Four Touken Danshi, whose former master is the demon king Oda Nobunaga, go to the Honnoji Incident, where Nobunaga is assassinated.
This is the story of the beginning of a revolving history.
Touken Ranbu Kai: Kyoden Moyuru Honnōji (刀剣乱舞 廻 -虚伝 燃ゆる本能寺-) is an animated adaptation of the first Touken Ranbu stage play Apocrypha: Honnouji Temple Ablaze. It is written by Kenichi Suemitsu, the director of the stage plays, and animated by Domerica.
It is notable as the third Touken Ranbu anime adaptation, following Touken Ranbu - Hanamaru and Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu, but is the first to be based on an adaptation of the original game.
The series premiered on April 2nd, 2024 and will have eight episodes.
Tropes:
- Alternate Continuity:
Word of God revealed in an Animedia interview that the stage play Honmaru and this anime's Honmaru are different despite covering the same story. - Arc Symbol: Circles, as a visual reference to things repeating. It's in the title: "Kai" means "round" or "to revolve." Mikazuki can also be seen making a circle with his flame-tipped sword in the opening movie, and the key visual depicts the main characters' positions forming a circle, as does the flame behind them.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Mikazuki Munechika and Yamanbagiri Kunihiro on the promotional poster.
- The Cameo:
- Due to the sheer number of them, most of the Touken Danshi aren't given proper speaking roles in episodes, but can be seen around the citadel performing various tasks.
- Konnosuke is relegated to two non-speaking cameos in episode 1.
- Cosmic Motifs: Mikazuki Munechika, owing to his name. The first shot of him in the trailer is a close-up of his eye opening, revealing a crescent shape in them, before the next shot shows a crescent moon in the sky.
- Creepy Doll: In the absence of making a physical appearance in the citadel, the Saniwa communicates with the Touken Danshi through a rather creepy-looking Japanese doll, which is exacerbated by the constant ominous shadowing on its face.
- Creepy Good: Mikazuki Munechika in episode 2. He approaches Fudou Yukimitsu and Yamanbagiri Kunihiro in the middle of the night, fully clothed, armored, and holding his sword at his hip, and threatens Fudou with it when he asks what will happen if he does not protect history, before giving him a lengthy speech about why they must do so. Needless to say that Fudou is terrified and even the usually stoic Yamanbagiri looks concerned.
- Exposition Dump: Most of the end section of episode 1 is Yamanbagiri Kunihiro explaining how the citadel works for both Fudou Yukimitsu, an Naïve Newcomer to the citadel, and the audience.
- Expository Pronoun: Further hinting that Kai's citadel is distinct from the one in the stage play, the Mikazuki Munechika of this citadel uses the Mikazuki standard way of referring to people as "You," which is "Omae," whereas the stage play version of Mikazuki uses "Onushi," the more humble and polite Samurai way of referring to people.
- Foreshadowing: The title, Mikazuki's cryptic dialogue, and the reference to circles strongly hints that this Honmaru's Mikazuki Munechika might be trapped in a "Groundhog Day" Loop like his stage play counterpart.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Possibly. None of the Oda Nobunaga owned swords recognize Fudou Yukimitsu, or vice versa, despite all having been owned by him at the same time, with Fudou Yukimitsu claiming he was Nobunaga's favorite sword while under his ownership.
- Gender Reveal: Like in the stage play, the Saniwa of this citadel is male.
- Mood Whiplash:
- In the first episode, the scene transitions from a rather tough mission with the Touken Danshi protecting Tokugawa Ieyasu, to the peaceful ongoings of the citadel.
- The show's ending theme song "DAYBREAK" has a much happier tone than the opening song and the show itself.
- Mr. Exposition: The first episode is dedicated to explaining what the citadel and the Touken Danshi's mission are all about to the audience, with Yamanbagiri Kunihiro taking Fudou Yukimitsu and Souza Samonji on a tour of the citadel and explaining all of this to the former, who is newly manifested.
- Mythology Gag:
- Most of the characters in the lineup were available when Touken Ranbu first launched in 2015, with the exception of Fudou Yukimitsu, who was added in 2016.
