Rurouni Kenshin

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The story begins during the 11th year of the Meiji period in Japan (1878) and follows a former assassin from the Bakumatsu, known as Hitokiri Battosai. After his work against the bakufu, Hitokiri Battosai disappears to become Himura Kenshin: a wandering swordsman who protects the people of Japan with a vow never to take another life. Watsuki wrote the series upon his desire to make a ''shōnen'' manga different from the other ones that were published at the time, with Kenshin being a former assassin and the story taking a more serious tone as it continued. The manga revolves around themes of atonement, peace, and romance.

The manga was serialized in Shueisha's ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' magazine from April 1994 to September 1999. The complete work consists of 28 ''tankōbon'' volumes, while years later it was reprinted into 22 '' kanzenban'' volumes. Studio Gallop, Studio Deen and SPE Visual Works adapted the manga into an anime television series, which aired in Japan from January 1996 to September 1998. Besides an animated feature film, two series of original video animations (OVAs) were also produced. The first adapted stories from the manga that were not featured in the anime, while the second was a sequel to the manga. Several art and guidebooks for ''Rurouni Kenshin'' have been published, and writer Kaoru Shizuka has authored three official light novels which were published by Shueisha. Many video games have also been released for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable consoles. A series of five live-action theatrical films adaptations were released from 2012 to 2021. A second anime television series adaptation by Liden Films is set to premiere in 2023.

The manga, as well as the first light novel and first guidebook, has received a complete North American release by Viz Media. ''Rurouni Kenshin'' is subtitled "''Wandering Samurai''" in some English versions. The ''Rurouni Kenshin'' manga has over 72 million copies in circulation as of 2019, making it one of the best-selling manga series. The series has received praise from various publications for manga, anime and other media, with both having received a good response on the characters' designs and historical setting. In 2017, Watsuki began a direct sequel titled '' Rurouni Kenshin: The Hokkaido Arc'' in '' Jump Square''.

Plot

In the early Meiji era, after participating in the Boshin War as the assassin "'' Hitokiri Battōsai''", Himura Kenshin wanders the countryside of Japan with a reverse blade katana. He is offering protection and aid to those in need as atonement for the murders he once committed. When arriving in Tokyo in the 11th year of Meiji (1878), he meets a young woman named Kamiya Kaoru, who is in the middle of a fight with a murderer - who claims to be the ''Hitokiri Battōsai'' - tarnishing the name of the swordsmanship school that she teaches. Kenshin decides to help her and defeats the fake ''Battōsai''. After discovering that Kenshin is the real infamous assassin, Kaoru offers him a place to stay at her dojo, noting that he is peace-loving and not cold-hearted, as his reputation implies. Kenshin accepts and begins to establish lifelong relationships with many people such as Sagara Sanosuke, a former Sekihō Army member; Myōjin Yahiko, caught in the opium trade. However, he also deals with his fair share of enemies, new and old, including the former leader of the Oniwabanshū, Shinomori Aoshi.

After several months of living in the dojo, Kenshin faces a rival from the Bakumatsu turned police officer, Saitō Hajime. This challenge turns out to be a test to face his successor, Shishio Makoto, who plans to conquer Japan by destroying the Meiji Government, starting with Kyoto. Feeling that Shishio's faction may attack his friends, Kenshin meets Shishio alone to defeat him. However, many of his friends, including a young Oniwabanshū named Makimachi Misao, whom he meets in his travels, decide to help him in his fight. After his first meeting with him, Kenshin realizes he needs to get stronger to defeat Shishio without becoming the cold assassin he was in the past and returns to the man who taught him kenjutsu, Hiko Seijūrō, to learn the school's final technique. He finally accepts his friends' help and defeats Shishio in a close fight. After that, Shishio dies burning to ashes after passing the limit of his abnormal body condition. A reformed Shinomori stays in Kyoto with the surviving Oniwabanshū.

When Kenshin and his friends return to Tokyo, he finds Yukishiro Enishi, who plans to enact revenge. At this point, it is revealed that, during the Bakumatsu, Kenshin was to be married to a woman named Yukishiro Tomoe. She had initially wanted to avenge the death of her first fiancé, whom Kenshin had assassinated, but instead, they both fell in love, and she got proposed to. It is eventually revealed that Tomoe was related to Edo guards who wanted to kill Kenshin. They outwitted Tomoe after realizing her deception first and captured her to use as bait. Kenshin rushed to the rescue. Although the ambushers managed to injure him severely, Kenshin managed to kill almost all of them and moved on. Then, in the final fight against the group leader, Kenshin accidentally kills Tomoe, who jumps in at the last second to help Kenshin create an opening to win the battle. Wanting to take revenge for the death of his sister, Enishi kidnaps Kaoru and leaves behind a corpse doll bearing a stunning resemblance of her for Kenshin to find and momentarily grieve over. Once discovering that Kaoru is alive, Kenshin and his friends set out to rescue her. A final battle between Kenshin and Enishi follows, and the former assassin emerges as the victor. Misao brings Tomoe's diary to Enishi who keeps it in a village to hide alongside his missing father.

Four years later, Kenshin has married Kaoru and has a son named Himura Kenji. Now at peace with himself, Kenshin gives his reverse-blade sword to Yahiko as a ceremonial gift.

