*contains lots of spoilers* Rurouni Kenshin was the first anime that I ever saw. It's definitely my favorite. There's many people who post here who seem to think that the anime is how the story went. It's not really true. There was the Maiga which the anime was based on. That's why there's this "change of tone" from being happy to serious. I think Kenshin's a great story... it's exactly as it says: Romantic Tales of the Meiji Era. If you read the comic book, Kenshin doesn't die at the end like in the 2nd OAV. However, together, the anime and Maiga make the story great. It's really intended to give a sense of the emotions of this one man. Every character along the way has some sort of tragedy surrounding his or her life. Kenshin's parents and 2 brothers died of cholera when he was young and he was sold by his relatives as a sort of slave. Everyone who cares about him or who he cares for seems to be killed. He tries to help the world through the use of his sword skills learned from the egotistical-but-truly-loving Hiko. Kenshin tried to bring about a more peaceful and democratic era in Japan as a hired assassin. It wasn't that he was mean. It was that he was just so innocent and didn't understand the ways of the world. He was too honest. Kenshin killed to try to save the oppressed. In doing so, he really wasn't pleased. The death of Tomoe's fiancé, Kiyosato was one that Kenshin remembered because the fiancé was so determined to live. It brought back to Kenshin a thought that he had expressed to Hiko before he began his apprenticeship with the sword. Kenshin had said that in the end, there were no bandits or family - they were all people. This was the idea that people all have the same desires to live and love. Though they are your enemies, there are also people who care about them. Kenshin is deeply affected by this idea (depicted by the fact that he is surprised by the scratch, has the constant reminder of the bleeding, and puts a flower on Kiyosato's dead body). According to Japanese culture, Tomoe should have committed suicide being that her love died. This is why she had the knife it had been given to her by her fiancé's family. Tomoe was too strong-minded and instead, decided to try to seek out and kill the assassin who killed Kiyosato. Tomoe eventually fell in love with Kenshin and the whole conspiracy brewed with the group that she had signed up with. An important point is that, before Tomoe's death, Kiyosato appears (ghost) with the ground cherry flower that he had promised to bring back for her. This was the same type of flower that Kenshin put on Kiyosato's back after he was killed. It becomes like one of those interpretation questions that they ask you in school: did he appear to say that Tomoe should kill herself and be loyal to him, or was he saying that Kenshin was a good man only confused and she should save him because the past is the past? While Tomoe is dying, further question arises as she puts the other part of Kenshin's cross scar was that a symbol of forgiveness? Was she nullifying the curse that Kiyosato placed because of the other question? Or was it that she was to give Kenshin something that would serve as a permanent reminder of her? Did Tomoe still hold a grudge or did she love Kenshin? Her final words were "gomenasai anata." In Japanese, the word "anata" is a word for those who you have much affection for, but is also a term for strangers whose names you don't know. Tomoe's meaning is up to interpretation, but her affect on Kenshin is obvious. Kenshin truly loved Tomoe. He learned how to care about others again. He saw what pain it was for her to have lost Kiyosato and what pain it was for himself to have lost her. Kenshin wanted to redeem himself for all of the people he had killed, but that was not the biggest thing that affected his decision to become a "rurouni" (actually, Nobuhiro Watsuki made that word it doesn't exist in Japanese language it's a combination of "rurouni" and "samurai" at least that's what he said in a comment in his Maiga). The real reason why Kenshin became a rurouni was because he felt great sorrow for those who had cared about the people he had killed. This may have spawned from Kenshin's own tragedy of having lost his whole family. Kenshin knew that what he did affected many people.
Check out my comments on the series and stuff on the page that's: "Rurôni Kenshin: Meiji kenkaku roman tan" (1996) TV-Series 1996-1999
Check out my comments on the series and stuff on the page that's: "Rurôni Kenshin: Meiji kenkaku roman tan" (1996) TV-Series 1996-1999