Swords that slash with arcs of fire are possible in real life, and awesome.

So by this point, I think we’re all in agreement that katana are pretty cool, right? However, there’s a bit of a problem that sometimes dulls their awesomeness. For a lot of us growing up in the modern era, we’ve grown up seeing Japanese swords in anime and video games that are imbued with enchanted powers and spray waves of magical energy, like this.

Once you get used to images like that, the swing of an actual katana can seem kind of anticlimactic…unless it’s katana visual artist Kiwamu Miyakubo who’s swinging the sword.

Kiwamu, who introduces himself with an understated “I’m a person who makes fire look beautiful” in his Twitter profile, has created an entire series of videos where the slashes of his sword send out arcs of fire. If that short clip above has you wanting to see more (and we’re sure it does), here’s the full-length version of his latest project.

And if you want to know how intimidating it’d be to fight a swordsman who can do this, here’s a front-view angle.

Kiwamu doesn’t reveal how he produces his swords of flame, either to maintain an aura of mystery or to keep clans of evil ninja from using that knowledge to take over the world. As such, we can’t say if his green fire video is the result of special chemical components or infusing the blade with wind and earth-based elemental spirits, but we can say that it looks amazing.

Finally, in perhaps Kiwamu’s best example of an as-awesome-as-this-looks-don’t-try-it-at-home video, here he is wielding his flame katana in a traditional Japanese room made of paper walls, reed floors, and other combustible building materials.

If watching these videos has you thinking of a great flame katana idea of your own, Kiwamu takes requests/commissions through his website here.

Source: Twitter/@kiwamissimo via Hachima Kiko
Top image: YouTube/KiwamuFire
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