#tkrb media

[thiswasmadeonawhim]

Touken Ranbu 101 (Entry Guide)

((I originally wrote this for Anilist, but I made a modified version for tumblr just for more accessibility.))

So you wanna Touken Ranbu, but have No idea where to start? Don't worry, we've all been there before. This will be a brief yet extensive guide on where to even start here. Starting first with overall world explanation, then sorting through all the different media based on 1) Adaptation and 2) Entry Level Rating (Last updated: 01/13/2024)

What is Touken Ranbu?

Touken Ranbu started as an online browser game back in 2015, and later received a mobile phone application version around 2016. It is NOT a dating sim. TKRB fits under the Joseimuke demographic, in which the main target audience is older women, but don't feel discouraged from exploring if you don't fit the targeted range.

Synopsis: (from the tkrb wiki)

Touken Ranbu (刀剣乱舞) is an online web browser game by DMM and Nitroplus. Players assume the role of a Saniwa sage (審神者) who travels into the past to defeat evil forces that are trying to change the course of history. As a sage, you have the ability to bring famous historical swords to life as touken danshi (刀剣男士). Your duty is to bring these blades to life, create an army, and defeat the enemies!

Since then, Touken Ranbu has received various types of adaptations, ranging from anime, manga, novels, stage plays, musicals and live action movies, all of which are based on the universe created by the game. An important thing to note: None of the different series are related to one another. They all take place in their own citadels meaning that one sword from one version will not be the same in another citadel, aside from their base sword personality. Their base character traits and personalities can be gathered from their in-game dialogue, and are then refined and deepened based on the writer. In addition to this, Touken Ranbu just recently celebrated its 9th anniversary, and with that, a whole slew of new media to consume.

Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru

Starting with the first anime adaptation: TKRB Hanamaru (HNMR). TKRB HNMR focuses on sword life at home in the citadel and is heavy slice-of-life material. Ranging from family bonding, division of household chores, playing with animals and topics like this. It also includes some sortie and battle scenes, but nothing too heavy so it also makes it safe for people of all ages. Really the definition of "cute boys doing cute things".

Hanamaru Season 1

Hanamaru Manga

Hanamaru Season 2

Hanamaru Movie Trilogy

So far it's also the longest anime/manga adaptation with 2 seasons (12 episodes each) and a 3 movie series (a 3rd season of sorts). As well as a manga adaptation, so far only based on the first season of the anime as well as one covering the events of the 3 movies. In addition to that, there’s also a novelization of the 3 movies. This adaptation also has the largest cast of swords, currently at 86 swords, so i rate it a 7/10 on the Entry Level Rating scale.

Reasoning: HNMR is a great place to start and slowly learn about the different swords, small bits of their history as well as their relations to one another. I would just recommend coming back to rewatch HNMR more than once to pick up on things once missed, as it also makes jokes based on some other sword related things not within the anime. In addition to that, the large number of cast may be intimidating to those diving right in, that is unless you are used to learning 40+ new characters in one go.

Katsugeki/TOUKEN RANBU

The next anime adaptation would be Katsugeki (KTGK). TKRB KTGK is the more Serious(tm) TKRB anime adaptation when compared to HNMR. It’s also shorter having only a 12 episode anime, one manga adaptation and an upcoming movie (currently still in limbo, thanks ufo-table)

Katsugeki Anime

Katsugeki Manga

Katsugeki Movie

KTGK focuses on the battle and timeline protection aspects of the game, but from a perspective that can be both inviting but also confusing to new viewers. On the other hand, it features only a certain number of swords so it’s easier to learn about the characters as you watch. For this reason I rate Katsugeki a 6/10 on the Entry Level Rating scale

Reasoning: KTGK may have a smaller cast, but many fans agree that their take on one of the swords in particular is out of character. Regardless, I’d say that KTGK is a good anime to first introduce people to the Concept of the universe. To show that it’s not just pretty boys posing with swords, show how every sword has a history and something that they want to protect.

Touken Ranbu Anthologies

The TKRB Anthologies require NO background knowledge but also ALL the background knowledge at the same time. However, this doesn’t mean that it isn’t as accessible for those who don’t know the swords. There are a large number of them and it doesn’t matter where you start with them.

