YMMV / Touken Ranbu

• Adaptation Displacement: Both of the Anime adaptations, Touken Ranbu - Hanamaru and Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu, are more well-known in the West than the browser game because they are more accessible and appeal to a larger audience due to the medium. Obviously, this is not the case for the game (or the series as a whole) in its home country, where the franchise as a whole is widely popular and the residents have more access to the mixed media, though both adaptations are successful in their own right.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Horikawa Kunihiro. Is his devotion to and protectiveness of Izuminokami simply an Undying Loyalty thing, or a Bodyguard Crush? And considering his "housewife" tendencies and the fact that he's actually older than Izuminokami, is Horikawa mother-henning him? Horikawa himself objects to the idea that he's a parental figure to Kane-san; when it's suggested by others that Kane-san sees him as a parent, he starts crying.
  • Is Yamatonokami Yasusada a beautiful example of Undying Loyalty and love, or a disturbed swordboy with a pathological obsession with his previous master? Fanworks usually go with the latter characterization, portraying Yasusada as dismissive of the Saniwa and having an unhealthy obsession with his beloved “Okita-kun." This ignores the fact that in canon, while Yamatonokami still misses Okita, he actually doesn't dislike the Saniwa.
  • Is Namazuo Toushirou naturally cheerful and ditzy, or is his friendliness a mask meant to hide his war trauma, cynicism, and regret? Word of God implies that he tries to act cheerful for the Saniwa's sake.
  • Kashuu Kiyomitsu and his abandonment issues. How much has Okita Souji discarding him affected him? In-game, he's a Stepford Smiler who subtly fishes for the Saniwa's compliments, but his facade breaks if he gets damaged in battle. Fanon usually flanderizes him to the point he's portrayed as a clingy pushover who constantly yearns for the Saniwa (which is supported somehow by the Touken Ranbu Comic Anthology). Or is he just a poor, abandoned, mentally broken swordboy who just wants to be genuinely loved and is willing to go for anyone who treats him with kindness? Word of God says that Kashuu wholeheartedly welcomes any new master who would love him.
  • Mikazuki Munechika's lines show at most that he has overall an easygoing personality and laughs frequently, with some teasing lines here and there. Fanon however usually gives him more of a direct Cloudcuckoolander-like personality (which is supported by the Touken Ranbu Comic Anthology), perhaps to suit his "grandpa" image. Others go for a Stepford Smiler Obfuscating Stupidity route, putting his nonchalance and casual joking as to conceal that Mikazuki (who has had a very long existence as well as saw his master's death upfront) is a more melancholic person than he lets it out. Throughout the years, the spin-offs and eventually the browser game itself canonized the latter interpretation of his character.
  • Post-Kiwame Imanotsurugi. Is he perfectly content with the true nature of his existence and loves the Saniwa for giving him life, or is he coping with the harsh revelation by becoming a Stepford Smiler who clings to the Saniwa out of a newly developed and very justified fear of loneliness?
  • Kuniyuki's treatment of Aizen depends on the perspective. Either he's completely neglectful of the boy in favor of Hotarumaru, or Aizen himself pushes Kuniyuki away, as the anthology chapters suggest (there, Kuniyuki loves and wants to spoil Aizen as he does Hotarumaru, but Aizen himself doesn't want the affection in an effort to look more mature).
  • The exact extent of Higekiri's forgetfulness varies in fanworks as well as in canon spinoffs. How much he knows about Hizamaru also varies; either he knowingly messes with him by taking advantage of his cloudy memory, or he is genuinely forgetful of his own younger brother.
  • Is Yamanbagiri Chougi's insistence on being known as the original born of genuine haughtiness, or is it coming from an Inferiority Superiority Complex?
• Angst Aversion: Kiwame gives all the swords who undergo it Character Development, but not all Character Development is for the better. Some swords, such as the Samonjis, end up in a worse emotional state than before, which makes fans reluctant to send these swords away.
• Anvilicious: The game and its adaptations aren't exactly subtle about the message that changing the past is bad, no matter the reason.
• Archive Panic: Due to the browser game being Adaptation Overdosed. As of the time of writing, the game has four separate Anime adaptations, one with two seasons and three movies, and the other with a movie (supposedly) in the works, several stage play and musical adaptations (with more being announced every year), two live-action movies, over 10 official anthologies, and as of 2022, a spin-off Hack-and-Slash game that also has a novel adaptation. This is not to mention all of the official, story-based collaborations the game has had with different mediums, such as Granblue Fantasy and Thunderbolt Fantasy. This is made worse when one realizes that beyond the franchise's basic premise and characters, the adaptations have little to do with each other, often varying in tone, substance, character dynamics, and even characterization—meaning that it's extremely difficult for overseas fans to experience every possible variation of the Citadels largely due to No Export for You.
• Awesome Art: While it ultimately depends, given that almost all of the characters are drawn by different people, the vast majority of the character sprites qualify as this, especially after Kiwame training, where the artists show the fruits of their artistic improvements.
