Small rant

[Azure Wolf]

The katana is a sword that was made for one-strike one kill, so it wasn't made for drawn out combat, but is still durable due to the required method. While against European armour and weaponry it won't be as effective, as European armour is full body with the main weaknesses at the joints. The various ways to use a katana focus on targeting the unarmoured points of a target, mainly the wrists, top-center of the head, between the ribs and hips and the throat. The main reason samurai could lose a fight with a European Knight would be that these targets are blocked by the armour, while most Eastern armours are lighter and not as encompassing. The main reason why a katana wouldn't be a decent weapon for most in a zombie apocalypse would be that they can't use it. Currently there are only a few who can use a katana to its full effectiveness in their field of training.

 

Basically my views on how effective a katana would be in a zombie apocalypse. The last part is true as out of the approximate 1500 7th dans who attended the 8th dan exam roughly only 2% pass and it in to bringing the length of time into perspective it takes a minimum of 15 years to reach 6th dan. The main argument was saying that a katana would break after a few strikes. Against a heavily armoured opponent this would be true but as most Eastern armour was mainly light and the katana was one of the best bladed weapons in the East along with weapons like the Naginata not many things could break it. 

 

I do acknowledge the fact that most people are like this against the katana because of media making it out to be a magical weapon, while its just folded steel and iron, the katana was made for a one-ht strike, as that was how the samurai was trained, if the opponent is guarding his head, attack his sides, if he's guarding his torso attack his neck/head and so one. The head was a main target because the center of the standard Japanese helmet was stitching, so a well placed strike would cut through that and the persons head. The reason European armour is superior to Japanese is because it is better in protecting vital parts, like your chest, head and so on.

[mitchermitcher]

Made me think of

 

[Azure Wolf]

Made me think of

 

Media making it out that the katana is a powerful blade, but the form of media is anime so biased opinions and anime logic do apply.

 

Anyway more to the Youtube argument which has now changed to the the samurai o'yoroi and knights steel plate armour.

 

It entirely depends on who crafted the armour, standard samurai armour was made for the wearers fighting still and usually weighed between 5-25 Kg while the steel plate knights would have worn would be 15-25 Kg. So while they can way the same samurai armour could way lighter allowing for faster movement and strikes. I haven't tried samurai O'yoroi but I have seen and held steel plate and iron chain mail armour.

 

Going back to my previous point, the samurai focused on defeating their foe with as little strikes as possible for this the amour was made for the wearer at his discretion. If he were to wear heavier or lighter armour it would unbalance him causing more strikes and wasted energy. A knight on the other hand has armour that is forged the same as most others with the weight dependent on the quality of steel used, so the armour could be used a lot more from its durabliy and ease of repair compared to samurai o'yoroi. If you give a samurai and a knight steel plate armour and another samurai and knight o'yoroi the match has been decided already, the samurai in the o'yoroi would defeat his foe while the knight in steel plate would defeat his.

 

It basically comes down to who can strike the weak points first. With a samurai's superior speed he has a chance of getting the lighter parts of the armour, the joints and depending on the helm maybe the neck, while a knight does have better armour he has less speed but he also has more targets to hit, the wrists, sides, head, neck, legs.

 

It boils down to what the time was like while the armours were in use, Europe had a lot more fightin, mainly between England and France, the Crusades and so on, while the Japanese mainly fought amongst themselves or against Korean invaders. In both cases the armour was either the same or was better than their opponents.

[Cierfrost]

The main reason it couldn't be used in a zombie apocalypse is because it would get dulled on the coagulated blood coursing through the muscle tissues. A zombie does not bleed out, you'd have to cut clean through and the Katana is neither wide enough nor does it have enough stabbing power to penetrate even a decomposing body.