What Anime/Manga swords would work in real life?

That is why I refuse to watch dubs anymore. Americans tend to view anything animated as a cartoon and view cartoons as for kids (obviously not the case, if we remember hentai). Therefore, they really don't see the need to put any effort forth. Plus, what the hell's up with their screwed up pronunciation of things? Or the way they semprini up the names? For example, I have Digimon Savers (about the only one that's not just aimed at kids, seeing as the bad guy is a megalomaniacal madman with genocidal dreams and a goal of world domination). One of the characters is named Noguchi Ikuto in the original; a good, strong name. Can you guess what they renamed him in English? Keenan Crier. Not even the main character was spared; instead of Daimon Masaru (a pun that can be read as Daimon Dai, meaning "Big trouble", indicating the fact that he's basically a punk who gets into fights with members of school gangs and possibly yakuza), they named him Marcus Damon. Ugh.

But enough about that. As for anime weapons, there's several I wish I could use in real life, but none of them would really work, such as the Arm's Alchemy from Busou Renkin; it takes the form of a hexagonal metal disc called Kakugane. When activated, it becomes a unique weapon, such as Valkyrie Skirt, which is a pair actuators that attach to the thighs, each containing a pair of arms with razor sharp blades on the end. It's never really explained how they move, but I'm going to assume it's some form of electrical impulse sent by the brain. However, out of all the weapons in that show, if we were to ignore the powers, only a few would be viable weapons, such as Gekisen (basically nothing more than a Chidori-jumanji-yari with a su-yari counter weight), Secret Trail (a moroha "ninjato"), and possibly Sword Samurai X (really nothing more than a bare katana blade with a tassel wrapped around the tang for grip). The second version of the main one, Sunlight Heart+, could be viable, as well, as it's really nothing more than a short spear with a super large spear head. Granted, the diamond cross section of the shaft and the fact said shaft is made of metal just creates all sorts of unpleasantries in actually trying to wield it.

Now, if we were talking about ones that we wish were real, but wouldn't really work, there's the Shard based weaponry from the anime Kiba. They use a small gem called a Shard (which, when thrown, can unleash torrents of fire, water, earth, lightning, etc.), that can be placed into weapons, most commonly swords (though there were also spears, axes, daggers, a rapier, and a pair of sai like weapons), to form a blade that is essentially pure energy, gives off no heat (unless the animators simply forgot that when the blades were used to cut through inanimate objects), and creates a bloodless wound. The shards can also be used to create other things, such as handcuffs, as well as a strange web like binding when you place them in certain spots on a person's body (otherwise, they just blow up).

No worries, Random. I was using hentai as an example that not all animes are aimed at kids; it was really the only thing I could think of off the top of my head besides some really violent manga, such as Berserk, Basilisk, Black Lagoon, and one of my favorites, Ubel Blatt, though, unfortunately, the last two are on an indefinite hiatus, though I hear the next chapter of BL is due out in a couple days.

And yes, they do tend to tone things down in adaptations. What always killed me when it came to Gundam Wing was their habit of changing "kill" to "destroy", which really just seems harsher to me, since it implies you're going to do horrible things to your victim... Or is that just me? Plus, whenever a character died and they'd cut to a scene of them being blown up or something in the cockpit, those scenes would be noticeably absent in the dub.

As for American VAs, they're really only treated that way by fans, which, in America, really isn't that big of a group, when you take into account the fact that there's about 2 billion people in America and about 65% of them view anime as being for kids and the rest, well, the rest are either kids who watch the dubs or us actual anime fans who watch the original. Now, if you look in Japan, where almost every show seen on primetime (with the exception of a few dramas, maybe educational/historical, and game shows) are animated, the fan base for Seiyuu are going to be a lot bigger. In a way, Seiyuu are in Japan what movie stars are in America.

Busou Renkin's actually one of my favorites, to be honest, and I actually got into it on a whim simply because it was by the author of Rurouni Kenshin, but not everyone's going to like the same thing, so it's all good. Speaking of RK, there were a few interesting swords in there that would be plausible, the most noticeable being the Renbatou; it didn't have a long appearance (and was, in fact, broken short after it debuted), but it was interesting nonetheless. For those unfamiliar, it was essentially two katana with their tsuba and tsuka cut in half lengthwise just a little off to the side of the blade. They were covered with a fake wood covering that could be removed, allowing the two swords to be joined, the idea being that a doctor wouldn't be able to stitch up two wounds that were so close together (which would have been true in early Meiji Japan, but not so today). There are a couple others, but I can't remember there names.

As for Claymore, the anime mostly followed the manga, but the end veered so far off path that it was scary. And yes, the manga is still going on. It's on a monthly release date and the most recent chapter released was, I think, 106. The claymores they use are rather fanciful, but they're not 100% impossible. It'd just take a beast of a warrior to wield one effectively and even then, I have doubts.

