Many works of fiction such as movies and books often have characters that practise martial arts, usually they practise existing martial arts such as Judo or Aikido. But sometimes a martial art is made up for dramatic purposes or to lend a fictional world a sense of authenticity. This is a list of such martial arts.

• Anbo-jytsu, from Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Icarus Factor"; involves wearing helmets that don't let you see and using large pugil sticks that signal when they're aimed at the opponent. Practiced by William Riker and his father Kyle.
• Arcturan Kung-Fu - from the tv show Futurama
• Baritsu - fictional form of "Japanese wrestling" used by Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Final Problem
• CQC or Close Quarters Combat, the art of battlefield judo, is said to have been developed by the Boss and her protege, Big Boss, in the Playstation 2 video game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
• Coup de vitesse practised by Honor Harrington in a series of books by David Weber.
• Deja Fu, in Terry Pratchett's Thief of Time uses time as a weapon. (Discworld)
• Ecky thump - a martial art from The Goodies
• Fudebakudo - (The Way of the Exploding Pen) an illustrated parody of genuine martial arts that itself was presented as a martial art based on movements of the pen
• Gun Kata practised by the main character of the movie Equilibrium.
• Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu is the fictional discipline of Kenjutsu of Manga and Anime hero, Himura Kenshin of Rurouni Kenshin.
• Hokuto Shinken, or "North Star God Fist," practiced by Kasumi Kenshiro of Fist of the Blue Sky and his far future descendent, Kenshiro, in Fist of the North Star. The martial arts is heavily based on the application of pressure points, which, when high strength is applied and/or in sequence, can cause paralysis, blindness, and massive explosive hemorraging. This knowledge can also be used to heal, in addition to harm. There is also a rival martial art, called Nanto Seiken, the "South Star Holy Fist".
• Kyoko-gen-ryu, A form of martial arts similar to the fighting style of Ryu, Ken, and Akuma of Street Fighter but practiced by the main cast of SNK's Art of Fighting series.
• Llap Goch - a Welsh system of self defence created by the Goons and based on the twin principles of attack being the best form of defence and surprise being the best form of attack; therefore a master of Llap Goch will lash out at potential assailants before the thought of attacking has even entered their minds
• Lok'nel - An ancient form of Jaffa martial arts in Stargate SG-1
• Mastaba - Goa'uld martial art in Stargate SG-1
• Metallikato, the martial art practiced by a member of the Decepticons in the Transformers comic book.
• moQ'bara, The martial art of the Klingons, fictional aliens from the television series Star Trek.
• Mutai or Muta-Do was featured on the episode "TKO" in the first season of Babylon 5
• Panzer Kunst and Maschine Klatsch, cyborg martial arts in Battle Angel Alita (Japanese title, GUNNM). Developed on Mars, Panzer Kunst is considered the most powerful cyborg martial art in GUNNM, with its most powerful techniques being the Hertza Haeon, which causes a low frequency wave to resonate and ricochet through an opponent's body, and the Einzug Rustungen, an armor penetrating technique that synchronizes with an opponent's fighting rhythm to strike at precise moments. Maschine Klatsch is considered to be similar, but weaker, although a Maschine Klatsch master can defeat a practitioner of Panzer Kunst with effort.
• Saikyou-Ryu - "The Strongest Style," a mix of Ansatsuken Karate, Muay Thai, and endless taunting developed by the hapless Dan Hibiki of Capcom's Street Fighter fighting game series.
• Shibumi - the martial art practiced by master assassin Nicholai Hel in the book Shibumi by Trevanian (published 1979), which allows any small object to be used as a lethal weapon. Shibumi is translated from the Japanese as "effortless perfection".
• Sinanju - A Korean martial art handed down for many generations in The Destroyer series.
• Tae-Kwon-Leep - The martial arts taught in the sketch by The Frantics that coined the phrase "Boot to the head!" Also the martial art practiced by the hero of the computer game Shadow Warrior.
• Teras Kasi - A martial art in the Star Wars extended universe that makes use of some properties of The Force.
• Tri-Jitsu is a martial art practiced exclusively by the Carggite race in the Legion of Super Heroes comics, leveraging their unique ability of instantly splitting in three identical bodies or fusing back into one.
• Twisting is a martial art practiced by Hari Seldon, the hero of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. It's said that the best twisters come from Helicon, Seldon's home planet.
• The Way of Ms. Cosmopolite is practised by Lu Tze of Discworld. Whilst not strictly a martial art, a technique is derived from it that involves 'babbling incoherently and hitting one another with your broom'.

• Venusian Karate is a martial style emphasizing judo throws and immobilizing pressure-point strikes. It is employed by the third incarnation of the title character from the British science-fiction series Doctor Who.

• Wudang is the martial art mastered by characters in the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that mysteriously enables them to balance on treetops, walk on water, and soar gracefully though the air. (Note: This form of fictitous martial art is actually called "Wu Gong", Wudang is the name of a clan that practices martial arts, specifically, the Tai Chi style.)
• A number of "supernatural" martial arts styles exist in the Exalted role-playing game, such as:
  • Charcoal March of Spiders style
  • Prismatic Arrangement of Creation style
  • Violet Bier of Sorrows style
• In the anime and manga Ranma ½ the main hero Ranma Saotome meets and fights with students of all manner of bizarre and often humorous martial arts. Ranma himself is a student of Tendo's School of Indiscriminate Grappling, aka "Anything Goes Martial Arts," or Mutsabetsu Kakutō in Japanese.

See also: Archive of fictional things.