#ask a doji

[dojizerker]

hey! sorry to bother you, but I've been doing some hunting around, trying to figure out Yamanbagiri Kunihiro's origins, and I came across a few articles that all reference the same English translation of japanese sword legends. in it, it implies that Kunihiro's duplicate (soon to be name Yamanbagiri) was the one who actually slew the witch - is it true? where did the original get its name? do you have any idea? you seem to be one of the most knowledgeable abt tkrb sword histories around here

Hello, anon, and it’s no bother at all!

To put it simply: there are two different witch slaying legends, one for each Yamanbagiri. I’ll list the important info about it (otherwise it’d get too long with historical master changing…).

Under the cut to save your dash.

?? - Forged by Nagayoshi Chougi of Bizen Osafune, given to Hojo Ujimasa. There’s request issued to slay a mountain witch on Mt. Togakushi in Shinano country, which was where the sword earned its name.

Tensho 14 (1587) - The Chougi sword was owned by the Hojo clan, before it’s given to Nagao Akinaga.

Tensho 18 (February 1590) - Nagao Akinaga commissioned Horikawa Kunihiro to make Yamanbagiri Kunihiro.

Tensho 18 (May 1590) - Horikawa Kunihiro received the request to give Chougi’s Yamanbagiri an inscription.

After the Siege of Odawara (May - August 1590), Nagao Akinaga lost everything to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, including his life. Yamanbagiri Kunihiro ended up with the surviving vassal, Ishihara Jinzaemon, after that.

At this point, the sword picked up a witch slaying legend. In order to make a living, Ishihara and his pregnant wife were making their way to Shinshu. However, along the way, his wife went into labour.

He left his wife with an old woman living in the mountains and went back to get medicine. By the time he return, he found the old woman eating his newborn child. Realising what happened, Ishihara supposedly used Yamanbagiri Kunihiro to kill her. It’s said that when she died, her white hair disappeared like smoke.

Sources:Yamanbagiri - Meitou (JP) + Tsuruginoya (JP)

Yamanbagiri Kunihiro - Meitou (JP)  + Tsuruginoya (JP)

TKRB History Book - Yamanbagiri Kunihiro (Scans + translation summary)

[dojizerker]

Random anon with a random question: what is the relationship between Taikogane and Shokudaikiri?

Like family, basically.

Shokudaikiri’s master was Masamune Date. Taikogane’s master was Tadamune Date, Masamune’s second son and successor. The two of them were together in the main Date family for quite some time before they’re separated.

So that plus their personalities lead to them being quite close to each other. Enough to use nicknames!

[dojizerker]

I have two questions. 1) I'm stuck on world 4 of Tourabu. I really want to get to world 5, and then to world 6 to get the kiwame set. Any tips? 2) Let's say I have a wakizashi who is at lvl 95 when I send him off for kiwame. When he returns, does that mean his level is still reset to 1, or will his level be different since I raised him over the minimum level requirement for kiwame? Any recommendations when it comes to kiwame? Thanks Doji, sorry for the long ask!

No worries, I like answering questions if I can!

1. Memory of SengokuWorld 4 is roughly the place where tantous are slowly getting outmatched. By 4-3, there would be more gold enemies and you’ll probably find yourself switching over to uchigatana/tachi teams for power and durability. If you can, you can include wakizashi, since they can have 2 troop slots + can use range troops (archery) and a chance to do combo attacks with your uchi.

It’s possible to keep a tantou on the team, but expect them to get damaged more unless they’re high level because of their lower stats and world 4 being daytime battles only.

At this point, you should switch over to gold troops for higher stats and durability in general.

By the time you get to world 5, your team is probably largely tachi with some uchi and maybe 1 waki if you can fit them in. If you have Hotarumaru an ootachi with horse & cavalry troops, they would do well here. The enemies here are all gold and packing troops, so you’ll need your hard hitters who can also take out the enemy’s troops.

If you have Tonbokiri, he works well here due to his brute strength & being a yari which means piercing through troops to hit the enemy sword. Otegine can do it, but his impact isn’t as good as Tonbokiri, while Nihongou is world 6 drop.

World 6 aka Ikedaya is all night time battles, so your tantous can finally go out and wreck havoc due to their night time buffs. 6-1′s first few nodes are a good training ground to get them up to speed. Your team here is probably mostly tantou, with some waki and an uchi (with smaller and no night time buffs).

