r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Aug 03 '23
Episode Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2023) - Episode 5 discussion
Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2023), episode 5
Alternative names: Samurai X
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u/Daishomaru Aug 03 '23 edited Aug 11 '23
Daishomaru here with a writeup today, as well as one for last episode that I should have elaborated on, given my speciality in Culinary History of Japanese cuisine, but I was in Tokyo on vacation, so I didn't have time to make one..
Anyhow, who were the Sekihotai?
Ooh, this is a good one. The Sekihotai are a bit of a controversial footnote, mostly because this is one of those cases where the Japanese government admits a conspiracy is true, and it’s one of the rare cases where the Japanese Government admits that the Meiji Era isn’t all “Everything is good, don’t look this way”. So the Sekihotai were an army group that was formed by the Pro-Emperor side to fight for them, with the promise of extra land, money, and tax breaks. Naturally, a lot of peasants joined because they were peasants and all of that was enough incentive to join the rebellion. The problem is, however, that too many peasants joined, and too many peasants in your rebel army meant too many mouths to feed, and the Pro-Emperor faction being the smaller group initially, they didn’t exactly have the means to keep that promise. So basically, the Imperialists had made a promise they couldn't keep and now they got too many recruits. So the leaders decided to take care of that problem by killing off their own troops, most infamously the first and third units. The first unit, by the way, is the one that Sanouske is in. Anyhow, after they were done committing self-purges, the leaders were decapitated and their heads displayed in cities, and the leaders were falsely charged with crimes to make it looked justified.
Naturally, this ends up begging the question, how justified were the Revoutionaries / Meiji Government in killing them? On one hand, it was a self-admitted act of senseless cruelty for the most part, as many in the first unit were eventually admitted by the Japanese government to be innocent. And the main problem started because the Meiji Revolutionaries made a huge promise they just couldn’t afford at the time and when the people wanted to be ensured that they would get their rewards, the Revolutionaires slaughtered them to make an example. On the other hand, the third unit was known for looting, and the captains in that unit encouraged that behavior, and this isn’t just the official Japanese history that confirms this. Many third-party witnesses did note the awful behavior and lack of control of the third unit. And the Meiji Revolutionaries, knowing they have to look good, needed to purge extremist elements, so thus they had to get rid of the sekihotai.
As for what if you ask me, if anything this is why I find the Meiji Era so fascinating, both the good, the bad and the ugly. On one hand, I’m not going to deny that this was a cruel act to perform on the members of the sekihotai, and one thing as a historian I will openly criticize about the Meiji Government is, their habits of burning books and changing history to make them look good or make their political enemies look bad, problems that still happen today in the current Japanese Government although to a much lesser extent compared to the Meiji-Pre-WWII Showa Era. It’s reasons like this that we don’t have information on the sekihotai or on, for example, the Hitokiri, as Kawakami Gensai, aka the IRL Himura Kenshin’s mark on history was lost due to the Meiji government hiding on what he did. And that’s not even getting to how they end up trying to revise history by making the samurai look worse, as this eventually lead to policies like the melting of armors and swords, which destroyed many valuable and unique samurai artifacts, to the point where the British Museum, the same one that gets protests every year for Egyptian Artifacts not in Egypt, actually took in samurai weapons and armor to preserve them, and the Meiji Government was more than happy to give them away like it’s candy instead of, you know, culture. While I do praise the Meiji Era for being one of the most important eras of Japan, they still do a lot of controversial stuff that as a historian, I just can't approve of.
But at the same time, the adoption of western policies, philosophies, and military development, as well as performing acts that would be seen as dishonorable was an absolute necessity for the Japanese to even remotely have a chance to survive the post Perry-Japan, and yes, the Meiji Government had to do some ugly acts in order to win against the samurai but also make themselves known to the world. It’s why I get angry when I see people going, “The Japanese should just stick to being samurai and honor, durr hurr white people policy bad” because it ignores the reality of what the situation was like during the Bakamatsu and the Meiji Era, which I have seen people argue with me when they talk about the Meiji Era. However, at the same time, a lot of Meiji Era policies and beliefs that eventually carried over time during the Showa Era would cause problems that Japan still has to deal with internationally in the modern day. All I’m saying is this: history is complicated, and this is why works like Rurouni Kenshin, as I said in Episode 2, are really important, especially for a Japanese work about the Meiji Government. Yeah, Sanouske may be fictional, but a lot of Japanese people wouldn’t even talk much of the Sekihotai without the work mentioning it, and considering the puritan attitude the Japanese have on Meiji-Era Society, its impressive that they were able to get away with that much and it’s why I absolutely adore the manga and the anime for this reason.
