Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu Episode 1 Discussion

moodie said:
This is your standard ufotable production. All style no substance. Probably going to end up like Tales, pander to the worst fanbase and have a messy script. Will watch more but first episode doesnt warrant any excitement.

sensei69 said:


This sumps up pretty much my initial thoughts of this anime. I hope that the story will shift into an unexpected direction, but I doubt it. I will stick with it for the animation and action sequences.

moodie said:
Sadly, the first episode is very telling on where its heading. As you can see they have no intenion of revealing any plot line or story. Everything was just an excuse to go and fight. Its more like "hey look at our art and animation in these fight scenes and see our characters."

I'll stick with it for 2 more episodes to see if there is a plot but if they are just going to waste an intersting premise to show sword boys they can keep this show.

MikazukiRanbu said:


hh, its interesting to hear your take on it- but to me Izuminokami doesn't feel entirely like himself. I feel like ufotable just opted to scratch the surface of his characters coolness and put in more of Hijikatas character than the traits that made him different from his master ( this is going by episode one alone and it might change in future episodes but for right now its like discount Kanesan ). And my main problem with Horikawa as stated above is that he doesn't feel like himself either. In fact, he feels like he's further off from his self which if you looked into the many adaptations in which he appears in ( not just Hanamaru, but the anthologies and such ) is not like how he is presented here. Horikawa isn't just like " kanesan XD )" all the time like haters would have you believe. He's mature and level headed and keeps his immature partner in check which was nice about his character. It feels weird to me that izuminokami thus far is taking the leading role in their relationship when in every other adaptation, its not like that. Not to mention that the insecure rookie being taken under the wing of the cool, more experienced character that's been there longer thing is nothing new and has been done before in many other animes. It won't be long before Horikawa goes through his generic confidence building character arc. i feel like is is just the beginning of ufotable taking many liberties with the characterization , all of which are just shortcuts to make them easier to write and more recognizable to anime fans that know nothing about the source material or the things connected to it. If there's anything that was good about hanamaru it was the way the characters were written! They felt like their game selves but expanded on ( Though i will admit i took issue with the way yamatonokami was written and how flanderized hasebe was ). I'll have to watch more episodes to see how ufotable will go about writing them, But I'm pretty much anxious about how tey might butcher the characterization of swords that have yet to appear.

MikazukiRanbu said:


i think making saniwa a shota was the safest way to go. making saniwa female would have pissed off a good number of touken ranbu fujoshi and caused problems. making saniwa a guy would have pissed off the fans who wanted a female saniwa. making him an androgynous shota is kinda like an odd middle ground for ufotable to avoid most conflict and the fans seem to be happy with it ( mostly because they think its new and funny. ) i feel like ufotable was taking the easy way out with this one. none of us were expecting it.

GChan said:


I liked how Hori was presented in this as well. If they're going to expand on him more, I'm all for it. It's good to see someone expand on Hori other than, 'KANE_SAAAN' I also liked how Izumi was presented in this as well.

And as someone who played the game, I LOL'd at how they did the preview at the end. For those who don't do the game, there's scenarios that pop up every so often and of course our two MCs are in one.


The OP song though....*shrugs* Nice animation but Soma Saito can't fucking sing

TragicRomance said:
Kane-san~ It's the first tim I have heard Kimura Ryouhei using a deeper voice than his usual, and it sounds really nice.

I liked this animation but the question is, am I really gonna watch it? Turns out my favorite is prob not gonna show up... (Shokudaikiri) Well Kane-san is interesting too, and I like.

MikazukiRanbu said:


all the characters that will be appearing in katsugeki have been confirmed by aniplex already - listed here

Loyalty06 said:


there's actually a screenshot of ichigo during the 3 ep screening in japan, so i've heard. probably a bunch of cameo when they return to citadel, also kotetsu bros and shinsengumi i believe

MikazukiRanbu said:


If that's true, then why didn't aniplex confirm that as well? They confirmed characters along with their voice actors at the end of the last katsugeki trailer and I'm sure if ichigo was going to appear in the anime, he would have been included in that list. I studied the JP fan reactions during the 3 episode screening ( because i love spoilers ) and none of them mentioned ichigo, some of them just hoped that ichigo would appear and made memes out of the silhouettes behind mikazuki in the opening ( who are the characters confirmed by aniplex already ). Also the koutetsu bros appeared in collaboration images for a festival in july but they haven't been confirmed to be in the anime like the swords listed above. Same with ichigo, they would have been confirmed in that list if they were going to be in the anime or at the very least play an important role in it. From what I heard about episode 3 of katsugeki, its the same cast as in episode 2. Apparently not even tsurumaru who is a confirmed character appears in that episode.

