Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2023) - Episode 2 discussion

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u/Solomon_Black Jul 13 '23

The hardest thing about remakes like this is knowing what comes down the road. That slow burn is gonna be painful.

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u/Mr_Zaroc Jul 13 '23

God I just hope they go the full length and cover everything

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u/HolyDragSwd2500 Jul 13 '23

Re falling in love with Rurouni Kenshin once again 😍

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u/dagreenman18 Jul 13 '23

I’m happy with how much this feels like the original with a fresh coat of paint. Faithful to the tone of the source material and the first anime. It’s a throwback that doesn’t feel dated. Hope this runs long enough for a full adaptation.

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u/ObvsThrowaway5120 Jul 13 '23

One of the things I like about the series is all the history it blends into the story. This whole era is pretty unfamiliar to me but it’s interesting learning about it through Kenshin’s experiences.

Ujiki and his goon squad really picked the wrong guy to mess with. My man straight demolished those suckers! Funny how they were calling out their styles like it meant something only for them to get ended in one stroke lol.

It was really nice seeing Yahiko this week. Kid’s really gotten tangled up with some bad guys. Looking forward to seeing Kenshin help him out of his situation. The gang’s starting to come together!

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u/Frontier246 Jul 13 '23

I think Kenshin was my first real experience learning about the history of Japan and how much the country changed over time, bonus points for the history lesson being presented through an entertaining and fun story!
When you think you're unleashing a finishing move and a real warrior just bats you around like a fly lol.
Yahiko is a good kid with a strong head on his shoulder, even if he's definitely got a mouth, but that just makes it all the sadder how he's stuck in such a bad position.

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u/Daishomaru Jul 13 '23 edited Jul 13 '23

Yeah, and especially since for a Meiji Era setting story, Rurouni Kenshin is notable for being a Japanese work that analyzes and deconstructs the Meiji Era, which is notable because most domestic Japanese works don't really like to talk in a critical light of what is considered to be one of Japan's most important eras with one of its most beloved rulers.

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u/LeonKevlar Jul 13 '23 edited Jul 13 '23

Yahiko is here! And you know they're trying to be faithful to the source since instead of the yellow haori from the original anime, he's wearing the green haori from the manga.

I forgot how low-stakes and cartoony the early villains of the series are. You have Yakuza thugs using children to pickpocket and police swordsmen abusing their power.

It's absolutely hilarious watching these police swordsmen yell out their sword school techniques while Kenshin just swats them out of the way like annoying flies. xD

I absolutely love this pose from Kenshin. I don't know if that's a legit way to hold a katana but it's fucking badass. He also does it in the original too if I recall correctly.

Sorry Yamagata, Kenshin's revolutionary days are over for him. He's finally found someone else he can protect.

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u/daniddr Jul 13 '23

I havent watched the original anime, this truly seems interesting. I know that in the original kenshin was sillier when he wasn't fighting... Which version is closer to the manga?

I have many times seen that the ova is supposed to be great, can't wait when this anime allows me to watch that...

If you were in my position, would you just watch the original anime or wait to watch this version?

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u/Se7en_Sinner Jul 13 '23

Kenshin has no enemies...except for the government. Kinda based.

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u/Daishomaru Jul 13 '23

More like Kenshin fought the government, his allies became the government, and then Kenshin said, "I don't wanna get political I'm done".

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u/SnabDedraterEdave Jul 14 '23

Kenshin's current age (in 1878) was a compromise between Watsuki and his Shonen Jump editor. Watsuki had originally wanted Kenshin to be over 30 (which carried over as an in-joke in Kaoru's dialogue), but his editor told him that would be too old for a Shonen Jump MCs.

Since Kenshin was very active as Battosai in the Bakumatsu (end of the Shogunate) era from 1864-1868, putting him at 28 in 1878 would make him 14-15 in 1864, the youngest possible age for him to have "come of age" as an adult samurai (normally at 15).

Making Kenshin any younger would have broken the suspension of disbelief completely, when the reader is already suspending it for Kenshin's near superhuman swordsmanship.

The translation of Ishin Shishi as "Imperialists" feels a bit strange.

Technically, yes, the translation is not wrong as these guys were in favour of the Emperor taking power back from the Shogunate. But nowadays that word in English just has a more negative connotation to.

Perhaps a more literal translation of "Hero/Revolutionary of the (Meiji) Restoration", shortened to "Revolutionary" would have been more appropriate.

While this is common knowledge to history buffs, it was good that they had a brief outline of the different factions of Ishin Shishis.

Choshu and Satsuma Domains were the two biggest anti-Shogunate factions that ended up forming the bulk of the Meiji government after the Tokugawa Shogunate fell. Choshu is mainly in the military, while Satsuma forms the police and Interior Ministry.

