When Everybody's Kung Fu Fighting... Or Anything Else

Have you readers ever heard of Xin? It was a flash animation series that ran on Newgrounds from 2003 to 2006, created by NG users Lifepoint1 and Maxmao 2002.

Link to youtube playlist XIN: The Series HERE

It’s a high school drama/martial arts anime where you follow students rebelling against the opressive high school hierarchy with kung fu violence.

The most notable thing to me about this series is that in this setting literally everyone is a kung fu badass. And I do mean EVERYONE!

All the students know kung fu. The teachers know kung fu. The janitor knows kung fu. Literally everybody’s kung fu fighting in this violent animation series about anarchy versus tyranny in a high school environment. And that gets me to the ”…or anything else” part of this article. This element got me thinking about settings where every single character shares this one overarching skill or discipline.

In Xin it’s everyone knows kung fu, right? How about a setting where everyone is really good with guns and everyone's got em' (Like a hardcore Western, am I right?). Or where everyone has psychic powers and can read each others minds. Or where everyone knows how to use a jetpack and flies around with one on their back everyday.

There’s something amusing as well as intriguing about the idea of every character having and mastering this one skill. They may vary in degrees of mastery and technique, but they all got it. It would be a world where you would have to be really good at that one skill in order to keep up, since everything in that world would revolve around that one skill, and you would always be measured in how efficient you are in that one skill (breath!!!).

Like, it would be really hard to intimidate anyone in this kind of setting. Imagine moving into this town, not knowing fencing, where everyone knows fencing. Even your ol’ granny neighbour knows fencing! Even the descent fencers are considered weak in these parts, what thus that make you!?

Sounds like that could be a cool idea for a story, and I’m leaving it up for grabs😉

But what do you think of this sort of thing? Should everbody be kung fu fighting (… or anything else) in a setting, or does that concept sound a bit too over the top for you? Have you created a setting like that, perhaps?

As usual, leave a comment with all of your thoughts below. You ALL know how to do that, don’t you???XD XD

Helixfinger out!