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Wooden Katanas Are Even Better: Difference between revisions
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* Although it's a ''shinai'' made of bamboo, [[Revolutionary Girl Utena|Utena]] uses one to win Anthy as the Rose Bride. In her defense, she didn't expect a duel with actual swords.
** Mind that the trope itself was [[Double Subverted]] in that her shinai was cut to a stub almost immediately, but she won the match anyway.
* Hinagiku in ''[[
* In ''[[Demon City Shinjuku]]'', the hero Kyoya Izayoi wields a bokken that can cut through demons.
* Suzuka from ''[[Outlaw Star]]'' also has a wooden sword, which might as well be a lightsabre considering how she uses it to cut or block almost anything.
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** Let's not forget Yahiko, who's fought his every battle (against airborne bombers, assassins, and a huge guy with a cannon-arm) with a shinai.
** Also, though she refers herself as the assistant master of the Kamiya-Kasshin Style, the master is her father who's dead. Ignoring sexism against women's abilities in combat, that means that she is ''the master of an entire style of japanese swordfighting''. Yeah, Kaoru is much more powerful than the first arc suggests.
*** [[Word of God]] explain that she ''is'' stronger than a lot of other characters, but since Kenshin and and Sannosuke are ''too'' strong, [[Overshadowed
** The story actually subverts this trope, as it's made very clear that Kaoru and Yahiko fight at a distinct disadvantage, and that they'd be much more powerful with real weapons. However, since they believe that swords are meant to protect instead of harm, their fighting spirit and skill bridge the difference.
*** Arguably, in the Kyoto Arc, Yahiko, a 12 year old kid had to fight by himself a flying guy who tossed explosives. It's even lampshaded in the manga: "When Kenshin was 12, he was still training, and Sano only had minor street fights at that age, but you have fought Henya and survived harder fights. You are the strongest 12 years old boy in the history". And he only have [[Wooden Katanas Are Even Better|a stick to fight]]
** In the spinoff one-shot ''Yahiko no Sakabato'', Yahiko has inherited the titular ''sakabato'' (reverse-bladed sword, [[Technical Pacifist|Kenshin's]] signature weapon), but he doesn't even draw it until the last few pages. Instead, he's taken [[Took a Level In Badass|so many levels in badass]] during the timeskip that he can beat up two goons wielding real swords with a bamboo practice sword, all without breaking a sweat.
* It's amazing what Gintoki from ''[[
* Since it focuses on kendo clubs, shinai are the primary weapons of choice for the cast of ''[[Bamboo Blade]].''
* Katsuhito (or Yosho) tends to use these in the various ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]'' franchises. He keeps these on hand more often than steel swords or [[Laser Blade|Laserblades]] that wander around. And on occasion he's been shown slicing mecha open. (On another, in the manga, after chopping up a futuristic fighting robot, ''his'' sword falls apart in pieces.)
** Though the fact that he is {{spoiler|a [[Warrior Prince]] of a star nation whose [[Royals Who Actually Do Something|royalty]] are a living, breathing [[Physical God|Physical Gods]]}} generally makes the matter irrelevant.
* [[The Big Guy|Bontenmaru]] of ''[[Samurai Deeper Kyo]]'' wields a wooden sword, which confuses [[The Chick|Yuya]], until the guys in the party explains that it makes him even ''stronger''--he has to work so hard to turn his blade against metal ones that he's easily one of the most skilled of the group.
* ''[[Asu no Yoichi]]'', based around a martial art style using a wooden sword. The title character and the eldest two of the main family use wooden swords, and the eldest is a teacher, and has the youngest as one of her students
* Kunieda Aoi from ''[[
** They take this trope to another level when Aoi fights a fellow wooden katana user: she manages to slice his sword using ''a ruler''.
* Played in an episode of ''[[Lupin III]]''. When Goemon's katana is stolen and used to attack the protagonists (held by a rocket robot, no less), Goemon confidently bring a simple bokken to the fight. As he is probably the best sword fighter in the world, his immediate defeat is almost shocking.