Tachi/ootachi/naginata/yari are basically useless/doesn’t perform as well here.

2. Kiwame

The waki kiwame’s level will be different! Any EXP they get over LV65 (waki min Kiwame LV req) will be passed onto their Kiwame form. So it’s basically nice boost if you get your swords at a high level before you unlock Kiwame.

As for recs, send your favourites. /shot

If you want to focus on gameplay, you’d want to check each Kiwame upgrade’s new skill per sword and everyone’s stat spread. I’ll give suggestions based on who you can get for free, as event/special map drop swords usually have higher stat(s) in some areas or do better in some aspect. But it doesn’t mean they’re top tier.

Tantou Kiwame is the most solid upgrade (+1 troop slot for extra stats and defense, chance of daytime dodge during long range phase, usual stat increase), letting them perform during the day with their bigger sword comrades and can even take out enemy’s troops they previously can’t. Among the non-event/non-map drop only tantou you can get for free (smithing, normal drops), Sayo, Atsushi and Hirano have good overall stat spread. Sayo hits the hardest at max refinery.

Waki Kiwame comes with a chance to parry/block attacks directed at them during the battle phase. This makes increase their longevity, so having one waki Kiwame on your best team is a good idea + they still can combo with uchi. I only really have Monoyoshi as my only Kiwame, so I can’t say too much about them. Among the free waki, Nikkari have overall good stats, but Honebami can hit harder than him on average especially if he crits.

Uchi Kiwame can now cover and take long range attacks for their adjacent allies during the long range phase, so they’re nice if it procs for protecting your sword’s troops. This make them a good partner for protecting wakis (who can parry during the battle phase) and tantou (in case they didn’t dodge during long phase). Among the free uchis, Izuminokami (best!), Ookurikara and Doudanuki are solid since they used to be tachi and keep their tachi-like stat spread. Hasebe is also another nice choice as the current fastest uchigatana.

We’re still waiting for the rest of the starters to get their Kiwame, but we can assume they have similiar stat spread as their regular version, just with higher caps.

[dojizerker]

Any tips for new players of Touken Ranbu? Should we always try to smith for rare swords, etc etc

Try to do your daily missions! The rewards they give you can add to your resources, including tokens! They’re pretty easy, save for Win 5 PVP battles for new players.

The easiest ones would be:

Get C-rank victory in Frontlines

Defeat the boss of the area

Defeat 10 enemy nodes

Do 3 PVP battles (you don’t have to win, just PARTICIPATE)

Do 3 expeditions in a day (use the ones with short timer)

Repair your sword 5 times (you’ll definitely doing this if you’re sending them out into battles)

Create troops x1/x3 

Forge x1/x3 swords 

Early on, you want to get as many new swords as possible, in case your current guys are in repairs and/or too fatigued to fight and need a break.

Your resource are capped and increase with each Saniwa level you gain, so how much you can smith swords and do repairs are tied to your resources.

You should try to smith for swords daily. Early on, you can get most of the tantous and wakizashis from drops. The other sword types generally appear in later areas, so getting them early via smithing is a choice, but they generally need more resources to smith with.

So if you want to try your luck getting a tachi early, be aware that it’ll cut deep into your resources early on. don’t use all999 unless you don’t give a fuck

Make sure you keep an eye on their HP, you don’t want your swords to break by accident, especially if they’re one of the rarer swords. Unless they’re a spare copy and you want to see, then well, go ahead.

If there’s an event, give it a try. Even if you can’t do the expert map/higher floors, the easier ones do give EXP and loot, so give them a try. Just check the English wikia for the event page for info and whether or not they disabled sword breaking. Of course, you can skip an event if you don’t want to, they get reruns later.

That’s what I can think at the top of my head.

[dojizerker]

Are there any historical connections between the Genji brothers, Iwatooshi, Imanotsurugi, and Shishiou?

They are all owned by the Genji aka Minamoto clan, except for Iwatooshi, who was owned by Benkei, retainer of Yoshitsune.

Higekiri and Hizamaru are treasures of the Genji clan, so they’re mainly owned by Genjis.