• Awesome Music:
  • The game's opening theme, "Mugen Ranbu Shou (夢現乱舞抄)", sung by Itagaki Soutarou.
  • The game's background music in general, but especially the attendants' background music for the Touken Danshi that's acquired by collecting instruments during the "Village of Treasures - Instrument Gathering Stage" events. Bonus points for them being composed by Akiko Shikata and Elements Garden.
• Breather Level:
  • The Osaka Castle Underground events are widely regarded as very player- and money-friendly, especially if compared to the nightmarish events that sandwich them.
    • Inverted for Mouri's debut event. The event is exactly the same as previous Osaka Castle events, but Mouri not being a guaranteed sword to obtain meant that you have to keep doing the final floor, which is a That One Level.
  • The Village of Uncharted Challenges (Beta) event, an event with a Hanafuda gimmick. Altough a heavy Random Number God-relying beta-test of a money-wasting event that comes after it, it could be seen as easy and great due to the Rare Random Drop swords (Hirano and Urashima) that you could obtain easily through that event—as long as you didn't draw the same enemy card twice.
  • The Low-level Sword Training event, a Level Grinding event where your swords get higher EXP than usual, which makes grinding a lot easier., and has good rewards like golden troops and money. Also, Nihongou is an extremely rare drop in the boss node of the second map. If you are good at messing around with the average level counter of your team (bringing level 40+ swords into E-2 will bloat the average level which won't give any EXP to any of your swords, should the average level is over 40) by adding a Lv 1 sword into the party, you can level up your swords as high as Level 60. This event has been regarded as the most newbie-friendly event by the fanbase.
    • Really, any leveling/Double EXP campaign counts. It's by far the easiest way to grind your swords' level. Especially since Kebiishi won't appear. Even if they do, it's a fake (read:weaker) version of them.
• Broken Base: Has its own page.
• Common Knowledge:
  • Not every sword considers swords forged by the same smith or school their brother. It's easy to get the impression that they do thanks to the prominence of some sets of brothers, such as the Toushirou swords or Kunihiro swords, but there are plenty of brothers who are not of the same school/smith (The Genji brothers, the Tachi brothers), as well as swords who are of the same school/smith but do not consider each other brothers (The Gou swords). What makes a group of swords brothers varies wildly, and you need to rely on Word of God to know.
  • Mikazuki was often mistaken as being the oldest sword in the game until Kogarasumaru came along due to his character often making mention of being elderly. In reality, while he is one of the oldest swords, being over 1000 years old, but he was never the oldest and was never officially said to be.
• Crossover Ship^*(yeah, yeah): With its sister series.
  • Pairing up Tenryuu and Shokudaikiri Mitsutada seems to be very popular with the fans, because of their similar qualities and how both wear eyepatches.
  • Mikazuki / Mikazuki Munechika, thanks to their similar names.^{Historical note}In real life, the ship Mikazuki was actually named after the sword Mikazuki Munechika. On Pixiv, fanart of the two of them is tagged as "Mikazuki Grandfather-Granddaughter", with Mikazuki Munechika being the "grandfather" to Mikazuki.
  • Shipping up swords and ships that share a common kanji in their names is also quite popular. Mutsunokami Yoshiyuki/Mutsu and Tsurumaru Kuninaga/Shoukaku are particularly popular in these kind of ships.
  • Sword boys are often shipped with their (now defunct) Shinken!! counterpart. A common one seems to be Heshikiri Hasebe/Hasebe Shikiri.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • The Kebiishi, enemies who are considerably more powerful than the usual ones, that "infect" a map if the player goes to that map’s boss node too many times. Once a map is infected, the Kebiishi will randomly show up at any node except the boss one. And they don’t leave, even after you defeat them. In World 6, however, the Kebiishi are much easier to defeat because the Kebiishi's team consists entirely of swords that is powerful during day battle... And greatly weakened during night battle. Reports that a team consists entirely of tantous can defeat the Kebiishi in map 6 unscathed are common.
    • In fact, "infecting" Eras 6 and 7 is now a recommended method for grinding or obtaining rare sword drops. Kebiishis on eras 6 and 7 are far more easier than normal enemies on those maps. Especially when you have Kiwame swords.
  • Rarity-5 Yari. They have a tendency to strike first, and because of their piercing ability they ignore equipped troops and strike the sword directly. They are nearly everywhere in World 6 and the August 2015 event, making the stages a lot harder. Though as of the May 17th update, their ability to damage your swords has been significantly nerfed, possibly in favor of the new Kunai below. They will still strike first, though.
  • As of the May 17th update, Rarity-4 Tantou and Wakizashi. They're easy to defeat, but once they attack you, they will instantly deplete all of your troops and in some cases, your sword's HP.
• Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: The gameplay is considered the weakest part of the franchise, given its repetitive nature. The characters and recollections are much more appreciated as they give fans more leeway for their own interpretations of what's happening in the games timeline. Regardless, the game still has a massive player base despite the general consensus of the basic gameplay.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Over the years, the game has accumulated many.