Hibana Mae Touken Danshi

Uijin

Senjin

Hibana Chirase Touken Danshi

Touken Danshi Makuaigeki

Shutsujin Junbichuu

Homare

Shutsujin

Ki no Jin

SQEX no Jin

Touken Ranbu Gakuen

Story wise, these have no stories. They’re all one-shots or shorter, just drawn by sword fans for sword fans. I rate the anthology series a 9/10 for the Entry Level Rating scale due to their easy to consume length as well as how many swords they manage to cover in one go. There’s no way you can go wrong with the anthologies. Don’t like a sword? Just keep browsing til you see a 4Koma of a sword that fits your tastes more then. Much like Hanamaru, I highly recommend coming back after you’ve absorbed more sword knowledge so those jokes can hit one more time.

Touken Ranbu 4-Koma

Much like the anthologies, the 4-Koma chibi anthology series is Even Shorter and easier to consume. So far has 4 volumes.

Anthology Comic 4koma Ranbu

Entry level wise, I rate it an 8/10. Nearly up there with the rest of the anthologies, but still not high  enough standalone to cover just as much. Still a cute series nonetheless.

Touken Ranbu Side Story: Tale of Ayakashi

The Tale of Ayakashi manga series is still releasing, but it’s a good read which features many different swords in different scenarios involving Spoopy Spirits.

Touken Ranbu Gaiden Ayakashi Tan

I rate it an entry score of 6/10 as you may need to do more reading on the side regarding the swords and their connections as well as the ayakashi featured. (they come with small snippets of info, but reading in depth is also fascinating)

Touken Ranbu ~Nihongo Tsurezure Sake~

Another manga currently releasing, this one focuses on Nihongo, one of the heaviest drinkers of the citadel, cooking meals for his fellow swords in the citadel. The focus here being mostly on food that tastes great with a side of alcohol (usually sake). This one gains an entry score of __5/10__. It features other swords, yes, but the main focus is still the meals so I’d say it hits better after you get to know them all first.

Touken Ranbu Musical

The TKRB Musical is one of the 2.5D adaptations that TKRB has spawned. Not to be confused with the stage play series, which I’ll get into later. Currently TouMyu as a franchise has well over 30 productions, including unique stories, reruns, solo shows, duo shows, and live concerts, in just under 8 years. Over the years, TouMyu has grown to inspire and create more adaptations based on their individual plays, including (currently) 2 manga adaptations, and 6 official novelizations.

Atsukashiyama-Ibun

Bakumatsu Tenrouden

TouMyu manga adaptations are just 2 volumes and pretty fast reads. As for whether they can substitute for the Musicals themselves, I’d say yes. They do a fantastic job adapting the main story into an action packed manga. However, I’d also recommend the musicals themselves, at least to try the medium out but also to experience them in their original form. For this reason, I rate the Musical manga adaptations a 6/10

As some Myu samples, the latest 2 MVs featuring Tsurumaru and Ookurikara:

Touken Ranbu Stage Play

Much like TouMyu, the TKRB Stage Plays are another 2.5D project that started at the same time as TouMyu and takes place in its own universe and timeline. So far, there have been no manga adaptations, however, there is an anime series in the works to adapt the first TouSute stage play. It’s now set to release in April 2024!

Touken Ranbu Kyouden Moyuru Honnouji

Just like TouMyu, TouSute has multiple entries for the series as a whole. Running also since around 2016, the stage play adaptation features 12 unique productions as well as one pseudo live event. Rating this based on the stages themselves, I’d give TouSute a beginner level of 4/10.

Reasoning: This is not because it’s a bad adaptation, in fact it’s an amazing series ((I’m biased)), It’s just that it can all be overwhelming to take in at one time. What I recommend is trying another series or two first before diving straight into TouSute, as they require you to know a bit more about the characters when going in other than just basic facts. This really requires you to understand their history and Why they act the way they do when faced with certain obstacles and challenges. If you ever do plan to watch the stage plays though, I recommend going in release order!

Because most of Sute’s youtube videos are region locked to Japan, I have come with a BD pv video. Here, have a stage PV for Tenden:

Touken Ranbu Movie

Not to be confused with any of the other 2.5D series, the TouEiga is as well another citadel of its own. The cast is majority the same from TouSute, however, so it may confuse those just starting out. So far, only the first movie has one manga adaptation. There is a total of two movies, one from 2019 and one from 2023. Both feature a lot of the same swords, but the 2nd movie adds a few more to the roster as well as mixes in some sentai-esque elements so I feel that it may appeal to a wider audience who may not understand a lot of the sword mechanics.

