Aniplex of America announced at their industry panel at Sakura-Con (Seattle, Washington) that the smash hit anime series Katsugeki TOUKEN RANBU will be released for the first time as a complete Blu-ray box set just in time for the summer. Based on the immensely popular game “TOUKEN RANBU ONLINE” developed by DMM Games/Nitroplus, the TV series was produced by renowned studio ufotable with Director Tokshiyuki Shirai, both known for their groundbreaking work on Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works], Fate/Zero, and God Eater.
The complete Blu-ray set includes the highly anticipated English dub featuring an all-star English voice cast including Robbie Daymond (March comes in like a lion, Occultic;Nine), Ben Diskin (ERASED, Blue Exorcist –Kyoto Saga-), Zach Aguilar (Fate/Apocrypha, ALDNOAH.ZERO), Xander Mobus (March comes in like a lion, Fate/Grand Order –First Order-), with the talented David Vincent (Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works]) serving as ADR Director. The box set also contains a bonus soundtrack CD featuring the music by veteran composer, Hideyuki Fukasawa, whose past projects include the Street Fighter and Dragon Ball Z video games. The Blu-ray box set also comes with a slew of bonus content and materials including a deluxe booklet, illustration postcards featuring artwork from the show, textless OP and ED, as well as the comical episode previews styled after the original game. Preorders are now open for the Katsugeki TOUKEN RANBU TV Complete Blu-ray Box Set, with the set scheduled to be available on July 10th.
Sample cover art of the deluxe box set.
Katsugeki TOUKEN RANBU takes viewers back to a turbulent time in Japanese history where swords come to life in this action packed and visually stunning series. “The history buff in me enjoys seeing the swords of Sakamoto Ryōma and a prominent Shinsengumi member constantly rubbing each other the wrong way – reformation versus preservation, nicely reflecting their approach to (not) altering the course of history and their former masters’ political positions,” says Anne Lauenroth in a 2017 Anime News Network review of the series. “But even for non-history geeks and people unfamiliar with the property, Katsugeki started out as very accessible, competently executed, and beautiful to look at.”
Aesthetics play a big role within the series as it boasts three highly experienced sword fight animators (Mitsuru Obunai, Masaru Kimura, and Masayuki Kunihiro) in addition to eight different female character designers (Toko Uchimura for Izuminokami Kanesada, Moe Tsuzuki for Mutsunokami Yoshiyuki, Miyuki Ishizuka for Horikawa Kunihiro, Rio Niisato for Yagen Toushirou, Yuka Shiozima for Tonbokiri, Miki Yamazaki for Tsurumaru Kuninaga, Kayo Kizawa for Saniwa, and Yukako Serai for Konnosuke) for each of the main characters on the show. Considering the franchise’s large female fan base, the female staff at ufotable played a pivotal role in producing the series. In an interview for the June 2017 issue of Newtype Magazine, ufotable producer Hikaru Kondo revealed part of the charm of the series is the fact that “veteran sword fight animators in their forties laid the groundwork and the younger female staff in their twenties (the character designers) refined and beautified the final work.”
CAST
Izuminokami Kanesada: Ryohei Kimura / Robbie Daymond
Mutsunokami Yoshiyuki: Kento Hama / Ben Diskin
Horikawa Kunihiro: Junya Enoki / Zach Aguilar
Yagen Toushirou: Seiichiro Yamashita / Billy Kametz
Tonbokiri: Toru Sakurai / Xander Mobus
Tsurumaru Kuninaga: Soma Saito / Mark Whitten
Konnosuke: Takuma Nagatsuka / Khoi Dao
Saniwa: Junko Minagawa / Cristina Vee
Yamanbagiri Kunihiro: Tomoaki Maeno / Alan Lee
Honebami Toushirou: Yuto Suzuki / Griffin Burns
Mikazuki Munechika: Kosuke Toriumi / Todd Haberkorn
Higekiri: Natsuki Hanae / Kyle McCarley
Hizamaru: Nobuhiko Okamoto / Joe Zieja
Oodenta Mitsuyo: Daisuke Namikawa / Kaiji Tang
