If you liked this and haven't seen the previous videos: Conan's Atlantean & the Kurgan Sword: How Realistic are They? th-cam.com/video/mgpjch3R3qw/w-d-xo.html Over-Thinking Fantasy: Keyblade, Frostmourne, Dante's Rebellion, Etc th-cam.com/video/Ni2AXrsFjbE/w-d-xo.html An Overly Pragmatic Hands-On "Review" of Anime Swords th-cam.com/video/CTNMz1nzSsA/w-d-xo.html A Fun Chat with the Owner of a Sword Shop th-cam.com/video/pPdak3xdPsk/w-d-xo.html There is an over 2-1/2 hour long supercut of this entire trip, available for members and patrons in the $5 tier and above. If you'd like to support the channel and get bonus content like that, you can join here: www.patreon.com/skallagrim th-cam.com/channels/3WIohkLkH4GFoMrrWVZZFA.htmljoin
Funny thing about super strength Skall, the things you said a person with super strength would *also* need, the ability to anchor yourself, & super durability, are kinda assumed to come *packaged in* with super strength, otherwise it'd be completely *useless* . Also, I'd absolutely LOVE to go to a Fire & Steel place & handle a lot of these pieces for myself; even if I don't get to swing them around because there's no designated area for it, it'd be cool to even just *hold* weapons from some of my favorite anime!
That long sword at the beginning, is a Anti-Calvary Weapon, Nodachi/Odachi, whatever it is called, they were designed for ETHER, cutting the head off of a horse, or dismounting the rider... If I recall right.
@@StressLevel100 uhm, ackshually the katana is only truly capable of supersonic slashing if it is heated in pure magma! If not then it can't handle the strain.
If I was Sepiroth, I would probably carry the sword without the scabbard to. Imagine trying to fight with that long ass scabbard on your back, let alone on the hip. Besides, carrying that sword by hand won't be an issue to someone like Sepiroth, that sword probably weighs like a feather to him.
Also the fact Sephiroth during his actual life was explicitly superhuman when compared to already superhuman SOLDIERs who use Buster Swords as standard issue. Magic is also scientific fact and material component so it is not implausible that materia has been used to alloy his sword to be supersteel durable as well. When you are superhuman compared to superhumans and armed with sword that can keeps it's shape after cutting through steel there is no need for sheath.
i mean this would be real life as well. i imagine a large nodachi or tsukamaki would be very hard to unsheath by yourself. at least quickly, i imagine someone would have pulled the sheath for them in the battle field
I agree, I could see a warrior who pays someone just to carry his sword( after all, what are squires and equarries for). We do have spear carriers in history, so I could see a "weapon caddy". And IIRC, in W40K some of the models do have extra figures that hold their weapons "Hans, bring me the zweihander! No, the other one!"
this was a thing IRL btw odachi did actually get long enough that people need to be on the battlefield for the pure reason of helping others sheathe and unsheathe their swords and then there were performers that would draw swords that long on their own since it is just impressive to see
16:30 - props to Skall using good trigger discipline even though he was just told it’s incapable of firing; the fact that he does it instinctually means you can trust him around actual working firearms.
For the katana unsheathing, LetsaskShogo actually did a video on how to unsheathe a katana and he said to always push against the tsuba from the side. Not directing above the blade because of the issue people have had with cutting their thumb. Or just to squeeze just below the tsuba so the very edge of your hand will break the seal of the katana and sheathe. It was a pretty interesting video
also keeping the thumb on the side holding the tsuba if it's sheathed, so it doesn't accidentally slip out, you react trying to grab it and cut yourself
I don't know, you just have to be careful. I've been breaking the seal of my katana and sheathing it when my thumb over the blade for years and never cut myself. I think the problem would come in when you try to go too fast too quickly. We had a saying in the Marines, fast is slow, slow is fast, meaning, start slow and get it right and speed will come with time. When I was learning Iaido we started very slow at first, not to mention with aluminum blades that wouldn't really cut you, and as said before, speed came with time. You build up the muscle memory and then it's not an issue.
In the modern military, we called weapons that required more than one person to operate a “crew-served weapon.” One example was the M-240B machine gun. Sephiroth’s Masamune is now what I call a crew-served sword 🤣
I think I speak for quite a few people when I say: Don't feel too bad for interrupting Skall, we love to hear you geek out about swords :) Also, "Like a snow shovel that's full of snow" is probably the most Canadian comparison I've ever heard XD
That ending note is a perfect example of the whole "treat all weapons as if they're real and ready to kill". Knowing that Cerberus there is a foam replica, good to see the finger still stays off the trigger and the feeling of even pointing it towards the camera feels wrong. That's good
I've been dabbling in prop making and safety is a always a concern. Whenever I come up with a cool gimmick, I have to consider how safe it is if handed to someone who does treat it right. If mishandled, it could take out an eye or even set someone on fire. :)
if Alec Baldwin had Vincent's Cerberus, the entire film crew would have bit it...which might have worked in his favor, because he wouldn't have left behind any Witnesses! in all truth, that entire event was just sad, and was easily preventable. =(
I'm really enjoying Lauren's input and perspectives in this series. I would love to see her in more of your videos - even a video chat conversation about more fantasy weapons in the future.
sry to go full "umm akshually", but thats not crisis core specific, that scene is from the og game(unless you're referring to a nibelheim unrelated masamune lever issue)
@@randomredshirt5274 ooh interesting. I believe op is referring to 1 of 2 things in crisis core. Those being the training session against Angeal and poetry bo- I mean Genesis, or the fight with Zack.
@@r3gret2079 Nah, mild spoilers but the leverage bit is basically how Cloud "kills" Sephiroth in the Nibelheim Reactor. Sephiroth skewers Cloud, but Cloud grabs the blade and levers him up and over the railing into the lifestream drink.
I mean Zanbatou required two people to handle. Not sure if there's any evidence of them actually being used on the battle field though, most were made as offerings to shrines.
Nodachi don’t get to quite as ridiculous lengths as final fantasy, but they are often long enough that sheathing and unsheathing is actually a two man job or has to be done touching the blade, seki sensei did a video on that a while back :)
Exactly he LITERALLY demoed you CAN TOTALLY effectively use, sheath an unsheath a Nodachi/Sephoroth sword.. an do so safely too. Contrary that these 2 claim an say.. cuz they from 2 totally different style backgrounds BUT he's probably a WAY BETTER swordsmen then either since he basically has done it ALL his life an it's what he's known for
@@robertagu5533 The nodachi in that video with Seki Sensei is somewhat shorter than the 7ft one here. But yeah, Japanese swords close to that length did exist & perform well in combat. Overall, though, few swords for fighting exceeded the wielder's height. It's quite challenging to make a blade that handles well beyond that size.
@@robertagu5533 he didn’t demonstrate the solo sheathing as effectively using the sword, that’s basically a show trick, not something you would want to use in a fight :P
@@99Hatman you must not watch his channel much. He basically ALWAYS explains everything round it. An ALWAYS seems to start from the sheath or a drawn guard position, but MOST from a sheathed draw. Then into an attack an back into a sheath. As probably taught in just about every style of it usually.
A cool detail I liked in the FF7 Remake, was that in combat the Buster Sword basically pulls Cloud around with it's momentum. Essentially the way Cloud moves, he starts with a big first swing and then just redirects the momentum during the combo attacks. It's very reminiscent of how Guts fights in Berserk, totally impractical and only doable because of his strength.
15:12 - I like how you carefully put that little plastic point cap on that massive buster sword. I thought, "Oh. Yup, now it's safe!" and chuckled a bit.
Love seeing her eyes light up when one blade nerd gets to talk to another blade nerd (without the internet expert "un acktually" type) I love when I get to talk blades with someone who knows their stuff. It is genuine and love to see it.
What I always liked about the weapons of Final Fantasy 7 is how they all seem like a quick fix to deal with living in a world full of monsters and robots, especially when you consider how many people of that world look poor, living in post-supply chain type villages, implying there was some huge disaster quite some time before the game takes place. The oversized swords, the guns that have to make due with whatever ammunition is around, and other outlandish weaponry. The world building of that game was really something.
