Tonfa in popular culture

Last updated November 11, 2021

The tonfa is a popular weapon in video games, anime and manga.

In video games

In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night , the protagonist Alucard can find and wield a pair of tonfa, although they are mistranslated as nunchaku in the English-language releases of the game.
In 『カニノケンカ -Fight Crab-』 , the crabs can equip tonfa alongside many other japanese-style weapons.
In Warframe , the Kronen, Boltace, and Ohma are sets of bladed tonfas that may be used by the player.
Eri Kasamoto and Fio Germi from Metal Slug series.
Maki Genryusai from Final Fight 2 .
Makoto Nanaya in Blazblue: Continuum Shift .
In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon , Jax uses a pair of tonfa as his melee weapon. In Mortal Kombat X , Tanya's Kobu Jutsu Blades are fashioned like tonfa. In Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat 9 , Stryker wields batons similar to the Monadnock PR-24, a stereotypical law enforcement weapon, which are clearly inspired by tonfa.
Talim in the Soulcalibur series wields a pair of bladed tonfa.
Black Orchid in the Killer Instinct series.
Mao in Tales of Rebirth .
Rachael and Tracy in the Battle Arena Toshinden series.
Yoko Kono in Last Bronx .
Levin in Wild Arms XF .
Noa in Legend of Legaia .
The protagonist of Suikoden II .
In Mega Man Zero 3 , Zero can use "Recoil Rods", which resemble spring-loaded tonfa.
In Capcom's Monster Hunter Frontier , The player can equip a pair of bladed tonfas as selectable weapons.
It is also used in Ninja Gaiden .
Parasite Eve II and Ninja Gaiden II offer tonfa as a selectable weapons.
In Cyber Troopers Virtual-On , the trademark of robots of the Apharmd series are a pair of energy beam tonfa, romanized as "tongfer".
In the Strider video game series, the main character, Strider Hiryu wields a bladed tonfa capable of generating a deadly plasma arc; however, the covers for these games' western releases usually depict the hero with a sword instead.
In Bayonetta one of the weapons available to the titular heroine is a pair of rocket launchers that can be used as a baton in melee combat.
In Grand Chase , Jin wields tonfa as a weapon for his 2nd class.
Tonfa are used by the warlord Sun Ce of Wu in the Dynasty Warriors franchise by Koei, which is based on Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms . The tonfa are Sun Ce's signature weapon, although in history, he used a 'Bronze Spear' at war. The tonfa was removed from the franchise in Dynasty Warriors 6 , but returned in the 7th installment of the series, Dynasty Warriors 7 .
In Dungeon Fighter Online , the Fighter class can wield a variety of tonfas.
In the Super Robot Wars series of videogames and anime, the mecha PTX-014 R-Blade(or "Arblade") wields a pair of weapons called "Blade tonfa", in which the longer end of the tonfa is a short sword blade.
In Tekken 6 , Lei Wulong can be equipped with Tonfa as a clothing option.
In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed , the Dark Jedi Maris Brood uses lightsabers with tonfa-shaped hilts. Also, several Wookies carry bladed tonfas.
In Namco's Knuckle Heads , Robert Vincent uses dual tonfas.
In Left 4 Dead 2 , the Survivors can utilize this melee weapon from several campaigns, although it is referred to as a nightstick.
In the game Dead Island .
In the 1995 DOS game BioForge , the player character eventually acquires a large gun called a "Tonfa Gun" which can also be used as a club.
In Yakuza 3 , Kazuma Kiryu is able to wield tonfas.
In the 1985 fighting game Yie Ar Kung-Fu , Tonfun uses two tonfas.
Rebecca from the Double Dragon fighting game uses twin tonfas as her weapons.
Eri Hasumi from Vanguard Princess fighting game uses twin tonfas as her weapons.
Lloyd Bannings and Juna Crawford from the Trails video game series use twin tonfas as their weaponry of choice.
In Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII , Cloud Strife and other members of the Shin-Ra Infantry wear tonfa strapped to their right thighs, though none are seen in use.
In Nioh , the player may wield a pair of tonfas, which boast excellent blocking and guard-breaking ability in return for their short range.
Nina Williams and Anna Williams in Death by Degrees .
In Xenoblade Chronicles 2 , Sever, a rare Blade unlockable in New Game Plus, uses a sword tonfa, a unique weapon that primarily takes on the shape of a tonfa, but can also turn into a shield or a sword. However, only Malos uses the sword tonfa like that, while the player uses it in the bladed knuckles style.
Lloyd Bannings, the main protagonist, of Zero no Kiseki .

