Rurouni Kenshin

Unfortunately the story he made ended up still rather enjoyable so it's kind of hard to completely erase all the positive feelings one had towards it (I still love Kenshin and his relationship with Kaoru despite everything).

It makes it impossible for me to purchase the manga legally for my collection and renders me unable to be fully happy at how nice the PV for the reboot looks though.

Ditto for me. Which puts me in awkward position because I really do love this series.

All positive feelings I've had for the series died when the news broke out in 2017

And I was in the middle of re reading the series wnen it came out of Nobubiro was in possession of hundreds of CP DV Ds

For all we talk about problematic elements in manga (treatment of female characters, hypersexualization, etc) it's eyebrow raising were still giving this guy a platform when he's contributed to the harming of actual kids.

Because what he wrote a manga that had a popular anime we watched on Adult Swim as kids?

Nah that's as flimsy as the excuse of still messing with R Kelly.

Edited by FKJ10 on Sep 24th 2022 at 8:01:23 AM

Discussing something by a piece of shit creator is one thing, constantly defending and denying their crimes is where I draw the line though.

I'd hapilly discuss RK still when given the chance, but I can respect the wishes of people that don't.

Nobody is defending the man, but the fact remains his story is in fact loved by many.

So its up to the individual how much they want to separate the artist from the work, but you cannot simply tell others to stop loving his work simply because you chose to do so yourself.

That's why this is awkward; do we just...not say anything about this series whatsoever to respect the people for those who don't want to, because I feel like we should still be able to discuss the series regardless of how we feel about its creator.

Trailer for the new anime just dropped via Aniplex's Anime Online Festival 2022!

Bring on The Jinchu Arc!

There is weirdness for me since I managed to collect the entire series physically

Like I'll still read it but I avoid the end of chapter author bits

Don't wanna hear from Wakatsuki

All I'm saying is don't be surprised when Nobuhiro gets caught again for CP.

Pedos tend to be repeat offenders especially when they get slaps on the wrist because they're rich and famous.

I brought up R Kelly for a reason.

From what I understand, and this is in no way a defense of the man, the exact specifics were that he got caught with a bunch of gravure magazines which were not grandfathered in when a law changed in Japan. That was the reason he got a slap on the wrist.

Nah they were DVD's and the Tokyo metropolitan police linked him to an earlier investigation of CP purchase.

In Nobuhiro's own words from the disposition he "liked girls in late elementary school to around the second year of middle school.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-02-27/rurouni-kenshin-creator-nobuhiro-watsuki-fined-200000-yen-for-possession-of-child-porn/.128322

The slap on the wrist was because of his status. It's why Rurouni Kenshin sequel series was just put on hiatus instead of canceled.

To quote Jim Ross: He was a made man so he got a pass.

Edited by FKJ10 on Sep 24th 2022 at 3:07:41 AM

Gotcha gotcha I wasn't 100% sure because that was what I had heard at the time and never got a correction on it. I also had heard he got a lighter sentence because he also gave names for a bunch of other people linked to CP.

Speaking of the memories we have, answer me this question, and feel free to be honest. Is it sad that the thing I remember the most about the first anime series is that my younger brother had a disturbingly pathological hatred of Kenshin Himura?

Nah little kids can hate a character for any reason.

So there's gonna be a panel for the new Anime at AX on July 3rd...

This....is not going to end well for anyone.

I think is weird because everyone here is in the same line that the author is a piece of shit who got to easy but we kinda try to avoid speaking about the series because of that, which make this thread kinda redundant in a way.

"I also like it because it's one of the few fights where you can feel the seriousness and focus between the two combatants to kill each other; no needless talk, just concentration and skill. "

I will said it also one of the few were the squence just kept going, you see something in the anime were is very much "chararter talk, atacks, kept taking afterwards" but with saito it just kept going, also it was kinda scary hearing kenshi saying "I will cut your neck" to saito, he was pretty damn ruthless.

