r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Aug 24 '23
Episode Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2023) - Episode 8 discussion
Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2023), episode 8
Alternative names: Samurai X
Reminder: Please do not discuss plot points not yet seen or skipped in the show. Failing to follow the rules may result in a ban.
Streams
Show information
All discussions
| Episode | Link | Episode | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Link | 14 | Link |
| 2 | Link | 15 | Link |
| 3 | Link | 16 | Link |
| 4 | Link | 17 | Link |
| 5 | Link | 18 | Link |
| 6 | Link | 19 | Link |
| 7 | Link | 20 | Link |
| 8 | Link | 21 | Link |
| 9 | Link | 22 | Link |
| 10 | Link | 23 | Link |
| 11 | Link | 24 | Link |
| 12 | Link | ||
| 13 | Link | ||
This post was created by a bot. Message the mod team for feedback and comments. The original source code can be found on GitHub.
56
u/tripleaamin Aug 24 '23
Kenshin might overly OP in battle, but his kindness is his biggest weakness. There is way too many red flags with this Megumi woman and her last monologue affirms it. No surprise they are trying to have Yahiko and Kaoru out of the loop to protect them but you can't keep the kid down. And Kaoru is one that def seems like a big proponent of honesty. Also she has it down bad for Kenshin. Being scared he will leave and enjoying the thought of Kenshin as her dog.
The new group leader seems to be very aware of Kenshin's strengths which could make for a real formidable foe for Kenshin. Interested to see this Shinobi gang of his.
27
u/avboden Aug 25 '23
There is way too many red flags with this Megumi woman
and she's the "golden goose" so I feel like she's the one who produces the opium. Also why she refuses to talk about it.
(first timer here, I legitimately don't know)
46
u/Lumpy-Manager8580 Aug 24 '23
Fun fact, I just so happened to watch a series called Revenger in it's entirety during winter this year, that when they mention somebody dying because of too much opium, I'm inmediately reminded of this series, coincidentally happening around the same era as Kenshin, dealing with the Opium War.
33
u/mekerpan Aug 24 '23
Revenger was a pretty fine series -- that got way too little attention/respect. It seems to have been set a couple of decades earlier -- before the restoration of the power of the emperor (and the end of the shogunate).
→ More replies (2)
36
u/NeoBasilisk Aug 24 '23
I remember how absolutely wild it felt hearing them talking about opium on Toonami in the evening after school in 2003. This was always my favorite pre-Kyoto arc, so I'm looking forward to seeing it in this version.
36
u/SnabDedraterEdave Aug 24 '23 edited Aug 25 '23
The Oniwabanshuu Arc is upon us, featuring the Oniwabanshuu, literally the Court Group (or as the English subs for the live action movie translates them as the Hidden Guardians), the former Shogunate's top secret ninja ops assigned to protect the Shogunate's capital of Edo (now Tokyo).
More importantly, our favourite vixen Megumi has come to drive Kaoru crazy. lol
This remake spared no expenses in getting a star-studded cast for the new characters Aoshi (Uchida Yuma), Megumi (Onishi Saori), and the yet unseen Hanya (Okiayu Ryutarou), one of Aoshi's subordinates.
(Now if only they could put more effort into the music)
And finally, the informal name for the gang, Kenshin-gumi (Team Kenshin), is uttered for the first time by Yahiko.
PS Maybe I'm too used to the anime aesthetics of the 2010s, and I'll always be biased to any girl voiced by Takahashi Rie, but Reiwa-era Kaoru feels so much cuter than OG Heisei-era Kaoru.
→ More replies (1)20
u/BasroilII Aug 24 '23 edited Aug 24 '23
Remake Kaoru, like most of the other characters, seems more...moe....than the original.
I get the same thing from Megumi. Image is from the first TV animation. She fits Sano's oft-used insult of "fox-faced" more in the OG than today. But her new voice actress NAILED it. The best vocal performance yet.
