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She will spin it around her body and dance the Danse Macabre over your grave.
A particular class of improbable weapon. Typically consists of a pair of razor-sharp rings which are used to acrobatically slice up enemies. A bit of Fridge Logic sometimes ensues with really sharp rings: namely, where do you hold it? This is often Hand Waved away by the Rule of Cool, though. If not, it's usually explained by detailed artwork or details about said weapon in writing, by having a handle made by strips of leather wrapped around it, having the fighter wear protective gloves, or keeping them constantly spinning like hula hoops. Not perfect solutions, but better than nothing.

This may be inspired by a couple of real life weapons. The Chinese feng huo lun ("wind and fire wheels") are ring-shaped, but one section of the circle is padded to serve as a grip. The Indian chakram ("wheel") is more of a throwing weapon (thrown like a quoit), though sometimes the Rings Of Death can be thrown as well (often serving as impromptu boomerangs).

See also Deadly Disc and Fuuma Shuriken.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • In 3×3 Eyes, Ganesha, Wu of the first Kaiyanwang employs a small but sharp Chakram (called "Combat Ring" In-Universe) as his weapon. He can spin it on his finger and throw it from there with deadly precision and catch it back.
  • Ayakashi Triangle: Matoi's Lunar Ring Slayer is a projectile ring made of wind which explodes into a shower of wind spears.
  • A character in Berserk named Silat uses chakrams as a long-ranged weapon. When Guts catches them, he immediately ruins the moment by trying his hand at it, with the rings flying off to the sides.
  • Apache's weapon in Bleach is a pair of half rings with three saw-tooth like projections.
  • In Buso Renkin, Gouta refers to his buso renkin as chakram, and are called Motor Gears. They look like gears, he throws them, and they have different abilities if he attaches them to different parts of the body.
  • Ignitemon of Digimon Fusion dual-wields these and projects a paralyzing sound attack from them.
  • In Dragon Ball Z, Gotenks had a Galactic Donut attack where he created a ring of ki which he used to entrap Buu in an attempt to chop him in half.
  • In Gamaran a minor character using a chakram is seen. In this case is used like an oversized but deadly shuriken.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Char encounters a thug in South America named Agha, who throws a chakram well enough to cut a man's head off or even return like a boomerang. Char only survives the encounter because of his own awakening Newtype powers, and possibly psychic assistance from Lalah.
  • In Naruto, Konan can create large chakrams out of paper, which she uses to try and defeat Tobi.
  • One Piece:
    • The hypnotist (D)Jango uses a pair of razor-sharp chakram that he can throw with sufficient force to level forests, and which typically come back to him when thrown.
    • Vivi uses a form of chakram called Peacock Slashers that she twirls around her pinky fingers.
  • Ranma ½:
    • Kodachi has a number of gymnastic equipment turned into deadly weapons, including razor-edged hoops.
    • In the final arc of the manga, there was a staff with a one-and-a-half foot diameter ring attached to one end; the ring could be flicked off the staff, cut through things, and would then fly back to the staff and reattach itself.
  • Kyuo's chulinks in Shadow Skill are a series of chakram-like rings; an integral part of a Septia's abilities and duties, serving as focal points to activate and control their traps. By attaching a cord to it, a chulink could be used as both a throwing weapon as well as a whip.
  • A less razor-sharp and more plastic-looking example occurs with the Puringrings, Mew Pudding's weapons in Tokyo Mew Mew.
  • YuYu Hakusho
    • The demon surgeon Shigure uses a huge bladed ring that can cut through metal.
    • There's a human boy that could create and wield chakrams of pure energy and was forced to fight in the Dark Tournament by Dr. Ichigaki.

