Rurouni Kenshin: The Remembrance

Original Title: るるうに剣心 - 明治剣客浪漫譚 - 追憶編
Romanized: Rurouni Kenshin - Meiji Kenkaku Roman-tan - Tsuioku Hen
Literal: Wandering Kenshin - Romantic Tale of a Meiji Swordsman - Reminiscence Chapter

Plot Synopsis

In 1864, Japan is a country divided by civil war. The Ishen Shishi revolutionaries and the Shinsengumi supporters of the Tokugawa Shogunate clash openly in the streets and blood flows more freely than sake. As the struggle becomes more ferocious, the revolutionary Choshu clan employs its most deadly weapon--a single youth. Orphaned by cholera, sold into slavery as a boy, baptized with the blood of those he cared for, trained in the swordsmanship of Hiten Mitsurugi, he is a warrior without peer--an assassin with the mind of a killer and the heart of a child. He will become legend as the Hitokiri Battousai, but his true name is Kenshin Himura.

On the streets of Kyoto one night, Kenshin meets a beautiful young woman called Tomoe. As they come to know each other it seems that she alone may be able to penetrate the barriers that the young assassin has thrown up around his heart. But when a disaster forces them to flee Kyoto and go into hiding, their feelings for each other may become Kenshin's destruction in this bloodstained saga of trust and betrayal.

Quick Review

Rating: 5 / 5
Reviewer: Arcane
Review Date: 2003-06-21

This OAV prequel to the popular Rurouni Kenshin TV series tells the complete, tragic story of Kenshin's days as the most feared killer in Japan. If you haven't seen the TV series, fear not--it is darker, more reserved, and easily stands alone, although it will spoil parts of the TV series' plot.

Rurouni Kenshin: The Remembrance is a tale of both worldly strife and inner turmoil, told subtly through symbolism and gesture as much as dialogue. The depth of its characters is remarkable, as is the way in which their thoughts and personalities are illustrated. By turns exciting, dramatic, romantic, and tragic, it's dark, violent themes and nihilistic tone are given life through gorgeous animation, thrilling action, detailed art, and realistic period settings.

This OAV is, simply put, flawless. Both as a meaningful prologue to a TV series that is not its equal, or as a powerful and rich drama that stands fully on its own, this gripping series is artistic, moving, and engrossing--as close to perfect as it is realistically possible for anime to be.

US DVD Review

The Australian DVDs are good quality. Picture and sound are virtually perfect and there is a good selection of extras. These include two sets of character profiles to describe the characters at different points in the series, a very helpful set of historical background notes and some notes on the translation by Lowell Bartholemee (who also provided the English voice of Iizuka). There's also the usual options--dub or sub, scene selection and a few previews. The nicest feature of all isn't actually on the DVD--the covers of the cases can be taken out and put in backwards to get different (and frankly, much better) cover pictures, which also have the title in Japanese. I can't say anything about the American DVDs.

Content Guide

Falls into the 16-up category on account of strong violent content.

Violence: 4 - Brutal, realistic and uncompromising, but justifiable and not excessive.

Nudity: 1 - A bit of partial in one scene, but nothing of any note.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - A powerful, slow and pure romance.

Language: 1 - Nothing notable.

Notes and Trivia

If you're interested, here is some further information on the Tokugawa shogunate and this period of history.

There were a few details that I thought needed to be mentioned, yet couldn't work into the review:

In the sub, when Iizuka says to Kenshin "You are truly a born killer, boy" he calls Kenshin "hitokiri battousai" in Japanese. Another time, Enishi, calling Kenshin an assassin, refers to him as "battousai" again. I can't help but wonder exactly what it means.

Effective as it was, the field of crosses raised one question: why are crosses being placed above graves in the period of the Tokugawa shogunate? Christianity had been outlawed.

Availability

Available in the US from ADV on two individual bilingual DVDs under the title "Samurai X" (buy from RightStuf: Disc 1: Trust, Disc 2: Betrayal), or as a complete "Directors Cut" bilingual DVD set version of all four episodes (buy from RightStuf). Was previously also available on two subtitled or dubbed VHS volumes.

Looking to buy? Try these stores: RightStuf (search) | AnimeNation | Akemi's a(nime)Store