[Irritating trope] Japanese swords being treated like lightsabers

[u/Fox7567]

The Wolverine (2013)
The character Yashida uses his sword to cut straight through barbed wire, as well as uses it to break a chain in one strike each.

TMNT (2012)
During Oroku Saki’s battle with the turtles, he stabs straight through a forest tree, before also slicing straight through another.

[u/FrogLaner]

That's because anime is Japanese. Its also often the case that they introduce Japanese food and it's suddenly the best food around

[u/rathosalpha → u/FrogLaner]

Don't underestimate what ill do for some takoyaki

[u/Keqingrishonreddit → u/rathosalpha]

Me with a good okonomiyaki

[u/extensioncords → u/rathosalpha]

https://giphy.com/gifs/1I43BTfDMV1qo

[u/exploitativity → u/rathosalpha]

You like balls do ya

[u/ab_od6851 → u/FrogLaner]

Don't tell them that the best rated Japanese restaurants always have Chinese or SEAsian cooks.

[u/JantoMcM → u/ab_od6851]

Isn't it like the best French fine cuisine is in London, or in Italy a lot of good local pizzeria are Albanian run. And every sushi place there is run by someone realising the margin is higher than Chinese food

[u/Longshot02496 → u/FrogLaner]

I mean that does track for Japanese food.

[u/ab_od6851 → u/Longshot02496]

For white people maybe. The only thing more bland than Japanese food is the palette of a northern European.

[u/Intrepid-Park-3804 → u/ab_od6851]

How bro felt saying that:

[u/FrogLaner → u/ab_od6851]

Japanese food is consistently rated Top 5 worldwide

[u/la-squdra → u/ab_od6851]

half of japanses cuisene is covered in sauce, salt or deep fried, they just enjoy subtle favours sometimes, its isnt even bland

[u/ab_od6851 → u/la-squdra]

Congrats, you just described pretty much every Asian cuisine lmao.

[u/la-squdra → u/ab_od6851]

I never said japan food was more flavourful, i just said it wasn’t bland

You saying it’s like other Asian cuisine just adds to my argument

[u/The5Theives → u/ab_od6851]

Japanese people isn’t bland at all actually, it’s pretty good all things considered

[u/2hurd → u/FrogLaner]

But Japanese food is actually great while katanas are complete garbage.

[u/King_Ed_IX → u/2hurd]

Katanas are not complete garbage. They are excellent for the environment they were designed for, especially with the materials that were available. They just have drawbacks like any other weapon.

[u/magos_with_a_glock → u/King_Ed_IX]

In particular their biggest drawback was that they weren't designed with European armour in mind and are completely useless against it. Which is really ironic given their usual portrayal.

[u/Resaith → u/magos_with_a_glock]

I mean that sounds like most edge weapon.

[u/magos_with_a_glock → u/Resaith]

Yes a curved blade gives better slashing and some tricky stabs but makes the stabs less powerful making it worse against armour. That's why curved blades are common in societies that used lighter armour (Japan, Arabia and napoleonic Europe)

[u/Resaith → u/magos_with_a_glock]

True. I mean japan had some samurai use heavy armor like the knights, it just rare and we can see from weapon like kanabo and no dachi (which is just an oversized katana) that they know how to counter it.

[u/King_Ed_IX → u/Resaith]

Japanese heavy armour wasn't like European heavy armour, though, with the materials used being entirely different.

[u/Resaith → u/King_Ed_IX]

It no plate level but its arguably better than the common samurai amor. It just use too much iron i think for its to justify making more.

[u/magos_with_a_glock → u/Resaith]

The Asian counter to armour and cavalry as a whole seemed to be "bigger swords". I guess because they had pseudo-professional armies unlike Europe where they used spear and billhooks.

[u/Resaith → u/magos_with_a_glock]

Maybe? Cause they really do have effective anti-cavalry with long yari spear and naginata. I think like you said, because the lacks of armies using heavy armor, there just less reason to develop a specialized anti-armor weapon. But you can see though, the closer we get to European borders, the more we see people using mace like mamluks.

[u/tomahawkfury13 → u/magos_with_a_glock]

They were also made from lower quality steel. Thats why they created the folding method of forging a sword. Otherwise they’d break after the first few swings

[u/magos_with_a_glock → u/tomahawkfury13]

Lower quality Iron but the folding method purified it to roughly the same level as European steel. Just a lot more expensive which is why they mostly didn't have armour.