I ahve always loved history! and i never get tired of watching Samurai X cuz you see a person who is probably very realistic. You have anime chracter who are utterly powerful as if no one can beat the hell out of em. but Kenshin really shows the idea of determination. thats how real life people are. so for that (and the fact thats its a historical fiction anime), i love this series!

I'm reading the manga right now, up to volume 9. It's really good, I'm impressed with it. I tried the anime, but it wasn't my style. I heard there were quite a bit of fillers in it so, I won't even try to watch it.

I'm one of those folks who's a big fan of the first OAV, while I find the series more or less so-so. So I suppose my opinions split:

For the former, I think its a gripping, extremely detailed take on an important time in history, filled with real emotion. The art is stark, realistic, and that the action has a quick, clean pace that fits well with the subject material of samurai vigilantes fighting a quiet war in back allies. It reflects powerfully on what war is and what ideology means, and is a real lens into that part of history. Kenshin has to face the meanings of love and loyalty and where they intersect, and the harsh reality of death. When we see the daimonji on the eve of the revolution, we know that he understands harshness of that reality, and how he becomes the character that he is in the TV series (even if it came first).

... However, all of that said, I find that the series is too light, too humorous for the underlying nature of the character. He has a great burden of memory, but it doesn't come into play nearly as often as it should, and we have instead a bunch of villain-of-the week scenarios with very overstated characters. There are, of course, exceptions - the portions that suggest the past that the OAV eventually reveals to us. I suppose my greatest enjoyments come from its depiction of Meiji society, which is itself such a unique time in Japanese (and world) history with its rapid changes and traditional pulls.

Omg. I love this anime so much!
I will never forget it for it was one of the first animes I watched. It will always be part of my favorites.

Rurouni Kenshin was a good anime, but definitely not one that would top my list. The manga, however, was very good IMO. I thought that it was quite funny, actually, because there were so many twists and turns in the plot that some of my friends (who had also read it) were calling it a 'soap opera'.

Rurouni Kenshin has always, and will always, be one of my favorites.

Rurouni Kenshin was deff one of the first animes I got obsessed on! I loved it especially the Shishio arc, mainly because of Soujiro Seta. And the Yutaro arc was good too. The funny moments were awesome. Totally one of my faves. Planning to rewatch this someday!

The Rurouni Kenshin anime was great until we got to the episodes of events that occurred after the Shishio arc...the story then felt extremely disjointed and didn't seem to go anywhere. The first ova is beautifully animated and a great story that explains Kenshin's past. The second ova is a rather depressing story that will surely taint any good memories of the series you may have.

I have to say that Rurouni Kenshin was one of the first anime/manga series I fell in love with. It just had something in it. I especially loved the musics in the series and the OVA's. Personally I liked the OVA better. I'm not quite sure why, but I think it was the style of the OVA's, especially the first ones with the Tomoe-parts. And the manga version was wonderful too. Shame that they never made the Jinchuu-arc. It would've been awesome to see it animated otherwise than quickly in the last OVA. Still one of my absolute favorites.

Was an actual ending ever released for this anime?, the last thing I recall seeing was Shishio dying and after that I just found out about a lot of ovas that were prequels and that they changed Kenshin's name in everyone of them lol

Why did he have so many names? couldn't he just keep one and that's it?

I like this anime. I wached ova and the series too.

This use to be one of my favorite anime to watch back then when I only watched on tv. It was my favorite show on Cartoon Network/Adult Swim.

Rurouni Kenshin had a variety of interesting characters with interesting past backgrounds and reasons for living. Seta Sojiro was such an interesting character. A soft boy suffering innerly. On the outside he is always smiling and showing no emotions, hiding those perfectly,... but psychologically he is totally smashed up in the brain, kapputta!! His true self, that was suffering from all the killings he has done, has finally been revealed by the Battosai. That's the way Sojiro became so vulnerable.

I liked this Character a lot because he IS actually a good person, who just suffered an unlucky past and joined the wrong leader who happened to be none other than the mighty Shishio Makoto himself and his principles

nullI watched this anime when I was little, so I didn't really understand what it was about. haha not looking back I understand.

Rurouni Kenshin is one of my favorite animes, also one of the first I saw. I only liked the episodes till Shishio's death, after that the series went downhill. Shishio Makoto to me is one the greatest villains ever created. This was the only series that I had to read the manga after it was finished, since the anime got murdered by fillers.

solidstate

I'm one of those folks who's a big fan of the first OAV, while I find the series more or less so-so. So I suppose my opinions split: For the former, I think its a gripping, extremely detailed take on an important time in history, filled with real emotion. The art is stark, realistic, and that the action has a quick, clean pace that fits well with the subject material of samurai vigilantes fighting a quiet war in back allies. It reflects powerfully on what war is and what ideology means, and is a real lens into that part of history. Kenshin has to face the meanings of love and loyalty and where they intersect, and the harsh reality of death. When we see the daimonji on the eve of the revolution, we know that he understands harshness of that reality, and how he becomes the character that he is in the TV series (even if it came first). ... However, all of that said, I find that the series is too light, too humorous for the underlying nature of the character. He has a great burden of memory, but it doesn't come into play nearly as often as it should, and we have instead a bunch of villain-of-the week scenarios with very overstated characters. There are, of course, exceptions - the portions that suggest the past that the OAV eventually reveals to us. I suppose my greatest enjoyments come from its depiction of Meiji society, which is itself such a unique time in Japanese (and world) history with its rapid changes and traditional pulls.

Actually, I heard that some of the arcs (notably the Christianity arc) was not in the original manga. I think the humor was to have us heave a sigh of relief or allow us to see the minute glow of happiness and fleeting tranquility in an era full of transitory discord and chaos. Allows us to think that smaurais like Kenshin are also people who enjoy simple things.