Twisted Knee Collapse

That seems highly uncomfortable.

A character, usually female, who collapses from exhaustion or dejection sometimes lands on their knees, with the lower legs splayed out sideways while the thighs remain together. This is difficult to do for all but the most limber of people in real life, and even then it's not very comfortable.

This usually occurs when the character's body is facing the camera instead of in profile, ignoring three-dimensional perspective in favor of looking cute.

The obvious reason for this is to Preserve The Dreaded G Rating - far more commonly, the woman suffers Magic Skirt failure due to landing in the far more realistic and comfortable position of sitting down with her thighs spread, Leading To The Beloved Panty Shot. Open or closed, the sitting position is called pettanko due to the legs visually flattening out against the ground. It is independent of the sitter's chest curvature.

In real life this sort of sitting is called "W Sitting". It generally isn't recommended to do due to permanent effects the position could have on the hips and thighs of the performer potentially affecting their ability to walk. It is a common hazard for children with autism and should be watched out for.

Not to be confused with Twisted Ankle nor any other lower body related injury.

Examples of Twisted Knee Collapse include:

Anime and Manga

• Before the Time Skip, Sakura from Naruto did this a lot.
• Often done by Nyu in Elfen Lied.
• Ichigo does this in Tokyo Mew Mew when she's being chased by Kisshu her Stalker with a Crush.
• As does Melfina in Outlaw Star.
• Winry from Fullmetal Alchemist does this on occasion. Specially when she walks into Scar fighting the Elrics... and learns that Scar killed her parents.
• Bulma of Dragon Ball does this every now and then. Chi Chi did this when she found out Gohan became Super Saiyan also.
• Mai-HiME: In episode 24, Dark Magical Girl Nao Yuuki goes into this position after her definitive defeat against Shizuru, which equates to her CHILD and her MVP (her comatose mother) dying as well.
  • In Episode 15, Yukino does this after she thinks Mai has been killed by a direct hit from Artemis.
  • In a more comedic example, this happens in Episode 9 when Natsuki notices that the car that stops for her while she is posing has Youko, Midori, Reito and Shizuru in it.
• In Strawberry Panic, Yaya sits like this after being rejected by Hikari.
• This is the standard sitting position of Kotomi Ichinose from Clannad. Okazaki lampshades how uncomfortable it must be.
• Sailor Moon. Usagi. Often combined with Ocular Gushers or Sparkling Stream of Tears.
• The main heroine from Revolutionary Girl Utena Utena fell victim to this with a sickening sneaker squeak and the echoing sound of her knees hitting the floor as she was brought down with the aid of a sword being run through her back, while in the one armed embrace of her princess...who was using her other hand to push said sword through her.
• Fate does this in the first chapter of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid after witnessing Vivio's Transformation Sequence. Poor Fate wasn't quite expecting to see Vivio accessing her Sankt Kaiser mode since Nanoha kinda forget to mention that little detail to her.
• Female Ranma in Ranma ½ collapses on her rump, knees and thighs together and legs splayed out, when Kunou first declares his budding love for her with a bouquet of roses. Especially strange since Ranma is typically very masculine and her reaction wasn't just straight out of a shojo manga, she was actually shocked into stereotypically girlish submission (instead of being outraged into beating the crap out of Kunou.)
  • To be fair, this was the first time in his life something like this had happened, and resulted in the first of Ranma's nightmares about men hitting on him. This was probably the incident that hammered home how much his Gender Bender curse was going to mess with his life.
  • Happens again to Ranma-chan after Cologne reveals she's used the "Full Body Cat's Tongue" to hit Ranma's Pressure Points and trap him in his female form, in an effort to force him to agree to his Accidental Marriage to Shampoo.
• Miaka from Fushigi Yuugi.
• Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket has been known to do this on occasion, usually apologizing for something.
• Yoshino does this in the second Digimon Savers opening. It looks even more awkward and less comfortable than normal through its clear fanservicey intent.
• Risa does this in episode 5 of D.N.Angel after becoming exhausted from running.
• Pokémon
  • Misty did this quite often.
  • Marina in The Legend of Thunder did this as well.
• Kari in the Digimon Adventure 2020 remake has been seen sitting like this, We also see a male example with Takeru (Yamato's little brother) doing this too.
  • This is extended to the other girls Mimi and Sora later, some scenes have all three girls of Kari, Mimi and Sora doing this at the same time.
• Setsuna has been shown doing this in Yashahime.
• Played for Drama in Psycho Pass, as Akane Tsunemori falls into this position after she cannot shoot down the Big Bad Makishima due to his low criminal coefficient (which keeps her from using her Dominator gun on him), and he kills her close friend Yuki due to this
• Injection Fairy Lily went to this pose in Yu-Gi-Oh! when she was shifted into defense position.

Video Games

• In Osu Tatakae Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents, failing on the highest difficulty will cause the Cheer Girls or Elite Beat Divas to slump into this position on the bottom screen while the target's life falls apart on the top screen.
• Kairi and Namine in Kingdom Hearts.
• This is the pose that Mia's corpse takes in Ace Attorney.
• In Rock Band 3, sometimes your guitarist will slide/dive into this position during a solo. (I'm not sure if the move was in the previous games.)
• More than one already defeated character in the early The King of Fighters games is seen in this position in the background, i.e. Athena Asamiya.
• Street Fighter:
  • Pictured above: Ibuki is the character who does this most: in her game over screen, when she loses via timeout, and when she is visibly frustrated at losing in SFXT.
    • She also temporarily does this if she is defeated by a non aerial light attack.
  • Sakura also does this when she crashes into Ibuki and both fall into the ground.
  • Chun-Li does this in her lose pose in Gem Fighter.
  • Rainbow Mika sits like this when she she lands after her Flying Peach attack and is rubbing her rear end.
  • Laura does this when she loses via timeout, she makes sure to turn around for maximum buns-age.
  • Akira also does this when she loses via timeout like Ibuki and Laura. While Ibuki stays turned to the side and Laura turns her back, Akira faces the player.
  • Joining Ibuki in the III games, Effie sits like this when Necro is defeated before laying on the ground.
  • Sarai does this in Ibuki's Legends comic when she alongside the rest of the group are caught in the Geki clan's net. This ends chapter 3.
• Tekken: Ling Xiaoyu does this in her Tekken 5 ending after she fails to save Kazuya when she went back in time. She also similarly to Ibuki does it when she loses in SFXT. Xiaoyu is also doing this pose seemingly crying in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 during the continue screen.
• Maria does this in some versions of Final Fantasy II when she is low on HP.
• Final Fantasy X: Rikku does this when she is low on HP. Kind of looks odd if she is "full revived" as she will get up like this then appear to scoot forward while on her rump then stand up.
  • Mindy from the Magus sisters does this similarly to Rikku when she is low on HP and also ends up like this when she falls on her butt after the sisters' Overdrive attack.
• Final Fantasy XIII-2: Serah Farron collapses this way in pure grief and hopelessness when she has her first vision; of her village completely decimated in (what is revealed to be) a Bad Future.
  • She also falls into this position when her legs give out as she dies during the ending.
• Lucia in Lunar Dragon Song does this when she runs out of HP in battle.
• Felicia sits like this in her Darkstalkers win pose when she fails to catch the butterfly.
• In SNK Gals Fighter Yuri Sakazaki is doing this and crying during her ending after her big brother Ryo threw her reward into an ocean.

Western Animation

• Teen Titans: Raven did this a few times in the episode "Birthmark".
  • Starfire did this a lot.
• Kim Possible.