Eiga Touken Ranbu

Since this movie is a one off, it and the manga adaptation both rank in at a 7/10 for entry level reasons. I’d say for this all you really need to know is who Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi are and you’re good to go. The second movie keeps the ranking still at a 7/10 since both are really a non-committal piece of media. You can go in and just vibe and decide if you wanna look into it more later.

Touken Ranbu Kabuki

Our newest live action adaptation will be a Kabuki adaptation of Touken Ranbu: TouBuki. The one and only show ran back in July in 2023. Kabuki, being a traditional theater art in Japan, may seem intimidating at first to someone who has never watched it (this is coming from personal experience), but the adaptation in general was an enjoyable watch and very engaging. Written from the perspective of: If Touken Ranbu were to receive an adaptation written back in the day, there’s a great authentic feel to the production. For a starting point, just due to the hurdle, I rate TouBuki a 5/10 for beginners.

Touken Ranbu Outdoor Ibun - Touken Camp

In this spin off, it’s a whole manga where the swords go camping with each other but also cook food. So sorta like Yuru Camp only with sword men.

Touken Ranbu Outdoor Ibun - Touken-Camp

So also like the Nihongo cooking manga, just a different artist and aesthetic. So cause it also is food based, and also camping based, I rank it a similar 5/10 for beginners. Start someplace more… Sword.

Wanpaku! Touken Ranbu

Ok, ok so this series is gonna be an anime, unknown at this time if it will be a full 23 min anime or a short 5, 10 or 15 mins each episode (my bet is on a short form but MAN imagine if they give us something like Uchitama), that is based on a plush toy line series of the Touken Danshi made in collaboration with Sanrio, which explains why they’re all just so cute!

Wanpaku Touken Ranbu

Since this still has no other news out, I can’t rate it on if it’ll be a good intro to the series or not but surely it’ll be a good light watch for any saniwa out there.

Ending Statement

I hope that this guide was helpful for those trying to get into the series. As always, a great place to start as well is the game itself, which is available to download in Japanese on both mobile devices as well as straight in your browser.

[yitsuin]

so I know there are no local tourabu fans that are insane in the year 2024 and that my looming merch deadlines are going to eat me alive, but listen ---

[yukimuraruki-art]

Ahm... I was doodling Hyuuga Masamune from Touken Ranbu, but then the doodle turned into a mediocre illustration x'D It's a very mixed mediapiece >D

[chishigure]

SO ANYWAY!!!!!! Since Souji has somewhat awakened, I just want y'all to know that if anybody is writing Kashuu Kiyomitsu or Yamatonokami Yasusada, while I do headcanon that Souji has two sons that he named after his swords (Kashuu Kiyomitsu and Yamatonokami Yasusada), we do not have to follow this. I'm game for writing Souji just being the wielder/master of the kashuu and yasusda swords, and of course we can go on from there.

[tourabu-scans]

Touken Ranbu - Hanamaru - Chapter 1

It’s here! Thanks for the patience, chapter 1 of TKRB: Hanamaru is now out! Links and rules under the break

Rules are as follows:

Do not share screenshots of our TLs or edits on social media.

You can, like, Talk about it yeah, just remember to send them the right way (here or straight to Mangadex)

Please don’t reupload our work anywhere else.

If you really wanna disobey like that, keep our credits on there Please

Read Online | Download

[7000f1]

8, 14, 29 for the artist asks? c:<

Hiiii >:D

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

Mainly stuff I've created for my OCs. I had a whole story I wrote when I was like 13 or so. Cringy af, but hey, I had fun.

I also had a few stories I made collabing with friends but they all went nowhere 😅

And, sadly, I feel like the ideas I have for some current OCs will also be forgotten with time, but oh well _(:3 」∠)_

14. Any favorite motifs

uuuuh... hm. I don't think I have any? 🧍 Boring, I know

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

Bleach, utapri, tkrb... I'm esp dumb with tkrb cause how can I look at that and not be inspired c'mon orz

[topazadine]

non-based traumaposting incoming [tw dissociation, derealization, depersonalization]

I just realized why losing memories and dreams were such a common theme in my TKRB fics. Well, it's because I have lost so many of my own memories to severe trauma. Not an organic brain disorder, mind you; I don't have early onset dementia or anything. It's just really bad dissociative amnesia, worse than I ever acknowledged.

