Touken Ranbu, starting!note
Touken Ranbu (刀剣乱舞, literally "Wild Swords Dance") is a free-to-play browser Card Battle Game developed by DMM and nitro+, featuring an RNG-controlled turn-based game revolving around the Anthropomorphic Personification of historical Japanese objects. Wait, this is sounding suspiciously familiar...Players assume the role of a sage, referred to as Saniwa, who travels back to the past to destroy an evil that wants to change the course of history. Being a sage, you have the ability to bring inanimate objects to life—in this case, historically famous Japanese swords, all of which take on the forms of handsome young men called Touken Danshi (刀剣男士, literally "Sword Man"). The object of the game is to bring the swords to life, create an army of them, and defeat the enemies. Battles are largely automated and manual actions by the player include smithing, repairing and creating troops.
The game officially launched on January 14, 2015 and is hosted on DMM (the same home of said above-mentioned suspiciously similar game). While being nearly identical to its predecessor save for a few key mechanics (something both fanbases quickly embraced, to the point where this game is considered KanColle's Spear Counterpart), the playerbase exploded to the point where a full-on doujinshi event opened for it only two months after the game's initial opening.
A mobile version of the game, Touken Ranbu Pocket, was released on March 1, 2016. In 2017, a mainland China version of the app was released and celebrated its 6th anniversary in 2023.
The game received an official English and Traditional Chinese (separate from the above mentioned app) translation on April 27, 2021. It was hosted on Johren. However, its servers were shut down on August 21, 2023.
On the browser game's 9th anniversary, an official website for the franchise as a whole was finally released
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Visit the character page for specific character-related tropes.
Touken Ranbu features the following tropes:
Tropes A-C
- 24-Hour Armor: The armored versions of the Touken Danshi's clothes are their default outfits and they are never seen without them on except when you send them into Internal Affairs. 2019 would introduce casual Yukata for the Touken Danshi as an alternate citadel outfit, however.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: Downplayed; The story takes place in 2205, but as far as the players are shown, there have been no significant technological advances, and the citadel itself appears to be stuck in the Edo period. There is time travel, but it is never explained how it works in the original game, and the adaptations are inconsistent in whether it is done with magic or something else, if it is shown at all.
- Absurdly High Level Cap: While swords have a maximum level cap of 99, the player level can be as high as 300. The Kiwame system plays this trope straight, as it will reset your swords' level to 1, giving players a chance to further raise their swords' already maxed stats.
- Achievement System: The missions act like this, granting you some resources when you fulfill certain objectives. There are separate sections for missions which can only be completed once, daily missions, and monthly missions.
- Almighty Janitor:
- The Touken Danshi are extremely powerful tool kami given human form by the Saniwa to protect history… who are also forced to do menial tasks in the citadels like fieldwork and horse duty when not on missions, which many of them complain about or acknowledge the irony of.
- Whenever the Touken Danshi travel through history, they often have to take on lowly roles to blend in better with the humans despite their divinity.
- Allegedly Free Game: The Chinese version of the game is free to play but has more paid elements than the original game, even introducing a mini-game where the player can feed Konnosuke, but its pay to play.
- All Myths Are True: Zig-zagged. In the Touken Ranbu universe, some myths are true, while others are either made up by humans or are misremembered events by the Touken Danshi, who usually uncover the truth by going Kiwame training and seeing what happened for themselves.
- Ambiguously Human: The Touken Danshi look human for the most part, and their forms are described as "human-like," though whether they can be considered "human" is debatable, given that they stand out significantly when compared to actual humans in the setting. It's also evident that they aren't human in other ways, such as their need to be "repaired" rather than simply patched up when injured in battle, as they'll break otherwise.
- Anachronism Stew: Despite being swords from varying eras of the past, some of them inexplicably wear clothing that wouldn't be worn in Japan for decades or centuries.
- Animate Inanimate Object:
- The Touken Danshi are Tsukumogami, or inanimate objects (in this case, weapons) that gained souls after 100 years. The Saniwa gives them human-like bodies after they are forged, but their dialogue reveals that they were sentient long before this. As well, even after being given their new forms, they still do not consider themselves to be human.
- The various treasures from the treasure system as well. Despite not being granted human forms like the Touken Danshi, they possess sentience and form bonds with the Touken Danshi they are partnered with during combat. After a while in use by them, they even adopt the name of the Touken Danshi that they have come to love the most.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Except for the unseen Saniwa, the kudagitsune, and the few humans who appear in the adaptations, all of the main characters in the series are tsukumogami, a type of Japanese Yōkai who gain spirits after 100 years.
- Anti-Grinding: While you are encouraged to Play Everyday, the game has safeguards in place to prevent players from abusing the system, such as flooding maps with Kebiishi, who spawn at the same level as the highest leveled Touken Danshi on the player's team and will break your swords if you are unprepared or entered the map with everyone at breakable health. There's also the fatigue system, which usually begins with one sword but gradually spreads to the rest of the team until everyone is exhausted. Fatigue causes the Touken Danshi to perform poorly in battle, eventually forcing the player to use an item to reduce fatigue, switch teams, or take a break until the fatigue subsides.
- Anyone Can Die: Saniwa beware, swords broken in combat will be lost forever if not careful. They can be protected from fatal damage with omamori, but the item itself is one-time-use and can only be otherwise purchased with real money.
- Artistic License – History:
- While the game and franchise as a whole pulls a lot from actual Japanese history when telling its story, it's not always accurate, especially in terms of the Touken Danshi, as the writers often take liberties to make them more interesting or fleshed out, drawing their characterization and other details about them from famous legends or popular, yet entirely fictitious anecdotes surrounding the feats their former owners supposedly performed with these swords. However, one of the first disclaimers players see when they launch the game makes it clear that not everything is meant to be an accurate portrayal of history, acknowledging that some of the storytelling draws from well-known fabrications and shouldn't be taken as fact.
- Over time, as the browser game explored more of Touken Ranbu's lore, the concept that a Touken Danshi's existence relies on the stories surrounding them and how people remember them, rather than strict historical fact, became a major plot point, shifting the story into a more supernatural direction.
- Art Evolution:
- Every year, the opening movie for the game is updated, often featuring new animation and an updated art style. One of the easiest ways to spot changes in the art style is by looking at Mikazuki Munechika, who often gets a close-up in these movies, especially the earlier ones, since his model is updated almost every time. It's clear that even animators struggle to capture his artist's style in 3D, a challenge the MMD community has been dealing with for years.
- After Kiwame training, along with having new designs, a majority of the characters' new art reflects their artists' advancements in technical skill.
- In recent years, early game backgrounds, while already pretty beautiful on their own, have gotten more detailed updated versions available for purchase in the shop. Compare the original Everyday Garden◊ default background to the near photo-realistic updated version◊.
- Augmented Reality: The otomo feature released in early 2020, which allows one to take photos with sprites of the swords overimposed on top.
- Badass Adorable: The younger-looking sword boys, like Hotarumaru and Gokotai, are definitely this. Gokotai's Kiwame form leans to the badass side, as he trades in his five tiger cubs for a large adult tiger.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Swords from the Osafune school trade more traditional Japanese clothing in for cool suits, with Shokudaikiri Mitsutada being one of the earliest examples. Sanchoumou, a sword from the Fukuoka Ichimonji school, also wears a traditional suit, and is the only sword from his school who does so.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Zigzagged, like in all cases of Depending on the Artist, most swords do not have nipples and quite a few of them have no navels as well.
