Talk:Katsugeki Touken Ranbu/@comment-108.253.191.151-20170524143242

Personally, I would've thought the best saniwa solution is to make it an elderly woman or man. Boom - nukes any annoying harem potential. Plus a granny/grandpa kind of saniwa would be hilarious. Plus, and most importantly, it fills the active role needed to make the plot make sense while ALSO keeping the spotlight firmly on the actual canon characters that we came to see, and not on the saniwa.

The mystery-gender saniwa is an interesting approach, but I feel like it runs into the same potential Mary Sue/Gary Stu harem issues. It's offputting for the same reason I don't read fanfic with OC x [canon character] or reader x [canon character], because I'm here for the canon characters and this non-character is very likely going to devolve into a wish-fulfillment audience stand-in - which is not only annoying but frankly embarrassing to watch.

Ideally, Touken Ranbu keeps its eye on the ball and leaves any potential shipping to the fans' imaginations. I'm not bashing shipping of course, personally I love shipping stuff - I just hate ruining a good action show with the dumb ~OOH IMAGINE IF ALLLL THESE HOT GIRLS/GUYS WERE FOR SOME STUPID REASON ALL INTO LIL OL' ORDINARY YOU~ gimmick in the canon material.

Either way I'm still going to watch though. And I'll give the saniwa a fair chance, I really hope he/she has an interesting character and isn't just a shallow audience stand-in.