My Take On The Rurouni Kenshin Trilogy

Hello!

It's been a while since I wrote something here. No, I have not abandoned this blog and every day I am thinking of topics to write about (and how I'm going to write them as my laptop broke down - that's for another story).


Hmm.. There's a lot to say about the Rurouni Kenshin live action movies. The first thing I'd like to talk about is that the movies are not too long, contrary to other blogs that wrote about the movies. There was so much to unravel in the story of Kenshin Himura, so much back story to tell. I personally can take another hour of each movie if it meant more depth in the story.

There were lots of spine-tingling scenes all throughout the movies. Hajime Saito is my favorite character, and every scene that he uses the Gatotsu gives me a frisson of excitement. The fight scenes are utterly satisfying and beautifully realistic. However, if I were to wish for one scene that I would have wanted to be included in the movies, it would be this scene:


I would choose the English sub, but Saito's voice actor just sounds more evil.

Why this scene? From all the anime fight scenes I've seen this one's my favorite. This scene has a lot of depth - from how far Saito will go to see if Kenshin is capable, to the sheer difference in power and speed between Kenshin at that time and the Hitokiri Battousai that lives in his soul. And look how the golden eyes appear. I ramble. Ha.




Although the movies are stellar, the characters expertly played and portrayed and the setting couldn't be much better than what we've seen, there was one thing I didn't like about the movies.

How Sanosuke Sagara was portrayed was not a major protagonist and a lot more like a comic relief to nerve-wrecking scenes. He is a character that overcomes his dreadful past when his mentor and idol, Sagara Sozo, and the Sekihotai from which he belonged in, are crushed by the Meiji Government. This tragedy fostered the hate for the government which he is burdened with. In case you were wondering, his jacket bears the symbol of his loyalty to the Sekihotai.

He also learns one of the strongest moves in the series, the Futae no Kiwame, from Yukyuzan Anji (his opponent from The Legend Ends - another soul tormented by the past). This technique can literally break anything into little pieces, except Makoto Shishio's face. Sadly, we did not get to see his character develop, expose his back story nor learn this technique.



Like I mentioned, the movies could use a few more hours.


I loved the Rurouni Kenshin movies. Yusuke Iseya as Shinomori Aoshi was spot-on and the double kodachis were precise. Shishio Makoto is as evil as evil can get. He really came off as a demon from the past, and the Homura Dama and Gurun Kaina were executed perfectly. We even get to see the serrated Mugenjin up close. In the manga, it was explained that Mugenjin's serrated blade and being used to cut down so many people for a long time that the body fat got soaked in it, in combination with Shishio's abnormal body heat due to being burned alive, allows him to execute the fiery Secret Sword techniques.

The Rurouni Kenshin trilogy is a masterpiece. If they were still in cinemas today I'd see them again. The movies truly revived the samurai movies for our age.

Now I'm off to get myself a katana.

P.S.: Kenshin Himura was never a samurai.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rurouni_Kenshin_characters