  • Mikazuki Munechika, full stop. His popularity is so great that he became the face of the game despite (or maybe even because of) the fact that he's one of the most difficult swords to get due to his high rarity value. Fans, non-fans and even Hatedoms of Touken Ranbu tend to like him anytime he appears in an adaptation. He's become widely known as one of the most recognizable sword boys, even stated to be iconic by Digitarou himself. The character's popularity and ascension to official mascot status certainly paid off as he's currently one of the only characters to appear in every adaptation, filling some sort of big role in them, is one of the characters with the most merchandise with more in the making and is the first and currently the only character to have an official life sized figure out of the entire cast, which apparently managed to sell despite how expensive it was.invoked
  • Of the 5 starter swords, there's also Kashuu Kiyomitsu, which explains why the two got nendoroid backgrounds in-game and he's frequently a major player in adaptations, outright being the main character of the Anime Touken Ranbu Hanamaru alongside Yamatonokami Yasusada.
  • Yamanbagiri Kunihiro is also an extremely popular starter sword, so much so that the only one of the five to appear in every single adaptation of Touken Ranbu, including the spin-off game Touken Ranbu Musou. His popularity also landed the him the role of main character of the stage play continuity, or he was until the plays began to diversify, although he still appeared more than any other character.
  • Heshikiri Hasebe, because of his Undying Loyalty for the Saniwa, to the point he's the most popular choice in Pixiv in "Sword x Master" fanart and he won one of the Official Anime Popularity Polls.
  • Tsurumaru Kuninaga has become incredibly popular due to his fun personality, cool design and memetic nature. Similarly to Mikazuki above, he tends to be liked and recognized by fans and non-fans of Touken Ranbu alike, and has all but become a staple of almost every major adaptation of Touken Ranbu despite not being one of the series mascots. In fact, the only major adaptation he hasn't been prominently featured in has been the live action movies, save for a small cameo in the second.
  • Among the more recent Touken Danshi, a number of the Gou swords have become fairly popular, with Buzen Gou becoming the most popular of the bunch, appearing in three musicals before most of the others (outside of solo / duo performances). Because of his in-game and real life harem of fans, he's known as the "nations boyfriend" among the Japanese fanbase.
  • While a number of the Ichimonji swords have become popular, Sanchoumou is probably the most so, with his merch going for pretty ridiculous numbers in terms of resale value in the fanbase.
  • Yamanbagiri Chougi has gone on to be about as popular as Yamanbagiri Kunihiro, with the spin-offs emphasizing their connection by including him in almost all major adaptations where Kunihiro is. Similarly to Sanchoumou, his merch resale value also tends to go for ridiculously high amounts, causing pain for overseas fans who can't get the merch firsthand.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Touken Ranbu is frequently mistaken for or assumed to be an Otome game (despite the absence of a female heroine, or any female characters whatsoever) or, for more dismissive audiences, a Boys' Love series, due to the series' focus on famous historical swords personified as attractive young men and the game's designation as a Joseimuke. Regardless of which conclusion non-fans reach, they are often met with ire from fans and quickly corrected.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "ManColle" for the game in general, due to similarities to its predecessor.
  • "Toudan" for the Touken Danshi. The western fandom prefers to call them "Swords" or "sword boys".
  • "Inuyasha" for Kogitsunemaru, due to how similar Kogitsunemaru looks to said character.
    • Grandpa fox (Foxy Grandpa?) isn't very uncommon either. "Kogi" is also a nickname that is used often for the sake of brevity.
  • "Jiji"/"Gramps" for Mikazuki Munechika. While it literally means "Gramps" in Japanese, it is used as an alternate name for him so frequently that if "Jiji" is mentioned in the context of Touken Ranbu, he is the first character that comes to mind, despite not being the only character who considers himself to be an old man anymore. Googling "じじい 刀剣乱舞" also produces Mikazuki exclusive results.
    • MikaChika and Mikachi are also becoming increasingly common for him in the Japanese fanbase.
  • "Crane Jiji/Crane Grandpa" for Tsurumaru Kuninaga is becoming more common in the fanbase.
  • "Father" for Ishikirimaru, due to his age. This led to Luke, I Am Your Father jokes (usually with Mikazuki)
  • CCP^note Short for "Candle Cutter Pikachu" because Shokudaikiri translates to Candle Cutter and Pikachu is an alternate reading of Mitsutada. or Pikachu for Mitsutada.
  • CCO for Shishio.^note shared with nearly similarly-named Shishio (with a short "o") in Onmyōji (2016)
  • 1523 ^note Ichigo nii-sanor Ichi-nii (which is also canon, since the Awataguchi tantous call him this) for Ichigo Hitofuri due to being a Big Brother Mentor. Some people also likes to call him strawberry because , well... Same reason with Ichigo Kurosaki.
  • Some part of the fandom prefers to call Kashuu Kiyomitsu Cashew.
