Too much of everything

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

My first introduction to Rurouni Kenshin, one of the first Japanese anime I've ever seen and oh boy, what an anime! It surely sparked something in me.I probably watched this when I was about 12 or 13 years old with my older brother (around 14 or 15 at the time) and none of us really knew what we were watching, what was an anime or even a manga.I instantly fell in love with this film and yes, if you put the 4 OVAs together what you get definitely qualifies as a film.First off, I honestly think that this is a very strong film with an excellent plot, great character development, amazing animation and fighting sequences especially for that time, a lot of depth, great music, solid dialogues, themes, amazing tension, I could go on. You definitely don't have to be an anime fan to love this though I would say that the unique style, pace and tone of the film is not for every one.It is a pretty dark, gripping, tragic and yet beautiful story that nails fighting scenes but is far from revolving around it. In fact, if you get into this expecting to see a lot of fighting you might be sorely disappointed, do not expect comedic relief, or tons of dialogues either.I won't waste time fully comparing it to the original manga or anime series but will say that this story is much more realistic and definitely darker than its original medium. So I can say without a doubt that it offers something COMPLETELY different to the viewer.The films gets a bit slow at some point because it establishes something important for the rest of the story and after seeing it I'm sow glad that it did.I can't possibly write a proper review for this work of art because to this day, it is still my favourite anime film and one of my all time favourite film period. Thus, it holds a special place in my heart that might influence my review. However, putting all that aside, the fact remains that I still believe that this is Anime at its finest and that it delivers outstandingly in every aspects.Final Verdict: 10/10. This rating is not an attempt to evaluate the actual value of the film but merely reflects my own appreciation of it. I gave the highest note because of important this anime is to me and not to say that it is absolutely flawless.

I first saw Tsuiokuhen (aka Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal) on PPV maybe four years ago. The English dub was horrid. Nevertheless, the beauty of the story shines through.It's 1864 and Japan has been in the grip of a bloody war for over a decade. Into the fray comes Himura Kenshin, a young man with great sword skills and high ideals to match them. Unfortunately, he is put into the role of assassin and quickly begins to lose his humanity as he kills and kills, but doesn't see his ideals come to fruition.One night, he kills a bodyguard who manages to wound him on the cheek before being done in on Kenshin's sword. The wound doesn't heal up properly and bleeds whenever Kenshin kills someone.A few months later, he meets up with a beautiful, but grief-stricken young woman named Tomoe who sees him kill a shogunate supporter. Unable to bring himself to kill her, Kenshin instead takes her to the Patriots' inn where she becomes a maid of all work.Bit by bit, Tomoe opens Kenshin's eyes to what he is doing and the wrongness of it. In the end, he learns the hard way that every time he kills someone, he robs innocent people of their happiness.Vastly different in tone from the Rurouni Kenshin anime series or even the manga, this is understandable as Kenshin is not the Rurouni we know and love, but an assassin on the razor's edge of madness. The sombre tone fits the time period in which this story takes place.I would love to give this story a perfect ten, but a plot diversion from the original manga, namely the reduced role of Yukishiro Enishi to a mere bystander, forces me to give it a nine instead.This OVA can be taken as part of the entire Rurouni Kenshin saga or as its own beautiful Japanese love tragedy. Either way, I highly recommend it.

Never mind that it is animé, this is great art! Everything takes place in the last breaths of the shogunate in Japan with different clans struggling to get ahead in the new era.We follow the life of young Kenshin who commits his sword to a worthy cause. Kenshin is merely a boy ordered to do a mans job, and although he never takes pleasure in his job he gets caught up in all the violence while surrounded by death learns how to love.This is the gem in the Rurouni Kenshin franchise and is worthy of a perfect score. I haven't been moved and awestruck by a movie for a very long time. Were the movie is a good but not fantastic animé movie this is an epic of war, love, sword fighting and drama. Just the look of the movie is unparalleld by animated movie and no computer animation seems visible. If they have used it they have stayed true to the manga.This is not just great animé this is great cinema. All fits to the concept from the animations, the surroundings, the vocal-acting to the soundtrack. I strongly recommend the subtitled version because you will want to get the original voices and all the drama you can sense with the tone and delivering of their lines. I have no clue on who the voice actors really are but I would like to believe that they are the Japanese versions of highly regarded Shakespearian actors. Even if I don't get the language the deliver the acting so honest, sincere and focused that I don't see myself watching an animated movie.

The movie Kenshin deserves it's place among the best of anime, it stands as a reminder of what animation is capable of. It is rare to find a Samurai/Shogun animation movie that contains such attention to detail. This is apparent in the way the movie takes it's time to build it's characters and develop their respective relationships, in fact very little time is devoted to the actual fights scenes with the numerous battles and duels being over in a blink of an eye. What the movie actually focuses on is the doomed love story that develops between Kenshin and Toroe and the numerous symbols within nature that depict the character's fates.Kenshin is a true work of art that draws upon Japan's rich artistic history to create an epic tale of love and death. The movie incorporates distinctly Japanese arts within it's narrative, for example in this movie there is a strong emphasis on the depiction of the landscape, the changing of the seasons, the stoicism of the Japanese mentality. Through these artistic devices we see the tale unfold of an assassin who is torn between continuing his life of bloodshed or taking his chance to escape into a more quiet life away from the killings.With all the emphasis on the artistic achievement of Kenshin it should also be mentioned that the movie also delivers on a purely entertaining level with blood splatter tinged into practically every scene, but what stands out even more is the spiritual aspect of the story that tells the audience -amongst other things- that what we do in life will eventually come to haunt us in our future.A stunning poetic reflection of an often banal genre.