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Rurouni Kenshin: The Gentle Wanderer Lunaescence profile GreatestJournal Friendster myOtaku Yahoo 360º FF.net



Help achieve justice for Peter S. Beagle, who has not been compensated for his help in making the Last Unicorn movie!


Rurouni Kenshin concluding stories: Yahiko no Sakabatou Haru ni Sakura

As a Kenshin fan who has read the manga, I can say without a doubt that Seisouhen is the most heinous betrayal of a manga by its anime counterpart that I've ever seen. The manga has a happy ending, where Kenshin stays with his wife and raises his child. There is never any mention of him leaving again to wander, getting a disease or any of this other garbage.

Everything in this OVA beyond Kenshin giving Yahiko his sword is filler and is in no way canon. The characters are bastardized beyond words. Kenshin becoming a deadbeat dad and negligent husband, Kaoru as this whiny, weepy woman who tells him it's OK to walk out on her and their son and "walk the spiritual path of atonement" and that she'll "wait as long as she has to" for him to return and then when he does return, asks him to infect her with his disease so she can follow him into death. Yeah, right! Really in character, really canon!

The background animation is well done, to be fair. But the characters themselves! They all have these weird, sunken, haggard features. Their eyes have no emotion in them. Kaoru's eyes are brown! What's up with that?

The supposed animation of the Jinchuu Arc is such a ripoff, it doesn't deserve to be called that. If it's the Jinchuu Arc, where are Gein, Banjin, Kujirinami, Otowa and Mumyoi? Where's the doll? Why doesn't Kenshin go to Rakuninmura? Where are all the others when Kenshin goes to the island to get Kaoru? They're not there because all of that, and thus the whole meaning of the story, was butchered out!

Kenshin's fight with Enishi is complete crap too. Kenshin actually allows Enishi to kick his face into the dirt and offers his life in exchange for Kaoru's? I can look through all my manga volumes and say that that is most definitely not canon!

It seems like the message of this OVA is Kenshin was never able to let go of his grief and guilt over Tomoe, Kaoru never gained the strength and resolve needed to keep Kenshin stable and that Kenshin became self-destructive after giving the Sakabatou to Yahiko. Again, I can look through my manga volumes and say that this is not canon.

This OVA betrays the message of Watsuki's manga, which is that one can best atone for one's sins by living instead of dying. The message of the OVA is that peace can only be found through death. Uh-huh. Really canon. My only prayer is that someday the real Jinchuu Arc will be animated and this betrayal, this blasphemy will pick up dust on the shelves.

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The Handsome Hitokiri


Ken wa kyoki. Kenjutsu wa satsujinjutsu. Donna kiregoto ya odaimaku wo kuchi nishite mo sore wa shinjitsu. Kaoru-dono no iterukoto wa ichido mo ono re no te wo kekashita koto ganai monogaiu, amatsu choroi zare goto de gozaru. Kerdomo sessha wa sonna shinjitsu yorimo Kaoru-dono no iu ama choroi zaregotgo hou ga suki de gozaru yo.

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Under cover of night, the handsome, red-haired hitokiri comes up behind his prey and strikes. Never a sound is heard.


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Comments

Viewing 10 of 20 comments.

The Scarlet Justice

05/16/2009 9:25 am

The Scarlet Justice

Hello. How have you've been? :3
Read any good RuroKen fics lately?
Gilbert Failschmidt

05/03/2009 11:27 am

Gilbert Failschmidt

… another Rurouni Kenshin fan? Huzzah. They seem to be so hard to find nowadays.
The Scarlet Justice

03/05/2009 6:05 am

The Scarlet Justice

Haha yeah Kenshin has his ways with scaring the bajeeberz out of his enemies, and yet he's so gentle most of the time. XD It takes quite a lot for Kenshin to get upset at his loved ones though. I wonder what he's like when he's jealous...if he ever gets jealous. o.o

So pretty much Kenji would be a little worse than Kenshin was at his adolescent age?

Oh, btw, the fanfic titled "A Giant and the Lion Club" is a really nice little Kenji story. ^^ Check it out if you already haven't.

LOL. I wouldn't put it past Sano, if he was desperate enough. XD Do you picture them with a girl or a boy?
The Scarlet Justice

03/04/2009 1:51 pm

The Scarlet Justice

I love it when Kenshin has random bouts of "battousaiism", like when he told Kanryu to shut up and when he shot death glares to those punks that were causing Yahiko and Tsubame trouble when they first met. XD Ah, Kenshin. <33 I was certainly surprised though when I learned more about his hitokiri days, even the anime was so vague. It's practically unbelievable to think that he was who he was, back then.

Yeah I think it would be a safe bet to say she's at least a year older, but oh well. Yahiko ends up growing taller than her in the timeskip away, so it's not like anyone can really tell. If Watsuki ever picks up the RuroKen series again, I'd like him to either do a spin-off series of Yahiko and the reserved blade, or one about older Kenji (with his parents alive, of course. >__>.