There are whole years of my life missing. It's been getting worse for a while and I just ignored it, thinking this was normal. I knew trauma could make you forget what happened or numb you to those sensations, but now it's catching up to my present life too, and it's so terrifying.

Yesterday feels like it happened years ago; this morning could have been months past by how it feels. The days go by so fast, and they all blend into one another, yet they also feel so long. By the time I go to bed, I've forgotten most of what happened in a given day. Even taking notes in a journal doesn't help me. I look back at my notes and it's like none of it ever occurred to my brain. Nothing's encoding because of how badly I'm dissociating at this point.

It's terrifying to look at old pictures of myself and not even recognize where I was or what was happening at a given point. I have to use context clues (oh I'm holding up a present, this must have been Christmas) or even look at the metadata to figure out where a given place must have been. I don't remember why I thought it was important to take that picture; I don't know how it felt to be in that moment. I can't attach any feelings to any of these experiences.

I am basically living in a dream all the time. I feel more real when I'm asleep than I do in my waking life. It sounds so bizarre but I often feel more conscious when I am lucid dreaming, more involved.

And this is such a silly thing but it hurts so much for that dissociation to eat my passions too. As soon as I lose interest in anything, like TKRB, it's like it never mattered to me at all. I can't capture the feelings I had when writing a story or talking about it: there's not even any nostalgia, any lingering happiness, nothing.

Total blankness, total apathy. I can't picture the characters in my head, I can't play out those scenes again. They are just words on a page, pictures on a screen. They don't mean anything to me any more. And I hate it.

I want to feel nostalgia, but I can't and I never have. I am not nostalgic for any period of my life, or any media I used to care about, or any projects I once had. Because I can't hold onto those feelings anymore. They slip away like they were never even there. It's like my past life has dissolved and I become a new person every day.

I hate being like this, and I hate that I'm like this because of what other people did to me. The abuse I went through as a child literally broke my brain. I know that many people who go through therapy can re-access those memories and feelings, but I'm so scared that when I start therapy, I will be one of those cases that never gets anything back. That I'll just slowly go completely insane and not even remember who I am.

My future terrifies me, my past is gone, and my present is so empty. I'm not in crisis or anything, I won't hurt myself, but I am just so scared. The deepest fear I have ever felt in my life. And the worst part is no one can really comfort me about it or reassure me that it's going to be okay.

I think I've cried more in these past few days than I have at nearly any other time in my life, even the worst times. I'm feeling literal decades of emotion at once. I just want to curl up in a ball and hibernate until it all resolves itself, but I can't, I have to keep going. And that's the worst part.

When I made characters feel these things, I could always give them a happy ending. But what if I can't do that for myself? I don't know if I can. I want to, so much. But it might be beyond my powers and that is just devastating.

[mibuswolf]

      #MIBUSWOLF is a tkrb themed multimuse written by quinn. All muses on this blog are set in the universe of touken ranbu, however verses will be available for other media that I find interest in. THEMES PRESENT ON THIS BLOG INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TOO; Acts of Violence, Blood and Gore, Sickness and Death. (will be updated if need be) 

FEATURED MUSE: Okita Souji BLOG ROLL: @curmoritor, @noxcomnia, @thalassofiles, @godvity, @snowladened Check my other blogs for rules.

Full muse list under the read more.

PRIMARY.

Okita Souji. She/Him. Eternally 20. Saniwa. 5'1. Pansexual. Government Aligned, Revisionist, Whichever side she thinks is funnier at the time. Chaotic Neutral. Stuck outside of time. Souji is a famous historical japanese figure that ended up slipping through a crack in reality causing him to now exist outside of it. While she can easily influence and even interact with the events that happen through various time periods, she is never able to leave and impact on people that allows them to remember her once she leaves. However, at some point, he was able to manifest the tsukumogami that existed inside of the swords that he held dear to him. Because of this he is now able to involve himself in the events that happen between the time governement and history revisionist. However, he doesn't really have strong opinions on the history of japan at this point, so he usually does whatever he thinks is funnier or would cause greater problems.

