Cheap Rurouni Kenshin - Fall From Grace (Episodes 75-78) (DVD) (Kazuhiro Furuhashi) Price

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Customer Reviews of Rurouni Kenshin - Fall From Grace (Episodes 75-78)

Fun But Lacking The Spirit
This disc and arc is already hard to swallow if you know the direction the comic book creators took immediately after the Kyoto Arc (Enishi, of "Trust & Betrayal" and "Reflections" fame, returns with his own gang). And while the Amakusa Shougo storyline was interesting, it comes to a preachy, unfulfilling end on this disc.

As they return to Tokyo, the group encounters a man protecting a town from gangsters using Kenshin's Hitokiri Battousai name, with more valiant intentions to be revealed later. This series is only slightly entertaining; a quick maybe three minute fight sequence with one semi-skilled swordsman ensues.

Further on is a more slapstick-type comedy episode in the goofy spirit of the Tenchi Muyo series. An art student falls madly in love with Kaoru and the rest of the gang convinces him they will help him win her love if he can just touch Kenshin with his shinai or wooden sword. It's comedic, with no real fighting scenes, and Kenshin using his skill for a few seconds to ward off some insects. It's Tenchi meets Kenshin for one episode.

Is it necessary for your Kenshin collection? No, save for the conclusion of the Shougo saga. Will it satisfy your cravings for more episodes in the series? Yes. Not really recommended if you appreciated this story for its intensity and well-played sword battles (even the Kenshin-Shougo fight is extremely short...it comes down to one test of their Ougis, or final techniques).

By this point you should consider reading the Manga and discovering what every other long-time Kenshin fan has: the moment the comics and the cartoon went separate ways was a bad one for the series.

Kenshin's blindness and remaining episodes...
We do know why Kenshin went blind and why he got his site back. Think back two disks to disk 16 and to the original fight where he was blinded; remember how the sword's light hit him, the move called Rairyu-Sen? That was the warrior spirt of Shogo directed in a beam at Kenshin. The strength of it made him go blind. It could also be said that Kenshin's warrior spirit at the time was weaker than Shogo's and that is why the attack worked. In order to break the spell, his warrior spirit would have to overcome Shogo's - watch Episode 75 again for the conclusion of the fight.

On the question of why Kenshin was fighting Shogo - it was a two fold reason - think back two disks ago, at the beginning of the Shimabara Saga. The first reason is to get rid of the "imposter" of the Hiten Mitsurugi style; there should only ever be one master and apprentice of the style at any time, and Shogo wasn't either. The second reason was to save lives. Kenshin states repeatly that in this new era, that to persecute anyone, including the Christians would just be repeating mistakes of the past. For those reasons he fights Shogo.

Personally I like the last two filler episodes on the disk. The first one "Himura Dojo in Shimonoseki?" I thought was just a good display of the loyalty of Kenshin's group. They don't wany anyone to tarnish or use his name. Kenshin if you remember back in the first or second disk, said that he didn't have a strong attachment to the name Battousai, he doesn't mind giving it up... This just reaffirms that statement. I admit that this episode did seem to drag a bit, but overall, I don't think it was that bad.

The fourth episode was just awesome! I am a complete fan of the completely light-hearted episodes, and this one is my most favorite one of them all! If you have watched the last episode of "Firefly's Wish" called "Kaoru Ecstatic!" in which there is a bit of match-making and other romantic hilarity going on, then this episode is for you! I was laughing so hard throughout most of this episode. Watch for the bathing scene in the hotspring, and for the scene in which Sanosuke gives the artist his task. Oh my word, those were just hilarious. Given that this is basically a series for males (that was the targeted audience), I am glad that they throw in stuff like this - stuff that I believe was targeted towards females! Long live the Kenshin series!