I went into this expecting it to suck... and for the first 45 minutes, I was pretty spot on. I blame the utterly terrible English dub for this; while I can't really imagine anybody except the original cast of the Rurouni Kenshin series for these characters, Shanon Weaver is the only one which does a remotely decent voice acting job, and even he doesn't fit the happy, carefree side of Kenshin the way Cansino does. The other voice actors were terrible, unfitting picks, and it's just impossible to imagine anybody except the original cast for them. The rather bland plot certainly didn't help me look past the terribly flawed voice acting, either. Nothing special happened, and I couldn't get into it.
However, around the half way mark (the assassination attempt on the British ambassador), this suddenly became far, far better. Part of this is due to the fact that the main characters whose voices had been ruined became less present than they were in the first half, yes, but the plot actually picked up as well. The ending in particular really got to me - my jaw dropped when Shigure was killed. I should've expected it, but I didn't. And to think of poor Toki, all alone now... ;_; ...and poor Shigure, who lost a dear friend due to his mistake in judgment, was haunted by his mistake for the rest of his life, then lost everything from his comrades to his very life for a wasted, failed revolution... ;___;
So while the first half of the movie was fairly boring, the second half made this worth watching. It culminated perfectly in the last 10 minutes, and it did a great job at emphasizing the certain element the Rurouni Kenshin franchise highlights best: there's no right or wrong, just two opposing sides fighting for what they believe is justice.
6/10
Perhaps the distant part of the sky always seems clearest so that we'll always strive to reach it. |