Rurouni Kenshin TV

At the time I'm writing this, Rurouni Kenshin has to be my favorite all-time anime series. It is an extensive (or do I mean expensive?) 90+ episode series that for the most part wisely uses its ample time to portray a high drama with some of the most detailed and fully realized characters to ever come along in an animated series. One of my favorite reviews on this site is a review of the TV series written by #anime member Ark, and I encourage you to read it, however I love the show too much not to write about it myself!

Amidst the backdrop of a new era struggling to emerge from the madness of revolution, a rurouni (wandering samurai) by the name of Himura Kenshin is fighting a new battle for his very identity. Will he be able to emerge from his role as one of the deadliest and feared assassins of the revolution in order to discover what is really important in life, or is there nothing in his future but killing, battles, and meaningless death? As strong a character as Kenshin is, you know he is going to give it everything he's got and then some, and it will all be needed, for there is a long line of petty thugs, legendary warriors, and scheming politicians looking to make a name for themselves by defeating the legendary 'Hitokiri Battousai.' Go Kenshin! We're rooting for you!

What great characters this series has! Each and every one is amply developed so that they all seem real to you, which enhances the power or silliness of various moments in the story.

Himura Kenshin himself is the creme of the crop. Here's this legendary samurai who now fights with a reversed blade 'sakaba' sword that is sworn not to kill anyone, yet he's never arrogant or tiresome. He has a strong sense of morals and doesn't allow them to be corrupted, yet he never gets preachy or annoying. If anything he gets silly and cute. I just love him.

The Kenshin Gumi consists of a strong-willed and energetic Budo instructor named Kaoru, her loud-mouthed and impetuous student Yahiko, and a 'bad-ass' tough guy named Sanosuke. All well developed, fleshed out, and tied together in a beautiful web of friendship and admiration.

The enemies and allies that Kenshin makes during the long but action-packed series are numerous and all deserving of a paragraph or more. I simply couldn't do them justic here so I'll suffice to say that the diversity of personalities and motivations amongst both enemies and allies makes for many colorful, unusual, sometimes funny, and often-times impressive characters. Some you'll love to hate, others you'll feel sorry for, and many you will cheer on.

The characters are the strength of the series, and they are what make it such an engaging tale. You'll want to watch 'just one more' to see what happens next.

With so many episodes, a lot of the backdrops are simple and re-used throughout the series, and you tend to hear the same handful of theme songs being recycled to introduce the silly scenes, or the dramatic scenes, etc. They get the job done but they don't drop your jaw. There are, of course, some excellent and highly suspenseful sword battles which is essential for an anime such as this.

Hmm, what to say here. Kenshin's japanese voice is played be a female character and sometimes it can be quite amusing when he screams or does his classic 'Orooo' whenever he's being good-naturedly beaten on by his friends. All the japanese voices are fine and get the job done. I haven't seen the english dub, so I wil refrain from commenting.

The songs are a little weak in my opinion. They have the same intro song for every episode and it doesn't do much for me. The endings vary as the season goes along, but other than 'Heart of Sword' they aren't really any good. The in-series music is pretty much stock stuff that is repeated often, as I've said already.