Samurai X Trust and Betrayal OVAs, Rurouni Kenshin TV Series, Samurai X The Movie, and Samurai X Reflections OVA...
Let's start with the OVA that everyone knows. Where a wandering swordsman enters the picture with a cross shaped scar on his left cheek and a sword on his hip that now is illegal to carry in the 11th year of the Meiji period in Japan. Apon closer inspection the blade is on the wrong side of the sword! Seems he had a dark history where he was an assassin "Battōsai" that worked tirelessly to help over throw the Shogunate to create the new Meiji Government. After ending countless lives he no longer wants to spill blood and has valued never to kill again. So you can throw (95 episodes + 4 OVAs ) into this section. Where Kenshin Himura fights villain after villain while trying to keep his promise to never kill again. Colorful characters join Kenshin on his journeys, including a developing romance.
This was the first anime I ever showed my wife (At the time we were not married, but before the end of the series we did get engaged.) That romance was between Kenshin Himura and Kamiya Kaoru which are the two in the picture above. Kaoru was the instructor to the Kamiya Kashen dojo.
Later came Sagara Sanosuke a fighter for hire that wears a shirt with the symbol "Bad" on the back. He fought with the Sekihō that back in the war got label a false army. Then a thief named Myōjin Yahiko that later you find out was a member of a noble samurai family orphaned in the war. Takani Megumi a doctor forced into the opium trade and a police officer Saitō Hajime. Saitō was a captain in the third squad of the Shinsengumi fighting for the Shogunate in the war. That would be the main character setup, there are tons more too...
Samurai X Trust and Betrayal are my favorite! Tons of action, blood, and gore. You also find out who Kenshin Himura was "a boy named Shinta" and meet his master Hiko Seijūrō, a master of the Hiten Mitsurugi style. You see him get modelled into the perfect swordsmen only to be turned into an assassin by those looking to over throw the Shogunate. The first assignment to assassinate a samurai lord lead to his first scar on his face. Later he is sent away to lay low for a while and meets his first love Yukishiro Tomoe only to find out she was working with other assassins looking to get revenge for the lives he had taken. Finding out one of those people he killed was Yukishiro Tomoe future husband, and she finished the X shaped scar on his cheek while saving his life. The life of the very man that killed her future husband.
My wife was hooked at this point! I did show her the OVAs before the series so she got to see the story in order and got really attached to all the characters. Side note I just started showing my 10yr old daughter the series figuring I save the bloody stuff in the OVAs for when she gets older. She refused to watch it at first thinking it was old and she would hate it. So I told her to try out the first episode and the rest is history! Now she bugs me about when are we going to watch another episode...lol I am really enjoying being able to share my collection with her.
Kenshin decides it is time to wander again with the support of Kaoru who promised to welcome with his new born son. After 15 years pass and Kenshin did not return. His son Kenji with resentment in his heart for his father leaves in search of his father's master Seijuro Hiko hoping to learn the Hiten Mitsurugi style and make his own legend. Kaoru finds out and sends Yahiko to bring him back. Kenji and Yahiko fight a dual were Yahiko shows Kenji Kenshin's true strength of his father's philosophy firsthand. Kenshin eventually becomes ravaged by an unknown disease that is much like leprosy.
Kenshin then leaves to go assist in the First Sino-Japanese War (Korea) as he had promised the Meiji Government. He still held to his code of not killing but instead helping people. After the war's end, Sanosuke discovers Kenshin in really bad shape sometime after he had fallen overboard off a ship. Sanosuke gets Kenshin back to Japan and into Kaoru's.
This was the breaking point for her when he died in her arms the water works broke wide open. The first time I saw the ending I also had a little moisture in my eyes, so yeah it is super sad ending. That is also why I am holding off showing my daughter the whole story. I think I remember reading another post lately about sad anime, this would make the cut! In fact, most anime in late 80's early 90's most of the endings were realistic and rough. It was a great time anime....
I hope everyone enjoyed catching up on old time. I tried not to make it too long most people usually skip over the parts they already know and read the good stuff. And you youngsters out there if you haven't seen this yet you are missing out! I am doing my part with passing the torch to my children, you should do the same. ;)
