Magic guns, also called spellguns or casters (presumably short for "spellcaster"), are an element of science fantasy (fantasy/science fiction) that combines firearms and magic (or some other supernatural power) to create a weapon with properties of both. In many fantasy settings, magic and technology are seen as distinct, separate entities, while spellguns serve as an unusual melange of both. Magic guns are popular in many anime and manga series.
Typical form
Magic guns typically take the form of a handgun or carbine that either fires magical energy or ammunition or is otherwise enhanced or enchanted so as to enhance its normal properties. Some magic guns work on special cartridges or magical ammunition, and thus need to be normally reloaded, while others have inherent power or draw power from their user or the environment. They range in power from weapons that are virtually ordinary pistols to weapons of mass destruction.
Some weapons are magically created, but powered by psionics.
Story purpose and common elements
Magic guns are typically rare items within the stories that features them. Oftentimes, they are antiques or items of lost technology that were made either by hand or in extremely small numbers. Most magic guns do not require a character to be skilled in ordinary (non-gun-derived) magic to use one, so they may be used by people without magical properties as a force multiplier against enemy magic users. This idea may be extended so that "mage hunters", characters who act as bounty hunters to magic users, might see them as a weapon of choice. Othertimes, a character quite capable of using ordinary magic might use a magic gun to supplement his or her abilities, or to conserve his magical energies for other purposes.
List of magic guns and their owners
- Outlaw Star: The characters Gene Starwind and Ronald McDougal both use magical guns known as "Casters". "Casters" in the world of Outlaw utilize a lost form of technology and magic and are considered rare antiques. Their ammunition, caster shells, come in 20 varieties with varying effects, although all draw on the life energy of the wielder. Casters in Outlaw Star use a form of magic that is extremely effective against Tao magic, the magic used by the majority of the show's antagonists.
- Tokyo Underground : Sui, an exiled young inventor in the series Tokyo Underground, uses a magic gun (called a "Spirit gun" in the anime and an "Aero gun" in the manga) as his primary weapon, as does Ginnosuke, who learns how to build the device from Sui. The weapon allows Sui and Ginnosuke, who have no "elemental" powers the ability to fight on equal terms with the show's superpowered cast. He based the design off a prototype left by the researchers who created the Tokyo Underground, and can be seen throughout the series refining the design. At first, each shell is the equivalent of only one spell, but he later improves this to three shots per cartridge.
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited: Kaze, an amnesiac traveler, wields the Magun, a magic gun in the form of an enormous, gold-colored dragoon's revolver with three chambers. When the chambers are filled with various magical elements and the gun is fired, it summons creatures that are combinations of the magical elements used.
- Negima: In the anime, Negi Springfield briefly draws and fires a magic gun (resembling an antique pistol) while flying on his staff. It is briefly mentioned that this is not surprising, coming from a boy who is both a magician and a collector of antiques.
- Trigun: The Angel Arms pistols used by Vash the Stampede and his brother Knives Millions can be considered magic guns. The pair of pistols (one gunmetal silver while the other is a polished black) are seemingly ordinary revolvers chambered in .45 Colt. In reality, the pistols can transform into organic superweapons capable of annihilating cities and in one case, punching a hole through a moon.
- Fullmetal Alchemist: In Fullmetal Alchemist, most ordinary firearms used by the military of Armestris are enhanced or enchanted through use of alchemy.
- Dungeons & Dragons: Though not a common element, some DMs elect to include magical firearms in their campaigns, either as described above or as ordinary black powder firearms enchanted by magic.
- RIFTs : the techno-mage OCC makes a number of magically powered, and/or magically modified guns, among them the TK machine-gun which powered by telekinesis (either spell or psionic power), Lightning Blasters , etc.
