Touken Ranbu

Posted 2 months, 17 days ago (Edited 2 months, 15 days ago) by Avistella

i'll fix up op later. i needed a place to yell about sword boys bc i feel like i was getting really annoying in general ;;

Avistella

i can't clear floor 95 of this event...........

the yaris are too much....................

i only unlocked kiwames a few days ago (i sent hakata first bc i wanted the double koban LOL), so it's not like I have any kiwame to help counter them. i suppose i can equip long range armory and pray to rng for them to kill the yari, but those are so expensive aaaaahhhhhhh

Avistella

Mmmmmmm, idk which swords to kiwame. I don't particularly care for "meta"; it's more of a matter of idk which sword i like more LOL

I only have one kiwame set left to use, and idk if I want to spend it on Gokotai, Hotarumaru, or Mikazuki ;;

I'm not a fan of mikazuki's kiwame art, so i might not go with him just yet, but... hmmmmmmmmmm

Avistella

Hakata was my first kiwame, and he just returned today. I sent yamanbagiri today (bc i love his development when he returns, hehe) and used a recall pigeon immediately.

I then sent Shinano to hopefully take advantage of double exp when he comes back before the event ends

Maybe i should flip a coin for gokotai or hotarumaru to send next?

Avistella

I watched the Itsukushima Jinja performance!!! Listening to the Bakumatsu Tenroden songs again, they aren't as bad as my initial thoughts on them. Utsukushii Higeki is kind of catchy. The other songs are good, but they still aren't good enough to the point that I would want to listen to them on repeat.

Asides from that though, the performance was really nice. I absolutely loved their outfits. They all look so lovely in white 🥹

Avistella

Oh yeah, I finished watching all of Setsugetsuka last night! I liked the more dramatic(?) plot that Hana no Maki did, but I think I really do prefer the other two (Yuki no Maki and Tsuki no Maki) because I generally prefer lighthearted SoL with all of the silly shenanigans that the sword boys get into with one another. It just has such found family vibes that I thoroughly enjoy.

I really do love the Hanamaru anime (more than Katsugeki tbh) bc it's just so silly and fun to watch. That being said, I'm super excited for the upcoming anime, Kai, because I did enjoy the live action movie adaptation of Kyoden.

I actually haven't watched Kyoden (or any of the stage plays, for that matter) just yet as I want to finish watching the musicals first (I'm unable to get some of them though ;;), but if it follows the same general beats/ plot of the movie, I can see myself liking the original stage play.

Avistella

finished (sort of) watching shinken ranbu sai 2016!!!!

omg it was so fun ❤️❤️❤️❤️

i'll post proper thoughts about it later once i let it sink in more

Avistella

I almost forgot to share my thoughts for Shinken Ranbu Sai 2016 aaaaahhhh

it was such a fun performance!!!! i absolutely loved tf out of it. it was so much fun watching it. i really loved the stage and lights, and of course, the performances were great!! the little haiku contest between iwatooshi and kane-san was cute, and yasusada in general was absolutely adorable!!!!!! the part with mikazuki bringing in a horse was so weird bc it was like, "what was the point" except for making one quick joke (but i will admit horikawa on the horse made me giggle)

there wasn't anything in particular that i would say i disliked about it?? it was genuinely really fun throughout. the story(?) and theme of "are we human or a tool?" was nice too. it wasn't overwhelming dramatic or heavy like the honpens themselves, and it was definitely much more light-hearted which was a nice change of pace from the usual musicals.

i'm super excited to watch ranbu sai 2017 since apparently that one was really good, but i wanna watch the kashuu tanki and tsuwamono first. i watched mihotose tonight, but i'll share my thoughts for that performance later

Avistella

Here are my thoughts for mihotose (contains spoilers):

6/10, i guess
of the characters that appear, nikkari was my most favourite, so i was lowkey disappointed they didn't do much with his character
actually, a lot of the characters didn't feel like they were used to their fullest potential, placing more focus on ishikimaru, monoyashi, and i guess ookurikara
- i will say that i liked what they did with ookurikara's characterization. his "this is why i didn't want to make friends" when gohei died really got me. also the scene with him at gohei's grave with the flower and promising that he won't leave it just yet until the war was over was so nice ;;
- i also love how flamboyant sengo's actor was. he was so much fun; i'm actually not a fan of sengo in particular, but his actor (oota motohiro) was just absolutely great
nikkari, sengo, and tonbokiri felt very much like background characters which isn't a bad thing per se, but it really felt like you had at least half the cast just standing there for the purpose of being there while the other half talked/ interacted with each other. but maybe that's just me 🤷
it didn't feel as much of a "team" compared to atsukashiyama's and bakumatsu's dynamic and felt like all of the characters were just acting on their own/ their separate interests which isn't my cup of tea.
despite my criticisms though, i did enjoy the tone and themes they decided to go with this musical. it's always fun seeing the different takes of the swords' thoughts on war and the dilemma of fighting in a war to end said war
for the criticisms i listed above, i would have honestly rated this musical a 5.5, but i bumped it to a 6 because i genuinely liked some of the songs more than bakumatsu's (maaaaybe even more than atsukashiyama's??). kazaguruma ichi was such a beautiful song, i can definitely see myself listening to it on repeat. ruriiro no sora ichi was nice too, and although i'm not a fan of its repeated use in the musical, i can see why they went that route in terms of direction/ storytelling aspects. nameless fighter though. oof, the moment i heard it, i went "shit" bc it sounded exactly like the kind of song that i would listen to LOL
for the live part, i will admit i inwardly screamed when ishikimaru smiled and winked at the crowd asdfhjkl; also ookurikara teasing on making a heart with his hands only to cross his fingers into an 'x' got me giggling

overall, it wasn't a bad musical, but i did find it a bit underwhelming and that some of the characters could have had more lines to develop/ flesh them out a bit. the songs were great though, and i still enjoyed watching it!!