You may find interesting thigns in Zenozoik, the world where the Zeno Clash series takes place. The inhabitants are all monsters and freaks, there is but one single city, there is no central authority or government spare for a few gang and there is no written language or even currency. All the inhabitants put whatever they like onto themselves and their houses. The same philosophy applies to their weaponry. There's hammers made of decorated small anvils stuck on a big stick, rudimentary powder guns with a spinal column for the barrel, grenade launchers with a cow skull's snout part for a "visor", club swords made from pelvises and bones tied to (yet again) a thick stick, it goes on and on. It's a fascinating world. Inspirations range from Hieronymus Bosch paintings to more obscure prehistoric creatures like the Platybelodon, Entelodont and Deinotherium, but there's influences from Greek art and statues too. The most recent game, Clash: Artifacts of Chaos from 2023, is a prequel and doesn't even have firearms yet. But it still has a singular law. That being that, prior to a fist fight, you can challenge the opponent to a short game of dice. The winner gets to enforce a condition upon the ensuing fight using a titular Artifact they have. Stuff like the loser having to drink a poison, or slather themselves in something that attracts bees, or placing bait that attracts a common but dangerous aerial predator. Can warmly recommend Clash: AoC, and Zeno Clash as a whole has cool stuff to offer.
it's basically the monster hunter problem. "we have over sized super animals murdering us, what do?" "creat big ass weapons to murder the smaller ones...." "uh-huuuh...." "then from their corpses we make even bigger weapons to murder larger monsters" "okay" "and keep doing that. forever. till we cant make anything larger cause we killed everything" "AWESOME!" FF7's world was probs in an arms race against the monsters, they eventually won leaving a tonne of stupidly large weapons around that very few could legit handle. like why the fck does a random village in the forest carry a sword larger than a human? oh for that fcking triceratops-tank fusion over there? got ya, understood.
I always had the inverse view of FF7. That it is behind us technologically, and even the futuristic stuff seems kind of...retro-looking-ish? You see scrapped tanks in the first part of Remake, and they all look like WWI to Interwar stuff.
@@LeonheartDelta The original game also has an F-14 and mobile phones in it, so they at least made it to our modern times in their world. It's like they had to rediscover engineering after some world changing event pushed them back to the 1800s, when they could really be in the 2200s.
@@frost8077 funny enough that's a weirdly good descriptor of the state of the world in all the post-OG FF7 parts of the compilation... they can't use Mako power very much anymore because of Meteor/Holy using up a ton of it, so they have to rely on other energy sources... including a weird new one they discover in one of the books called... 'gasoline'
Vicent Valentine's gun, in this case the Advent Children version, has always been one of my favourite FF weapon designs. The remake version is much more practical looking though; a proper semi-auto that comes with materia slots.
@paladinslash4721 the Three Houses Armorslayer is pretty much an estoc, which is pretty neat, but yeah, the relic weapons would be interesting to see his thoughts on
In Rebirth, while walking through the mines i believe, Barret talks about how Shinra developed stronger lighter metals that make those fantasy weapons possible
It's probably not as heavy as one may think, which is probably why Cloud fashioned his sword in advent children to be progressively heavier as he stacks more and more swords into it until it eventually turn into a buster sword-like shape.
Having it lighter though, also kills the whole point of having huge blade sword. If you need the blade lighter, just have it thinner. Giantly wide blade from ultra light material wouldnt give any benefit over just having slimmer blade of same weight.
@@rievenailo Well true, as defensive weapon, the big size would obviously help. But for making cuts or pierces, smaller blade with slimmer blade would have more cutting power than oversized one, if they were same weight.
I mean to be fair that weapon isn't made for fighting, its made to help capture and hijack Wyverns so its more of a hunting implement like a high tech net or somesuch.
@@yammoto148 so? Plenty of characters in the series use non-weapons as weapons. Edward uses a harp The geomancer in 5 uses a bell Edgar having a camera flash and fart gun Relm uses a paintbrush Red XIII uses collars and hairclips Cait Sith uses a megaphone Quina uses a giant spork Wakka uses a blitzball And Snow uses a gavity tech infused duster It’s all strange, but nothing stands out as much as the whip stick
this is weird of me to say but im so happy that you and cara are still together. i remember watching your videos like 10 years ago and it's so rare that people just find their perfect match. and it seems like that's what you found lol.
0:55 the same exact thing happened in Crisis Core, as Sephiroth stabbed Cloud and tried to lift him by the blade, dude had a big idea and decided to take control of the leverage while having the sword stabbed in him lmao
I always find it weird. Why don't sephiroth let go of the sword instead of being thrown into lifestream?? But maybe it's so expensive he just won't let it go.
@@thenobody7509 Yeah, Sephiroth most likely froze in surprise momentarily, as he likely figured that Cloud wouldn't have survived long enough after being impaled to actually _do_ that, or he'd figured Cloud would expire just as quickly and easily as the residents of Nibelheim did (since Cloud was only a normal Shinra Trooper at the time, rather than a SOLDIER like Cloud erroneously believed). Sephiroth likely would have expected something like that from Zack, due to him being a fellow SOLDIER 1st Class, but some "faceless" Shinra Trooper like Cloud was probably seen as even less than "fodder" to Sephiroth. Remember, even before Sephiroth went mad and annihilated Nibelheim, he wasn't exactly the most "normal" guy, as by his own admission he'd never had a "hometown" like Cloud or Zack did, and thus he tended to be the "socially awkward" type. Which is most likely why Sephiroth had so few real friends aside from Zack, Angeal, & Genesis before he went insane.
Let me nerd out real quick: the reason the FF7 soldier characters can weild those swords (canonically) is threefold. 1) they're genetically enhanced(super strength). 2) the swords are made of a fictional super material (mythril). 3) the fictional material is further infused with magic stuff (materia). Of the 3 reasons, the super strength is the least important. As you said, it's the physics that get in the way. You technically wouldn't need super strength for the Masamune, just a better material. As for the buster sword, if it was made of steel with its in game size, it would be much heavier than Cloud. Even with the strength to swing it, being lighter than the blade would mean the momentum of each swing would pull you off your feet. The super light, super strong properties of materia infused mythril is the sci-fi explanation vs the fantasy explanation (they look cool).
Regarding the issue with the length of Sepiroth's sword and how it can be a leverage to be used against you. Sepiroth impaled Cloud and lifts him high in the air with one hand while cloud was still holding the buster Sword. For someone like Sepiroth with God levels of power that won't be an issue. The Reason why anime or fantasy weapons will never work IRL is because most characters that weild them are never normal humans.
Also the opposite. That tip swinging has lots of energy coming towards on very narrow area. Stereotyping all weapons of anime with these is sloppy. Is piece of steel cable with nuts placed at end "unrealistic anime weapon" despite appearing in anime?
To swing an overweight weapon you need not only the super strength, but also the super body weight. Otherwise the inertia of that weapon will just throw you off the ground. Some nerd calculated that Cloud must weight at least 400kg to wave around a sword like that.
@@BarafuAlbino Super Strength via magic literally being pumped into your blood and alien god cells being bonded to yours allows you to supercede physics.
@@BarafuAlbino The buster sword is not even close to being 400kg. Even Guts' dragonslayer is only 200kg, and that thing is probably the most massive blade in all of fiction. The buster sword is really not that heavy, probably more like 30kg on average. Both Tifa and that one guy in corneo's mansion lifted the buster sword without visibly straining themselves, and they don't have Cloud's enhanced strength.
@@Da1337Man Real examples have varying weights, but even heaviest I have seen was about 40 kg and it was solid steel. For sword-like object it is ludicrously heavy, but not at all impossible for normal person to move. Moving it gracefully is whole another story.
The "Would Cloud be pulled of his feet?" question reminds me of "Because Science" maybe ask Kyle Hill that question he would probably love to answer it.
Delightful young lady. Thanks for introducing her to us. I'll probably never get to Canada again, but if I do I will get off the highway in Mississauga and visit Fire and Steel.
For some historical context on the Odachi style sword that you guys were drawing. Those were typically used in field battles and unsheathed BEFORE the battle started, usually with the aid of a retainer.
