Touken Ranbu - Hanamaru

I think that the low score of this anime lies to the fact that it refers to a small amount of people. Not many understand the value of a peaceful, chilling anime. On the contrary, they seek action, romance, violence etc. It may be based on history, but you don't really need to know anything,it's very easy to follow. There is gentle comedy going on, pretty often, and it makes you laugh because of the naive, sweet humor. The art is simple but beautiful, there is no intense drama or tension, and the script is minimalistic and relaxing. I am impressed by the huge number of characters, andit's worth to be mentioned, they are male-ALL OF EM. Everyone has their own unique personality, and it's expressed by their clothes, hairstyle, makeup etc. I really liked that. Another thing I found extremely cute and touching, is the faith these sword-characters have in their master, and the strong bonds of friendship they share. Of course, there is no way someone remembering all of the characters, I think there are proximately 50 of em-YEAH :') You should watch it if you're lookin for sth peaceful, calm and relaxing.

I'm just going to start off by saying that I have never played the game this is based off of and probably never will. If you are in the same boat, then I would recommend that you don't even try to watch this. I honestly would have dropped it pretty early on if I didn't need to complete it for a MAL challenge. It's obvious that this show was made solely for fans of the game and they don't really even try to make it appealing to other viewers. As a newcomer to the franchise, these are my thoughts of the show based solely onit being an anime rather than an adaptation of a video game. First of all, don't be fooled by the underlying plot of these swords being animated to fight an organization bent on changing history because the anime doesn't really focus on that most of the time. Instead, the series is pretty much centered around the characters and their interactions with each other in the citadel. Throughout the series, you will constantly see the same exact plot points being recycled such as introducing new characters, forging bonds between characters, and dealing with internal struggles of characters. It's kind of obvious once you know the background of the series that the whole point of doing this is to give fans the chance to see their favorite characters stirring up emotions inside of them. However, without that excitement of seeing someone you know that you can only get from previously playing the game, the cycle becomes repetitive and boring after awhile. On top of that, they introduce like 50 different characters in the span of the series, so it is hard to keep track of them all without having prior exposure to them. By having so many characters, I felt a lot of the shows attempts to deal with internal struggles fell flat because it's really hard to be impacted by a scene involving a character you are still trying to figure out the identity of. I will admit that there were maybe 2 times where a scene involving a character actually made me feel something, but most of the time attempts to make me sympathize with them were unsuccessful and even the times I did feel something I get the impression it didn't impact me as much as it was supposed to. This series is definitely built around character interactions, so not developing characters before emotional moments and cycling through so many of them in such a short amount of time because you assume the viewer already has an understanding of them through the game is definitely the fatal flaw in this anime for viewers who haven't played it. Honestly, I was just bored most of the time watching this series and you probably will be too if you haven't played the game. I understand that the anime would have been a lot better if i did play it and this may even be considered a masterpiece if you view it as an addition to the franchise rather than as an adaptation of the game. However, I don't think you should have to delve into a game in order for an anime to be good because if a show is good it should be able to stand on its own. Yeah, the series probably was more successful pandering solely to fans of the game considering it's getting a second season, but as far as being a stand alone anime, it is pretty bad in my opinion. The whole aspect drawing viewers into the series is their connections to characters from the game, so without that, there really isn't too much about the anime that keeps you interested. If you really want to watch this then do yourself a favor and play the game first. Based on the numerous top rated 10 reviews I've seen on this show's MAL page, it may be worth the time and effort. However, if you don't want to do that, then don't even bother watching this because you will probably just continuously lower the score to an anime that wasn't even meant for you to begin with.

NOTE : - I'm not played the game yet so i can write this review more objectively - My score above is based on my enjoyement, it will be different in my review below -This anime are absolutely made for fans of the game. Before you decided to pick this show, what are you expected for this??? Epic plotline, action battle, characters developent?? If you want to get that, i think you shouldn't try this series since this anime had none with that or at least very decent amount. Story : Story is almost nothing.The synopsis says :"The "historical revisionists" have begun attacks on the pastin their plot to change history. And The Saniwa, who have been charged with protecting history, can imbue life into objects, and has the ability to bring famous historical swords to life as male warriors" . But, in reality this show are mostly taken place in one place : "the fortress". Then, the majority things you're got here is Slice of Life-comedy feeling. I saw there're nothing different with other common SoL anime unless it's not filled with any single girl. And you will find some historical things on Japan history and they combined it with some action and drama, but it's decent. Art and Animation: About the art, they are doing good. The drawing, colouring, shadowing background, characters drawing, and enviroment looks suitable with this anime, not too bright as Moe anime and not too dark like Death Note. Something not good is when they drawing in action battle. After the drawing animated, it looks too fast to me but i know they put the effort in other aspect (SoL aspect). This is made the battle is mediocre and easily to forgot. About the animation , they're just look given standard animation with about 5-14 fps and without any single CGI. Sound : The sound in this show is mostly relaxed (they used relaxed classic Japanese music) in peace scene at the fortress while the SoL-comedy happened. And on the serious scene, the sound are pretty dramatic and with classic japanese music too. So this added more atmosphere at the scene itself. The insert song is so catchly, combined with classic Japanese music (classic Japanese guitar and flute) and modern music (drums) makes it worth to hear in my every week watching this show and i didn't skipped it. Then the attractive animation while the insert song is makes this much better. And plus they put the most of effort in the 11 different ending song! with different characters for each ending. It's give huge positive effect to me because i'm too cared about the insert and the ending song on an anime Character : This part are the reason why this anime are limited for fans of the game. They put much characters in this anime (about 45 characters with different trait and personality). It's almost impossible to remember at least the name of each characters if you don't play the game. In other hand, you must be easily to remember all characters in this anime with their trait and personality in one piece if you play the game. In addition, no female chara here that make this show feel sour and there are few male characters that looks like female (commonly called trap). Which some people doesn't like that. Enjoyement : I came to this show simply because it adapted by Doga Kobo. Their SoL-Comedy that they make are always amusing me. I rated 7/10 on this anime (Fine) if it based for my enjoyement. Overall : Based on my review above, i'd give this show 6/10 (Average) (5,92) Added : In conclusion, this anime are for fans of the game only. If you're try hard or masochist users like me (not played the game but still watching this), this show are recommended for you .