posted on by Egan Loo
Sanrio‘s take on sword bishōnen already has character goods, pop-up stores
The “Touken Ranbu Online Ninth Anniversary’s Eve! Nine Big Announcements Starting at Nine” event announced on Saturday that an anime adaptation of the Wanpaku! Touken Ranbu (Mischievous! Touken Ranbu) project is in the works.
©2015 EXNOA LLC/NITRO PLUS
The Wanpaku! Touken Ranbu project has various goods, pop-up stores, and other collaborative items featuring the Touken Ranbu characters as redesigned by Sanrio.
©2015 EXNOA LLC/NITRO PLUS
The Touken Ranbu “sword personification training game” takes famous swords from Japanese history and interprets them as bishōnen. Nitroplus designed the characters and scenario. The game launched in Japan in January 2015.
The franchise has inspired the Katsugeki: Touken Ranbu television anime series and an upcoming anime film, as well as the Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru spinoff’s two anime series, an anime film trilogy, and a compilation anime film. The franchise has also inspired two live-action films, a series of stage musicals and a series of stage plays, as well as various manga.
Johren released the original Touken Ranbu browser game in English in April 2021, and released the smartphone version of the game in August 2021. Johren shut down the game’s English and Chinese versions on August 21.
Touken Ranbu Kai: Kyoden Moyuru Honnōji, the anime of the franchise‘s first non-musical stage play, will premiere in April. The Touken Ranbu: Tsuki no Tsurugi Enishi no Kiri no wa kabuki stage play will have screenings in Japanese theaters starting on April 5.
Source: Comic Natalie
