There’s endless innovation and creativity present in anime, which expresses itself in bold, grandiose ways. There are plenty of grounded and low-key anime, but many series trade in extremes and intentionally push the boundaries of reality. This can translate into hyperbolized fight sequences, but it’s also a prime opportunity to showcase ridiculous weapons that deal devastating damage.
All sorts of weapons serve specific purposes in anime, but guns represent some of the most prevalent forms of anime artillery. Some anime turn to realistic firepower that can be found in the real world. However, anime is also a good place to find absolutely absurd guns that would never be present anywhere else.
10 Guido Mista's Sex Pistols Are Six Bold Bullets With Lots Of Personality
Hirohiko Araki’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is one of the most fearless and ambitious shonen series of all-time. The powerful energy Stands that warriors wield against each other take on so many shapes and sizes. It should come as no surprise that the series’ Golden Wind installment, which follows a team of mercenary mafioso in Italy, includes a prominent gun-based Stand.
Guido Mista’s Sex Pistols take the form of six incredibly durable bullets, each of which have their own personalities. Sex Pistols is still beholden to Mista’s orders, but it’s repeatedly proven itself to be far more resilient than a standard gun. It’s the only weapon here that actively bickers with itself.
9 Soul Eater's Liz And Patty Become Death’s Deadly Demon Twin Guns
Soul Eater gets a lot of mileage out of its creative premise where heroic teams are made up of a Meister, and another individual who takes on the form of a weapon that said Meister wields to reap souls. This premise is illustrated in some creative ways and one of the best applications comes out of twins Liz and Patty Thompson.
This duo turns into a pair of powerful demonic guns that release the Meister's concentrated Soul Wavelength. Death does some of his best work with the Demon Twin Guns.
8 Reg's Incinerator In Made In Abyss Delivers Incredible Power At A Dangerous Price
Made in Abyss is a haunting adventure that tackles increasingly depressing subject matter the deeper that its characters descend the epoynmous Abyss. Reg, a boy robot, is the first partner that Riko makes on her adventure. This man-made ally can extend his arms to facilitate exploration, but his hands also include a devastating gun known as the Incinerator.
Reg's Incinerator eviscerates whatever is in its path, but its use comes at a heavy price. Reg will pass out for two hours after he uses the Incinerator, but there also appears to be a finite number of times that he can fire this cannon until he's out of commission.
7 Outlaw Star's Caster Guns Give A Sci-Fi Spin On Magic
Outlaw Star is a '90s space anime that never found the same notoriety as its contemporary Cowboy Bebop, but it presents a universe that contains just as much depth. Gene Starwind and his crew experience a version of space that comfortably pulls from both science fiction and fantasy.
The caster guns, which find their etymology from "spellcaster," are a creative hybrid of these sensibilities. Caster guns are ostensibly spell guns that fire magical mana that's harnessed in special caster shells. These weapons become more of a relic over time due to the dwindling nature of mana in the world.
6 Chaika: The Coffin Princess' Gundo Sniper Rifle Deals Death From A Drastic Distance
Chaika Trabant of Chaika: The Coffin Princess gets serious style points for the thematic ensemble that pushes together. The powerful mage hauls around a coffin that holds her Gundo Sniper Rifle, a gigantic gun that's bigger than she is and becomes the conduit for her powerful magic.
This magical sniper rifle is responsible for many sneak attacks, but Chaika also triggers many diverse and dangerous spells. Chaika can poison the air, boil her target, or suck away sound, all in addition to standard explosive mayhem.
5 Wolfwood's Punisher Is A Gaudy Gun With Biblical Implications
Trigun is an essential '90s action anime. It tells a story that's full of over the top guns, as its title might suggest. Vash the Stampede has many powerful weapons at his disposal, including those that are built into his body, but even Trigun’s meeker characters like Milly still wield impossible weapons.
Nicholas D. Wolfwood carries a hefty weapon that he calls his Punisher. It's a gun that's shaped like a giant cross, that functions as a machine gun from one end and a rocket launcher from the other. An earlier prototype also shows that the Punisher works as storage for as many as eight pistols.
4 Cross Marian’s Judgment Revolver In D. Gray-Man Never Misses Its Mark
There's some extremely satisfying demon slaying action in D. Gray Man, a shonen series where Allen Walker and other special individuals forge weapons out of a substance known only as Innocence. Cross Marian is a dangerous exorcist whose Innocence takes the form of a revolver known as Judgment.
Cross' Judgment can empty a whole chamber in a fraction of a second, but some of its stronger abilities, like Bullets of Condemnation, won't stop until they make contact with their target, even if obstacles get in the way.
3 Space Battleship Yamato’s Wave Motion Gun Is A Literal Star Destroyer
Space Battleship Yamato is a prototypical anime space opera and so it's perhaps fitting that it has a cataclysmic cannon that brings Star Wars to mind. The Wave Motion Gun, which is technically called the Dimensional Wave Motion Explosive Compression Emitter, is a turret that gets mounted on a spaceship and has the strength to destroy a star or small planet.
The Death Star level of devastation also comes with a crucial caveat that its accompanying ship will face destruction if all six of the Wave Motion Gun's shots are fired at once.
2 Yusuke's Spirit Gun Has Become A Shonen Staple
So many shonen series have a tendency to get lost in endless filler of reach diminishing returns, but Yu Yu Hakusho remains a perennial classic that only looks better with the advantage of hindsight. Yusuke Urameshi’s development from juvenile delinquent to selfless spirit detective is truly beautiful.
Yusuke’s signature attack is the Spirit Gun, which isn’t a literal piece of weaponry, but rather an energy blast that he fires from his fingers. Yusuke is only able to fire his Spirit Gun once a day during the start of his adventures, but his capacity for this attack gradually increases by the end of the series.
1 Psycho-Pass' Dominator Is A Psychologist And Executioner Wrapped Into One
Psycho-Pass is an enlightening look into crime and culpability with a futuristic premise that's not far removed from Minority Report. The Public Safety Bureau aims to prevent crime before it happens and the Dominator Portable Psychological Diagnosis and Suppression System, or just The Dominator for short, helps accomplish this goal.
The Dominator is a powerful gun, but it's also a psychological mapping tool that's linked to the Sibyl System. The Dominator calculates its target's Psycho-Pass rating and it won't operate unless they're deemed mentally unstable. Similarly, each Dominator will only work for the person in which it's registered.