"You obtain a wonderful large, one of a kind book, this book is very well written, highly valuable - you can't wait to read it.
Along the way, you incure a very, VERY tiny tear towards it's spine, most people won't notice.
You eventually get to the end of this book, yet you remember that insignifican tear somewhere within the book.
What do you do?...
Leave it alone and stick eith the notion of it being unlikely to draw attention to itself?
Or
Do you get sticky tape to patch it up - erasing the tear, yet making the book look worst?"
The latter option applies to this OVA!
Story...
This relies on filling in cracks which wheren't really there, just to prove something has been done - a lot like throwing an additional, unnessessary 200 adjectives into your well written story just so you can say "the story is longer then before" and give off the illusion of finer detail, when accutally, the oly thing your doing is dragging the thing out.
The OVA occurs during a very popular and importiant part of the story us viewers all know well, but we don't particullarly follow our main, this time, we 'alledgedly' see the story threw the eye's of temporary sidekick at the time Misao - really, we don't - Misao is simply a window for the first time viewer who's just watching to see what happens next, there isn't too much narrative from her and she's almost completely out of character.
Throw the above into the mix with this - there is no particular main character!
The story consists of the characters we know doing what we know they were doing/capiable of at the time, we see pretty much just as much of Misao's viewpoint as we do of:
- Kaoru and Yahiko on a fairly insignificant leg of their journey in pursuit of Kenshin (such as riding on a boat, which they'd obviously do, walking threw the woods taliking about nothing particularly importiant and doing chores whilst freeloading with Hiko - all of their events are uneventful and receive roughtly less then a minute in screentime)
- Shishio getting challenged by nobodies (who within the series liked the guy? we knew he was strong, so what chances are these saps going to stand, and don't expect a fight scene)
- Kenshin in re-cycled scenes (fight scenes that have been edited into a significantly less violent, short burst of energy)
On that final point^, I'll move onto the scenes... ??? Lousy!?
These fights are not re-mastered, they are lazy - highly uneventful, though nothing can really happen to be honest as they're trying to stick to what is cannon, there is pretty much no re-master scenes, it's almost fairl to say their is no fight scene; it's a redux in animation with the actual 'action' being cut out of fast tracked - it's as if we're getting a 4Kids cencored version of what we saw previously.
The lack of lack of deatil in the movement and character design in general screems 'low budget' - which takes me to the art.
Art...
Rurouni Kenshin is classed as an 'older' anime, the art style back then appeared to focused heavily on as many regions of fine detail possible.
After watching this OVA, I appreciate the old art style even more now!
The art style in this OVA is what you see in many anime's today - very 2D looking basic sketches with little enthesis on; body proportions, facial features and shading; highly unfluid in movement; at times, just a still face-and-body forward figure with a moving mouth - like a cardboard cut-out.
Everyone pretty much looks the same - as if three nude character designs where illustrated and the entire cast was created simply by 're-colouring' them. The characters have lost their individuality - all the girls are 'pretty', with virtually the same undetailed, almost vaccant, dazed face that lacks a hint of character - for example, we have Shishio's girlfriend Yumi - originally, she's pretty enough but has a bit of a 'harsh' look to her, now, she has a softer look and even appears to have a smaller (more feminien).
Basically, they have conformed to modern anime art - some detail in the eyes, but nothing else, which is fine with modern anime and would be fine if this is how things looked in the first place, but compare the before and after - this is a downgrade and a half!
Sound...
The backing music is nothing special, either is the ending track - they just fit, so make of that what you will. ;)
The characters voices sound fine.
Characters...
Like a poor fanfic - the personality is absent with the cast in this OVA.
Remember back to how they all behaved at the time in the anime:
Kenshin
Was - quite positive and approachable yet was on a serious journey, basically, a non nonscence character who wasn't cold.
Now - vaccant, not 'mean' vaccant, but just 'dazed straight faced' vaccant.
Misao
Was - high energy, naive, mouthy teen girl with a goal.
Now - fairly sensible and quite.
Kaoru
Was - a tsundere who was pretty stroppy, somewhat grown up but selfishly idealistic.
Now - sensible sweet girl in love who takes what's going on in her stride.
Yahiko
Was - an energetic pre-teen who could do with keeping is gob shut at times.
now - fairly sensible, only a little mouthy.
Basically, everyone has taken a 'chill pill'; they have been all sculpted into 'insert' characters and the Mary Sue versions of themselves - someone who has never seen the anime tuning into this wouldn't know anything about their personalities; something the anime manages to put forward in virtually any and every appearance a character makes; no matter how small.
Enjoyment...
All I have listed above tells me that production are simply heavily reliant on suporters of the series getting excited at some new* material coming out whilst ignoring the content which little to no effort has been applied to.
This OVA is just like a poor fanfic that occurs during cannon times, inwhich the author has copied and pasted the some of the ep' description and synced it into their work to cut corners, whilst they have no intention of bringing anything original to the table.
Almost enjoyment really. :(
Overall...
Waste of time, no matter what your expectations and preferances are - this is pretty much a very mellowed out re-cap.
