Hyperspace Mallet: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"[[No Ontological Inertia|If I hit you with a hammer which then disappears, you've still been hit with a hammer]]."''|'''Sam Simeon''', [[Phil Foglio]]'s ''[[Angel and the Ape]]''}}

[[Hammerspace|It comes from nowhere]], it strikes without mercy, and disappears again. It's a mallet the size of a circus sledgehammer, and it's evidence that [[Anime]] characters watch too many [[Bugs Bunny]] cartoons or [[Three Stooges]] shorts. An angry character -- usually but not restricted to [[Tsundere|short-tempered schoolgirls]] -- can often whip out a massive hammer with which to slam the target (and cause) of her ire.

A recent variation is to have the character pull out a ''harisen'', a huge folded fan made out of paper or metal, a.k.a. the [[Paper Fan of Doom]], and smack them with that. This is usually less painful-looking than the mallet, unless she uses it to deliver a [[Megaton Punch]].

Ironically, this is now a [[Dead Horse Trope]] in the West, where it originated; modern Western examples are typically from shows invoking anime, which has added its own touches to the mix, or from homages to [[Looney Tunes|Warner Brothers cartoons]].

For characters that use hammers for purposes other than comedy, see [[Drop the Hammer]], for when the Trope is enacted for comic effect but the actual reason the girl is supposed to be angry is missing from the context see [[Unprovoked Pervert Payback]].

** In one of the anime episodes, Kaori is shown to have purchased a new hammer at a boutique before the action of the episode started.

* ''[[Ranma One Half|Ranma ½]]'' uses it on occasion. [[Fanon]] makes it far more prominent and always has Akane Tendo to be the one to use it; this actually varies depending on continuity. In the anime, Akane only uses a hammer four times: the 3rdthird and 5thfifth season episodes "Ryoga's Miracle Cure!" and "Into the Darkness" respectively, the OAV "Team Ranma Vs. The Legendary Phoenix", and the 1stfirst movie "Big Trouble in Nekonron, China". (And a first-season episode shows the hammer is a hand-me-down, given to Akane by Kasumi of all people.) It's only slightly more prominent in the manga, and just about everyone has used it, from Kodachi (the first person to wield it) to Soun Tendo to Happosai to Ranma Saotome himself.

** In the manga, Ranma actually uses one, too --— on Ryoga, when this one is trying to get rid of a powerful, yet shameful painting on his tummy.

** So pervasive and insidious is the view that Akane is a "hammer girl" (the "[[Weapon of Choice]]" kind, not the "[[Super Drowning Skills|No Natural Buoyancy]]" kind - although the latter actually is canon) that many of the ''[[Ranma One Half|Ranma ½]]'' video games actually give her a huge wooden mallet as a legitimate attack.

** In its first appearance in the [[Ranma ½: The Abridged Chronicles|abridged series]], Kodachi [[Calling Your Attacks|calls out "Hyperspace mallet!"]] as she attacks with it.

* Sunako in ''[[The Wallflower]]'' has the ability to materialise a [[The Grim Reaper|Grim Reaper's]] scythe in times of... fragile sanity. It isn't metaphorical, either --; she occasionalyoccasionally uses it as a tool, and other characters react somewhat understandably when the already scary Sunako is suddenly holding a scythe [http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1103/lionheart/SunakoScythe.jpg that's taller than she is].

* Vita, from the ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' series, wields one of the few non-comedic Hyperspace Mallets ever. Distinguished from [[Drop the Hammer]] because it really does appear from hyperspace.

*** It's shown to be retractable. Yellow's fishing rod, on the other hand...

{{quote| '''Cameraman:''' W-what are you carrying ''that'' around for?}}

* Kaname from ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'' often uses a hyperspace [[Paper Fan of Doom]] to punish Sousuke. (Actually, she can sometimes be seen sometimes in FUMOFU actually''Fumoffu'' carrying said [[Paper Fan of Doom]] in her school portfolio.)

* ''[[Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan|Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro Chan]]''. In spades. The whole focal point of the anime is the title character producing a giant spiky club from nowhere and brutally killing the protagonist, only to revive him seondsseconds later. She also appears to take a hologram-phone device from her panties at some points.

** Although not a hammer, Hinagiku pulls her borrowed wooden sword out of nowhere. Sometimes this even surprises her. This was explained and is a plot point, while the Sakuya and Nagi examples are played for laughs.

