Tonfa in popular culture
The Tonfa is a popular weapon in video games, anime and manga.
In video games
In video games, tonfa are the weapons of many the characters.
- Maki Genryusai from Final Fight 2
- Makoto Nanaya in Blazblue: Continuum Shift.
- In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Jax uses a pair of tonfa as his melee weapon.
- Talim in the Soul Calibur series
- Orchid in the Killer Instinct series
- Mao in Tales of Rebirth
- Rachael and Tracy in the Battle Arena Toshinden series
- Yoko Kono in Last Bronx
- Levin in Wild Arms XF
- The protagonist of Suikoden II.
- In Mega Man Zero 3, Zero can use "Recoil Rods", which resemble spring loaded tonfa.
- It is also used in ninja gaiden.
- Parasite Eve II and Ninja Gaiden II offer tonfa as a selectable weapons.
- In Cyber Troopers Virtual-On, the trademark of robots of the Apharmd series are a pair of energy beam tonfa, romanized as "tongfer".
- In Left 4 Dead 2, tonfa can be used as a melee weapon.
- In the Strider video game series, the main character, Strider Hiryu wields a bladed tonfa capable of generating a deadly plasma arc; however, the covers for these games' western releases usually depict the hero with a sword instead.
- In Bayonetta one of the weapons available to the titular heroine is a pair of rocket launchers that can be used as a baton in melee combat.
- In Grand Chase, Jin wields tonfa as a weapon for his 2nd class.
- Tonfa are used by the warlord Sun Ce of Wu in the Dynasty Warriors franchise by Koei, which is based off from Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The tonfa are Sun Ce's signature weapon, although in history, he used a 'Bronze Spear' at war. The tonfa was removed from the franchise in Dynasty Warriors 6, but will return on March 11, 2011, in the 7th installment of the series, Dynasty Warriors 7.
- In the Facebook game Legacy of a Thousand Suns, the Shock Tonfa is a wieldable off-hand weapon that can be used to shock the opponent; unlike its usual usage, it is not used as a pair of tonfa.
In manga and anime
In manga and anime, tonfa are also often wielded.
- Okina in Rurouni Kenshin
- Marie Mjölnir in Soul Eater
- Naizer in Black Cat
- Hibari Kyoya in Katekyo Hitman Reborn
- Takeru Teshimine in GetBackers
- Akane Higurashi in My-HiME
- Layla Ashley in Avenger
- Several Knightmare Frames in Code Geass.
- Gin in One Piece uses a tonfa with balls in its edge
- Elie in Rave Master uses tonfa blasters.
- Tenten from Naruto uses a tonfa in one episode.
- In 07-Ghost, Teito used a pair of tonfa in a chapter.
- In Saint Seiya, the tonfa is one of the weapons of the Libra Cloth.
In Film
- In the Hellboy movie series, the character Karl Ruprecht Kroenen wields tonfa-like swords (similar to the weapons wielded by Talim).
- In the Star Wars universe (including in the video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed), the Dark Jedi Maris Brood uses tonfa-hilt shaped lightsabers.
- In Star Trek: Enterprise, MACO troops serving on the Enterprise (NX-01) wield steel tonfa with an electrically charged tip.
- In the movie G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the character Snake-Eyes uses wood and metal tonfa
- Tonfa were shown as "ninja weapons" in the South Park episode "Good Times with Weapons".
- In the live action series Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, the character Michelangelo used tonfa instead of the nunchaku used by his character in previous incarnations (mostly due to the ban on nunchaku used in children media at the time).
- In the Super Sentai series Chōriki Sentai Ohranger and Juken Sentai Gekiranger (Power Rangers: Zeo and Power Rangers: Jungle Fury in the American versions), the Blue Rangers of both series wield tonfa as their main weapons.
- In the Korean drama Iljimae, one of the eponymous hero's weapons is a tonfa that can be merged into a bow.
- In the Nickelodeon TV show Supah Ninjas Amanda uses a pair of Tonfa
- In the anime Reborn! Kyoya Hibari uses a pair of Tonfas