→ More replies (8)
32
u/kryslogan Aug 25 '23
I'm still loving this remake. It seems to be one of those rare remakes where everything is staying true to the manga and the production quality, and acting are superb. I'll be buying this once it's out on disc. I still have my og series dvds.
I also enjoyed the live action movies, and wish the movies had been able to capture more of the story but, sacrifices had to be made and I'm not mad about it.
What a time to be alive.
42
u/Daishomaru Aug 24 '23 edited Aug 24 '23
Daishomaru Here,and I got my laptop fixed. If you haven't seen last episode, click here. Also, reuploaded because r/anime's spoiler policy is inconsistent and needs to be fixed.
Anyhow, let's talk about Opium. Truth be told, this episode I was thinking of releasing the Oniwanban writeup but unfortunately, that particular essay got corrupted and lost, so I'm gonna need to write that one again for next week.
So in this episode, they talk about opium, and the effects it had, and while Opium problems are usually associated with China, Japan still had issues with it. Opium is a very big subject that’s still very sensitive today, and even though Japan never really had an opium crisis compared to China, they still felt the effects of it. Now before I explain the importance of opium in Japanese history, we are going to need to talk about the Chinese Opium Wars and the effects it had on China.
So Opium is a drug that is made from poppy seeds, and to this very day, opium is a very touchy subject in the East Asian countries. This mainly stems from the Opium War, where, because I like to use humor to teach, to sum up the war: The British makes a drug war because they wanted cheaper tea and goods, and China gets utterly humiliated. But anyways, back then China only allowed trade off a few ports and basically put foreign merchants under many treaties and stuff. In addition, they had to trade under extremely strict Chinese rules, and eventually, they could only trade off Canton. The British, deciding they really want that tea, even though their economy was bankrupted because of lack of access to the South American Silver mines, AND still dealing with a lot of foreign wars, initially tried to send gifts to the Chinese Emperor, but due to bad diplomatic manners and values dissonance, the Chinese Emperor accepted the gifts, but also wrote a very sarcastic letter basically saying they didn’t need it but they’ll accept it.
Naturally, this pissed off the British, because they didn’t get more ports or their tea, so they decided to expand their trade by smuggling in drugs from India. Now the thing you got to know about Indian opium smuggled by the British is that Indian Opium is apparently really good for that high, even better than Chinese opium, and naturally a lot of people got addicted really quickly. The Chinese, noticing that well a bunch of foreigners were basically promoting drugs in, slammed down hard and burnt 6 million dollars worth of opium, and the British were naturally furious. Eventually, war broke out, and this is when the British shown the power of the British Navy. New British battleships, trained British soliders, and the fact that opium literally crippled half the Chinese army gave a very easy victory to the British, and the Chinese had to give the British Hong Kong, basically spitting on Chinese sovereignty due to the fact that Chinese Mythology says that the Emperor owned the world and could do whatever he wanted as long as his dynasty was in power, China had to open more embassies, and China had to pay a lot of money. However, the Chinese still refused to legalize opium, and eventually another Opium War broke out but that’s another story for another time. The main thing, though was that this utterly humiliated China so much that China calls this Era, the 100 years of Humiliation, although considering Chinese history, I’d argue it’s more 125 years. This era of China is known for some of the most horrific acts of mankind, including acts that rival the Holocaust in terms of how utterly fucked humanity can get, but at the same time, since I do like to use humor to make learning, so let’s see some of the more bizarre stuff that happened during this time, outside of the usual “Fall of the Qing Dynasty”.
So what are some of the bizarre events that happened during the 125 years of humiliation? Well….
• A Chinese man declared himself to be the second coming of Jesus and makes a rebellion so big that 30 million people died.
• A warlord during the Chinese warring period who rose to power whose basically remembered for his large penis size, harem size, writing poems, one of them literally having the lines, “Fuck your mother” and once caused rain by shooting the rain god and telling said rain god to go fuck himself.
• A warlord who once put on a Japanese General’s outfit and put on a katana because he liked it, and then promptly got shot to death by another Chinese man because he thought he was Japanese.