- Bad Future: Downplayed; The backstory of the series is that 2205 is set in one, as the story begins sometime after the world was hit by an unspecified global crisis that claimed the majority of Japan's population and necessitated the recruitment of Touken Danshi to replace human soldiers. Beyond this summary, and unlike in most instances of this trope, not much is actually known about what 2205 is actually like, as the Touken Danshi never leave the citadel beyond to venture to the past for the missions, nor is it ever shown or discussed.
- Bash Brothers: Touken Ranbu gives us a huge amount of duos because they have belonged to the same owner (or belonged to two different owners who knew or worked for each other), and/or are actual family and therefore have met or at least know of each other. For example:
- Hirano and Maeda
- Taroutachi and Jiroutachi
- Mikazuki and Kogitsunemaru.
- Izuminokami and Horikawa.
- Honebami and Namazuo
- Imanotsurugi and Iwatooshi.
- Kiyomitsu and Yasusada.
- Ookurikara and Mitsutada.
- Oodenta and Sohayanotsurugi
- Higekiri and Hizamaru
- Tonbokiri and Muramasa
- Hizen and Nankai
- Suishinshi and Kiyomaro
- Jizō and Kokin
- Beach Episode: The recurring event series "Regiment Battle - Seaside Camp" takes place on a beautiful beach, but instead of enjoying the scenery and hanging out, the Touken Danshi battle the Historical Retrograding Force as usual and collect Lunar Shells. The two factions even arm their Water Artillery troops with makeshift water guns to drench each other, which is deadly for the Historical Revisionists due to the force of the blasts. The Touken Danshi can't be broken during this event, however, as they'll only be knocked out if hit too many times.
- Big Fancy Castle: The citadel, the home of the Touken Danshi and Saniwa, is a large, Edo period-resembling building with beautiful scenery, and often more colorful than the bleak locations the Touken Danshi visit when they time travel.
- Bling of War: The Touken Danshi return from Kiwame training with updated outfits, some of which are extremely bulky and extravagant. It makes you wonder how those Touken Danshi can move around in battle.
- Bloodless Carnage: When a Touken Danshi is heavily damaged, Shinken Hissatsu activates, showing the Touken Danshi so badly cut up that they lost parts of their clothes and armor. However, there is no blood shown for most of the Touken Danshi, and they look dirty at worst. This becomes an averted trope for some Touken Danshi after Kiwame training, though it's never explained whether the initial absence of blood is due to the game's age rating or simply an artistic choice.
- Back from the Dead: Equipping your Touken Danshi with an Omamori allows them to come back from death if broken in battle. However, it only works once, and the standard Omamori only restores them to 1 HP, so it's best to retreat after.
- Born as an Adult: It's strongly hinted that Touken Danshi are "born" as tsukumogami with the same appearances as the ones they display in the citadel, with the length of their blades, their history, their previous owners, and other factors determining how old they are physically. This is humorously lampshaded in Mikazuki's post-Kiwame Setsubun voiceover, where he wonders if there ever was a time when he was a child after nostalgically claiming to feel like one again.
- Bragging Rights Reward: Quite a few Touken Danshi, regardless of rarity, require the player to go to lengths to obtain them, such as grinding on particularly difficult nodes or risking your team by repeatedly challenging the Kebiishi to increase your chances of getting extra copies of them, only for them to turn out to be decent or mediocre units at best.
- Breaking Old Trends:
- The One-Steve Limit trend was broken with the introduction of Yamanbagiri Chougi in Jurakutei 2018.
- In 2019, an entirely new sword class, tsurugi, was introduced after 4 years. They apparently serve as a support class for teams.
- New casual outfits for Touken Danshi were also introduced in 2019, with the first batch featuring Nikkari Aoe, Hirano Toushirou, Maeda Toushirou, Akita Toushirou, Midare Toushirou, Yagen Toushirou, and Tsurumaru Kuninaga. From there, the outfits were sporadically released in batches of random (or rarely, related) Touken Danshi.
- In 2022, the trend of Highest-rarity swords exclusively being tachi (pre-Kiwame) was broken with the release of Shichiseiken, a tsurugi.
- In December 2022, the Touken Ranbu Pocket app introduced a new mode of play, the Walk (散歩) feature, which allows you to travel and explore with the chibifield version of your attendant. In 2023, this feature also introduced an exchange shop where you can trade for most Touken Danshi using seals saved up from your walk progress.
- The July 23rd update added two new features that were previously absent:
- The Saniwa badge, which is a player profile displaying all information about the player's citadel, including how long they've been playing Touken Ranbu.
- Six new positions have been added to the citadel, which players can assign through the Saniwa badge menu: General Affairs lead, Accountant lead, Education lead, Cooking lead, Cleaning lead, and Storehouse lead. Unlike the citadel attendant, these positions have no impact on gameplay and come without voice lines, serving purely for storytelling purposes.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: The game is free to play and can be enjoyed without spending any money, but spending can make the experience easier.
- The player starts with only two Smithing and Repairs slots, but you can add two more each by purchasing the Forge Extension Worker and Repairs Extension Worker from the shop.
- The shop sells a wide range of useful items, including resources, Ofuda, which increases the chances of smithing a rare sword, all tiers of dango, which restore energy, Expedition Recall pigeons, Omamori, and so on. It also sells a variety of limited-time Packs that include all of these features, as well as Request and Help tokens.
- Cannibalism Superpower: The player can boost the Touken Danshi's stats by feeding him unneeded duplicates of other swords. The implications of this are not acknowledged in-game, as the Touken Danshi instead enthuse or muse about how they've gotten stronger.
- Raising a Touken Danshi's Ranbu level requires the player feeding them extra copies of themselves, though these do not improve stats and only serve to unlock additional voice lines.
- Canon Immigrant: Some of the Touken Danshi added to this game were originally from the franchise's spin-off entries.
- Inaba Gō, whose existence was first alluded to in Musical Touken Ranbu, was added on April 26, 2022.
- Omokage, who was first introduced in Touken Ranbu Warriors, was added on April 22, 2025. Notably, he is a completely different character from his Warriors counterpart, though some of Warriors Omokage's design elements were carried over. He's also a Tachi in the browser game rather than an Oodachi.
- Kurikara Gō, who was first introduced in the first live-action Touken Ranbu film, was added September 9, 2025. Unlike the other characters, Kurikara shares nothing with his movie counterpart except for the name and origin. It's justified, however, as film Kurikara was essentially a copy of the Wakizashi Kotegiri Gou without the glasses, who had been implemented in the game 8 years prior, necessitating the change to distinguish them.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: You bring swords to life, and they all take the forms of good-looking men or cute boys.
- Cast Herd: In fandom and official material, cast herds usually depend on sword types, rarity, schools, or who historically made them/wielded them. Popular examples include:
- Sanjou swords, swords forged (or supposedly forged) by Sanjou Munechika. note
- Rare 4 Tachi or Rare Tachi 4, the four swords that were the first to be labeled as "Special" rarity before more were released over time. This became an Ascended Meme in some of the anthologies, and the four were occasionally treated as a group. note
- Shinsengumi swords, swords that belonged to the Shinsengumi.note
- Dategumi, swords that belonged to the Date clan.note
- Odagumi, swords that belonged to Oda Nobunaga.note
- The Awataguchi swords, swords that were forged by Awataguchi Yoshimitsu, Awataguchi Kuniyoshi, or Awataguchi Kunitsuna.note
- The Tenka Goken, a group of five swords renown for their beauty and the legends surrounding them.note
- Cast of Personifications: The aim of the game is gathering various Japanese swords and giving them life and human forms - as pretty boys, that is. Specifically, they're the swords used by various historical Japanese figures, particularly the Sengoku era, such as Date Masamune or Oda Nobunaga, and the Touken Danshi bring with them characteristics and history of each sword in question (along with their former owners).
