History Trivia / RurouniKenshin

* TheWikiRule: Has a wiki [[http://kenshin.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page here.]]

* FandomLifeCycle: The series sits between Stage 6b and 6c. Its fandom peaked in the 1990s and early 2000s and has slowly dwindled since then. Due to scandal involving the mangaka, the fandom is dipped from a 6a as many are reluctant to get into the series.

* RealLifeRelative: The Brazilian Portuguese dub of the 2023 remake casts Caio Guarnieri as Kenshin, who is no other than the son of Kenshin's original voice actor (Tatá Guarnieri) who voiced him in both the 1996 anime and in the live-action movies.

* RealLifeRelative: The Brazilian Portuguese dub of the 2023 remake cast Caio Guarnieri as Kenshin, who is no other than the son of Kenshin's original voice actor (Tatá Guarnieri) who voiced him in both the 1996 anime and in the live-action movies.

* RealLifeRelative: the Brazilian Portuguese dub of the 2023 remake cast Caio Guarnieri as Kenshin, who is no other than the son of Kenshin's original voice actor (Tatá Guarnieri) who voiced him in both the 1996 anime and in the live-action movies.

* RealLifeRelative: the Brazilian Portuguese dub of the 2023 remake cast Caio Guarnieri as Kenshin, who is no other than the son of Kenshin's original voice actor (Tatá Guarnieri) who voice him in both the 1996 anime and in the live-action movies.

** The same goes for the Latin American Spanish dub of the 2023 series, and for good and understandable reasons: Firstly, the dub of the original series was done in Colombia, which was notorious for being a quite controversial dub with an uneven quality, even for older fans; secondly, Crunchyroll doesn't do Latin American dubs in Colombia, and finally, most of the dub cast of the original series had either retired or died.

* DawsonCasting: Played straight in the live-action films. Munetaka Aoki was 12 whole years older than his character Sanosuke during the first film shot. Saitou also follows suit, as Yosuke Eguchi was 45 playing the 34-year-old Shinsengumi captain-turned-police-officer. This continued on to the sequels: Aoshi is 25, yet his actor Yusuke Iseya is 38 during filming. The girls almost subvert this: 17-year-old Kaoru is played by 19-year-old Emi Takei in the first film, and Tao Tsuchiya was 18 when she took the role as Misao in ''Kyoto Inferno'' and ''The Legend Ends''.
** [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]] with Kasumi Arimura, who is 27 during filming of ''[[Film/RurouniKenshinTheFinal The Final]]'' and ''[[Film/RurouniKenshinTheBeginning The Beginning]]'', playing the 18-year-old Tomoe in the flashback and presumably a what-if 33-year-old version in the images of Kenshin's vision. 26-year-old Mackenkyu almost hits the mark playing the 23-year-old Enishi.
** The main character himself is an inversion for most of the films (as noted below). Takeru Satoh, however, plays this straight while portraying him in ''Film/RurouniKenshinTheBeginning'', as Kenshin/Battosai was supposed to be ''15''.

** For the 2023 anime, everyone was inevitably recast, both living and dead. For example:

*** Creator/YumaUchida voices Aoshi instead of Creator/YoshitoYasuhara.

* DuelingDubs: The TV series has two complete[[labelnote:*]] (except for the direct-to-video Episode 95)[[/labelnote]] English dubs – Sony Pictures Television International's "Samurai X" dub which was distributed in Asia and Europe, and Media Blasters' "Rurouni Kenshin" dub which saw official release in North America. Oddly, both dubs were recorded in Los Angeles and cast Creator/RichardCansino as Kenshin. The difference between them is that, while both dubs are uncut for time, the "Samurai X" dub is a more-toned-down looser adaptation geared to a much younger audience. For streaming, Crackle used the Sony dub[[labelnote:*]] (understandable since Crackle was also owned by Sony)[[/labelnote]] while Netflix got the Media Blasters dub. Fans generally prefer the Media Blasters dub, especially in North America, where the Sony dub did not see release until 2010. Later, Hulu would stream the Sony dub[[labelnote:*]] (while curiously using the Japanese names for Kenshin, Kaoru, and Yahiko in the captions, instead of their respective Sony dub names, Kenshi, Kori, and Yoshi)[[/labelnote]], while Crunchyroll would stream the Media Blasters dub.
** In Spain, the TV series was first dubbed in 1999 and broadcast on Canal Plus the same year. In 2005, Canal Buzz got the rights of the series and decided to record a new dub of the series due to the original dub being inacurrate to the original japanese version (since it was translated from the english scripts made for the Animax dub). While the new dub was much more faithful to the original japanese version, the new voice actors and their performances were heavily critized by spaniard fans and the dub was never broadcast outside Canal Buzz (it didn't help that around this time, the series was available on DVD with the original dub). Due to all this factors, the re-dub fell into obscurity and it's considered lost media, with the only proof of it's existence being a commercial recorded from Canal Buzz that was uploaded to Youtube in 2013 and some forum post from 2005 criticizing Canal Buzz for the re-dub.

