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Rurôni Kenshin: Meiji kenkaku romantan (1996)
This is a post on the Kenshin series and 2nd OAV - I did one before on the beginning part which has more detail - that should be on the page of that OAV
The television series of Kenshin is supposed to depict his redemption. It would have been inappropriately tragic and hard to understand if the two OAVs were actually put as part of the series. Kenshin's redemption comes by helping the few that he might. Everyone that Kenshin meets has some sort of problem and has a tragic past with a lesson to learn from it. Even minor characters such as Kaoru's father depict this fact. All of the "bad guys" have a reason for what they are doing and have some sort of tragedy attached to them. Kenshin would have been in Shishio's position had he not quit being the assassin for the Choshu clan. Like Kenshin said, they might have been allies had they met at another time and under different conditions. Emotion dominates the majority of the series if one looks very closely.
In the Jinchuu Arc (bad sum-up of it is the seisouhen-2ndOAV). This shows the attempt at revenge by Enishi who also appeared in the firstOAV. Enishi begins to realize what Kenshin did. Kenshin is known to be really sorry for his sins when he just let Enishi try to kill him. Tomoe's spirit appeared which might tell you that she really did love Kenshin. The best/worst part of this is when Sano brings Kenshin home. Kenshin's such a mess. He worked so hard to redeem himself. Was he able to do it? This is questionable since he was able to help many people, but his son turned out to be a mess because Kenshin was never home to bring him up in the same way that he was a true father to Yahiko. Kenshin gets home and is really content being with Kaoru. We see his scar has faded and gone
he died (the legend of the scar created in great hate
). Kaoru smiles through her tears Kenshin accomplished his task and she finally got to see a smile from the bottom of his heart as she always wished (she told Kenshin that he didn't have to smile just to look happy when he really wasn't
anyone remember?). How ironic that it was in death that Kenshin could finally be happy!! Okie
so that was a pretty bad sum-up of what I wanted to say. It's just that there's too much to say, so I kinda left most of it out
it's the really basic parts of the story and stuff that I see in it. I love the music from the series. My cousin actually played one of the background songs (the one played in the back when Kenshin leaves Kaoru to go to Kyoto with all of the fireflies around them and stuff
) at his wedding!! I really love the song 1/3 junjou na kanjou. It's by Siam Shade. (Actually, Kenshin was the starting point for many bands they took small ones like Siam Shade, Bonnie Pink, Judy and Mary
plus, L'arc en Ciel did what's supposed to be their best song Niji L'arc en Ciel means "arch of the sky" in French and Niji is rainbow in Japanese)It's how one third of your heart will never be put into your love you'll always live in memories. It's really sad. Kenshin's really an emo series
They should make that an anime genre.
Rurôni Kenshin: Meiji kenkaku romantan - Tsuioku-hen (1999)
This is going to be one big spoiler since I don't know how to put Kenshin in any other way
*contains lots of spoilers* Rurouni Kenshin was the first anime that I ever saw. It's definitely my favorite. There's many people who post here who seem to think that the anime is how the story went. It's not really true. There was the Maiga which the anime was based on. That's why there's this "change of tone" from being happy to serious. I think Kenshin's a great story... it's exactly as it says: Romantic Tales of the Meiji Era. If you read the comic book, Kenshin doesn't die at the end like in the 2nd OAV. However, together, the anime and Maiga make the story great. It's really intended to give a sense of the emotions of this one man. Every character along the way has some sort of tragedy surrounding his or her life. Kenshin's parents and 2 brothers died of cholera when he was young and he was sold by his relatives as a sort of slave. Everyone who cares about him or who he cares for seems to be killed. He tries to help the world through the use of his sword skills learned from the egotistical-but-truly-loving Hiko. Kenshin tried to bring about a more peaceful and democratic era in Japan as a hired assassin. It wasn't that he was mean. It was that he was just so innocent and didn't understand the ways of the world. He was too honest. Kenshin killed to try to save the oppressed. In doing so, he really wasn't pleased. The death of Tomoe's fiancé, Kiyosato was one that Kenshin remembered because the fiancé was so determined to live. It brought back to Kenshin a thought that he had expressed to Hiko before he began his apprenticeship with the sword. Kenshin had said that in the end, there were no bandits or family - they were all people. This was the idea that people all have the same desires to live and love. Though they are your enemies, there are also people who care about them. Kenshin is deeply affected by this idea (depicted by the fact that he is surprised by the scratch, has the constant reminder of the bleeding, and puts a flower on Kiyosato's dead body). According to Japanese culture, Tomoe should have committed suicide being that her love died. This is why she had the knife it had been given to her by her fiancé's family. Tomoe was too strong-minded and instead, decided to try to seek out and kill the assassin who killed Kiyosato. Tomoe eventually fell in love with Kenshin and the whole conspiracy brewed with the group that she had signed up with. An important point is that, before Tomoe's death, Kiyosato appears (ghost) with the ground cherry flower that he had promised to bring back for her. This was the same type of flower that Kenshin put on Kiyosato's back after he was killed. It becomes like one of those interpretation questions that they ask you in school: did he appear to say that Tomoe should kill herself and be loyal to him, or was he saying that Kenshin was a good man only confused and she should save him because the past is the past? While Tomoe is dying, further question arises as she puts the other part of Kenshin's cross scar was that a symbol of forgiveness? Was she nullifying the curse that Kiyosato placed because of the other question? Or was it that she was to give Kenshin something that would serve as a permanent reminder of her? Did Tomoe still hold a grudge or did she love Kenshin? Her final words were "gomenasai anata." In Japanese, the word "anata" is a word for those who you have much affection for, but is also a term for strangers whose names you don't know. Tomoe's meaning is up to interpretation, but her affect on Kenshin is obvious. Kenshin truly loved Tomoe. He learned how to care about others again. He saw what pain it was for her to have lost Kiyosato and what pain it was for himself to have lost her. Kenshin wanted to redeem himself for all of the people he had killed, but that was not the biggest thing that affected his decision to become a "rurouni" (actually, Nobuhiro Watsuki made that word it doesn't exist in Japanese language it's a combination of "rurouni" and "samurai" at least that's what he said in a comment in his Maiga). The real reason why Kenshin became a rurouni was because he felt great sorrow for those who had cared about the people he had killed. This may have spawned from Kenshin's own tragedy of having lost his whole family. Kenshin knew that what he did affected many people.
Check out my comments on the series and stuff on the page that's: "Rurôni Kenshin: Meiji kenkaku roman tan" (1996) TV-Series 1996-1999