- Cat Boy: Nansen Ichimonji has some cat-like characteristics, including meowing as a Verbal Tic and having hair that curls in the shape of tiny cat ears. However, these traits stem from a dark place, as he was cursed to act like a cat after killing one when he was still a sword.
- Character Development: Most Touken Danshi return from Kiwame training with a fresh perspective on life, having learned new things and grown from their past trauma, or having accepted it and their circumstances. They also almost always return to the Saniwa more loyal than before if they have finally moved on from their attachment to their previous masters.
- Character Roster Global Warming: While plenty of new swords have been added, the number of ootachi has stayed at just 4. It wasn't until December 2018 that the developers teased a new oodachi.
- Cherry Blossoms: A very common motif in the game and later the series:
- In the original game:
- Both the game's original◊ and new◊ icon have cherry blossoms incorporated into their designs.
- The loading bar is in the shape of a cherry blossom.
- The rarity of a sword is represented by the number of cherry blossom petals associated with it, with one being the lowest and five being the highest by default, though six becomes the highest after Kiwame training and is exclusive to Touken Danshi who were five petal rarity on release.
- When a sword reaches Toku status (level 20 or 25, depending on the sword), static cherry blossom petals will appear in the background of their icon.
- All swords enter Sakura Fubuki state when they are in high spirits and have low fatigue levels, with this being represented by cherry blossom petals flowing over their icon. These petals become a brighter pink and glow the higher their spirits are.
- Mikazuki disappears into a burst of cherry blossoms at the end of the 2022 opening movie.
- Both the game's original
- In the original game:
- Child Soldiers: The Tantou are technically not children, as they are several hundred years old by the year the game takes place, if not older, but they certainly look, act, and think like children, and some characters, such as Ichigo Hitofuri and Himetsuru Ichimonji, regard them as such. They are quite deadly, however, making it no wonder that the Government of Time has no issue sending them out to battle.
- The Chosen Many: The player's citadel isn't the only one that exists, as there are many other Saniwa out there with their citadels, versions of Konnosuke, and their army of Touken Danshi. The player can even battle other citadels in PVP mode, and a big part of the event, "The Great Invasion," was Saniwa from different citadels bonding together to take down the Historical Retrograding Force.
- Chromosome Casting: All of the main characters, supporting characters, and enemy faction characters in the original game are men with the sole exception of the Hosokawa Gracia, who appears as a Final Boss.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: An odd variation. Given that the Saniwa can bring inanimate objects, swords in this case, to life, one would think that the corporeal swords would have to exist somewhere, even if in the present they are currently lost (such as Hotarumaru or Kogitsunemaru). However, when Imanotsurugi leaves for his Kiwame training, his letters reveal that he didn't really exist in history, implying that swords can be revived even if they only exist in legend. Nankaitarou Chouson also confirmed that this is true of all swords, even those with real-world roots, because Tsukumogami cannot manifest if they are forgotten.
- Clothing Damage: Like in Kantai Collection, this is a visual representation of how much damage the swords take (though unlike in KanColle, Bloodless Carnage is averted, since the swords do bleed as well). Major damage will make their clothes dirty and slightly torn in places, but their Awakening modes will ruin their clothes even more, sometimes resulting in Shirtless Scenes, usually seen as torn, open shirts. This aspect is intensified in Kiwame forms, where all swords' Awakenings result in proper Shirtless Scenes regardless of how damaged their clothes got originally.
- Combat Medic/Healing Hands: In February 2019, Hakusan Yoshimitsu of the Tsurugi class, the only sword capable of healing in combat, was introduced. His Shingi feature allows him to restore HP of anyone but himself .
- Common Crossover:
- The game has frequent crossovers with KanColle in fanart, due to being made by the same developers and hosted on the same site, not to mention their gameplay being near-identical and Tourabu being considered KanColle's Spear Counterpart due to all these factors. Fanworks of this crossover is tagged "TouKan Love" (刀艦らぶ)
- Shinken!!, also hosted by the same website, often gets crossed over with Tourabu as well. The crossover is done so often that it's garnered the Pixiv tag "Shinken Ranbu".
- Oshiro Project sometimes gets folded into the mix when they want to depict the swords with the castles they historically protected.
- Com Mons: The player is most likely to come across tantou and uchigatana when smithing because these swords are more common and have a lower rarity in the smithing pool and as drops. Because they are the least rare in their class, high-rarity tachi are also more likely to appear, albeit less frequently than the previously mentioned classes.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The types of troops that can be equipped by your swords are limited by their sword types, but enemy swords can equip any troop, regardless of type.
- Conspicuously Light Patch: Animated backgrounds usually make it clear which parts are interactive by the slight difference in the art style details, as opposed to static ones where everything looks pretty uniform.
- Cool Old Guy: While many of the Touken Danshi are old, especially by the year the game is set in, very few of them act like old men, instead emulating the spirit and enthusiasm of young men, or even teenage boys. There are a few exceptions, however, such as Mikazuki Munechika, Kogarasumaru, Shichiseiken, and Ichimonji Norimune, who fall into this trope, with all being among the oldest swords in the game.
- Costume Porn: While most of the characters are drawn by different artists, their clothes are consistently detailed and usually referencing back to the sword or sword master's history. Seeing their Kiwame forms, you wonder how some of them can fight.
- Color-Coded Characters: The Sanjou and Gou schools have color motifs for their characters:
- Sanjou School:
- Mikazuki Munechika: Dark Blue
- Kogitsunemaru: Yellow-Orange, or Yellow
- Ishikirimaru: Green
- Imanotsurugi: Red
- Iwatooshi: Purple
- Mikazuki Munechika and Kogitsunemaru's official artist highlighted this in her third year anniversary art for them.
- Unlike the Sanjou School, whose signature colors are the colors of their outfits, the Gou School swords have their signature colors represented by their accessories, while the school itself is color-coded as green:
- Matsui Gou: Turquoise
- Samidare Gou: Lavender / Purple
- Murakumo Gou: Pink
- Kuwana Gou: Yellow
- Buzen Gou: Red
- Kotegiri Gou: Green, like the school itself.
- Inaba Gou: Black
- Chatannakiri, Chiganemaru, Chiyoganemaru's school is Unlisted, but they are officially treated as a trio, with their outfits color-coded as Pink, Yellow, and Blue, respectively.
- Sanjou School:
Tropes D-E
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Despite this game being extremely similar to KanColle, players of both games are suspect to get thrown off by the minor differences, the most significant probably being that while in KanColle, ships can only be taken down if they're sent forward in critical damage, in this game - to the horror of some unsuspecting saniwa - swords can be destroyed at theoretically any degree of damage provided certain factors.
