(CR) Rurouni Kenshin (new TV series)

[Alchemist007]

Kaoru's screaming her head off. Meanwhile Yahiko, the fighters, and the audience:

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[Mad Pierrot]

The fight was pretty good but I really don't think it's close to Furuhashi's best fight. The advantage of this version is that the first Gatotsu Kenshin took had a more notable gore due to the colors employed in the animation but then we had another narrator like if it was Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 explaining something that Saitou could have easily monologued. Also, while Kenshin didn't say anything when defeating the Gatotsu, I think that move was the Ryu Kan Sen which is not used that much.

Now, next episode is the finale of the series It's ending like volume 7?

[Frontier]

I love how everyone is treating the appearance of Okubo as this big deal because he's such a Japanese big shot...and Yahiko, like probably anyone with no knowledge of Japanese history, is like "who is this dude?" .

Well, Saito's unsatisfied the fight's been left unfinished, but he knows when to take off. All that matters is he's confirmed Kenshin is useless but Battosai is as deadly as ever. Kenshin for his part finally realizes he lost himself as Battosai when he thinks about everyone else and punches himself back to Kenshin state .

So what was this all about? Gauging Kenshin's skills so they can use him to take down the biggest threat facing Japan...Shishio Makoto, the man who took over as the shadowy assassin Battosai from Kenshin when he started fighting on the front lines, and basically Kenshin's successor and legacy even though they never met .

At this point the idea that the Meiji Government would take out one of their assassins isn't that far-fetched, though it probably says something that he was seen as so dangerous and skilled with no allegiance than to his own desire to prove himself, that he was deemed a threat. But what's really crazy about the story is the fact that they seemingly killed him, burned him alive, and he still came back to enact a plan to destroy Japan !

SHISHIO!!! AND HIS ORGANIZATION !!!

Well, Kenshin's friends react about how you would expect them to when they find out the Meiji Government wants to use Kenshin as an assassin again to kill Shishio. Megumi would rather face execution than use a clean slate for her as a bargaining chip to make Kenshin help, Sano thinks the Meiji Government may as well die so long as it doesn't hurt the people, Yahiko doesn't get why the government is always killing people, and Kaoru believes in Kenshin as a changed man who can't be an assassin any more. But for Kenshin, there's more to it than that .

I was wondering why Amakusa survived, but it was just so Saito could clean up loose ends. He never stopped being a Shinsengumi, he only carries their honor even in defeat to keep the Meiji Government honest and on a path that fits with the Shinsengumi code. And just like he will always be a wolf, he's convinced Kenshin will always be a Hitokiri .

Dang, poor Okubo, don't you just hate it when random kids with superhuman skills end up slipping into your carriage and killing you? Is that Daiki Yamashita ?

You know all those samurai probably would have successfully killed Okubo, but they have no problem taking the credit for it and stabbing him more. Jeez. And probably one of the most sincere and honest officials in the government, someone who truly wanted to craft a government for the people, has been lost .

And thus Kenshin feels he has no choice left but to head to Kyoto with Japan at such a crisis point. He doesn't know if he can kill Shishio, but he's now convinced that deep down he will always be Battosai and there's no changing it. He almost thought he could live a life as Kenshin at the Kamiya Dojo, but now he has to go back as a rurouni and leave...and leaving everyone, especially Kaoru, behind. And despite her best efforts, Kaoru can do nothing but watch him leave and break down. Poor girl .

What better way to end the Tokyo arc as Kenshin sallies forth than by a preview of the Kyoto arc featuring some lines from Aoshi, a certain cute and confident girl voiced by Aya Yamane, a master with history with Kenshin voiced by Yuichi Nakamura, and none other than Shishio...voiced by Makoto Furukawa .

[Blaat]

Definitely knew this was going to happen just when you get hyped up for Kyoto arc the series takes a half year break. (has it been confirmed it will be coming back in summer?) Anyway is it better than the original? Nope, only in some areas but it's still solid and entertaining. Definitely looking forward to them adapting the rest.

[Guardian Enzo]

The optimist in me says the announcement is being saved for Jump Festa this weekend (RuroKen has a stage, of course), and the two-cour rotation with Urusei Yatsura is still the plan. But at heart I’m no optimist, so we’ll see.

As for the Juppongatana casting, I’m fairly meh on that. No clunkers but I’d have gone older across the board (except for Yamashita Daiki) and tried to get some of the giants of the seiyuu trade (those who aren’t disqualified for having already appeared in this or an earlier version, anyway).

