This work has undoubtedly a deserved cult status for its performance at the time. Many still see her as a heavyweight of her time and would call this shounen even today one of the best.
Note, I only watched the anime adaptation and not read the manga. The manga is supposed to be better and also have a different ending, I don't know about this.
At the time, he was definitely one of the more individual anime among the anime. The portrayal of the old Japanese era in which there was a lot of cruelty has given the series a certain atmosphere.
Apart from that, the series has some nice portrayals of sword fights and techniques, even if the adaptation at the time couldn't raise enough funds to give the fights the right dynamic.
What unfortunately prevents "Rurouni Kenshin" from passing through as a good work today are its actual qualities apart from the setting and topic.
As expected, this series had a pretty weak plot with a subtle ending fight, but practically nothing happened along the way. Most of the fights had little real impact except for the 2-3 important ones. This series made many mistakes that you would also find in "Inuyasha".
The build-up of tension was practically impossible, most of the various arcs are enormously Shounen-typical and clichéd with the corresponding plot armor. It took a lot of stamina to get to episode 90 at all.
One of the biggest problems with this Anime was clearly the characters. The protagonist has a very popular Japanese approach with the passive swordsman that you hear a lot about from the old Japanese films. The warrior has laid down his sword and no longer wants to kill. You see this approach more often than you might think, but it always depends on the implementation. Not much was made of it here, even if you at least understand the protagonist's motives. Otherwise, his personality is quite off-putting, uninteresting, and anything but personable. Especially with his usual boring running gag, which is just as bad as Naruto's "Datebayo".
The antagonist of the anime was subtle, he had a background, ambition but he was more the "cool" type of villain than the interesting and fascinating.
Most of the other supporting characters have been literal sidekicks. Without her, the anime could have been pretty much the same. In particular, these were neither personable, interesting, nor profound. The female protagonist was also only a decoration. It's a shame, especially with such an unstable protagonist, you could have built very nice relationships with other characters. This was definitely not the case.
The animations were pretty impressive for the time, especially when it came to the shounen aspects. The backgrounds are satisfactory. I found the sword duels particularly positive, they lacked an enormous amount of dynamism, but they were visually beautiful.
Musically speaking, this work only has average intros and outros, but some very appropriate Osts that underline the theme and the old days well.
In general, at least the anime adaptation is mostly a disappointment. By and large, this work has hardly any strengths and, due to its excessive number of episodes, has too much-unused space. Apart from the final arc, which "apparently" should be a filler and even an enormously bad one.
You can look at it, especially if you like such topics and have few demands.
Story 4
Art 6
Sound 6
Character 4
Enjoyment 4
Overall 4