    Comic Books 

    Fanfiction 
  • Unlike his bumbling main-universe counterparts, the Ringer in Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams is both very competent and very dangerous. One of his first criminal acts was to cripple a star player for the New York Yankees, and he gave Sleepwalker a good fight before finally being taken down. His wife, who later dons the suit herself and essentially becomes both a Legacy Character and a Distaff Counterpart, does even better. She very nearly beats Sleepwalker the first time they fight, and loses only because of the interference of a New York police officer who shoots the weapon with which she's about to kill Sleepwalker.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Black Panther (2018): Nakia fights with a pair of energized ring-shaped blades.
  • Kung Fu Hustle: Tailor, in his Let's Get Dangerous! moment when the Axe Gang storms his hometown, uses metal rings (from his clothesline) as a weapon. Downplayed in that he merely uses the rings to cover his forearms so that he can block attacks with it and harden his backfists; he's called "The Iron Fist" in the past.
  • Priest (2011): One of the three Priests who confront Black Hat in the town of Jericho fights with two ring-shpaed blades.
  • TRON has all programs issued an identity disc that the owner can use as a weapon by throwing it, and that can usually deflect other thrown discs. TRON: Legacy takes it to the next level, by explicitly making the discs rings, and going to some crazy lengths to show how awesome you can be by throwing them.
  • In Warriors of Virtue, the silent warrior Yee fights with large metal rings. Large, blunt metal rings.

    Literature 
  • Razor-edged chakrams are the weapon of choice for one of the tribes in J.T. Edson's Bunduki novels.
  • Nezha's trademark weapon is the "Qian Kun Hoop/乾坤圈"in Fengshen Yanyi. It should not be confused as the "Feng Huo Lun/The Wheel of Wind and Fire", as the latter are wheels under Nezha's feet provide transportation. Two different villains wield the equally deadly White Jade Adamantine Bracelet/White Jade Circlet, which however proves inferior to Nezha's metal one, while the Immortal Ma Sui uses the Golden Hoop (a magic circlet which can fly on someone's head and constrict them painfully).

    Live-Action TV 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Forgotten Realms has an over-the top version, Ring of Disintegration spell in FR16 The Shining South. It throws a looped Disintegrator Ray which, instead of the normal effect that tends to pulverize the victim's equipment, cuts through and may easily slice off an appendage (or head) with a single hit.
  • Zor-Magna from Monsterpocalypse wields these.