- Darker and Edgier: As a Spear Counterpart to Kancolle, as it takes its silly premise of "Swords brought to life as pretty boys to protect history" quite seriously. You can count the number of swords who aren't coping with residual troubles on two hands, and even those who aren't openly, when they are sent off for Kiwame training, they will inevitably be forced to confront a painful aspect of their past and grow from it. As well, even many of the series' spin-offs, including largely light-hearted adaptations like Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru, deal with the trauma the Touken Danshi have experienced in the past.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Most swords have violent and tragic background histories, which is understandable, considering that they are weapons.
- Deadly Euphemism: The Touken Danshi refer to their deaths as "breaking" because their original bodies, as in the swords they carry, shattering is what actually causes their deaths if not repaired in time. The death animation for the Touken Danshi reflects this by showing the background slowly accumulating cracks until their silhouette shatters like glass.
- Dem Bones: The enemies are typically accompanied by bone-like creatures.
- Double Meaning: Tonbokiri's quote about people's misconceptions of Muramasa can be viewed as him talking about both the man who forged him and his similarly-named uchigatana contemporary."Many misunderstand, but Muramasa is not a bad person."
- Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: While not for the sake of telling heroes and villains apart, you can often tell which swords are from the same schools, the same masters, etc. by the clothes they wear, as they tend to have similar motifs exclusive to that group. Several examples can be made for:
- Sanjou Swords: Their outfits are color coded, all wear traditional horse riding hakama with a gray to white note gradient on them, neckguards and their outfits overall are more traditional compared to other swords due to these swords being forged in the Heian Era.
- Awataguchi Swords: The most distinguishable sword family due to their outfits appearing to be more like military uniforms.
- Sadamunes: All have primarily white motifs for their attire.
- Osafune: All wear suits and appear to be suave in appearance. They also have a bit of asymmetry, with one pauldron on one side of their body.
- Miike: Wear grey suits with gold accents, especially gold leg armor.
- Muramasas: Have similar purple/white sleeveless clothes, as well as a fully black kimono for casual wear.
- Kunihiros: They wear a navy blue pinstriped shirt and grey pants, though how they wear them is more customized to their tastes. All of them share a red track suit in their casual outfits.
- Samonjis: All wear traditional clothes, as well as a shroud matching their motif color.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Several characters, including Midare Toushirou, who was originally the best example, Chatannakiri, Namazuo Toushirou, Honebami Toushirou, and Jiroutachi, could easily pass as female. However, their voices usually dispel any doubt that they are, indeed, male.
- Dysfunction Junction: Many of the swords are messed up, either from lingering trauma from the deaths of their former masters, tragic events they were forced to participate in before they had free wills, or from deep-seated insecurities that they may or may not grow from after Kiwame training.
- Every Japanese Sword is a Katana: Averted. The game features several different kinds of Japanese swords and makes clear differences between sword types, ranging from their stats, combat mechanism, availability to equip troops, smithing time, and many more.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Most of the swords address the Saniwa as either Master (主, aruji or 主君, shukun) or General (大将, taishou).
- Excuse Plot: Subverted; While the "Go back in time to prevent historical revisionists from changing the course of history" backstory more or less initially reads like an excuse for the player to deploy cute boys to fight in a Jidaigeki setting, Touken Ranbu avoids the No Plot? No Problem! issues that its predecessor KanColle had by not only making it clear that the Touken Danshi are swords that have been brought to life, thus incorporating aspects of their history into their characters, dark aspects and all, but the story has more depth than what's presented on the surface, which gets expanded upon in gruesome detail even more in the adaptations.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows:
- Highest rarity (five petals) Touken Danshi have rainbow-colored colored backgrounds, making them stand out from lower rarity swords who are either given gold (Medium, High, Special) or gray (Lowest) card backgrounds.
- After Kiwame training, Highest rarity Touken Danshi are ascended to Godly rarity (six petals), and their rainbow backgrounds become black with rainbow-colored flower patterns.
- Expy: Several Touken Danshi adopt the characteristics of the master to whom they are most attached or famously associated, such as Yamatonokami Yasusada, who dresses like his former master Okita Souji, and, in some of the spin-offs, looks like a younger version of him.
Tropes F-H
- Face Death with Dignity: The Touken Danshi are generally accepting of their deaths if they are broken in battle, as they discuss dying in battle as an honorable death or simply what is fated to happen to them. Post Kiwame Midare, however, is a particularly tragic aversion, as he is terrified and begs the Saniwa to save him as he dies.
- Failure Is the Only Option: The first sortie with your starter only will always result in an (uncounted) defeat regardless of his Awakening happening soon after. That is, until the UI overhaul update results in a maiden victory due to the first Tanto smithing coming first instead of after.
- Fake Longevity: The Raid events. The events are server-wide, with Saniwa from all citadels working together to take down waves of the Historical Retrograding Force until each wave is cleared, after which a reset is announced. If it were up to the Saniwa, the event would be finished in 3 days at most due to the quick rate at which the Saniwa clear the waves; however, possibly to give other players more time to grind out EXP without pressure, the developers also, seemingly arbitrarily, decide on when the next wave will come, whether it be within a few hours of a cleared wave or over a day later. This is obviously ideal for low-level players who need the EXP more than anyone, but it's a drag for higher-level players who like destroying high-level difficult enemies and contributing to the percentages, as well as players who want to read the event story but can't because it's locked behind event progression.
- Fanservice:
- The game includes a wide variety of pretty boys to appeal to a wide range of people, as well as having them strip down when injured in battle. Even better, almost every Touken Danshi receives a Walking Shirtless Scene following Kiwame training.
- While Touken Ranbu is staunchly not an otome game and features no romance between the Saniwa and the Touken Danshi, the Touken Danshi are fiercely loyal, especially after Kiwame training, with some even offering flirtier dialogue toward the player. However, it's left up in the air whether it's intended to be viewed as Ship Tease, given the efforts the game goes to avoid being categorized as an otome game (to the point where it was unnecessarily established as a plot point that Valentine's Day as the players know it doesn't exist in 2205) and how the Touken Danshi are inherently loyal to whoever owns them at the time, showing the same affection to their historical masters.
- Fantastic Racism: Played With. Yamanbagiri Kunihiro, a replica of Yamanbagiri Chougi, says that counterfeit and unoriginal swords are generally looked down on. This sentiment holds for Touken Danshi like Yamanbagiri Chougi and Hachisuka Koutetsu, who each have their own reasons for looking down on copies and counterfeits, respectively. However, their views aren't seen as particularly sympathetic, and the other Touken Danshi who interact with the Touken Danshi known to be copies don't treat them any differently.
- Field Power Effect: Beginning in world 6, the game introduces different types of maps which give advantages and disadvantages to certain types of swords and troops.
- Night battles: Tantou and wakizashi are buffed; tachi, ootachi, yari, and naginata are nerfed. All swords have a chance at evading long-range attacks (only Kiwame tantō can do this in daytime battles).
- Urban battles: Swords will not receive stat bonuses from equipping horses.
- Indoor battles: Same as urban battles, with the addition of ootachi and naginata only being able to attack one enemy at a time and catapults and archers being unable to attack (however, the stat bonuses from equipping the troops still apply).
- Rainy battles: Musketeers are unable to attack, though swords will still receive stat bonuses from equipping them.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Oddly, all of the Touken Danshi are treated like this despite existing in the far, far future.