  • Tanuki for Doutanuki Masakuni.
  • KA KA KA KA for Yamabushi Kunihiro, after his laugh.
  • KBC for the Kebiishi.
  • "Rare Tachi 4" or "Rare 4 Tachi" for Uguisumaru, Ichigo Hitofuri, Kousetsu Samonji, and Tsurumaru Kuninaga due to all being special rarity tachis with a timer of 3:20
  • "Wakizasix" for Namazuo Toushirou, Honebami Toushirou, Monoyoshi Sadamune, Nikkari Aoe, Horikawa Kunihirou and Urashima Koutetsu due to them being the only six Wakizashi before Kotegiri Gou came along.
  • "Tenka 5gen" for Mikazuki Munechika, Juzumaru Tsunetsugu and Oodenta Mitsuyo in the western fanbase.
  • Quite a large part of the Japanese fandom affectionately call Yagen Aniki^note A friendly and informal way of saying "big brother" due to his almost memetic levels of reliability and "manliness" despite being a tantou.
  • Japanese fans like to call the skinned nue Shishiou wears as "Shishiou no Mofumofu" (Shishiou's fluff).
  • The western part of the fandom likes to call Kanye-san for Izuminokami Kanesada.
  • Before the fandom could memorize Sadamune's name, some of them called him Tsuruichi('s child) as they claimed that he looked like a mixture of Ichigo Hitofuri and Tsurumaru Kuninaga. For the ones that have more knowledge about his past and adjust their headcanons to it, we have 'Sadistmune'.
  • Fushimi for Akashi due to the resemblance between him and Fushimi Saruhiko from K.
  • Some players call Aizen Kunitoshi Naruko, due to looking similar to Naruko Shoukichi from Yowamushi Pedal.
  • English-speaking fans tend to call Akita Toushirou "Cotton Candy" due to his fluffy-looking pink hair.
  • "Papa Crow" for Kogarasumaru, due to his status as the oldest sword in the game and that he refers to himself as the father of all the swords present.
  • Nansen Ichimonji quickly picked up the nickname "Nyansen" due to his cat theme being his main gimmick.
  • After listening to his needlessly antagonistic dialogue, Yamanbagiri Chougi quickly began being called "Malfoy" by the Japanese fanbase.
  • Ōdenta and Sohaya get Oden and Sobaya respectively.
  • Matsui is called "Macchan" by a few English-speaking fans. Due to an unclear translation, it was at first assumed that Buzen referred to Matsui as "Macchan", and Matsui fans followed suit. Later it was revealed that he actually referred to him as "Matsu", but by then the nickname had stuck.
  • Early in the fandom, Izuminokami was portrayed as referring to Kasen as Nidaime until it was revealed he actually calls him Nosada.
• Fanon:
  • A lot of fanartists like to portray the Enemy Yari as an Enemy Without or an Evil Counterpart of sorts to Tonbokiri, since the both of them are of the same class, have similar muscle builds, and are drawn by the same artist.
  • The Concept of Sword Corruption. When a sword boy decides to go against their mission in order to change history, usually for the sake of preventing the historical death of a beloved previous master or some other traumatic incident from their backstory, they will often be depicted as taking on characteristics of the Historical Revisionists' mooks, with varying levels of Body Horror depending on the artist. It can range from anything between simply gaining a Fiery Aura to a full-on transformation, though the later is non-existent in fanart for the sake of keeping them recognizable. There is absolutely no evidence that it would happen this way in canon, given the few times in expanded universe materials that certain sword boys have come close to attempting to alter history for their masters' sakes. Of course, this doesn't stop the fans. Again, Kantai Collection is the major influence of this fanon, as there, some of the Abyssal bosses are revealed to be corrupted versions of existing shipgirls.
  • It used to be somewhat common in the Japanese fandom to portray Ishikirimaru as a Big Beautiful Man underneath his robes. It might have to do with how bulky his usual garb is, his Mighty Glacier gameplay behavior, and the fact that his damage portrait doesn't actually show much of his body despite the Clothing Damage. His Kiwame art officially jossed this, showing that he's actually fairly thin under all his bulky clothing. Truth in Television: the clothing that Ishikirimaru wears is based on the robes of a shinto priest, which even today are quite bulky and often makes the wearer walk at a slow pace as a result.
  • With the many, many versions of their masters throughout Japanese media history, it's no surprise that fanartists would make alternate universe versions of sword boys that match up with one interpretation's personality. One common sword to use for this is Yamatonokami, since he purposefully makes himself look like his old master.
  • In fanart, Midare is typically shown to wear Modesty Shorts (usually bike shorts) under his dress.
  • In fanarts that draw Juzumaru's eyes open, they're almost always purple. This has become canon with the implementation of his Kiwame state.
  • Shortly after Nikkari's attendant theme came out, fan theories and fanarts emerged of him playing the èrhú (Chinese two-string fiddle) as his Signature Instrument.