    Video Games 
  • Fired by the wide-ranged Shot Gun weapon in 1943. Kai kicks the firing rate up a couple points.
  • Abadox has a weapon that fires giant ones, though it's not available until the third stage.
  • Boomerang blade discs are standard issue in Alien vs. Predator (Capcom). It comes back to you if you stay where you shot it. Even if you turn your back. It originates from Predator 2.
  • In Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura, the thrown weapon version is available in several forms. Slightly justified in that two or three of them are specifically "magical". The most powerful of these are Shout Outs to two movies which are So Bad, They're Good; Azram's Star is the Glaive from the pseudo-Sword and Sorcery flick Krull, and the bizarre Aerial Decaptiator is the titular weapon of several Shaw Brothers movies; Master of the Flying Guillotine.
  • In Age of Empires II Dynasties of India: the newly-introduced Gurjaras have Chakram Throwers as their Unique Unit created at the Castle: they are considered infantry but can attack at range (like Throwing Axemen and Gbeto) by throwing dual chakrams that can slice through multiple targets per shot. They're strong against infantry, but lose to actual ranged units and archers.
  • Ninjara and Min-Min in ARMS have chakrams as one of their options of Arms. In the former's case, they are simply called Chakrams, while in the latter's, they are called Ramrams.
  • In Baldur's Gate II, one of the highest level priest spells allows her to create chakram of solid darkness and throw them at the enemy. (It makes sense for Viconia, as a darkness chakram is her goddess' weapon of choice but looks rather weird on the other priests.) The damage isn't much for that level but the attack has a ridiculous rate of fire that turns all but the toughest foes into mincemeat.
  • Mizuti from Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean wields a chakram; however, it's only used as a weapon in the most basic finisher, while the rest of the time it just serves as a magical conduit, similar to Xelha's staff.
  • The Secret Armoury of General Knoxx, the third piece of DLC for Borderlands, adds the female [Crimson] Lance Assassins. The "badass" versions of which can fling razor edged discs at you (normal one's are limited to their twin laser blades.
  • Castlevania:
  • A hoop is the weapon of hidden fighter Chin Wo in Eternal Champions: Challenge From the Dark Side.
  • The Carnival of Shadows Villainous Harlequin enemies in City of Heroes use these as projectile weapons.
  • Cissnei from Crisis Core fights with weapons similar to the above example.
  • In CrossCode dual rings made of energy is the trademark weapon of the Spheromancer class. They are used solely as a melee weapon, as all ranged attack are carried out with VRPs.
  • Dynasty Warriors:
    • Sun Shangxiang wields a pair of bladed wheels in all installments but 6, where she switched to a considerably less improbable bow and arrows. In 9, Wang Yi follows suit, trading her trishula for wheels.
    • In the 8th installment, Ding Feng wields a giant bladed ring capable of executing many different combos provided the player thinks outside the box a bit. In other games, however, he wields gauntlets instead.
  • Chakrams are available in Karim's chapter in Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.
  • Chakram appears in Fallout Tactics. It's unclear what it does in this setting, but hey, it's much better than freakin' Fantasy Ball.
  • Examples abound in Final Fantasy:
    • In Final Fantasy V there are a few chakram that are equipable by Thiefs, Ninja and Freelancer/Mimes (the last 2 can wield anything). They are strong for when you get them, and deal full damage from the back row.
    • Yuffie from Final Fantasy VII had a few of these in addition to her typical arsenal of shurikens and boomerangs.
    • Rinoa from Final Fantasy VIII also has some, though they're typically fired from a crossbow-like weapon rather than used in melee. Fujin has a more traditional one.
    • Most Ninja characters in the Final Fantasy series throw shuriken at their opponents, but Amarant Coral in Final Fantasy IX is an exception. Instead of throwing stars, he can throw chakrams at his enemies.
    • Final Fantasy XI has chakrams used in the exact same way.
    • Final Fantasy XIV has a pair of chakrams as the weapon of choice of the Dancer class. Their boomerang-like qualities are explicitly justified in this case as they are magically directed with the Dancer's movements.
  • Ebisumaru gets a hula-hoop for his main attack in Ganbare Goemon 3: Shishijurokube no Karakuri Manji Gatame.
  • Priestess Shizuka in Genji: Days of the Blade.
  • Tio from Grandia II.
  • Guild Wars has chakrams as off-hand weapons. They're a subversion, though, as they're used as a magic focus by casters, not as actual weapons.
  • Honkai Impact 3rd: The game version that introduced Pardofelis as a playable character also introduced Chakrams as a weapon class, with her, Aponia, and Ai Hyperion Λ as the three Valkyries who use them (as of version 6.4 of the game). However, Ai is the only character whose chakram is actually a thrown weapon, as Pardofelis' chakram splits into two pieces which she wields like swords and only brings together in her Ultimate attack, and Aponia's floats behind her and is used as a focus for her lightning attacks.
