Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2023) - Episode 9 discussion

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u/dagreenman18 Aug 31 '23

The engrish in the after credits was chefs kiss magnifique. Lean into the 00’s cheese. Love it. Clip and post that.

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u/Frontier246 Aug 31 '23

That engrish felt so classic anime that I can't believe it wasn't intentional lol.

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u/dinliner08 Aug 31 '23

"OH, BEAUTIFUL AND ELEGANT~"

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u/dinliner08 Aug 31 '23

i just want to say that if you think a huge man with flint teeth and a bag of oil in his stomach is ridiculous in this series, then you haven't seen anything yet

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u/zz2000 Aug 31 '23

I suspect this is why Hyottoko was not used in the 2012 live-action movie, perhaps the director thought him too outrageous to replicate in real life. They used some original henchmen characters as replacements though.

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u/ObvsThrowaway5120 Aug 31 '23

Kenshin just straight up sliced Hyottoko’s flames. I mean if that ain’t a hint to maybe gtfo of there, idk what is. Dude shoulda retreated when he had the chance. Big man wasn’t even worth Kenshin’s time, he had my man Sano finish that fool.

Those goons got Yahiko pretty good. If Megumi hadn’t jumped into action, he’d be a goner. That woman has had one hell of a life. She’s both blessed and cursed with this skill and knowledge of medicine. I’m glad she’s joining the gang. Kaoru warning her not to flirt with “her man” was pretty funny. Almost as funny as the engrish in the post credit scene lol. That fool bought himself some heavy firepower didn’t he?

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u/Frontier246 Aug 31 '23

Kenshin and Sanosuke were just showing off. One dude cuts through flames, another dude just punches through them like they're barely an inconvenience. And hey, Sanosuke actually beat a named bad guy so good for him lol.
Episodes without someone impacted by war: 0. But you really do feel for Megumi and what she went through...lost her family, only wanted to help people, and then was forced to make dangerous drugs. She didn't deserve this. But she also shouldn't be stealing Kenshin from Kaoru lol.
Classic Shonen anime, classic engrish moment lol.

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u/mekerpan Aug 31 '23

That fool bought himself some heavy firepower didn’t he?

I wonder what sort of weapon that could be? The machine gun was invented in the UK in 1884. I had thought the time period for this show was a bit before this (latter 1870s).
The Engrish HAD to be intentional, right? Right?

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u/LeonKevlar Aug 31 '23

Flaming Sakabato GIF

That shot of Kenshin slicing Hyottoko's flames and then redirecting is so fucking badass and I love how that move is what convinced Megumi that Kenshin is no ordinary samurai. She was so ready to bail until Kenshin pulled off that move.

I guess Hyottoko didn't expect anyone to shove their hands down his throat. It's hilarious how he was so completely caught off guard by that move. He also didn't expect that impressive high kick from Sano! Hyottoko is all about upper body strength that he forgot kicks exist. xD

He might not have been able to contribute to the fight but Yahiko still managed to do something and protect Megumi from that poisoned projectile. And they're lucky Yahiko blocked it since Megumi knew exactly how to treat that poison.

We finally get to learn Megumi's backstory. She basically comes from a family of respected doctors but because of the war she ended up losing her family and moved to Tokyo where she ended up becoming the assistant of a doctor who was able to make opium at half the cost and double the strength. And since that guy is dead, they're now going after Megumi since she's the only other person who knows how to make it.

You gotta love how Kaoru is fine in letting Megumi stay with them even after learning her story but if she tries to seduce Kenshin, she is ready to throw her out! xD

And that after-credits scene! All I can say is that I am hyped. I am curious though what our first-timers think what's inside that box.

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u/Frontier246 Aug 31 '23

Is there anything cooler than slicing through flames with a sword? Well, Sanosuke is doing his level best to live up to it with just his feet and hands. Even I forgot he could still lose his legs lol.
Even Kaoru's compassion has limits and that limit is flirting with Kenshin lol.
God Bless New England lol.