Avistella

hmmm. maybe i shouldn't be bringing my lvl 35 matsui to a floor 55 utc

Avistella

since kashuu tanki is only an hour long, i considered watching tsuwamono the same night, but........ hm. maybe binging 3 whole hours of just toumyu might be a bit too much for me lol

Avistella

I watched Kashuu Tanki Shitsujin 2017 last night!!! Not much to say about it asides from it being a good performance in general!

Sato Ryuji is definitely an actor I like, and I do enjoy his portrayal of Kashuu. It's kind of funny because I knew him before the tkrb musicals bc of my friend who was into Prince of Tennis (and in turn, the Tenimyus as well LOL).

idk, i mean, i like kashuu, but i wouldn't call him one of my favourite swords, so i wasn't too invested in his solo performance. it was a good performance, no doubt, but yeah, that's about it ;;

Avistella

Tsuwamono, on the other hand.........

I watched the honpen for Tsuwamono tonight, but I'll leave my thoughts on it for tomorrow, after I watch the live for it. But I do want to say: I definitely like the direction they've decided to take with it

Avistella

I almost forgot to share my thoughts on tsuwamono now that i've watched the live last night! (contains spoilers)

7/10. i would have probably rated it an 8/10 if it didn't feel more like a "set up" rather than a fully finished separate story
i absolutely loved the shift in direction they decided to take with this musical, focusing more on the sword boys' dilemmas that aren't just "i want to see my [previous] master again and/ or change his fate." i like seeing the sword boys interact with one another, and them having conflict with one another is interesting to me. i will say though that i really liked seeing imanotsurugi's development compared to atsukashiyama ibun
seeing atsukashiyama ibun's cast (sans isshikirimaru and kashuu) again was so nice!!
iwatooshi's and imanotsurugi's existential crisis was so well done. iwatooshi's actor in particular was absolutely amazing in his performance! idk what it was, but i thoroughly enjoyed seeing his hesitation and also concern for imanosturugi, and i found myself super invested in his story in the musical
i actually watched soga before any of the other musicals between atsukashiyama ibun and tsuwamono, so i wasn't surprised to see higekiri and hizamaru, but knowing that this was actually their first performance definitely made things a bit more exciting to me
hizamaru's actor is so acrobatic wth i was so impressed
HIGEKIRI REMEMBERING HIZAMARU'S NAME!!!!!!!!!!!
every time mikazuki acted independently, i kept going "MIKAZUKI, WHAT ARE YOU DOING"
he's presumably in a time loop. that's so awesome. it's a bit unfortunate though that it was only really brought up and not fully resolved. i can only assume that it'll be continued in the following musicals(?)
i know they were meant to be dramatic moments, but kogitsunemaru appearing every now and then only to go back off stage made me giggle, ngl. it just looked kinda silly to me, even though i know it was meant to show his concern towards mikazuki and his actions
the scene with kogitsunemaru, higekiri, and mikazuki with higekiri acting on mikazuki's behalf to answer kogitsunemaru's questions bc he understands mikazuki: I WANTED TO KNOW WHAT HIGEKIRI WAS GOING TO SAY ABOUT MIKAZUKI'S THOUGHTS ABOUT THE SANIWA!!!!!! WHY DID MIKAZUKI HAVE TO INTERRUPT HIM AT THAT TIME AAAAAAGHHHHH
speaking of mikazuki: in the scene with yoshitsune's naval(?) battle, (sorry, i wasn't really paying attention asdfhjl), i honestly didn't notice him walking off stage!! i only realized that he was gone once all of the touken danshi were grouped together but couldn't find mikazuki amongst them, and i wasl ike, "??? huh??? where'd he go?". after watching the live, i decided to rewatch that scene to see if they (i.e. the camera) show mikazuki walking off stage, and they do!!! i was like, "THERE!!!!!! THAT'S WHEN HE LEFT!!!!!!"
i almost forgot to mention this, but the production keeps getting better and better!!!!!
I'M SUPER EXCITED TO SEE/ KNOW IF THEY'LL CONTINUE THIS PLOTLINE WITH MIKAZUKI AAAAAHHHHHHH
as for the live: i'm a bit disappointed in myself that i listened to the songs before watching the musical asdfhjkl;
I fucking love mirage and be in sight, so i kinda wished i listened to them for the first time during from the musical for that element of surprise(?). still good though.

Avistella

i still have like........... 7 musicals to watch before paraiso, but god do i want to watch paraiso right now. i'm brainrotting so hard over matsui right now, i need to see him in 2.5d

Avistella

the day i watch paraiso, i'm going to be so annoying as all i'll talk about would be matsui