  • As explained in Common Knowledge, not every set of swords from the same school are considered "brothers". Despite this, many fans tend to treat them as such regardless of whether canon specifies otherwise, largely due to the familiar roles of other sword schools in the game. If they aren't regarded as siblings, then the some swords will be appointed a parental role to the swords from the same school that are younger than them.
  • While his connection to them is never explored officially outside of Tsurumaru interacting with Mikazuki in the adaptations, Tsurumaru is sometimes treated as a Sixth Ranger to the Sanjou sword school due to having been forged by Gojo Tsukinaga, a disciple and son (or grandson) of Sanjo Munechika. Some fans even regard him as Mikazuki's grandnephew or grandson.
  • Due to the animation that plays when a Touken Danshi dies, swords that break or are on the verge of breaking are frequently depicted in fan art and fanfics with cracks in their bodies, just like their blades. This is not the case with injured swords in their sprites, which appear to have normal human injuries.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Despite Nansen and Chougi largely being antagonistic towards each other, the fandom likes to pair them up.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Who else? It's worth noting that some Saniwa switch between Touken Ranbu and Kantai Collection in-between events.
  • Another DMM game that gets friendly treatment from fans is Bungo to Alchemist, for having the same premise of a Cast Full of Pretty Boys restoring their chosen medium to its untouched state (only with authors and literature rather than history).
  • Ditto Namu Amida Butsu! -UTENA- (replace ships/swords/writers with Buddhas and Abyssals/Revisionists/Taints with kleśas) – try naming one fan of this game who hasn't played TouRabu.
  • Crossovers with works set in the Sengoku, Bakumatsu or Meiji eras, such as Sengoku Basara, Hakuouki or even Gintama, are very common. In fact, many fans are fond of certain of swords because of their previous masters' portrayals in these works. For example, people who like Hijikata are often fans of Izuminokami.
  • The Shinken!! fandom gets along well with the Touken Ranbu fandom well, mostly due to the similar premises within their games.
  • Has a fandom overlap with Land of the Lustrous particularly following it's Anime adaptation. A number of Crossover art pieces featuring the sword boys being drawn as gems have spawned because of it.
  • TouRabu/Onmyōji (2016) crossover fan works have occasionally appeared even before the introduction of personified pretty sword boy Onigiri (a.k.a. Higekiri, and voiced by Kosuke Toriumi to boot) into the latter, and after which the fandom overlap boomed.
• Gateway Series: Since it's release, Touken Ranbu and it's adaptations have played a significant role in reigniting interest in Japanese swords and museum culture.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Although the game was only available in Japanese until 2021, this hasn't stopped it from gaining a somewhat big Western fanbase. Hotarumaru is also very popular with Western fans.
  • Ookurikara has a large popularity in Indonesia due of his exotic look. Japanese fans were quite surprised by this.
  • It's also got quite the fanbase in Vietnam as well.
  • While the series is largely a celebration of Japanese culture and history, it has a rather large following in China, to the point where it's spin off Musical Touken Ranbu has had performances there. As well, nearly half of all the fanfiction for this game on Archive of Our Own are in Chinese.
• Growing the Beard: In the early days of Touken Ranbu, Recollections were short and often very shallow. However, in the recent years, they have they gotten longer and more in-depth in revealing things about not only the relationship dynamics of the Touken Danshi, but also the mindsets of the Touken Danshi themselves, sometimes revealing things that aren’t even hinted at in their voice-lines.
• High-Tier Scrappy: For PVP, a well-leveled Jiroutachi (kiwame or otherwise) is not a sword people like seeing on teams. This is because of his high Camouflage stat, which increases your chances of failing the scouting segment, as well as a high Leadership that makes his troops harder to kill. You'll either have to watch your swords waste turns trying to take him down, or pray that they can survive a hit from him, because he's still a strong oodachi.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • KanColle has been accused of historical revisionism, especially in the anime. Here, the enemies are historical revisionists. However, the accusations became Harsher in Hindsight since Touken Ranbu had a similar accusation.
  • On Nitroplus' website, they had a New Year's celebratory image◊ of Tonbokiri depicted alongside Shang Bu Huan of Thunderbolt Fantasy, since Kenzou Ishitsu worked on the designs for both characters. It turns out to be more than prophetic after the announcement and implementation of Sengo Muramasa (a person Tonbokiri knows very well and is voiced by Jun'ichi Suwabe, just like Shang). What really drives it home is that the official April Fools prank ended up having Munechika cross swords with Lin Xue Ya, Shang's partner as of Season 1's end, and then Shang himself fights Muramasa the following year.
• Ho Yay: Since this game has an all-male cast, Ho Yay shipping was inevitable.
  • The most notable in-game example is Izuminokami Kanesada/Horikawa Kunihiro; not only were they both based on swords that belonged to Toshizou Hijitaka, but Horikawa is Kanesada's self-proclaimed assistant, calling him "Kane-san" and being rather devoted to him. An official tweet even compares him to a wife, and considering how often Horikawa brings up "Kane-san" in his quotes, it isn't a stretch to think he could be Kanesada's wife...