- Forever War: The lore notes that the battle between the Historical Retrograding Force and the Touken Danshi is likely to go on forever because the Historical Revisionists have an almost limitless number of soldiers and don't appear to show any signs of relenting in their efforts to alter history. While this is obviously just an excuse to explain away why the franchise and many of its entries are long runners with no clear end in sight, the characters treat it with the amount of gravitas you would expect when discussing it instead of sweeping the implications under the rug.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In an otherwise lighthearted opening, the tenth anniversary movie interjects several bizarre blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments that appear to set up future storylines in the browser game, including:
- An unknown symbol, which reappears briefly in an interface that appears to be scanning a sword into a database, possibly indicating that it is the symbol of the Government of Time.
- An Atakebune rowing through the sky.
- An unidentified man confronting a three-headed, red-eyed, snake-like creature.
- An unknown man with red spikes growing out of his back.
- What appears to be a cloning lab.
- An army of Mikazuki Munechika's standing in what appears to be the Mikazuki's state of mind setting following the Great Invasion event, with one looking back at the viewer.
- An unidentified man examining a desolate city.
- Gameplay Automation: On June 24th, 2024, a limited auto-play function was implemented, allowing the player to command the unit commander at the Toku or Kiwame level to advance their team through battle without their input.
- Gameplay Grading: After a win, you get graded on a scale (C, B, A, S) based on how much damage your swords sustained and how many enemies you defeated. Winning a duel grants you a special "Duel Victory Rank S" grade regardless of how much HP your team has left.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Most special battlefield conditions consider how specific sword-types and Tousou would perform in battle, if at all, affecting their gameplay.
- The status boosts gained from equipping horses are reduced in narrow, urban areas during Urban Battles due to the logistics of maneuvering horses through small spaces. Horse status boosts are also nerfed during castle battles due to these battles taking place on high, sturdy castle walls instead of on the ground.
- Ootachis and Naginatas are disadvantaged in indoor and castle battles due to their large sizes and difficulty moving around, and their effective ranges are limited to attacking one enemy at a time. Catapults and archers also cannot attack while indoors due to the small space.
- Musketeers are useless in rain battles because gunpowder cannot fire when wet. They can be used during drizzle battles, but do less damage for the same reason.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation:
- Every Touken Danshi has a claim to fame, whether it's making their mark in history by being owned or wielded by a famous figure or achieving some legendary feat that allowed the Saniwa to manifest them. Some even boast about it in their introduction or in their citadel lines. Still, you wouldn't guess it from how many swords end up in the game's lowest rarity tiers.
- Many of the Touken Danshi return to the citadel after Kiwame training with spiritual abilities that manifest in different forms, sometimes being Elemental Powers; that said, aside from the stat increase from training, the abilities the characters obtain have no bearing on the gameplay whatsoever.
- The Ghost: The Government of Time, for whom the Saniwa and Touken Danshi work, is only mentioned and never seen in any Touken Ranbu work. Konnosuke and other Kudagitsune working for them are the ones who deliver missions and other information from them to Honmaru.
- God Was My Co-Pilot: Inverted. The Touken Danshi are gods who regularly live alongside and help humans from the past as a part of their jobs, but the human characters rarely figure this out.
- Historical Domain Character: While they do not appear in the browser game, the characters frequently run into their former masters in the spin-offs, meeting historical figures such as Oda Nobunaga, Date Masamune, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, among many others.
- Historical Fantasy: For the most part, the game and franchise draw from real recorded events in Japanese history that the personified sword characters were used as a part of when they were still weapons, and, for the most part, try to keep even the Touken Danshi's backstories grounded in some sense of reality, even going so far as to debunk magical legends in some of their Kiwame stories, offering more logical explanations for how these events actually happened. However, it is still a work that focuses on sword tsukumogami traveling back in time through unknown means to stop an enemy faction of sword tsukumogami from altering history, with kudagitsune and other types of tsukumogami appearing along the way. Not to mention, in its later years, Touken Ranbu has embraced the fantasy side of its story more, revealing that Touken Danshi can manifest only because humans believe so strongly in the tales surrounding their blades, whether real or fictional, with this same logic applying to other spirits in the setting so long as they have a story and a name. With all that said, it's pretty much that Touken Ranbu has firmly established itself as a story rooted in both history and fantasy.
- Hunk: If the sword isn't a Bishōnen, then they'll be this.
Tropes I-N
- Katana Superiority: Exaggerated; It's more Japanese swords in general, but in a world where a tsukumogami can inhabit any weapon, Touken Danshi, tsukumogami born from Japanese swords, are said to be the strongest of them all and are deployed by the Government of Time.
- Leitmotif: Each Touken Danshi has their own theme music – their attendant BGM – that can be unlocked via Village of Treasures events and will play if said sword is set as the attendant. Swords that have historical connections to one another will often have their tracks share a particular melody section, such as Mikazuki Munechika and Honebami Toushirou, two former Ashikaga Yoshiteru swords.
- Level Scaling: Justicar encounters scale based on the level of the highest-level sword in your party, regardless of the party's average level or the level of the stage's normal encounters. It's a very good idea to keep the swords in your party around the same level if you're doing a Justicar-infested map; depending on the makeup of your party, having a sword that's just one level higher than the other swordsnote can result in massive damage for the rest of the team.
- Magical Weapon: Some Touken Danshi manifest in the citadel with inherent powers tied to their weapons based on their legends or past usage. After Kiwame training, however, every Touken Danshi's blade gains spiritual power, usually reflected in how they glow or emit an aura.
- Magikarp Power: Naginatas, with the ability to hit the entire opponent party at once...at the price of an aggravatingly slow damage-to-level-up ratio curve (to the point where even after their rank-up at level 25, they still regularly be doing only one point of damage per opponent). Once they're properly leveled up and maxed, they could clear high-level maps almost by themselves.
- Magitek: While it is not explained how most things in the Touken Ranbu world work, the characters appear to use Magitek for both time travel and keeping track of changes in historical timelines.
- Make Way for the New Villains: After years of focusing on the Historical Retrograding Force and Kebiishi as the franchise's main antagonistic factions, the event Hyakki Yakou introduces a new type of enemy: Oni. These enemies not only talk, but they appear to have explicit motivations behind their actions, as opposed to the Historical Revisionists, who are largely silent and whose goals, aside from wanting to alter the course of history, have remained vague since the game's inception. The game's tenth anniversary opening movie further lays the groundwork for Touken Ranbu's second chapter, which will focus more on exploring this new Oni-enemy faction.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: While it's not always clear which Touken Danshi are considered "brothers," let alone "family," this trope is represented by some of the game's largest schools, the most notable of which is the Awataguchi school; all of the Touken Danshi of that school see themselves as siblings and spent the first few years of the game filling out their roster until new Touken Danshi releases began to diversify. Ichigo Hitofuri even jokes about it in his Touken Ranbu's Seventh Year Anniversary voice-line.Our seventh anniversary, is it. When speaking of swords manifesting one after another us Awataguchi used to be the first to come to mind, but the other sword schools have been gaining members as well. We must put in effort not to lose to them when it comes to that impression... I'm joking. Hahaha.
- Moe Anthropomorphism: The Tantou, who look and act like cute young boys.
- Modern Stasis: Zig-zagged. The story is set in 2205, but the citadel—the core operating base for the Saniwa and their Touken Danshi—looks as though it's stuck in the Edo period, lacking any technological advancements.
