Another Wonderfully Impractical Anime Humongoblade!
May 29th, 2009 | 
Author: I was just looking through my archive wondering what to post about next, when I ran into a prop/replica of another great anime sword I’ve always found rather cool looking, if not really, really, over the top, like Clouds massive cleaver from Final Fantasy (aka Buster), or Ichigos over sized kitchen knife from Bleach (his zanpakutō Tensa Zangetsu) , or Inuyashas rather impressive doggie tooth (Tetsusaiga), or…
Well you get my point. The list of over sized anime swords is endless. You almost get the impression they are overcompensating for… Err… something. Or not. OK never mind.
Anyway, today I found another interesting example of over-the-top black smithing. This time from the anime Beserk:
Gattsus (aka Guts) Dragon Slayer
Ain’t it a beat? Now I do not remember where this pic came from, it’s been in my gallery for a while, and I thought I had even blogged about it before, but apparently not.
Basically, this thing, in the anime Beserk, is a good 6 foot or so slab of wide, massive steel with really, really sharp edges, wielded by this crazy black knight called Guts. Or Gattsu, if you want to use the Japanese pronunciation. Bad ass guy, big ass sword. And, of course, completely and totally unusable by anyone but a fictional hero, a genetically enhanced human, or a cyborg. Or something along those lines.
And before you say “Pfft… I can wield that mate!” Let me remind you that the ability to swing a sword around is not the same as wielding a sword. This sword, like so many other anime weapons, would, in real life, wield you, not the other way around. I kid you not. Probably pop your arms out of their sockets too.
But It is still a very mean, and no nonsense looking sword. Just love it and had to share. What can I say. I have this thing for large pieces of dark, sharpened, pointy steel. Especially those with this kind of presence… 
Gattsus Dragon Slayer – [Unknown]
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Category: Swords | 
Tags: anime, Beserk, Bleach, Buster, Dragon, Final Fantasy, Gattsu, Guts, Humongous, Ichigo, Inuyasha, over sized, Shikai, Slayer, Sword, Tensa, Tetsusaiga, Zangetsu, Zanpakuto | 
4 Comments »
These incredibly large anime swords (Tetsaiga – Inuyasha; Zabuza’s sword in Naruto; The Buster Sword from Final Fantasy) are probably all swords that were the inspirational outcome of the Zanbatō; an anti-cavalry sword of feudal Japan, also known as “the horse slayer”.
Stories talk about a soldier wielding a Zanbatō and with a single swing, cutting the horse and its rider in two. Though these weapons weren’t very easy to wield as they were very heavy and they were hard to control.
I assume that many characters in anime use weapons similar to the Zanbatō because it would be symbolic of being incredibly powerful, as you would have to be in order to weild such a weapon effectively. Something real feudal era people could never do.
I tend to doubt that anyone was able to cleave both rider and horse in two with a single sword… Unless it was with the blade of a guillotine… But in that case he wouldn’t actually be wielding it either…
@Chris
I am impressed that there is someone else out there other than me and Phyreblade who have som knowledge of the lesser known but no less historical blades. Thank you for making my day
Don’t forget that in Berserk manga Guts is the only one to be able to heave this weapon,it takes 3 man to heave this.
He as trained with swords bigger then him since he was 6 in the mercenary army where he was raised by is step father just because “there is no swords that fits a child here!”,so since childhood he trained with normal adult one handed swords.
He then changes to bigger swords as he grew stronger and older,until he can swing this basterd of a sword,and not only he swing it,he also have amazing swordsmans experience and skills that permits him to use this sword not as a normal guy would swing a normal sized sword,in that when you closely look at the fight scenes in the manga the artist tried to be as close as realisme could be,in that you see the swings that do Guts are huge and heavy and he always use counter balance moves and swing momentum to perform gruesome strikes in where he cut in half men,armor and horses…or big ass monsters.
Now it is very unlikely that you’ll see someone wield that on other purpose then for show i mean no adults can wield that the way Guts do it for the simple fact that not everyone is a force of nature or a higly trained swordsman who as trained since the age of 5 with swords 2 times bigger and heavier then him.
A normal kid of nowadays would never though to train to bigger swords so you would never see this.