- The art style combines the looks of both Touken Ranbu - Hanamaru and Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu, mainly looking more like Hanamaru in terms of character design and Katsugeki in terms of coloring. The key visual even looks like a reference to Katsugeki's, which confused and disappointed Katsugeki fans who are still waiting for their film to be released from Development Hell.
- The last day countdown art
looks directly like the promotional image for the stage play Hiden Yui no Me no Hototogisu◊. - The way the Touken Danshi manifest is similar to in the browser game, with a cherry blossom falling onto water and bursting into glowing pink petals as the Touken Danshi appears from it.
- Fudou Yukimitsu says some of his voicelines from the browser game after manifesting.
- The ending animation makes numerous references to Touken Ranbu Stage's theater production, showing the silhouetted Touken Danshi battling Historical Revisionists as part of a "performance" while a doll Saniwa watches from theater seats in the audience. Mikazuki is also seen carrying an umbrella with his name painted on it down stairs (which are commonly featured in Tousute plays), tossing it, and many more umbrellas with other Touken Danshi's names painted on them appear. This is a reference to the final scene of every Touken Ranbu Stage play, in which all Touken Danshi dance with umbrellas.
- The design of the Saniwa doll is exactly the same as the doll from the behind-the-scenes production of the second live-action movie.
- Naïve Newcomer: Fudou Yukimitsu is the last sword to manifest in the already established citadel and has no idea what his purpose is, which is used as an In-Universe excuse to show the audience what life in the citadel is like and explain what the Touken Danshi's roles are while avoiding As You Know.
- Officially Shortened Title: The title has been shortened to Touken Ranbu Kai.
- Only Sane Man: As expected, Yagen Toushirou is the only one of the Odagumi swords who isn't haunted by his past with Oda Nobunaga, and can thus offer some solace to Souza Samonji, who is the most affected about his former masters fate.
- Out of Focus: In terms of the opening movie, despite also being main characters, Koutetsu, Sayo, and Ichigo are absent, with only Tsurumaru, Namazuo, Shokudaikiri, and Namazuo showing up in brief shots in the citadel. As for ending movie, everyone from the second set shows up… as fighting silhouettes and are absent from the final group shot, which only depicts the first set of main characters.
- Quickly-Demoted Leader: Mikazuki Munechika appears to have been the Saniwa's attendant for some time prior to the events of Episode 1, but at the end of the episode, he relinquishes his position to Yamanbagiri Kunihiro with the Saniwa's approval.
- Recurring Dreams: Souza has frequent nightmares about the Honnouji Incident, in which he was badly burned in a fire, to the point where it begins to worry Kousetsu. To his horror, the most recent iteration of this nightmare had his human body burning as well as his sword.
- Secondary Adaptation: It is an anime adaptation of the first Touken Ranbu Stage play, which was adapted from the browser game Touken Ranbu.
- Shown Their Work: The unique appearances of each blade's hamon and inscription are translated with great attention to detail. There are even shots in the anime dedicated to highlighting each blades uniqueness, such as in episode 2 where Mikazuki's blade is shown up close and reveals some of its subtle crescent patterns. Even better, the animation team took into consideration that the patterns can only be discerned under certain lighting conditions, only revealing the patterns on parts where the light shines.
- Supporting Protagonist: Mikazuki Munechika and Yamanbagiri Kunihiro are the protagonists of the anime, but the story largely focuses on the conflict of the Odagumi swords Heshikiri Hasebe, Souza Samonji, Fudou Yukimitsu, and Yagen Toushirou.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: Not much of a "backstory" because it happened on the same day(?), but a flashback at the end of the episode revealed that Yamabushi Kunihiro nearly died on the mission he was on with Yamanbagiri Kunihiro as the leader at the beginning of the episode, with this giving Yamanbagiri a complex about his leadership skills and reason to argue against Mikazuki and the Saniwa for choosing him to be the Saniwa's new attendant.
- The Voice: The Saniwa doesn't make a physical appearance in the citadel, but he does communicate with his Touken Danshi via a doll.