- Money Grinding: Underground Treasure Chest is a series of events that encourages this behavior, as grinding through the floors of Osaka Castle is the quickest way to get a ton of Koban if your teams are strong enough and you're willing to put in the effort. It also helps to have Hakata Toushirou, as his unit can increase the amount of Koban you receive.
- Mythology Gag: The game's tenth anniversary opening features a wall of references to various works in the franchise, as well as real-life merch and events:
- Hanamaru: Kashuu and Yamatonokami posing beside their citadel's cherry blossom tree.
- Katsugeki: Izuminokami and Horikawa looking up at a cherry blossom tree, which is also a screenshot from the anime.
- Touken Ranbu Stage / Touken Ranbu Kai: A scene from the anime in which Fudou and Souza fight. Yamanbagiri and Mikazuki sitting on the stage stairs.
- Okkii Konnosuke Sanpou: Okkii Konnosuke examining an encased sword.
- (Possibly) Touken Ranbu Musical: Mikazuki, Ishikirimaru, and Kogitsunemaru form the Sanjou group, while Iwatooshi and Imanotsurugi are paired separately. A red windmill is taped next to the pictures, possibly referencing Kashuu and the first play in the series. A separate image shows the Gou swords dancing, which could be a reference to Gou on Stage (or Pure Cool Touken Danshi).
- Touken Ranbu Kabuki: Mikazuki's sword planted in the ground as a light shines down on it and cherry blossoms fall, evoking Yoshiteru's death scene at the end of the first play.
- Live action film: The matcha latte Mikazuki drank from the second live action film.
- Necessary Fail: The general idea that the Touken Danshi accept is that the major failings and deaths in history are ultimately part of what makes the historical figures who they are for us in the present, so some Touken Danshi prefer to honor their legacy by ensuring the mission goes as history recorded it.
- Night Parade of One Hundred Demons: The second Raid event, "Anti-Hundred Demons Night Parade Intercept Operation," heavily alludes to this folklore. It starts with the disappearances of the citadel's kudagitsune, followed by the congregation of the Historical Revisionists and new incarnations of the Touken Danshi as they find themselves inexplicably called to a procession, beginning a mystery that the player's citadel must resolve as they combat the Historical Retrograding Force's numbers.
- Nipple and Dimed: Most swords are not drawn with nipples in their Awakening sprites. This changes for some after Kiwame training.
- No Hugging, No Kissing: Contrary to popular belief, Touken Ranbu is not a Romance Game, and there is no way for the Saniwa to pursue a relationship with the Touken Danshi, nor is there any indication within the work's writing that any of the Touken Danshi would want that to be the case romantically, despite how loyal most are, and how flirty a handful are. Even within the lens of the Touken Danshi's loyalty, it's explained away that it's in a Touken Danshi's nature as swords to worship whoever owns them at the time, with many expressing the same level of devotion to their former historical masters (at least until some of them can let go of their attachment by receiving closure via Kiwame training). As for the flirtiness, such as in Nikkari Aoe's case, it's just their personality, and they usually behave the same way toward other Touken Danshi.
- On the other hand, the overall lack of story content and supporting characters means there aren't any side character couples in the setting either. The game's only nod to a romantic relationship is when Kasen Kanesada reassures Jizou Yukihira that Hosokawa Gracia was reunited with her lover, Tadaoki Hosokawa, in the afterlife after her defeat in the event "Special Investigation: Keichou Kumamoto."
- This is played hilariously in the game's first-ever Valentine's Day event, "Tactical Enhancement Training ~Operation Chiyoko~," where, despite the prevalence of hearts (with Time Retrograding Force faces in them) and chiyoko (not choco), the event is completely devoid of romantic undertones at all, serving instead as yet another opportunity for the Government of Time to train the Saniwa for diverse battle conditions and strengthen the Touken Danshi. Konnosuke also shares the story behind this tradition in one of his tips, explaining that by 2205, Valentine's Day as the player once knew it no longer exists, having been reimagined as a way for warriors to prove themselves.
- Non-Entity General: Much like the Admiral from KanColle, the Saniwa functions as this. This rule is lifted in most of the spin-offs, save Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru and Touken Ranbu Warriors.
- Non-Uniform Uniform: Touken Danshi from the same school tend to dress similarly, though their designs are often unique to the type of character they are. The Awataguchi school Tantou, for example, wear actual uniforms, often with shorts, but Midare Toushirou wears a uniform dress with a frilly hem to reflect the fact that his blade has a wavy hamon.
- Noob Cave: Hakodate. There's only up to two skirmishes per sortie, only one branching path, and the Justicars can't be summoned here.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Tantou and wakizashi (though especially tantou) play this very straight on World 6, Memory of Ikedaya. While high-leveled tantou/wakizashi are not weak per se in previous worlds, they are definitely outshined by the other more powerful swords, namely ootachi and tachi, who have higher HP and more powerful blows. Then comes World 6, where all battles take place at night, giving huge advantage to tantou and wakizashi and weakening all other sword types (save for uchigatana, who in this world are
So Okay, It's Average).
Tropes O-Y
- One-Gender Race: As the name "Touken Danshi" would suggest, there are no female sword Tsukumogami in the Touken Ranbu universe, exemplified by the fact that even the sword that embodies what would be considered a "feminine weapon", in this case the naginata, is simply a feminine-looking male.
- One-Steve Limit:
- While there are many swords with the same given name due to their motifs or legends, the game avoided introducing Touken Danshi with the same name for years until the release of Yamanbagiri Chougi, who shares the same name as Yamanbagiri Kunihiro because the latter is a copy of him. In this case, though, Chougi's arrival was foreshadowed by Kunihiro long before he actually appeared, and when they show up in works together in works, the adaptations typically avoid using their names together by almost exclusively referring to Chougi by his smith's family name.
- Similarly, the game introduced Taiko Samonji in 2020, nearly four years after Taikogane Sadamune debuted in 2016. That said, It's Downplayed compared to the two Yamanbagiri’s in that Taikogane's name is longer and rendered in a different kanji, and both are almost exclusively referred to by their nicknames by the groups associated with them and the fandom, making it harder to confuse the two.
- Also averted with Konnosuke, as all Kudagitsune that resemble the Konnosuke from the browser game are invariably named "Konnosuke", even if there are multiple Konnosukes in the same setting.
- Out of Focus: Since Recollections are distributed primarily based on which swords have a significant connection to each other, whether it be historical, based on associated groups, or something along those lines, it's not unusual for some Touken Danshi to have a singular Recollection if they don't have any particularly notable historical ties to anyone. More rarely, a Touken Danshi will debut with no Recollections whatsoever, even though this is one of the few ways to glimpse how they interact with characters beyond the Saniwa. Internal Affairs are a little more lax with these rules, as Touken Danshi don't have to be tied to each other to interact; however, plenty of Touken Danshi don't have Internal Affairs interactions either.
- Petal Power:
- Sakura Fubuki is a state that the Touken Danshi enter when they are in high spirits and have low fatigue levels. It is represented by cherry blossom petals flowing over the Touken Danshi's icon, with the petals becoming a brighter, glowing pink in color as their spirits rise. This status also moderately improves their battle abilities, such as speed.
- In a number of the spin-offs, cherry blossom petals are incorporated into the ultimate attacks of the Touken Danshi, likely referencing back to the aforementioned Sakura Fubuki state.
