Is Rurouni Kenshin reverse blade katana any good?

what on earth is this I'm wearing a Japanese sword while also wearing a European Jamison coaches colliding culture appropriation methods are gonna explode [Music] ratings I'm Chad and in this episode are pop culture weapons analyze I want to look at a conic weapon in anime now I have a soft spot in my heart for anime because I used to be a foreign we've I loved it massively when I was much younger and recently don't watch nearly as much nowadays of course it has to be particularly good to catch my interest yet there is one anime that I can still watch and enjoy even with many the kind of humorous mistakes and errors and all these other things but that is the classic anime roni Kenshin or also known as samurai X it's actually a really heartwarming redemption story and it all honesty that the movies samurai X movie that there's movies before the series called samurai X the TV series is rurouni kenshin with kind of sub sub title shadow samurai x brony kenji summer x and then there's a movie afterwards ah samurai x as well but there's like trust betrayal and nothing at the last one cuz meanwhile great animation and I mean check out this now of course it's fantasy sword fighting okay and this is one of the interesting things that I think actually has given rise to some of the mythology around the katana and I know I'm getting distracted because this episode is going to be an in-depth review of Kenshin's reverse bladed sword katana the sucker battle which is I think just Japanese for reverse plain a sword but it's a it's essentially a katana with the blade on the back edge so we'll look at that but the thing is what I find interesting oh sorry I have to do the the a proper Japanese Way of sheathing the katana I was very poorly done I know I'm one of the things that I find interesting with Japanese pop culture stuff like that is that of course with any fantasy adventure kind of story you want the source man's to be better than ever and the sources are incredible superhuman things but in the context of the show the swords aren't magic or enchanted when you look at the fantasy interpretations of European fantasy when a sword does something supernatural it's because it's naturally magical or something is made out of a magical material but with the katana the context of the shows is that these are just normal swords okay and then they're doing incredible things like chopping stone pillars in half metal in half stuff like that and so the people who get overly invested in these shows I actually feel sometimes especially when you're young okay are you young you can kind of understand this this misunderstanding is that sort of these katanas you can just shop through anything when no in reality it's a sword okay a sharpened bit of metal the katana has strengths and cutting particularly but it's not the best one and it's not the only one that is so good at cutting look at the felsham look at the toll Wow look at the mess okay really crazy good cutters and they fall in the same kind of category as the katana because the katana is particularly good at cutting it's their strengths and weaknesses what are some of the weaknesses with the katana well it doesn't have nearly as much reaches other swords this is a one-handed arming sword European and look at the blade lengths okay we are that there they say same blade lengths okay but the katana is a two-handed weapon this is one hand and if you want to compare two-handed long swords have a look at the blade distance or by length right there okay so and one of your weakness is less hand protection with the katana so I must say it isn't a great sword or a beautiful sort it is and it has particular strengths in cutting but it's not the best sword in the world it has weaknesses work just like every other sort like this sword nowhere near as good as cutting as this one but you can get hefty along swords that are built for cutting this is like a thrusting beast okay still think of it cutting or effective enough and this is coming from several reviews I've looked up but anyway those are just some brief almost necessary caveats I need to mention whenever the katana is brought up in any context because there is so much over praise for the katana and over hate for it as well I've got an entire series on the katana five-part series going in-depth how they made everything like I had so I've got my in-depth views on it check out those videos even ones where I've compared the katana to the longsword as well there's a ton of those alongside do you see my head glowing right here this is what happens when the Sun comes out after you adjust the brightness levels on your camera it'll change halfway through get ready for a jarring jump cut so now let's go into this anime kind of adaptation on the katana we're only Kenshin's or Kenshin Himura x' reverse played and sword so the in the context of this series Kenshin was he was deadly insane sword fight in the world because he had learned there one of the greatest sword fighting techniques of all time they heated mitsurugi now of course this is fantasy pop culture stuff like that because I get in the context with the show he didn't Itsuki has certain moves in like part of it is that there's a lot of attacking King shanell attacks while drawing it you know your jutsu you how you doing and it's also insanely fast it's like one of the fastest sword fighting styles of all time that that's fantasy okay speed really comes down to the type of weapon you're using in the katana it's not the fastest weapon in the world by the way it's actually on the heavy end of the spectrum for its size and so it's the type of weapon and the individual give you speed and then there are like super insane legendary maneuvers that the heat head mitsurugi has a part of it which makes it almost the unbeatable sword fighting technique there's the rear cruising