YMMV / Touken Ranbu Stage

• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Yamabushi is pretty unbothered by the fact that he literally died for a few minutes and would have stayed dead if it weren't for Mikazuki giving Honebami a magic protection charm. Yamanbagiri is far more upset about his death than he is. Though given his personality and his status as a devout Buddhist monk, such a relaxed attitude to his own death is pretty in-character.
  • Horikawa never so much as mentions Yamanbagiri during Iden, despite Yamanbagiri having gone missing by this time.
• Fandom Rivalry: At times with Musical Touken Ranbu. Both are based on the same game, but there are many differences besides the fact that one is a traditional stage and the other is a musical, such as tones, presentation, and characterization. Naturally, this has sparked debates about which adaptation is "better," particularly in terms of writing and characterization. Not helped by the works technically being in direct competition with each other, these debates have sometimes also lead to the actors themselves being attacked and criticized because of their portrayals. In recent years, there have also been some fussing that Touken Ranbu Stage has gotten preferential treatment over the musical from official works due to the actors from the stage play reprising their roles as the characters in the live action movie.
• Fan Nickname: To distinguish him from Kuroba Mario's portrayal of the same character in Musical Touken Ranbu, Hiroki Suzuki's portrayal of Mikazuki Munechika is frequently referred to as "Hirochika" by fans.
• Friendly Fandoms: Usually with Musical Touken Ranbu. They're both based on the same game, but because of differences in tone, presentation, and characterization, among other things, fans regard them as separate works that avoid stepping on each other's toes and typically try to do the same, even if they prefer one over the other. Even many actors appear to agree with this sentiment, saying in interviews that they enjoy the other production, despite recognizing their rivalry in the 2.5D industry.
• Ho Yay:
  • The sheer amount of Ho Yay between Mikazuki and Yamanbagiri is honestly staggering, to the point that a genuine argument could be made that they are intended to be love interests.
  • Ranmaru's real-life romance with Oda Nobunaga is present, as he admits in an Anguished Declaration of Love that he loves Oda Nobunaga the person, instead of the larger than life figure he was known as.
  • Fudo seems quite infatuated with Souza and even gushes about how beautiful he is to his very face, but it's unclear if Fudo has any romantic interest in him or is just appreciating him aesthetically.
  • The reveal that the Saniwa is male turned all of Hasebe's fawning into this, although Hasebe already had quite a bit of Ho Yay prior to this with his former master, Kuroda Nagamasa. At one point, Nagamasa hugs him, and Hasebe becomes frozen in place from sheer happiness.
• It Was His Sled: The reveal that Mikazuki Munechika is trapped in a never-ending time loop from Hiden is so well-known in the fandom that people openly discuss it when discussing anything related to the stage play, and even the anime adaptation does not try to hide that plot aspect, dropping strong hints that it will be a plot point related to Mikazuki in everything from the show's title, synopsis, Mikazuki's dialogue, and so on.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The scene in Kyouden where the other swords force Hasebe to eat ohagi until he choked proved very popular among fans. They took to it so well that the poor man was forced to eat it again during the stage play's final performance.
  • The stage play introduced the idea of Hasebe and horses, to the point where it became a popular bit of Fanon in the fandom.
• Tear Jerker: Yoshihiko Aramaki's end of run speech during Hiden. Especially since he mentions the night of the performance was also the night of a crescent moon, citing it as a sign of Munechika being with everyone in spirit.
• The Woobie: Mikazuki Munechika, who has had to constantly relive the events of the stage play, watching the downfall of the citadel constantly and becoming the enemy of his in the process friends until Yamanbagiri can defeat him and is doomed to constantly be dismantled and disappear at the end of it all.
  • Yamanbagiri himself is a massive woobie, coming to love and respect Mikazuki over the course of the first five plays, even refusing to believe that he's a traitor when all evidence says otherwise, and trying to fight off his friends when they attack Mikazuki. He spends the back end of the fifth play trying to save Mikazuki, only for Mikazuki to break anyway when he forces Yamanbagiri to fight him. The way his actor collapses and cries at the end is truly heartbreaking, and it's rare for any fans watching to report that they themselves didn't tear up.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Yamanbagiri and Yamabushi's other brother, Horikawa, is introduced in the same play that we see Yamanbagiri has pulled a Face–Heel Turn and joined the HRA, and yet we never get to see the two brothers interact. Horikawa never even finds out that he's there.
• Values Dissonance: The 7th stage play has famous Japanese nationalist Sakamoto Ryouma as its sympathetic human focus, with his values and views on foreigners at front and centre, and the narrative doing nothing to frame him and his politics as anything but heroic. The xenophobic viewpoints espoused by Sakamoto Ryouma and his supporting cast can make western fans pretty uncomfortable, and not only because the anti-foreigner sentiments are directed specifically at westerners. Nationalism is a very touchy subject with many negative associations in most western countries, especially in the political climate of the 2010's, with many young people considering it synonymous with racism and fascism.