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

The optimist in me says the announcement is being saved for Jump Festa this weekend (RuroKen has a stage, of course), and the two-cour rotation with Urusei Yatsura is still the plan. But at heart I’m no optimist, so we’ll see.

As for the Juppongatana casting, I’m fairly meh on that. No clunkers but I’d have gone older across the board (except for Yamashita Daiki) and tried to get some of the giants of the seiyuu trade (those who aren’t disqualified for having already appeared in this or an earlier version, anyway).

I don't see the point of even starting an a remake and doing Tokyo in 2-cour if they didn't have Kyoto on lock. Didn't seem like controversy was a factor in limiting this series either.

[Uribatake]

I suppose they wouldn't cast major roles like Hiko and Misao just for voice-only cameos, so I'm reasonably sure there are plans for a second season covering the rest of the Kyoto arc.

However, considering the second half of Urusei Yatsura will fill the Noitamina time slot for the next six months and Senpai wa Otokonoko is slated to take it over sometime next year, the wait for the next season of Rurouni Kenshin might be a long one, unless the show switches time slots. I wish Fuji TV would expand Noitamina to a full hour again.

[Guardian Enzo]

Jinchuu has to be the endgame for any of this to really make sense. It’s not like there’s a lack of material, and a delay of more than a cour or two can only hurt whatever momentum the show builds. Moving it off NoitaminA was always one logical possibility (it wouldn’t be the first time of course), but we’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully Jump Festa provides some clarity.

[Master_Yoma]

Well everything is being set up of a second season with Shishio and Seta coming into play and the set up for the Kyoto arc to start But Hajime really is just so ruthless just killing those two like it was nothing

6/10 The original was better

[grecefar]

It was a good think I barely remember the original and I enjoyed this a lot instead of comparing everything between each other.

8/10.

[Tactics]

Originally Posted by Mad Pierrot

The fight was pretty good but I really don't think it's close to Furuhashi's best fight. The advantage of this version is that the first Gatotsu Kenshin took had a more notable gore due to the colors employed in the animation but then we had another narrator like if it was Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 explaining something that Saitou could have easily monologued. Also, while Kenshin didn't say anything when defeating the Gatotsu, I think that move was the Ryu Kan Sen which is not used that much.

That narrator is manga accurate though;

Watsuki tend to use all-knowing narrator when there's not enough people to make commentaries. Furuhashi, for that fight, tweaked it into Kenshin and Saito monologue about each other potential threat level which became possible by making both sides committed to their respective style (Battoujutsu and Gatotsu) from start to finish.

[FlareKnight]

I don't think you end the season on what is effectively a trailer and not have the intention to carry on. Only thing that surprised me was them not slapping a "season 2 confirmed" message at the end there. But I'm sure it'll happen.

That's about how things would turn out. Fits that Kenshin basically punched himself in the face to snap out of killer mode. But sadly his thoughts at the end of the episode fit. In the end things have gotten dangerous and there's simply no safety valve for Kenshin. The rationalization is fair that Kaoru was able to snap him out of it before because saving her life was the whole reason he was fighting. But sadly it was different here since he was the target of the attack and was desperate to stay alive. If they could be sure that Kaoru could snap him out of it then that'd be one thing. But the fact that they can't count on that makes him choosing to go after Shishio all the more reasonable.

I'm in agreement that the government really needs to stop assassinating their own citizens. Using people as killers and then killing them when their value has reached an end...just isn't good. Yeah if Shishio is going around killing people then he has to be dealt with. But it was those same people killed that set this guy up and sent him out. Frankly it's on them for not managing to kill the guy properly. I mean he's probably still human. Just cut an artery or something!

Okubo...well RIP I guess. I can't feel that bad for the guy considering he showed up there to just send Kenshin off to assassinate someone. Plus Sano got seriously injured for their test. Sure Sano doesn't seem inclined to get a job or something, but he shouldn't die for that! Okubo did have grand ideals and did want to work towards them. But that's how it goes sometimes.

Also wow...that supernatural assassin sure is a chatty guy. What's the point of actually passing along a long-winded message to someone you are about to kill? Maybe he was secretly winded and needed time to gather himself after chasing down that ride!

My condolences as well to the driver. Poor guy was just doing his job and gets stabbed by those lunatics. Everyone's all down about Okubo, but no one cares about the poor driver!

[magnumcyclonex]

They had some lightning fast special effects in this episode. Sad to see this Okubo guy go down so suddenly.

The ending was emotional with Kenshin leaving Kaoru. Having the narrator at the end state the obvious sort of ruined that scene for me, but it is what it is.