For those interested, these 3 barreled guns are inspired by actual portuguese guns used back in the time of the Spice Trade. They were single shots with a rotating axle (3 shots in total). What I find fascinating about this gun is that, not only did they took the asthetic, they took the concept as well. Evolving it into a 3 revolvered barrel. Fascinating!
That may be a real world example of multiple barrels, and you can see many stupidly multi-barreled designs in the House on the Rock collection, I believe the Cerberus design is simply inspired by Cerberus having three heads and I haven't seen any design documents saying otherwise.
@@rievenailo Cerberus is just a fitting name overall. The cherry on the top! Thou there are many stupid designs of multi-barrelled guns, this is not one of them. They were master pieces of engeneering. So much so, that the existing pieces in the museum (I don't remember which) in Portugal, are still functional today. There is a pistol variant as well. People in the west usually don't care about my country's History. Not only that, there is a tendency to misinform about it. So I get it, that you can't fathom that Portugal was the USA of the time. e.g. : We didn't invent the organ gun. That's an example of a shitty multi-barreled gun. Nor did we used it. But we did like the concept and invented an improved, functional and more accurate gun similar to it: the Ribaldequim. People in the East usually care about my country's History. That's why this sort of gun tends to appear in stuff made by asians. Specially by the japanese. I've seen it in other games.
@@TheMokaKiller Yeah I didn't mean I had any doubts about Portugal's gun history, just haven't seen any mention of Portuguese weaponry in any of the design notes from any of the final fantasy 7 games; they've only mentioned Cerberus.
@@rievenailo No sweat. Like I said I've seen it in other games, so it's possible they've seen it in other games as well, took the idea and improved on it. Doesn't get less fascinating because of it. In fact, if they evolved the concept without knowing anything about it, only makes it even more fascinating.
funnily enough, in a lot of FF7 scenes, they often mask how he handles the blade through camera cuts. one time he stabbed someone off camera and it cut to him having already stabbed the guy, for instance.
Or in the ff7 remake when cloud was seeing sephiroth he tried to pull out the buster sword to swing it and it hit the top of the door cause it was so big
odachi/nodachi were actually a thing starting about the 12thc in Japan, primarily used by foot soldiers to fight mounted opponents, but they really didn't reach a peak until about the 14thc
14:47 There's plenty of normal katanas in anime, Zoro from One Piece uses 3 of them that would be perfectly practical in real life. (The swords individually I mean, not his 3-sword style lol)
Something like the buster sword, you'd let it fall in a guided path and redirect it back up and again using its momentum. You wouldn't stop it mid fall or hold it out like you see cloud do.
All that said, historical (n)odachi were sometimes extremely long so something like 180cm isn't unheard of. The thing is, it's a purely battlefield weapon(hence you don't need to worry about drawing it quickly), you wouldn't carry it on you in everyday life like you would a katana. It is debatable how useful such extremely long blades really are, but if you look up "Enshin Ryu", you'll find footage of people practicing with swords that are as tall or sometimes taller than the wielder(women too by the way). So saying that extremely long nodachi is impractical at all is wrong. It's all the matter of training and usage cases. Like, there are human height European swords too, and it's known for certain they were used historically too
The Nodachi was primarily intended as a weapon to defeat light cavalry, the length and weight could be used to kill a horse or its rider as they ride past you. The longer it is, the less practical it becomes for fighting other infantry though, since the extreme leverage makes it hard to fight and threaten someone without just tiring yourself out.
@@SethAbercromby the "leverage" works both ways though. the longer a radii is the higher the sfpm (speed) will be with the same angle changes. yeah if you get in a bind youd be at a disadvantage but it would also be much easier to blow through guards. just try to avoid binds in the first place you should have a significant reach advantage in most cases also dunno what you mean by it being less threatening due to the leverage. as with all long reaching weapons its harder to close the gap and get into an attacking range because of its long reach which makes them very threatening by default. Spears are a perfect example of this. they have alot of leverage against you but are still very threatening
Swords longer than the wielder is tall definitely existed & saw combat, but appear to have been relatively rare. It is challenging to make a blade that holds up & handles well at that length.
@@dom7899 I didn't say it being less threatening, I said threatning the enemy over the duration of a fight. Yes you can spin the sword around to threaten an opponent without wasting too much excess energy, but you know what an opponent with a somewhat shorter sword can do to threaten you? Hold it point forward and just say out of your circle.
The thing about Sephiroth's sword is that it is a real blade called an odachi and they are made that long if not longer. The intention is you weild them on horseback or against horses to cut down passing cavalry men. Hence it's blade length. They had some uses for ground combat but it was all downward swings and pre-drawn before a fight or with a second person to move it out of a sheath.
@@Eagle-eye-pie you mean since when? Years ago now. If you've noticed at all, their youtube account when they respond in the comments is called Devan the Rat, not Cara the Rat anymore. I don't know if they are okay with she/her pronouns or the name Cara anymore, I've never seen them announce anything about it, but that might be because they prefer not talking about it or prefer being private, not necessarily because they are okay with being referred to as she/her or Cara.
@@Eagle-eye-pie That question makes no sense. All the time? It's not a part time thing, except maybe for some genderfluid people. Do you not understand what pronouns are?
Oh boy Fire Emblem weapons. I kind of want a video of Skall reacting to some of Engage’s absolutely horrendous weapon designs. He would have a field day.
people often forget sephiroth can fly and uses magic explosions, that and do to the unique metal and the ability to put energy into the blades, they can slice through almost anything... so hitting stuff like a wall or ceiling doesn't stop his blade. In fact it has been shown his blade can slice through skyscrapers with ease.
you don't have to worry about unsheathing if you just loosen it and then swing it forward, throwing the scabbard towards your opponent. now there's a diversion tactic
I was waiting for Skall to go for the Meet the Robinsons joke: "Why aren't you sheathing the sword? Because it's a long sword and I have little arms, and I don't know how well this plan was thought through." LOL! Great video Skall.
I don't know that I've ever watched a video so full of opportunities for "that's what she said" without ever taking advantage of it. I'm not sure if I'm proud of you or disappointed...
You and I would be hampered by that sword. Sephiroth not only effortlessly held two people locking up at the same time who were also Soldier first class, he was holding Masamune one-handed.
I've been loving these videos so far, it looks like you're really enjoying yourself and I just noticed I missed that, you having fun was why I started following you waaaay back in 2014! I hope that whatever content you plan on making, historical/HEMA-adjacent or not, you keep having as much fun! Also, is there a way for viewers from other countries to support this store? I can't exactly import a buster sword, but maybe sharing their media...
if you go anime/manga, any from historical based would be reasonable. If one considers Gintama and samurai champloo historically based. I also seen some that everyone has reasonable blade but the "hero" blades were definitely not
I believe so, I think they were not terribly common but real nonetheless. The impossible part is that I believe Sephiroth's sword has the proportions of a normal sword instead of it's proper proportions.
In one of Seki Sensei’s videos he shows how one would sheath a *reeeaaaallly* long Nodachi. However, this was actually a form of stage art, where there is a bit of clever sleight of hand involved, so it’s not practical. He does show how someone would actually unsheathe that, which would be have a companion to help you unsheathe it 😂.
There's really no indication in that video that the way Seki Sensei draws the nodachi isn't practical. He does it swiftly & fluidly enough to function in a self-defense scenario. Of course, wearing such a huge sword would be incredibly awkward for anything other than strutting around & showing off.
@@b.h.abbott-motley2427 I am talking about the Stage art form of drawing the sword. Which he states to be impractical and just for show. As during the Edo period drawing super large nodachi on your own became a popular attraction. I don’t think it is practical to turn your back whilst placing your hand on the blade of the sword.
That 3 barrel revolver is surprisingly practical from an engineering stand point, though why you would fire all 3 at once I don't get - seems like it would be ideal for a world without large spring wire rolls to make magazines so you have some endurance, or simply to allow you to have your 'silver' bullet, AP etc ready to shoot at a moments notice. Or for keeping the barrel temps down to clock round them as you go. And keeping that temp down is perhaps essential for a real steel version of that as the barrels are quite long as well - you are going to want to have a fore grip while shooting it much of the time I'd think. But putting three holes so close together in somebody really isn't going to be that much worse for them than putting one in most of the time.
