Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan - Seisou-hen

The Last arc of Rurouni Kenshin, it's all about the final days of a great man that is Kenshin.

Everything has been decipted well in this OVA, from the stunning sceneries and up to the stunning orchestral score that it has. The story is delivered very well. It contains flashback of some of Kenshin's greatest battles and is remade or should I call it "Remastered", with a stunning animation. It also includes some scenes/events which you won't find in the manga. The OVA itself will give you a timeslip of what has happened to Kenshin through all of the years he has spent ... during his swordsman days.

If you have seen the TV Anime, Rurouni Kenshin. This OVA is highly recommended and should I say that you "must" also see the OVA masterpiece Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuioku Hen for these are the best OVA's of our time.

Now Rurouni Kenshin is probably the best samurai manga story I have read to date, and I was pretty satisfied with the anime adaptation, so now I decided to check out the other anime versions, because I put it off for too long and to prep myself up for the recently announced new anime coming out in some time.

I decided to watch the 2 episode ova that acts as sort of a closure to the series, and well... My mind is a little mixed up after watching this.

*This is just my personal impression of this ova, if you do not agree, that's fine and I'm ... not trying to troll, I repeat: I'm not trying to troll anyone*

To be fair, I did not personally think of this ova as a bad anime, in fact it's very good, aside from a bit of melodrama overdose (And I'm usually a big sucker for melodrama), the story does a great job at being a real tear jerker, and an emotional powerhouse that would have shaken me to my core if only it wasn't Rurouni Kenshin and was a different, original anime all together, I would've actually ended up loving it.

I appreciated to finally see characters like Enishi in animated form along with some of the series greatest moments and battles, that was a great service to the fans, but... That's it, I couldn't enjoy it as anything other than that, why?

Because, Himura Kenshin, the Hitokiri Battōsai, the famous fictional man slayer with a heart of gold, the Rurouni Kenshin himself, it really had nothing to do with him.
What I saw was dying shell of a man, stricken with an unexplained disease, that was there to replace the Kenshin fans all know and love.
Just what happened to the Kenshin who laughed and smile, where were the oros? No oro, just a soft spoken man that simply wants to die, just wandering around, trying to make everyone depressed, and is unfortunately successful at doing so.

Out of character doesn't even begin to describe it, I honestly felt betrayed, and even cheated out of supposedly watching Kenshin in, no arguments about it, the best animation I've ever seen from Japan.
But that's no compensation to me, and I doubt it was to the fans of the series as well, because what is the point of a series when the main character wasn't even actually present for the spotlight, if this was Durarara, it wouldn't matter, if this was Baccano, it still wouldn't matter, why? Because there's no actual main character in those series, all of the characters drove those series, but this is Rurouni Kenshin not those anime, and the titular character is the driving force of this particular story, it had everything to do with him, but in here, in this ova, it was just depressing that it actually had nothing to do with the actual kenshin I read about and cheered for in the manga.

The series was a shonen romance swordsman story, not a freaking death of a samurai who spread his depression like a disease, like the disease this kenshin had himself, striping away every sense of humor the series had and everything it make people love about it, but only looked like the series it was trying to be.

In another view point, this would've felt like another dragonball gt waiting to happen, but the difference here is that this was an actual well executed sad story and not a cash grab mockery of a franchise everyone loves, especially when it comes to the production values.
I do not hate this ova, far from it, it's an amazing piece of animation that is practicably professional at making anyone depressed as they watch, I just completely disapprove of what I watched, and warn others who call themselves Rurouni Kenshin fans to not actually watch this, as I felt like it was a total alienation of the fans, but to everyone else, it's a great tragic story that has nothing to do with the actual story it was based off of, but definitely not the most recommended way to make more fans of the series.

OVERALL: To sum it all up, to me: This ova was like a funeral for a beloved character, that was still actually walking around and wasn't even in his coffin in the first place, and with all the BS the character Kenshin went through, he deserved to have a happy ending or at least a better ending, not this.

I have to say, ever since Naruto before the Shippuden arcs in the manga, I have come to hate flashbacks in the middle of an important segment of a story and does nothing to advance it, and this oav does nothing more than reinforce that. I am grateful they did include Enishi and has pretty much his foundational motivations down, but he wasn’t fleshed out and doesn’t really explore him in full depth such as his fighting style and the significance of his sword. I say you’re going to have to read the manga to fully understand his character and it also excludes Enishi’s comrades ... and the fights they have with Kenshin’s crew, and how Kaoru was able to stop Enishi from going crazy. I say if they dropped the flashbacks and did the Jinchu arc or part of it instead, they could have gotten a fraction of it down and I would have been satsified.

And another thing I personally didn’t like about this installment was that it was so damn depressing. I know the first oav was sad, but at least there was character development. And in further addition, not only did fans protest the bullshit ending to this oav, even Watsuki, the original manga author of all people disapproved of it. How the fuck can you have Kenshin die of a disease? I can understand dying from abusing the shit out of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu, but a disease? Come fucking on here. At least give him a death as epic as Joe Yabuki from Ashita no Joe! Also, can’t we have at least a comedic moment? I want Sano to make me laugh his with idiocy, or Kenshin act like a klutz, or Yahiko have a brother-sister like argument. Where the hell was all that? Did a bunch of emos write this shit or something? And one last thing? Where the fuck was Saitou? He deserves his right to settle his score with Kenshin dammit!!! I know Saitou in the manga sort of buried the hatchet, but I still think we need a fight at least for the sake of some kind of closure to that rivalry whether or not the Kenshin that he is now wouldn’t give Saitou the fight he wants. If they managed to squeeze that, I would have forgiven this oav for it’s flaws.

The art style and character design is pretty much the same from the first oav, so nothing too much to add and it does make up for the bullshit story. I’ll also admit it also still suits the more serious mood. In the flash back scenes, I did like how they executed the Jin-E and Kenshin fight, and I liked how they made Sano’s hair look more realistic, but yet still feel true to the character, and I thought his Rambo look was pretty cool. There is action, but I felt it could have had more. I thought the Enishi and Kenshin fight didn’t live up to the manga and we really don’t see any of the other cast members such as Kenji, Yahiko, or Sano in action either.


Pretty much the voice acting cast from the TV series is back and still do their roles well and in conjunction to the tone of the TV series. And Enishi is played by Sasaki Nozomu most famous for playing Yusuke from Yuu Yuu Hakusho and Tetsuo from Akira, and I felt he brought those qualities to Enishi as well. The music presence in this oav is pretty much the same from the last so you can see my review on that in that oav as well.

All I can say is that the ending to this OAV is pretty much an insult to the franchise and its fans. They managed to do the origin story very well, and they had no excuse to fuck up with this one. You might as well end it with Kenshin meeting Tom Cruise in his last samurai character and deciding to convert to the church of scientology to atone for his sins. To me, the people who wrote this god awful story raped Kenshin in the same light that Lucas and Spielberg raped Indiana Jones. Just animate the whole fucking Jinchuu arc and you had what I would call an epic master piece, but instead, we get an epic piece of crap.