Rurouni Kenshin: Greatness, or an overrated show that came along at the right time?

Kenshin was a pretty good show, BUT I maintain that the Samurai X OAVs are nothing short of astounding. Samurai X has always been my recommendation to people who would like to get into the genre and are looking for their very first exposure.
 
Well, when Akira Toriyama started to do the more serious fights in Dragonball, he had already finished a good chunk of the series and Dr. Slump on top of that. One Piece's serious fights haven't really been all that exciting in the early goings (Luffy vs. Arlong was probably the best), but Kenshin was Watsuki's first foray into the manga world. Hell, the Kyoto arc was Watsuki's first-ever elognated storyline. Not to mention that the story changes rather quickly based on Watsuki's feelings (Aoshi joining Shishio) or production schedule (the first six volumes/almost everything in the Jinchu arc after that death). He freely admits that around Volume 26, Watsuki was exhausted, which is expected when one starts out on his first manga. He also had to pretty much write most of the story on the fly, since he never expected it to succeed.
 
I disagree. The OVA is not what Kenshin is, it doesn't represent what made the series so popular in the first place (Watsuki's ability to change gears from slapstick to romance to dramatic so easily). Their first exposure should be Watsuki's comic (don't think I'm insulting you here, I just strongly disagree).



After eleven years of Dragonball Toriyama was exhausted so it's not all that surprising Watsuki would be tired after...was it nine years? Either way I've always liked how Watsuki's volumes stacked up (1-6 being the Tokyo Saga, 7-17 being Kyoto and 18-28 being Jinchū).
 
Personally I always found the OVAs pretentious junk then again I'm pretty far in the minority there. The T.V. series was good but not all THAT great I thought. I can certainly understand why it's popular, but I'll never get how anyone can say it's "Among the greatest anime ever made!" or something. As someone else pointed out all of the characters are "types", which I don't necessarily have a problem with, but they don't do much to break out of the usual mold. Kenshin himself and Saito were really the only ones who seemed kind of unique. Kaoru was a pretty lame character IMO, as was that ninja girl who was raised by Aoshi (sorry I can't remeraber her name). Actually pretty much all of the female characters were pretty underwhelming except for Megumi. And the constant speeches and soliloquies being traded in the middle of an intense fight to the death could get pretty ridiculous at time. So good, not great I'd say.
 
It's one of my favorites, and still good. Buso Renkin follows a similar optimistic, speech-driven formula, only with a different setting. But I'm finding Watsuki series a nice read...simply because I end up caring about the characters almost right from the beginning.



...Or just animate the last arc as a 26-episode add-on mini-series, as I suggested in a thread weeks ago.

That is what bothers me. Especially since I'm seeing other shonen shows get better treatment (Bleach, Naruto...Yeah, yeah, circumstances are different now, but still...) I really wish they'd do something with it, because it is the best arc, and it's the whole reason Watsuki wrote the series in the first place. I mean, I know it won't happen, but come on, this show feels like a zorabie with unfinished business...
 
Not at all. Disagreeing with me is never insulting. On the other hand 'You're WRONG!' would have been insulting, which you didn't do.

Bear in mind I never said the OVA was the official definition or true spirit of the character, I simply said I vastly prefer the OVA over the anime. On that point we'll just have to agree to disagree.
 
I think the RK manga is a masterpiece. It's a story that balances out action, humor, drama and tragedy in just the right amounts and places and also has plenty of character development.

When we first meet Kenshin in the Tokyo Arc, he's a complete mystery. All we know about him is he was Hitokiri Battousai, but now he refuses to kill. The mystery of just who Himura Kenshin is unravels a bit at a time starting with the arrival of Saitou in the Kyoto Arc and the culmination of the story in the Jinchuu Arc where all of Kenshin's secrets and his very soul, are laid bare.

In the end, Kenshin is forced to face and conquer the demons he's been running from since the Bakumatsu. If he doesn't, the price is his sanity.