In manga and anime

Valeria Vertone in Angel Links
Okina in Rurouni Kenshin
Marie Mjölnir in Soul Eater
Naizer in Black Cat
Kyoya Hibari in Reborn!
Takeru Teshimine in GetBackers
Akane Higurashi in My-HiME
Layla Ashley in Avenger
Most production-model Knightmare Frames fielded by Britannia in Code Geass : Glasgow, Sutherland, and Vincent Ward.
Gin in One Piece uses a pair of tonfa with cannonball sized weights on the ends.
Fushiguro Megumi in Jujutsu Kaisen
Tenten from Naruto uses a tonfa in one episode, and Rock Lee uses them briefly in one episode.
In 07-Ghost , Teito used a pair of tonfa in a chapter.
In Saint Seiya , the tonfa is one of the six sets of weapons of the Libra Golden Cloth. In the Poseidon Saga, Cygnus Hyoga uses one of the tonfas to take down one of the Marine Pillars.
Ingrid Bernstein uses bladed tonfa in Freezing .
Carossa in Gun Sword .
In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS , Schach Nouera uses dual tonfa as her Armed Device, Windenschaft.
In Future Diary , Akise Aru was shown to defend Ueshita Kamado from Gasai Yuno's attack with the tonfa.
In Rave Groove Adventure , Elie uses gun-tonfas.
In Fairy Tail , Edolas Wendy is shown to use tonfa as her main weaponry.
In Tokyo Mew Mew , Kish Ikisatashi is shown to use tonfa in the manga.
In RWBY , Fox Alastair uses dual bladed tonfas.
In Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn , the Unicorn Gundam uses a pair of arm mounted beam sabers referred to as Beam Tonfas
In The King of Braves GaoGaiGar , the robot ChoRyuJin wields a pair of oversized tonfa dubbed Ladder Tonfa formed from part of its components' vehicle modes - a fire truck ladder and a crane boom

In film and television

In the Hellboy movie series, the character Karl Ruprecht Kroenen wields tonfa-like swords (similar to the weapons wielded by Talim).
In Star Trek: Enterprise , MACO troops serving on the Enterprise (NX-01) wield steel tonfa with an electrically charged tip.
In the movie G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra , the character Snake-Eyes uses wood and metal tonfa
Tonfa were shown as "ninja weapons" in the South Park episode "Good Times with Weapons".
In the live action series Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation , the character Michelangelo used tonfa instead of the nunchaku ^[1] used by his character in previous incarnations (mostly due to the ban on nunchaku used in children media at the time).
In the Super Sentai series Chouriki Sentai Ohranger and Juken Sentai Gekiranger ( Power Rangers: Zeo and Power Rangers: Jungle Fury in the American versions), the Blue Rangers of both series wield tonfa as their main weapons.
In the Korean drama Iljimae , one of the eponymous hero's weapons is a tonfa that can be merged into a bow.
In the Nickelodeon TV show Supah Ninjas Amanda uses a pair of Tonfa
In the short film Bionic, Zahia Dehar is attacked by a policeman who is trying to use a tonfa.
In the Korean drama Gwanggaeto, The Great Conqueror , one of Damdeok's followers, Sagal Hyeon, wields a pair of tonfa blades.
In the film City Hunter (adapted from the manga of the same name), Jackie Chan fights Richard Norton with a pair of tonfa.
In the live-action TV show Arrow , the character Laurel Lance / Black Canary uses a black tonfa.
In Star Wars: The Force Awakens , the stormtrooper FN-2199 is seen using a tonfa-like weapon. Referred to as a Z6 riot control baton in spin-off media, the weapon can rotate around its handle and withstand a lightsaber strike.
In Captain America: Civil War , Black Widow is seen using a pair of tonfa during the battle at the Leipzig airport.
In Mortal Kombat, Cole is seen wielding tonfa during a fight.
Jyn Erso briefly uses a single tonfa in Rogue One .
Michael Jai White wields a pair of lead pipes as tonfa in Falcon Rising
In Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , Raphael wields tonfas.^[2]

In Power Rangers Jungle Fury (2008), Theo, the Blue Ranger wields Tonfa and is seen as his primary weapon.

In comics

The Justice League villain Prometheus wields a high-tech tonfa.
The Canadian superhero Captain Canuck uses two high-tech tonfa as his main offensive and defensive weapons in conjunction with dual stun pistols both in the animated web series ^[3] and in the comic books.^[4]
In Trese, Father Matthias Trese uses tonfa as one of his main weapons in exorcism.

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References

↑ Tim Webber (14 December 2016). "15 Forgotten Live-Action Comic Book TV Shows". CBS. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
↑ Matthew Mueller (1 February 2018). "First Look At Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Revealed". Comicbook. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-06-14. Retrieved 2015-06-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-06-14. Retrieved 2015-06-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

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[1] Tim Webber (14 December 2016). "15 Forgotten Live-Action Comic Book TV Shows". CBS. Retrieved 5 February 2018.

[2] Matthew Mueller (1 February 2018). "First Look At Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Revealed". Comicbook. Retrieved 2 February 2018.

[3] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-06-14. Retrieved 2015-06-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[4] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-06-14. Retrieved 2015-06-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

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