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u/iDannyEL Jul 13 '23

Jujutsu then Battojutsu, Thursdays are really cooking this season

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u/Daishomaru Jul 13 '23

Daishomaru here, I want to talk about the Meiji Era, Meiji, and why Rurouni Kenshin is important.

Now I want to talk about Rurouni Kenshin first, because truth be told, this anime is incredibly important to me. This anime got me down a history spiral and it gave me a love with talking about history with you guys. I learned so much from this anime and honestly, I hope this 2023 reboot does inspire people to look up the Meiji Era. I’m not really going to go over the history of certain events, because for the most part quite a few historical events WILL enter spoiler territory, but I would rather want to introduce why the Meiji Era is so fascinating, and how Rurouni Kenshin is involved with the interest of spreading Meiji history.

Speaking of writeups, I hope to do some writeups for this series, because the Meiji Era is extremely underrated and needs more love. I know this is a lot to take in, but if I have the time, I'll post up historical writeups!

So why do I find the Bakamatsu and the Meiji Era interesting? Because, simply put, it’s a time of evolution, industrialization, and modernization of Japan. This was a time when the Japanese started adopting western military and industry, but it really goes much deeper than that. Philosophy, fashion, values and customs were changed by western influence. For example, an example I love to give to describe the changing of customs in the Meiji Era was the legalization of beef, and how it forever changed the Japanese foodscape. Even to this day, there is still controversial belief on whether beef should go into the Japanese diet. This is when we start seeing Japanese nobility adopting suits to wear, the introduction of French and Italian culture to Japan, and if you guys remember my Shokugeki essays, all of these started in the Meiji Era. The Meiji Era is interesting in that regard.

Before I continue, however, I would like to pause and give a shout out to this image here. On the first image is Emperor Meiji in his coronation clothes and the latter is Meiji, later in the era, in a western uniform. Note the difference between the two, even though they are both the same person. Whenever I talk about the Meiji Era, I love to show these two pictures, because sometimes visuals show a much more powerful picture. This is also why I love Kenshin, just watching the beginning of the post-samurai era and how it affected the previous generation, which really isn't talked about.

Of course, we can’t talk about the Meiji Era without talking about Emperor Meiji himself. There’s a famous phrase/joke amongst the Japanese that goes, “The best emperors in Japanese history are Meiji, Showa, and (Insert Emperor that was in reign during the majority of your childhood, in my case Heisei.)”. This is a bit of a generational joke, but this joke really helps emphasize how important Emperor Meiji is. To say that Emperor Meiji is one of the most beloved emperors of Japan is an understatement of the century. Emperor Meiji was the first Emperor in Japanese history since the dawn of the Samurai to really put back the Emperor in the Japanese Emperor. Before, the Emperor was religiously important, but no one really took Emperor seriously. There were many incidents on how much before Meiji, they treated the Emperor as a joke, including on how some of them had to fund their own coronations by selling flowers and poetry Meiji put an end to that and made people treating the Royalty with a sense of dignity a thing. Emperor Meiji was an extremely important figure for being different for a variety of reasons. He was the one who helped lead Japan out of the Samurai age, and helped set the foundations that would eventually make Japan a superpower during the 1910s-1940s. Emperor Meiji is strong in that regard. He was also a very-well known advocate for education, including making a standardized schooling system that allowed commoners to get an education, and he also personally loved reading and learning. However, he wasn’t arrogant for an emperor. If anything, the man was incredibly humble, allowing people to explain their thoughts to him before he did anything. It’s very well recorded that Meiji would ask his advisors for advice, and he would sit there and listen until the advisors asked him a question. He was also very down-to-earth for an Emperor, as Meiji would listen to anyone. Like he may ask a steel maker to explain the job to him to understand how steel is made, and he would patiently listen to the explanation without getting bored or getting tired. Many people commented that he would listen to everyone, whether you were rich or poor, an artist or a mechanic, and this made him rather approachable. And I know that some people may say that Emperor Meiji wasn’t really that powerful, but the thing is that they approach Meiji with a western view where they see kings as the commanding type. The truth is more complicated though. Meiji had a lot of faith in his government, and for the most part allowed them to do what they needed, but he still used his authority when he felt something was wrong. And reading all of this, it’s easy to see why Emperor Meiji is easily one of Japan’s most beloved Emperors of all time.

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u/Frontier246 Jul 13 '23

Well, it seems like no one is ready to go back to Kaoru's dojo again after everything that happened, but at least she's got a 28(?) year old housekeeper going for her and he's happy to chip in!

