19 - Dec - 2021
After all these years, let's reap the rewards of what felt like an eternal wait.
Less than 24 hours ago we were surprised by an announcement we thought we'd never see - we will have the chance to revisit our dear Rurouni in a new animation. A new TV Anime Project is being made by Liden Films Studio:
The call for the announcement was made by the co-author of the current arc (Hokkaido) in the manga, Kaworu Kurosaki. She was attending the Jump Festa event and surprised fans by introducing this new project. The teaser trailer is short and doesn't show much. But we can clearly see that Kenshin's look has been modernized to current standards. Which is not very unusual considering that in the original serialization of the manga itself, Watsuki's style changes over time. And in Hokkaido arc, its lines are even cleaner.
Above you can see two covers of the manga. On the left is the cover of the 1st volume of the classic manga (serialized through the Jinchuu Arc) and on the right is the cover of the 2nd volume of the Hokkaido Arc which is currently serialized in Japan. Both covers feature the wanderer Kenshin Himura and Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu's assistant master Kaoru Kamiya. Such a difference in style makes you appreciate the studios' effort to keep art consistent in their animation projects. It's worth mentioning that it doesn't happen in the classic series, and the difference is even more shocking when you first watch the Tsuioku-hen and Seisou-hen OVAs which have a more serious tone in both narrative and artistic style.
And talking about animated adaptations, let's talk about them briefly:
- First, we have the Classic TV Series that is still loved by fans today (yours truly included). Aired on January 10, 1996 and ended on September 8, 1998. An adaptation that, although good, censored the violence of the original work and included some filler characters that ended up modifying certain points of the story and left some characters out. One of them being Maekawa Miyauchi, who surprisingly ended up appearing in the live-action adaptation "The Final". But with a 3rd season with filler episodes of dubious quality and some arcs that made Kenshin not live up to his legend, we had the sad cancellation of the anime. Which is even more saddening is that we can briefly see Tomoe's appearance twice at the ending "No Junjou na Kanjou" performed by Siam Shade.
- Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuioku-hen. February 20, 1999. The work tells part of the final Arc (Jinchuu). The visual style is much more serious and in no way resembles the joyful style of the TV series. Divided into 4 parts, the story shows us Kenshin sincas a child and his difficult past until he became the legendary killer from the shadows known as "Battousai the Manslayer". In this part we discover the origin of his iconic cross-shaped scar on his left cheek.
- Rurouni Kenshin: Seisou-hen. December 19, 2001 – March 20, 2002. In these animations we are shown an alternate future of Kenshin, in addition to the events following after the completion of the Kyoto Arc where Kenshin must face an enemy from his past, but with personal reasons at stake, Kenshin must exorcise his own ghosts to have a chance in this clash . The director is Kazuhiro Furahashi who also directed Tsuioku-hen and co-directed the TV series.
- Rurouni Kenshin 10 Years Special DVD-BOX Ending (Rurouni Kenshin DVD-BOX Zenshu Kenshinden). 2007. Just a short scene that follows the manga's ending.
- Rurouni Kenshin: Shin Kyoto-Hen. Dec 17, 2011– Jun 23, 2012. Two OVA episodes that sparked false hope in fans before its details were revealed. An adaptation with a beautiful animation and an interesting and modern character design that follows very loosely and very briefly the events of the Kyoto Arc, where we see Kenshin killing someone, but with an explanation given by the director himself... It really wasn't a good choice of events.
And finally we come to the reason for writing this article. The new animation project for Rurouni Kenshin. A new animation has been the subject of speculation since the adaptation of Rurouni Kenshin's live-action trilogy. But even having a good reception from fans and having a good box office, we who always wait for a new anime could only hope for that. Since even after all that, some time has passed and nothing happened.
But in 2016 we had a really good surprise. The legendary Hokkaido arc, which had been just an idea the author mentioned but was not taken forward, was retaken and would come to life. In a letter addressed to fans outside of Japan published in Weekly Shonen Jump along with Chapter 2, he thanked the affection for his work despite the cultural and language differences and he revealed that the opportunity for the Hokkaido Arc to happen was given by the live-action's success. And this year we still had the 2 films that are loose adaptations of the Jinchuu Arc, "The Final" and "The Beginning". In addition to numerous participations by Kenshin and his gang in a lot of Japanese online games. Kenshin collaborations with games and alcoholic drinks also became common.
Now, more than 23 years have passed since the showing of the original series, we have a new animation project. What to expect from the new animation - Continuation or reboot? Obviously I could be wrong, but I think we will have a reboot. Why?
- Remastering the old series without the fillers would be a lot of work. Also, in the teaser we see Kenshin with a new look. If we actually have a complete series, old-style episodes up to the Kyoto arc and suddenly having episodes of the Jinchuu arc with the modern look would be very jarring.
- Today we live in the era of streaming services, where we have a lot of not very interesting things being done to increase the catalogues. So making a show with a good existing fan base that's been looking forward to it for decades (literally) seems like a good commercial move to me. Besides, if the animation is of good quality, it will definitely attract a new audience as it's a great story.
- There are other 2 different things in relation to the classic animation time. Enough source material and a "system" of exhibition in cours. We could have broadcast of at least 2 seasons that could be split from 2 to 4 years depending on the amount of cours. Not counting the Hokkaido Arc material.
- We can also count on a hypothetical scenario where they would only animate the Hokkaido arc, which would be a beautiful wasted chance. But it's worth mentioning since we're speculating.
The studio that's in charge of the adaptation has great works on their resume, but also things that really left fans of certain works wondering what they did to deserve their series to be massacred. But here we will have to wait to see what the result will be.
Allow me a confession. If Watsuki were involved at any level of work and added Shougo Amakusa to the story it would be a very welcome surprise. Although this is totally random. But, hey, it's 2021 and after almost 2 years of pandemic we finally got an announcement for a new Rurouni Kenshin anime. So, you never know... Anyway, will we also have new games? How about you? What do you expect?
