Battle Boomerang

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Boomerangs as the Weapon of Choice of characters. Expect to see the stereotypical boomerang shape that allows it to come back, even though real-life hunting boomerangs didn't come back. Also, expect the boomerang to come back even after hitting its target, which makes absolutely no sense in real life.

Oddly, when this trope is in use, it's unlikely to be used by an actual Australian, aboriginal or otherwise, even though it is an iconic symbol of the country to almost the rest of the world.

See also Precision-Guided Boomerang when other items are used like a boomerang.

Not to be confused with Cartoon Network's programming block/spin-off channel, Boomerang.

Examples of Battle Boomerang include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Film

  • The Feral Kid in the second Mad Max movie.

Live Action TV

  • In The Outer Limits TOS episode "Fun and Games", one of the primitive Calco Galaxy aliens uses a boomerang as its main weapon.

Tabletop Games

  • Boomerangs are a possible weapon a PC can use in Dungeons & Dragons games set in Eberron. While normally medicore throwing weapons (that don't even return to the user), the "Boomerang Daze" feat allows the user to daze foes when they hit with a boomerang (which is neat because daze, unlike every other effect in the game, is nearly impossible to get immunity to and completely shuts something down, still nothing compared to a mage, but one of the few nice toys warrior types get)

Toys

Video Games

  • Ty the Tasmanian Tiger
  • The Legend of Zelda: various boomerangs are available for Link throughout the series, used both in battle and puzzle-solving. Some boomerangs also carry over as one of Link's special attacks in the Super Smash Bros. series.
  • Ryu from the first Breath Of Fire can use boomerangs as his weapons.
  • Boomerangs are also a weapon in Chrono Cross and are one of the few weapon types that can hit multiple enemies.
  • In Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, one of Jonathan's sub-weapons is a boomerang.
  • In Dawn of Heroes, there is a class of thrown weapons called Crescents. Their icon on the Equip screen is a boomerang, although they don't return when thrown.
  • Aika from Skies of Arcadia uses one.
  • Boomerangs is a class of weapon featured in most of the later Dragon Quest games - though the class tends to include a number of other thrown weapons, such as giant shuriken. Boomerang weapons are usually fairly weak, but had the advantage of hitting every monster in a group, and being 'ranged', meaning no damage-reduction from having the user on the back row. Until Dragon Quest IX, it was impossible to score a Critical Hit with a boomerang.
  • Final Fantasy XIII: Hope's "airwing," noted because it is remote controlled. You will never see it in action after Chapter 2 because Hope is the game's Squishy Wizard and running him as a frontline Commando is suicide, though if you can get a Preemptive Strike with Hope as the party leader, he will use the boomerang to attack the targets.
  • Boomerangs (called "slashers" or "slicers" in The Verse) are a rather useful weapon in Phantasy Star IV. They automatically hit all the enemies. Slicers appear in most games in the entire series, but in the online titles they basically function as knives that utilize Razor Wind.
  • In Mitsumete Knight R : Daibouken Hen, this is Hanna's weapon of choice.
  • The Sprite's default weapon in Secret of Mana. Noteworthy in that it's actually a class of weapons that includes boomerangs, chakram, shuriken, and a giant razor-sharp frisbee. Since they are part of the "boomerang" category, these items all return to you when thrown.
  • Quick Man from Mega Man 2.
  • The Boomerang Bros. from Super Mario Bros 3.
  • In Streets of Rage 1, the boss of Stage 1 fights with a boomerang.
  • In the Twisted Metal series, the vehicle Roadkill use an explosive boomerang as its special attack in II and Head-On.
  • Hayate in the Fuun Series pratices the Fu'un-Ken fighting style, which is apparently karate with the addition of the boomerang as a weapon.
  • Kirby's Cutter ability mostly manifests as a razor-sharp boomerang.
  • Viewtiful Joe: Voomerangs
  • Appear in Dead Rising (of course, everything does) - however, they're really a Joke Weapon.
  • Boomerang of Wild ARMs 1, whose weapon of choice is, well, guess.
  • A popular secondary weapon in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game for the NES since they could be used indefinitely as long as the player catches them and they could be easily redistributed amongst all the turtles.
  • Slasher Hawk from Metal Gear Ghost Babel uses two in his boss fight.
  • From Kung-Fu Master, unsurprisingly enough, the Boomerang Fighter. He uses two boomerangs in a high-or-low pattern.
  • Strider has boomerang-wielding Brazilian Amazon girls appear in Stage 03.
  • Tanya uses one as her weapon in Mortal Kombat 4. It will return if thrown, though only if it doesn't connect.
  • Also Cham-Cham's weapon in the Samurai Shodown series.
  • In Bushido Blade 2, Tony Umeda uses one as his sub-weapon. It tends to return to him, but it's practically impossible to caught it and must be instead picked up from the ground.
  • An old obscure NES game known as Ikki has Japanese farmers as main protagonists, chucking boomerangs at upcoming ninjas while picking up gold pieces.
  • Terraria has the enchanted boomerang and its Thunderbolt Iron-upgrade the Flamarang.
  • In Dynasty Warriors, Lady Zhurong will eventually use a bladed boomerang in battle. It's very large, and actually it's mostly used as a close range weapon, and mostly the ranged attacks are impossible/hard trick shots, such as having it orbit your body 3 times, and in fast it's not used for the power attack (musou attack in game), where she pulls out throwing knives, but it will be used at the end of the power attack (true musou).
  • The Green Birds from Angry Birds.
  • Nan from Tales of Vesperia uses a huge bladed boomerang for both melee and ranged attacks. The attacks where she does throw it have it go straight forward, then return, or orbit in a circle around her multiple times.

Western Animation