Ufotable Confirms Katsugeki: Touken Ranbu Anime Film Project is Still Active, Reveals Teaser Visual

Aniplex and ufotable confirmed in a video on Wednesday that their planned theatrical anime film project for the Katsugeki: Touken Ranbu television anime is still in production. Aniplex is streaming a video that reveals a new teaser visual for the project.

ufotable had announced the film project in September 2017, coinciding with the finale of the television anime. The anime premiered in July 2017 and aired for 13 episodes. Aniplex of America streamed the anime series on Amazon's now-defunct Anime Strike streaming service and on Crunchyroll.

Aniplex of America describes the anime's story:

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...

Toshiyuki Shirai (Fate/Zero, Tales of Zestiria the X animation director) directed the television series at ufotable. Mitsuru Obunai, Masaru Kimura, and Masayuki Kunihiro were the sword fight animators. Tatsuya Yamamura was in charge of historical research, and Kōgyoku Watanabe was the sword fight supervisor. The show had eight character designers, each handling the animation design for a different character.

The overall franchise based on the "sword personification training game" also includes a series of stage musicals, a series of stage plays, and two live-action films. Johren released the original Touken Ranbu browser game in English on April 27, and released the smartphone version of the game as well on August 31.

The Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru spinoff franchise has two television anime series, a compilation anime film, and an upcoming anime film trilogy.

Sources: Aniplex's YouTube channel, Katsugeki: Touken Ranbu anime's website via Otakomu