It would allow to hit the target with 3 different magic elements at the same time, until you figure out, which one works best against it. One Barrel fire ammo, one armor piercing, one poison, or fire, electro, ppoison or paralysis, etc. all kinds of mixes :)And maybe there is a (hidden) switch somewhere, that allows to switch between 3 barrel per shot and one barrel per shot, then next barrel.
There are Landsknechtschwerter or Montante that actually weigh 6+ kg. And thus you normally move while stepping the whole time, so you and the weapon become a cutting and hitting whirl of troubling momentum. Addition: Matt shows two interesting historical examples: th-cam.com/video/vn2XkN3BK3Q/w-d-xo.htmlsi=INOeR6-XsRt-Fva_
Skalla's comment about it being a "two person sword" made me quite hype for a game that might use it as a mechanic, if anyone knows about a game that uses this idea I'd love to hear about it. The though of a GIANT sword that requires two people to use is so cool to me.
its worth mentioning that Odachi were actually used, they would often have someone help unsheathe (presumably before battle) and were used (best that i could find) as an anti-cavalry weapon. the largest i could find was a blade length of approximately 5 ft. that being said these where highly specialized weapons and not something that was used often. However its worth mentioning that some people did prefer the Nodachi which (length wise) was an in-between between katanas a odachi, famed samurai Sasaki Kojiro used a nodachi with a blade length of about 2ft 11 in
I love how they keep calling it the Sephiroth sword. The level of respect for a fictional character is mind blowing. Sephiroth and his sword will forever be legendary
very long blades are always interesting to try and consider how you'd carry it around or use it. Whether it's a 2-hander or a nodachi. Watching a practioner zip one of those free from its sheath and swing is neat. As for the sephiroth masamune... every time I think about it from a construction standpoint, I keep thinking it needs to be crazy stiff for it to not flop around. The fact that it doesn't shatter upon impact is just as impressive as Cloud's buster sword being picked up.
17:00 to answer her question, there is a real world gun that actually has three barrels: the Chiappa Triple Threat... but it's a break action shotgun. But three revolver cylinders feels overly complicated for no reason other than edginess.
"Most realistic anime sword" --> period reproductions where the artists did research and gets it as close to historical weapons as possible should do. As for settings like FF7, not just the characters need be superhuman, but also their physics need to be different or for everything to be made out of fantasy materials. I think the original manual gave Cloud a height/weight etc. Friction would be a problem. When characters jump really high off of grass, not punching holes in the ground and losing height would be a problem etc. The whole thing has to be "a wizard did it", maybe whatever lifestream force is letting them use magic and such is also powering the surface of the world and keeping these things intact. Even in "soft" magic writing, it would be nice if it's given a nod for interacting with materials we'd otherwise expect to be mundane. Wrap your sword, shoes, and immediate contact areas in whatever magic mojo is letting you conjure explosions comparable to modern ordinance and the interactions are no less plausible than the magic itself. Also builds on why the characters who can do it are special; not only can't an ordinary Joe pick the weapon up, he also can't overcome the physical limitations of the materials w/o the magic. Unless it's a magic item, of course!
Those period reproductions wouldn't be an "anime sword" but rather, "a sword used in an anime". The term "anime sword" implies a certain aesthetic/style... one that isn't found outside of anime (and the related things, like games and manga).
The OG hardedge was much smaller than the buster sword. It was closer in size (length, not width or thickness) to a proper sword. Its width near the end was also a bit less exaggerated. FF7R saw its size increased to nearly that of the buster sword. The one you held in the video was in all probability about right for the original.
11:00 "Should be narrower IRL" Well, the blade looks like a bolted/riveted assembly with 2 separate blades connected by 2 side plates - it shouldn't be as heavy as a solid blade of that size 15:07 Also - cute tip-sheath
If you liked this and haven't seen the previous videos:
Conan's Atlantean & the Kurgan Sword: How Realistic are They?
th-cam.com/video/mgpjch3R3qw/w-d-xo.html
Over-Thinking Fantasy: Keyblade, Frostmourne, Dante's Rebellion, Etc
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An Overly Pragmatic Hands-On "Review" of Anime Swords
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A Fun Chat with the Owner of a Sword Shop
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There is an over 2-1/2 hour long supercut of this entire trip, available for members and patrons in the $5 tier and above. If you'd like to support the channel and get bonus content like that, you can join here:
www.patreon.com/skallagrim
th-cam.com/channels/3WIohkLkH4GFoMrrWVZZFA.htmljoin
Such a shame it isn't either 9 or 16 hours.
Laura mentioned those as in i could talk 9/16 about this with you. 😇😉
Funny thing about super strength Skall, the things you said a person with super strength would *also* need, the ability to anchor yourself, & super durability, are kinda assumed to come *packaged in* with super strength, otherwise it'd be completely *useless* .
Also, I'd absolutely LOVE to go to a Fire & Steel place & handle a lot of these pieces for myself; even if I don't get to swing them around because there's no designated area for it, it'd be cool to even just *hold* weapons from some of my favorite anime!
That thing would be great on horseback
Ecchi?
That long sword at the beginning, is a Anti-Calvary Weapon, Nodachi/Odachi, whatever it is called, they were designed for ETHER, cutting the head off of a horse, or dismounting the rider... If I recall right.
After so many gamers and bookworms the lady is so happy to have found an actual fellow sword nerd. ;)
yea, she seems to have warmed up to him since part one.
My thoughts exactly, so many self proclaimed know-it-alls too lol
@@StressLevel100 uhm, ackshually the katana is only truly capable of supersonic slashing if it is heated in pure magma! If not then it can't handle the strain.
She was gasping at one point.
She almost appeared to be fan girling in earlier
Granted, Sephiroth never has his sword sheathed. He's always carrying it unsheathed
If I was Sepiroth, I would probably carry the sword without the scabbard to. Imagine trying to fight with that long ass scabbard on your back, let alone on the hip.
Besides, carrying that sword by hand won't be an issue to someone like Sepiroth, that sword probably weighs like a feather to him.
That is why Sephiroth on the sex offender's register.
Walking around with his 'weapon' on display like that.
Also the fact Sephiroth during his actual life was explicitly superhuman when compared to already superhuman SOLDIERs who use Buster Swords as standard issue. Magic is also scientific fact and material component so it is not implausible that materia has been used to alloy his sword to be supersteel durable as well. When you are superhuman compared to superhumans and armed with sword that can keeps it's shape after cutting through steel there is no need for sheath.
Also, he can fly and his sword isn't really intended for fighting other swordsmen.
Doesn't he summon the sword to his hand? IIRC, his blade vanishes when he's not fighting.
I love how the CEO is geeking out with Skall haha
IIRC she said she’s watched several of his videos so not only is she geeking out with him, but with us too.
I like that. A lot.
I did once create a comedic character who had a squire specifically to help him draw/sheath his stupidly long sword.
i mean this would be real life as well. i imagine a large nodachi or tsukamaki would be very hard to unsheath by yourself. at least quickly, i imagine someone would have pulled the sheath for them in the battle field
I agree, I could see a warrior who pays someone just to carry his sword( after all, what are squires and equarries for). We do have spear carriers in history, so I could see a "weapon caddy". And IIRC, in W40K some of the models do have extra figures that hold their weapons
"Hans, bring me the zweihander! No, the other one!"
this was a thing IRL btw
odachi did actually get long enough that people need to be on the battlefield for the pure reason of helping others sheathe and unsheathe their swords
and then there were performers that would draw swords that long on their own since it is just impressive to see
That's what a squire or retainer is FOR
I can see that squire bowing away as to unsheathe the sword.
'one inch longer means one inch stronger'.. words to live by
😳
Not for penises.
That's why Samurai used ranged weapons/polearms first, and the katana as a sidearm.
Yup 🧐
Lmao indeed.
