83345
I've noticed that across videogames and anime that focus on fighting and
action, the word "buster" is frequently applied as the name of a super
powerful weapon. For example, Gunbusters from Toppu o Nerae, the Buster Sword
from FF7, Megaman's Buster arm gun, Trunks of Dragon Ball Z's Buster Cannon.
It carries this implication that the weapon is awesomely powerful. Clearly it
is a word borrowed from and it has similar uses in different forms of English,
but nowhere near to the same extent. Buster is like a go to word for these
kinds of weapons in Japanese action shows and games, but it's rarely used in
English for that specific purpose or with that much frequency. I'm wondering
if anyone has any insight as to the origin of the use of the word Buster as
it's used in this context, and any explanation as to how it might have become
so commonplace compared to its English counterpart.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-29T20:28:57.210
83343
2021-01-03T09:37:38.240
41388
question
etymology word-usage
the word "Buster" in action-centered fiction
There's a number of words in Japanese that come from English, but not via the
route expected. I suspect that バスター might be one such word.

Poking around in [Kotobank's page for
バスター](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%83%90%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC-601414),
we see that this is probably the same word that arose from baseball, as a
corruption or shift from the original English phrase **_bastard bunt_** , in
reference to a play where the batter stands as if to bunt the ball, and then
once the pitch is thrown, they shift to a regular batting stance in an effort
to hit the ball with real force (as mentioned, for example, in [this thread
about Little League](http://www.baseball-
excellence.com/sbaseballforums/printthread.cfm?Forum=2&Topic=12362)). See also
[the Japanese Wikipedia article on
バスター](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%90%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC).

If this is the same バスター that was used for these other weapons in manga and
anime, it might have originally arisen as a play on the perceived littleness
of the weapon or character, in contrast to the sizable wallop of the actual
shot or strike: presenting as a small thing (like a bunt), but actually
hitting harder than that (as an actual full baseball swing would do).

PS: As @jogloran notes in the comment, the specific phrasing バスターソード is most
likely from **_bastard sword_** as a borrowing in toto (as a whole term),
rather than an application of バスター from baseball. In the specific sword sense,
the _bastard_ portion was originally in reference to the way the blade length
was roughly in between the single-handed shorter swords in common use and the
double-handed greatswords of the time.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-29T21:33:16.137
83345
2020-12-31T20:39:32.003
2020-12-31T20:39:32.003
5229
5229
83343
answer
バスター is derived from Buster, which means "[one that destroys,
eliminates"](https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/buster). It has the same use in
English, like bunker buster, bronco buster, dustbuster, Myth Busters, etc.
Some examples that are known in Japan would be the movie Ghostbusters and the
pro wrestling move Brain Buster.

It is likely that the meaning "one that destroys" got simplified to
"destroyer/destructive", and from there was widely applied. Once it catches on
in one piece of work, it's easy to imagine people used it in their works
referring back to another anime, as opposed to researching the original
meaning.

A few notes in regard to your specific examples...

Gunbuster: Gunbuster is made up of two machines: Buster Machine #1 and #2. So
the names of the those machines make sense. There was no info on the naming of
the Gunbuster itself, though robot anime tend to favor the sound of the name
over the meaning, so I wouldn't think too hard about that.

Buster sword: It could be a mispelling of bastard bword. When it comes to
foreign words, sometimes mistakes go unnoticed (ベット when meaning ベッド), and
this misspelling fell through the cracks. This was pre-wikipedia era, so it's
not as easy as it is now to cross-reference.

However, this more than not to be likely intentional, since technically the
sword Cloud uses cannot be classified as a bastard sword (= between mid and
long size, double edged). It could be they just meant it to be a "sword that
destroys".

* * *

Added in some references, though I don't think any are conclusive.

[Buster entry on Nico Nico
Video](https://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E3%83%90%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC)  
[Buster etymology article](https://tap-biz.b-engineer.co.jp/lifestyle/word-
meaning/1031174) (probably the most conclusive I could find)  
[Buster Gundam Wikipedia
article](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%90%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%83%A0)  
[Article on the meaning of team names of the Hypnosis Mic
series](https://hypnosismic.hatenablog.com/entry/2018/12/26/%E3%80%90%E3%83%92%E3%83%97%E3%83%9E%E3%82%A4%E3%80%91%E3%83%92%E3%83%97%E3%83%8E%E3%82%B7%E3%82%B9%E3%83%9E%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AF%E3%81%AE%E3%83%81%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0%E5%90%8D%E3%81%AE%E6%84%8F)
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-01T14:45:15.040
83405
2021-01-03T09:37:38.240
2021-01-03T09:37:38.240
9508
9508
83343
answer