Rurouni Kenshin

From Karate, Kungfu, Wrestling, Mixed Fighting Information Source

Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X) Name Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X) Director Kazuhiro Furuhashi Author Nobuhiro Watsuki Country Japan Run Time 23 mins Episodes 95 Studio Studio Gallop Original run January 10, 1996 – September 8, 1998

Rurouni Kenshin is a Japanese manga series turned TV show that takes place over 100 years ago in Japan. It tells the story of a swordsman with trademark red hair and a cross shaped scar on his left cheek named Kenshin Himura. Kenshin fought valiantly during the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate and played a huge role to bringing about the Meiji Restoration. He became known as the greatest swordsman of all time, earning the nickname 'Hitokiri Battousai' which means 'the man who slashes as he draws his sword'. However, once the Restoration was over Kenshin made a vow to never kill again, became a wanderer and disappeared without a trace. His whereabouts remained unknown for around 10 years, during which he spent wandering around all of Japan assisting people who needed help in some way.

Synopsis

In the eleventh year of the Meiji Era (1878), a vagabond swordsman is found wandering the streets of Tokyo. A strange man, he carries a reverse-bladed sword and has an x-shaped scar on his cheek. He wants only to be left alone.

However, a girl named Kamiya Kaoru accuses him of being the man claiming the identity of the legendary Hitokiri Battousai. This man is murdering people in the name of her family's doujo. When he saves her from the real killer, she invites him to come stay at her dojo, since he obviously has no other place to go. This is the beginning of the story of Himura Kenshin.

Before the Meiji Restoration, Himura Kenshin was known as Hitokiri (Murderer) Battousai. He was the top assassin for the reformist group Ishin Shishi. However, when the old government was overthrown and the fighting had drawn to an end, Hitokiri Battousai had disappeared. Kenshin wandered the countryside for nearly eleven years; the world presumed him dead or lost.

When Kenshin meets Kaoru, he is no longer Hitokiri Battousai, for he has sworn never to take another life again. His sword is not a regular sword, but a reverse-bladed sword, meaning that he cannot kill anyone with his sword, but he can defend himself. Kenshin is a man who is trying to escape his past, and create a future for himself. With the help of Kaoru and the others that he meets, he may just have a chance.

Manga

The manga began running in Weekly Jump in 1994. It was the first published continuing series of author Watsuki Nobuhiro. The story was only supposed to run for ten issues of Jump, resulting in a series of approximately three or four volumes. However, it was obviously more successful than that, as there are currently 23 volumes of series available to date.

There are plenty of historical background that comes to play in Rurouni Kenshin, which is perhaps one of the reasons that the series continues its run. The manga is set in the Meiji era, partially because it was inspired by historical novels that the author (Watsuki) was reading at the time. When he was planning the manga to be only a ten-installment series, he decided to use the eleventh year of the Meiji Period because things were less tumultuous.

Anime

The television series ran 94 episodes or 95, if counting the "unaired last episode". A remarkable run when considering that the average length of an anime television series is currently 26 episodes and shrinking. For Kenshin to have run three times the length of the normal animated series is certainly proof of its popularity in Japan.

The television series can be divided into two parts. The Tokyo Chapter introduces Kenshin and the rest of the main characters who will come to call the Kamiya doujo home. After these characters become established, the show tells a variety of individual stories. There is not a unifying plot thread throughout the episodes and many of these stories are not found in the manga.

The Kyoto Chapter begins when Kenshin departs for Kyoto to prevent Shishio from overthrowing the Meiji government. A marked change in the series occurs as Kenshin leaves behind his friends and adopted family in Kyoto. He refuses their help and their company, partly because they will only be a hindrance to him, but also because he does not want them involved in what he knows he must do. A somber Kenshin makes his way to Kyoto, dreading what he knows in his heart he must do. He must become the Hitokiri again. Eventually, his family led by Kaori joined him in Kyoto to fight against the terrorist Shishio. This chapter is much more faithful to the manga.