My favorite kenjutsu goddess certainly deserves a page of her own. Can it really be true? A female anime character who gets to kick butt once in a while and keep all her clothing on and intact? (It's the little things that make me happy.) Strong, talented, courageous, determined, reasonably smart, and beautiful in an anatomically plausible way (as opposed to a number of other anime babes I could mention, but won't,) Kaoru is cool enough that she actually deserves to snag Kenshin. All right, so she doesn't cook too well, and occasionally gets kidnapped, but nobody's perfect. Besides, she's the one who gets to do the rescuing when Kenshin reverts to Battousai in the Jineh story. And, in a similar but larger sense, she is the one doing the rescuing throughout the whole series.

I love Kaoru for probably many of the same reasons Kenshin does--her innocence, her honesty, her strength, her fierceness, her kindness, her warm heart. By innocence I mean not ignorance of the world, but a certain trust in the goodness of people and a faith in the future that remains unshaken by suffering. By strength I mean the kind that enabled her to run a dojo alone, to place herself between her beloved and those who would harm him, to stare a renegade Shinomori Aoshi in the eyes and rebuke him like a true sensei. With those who say there is a "fragile female" beneath her "normal demeanor," I must take issue. There is nothing fragile about this girl. If anyone exceeds her in emotional resilience, it would be only Misao.

My one complaint for Watsuki-sensei is that Kaoru doesn't get enough chances to show off in her own right. She's a good fighter (and not only that, she can fight in a kimono,) though the fact that she doesn't use a real sword puts her at a certain disadvantage. But what am I thinking? It's a shonen series, after all. If the women got to kick butt too much, it would detract from the men (who, Kamatari aside, do not manage to fight in kimonos. Sandals, but not kimonos.)

Given all this, there are times when I really want to slap Kenshin around for insufficiently appreciating this girl, but then I remember his traumatic past and all the guilt and other baggage he carries around, blah blah blah, and I think, okay, so we just have to be patient with him while he works through his various issues, and meanwhile saves the defenseless from evil and tyranny, etc., and eventually he'll get around to realizing, "Gee, Kaoru-dono really cares a lot about this unworthy person, and not only that, she's a fine-looking filly--" Ahem. But what am I thinking? It's a shonen series, after all. Well, enough blather, let's have some more pictures of the swordfighting babe herself.