Cheap Rurouni Kenshin - Legendary Swordsman, Vol. 1 (DVD) (Rurouni Kenshin) Price

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Customer Reviews of Rurouni Kenshin - Legendary Swordsman, Vol. 1

New to Kenshin? Boy, have you been missing out on something incredible. This anime is a *seemingly* light-hearted comedy, but soon turns to be very deep and emotional (*cough* OVA *cough*). The story is based on a fictional account which just adds even more "coolness" to it. "Hitokiri Battousai" lived in the Tokugawa regime. He was an assassin for a group of idealists that wanted to created a new world where everyone could be free. The Battousai did that job, but at the end of the war, he mysteriously leaves his life to become a Rurouni (a wanderer). Fast-forward ten years: it is now the Meiji Era. Swords have been banned. In Tokyo, a wandering samurai bumps into Kaoru. And from there it's all history.

To start off, the animation is gorgeous. The battle scenes are very different from DragonBall Z. In DragonBall Z, you can see most punches and kicks and blasts directed at each other and you can see them getting beat up and stuff. But, in Rurouni Kenshin, it's usually just one frame that slowly zooms out, while you see slashes being... uh, *slashed* at the bad guys. It's completely different from a lot of other animes, but is incredible, nonetheless.

The music is marvelous. It has the original Japanese music and sound effects. The dub voices are so-so, but I have a few problems with the dialogue. An important part of Kenshin's character is that he says things like "Oro?" which roughly translates into "Huh?" Also, if he were to say "The man is strong," he would say it as "The man is strong, he is." In the English dub, they would just cut out the "he is" part, which is vital to Kenshin's character, in my opinion. (But, maybe the subtitler just got Kenshin's lines wrong...)

That was the actual content's review, and here's the DVD part. In the original (when it was played on television), the animation was made for commercial breaks. Of course, that's gonna create some problems for the home video. Whenever the video fades out for the intended commercial, the screen stays black for a few seconds. However, the black flickers back and forth between black and grey, which is very annoying. The extras are un-needed. They include trailers, the original Japanese closing, a textless version of the introduction, liner notes, art gallery, and character profiles. Sounds pretty nice, huh? Well, seeing as how the art gallery has two (yes, you heard me, two!!) pictures, and the character profiles only having four biographies, it's not too much. Well, you really shouldn't be expecting anything like deleted scenes like in regular movies, so I can't see this as a disappointment.

Setup? The versions are pretty much like "DragonBall," with English voices, Japanese voices, and Japanese voices with English subtitles. Oh, which reminds me: the subtitles work very well.

Ah, great subtitles. Most companies merely put the standard yellow subs that can sometimes be hard to read, but AnimeWorks put in the new white ones with a black border. Much easier to read.

All in all, this is a decent start to a great anime. The episodes are mainly "filler" until the Kyoto Saga comes on. And boy, you'll be glad you took the time to understand the characters. The DVD is definitely worth buying, and I highly recommend it.

Some of the best anime out there
Plot: Himura Kenshin, formerly a feared assassin during the revolution known as Hitokiri (manslayer) Battousai, is now a rurouni (wanderer) in the Meiji era who wields a reverse-blade sword, having sworn never to kill again. The story follows Kenshin as he finds a family in his new friends and tries to protect the people he loves without reverting back to being the Hitokiri Battousai. This is especially difficult because many old enemies show up to test their strength against the revolution's best swordsman. Kenshin must learn to accept the Battousai so that the rurouni can live on.

My thoughts: An all-around wonderful show. Technically it's shonen (boy's) anime, but I'm a girl and I love it (and I'm far from the only girl that does). Kenshin is such a wonderful character, and not just because he's pretty. Aside from Kenshin the show is filled with great characters, Sanosuke, Yahiko, Karou, Saito, Hiko.... It also has everything, comedy, drama, action, romance, good themes, good music. The opening song to the Kyoto arc is horrible, I always fast forward through it, but the rest of the music is very good (especially the "It's gonna rain" ending, it's one of the best in all anime, both the song and the visuals). It may sound odd, but I love the struggle that Kenshin goes through, I don't think there's anyone that can't identify with having to face bad things they've done in the past and/or having things about themselves that they'd rather have remain hidden. The dub is fine, all the voices fit the characters. (One thing I did notice about the dub is that Hotohori's voice from Fushigi Yugi shows up as minor characters in more than one episode, which was a little odd for me because FY is my other favorite anime and I love Hotohori's voice)

Very highly recommended, get this now!!!! :-)

This is for the serries
I said it in the title this review is for the all of the episodes the show is great but is has som bad points and parts that just seem to drag on. but the show is awsome and the charters are good.