Taijutsu

Taijutsu (体術) is a fighting technique described in the backstory of Strider, and the primary fighting style of Kirin from the game's spiritual sequel, Cannon Dancer.

Overview

Taijutsu (roughly meaning body technique) is a blanket term used in Japanese martial arts to describe a fighting style or technique system that focuses exclusively on body movements and empty-handed strikes. Most commonly used to speak about traditional Japanese martial arts, it often encompasses a broader definition than similar terms, centering on any combat system made up of general body techniques and forms. In terms of describing martial arts, more specific terms are used depending on their primary focus, such as Judo (which focuses on throwing and grappling) or Karate (which focuses on striking).

In popular culture Taijutsu, when applied to ninja fiction, is often used to describe a ninja's hand-to-hand physical combat skills in contrast to Ninjutsu (stealth technique) which refers to a ninja's unconventional combat and guerrilla warfare tactics employed in espionage and assassination activities, focusing mainly on concepts such as misdirection, avoidance and concealment.

Strider

Hiryu displays his superhuman technique

Hiryu is described as having mastery of Superhuman Taijutsu (超人的な体術), being a martial arts expert whose skills go beyond the ordinary limits of humans. Despite this, Hiryu seldomly makes use of his combat skills directly, as he has a preference for fighting with the Cypher sword. When forced into fighting unarmed, Hiryu shows to be as efficient as if he were fighting with a weapon, displaying powerful focused strikes that are capable of slicing off limbs with ease, as if his arms were as sharp as blades.

Hiryu's mastery of Taijutsu is reflected in his athletic physique, nimble and fast movement and the skills to effortlessly move across any environment, all forged through intense training. This allows him to move unimpeded through any surface, climb effortlessly through any terrain or element and the capacity to fight unrestricted from any position or location he finds himself in, including even in situations like underwater. Hiryu makes use of his trained body and technique to support his basic fighting strategy: to instantly close the distance with the enemy and eliminate them with a single swing of the Cypher, following the Japanese sword art/motto Ittou-Ryoudan (一刀両断, roughly To cut in two with one sword strike).

Hiryu also displays knowledge of pressure points in the human body, which may also stem from his Taijutsu training.

In Cannon Dancer

Kirin's attacks obliterate his targets

In contrast to Hiryu, Kirin fights entirely bare-handed as the successor of a fighting technique called a Secret Style of Taijutsu (秘流の体術), sometimes properly called The Secret Style. Similar to the Striders, members of Teki like Kirin train their body and technique to an extreme degree, allowing them to move unopposed across any surface or environment, climb and dash through the most treacherous paths like mountains without the need of equipment, and to move and attack from any position. Unlike Hiryu, however, Kirin uses Taijutsu exclusively and has honed his skills in such a way he has transformed his own body into a deadly weapon, selling himself as a weapon for hire. The strength of his punches and kicks is powerful enough to disembowel an opponent on contact, even if they are wearing armor.

As a result of his focus on Taijutsu, Kirin can perform a varied number of different strikes as part of his movelist. All basic moves can be rapid-fired by mashing the attack button, and by reaching the maximum power-up level Kirin can also increase their range and strength by producing large arcs of energy with each attack.

Basic Attacks

	Roundhouse Kicks: Attack x2 while on ground Kirin performs two roundhouse kicks, one with each leg. By holding a direction while button-mashing the attack, Kirin will slowly move while attacking continuously in a loop.
	Aerial Chain: Attack x3 while airborne Kirin performs a three-kick chain combo: he first strikes with a reverse heel strike, follows it with a rotating kick and ends by performing a Cartwheel-motion spin kick.
	Crouching Sweep Kicks: Attack x2 while crouching Kirin performs two sweeping kicks.
	Climbing Strike: Attack while climbing a horizontal surface Kirin performs a single swinging punch with a fairly long range.
	Hanging Strikes: Attack x2 while hanging from a platform/vertical surface Kirin performs a two-strike chain: first he throws a long-ranged punch and follows it up with a hanging straight kick as he stretches his leg forward.

Throws

Kirin can perform two different throw moves, although this only works on humans and humanoid-sized enemies. He has a ground-based throw and a mid-air throw, both can often kill/destroy stage enemies and cause roughly twice the amount of damage of a basic attack to bosses.