Kiyomitsu Kashuu. Any pronouns. 100-ish. Tsukumogami. 5'5. Pansexual (AU Dependent) Default; Following Okita Souja, Secondary; Government aligned. You know? I don't know what his moral alignment is. You don't get to hear his backstory because he'd rather die (again) then relive it. So, don't ask.

Yamatonokami Yasusada. He/They. 140-ish. Tsukumogami. 5'5. Pansexual (AU Dependent) Default; Following Okita Souja, Secondary; Government aligned. Chaotic Neutral. He may be cute, but he WILL kill you. So, he is like Okita 2.0 but worse because he isn't human and will play even more recklessly with his life.

Yoshimitsu Hakusan. He/They. ???. Tsukumogami. 5'0. Pansexual Government Blade, Works closely with Nagayoshi Yamanbagiri. Neutral Good. Is capable of healing allies. Don't even get me started on him. He acts like a robot because of the things the time government did to him. He's incapable of taking care of himself properly and often faints from exhaustion. He has a small fox that he thinks is a communication device, which it half is, but it also yips and squeals every time he faints to get peoples attention. He's a mess, but he's a very well put together mess.

Gou Matsui. He/They. ???. Tsukumogami. 5'8. Bisexual Government aligned. Neutral Good. Vampire-like. Would you like him nibble on you? You should.

Kawakami Hisoka. He/Him. 22. Saniwa. 5'2. Homosexual. Original Character. Government aligned. Originally was a neutral party. Neutral Good. College student. Originally found a rundown and abandoned citadel and accidentally brought the swords there back to life with a power he was unaware he had, but after sometime the time government became aware of his presence and made him an actual Saniwa, much to his demise because he is trying to get through his STEM courses at college and does not have time for this. Yet, he tries his best because he loves his swords more then anything.

SECONDARY.

Sadamune Taikogane. He/they. ???. Tsukumogami. 4'11. Bisexual Government aligned. Neutral good.

Toushirou Midare. Any pronouns. ???. Tsukumogami. 4'11. Pansexual Government aligned. Neutral good.

Toushirou Namazou. They/Them. ???. Tsukumogami. 5'2. Pansexual Government aligned. Neutral good.

Yukimitsu Fudou. He/They. ???. Tsukumogami. 5'0. Homosexual. Government aligned. Neutral good.

Masamune Hyuuga. He/They. ???. Tsukumogami. 4'11. Homosexual. Government aligned. Neutral good.

Yukimitsu Fudou. He/They. ???. Tsukumogami. 5'0. Homosexual. Government aligned. Neutral good.

Kunihiro Yamanbagiri. He/They/It. ???. Tsukumogami. 5'7. Bisexual. Government aligned. Neutral good.

Ichimonji Nansen. He/They. ???. Tsukumogami. 5'8. Bisexual. Government aligned. Neutral good.

Masamune Kyougoku. She/They. ???. Tsukumogami. 4'11. Bisexual. Government aligned. Neutral good.

[weaseltube]

Yesterday marked the end of TKRB English and Trad Chinese servers. I made some screencaps back in June to remember my account by. Kiwame aside the only swords I was missing were Sohaya, that bastard Onimaru, Ningen Mukotsu, Ishida, and Jikkyuu.

I remember missing Ningen Mukotsu by 200 beads and cursing myself because I'd been distracted right before maintenance started and was on the map poised to get him. It was silly trying to play on two accounts simultaneously and get every prize, but I enjoyed seeing how many unusual translation choices the Eng version made.

I felt that being a different citadel I would choose a different starter and focus on different swords, primarily ones relating to my second OC, but I couldn't help being biased. Near the end I started changing the attendant around because Gine has always been in charge of my JP citadel, and I thought Suishinshi would enjoy the responsibility while Tomoe and Shizuka went on expeditions.