But also is hilarious that for many, battusai was the exampe of evil side when it show twice, what to make a impresion

Heads up: the 2023 anime's first episode has just been released. Also, the narrator is none other than Toshihiko Seki.

Edited by gjjones on Jul 6th 2023 at 4:44:52 AM

I hope Kaoru is improved in this series. She’s not awful in the first series, but her original writing stands out as old fashioned even by modern anime standards.

If the 2023 series was going to be dubbed into English, do you think Richard Cansino and Dorothy Elias-Fahn will respectively return to voice Kenshin and Kaoru from the Media Blasters dub of the 1996 series?

Edited by gjjones on Jul 6th 2023 at 4:44:23 AM

I read the series way back in 2010 and even as a teenager I was taken aback by how... sexist the writing was.

Fun fact; the Anime kind of helped Kaoru a bit. There she actually got to participate in the assault on Kanryu's complex to rescue Megumi, while in the manga only the men (including the 12 year old child) went.

The reasoning? Sano told her "have breakfast and a bath ready when we come back".

I know it's Meiji Japan, but Jesus...

Probably a new cast to go with the Japanese side.

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Jul 6th 2023 at 5:41:25 AM

I'd love to have the Media Blasters cast come back, but unfortunately that'd be unlikely, especially since those actors haven't reprised the roles since that dub ended.

Damn, I never read the manga, but it's surprising that the anime actually improved her, even if only slightly. Usually you could count on anime adaptations to do the opposite and make strong (or at least, stronger) female characters worse than in the source, like with Bulma from Dragonball or Keiko from Yu Yu Hakusho (I swear, the anime did YYH's female characters so dirty).

I always found anime Kaoru to be a good "regular" example of what old fashioned anime writing of women looked like: she was mostly okay and wasn't outright offensive, but the series also clearly never took her seriously as a character, paid lip service to her being a fighter but generally diminished her dignity or agency when the chips were down, and mostly just used her as an emotional prop for Kenshin.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jul 6th 2023 at 4:43:45 AM

What gets me about Kaoru is that Yahiko a child is treated more seriously as a warrior than Kaoru.

For all of Kaoru is hyped as a sword master in her own right, the kamiya sword style is only successful whenever Yahiko uses it and making a comment about how great a teacher Kaoru is.

Like sure the setting does have child killers who became great warriors due to their prodigious talent like Kenshin and Aosi, but Yahiko is specifically a normal kid who has to grow and improve the normal way. He's not some monster prodigy who should be in the fights more so than his teacher.

Even outside of being a warrior, the anime had a tendency to, whenever the characters had something to say, or wanted to impact the story, or stand their ground about something, treat Kaoru almost... equal to Yahiko, who was himself on the bottom rung?

Like, they would both have their part dismissed, or treated like squabbling siblings, or something similar, even though Yahiko is the naive kid of the group and Kaoru is his master.

But then, the series never really took Kaoru as Yahiko's master seriously either. It's generally given that - where it matters - Kenshin is Yahiko's master for all actual important plot purposes, and Kaoru is just the person teaching him because Kenshin doesn't want to, validating Yahiko's general disrespect of her.

The only exception to this was the filler. Kaoru tended to actually get good play and good roles in the filler, as did the impact of her being Yahiko's master from time to time. Which may speak to the anime generally improving her character.

(Admittedly, one of the reasons I'm meh on the idea of a "Rurouni Kenshin Kai" series is that the original Kenshin series had some of the best fillers I've ever seen in an anime, so I'd kind of miss them)

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jul 6th 2023 at 5:20:40 AM

Yea I liked Kaoru just fine, but she's primarily there as support for Kenshin's arc. Which is fiiine, but it gets absurd when happens and her own student is taken more seriously by the plot.

The after Kyoto filler was amazing.

But I'm glad we'll finally get the Jinchuu arc animated...right.

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Jul 6th 2023 at 8:18:04 AM

I mean in universe yahiko pay atention to kaoru but as known said yahiko pretty much see kenshi as his master and the guy he want to be.

You can said rumonori kenshi is a good example of WHY you dont let the ace be the start of the show