreme 2. While it offered more to do than the first game (jet skiing, butt bumping, flag races, and water slides were added), the framerates inexplicably dropped despite being on a more powerful console, the loading times were longer, and despite the new stuff, it had a bad case of It's the Same, Now It Sucks!. Plus, the unrealistic Jiggle Physics were derided by some.
    • Xtreme 3 had many feeling the graphical frammerate improved for its third outing, was also decried for dropping several features from the first two gams such as the water slide, jet skis, accessories, two whole islands, as well as removing fan favorites from the first two games like Tina, Leifang, and Christie.
  • Common Knowledge: With how infamously fanservice-heavy the series is, a lot of people assume that it’s filled to the brim with common ecchi clichés derided by a lot of people as cringeworthy, like gratuitous pantyshots, accidental groping and the like, on par with series like Senran Kagura. In reality, there’s only ONE instance of that sort of thing happening and it’s in Lei Fang’s ending from the 4th game where and old man accidentally gropes her breasts and she kicks him in retaliation. Aside from that, the series is surprisingly lax in that regard, at least in its story modes and cinematics, save for the occasional boob joke here and there.
  • Crazy is Cool: Between his encounters with living skeletons, aliens, and the like, Zack's entire life proceeds to the beat of a different drum.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Ein in spades. Plot-wise he only really has relevance (or even exists) in DOA2, but a lot of people ended up preferring him over Hayate for his explosive fighting style, personality, and fashion sense, to the point that Ein has returned once or twice as a Guest Fighter, oftentimes alongside Hayate himself.
    • Christie has quite the loyal fanbase, mostly because she was the first female villain in a series known for having beautiful ladies. Her fans also love her because of her being the oldest in a roster with mostly young girls, her seductive femme-fatale attitude and her sexy British accent courtesy of fan-favorite voice actress Laura Bailey. Her absence in Xtreme Beach Volleyball 3 was a point of contention for MANY fans.
    • Leon as even though his plotline seems complete, he's appeared in various games as a bonus character and when he was cut from DOA5, the fans were not happy... until he returned in DOA5U.
    • Mila gets a lot of love from the fanbase for going completely against the grain for a female DOA fighter. To wit, she's cute and attractive without being hyper-sexualized (at least by the series' standards) or playing up any fetishes, has a hot-blooded but still humble personality, shows great sportsmanship, and her MMA-based fighting style is short on flashy and balletic moves, but it looks very damned painful and effective.
    • Hitomi is also popular with the fanbase since her debut in DOA3. Even series creator and former director Tomonobu Itagaki likes her. She was even allowed to appear in the Updated Re-release of DOA2 for the Xbox, albiet without her own story mode.
    • Marie Rose and Honoka were introduced in DOA5U and DOA5LR respectively as extra characters with no specific story mode, but have gained so much popularity after their debut that they've been front and center in the cover and promotional material for Xtreme Beach Volleyball 3, appeared in Musou Stars as playable characters, and have been part of several cross-company promotions (like guest characters in a Senran Kagura game). It's no surprise the sixth episode has promoted them to full-fledged characters that are very prominent in its Story Mode.
    • Ryu Hayabusa's cute apprentice Momiji has earned a lot of fans through her flashy yet practical moveset and gentle Nice Girl attitude. As of 6 she is the single most requested character for DLC by a huge margin, according to a GameFAQs poll. She was eventually announced to return in Version 1.11 during the Tokyo Game Show 2019.
    • Momiji’s fellow Ninja Gaiden newcomer, Rachel, also has quite the fanbase because of her slow but highly-damaging moveset and her rather mature look and personality, in contrast to the more young-looking newcomers. She even ranked as the 2nd most requested DLC character for 6, right behind Momiji.
    • Anyone who has heard of Dead or Alive: Xtreme Venus Vacation took a strong liking to the new character Misaki, to the point someone made an actual mod of her. This leads to demands for bringing her in the next installment should Team Ninja puts her in future games.
    • Luna gained this status after her debut in Venus Vacation. Her weird personality while speaking in monotone and her rather hilarious interactions with Ayane made her one of the two popular girls in Venus Vacation.
