November 3, 2025
Kung-fu sticks, comment war kicks
When Stick Figures Fought
Flashback frenzy: who threw the first stick punch
TLDR: An animation newsletter revisits Xiao Xiao, the iconic stick-figure Flash fights from China. The comments erupt into a nostalgic brawl over who did it first (StickDeath vs Xiao Xiao) and whether “Flashers” was ever a thing outside China, proving early web culture still hits hard today.
The Animation Obsessive crew just revisited Xiao Xiao, the stick-figure fight series that turned early internet screens into mini kung-fu theaters. Cue the comments section, where nostalgia and bragging rights are sparring harder than the stickmen themselves. One fan got misty-eyed over SFDT (Stick Figure Death Theater), calling it their first real online community, while others are dropping love notes like “Xiao Xiao and Ninjai chef’s kiss.”
But the hottest take? A full-blown timeline throwdown. Did StickDeath come before Xiao Xiao? One old-school veteran swears it did, and also says nobody outside China ever called animators “Flashers” — the label the article uses for China’s scene. Another commenter claims spooky timing: they were just talking StickDeath at the office when this story landed. Meanwhile, a chorus of “remember that stickman hitman game?!” turned the thread into a retro arcade of memories.
For the uninitiated: Flash was a tool that let simple animations run fast on slow internet, and creator Zhu Zhiqiang spun his childhood doodles into global fame across Newgrounds and Albino Blacksheep. The comments made it clear: this isn’t just nostalgia — it’s a cultural custody battle over who invented the stick-fight vibe, with a side of Matrix-style kicks and lots of laughs.
Key Points
- •Shockwave Flash (.SWF) enabled low-bandwidth online animations and games, catalyzing an early internet animation boom.
- •In China, Flash became culturally significant among “Flashers,” with internet cafes crowded by early 2000s.
- •Xiao Xiao (2000–2002) was a violent stick-figure action series that became a global phenomenon.
- •Xiao Xiao spread via Western Flash-hosting sites like Newgrounds and Albino Blacksheep, and gained popularity across East Asia.
- •Creator Zhu Zhiqiang, an untrained animator inspired by Jackie Chan and Dragon Ball, made his first major stick-figure fight in April 2000.