and I forget which one that one specifically is either the one where he attacks so fast that he attacks from every single angle but then there's the ultimate super almost light speed drawing attack called the a McCracken old you'll know he didn't make it yet I really enjoyed the show I can even remember these Japanese I'm probably pronouncing horribly but okay so greatest source in all the world and during the meiji revolution no because there was the scene again history anime it's been long time meiji revolution sorry brony Kenshin is based in his serve a period in Japan and he was fighting to kind of reinstate the Japanese Emperor overthrow the Shogun Ives I know there's gonna be so many people correcting me in the comments anyway he slaughtered thousands of people like almost millions and he was in the context of the show one of the greater you know reasons why the revolution was successful because biocide manslayer was just this insane killer afterwards he takes a vow to never kill again okay but he has this incredible sword skill like he's the greatest swordsman who's ever lived and so as kind of it's interesting this is kind of weird but III get it is that he is given a sword because he's struggling and you find it it's out in the anime is given a sword that has a blade on the reverse edge now this is weird because some III again has been a while but I do you you know remember some people saying that you can't kill with this sorrel obviously you can you just turn the blade put forward and he uses the blade on his reverse plate sword in cutting things all the time not people but he cuts like blades pillars soft stone and stuff with the reverse edge and so I want to talk about how effective having a sword with an inverse curve like this how effective it would be could just what they actually existed blades swords like Kenshin who more is butter-side the man say a samurai X is reverse bladed sakamoto psycho part okay actually existed not in katanas and they were indifferent to struggle periods so I'll talk about that but it's implied that because it has a blade on the back edge you can't kill anyone because the best moves that they he tend mitsurugi you know employees requires a you know a curved blade like this particularly because so much of you know the AHA so much of the attacks of the heater mitsurugi is you know drawing attacks and stuff and yes ok don't like I'm not trying if you're wondering what I'm talking about so those people is like I wasn't even try again of course I'm crying because it's not a star that I've trained him ok so trying to draw the sword and attack in one motion with the blade being on the reverse edge and sorry this is me holy it's like it's doable actually how doable is that I I need to double check that because I was actually far easier than I was expecting so if I was trying sorry curve see the curve I'm grabbing it on the registry you'd have to do it like that okay so now drawing and attacking in one motion it's actually wasn't that hard Oh jarring jump cut that has an effect on ya so interestingly a lot of the big finisher moves so the heat attendants roogie is based around the drawing technique and I think you'd be able to do that with the you know blade on the reverse edge just as well and strike with the blade and then do big cuts and so the idea that you know you can't kill anyone with a sword where the blades on the back edge doesn't really work there's a bit of a flaw in logic with that but having said that I actually feel the blade being on the back edge is there so almost like it's a test of Kenshin's true penitence okay easy really sorry for what he did because there are many situations where you know honesty there people it's finding deserve to be killed okay and they need to be taken out it's kind of the whole Batman Joker thing alright if Batman just killed the Joker but he first defeated the joke he would have saved heaps o lives later on yet the killing that Kenshin has done has emotionally scarred him so deeply that it seems like I'd have a great a psychological impact if you ever cured again he feels he would revert back into the manslayer and become a unstoppable slaughter machine again and he doesn't want that to happen he feels that he killed unjustly during the war now in a war I feel things are different but from the characters perspective he thinks that murders okay and by reverting back to that former self he'll just kill everyone and so even killing the bad guys is too much he won't kill a single soul because he feels that what happened to him and so it seems like as a true test of his sincerity he has had he has a sword which has the ability to kill still okay an actual fact that's the ability to kill even when he strikes wheel on the blunt edge but I will just go with it TV show and that's the ability to kill with a blade and all they do is reverse it and there are times where he becomes so close where he gets so angry with the murder and bloodshed is seen and he wants to punish these people and he kind of here's the big is holding it honorees holding by the blade he's gonna kill but you know it's a good show for a reason okay so that temptation is always present and I think that's why they have the blade on the back edge because really if you if he just didn't want to kill anyone who just have a blunt sword with no edge on it at all you still kill people but I'll be far more difficult to do so so then how effective would his sword be the sucker but to when he throws it around the wrong way well it's funny wrong way right way with the blade on the back edge well it's funny when I say blade on the back edge I actually don't really consider it being on the back edge because there are swords that have inverse curves so really it's just an inverse curved katana essentially but for a katana they don't have inverse curse so that's why it's a reverse one I get that okay