|
once i heard that this was coming out, i decided to re-watch/re-read all of kenshin which i hadn't done in the past like, 12 years (so since i was like 13) its really, really odd how duped you get through the eyes of a kid w/r/t what the series is actually about. the shonen anime in my memory has kenshin much more of a generic protagonist than he really is, i kinda just lumped him together with goku / yusuke urameshi and those guys that were on toonami at that time when i was growing up. in rewatching the series though, dude's literally way more hosed up than i think most kids around the age i was when i first watched this would recognize - he's got pretty ludicrous ptsd and has a genuine split personality which is a scary thing to imagine. the kyoto arc remains an utter masterpiece. the way they explore a character so deep, make such aesthetically appealing villains and make us care about every little thing is just amazing. sojiro mirroring kenshin if he hadn't found hiko was brilliant, much better than i remember growing up. the themes of forgiveness are so strong in this story and are really great to watch - you can't NOT want sojiro to find happiness despite him being a mass murderer (just like kenshin is). i even rewatched the apparently new retelling of the kyoto arc, the animation is AMAZING but they miss out on so many story beats that it really ruins the whole thing. one memory that is burned in me from those early anime days was the scene when kenshin realizes his self-worth in mastering the succession technique...they just kinda skip that.there is no sojiro redemption, kenshin actually sorta kinda kills shishio, its all a bit weird. the latter part of the kyoto arc - from when they enter the mountain hideout until they return to the city - really really deserves reanimation. RKs animation is one thing that just really has not held up well - the sound, character design, themes, dialogue, etc. are all so fantastic but it really suffers from that 90s era stuff animation. the coolest thing the anime does is those quick cutaways to the japanese text on black backgrounds, but its a bit of a letdown when these supposedly godlike swordsmen are moving around so statically. one last thought before i move on but upon this rewatch you also sort of realize how ludicrously out of EVERYONES league kenshin is in terms of techinque. as a kid i never really put it together for whatever reason, but he has legitimately no challenge in the series until he faces sojiro, and its really heavily implied that kenshin in the "modern" day is far weaker than he was as the battousai. even against saito he lands what would otherwise be totally fatal attacks a few times over, he's very clearly dominant over him. i wonder what a prime shioshio vs a prime kenshin would be like. oh and also the set piece of the final battle of kyoto was amazing, there are few more distinctive battlegrounds than the erupting flames surrounding shioshios lair. i only read the enishi arc this time around but honestly, not a huge fan of most of it. enishi himself just isn't that compelling and is one of the weaker designs for the main villains, though it's hard to top someone as distinctly horrifying as shishio. i did like that they didn't really up the ante it terms of skill and had kenshin failing because 1) his mental block re: anything concerning tomoe and 2) his body was literally starting to fall apart. lack of power creep is a nice thing in a shonen and is one thing RK does really well throughout, hell the protag is almost never seen at his maximum strength. not much really more to say about this arc but i was always glad with how it ended, kenshin is so incredibly endearing. i would like to talk a bit about the manga telling of Trust&Betrayal. the OVA does it definitely better, the manga doesn't give you time to settle with tomoe or to really get a feel for how kenshin FINALLY has a moment of not-horribleness in his life. the only advantage the manga telling has over the OVA is that the comparison from Assassin Kenshin to Wanderer Kenshin is more striking, when you've come to love a nice goofball like Kenshin and then you go and see him literally slaughtering people on the street its pretty wild. last thing i'd like to mention is Trust&Betryal itself. what a loving masterpiece. it stands alone as a great movie but as an RK fan it's really top notch. definitely has a lot more OOMPH if you watch it after watching through the kyoto arc in the anime/reading through it, because to see happy go lucky defender of the innocent (with a bit of a bad side) Kenshin as 15-year-old-super-murderer kenshin is so stark. seeing him have his heart broken the way he did after a lifetime of straight hell is really depressing, but knowing that he eventually finds home gives just enough levity. the animation is incredible in the OVA as well. a final point of comparison from my childhood memory but i always though of kenshin during the revolution as more of a "soldier on one side" that had a lot of problems with having to do soldier things - having the history of the time period contextualized for me and understanding that he was legitimately a Killer In The Shadows kinda puts him in a whole new light - poor guys life really was ruined
|
#
¿
Oct 11, 2017 02:52
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 22, 2024 15:06 |
|
|
