Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu Episode 1 In Depth Review

Note:- SPOILERS AHEAD & Its a Long In Depth Review , if you don't like reading but wanna see that this anime is worth watching or not then just read the conclusion part at the bottom of the article.

Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu Aired On July 2nd Same as Fate/Apocrypha . Produced by the Ufotable Production Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu is one of the Most Trending Anime of this Summer . So , today i am going to Review the first Episode of Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu . Before going to the review , check out my in depth review of Fate/Apocrypha Episode 1 Fate/Aprocrypha Episode 1 In Depth Review . Secondly , you must read the Synopsis of the story to get an overview of what sort of anime Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu is :The year is 1863 as the tumultuous samurai era is coming to an end, Japan is split between the pro-shogunate and anti-shogunate factions. The fate of the world is threatened as an army of historical revisionists are sent from the future to alter the course of history. In order to bring these forces down and protect the real history, two sword warriors, spirits who are swords brought to life by Saniwa (sage), rush to Edo. The polite and thoughtful Horikawa Kunihiro and the short tempered yet skillful Izuminokami Kanesada, who served the same master, confront the invading army along with a lively gang of other warriors including Mutsunokami Yoshiyuki, Yagen Toushirou, Tombokiri, and Tsurumaru Kuninaga.
As the fate of history lies in these hero's hands, what meets the blade is yet to be uncovered...

The Review

The Two Sword Spirits

The First Episode: To the Frontlines starts with a chase sequence between the two sword Spirits namely Izuminokami Kanesada , Horikawa Kunihiro and the soldiers (more like monsters ) of retrograde armies . As by reading the above synopsis you may know that our heroes were chasing the time retrograde army so they can stop them so that the history doesn't change. As two of them closed towards the wagon led by time retrograde army Kanesada defeated every for but a samurai from the army managed to kill the horse of the wagon in which Kanesada and Kunihiro were chasing them . Kunihiro almost lost hope (as it was his first battle) but kanesada saw a horse(there were actually two horses one was dead from the aerial attack ) from the wagon and took him , he chased the enemy and killed him . Kunihiro followed him on foot . Kanesada was happy that they managed to defeat the enemy while Kunihiro moped about not doing anything . Kanesada encourages Kunihiro and shows him the cargo that the time retrograde army were carrying , it had boxes of sand and few coins which was refered by Kanesada as, the Cue to the myth of the Missing Buried treasure, the cargo was related to the 14 Shogun Iemochi Tokugawa who died at the Tender age of 21. After that we got to see the Familar Konnosuke (which was more like an advance AI) who reports both of them about their new mission assigned by there master who manifested the sword spirits to protect the history from the Time Retrograde Army Saniwa. The Message send by Saniwa was : between march 7 and march 10,1863 the time retrograde army will appear . Location Cape Kokuchou. 

 

Location : Cape Kokuchou

On their way to Cape Kokuchou Kunihiro was worried about the last night , Kanesada tells him not to worry about it . While they maked conversation a Dutch Trading Ship named Trekvoorgross arrived at the shore of the cape , Kanesada opened a Diary in which all the historical events were written and the same thing happened as it was written on March 4 the Dutch Ship Arrived , though Kanesada asks Konnosuke the date , and he confirms it . Later Konnosuke records the data to send it to there headquarters, the Citadel . Kunihiro didn't knew that he can do such things  , he was amazed by it. Both of our heroes and their Familiar arrive at the town , it was good to see the conversation between them as when they arrived at the town Kanesada expresses that it was good to see a lively town as a human , this shows how there life were changing . They make their way to the Shelter were Saniwa told them to be and asked Konnosuke to list out the Potential name lists . Konnosuke was able to find and sort a list of Potential names and ranked them according to their historic importance. There were three members in that list. During the night they started their patrol and maked there way towards the three potential names that were likely to be attacked , although they were not sure about what the time retrograde army was going to do , during their patrol they found few of the TRA(time retrograde army) members on the roof of a house they chased them . Kanesada followed them while ordering Kunihiro to keep patroling the roof , after he left a member of the army attacked Kunihiro he was able to fend off while Kanesada managed to kill the others , Kunihiro also managed to kill the enemy (he thought so , but actually the enemy was alive and going to attack Kunihiro but he was saved by Kanesada).Both of them returned to there hideout . Kunihiro was disappointed in himself he thought that he is just getting in the way of kanesada was once again Kanesada tells him that he has done good and he must not think so negative about himself . Later he gave him his earpieces and they went to sleep . 

The Fire 

Kunihiro wakes up and saw that there was a fire in the town , he asks Kanesada to go with him and help the town people but kanesada refuses , he tells him that its written and history and to save few lives he's not going to change the course of history . Being angry at Kanesada, Kunihiro opens the gate as he was going to help the villagers Konnosuke sounded an alarm , the time retrograde army was going to arrive , both of our heroes make make a haste towards the village they managed to kill the first round of the enemies , but soon more were going to arrive . At that moment the portal opened and with that portal arrived Saniwa , their master. He summoned the other spirits and they fought the Enemy and marked victory, and with that we came to an end to the first episode.

                                

The Conclusion

Overall the Anime had a great start , saving the history itself with the help of sword spirits and their sage master from the group of rivisionists , the Time Retrograde Army . the actions were also satisfying , it was not like some overpowered anime . The animations were amazing the shadow quality , the character design , every instant when the retrograde army appeared with the red lighting , . the effects during that time ..everything was simply amazing , i recently reviewed Fate/Apocrypha and in terms of Animation i can say that Katsugeki/ Touken Ranbu has better animation . But only animation , not like there is much difference . Overall the Samurai themed anime with a story of saving the history . i liked it and you must also try . 

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