It's one of those weird questions manga lets you ask...

[meganbmoore]

Because exceptionally strange things randomly occur to me:

How many (and what) manga and anime are there where swords are somehow kept inside a woman's (or a man's, I just haven't seen that one) body.  Surviving the sword being drawn/birthed is optional.  Off the top of my head, there's:

1.  X/1999
2. Revolutionary Girl Utena
3. Seimaden

Also, what about series where characters are actually swords (or other weapons) with just being a talking hunk of metal.  Off the top of my head, there's:

1.  Angel Sanctuary
2.  Bleach (I think it counts as being more than a talking hunk of metal, at least.  That may be debatable.)

Spoiler code for details:  <span style="color: #333333;background-color: #333333">Spoilers here.</span>

Comments

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it counts, but the Soul Sword that Illyana Rasputin and Kitty Pryde toted around was stored inside their bodies... (I don't know if that's where Margali and Amanda Sefton stored it while they held it.)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I forget, did it come out from their stomach, or from between their breasts?

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for every artist, but the SS trilogy that Ellis wrote had it coming from Kitty's stomach.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

There's a Manhua called The Moon (by Lin Yling) where a sword is a woman, and since she's held by a female warrior, they have this awesome femslashy relationship. Sadly it's just a oneshot and way too short (and the French translation was quite a bit confusing)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

And probably not available for me. Hmph.

[ivy-chan.livejournal.com]

There were swords in male bodies in Utena! In the third duel arc, the duelists pulled each others' swords. (Touga pulled Saionji's, Shiori pulled Ruka's, Kozue pulled Miki's.)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Anthy is the main one, but I remembered others had turns at that, too.

[ivy-chan.livejournal.com]

*was responding to where you said you hadn't seen male sword pulling yet*

What's fun about Anthy is that she keeps one sword by choice, Dios's, and the million swords of hate are forced on her. So she is just chock FULL of swords.

[ivy-chan.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I think Soul Eater has people weapons, too. Soul turns into a scythe and Tsubaki...well, I haven't watched, but I think she's various weapons.

[keelieinblack.livejournal.com]

Soul Eater, maybe? In that series the Weapons all have dual human-or-humanoid and weapon forms, but also there's one that's sort of permanently possessing/sharing the body of its wielder. eta: oops, ivy_chan mentioned it just before I did.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I rememberedd it right after posting, too...

[octopedingenue]

There's a snarky talking lady sword in Pahanjip, which is manhwa. ETA Clarification because it probably needs it: the sword doesn't come out the woman's body in Pahanjip, she is the sword.

A sword comes out of a girl's body (to use as her own weapon) in Arina Tanemura's new series Sakurahime Kaden, which you so will love.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I am certain the Tanemura will be licensed! Isn't Pahanjip licensed under a different name?

[octopedingenue]

Yup, Time and Again by Yen Press. Not as memorable as Pahanjip, but at least I can clasp my own English copy to my bosom come December!

IIRC Sakurahime Kaden volume 1 hasn't even been published in Japan yet, so it'll be a too-long wait on that licensing front for me. I do hope it turns out to be longer than 2-3 volumes this time.

[valkyriesailor.livejournal.com]

Don't know if it counts, but Elemental Gerad is where the girl changes into a sword (other characters into other weapons).
In Get Backers a guy gets knifes out of his body - though can't remember if it's put there somehow.
And in One Piece one eat the blade-fruit, and since then his touch cuts. He fights with Zorro, using his own body as sword(s).

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I forgot all about the first two.

[valkyriesailor.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's not the same cathegory as you think about, but just now I remembered Pretear. There the guys become one with the girl, and so she can use their elements, use their power as a shield and form a weapon (sword, bow, axe, whip, etc.).

[escalove.livejournal.com]

Soul Eater involves characters turning into weapon varying from scythes to knives to guns. That is the only major one that I know of.

Edit: And I was beaten to the punch.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's one of the current Big Things in anime.

[narugami.livejournal.com]

Half the cast in Tales of Destiny are talking swords.. granted it's an RPG, but they've made a fair number of manga adaptations of the story and its sequel.