Loyalty06 said:


well, i'm not sure how they will do it, but i believe there would be a cameo at least. they haven't announced any cast for the humans, hijikata or sakamoto, too so who knows what they've got planned

kiwamegokotai said:


True, I remember him being on the first poster but I guess when the first trailer came out with Kanesan and all the character designs being revealed and him still being kinda absent I started to doubt if he'd actually play a part or just be a 'poster boy', but I'm glad he'll actually have a role

Tyiriel said:
This was probably the weakest show i've ever seen.

Notable, the animation quality is high, background detail is very good thanks to ufotable.

The plot and characters tho.. I don't know if I should laugh or not at this.
Why would you send a kid back in time to kill baddies trying to change the future? Especially if it's really important for some reason?
Why is the kid such a wuss?
Why would you use katanas if you're from year 2200 or w/e?
And finally.. why the fuck are baddies all shadowy and whirly like some fucking hologram just because they're baddies? Aren't they also humans being sent back in time?

It's quite easy to see that this show is built entirely on shonen tropes and Rule of cool. Too bad that this show definitely isn't going to become cool in any way after understanding what the fuck this show is actually about.

MikazukiRanbu said:


its not really " expanding on his character ' if they changed his entire personality as they saw fit. Kanesan is passible because he at least retains part of his original character but judging by how horikawa is presented in this episode alone, the only things he retains is that he really looks up to kanesan and says " kanesan " a lot. the horikawa presented in the first episode of katsugeki is a bit whiny, naive when he should know better ( and if their excuse is he doesnt know because hes a newbie, why wouldnt they have explained things to him before sending him out with kanesan ) insecure, and at times very stupid ( plot hole - why did he not know about the fire but Kanesan did if it was their first mission there? and why would he try to run out and stop it if he knew his mission was to not alter history? the game Horikawa and pretty much any version of Horikawa from any other Touken Ranbu adaptation would have understood his duty and stuck to his mission especially if Kanesan told him to. there were many of other things that Horikawa does in this episode that he otherwise would not do in any other Touken Ranbu adaptation especially if you're considering his game counterpart ) . in Touken ranbu, Horikawa is the intelligent one that knows his way in battle and his only issue is keeping his cool while in the midst of battle. in Katsugeki, they dumbed him down to a more recognizable characters ( you know the one you often see in a lot of anime ) and left very little of his own personality that hes well loved for.

i honestly hope he acts more like himself as the series progresses because if this is the Horikawa i have to watch through all of Katsugeki, i will be very disappointed. i hope this version of him doesn't end up making me dislike the character like Hanamaru did for how i felt about Yamatonokami who i was intially indifferent towards until they made him annoying.

emilyhime19 said:



Both sides, except from the saniwa, are not human. They are swords that are manifested as human. Just take that both factions don't want to send actual human to battle.

PaladinAlchemist said:
I'll give this anime 10/10 if they change history and save Sakamoto Ryouma.

313_Archer said:
Yes!! I hope he isn't already dead. I can't remember what year the anime is taking place in.

Still, I call total bullshit that Sakamoto wasn't listed as someone of "A" importance during that time period. I mean, really.

Also, can we talk about the outfits? We've got an MC dressed up in a freaking European-style outfit during the Bakumatsu and another running around wearing a Shinsengumi haori.

livexevil said:
who knows maybe we get sakamoto ryoma arc, they have mutsu after all

GangsterCat said:
I just realized in the opening scene, these 2 dudes kunihiro and kane-san looks similar to jude and gaius, even the place is exactly same, both animated by ufotable weird coincidence

PaladinAlchemist said:
Is there really a chance historical Bakumatsu figures might show up? I know nothing about the game, but I love that historical era.

I also love the gif in your signature.

MikazukiRanbu said:


all the characters that will be appearing in katsugeki have been confirmed by aniplex already - listed here