Another weapon I just thought of, the Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword from the Halo Series. Not the fact that it's an energy weapon, since that's virtually impossible, but the shape. It's sort of like a fanciful katar, wouldn't you say?

Energy Sword:


Katar:

oh, black lagoon sword is as functional as it gets. just a shiorasaya looking shikomizue with big blade. mmmm, should I mail huawei

Random, the new OVA, Roberta's Blood Trail, is based off of the 33 chapter arc known as "El Baile De La Muerte", which, if I remember correctly, means The Dance of Death, but I am almost retarded when it comes to Spanish (it is on my list of languages to learn, though, right next to French, Italian, Japanese, and perhaps Russian), so don't quote me on it. As far as the anime adaptations themselves, they follow the manga almost to the letter with the noticeable difference that Revy has a slightly different design early on.

Regarding the Claymore swords, yes, the wider blade would be the ultimate drawback, however, I think an even bigger drawback would be the tang and the way it shrinks dramatically before going into the hilt. That could cause big problems, particularly when striking anything harder than, say, jello. However, if you forewent a little accuracy and brought the blade all the way down to the guard, then it might not be such a problem.


nihonto: You're referring to the shirasaya blade wielded by Matsuzaki Ginji? If I remember right, it was basically nothing more than an o-katana in shirasaya, something that Cheness Cutlery happens to make. That aside, it was a bit of a shame what happened to him; he was pretty cool. Now, if we wanted to talk some really semprinied up characters from the Black Lagoon series, well, need we look any further than Hansel & Gretel? *Shivers* Ugh, they give me the creeps just remembering them.

I never said the twins weren't awesome, they just freak me the hell out. But yeah, I've wondered what was seen in the skirt flip scene, too. If it was bad enough to make Rock nearly puke, then I'd have to say it was probably something like horribly mutilated genitals.

Well, like I said, it might (and I use that word loosely) be possible for the blade to be more functional if the blade went all the way to the guard and the hilt was actually proportioned for real hands, as opposed to the practically wire thin hilts you often see in the various artworks of Claymore. If you did that, you'd pretty much have a massive beast of a sword, probably of similar proportions to a Wallace claymore, but with a much wider blade.

Somewhat off topic, but I just remembered that a very close friend of mine thought that the claymores from the manga were how real claymores looked. And, when I showed her an image of a real, production claymore, she couldn't believe how "puny" they looked (she loves blades, but she's not exactly sword savvy).

Well, I'd seen real claymores long before I came around to Claymore, so I knew they were a more fantastical approach to the weapon. Granted, if we were to fix the issues mentioned and actually be strong enough to swing it around without a recovery time measured in minutes, then it would probably be a devastating sword.

Yeah, sorry if I gave you a bad mental image, Random; I have a bit of a twisted world view (goes along with my twisted sense of humor). That was literally the only thing I could think of that could be between a young boy/girl's legs that would make a man puke. Either that or he's a bigger wimp than I thought and was expecting a girl, not the meat & veg.

More than likely. You'd probably want to go for a flattened diamond cross section, probably hollow ground and with as wide and long a fuller as you could manage. The edge would probably be somewhat brittle, but it would probably be nearly a pound lighter, making it that much more wieldable.

Yeah, Romanian child porn stars. At least I think it was Romanian. I don't remember where they were from. Regardless, considering they had to kill and screw to survive, mutilated genitals would probably be expected. However, I keep thinking that it could have been the meat & veg and have to think that somewhere on the internet, there's a gif of that scene that cuts to Admiral Ackbar yelling "IT'S A TRAP!"

Well... I suppose that's one way to prevent teenage pregnancy...

Hence why it's a trap. However, there are some people who wouldn't care one way or another, so I guess Rock just wasn't one of them.

Speaking of Black Lagoon made me remember one of my favorite anime blades. It's not technically a sword, but the massive freaking trench knife that Roberta pulled out while chasing down Revy & co. was freaking sweet. It may not have been 100% functional seeing as I vaguely remember a new toothpick thin ricasso where it met the hilt, but, hell, that thing don't need to be functional. You pop that thing out and bad guys be shittin' themselves.

yeah, it looked like shirasaya, but shirasaya aren't functional .....

and, to be honest the cheness offering aren't enough for me (that ugly kissaki, ughhhh)

I imagine that every anime sword would be functional, as long as they are just regular sword-objects without any kind of magical abilities (shikai, bankai, etc...). we just need to make them from something different than regular steel. new super-material needs to be developed, and if it is developed, than the ridiculous claymore swords be as functional as it gets...