OnimaruXLR posted:The OVAs are some well done film making, but I'll never get over how dissonant they are compared to the comic. It's very much sad samurais crying in the snow, which I think maybe does a poor job of underlining how big a difference his life with Tomoe ends up being compared to the 9 to 5 assassin gig. The best dark stories are ones that have moments of comic normalcy that help underline how hosed up the dark bits are (and keep the audience from becoming numbed by it), and I think there's a real lack of that. i still never watched the ending movie and i dont really want to, having a sad ending for kenshin after he finally got some happiness just wouldn't sit right with me. you are right that the tone is like completely different - in the manga, they still have a bunch of gag panels with the pretty good shonen faces and stuff esp when kenshin brings tomoe back to the house for the first time. one thing tha i think made the tone so different was also how the fights were staged. in the comic, kenshin is constantly doing Big Anime Attacks against Evil Villains. in the OVA he's...running around cutting down hapless goofball politicians and their out-of-shape bodyguards. you can feel good cheering for kenshin even as he does violence againsts someone like Aoshi or especially Shishio, even though you know he doesn't want to do it. it's really hard to cheer him on though as he doubles down pushing his sword through the gut of some third-rate bodyguard, or when he stabs tomoes fiance through the neck as he cries for life on the ground.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 11, 2017 14:02
|
|
|
i dont understand how the recent movie got the Kyoto arc as wrong as it did, which is also depressingbecause its existence means we wont see a properly animated update ever probably. imagine seeing kenshin vs shishio with full on fluid animation
|
|
#
¿
Oct 11, 2017 16:14
|
|
|
Caros posted:Also, you know. Kenshin when he learns the succession techniques. well, sorta. its pretty heavily implied that if he were fully in Battousai mode he'd pretty much run over shishio and co i think, but he definitely gets stronger from the start of the series until the last fight with shishio, at which point he gets weaker due to his body breaking down
|
|
#
¿
Oct 12, 2017 03:32
|
|
|
one thing im not terribly great on, though i've done some reading now, is the historical context of RK. from what i can gather basically its kinda as follows: - the shogun is the military leader who weilds all the real power in the country but defers to the emperor in purely ceremonial fashion. shogun dominates him otherwise and is the real leader - samurai were a sort of nobility class that were loyal to the shogun, but they were decreasing in importance around the time of RK - some clans in japan decided that they needed to restore the real power to the emperor and his family, kenshin sides with these guys and they eventually win - saito was on the shoguns side a big mental thing i had to overcome was thinking that this was actually some massive civil war within japan. upon rereading, even tho im still not super clear on a lot of it, it was a big more contained than i woudl think. was kenshins side OK with western influences and the shogun not? if anyone could kinda simply explain this stuff to me i'd really appreciate it
|
|
#
¿
Oct 12, 2017 17:32
|
|
|
i haven't fully watched the live actions, just some clips on youtube that got suggested when i was rewatching the series, but it actually looks pretty good. the final melee vs shishio in particular is choreographed really well
|
|
#
¿
Oct 17, 2017 22:44
|
|
|
Ccs posted:Oh man I forgot how silly the villains are in Kenshin. Then again the Kyoto arc had a guy as big as a house so I guess these new ones aren't too much of a stretch. i had this same reaction, its pretty jarring when your most recent exposure is Trust and Betrayal lol Ytlaya posted:I like the part where Saitou almost defeats Shishio and just gets really unlucky and happens to hit him where he had a metal band. If he had just aimed somewhere else the fight would have suddenly ended in a really anticlimactic way. nah its like the ONE time shishio can't see something coming, every other attack (even the amekekaru ryo no hirameki) he's able to fully comprehend and react to. he fuckin catches kenshins one attack at one point with two fingers lol.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 20, 2017 00:55
|
|
|
yahiko fought the lovely assassin in the enishi arc. his whole gimmick was that he was a low tier fighter but had a bunch of assassin tools, i do like yahiko tho and it was cool seeing him mature
|
|
#
¿
Oct 20, 2017 14:29
|
|
|
When I saw like 20 new posts I was expecting the new chapter lmfao this blows what a scumbag
|
|
#
¿
Nov 21, 2017 15:50
|
|
|
It's a good thing that others will be brought to light at least
|
|
#
¿
Nov 22, 2017 13:40
|
|
|
can't and wont read this anymore despite loving it.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 27, 2018 16:01
|
|
|
what the gently caress
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2018 19:44
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 22, 2024 15:06 |
|
|
one of the murakami books i read a few years ago had the main character in some sort of weird relationship w/ a young girl but i thought that was supposed to add to the overall eerie feeling they can't be SERIOUSLY letting this guy back to write the manga through right like lol
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2018 19:54
|
|