Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2023)

In the late 19th century, as the cruel times of the Bakumatsu period came to a close, a new Meiji era marked the age of restoration for Japan. With the war over, its infamous hero Hitokiri Battousai disappeared into thin air, leaving only his legend behind.

Years later, a seemingly plain wanderer named Kenshin Himura encounters Kaoru Kamiya, the owner of a struggling local dojo in Tokyo. Kaoru pursues a self-proclaimed Battousai who roams the streets, indiscriminately killing citizens and police officers. Furthermore, the warrior professes to use the Kamiya Kasshin-ryu—a sword style developed by Kaoru's father deeply rooted in the essence of life, not death.

Kenshin decides to help Kaoru take down the impostor and restore her father's dojo. Unbeknownst to all, Kenshin is none other than the real warrior whose name still terrifies the people. Although Kaoru eventually learns the truth, his oath to atone for his murderous history by bloodlessly protecting the weak moves her, and she welcomes Kenshin to stay at her dojo. However, Kenshin's ideals are soon challenged by ghosts of the past and enemies of the present.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Himura, Kenshin Main

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Sagara, Sanosuke Main

Yashiro, Taku Japanese

Kamiya, Kaoru Main

Takahashi, Rie Japanese

Myoujin, Yahiko Main

Koichi, Makoto Japanese

Saitou, Hajime Supporting

Hino, Satoshi Japanese

Shishio, Makoto Supporting

Furukawa, Makoto Japanese

Seta, Soujirou Supporting

Yamashita, Daiki Japanese

Hiko, Seijuurou Supporting

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Shinomori, Aoshi Supporting

Uchida, Yuuma Japanese

Makimachi, Misao Supporting

Yamane, Aya Japanese

Takeeda, Yoshinori Producer

Kumada, Kiyoshi Producer

Niwa, Masami Producer

Hashimoto, Ryuu Producer

Reviews

Apr 19, 2024

LastWhiisper

Recommended

Basis of a prologue: "A sword is a weapon, kenjutsu is the art of killing"
Ruroni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan is a work of fiction written in the 90s and published in the weekly magazine weekly shonen jump and currently has a sequel that is published monthly in the monthly magazine jump square from the same publisher (shueisha).
This first season adapts up to chapter 57 of the manga and a one-shot or chapter zero of the reboot manga Rurouni Kenshin: Tokuhitsu-ban, the manga contains 3 main story arcs (leaving aside Hokkaido-hen) and they are Tokyo-hen, Kyoto -hen and Jinchuu-hen.
The story is located at the end of ... the 19th century, specifically at the end of the Edo period (Bakumatsu) and the beginning of the Meiji era approximately in the years 1864-1878 in Japan, it focuses on our protagonist Kenshin Himura (his name is made up of two ideograms "ken", which is a sword and "shin", which means heart) in his past he was one of the greatest hitmen and swordsmen who participated in the Meiji revolution/restoration in favor of the emperor's side and against the Tokugawa shogunate, earning the nickname from "hitokiri battosai" based on kawakami gensai one of the "four Hitokiri of Bakumatsu".
In the present, see the first episode, the protagonist seems to have left that past behind and takes a pacifist attitude, avoiding the use of violence as much as possible and as an unbreakable rule never to take a life again, under the concept of weapons and kenjutsu. Kaoru, the first character who has contact with the protagonist, preaches that these concepts serve to protect people while the bad character random number 1 (Gohei Hiruma) from the first episode contradicts said philosophy with a real one of "a sword is a weapon, kenjutsu It is the art of killing" while Kenshin agrees with the bad guy Random No. 1, emphasizing that Kaoru's ideology is simple childhood fantasies, but despite that he wants to believe in it.
Basically, Kenshin takes refuge in a lie that he shares with Kaoru, not because he is a deluded or childish person at 28 years old, but because this ideology conveniently coincides with his path of redemption in the face of the crimes committed in his past. The initial message of the work is quite interesting since it is not very common to the typical self-improvement messages that are very common in the demographic.
The Tokyo arc is made up of self-concluding/episodic chapters and small arcs as we saw in this first season, Tokyo is undoubtedly the weakest arc since at all times only characters are presented and almost never any conclusion or conclusion is reached. The few conclusions feel wasted and lazy, giving the feeling that the work has no direction or is erratic, however in retrospect this feeling disappears since almost all the concepts and characters presented in this section of the story have relevance in the main arcs. of the work (kyoto and jinchuu).
The work has a large number of characters but the most notable are Kenshin among the protagonists and Saito if we talk about the antagonists, the rest is shown little but with a way to go such as Sanosuke, Yahiko, Aoshi and to a lesser extent Kaoru and Megumi, the antagonists are where Tokyo weakest but without a doubt the worst is Raijuta where clearly his influence is minimal along with Spiral but at least the latter has a small evolution in his personality.
The adaptation strives to show the historical and social context, taking into account at that time the country experienced a strong westernization and modernization after the Edo period where it was characterized by its accentuated isolation from the rest of the world, living a long middle age, it is important that the script highlight these concepts since many of the stories presented are related to this change, see the displacement of the samurai by a small army and a modern police, as well as removing kenjutsu from the center with an uncertain future for the time or how the ancient arts warriors of the country are nothing against modern firearms cough cough gatling, the treatment of opium that was a problem for the eastern countries of that time and how politicians ordered each other to be murdered resulting in internal purges between former comrades of the restoration.
Finally, the adapted one-shot seemed like a success to me since it gives the context of why Kenshin makes the decision to stop wandering in order to heal his emotional wound using the taste of tea as a metaphor and as a contrast to what happens in the last chapter. it's from the season.
I must clarify that this review is purely from the narrative point, taking this into account to close this first season it is a kind of prologue that tries to consolidate among so many things (social, political, ideological and historical) the redemption of a person and how the crimes of his past affect himself and the people around him, for better or worse, to enter the first main stage, which is Kyoto.
The arc alone in the manga does not go beyond 7/10 but this new adaptation enriched the script and adjusted some things such as improving the background of jine, the oniwabanshu, spiral, the mini tsunan arc and the arc of raijuta, that's why from my point of view the adaptation deserves an 8/10 as a final grade.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 5, 2024

