Honey's Anime attended AnimeJapan 2017 held in Tokyo (March 26th) as press, and this is one of short reports of stages we covered.
AnimeJapan 2017 had something for everyone, including all fans of traditional Japanese sword fights. At the Touken Ranbu special stage visitors were able to find out more about the show featuring beautiful Japanese swords and good-looking men.
This event set itself apart from similar talks by covering different parts of the big franchise.
First up on stage were original story producer Takaki Digitarou Kosaka and executive producer Yuta Hanazawa. Topic of their discussion was the open web browser game that the story of Touken Ranbu is based on. Entering the third year after its release, the game is still drawing new users into its universe and we can expect its popularity to increase with the upcoming anime shows.
Next up were three seiyuus of the Touken Ranbu Hanamaru anime adaptation. Mitsuhiro Ichiki (Yamato no Kami Yasusada), Toshiki Masuda (Kashuu Kiyomitsu) and Tarusuke Shingaki (Heshikiri Hasebe and Nagasone Kotetsu) talked about their most memorable scenes of the first Hanamaru season. Fans of the series will be glad to hear that a second season was confirmed and will start airing in January 2018.
Last, but not least, a new spin-off of the Touken Ranbu story was revealed. Katsugeki Touken Ranbu is set in the same universe as the original story, but features different characters and a new storyline. Ryohei Kimura (Izumi no Kami Kanesada), Kento Hama (Mutsu no Kami Yoshiyuki) and Junya Enoki (Horikawa Kunihiro) gave the audience a quick introduction of their characters and assured that the new show will please both fans of the original story as well as newcomers to the universe. What came as a pleasant surprise was the announcement that the production staff will now feature exclusive animators specialized in the animation of sword techniques as well as a specialist in historical sword fights. This means that you can expect the sword battles in Katsugeki Touken Ranbu to be not only very realistic, but also well animated and captivating. This passion and attention for detail should already be reason enough for you to check out the upcoming anime. Katsugeki Touken Ranbu will start airing in July 2017. We cannot wait!
Author: Cornelia Wagner