Kenshin
I just finished watching the last segment of the OVA for Rurouni Kenshin (which I still refuse to call Samurai X.)
See my icon? That's Kenshin. RK was the first manga that I fell in love with. Back in the old days (late 90s when I was still in college, kiddos) before the internet made fansubbing what it is today, Rurouni Kenshin was a Holy Grail of sorts. It was the Naruto/One Piece/Bleach of today. Published by the same company (Shonen Jump) but back then, it was something only really hardcore Anime geeks could get their hands on. I remember Jenn telling me that she had a chance to see it, and I was insanely jealous. So, sometime after graduating college, I managed to get my hands on a bootleg copy of the entire series. It was the worst quality video that I have ever sat through. It was all in Real Media format, and there were parts of it that the video was too scrambled to actually see anything of what was going on. I soldiered through though, and managed to finally watch all 96 some odd episodes (well, mostly. See, the collection I had was missing one episode. The climax of one of the story arcs in Season 3.) I fell in love. At some point, my favorite uncle and godfather mentioned he was going to be passing through Tokyo on one of his trips, and asked if there was anything I'd like for Christmas from Japan, and I said I would love any Rurouni Kenshin stuff he could find. At Christmas, I was treated to 3 of the manga books. However, they were all in Japanese, which meant I had no real idea of the finer points of what was going on. More importantly though, I saw antagonists that I had no idea who they were. I did a bit of digging to find out that the manga and the anime take VERY different routes after Season 2. This did end up explaining why people consider the Shishio arc to be the pinnacle of the anime, and there was a noticeable decline in quality and singleness of plot for Season 3.
Then, there are the OVAs. These were done by a different animation group, much higher production quality, and instead of doing the story in a fantastic, traditional anime style, it was darker and much more realistic. The first 4 episodes are basically a prequel to the main series. It covers the important bits that shaped Kenshin, and it is beautiful and heart wrenching. There are more episodes, but they were not published until about 2005. I saw a boxed set of "Samurai X" that was 2 DVDs. One with the first episodes that I had seen (titled "Trust" and "Betrayal",) and this mysterious 2nd DVD titled "Reflection". I bought it from B&N, and the clerk in Music complimented me on my choice, and made the comment, "Oh, that's the one where Kenshin dies!"
I was stunned. I completed my purchase, but I never opened the box. I couldn't bring myself to watch the end where I knew from the get-go that my favorite character was going to die. I'd idolized and loved Kenshin for years and years and years, could I deal with watching him die? Part of me was curious, because the manga never went through his death, which meant that the OVA went on to continue the story with new material. I just didn't know if I wanted to subject myself to watching one of my heroes die for the sake of new material.
Well, I have recently burned through all of Top Gear, all of Naruto, and I thought about starting to watch Kenshin again from the beginning, and remembered that I still had that DVD sitting there on the shelf. I pulled it out and popped it in. Due to plans, I didn't get a chance to watch the whole thing in one sitting, but even still, I have to say that it was worth it to see characters that I had loved brought back to life, and to see their story carried on. I'm not going to share anymore spoilers about what is in the story, but I will say that if you want to watch Rurouni Kenshin (and you should!) my suggested order is this:
1. Watch Trust and Betrayal
2. Pick up the Anime, and watch episodes 1-62, and then ignore the rest.
3. Watch Reflection
See my icon? That's Kenshin. RK was the first manga that I fell in love with. Back in the old days (late 90s when I was still in college, kiddos) before the internet made fansubbing what it is today, Rurouni Kenshin was a Holy Grail of sorts. It was the Naruto/One Piece/Bleach of today. Published by the same company (Shonen Jump) but back then, it was something only really hardcore Anime geeks could get their hands on. I remember Jenn telling me that she had a chance to see it, and I was insanely jealous. So, sometime after graduating college, I managed to get my hands on a bootleg copy of the entire series. It was the worst quality video that I have ever sat through. It was all in Real Media format, and there were parts of it that the video was too scrambled to actually see anything of what was going on. I soldiered through though, and managed to finally watch all 96 some odd episodes (well, mostly. See, the collection I had was missing one episode. The climax of one of the story arcs in Season 3.) I fell in love. At some point, my favorite uncle and godfather mentioned he was going to be passing through Tokyo on one of his trips, and asked if there was anything I'd like for Christmas from Japan, and I said I would love any Rurouni Kenshin stuff he could find. At Christmas, I was treated to 3 of the manga books. However, they were all in Japanese, which meant I had no real idea of the finer points of what was going on. More importantly though, I saw antagonists that I had no idea who they were. I did a bit of digging to find out that the manga and the anime take VERY different routes after Season 2. This did end up explaining why people consider the Shishio arc to be the pinnacle of the anime, and there was a noticeable decline in quality and singleness of plot for Season 3.
Then, there are the OVAs. These were done by a different animation group, much higher production quality, and instead of doing the story in a fantastic, traditional anime style, it was darker and much more realistic. The first 4 episodes are basically a prequel to the main series. It covers the important bits that shaped Kenshin, and it is beautiful and heart wrenching. There are more episodes, but they were not published until about 2005. I saw a boxed set of "Samurai X" that was 2 DVDs. One with the first episodes that I had seen (titled "Trust" and "Betrayal",) and this mysterious 2nd DVD titled "Reflection". I bought it from B&N, and the clerk in Music complimented me on my choice, and made the comment, "Oh, that's the one where Kenshin dies!"
I was stunned. I completed my purchase, but I never opened the box. I couldn't bring myself to watch the end where I knew from the get-go that my favorite character was going to die. I'd idolized and loved Kenshin for years and years and years, could I deal with watching him die? Part of me was curious, because the manga never went through his death, which meant that the OVA went on to continue the story with new material. I just didn't know if I wanted to subject myself to watching one of my heroes die for the sake of new material.
Well, I have recently burned through all of Top Gear, all of Naruto, and I thought about starting to watch Kenshin again from the beginning, and remembered that I still had that DVD sitting there on the shelf. I pulled it out and popped it in. Due to plans, I didn't get a chance to watch the whole thing in one sitting, but even still, I have to say that it was worth it to see characters that I had loved brought back to life, and to see their story carried on. I'm not going to share anymore spoilers about what is in the story, but I will say that if you want to watch Rurouni Kenshin (and you should!) my suggested order is this:
1. Watch Trust and Betrayal
2. Pick up the Anime, and watch episodes 1-62, and then ignore the rest.
3. Watch Reflection