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NEWS: Tōken Ranbu: Hanamaru #1 Tops Weekly Animation Blu-ray & DVD Charts




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manapear



Joined: 02 May 2014
Posts: 1524
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 2:56 am Reply with quote
Wow, I forgot it premiered in October, I thought it was about to start, lol.

However, we've seen the power of Touken Ranbu before, so this isn't too surprising (even for getting in top of the general list). This is also a nice show of how powerful the female-aimed markets are, yet again~. I don't know how much of the idea that women don't buy anime persists in Japan, but I still oddly see it in the US in weird ways, so it's nice to see evidence against that~.

Between Osomatsu, the rise of male idols and now Touken Ranbu, I wonder what companies may next try for something aimed at the female audience and how~.
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championferret



Joined: 15 Jan 2004
Posts: 765
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 5:07 am Reply with quote
As someone who honestly, actually likes ToukenRanbu I'm...baffled. Hanamura is not a good anime. It's not a good anime if you like the game and it's an appallingly terrible anime if you don't like the game or know nothing about the game. I only got through five episodes before I just couldn't take how unbelievably tedious and banal everything was. I skipped ahead to ep 10 just to see my fave boy Hotarumaru, and somehow they even made him boring.

Is there freebies for stuff in the game included in the DVDs/Blurays or something? That's literally the only reason I can see for anyone wanting to buy this. I'm not even trying to throw salt here, I love ToukenRanbu after all so the appeal of the show has been one of the biggest anime mysteries of the year to me.
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BalmungHHQ



Joined: 11 Feb 2006
Posts: 392
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 6:36 am Reply with quote
championferret wrote:
As someone who honestly, actually likes ToukenRanbu I'm...baffled. Hanamura is not a good anime. It's not a good anime if you like the game and it's an appallingly terrible anime if you don't like the game or know nothing about the game. I only got through five episodes before I just couldn't take how unbelievably tedious and banal everything was. I skipped ahead to ep 10 just to see my fave boy Hotarumaru, and somehow they even made him boring.

Is there freebies for stuff in the game included in the DVDs/Blurays or something? That's literally the only reason I can see for anyone wanting to buy this. I'm not even trying to throw salt here, I love ToukenRanbu after all so the appeal of the show has been one of the biggest anime mysteries of the year to me.

Well, I can only speak for myself, but I'm someone who's never touched the games, and don't know much about them either, other than the concept of it being about sword boys, and I went into Hanamaru blind as my entry into the franchise, and it's honestly pretty nice.

It's a pleasant slice of life anime where you just watch the everyday activities of the various sword boys as they get caught up in various things here and there. It's honestly just really enjoyable and relaxing to watch. It's set a very good mood for itself, and though its premise may throw people off at first, it's pretty easy to get pulled into its pace once you accept the scenario of the story.

Sure, it's a bit surprising to see this anime sell so well, but when I first heard the news I merely attributed it to fans of the game (who due to prior character knowledge from the games, likely got a bit more out of this show than I) falling in love with seeing the characters they were already fans of in this relaxing, fun-to-watch story. So I just kind of figured it was a given...

That's just my POV as someone new to this franchise, who got introduced to it via this anime.
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#861208



Joined: 07 Oct 2016
Posts: 423
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 7:42 am Reply with quote
This is my #1 anime of the year. Yes, it's above Yuri On Ice. Yuri On Ice was tied until they sidelined my favorite character for about half the series. (They give him spoiler[a great love interest] in the end but still.)

But yeah, Hanamaru. I was not expecting to love this show so much but it's amazing. I honestly never noticed Yasusada and Kiyomitsu before, but the first episode made me fall in love with them so much.

But yes, this is 100% a cute-boys-being-cute show. There is a plot, but you're not going to care unless you just love these adorable fluff darlings for how moe they are. I could not get into the game, but this anime made me love the characters.
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pauladls



Joined: 14 Jul 2014
Posts: 198
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 8:48 am Reply with quote
Doudanuki should be the main character
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Ashymo



Joined: 16 Sep 2016
Posts: 66
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 12:15 pm Reply with quote
pauladls wrote:
Doudanuki should be the main character

Not sure about him being a main character, but the anime treated him like shit even though he's one of the more popular characters.

I think he had the least screen time along with Taroutachi. Jiroutachi and the 3 yaris to some extend as well. I was honestly baffled and thought it was unfair when the yaris didn't get an ED song together.

I would have liked the anime better if they didn't focus too much on the Awataguchi school.
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CrowLia



Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 5501
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 12:40 pm Reply with quote
Never played the game, but the concept and character designs had always seemed appealing to me, so I was very interested in seeing it finally get anime form and I was disappointed to say the least. I think the first two episodes were pretty neat. The Nobunaga episode in particular, but that might be due to my own biases for Sengoku anime. I kept watching hoping to see more of that,but like championferret says, it quickly became incredibly banal, to the point I was watching it out of pure inertia. Feels like a massive waste of time, given how pretty the outfits are, to keep all the characters in bland work clothes for 95% of the time. Dropped it after episode 9
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Snakebit1995



Joined: 25 Apr 2015
Posts: 842
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 1:06 pm Reply with quote
championferret wrote:
As someone who honestly, actually likes ToukenRanbu I'm...baffled. Hanamura is not a good anime. It's not a good anime if you like the game and it's an appallingly terrible anime if you don't like the game or know nothing about the game. I only got through five episodes before I just couldn't take how unbelievably tedious and banal everything was. I skipped ahead to ep 10 just to see my fave boy Hotarumaru, and somehow they even made him boring.


Exactly, the show is just that, a complete bore to watch. I've never heard of the game before this came out and I desperately wanted to like the show but I just can't. Where as with something calm as casual can work this just doesn't.

New Game was slow and calm and I loved that show, nothing was too serious there was comedy and sweetness but nothing too forced but with TRH it's just SO SLOW I'm talking that it feels like half the day is gone by the time you hit the midcard of an episode. The other thing that really bothers me is the sheer volume of characters, this isn't a Shonen where the cast cycles out and you really only have to focus on a group of 5-10 main characters, this is a cast of nearly 20+ characters who all react the same, have one unique trait and sometimes only get their name shown with a name card so you never get the chance to connect and get to honestly bond with the cast, I've taken to memorizing who's who based on the English dub's cast "There's Ian Sinclair's Character, Oh and that kid is the one played by Jad Saxton" I know nothing else about them so that's the only connection I can make I don't remember anyone's name at all I remember what they look like and that's it.

One thing I can say though, this show does have one of the season's best openings, boy is it catchy and upbeat.
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Proud2bPnoy



Joined: 22 Dec 2016
Posts: 33
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Thu Dec 22, 2016 7:40 am Reply with quote
I'm surprised, the Ufotable version part 2 will slay ofcourse but not bad, the less serious version is doing good I'll wait for the 2nd cour in 2017 the more budgeted version
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