Latooq

Mixed Feelings

Ruroni Kenshin is considered to be one of the greatest shonen series even despite all negative information about the author. Plus, the fact that an old show is still talked about made me intrigued because it usually means that a show did something really outstanding for its time. However, an anime I watched has nothing like that and either it is a bad adaptation or the show gets better after 40 episodes or maybe the fame of the franchise is the result of pure nostalgia.

The story itself is too simple: the anime doesn't try to use the full potential of the themes it presents, the ... characters don't undergo any changes, and it is episodic. These are properties of any simple story and what makes feel like a children story is a narrator that butts in and explains primitive stuff like what the opium is. The story was too primitive for me to be fully invested and the story structure didn't help. Episodic format is good for creating diverse situations and maintaining good pacing and Ruroni Kenshin partially succeeds in it but its every arc lasts only several episodes and it was underwhelming how every conflict was resolved. There is one character, who is really pissed on the government for what it did 10 years ago and he has been planning to overthrow it since then. And the only thing it took to stop him is to talk to him; it's cheep to think that you can really convince a person to stop doing something they've been doing for years. And every other arc concludes in the similar anticlimactic way.

The show did a good job in portraying the early Meiji era. That was a significant period in Japanese history that led to drastic changes in law, culture, and politics. And seeing it all shown in the anime was the only thing I fully enjoyed. This setting also presents a great opportunity to create compelling villains, who would refuse to accept a new government and, thus, acknowledge only the old law. Nevertheless, the villains are still cartoonish as hell and even if sometime they are motivated by the political changes it never becomes the central part of a conflict. Every other character is also simple as villains with the exception of Kenshin Himura, who has a background of a successful warrior. In the end he becomes a pacifist but the anime doesn't give any details why it happened neither it provides any philosophical background for the decision.

The animation outside the battles looks good in general and during the battles it can range from acceptable to just fine but never exceptional, so in comparison to modern shonen the animation looks dated. The ost again is good but none of the tracks is memorable. The OPs and EDs are worth skipping: uninspiring songs and even more uninspiring visuals.

I don't see any reason to make a remake of the original Ruroni Kenshin, if the goal wasn't to put everything in animation. It has an episodic format, which was perfect for 2000s but not now; the fight scenes isn't on a par with modern shonen as well. It's still going to appeal to the fans of the og show and to people who wanted to watch RK for whatever reason and now the modern filler-free version is available.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Feb 3, 2024

AkiraMiyazaki17

Not Recommended

Completely pointless, insipid series. Credit where credit is due: the new voice cast does an impressive job of following on from the iconic voices of the original series, and honestly it has a pretty decent start, but there’s a complete lack of gravity and flavour here. The art style is SO bland; I can imagine not minding it if you’d never seen anything better, but looking back at how dynamic and rich the aesthetics of the 90s were, it’s enough to make one lament about the state of modern mainstream Shounen. The music—another major highlight of the original—is completely generic and lacks any presence in ... this show, and coupled with the lack of filler to let the characters breath, it makes the whole thing completely emotionally inert. The action is fine, but also feels a little weightless; I knew it would be naive to wish for anything as good as Trust & Betrayal—but seriously… how is an obscure 1999 ova doing better action than a show from 2023? This is just a directionless, dull mess. I’d have been more forgiving if they just went straight to adapting the Jinchuu arc instead of spending so much time treading ground that had already been covered, but alas it will be years before we see any exciting new material.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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The Jump Super Stage Red at Jump Festa 2024 announced a second season for the new Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (Rurouni Kenshin) television anime on Sunda...read more

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Aug 23, 2023 5:07 PM by Vindstot | Discuss (3 comments)

	Any voice actors from the original dub? Skoorb - Mar 29	4 replies	by Candy-Chan »» Jun 10, 6:23 AM
	How many episodes did this remake? phantom346 - May 14	5 replies	by wildhood »» May 23, 7:13 PM
	Bluray Differences fearlubu - May 20	1 replies	by Asahinchi »» May 21, 2:39 AM
	The sound design is epic saikyozero - Jul 6, 2023	6 replies	by banshee229 »» Apr 21, 6:05 PM
	Poll: Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2023) Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Dec 14, 2023	101 replies	by Jirokissaw »» Apr 11, 3:28 PM