Production

One-shots

A prototype series titled ''Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story'' appeared as a pair of separate short stories published in 1992 and 1993. The first story, published in December 1992 in the ''Weekly Shōnen Jump Winter Special'' issue of 1993, featured an earlier version of Kenshin stopping a crime lord from taking over the Kamiya family dojo. Watsuki described the first ''Rurouni'' story, echoing the "Megumi Arc," as a "pilot" for ''Rurouni Kenshin''. According to Watsuki, the final ''Rurouni Kenshin'' series was not composed entirely of his free will. Describing the creation of historical stories as "hard," Watsuki initially wanted to make his next series in a contemporary setting. An editor approached Watsuki and asked him to make a new historical story. With the historical concept, Watsuki intended to use the Bakumatsu period from '' Moeyo Ken'' (''Burn, O Sword'') with a story akin to '' Sanshiro Sugata''. Watsuki experimented with various titles, including ''Nishin'' (''Two-Hearts'') ''Kenshin'', ''Yorozuya'' (''Jack-of-All-Trades'') ''Kenshin'', and variations of "Rurouni" and "Kenshin" with different kanji in that order.

The second ''Rurouni'' story, published in April 1993 in the ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' 21–22 double issue of that year, featured Kenshin helping a wealthy girl named Raikōji Chizuru. Watsuki recalled experiencing difficulty when condensing "everything" into 31 pages for that story. He said that he "put all issoul into it" but sighs when looking at it from his perspective after the publication of the ''Rurouni Kenshin'' Volume 1 graphic novel in Japan. Watsuki describes that second ''Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story'' as receiving mediocre reviews and about two hundred letters. He referred to it as a "side story."

The design model for Hiko Seijuro, Kenshin's master, in ''Rurouni Kenshin'' is the character of the same name from his one-shot manga "Crescent Moon of the Warring States," but Watsuki also added some influences from Hiken Majin Hajerun in Takeshi Obata's ''Arabian Lamp-Lamp''. At the time, Watsuki said that he was fascinated by images of "manliness" and that Hiko is one of the first characters to reflect this fascination.Watsuki, Nobuhiro. "The Secret Life of Characters (32) Hiko Seijūrō," ''Rurouni Kenshin'' Volume 12. Viz Media. 92. Since Watsuki's debut work contained a tall, black-haired man in "showy" armor, he wanted to make a character "completely opposite" to the debut character; the new character ended up "coming out like a girl". According to Watsuki, he used "no real motif" when creating Kenshin and placed a cross-shaped scar on his face "not knowing what else to do." Like several characters, Kenshin was influenced the Shinsengumi with Kenshin being affected by Okita Sōji and Saitō Hajime in order to give him an air of mystery.

Publication and influences

During his childhood, Watsuki used to practice kendo, which influenced his making of the series. Although Watsuki developed various one-shots before the official serialization from the series. While naming the characters, he based some of their names from places he used to live such a Makimachi Misaos's "Makimachi" and Sanjō Tsubame, who are named after places from Niigata.

When the manga series started to be published in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'', Watsuki had little hope in the development of the series. He planned to finish the story in approximately 30 chapters, ending with Kenshin's departure from Tokyo similarly to the one from volume 7. Kenshin's enemies would have been people from Kyoto who would send an assassin to kill Kenshin. When the Oniwabanshū were introduced during the serialization, Watsuki noted that the series could be longer as he had created various main characters. In that time, there was a survey, and the series had become very popular.

For its seventh volume, Watsuki's boss suggested to him that it was time to make a longer story-arc, which resulted in the creation of the fights between Kenshin and Shishio Makoto. The arc was only meant to be serialized for one year, but it ended up being one year-and-a-half-long. This arc was also done to develop Kenshin's character as he considered him not to have a weak point. Watsuki commented that his artistic skills were honed with this arc, as he could draw everything he wanted to. The last arc from the manga was meant to be much shorter, but it turned out to be a fairly long one as he could not present it simplistically. Watsuki originally made this arc prior to the series' start, having already thought about how would Kenshin's scar had been made. Because of the dark style of the Kyoto arc, Watsuki created the comical Mikimachi Misao in order to contrast Kenshin's serious side. Watsuki, Nobuhiro. "The Secret Life of Characters (23) Makimachi Misao," ''Rurouni Kenshin'' Volume 8. Viz Media. 146.

Being fascinated by the Shinsengumi, Watsuki designed the characters by basing their characteristics to that of the real Shinsengumi members and also used fictional representation of them and other historical characters from the Bakumatsu period of Japan. The historical characters were considered to be a hard task by Watsuki. Due to problems with the characterization from Sagara Sōzō, Watsuki decided to illustrate Saitō Hajime in his own style avoiding the historical figure. He felt very good with Saitō's character having noted he fit very well in the manga. However, Watsuki mentioned that many Japanese fans of the Shinsengumi complained about the personality of Saitō, as he was made sadistic. Additionally, the final shot of Kenshin returning to Kaoru's dojo was inspired by the final shot of the ''Rurouni Kenshin'' anime's first opening theme:"Sobakasu" by Judy and Mary.

In final arc of the manga, Watsuki wanted to make the five comrades in this storyline as "scum-like" as possible. But because he created villains with no ideals or beliefs, this made it difficult to portray them as an enjoyable read.Watsuki, Nobuhiro. "The Secret Life of Characters (45) Otowa Hyōko," ''Rurouni Kenshin'' Volume 22. Viz Media. 178. The story took a darker tone as most of the characters believed Kaoru was killed by Yukishiro Enishi which made Kenshin question his own way of living and escape to a village of wanderers. Watsuki did not enjoy angst in Kenshin so his friend Myōjin Yahiko

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