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* ''[[Kamen no Maid Guy]]'' nicely averts this trope. Kogarashi's training of Naeka has her power and skill increasing so that she senses and slices a leaf in half as it comes down a waterfall. The peak of her training is when she goes to slice a log in half lengthwise with a bamboo ''shinai'' (kendo sword) and suddenly realizes it's impossible, instead taking a log to the face. Kogarashi rewards her insight.
* In ''[[Sky Girls]]'', Otoha takes down a purse-thief with her wooden sword. She didn't know the thief was armed with a switchblade. Karen helped out by clumsily lobbing her bag at the crook, stunning him and allowing Otoha to deliver a nice thwack.
* Taiga Aisaka, from ''[[Toradora
* Used in ''[[Holyland]]'' by Taka the kendoka.
* Busujima Saeko from "[[Highschool of the Dead]]" uses one for most of the series. She even kills Ishii Kazu with one hit after he is bitten protecting Marikawa Shizuka.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* Taiga from ''[[
** Another Taiga from ''[[Fate/stay
*** Shirou, from the same series, uses a bokken or a shinai near the beginning of some routes (before upgrading to projected weaponry, generally the scimitars [[Dual-Wielding|Kanshou and Bakuya]]) with the added justification of [[Functional Magic|Strengthening Magic]].
*** Tetsuro from ''[[Fate Nuovo Guerra]]'' ups the ante by ''[[Dual-Wielding]]'' them.
* In ''[[
* Averted in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'': when Sora loses his [[Empathic Weapon|Keyblade]], he's left with a wooden sword that leaves him weak to the point where defeating even the previously non-threatening weakest of enemies becomes a long, drawn-out chore. Luckily, he has the [[Beauty and
** Played fairly straight in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358 Days Over 2
* Mushashi is a playable character in the ''[[Samurai Warriors]]'' and ''[[Warriors Orochi]]'' series from Koei. His ultimate weapon in those games is, unsurprisingly, a wooden katana. (Along with a smaller wakizashi because dual-wielding is cool <ref>And, in Mushashi's case, historically accurate</ref>).
** In the first ''[[Samurai Warriors]]'' game, Date Masamune also battles with a pair of bokken. In later editions, though, he wields a cutlass and a handgun.
* In the ''[[Soul Calibur]]'' series, a bokken is Mitsurugi's joke weapon in 3, and a shinnai in 4. They make a delightful ''plok'' sound, yet are still perfectly capable of impaling someone to the hilt. Nightmare or Sigfried sometimes have an actual (uncarved) galley oar, both of these are explicit references to the original [[Miyamoto Musashi]].
* In many of ''[[
** However, the wooden sword is always the weakest sword in the game.
*** The wooden stick glitch, though technically not a sword, is the most powerful melee weapon Link can use.
* In ''[[
** With even ''more'' levelling and said time machine, it is possible to beat Lavos with Chrono using a [[Joke Item|mop]].
* The elven weapons in ''[[Nethack]]'' are wooden, but are as effective as steel weapons. Plus they don't rust.
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* While his sword isn't a katana (instead settling for a [[BFS]]), Susano from ''[[Okami]]'' can qualify during his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] where he declines help from the player (who was helping from behind the scenes, without his knowlege) and ''bisects the boss under his own power''.
* Amano from ''[[Last Blade|The Last Blade]]'' uses a seemingly simple wooden stick to bash and whack about his opponents. It also conceals [[Hidden Weapons|a sword]] which he only uses in exceptional circumstances.
* The Sniper in ''[[
* Properly upgraded and with its moves learned, wooden katana weaponry in [[Way of the Samurai]] are this. A notable example would be the impossibly hard-to-get Reikon-Kudaki from the second game, which differs from a regular wooden Bokuto by its wrapped grip, and its (un)naturally [[Stone Wall|high defense]] at the expense of extremely low offense. And what all of them shares is that, barring using the [[Set Swords to Stun|Blunt]] mode at the third game, every one of them kills an enemy just as easily as a sharp katana does.
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