but what is this sword that has an inverse curve or look at the du chien folks and I'm probably butchering the pronunciation as always but okay sorry folks reverse bladed saw inverse bladed sword and it really does look like this is an adaptation of a farming implement like a sickle and then just made as a proper weapon as it's like okay we can use this weapon let's make it more weapon like let's because usually sickles have a very very strong curve well with their du chien folks station folks I think it's Dayton station with the Dacian folks the curves aren't Neal Express but there's variants there's ones with wide occurs and there's one with ones with a shallow curves as what we kind of see right here and they are very effective sorts but what's kind of interesting about this idea is that having a normal curve okay on a sword is far more common than an inverse curve they existed but why is one so significantly more prominent than the other well of course it comes down to the exact mechanics of what's happening in in the cut with the type of curve that's on the blade and it's not to say that there are inverse curve is universally worse there are strengths and weaknesses I generally feel there's probably more strengths with a regular curve but with the curve the standard curve you see on a katana I've mentioned this many times before this actually won't increase cutting ratio or if it doesn't I and I've done tests with this right it is so minut that it's not even worth mentioning what the curve does assist with is with edge alignment okay and we can see this why they're simple tests okay if I wrist katana here and let it see it does it so just let it rest it naturally rolls in to correct range alignment because of the way that the blade structure is so see say even so yeah flat just let it roll and look at that correct edge alignment and so it's well known that the katana has a very interesting property that many sword enthusiasts and experts have attributed to that and they say it is forgiving in the cut what does that mean well it means what you do a cut with a katana and your edge alignment is off what is edge alignment it means that the blade okay the actual edge is it facing the same angle as the motion of the cut itself okay so if I'm cutting and my alignment is off and I hit something the blade can just kind of roll onto the flat and it won't do a thing but the katana is forgiving when with bad edge alignment so if you cut something or strike something an edge alignment is off because the blade is thicker therefore stiffer there's less flex if you have a thinner blade and has more flex and there's and you hit with bad in July meant there's a chance the blade will flex and even bounce off the target that's not good you don't want that the way you fix that is with technique better edge alignment if you do that with a katana there's a better chance that it was still bite in because it's got more resistance in the Flex and because it has this kind of self-correcting mechanism because of this slight curve which again corrects bad sword form this is why people who do have nearly no experience even just no experience with swords can pick up a katana and chop it to tell me Matan too because the katana is actually easy to cut with another sources wives this is a good cut out does that mean it will cut as deep as other swords even with swords that aren't as forgiving in the cut no because if you have good technique okay you can cut easily as deep and effectively so what a katana can the katana is just more forgiving for bad form and technique and so that is actually a significant advantage that you get out of even having a very slight curve do you get that with an inverse curve no in actual fact the reverse seems to be opposite remember how when I put it on there when I just rest here it naturally rolls into correct edge alignment well when you do this it wants to naturally roll out of correct edge alignment okay and so that is a weakness with an inverse curve when you strike it can actually like when you strike something can actually roll and then roll into the flat because by the nature of the geometry of the weapon it wants to roll out of correct edge alignment where you fix that is with a technique but that is a weakness but there are advantages with an inverse curve that might you know balance it the other direction to make some decide I do want a reverse kind of inverse curve weapon blade and that is the additional leverage you get in actual cutting okay the way we can kind of deconstruct what were the mechanics of what's happening here is by accentuating the actual mechanics itself and so with an axe okay what we're kind of what I'm comparing here is the point of that of leverage that you have at the end of it compared to where you're holding it now with a reverse curve the point where it's ending is kind of where it ends on axis here so the curve would is curving down and so it's there all right now what you'll notice view grab attacks and just put the tip on anything like that and apply pressure you'll find that just the way that with you're holding it you're able to get more pressure and more force on it but if you reverse this and so this is where the end point of the sword would be with a regular curve and you put the tip on something and try and apply force and pressure you'll notice that you kind of more push yourself down and it's harder to and get the pressure push it in as much as when you are holding it like this and so what we're seeing here is the position okay there of the force compared to your leverage point and so with a regular curve the leverage point is underneath where you're applying the pressure and so the natural indication is to get pushed down as a result which you lose some of the energy and force with the leverage point just getting locked down but if you suddenly reverse it okay suddenly the