  • Ookurikara and Mitsutada are also a popular pairing because they were both owned by Date Masamune, and for their contrasting personalities. There is also a lot of potential angst between the two of them because Mitsutada was destroyed, and now may not remember Ookurikara.
  • Each recollection can be seen as Ho Yay, leading to ships like Ishikirimaru/Nikkari or Kogitsunemaru/Nakigitsune.
  • The swords' lingering affection/adoration or their Undying Loyalty towards their previous masters can be seen as this as well, since the vast majority of the swords' masters were male. The most blatant example is Yamatonokami's strong fixation on Souji Okita.
  • Ookanehira's sparring lines involve him treating the other rarity 5 swords with open hostility... except for Juzumaru. It seems as if he's too cowed by Juzumaru's level of politeness to be anything but polite in return, but of course, this doesn't stop fandom from drawing other conclusions.
  • New swords that are implemented in pairs tend to be coupled together, leading to ships like Nankai/Hizen and Suishinshi/Kiyomaro.
• Incest Yay Shipping: Any ship that involves Toushirou swords loving eachother. Ichigo/Namazuo (IchiNama), Ichigo/Yagen (IchiYage/IchiYaku and Namazuo/Honebami (NamaHone/ZuoBami) seem to be popular. However, like with KanColle, it isn't clear if the characters are actually blood-related or if being "brothers" is just a figure of speech.
  • Izuminokami is also frequently shipped with Kasen (KaneKase), and Ōdenta with Sohaya, etc. This also extends to any swords being shipped together that were forged by the same swordsmith or are from the same school; up to being forged in a branch of the same school.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming:
  • "Anmitsu"^note A Japanese dessert made of sweet bean paste and jelly for Yamatonokami Yasusada/Kashuu Kyomitsu. Also doubles as a Portmanteau Couple Name.
  • "Ichigo Daifuku" for Ichigo Hitofuri/Tsurumaru Kuninaga, sue to the snack having a strawberry (representing Hitofuri) inside a white mochi (resembling Tsurumaru's hood).
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: For the sword boys, Mikazuki Munechika, Doudanuki Masakuni and Yamanbagiri Kunihiro. The Saniwa gets in on this too, thanks to the sword boys' lines towards them as well as a natural extension of their player character status.
• LGBT Fanbase: Predictably, the more muscular swordboys (most notably Tonbokiri and Yamabushi Kunihiro) have attracted a fair amount of gay male fans. Surprisingly, Doudanuki has garnered a gay male following as well.
• Low-Tier Letdown: The obtainable yari for the player can be this, especially prior to the prominence of Rarity-5 yari (which they are effective against). They gain levels very slowly and require a lot of resources to repair, traits that oodachi have; however, the oodachi are considered much more useful for being able to hit more swords. While they are guaranteed to hit enemy swords directly, other swords can do that at a high enough level, so they function as more inconvenient tachi. Individually: Tonbokiri has strong stats but is slow and will hamper your scouting success; Otegine is good at scouting but has rather mediocre stats comparable to an uchigatana; and while Nihongou is surprisingly fast with high stats, he is notoriously hard to obtain.
• Memetic Mutation: Has its own page here.
• Memetic Loser: Yamanbagiri Chougi is taken far less seriously after initial introduction. With his one-sided rivalry with Yamanbagiri, his bragging and almost cartoonish Jerkass attitude towards some of the other swords, many fans found his bark worse than his bite and like to have fun at his expense.
• Memetic Troll: Tsurumaru is often made out to be this in fanworks, due to his love of surprising people. He even has a pool on Danbooru that's dedicated to his trolling moments.
• Moe: Pick any sword, and they will likely have some endearing trait that fans find appealing on top of the characters being good-looking, and those endearing traits are played up by fanworks or even side-materials like the anthology comics. It's played the straightest with the younger-looking tantous, but the moe quality doesn't actually diminish as you go down the line of characters: Tonbokiri and Iwatooshi, the tallest and most muscular characters in the Touken Danshi, are not immune to this treatment because of their cordial personalities, and it's hilarious.
• Most Wonderful Sound: Shinken Hissatsu, which is a Moment of Awesome and can be a real game-changer when your team is in a pinch, is announced by the clack of a shakubyōshi.
• Not-So-Cheap Imitation: The original purpose of Touken Ranbu was as a Spear Counterpart to Kantai Collection, which was often mockingly referred to by Kancolle fans as "Kancolle but with dudes" among other things. However, within just a few months of its release, Touken Ranbu became a social phenomenon and continued to gain popularity after that, eventually establishing its own identity, to the point where most people nowadays have forgotten or don't care about it's origins as a counterpart game. The game also became so popular on its own that other mobile game developers tried to capitalize on it by copying the idea of personified [insert thing]'s as pretty boys and other borrowed concepts.