	Gleaning (落ち穂拾い): Press the Jump button while overlapping an enemy sprite during a Slide Kirin grabs the enemy, makes a full spin around with them and then throws them violently forward. Other enemies in the path of the thrown one are also damaged. Holding up once the grab is initiated instead throws the enemy upwards, where they will spin a few times in mid-air before dropping into the ground and exploding. In this instance falling into other enemies has no effect. This move is likely based on a popular maneuver in Japanese media known as the Jigoku Guruma (Hell Whell), made popular by the 70s martial arts manga Jūdō Icchokusen.
	Crocodile Hanger Drop (鰐掛け): Press the Jump button while overlapping an enemy sprite in mid-air Kirin grabs the enemy and pulls himself back and down, fast dropping with the enemy head-first into the ground. Inspired by the popular maneuver known as the Izuna Drop, made popular by the early 70s manga The Legend of Kamui.

Enemies that can be thrown include Foot Soldier, Spider Weapon, Guardian, Tiger, Scorpion and Black Commander (jetpack only). Bosses include Herio, Fake, Cannons, Tianon, Willf and Slaver.

Shredding Dance

The Shredding Dance (キザミ舞い) is a special attack combination performed while standing, where Kirin does a chain of powerful punches following a basic attack. In order to perform this technique, a series of directions with the Attack button must be pressed after a roundhouse kick is performed. The most common and easiest combo is to press down+Attack after a basic kick so Kirin performs a long-ranged right hook, follow it with up+Attack for a similar left hook and finish it with forward+Attack for a dashing straight punch. Each command must be pressed quickly and at the correct timing, making the whole move tricky to perform and easy to miss.

The combination listed here is not the only way to perform the move, as it can be initiated with either down or forward and follow different combinations. Pressing back+attack also works, but Kirin will instantly turn around before the attack initiates. The technique can also be performed off a jumping attack but the timing is much stricter, as the follow-up must be pressed the moment Kirin touches ground after an air attack. More often than not, a player can perform the full move by simply button-mashing directions and the attack button as well.

While each strike is stronger than basic attacks, the Shredding Dance is not very useful due to its complex execution and being difficult to perform on inclined surfaces.

Down+Attack Long-winding right hook	Up+Attack Long-winding left hook	Forward+Attack Dashing punch

Kirin Star Festival

All clones in position

The Kirin Star Festival (麒麟星祭り) is Kirin's "Fatal Attack", a powerful move that kills anything that comes into its range on-screen. It is called the "Ougi" (奥義, lit. Secret Technique) of the Secret Style, a term often used for the most powerful technique in a school or style. Performed by pressing the Fatal Attack button (C button), Kirin dashes all across the screen doing a series of attacks, drawing an inverted 5-pointed pentagram in mid-air while leaving a copy of himself in each vertice, and then performing an explosive final attack where all copies fly back and converge on the center. It can be done at any point, including in mid-air.

Once initiated Kirin dashes forward with a straight punch, flies upwards with a rising uppercut, flies at a downward angle while doing a heel strike, rises a second time with an uppercut and finally does a diving kick back to the starting point, each move leaving a copy of Kirin in place of the vertices of the imaginary inverted 5-pointed pentagram drawn by Kirin's trajectories. Once all five copies are in place, Kirin performs a roundhouse kick followed by a mule/back kick as all images quickly fly into the center, creating a large explosion. The Star Festival kills all stage enemies caught in its range and causes massive damage to bosses, often draining a third to more than half of their health bar depending on the boss.

The Kirin Star Festival requires 1 Fatal Attack stock to be used, represented on the bottom left of the screen as red and white rectangles with an "S". Kirin starts out with 3 stocks to use, but there is no way in-game to replenish them. Once the three stocks are used, Kirin can only get them back after dying and respawning.

Trivia

• Hiryu's appearance in the cancelled fighting game Capcom Fighting All-Stars would have seen him fight entirely bare-handed, reserving use of the Cypher for Special Moves and Super Arts. This would have been the first official representation of Hiryu's Taijutsu techniques. As such, Hiryu was given a new idle stance to display him fighting without the Cypher, with the stance based on Guy's fighting stance from Street Fighter. This is the first instance of an implied connection between the Strider's technique and Guy's Bushinryu style, predating the introduction of Guy's master Zeku and his ties to Hiryu by several years.
• Hiryu's weak-level attacks in the Marvel vs. Capcom series are some of the few instances of Hiryu not using his Cypher to strike, performing instead quick shin kicks and straight spear hand strikes with his fingers fully stretched forward.
• Zeku from Street Fighter is stated to be a master of Taijutsu and is credited for incorporating several of its techniques into Bushinryu, having elevated the style as a more practical combat form since before the style focused on Ninjutsu. Based on the above, the fact several of Zeku's basic attacks and poses are copied from Hiryu's moves in both Marvel vs. Capcom and the Strider series, and the implication that Zeku has a hand in the creation of Striders, this implies Zeku's new fighting style is what will become or evolve into the Taijutsu style used by the Striders.