16:30 - props to Skall using good trigger discipline even though he was just told it’s incapable of firing; the fact that he does it instinctually means you can trust him around actual working firearms.
Some of his earlier videos show him shooting his personal firearms, so he's definitely familiar with them.
@@kutter_ttl6786 There's no context, but I'd assume that's where the real firearm footage here came from.
As said, it's good to have the safe habits using props, so you have those habits when using real ones too.
For the katana unsheathing, LetsaskShogo actually did a video on how to unsheathe a katana and he said to always push against the tsuba from the side. Not directing above the blade because of the issue people have had with cutting their thumb. Or just to squeeze just below the tsuba so the very edge of your hand will break the seal of the katana and sheathe. It was a pretty interesting video
also keeping the thumb on the side holding the tsuba if it's sheathed, so it doesn't accidentally slip out, you react trying to grab it and cut yourself
Or just make the sword shoot out of the sheath like Sam's katana from Metal Gear Rising
This is also an issue of difference between katana and tachi
With tachi, since you carry your sword edge down, it's not an issue to thumb draw
@@andreashansen5313 that was the most ridonkulous and amazing thing of all time
I don't know, you just have to be careful. I've been breaking the seal of my katana and sheathing it when my thumb over the blade for years and never cut myself. I think the problem would come in when you try to go too fast too quickly. We had a saying in the Marines, fast is slow, slow is fast, meaning, start slow and get it right and speed will come with time. When I was learning Iaido we started very slow at first, not to mention with aluminum blades that wouldn't really cut you, and as said before, speed came with time. You build up the muscle memory and then it's not an issue.
In the modern military, we called weapons that required more than one person to operate a “crew-served weapon.” One example was the M-240B machine gun. Sephiroth’s Masamune is now what I call a crew-served sword 🤣
Samurais have their retainers and pages for their equipment. Ditto for knights with their squires.
What else is new?
@@crimcrusader8459 no, I mean that that thing is so long and top heavy that it would require two sets of hands to wield. Lol
I think I speak for quite a few people when I say: Don't feel too bad for interrupting Skall, we love to hear you geek out about swords :)
Also, "Like a snow shovel that's full of snow" is probably the most Canadian comparison I've ever heard XD
Especially since we know the other sort of youtube creators you have to deal with. We do not mind the added information.
Came here to say that as well. Love hearing Skall talk(obviously) but also love hearing the back and forth between fellow nerds.
Yep.
That ending note is a perfect example of the whole "treat all weapons as if they're real and ready to kill". Knowing that Cerberus there is a foam replica, good to see the finger still stays off the trigger and the feeling of even pointing it towards the camera feels wrong. That's good
I've been dabbling in prop making and safety is a always a concern. Whenever I come up with a cool gimmick, I have to consider how safe it is if handed to someone who does treat it right. If mishandled, it could take out an eye or even set someone on fire. :)
Cough, Rust, cough. Even excluding that, general firearms safety prevents expensive accidents. Trigger discipline exists for a reason.
if Alec Baldwin had Vincent's Cerberus, the entire film crew would have bit it...which might have worked in his favor, because he wouldn't have left behind any Witnesses!
in all truth, that entire event was just sad, and was easily preventable. =(
I'm really enjoying Lauren's input and perspectives in this series. I would love to see her in more of your videos - even a video chat conversation about more fantasy weapons in the future.
agreed!
Yes please! She's awesome!!
i really like the dialogue format here, it's cool seeing two people who know their shit going back and forth
Funny you mention it, the leverage bit on Sephiroth's sword was a lesson he learned the hard way in Crisis Core. 😂
Aaay that's true. Good shit.
and it surprised him so hard that he didn't think to... ya know.. LET GO OF THE SWORD
sry to go full "umm akshually", but thats not crisis core specific, that scene is from the og game(unless you're referring to a nibelheim unrelated masamune lever issue)
@@randomredshirt5274 ooh interesting. I believe op is referring to 1 of 2 things in crisis core. Those being the training session against Angeal and poetry bo- I mean Genesis, or the fight with Zack.
@@r3gret2079 Nah, mild spoilers but the leverage bit is basically how Cloud "kills" Sephiroth in the Nibelheim Reactor. Sephiroth skewers Cloud, but Cloud grabs the blade and levers him up and over the railing into the lifestream drink.
0:31 You've heard of two-handed swords, now get ready for: two-wieldered swords!
four-handed swords
I mean Zanbatou required two people to handle. Not sure if there's any evidence of them actually being used on the battle field though, most were made as offerings to shrines.
Nodachi don’t get to quite as ridiculous lengths as final fantasy, but they are often long enough that sheathing and unsheathing is actually a two man job or has to be done touching the blade, seki sensei did a video on that a while back :)
depends on era and maker some got longer than seen in fantasy.
Exactly he LITERALLY demoed you CAN TOTALLY effectively use, sheath an unsheath a Nodachi/Sephoroth sword.. an do so safely too. Contrary that these 2 claim an say.. cuz they from 2 totally different style backgrounds BUT he's probably a WAY BETTER swordsmen then either since he basically has done it ALL his life an it's what he's known for
@@robertagu5533 The nodachi in that video with Seki Sensei is somewhat shorter than the 7ft one here. But yeah, Japanese swords close to that length did exist & perform well in combat. Overall, though, few swords for fighting exceeded the wielder's height. It's quite challenging to make a blade that handles well beyond that size.
@@robertagu5533 he didn’t demonstrate the solo sheathing as effectively using the sword, that’s basically a show trick, not something you would want to use in a fight :P
@@99Hatman you must not watch his channel much. He basically ALWAYS explains everything round it. An ALWAYS seems to start from the sheath or a drawn guard position, but MOST from a sheathed draw. Then into an attack an back into a sheath. As probably taught in just about every style of it usually.
A cool detail I liked in the FF7 Remake, was that in combat the Buster Sword basically pulls Cloud around with it's momentum. Essentially the way Cloud moves, he starts with a big first swing and then just redirects the momentum during the combo attacks. It's very reminiscent of how Guts fights in Berserk, totally impractical and only doable because of his strength.
15:12 - I like how you carefully put that little plastic point cap on that massive buster sword. I thought, "Oh. Yup, now it's safe!" and chuckled a bit.
Love seeing her eyes light up when one blade nerd gets to talk to another blade nerd (without the internet expert "un acktually" type) I love when I get to talk blades with someone who knows their stuff. It is genuine and love to see it.
What I always liked about the weapons of Final Fantasy 7 is how they all seem like a quick fix to deal with living in a world full of monsters and robots, especially when you consider how many people of that world look poor, living in post-supply chain type villages, implying there was some huge disaster quite some time before the game takes place. The oversized swords, the guns that have to make due with whatever ammunition is around, and other outlandish weaponry. The world building of that game was really something.
You may find interesting thigns in Zenozoik, the world where the Zeno Clash series takes place.
The inhabitants are all monsters and freaks, there is but one single city, there is no central authority or government spare for a few gang and there is no written language or even currency. All the inhabitants put whatever they like onto themselves and their houses.
The same philosophy applies to their weaponry. There's hammers made of decorated small anvils stuck on a big stick, rudimentary powder guns with a spinal column for the barrel, grenade launchers with a cow skull's snout part for a "visor", club swords made from pelvises and bones tied to (yet again) a thick stick, it goes on and on.
It's a fascinating world. Inspirations range from Hieronymus Bosch paintings to more obscure prehistoric creatures like the Platybelodon, Entelodont and Deinotherium, but there's influences from Greek art and statues too.
The most recent game, Clash: Artifacts of Chaos from 2023, is a prequel and doesn't even have firearms yet. But it still has a singular law. That being that, prior to a fist fight, you can challenge the opponent to a short game of dice. The winner gets to enforce a condition upon the ensuing fight using a titular Artifact they have. Stuff like the loser having to drink a poison, or slather themselves in something that attracts bees, or placing bait that attracts a common but dangerous aerial predator.
Can warmly recommend Clash: AoC, and Zeno Clash as a whole has cool stuff to offer.
it's basically the monster hunter problem.
"we have over sized super animals murdering us, what do?"
"creat big ass weapons to murder the smaller ones...."
