All things Kenshin

[Kenshin_Himura6880]

Talk about Kenshin all you want here.

It happens to be my favorite anime hence the sn.

I own every DVD, manga, OAV and Movie.

[Wind]

...and he's single!

Just messin' around, he's a bud from work so all welcome him and all that jazz

[Crube]

Why isn't Samurai Drifter here?

[Natsu]

Why isn't Samurai Drifter here?

and add the fact that I love the opening theme "Freckles" to the first season

[Samurai Drifter]

Well...

I was gone this past week, which is why I didn't post, but you could say I like Kenshin. In fact, I like it a lot. Every avatar I've had on a forum since 2003 has been of Kenshin (and before that I'd mainly just been reviewing books on Amazon.com for a few years). The manga is one of the best ever created, IMO- staying good right up until the end- which sucked in comparison to the ending of the Samurai X OVAs (oh snap!).

Many things intruiged me about Kenshin; first of all, the variety of his opponents and their fighting styles. Not so different from other shounen fighting series in this way, but highly entertaining nonetheless. Whether it be a spy with horizontal stripes painted on his arms to make them look shorter, or the guy that Yahiko fought who starved himself until he could fly with hand-made wings and throw bombs down, their styles were always unique and interesting.

Though the characterization of the series wasn't spectacular, overall (except for Kenshin; who was a complex character with more than his share of issues), I did think that most characters had backstories which justified their attitude and place in the series. Shishio, who'd been betrayed by the very people he had killed for. Soujiro, who murdered his abusive family. Sanosuke, who, after the murder of Capt. Sagara, lost all purpose in life and lived to fight and had his views changed by Kenshin. Kaoru, who was driven by the motivation to carry on her father's legacy, and Yahiko- driven by nothing but the desire to be stronger. And last but not least there's Kenshin, who had to fend for himself early in life and grew up wielding a sword under Hiko Seijuro. Not wanting to kill but wanting to work for the greater good, he'd done what he had to do to bring about the creation of the new government, but hated himself for it and spent the rest of his life working to reconcile his sins. (A nice touch, of course, is at the end of Reflections when you can see that the scar has disappeared.)

One last comment. The dub is terrible. The script moreso than the voices. That is all.