I realised while playing that I was always anxious to treat my original account better in case "one day the Eng server shuts down" - and that anxiety was right. I think more so than the game I want to see more availability for the extended media. The game is so much grind and little play. People feel cheated out of hard work because reaching event milestones always goes beyond the initial fun of changed up gameplay and becomes a chore. I can do it to while away time quite happily, but not rushing for two separate accounts or to make the far higher goals. It's very true that TouRabu is a franchise you can enjoy without playing the original browser game, and there's an awful lot of stage productions I haven't been able to access. The many manga adaptations and anthologies are reliant on Japanese reading skills or fan translations. My favourite of the two anime, Hanamaru, has no English language home release, and the film trilogy have yet to be licensed and subtitled online. These are what I hope they can focus on in future and there is no poor profits excuse to be made about it given how many fans abroad already import goods from Japan, myself included. Media for female weebs can do well if only the less VPN/proxy savvy audiences had access to them. TouRabu is popular with a range of ages and shouldn't be dismissed as "too Japanese" for the rest of the world - it is a selling point. They trusted the Hige/Hiza musical as a cultural export with official subtitles, they can let us have our silly sword boybands. >:T

My English speaking swords are not asleep. They are simply searching for Koryuu.

[mihotose]

for me i think the difference between arae and say, marichika or satokiyo, is that when i look at myu kashuu i see equal parts ryuuji and kashuu, both of them have equal influence over the presentation of the character that is expressed. when i look at myu mikazuki i see "mario playing the role of mikazuki," though i think this is bc myu mikazuki is very indiscernible and you cant see his heart, so its difficult to portray him while tapping into his heart when its so hidden. but when i see myu nikkari i see nikkari, manifesting within araki's body. theres very little araki left, and nikkari has taken over.

[candies-and-sweets]

that was fun

[ranchdressings]

yes more tkrb art 😌

[dojizerker]

Unique Media Experience

Reposting my Twitter thread about Touken Ranbu over to Tumblr, plus expanding on it a lil after the fact.

The ending to Touken Ranbu’s Great Invasion event and how fandom as a whole reacted show that as a media, Touken Ranbu is wholly unique among every other franchises.

I doubt we ever would have another similiar experience like Touken Ranbu in another media. Other media and games have tried to replicate their formula to various level of success/failure, or try to release their games during Touken Ranbu’s hype period. 

For many of them, they haven't quite nailed down why TKRB got it right. That is, the balance of minimalism to lore/characterisation.

At its very core, Touken Ranbu started off with a solid enough premise (the time government sent Saniwa sages to summon swords into human bodies to protect history) but the actual storytelling itself is very minimal. The Touken Danshi all have clear personality, stories/histories or a theme. We all know their basic information from their voicelines and ingame information. But other than researching their RL history, they’re all open to interpretation.

One character can be seen as tsundere, while another person might think otherwise, as a general example.

The game gives us the template, a sandbox, of a setting and a cast of characters for us to make our own stories with. Digitarou himself explicitly expressed that he wants to respect everyone’s personal Citadel stories (headcanons), and we all know it.

That's why the emotional investment is so high. We're encouraged to imagine while grinding the automated, simplified systems. Since playing the game is pretty easy and quick, and very multi-tasking friendly, that means more time spent talking with fellow fans and making fanworks.

Compare to other games that try to replicate Touken Ranbu’s formula. Somehow one way or another, they didn’t get the delicate balance of minimalism, gameplay and lore.  They either give TOO MUCH LORE or have TOO MUCH GAMEPLAY, assuming no other issues like bugs.

"Isn't a lot of lore good?"

It depends on the media. Some stories want a more solid, concrete setting, at risk of giving less room for fans to "play around in". You know the feeling of seeing a story is so well written, so complete, you can’t find anything else to explore in it after you finish consuming it?

TKRB's balance allow headcanons, speculations and openly allow all Citadel interpretations. We know the premise and how the character works, on a base level. So we can go wild in headcanons and fanworks, knowing that it’s all valid.

You can see this in the various adaptations and their specific wording. 

"In a certain Citadel"

とある本丸

No one's Citadels get invalidated. If a new reveal pop up, you can say "not in my Citadel". Musical Citadel’s story only works for that Citadel because of their own lore and character development. The same sword in Stage Play Citadel might act a little differently, but still make sense according to that Citadel’s timeline of events.

In today's media climate, companies are more likely to try and use the more stronger, detailed opening and premise than TKRB to get their audience. It's easier to get fans with the usual tropes. It's harder to predict what might engage a fandom's fanworks activity. If a game try to come out today with similiar level of minimalism, it likely would fail UNLESS the premise, character design and personalities manage to captivate a fandom in time to get past the first few months.