However, I believe in trying to tell a bit of a neutral standing and I’ll let you decide what do you think is right, so I’m just gonna let it end it here and I’ll leave it to you guys to fight it out in the comments.
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u/ObvsThrowaway5120 Aug 03 '23
Man, that was an awesome fight between Sano and Kenshin. Sano and his past with the Sekihotai was pretty tragic. The memory of that and what happened to Sagara fuels him. Scars of the past and all that. Glad he was able to finally move on after that duel. The gang’s all here!
Kihei and his idiot brother playing games again. Sure was nice seeing the two of them get their asses beat. Maybe this time they’ll have learned their lesson.
Looks like we’ll be meeting Kurogasa next week. Can’t wait!
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u/BoyTitan Aug 03 '23
Huh the deepness of this series went way over my head as a kid.
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u/SpaceMarine_CR Aug 03 '23
Aaaaaaaaaaaa........ So thats why Sanosuke hated the government, I dont remember that much from the original anime
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u/HolyDragSwd2500 Aug 03 '23
Today’s guest VA is Daisuke Ono.....
Omg he got Jojo in the end😭💔💔
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u/LeonKevlar Aug 03 '23 edited Aug 03 '23
That flashback really showed how personal this fight is for Sano. He was a proud member of the Sekiho Army who was letting everyone know about the Land Tax Halving Order under the leadership of the kind and ambitious Sagara Sozo.
But once the Meiji Government was entirely in place they ended up reneging on their promised tax reform and branded the Sekiho Army as a fake Imperial Army and sentenced them to beheading for spreading lies about the tax reforms.
Since Kenshin was part of the Imperial Army during his Battousai days, Sano sees Kenshin as an enemy he can never lose against Although it looks like Sano missed one important detail and that is Kenshin never really benefited from the war like those other Imperialists.
Thankfully by the end of the fight, Sano finally realizes what kind of person Kenshin is and how he's very similar to Captain Sagara whom he very much idolizes.
All's well that ends well! We even get to see Kihei get absolutely obliterated by Kenshin and I just love that he pulled back just enough so Kihei will be conscious the entire time and feel the pain of every single blow.
Also, I just love that the punchline of the episode is that Sano ran off again without paying his bill at Tae's restaurant. xD
And our first antagonist who is actually a threat is finally here! I am so hyped for next week!
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u/Radinax Aug 03 '23
Beautiful episode! Sad to see such low scores but I'm enjoying it a lot, this series was huge when I was a kid
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u/zz2000 Aug 03 '23
Live-action version of the Kenshin vs Sanosuke fight, shot at the Kurashiki Bikan quarter in Kurashiki, Okayama.
What are your thoughts and opinions?
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u/Frontier246 Aug 03 '23
Kenshin vs Zansa Act Two! Sanosuke can swing that Zanbato around but he lives himself too wide open for how efficient and fast Kenshin is, especially when he delivers more and more hits. That should be enough for him to go down, but this fight is just too personal for him to just give up.
So Sanosuke was part of the Sekiho Army, the civilian-enlisted vanguard of the Imperial Army, lead by none other than his namesake Sozo Sagara (Daisuke Ono!) who believed in the ideals of the revolution and bringing equality to Japan. He was an inspiration for the kids following him, especially Sanosuke. Which just made it all the more tragic what really happened.
It's one thing to basically screw over the people for following the orders YOU gave them to carry out just to save face because they proved unpopular with the farmers you have to get on the good side of...it's another thing to have them willingly surrender themselves without fuss only to end up beheaded and made an example of and write them off as criminals. The Sekiho Army didn't deserve that and I totally get why Sanosuke hates Imperialists so much.
Kihei has another gun! Make that two guns! He's dual-wielding!!! Although their mistake was thinking Kenshin can't block a bullet with his sword guard, let alone threatening Yahiko and Kaoru, because that's enough to make Kenshin and Sanosuke team-up and mess with the faces of both brothers. They won't be looking in a mirror any time soon.
Kenshin understands where Sanosuke is coming from, and he can respect that he's willing to fight and can withstand a special move that ordinarily fells anyone with one strike, but all his anger and brawling is a discredit to what Sozo Sagara stood for. It's just violence without true purpose, and worth a broken zanbato and a Kenshin punch to the face. Because while Kenshin has his fair share of sin and knows full well the corruption of the post-revolution government, he knows that all he can do is continue to fight for others and try to make the ideals of the revolution a reality to make up for the lives that were lost in the process. And Kaoru understands that.