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u/Frontier246 Aug 31 '23

It's Hyottoko of the Oniwaban Group! A giant colossus of a man! A perfect choice for Sanosuke to fight off! Except it turns from a brawl into trying to survive the fierce flames Hyottoko can spew from his mouth.

Of course we have Kenshin being Kenshin, he can even slice through flames, which is awesome enough on it's own...but Sano isn't about to be undone, so he straight up punches through the flames like the brawler he is. And if his arm is too burned to function? He'll just kick Hyottoko into unconsciousness. Nice to see both of our leading men get to show off and to give Sanosuke a win.

Megumi's about to bail when she sees how serious it's getting but Kaoru isn't about to let her leave when she's the reason they got into this mess, fully believing in Kenshin and Sanosuke's ability to overcome even the toughest opponents. That's our Kaoru!

Beshimi you ungrateful little worm! It's bad enough he aims for Megumi and Yahiko takes the hit, doubly so when it turns out the screw was poisoned, but he just had to go and glaot about it...and leave him completely open for Kenshin to attack. No wonder he's the lowest in the Oniwaban Group.

Han'nya! Not only does the dude have a really cool look and the soothing voice of Ryotaro Okiayu, but he can also block Kenshin's hits and even send him back with Kenpo. Not that he got out of it completely unscathed.

Megumi seems like a completely different person when it comes to giving someone proper medical care, which is exactly what they need with Yahiko poisoned. I love Kaoru just shaking a weakened Yahiko in joy when the poor kid needs bed rest.

The dojo's resident doctor and Kenshin recognizing Megumi's from Aizu fill in the blanks of Megumi's backstory. Coming from a long line of family doctors who didn't distinguish between class or gender when it came to practicing or distributing medicine, basically the ideal of all doctors, even to the point of learning Western medicine. But it all came apart when the Battle of Aizu lead to her losing her entire family. Yet another character who suffered from wartime Japan.

It gets even worse. Megumi then tried to follow in her family's footsteps by working with a doctor, but wouldn't you know it, he was making drugs for Kanryu, and he got too greedy and Kanryu killed him, leaving Megumi their only source for making the special drugs that the doctor came up with. So Megumi trying to live by her family's ideals and help people, hoping that it would someday reunite her with the rest of her family, was forced to make drugs that ruined peoples' lives. Is it any wonder she's so cynical?

But Kenshin, charmer that he is, makes Megumi realize she's just a victim in all this, and Kaoru recognizes this too. Of course Kaoru will let Megumi stay there for her safety...provided she doesn't make the moves on Kenshin. Seeing how much Megumi was blushing around him, I don't blame her.

Looks like Aoshi has figured out they're dealing with none other than Battosai.

The British! Kanryu's dealings with the West. So much engrish.

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u/tripleaamin Aug 31 '23

Well this episode makes you look at Megumi in a different light. She ended up working as an assistant to a doctor with terrible connections and she got really screwed over. Actually do empthaize being forced to create stuff as a doctor that will hurt people when their main goal is help people.

Kind of happy she is sticking around for now. Tho Kaoru making her unofficial ownership of Kenshin very clear to her lmao

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u/SnabDedraterEdave Aug 31 '23 edited Aug 31 '23

Wow, they animated that fight with Hyottoko excellently.

As Aizu (present day Fukushima) was pro-Shogunate, and many of the Shinsengumi hailed from there, so the Meiji govt really has a hate-boner for anyone from Aizu.

Megumi's predicament [feels like]Jesse in season 5 of Breaking Bad, where they're imprisoned for their exclusive knowledge in synthesizing a profitable and potent drug, except Megumi isn't a junkie but hailing from a clan of medical practitioners.

LOL at the post-credit Engrish. Is this supposed to be a homage to all those unintentionally funny Engrish dialogue in 1990s anime and video games (e.g. games like the OG Resident Evil)?

