Touken Ranbu (刀剣乱舞) is a free-to-play collectible card browser video game developed by Nitroplus and DMM Games. The game was launched in Japan in January 2015,[1] in mainland China in 2017, and worldwide in April 2021.[2]
The franchise has inspired and been adapted as four anime productions, a two separate productions of a long-running stage play series, a Kabuki theatre production, two live-action films, and a spin-off game.
There are also several official comic anthologies and three manga series that use an anthology format.
Gameplay
Players assume the role of a sage (審神者) who travels into the past to defeat evil forces, and has the ability to animate legendary swords, which are depicted as attractive young men. Touken Ranbu is essentially a gender-swapped clone of Kantai Collection, another game by DMM, which uses moe anthropomorphism to portray historical warships as young girls. Character designs in Touken Ranbu are inspired by the type of sword they portray as well as the period of history they come from.