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Touken Ranbu Franchise Gets 1st Live-Action Film in 2019

The first live-action film adaptation of Nitroplus and DMM Games' Touken Ranbu franchise has been green-lit. Saiji Yakumo (live-action Mars) is directing the film, with a script by Yasuko Kobayashi (Attack on Titan, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Kakegurui). The film will open in Japan in 2019. TOHO is distributing the film.

The cast includes:

• Hiroki Suzuki as Mikazuki Munechika (also played the same role in the stage plays)
• Yoshihiro Aramaki as Yamanbagiri Kunihiro (also played the same role in the stage plays)
• Ryō Kitamura as Yagen Toushirou (also played the same role in the stage plays)
• Masanari Wada as Heshikiri Hasebe (also played the same role in the stage plays)
• Hiroaki Iwanaga (Berserk anime's Guts) as Nihongou
• Fūma Sadamoto as Honebami Toushirou
• Taizō Shiina as Fudou Yukimitsu (also played the same role in the stage plays)
• Tomoki Hirose as Uguisu Maru

The Tōken Ranbu Online "sword personification training game" takes famous swords from Japanese history and interprets them as bishōnen. Nitroplus designed the characters and scenario. The game launched in Japan in 2015. The game has acquired a large female fanbase and inspired a wide range of merchandise, as well as several manga. It has a series of stage musicals — the fifth of which will debuts on March 24 — as well as a separate series of stage plays, the fifth of which will debut in June.

The franchise inspired the Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru anime. The anime's first season premiered in October 2016, and the second season premiered on January 7. Crunchyroll streamed the first season as it aired in Japan, and is similarly streaming the second season. Funimation streamed an English broadcast dub for the first season, and is similarly streaming a dub for the second season.

The studio ufotable produced Katsugeki! Tōken Ranbu (Action Picture! Touken Ranbu), a separate television anime that ran last summer. It will have a theatrical film project.

Source: Comic Natalie