A Fanservice trope, where Action Girls wear short, above-the-knees skirts.
This is a great way to show off her long legs, but the anticipation of getting an eyeful underneath is also welcomed, despite the bruises that might come from trying to sneak a peek. Sometimes, it doesn't have to be a skirt - it could be a minidress, a miniskirt, or a torn-apart garment that conveniently serves as a skirt. In addition, getting a Panty Shot isn't always guaranteed, but it can compensate by including Zettai Ryouiki, Stocking Filler or thigh high boots, to further emphasize the legs.
A skirt qualifies as dangerously short if it's high above the knees, prone to swirling aside (despite physics saying otherwise) and appears tight enough to ride up for a Panty Shot. Being an Action Girl is an added bonus, and a common subversion is to have her as a Faux Action Girl or a Neutral Female.
This trope does make a tiny bit of sense: if you're wearing a tight skirt into combat, you'd want it to be pretty short. The longer it is, the more it'll restrict your leg movements. However, wearing a looser, longer skirt would work just as well. Or wearing, ya know, pants. Or shorts.
Sub-Trope of She's Got Legs, Stocking Filler and Zettai Ryouiki.
Examples:
- This regularly shows up in Bleach:
- Tier Harribel, after she goes One-Winged Angel, dons a more stripperific outfit which leads to this.
- Lisa Yadomaru wore both a ruffled miniskirt as a lieutenant, and a schoolgirl skirt as a Visored. She's fought in both outfits.
- Riruka Dokugamine sports a minidress, but surprised fans (who thought of her as a Faux Action Girl) by being a gun-toting Combat Pragmatist.
- Ying and Yang, the Bodyguard Babes of Kusaka in the second movie, wear and fight in schoolgirl-type skirts.
- Rukia Kuchiki one kicked Shrieker in the jaw while wearing a school uniform. The skirts' length is even lampshaded by Kon when he looks up at her after she kicks him to the ground.
- Orihime Inoue wears one in the tenth opening theme song, called Shojo S. She also wears a schoolgirl uniform, complete with Zettai Ryouiki following the Time Skip, but when she tried to fight, she was taken by surprise and ultimately lost.
- Even Senna isn't exempt from such a fashion choice, but she's never fought while in it.
- Homura from the third movie has her Shihakusho modified in such a way that the lower half is turned into a miniskirt. Like Senna, Homura herself never fights in it.
- In the anime version of Love Hina, Motoko wore a school uniform with Girlish Pigtails, slight Zettai Ryouiki and a Dangerously Short Skirt while holding a book. However, she doesn't get to fight in it, and it's used against her by the resident Clingy Jealous Girl, who seduced her while disguised as Naru as part of a Batman Gambit.
- Ino Yamanaka on Naruto has a short skirt, and while she's proved herself to be an Actiongirl, she wears bandages under it. Temari (who's more like a Lady of War) could qualify as this as well, with all but one of the outfits she's worn that's incorporated a short skirt.
- Rachel Summers from the X-Men, after she took up her mother's mantle as Marvel Girl. She wore a version of her mother's green miniskirt costume (slightly modified to fit current fashions, since the dress didn't age well from the 60's).
- Despite being shown to children in The '50s, Space Patrol had Carol Carlisle and Tonga defy the Stay in the Kitchen role by engaging fully in Commander Buzz Corry and Space Cadet Happy's adventures, while wearing miniskirts a decade before they became fashionable.
- "El Nuevo Exotico" Maximo competes in a piece of fabric that could charitably be called a skirt. It mainly serves to draw attention to his crotch.
- The "skirts" Daizee Haze wrestles in tend to be shorter than her Modesty Shorts. This is also true of her protege Veda Scott.
- Black Rose wrestles in "skirts" that cover more above her waist than beneath it. This is also true of her protege Red Velvett.
- DASH Chisako wrestles wearing tassels around her hips to form a makeshift "skirt" that could be called "dangerously short Lady Legionnaire Wear".
- Batman: Arkham Asylum. Harley Quinn definitely has the short skirt down, but she's an Anticlimax Boss.
- BlazBlue:
- Trinity wore two, one with pantyhose as a member of the Six Heroes, and another as Platinum.
- Makoto Nanaya's costumes only had straps keeping her skirt held in place.
- Final Fantasy:
- Terra of Final Fantasy VI is one of a long line of Dangerously Short Skirt wearers in the Final Fantasy series; particularly noticeable in Dissidia. In her original game, it looks more like she's wearing a Leotard of Power, but it's close enough to her official art that it may be the case that it's just that short.
- Final Fantasy VII's Tifa Lockhart wears a leather mini as animating a skirt that covered her legs was too technically complicated.
- Guilty Gear has Valentine, but she leaves the fighting to her gigantic skull-head thing.
- La Pucelle has Prier wearing a dress so short, it's actually the apron in front that prevents her from flashing everyone. She's also a Kick Chick.
- Juliet Starling, zombie hunting cheerleader heroine of Lollipop Chainsaw.
- Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines has Jeanette Voerman, but she never fights on-screen.
- The third season of Avatar: The Last Airbender has the famous Beach Episode with Ty Lee and Azula. While both are Action Girls, the only fighting they've done in those skirts, is by playing volleyball. Rather intense volleyball, but still.
- Most of the female characters of the DCAU are Action Girls. But one that stands out the most is Mercy Graves. Her dress is insanely short, and only kept down by virtue of being a Magic Skirt.
- Gender-flipped variant: Him of The Powerpuff Girls had this, combined with Zettai Ryouiki, thigh high boots and abundant Fan Disservice. The whole design of the guy (?) puts Doctor Frank-n-Furter to shame.
