Rurôni Kenshin: Meiji kenkaku roman tan: Tsuioku hen (1999) (V)

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Director:

Kazuhiro Furuhashi

Writers:

L.B. Bartholomee (american version)
Masashi Sogo (screenplay)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Drama | Horror | Romance

Plot:

In the era of Japan's Meiji Restoration, an assassin regains his humanity.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Humanity | Assassin | Samurai Era | Hope

Cast

Mayo Suzukaze	...	Kenshin Himura
Junko Iwao	...	Tomoe Yukishiro
Nozomu Sasaki	...	Enishi Yukishiro
Masami Suzuki	...	Shinta
Shûichi Ikeda	...	Seijûrô Hiko
Tomokazu Seki	...	Kogorô Katsura
Wataru Takagi	...	Shinsaku Takasugi
Ryûsei Nakao	...	Îzuka
Hirotaka Suzuoki	...	Hajime Saitô
Yôko Ogai	...	Sôshi Okita (as Akari Hibino)
Minoru Uchida	...	Tatsumi
Tetsuya Iwanaga	...	Akira Kiyosato
Satoshi Tsuruoka	...	Jubei Shigekûra
Mitsuaki Hoshino	...	Katagai
Hiromi Setsu	...	Ikumatsu

Also Known As:

Rurôni Kenshin (Japan) (short title)
Rurôni Kenshin: Reminicense (USA) (second part title)
Rurôni Kenshin: Romantic Tales from the Meiji Era (USA) (first part title)
Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal (USA) (director's cut)
Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal (International: English title) (director's cut)

Runtime:

USA:120 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | USA:Not Rated | UK:15 | Australia:MA | South Korea:18 (cable rating) | Spain:13

Company:

SPE Visual Works

Trivia:

Among the events in this OAV is included a fictionalized version of what became known as the Ikeda-ya affair, when in June 1864 the Shinsengumi in Kyoto raided an inn, the Ikeda-ya, being used as a hideout by pro-Imperial fighters. The alleged plot was to destroy Kyoto through fire, hopefully destabilizing the Shogunate's grip on the people. In the end, the Shinsengumi broke up the ring, killing 8, wounding another 4, and arresting 20. This made them national heroes in the eyes of the Tokugawa bakufu.

Quotes:

Landlady: [referring to Tomoe] She may have had some trouble in the past but I'm not letting that bother me. If I kicked out everyone who's had a bad history, I wouldn't have any servants or clients.

Movie Connections:

References Mononoke-hime (1997)

Blue Velvet spiced into Shogun Assassin

The movie Kenshin deserves it's place among the best of anime, it stands as a reminder of what animation is capable of. It is rare to find a Samurai/Shogun animation movie that contains such attention to detail. This is apparent in the way the movie takes it's time to build it's characters and develop their respective relationships, in fact very little time is devoted to the actual fights scenes with the numerous battles and duels being over in a blink of an eye. What the movie actually focuses on is the doomed love story that develops between Kenshin and Toroe and the numerous symbols within nature that depict the character's fates.

Kenshin is a true work of art that draws upon Japan's rich artistic history to create an epic tale of love and death. The movie incorporates distinctly Japanese arts within it's narrative, for example in this movie there is a strong emphasis on the depiction of the landscape, the changing of the seasons, the stoicism of the Japanese mentality. Through these artistic devices we see the tale unfold of an assassin who is torn between continuing his life of bloodshed or taking his chance to escape into a more quiet life away from the killings.

With all the emphasis on the artistic achievement of Kenshin it should also be mentioned that the movie also delivers on a purely entertaining level with blood splatter tinged into practically every scene, but what stands out even more is the spiritual aspect of the story that tells the audience -amongst other things- that what we do in life will eventually come to haunt us in our future.

A stunning poetic reflection of an often banal genre.