| Rurouni Kenshin | |
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| るろうに剣心 (Rurouni Kenshin) |
Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story (るろうに剣心 明治剣客浪漫譚 Rurōni Kenshin Meiji Kenkaku Romantan?)[1] is a manga and anime series created by mangaka Nobuhiro Watsuki. The story is set during the early Meiji period in Japan. The English versions of the OVAs as well as the movie are released as Samurai X, although the original title was included in the DVD releases. The series tells the story of an assassin named Himura Kenshin, who was known as the Hitokiri Battōsai ("Man killer - Master of the Sword"). Kenshin later grieves for all the lives he has taken, and vows that he will never kill again.
The manga originally appeared in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump from September 2, 1994 to November 4, 1999, and the completed work consists of 28 tankōbon volumes. The United States release of the manga has been completed by VIZ Media. Rurouni Kenshin is subtitled "Wandering Samurai" in some English releases, as a rough translation of "Rurouni."
Writer Kaoru Shizuka has written an official Rurouni Kenshin novel titled Voyage to the Moon World. The novel has been translated by VIZ Media and distributed in the United States and Canada.
Plot overview
The story starts with Kenshin meeting Kaoru in Tokyo. Kaoru is in pursuit of a man who claims to be the Battousai, and at first believes Kenshin is the man, but after seeing Kenshin's clumsiness and "sakabato" ("reverse blade sword"), she decides he can't possibly be the legendary manslayer. The actual culprit turns out to be a former student of the Kamiya dojo who seeks revenge after being expelled. Kaoru is captured and held captive by the fake Battousai, but Kenshin appears on the scene, reveals that he is the real Battousai, and proceeds to defeat both the fake and his gang without killing any of them. He uses a powerful, ancient style of swordsmanship known as "Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu." When offered a place at the dojo, Kenshin decides to temporarily stop being a Rurouni and stay at the dojo, starting the first of three manga arcs.
Characters
Usage note: Character names are given in Japanese order with the given name after the family name. The English anime dub uses the Western order (family name after the given name) while the English manga uses the Japanese order.
Nobuhiro Watsuki, in each tankōbon, details the creation of the characters, as well as the influences he had for the characters' personality and design. Influences include historical figures (prominently seen with members of the Shinsengumi) and fictional sources including X-Men and Marvel characters, and SNK video games characters, mainly Samurai Shodown and Last Blade ones.
Rurouni Kenshin main characters:
- Himura Kenshin (Kenshin Himura)
- Kamiya Kaoru (Kaoru Kamiya)
- Sagara Sanosuke (Sanosuke Sagara)
- Myōjin Yahiko (Yahiko Myojin)
- Takani Megumi (Megumi Takani)
- Saitō Hajime (Hajime Saito)
- Makimachi Misao (Misao Makimachi)
Media
Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story
A prototype series titled Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story[2] first appeared as a pair of separate short stories published in 1992 and 1993 in the manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump Special.
The story released in the first manga features an earlier version of Himura Kenshin helping a wealthy girl named Raikōji Chizuru. Chizuru would later be the prototype for Rurouni Kenshin's heroine, Kamiya Kaoru. Chizuru also makes a cameo in the Seishouhen OVA with Kenji in the final scene.
The second story, which though released second in the manga format was indeed the first 'Rurouni' one-shot, has Kenshin saving the Kamiya family's dojo from a corrupt crime lord who seeks to marry the family's oldest daughter, Megumi (later to become Takani Megumi), with the aid of her younger siblings, Kaoru and Yahiko (the heir to the Kamiya dojo, later to become Myojin Yahiko). While Kaoru and Yahiko's characters are similar to their incarnations in Rurouni Kenshin, Megumi's personality is distinctly different as she is more timid and submissive than her eventual incarnation in the series, and Watsuki has noted her personality from that part has been transferred to the character of Sekihara Tae.
Rurouni Kenshin
In 1994, Watsuki created an ongoing version that was published in Shonen Jump until its conclusion in 1999. The manga consists of 28 tankōbon volumes. The storyline of Kenshin is divided into three storyline arcs: Tokyo, Kyoto, and the Jinchū (人誅編 Jinchū-ban?). The Jinchū arc (also known as the "Ending Arc", "Revenge Arc", and sometimes spelled "Jinchuu Arc") was not animated, except for the parts about Kenshin's background which formed one of the OVAs released.