The anime while certainly good by anime standarRAB is very disappointing compared to the manga due to the inclusion of filler characters, arcs and episodes and the exclusion of the all-important Jinchuu Arc.

The Tsuiokuhen OVA is a masterpiece in its own right. However, it is not a substitute for Remerabrances in the manga's Jinchuu Arc. It is however, an excellent war tragedy that can stand completely on its own as a movie.

Seisouhen is just garbage due to the shabby treatment it gives to the Jinchuu Arc and Yukishiro Enishi, turning him from a cool villain to a one-dimensional psychopath. In the manga, the fight with Enishi is the fight of Kenshin's life. In Seisouhen, it's just another fight where Kaoru's kidnapped and he has to save her.

Don't even get me started on what happens in the OVA afterward. Bleargh!
 
i absolutely love RK.
its my favorite manga of all time.
(the show is not as good but still great)

i believe its perfect in every way...it has action, comedy, history and romance.
i really dont how how to put in worRAB why i love it so much, i just do.

so no, i dont think its overrated.
 
Kenshin overrated? Honestly, I don't feel that way about it. Keeping in mind that I initially didn't like this show when it aired on Toonami, I could at least respect it for what it was. When I finally got a chance to re-watch it, I actually loved it, up until the end of the Kyoto arc. After that, the fillers dragged the TV anime's quality down.

As for the OVA's, I honestly enjoyed Trust and Betrayal. Sure, it lacked the mixture of humor and drama that both the manga and TV series had, but considering that it was only covering Kenshin's past, its serious and grim tone fit, since the manga was just as serious and dark during that portion of the story. The Reflection OVAs, on the other hand, were just pure mellodramatic crap, IMO.

And as for the manga....well, personally, I find it to be Watsuki's masterpiece, myself. And what's more surprising is that I have not been able to get into a single one of his other series. They all seem so ridden with cliches, or uninspired, compared to Kenshin, which actually just surprised me, knowing that they were all from the same mangaka.

Anyways, I feel that Kenshin is one of those series that gets just as much respect as it deserves. Its definitely not as overhyped as other popular Shounen Jump series that I have seen, and its also not underappreciated, either. It just has the right amount of praise, and that's why I personally don't see how its overrated. But, I suppose it all depenRAB on how much enjoyment you personally get out of the series.

As for me, I love the manga. Its easily the best action-oriented Shounen Jump manga that I have ever read. As for the anime, I do enjoy it, but due to its heavy amount of filler and lack of the Jinchuu arc, it pales in comparison to the manga, for me. Still, its a great series, and honestly, the only other 2 action shounen series which I like as much, or even a little bit more, than it, are Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter X Hunter, since Toriyama is even more awesome than Watsuki. I also enjoy Toriyama's Dragon Ball and Oda's One Piece, but neither series have been able to come close to impressing me with their story-telling and character development elemnts more than Rurouni Kenshin has.
 
Kenshin is an example of historical fiction at its best. Action comedy' romance, drama, etc. IMO it pust Inuyasha & Moribito to shame. But I talk of the Manga, the anime was good, but the last season being filler ruined the anime for me.

Overall Kenshin is awsome watasuki is the master of historical fiction, if only his other historical work, Gun Blaze West would get an anime or OVA.
 
As much as I respect and enjoy Rurouni Kenshin, I don't think it's exactly perfect. But, I don't really think it's overrated at this point. The fanbase isn't too big from what I can gather, either. Bigger than most Shounen Jump properties yes, but still.

That aside, when I first saw the series...well, I didn't watch it through, I admit that. But, when I did (around Kenshin VS Saito), I got pretty engaged. Not as much as the manga, I must admit that. I thought the characters were interesting enough. But, they don't exactly set the bar for characters or anything. But, not exactly too bland either. At least to me anyway.

