I have never been a fan of Rurouni Kenshin’s female characters, but if there is one I cannot stand is Makimachi Misao, so I am very glad not to have had her on screen too much. Furthermore, what has apparently caused quite an uproar, no light bugs – I personally did not miss them. The film changes a few keypoints of the manga, mainly switching the order of certain events, a few weapons and also changing Aoshi’s motivation and back-story after he and his henchmen were not around in the first film. He also does a superb work showing Kenshin’s struggles both when his sword breaks and when he is fighting Chô. Once again I shall stand corrected and applaud Takeru Satoh’s acting – yes, he is an astounding Kenshin, both for the comical parts and the super-serious assassin bits. The idyllic fun and games is obviously about to end when he is more or less willingly enrolled to hunt down his successor as Battōsai, who is obviously very mean and evil, and more than a little nuts. To lighten things up, we change scenery to Kenshin, who is now happily living at the Kamiya dōjo, in this particular scene watching a comedy with the gang (it used to be called the ‘Kenshingumi’ when I was still in the anime fandom). Meanwhile he singsongs stuff about hell on earth and other equally crazy stuff to convince us that he is, aside from mean and evil, crazy. “Kyoto Inferno” starts with establishing how mean and evil our mean and evil guy is – Saito Hajime is actively trying to get rid of Makoto Shishio, who systematically kills, very cruelly at that, all of Saito’s men. “Kyoto Inferno” was released on August 2014 and “The Legend Ends” is scheduled for September 2014.
#RUROUNI KENSHIN KYOTO INFERNO MISAO MOVIE#
“Kyoto Inferno” is the first of a two part movie covering the Shishio story in Rurouni Kenshin manga. The reason for choosing the date to watch this movie was the discount, but the really important thing to choose Roppongi Hills to watch it was the English Subtitles. Let’s hope Kaoru is given more agency in the follow-up.ĪKA: Rurouni Kenshin 2 Rurouni Kenshin Part II: Kyoto Inferno.Título original: るろうに剣心 京都大火編 (Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Taika-hen) In contrast, the character of Kaoru is completely shortchanged this time around, and used purely as a motivational device to pull Kenshin into battle. He’s a fascinating if brittle ball of emotions. Kenshin represents the best of the old and the new hopeful, adaptable to changes in society, keen to uphold justice and protect his friends, yet forever battling with his own instinctual bloodlust. The 1870s world-building is convincing and romantically shows a ‘new’ Japan in its imperialistic infancy, depicted as a place of enterprise, openness, and renewed power, facing an antiquated enemy from within which remains hostile to the new world and uncertain of their place within it. This includes a ninja, called Aoshi (Yūsuke Iseya), who has vowed to find and kill Kenshin who he distrusts for being a governmental stooge – and Aoshi’s now estranged former star pupil and love interest, Misao (Tao Tsuchiya), who is revealed to be a rather nifty kung fu fighter. When it needs to get serious, the film delivers a shift in tone via a diverting subplot which essentially introduces a whole new set of characters.
#RUROUNI KENSHIN KYOTO INFERNO MISAO SERIES#
Kenshin puts his famous back-blade to good use in a series of highly kinetic action sequences which make clever use of camera positioning and wire-gags, while maintaining – for the most part – an anti-violence message. Now, as an embittered, vengeful samurai, he has formed his own army with a plan to overthrow the government and wreak havoc across the country. Like Kenshin, he too fought at the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, but was attacked, burned and left for dead by the very anti-shogunate forces he was working alongside. It’s pretty obvious their idyllic life in post-shogunate Japan won’t last, and soon enough, the newly established police come knocking, recruiting Kenshin to stop a mad ronin from blowing up Kyoto. Makoto Shishio (Tatsuya Fujiwara) and his unholy gang, known as the ‘Ten Swords’, have jumped directly from the pages of a comic book: one of Shishio’s fighters has an outlandish blonde quiff, like Billy Idol they live on a pirate ship and Shishio himself is a ghoulish, mummified figure with burns all over his face and body. Following the events of the first film, Kenshin (Takeru Satoh) – the pacifist samurai continuing his vow not to kill – is now living a utopian existence helping Kaoru (Emi Takei) to run her dojo, hanging out with tempestuous street-brawler Sanosuke – played by Munetaka Aoki, very much enjoying his comedic foil role – who might have a thing for their doctor neighbour, Megumi (Yū Aoi). Solid if ambling sequel filmed back-to-back with part three, The Legend Ends, which delivers more spirited sword-fighting and zany characters from the world of popular manga, Rurouni Kenshin.