    • To a lesser exent, Kokoro’s mother, Miyako. For a very minor character whose overall screentime is barely over 2 minutes, she sure has quite a lot of fans who either want to see her playable to break the series’s habit of having mostly young women in its roster and/or just think she’s very hot for a 40yo mother, having a lot of (mostly erotic) fanart and animations made of her.
  • Event-Obscuring Camera: You fight Omega from a completely weird camera angle that is low and behind your fighter, as opposed to in profile as the rest of the matches are conducted. This camera view is necessary for you to see Omega's ranged attacks, so that you can dodge them and get close enough to engage him hand-to-hand.
  • Fandom Rivalry:
    • There was a long period of time where it was best to not put a big chunk of Kasumi and Ayane's respective fan bases in the same room. That said, the sisters burying the hatchet in-universe is also turning down the heat between these two fan bases... or making it hotter in another sense altogether...
    • The franchise itself was this towards the Tekken series. This was due to Itagaki's contempt towards Harada's games, this being where the whole fan rivalry started. This too has died down since Itagaki's departure, and both series' fandoms and developers are on better terms nowadays.
  • Fan Nickname:
  • Fan-Preferred Couple:
    • A lot of the fan base puts Kasumi and Ryu together over any canon love interest either of them have gotten.
    • Helena and Christie have perhaps the most dedicated shipping following out of the whole fan base.
    • Christie and Eliot are also a very popular pairing, especially for those into the “Older Woman & Younger Man” dynamic. Her teasing the poor boy with her breasts and him reacting all flustered in the 5th game definitely helps, as it gives Christie '''MAJOR''' cougar vibes.
  • Fanwork-Only Fans:
    • There's a surprisingly large amount of H-art dedicated to pairing Kasumi with Ayane. Fans of the series know it would never happen, for obvious reasons. But those whose only exposure to DOA is through Rule 34 would likely be shocked to learn that those two hot looking girls they've been shipping together are actually half-sisters/cousins!
    • Same thing with all the NSFW animations made with the games’ 3D models. They're usually of such extremely high-quality, that those unfamiliar with DOA can enjoy them without knowing a thing about the characters they're watching, or the series' canon.
  • Friendly Fandoms:
    • With the Virtua Fighter series, thanks in part to the main quartet's inclusion in Dead or Alive 5, as well as the first game in the series running on Sega's model2 arcade hardware and being inspired by Virtua Fighter's gameplay.
    • They also seem to be this with the Senran Kagura fandom. Some of their installments (Estival Versus and Peach Beach Splash) even features Ayane, Marie, and Honoka as DLC guest characters. DOA5LR also added Senran Kagura costume DLC.
    • A small but surprising one with the Final Fantasy VII fanbase, since most of the fans on both sides think that Tifa would be a PERFECT guest character for the DOA series (not unlike fellow gaming Ms. Fanservice Mai). This is helped by the fact that Koei Tecmo is also developing the latest Dissidia game that so happens to feature Tifa as a playable character… and some just think it would make for an awesome tribute to Monty Oum’s Dead Fantasy.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Mila has become very popular among Spaniard fans of the series. Not only because she's from Spain herself, but rather because she's the first Spanish character in a Fighting Game who looks the part WITHOUT falling into any Spanish stereotypes, Not Even Bothering with the Accent notwithstanding note .
  • Good Bad Bugs: Trying to unlock all of the outfits in DOA2: Hardcore? Just go into Survival Mode and open up the PS2's disc tray. Now the game is running off of RAM and can't load in the next fighter, so you can continuously jump on your downed opponent to obtain more items towards a 100% completion bonus.
  • Growing the Beard:
    • Dead or Alive: Dimensions and to a greater extent Dead or Alive 5 were rather well received when it comes to gameplay and the story mode.
    • Part of the reason may be the involvement of Sega AM2, the developers of critically acclaimed fighting game series Virtua Fighter, who gave advice and guidance, as well as the inclusion of VF guest characters.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • The crux of the series in later games is Kasumi fighting against Donovan. Now cut to Mass Effect 2 which has a side mission where... you help a different Kasumi against a different Donovan.
    • DOA1 was similar to Sega AM2's Virtua Fighter in its control setup, the inclusion of ring outs, and a Final Boss that had moves taken from other characters, but was more over-the-top and became even more over the years. Fast forward to DOA5: Last Round and its Senran Kagura DLC that includes destructive clothes. With Virtua Fighter comparisons in mind, it also begins to resemble another Sega AM2 fighting game series with similar controls, over-the-top physics and destructive clothes: Fighting Vipers.
