At the turn of the last century, a new and strange fighting form held the nation's interest: Judo, brought to America as part of a wave of Asian culture flooding into the Western world. Even President Theodore Roosevelt began taking lessons from its chief proponent, Yoshiaki Yamashita. Around this time, in 1901, American producers sought to capture (and capitalize on) this craze by making the first-ever martial arts film, Jiu-Jitsu, the Japanese Art of Self Defense. Since then, martial arts have found a solid home in entertainment - there have been downturns and there have been raging fads, but it's still kicking after all these years. Here we'll take you on a tour of the martial arts video games, movies, TV shows and girls that have swept us off our feet (even when sweeping the leg was clearly against the rules).
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