• Pandering to the Base: While the game itself rarely does this, The adaptations tend to take popular fanon and incorperate it into the work as well as occasionally place subtle Ship Tease between character pairings perceived as popular in the fanbase. They also give interactions to related characters that have yet to interact in the game.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • "Anmitsu" is often used for the Yamatonokami Yasusada/Kashuu Kiyomitsu pairing, which comes from combining the kanji in their names. Anmitsu also happens to be a Japanese dessert, and the dessert is often associated with the pairing as well. The pairing is otherwise called "YasuKiyo", "KiyoYasu" and "Ukiyo Yasuragi Hana Fubuki".
  • UraMida for Urashima Koutetsu/Midare Toushirou.
  • Also KogiMika for Kogitsunemaru/Mikazuki Munechika.
  • MikaTsuru for Mikazuki Munechika/Tsurumaru Kuninaga
• Polished Port: Touken Ranbu Pocket. This version's performance is much better and faster than the browser counterpart (due to the browser version's reliance of Adobe Flash, which could seriously lag/crash your PC). Mercifully, the browser version would later run in HTML5 in 2019, and now runs much faster than the Flash version (itself is being discontinued in late 2019).
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • Monoyoshi Sadamune occasionally gets this treatment, due to one of his previous masters being involved in the fire that burned Ichigo Hitofuri and Namuzou and Honebami Toushirou. They completely ignore the fact that Monoyoshi was only a sword at the time and thus wasn't at fault for what happened back then. At worst, he would've been Just Following Orders, but the fandom loves depicting him as some kind of sadist who likes torturing the victims of said incident. He's a rather sweet and cheerful character in game.
  • Yamatonokami Yasusada is portrayed in fanworks as fanatically obsessed with Okita and dismissive of the Saniwa. His sadistic "battle mode" is heavily flanderized too. They completely ignore that while Yasusada takes more time in warming up to the Saniwa than anyone else, he isn't rude with them and is actually grateful for everyone they've done for him. It's just that he needs time to finally get over his trauma for Okita's death and he finally does so after Kiwame.
• Shipping:
  • The Saniwa is frequently paired with Kiyomitsu because of his issues.
  • In the Japanese fandom, Saniwa/Hasebe is quite popular, mainly because of Hasebe's Undying Loyalty being flanderized. Saniwa/Kashuu is seen along the same lines, as is Saniwa/Mitsutada.
  • Kogitsunemaru/Nakigitsune, helped by the fact that they both have fox motifs and that Nakigitsune apparently has an interest in Kogitsunemaru for that very reason.
  • Gotou/Monoyoshi, due to the Recollections skit they have together.
  • Mikazuki/Tsurumaru due Tsurumaru being forged by the smith that was a student of Sanjou Munechika; Mikazuki's swordsmith, their contrasting dynamics despite being from the same era, and their interactions in the adaptations.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: Plenty, considering the amount of swords that have little to no canon interactions in the game/adaptations, primarily due to the swords not having history with each other. Doesn't stop some fans from shipping them.
• That One Level:
  • World 6/Ikedaya Raid is generally hard to beat due to various circumstances, namely Random Number God detours (especially in 6-1), Rarity-5 Yari, and the fact that only tantou and wakizashi (and to a lesser extent, uchigatana) can pass the maps (which is actually a feature carried over from KanColle).
  • The Summer 2015 event. While the event is not fully RNG-dependant, the inclusion of Rarity-5 Yari in Map 3 and 4, plus Nihongou being an extremely rare sword to obtain in the boss node of Map 4, had players up in arms due to having to use all their resources for sword repairs. Inverted that some players actually liked this event, citing the strategic undertones that this event offers, plus the weekly-changing Rare Random Drop alongside Nihongou that you could obtain in Map 4 as reasons.
    • The next iterations of this event avert this trope since these events puts emphasis on leveling up rather than searching for rare drops.
  • The Fall 2015 event, while an improvement from the beta-test (drawing the same enemy card twice-thrice is now passable, no need to clear other maps for easier bead farming), it is widely regarded as a very money-wasting (three one-way passes costs 1000 koban rather than 100), RNG-heavy event. The fact that the rewards offered alongside Monoyoshi were not as interesting as the beta-test (no rare swords offered, unless for those who haven't obtained Honebami and Tonbokiri) doesn't help.
  • The Summer 2017 event. Obtaining 100,000 beads for a Wakizashi in 15 days? Who would thought that it was a good idea?
• That One Sidequest: Obtaining Kogitsunemaru, due to being a complete Luck-Based Mission. He's a boss drop in area 5-3 but it's not guaranteed that one will both reach the boss and get a drop. Area 5-3 also has an average level limit for drops, making obtaining Kogitsunemaru harder than Mikazuki because once your swords hit the average level limit, you have to switch swords. And if you doesn't have any sword strong enough to bring there, you will have to train them from scratch. He can also be crafted if one is lucky enough. If.