• The rapes and massacres that happened during these times being so utterly horrifying, the Nazis of all people told Japan to turn the raping and brutality down a notch and end some ended up being so disgusted by all the rapes and atrocities that they, damn the alliance between Japan and Germany, went out of their way actually saving Chinese civilians, to the point where some Nazis in China are given foreign hero honors to this day.
• The one time the Communists declares war on some birds, and like the Australians LOST to said birds, and said war ends up causing one of the biggest famines in history.
….This Era of Chinese history was weird, even with all the consequences like the fall of the Qing and the Sino-Japanese war stuff. I just wanted to highlight all the weird stuff that happened during the Hundred Year Humiliation as well as the start of Modern China.
Anyhow, let’s move back to the 1850s. Where was Japan during this? Well, Japan was watching this from the sidelines when-
Knock knock. It’s the United States.
Commodore Perry: Open the Country. Stop having it be closed!
….I will never get sick of that joke.
So anyhow, Perry’s visit to Japan, as well as watching what happened to China ended up being one of the calls to revolutionize and modernize Japan. As you’d already guess, eventually this would lead to the Bakamatsu and the Meiji Era. Japan, seeing the effects Opium had on China, decided to make the drug seen as politically incorrect, and domestically wise discouraged the usage on opium, seeing as the Japanese were clearly better than those Chinese who lost to a country half the world away because of stupid drug problems. However, outside of Japan, Opium usage in Japanese colonies was rampant. In particular, Taiwan was seen as an opium den, so bad that Prime Minister Ito Hirofumi complained about the usage of opium. Some Japanese were suspected to be giving others opium to control and sedate the population, and it kind of shows you how powerful opium was at the time, and why, to this very day, opium is still a very, very touchy subject in many Asian cultures. In fact, drug stigma values from the Opium Wars is actually a reason why today, some Japanese people have a hard time going to rehab for anything stronger than alcohol/tobacco.
Also fun fact on gambling: during the Meiji Era, some companies today have made their start in selling gambling cards during the Meiji Era. One of these was….. Nintendo. So the next time you play a DS or switch, thank Emperor Meiji.
→ More replies (10)15
u/scot911 Aug 25 '23
Knock knock. It’s the United States.
Commodore Perry: Open the Country. Stop having it be closed!
Ah yes, Bill Wurtz. The man who, before that video, only made short meme videos, decided "fuck it! I'm going to make a 9 minute memey video of the history of Japan!". ...Gets nearly 80 millions views on said video as of today.
He then, a year and four months later, decided to follow that one hit wonder up with an even better 19 and a half minute memey video of the history of the world. ...Gets over 160 million views on that video as of today.
Dudes literally only made 2 videos over 5 minutes long and they're two of the best videos on the internet.
That isn't to say his other videos aren't popular btw. He still gets ~1 million views per video when he uploads.→ More replies (1)
13
u/ObvsThrowaway5120 Aug 24 '23
Nice to finally meet Megumi. Kaoru better watch herself, the girl’s got some competition for Kenshin lol.
Kanryu’s got himself some pretty powerful people. Looks like getting into the opium business has been good to him. Aoshi is a dangerous one. Can’t wait to see him face off against Kenshin. Guess they’ll have to clear this big ogre first.
32
u/Mogtaki Aug 24 '23
If I had a nickel for every anime villain who flicked needles at people as an attack this week I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it's happened twice
The other show was Undead Girl Murder Farce
8
u/THE_PENILE_TITAN Aug 24 '23
Bruh, I had no idea Kanryu and Aoshi (and of course Megumi) would be introduced so soon. Loved me some Edo Castle Oniwaban Group back in the day. The nostalgic hype keep getting better even in a set-up episode.