"uh-huuuh...."
"then from their corpses we make even bigger weapons to murder larger monsters"
"okay"
"and keep doing that. forever. till we cant make anything larger cause we killed everything"
"AWESOME!"
FF7's world was probs in an arms race against the monsters, they eventually won leaving a tonne of stupidly large weapons around that very few could legit handle. like why the fck does a random village in the forest carry a sword larger than a human? oh for that fcking triceratops-tank fusion over there? got ya, understood.
I always had the inverse view of FF7. That it is behind us technologically, and even the futuristic stuff seems kind of...retro-looking-ish? You see scrapped tanks in the first part of Remake, and they all look like WWI to Interwar stuff.
@@LeonheartDelta The original game also has an F-14 and mobile phones in it, so they at least made it to our modern times in their world. It's like they had to rediscover engineering after some world changing event pushed them back to the 1800s, when they could really be in the 2200s.
@@frost8077 funny enough that's a weirdly good descriptor of the state of the world in all the post-OG FF7 parts of the compilation...
they can't use Mako power very much anymore because of Meteor/Holy using up a ton of it, so they have to rely on other energy sources... including a weird new one they discover in one of the books called... 'gasoline'
Vicent Valentine's gun, in this case the Advent Children version, has always been one of my favourite FF weapon designs. The remake version is much more practical looking though; a proper semi-auto that comes with materia slots.
The teaser for the "Falchion" from Fire Emblem: Awakening has me so hyped for the next analysis
I believe it's an old video
@maffewhodges9364 I meant the hands-on analysis, I've seen the visual one
I’m hoping for the blades like Ragnell or some of the Three Houses weapons.
@paladinslash4721 the Three Houses Armorslayer is pretty much an estoc, which is pretty neat, but yeah, the relic weapons would be interesting to see his thoughts on
Skall: "it's too big"
Shop keeper: "it's scaled down"
In Rebirth, while walking through the mines i believe, Barret talks about how Shinra developed stronger lighter metals that make those fantasy weapons possible
And you see a normal soldier handling Cloud's sword so it's not as heavy as steel
It's probably not as heavy as one may think, which is probably why Cloud fashioned his sword in advent children to be progressively heavier as he stacks more and more swords into it until it eventually turn into a buster sword-like shape.
Having it lighter though, also kills the whole point of having huge blade sword. If you need the blade lighter, just have it thinner. Giantly wide blade from ultra light material wouldnt give any benefit over just having slimmer blade of same weight.
@@samuraidoggy except the buster sword is also used as a shield against bullets, needs to be sufficiently thick to block them and not deform
@@rievenailo Well true, as defensive weapon, the big size would obviously help. But for making cuts or pierces, smaller blade with slimmer blade would have more cutting power than oversized one, if they were same weight.
I’m disappointed that the most ridiculous Final Fantasy weapon doesn’t show up more often, Vanille’s collapsible moose antler whip stick
Sounds like something I could order at a hipster restaurant
I mean to be fair that weapon isn't made for fighting, its made to help capture and hijack Wyverns so its more of a hunting implement like a high tech net or somesuch.
@@yammoto148 so? Plenty of characters in the series use non-weapons as weapons.
Edward uses a harp
The geomancer in 5 uses a bell
Edgar having a camera flash and fart gun
Relm uses a paintbrush
Red XIII uses collars and hairclips
Cait Sith uses a megaphone
Quina uses a giant spork
Wakka uses a blitzball
And Snow uses a gavity tech infused duster
It’s all strange, but nothing stands out as much as the whip stick
The less people talk of FF13, the better, tbh. A blight on our history.
@@pillarsofsnow7940 *Edward, not Edgar.
this is weird of me to say but im so happy that you and cara are still together. i remember watching your videos like 10 years ago and it's so rare that people just find their perfect match. and it seems like that's what you found lol.
0:55 the same exact thing happened in Crisis Core, as Sephiroth stabbed Cloud and tried to lift him by the blade, dude had a big idea and decided to take control of the leverage while having the sword stabbed in him lmao
I always find it weird. Why don't sephiroth let go of the sword instead of being thrown into lifestream?? But maybe it's so expensive he just won't let it go.
@@Archontasil "I DON'T CARE IF I DIE, I AM NOT LETTING GO OF THIS SWORD! IT COST ME 4 MILLION GIL!"
@@Archontasil Honest I like to think sephiroth was secretly surprised. Cause like who tf does that
@@thenobody7509 Yeah, Sephiroth most likely froze in surprise momentarily, as he likely figured that Cloud wouldn't have survived long enough after being impaled to actually _do_ that, or he'd figured Cloud would expire just as quickly and easily as the residents of Nibelheim did (since Cloud was only a normal Shinra Trooper at the time, rather than a SOLDIER like Cloud erroneously believed). Sephiroth likely would have expected something like that from Zack, due to him being a fellow SOLDIER 1st Class, but some "faceless" Shinra Trooper like Cloud was probably seen as even less than "fodder" to Sephiroth. Remember, even before Sephiroth went mad and annihilated Nibelheim, he wasn't exactly the most "normal" guy, as by his own admission he'd never had a "hometown" like Cloud or Zack did, and thus he tended to be the "socially awkward" type. Which is most likely why Sephiroth had so few real friends aside from Zack, Angeal, & Genesis before he went insane.
Digging these videos of you at this prop shop. Hope you get to chat more with them, the expert on cam with you shared some great insights.
To be fair Sephiroth swings his Masamune with one hand like its a toothpick. And he cuts entire buildings in half with it.
Not to mention in his left hand.
He's basically a god though.
He also other 2m tall, with really long limbs so, it is not so ridiculous for him.
Uuh to be fair to be fair i know final fantasy really well i am really a final fantaser 🤓
Japanese games don't deal in physics, you can see schoolgirls wielding 300 kilo hammers like it's cotton candy
Let me nerd out real quick: the reason the FF7 soldier characters can weild those swords (canonically) is threefold. 1) they're genetically enhanced(super strength). 2) the swords are made of a fictional super material (mythril). 3) the fictional material is further infused with magic stuff (materia).
Of the 3 reasons, the super strength is the least important. As you said, it's the physics that get in the way. You technically wouldn't need super strength for the Masamune, just a better material. As for the buster sword, if it was made of steel with its in game size, it would be much heavier than Cloud. Even with the strength to swing it, being lighter than the blade would mean the momentum of each swing would pull you off your feet. The super light, super strong properties of materia infused mythril is the sci-fi explanation vs the fantasy explanation (they look cool).
Regarding the issue with the length of Sepiroth's sword and how it can be a leverage to be used against you. Sepiroth impaled Cloud and lifts him high in the air with one hand while cloud was still holding the buster Sword. For someone like Sepiroth with God levels of power that won't be an issue.
The Reason why anime or fantasy weapons will never work IRL is because most characters that weild them are never normal humans.
Also the opposite. That tip swinging has lots of energy coming towards on very narrow area. Stereotyping all weapons of anime with these is sloppy. Is piece of steel cable with nuts placed at end "unrealistic anime weapon" despite appearing in anime?
To swing an overweight weapon you need not only the super strength, but also the super body weight. Otherwise the inertia of that weapon will just throw you off the ground. Some nerd calculated that Cloud must weight at least 400kg to wave around a sword like that.
@@BarafuAlbino Super Strength via magic literally being pumped into your blood and alien god cells being bonded to yours allows you to supercede physics.
@@BarafuAlbino The buster sword is not even close to being 400kg. Even Guts' dragonslayer is only 200kg, and that thing is probably the most massive blade in all of fiction. The buster sword is really not that heavy, probably more like 30kg on average. Both Tifa and that one guy in corneo's mansion lifted the buster sword without visibly straining themselves, and they don't have Cloud's enhanced strength.
@@Da1337Man Real examples have varying weights, but even heaviest I have seen was about 40 kg and it was solid steel. For sword-like object it is ludicrously heavy, but not at all impossible for normal person to move. Moving it gracefully is whole another story.
she really gets into her work ... totally geeking out
And has visible difficulty not unleashing it all at once when there's finally a visitor who understands the stuff. I adore that so much!