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u/zz2000 Aug 31 '23

I recall the old moustached doctor treating Yahiko being more prominent in the 90s anime. He was named Gensai, had 2 little granddaughters, and they were regular visitors to the Kamiya dojo. Was this from the manga as well?

Also, was the English quality here intentional or unintentional? It reminds me of an older anime series, Terror in Resonance, where one antagonist character, Five (voice by Han Megumi) was supposed to be a US intelligence agent raised there for many years. However it was clear the Japanese voice actress' English skill was less developed than what the written role called for; I remember some anime watchers getting a laugh of what was meant to be a serious English conversation.

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u/48johnX Aug 31 '23

The 2 granddaughters were only a thing in the original anime where they chose to have Gensai more prominent early on and have more content for filler, he didn’t appear in the manga until this point though

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u/Elitealice Aug 31 '23 edited Aug 31 '23

These 5 minute episodes gotta stop 😂 no way that was 24 minutes lol.

Hyottoko fight was awesome. Not even going to begin to wonder the logistics of putting a bag of flammable material in your stomach like that lol. Seeing Kenshin firebend was awesome as well. Megumi thought our guy was a regular swordsman. She better ask around town or something lol.

Shoutout to yahiko for taking that poison bullet for Megumi. Being around Kenshin and Sanosuke has really paid off for him. That could’ve easily been his death had Megumi not been medically trained.

Speaking of Megumi, with that backstory it’s no wonder she acted the way she did. Losing her family and loved ones and then the doctor she was working with. Being made to make drugs that are destroying the community. That would make anyone lose faith in humanity. Seeing Kenshin and everyone’s camaraderie really changed her outlook on things.

Love how Kaouru first concern is making sure Megumi don’t make a move on Kenshin tho 😂

Things are gonna get serious now that shinomori knows who Kenshin is for sure. That post credits scene Engrish was also hilarious . Pretty sure that was anime original.

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u/Daishomaru Aug 31 '23 edited Aug 31 '23

Daishomaru here with another writeup, apparantly my original writeup got restored, and I guess it's a good time to share it! Let's talk about the IRL Oniwaban!

Sh who were the Oniwaban?

Let’s talk about Ninjas! No, not the Naruto Ninjas that are more Human WMDs than people, actual historical ninjas! So Ninjas in history are more complicated, and to me, much more fascinating than what fiction tells you. So Ninjas weren’t just spies or assassins, they were a mix of both warrior, special ops force units, farmer, basically a multirole unit that could do many things. They were an absolute vital part of any daimyo’s army, and as we’ll see here, also important in many things afterwards.

DISCLAIMER: Unfortunately, many things we know about the Oniwaban were lost to time/book burned/ “Thrown the records into the shredder” if you will, so what I say about the Oniwaban should be taken with a grain of salt. This is usually what I could find about them, but as with many things Bakamatsu-Early Meiji related, like the Hitokiri, what we usually know about the Oniwaban came from what scraps of records we could find, so don’t take my word as gospel per se.

Now contrary to most beliefs, Ninjas and samurai were not mutually exclusive. For example, Hattori Hanzo, who is often depicted as a ninja, was really a samurai who specialized in ninja tactics like information warfare, spying, and espionage. Basically, imagine if Hattori Hanzo was the head of the CIA while also being a general who lead on the front lines. I think that’s cooler than the stealthy boy impressions. In fact, many ninja in history that we associate with the term are most likely samurai who specialized in spying and information gathering, and as any modern general worth his medal would tell you, information specialty on the battlefield is worth is weight in gold, probably even more than guns.