- Piñata Enemy: The rare golden tantou (dubbed "kunai" by the Japanese community) serve this purpose in the Edo Infiltration event: they're easy to kill, give more experience than regular enemies and will always drop several keys, which are the main resource players will be hunting in this event.
- Play Every Day: Encouraged with the daily missions, which are one of the primary ways of gaining resources.
- Player Data Sharing: The Practice mode relies on this. Twice a day, the game matches you with five random players on your server (four around your level, one at a much higher level), and you can fight against their primary party with no consequences for losing. Since one of the daily missions involves winning five practice battles, some users will intentionally put weak/underleveled swords in their primary party when they're not playing in order to make it easier for others to get that mission's rewards. It can be amusing to engage in battle with a level 216 user whose primary party consists of a single level 6 tantou.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis: Every Touken Danshi in the game is based on a real-life or fictional famous (or semi-famous) Japanese sword. However, due to many Touken Ranbu fans not being familiar with Japanese swords before getting into Touken Ranbu, the prominence of Touken Ranbu, and the fact that the game helped to revitalize interest in Japanese swords, the Touken Danshi themselves have become more well-known than the swords themselves in some cases and googling them will produce results of the Touken Danshi in question alongside the original sword or have the results be overtaken almost entirely.
- Power Equals Rarity: Zig-zagged; While the lowest rarity characters are undoubtedly the weakest in the game, stats among the higher level ones (High, Special, Highest) tend to vary greatly, and Highest rarity characters aren't guaranteed to be stronger than everyone else, although they won't necessarily be weak, either.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Each sword gets one of these when they land a critical hit, trigger a duel, or go into Awakening mode.
- Protective Charm: Omamori, which you equip your Touken Danshi with to keep them from breaking during battle. Peach and Kyouku Omamori can also restore their health, with Peach only restoring half and Kyouku restoring the entire amount. Standard Omamori only revives the Touken Danshi.
- Public Domain Artifact:
- Almost all of the swords in this game did actually exist, though some are myths, such as Kogitsunemaru or Shishiou. However, many of the swords are lost in Real Life due to various factors (particularly after World War II, when America confiscated many nihonto from Japan). This game is popular enough that many fans have visited museums that hold the actual swords their favourite characters are based on (if they haven't been lost).
- With the implementation of the Treasures equipment system, real-world artifacts like the Youhen Tenmoku and the Lion Mother-of-pearl Saddle appear in-game as items the player can create and equip to a Touken Danshi for additional stats.
- A Quest Giver Is You: Expeditions, where you send out teams of swords to do tasks in real-time for resources and XP.
- Rainbow Motif: A rainbow background represented the game's original highest rarity, literally called Highest and represented by five Sakura petals, until the Kiwame system introduced Godly rarity, which is six petals and symbolized by a rainbow pattern on an otherwise black background.
- Random Number God: Much of the gameplay depends on this.
- Rare Candy: Experience point boosters in the game are actually candy—Konpeito, to be exact. It comes in two forms, either Standard Konpeito (White) or High Grade Konpeito (White and Gold), with Standard Konpeito granting 500 Experience Points each, while High Grade Konpeito grants 10,000. Naturally, High Grade Konpeito is more rare, and can be obtained from limited-time events, as special log-in bonuses, and as Ranbu Level rewards.
- Scenery Porn: The backgrounds that the player can obtain, which have become increasingly detailed over the years, depict various aspects of Honmaru's scenery, and it's stunning.
- Series Mascot: Mikazuki Munechika is the primary face of Touken Ranbu, along with the five starter swords, Kashuu Kiyomitsu, Yamanbagiri Kunihiro, Kasen Kanesada, Hachisuka Kotetsu, and Mutsunokami Yoshiyuki to a slightly lesser degree. Konnosuke also serves as the series' animal mascot.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: What kickstarts the plot. A group of historical revisionists goes back in time to change history in their favor, and you are sent to stop them.
- Shout-Out:
- One of Mikazuki Munechika's dialogue lines used to go like this (it was eventually removed and replaced with a more generic line):
"The admiral is in the base... Hahaha, as expected, that is not quite right, is it?"- Both Kashuu Kiyomitsu and Yamatonokami Yasusada shout "Ora ora ora!" when attacking.
- The designs and lines of swords of famous historical figures pay homage to their owners. Shokudagiri Mitsutaida, the sword of Date Masamune, wears an eyepatch. The crest of Mutsunokami Yoshiyuki, which was owned by Sakamoto Ryoma, has an anchor. Heshikiri Hasebe mentions temple burning and servant killing, which his owner Oda Nobunaga was infamous for, and so on.
- Shown Their Work: Although historical accuracy is occasionally sacrificed for the sake of being a time travel-focused Historical Fantasy story, the writers make it clear that they're well researched on the time periods the Touken Danshi visit and the historical figures they interact with.
- The setting of each Touken Danshi, from backstory to character design or design motifs, and sometimes personality, is based on the actual history and design of each sword and/or sheath.
- The horses the Touken Danshi equip in battle are revealed to have been previously owned by historical figures such as Maeda Toshimasu, Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Sakuma Shōzan, Kiyohara no Iehira, among others.
- Sickly Green Glow: The weaker enemies have this effect to them.
- Sliding Scale of Animal Communication: Throughout the years, the franchise has introduced several animal companions, but their intelligence and ability to communicate have varied; at the time of writing, only Youkai foxes—as in pipe foxes like Konnosuke or Nakigitsune's unidentified fox—operate on Level 6, meaning they can interact with the player and Touken Danshi normally, while all other animals—whether Youkai or not—are on Level 0 and behave like regular animals.
- Slipknot Ponytail: This can result for swords with longer hair if they take enough damage.
- Soul Jar: The Touken Danshi appear entirely human, but the swords they wield are actually their true bodies, and destroying those blades will kill them, even if their human form is unharmed.
- The Smurfette Principle: The role of a Saniwa is gender-neutral, meaning the Saniwa could easily be female and the only female in an otherwise male cast.
- Spear Counterpart:
- Starter Equipment: When the player first starts the game, they can select one of five Uchigatana—Kashuu Kiyomitsu, Yamanbagiri Kunihiro, Kasen Kanesada, Hachisuka Kotetsu, and Mutsunokami Yoshiyuki—to use to advance through the tutorial phase. Since all of these characters are Com Mons and have similar stats pre-Toku, it doesn't really matter who the player selects, although some players attach sentimental or storytelling value to who their first sword is.
- Stop Poking Me!: The player can poke the Touken Danshi set as their attendant, and while most don't mind being poked, poking them while they're injured will almost always elicit a negative reaction.
- Super Move Portrait Attack: The Awakening mode, complete with unique art. Double attacks (randomly triggered when you have at least one wakizashi and uchigatana in your party) also have this, though with the normal battle art.
- Team Dad: Some characters are called 'dad' by fans, but the shout-out goes to Ichigo Hitofuri.
- There Are No Therapists: Many of the Touken Danshi are deeply damaged, but given the state of the world, there are no therapists to help them sort out their problems. Instead, they undergo Kiwame training, which not only makes them stronger but also sends them on a journey of self-discovery to work through their personal challenges. That said, whether they come back improved or simply learn to accept their circumstances ultimately depends on the Touken Danshi.
