Rurouni Kenshin ~ More than you Imagine.

I first discovered Rurouni Kenshin on Amazon Prime's film listing at a time when it was free to view. Noting it was (at the time) a trilogy, and being a lover of Asian subtitled films in general, I gave it a go. It did not disappoint. I was immersed in the visual quality, and thrilled by the amazing fight sequences and choreography. In short, I thought it was brilliant.

Since then I have acquired the trilogy on DVD, and consequently done a little more digging into the history that is Rurouni Kenshin, and this is what I discovered:

Originally written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki, the first chapter of which premiered in the 19th issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump on April 25, 1994, and serialised in the magazine until its 43rd issue on September 21st, 1999. Kenshin was created as a former assassin and the story, for its time, took a more serious tone as it progressed. The manga revolves around the themes of atonement, peace and romance.

The complete work consists of twenty-eight tankōbon volumes, though years later it was reprinted into twenty-two kanzenban volumes. Several Japanese studios adapted the manga into an anime television series which aired in Japan from 1996 to 1998 - but to discover the complete history of Rurouni Kenshin, click on this LINK to the wikipedia page.

As of December 2019, the manga had over 72 million copies in circulation, including digital releases.

There is no denying that Rurouni Kenshin has become a popular favourite and as such has been produced as an anime series, an anime film, a 4 episode Original Video Animation in 1999, followed by two 2 episode OVAs in 2001 and 2002, then in 2011 and 2012.
There have also been stage shows, soundtracks, art & guidebooks, light novels and video games.

But possibly the biggest attention grab has been from the live-action films, now totalling five (since I originally bought the first three), which can be seen currently - at time of writing this post - on Netflix.
The films in chronological viewing order are as follows:

1) Rurouni Kenshin (film).

2) Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno.

3) Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends.

4) Rurouni Kenshin: The Final.

5) Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning.

If you have yet to watch this great series of films, I urge you to do so. But for now, I'll leave you with the first official trailer. I was considering leaving the last film trailer as a bonus, but thought it might be filled with too many spoilers.  Enjoy.

Until next time.