YMMV / Musical Touken Ranbu Atsukashiyama Ibun

• Angst? What Angst?: Imanotsurugi is rather chipper for someone who just saw his master and his best friend's master get killed, one even at his own hand. It may be implied that he's broken up over it during "Your Song", given that he opens up talking about how lonely he is and how blurry the sky seems when he's alone. He's made more explicitly saddened in the end of Ibun, though.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: "Utakata no Komori-Uta," the duet between Kogitsunemaru and Ishikirimaru which features a shadowed Mikazuki Munechika dancing between them. While the lyrics, which mention night, appear to allude to Mikazuki, the song itself has nothing to do with the rest of the play and transitions to a scene of the three sitting together before Mikazuki gets up and leaves to confront Iwatooshi, which actually does tie into the rest of the play.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: Yoshitsune and the gang having some greater power behind their violent and powerful actions was as clear as day. If you didn't get it from the swords messing around with them, you probably would have figured something happened when the blue and purple smoke filled the screen every time they got ready to fight.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Director Isamu Kayano revealed in a 2024 interview that Kuroba Mario, actor for Mikazuki Munechika, was shy about being in the center (ironically, despite playing the franchise's face), which explains why there is no single "chairman" for the musicals and why the role is somewhat rotational, as well as Mikazuki's lack of prominence during the trial run performance. In retrospect, this would be "hilarious" in a number of ways, as Mikazuki would end up playing a "chairman" regardless for many performances, even getting his first solo in the actual run of Atsukashiyama Ibun, playing a central role in nearly all of the early side story performances, but Mikazuki would also go on to be a major character in the citadels greater narrative from Tsuwamono Domo onward. However, it would seem that by a point, he had somewhat gotten used to the role, possibly being an explanation for the shift.
  • Any time Kashuu sings "While being tied in chains" during "Otokomichi", knowing he gets his own solo, tied hands to feet in bondage later.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Iwatooshi tells Imanotsurugi not to blame himself for Yoshitsune's honorable suicide, because he "didn't do anything wrong". Well, that turned out to be truer than he believed in the games; there's nothing to blame Imanotsurugi for because he plain doesn't exist. This hits doubly hard come Tsuwamono Domo, as Iwatooshi had an inkling he and Imanotsurugi didn't exist even since the first musical, and his subplot with Imanotsurugi is making sure he doesn't realize the truth.
• Jerkass Woobie: Imanotsurugi's angst over his former master and having to condemn someone he's so close to to a sad fate is understandable, but how he goes about it, threatening his friends, nearly getting everyone, including himself, killed because he can't let go, and only coming to his senses when he realizes that the Yoshitsune he's protecting isn't the one he loves and not because his friends were hurt as a result of his stubbornness, is much more difficult to empathize with.
• Narm:
  • In the original run of the play, special effects were used to show that the Touken Danshi have powers, which looked supremely silly in practice and halted otherwise cool fight scenes. The remake/run 2018 Paris got rid of this and just stuck to normal, cool fight choreography.
  • Live Mikazuki's acting is either this, funny, or outright annoying, especially since it's such a huge leap from how he acts in the main story. 2018 Paris would see Kuroba Mario tone down the dramatics somewhat in the rewritten version of the live segment.
  • Imanotsurugi suddenly snapping and jumping onto Kashuu, threatening to slit his throat if the other Sanjou don't back off is more funny than intimidating like it's supposed to be.
• Remade and Improved: 2018 Paris sees the actors return with better acting, more accurate characterization, improved vocals as a result of having a few more years of experience by the time they return, and more screen time for the characters who were underutilized during the play's original run. The remake also has a slightly more serious tone, which better matches up with the tonal shift of the series from Kishou Hongi onward.