- The Time Traveller's Dilemma: While it is only mentioned explicitly in a few works, this is an underlying issue that the Touken Danshi are always confronted with, and why they are so adamant on protecting history no matter how painful it may be, because they always risk the lives of people in the future blinking out of existence as a result of them attempting to save their old master, change history in their old masters favor, and so on.
- Too Awesome to Use: You get three ema (charms to boost your luck for smithing or troop forging) for free; the rest must be either bought with real money or obtained in events, so saniwa are understandably hesitant to use them.
- Took a Level in Badass: Kiwame training. You send off your sword on a journey to become stronger, and after 4 (real-time) days, they come back with new artwork, Character Development, new abilities, and hugely improved stats.
- Same Language Dub: Every character in the live production of Ice Blade is physically portrayed by Japanese figure skaters, but their original voice actors provide the dubbing.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The story takes place in the year 2205.
- Uniqueness Rule: While the player can obtain duplicates of the Touken Danshi, which can be used for a variety of purposes (such as raising Ranbu Level), they cannot be used in the same teams.
- Uniqueness Value:
- When it comes to Highest-rarity swords (five cherry blossom petals), the base highest and rarest designation of any rarity in the game, the Tenka Goken were all automatically given this status on release because of their esteemed place among Japanese swords, with Mikazuki Munechika being the first Touken Danshi to receive this distinction. However, after Mikazuki's release, it became a long-standing trend that only tachi-class Touken Danshi would receive the rare Highest rarity designation, despite the presence of esteemed swords in other groups. This pattern was finally broken with the release of the tsurugi Shichiseikennote , but beyond the highest-rarity Touken Danshi in the tsurugi class, there still haven't been any Highest-rarity non-tachi releases as of 2026, with the only way non-tachi can achieve this designation being if they were Special rarity on release and undergo Kiwame training. As a result, only Touken Danshi with the Highest rarity designation on release can be upgraded to Godly rarity (six cherry blossom petals), the newest rarity ceiling in the game, attainable solely through Kiwame training.
- Special rarity (four cherry blossom petals) is a step below Highest and is used for Touken Danshi, primarily tachi, that are apparently historically significant in some way, but not enough to be designated Highest rarity on release; for example, Ichigo Hitofuri is the only tachi created by his forger, hence why he was designated Special rarity on release. That said, although more Touken Danshi types qualify for this designation, only 18 have received it upon releasenote , most of which are tachi.
- While considered relatively low in rarity, High rarity (three cherry blossom petals) is the standard rarity for Touken Danshi of all types that have carved out a place in history or have a high level of prestige among Japanese swords. Similar to the Highest and Special rarity, it's rarer for a Touken Danshi to debut at this rarity, though it happens more often than with those two categories. For one example of a Touken Danshi who was this rarity on debut and why, it's the designation of Kogitsunemaru, a tachi famed for supposedly being forged by the renowned Heian-era smith Sanjou Munechika (who also crafted the Tenka Goken, Mikazuki Munechika), along with the popular legend tied to its creation.
- Unlockable Content:
- Several Touken Danshi can't be forged and can only be obtained by clearing events.
- Ranbu entails using duplicates of a specific Touken Danshi to increase their Ranbu Level and unlock additional voice lines for things they don't normally comment on, such as background changes, completed smithing, Omamori, and so on. At the last two Ranbu levels, 7 and 8, you can also unlock stat increases and receive High Grade Konpeitou as a reward. The amount of duplicates required to level up also varies based on the rarity of the Touken Danshi. Those with lower rarities need more copies to level up because it's easier to obtain them, while those with higher rarities need fewer for the opposite reason—though they still require more duplicates than you could realistically obtain unless you've been playing for a long time and are extremely lucky with smithing and/or drops.
- Valentine's Day Violence: "Tactical Enhancement Training ~Operation Chiyoko~" is Touken Ranbus version of a Valentine's event, held annually starting on February 14th and lasting for most of the month. However, despite the heart motifs seen throughout the event (with Time Retrograding Force faces), the date it falls on, the mechanic of collecting "chiyoko seals" to trade for Touken Danshi, the event has little connection to the actual holiday, instead being yet another event where the citadel fights Historical Revisionists. According to the event's flavor text and Konnosuke's explanation, by 2205 the original meaning of Valentine's Day has long been forgotten. It was only through the Government of Time's abstract interpretation of old historical records about the holiday that it made a comeback, at least in terms of base themeing, now reimagined as a day for warriors to prove themselves by collecting as much chiyoko (as opposed to choco) as possible because it was a popular confectionery during this season, as well as a day to prepare the Saniwa for various battle scenarios.
- Version-Exclusive Content: For the most part, the Chinese version of the Touken Ranbu app receives the same content as the Japanese version, except extra backgrounds for celebratory events and edited versions of existing backgrounds to reflect aspects of Chinese culture, which have not been ported into the Japanese version.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: A lot of the Touken Danshi lose their tops after entering Shinken Hissatsu in Kiwame form.
- Walking Spoiler: Yamanbagiri Chougi, the real identity of the mysterious hooded figure in the Jurakutei 2018 event.
- Hosokawa Gracia, the only active female character in the game as the one-time final boss of Keichō Kumamoto Special Investigations.
- Wham Episode:
- The Kiwame Training segments, while very useful gameplay-wise, have this effect on some of the sheltered Touken Danshi. The notable examples are Midare and Imanotsurugi, learning that humans are frighteningly flawed and that his (Imanotsurugi's) existence is fictional, respectively.
- The Resistance Against the Great Invasion event begins with Mikazuki Munechika missing in action after giving a curbstomped team time to retreat by distracting a gargantuan foe, then the Citadel's background locked to a large, mist-covered moon in the centre and front of the horizon. The gameplay highly reflects this.
- Wham Shot: The 10th anniversary opening movie has several Freeze-Frame Bonus shots that depict upcoming events in the story, such as a highly advanced tech lab, multiple clones of Mikazuki Munechika all lined up together, a castle rowing through the sky, and a shadow of a Touken Danshi overlooking a desolate wasteland.
- World Limited to the Plot: Aside from the lore about the global crisis that devastated the world in the game's premise, the story reveals almost nothing else about the state of the world in 2205, as the Touken Danshi never discuss its current state and never leave the boundaries of the serene-looking citadel except to go on missions in the distant past.
- Wound That Will Not Heal: One of the game mechanics. The Touken Danshi's health does not regenerate on its own, so whenever they are injured in battle, the player has to send them for repairs, which often have absurdly long real-time timers depending on the sword.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: This appears to be the case when the Touken Danshi time travel, particularly during Kiwame training, as they will be gone for years or decades from their perspective, despite only a few days passing in the present. Mikazuki Munechika provided an extreme example: he traveled over a thousand years for his Kiwame training, but from the player's perspective, he was only gone for four days.
- Yōkai:
- The Touken Danshi are a type of youkai called Tsukumogami, spirits born from inanimate objects.
- Konnosuke, Momonosuke, Kuronosuke, and Fukunosuke are all Kuda-gitsune.
- You Require More Vespene Gas: The primary resources are charcoal, steel, coolant, and whetstone, which are required to smith and repair swords and create troops. These regenerate slowly up to a cap that increases with the player's level, but you can also get them via expeditions, daily missions, and resource nodes on maps. There's also request tokens, which are required to smith swords; help tokens, which allow you to instantly smith/repair a sword; and koban, which is usually just used to buy backgrounds for the main screen, but which can also be used for extra attempts on certain event maps.