The Jinchū arc contains a large amount of Himura Kenshin's backstory including the meeting of his first wife, (Yukishiro Tomoe), and the events that resulted in his infamous cross-shaped scar. The story arc is primarily focused on characters from Kenshin's years spent as the Hitokiri Battōsai, who seek revenge against him for his past actions. The Jinchū arc also has a stronger romantic theme to it.
Yahiko no Sakabatō
In 2000, it was followed up by Yahiko no Sakabatō (弥彦の逆刃刀 ("Yahiko's Reversed-Edge Sword")?), which VIZ Media released in the September 2006 edition of Shonen Jump. The story follows the character of Myojin Yahiko, who reluctantly accepts an assignment to teach at the Kikuhara Kasshin Shintō style dojo. At the dojo, Yahiko finds that Midori, the daughter of the dojo's master, and three students are being held hostage by a criminal, Mutō Kaname, and his followers. Yahiko quickly defeats Mutō and a police officer, Lieutenant Kitaki, who attacks Mutō with the blind belief that all criminals must be executed for the sake of the Meiji era. Yahiko returns to the students and subjects them to harsh training for the rest of his duration at the dojo.
He returns to Tokyo at the end of the month and then takes off to Akabeko to visit Sanjō Tsubame, not knowing the whole trip was planned by Kenshin for Yahiko to become stronger.
Kenshin Kaden
Haru ni Sakura is six pages long and in full color. The story takes place years after the manga's conclusion, when Kenshin and Kaoru have married and have a young son, Kenji. Many of the series' major characters who have befriended Kenshin reunite (or otherwise reveal their current whereabouts) with him in a spring picnic.
Rurouni Kenshin Kanzenban
Starting in July of 2006, the Japanese publishers of Rurouni Kenshin released the long-awaited kanzenban edition. Each Rurouni Kenshin kanzenban volume features a new cover, and there's also a color panel inside the book that is new art as well. The Rurouni Kenshin kanzenban is slated to run 22 volumes (as opposed to the original 28 Tankōbon each book will contain more chapters than the basic editions), with two coming out monthly. As a bonus, the Rurouni Kenshin kanzenban will include "Yahiko no Sakabato", an extra story that ran in Shonen Jump and was never collected into a book in Japan. In Germany it was added to volume 28.
Novels
Originally from Shueisha's Jump j-Books. Voyage to the Moon World is an original story (that was later adapted in the anime), but the rest are adaptations of manga and anime stories. Only Volume 1 has been translated into English so far.
- Volume 1
- Voyage to the Moon World and Sanosuke and the Nishiki-e By Kaoru Shizuka (1996/10). ISBN 1421506041
- Volume 2
- Yahihiko's Battle and Kurogasa By Kaoru Shizuka (1997/10). ISBN 4087030636
- Shimabara Arc
- TV Anime Shimabara Arc (#67-76) 1999/2. ISBN 4087030776
Anime
The television series was split into three approximate seasons, with the first 27 episodes generally following the Tokyo Arc, episodes 28-62 closely following the Kyoto Arc, and episodes 63-95 being "filler" non-manga based episodes designed so that Watsuki could have more time to finish the Jinchuu plot so it could be animated. The anime series slid from high popularity after the Kyoto Arc because of all the "filler" episodes to eventual cancellation before the Jinchū/Revenge Arc could be animated. The anime series began airing on Japan's Fuji TV on January 10, 1996 and ended on September 8, 1998. It was produced by Aniplex (formerly SPE Visual Works) and Fuji TV, and was animated from episode 1 to 66 by Studio Gallop, whereas the episodes from 66 onwards were animated by Studio Deen. The TV series was later licensed in North America by Media Blasters.
The animated series enjoys immense popularity worldwide, and although designed primarily for young male fans, its detailed exploration of emotion and relationships (especially the romantic relationship that develops between Kenshin and Kaoru to eventual marriage) attracts many young female followers as well.