Imanotsurugi’s master was Yoshitsune, Iwatooshi’s master Benkei was Yoshitsune’s retainer. So they have that connection.

Shishiou’s master was Yorimasa, famously known for slaying a nue.

[dojizerker]

What is "Bungou to Alchemist"? Do you know?

It’s an online browser game hosted on DMM (Touken Ranbu, Kancolle, Icchibanketsu, the late Shinken!!). It’s about saving important literature from being erased from human history and memory with the aid of materialised author spirits.

I’m not that deep into the game, so I can’t say much about it personally. You can browse the English fandom wikia if you like.

[dojizerker]

Hi, I'm here for touken ranbu(among other things) not passive-aggressive racism. If you really are one of those who thinks you are not being a dick if its to white people, at least tag it somehow because I don't wish to see racism of any kind on my dash.

Hi, anon, and sorry for the wait.

I’d be more than happy to tag posts, in case it slipped my mind or I didn’t think I need to (mainly posts I don’t need to find again). I can tag racist posts but you would still see that post because it isn't racist. The one you’re referring to is just a satire post about the darker points of white history & privilege in a funny way (like black humour). Because it’s the truth, not being a dick to white people.

I can give it a tag (and for similiar posts), but not “racism”, personally.

Otherwise, thanks for coming to me, anon.

[dojizerker]

Hi Doji! Always admired your blog. Anyways, I'm trying to get into Touken Ranbu, but I don't know where to start. Any suggestions?

Hello, anon! And thank you!

As for starting Touken Ranbu, there’s a few ways you can begin, depending on what you’re more likely to engage with the most at first.

READING

Touken Ranbu English wikia have a guide for getting into and explaining how to play the game.

They also transcribed and translated various flavour text for each time periods (aka “worlds”), unique enemy Kebiishi’s appearance text and each sword boy’s dialogue. They also have the transcription and translation for unique Recollection scenes (basically skits).

I recommend taking your time reading each page, especially the sword boys’, as their game lines are the basics fandom know and runs with for fanworks. You can probably read a couple of pages really quickly, since it’s mostly dialogue + trivia, if you ignore gameplay stats.

(well you might read a lot once you start looking up actual sword history for your favourite sword anyway)

ANIME

If you prefer watching anime, there’s two series.

Touken Ranbu Hanamaru is a generally lighthearted, slice of life series with some action scenes. It features Yamatonokami Yasusada, one of Souji Okita’s swords, as the protagonist, while he lives in the Citadel with his comrades. A number of antics here is really “swords try to do human things with sword logic”.

It gives a very easy to understand exposition to how things work (why they fight, why travel back in time, etc). A number of swords make an appearance, but not too indepth, which works for a lighthearted show.

I recommend watching this, as you can get by without knowing much of everyone’s history and the show do explain what you need to know.

You can currently watch the first season for free (and legally!) on Crunchyroll here. The second season is set to come in January ‘18.

Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu is a more plot-focused series featuring the newly formed 2nd Unit, lead by Izuminokami Kanesada (sword of Toshizo Hijikata) as their captain. As they complete their mission given by the Saniwa, they’re faced with the realities of what protecting history really means versus their own personal feelings. As the protagonist, Izuminokami get a fair amount of focus on his personal story.

For a newcomer, the show’s not that bad at following and the action scenes are great (courtesy of ufotable’s animation skills). Similiar to Hanamaru, it also explains the basic premise about why they’re fighting and the time travel. Because the core cast and supporting cast members that shows up are smaller in number, you’d probably get to know the swords a little better.

You can watch the show here for free on Crunchyroll here! 

Those are the free ways you can get into Touken Ranbu. I personally recommend Hanamaru first and maybe read a sword boy’s wikia page one by one over time, but it’s up to you. Whichever way you choose, I hope you can enjoy Touken Ranbu!

STAGE ADAPTATIONS?

Gonna list this here for completion’s sake. There’s musicals and stage play adaptations, each one focusing on a group of swords and one period of time (usually one or more old masters for the sword(s)).

Because the only way to legally watch them is to purchase them (either the DVD/BD or digital rentals), I would recommend saving them for later.

They’re worth watching if you have a favourite sword boy and they appear in them. Because they’re generally about 2~ hours long, the story and pacing fits for being on stage compared to a TV series.