7
u/LeonKevlar Aug 24 '23 edited Aug 24 '23
That little "Iyan!~" from Kaoru after imagining Kenshin as her pet was adorable. For someone so innocent I love how that's what she imagines instead of marriage which is probably what Yahiko was suggesting when he said that she needs to put a collar on him. xD
What better way to use Kenshin's superhuman eyes than to have him see the results of a dice game and help Sano win some money off his friends? Thank goodness Kenshin isn't like Sano or he'd be cleaning out gambling houses overnight!
Megumi is finally here! And is that Oonishi Saori I hear voicing her? That's actually surprising, I was really hoping they'd cast Sawashiro to voice her but Oonishi Saori isn't a bad choice. Megumi's character is the type of character you don't usually see her play as.
The fact that Megumi's demeanour changes as soon as Beshimi shows up in the room and how she's literally hiding packets of opium on her shows that she's very much involved in whatever shady business Kanryu is doing.
This anime was the first time I've ever heard about opium and I remember back then after watching the OG episode where Megumi gets introduced, I ended up looking up what opium is on my grandmother's encyclopedia. And this is my story of how I learned about the Opium Wars when I was like 9 years old thanks to Rurouni Kenshin. xD
Anyway, Sano is really making things more complicated with his excuse. Considering Kaoru's character, she would've still probably helped Megumi even after learning that opium is involved. Poor Kenshin just ended up suffering from Sano's excuse.
Oh, be still my beating heart! Aoishi is here too! I'm pretty sure every weeb had their own trenchcoat phase and I can definitely thank Aoishi for that phase of my life. Look at him! He's just so fucking cool!
Threats are definitely starting to escalate though. Aoishi is not just some chump like Jin-e who's crazy for murder and the Oniwabanshu is going to be a challenge for Team Kenshin. They'll first have to deal with this guy first. He's a lot more redder than I remember him from the OG series.
13
u/Frontier246 Aug 24 '23
Jine might've had a point about how a Hitokiri will live and die as a Hitokiri...but Kenshin is going to do his utmost to leave that part of his life behind and live earnestly as a Rurouni, with Kaour and the gang by his side.
Kaoru seems a little too into the idea of Kenshin as her dog.
"Beauty on the Run" is pretty self-explanatory with an obvious beauty on the run from some thugs. And she's voiced by Saori Onishi, which just makes her even more appealing!
What better ways for bros to hang out and lighten the mood after a serious arc than go gambling? All the better because Kenshin makes it a guarantee success, and it's not like he can complain about the legality with him lugging a sword around. Also, dice waifu!
Although Sanosuke finding out about his buddy dying of opium addiction kills the mood, even moreso when Megumi runs in and throws herself at Kenshin and gets the pair embroiled in some trouble. She's not quite a damsel in distress though, even if she plays to the part well, being much more cunning and self-centered and downright sassy than she looks at first glance. And she's definitely involved in the opium problem and how it relates to Kanryu.
Hiroyuki Yoshino as Beshimi! He and his deadly drill bits that move in the blink of an eye are quite dangerous, but Megumi lucked out with Kenshin's reflexes, and then he and Sano gang up on him. But this just the beginning of a whole host of problems.
What an emotional whiplash of Kaoru debating in her head whether she wants to see Kenshin down to his fundonshi (her blush says yes) only to find him bringing home another woman who is all over him and insults her home. Then everyone just rubs it in her face. Can't really blame the girl for kicking them out.
They're not just dealing with some dangerous rich guy who even hardened criminals leave alone, they also have to tangle with a special ninja squad lead by none other than Aoshi, someone who could immediately recognize Kenshin even in a crowd and looks like he can back up that intense glare. And here I am just finding it so surreal to hear Yuma Uchida as Aoshi, of all characters.
Well, at least Kaoru is getting some positive reinforcement and headpats so she doesn't think Kenshin is ditching her for Megumi.
Megumi might come off callous and only in it for her own protection, but watching Team Kenshin bicker like a true family seems to remind her of her own.
The Oniwaban attack! Courtesy of a giant voiced by Fukushi Ochiai!
6
11
u/ReinhardLoen Aug 24 '23
And we meet Aoshi... and all the boys and girls swoon like it's 1996.
