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Touken Ranbu: The Musical Stage Play Streams on YouTube with English Subtitles
posted on by Adriana Hazra
The Japan Foundation's official YouTube channel began streaming the first part of the Touken Ranbu: The Musical stage play based on the Touken Ranbu -Online- game with English subtitles on February 20. The first part of the 2.5D musical stage play is titled The Tale of Soga.
Isamu Kayano directed the stage play produced by the Musical “Touken Ranbu” Production Committee. The play stars:
- Hiroki Miura
- Akira Takano
- Takayuki Marukawa (Hanagumi Shibai)
- Eisaku Sasahara
- Hironobu Nishioka
- Masaki Murakami
- Kenta Kawano
- Yu Hattori
- Hayate Miyao
The Japan Foundation describes the play:
「Touken Ranbu：The Musical “HIGEKIRI HIZAMARU DUO PERFORMANCE 2020 ～SOGA～”」 is a performance by Higekiri and Hizamaru. In Part 1, the musical,「The Tale of Soga」, which is known as one of Japan's 3 Largest Vendettas, was performed. In Part 2, the live concert portion, the 2 sing a total of 12 songs as well as new songs written for solely this performance, and songs performed on previous Touken Ranbu: The Musical performances.
The Touken Ranbu "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 January 2015.
The franchise has inspired the Katsugeki: Touken Ranbu television anime series and an upcoming anime film, as well as the Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru spinoff's two anime series, an upcoming anime film trilogy, and a compilation anime film. The franchise has also inspired two live-action films, a series of stage musicals and a series of stage plays, as well as various manga.
Johren released the original Touken Ranbu browser game in English in April 2021, and released the smartphone version of the game in August 2021.
Koei Tecmo Games' Touken Ranbu Warriors game launched in Japan for PC and Switch on February 17, and will launch for Switch in North America on May 24.
Source: The Japan Foundation's YouTube channel
