Katana

Not to be confused with actual katana, which also appear in the series. "All they can see a katana as is a tool for destruction."

- Togusa

Katana (刀, Katana) are inanimate androids fitted with weaponry designed for battle. They are operated by "kenshi", humans who transfer their soul into the android and operate them as if it were their own bodies. During this process, the actual body is left helpless. Because lots of the katana were eventually utilized for criminal purposes, the Anti Katana Crime Division was founded, using their own katana to combat these.

There is one known half-katana, half-human hybrid, namely Togusa.

Overview


Katana were developed from an original project which would allow humans to transfer their souls into an inanimate container, so-called "androids", for construction and medical purposes. However, the technology was soon used to create battle-oriented androids, which were named "katana". Within the Anti Katana Crime Division, they are operated by professionals, named kenshi.

Each kenshi had a limit to how long their soul can remain fixed to their katana, transgressing this limit would cause the soul to start decaying within the katana. This is generally restricted to a few days maximum, Shinobu Hiyama being famous for her ability to remain in hers for three days.

Characteristics
Being machines created for battle, Katana possess various superhuman abilities:


 * Enhanced Physical Abilities: Katana are faster, stronger and sturdier than any human being, to the point it is considered nearly impossible for a normal human to survive a strike from a katana.
 * Armaments: Each katana possesses certain "armaments", weapons or equipment they can activate within battle when they see the need to. There are several types of armaments, such as "sub-armaments" and "final armaments". The exception is Amano Hahagiri, who was manufactured to be human and doesn't possess any armaments at all.

Automaton
Automatons or Autonomous Katana was an experiment in the past concerning the creation of katana who didn't require human attendance. However, the facility where the experiments were conducted was destroyed when Prototype went rogue. Research on automatons has been forbidden ever since. Amano Hahagiri, a fully sentient automaton, was created by Sakon Ujiyama right before the termination order was given.

Known Katana
This is a list of named katana. For the various unnamed katana that appear in the series, please refer to List of Unnamed Katana.


 * Amano Hahagiri
 * Dōjigiri
 * Iwatōshi
 * Gokotai
 * Heshikiri Hasabe
 * Juzumaru
 * Kiku-Ichi-Monji
 * Kogarasumaru
 * Koryū Kagemitsu
 * Kotetsu
 * Midare Mitsukane
 * Mikazuki Munechika
 * Monohoshi Zao
 * Nikkari Aoe
 * Onimaru
 * Ōtenta
 * Prototype
 * Shishiō
 * Tsurumaru
 * Yatsuka no Tsurugi (hybrid)

Trivia

 * All katana are named after actual famous japanese swords.