These are good fun videos. Vincent's Cerberus is such a neat and clean reproduction, even though it is a prop, I really want one.
The "Would Cloud be pulled of his feet?" question reminds me of "Because Science" maybe ask Kyle Hill that question he would probably love to answer it.
Delightful young lady. Thanks for introducing her to us. I'll probably never get to Canada again, but if I do I will get off the highway in Mississauga and visit Fire and Steel.
Love when she's so excited to talk she interrupts and then feels bad about it.
Passion is always good for videos
Haven’t watched this channel in a while. Always fun here
Would be awesome to get a selection of coloured glass balls to fit in the Buster Sword.
For some historical context on the Odachi style sword that you guys were drawing. Those were typically used in field battles and unsheathed BEFORE the battle started, usually with the aid of a retainer.
Her enthusiasm is amazing
For those interested, these 3 barreled guns are inspired by actual portuguese guns used back in the time of the Spice Trade.
They were single shots with a rotating axle (3 shots in total).
What I find fascinating about this gun is that, not only did they took the asthetic, they took the concept as well.
Evolving it into a 3 revolvered barrel.
Fascinating!
That may be a real world example of multiple barrels, and you can see many stupidly multi-barreled designs in the House on the Rock collection, I believe the Cerberus design is simply inspired by Cerberus having three heads and I haven't seen any design documents saying otherwise.
@@rievenailo Cerberus is just a fitting name overall.
The cherry on the top!
Thou there are many stupid designs of multi-barrelled guns, this is not one of them.
They were master pieces of engeneering. So much so, that the existing pieces in the museum (I don't remember which) in Portugal, are still functional today.
There is a pistol variant as well.
People in the west usually don't care about my country's History.
Not only that, there is a tendency to misinform about it.
So I get it, that you can't fathom that Portugal was the USA of the time.
e.g. : We didn't invent the organ gun. That's an example of a shitty multi-barreled gun. Nor did we used it.
But we did like the concept and invented an improved, functional and more accurate gun similar to it: the Ribaldequim.
People in the East usually care about my country's History.
That's why this sort of gun tends to appear in stuff made by asians. Specially by the japanese.
I've seen it in other games.
@@TheMokaKiller Yeah I didn't mean I had any doubts about Portugal's gun history, just haven't seen any mention of Portuguese weaponry in any of the design notes from any of the final fantasy 7 games; they've only mentioned Cerberus.
@@rievenailo No sweat.
Like I said I've seen it in other games, so it's possible they've seen it in other games as well, took the idea and improved on it.
Doesn't get less fascinating because of it.
In fact, if they evolved the concept without knowing anything about it, only makes it even more fascinating.
The Italians still make 3 barrel shotguns. Apparently most of the country doesn't require a gun license for breechloading shotguns.
funnily enough, in a lot of FF7 scenes, they often mask how he handles the blade through camera cuts. one time he stabbed someone off camera and it cut to him having already stabbed the guy, for instance.
Or in the ff7 remake when cloud was seeing sephiroth he tried to pull out the buster sword to swing it and it hit the top of the door cause it was so big
odachi/nodachi were actually a thing starting about the 12thc in Japan, primarily used by foot soldiers to fight mounted opponents, but they really didn't reach a peak until about the 14thc
My inner child is really loving this series.
She looks ever so slightly nervous as you're playing around with a giant katana blade near all her prized collectibles
14:47 There's plenty of normal katanas in anime, Zoro from One Piece uses 3 of them that would be perfectly practical in real life. (The swords individually I mean, not his 3-sword style lol)
I think there's a bit of a distinction between "anime sword" and "real life type sword used in an anime".
Sephiroth also primarily wields it one-handed for even more ridiculousness.
Something like the buster sword, you'd let it fall in a guided path and redirect it back up and again using its momentum. You wouldn't stop it mid fall or hold it out like you see cloud do.
All that said, historical (n)odachi were sometimes extremely long so something like 180cm isn't unheard of. The thing is, it's a purely battlefield weapon(hence you don't need to worry about drawing it quickly), you wouldn't carry it on you in everyday life like you would a katana. It is debatable how useful such extremely long blades really are, but if you look up "Enshin Ryu", you'll find footage of people practicing with swords that are as tall or sometimes taller than the wielder(women too by the way). So saying that extremely long nodachi is impractical at all is wrong. It's all the matter of training and usage cases. Like, there are human height European swords too, and it's known for certain they were used historically too
The Nodachi was primarily intended as a weapon to defeat light cavalry, the length and weight could be used to kill a horse or its rider as they ride past you. The longer it is, the less practical it becomes for fighting other infantry though, since the extreme leverage makes it hard to fight and threaten someone without just tiring yourself out.
@@SethAbercromby the "leverage" works both ways though. the longer a radii is the higher the sfpm (speed) will be with the same angle changes. yeah if you get in a bind youd be at a disadvantage but it would also be much easier to blow through guards. just try to avoid binds in the first place you should have a significant reach advantage in most cases
also dunno what you mean by it being less threatening due to the leverage. as with all long reaching weapons its harder to close the gap and get into an attacking range because of its long reach which makes them very threatening by default. Spears are a perfect example of this. they have alot of leverage against you but are still very threatening
Yeah, it's not like they were meant for fencing or anything.
Swords longer than the wielder is tall definitely existed & saw combat, but appear to have been relatively rare. It is challenging to make a blade that holds up & handles well at that length.
@@dom7899 I didn't say it being less threatening, I said threatning the enemy over the duration of a fight. Yes you can spin the sword around to threaten an opponent without wasting too much excess energy, but you know what an opponent with a somewhat shorter sword can do to threaten you? Hold it point forward and just say out of your circle.
The thing about Sephiroth's sword is that it is a real blade called an odachi and they are made that long if not longer. The intention is you weild them on horseback or against horses to cut down passing cavalry men. Hence it's blade length. They had some uses for ground combat but it was all downward swings and pre-drawn before a fight or with a second person to move it out of a sheath.
I love the image of your wife holding a sword twice as long as she is.
They use they/them I'm pretty sure
@@Efreetiwhen?
@@Eagle-eye-pie you mean since when? Years ago now. If you've noticed at all, their youtube account when they respond in the comments is called Devan the Rat, not Cara the Rat anymore. I don't know if they are okay with she/her pronouns or the name Cara anymore, I've never seen them announce anything about it, but that might be because they prefer not talking about it or prefer being private, not necessarily because they are okay with being referred to as she/her or Cara.
I mean, when does she use them?
@@Eagle-eye-pie That question makes no sense. All the time? It's not a part time thing, except maybe for some genderfluid people. Do you not understand what pronouns are?
Skallagrim: "This is a No-dachi, it's length is perfectly fine"
Me: "I wouldn't know, it's still too long to fit in the frame"
Oh boy Fire Emblem weapons. I kind of want a video of Skall reacting to some of Engage’s absolutely horrendous weapon designs. He would have a field day.
people often forget sephiroth can fly and uses magic explosions, that and do to the unique metal and the ability to put energy into the blades, they can slice through almost anything... so hitting stuff like a wall or ceiling doesn't stop his blade. In fact it has been shown his blade can slice through skyscrapers with ease.
you don't have to worry about unsheathing if you just loosen it and then swing it forward, throwing the scabbard towards your opponent. now there's a diversion tactic
Vincent's revolver - Cerberus would be perfect if it was operational
Cerberus is basically a hand gun volley gun hybrid
This series has been really fun. I'm glad you did this.
I like those axes in background
"Treat every sword like they're real"
Then cut to Skall flexing his trigger discipline.
Nice video, i hope theres more content about this store
There is. :)
I was waiting for Skall to go for the Meet the Robinsons joke: "Why aren't you sheathing the sword? Because it's a long sword and I have little arms, and I don't know how well this plan was thought through." LOL! Great video Skall.
As a certain japanese candy commercial put it, that nodachi is loooong, loooong, maaaaaaaaan!
I don't know that I've ever watched a video so full of opportunities for "that's what she said" without ever taking advantage of it.
I'm not sure if I'm proud of you or disappointed...