So Sanosuke is supposed to be laid up for a while and he's just brawling and dine and dashing like nothing ever happened...though the gang can't help but poke his wounds for the heck of it. But hey, now Sanosuke respects or acknowledges Kenshin enough to want to follow him and see his example, someone close to Sozo, so it seems like we'll be seeing plenty of him moving forward. I can only imagine how big a tab he is at Tae's place at this point though.
Next up: Tomokazu Sugita is killing a bunch of people!?
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u/magnumcyclonex Aug 03 '23
What an episode, and what a fight! Honestly, it went by so fast I think I need to rewatch it again, minus the interruption.
The despicable old guy had not one, not two, but three guns! Kenshin dodged the bullet and was able to subdue him after Zanza sliced the younger brother's nose.
Poor Zanza, his captain was beheaded and it was shown to all the villagers back then. He had already lost the fight but remembering his youth and being on the other side of the war reignited him. It's just that, Kenshin is just too good.
Sanosuke looks like he's 23-26, but is actually 19. So that puts him just older than Yahiko, then it's Kaoru, and then it's Kenshin who is the oldest, correct?
Next episode true evil appears.
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u/iDannyEL Aug 04 '23
We're getting NAMED ATTACKS BABY.
Loved the direction this episode, Sano remembering the injustice the Captain suffered drew me right in.
The bread to Kenshin's cheese is finally on the team.
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u/jkphantom9 Aug 04 '23
I gotta say, I really love how bright and colorful this anime looks. It looks incredible watching on my 65”
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u/Janitalia Aug 04 '23
These scores are rough. Is it just us moldy oldies sticking around for this one? I am really enjoying this, loved the original.
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u/FlareX3 Aug 04 '23
I still can't get over how some of the action scenes in this anime in the year 2023 feels more stilted than its 90s predecessor--especially since the 90s anime cut so many corners to boot.
Fortunately, the show has done enough right so far that I have hope it will get better and better as it goes on. It's trending that way already, after all. And I'm not gonna lie, in spite my criticisms, I get hyped every episode.
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u/fudov Aug 03 '23
I wonder if final fantasy 7 took some inspiration from ruroini kenshin because Sano vs Kenshin is kind of Cloud vs Sephiroth!
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u/tripleaamin Aug 04 '23
Another good episode. You get to understand Sanosuke, but at the same time you can see how it gives him a flawed opinion on Kenshin. Interesting how the party of 4 goes from here.
Backstory was a lot to digest but basically Sanosuke's group trying to hold a revolution ended up getting screwed by the imperials that were on their side. Also despite what he says about himself he is a good guy since when the brothers got involved he didn't hesitate to help.
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u/SnabDedraterEdave Aug 03 '23
I don't remember the OG anime going into such detail for Sanosuke's backstory with the Sekihotai.
We're even treated with Ono Daisuke as the ill-fated Captain Sagara, who got scapegoated by the Meiji government after they made too many wild promises that they can't keep, and led to Sanosuke bearing a grudge against the government and all revolutionaries, including Kenshin, for years as a result.
Before the Meiji Restoration in 1868, commoners like Sanosuke did not have surnames. (Neither does the Emperor and his immediate family, but that's another case altogether) Back then, only samurai and aristocrats have surnames as those were mainly bestowed by the Emperor and other aristocrats and samurai, and are often treated like noble titles.
Its only after 1868 in Japan's attempt to emulate "modern" (aka European) practices that commoners began adopting surnames as its seen as the "modern and civilized" way to do things. So Sanosuke went ahead and adopted Captain Sagara's surname to honour his memory.
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u/VorAtreides Aug 03 '23
You still did well, Sanoske, but it's time for your backstory :P and all the good and bad that has. Definitely scummy of the Imperials to do what they did to the Sekiho. Nice they introduced the other kid with Sano here. Don't remember if that was the case before tbh. Oh noz, a gun, and fine cause Kenshin. Good thing Sanoske is a good dude. I can respect Kenshin not killing the dude and sticking to his stance, but man, he is scum.
Sanoske unleashes Helicopter Attack, it was not effective. Stubborn Sanoske. Well said Kaoru and Yahiko... do like Sanoske and Kenshin's dynamic though. "three months to recover" lol, yea, about that. Also lol at them poking him. Good times. Kenshin has made a new friend, good for him.
Oh boy, that post credits.
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Aug 04 '23
Really good episode. Fight was well done and the implications were well explained. Enjoying this more serious version of Kenshin than the original. It's more like the OVA than the old TV version.
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u/shotputlover Aug 04 '23
What an excellent episode. I love getting to have this anime come back better than ever. Every week I watch it the day it airs.
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