For the most part, SanoxMegumi is fandom, but had he not ran away I think they could've ended up being canon. I think they would make a rather nice couple, do you?
The Scarlet Justice

03/03/2009 4:51 pm

The Scarlet Justice

Ooh that's a good idea to have him find out that way. The whole 'Kenshin-tells-Kenji' is just so...expected. It'd be weird if Kenshin had set an exact date and time for when he plans to tell Kenji about it.

Yeah flippin Kanryu killed all of Aoishi's peeps. :c lolol current Kenshin looks even younger than young Kneshin. XD It's probably because his eyes are all big and friendly now. I don't like it how some people make it so, or think that, Battousai is Kenshin's split personality. It's who he was in the past, and hell - old habits die hard. So when Kenshin gets extremely provoked, his old self pops up. He didn't go all Battousai on Enishi though, did he? -can't remember quite clearly- But if he was calm and rational, it'd be because it involved Tomoe. Shewas his ex-wife's younger brother, even if he was off on his wagon at the time. Haha I loved t how he was reunited with his dad when he went to the Fallen City (or something along those lines?); it was a rather nice ending for Enishi.

-reading the chapters in which Tsubame first appears- Now, is Tsubame older than Yahiko? She calls hm Yahiko-chan and I believe she was a tad bit taller than him back then...
squad22345

03/03/2009 1:01 pm

squad22345

Hey I saw you on the forum, just wanted to say awesome character and cool layout!!
The Scarlet Justice

03/03/2009 12:19 pm

The Scarlet Justice

I agree. Arguing about the girls is really petty; they're both equally important to Kenshin, just in different ways.

Yeah I can tell that you really want to capture the character and make it realistic since you're questioning all these different possibilities and options. :] But I really do want to read a older Kenji fanfic that isn't tied to that blasted OVA.

Kenshin's beliefs are very pacifist-like and somewhat out of the norm back in those days, am I wrong? I wouldn't blame Kenji for wanting to kill a bad guy or two that he comes across, since in the manga Kenshin crossed paths with some really biiiiig assholes (Kanryu comes to mind lol). I really love Kenshin and his overall character though. He's one of my favorites, hands down. I saw the anime before read the manga, so when I started reading further into the series I was amazed to find out about wo he was in the past cause I would've never guessed it looking at him now. I think that's the big thing with the anime, and people who got hooked on that first. That one arc (the arc that had most of Kenshin's flashbacks in it) was left out. Hell...I didn't even KNOW Kenshin was 27 (I thought he was flippin 18 -shot-), or that he had a wife when watching the anime series.
The Scarlet Justice

03/02/2009 5:13 pm

The Scarlet Justice

Yeah that's pretty much the gist of it. Kaoru and Tomoe - do you favor one over another? I know there are many people who argue about whose better for Kenshin and all that. Like, Kaoru grows on you, and Tomoe...she just wasn't in the manga enough for you to get a feel of her character. She -sorta- had a personality. Though nevertheless, kudos to her for taming Battousai.

Aah, Saitou. Is he considered a good guy? He is a cop after all, even if he wanted to kill Kenshin at one point. I'm curious as to how Kenji will react when time does come for Kenshin to tell him about his past, Tomoe included. Even if he grows up to everything his father fears, eventually Kenji will have a wake up call (a.k.a. Shinya? hehe), and hopefully from there can be reformed. Do you picture him ever agreeing on Kenshin's philosophy?
The Scarlet Justice

03/02/2009 12:39 pm

The Scarlet Justice

Eeep, sorry for the late reply. I didn't see this message.



Yeah I'm just happy they got together, period. Watsuki sorta...skipped a part of their relationship growth, y'know? He had them at 'close-friends-and-almost-couple' to married with Kenji. XD But I guess with the Jinchuu Arc, you can basically tell that Kenshin loves Kaoru, and vice versa. I really liked that Arc. Not only because of the main topic of KenKao, but having Kenshin face Enishi sorta...wrapped everything up. Tomoe was the beginning of his vagabond days, after all.



True, I can see why you would have trouble with that. Watsuki left a lot open for Kenji's character. I really like small Kenji, but I'm not all that sure about big Kenji though lol. I think it's because of the fact that Kenji growing up to a killer would simply break Kenshin's heart. The way you picture him, would Kenji be a blatant murderer, slaying anyone that blocked his way including innocents? Or would he keep his father's philosophy of protecting people with the sword, but exclude the whole 'no killing' restriction?
The Scarlet Justice

02/28/2009 4:34 pm

The Scarlet Justice

Hehe fanfiction's really fun. I'm just glad they got together period, though Watsuki was hinting it throughout the series basically.

You should write a fanfic about Kenji's showdown with Shinya, his defeat, and what he does afterwards since you have a lot of in-depth knowledge about the RuroKen universe, with ideas to boot. :3

Is it just me, or has Gaia been glitching for you as well? I sometimes cannot view my mail without clicking at him over and over a few times, and recently I can't see my subscript. threads either.