Rurouni Kenshin And Fighting Spirit

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The story begins in 1878, the 11th year of the Meiji era in Japan, and follows a former assassin of the Bakumatsu, known as Hitokiri Battosai. After his work against the , he becomes Himura Kenshin, a wandering swordsman who protects the people of Japan with a vow never to take another life. Watsuki wrote the series based on his desire to make a manga series different from others published at the time, with Kenshin being a former assassin and the story taking a more serious tone as it progressed.

''Rurouni Kenshin'' was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from April 1994 to September 1999. Its chapters were collected in 28 volumes; it was later republished in a 22-volume edition and a 14-volume edition. The manga was adapted into an anime television series, produced by SPE Visual Works and animated by Studio Gallop and later by Studio Deen, aired from January 1996 to September 1998. In addition to an animated feature film, '' Rurouni Kenshin: The Motion Picture'', two series of original video animations (OVAs) were also produced; '' Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal,'' which adapted stories from the manga that were not featured in the anime, and '' Rurouni Kenshin: Reflection,'' a sequel to the manga. In 2017, Watsuki began publishing a direct sequel, '' Rurouni Kenshin: The Hokkaido Arc,'' in ''Jump Square''. A second anime television series adaptation by Liden Films premiered in July 2023. In addition, other media based on the franchise has been produced, including a series of five live-action theatrical film adaptations, beginning with ''Rurouni Kenshin'' in 2012 and ending with '' Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning'' in 2021, and video games for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable. Several art and guidebooks have been published, and writer Kaoru Shizuka has written three official light novels, which were published by Shueisha.

The manga, as well as the first light novel and guidebook, have been published in North America by Viz Media. The ''Rurouni Kenshin'' manga had over 72 million copies in circulation by 2019, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. The series has received praise from various publications for manga, anime, and other media, particularly for the characters' designs and historical setting.

Plot

The series takes place in 1878, eleven years after the beginning of the Meiji era. After participating in the Boshin War as the assassin , Himura Kenshin wanders the countryside of Japan, offering protection and aid to those in need as atonement for the murders he once committed. Having vowed to never kill again, he now wields a reverse-bladed katana. Upon arriving in Tokyo, he meets a young woman named Kamiya Kaoru, who is fighting a murderer who claims to be the and is 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 true , Kaoru offers him a place to stay at her dojo, noting that he is peace-loving and not cold-hearted, as his reputation had implied. Kenshin accepts and begins to form lifelong relationships with others, including Sagara Sanosuke, a former member of the Sekihō Army; Myōjin Yahiko, who has become involved in the opium trade. However, he also deals with old and new enemies, including the former leader of the Oniwabanshū, Shinomori Aoshi.

After several months living in the dojo, Kenshin faces Saitō Hajime, a rival from Bakumatsu who is now a police officer. 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 during his travels, decide to help him in his fight. After his first meeting with him, Kenshin realizes that he must become 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. Finally accepting the help of his friends, he defeats Shishio, who dies after exceeding the limits of his abnormal body condition, after which 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 take revenge. At this point, it is revealed that, during the Bakumatsu, Kenshin was to be married to Yukishiro Tomoe, who sought to avenge the death of her first fiancé, whom he had assassinated, but instead they fell in love and he proposed to her. Because she was related to the Edo guards who sought to kill Kenshin, they realized her deception and captured her to use as bait. In the final fight against the group's leader, Kenshin accidentally killed Tomoe after she took a blow meant for him. Seeking revenge for the death of his sister, Enishi kidnaps Kaoru and Kenshin and his friends set out to rescue her. A final battle between Kenshin and Enishi ensues, with Kenshin emerging victorious. Misao brings Tomoe's diary to Enishi, who keeps it in a village to hide along with 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 first ''Rurouni Kenshin'' volume. Watsuki said that the second ''Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story'' received mediocre reviews and about 200 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 was 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 by the Shinsengumi, with Kenshin being affected by Okita Sōji and Saitō Hajime in order to give him an air of mystery.

Publication and influences

Ever since writing his first storyboards for the manga, Watsuki did sketches of Kenshin's appearance and noticed that he looked like Kurama from Yoshihiro Togashi's manga ''YuYu Hakusho''. Watsuki considered himself younger back and that he preferred always drawing goodlooking men in contrast to Hiko Seijuro from a previous one-shot. When competing with these series, Watsuki felt ''Rurouni Kenshin'' competed more with ''YuYu Hakusho'' that focused more on drama rather than action like ''Dragon Ball''. In contrast to the ''YuYu Hakusho'' young lead Yusuke Urameshi, Kenshin was written as an adult with a dark past based on the Edo period in order to make the series stand out. Nevertheless, the manga managed to compete well against other ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' manga from the 1990s including ''Slam Dunk'', ''Dragon Ball'' and ''YuYu Hakusho''. Kenshin's age was also a departure from common archetypes in manga as the themes and lore in the story made him an adult in contrast to other young protagonist besides ''City Hunter''. Nevertheless, he was careful with how writing these characters as they get old. During his childhood, Watsuki used to practice kendo, which influenced the making of the series. Although Watsuki developed various one-shots before the official serialization of the series, while naming the characters, he based some of their names on places he used to live, such as Makimachi Misaos's "Makimachi" and Sanjō Tsubame, who are named after places in Niigata.

Since the manga started, an editor from Shueisha suggested Watsuki to check the ''Samurai Shodown'' fighting games which helped as a form influence for his characters. However, he tried writing a realistic series and avoid supernatural powers regardless of the young demography with few exceptions being Yukishiro Enishi's ability to perform double jumps to counterattack Kenshin's aerial style. When thinking about the ending, Watsuki always thought that a mass murderer should die even if he is on a self antonment journey, seeing ''Ashita no Joe'' as a famous example of a hero's death. 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. At 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 Kenshin's scar would have 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 on those of the real Shinsengumi members and also using fictional representations of them and other historical characters from the Bakumatsu period of Japan. The historical characters were considered a hard task by Watsuki. Due to problems with the characterization of Sagara Sōzō, Watsuki decided to illustrate Saitō Hajime in his own style, avoiding the historical figure. He felt very good about Saitō's character, having noted that 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 the 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, it was 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 on 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 the angst in Kenshin, so his friend Myōjin Yahiko

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