Movie
A movie, Samurai X: The Motion Picture , known in Japan as Ishin Shishi he no Requiem (―維新志士への鎮魂歌 Requiem for the Ishin Patriots?)[3] which tells a story where Kenshin meets a samurai who was very close to a man Battosai murdered in the war. The samurai is trying to start a revolution to overthrow the Meiji government.
OVAs
The OVA series, which features a number of historical characters, attempts to be more realistic and accurate than the TV series, which begins as a romantic comedy but evolves into a period drama. The OVA made use of live footage spliced with animation cells giving the series a different feel than straight animation. Both OVAs were re-released internationally in "Director's Cut" forms that spliced the separate "episodes" together into continuous movies, as well as adding some extra footage. The order of musical cues in both director's cut OVAs were significantly lessend and altered, although the tracks themselves were not altered or omitted.
The first OVA series, Samurai X: Trust and Samurai X: Betrayal , known in Japan as Tsuiokuhen (追憶編 Recollection?)[4] and later edited into a movie as Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal -Director's Cut, was set during the downfall of the Tokugawa shogunate and telling of Kenshin's childhood and teenhood. Only a few characters from the TV series appear in this OVA, namely Kenshin, Kenshin's master, Hiko Seijuro (Seijuro Hiko in the English anime), and Saitō Hajime (Hajime Saito in the English anime), as well as a cameo by Makoto Shishio in silhouette at the end. The OVA mainly depicts the life of Kenshin as Battosai and his time with his first wife, Tomoe. Kenshin is nine years old at the beginning and eighteen years-old at the end of the OVA.
The second OVA series Samurai X: Reflection , known in Japan as Seisōhen (星霜編 Time?) [5] and later edited into a movie as Samurai X: Reflection -Director's Cut, was set both during and after the TV series and telling of Kenshin and Kaoru's later years, differs from the manga on many key plot points, such as the details in regard of the Jin-e and Enishi fights. The OVA is best described as a montage of singular events surrounding the life of Kenshin, told from the point of view of Kaoru.
Sakabatō
The sakabatō (逆刃刀, lit. reverse-blade sword) is the main weapon of the character Himura Kenshin. It was created by Nobuhiro Watsuki as an original weapon that represents Kenshin's unwillingness to kill.
On a normal katana, the outwardly curved side of the sword is sharp, while the inwardly curved side of the sword (棟, mune) is blunt. In contrast, the sakabatō has the cutting edge on the inwardly curved side of the sword.
Although the origin of the sakabatō is the cause of some confusion amongst fans, Watsuki has stated in an interview that the sakabatō was his creation. There is no record of reverse-bladed katana ever having been used historically in Japan and there is no existing school of swordsmanship that employs them. However, since the manga was published, non-functional sakabatō have been produced for purchase by collectors and fans.
Trivia
- Kenshin's original Japanese dialogue contains some unusual words which can cause problems in translation. Most of the time, he refers to himself with the extremely humble pronoun "sessha" (translated by Viz as "this one") and uses the formal verb "de gozaru" (conveyed by MediaBlasters by sentence-final phrases like "...that it is"). He shares this vocabulary with some characters in other series, such as Goemon Ishikawa from Lupin III. (However, he refers to himself in the first person in the English version of the anime.) He also addresses most women with an honorific that was generally reserved for feudal lords; the translation "Miss Kaoru" does not really express the same degree of extreme courtesy as "Kaoru-dono". When in Battōsai persona, Kenshin stops being so polite; "de gozaru" disappears, and "sessha" is replaced with the more typical brash male pronoun "ore". Kaoru is quick to catch onto this fact, as is demonstrated after the fight with Jin-e.
- Both Kenshin's name and his semi-nonsensical exclamation "oro" are tributes to Watsuki's favorite comedian, Ken Shimura. As used by Shimura and Watsuki, "oro" expresses surprise or dismay, based on the similar exclamation "ara" (generally considered feminine). As proper Japanese vocabulary, "oro" only exists as a word for lochia. It seems in the English version that "oro" has been translated into "huh?" in the English anime dub (Although in episode 62 of the dub, Kaoru notices that Kenshin is saying "oro" rather than "huh?") . However, "oro" is kept intact in the English manga.
