Samurai X review also posted at Anime3000

3-DVD OVA series

Distributor: ADV Films

Author: Jade

            Anything Rurouni Kenshin is slated to be good in every aspect. From the black and white pages of Rurouni Kenshin the manga to its multiple season-pleaser anime, Rurouni Kenshin never ceases to please the masses. Although the masses believe that there is a Rurouni Kenshin movie, probably pegged with the same name as its known title, the masses are wrong. There are Rurouni Kenshin OVAs under the name Samurai X.

            Samurai X is a set of three OVAs, each with a few episodes. The first movie, Trust, is the beginning of the series when an orphaned Himura Kenshin becomes Seijuuroo Hiko’s pupil to the Hiten Mitsurugi discipline. After years of training, rebellions against the Tokugawa Shogunate reaches Kenshin’s ears, and against his master’s wishes, teenaged Kenshin leaves his master to work for the rebellion. Although he is young, Kenshin proves to be a willing fighter. Within a few years, Kenshin becomes a silent assassin for the rebellion, hoping to achieve his goal of peace for Japan. Unfortunately, he learns that the life by the sword is not what he believed to be, and begins to wonder about his life’s decision.

            The premise of the first two OVAs in the Samurai X series is learning Kenshin’s background and his life during his early days as Hitokiri Battoosai. The second OVA, Betrayal, shows Kenshin’s dramatic loss of his wife, Yukishiro Tomoe, and the end of his peaceful life in the outskirts of Japan before he returns to the rebellion as the assassin. The animation in both OVAs are excellent, as they splice in real-life aspects with animation cells. Despite its choppy transitional scenes to the next scenario, the OVAs seem to be unsurpassed.

            The last OVA in the movie series, Reflection, reveals the last chapters of Kenshin’s life, but the focus is shifted from the Battoosai’s perspective onto his wife, Kamiya Kaoru. Although the entire OVA still surrounds Kenshin’s life, Kaoru is the focal point who reflects upon Kenshin’s perspective and life, hence the name for the last OVA. With few inferences from older loved characters known from the manga and anime series, a deeper, more emotional sense of Himura Kenshin emerges, making Reflections the best OVA out of the Samurai X series.

            In Reflections, Kaoru pines away, awaiting for Kenshin’s return home after yet another battle in the distant lands of Japan. As Kaoru waits relentlessly for Kenshin, she falls into a depressing sickness that is unknown to even her medicine-minded friend, Takani Megumi. As Kaoru spirals deeper and deeper into sickness, in the far outskirts of Japan, Sagara Sanosuke finally finds Kenshin, but only to discover he has also fallen victim to an unknown illness. As the story continues, the viewer relives the memories of Kaoru, Sanosuke, and Yahiko from the premise of the anime series.

            The main plot jumps from a memory to a present event, but the OVA still manages to keep the continuity of the dialogue and the animation in sequence with its many changes from past to present. Similar to the first two OVAs, the last OVA of Samurai X exhibits its extraordinary fights sequences, such as Kenshin’s short-lived battle with crazed Jin-E and Kenshin’s first and only battle with his ex-wife’s brother, Yukishiro Enishi. Reflection follows the manga plot of Rurouni Kenshin to a tee, but it brings more emotional development to the table than the prior OVAs. As the stories and memories unfold, the audience is easily sucked into Kenshin’s hardships and struggles, along with Kaoru’s loyalty and difficulties, Yahiko’s reassurance and strength, Sanosuke’s determination, and Kenji’s realization. Every side-story, every angle to the plot from the anime and manga series, seem to disappear at the end of the OVA, and all that matters is the emotional aftermath.

            After Reflection from Samurai X ends and the viewers go about their regular lives, they will still go back to thinking about Himura Kenshin and his life as Hitokiri Battoosai. Feeling real emotions from a fictional plot is the making of an overall good story, and I would assume masses would agree on one thing: Rurouni Kenshin OVA series, Samurai X, is an unsurpassed anime.

Basically: Buy the DVD set.

Rating: 10 out of 10