** In English, the TV series and OVA's dubs were dubbed in completely different areas (LA vs. Austin, Texas), so naturally they use completely different casts. Fans tend to dislike the OVA dub due to some questionable casting choices and a too-liberal script (though the script for ''Reflections'' is much tighter; fans dislike ''that'' due to its content).
*** Why did this happen? Because, back in 2000, no North American company could afford ''all'' of Kenshin[[labelnote:*]] (except maybe Creator/{{Viz|Media}}, but they were too busy working on ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' at the time)[[/labelnote]], so Sony split the license into two: Creator/MediaBlasters got the TV series and restored the Japanese title, while Creator/{{ADV|Films}} got the OVA's and kept the "Samurai X" title[[labelnote:*]] (amusingly, when ADV did a rerelease years later, they included reversible DVD covers – one side with their "Samurai X" logo and the other with Viz's "Kenshin" logo – so fans could choose which side they wanted to display)[[/labelnote]].
** As mentioned in DuelingDubs above, the TV series was dubbed twice for different markets. While several voice actors show up in both dubs, Creator/RichardCansino (Kenshin) is the only one who plays the same role in both.

* TheOtherMarty: Creator/MonaMarshall was to originally voice the adult Kenshin Himura in Media Blasters' dub of the series.[[note]]Following along the pattern of the original Japanese version, where he was voiced by a woman.[[/note]] However, the dubbing team felt that her voice wasn't working out for the character, and the role was recast with Creator/RichardCansino.[[note]]Who had also voiced Kenshin in Sony's alternate ''Samurai X'' dub.[[/note]]
* PlayingAgainstType:

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: The anime suffered this on Creator/CartoonNetwork after they realized it probably should have gone to Creator/AdultSwim. The show got moved from its Creator/{{Toonami}} weekday slot to a slot on the Creator/SaturdayVideoEntertainmentSystem block without much warning, and the run was ended at episode 62 (''right before'' the anime-only third season) out of the 95 episodes total aired (despite CN acquiring the rights to the whole show).

** For the English dub of the films, Yahiko's dub actress, Creator/AlisonViktorin, was effectively removed from participating in ''The Final'' and all dubbing in general after considerable negative feedback due to tweeting support of the 2021 capitol attacks. Yahiko was instead dubbed in ''The Final'' by Creator/CaseyMongillo.

* CelebrityVoiceActor: Kenshin Himura is voiced by [[Creator/TakarazukaRevue Takarazuka]] actress Mayo Suzukaze, Kaoru Kamiya is voiced by film actress Miki Fujitani, Shura is voiced by actress Kazue Itoh, Makoto Shishio is voiced by actor and singer Masanori Ikeda, and Yumi Komagata is voiced by actress Kanako Irie.

*** Creator/UnshoIshizuka (Jin-e) was cast as Fuji.
*** Shigezo Sasaoka (Gohei) was cast as Senryoyama.

** For the 2023 anime, everyone will be inevitably recast, both living and dead. For example:

* RetroactiveRecognition: Viewers of ''Film/RurouniKenshinTheLegendEnds'' might find it hilarious that Ito Hirobumi, [[NominalHero the slimy]] SupportingLeader of the Meiji Government, is ''Advertising/LongLongMan''.

* RoleReprise: Both European Spanish, German and Brazilian Portuguese dubs have the anime VAs reprising their roles in the live-action movies. Notoriously, the Brazilian releases of the first movie [[DuelingDubs has two other alternate dubs]] with different casts.

*** Creator/MakotoKoichi voices Yahiko Myojin instead of Creator/MinaTominaga.
*** Creator/TakuYashiro voices Sanosuke Sagara instead of Creator/YujiUeda.

*** Makoto Koichi voices Yahiko Myojin instead of Creator/MinaTominaga.

*** Makoto Koichi voices Yahiko Myojin instead of Creator/MiinaTominaga.

*** Creator/ShigezoSasaoka (Gohei) was cast as Senryoyama.

** Originally, Fuji was going to actually take on Okina in battle. However, Watsuki thought that a battle of old codgers wouldn't have been interesting.
** Kanryu Takeda was going to be homosexual like his historical counterpart, but Watsuki decided that would "unnecessarily complicate things".

* PlayingGertrude: A male example in the live-action films. Kenshin is 28 years old at the start of the manga, substantially older than Kaoru and the other main characters, but his actor Takeru Satoh was only 22 at the time of the first film's release. (Then again, in the manga Kenshin looks the same age as everybody.) Averted with his nemesis, Shishio, who seems to be in his thirties and is aptly played by the 32-year-old Tatsuya Fujiwara in the second and third films.
** The Jinchuu arc films finally avert this, as Satoh was 28 years old during filming.