* In the 1992 [[Marx Brothers]] homage ''[[Brain Donors]]'', Harpo-equivalent's counterpart Jacques pulls a huge wooden sledgehammer out of nowhere when the decision is made to "take care of" egotistical ballet star Volare. He is, unfortunately, restrained from actually ''using'' it.

* While being less a Mallet and more a [[Ocarina of Time|Megaton Hammer]], Ramona Flowers uses one in ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]'' to fight her [[Bi the Way|ex-girlfriend]].

** As mentioned in the Comics section above, Ramona pulls this full-length sledgehammer out of a handbag that looks small enough to have difficulty containing Scott's self-respect.

* In the ''[[GURPS]]'' anime universe, one of the character abilities is the non-damage-dealing ten-ton hammer that can be pulled out of nowhere. It is ONLY''only'' available for female characters.

* [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Amy Rose's]] signature weapon is a mallet that shows up out of nowhere. There's not a single TV show or video game she shows up in either in which she doesn't have the hammer at all (since [[Sonic Adventure]]) or in which she keeps the hammer in a logical place. It gets [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Sonic X]]. '':

{{quote| [Amy throws hammer at Eggman's airship] <br />

'''Eggman:''' "We got your hammer up here, so you can't touch us!" <br />

[Amy pulls out another hammer out of nowhere.] <br />

'''Decoe/Bocoe:''' "Ah!! Another one!" <br />

'''Bokun:''' "She's got more hammers than a hardware store!" }}

* Literally in the game ''[[Patapon]] 2''. Ormen Karmen, the Karmen chief and the Penultimate Boss, has one attack where a gigantic hammer appears in his hands and he crashes it down on the patapons. When he finishes attacking, the hammer shrinks back into the void.

* In the ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' series, one of Peach's attacks strikes the target with a random blunt object from out of nowhere, such as a golf club.

* A serious example happens in the ''[[Elder Scrolls]]'' games, where the Bound Weapon / Armor spells are basically pulling an [[Infinity+1 Sword|Infinity Plus One+1 Weapon or Armor]] from [[Hammerspace]].

*** Not so sure, in her [https://web.archive.org/web/20120517162334/http://www.rpgplanet.com/chrono/images/ct/oaw-lucca.jpg official artworks], she is depicted as carrying a mallet. Its no surprise at all that she carries one since she is a [[Wrench Wench]] and hence, the mallet is unlikely to be a hammerspace one.

* In ''[[Samurai ShowdownShodown|Samurai Shodown V]]'', Rimururu has a finishing move that involves freezing her opponent before smashing them with a gigantic ice mallet (which she of course summons out of nowhere.)

* The sweet pacifist healer White Mage of ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' carries a giant holy hammer (usually invisible) with which she smacks Black Mage around in response to his lewd pick-up lines. (Or when he kills people. Or when he suggests doing lewd things with dead people. Take your pick.)

* The characters of ''[[Looking for Group]]'' use [[Hammerspace]] a lot for their weapons and other gear, because they certainly don't seem to carry around backpacks (despite changing their outfits from time to time) and their weapons are curiously absent when not in use. But they never pull a weapon from hammerspace just for a humorous toonish effect (not even Krunch, the huge minotaur scholar wielding a massive sledgehammer), so it's more a case of both audience and characters deliberately ignoring the question where the weapons go.

* Tsunami of ''[[Tsunami Channel]]'' one-ups most of these by using a ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|hammer-chuck]]'' [http://www.tsunamichannel.com/index.php?date=2002-07-10&comic=ExCoKo on Professor Hasegawa.]

** The sizes of mallets he uses are also quite flexible, ranging from the semi-sensible, to the ridiculously-large. In one short, the Warners are filling in for Plotz's sick secretary and Wakko has trouble with the photocopier. His solution is [[Percussive Maintenance|to smash the offending machine with a mallet that's about ''half the size of the room'']].

* The classic [[Looney Tunes]] shorts are probably the [[Trope Maker]] or at least the [[Trope Codifier]]. It seems to be a fundamental law of physics in the [[Looney Tunes]] world that mallets will always and only exist in situations when someone deserves to be hit with one. Mind you, the [[Looney Tunes]] characters can pull ''[[Hyperspace Arsenal|anything]]'' [[Hammerspace|from behind their backs]] [[Rule of Funny|if it would be amusing at the time.]]

* The Devil does this to [[Pluto the Pup|Pluto]] several times during Pluto's trial in Hell in ''[[PlutosPluto's Judgement Day]]''.

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