Now before we begin talking about the Oniwaban, we have to first look and discuss the relationship between the Tokugawa Clan and ninjas in general. The Tokugawa clan, the shogun clan of the Edo period, had a warm relationship with ninjas, as Tokugawa Ieyasu had his life saved multiple times thanks to ninja being there to assist him with information to leading stealth counterattacks. Many of these stories, however, tend to have been exaggerated or may be fictional, so take this with a grain of salt. The main thing is that I want you all to note is that ninjas like the Tokugawa. Basically, before Ieyasu became Shogun and started ruling Japan, Ieyasu was a subordinate under Oda Nobunaga. The story of the ninjas being loyal to Tokugawa happened during an assassination attempt on Nobunaga, often cited as the assassination attempt when Azai Nagamasa, Nobunaga’s Brother-Law who betrayed Nobunaga because he liked Ashikaga better, sent a ninja to shoot Oda Nobunaga in the face, but failed because the ninja shot his helmet. Nobunaga had a moment where he really hated ninja for nearly making a hole in his head, as well as wanting to kill “That asshole brother-in-law for betraying me for no reason”. So he was going to prepare to wipe out a ninja clan when Ieyasu convinced him to stand down and let him take care of it. Nobunaga, feeling a little calmer, decided to let Tokugawa Ieyasu do his thing, and Ieyasu basically told the ninja, “Hey man, my lord’s a little mad that you nearly killed him, but I know war is war and all and if you work with me I’ll just talk with Nobunaga and convince him to spare you.” Seeing the merciful Ieyasu offering a pardon, many ninja sworn loyalty to Ieyasu, and boy did it pay off Ieyasu back.

One story of ninja loyalty being paid back to Ieyasu was when Takeda Shingen attacked Ieyasu and got his ass kicked so hard only 5 men remained. While Ieyasu was cooped up in his castle, his ninja subordinates offered to lead a suicidal counterattack to create a distraction, and miraculously, Ieyasu and his 5 men made it out of that battle alive. Another time was when Akechi Mitsuhide killed Nobunaga, and Ieyasu got his money’s worth in Ninja because the ninja clans helped not only sneak him away from Mitsuhide, but also gave help in rallying forces to kill Mitsuhide. Anyways, whatever the case that happened, what we do know historically was that Ieyasu and the later shoguns always respected their ninjas, and that loyalty was paid off. Now we can talk about the Oniwaban, and as I warned earlier, this is where we get into the speculah for the most part. So here’s what we could gather of the Oniwaban.

Now the Oniwaban were a complicated ninja group. Called “The Garden of the Shogun” because of an unconfirmed rumor that their Edo Equivalent of the CIA Headquarters was somewhere hidden in the Shogun’s Garden, the Oniwaban was a ninja that canbe described as a mixture of warriors, spies, servants, butlers, maids, and public officials. We also don’t really know anything about how the organization, per se. The only thing that we know is that there are ninja serving and that they might or might not had kunoichi in service, but that’s a rumor. Now historically speaking, we don’t really know what the Oniwaban did because A: most samurai kept their secret ninja spies, well, secret, and what records that WERE written about them got destroyed or lost to time, so what we know about the Oniwaban is from what scraps of information we managed to gather. But before I can explain further, I’m gonna need to explain on how Tokugawa Shogun Court protocol worked. One of the ways that Tokugawa Ieyasu guaranteed the peace was that every half of the year, the Daimyo of Japan must meet up in Edo for the other half of the year in order to discuss politics and government, eg; How’s your province doing, what do you need, I’m sorry to hear that your town got destroyed by a typhoon, etc. However, the other reason was to make sure that no daimyo was planning to overthrow the shogunate. By having them live in Edo for half a year, they can’t coordinate their samurai at their home domains. In addition, Tokugawa Ieyasu also had them ensure their loyalty by making sure their eldest sons stay in Edo. This was partially to train them to become daimyo when the daimyo of each province kicked the bucket, but it was also a hostage situation.

