YMMV / Touken Ranbu - Hanamaru

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Once you listen to all of the things the swords say about their saniwa, it becomes very hard to pin them down. The most we hear of them is that they're holed up in their room at all times of the day and they have magazines about 21st century japanese pop culture lying around, while only giving orders for everyone else to do chores and nothing else. Their sickness in Episode 6 also seems to be self-inflicted, because according to Kashuu, he's sometimes seen them staying up at odd hours at night doing...something. You start to wonder if they're taking their swords for granted after that. But other times they put their all into simple tasks like sewing swimsuits, though the fact that they left a fundoshi among the suits gave them the impression that they were perverted. If you want a complete picture of this entity, you're not going to get it.
• Americans Hate Tingle: In a Japanese magazine popularity poll, Heshikiri Hasebe surpassed popular characters such as Victor Nikiforov and Ichimatsu Matsuno. Western fans, on the other hand, consider anime!Hasebe annoying for being unhealthily obsessed with pleasing the Saniwa.
• Awesome Music: You can make a case for all of the insert songs used during the ending credits, as each one has a certain charm.
• Base-Breaking Character: Yamatonokami in the first season gets a lot of talk from either ends. Some fans aren't fond of his obsession over Okita in this adaptation, saying that it's exaggerated to the point where it starts to become unsympathetic. Others don't mind it as much, as the show also goes out of its way to try and give his lingering feelings for his master some depth.
• Broken Base: Some feel that this show, along with Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu, are unfairly biased to the Shinsengumi swords due to having them as the lead characters. It doesn't help that whatever minimal plot the has is focused on Yamato-no-Kami in Season 1, and then come Season 2, Kashuu takes a majority of the screen time for the entire season.
• Epileptic Trees: The outcome of Episode 11 threw everyone back a notch, as fans started speculating on whether the end of this series has any ties to the ufotable adaptation. Also crosses into Broken Base, as some fans don't want the two series to be interconnected.
  • There were also fans who speculated that Yamatonokami would end up breaking and being saved by the Omamori based on his dream where "Okita" who is carrying Yamatonokami's sword instead of Kashuu's at Ikeda gets stabbed at the end, when this didn't happen in the actual incident (that plus how "Okita" from the dream was dressed more like Yamatonokami than the actual Okita introduced in episode 11 was). Both these speculations turned out to be false when Episode 12 finally aired, however.
• Fridge Logic: Why did Mikazuki's soul, specifically, cause the Saniwa's shikigami to explode? If it is to reflect the fact that he is a high rarity sword, this does not happen with any of the other high rarity swords introduced later. Even Kogarasumaru's summoning was completely normal, as he simply popped into existence as any other sword would have. Maybe he is so stunningly beautiful that it blinds you?
• Fridge Horror: In Episode 12, all photos of Yamatonokami suddenly disappear and yet, all of the Touken Danshi still retain memories of him. It might be possible that if Kashuu hasn't stopped Yamatonokami from altering history to save their former master's life, there's a chance that everyone at the citadel who knew him will have him disappear from their memories. It implies that this would happen to everyone in the citadel if they tried to save their former masters at the cost of their own life.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Yamatonokami's arc in the last couple of episodes seems a little too similar to how the swords activate their Kiwame forms in-game. He goes back to a crucial time when his master lived and watches as history unfolds before him, with the feeling that he'd like to change history, but can't. He goes off on a long journey afterwards in order to better himself for his own needs and to devote himself to his Saniwa. The major difference here is that the journey and self-discovery happen during the same period in Kiwame training, not separately. Even more so since the journey he goes on at the end of the first season is confirmed to be his Kiwame training in Zoku.
• Ho Yay: Primarily between Kashuu and Yamatonokami, though some of the supporting characters like Hasebe and Mitsutada and Mikazuki and Tsurumaru have their moments as well, unsurprisingly.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: In addition to the sales drop come Zoku, some fans feel like the second season is retreading points the first season already did, such as the Kotetsus' song in episode 4 paralleling the udon song of season 1.
• Memetic Mutation: From the western fanbase, intentionally mispronounced/spelled names of the characters (Meekazookee for Mikazuki Munechika, Izoomeenokahmi for Izuminokami Kanesada, for example) from the hilariously bad simuldub of the anime and how the names were pronounced by the English voice actors. The dub itself also became a meme due to how hard it was to take seriously because of how little the voice actors fit the characters they were playing.
