Reviews Rurouni Kenshin TV Series Written June 25, 2003 This is the first of many dragonball-unrelated anime reviews to come, so bear with me... this is a new thing I'm doing. Also, it's tough summing up a massive series in just a few paragraphs while trying to remember everything that happened in it. I started watching this anime a couple of years ago with the first four episodes, then about a year or so after that I bought the second DVD. Finally, about a year after that I downloaded the rest of the anime (the best quality version of each episode available) off of Kazaa and watched all of that over the period of about two months. Rurouni Kenshin spans 95 episodes and what I would describe as four sagas: (1) the character introductions and development saga, (2) the Makoto Shishio saga, (3) the Amakusa Shougo saga, and (4) more character development. Rurouni Kenshin is based on the beginning of the Meiji Period, when everyone is adjusting to a new way of life. It shows just how hard that is for some people. There are numerous occurences where someone plans on taking over the country. A lot of viewers probably just saw this and thought "yeah right, I know no one could've succeeded at that, even back then, so I know this person is going to fail one way or the other." After reading a book on Japanese history I think I can explain why that is more possible than you may think. Prior to the Meiji period and a few times afterward, there were many occurences of revolts and rebellions against those in power of the country, some of which were successful and most of which failed by being defeated in battle or by some government official finding out and killing the planners before they carried out what they intended to do. So, believe it or not, some of the characters' ways of thinking are more historically accurate than you may think. I'll start off this review with the animation. Some (mostly action) scenes in this series are very well animated. However, I wouldn't say that the animation is top-notch. It's a little outdated, but still looks pretty darn good at times. What I thought was kind of dissapointing was how a lot of action scenes don't really show what's going on, just the action frozen in place or a bunch of lights or explosions. Other actions scenes show the motion in fantastic detail though, so I suppose that makes up for the lack of motion in other action sequences. Next I'll talk about the music. Hmm, there is some BGM that I really liked... unfortunately, you'll hear the same BGM played over and over and OVER again, which makes some scenes a lot less effective than they could have been (you'll hear the same action BGM for the Shishio battles in the fourth saga as well). I thought it was really cool though how (from what I remember) there were three opening sequences (which were occasionally altered to show the newer characters) and a whole bunch of ending sequences. Some of the songs used for these sequences were pretty darned neato too. Third, I'll discuss the characters. There were a TON of characters in this series (most of which were only around for a few episodes, and a decent amount that were around for most of them). In my opinion, this is one of the best aspects of this series. Even if a character is around for just one episode, he/she is developed sufficiently enough to make you care for them; they even make you feel for the bad guys sometimes! My favorite character, which may surprise you, is not Kenshin but rather Sagara Sanosuke. I felt he was the most interesting of all of them. He trained when he needed to in order to get stronger, he kept his cool even in times of emotional turmoil, and changed his attitude when he needed to. I thought his accent was a nice detail. Kenshin wasn't my favorite because he was just too... predictable at times. It was also really dissapointing when he would start off losing a battle to some very weak opponents. But when you think about it, that makes the series a lot more realistic. Kenshin isn't some sort of super godlike fighter, he is a very good swordsman but what makes him so legendary is his ability to figure out an opponent's weakness from minor details. Oh, and Misao's temper tantrums were slightly funny the first couple of times, but after that they got really old, really fast. Fourth: the fights. This series has a whole lot of fights in it. What I have mixed feelings about are the Kenshin vs. fights. The battles were pretty predictable at times: either Kenshin pounded his enemies with ease, or he got the crap beat out of him and then found a clever way to immediately win the battle. I was also kind of hoping for more out of the fight between him and Shishio... After thinking a while, I discovered that this series does something rather unique. Rather than long, intense, ultimate battles between Kenshin and important opponents Rurouni Kenshin does something else. Instead, there is something special going on in every battle; someone usually has a handicap of some sort and/or the fight is ended in arguing that causes the opponent to realize that their way of thinking was wrong. I'll explain this more in the next paragraph, when I deal with the various philosophies and arguments of this series. Rurouni Kenshin deals with a great deal of beliefs and philosophies. Every character always starts off believing in a theory or idea, most of the time being prepared to die for what they belive in. And almost every time Kenshin is able to prove to them that their way of thinking is wrong and why. Some of these incidents are rather fascinating. I don't know how else to explain this besides telling you to watch the series and see for yourself. Pretty cool stuff. Finally, I'll discuss how I feel about the plot. I felt that the Shishio saga was the stand-out portion of this series. It was the longest saga, had the most action, and steadily led to a climax: a great showdown battle. The falling action after the climax was fantastic. I really liked how they finished that saga... made me feel all happy and warm inside. The third saga didn't really have what I would call great battles in it, but had some VERY unexpected turn of events and some very touching, emotional scenes. That reminds me... the touching scene at the start of the Shishio saga would've been much more effective if they didn't show it FIFTY MILLION TIMES during the rest of the TV series. I also wasn't too thrilled with the fourth saga or the ending. The ending is a little too open for my taste. I was also kind of hoping they would find a way to give more of a purpose to characters we see throughout the series by having them show up again and have a major impact on the story by saving Kenshin's life or something, rather than just never seeing them again... oh well. All in all, Rurouni Kenshin is a nice series that I would recommend to anyone with the patience to watch it. I admit there are a bunch of episodes in this series that didn't serve much purpose and for 95 episodes worth of material, not much of it is that exciting. I would describe Rurouni Kenshin as a series with a load of fascinating characters, numerous arguments, philosophies, and debates that actually make you think, and scenes that fill you with all sorts of emotions. FAVORITE EPISODES: 38, 61, 65, 78, and 89. Back to Reviews Site design and content ©1999-2007 by James Walker (Sir Viktor) The Next Dimension is a non-profit fansite. Any copyright violations are completely unintentional. 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