Time Stranger Kyoko has a talking staff.. what else is there? Oh yeah, MAR has a talking kendama with a mustache who thinks he's Cyrano de Bergerac! He also transforms into a sword/glove thing (among others.)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've seen any of the Tales of Destiny stuff.

[narugami.livejournal.com]

Offhand I can't think of any Tales manga that have been released here... then again, they never did port the PS2 remake here, sadly. It's really entertaining watching the characters have telepathic arguments with their swords XD;

Sorry, that was a little off-topic!

[the-sun-is-up.livejournal.com]

More on the Soul Eater thing: most of the human characters have weapon partners who take human form during everyday life and morph into weapon form in battle. However there's one exception: one of the villains is a weapon-wielder whose weapon is actually stored/lives in his/her body. When the weapon is in weapon form, it's separate from its partner, but when it's in humanoid form, it's sort of attached to its partner's back so that they basically share one body.

It should be noted that this last wielder/weapon partnership is an extremely toxic and abusive relationship, and the fact that the two are melded together is regarded as being icky and disturbing by the protagonists.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

That's...comforting.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_neith_/]

In XBlade (http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=10956), there is an ancient sword which transforms into a girl (or the other way around).

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Myeh. Why not licensed?!?!?!

[estara.livejournal.com]

Kyou in Kyou Kara Maoh has a traditional talking sword, which used the be good then was evil and is now just clueless... although it mostly moans around in the anime... ^^

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I'm rather fond of that sword.

[pikabot]

In Naruto, Orochimaru was fond of pulling a sword out of his mouth. Or, to be more precise, inside the mouth of the snake that came out of his mouth. Does that count?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Was that a later addition? Or did I just block it due to snakes?

[pikabot]

I think he first did it when he was fighting the third Hokage? My memory could be slipping, though.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

That sounds right.

[paperclipchains.livejournal.com]

That would make sense, given his name.

[swanjun.livejournal.com]

In Silver Diamond there's a talking snake that turns into a sword. :)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

What is it with snakes and swords...

[ivy-chan.livejournal.com]

I could answer that, but I'll just stick in an appropriate icon. XD

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

You might like Silver Diamond, actually. It's really... weird. It somehow manages to be really stereotypical light BL and something entirely different at the same time. It's bizarre and intriguing and full of fuzzy sweet friendship moments. (Hilariously, guy with snake/sword companion is an eunuch. Um.)

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

Dunno if anyone's mentioned it, but a male character in Rust Blaster is like... kind of in-between those two. (Having a sword inside/being a sword. And it's not quite a sword but it's rather... sword-like.)

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

in Soul Eater, there are people who travel in pairs with their weapon-human persona thingies.

in Elemental Gerard (Elemental Glade[?]), there are people who become bonded to others as weapons (they're a specific species of people).

In Trigun, Vash the Stampede is kind of...well. uh. Crap, have you watched/read that one yet?

Trinity Blood has people...things...that sort of are human weapons.

then there's SaiKano (BAWWWWWL)

My Name is Zushio has a rod that was formerly a dragon god, but now is stuck as a weapon.

Kurogane(?) has a talking sword in it, because the main character is a robotic construct of a former person whose creator died before he could make a voicebox for him/it.

I think there's some Sailor Moon characters who give up their lives to become weapons for some of the scouts...yeah, definitely (they're either in the Supers arc or the Star arc).

Gaaaah, what was that other one *flails*

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

...

I think I had managed to block the overwhelming (but excellent0 depression of Saikano.

And I forgot about Vash!

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

I almost had, too, but then the second series came out (me: WHYYYY?!!!), and then I read one of the one-shots by the same guy that, oh god, was so much MORE emotional and painful. Which, ironically enough, kind of relates to this post.

Vash forgives you because he's just that kind of guy ^^

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

There's a second series?

How?

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

Yeah, SaiKano something something redux. Ish. When I found out, I kind of threw myself down on the floor in despair and "omg wtf HOW CAN THERE BE MORE DDD8"

Uh. I dunno. *flails*

another sword-person

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

In Mononoke.