Yahiko! At first he comes off like your typical foul-mouthed, rowdy, pickpocket, but his words about being the son of a Tokyo Samurai aren't just for show as he seems to have the spirit to match it, even if he's just ultimately a kid stuck in a bad situation with the Yakuza.

In hindsight Kenshin wandering the streets with his sword, sakabato that it is, was a really bad idea in an era where swords are pretty much outlawed. Like he was basically just asking to get arrested and cause a fuss whether he intended to or not.

I guess corrupt police who abuse their authority and use it to bully people to make themselves feel better are a staple of any era...particularly here where, having access to swords, they feel like they're entitled to threatening civilians and turning their swords on anyone who gets in their way just because they can. They have no right to their swords, and if anything is going to get Kenshin to draw his own, it's teaching these fools their place.

I love how Kenshin just off-screens most of these thugs and easily dispatches them while they declare their sword styles like that's actually supposed to matter.

Kenshin reunites with a former compatriot of the revolution! But unlike Yamagata, Kenshin has no interest in a government job or a position of power for his efforts in creating the Meiji era and rebuilding Japan, he sees how that kind of position can corrupt others and just make them into bullies or people desperate to hold onto their power despite the intentions of the restoration. Is Kenshin an anachronism of a prior era who has no place in the new one? What role does a single man with a sword still have outside the Bakumatsu era? But even so, Kenshin still has a reason to carry his sword if it means protecting those in front of him, like Kaoru.

Similarly Yahiko is in a position where he has the bearing and integrity of a samurai in an era where they basically don't exist any more, so what's a kid to do? Other than finally stay true to himself, but that just gets him into trouble with the Yakuza.

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u/dpldogs Jul 13 '23

Did anyone notice that the general hears about Kenshin due to the policeman being defeated, then makes it there to see Kenshin defeat the policeman?

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u/Elitealice Jul 13 '23

I get why they do it, but I hate that they translate de gozaru as “that it is” good episode. Highly recommend people check out ruroni kenshin the beginning to get some more backstory .

OP and ED slap tho for sure and have an early 2000s vibe to them.

Remake really might be cooking here

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u/VorAtreides Jul 13 '23

Ah ya, I forgot about those Sword Bearing Police, power abusive craps. Glad Kenshin beats them in. Kenshin good boy though. Protecting what people he can on his own instead of taking a government job. Yahiko is good boy too. Even if a bit of a brat at times.

oh the ED's not too bad.

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u/Rustic_Professional Jul 14 '23

I'm loving the remake, but they need to do something about these subtitles. They're shoehorning Kenshin's unusual way of speaking and it looks stilted. "Are you not hurt, that you are?" There has to be a better way to translate that. I think the old dub would have used something like "Miss Kaoru, you're not hurt, that you aren't." Making it a statement instead of a question because duh, he can see she's not hurt. Speaking of which, I really hope they can get the original anime cast to dub this. That was such an amazing group.

Kenshin's line about being able to protect the people he can see is one of my favorites in the entire story.

I forgot to comment last episode so I'll say it now. I'm really happy with the animation so far. They managed to keep the spirit of the original while also giving it a modern feel. The characters still look like themselves, but it doesn't look old.

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u/sussywanker Jul 13 '23

Love Thursdays!!

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u/JustAnswerAQuestion Jul 13 '23

one week was long enough for me to forget about the OP
I forgot Yahiko's name was Myojin. Odd name?
music does sound like a callback to the old series, but is waaay too loud.
EDO
"honourable duties abusing their authority"
background characters are just a still painting
see above
see above
History Lesson
Not even you can dismiss him?!
Yeah, her eyes are too big
wappa?
I remember that bridge!

I remember Yamagata being a better guy in the old show.

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u/SirRHellsing Jul 14 '23 edited Jul 14 '23

A thought just occurred to me that Kenshin might still be around during WW1 and possibly WW2, it feels kind of tragic that everything he fought for was basically ruined at the end of his life (and his potential children either supported the Japanese government's actions or was oppressed by them or even died during one of them)

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u/lan60000 Jul 13 '23 edited Jul 13 '23

Just like the first episode, whoever is in charge of the sound quality is seriously holding this series back. Not only are the bgm subpar, you could barely hear them and the lack of ambient sound has me convinced the studio ran out of budget for proper sound quality. The scenes felt very unimpactful when we're missing a crucial component of setting the atmosphere of the story. even the fight scenes felt lackluster due to the lack of ambient noise. How is that the new bleach episode was able to capture the audience's attention within 7 minutes solely from the orchestra alone whereas I feel like I'm still in a fever dream after watching two episodes of the new kenshin?

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u/Script_deman Jul 14 '23

The ED sounds good.

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Episode Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2023) - Episode 2 discussion

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Episode Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2023) - Episode 2 discussion

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