Touken Ranbu – written as Touken Ranbu – ONLINE – -will be celebrating its fifth anniversary this year! The franchise which has grown to encompass several multi-media projects as well as promoting the historical values of Japanese swords, revealed a host of news in its anniversary talk show. For those unaware, Touken Ranbu is a browser-based game hosted on DMM – with a mobile app in Touken Ranbu Pocket – where swords take the form of cute boys and attractive men. It has branched out to a stage play, musical, anime, and has done collaborations with museums to showcase the related blades.

The game itself has you collect the various characters and send them out to battle, which they do automatically. The player takes the role of a “saniwa” sage who has brought these swords to life. If you know Kantai Collection and similar games, you will find the same here.

A schedule has been released regarding the game campaigns and updates, which will commence 14 January 2020.

14 January

• New opening movie for the game
• New Saniwa anniversary presents
• New casual outfits for the starter swords
• New in-game AR feature, dubbed “Companion”
  • Only available in Pocket version

14 – 21 January

• Smithing campaign for Hakusan Yoshimitsu

14 January – 28 February

• Boost to experience gained
• Double boss node drop rate
• Zero resources repair campaign
• Guaranteed gold troop campaign

14 – 31 January

• New player registration rewards

14 January – 4 February

• Anniversary login campaign with new backgrounds

14 January – 12 February

• Seal exchange

Other upcoming updates regarding the game and its related media include:

• New Hanamaru project
  • Presumably a third season of the anime adaptation
• Touken Ranbu: The Movie sequel
  • A live-action adaptation
• Katsugeki Touken Ranbu movie in production by Aniplex
  • Katsugeki is another anime adaptation, by Ufotable
• Naginata Kiwame next
  • Kiwame is a process of “upgrading”, with new skills/stats
• Tachi Kiwame in the works
• New bento voice lines

Last but not least, a new sword was also teased. His identity will be revealed in March 2020.

Congratulations on the fifth anniversary celebration, Touken Ranbu!