  • Setsuna from I am Setsuna wears a pair of chakrams as hair decorations, removing them and using them as weapons when she has to defend herself.
  • RPGs made by Idea Factory tend to include chakrams as a weapon type alongside the more typical swords, spears, staffs and guns. Generally, they're low damage weapons that focus on racking up bonus damage through comboing. A few examples include Blazing Souls and Agarest Senki.
  • Axel from the Kingdom Hearts series wields wind and fire wheels (although the game labels them as "chakrams"). Appropriate, as his element is fire.. After Axel becomes his human self Lea again, he trades his chakrams for a Keyblade that has the ability to turn into chakrams made of fire.
  • In Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning one of the weapon types is a pair of magically imbued Chakrams sporting one of the three offensive elements that, as their normal attack, are used as telekinetically controlled boomerangs, serving as a decent mid-range weapon.
  • In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the stage 2 "Cutter" ability is "Chakram Cutter", changing the ability's usual bladed boomerangs into examples of this trope. The stage 3 version sort-of keeps to this trope, turning the projectiles into buzz-saws.
  • Qiyana, the Empress of the Elements from League of Legends uses a large, ornate bladed ring with three points around it (and a grip to hold it by) as both a weapon and a focus for her elemental magic.
  • The Yiga Footsoldiers in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sometimes wield these. The design indicates that it's a more powerful version of the Sinister Scythe that is more typical for them. In Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity this is Master Kohga's tier 3 weapon.
  • Selan dual-wields icy disc blades as her weapon of choice in Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals. Her special attacks allows her to use them as a Precision-Guided Boomerang.
  • Et uses bladed hoops as melee weapons in Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy. In keeping with the series' love of the Impossibly Cool Weapon, it can also transform into dual chakrams, an energy bow, and even a monobike.
  • Mega Man:
    • Mega Man 4 has Ring Man. He yields the Ring Boomerang weapon, which shoots a spinning ring as large as Mega Man himself.
    • Saturn from Mega Man V has a giant ring which he uses to control and stop time.
    • In Mega Man X: Command Mission, one of Marino's weapons is the Beam Chakram. It's basically used as a knife, but hits three times, as opposed to knives' two, which makes it one of Marino's best weapons. Curiously, Marino has actual throwing weapons, all shown as kunai, but doesn't throw chakrams, instead always holding them.
    • In Mega Man Battle Network Ring Man's counterpart, Ring.EXE, uses the Ring Boomerang as well.
  • Throwing chakrams are the favoured ranged weapon of the Dark Elves in Might and Magic: Heroes VI, since bows are impractical in the caves where they live.
  • ROM Hack Rockman No Constancy changed Air Man's mini-tornadoes into these (called "Wind Slicer"). After beating him, Mega Man can also fire them.
  • Variation Thereof: In the videogame R-Type and its sequels, there is a weapon for the titular ship which, when fully powered up, fires two rings linked together that can chew their way through anything in front of the ship. The rings remain linked as they move from the ship, for all appearances looking like a short chain as they fly. One of the most powerful weapons, as in the original game it's the only weapon that allows the Sub-Forces (small balls that attach to the top and bottom of your ship) to also fire shots in addition to the ring weapon (called "Ring Laser"). There's also a "Ground Laser" that consists of 10 yellow rings that shoot from the top and bottom of the ship, that then follow the terrain both above and below the ship to take out ground enemies.
  • RuneScape has the TokTz-xil-ul (or Obsidian throwing rings).
  • From the third installment onward, Oichi of Samurai Warriors uses four chakrams chained to groups of two so she can carry them as a pair. Mind you, it's a major improvement from her previous weapon, a cup-and-ball.
  • Secret of Mana features chakram-type weapons as a form of boomerang.
  • Mori Motonari in Sengoku Basara wields one giant ring starting from the second series. It symbolizes his obsession with the sun — in his Limit Break it even floats in the air and gives off light! It can also split into two semicircle-blades.
  • Sonic Heroes and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) introduce Dummy Rings, which are rings that destroy an enemy it touches. Rouge (Heroes only) and Tails can use these.
  • Tira from the Soul Series also counts, though her weapon consists of one large bladed ring rather than the typical two smaller ones. That's her up at the top of the page. Her joke weapon is a Hula Hoop, which can be just as deadly. Voldo also gets the occasional set of bladed ring weapons.