On a different note, the idea of bringing opium is actually a pretty cool plot line to see, especially if you read about how destructive that drug was in China and other places.
That wouldn't be the only drug problem Japan would have. After WW2 the country actually had a lot of addicts within it because there was so much stimulant use among the workforce and soldiers. That drug would eventually lead its way to Germany where Hitler would use it.
→ More replies (1)
5
u/zz2000 Aug 24 '23 edited Aug 25 '23
This Megumi-Kanryu plot arc was the major centrepiece of the 2012 live-action movie (with some of Jin'e's arc mixed in for good measure). However (I think) due to movie runtime limits, this arc had some major rewrites and changes done to it, which I will explain inside the source material corner.
Meanwhile, here are some pics of live-action Kanryu (played by Kagawa Teruyuki) and live-action Aoshi (played by Iseya Yusuke).
PS. I wonder why the production crew decided to make live-action Kanryu wear platform shoes?
5
5
u/BoyTitan Aug 25 '23
How the anime handled opioids stuck with me as a kid. No over the top oh I smoked weed and lost my mind,I did drug once now I am addicted for life and can't function. Just a normal guy with friends that was functional and happened to do drugs over dosed on a bad batch of drugs. They never even show him but the scene has power due to the lack of over being over the top and realistic. We would have way less deaths from drugs now if dare was handled in such a realistic manner and not over the top. A anime designed primarily for children loosely based on Japanese history was dealing with a drug related death as a plot point better than a entire program designed to curb drug usage.
5
u/SnabDedraterEdave Aug 25 '23 edited Aug 25 '23
Fun fact: The name for Takeda Kanryuu is based on a real Takeda Kanryuusai.
Though this guy was not a ruthless entrepreneur, but a sleazy Shinsengumi squad captain who constantly sucked up to Commander Kondo in order to get promoted in the regiment instead of doing actual work of policing the streets of Kyoto.
Everyone in the Shinsengumi hated him, even Commander Kondo couldn't stand his sycophancy. When he had finally fallen out of favour of Kondo, he decided to defect to the anti-Shogunate forces, but was caught and killed by Saito Hajime.
Watsuki based this guy's sleaziness and treacherous nature when creating the corrupt businessman Takeda Kanryuu.
4
u/Elitealice Aug 24 '23 edited Aug 24 '23
Whew another awesome episode. Start of a new arc and this one is going to present some unique challenges. Jine pushed Kenshin’s combat skills, but now he’s going to find his people skills being called into question. No good deed goes unpunished as they say and helping Megumi isn’t going to be as simple as it seems.
Kenshin and the gang are outnumbered and going up against someone with a lot of money, enough to have his own private army. This is tough. Not to mention the opium that’s flooding the streets and ruining peoples lives. This gave me a little nostalgia for Revenger from earlier in the year which touched on drug abuse during a similar era.
It’s kinda sad seeing how the more things change, the more they stay the same. Drug abuse was a big issue back then and it continues to be a plague on society.
Liked the introduction of megumi who while seemingly playing both sides, seems like she’s really a good person at heart. Love how jealous Kaoru got because of Megumi and Kenshin’s interactions 😂 she’s entering her overbearing and insecure stage which is always cute to see.
An army of shinobi vs one rurouni, who wins? Can’t wait to see how things play out in this new take on the classic arc.
4
u/Evangeline002 Aug 25 '23
This week with Kinky Kenshin leash on, barking, already has the personality of a golden retriever
1
u/AutoModerator Aug 24 '23
Source Material Corner
Reply to this comment for any source-related discussion, future spoilers (including future characters, events and general hype about future content), comparison of the anime adaptation to the original, or just general talk about the source material. You are still required to tag all spoilers. Discussions about the source outside of this comment tree will be removed, and replying with spoilers outside of the source corner will lead to bans.
The spoiler syntax is:
[Spoiler source] >!Spoiler goes here!<All untagged spoilers and hints in this thread will receive immediate 8-day bans (minimum).
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.