| Jimmy Zappa | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
First Game |
Capoeira Fighter 3 |
|
Race |
Human |
|
Nationality |
USA |
|
Fighting Style |
Inazuma Karate |
Jimmy Zappa is the sole karateka of Capoeira Fighter 3. Being a competitive fighter, he has entered the tournament at his sensei's urgings to prove his mastery of Inazuma Karate by winning the championship.
Appearance and Character[]
Jimmy Zappa wears the gi which is recognizable as the uniform of Cobra Kai Karate stylists worldwide; Jimmy's gi is black with yellow trim, and the sleeves have been removed at the shoulder, leaving his muscled arms bare. Serving as the emblem of his dojo is a yellow lightning bolt sewn onto his back, with a smaller lightning bolt on his breast. His blond hair is bound by a simple black headband, and he wears yellow sparring gloves with open knuckles. He fights barefoot, as Karate stylists tend to do in practice or in tournaments.
Though distraught over his recent separation from his now ex-girlfriend Ali, Jimmy heeds his sensei's counsel and enters the Capoeira Fighter tournament willfully, determined to uphold his dojo's teachings of striking first, striking hard and granting his opponents no mercy.
Jimmy Zappa's Moves List[]
⇨ ⇩ ⇨ + Front Punch = Show Ryu Ken
⇦ ⇨ + Back Punch = Special Dodge
⇩ ⇨ + Front Kick = Sweep the Leg
⇩ ⇦ + Back Kick = Spin Kick 1000
⇩ ⇦ ⇩ ⇦ + Back Kick = Hyper Combo 1 (Hyper Spin Kick 1000)
⇩ ⇨ ⇩ ⇨ + Front Punch = Hyper Combo 2 (Hyper Show Ryu Ken)
⇩ ⇨ ⇩ ⇨ + Front Kick = Hyper Combo 3 (Hyper Sweep the Leg)
Jimmy's Stage[]
"You're the best around!"
Jimmy's stage is an arena at a Karate tournament. The orange mat sports an emblem resembling a lightning bolt clenched in a fist, and a stylized tournament-style Single Elimination bracket dominates the backdrop, with the names "Gator," "Coehla," "Johnny" and "Santo" moving into the Semifinals. To the left of the background, a young, black-haired karateka and his elderly Oriental sensei watch the match; to the right are Jimmy's sensei and the rest of his dojo's stable of fighters. The stage's theme strongly resembles a remix of Joe Esposito's "You're the Best."
Story Mode Plot[]
"Strike first! Strike hard! No mercy!"
After winning his first match, Jimmy is confronted by his sensei, who admonishes Jimmy for being moody over a broken nose. Jimmy corrects him, explaining that his break-up with his girlfriend Ali is the reason for his distraught state. Advising Jimmy to forget about Ali, his sensei dismisses girls as mere distractions for a student of the way of the fist, then asks Jimmy what the way of the fist is. Jimmy answers with "Strike first! Strike hard! No mercy, Sensei!" and, after reminding Jimmy that his opponents are his enemies and that enemies are unworthy of mercy, he sends Jimmy on his way.
For his fifth match, Jimmy must stand alone against Panda and Chompoo. After Jimmy defeats them, Panda recognizes Jimmy as a famed tournament fighter and expresses admiration for his successes, to which Jimmy humbly admits that Panda seems to be an accomplished fighter herself. Panda then asks Jimmy if she can join him on his journey and learn more from him; at this point, the player must choose whether Jimmy will join forces with Panda or continue to go his own way.
Ending — Jimmy Alone[]
Now the victor of the tournament, Jimmy is once more confronted by his sensei, who congratulates him with praise, saying, "Never doubt that you're the one and you can have your dreams!" Jimmy then mounts his motorcycle and rides off toward an unknown destination, leaving his sensei and the tournament arena behind.
Ending — Jimmy and Panda[]
A happy ending for Jimmy and Panda.
