Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru

In the year 2205, a special sage known as Saniwa has the ability to breathe life into inanimate objects. At the same time, dark forces have initiated a plot to travel back in time and change the course of history—and the only ones capable of stopping them are the Saniwa and their strongest animations: historical Japanese swords, in the form of handsome young men.

Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru opens on the life of Yamatonokami Yasusada, Souji Okita's beloved uchigatana, as he begins his first day at the Saniwa's citadel. Soon reuniting with his old friend, Kashuu Kiyomitsu, the two are caught up in the daily antics of their fellow sword warriors. They never miss an opportunity to have fun, whether it be through wild snowball fights or introducing their newest comrades to the citadel. Of course, when the government calls, the swords are always ready to fulfill their mission of protecting history.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kiyomitsu, Kashuu Main

Masuda, Toshiki Japanese

Yasusada, Yamatonokami Main

Ichiki, Mitsuhiro Japanese

Munechika, Mikazuki Supporting

Toriumi, Kousuke Japanese

Kuninaga, Tsurumaru Supporting

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Kanesada, Izuminokami Supporting

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Mitsutada, Shokudaikiri Supporting

Satou, Takuya Japanese

Kunihiro, Yamanbagiri Supporting

Maeno, Tomoaki Japanese

Kogitsunemaru Supporting

Kondo, Takashi Japanese

Yoshiyuki, Mutsunokami Supporting

Hama, Kento Japanese

Kunihiro, Horikawa Supporting

Enoki, Junya Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Usa, Yoshiki Producer

Kohama, Takumi Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Reviews

Jun 20, 2021

catcupcakes

Recommended

Okay… I’m reviewing this now while finally playing the game.

Initially when this came out, I hadn’t played the game. My encounter with the franchise started with my Twitter timeline being plastered with beautiful character fan art (mainly Munechika and Kogetsunemaru) and eventually collecting the nendoroids (starting with Kiyomitsu). I was particularly drawn to the designs and aesthetic, of course with the ikemen theme as well, so I wanted to get acquainted with any bit of the franchise I could. Then, Hanamaru came out. It was a bit confusing because there are a LOT of characters that I had to remember. Having watched this season ... 3 times through the last few years and now playing the English release of the game, I think I can write a review on it now.

Story: 6
I liked the slice-of-life angle before, but now I can really appreciate it. It was interesting seeing what new character would join the citadel in show and now I get excited when I find them myself in the game. Naturally, the anime exists to promote the game so it isn’t particularly “deep” or anything, it’s not too different from the games premise of eliminating threats to history. The main swords (Okita’s Kiyomitsu and Yamatonokami) have their own challenges they must overcome and that’s what the story mainly follows, in addition to some other swords here and there. It’s not impressive but again, I appreciate it. I actually do love the way the sword danshi express whatever feelings they have for their previous masters. It’s an interesting concept on its own, factoring in real historical events and people.

Art: 7
Very visually pleasing. Designs are the same and the backgrounds are great. There are moments in a fight where we get the glorious shot of the character slaying the enemy and the frame is decorated with patterns and symbols, and the characters’ pose is a callback to their art in the game. However, the animation quality does suffer sometimes and becomes painfully average both in and out of battle. Hurts when you think about how epic a lot of it really could have been.

Sound: 6
In the moment, the soundtrack is nice to hear but even I can’t readily remember any single track that stood out after re watching this show so many times. The OP is a banger, easily the most memorable. Some of the EDs are fun too.

Character: 7
I really enjoy the characters. Their interactions with each other (which wouldn’t ever be possible outside of this series) are the reason why this is one of my favorite shows to keep watching. There are so many that there’s usually been something I didn’t pick up on the previous time. However, because there’s so many, there isn’t a whole lot of development (if that’s what you’re looking for) for most of them because they may not have an episode dedicated to them, they may just have a few minutes on screen.

Enjoyment: 10
Max enjoyment. I’ve just come to really enjoy the heck out of this series, so much so that I hope it keeps going, even as a spin-off. It wasn’t what it could have been here but I hope that some day, it gets another chance to be.

Overall: 7
It’s a pretty fun show to just turn on and just experience, whether you’ve played the game or not. There are some things that make more sense when you’ve played and things that go unanswered (because game) but they really don’t detract from overall watchability like you’d think they would. If you want something deep and thought provoking, go look somewhere else but if you want a lighthearted good time with a sprinkle of drama, give it a try.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 28, 2019

agreengrass

Mixed Feelings

I feel like there could be an amazing anime under all of this. Listen I LOVE slice of life and scenes of this did make me giggle. The blue bird bit made me have to pause the show because I couldn't stop laughing. But what I wanted more of was the little bits of drama we saw. I want more of them dealing with their pasts and their emotions. SPOILERS AHEAD: When he saw his master in episode 11 OMG it was what I was craving. LET MY SAD BOYS BE SAD show us these amazing emotions!!! I want it so much I am continuing ... on to season two right away just to see if they step up their game.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 11, 2018

AndroidRoberts

Not Recommended

I'm just going to start off by saying that I have never played the game this is based off of and probably never will. If you are in the same boat, then I would recommend that you don't even try to watch this. I honestly would have dropped it pretty early on if I didn't need to complete it for a MAL challenge. It's obvious that this show was made solely for fans of the game and they don't really even try to make it appealing to other viewers. As a newcomer to the franchise, these are my thoughts of the show based solely on ... it being an anime rather than an adaptation of a video game.

First of all, don't be fooled by the underlying plot of these swords being animated to fight an organization bent on changing history because the anime doesn't really focus on that most of the time. Instead, the series is pretty much centered around the characters and their interactions with each other in the citadel. Throughout the series, you will constantly see the same exact plot points being recycled such as introducing new characters, forging bonds between characters, and dealing with internal struggles of characters. It's kind of obvious once you know the background of the series that the whole point of doing this is to give fans the chance to see their favorite characters stirring up emotions inside of them. However, without that excitement of seeing someone you know that you can only get from previously playing the game, the cycle becomes repetitive and boring after awhile. On top of that, they introduce like 50 different characters in the span of the series, so it is hard to keep track of them all without having prior exposure to them. By having so many characters, I felt a lot of the shows attempts to deal with internal struggles fell flat because it's really hard to be impacted by a scene involving a character you are still trying to figure out the identity of. I will admit that there were maybe 2 times where a scene involving a character actually made me feel something, but most of the time attempts to make me sympathize with them were unsuccessful and even the times I did feel something I get the impression it didn't impact me as much as it was supposed to. This series is definitely built around character interactions, so not developing characters before emotional moments and cycling through so many of them in such a short amount of time because you assume the viewer already has an understanding of them through the game is definitely the fatal flaw in this anime for viewers who haven't played it.

Honestly, I was just bored most of the time watching this series and you probably will be too if you haven't played the game. I understand that the anime would have been a lot better if i did play it and this may even be considered a masterpiece if you view it as an addition to the franchise rather than as an adaptation of the game. However, I don't think you should have to delve into a game in order for an anime to be good because if a show is good it should be able to stand on its own. Yeah, the series probably was more successful pandering solely to fans of the game considering it's getting a second season, but as far as being a stand alone anime, it is pretty bad in my opinion. The whole aspect drawing viewers into the series is their connections to characters from the game, so without that, there really isn't too much about the anime that keeps you interested. If you really want to watch this then do yourself a favor and play the game first. Based on the numerous top rated 10 reviews I've seen on this show's MAL page, it may be worth the time and effort. However, if you don't want to do that, then don't even bother watching this because you will probably just continuously lower the score to an anime that wasn't even meant for you to begin with.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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