point of leverage is situated in a more direct line behind the tip the connecting point and so you can exert more pressure and this applies as well when you go to cut you get that additional leverage to apply more force so there's an evasion it you can actually produce some more force with an inverse curve but there are problems a main one being is that it wants to roll out of correct edge alignment but there's another advantage with the curve and it doesn't exist with one that's a so shallow as this and that is in cutting okay the actual cutting slicing ratio with a curve a shallow as this this is just like barely off straight okay you don't get an increase in cutting ratio but if you had a more pronounced curve which exists on other swords like the tawa which falls within the kind of classic scimitar firm well that means when you actually strike cut something that more of the edge comes in contact with the target that you're cutting and it slices it actually cuts more it's a slicing cut or a draw cut which is more effective than just a standard flat static hack now I've actually compared this okay I've made 3d models looking at the cutting ratio of the guitar the standard curve of the standard katana and the cutting ratio the increase is basically nothing okay it doesn't increase cutting effectiveness but it has other advantages with the curve just not cutting ratio which some people many people in fact attribute it to when they try and extroverts use of the katana the next advantage of having an inverse curve is where the part of the blade hits first which part is first and usually it'll be the tip especially with ones that have even a slightly more pronounced curve and especially ones that have a more pronounced curve a heavily one when you strike with something the tip is the thing that usually hit first and that has greater penetrative power alright that'll really dig in and now the song has gone away and it's all it's too dark or you have to fix it in post or something but yet there is another disadvantage with this and it's the fact that the tip when you're trying to once that you connect with the target and you strike and you want to follow through because of the inverse curve there's higher chance that your blade can get stuck in whatever you're cutting especially if you come in contact the bone or something solid okay you can actually get stuck and you have trouble with drawing your blade and if your blade gets locked away that's not good that's almost instant death like if you tried to cut a game and you didn't get through it and you got caught on the layers and you're in there you have to kind of pull it back it's not to say or get jammed in there but it just means that the motion of the cut can be stalled and you have to reverse to pull it out and you can't do a full sweeping through with a regular curve that you see here that will basically never happen because you can just slice it draw it through the target so when you hit you just slice it and draw it through and I'll come all the way and that's kind of one of the main techniques in which the katana is used okay big draw cut slicing all the way through okay now the thing is you can do these slice and draw cuts with a straight blade because the katana barely has a curve where you strike and just draw it through okay and because there's no inverse curve the tip isn't get stuck so the disadvantages that exist with an inverse curve does not exist with a katana that has a slight curve and even swords that have no curve it ologist straight and so in my opinion I feel there's more detrimental elements with error a inverse curved sword likely Dacian folks compared to a regular curve one but there's some advantages so it's not to say they're completely ineffective there they're pretty deadly vicious weapons and Kenshin's reverse plated sword falls into that regard as well it would cut really effectively and because Kenshin is a master the problem with falling out of edge alignment wouldn't be an issue you should be so perfectly good with edge alignment that an actual fact you probably wouldn't even need the katanas curve to assist with it he would actually get more advantages out of a straight bladed katana than occurred one and yes I know the curve is on the katana because of the quenching process but that doesn't mean that's a quality that is you know unavoidable with a katana the way you make a straight katana wild it with differential hardening is actually forged a blade with an inverse curve and then when you quench it because when you quench it there is more clay on the back than on the front so that means the back end cools down slower and so the blade will actually curve forward a bit and then it gets bent back pulled back into this curve in the quench because there's more mass on the back of the blade and it's cooling down slower and sorry that's where the natural curve comes from in the quench and like I was saying you can inverse curve the starting point so when it naturally pulls back in the quench it'll pull back into a straight position so you can have straight katana is that are differentially hardened the idea that's impossible is wrong so yes Kenshin Himura psychopathy or is it effective weapon absolutely okay and it's a fun enjoyable anime as well these are in my thoughts analysis and breakdown hope you've enjoyed and of course I hope to see you again so until then [Music]

Channel: Shadiversity

Views: 489,534

Rating: 4.8059554 out of 5

Keywords: sword, swords, katana, notachi, Rurouni Kenshin, samurai, samurai x, anime, pop culture, ninja, history, historical, longsword, hema, historical european martial arts, japan, japanese, sakabato, reverse blade sword, reverse edge, draw cut, fantasy, goblin slayer, game of thrones, nodachi, ronin, tachi, blade, tsuba, saya, cosplay

Id: ejB1LvfHEjE

Length: 21min 31sec (1291 seconds)

Published: Tue May 28 2019