  • Hollywood Pudgy: The character Honoka. Since she has the biggest bust in a series full of busty ladies, she's also, realistically, a bit more plump than the other female characters.
  • Iron Woobie: Ayane. See her entry in said trope, and then add everything revealed in Dimensions, including her attempted suicide.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Ryu, Kasumi, Ayane and, to a sightly lesser extent, Hitomi.
    • Eliot tends to be paired with a lot of the girls, probably because he’s the only young pretty boy in the roster.
  • Les Yay:
    • Lei Fang and Hitomi are shown to be very friendly to each other. Strawberries, anyone?
    • Also, in Dead or Alive 2's story mode: in both the cutscene before Lei Fang's battle with Helena and Lei Fang's win quote after, the game gives the impression that Lei Fang is flirting with her opponent.
    • Christie's attitude towards Helena crosses into this at times.
    • In Dead or Alive 5: Ultimate Rachel and Momiji's tag team win pose has Rachel saying "very nice" while looking over Momiji, making it seem as if she's checking her out.
    • Frankly, given the kind of game Dead or Alive is, every girl has been paired with almost every other girl at this point, even between half-sisters, and sometimes all at once.
  • LGBT Fanbase: G4TV.com has occasionally mentioned stories on how according to the G4 forums the Dead or Alive series does have a lesbian fanbase especially thanks to Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball.
  • Like You Would Really Do It: Really Tecmo, you expect us to believe that Hayate and Ayane really killed Kasumi? They must really needed to make use of the clone, somehow...
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • She kicks high! note
    • DOA physics note
    • CORE VALUES note
    • Xtreme Beach Volleyball note
    • “Pay $1 to change hair color” note
  • Never Live It Down:
    • People who are critical with Team Ninja and their games usually only mention the Xtreme Beach Volleyball entries when they talk about the series or the studio, as if the fighting games didn't even exist (famous web shows like Extra Credits or Zero Punctuation have been guilty of this). And if they do mention them, they talk about the Jiggle Physics as if they were the only noteworthy thing about them. Because, you know, being a pretty awesome fighting series on its own merits means absolutely nothing next to the Fanservice or the spin-off games.
    • The fanbase itself requested that the 5th game retain all the series' familiar fanservice elements (specifically, the characters' breast sizes of all things), after the devs had shown that they had planned to tone it down (so that the game would be taken more seriously by critics and non-fans). Not only did this not help sway the popular opinion that the series is nothing but baseless pandering, but it also caused the fanbase to break even further.
    • From a competitive point of view, the series has had difficulty shedding the stigma of being an overly defensive game that penalized attacking with powerful counters.
    • On a more humorous note, despite only teasing Eliot ONCE with her breast milk, Christie has been the subject to quite a lot of lactation-related fanart (both SFW and NSFW) to the point where someone unfamiliar with the series would assume it was a fetishy character trait and running gag of hers.
  • No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Since Tecmo-Koei announced DOAX3 will not get an official Western release thanks to various controversies, Play-Asia also announced that they would be selling the localized-to-English non-Japanese Asian version, and ended up promptly gaining several thousand new followers. Lately, this seems to be an aversion for the main series as seen by the failure of Dead or Alive 6 to get into EVO.
  • Older Than They Think: Some think Jann Lee's yellow tracksuit is a Shout-Out to Kill Bill, but it was actually first worn by Bruce Lee in Game of Death, which Kill Bill itself was referencing. Which makes sense, since Jann Lee is a Bruce Lee Clone (and Quentin Tarantino has always been open about properly crediting his influences).
  • Polished Port:
    • The PlayStation Vita port of DOA5. It actually got better reviews than the console versions because it was able to run at a steady 60fps while maintaining good visuals within the handheld's limited hardware. This has been compared to other (ported) fighting games like Mortal Kombat.
    • The PlayStation port of the original game sacrifices only the dynamic, animated stages of the arcade original, but looks just as good, plays just as smoothly, and contains a load of exclusive features that no other version has (including both Bass and Ayane with full-fledged movesets before their "official" debut in DoA 2).