  • June Lin Milliam from Star Gladiator along with Ele in its sequel Plasma Sword fight with a Plasma Ring. Like Reverse Gripping a Laser Blade, this helps resolve issues with this weapon type (as you don't need a specific cutting edge or surface to do damage with it, allowing you to hold it anywhere and deliver an equal amount of force from all sides of the weapon).
  • Star Ocean: The Divine Force: Albaird uses a couple of rings, and can throw them both in gameplay and cutscenes. Curiously, he's introduced carrying a huge sword, but it's immediately handed over to Raymond, and he sticks to the rings for the whole game.
  • Luc, Sasarai and Estella from Suikoden III use rings to attack using their magic. Two problems exist that somewhat invert the trope: 1) Damage is still tied into their strength stat, which for the boys is worse than an 8 year old musician and 2) They won't attack from the back despite being very squishy. In the fifth game there's Sialeeds and Sharmista.
  • Super Mario Bros. has Wendy O. Koopa, one of the Koopalings, who often throws gold rings that ricochet off the walls as her main form of attack. It's unknown if they're actually sharp or not, though.
  • Some of the Humongous Mecha in Super Robot Wars have chakrams as weapons, most notably the Huckebein Mk II's Chakram Caster and the R-2's Beam Chakram, both of which use wires to control the ring. Similarly, the original Huckebein used the Remote Slasher, a spinning ring with no obvious control mechanism, and the Neo Chakram Caster, which was like the original but bigger and without a wire. All of these beside the Beam Chakram were made into equippable weapons in the Original Generation games, so anyone could use them.
  • Colette from Tales of Symphonia. She does actually use them like chakrams sometimes though.
  • The character Mint from Threads of Fate uses rings. It's not even clear whether they're actually sharp - she just bludgeons or magics everything to death.
  • In Touhou, Frog Goddess Suwako Moriya uses steel rings as one of her weapons, incorporating them into the unorthodox fighting style she uses in Hisoutensoku. Before that, she was portrayed in fanworks using said steel rings like this.
  • Some of the Turok games have a weapon called the Razor Wind - a throwing ring with rotating serrated blades. It actually has a non-sharp handle in the second game, though it's exactly in the middle of the weapon.
  • The Wardens in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, most notably Maiev.
  • In Warframe:
    • The Thrown Melee weapon line runs the gamut of melee weapons that can be thrown and returns to your Warframe's hand, basically a Battle Boomerang line. Some weapons however, like the Falcor, Xoris, and Orvius resemble a chakram.
    • Pretty much Nezha's main weapon of choice, especially when using his 2nd ability Burning Chakram. Not only does the chakram bounce around on enemies, but re-activating the ability teleports Nezha to it.
    • Lavos's weapon of choice, the Cedo full-auto shotgun has one as its Secondary Fire, launching a chakram that bounces around enemies and procs all kinds of status effects on anyone it hits.
  • Wild ARMs 4: Played with Yulie Ahtreide. Her weapons, labeled as "circles", "disks", and "hoops", sure look like this type of weapon, but all of them actually consist of three discs. In her normal attack they levitate before Yulie, move apart, and push the enemy with the flat side, somehow damaging them. They also separate and levitate in her guard stance and casting animations. Wild ARMs: Million Memories just drops all pretense and has Yulie attacking with magic blasts, directed by waving the circle around.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles:
    • Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has these (In wind and fire wheels style) as one of the many weapon types available for your Drivers to wield. Their arts are usually focused on healing, though they're unusual in that the only unique Blade to have them as their associated weapon is Dromarch/Byakko, the personal blade of Nia (The party's resident healing specialist).
    • Xenoblade Chronicles 3:
      • Twin rings, called "Dual Moonblades", are Mio's initial weapon as part of her default "Zephyr" class, a dodge-tank that provides arts which either Draw Aggro or guarantee evasion for the duration. The rest of the party can use them through the game's Job System. Likewise, Mio's past self, Consul M, has her own set.
      • Masha Cassini, a DLC Hero, uses a pair of "Dazzling Rings", similar to Mio's, but with additional spikes on edges and decorated with large jewels. Her class, "Lapidarist", is a healer, in a nod to the previous game. Unsurprisingly, Mio has the best aptitude with it.

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 
  • Jana of the Jungle wears a collar that doubles as this type of weapon, but she never throws it at people or animals.

    Real Life 
  • The ancient weapon of the Subcontinent, known as the Chakram. Perhaps most famously used by the Sikhs, it even forms part of the symbol of their religion.


 
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Alternative Title(s): Chakram

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Ultra Slash

Ultraman's second most used move, and a pretty effective means of bisecting kaiju at that

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