I hope the wait for season 2 won't be too long.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

My impression is basically represented by Ryan here:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/YKva9JdHoLw

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All in all, RK23 is underwhelming in general but it's not bad and I still enjoy it.

[Mad Pierrot]

The fact that Kenshin had to punch himself is kinda cool but also ridiculous. He even punched his speech pattern! Still, they kept trying to tone down more of the comedy from the manga like whatever Megumi planned to do with Kenshin to make him stay or how Sanosuke kept calling her fox in the last scene. Now then, I really have no idea if there will be a sequel but I'm glad this adaptation wasn't like Biden's Blade of the Immortal which seemed to have a lot of problems with the animation or Bridge's Shaman King where they rushed the story at the cost of introducing the character properly. The four main characters from this version all retained their original characterization but more to the director's idea.

The ending reminded me of D.Gray-man Hallow where Allen escapes from the Black Order and happens to make a similar goodbye to Lenalee.

[Kanon]

If anything, this season reminded me how mediocre the beginning of Kenshin was. I'm amazed it managed to survive in Jump for this long back then. Well, at least the worst is behind us now. It's all good from there.

6/10. It was a good, faithful adaptation. The problem is that the original material isn't that good, and I understand why the 96 anime made so many changes.

[zztop]

Originally Posted by Kanon

If anything, this season reminded me how mediocre the beginning of Kenshin was. I'm amazed it managed to survive in Jump for this long back then. Well, at least the worst is behind us now. It's all good from there.

6/10. It was a good, faithful adaptation. The problem is that the original material isn't that good, and I understand why the 96 anime made so many changes.

Which begs the question - is a totally faithful adaptation of an original material always a good thing?

The impression I get was that back then, anime directors were a bit more cavalier when adapting source materials for anime; changing content to fit the animation medium as they thought was suitable (ex. what Tactics quoted about how the 1996 anime changed the manga narrator into inner monologues).

I think things changed after they did Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood; and later Fruits Basket Brotherhood. The fans took it as a new normal that any anime adaptation has to be almost 1:1 faithful to the source material to be any good, otherwise it's disgraceful rubbish. Which leaves little room for anime directors and writers to be creative with the material to suit cour animation (like the reception when the directors tried to get creative with Trigun Stampede).

At this point, live-action adaptations might be the one place left where the writers can get creative with the source material (ex. live-action Way of the Househusband's original characters, like Tatsu's cheeky stepdaughter).

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Jinchuu has to be the endgame for any of this to really make sense. It’s not like there’s a lack of material, and a delay of more than a cour or two can only hurt whatever momentum the show builds. Moving it off NoitaminA was always one logical possibility (it wouldn’t be the first time of course), but we’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully Jump Festa provides some clarity.

What about the Hokkaido arc? Is there any chance of that one getting animated?

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by zztop

Which begs the question - is a totally faithful adaptation of an original material always a good thing?

The impression I get was that back then, anime directors were a bit more cavalier when adapting source materials for anime; changing content to fit the animation medium as they thought was suitable (ex. what Tactics quoted about how the 1996 anime changed the manga narrator into inner monologues).

I think things changed after they did Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood; and later Fruits Basket Brotherhood. The fans took it as a new normal that any anime adaptation has to be almost 1:1 faithful to the source material to be any good, otherwise it's disgraceful rubbish. Which leaves little room for anime directors and writers to be creative with the material to suit cour animation (like the reception when the directors tried to get creative with Trigun Stampede).

At this point, live-action adaptations might be the one place left where the writers can get creative with the source material (ex. live-action Way of the Househusband's original characters, like Tatsu's cheeky stepdaughter).

I don't think this adaption was hurt that much by sticking closer to the source in my opinion.

I think at best you have stuff like SpyxFamily (directed by the same guy who headlined the original Kenshin anime) that does original stuff but still sticks pretty close to the manga.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Kanon

If anything, this season reminded me how mediocre the beginning of Kenshin was. I'm amazed it managed to survive in Jump for this long back then. Well, at least the worst is behind us now. It's all good from there.

There wasn't much in Jump back then. No One Piece, no Hunter x Hunter, no Shaman King, no Naruto. It was pretty much just Dragon Ball, YuYu Hakusho, Dragon Quest Dai, and Slam Dunk.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by GDB

There wasn't much in Jump back then. No One Piece, no Hunter x Hunter, no Shaman King, no Naruto. It was pretty much just Dragon Ball, YuYu Hakusho, Dragon Quest Dai, and Slam Dunk.

Those are some massive heavy-hitters though.