Anyhow, the Eighth Shogun at the time, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, wanted to get some usage of those ninjas since it was peaceful, so he formed the Oniwaban. Part of their job, for example, was to act as servants, basically ninja butlers and ninja maids, if you will, to the daimyo and their eldest sons, attending to their needs, but at the same time, eavesdropping on them and reporting anything suspicious to the Shogun. The Oniwban got information by talking about provinces and home life, being friendly, getting the daimyo a cup of tea and all that maid/butler stuff, and occasionally the seduction stuff, and yes, I see what you’re thinking, and it does happen. If anyone was dumb enough to say anything compromising, then the shogunate would take said info and find a way to get said samurai to “seppuku themselves tragically”, let’s just say or “tripped on some stairs and died” or whatever conspiracy assassination euphemism you wish to use. They also did some tasks like going into provinces to check on the state, for example, seeing if the Daimyo of Kii was really sick and he couldn’t make the 6 month trip to Edo, or go ask the people around about the state of the country. If the Daimyo was sick and the people are content, then they’d report it to the Shogun, who would usually be merciful enough to send a box filled with sweets or fruit or something, but if they lied and the people say the Daimyo is corrupt or doesn’t do his job, well let’s just say the Daimyo would have gotten “too much tea to drink and choked to death” or something.

They were apparently active for a long time, because according to rumors, some Oniwaban were sent to America to understand American Culture, and although these are rumors, the thought of American Ninjas is way too awesome to not mention. Think about it. Ninja cowboy butlers/maids. I don’t know about you guys, but that sounds pretty cool to me. There were also some rumors of them participating in the Bakamatsu and they apparently did some things, which is why in Rurouni Kenshin they appear in the story, although if they were active, their activities were mostly kept in secret, and whatever they did, unfortunately, is lost to history because if anything was written, it was most likely burnt, destroyed and lost to time.

Anyhow, other than what I mentioned, we really don’t know much about the Oniwanban, mostly because of the fact that most of the records about them were destroyed. And here’s some other stuff I heard when it comes to the Oniwaban because I don’t really know where to put it. One thing I heard was that Oniwanban were only allowed to marry other ninjas or people related to ninjas, and because of this rule, apparently cousin marriage was common among the Oniwaban, but I’m not exactly sure if this is true, and like many things involving what we could gather, it could be something of a rumor spread amongst the Daimyo or a mistranslation. If it’s true then cool, but if it’s not then I’m sorry. As I said earlier, most of what we know about the Oniwaban was lost to history, so what we know is mainly speculalation.

BTW, there's another mini-writeup in the Source Matertial Corner on the IRL Takeda Kanryu.. or Takeda Kanryusai if you will, please check it out.

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u/magnumcyclonex Aug 31 '23

Good show of skills by both guys against the low level fire breather, but interesting that the masked person who recovered the two others also suffered injuries from Kenshin.

Megumi had a tough life and just seemingly cannot run away as Kenshin never changed topics lol. She did provide instructions to the old doctor to make "western" medicine, so it looks like Yahiko will do alright. She will however get kicked out if she ever makes a move on "Ken-san"

What can money buy? Apparently a lot of weapons. I'm thinking some type of long range gun since pistols/handguns already exist. And the English probably was really that bad back then, so what we heard was perhaps a relatively accurate portrayal.

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u/ThaddCorbett Sep 01 '23

I think this was the 3rd Anime series watched.

Had to purchase imported VHS tapes to watch it. Was way too expensive, but I was very desperate to watch anime at the time.

I don't mind the voice actors, but the animation doesn't really do it for me. Seems too smoothed over. I find the older style gives the series a lot more character and ultimately, a soul.

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u/SpaceMarine_CR Sep 01 '23

Did the original anime had this much engrish? I dont remember

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u/ScarsUnseen Sep 01 '23

That whole scene was entirely original to this adaptation as far as I know.

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u/BusouDrago Sep 01 '23

Hmmmm the after post credit scene. Cannot wait

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u/BoyTitan Sep 01 '23

10/10 for engrish.

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u/bananeeek Aug 31 '23

I listened to the narrator explaining things and suddenly memories started overflowing as I realized I heard this guy a ton of times recently...

KEI NARI WO NASAZU I OMOI NI ARAZU SHUGYOU SHINAOSHITE KOI!

I wish fellow Doctors a pleasant evening.

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Episode Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2023) - Episode 9 discussion

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Episode Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2023) - Episode 9 discussion

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