  • Porting Disaster: The PC port of Venus Vacation has several issues. It will crash on you constantly, gives your girl in training a ridiculous training time (880 minutes, or 14 hours). This is irritating if you're planning to redo some matches. The only way to fix this is to set your computer's locale to Japan's, as it is a Japanese game.
  • Saved by the Fans:
    • The Fanservice itself. The original plan for DOA5 was to tone down the fanservice in hopes of that the fighting community would finally take the game seriously. However, numerous fans requested bigger breasts and Team Ninja subsequently brought it back, full force.
    • Leon also came back in the Updated Re-release thanks to the fans who complained about his absence in the original game.
  • Self-Fanservice: Yes, even in a series like this. Miyako and Ayame are relatively minor characters that have very few appearances in the whole series (relegated to short cutscenes) and aren’t depicted with the level of fanservice their daughters usually get (save for a short view of Ayame’s sideboob during DOA2's intro, but the context is FAR from sexy)… but if you go to Deviant ART, you’ll see that there’s plenty of fanart featuring them either in bikinis or completely naked. Must be the fact that they’re very good-looking moms for their ages.
  • Scrappy Mechanic: Unlocking costumes in 6 is two-fold: You have to earn enough "Pattern Points" for a costume before it becomes available for purchase in the in-game store. Earning Pattern Points can only be done in DOA Quest mode (in limited amounts), the single-player modes (with higher difficulties yielding higher rewards, but still requiring more playtime than in previous games), or playing online (which can be laggy and unreliable), turning it into a very tedious, grindy process. The worst part is, whenever you earn Pattern Points, the character and costume they go towards are completely random! Thankfully, Team Ninja addressed the issues in a mid-March update — now points go to the costumes of the character you're playing as if possible, overflow is taken into account, and point awards are greatly increased, bringing the unlock rate to something close to previous games' unlock systems.
  • Stuck in Their Shadow: Dead or Alive has male characters. Common knowledge to fans, but if you told this to a non-fan, it would likely be news to them. In fact, even within the fandom, when someone brings up "who's your favorite male character?", a common joke is to say "...there's male characters?". This naturally is a point of contention to some. This does not apply if said male character's name is Ryu Hayabusa... because it's goddamn Ryu Hayabusa.
  • Theiss Titillation Theory: Some of the girls' outfits are skimpy enough that there's no way they could actually fight in them and not have a wardrobe malfunction in seconds. But no matter how bad you want it to, it will never happen.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Many characters have the potential for good stories and meaningful Character Development, but Team Ninja never takes advantage of them, and the creators pushing Fanservice to the detriment of everything else doesn't help.
    • The ninja family of Kasumi, Ayane, and Hayate, despite getting the most Character Focus, never really tackle the heart of their drama over Kasumi in exile, Hayate forced to carry out the clan's laws, and Ayane's relationship with both. Most of the time, the games skirt around the drama, with the sole exception of the fifth game advertising Hayate and Ayane murdering Kasumi, only for it to prove a red herring, not that anybody bought it in the first place.
    • The retcons in DOA Dimensions caused most fans to reject it as non-canon, due to stripping Ayane of nearly all her accomplishments and crediting Hayate instead, in order to retcon his previously dismal track record. Best seen in the Wasted Plotential: Ayane video and the comments section, most of which are in agreement.
    • Helena is another great example. She's a young woman who is determined to atone for the sins of her father's company, trying to fulfill its original well-intentioned vision while fighting the corruption at its core created by Donovan. However, she sees herself forced to use means that puts her pretty close to Jumping Off the Slippery Slope.
    • Tina Armstrong has been a secondary character in the series from the start, but her role shrank over time, while Lisa Hamilton, introduced as Tina's friend, became much more prominent after 4. Since Lisa was assigned a new niche in 5, her friendship with Tina has been mostly ignored, leaving some to wonder if Mila was created to be Tina's new Heterosexual Life-Partner.
    • Not many were fans of character roster for DOAX 3 where favorites such as Tina and Lisa being ignored. In fact, Helena was the only pre-Marie Caucasian beauty from the series to be featured, which left some fans wondering if the game not having a western release removed the need to add non-Asian women.
    • Samus Aran merely cameoed in Dimensions as an Assist Character, despite the franchise setting a precedent for Guest Fighters with Nicole in Dead or Alive 4, Nintendo characters being fully playable in other fighting games, and Samus herself being long-established in Nintendo's own Super Smash Bros. series.