Well they are super humans with super swords
perfectly makes sence
You and I would be hampered by that sword. Sephiroth not only effortlessly held two people locking up at the same time who were also Soldier first class, he was holding Masamune one-handed.
A nodachi could range from 35 to 60" long, some even longer. I believe they were used by samurai on horseback, but I'm not 100% sure.
Used against cavalry. For attacking the horse legs.
I've been loving these videos so far, it looks like you're really enjoying yourself and I just noticed I missed that, you having fun was why I started following you waaaay back in 2014!
I hope that whatever content you plan on making, historical/HEMA-adjacent or not, you keep having as much fun! Also, is there a way for viewers from other countries to support this store? I can't exactly import a buster sword, but maybe sharing their media...
The other half of the Chinese quote "One inch longer, one inch stronger," is "One inch shorter, three inches riskier."
Demolition Ranch did a version of the Buster sword and had a strongman attempt to wield it. Good vid.
Really loving the conversation between the both of you. She can "interrupt" as much as she wants lol.
Lovin' the fantasy swords videos
The swords in the manga Claymore seem relatively reasonable? The "ricasso" is very narrow, but at least it's thick.
if you go anime/manga, any from historical based would be reasonable. If one considers Gintama and samurai champloo historically based. I also seen some that everyone has reasonable blade but the "hero" blades were definitely not
I saw that Fire Emblem Falchion at the end! Hope we get to see a bit of that!
Love to see trigger discipline even on prop weapons.
Yup. Would have solved a lot of problems if the villain from Team America had used proper firearm handling discipline recently
I’m loving these videos, Skall! Also I hope they have guys sword from berserk.
I thought there were swords like that, used by Samurai against cavalry?
Not quite that long methinks.
10/10. It was used on horseback against others on horseback
Not THAT long
I believe so, I think they were not terribly common but real nonetheless. The impossible part is that I believe Sephiroth's sword has the proportions of a normal sword instead of it's proper proportions.
I had heard similar, though I don't think they were quite 7ft long lol and fairly rare.
You two made for a fun combo to watch.
Came back here to say a channel called just a bug did a response video to your take on sephiroths sword
No gunblade!?
In one of Seki Sensei’s videos he shows how one would sheath a *reeeaaaallly* long Nodachi. However, this was actually a form of stage art, where there is a bit of clever sleight of hand involved, so it’s not practical. He does show how someone would actually unsheathe that, which would be have a companion to help you unsheathe it 😂.
There's really no indication in that video that the way Seki Sensei draws the nodachi isn't practical. He does it swiftly & fluidly enough to function in a self-defense scenario. Of course, wearing such a huge sword would be incredibly awkward for anything other than strutting around & showing off.
@@b.h.abbott-motley2427 I am talking about the Stage art form of drawing the sword. Which he states to be impractical and just for show. As during the Edo period drawing super large nodachi on your own became a popular attraction. I don’t think it is practical to turn your back whilst placing your hand on the blade of the sword.
That 3 barrel revolver is surprisingly practical from an engineering stand point, though why you would fire all 3 at once I don't get - seems like it would be ideal for a world without large spring wire rolls to make magazines so you have some endurance, or simply to allow you to have your 'silver' bullet, AP etc ready to shoot at a moments notice. Or for keeping the barrel temps down to clock round them as you go. And keeping that temp down is perhaps essential for a real steel version of that as the barrels are quite long as well - you are going to want to have a fore grip while shooting it much of the time I'd think. But putting three holes so close together in somebody really isn't going to be that much worse for them than putting one in most of the time.
It would allow to hit the target with 3 different magic elements at the same time, until you figure out, which one works best against it. One Barrel fire ammo, one armor piercing, one poison, or fire, electro, ppoison or paralysis, etc. all kinds of mixes :)And maybe there is a (hidden) switch somewhere, that allows to switch between 3 barrel per shot and one barrel per shot, then next barrel.
If you're going against big, hard targets and you don't have access to bigger bullets it makes sense.
This was just wonderful god tier nerding out. Loved it.
There are Landsknechtschwerter or Montante that actually weigh 6+ kg. And thus you normally move while stepping the whole time, so you and the weapon become a cutting and hitting whirl of troubling momentum.
Addition: Matt shows two interesting historical examples:
th-cam.com/video/vn2XkN3BK3Q/w-d-xo.htmlsi=INOeR6-XsRt-Fva_
0:37 here we see the beginning of crew served weapons.
It's like a Japanese greatsword. ...Made for someone who would be very tall in Europe.
Vincent is my favorite FF character. Cool video.That really cute sword nerd Ceo.
Skalla's comment about it being a "two person sword" made me quite hype for a game that might use it as a mechanic, if anyone knows about a game that uses this idea I'd love to hear about it. The though of a GIANT sword that requires two people to use is so cool to me.
"Ey yo Cloud, why'd you bring the Buster here?"
"Cause the BUSTER KEPT ME OUTTA HANDCUFFS"
its worth mentioning that Odachi were actually used, they would often have someone help unsheathe (presumably before battle) and were used (best that i could find) as an anti-cavalry weapon. the largest i could find was a blade length of approximately 5 ft. that being said these where highly specialized weapons and not something that was used often. However its worth mentioning that some people did prefer the Nodachi which (length wise) was an in-between between katanas a odachi, famed samurai Sasaki Kojiro used a nodachi with a blade length of about 2ft 11 in
I love how they keep calling it the Sephiroth sword. The level of respect for a fictional character is mind blowing. Sephiroth and his sword will forever be legendary
You could see Skall's eyes light up when he was holding the Cerberus revolver. You just know he was thinking..."Go ahead punk; make my day!'
I just love it when she brings the nerd out.
Also; i love it when she takes the oppppurtunity to go "Some of Y''all can b real annoying".
very long blades are always interesting to try and consider how you'd carry it around or use it.
Whether it's a 2-hander or a nodachi.
Watching a practioner zip one of those free from its sheath and swing is neat.
As for the sephiroth masamune... every time I think about it from a construction standpoint, I keep thinking it needs to be crazy stiff for it to not flop around. The fact that it doesn't shatter upon impact is just as impressive as Cloud's buster sword being picked up.
17:00 to answer her question, there is a real world gun that actually has three barrels: the Chiappa Triple Threat... but it's a break action shotgun. But three revolver cylinders feels overly complicated for no reason other than edginess.
"Most realistic anime sword" --> period reproductions where the artists did research and gets it as close to historical weapons as possible should do.
As for settings like FF7, not just the characters need be superhuman, but also their physics need to be different or for everything to be made out of fantasy materials. I think the original manual gave Cloud a height/weight etc. Friction would be a problem. When characters jump really high off of grass, not punching holes in the ground and losing height would be a problem etc. The whole thing has to be "a wizard did it", maybe whatever lifestream force is letting them use magic and such is also powering the surface of the world and keeping these things intact.
Even in "soft" magic writing, it would be nice if it's given a nod for interacting with materials we'd otherwise expect to be mundane. Wrap your sword, shoes, and immediate contact areas in whatever magic mojo is letting you conjure explosions comparable to modern ordinance and the interactions are no less plausible than the magic itself. Also builds on why the characters who can do it are special; not only can't an ordinary Joe pick the weapon up, he also can't overcome the physical limitations of the materials w/o the magic. Unless it's a magic item, of course!
Those period reproductions wouldn't be an "anime sword" but rather, "a sword used in an anime". The term "anime sword" implies a certain aesthetic/style... one that isn't found outside of anime (and the related things, like games and manga).
The OG hardedge was much smaller than the buster sword. It was closer in size (length, not width or thickness) to a proper sword. Its width near the end was also a bit less exaggerated. FF7R saw its size increased to nearly that of the buster sword. The one you held in the video was in all probability about right for the original.
11:00 "Should be narrower IRL" Well, the blade looks like a bolted/riveted assembly with 2 separate blades connected by 2 side plates - it shouldn't be as heavy as a solid blade of that size
15:07 Also - cute tip-sheath
shoutout to that one image of sephiroth where his sword peaks out of the other side of the canvas
The first crew-served sword at the start :D