Enjoying a carnival together, Panda is overjoyed with the large plush panda that Jimmy just won for her at the carnival games. Jimmy replies that his girl deserves only the best, and Panda is further elated to hear that Jimmy now considers her his girlfriend. He affirms this, assuring her that, with her attractiveness and her fighting prowess, Panda is everything that he could ask for in a girl.
Trivia[]
Jimmy Zappa is a very obvious homage to the character of Johnny Lawrence, the leading antagonist from the iconic martial arts movie, The Karate Kid (1984). Indicators of this homage or parody include:
- Jimmy's black gi with yellow trim, resembling those worn by the students (including Johnny Lawrence) and the sensei of the domineering Cobra Kai Karate dojo in the movie; aside from the Cobra Kai cobra being replaced by Jimmy's lightning bolt, the resemblance is exact.
- Jimmy mentioning his recent break-up with his girlfriend Ali. In the movie, Ali Mills was the name of the love interest contested between Johnny Lawrence and Daniel Larusso, the protagonist; after Mills had broken off her relationship with Lawrence and angered him, Larusso came forward to her defense, thus inviting Mills' affection while sparking a violent rivalry with Lawrence.
- Jimmy recites the way of the fist thus: "Strike first! Strike hard! No mercy!" This phrase is also the motto of the movie's Cobra Kai Karate dojo.
- Jimmy's sensei holds a passing resemblance to Sensei John Kreese, the menacing sensei of the Cobra Kai dojo. Kreese states to his students the same ideal that Jimmy's sensei states to him, deploring mercy as being a quality of the weak and a grace which is never to be shown to one's rivals.
- Jimmy's stage strongly resembles the arena for the All Valley Karate Championship, in which the movie's climax takes place. The stage theme, as mentioned, is a retread of Joe Esposito's "You're the Best," the song which plays during the movie's climax and throughout the matches leading up to the final confrontation between Larusso and Lawrence.
- The stage's background characters also hold distinct resemblances to Daniel Larusso, Mister Miyagi (Larusso's old Okinawan sensei), Sensei Kreese and the Cobra Kai students Bobby, Tommy and Dutch.
- One of Jimmy's special attacks is named Sweep the Leg, and Jimmy himself shouts "Sweep the leg!" while he's performing it. In the movie, Sensei Kreese advises Lawrence to "Sweep the leg" in his match against Larusso, in essence advising Lawrence to focus on attacking Larusso's already injured knee and cripple Larusso to where the latter could no longer fight, thus winning the tournament through dirty fighting and unscrupulous means.
- In Jimmy's "Jimmy Alone" ending, his sensei tells him, "Never doubt that you're the one and you can have your dreams!" This line is directly lifted from the lyrics to Joe Esposito's "You're the Best." Jimmy then rides away on a two-stroke light motorcycle; in the movie, Lawrence and the other Cobra Kai bullies ride similar motorcycles.
Karate[]
Jimmy's martial art is Karate, a widely renowned Okinawan-cum-Japanese style which places emphasis on powerful, decisive strikes as well as block-and-counterattack techniques, prescribing circular defenses for direct attacks and direct defenses for circular attacks. Karate comes in a variety of divergent schools and substyles with differing points on emphasis and technique, including Shotokan Karate, Shorin Ryu Karate and Yoshukai Karate. A Karate stylist is more formally refered to as a karateka, and famous karatekas include Michael Jai White, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Wesley Snipes, Cynthia Rothrock and Chuck Norris.
Though Karate is a legitimate martial art, Jimmy Zappa's variety of Karate also includes such wild and unconventional attacks as the Show Ryu Ken and the Spin Kick 1000, attacks which are influenced by Ken, Ryu and similar characters in the Street Fighter fighting game franchise; the name "Show Ryu Ken" is itself a parody of the name "Shoryuken," the iconic leaping uppercut for such Street Fighter characters. Such special attacks are patently superhuman and thus have no place in legitimate Karate training, though it's worth noting that most if not all of Jimmy's basic punches, kicks, blocks and stances do represent earnest Karate techniques in some form.