Shelf Life

Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru Season 2

In my experience, anime adaptations of mobile or browser games tend to fall into one of two categories. Some go out of their way to be accessible to newcomers, while others are clearly geared towards existing fans. The Touken Ranbu “swords personified as hot guys” franchise is somewhat unique in that it has two separate adaptations, which take vastly different approaches. While its cousin, Katsugeki: Touken Ranbu, is an action-focused title aimed at a general audience, Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru is a slice of life series meant more for the “in” crowd. If you're up to speed on the franchise and already have a favorite sword boy, this is the one for you.

For the uninitiated, the basic premise of the Touken Ranbu franchise is that bad guys are trying to take over the world by altering the past, and famous Japanese swords have been summoned in human form in order to travel through time and stop them. In the context of the Hanamaru series, that setup is only mildly important since most of the episodes are low-key slice of life stories set at the sword warriors' home base. I'm taking a look at the second season here (we also have a review of the first season if you're interested), and it sort of picks up where the first left off. I say “sort of” because the first season briefly looked like it was going to end with main characters Kashuu and Yamatonokami going their separate ways, but then added a last-minute scene of them reuniting at some point in the future. This season takes place in between those two events, with Kashuu remaining at the citadel with the rest of the sword warriors while he waits for Yamatonokami to return.

For all its sword-based characters and talk about protecting history, Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru is actually pretty easygoing in its tone, pacing, and content. There are action scenes here and there, but they're definitely not the priority here; this show is all about episodic slice of life content and character development. Most episodes just pick a few members of the insanely large cast to highlight, which means we learn a little about their backstories and watch them have some kind of comedic or heartwarming adventure. Highlights from this season include a water gun fight and a musical number in which two sword boys argue about which one of them is a better cook, which should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from the series as a whole. It's a perfect excuse for fans to kick back and watch their favorite characters do fun stuff, with the occasional swordfight thrown in to spice things up.

The one big difference between this season and its predecessor is that it breaks up the central duo of Kashuu and Yamatonokami, with Yamatonokami absent from the majority of episodes while he's off on his self-imposed training quest. That changes up the dynamic of the show a bit, and we get to see a different side of Kashuu now that he doesn't have his sword-bro-for-life to play off of. There's a particularly interesting storyline where Kashuu's confidence starts to falter because he's not being sent on as many missions, but the size of the cast means that this new dynamic only makes a difference during scenes where you'd normally expect Yamatonokami to be present. In the episodes that focus on other sword warriors, the general vibe is the same as it was in season one. Any major drama is short-lived, and conflicts are almost always resolved in a single episode.

This season's key issue is one that it inherits from the first: this show doesn't really work unless you're already a fan before you start watching it, and in its quest to include as many fan-favorite sword warriors as possible, it ends up with a cast so big that almost nobody gets enough screen time. With so many names to remember, you'd be forgiven for giving up entirely and just referring to characters as “the really tall guy” or “the guy who's always drunk,” and development for supporting characters is often limited to exactly those kinds of singular traits. It's the only realistic way to cover all the bases for hardcore fans, but it's a terrible way to get new people interested in the franchise. When the characters all start blurring together, it's tough to get emotionally invested in any of them. Even the show itself seems to acknowledge its overpopulation problem, as one episode includes a story about expanding the citadel to accommodate all the new recruits.

On the positive side of things, the production values remain solid in this season. The animation is more than good enough to carry the slice of life segments and even holds up reasonably well during the occasional action scenes. Background art is also impressive, with plenty of variety as this season copies its predecessor's format of setting each episode in a different month of the year. Character designs are reasonably distinctive and generally appealing and the episode-specific ending sequences look fantastic. Funimation's dub of the series is competent enough to be a good option for franchise newcomers, but I imagine fans of the game will prefer to listen to their favorite characters in their original Japanese voices. This Blu-Ray release is a standard-issue affair, with just the usual bare-bones extras.

If you're looking for an easy point of entry into the franchise, you may want to start with Katsugeki: Touken Ranbu instead of jumping straight into Hanamaru. From the handful of episodes I've seen, that series has a more reasonably-sized cast and offers a more substantial plot. On the other hand, if you're already familiar with these characters (or happen to know a lot about the swords they're based on) and are looking for a more laid-back series, Hanamaru has you covered. It looks good, it delivers a handful of clever or insightful moments, and it has all the handsome sword boys you'll ever need (plus a few more for good measure).
-Paul[TOP]