Touken Ranbu Statue Unveiled at Real Japanese Castle

gamerant.com:

Japanese history and anime overlap in the popular anime and mobile game series Touken Ranbu, which has continued to gain popularity in Japan over the past several years. Interest in the series, and to some extent, the history connected to it, is at an all-time high. That makes now the perfect time for less-visited areas of Japan to use anime to try to draw in tourists, which is exactly what Fukuyama City in Hiroshima Prefecture is doing.

The city's official X/Twitter account, along with the account for Touken Ranbu itself, both shared a new statue that was unveiled in the city last month. The statue is a «nearly life-size» version of the character Kousetsu Samonji, and it is in front of the beautiful and historic Fukuyama Castle. The character has a real historical connection to the city, so there is a specific reason why Samonji was the one chosen by Fukuyama City.

If you are unfamiliar with theTouken Ranbu franchise, it is a unique Japanese historical franchise where actual named swords from history are personified as (very beautiful) men. It began as a free-to-play card collecting game for mobile phones back in 2015 in Japan, and due to its popularity, an international version was released in 2021. It has also inspired 3 anime series, a live-action film, and several stage plays.

In the original game, you take the role of a «sage» who can travel back in time with the power to reanimate historical swords into these beautiful men. All the characters in the franchise are based on real swords, many of which still exist in Japan today in museums. Touken Ranbu has sparked renewed interest in the swords, and according to Nijimin, fans even campaigned to get one sword restored and placed in a shrine when it had been all but forgotten.

You can probably guess the reason why the new bronze statue of Kousetsu Samonji was built in Fukuyama City of all places. That's right; the real sword that the character is based on is housed there. The sword has a fascinating history,