  • The average level limit can be bypassed by having an all-Kiwame team as long as their levels are below 88. A level 35 Kiwame Tantou with refined stats can bring even the strongest of enemies in map 5 and level 90+ Kebiishis up to their knees. Make a team comprised of them, and you're good to go.

  • And now, obtaining Juzumaru in the boss node of 7-4. While reaching the boss node is guaranteed, the map is comprised of three fixed routes that are determined by your team's total number of scouting points. Since at this point, a lot of players have leveled up their Kiwame Tantou (which makes their scouting stat high), an all-Kiwame Tantou team will bring you to the shortest route, which are filled with strong enemies that will bring down your team. An average level of 65+ of Kiwame tantous are recommended, which not everyone could get around. The longest route is no slouch either, you have to bring low-leveled swords/non-Kiwames in order to access said route. While it is much easier since the enemies are pretty much similar to World 6 minus Yari, it's not an easy solution either as the boss node has Rarity-4 Wakizashi, a hit by them will bring large damage to your sword, which will give you C ranking (thus, not getting any sword drop). Not to mention that Juzumaru's drop rate is just as low as the aforementioned Kogitsunemaru.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The lack of in-game interactions of any kind between some swords that have well-known historical connections due to shared owners, are from related schools, or even are from the same school has been a problem since the game's inception:
  • Fans have frequently discussed the Sanjou's lack of interactions, pointing out the oddity that they are all from the same school and yet seemingly have little to do with each other. At first, only Imanotsurugi and Iwatooshi had a Recollection with each other, while Kogitsunemaru interacted with Nakigitsune, Mikazuki Munechika with Honebami Toushirou, and Ishikirimaru with Nikkari Aoe. Another inter-Sanjou interaction between Mikazuki Munechika and Kogitsunemaru would not happen until years later, in the form of a sparring line and field duty line, which was added only after Kogitsunemaru's Kiwame training. As of the time of writing, Ishikirimaru still has yet to interact with anyone at his school in-game.
    • Tsurumaru Kuninaga is also frequently brought into the discussion because he is associated with the Sanjou school as a result of being forged by Gojo Kuninaga, Sanjou Munechika's disciple, despite having no interactions with any of them in game. His school is not listed in the game, and, most likely due to the popularity of how the fans grouped them together, he was eventually given interactions with the Dategumi sword instead, with the group acting as if they have history, even though historically, it is debatable whether he was even owned by Date Masamune at the same time as the trio, let alone by Date Masamune at all and not simply someone in the Date clan. To make matters even stranger, the adaptations appear to pick up where the browser game fell short by having him interact with Mikazuki Munechika and form a friendship with him, if they aren't already established as friends from the start, leading fans to wonder if there's some sort of hidden rule to adapting Touken Ranbu works that requires those two swords to interact due to their connected schools, which hasn't been implemented in the game for some reason.
• Unexpected Character: After nine years of Ookurikara's school being unlisted and him being treated as part of the Dategumi above all else, with no mention or indication that any of the other swords from his school existed, no one expected Nitro Plus to not only introduce another Hiromitsu school sword, but also for them to change Ookurikara's profile to reflect that he is a member of the Hiromitsu school in the first place. To top it all off, Kashagiri, the sword in question, was released on January 16th, aka 1/16, which fans celebrate as Ookurikara Day because it corresponds to the same numbers as his sword library designation.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: For a few Toudan, but particularly Midare Toushirou, due to his appearance. Quite a few non-Saniwa believe he's female and the sole female character in the entire franchise. There have even been debates on what gender Midare is, despite the source material stating that the Touken Danshi are all male. This usually only occurs in the western fanbase, with the JP side not paying any mind to it.
• Win Back the Crowd: The announcement of the Kiwame system, Tourabu's equivalent of the Second Remodel/Kai Ni system from KanColle system, had players who previously quit Tourabu due to thinking it So Okay, It's Average and/or It's Easy, So It Sucks! return.
• The Woobie: To a degree, all the characters could qualify as this, since all their former masters are long deceased, and some of the swords were quite attached to them.
  • The Samonji brothers are particularly known as this. Souza and Sayo have had pretty depressing lives, the former being imprisoned and seen only as a symbol of victory, and the latter used as a tool for murder and revenge. Kousetsu is also this to a lesser extent, in that he despises war and violence, but has a duty to keep fighting as a sword.
  • Imanotsurugi is so upbeat it's easy to forget that he was used to commit suicide by his former owner Yoshitsune...or that's what he thought, anyway. His Kiwame upgrade reveals that he was never actually used to commit suicide, since in the game's historical timeline, he was only a fictional sword. He does have a Tomato in the Mirror revelation, which he takes surprisingly well.
  • Aizen Kunitoshi, in relation to his "brothers", Akashi Kuniyuki and Hotarumaru. It's clear that his guardian Kuniyuki favors Hotarumaru more of the two in his charge, and Aizen is completely aware of this fact. It shows up prominently in his Kiwame, where he notes that you make a better guardian than the one actually responsible for him.