- The source of Kenshin's cross scars were introduced later in the series (or in the animated version, during the OVA), but the source of the idea was revealed during an interview with the creator of the series. During concept design, Nobuhiro Watsuki started out with the usual, stereotypical masculine swordsman. He then proceeded to draw a character that, in appearance, was the complete antithesis of the other design. Even he felt that the character design of Kenshin resembled a girl. He added the scars, out of desperation, to make the character look more manly.
- The word Battōsai (抜刀齋) translates into Master of Sword Drawing. Battō (抜刀) is the action of drawing a sword; Sai is a suffix which has no literal meaning, but in this context, can refer to having mastered a set of skills or knowledge. The name directly indicates Kenshin's mastery of all forms of Battōjutsu. However, Kenshin did not give himself this name, nor does he value it.
- The name Samurai X was created to be used as an international name for the Rurouni Kenshin series, it is used for many different versions of the series. ADV Films' English language release of the OVA's and the movie used the Samurai X as so not to confuse their releases with Media Blasters, which had the TV series. This name is unpopular with fans of the series, who also point out that Kenshin was not technically a samurai to begin with, although a few fans of the OVAs say Samurai X makes Kenshin sound more brutal. His use of a surname before the end of the Shogunate may mean that the Ishin Shishi granted him a samurai-equivalent status although he was born into a family of peasant farmers (peasants were not permitted to have family names).
- Watsuki, being a fan of American comics, particularly Marvel, based some of the characters in Rurouni Kenshin on various characters in X-Men, Spider-Man and numerous other Marvel characters. Kenshin's enemy, Jin-E, was physically based on Gambit while Shinomori Aoshi's long coat and the length of his double-kodachi (based on Gambit's cue stick/bō) are borrowed from the same character. Saito Hajime's character design (dark blue uniform, white gloves, hairstyle and 5 o'clock shadow) and credo of brutally killing those who are evil were patterned after The Punisher while his smoking habit and penchant for sarcastically berating his friends (especially Sanosuke) are inspired by Wolverine. Moreover, Kenshin himself also exhibits wit, sensibilities, and morals similar to Spider-Man. The character design of Yatsume Mumyoi, a character from the Jinchu arc (see above) is extremely similar to the supervillain Venom from Spider-Man, something which Watsuki himself points out in his respective character-commentary section. The cloak of Hiko Seijūrō, Kenshin's master, Watsuki admits in one of the manga commentaries was inspired by the cloak of Spawn.
- According to Watsuki's Secret Life of Characters sections, his characters are also visually based on characters from other popular anime series. Sanjō Tsubame's haircut was modeled on Hotaru Tomoe's from the Sailor Moon series while Yukishiro Tomoe and Honjō Kamatari are based on Rei Ayanami and Yui Ikari respectively of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- The alternate title for Kenshin, Samurai X, is used in another Watsuki series; Buso Renkin. The Sword Samurai X is Shusui Hayasaka's Buso Renkin (an alchemic weapon).
- In the first appearances of Yahiko, he is shown to be naming himself as Myōjin Yahiko, Tokyo Samurai, though by Meiji era, most members of the samurai class became shizoku, who retained the same salary but were no longer permitted to wear and draw a katana unnecessarily in public. In later releases by Viz depicting Yahiko's introduction, Yahiko refers to himself as Tokyo Shizoku, confusing many of the readers who had seen the previous edition. In the English dub by MediaBlasters, he refers to himself as "Yahiko Myojin: Son of a Samurai."
- This series is also, in part, inspired by the classic SNK game Samurai Shodown, as Watsuki frequently makes references to the game and its characters in his own character notes. It is also noteworthy that the Last Blade games series, also from SNK, has many characters that in turn took elements from Rurouni Keshin characters, most notably Moriya Minakata, whose cloak was inspired by that of Hiko Seijuro and whose primary skills are in battoujutsu.
- The character Baiken from Guilty Gear was heavily inspired by Kenshin, to the point where her initial physical appearance in the first game was a pallette swap of Kenshin. It is said that Daisuke Ishiwatari (the character designer) got the idea when he saw a picture of Kenshin and mistook him for a woman.
- There is a scene in the manga, during the beginning of the Jinchuu arc where Kenshin tells his friends of his past and of Yukishiro Tomoe, where in one page, Kenshin is not wearing two toed socks, yet the page after and the following one clearly shows his wearing two-toed socks.
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