    • Eliot has had an ongoing plot about his mysterious relationship with Gen Fu since DOA4 that is mostly a technicality.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: For a time, Kasumi's backstory of being a runaway Ninja who left her village to seek revenge for her then-crippled brother Hayate and being hunted by the people of her village was considered to be this. While this subplot was played up in 2, it became a fairly minor detail in 3 and the Dead or Alive Xtreme subseries kind of ruined the credibility of the subplot and made it rather pointless. (You know for someone who is supposed to be on the run 24/7, Kasumi is awfully willing to be out in public.) There were even accusations that Tecmo doesn't really know what to do with the Dead or Alive story anymore and is not taking it seriously enough. Fortunately, this subplot does get played up a bit more in Dimensions and 5. Five even implies that there will even be some resolution in Kasumi's situation with her home village after all.
  • Tough Act to Follow: The series is considered by many hardcore fans to have peaked very early on with 3 and 2 Ultimate, as a sort of pinnacle of everything the combat in these games were trying to strive for, an interesting cast and their interactions, and plenty of Fanservice but not quite ultra indulgent to absurd degree in it just yet. Every game that followed besides 5 is considered to have faltered in some way or another and not been as smooth as these two, and even 5 is considered to have fallen victim to prioritizing the fanservice too much.
  • Unintentional Uncanny Valley: The models for 2, 2 Ultimate, 3, and 4 look a bit off. The characters look like unnatural mannequins, and these models were retained up to 4 when Tomonobu Itagaki was around. After he left, 5 gave the characters a serious overhaul, making them less doll-like.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: A number of people thought that Eliot was a girl when he first debuted in 4.
  • Wangst: Ayane's Interrupted Suicide in Dimensions. She tries to take her own life only because Hayate got mad at her?! Really?! OK, Hayate overreacted too when he slapped her just because she made a bad comment about Kasumi, but still!
  • Win Back the Crowd: The response to 5 was very positive and garnered fans who realized that it was more than a Fanservice fighting game. Although the later, endless flood of DLC costumes tarnished the game as a product in the eyes of many.
  • Woolseyism: The official English version of Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation translates "Owner" (what most of the girls call you) as "boss", Luna's "pyon" (the onomatopoeia of a rabbit hopping) as "boing", and "erowanko" (what Nagisa calls you when she thinks you're being a pervert) as "dirty dog".
  • WTH, Costuming Department?: Even without going to the fanservice outfits for the female characters, there are some... questionable costumes, specially for male characters. Bayman in a fully equipped scuba diver suit, anyone? And let's not even begin with Eliot in 4 or Zack in, well, any of the games.

The band:

  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Dead Or Alive was a huge hit in Japan for a time, to the point that Japan saw some releases which the band's home country never got.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Pete's fatal heart attack makes their 1985 single "My Heart Goes Bang (Get Me To The Doctor)" a little awkward these days.
  • Memetic Mutation: "You Spin Me Round" tends to be the go-to song for funny videos (and one very, very NSFW website) which involve spinning.
  • Signature Song: "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)".
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: Pete Burns admitted to coming up with the chorus to "You Spin Me Round" by singing his own lyrics to the Luther Vandross song "I Wanted Your Love." While the tunes are vastly different, the rhythm is still noticeably similar.

The Tom Clancy book:

  • Jerkass Has a Point: Given that there is no mention of any weapons anywhere in reach of the men that Driscoll shot in their sleep, the murder charge against him is more plausible than any of the heroes bother to discuss. But the reviewing lawyer is still clearly made out as a Jerkass by making his decision turn not on the law, but on the misfortune that the Emir was not found in the cave, which was beyond Driscoll's control. And, of course, Kealty simply proves himself even more of a Dirty Coward when he orders this arguably legitimate prosecution abandoned the moment it looks like it might pose a political problem for him.
  • Nightmare Fuel: The torture done on The Emir at the end of the novel. Granted, he was the mastermind behind several equally horrifying terrorist attacks, but that still doesn't makes it any less horrifying.
  • Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Compared to the negative reception of The Teeth of The Tiger's 3.72 rating on Goodreads (the lowest of the mainline Jack Ryan books), Dead Or Alive managed to get a slightly better 3.86 rating.

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