This is the story of a girl who gathered the Seven Seishi of Suzaku. She obtained omnipotent power and made every wish come true. The story itself is an incantation. Whomever-- *THWACK* Itai no da...oops! Wrong series. Let's try that again.

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan
(Kenshin the Wanderer: The Romance of a Meiji Swordsman)

This is the story of a guy who looked like a girl but was actually a kickass swordsman known as Hitokiri Battousai. He fought for the Ishinshishi and killed a lot of people during the Bakumatsu no Doran, helping to start a new era, Meiji. Eventually it came to him that this killing stuff was not such a great idea after all, no matter how many new eras you help start. So he abandoned the killer's sword and became a "korosazu no rurouni," a wanderer sworn never to kill again. He traveled around Japan with no other aim than to protect the innocent and helpless with his sakabatou (reverse blade), a katana with the blunt and sharp edges reversed. Oh, and nobody knew to whence he had vanished, but his name became a legend among the people and stuff.

Ten years passed. It happened that in Tokyo an evil bad guy went on a killing spree, claiming to be Hitokiri Battousai of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu kenjutsu dojo. It happened that, while in hot pursuit of the evil bad guy who was defaming her school's good name, the beautiful and talented master of Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu, Kamiya Kaoru, ran into (well, attacked) a cute short skinny wanderer with red hair and a cross scar on his left cheek. It was love at first sight...well, okay, not precisely, but the rurouni turned out to be no slouch with his reverse blade--not to mention a decent cook and first-rate babysitter--and made short work of the evil bad guy.

Kamiya Kaoru, being somewhat lonely and knowing a good catch when she saw one, offered to let the rurouni--whose name, surprise surprise, was Himura Kenshin, formerly known as Hitokiri Battousai--stay at her kenjutsu dojo. Kenshin, though easily confused with regards to females, was smart enough not to reject the offer. And so the story begins, in Meiji Year 11, which is actually 1879. Or something like that.

Of course, there are some differences between the manga storyline and the anime storyline, but that's the general gist, which, if you are visiting this archive, you probably already know, so this has all been a tremendous waste of time on my part. Still, this is a fan site and as such must include the necessary propaganda, so here we are.

Rurouni Kenshin is a consistently bestselling manga by artist/author Nobuhiro Watsuki. It is serialized in the weekly magazine Shonen Jump, then published in volume form by Jump Comics (as of this update, 22 volumes and still going--woohoo!) RK's other incarnation was as a very popular weekly TV anime series, which, alas, has ended at Episode 94 as of September, 1998. A full-length movie has been released, and Sony plans to produce at least a 4-part OAV series, to go on sale in 1999. RK has not been commercially released in the U.S. in any form, threats of "Samurai X" notwithstanding, but has developed quite a following here nonetheless.

What makes it so fabulous? Well, there's the intriguing plot, the action, humor, drama, and romance, the interesting historical setting, the political and moral themes, the beautiful artwork (manga AND anime), great music (anime), etc. etc., but it's the characters that I fell for. The protagonist is as complicated, contradictory, and compelling a figure as any in or outside of anime, and the whole Kamiya Dojo family is ultimately lovable. And the story--not to give anything away--only gets more and more riveting as it progresses. I could go on at length (and usually do if given the opportunity), but for now take this site as my testimony. If you've never seen the manga or anime, you poor deprived soul, go out and get yourself some right now. See the Links page if you want to know where to spend your money.

Folks who are new to RK or to anime in general sometimes have questions about the storyline, so I thought I'd say a few words about that. In a broad sense, Rurouni Kenshin is one long storyline, following the lives of a group of characters which remains consistent. However, the anime and even the manga do not consist of a single story arc in the same way that a series like, oh, say, Fushigi Yuugi does. Rather, the first anime season consisted of small story arcs lasting 1-3 episodes each. Some of these follow the early manga volumes, while others are derisively known as "fillers," i.e., unrelated in plot to the manga.

Many people feel RK really starts (or starts getting really good) with the beginning of the Kyoto Hen (Volume 7 of the manga, Epsiode 28 of the anime). This long story arc lasted until Volume 18 of the manga and Episode 62 of the anime. At this point the anime and manga diverged again, with the manga continuing straight into the current Jinchuu ('Revenge') storyline. The anime, after a few stand-alone fillers, began the Shimabara storyline, which is around 10 episodes long, and then subsequently on to several other arcs, continuing up to Episode 94. Sony plans to release a separate conclusion to the TV series in December before beginning the OAVs, which will apparently deal with Kenshin's past.

In this unworthy author's opinion, if you've only experienced the RK anime, you're missing out. It's first and foremost a manga series, and out of those 94 anime episodes, only the beginning and the Kyoto Hen are particularly faithful to Watsuki-sensei's original creation. That said, it's still one of the best shows I've seen, and certainly worth watching. If possible, however, get the manga, too... and be warned that you will become addicted.