* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Guilty Gear
ギルティギア
A fighting game franchise that began with the original 1998 title from Arc System Works. Baiken, a wandering swordswoman who has appeared since the first game, fights primarily with a katana and remains one of the series' most recognizable kimono-clad samurai characters.
Description
Overview
Guilty Gear is a series whose first entry is the fighting game released for PlayStation by Arc System Works in 1998. Its creator is illustrator and director Daisuke Ishiwatari. The setting is a near-future world after a collapse, where magic has replaced nearly all modern technology and bio-weapons called "Gears," created through runaway or abused magic, run rampant. The protagonist is Sol Badguy, a bounty hunter who once took part in research into creating Gears and was himself remodeled into a prototype Gear.
Baiken, the Samurai Swordswoman
Baiken, one of the playable characters in the series, is a one-armed, one-eyed wandering swordswoman who carries over from the first title. Her hometown was attacked by Gears, and she watched her parents and friends die before her eyes, and she has sworn revenge ever since. In battle she uses a katana as her main weapon, and in place of her lost right arm she wears a prosthetic arm with hidden weapons.
An Emblematic Presence of the Series
Baiken is a popular character who appears in GUILTY GEAR X, XX, Xrd, and -STRIVE-. Clad in Japanese dress and wielding a sword, her standing figure, with a stance reminiscent of iaido drawing against enemies, was born as a purely Japanese-style character within a series with many Western-style characters, and has become one of the characters that symbolize the series.
Real Swords Featured
Uchigatana
A standard form of Japanese sword worn edge-up in the belt by samurai from the Muromachi period onward. Its length and weight balance allow it to be used with one or both hands, and it suits both actual combat and test cutting (tameshigiri). Baiken also wields a traditional Japanese sword.
Shinogi-zukuri
The representative cross-sectional construction of a Japanese blade, in which a ridgeline called shinogi runs between the cutting edge and the spine (mune). As a rational cross-sectional shape that balances strength and sharpness, it became the mainstream of Japanese swords from the Heian period onward.
Tsuba
A disc-shaped hand guard fitted between the hilt and blade. It is a practical tool that prevents the hand from sliding onto the blade on a thrust, and it has also developed as an art object decorated with openwork and engraving.
This page is intended to introduce Japanese sword culture and is not affiliated with any of the works mentioned.