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Touken Ranbu Musical Cancels Miyagi Performances Due to Earthquake
posted on by Alex Mateo
The official website for the Touken Ranbu: The Musical stage play based on the Touken Ranbu -Online- game announced on Wednesday that the Miyagi performances of the Nikkari Aoe Solo Performance have been cancelled due to the earthquakes that occurred last week in Fukushima, Miyagi, and Iwate prefectures. The performances were scheduled for March 26-27. Refunds will be given to customers.
Following a safety inspection, the natori City Cultural Center theater, the musical's venue, will be closed until May 27.
Hirofumi Araki plays Nikkari Aoe in the musical.
An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 occurred off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture in northern Japan on March 16 at 11:36 p.m. (10:36 a.m. EDT). Fukushima and Miyagi (the prefectures closest to the earthquake's epicenter) issued a one-meter (about three-foot) tsunami warning. An earthquake of magnitude 5.6 occurred off the coast of Iwate Prefecture on March 18 at 11:25 p.m. (10:25 a.m. EDT).
The first part of the franchise's new 2.5D musical stage play The Tale of Soga is streaming with English subtitles on YouTube.
The musical ran in Aichi, Osaka, and Tokyo between January and March 2022. The new musical is the ninth in the series.
Isamu Kayano directed the stage play produced by the Musical “Touken Ranbu” Production Committee.
The Japan Foundation describes the play:
「Touken Ranbu：The Musical “HIGEKIRI HIZAMARU DUO PERFORMANCE 2020 ～SOGA～”」 is a performance by Higekiri and Hizamaru. In Part 1, the musical,「The Tale of Soga」, which is known as one of Japan's 3 Largest Vendettas, was performed. In Part 2, the live concert portion, the 2 sing a total of 12 songs as well as new songs written for solely this performance, and songs performed on previous Touken Ranbu: The Musical performances.
The Shinken Ranbu Matsuri 2022 arena tour will start in May 2022 and will run in Fukui, Aichi, Osaka, Miyagi, Fukuoka, and Tokyo. This is the first "Matsuri" tour to be held since 2018.
The Touken Ranbu "sword personification training game" takes famous swords from Japanese history and interprets them as bishōnen. Nitroplus designed the characters and scenario. The game launched in Japan in January 2015.
The franchise has inspired the Katsugeki: Touken Ranbu television anime series and an upcoming anime film, as well as the Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru spinoff's two anime series, an upcoming anime film trilogy, and a compilation anime film. The franchise has also inspired two live-action films, a series of stage musicals and a series of stage plays, as well as various manga.
Johren released the original Touken Ranbu browser game in English in April 2021, and released the smartphone version of the game in August 2021.
Koei Tecmo Games' Touken Ranbu Warriors game launched in Japan for PC and Switch on February 17, and will launch for Switch in North America on May 24.
Sources: Touken Ranbu: The Musical's website, Stage Natalie
