Rurouni Kenshin: Wandering Samurai

—by Kenneth Lee

There have been many great anime series over the years that never made it to the United States, whether due to financial reasons, rights issues or U.S. anime companies' beliefs that certain shows wouldn't have an audience outside of Japan. One great show, steeped heavily in a feudal era Japan and complex Japanese fighting styles was also seemingly doomed to the same path. But finally, after years of waiting, RUROUNI KENSHIN the TV series comes over to the U.S., courtesy of Media Blasters / Anime Works.
Now, only a few months after being announced by Media Blasters, the first DVD has been released with the VHS tapes! After viewing the first volume, I can only say that anime fans are in for a treat, as this is easily Anime Works' best DVD to date: chock-full of extras and with one of the best localization efforts by any company ever!
RUROUNI KENSHIN is essentially about a former swordsman, Himura Kenshin—known as "Battousai the Manslayer"—who killed countless men, women and children during the political upheaval of the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate. In this story, he was one of the key reasons for the success of the revolution and the rise of the Meiji Government. Having given up his ways, Kenshin now wanders Japan protecting people with his sword, vowing never to kill again.
The first four TV episodes included on this DVD show how Kenshin meets up with the female protagonist, Kamiya Kaoru, and his adventures surrounding this time period. After settling in with Kaoru, they meet up with Yahiko, a son of a former samurai family, and Sanosuke the Zanza, a gangster who wields the largest sword ever made. And between all these events are many comedic hijinks, cute moments and action-filled fights; whether it be Kenshin's interaction with Dr. Genzai's granddaughters or Kenshin and Kaoru's tension-filled fight against the yakuza that held Yahiko prisoner.
Upon the surface, the story may seem simple to some, but that belies the true beauty of RUROUNI KENSHIN. It is truly one of the best anime series ever created, in this reviewer's humble opinion. KENSHIN has an indelible quality to it that combines a perfect mixture of action, comedy, romance and bad-ass samurai sword fighting, all set against a powerful backdrop of Meiji Era Japan.
The DVD production is a mixed bag, but, ultimately, I still wholeheartedly recommend it. The video quality is rather disappointing. After seeing Cinram / POP DVD Studios work for Pioneer and Bandai, with their stunning video transfers, this DVD comes off looking rather poor. There are noticeable moire effects (shimmering) in many places, slight video artifacting at times and the color saturation seems a bit flat. But to be fair, the original Japanese DVDs look no better, as they too are replete with moire effects and artifacting. Overall, though, the video is quite acceptable, and much better than any VHS/LD picture quality.
The audio is standard 2.0 stereo and comes across clean. The one negative is the reversal of the left and right audio channels on the Japanese track. While most people who set their receivers to 2.0 stereo mode won't notice too much, there are a few scenes where a sound effect should be coming from left to right, for example, but end up coming from right to left. Overall though, it doesn't detract from this DVD very much as, most of the time, the audio fills both channels anyways. The good news is that Media Blasters has corrected this problem and are offering replacements to all those who are unsatisfied with this error.
The English dub ranges from poor to barely adequate. The English dub voice for Kenshin is done by a guy (versus using a woman in Japan), and he comes off as a bit too whiny. Kaoru's dub voice brings back memories of bad Carl Macek ROBOTECH voices, and Sanosuke's dub voice is flat and nasal. Overall, all the voices sound very "unnatural" in this dub; many times coming across forced or poorly executed. Definitely go with the original Japanese track and subtitles. Media Blasters should be commended for trying to retain the feel of the show throughout in the dub, such as the re-recording of the opening and ending theme songs into English. Unfortunately, there's just no way that these replacements could ever sound as good as the original songs; they'd have to spend too much money hiring professional U.S. bands. The original Japanese opening and endings are to die for—using ultra-popular JPOP bands, Judy and Mary for the too-cute opening song and The Yellow Monkey for the ending song.
The highlight of the audio is actually the Japanese language track, as the original Japanese voice actors do an absolutely brilliant job of capturing and creating the memorable characters within RUROUNI KENSHIN. Kenshin is voiced by Suzukaze Mayo, a female actress who provides a unique and memorable voice, including the classic "Oro!" exclamations. But, of course, the high spot would have to be the beautiful Fujitani Miki, a real Japanese actress and model, who voices Kamiya Kaoru, the spunky and cute master of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu dojo. She has a very distinct voice that captures both the femininity and toughness of the original character from the manga series. Yahiko is also great, voiced by Tominaga Mina, voice actress for Izumi Noa from PATLABOR.
Another superb aspect of the show is the background music. While set in Meiji Japan, an anachronistic flavor is thrown in via the music tracks—a blend of traditional Japanese flutes, soulful acoustic guitars, and on some tracks, wicked drum and bass/jungle remix tunes! While it may not sound too good on paper, in execution it blends together well, just like the rest of the show.
Also, the translation is probably the best highlight of the DVD. Folks, you have to thank Rika Takahashi for the amazing translation work here—she has done a truly excellent job of maintaining the artistic integrity of Watsuki Nobuhiro (the original creator) and the show itself, keeping all the key names and terms intact. Kudos goes to Media Blasters/Anime Works for respecting the original creative staff and listening to the fans.
Lastly, the extras on the DVD are equally impressive, complete with illustration galleries, character profiles (which are actually informative rather than useless as seen on many other DVDs, e.g. "[XYZ] is a bright girl, who loves flowers."), textless opening, and the coup de grace, extensive liner notes. These notes perfectly describe all the key terms that people watching the anime might not understand, and give insight into the translation process, such as what "Kamiya Kasshin Ryu" means, and what the translator did for Kenshin's "gozaru" colloquialisms.
All in all, this is in many ways the perfect anime DVD from Anime Works. Despite the slightly disappointing video quality, the wonderfully accurate and beautiful translations (subtitles and liner notes), extras and care put into this DVD make this an outstanding disc to own. This is one of the best translations of one of the best anime series to come out of Japan in a long while. The characters are wonderful and endearing, the stories are equally engaging (both the back story of the dynamic times of Meiji Japan as well as the immediate stories that are Kenshin's adventures), and the directing is impeccable. Cute, funny, cool and powerful, RUROUNI KENSHIN is a masterpiece.

Released in North America by Anime Works
Bilingual DVD, 100 min
Subtitled and Dubbed, RKDVD-2000
$29.99
Available now in the USA
Where to buy