Rurouni Kenshin Vol. 1: The Legendary Swordsman Review

Originally published on otakureview.net

The Intro

Just like thousands of other people I first became exposed to this anime during it's initial run on Cartoon Network. The story just grabbed me and forced me to watch but there are only so many times you can watch the same old edited and dubbed episodes on TV before you start to crave the real deal. So here I am reviewing the DVDs of the modern day classic anime, Rurouni Kenshin.

The Story

This is a historical anime taking place a decade after the great revolutionary war in Japan that brought about the Meiji era and brought down the corrupt shogun government. Kenshin Himura was a legendary swordsman in that war, graced with god like speed, he helped to win the war for the Imperialists and bring about a new government earning him the nickname "Battousai The Manslayer", but now he wanders the country protecting those who cross his path with his one sword as his own repentance for all those lives he took in the war with a vow to never kill again.

Four episodes are brought to us in this volume which introduce us to the four main characters which we will be following throughout the series. In the first episode we are introduced to Kenshin when he meets the assistant master of the Kamiya style dojo, Karou Kamiya, and saves her life when someone threatens to ruin the reputation of the school by killing people in cold blood and claiming to be a student of the style.

In episode two we are introduced to our next character which is a young kid named Yahiko. Descended from samurai blood, this kid has more pride in his thumb than most adults have in their entire bodies.

Over the course of the final two episodes we not only learn more of Kenshin's past and why he feels the need to repent for lives he took during a war but also meet the guy that I consider the best character in the entire series, Sanosoke Sagaura. While we don't actually get to know more about Sanosoke until later, you'll definitely want to keep an eye on him as no character goes through more development and growth besides him (with Yahiko being a possible exception).

The Good and the Bad

The first thing that will grab anyone about this series is the incredible animation. Absolutely beautiful, it was transferred over to DVD perfectly with no flaws to be seen by my eyes. All of the colors are crisp and bright when they need to be and then dark once again when things become dramatic.

One thing in particular that I loved were the animation in the fight scenes. Kenshin is supposed to move with god like speed with his sword and this is portrayed perfectly. Rurouni Kenshin has some of the best fight scenes in anime that I have ever seen and they only get better from here.

Dub vs. Sub

This is one of those rare anime titles where I consider the dub to be highly superior to the sub. I really enjoyed the dub track on this title and thought that all the titles were right on. Kenshin is voiced by a soft voiced male actor named Richard Hayworth who does a fabulous job of playing Kenshin as a soft spoken but nice guy when he's being casual but as dark and menacing when he is about to fight.

The second actor who stands out would be Lex Lang (Witch Hunter Robin) who plays Sanosoke with a deep voice that rarely wavers and is always cool as ice. I always enjoy hearing Lex Lang do voices and his Sanosoke is absolutely chilling!

The biggest complaint I have about the dub track is how much of it was edited. In the original Japanese version, there is quite a bit of cursing and four letters words being used but honestly I think that it added more flavor to the characters. When Yahiko swears, it's because he's an orphan who was then turned into a slave for the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) so of course he picked up the habit to curse a little but in the English dub, it's rare to hear any kind of curse word except for maybe once by Sanosoke (who actually swears the most).

One thing that might also be worth mentioning is the waitress at the restaurant, Tae, who speaks with a southern belle accent. While I know plenty of people who were annoyed by this I really didn't have a problem with it so while it's not a good or bad point to me, I felt it worth mentioning so that you would know ahead of time if you would be annoyed though her part is very minimal so I wouldn't be too worried.

Above I mentioned that the dub track was vastly superior to the sub track and while I do stand by that opinion, I suggest that you watch the sub track at least once so that you can see it without the editing and get to know the characters even more. While I am very much not a fan of the Japanese voice cast, I did enjoy the subbed version and felt like I knew the characters a lot more from that script as opposed to the English.

Music

I love the music in this series! Let's start at the beginning with the opening theme titled "Freckles" which starts with very hard guitar power chords but then moves quickly into an upbeat and poppy song which I ALWAYS have to sing along to no matter how much I resist. What's even better is that all the music for Rurouni Kenshin was translated into English which is an incredibly rare but welcome treat from this reviewer!

The next music to mention would be the music played in the series. Most of the music used is actually period music using instruments that were actually around during that time which I think is a clever and wonderful touch. It lends to the feeling of the time period and really helps to suck you in and make you feel like you are there in that time.

While occasionally we have music that isn't period and is actually played by full bands (mostly during fight scenes), all of this music is also wonderfully done and I enjoyed it. Every time the music starts to pick up, you know Kenshin is about to go Costco on someone (because when he opens a can of whup @$$, it's industrial size!) and it's going to be a sight to see!

I think the only music that I didn't enjoy in this volume was the closing theme which not only didn't fit in with the series but it had horrible background animation to go with it. I listened to it once in Japanese and half a time in English and then skipped it the rest of the time.

Extras

A big complaint I have here is that this volume packs tons of extras and yet none of them are delivered very well. First off we have an image gallery which is made up of two images. Not exactly a gallery if you ask me.

Second we have liner notes and character profiles both of which I would have found absolutely fascinating to read. The liner notes especially I wanted to read because it was quite extensive and really told a lot about not only the time period but also alot of the terms used in the series. Unfortunately, the text was so incredibly small on my screen that I could barely read them without straining my eyes and what little of it I could read was written so poorly that I almost felt cheated.

The last two extras are your standards which are the clean opening animation and trailers. While I wasn't interested in any of the trailers, I did check out the clean opening and really enjoyed it.

Overall

Overall, this is an incredibly wonderful anime title that belongs in EVERY anime fan's collection. I have never met anyone who did not like this series and I honestly do not believe I ever will. This is a phenomenal piece of work and will always live out as a classic title!