MANILA, PHILIPPINES — One of the most iconic and popular characters in anime has been Kenshin Himura. The title character in Nobuhiro Watsuki’s manga and subsequent anime series Rurouni Kenshin (a.k.a. Samurai X) has been a pop culture phenomenon since those first manga volumes dropped in 1994. The tale of a wandering samurai with a cross-shaped scar on his cheek and a sakabatou or back-blade to avoid killing has proved fascinating and enduring, so much so that three live-action movie adaptations were made to much acclaim. The fourth film was just released on Netflix over the weekend and examines an integral part of the legend of the hitokiri Battousai, the origin of that infamous scar.
Following the events of 2014’s Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends, Kenshin Himura (Takeru Satoh) and his friends face a new threat. Police officer Hajime Saito (Yosuke Eguchi) arrests a man connected to the Shanghai mafia who previously provided weapons for the infamous Makoto Shishio. This man, Enishi Yukishiro (Mackenyu Arata) has a score to settle with Kenshin from his past and will stop at nothing to bring down everyone close to the former assassin known as Battousai.
Enishi hires several thugs to blow up the Akabeko restaurant that Kenshin and his friends frequent as well as the Maekawa Dojo, leaving numerous casualties. Confronting Kenshin, Enishi reveals the reason for his vendetta: revenge for the death of his sister Tomoe (Kasumi Arimura). When his friends Kaoru Kamiya (Emi Takei), Sanosuke Sagara (Munetaka Aoki), Megumi Takani (Yu Aoi), and Yahiko Myojin (Onishi Riku) ask Kenshin why he’s being attacked, he finally shares a story he has long kept to himself.
When Kenshin worked for the restoration of the Meiji empire, he served as an assassin for the government and slew a man who he didn’t know was betrothed to Tomoe. That man gave him one of his facial scars before dying. Though Tomoe wanted to avenge her fiancée, she fell in love with Kenshin and she subsequently died protecting him, giving him his other scar. Enishi witnessed this and plotted revenge for his sister ever since. As Enishi escaped to Shanghai and rose in the ranks of the mafia, all he wanted was vengeance for Tomoe and on his former brother-in-law, not giving a damn about the consequences.
Director Keishi Otomo received almost universal acclaim for the first three live-action adaptations of Rurouni Kenshin and this fourth film should prove just as popular. It is loosely based on the 1999 original video animation (OVA) Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal that told of Tomoe, Enishi, and the origins of Kenshin’s scars.
As with other characters brought to life in these films, Enishi looks and fights just like his anime counterpart thanks to Arata. The son of legendary Japanese actor Sonny Chiba captures the intensity of Enishi both while striking at Kenshin and during the quiet times that he is dealing with underlings within his organization. There are parts in this film that feature some long-time favorites in the manga, anime, and previous films, which comes across as a pleasant surprise. These characters, both as friends and adversaries of Kenshin, would likely have caused audiences to cheer had this film been seen in theaters as the filmmakers intended, and serve like a reward for those fans.
Otomo had already proven that he can successfully bring the fights that made the anime popular to live-action thanks to great fight choreography and actors who trained hard to make it happen. That still rings true here in Rurouni Kenshin: The Final whether it be explosions raining down on Tokyo, fights involving multiple samurai, or one-on-one battles shot in close proximity. Yet what has always made the story of the former hitokiri Battousai so compelling has been the tale of a man trying to atone for the many deaths he caused by refusing to do so armed with only a back-blade.
Constantly haunted by his past with Tomoe and his assassinations, Kenshin looked to finally be at peace with Kaoru and their friends at the Kamiya Kasshin dojo. Yet the specter of Enishi’s vengeance always loomed in the background and connecting his story with Shishio’s from the second and third live-action films adds a little more depth to the planned five total films in this series.
Satoh, Takei, Eguchi, Aoki, and Aoi all proved to be perfectly cast since the first film, not only looking like their anime counterparts but also capturing their individual traits and personalities that made those characters so beloved by fans worldwide. That continues in this penultimate tale of Kenshin Himura’s adventures, with a fifth and final live-action adaptation, Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning, set to also be released later this year. If the first four films are any indication, those same fans will have a lot more to cheer about even as we prepare to bid goodbye to these characters one final time.