This is also why you sometimes see creators, writing staff, companies choose to leave certain lore and information open ended, to encourage speculative fanworks.

So timing. TKRB came out at the right place at the right time, attracting attention of enough players of many different tastes. It also shakes up the stagnant market for female audience at the same time.

While it's marketed as joseimuke, male fans can also enjoy it because of the coolness factor + being openly welcomed in engaging with the emotional themes. Women are the core audience, but men are always welcomed to join in as there’s enough content in here for them to enjoy.

Female, male, NB

Yume/self-insert shipping

Fujin (fujoshi, fudanshi)

Rekijo

Various designs for different tastes (Ikemen, shota, ossan, muscular for bara, etc)

[seneca-milestone17]

Tousute Help

Hello! I’m new to the TKRB fandom and I just watched Jiden without any context whatsoever on what was going on. The only media I had before this were the TKRB movie and the game itself.

Does anyone have any tips on where to start with the stageplays? 

Also, do you have any guides on where to download them from somewhere? I’d like to buy the real disks but they’re all too expensive for me atm so I can’t buy them right now...

[ikusayu-no-hana]

tkrb is the most divine & godless franchise I've come across ever & I'm in awe at how they keep adapting it into different media . stuck in this sword hell pit forever

[flyingcookierambles]

sadness over a3! eng i guess

oof just on my 700th day.....

kinda sad because of the announcement about A3! ENG server shutting down soon due to financial difficulties at LIBER/CYBIRD in the past two years (covid-19 related, etc.). according to a rather in depth reddit comment that had links to LIBER's publicly available financial reports + some financial reports from LIBER's parent company, Aeria, in english, covid-19 really hit LIBER hard since they had to cancel many money making events, from pop-up shops for the typical anime merch trinkets (keychains, plushes, pins, etc.) to the huge in-person events (voice actor meetups, the stage plays of MANKAI LIVE, etc.). due to shrinking player base on the ENG server + major loss of profits on both JPN and ENG servers, LIBER had to choose one or the other and they chose the JPN one, which i totally understand since it's way bigger there and the JPN fanbase will continue to give the franchise money more often. also, another person found a financial report/estimate from the google play store or something, and A3! ENG only made ~$20K to ~$10K in the past few months, which i guess is not enough to keep a server and localization company afloat. 

i got pretty attached to the characters and it was a great game to help get by during college. and honestly, while i am very sad about this, again, i understand why LIBER did this, looking at their financial report from 2020. I would LIBER save the entire franchise rather than shut all the servers down, making us all unable to see our favorite actors ever again, even if it means that we ENG fans will have to go thru the extra steps of finding/reading fan translations, wikis, etc., to read any further stories from where A3! ENG left off. still, A3! ENG's localization was something special. i'm saying this as a TKRB JPN player who read the wiki for all the character voice lines and then had to see the official TKRB ENG localization make Yamabushi Kunihiro a rapper for some reason? lol. it was....weird.... meanwhile, all the memes and slang in A3! ENG didn't seem out of place and all fit their personalities because 3/4 of the troupes were all high school to college age and 3 of them were ~Gamers~. Out of all the gachas i've played, i feel like the only other F2P gacha game that had this incredibly smooth, all cultural jokes/puns translated in a way that still makes sense/fits the character/doesn't require a galaxy brain and some TL note to understand, is probably dragalia lost and that's only because it has frickin Nintendo localizing/publishing it globally for CyGames. Nintendo. i'll eventually read the fan translations of A3!'s Act 3 on the wiki, but it won't be the same without Kazunari's super high-energy influencer slang of "'whoa fam! that's totes 'blammable, gotta take a pic!" or Itaru's gremlin Gamer speak of "lol get rekt noobs" or Tsuzuru's tired dying breath of "that ain't it chief." the appropriate slang and relatable meme speak of the localization really helped humanize these characters as people of their respective ages, rather than just a typical formal speak or some directly translated JPN slang -> ENG that turns out super awkward that can be found in bad localizations.

going back to the reddit comment too, the death of A3! ENG servers could have bad repercussions in the future for other joseimuke games. josei, if you for some reason have been in the anime fandom but still don't know this term, is basically the genre of stories/video games/media/etc aimed at women. it's the mature adult counterpart to seinen, media aimed at adult men. basically shoujo/shonen = elementary/middle school/high school aimed while josei/seinen = high school/college/adult aimed if that helps. Joseimuke is a part of josei that is not specifically romance. while some josei/joseimuke can overlap with otome, aka female aimed dating sims/romance media, they have many things about them that make these all separate genres. one of the official A3! ENG translators and a known fan translator of another joseimuke gacha, Mahou Yaku/Wizard’s Promise, minami, goes more in depth with this in a twitter thread. 

