STORY/9: the story is honestly just amazing. A series about a wanderer wanting to repent for all the people he killed in the past really stuck out to me. The story does kinda start out slow with a good amount of pointless filler, which is really the main reason I gave it a 9/10, but once you get to episode 28, the series goes from ok to fantastic. The entirety of the Kyoto arc is just amazing and everything about it is awesome. The fight with Kenshin and Saito was incredible and still is my favorite anime fight to this day, and the scene where Kenshin says goodbye to Kaoru hit me hard. Really the story becomes even better once we’re fully introduced to Shishio. All of the fight scenes really just make the story even better. The fight with Sojiro was great and when he said “If you protect the weak, then where were you when I need you” honestly just made this all more captivating. The fight with aoshi was entertaining and the fight with him in the Megumi rescue arc was great. Saito vs Usui, though it was short, it was well done, and the fight with Sanosuke and Anji honestly hit me in the feels. If we are talking about how the fight scenes affect the story, let’s talk about the fight with Shishio. The entire fight was just so incredible and I was honestly surprised by how well they did it. They didn’t mess anything up and just made it so that the whole thing can really make you just keep watching because of how it’s done. I’ve never really seen any other anime that does something like that other than Yu Yu Hakusho. Honestly the entire story is just amazing and it just knows how to keep its audience interested and captivated. Of course, it would’ve have been a 10/10 if they didn’t just release nonstop filler and animated the jinchuu arc
ART/8: The art style is really pleasing, and the animation is really well done, just check out the Saito fight and the goodbye scene, they’re so beautifully animated and overall the animation is surprising well done for a show from the 90s. However, like a lot of anime from that time, it has a lot of recycled animation, and it can look a little choppy at times. I really noticed the recycled animation were at a couple moments with the fight with that cone head guy. Overall, it’s honestly really good, the animation does get a little sloppy during the third season, but that season was garbage anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
CHARACTERS/10: The characters are just so phenomenal and they were perfectly able to capture their personalities from the manga. Kenshin is honestly my favorite character of all time, and I was surprised how well he was written in ANY of the franchise and how quickly I connected with him. The rest of the kenshingumi are really good and Sanosuke is the best written fit he group other than Kenshin. The characters become better once the Kyoto arc begins. Saito is so cool and he’s pretty awesome, and I get chills whenever he draws his sword. I also love aoshi. He’s just so amazing and one of the best characters in the series. Misao is the best girl in the series, yes, I consider her better than Kaoru and Megumi, but they are really good. Sojiro is the best villain, not just in the series, but also ever (at least in my opinion lol). He isn’t as well written as Shishio, but they did a great job with his character. His entire backstory gave me anxiety and traumatized me as a kid. I feel so bad for him and I just want to give him a hug. Shishio is incredible. He is just incredible and I connected with him a lot more than I thought I would. His death scene where he goes to hell was just really good and terrifying. There’s also yumi. Just mentioning her because she was a good character and the death scene hits harder after watching trust and betrayal, seeing how Kenshin was angry at Shishio for killing his girlfriend, because he went through it himself because (SPOILER) He killed his wife when he was the battousai, so this entire scene just kinda foreshadowed Tomoe and it’s amazing. Also there’s a lot of funny characters, like Yahiko, one of the main kenshingumi who is kinda ignored for the series, but still got me some laughs, and Kamatari made me laugh and little me was actually surprised when it was revealed he was a boy, his reveal in the manga was a lot funnier where he just shows his man area.
SOUNDTRACK/10: Not going to go as deep into it as the previous three, but the soundtrack honestly has the best out of any anime. Not only are the OSTs just so chilling, amazing, and emotional, but the openings and endings are bops and I still listen to Namida wa shitteru (which Kenshins seiyuu actually sung!), fourth avenue cafe, and 1/3 junjou na kanjou regularly. Just such a good soundtrack.
OVERALL 9/10:
Rurouni kenshin is just such an amazing show and the only reason I didn’t give it a 10/10 was filler and that the anime never actually got an ending and just ended with a boring and confusing arc. But I highly recommend this show, trust me, you won’t regret it
