Zettai ryouiki (lit. "absolute territory") is the area of bare thighs seen between the bottom of a short skirt or dress and the top of a pair of thighhighs. The skirt should not be lifted up or out of place; the thighs should be exposed naturally, by the skirt being too short to cover the tops of the thighhighs. Example characters include Tohsaka Rin, Momose Kurumi and Mayura.
The term itself originates from Neon Genesis Evangelion, although it had none of the current connotations in the anime. Its current usage was coined in 2001 by the creator of the desktop mascot app Jinkou Munou, who described his new character Mayura's exposed thigh gap on his blog as "God's Absolute Territory".