A3! was an actor raising game, and a big part of it was found family and relationships that were platonic. yet it got advertised as an otome, which has more connotations with dating sims and brings to mind other shoujo/otome games and anime where the cast is all high schoolers and the setting is most often in a high school. but, other than some characters making flirty jokes or implied to have crushes on Izumi/player character, many character relationships with Izumi are platonic and not romantic at all. Spring Troupe in the game also jokingly calls themself a family. the entire Mankai Company is basically found family. plus, since the game actually has time passing in story and the characters age with each year, half of the characters aren’t even in high school anymore. a large majority of them are in college or are graduated by now, with only a few still in high school. i’m not surprised if a reason that some people left the game was due to feeling bored with the slice of life/not romantic story, feeling that they were lied to about it being an otome, which was falsely advertised since it is a game meant for the older teens/adults demographic of josei/joseimuke.

i’m worried that other japanese companies will look at this shut down as a “josei/joseimuke doesn’t work well in the west” and never localize other josei/joseimuke gacha games like Mahou Yaku, EnStars, Twisted Wonderland, Helios, etc.

while i like otome and shoujo, i, as a 23/soon to be 24 year old college graduate and now tax paying adult, want more stories that have more mature themes and characters that are more my age so i don’t have to feel awkward when i’m playing some dating sim and i, a literal 23 year old adult, and trying to woo a 16 year old. it’s...a little awkward to say the least. i would gladly welcome more mature media that is categorized as josei/joseimuke.

sorry if this is all over the place, but overall im just sad that A3! ENG is shutting down. i don’t know if i’ll join the JPN server yet. i’m def going to read the Act 3 story via fan translators on the wiki, but A3! gameplay was...boring lmao. as much as i love A3!, im sure that the constant event grind/burnout and boring rng gameplay turned people off too and i dont blame them. i felt the burnout bad since i participated in basically every event since day 1. it. is. rough. i’m not joining the hellish thunderdome that is the JPN server and im not ranking anymore as a F2P player lmao. literally had to play almost every waking free moment to get into the 30%-20% bracket as a F2P person and i never got to top 20%-10%, much less top 1% lmao. i’m don’t whale enough lol. 

i feel like i should probably just. crack open my genki 2 textbook and uhhh totally legal pdf copy of tobira. so i can just. get the JPN version of games in the first place so i don’t have to worry about getting shafted since overseas fans are often considered expendable. 

i wish that, when any games that are online end, gacha or mmo or anything, anything online, companies will let fans archive things. or like. release a book that is just the story text or something. like. CYBIRD is letting us still technically play the game and have the story and all, but what if they eventually later shut everything down? why not just release a pdf/ebook that’s just the text of the eng localization for some money? i’d buy it. for nostalgia and rereads and all and also archiving purposes. i think i’ll try to help with any english localization archive projects if i can so that the hilarious and incredible localization that was a work of love from the translation team doesn’t just disappear forever.

well.

that’s it for now. as i said, guess i’ll head to the app for one of the last times to read the last unread stories and mini stories i have left, then the wiki for Act 3, and then i guess i’ll crack open genki 2 and bunpo.....

some fun random links for you to think about!

random ffxi article that came to mind (if ffxiv ever shuts down in the next 20 years or whatever i’d be cool to get a statue of my character at the end)

and death of a game playlist by NerdSlayer Studios on Youtube that has me thinking a lot about game preservation and losing MMOs and games

the lost media wiki  and blameitonjorge’s lost media iceberg

other gacha games i’ve played that have shut down that i think about sometimes because the loss of A3! ENG isn’t my first rodeo:

terra battle & terra battle 2 (1)

AFTERL!FE

(related kitsu post link for archive reasons)