• Narm Charm: The Udon song from episode 6. It's so undoubtedly cheesy, everyone's slightly off-key, and it comes out of nowhere, but it's a cute moment nonetheless.
• Nightmare Fuel: In Zoku episode 2, Honebami has a nightmare where he witnessed Osaka Castle on fire and the two people he cares for deeply, Ichigo and Namazuo, walking toward the fire. Honebami tries to stop them, only to find his legs have turned into stones. All he can do is watch as his brothers are consumed by the flames.
• Pandering to the Base: Hasebe is often ranked in polls as one of the most popular characters in Touken Ranbu, and it shows that creators were somewhat aware of that fact to give him more prevalence in the anime without truly overshadowing the main protagonist Yamatonokami, but more so than others. It does not help his personal attendant position in the citadel doesn't actually exist in game and treated separately from the canon secretary position (the character assigned to summon swords and announce team formation in Hanamaru; in game it's the character set as the captain for the first team, who will appear in the citadel and comment on the player's actions), and was likely created so that he can be an extension of the Saniwa's orders and maintain relevance throughout the series.
  • Outside of the lead characters, characters that are known to be more popular within the Touken Ranbu fanbase (Mikazuki, Tsurumaru, Yagen and Mitsutada being primary examples) tended to get more screentime and lines than the other supporting characters. As well, several characters that the fandom are known to want to see interacting in canon have gotten interactions in the Anime.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Episode 3 has a moment when Yamatonokami sits in the barren tree while looking at all the slips of paper that the other swords have written on to make the tree bloom...and then he notices that instead of wishing for the tree to bloom, some of the slips of paper have things like "I want to see Ichi-nii" and "I want to see Kousetsu-niisama". Not all of the swords have made it to the citadel yet, and their younger brothers desperately wish to see them again.
  • Episode 9's first half, which focuses on Imanotsurugi and his outing at the Battle at Atsukashiyama. Since it's a battle that he knows will end in Yoshitsune, his previous master, surrendering and committing suicide, he's understandably a little shaken. It takes a good deal of encouragement by Iwatooshi and their comrades to convince Imanotsurugi to fight and preserve history, and when they've finally "won", Imanotsurugi is still on the verge of tears. Don't forget, Imanotsurugi was believed to be the blade Yoshitsune used to kill himself.
  • Yamatonokami meeting Okita during the second Retrogade attack at the Ikeda-ya. The boy does so much in his power to adjust to life at the Citadel, makes good strides in learning to use his memories of his master as his strength rather than an obsession, and plans the second counterstrike accordingly instead of trying to copy what Okita did... and then when he comes face to face with the man himself he can't hold himself back and runs in after him.
  • Kashuu slapping some sense into Yamatonokami by reminding him of his duty to the Saniwa and that Kashuu has just as many (if not more) misgivings about the Ikeda-ya event and just as much admiration for Okita as Yamatonokami does. It's a glimpse into a lonelier, sadder, and more mature Kashuu that we rarely get to see in the show.
  • In Zoku Honebami reveals that he wanted to prevent the fire he was a part of because his brothers deserved not to be burned and have their memories taken away like he did.
  • Throughout Zoku's first half, we see Kashuu at his loneliest without Yamatonokami around and without being put on sortie. He's constantly thinking about him, wishing him well on his travels, feeling his presence missing at the Citadel, and praying he gets home safely.
• Wangst: How some fans saw Yamatonokami's fixation on his master and the circumstances of the Ikeda Inn raid. Combined with the fact that he talks about his feelings in more depth compared to the game version, and that he's one of the protagonists of the story, means that people already fed up with his talk of Okita would get sick of it even more here. And like Tear Jerker mentions above, some fans felt it unjustified whining compared to his own costar Kashuu, who loved Okita just as much and was the actually broken and abandoned one of the two, but didn't waver in his loyalty to the mission and his Saniwa much.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Little Girls?: The copious amount of good-looking men and a generally lighthearted and heartwarming Slice of Life plot, not helped by the fact the game the series is adapting is female-oriented in the first place, brings to mind a Shōjo. The manga, at least, is in fact Shōnen and ran in Jump+.