The OVAs...well, I admit Trust and Betrayal was nice piece of work. But, collectively, I felt Kenshin was...a tad out of character there. It was nice to expand an importent part of his history, but...yeah. It's even more evident in Reflections.

The manga flowed better as a whole compared to the others, but it still kind of followed the same villain of the week formula. And, I imagine that'd get repetitive to some.

...but, yeah. RK has its charms.

I really hope they animate the Jinchu arc someday, though.
 
Compared to the big 3 hitters right now, no, I don't think RK is overrated. Granted I stopped watching the series when the Kyoto arc was over with. (Not like I had a choice in the matter. CN took it off. I suppose it was it smart move though.)

As Ryusuke stated, I don't think it's anywhere near perfect, but at the same time it does a lot of things right. (For me at least.)

My hooking point was the fight between Kenshin and Jineh.

And I'm also one of those rare folk that thought the anime was better than the manga, but that's because I got into the anime way before I even heard about manga. And even after reading the manga, I still feel that the anime is a tad bit better (not judging from the whole Jinchuu arc). But that's just me.

Speaking of the Jinchuu arc, if there was something that I had to choose that I felt was overrated it would be that arc. Maybe it was because of the final fights, especially between Kenshin and Enishi.

The jumping while in mid-air and nerves thingy don't sit well with me at all. And I just felt "bleh" after it was all said and done.

But yeah, I'd most definately take Rurouni Kenshin over Bleach, Naruto and One Piece any day of the week.
 
I don't know about the series, but the Kenshin manga was actually a literal best seller back when it was getting released. It made Viz lots of money and probably still does, with the Viz BIG editions still coming out. And all that success is deserved. It delivered both action and comedy while not forgetting to make the story about something. And when it was time to get deadly serious, it did that extremely well also. It had a point and it wrote several great & memorable characters. And everything was resolved perfectly in 28 volumes. Not short to the point that it's rushed, and not too long either.

It's one hell of a manga story. Possibly the best I've ever read. It's up there with One Piece. Naruto is clirabing toward its level.



Reflections is non-canon to the extreme, so that's natural. Trust and Betrayal adapts his past as told in the manga though, and if he feels out of character there he should. That means Trust and Betrayal did their jobs. Kenshin was a very, very different man back then.
 
Wandering Samurai arc - good storylines with some boring storylines (Raijuta/Pirate mini-arcs and then the couple of filler standalone episodes)

Kyoto arc - the defining point

Tales of the Meiji arc - very few good episodes, overall very boring

Had they just stopped when Kyoto ended, Kenshin would be greatness but since they didn't I'd really have to go with pretty good.
 
I like it a lot(though i agree the parts of the show after Kyoto aren't great, but still some fun moments hehe) havn't read the manga yet, plan to though it sounRAB like it would be good.

As for the OVAs? not gonna touch them with a ten foot pole.

I'd rank Kenshin and Bleach as possibly the best Shonen series, least IMO.
 
Watch the beginning of the Kyoto arc (well, the set-up for it anyways). My favorite episodes of the whole series
were those few episodes with Saito, and whoever directed the Kenshin-Karou parting scene did the manga so much justice with the music and firefly effects. I always forget which piece of classical music they use for that scene lol, but it's incredible...
 
Oh yeah, that was hard hitting stuff. That set of episodes were so well done. They set just the right mood for every scene.
 
Also, a quick search tells me that the music used was Cavalleria Rusticana's Intermezzo.

I did manage to see the very last filler episode a couple years ago.
It was pretty decent, trying to hit the romance between Kaoru and Kenshin, but the reason I liked it was how quiet the episode itself was before the **** would hit the fan with the next arc. It came off as really heavy and foreboding; a really nice artsy episode with no need of plot to guide it along.
 
You know, I never thought of it that way, but you're right. It does have a very... weighted feel to it. I mean, I didn't mind it as a finale, but as a precursor to the Enishi Arc it would work FANTASTICALLY.
 
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