Review of "Rurouni Kenshin"

KENSHIIIIIINN!!

Adapting a story from a book or a serial to the silver screen is tricky.

You really want to attract new fans, so sticking to the original source material is not the best option. Besides, you may alienate the original fans too, since they can be bored by the predictability of the movie.

At the same time, once you change too much, you infuriate the existing fans of the original. Sometimes you do this AND non-fans still hate the movie. Just ask the original fans of "Starship Trooper", "Dragon Ball" and "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and many people who don't have any clue about the original, AND dislike those movies.

You also need to be careful not to STRETCH the material. Just ask the die-hard Tolkien fans who cursed Peter Jackson thanks to "The Hobbit."

At the same time, you also can't over-compressed the material. That's why nobody even try to make the movie version of Silmarillion or the Bible.

So, based on that difficulty, I already gave 70 out of 100 for this movie. It basically compressed the first season, or "Tokyo Arc" of the Rurouni Kenshin anime & manga into a 2 hour movie, changing some details and sequences, but keep the main story essentially intact. Well done.

After that, let's compare it with the anime and manga to get the final verdict.

1) Music

The music is on par with the anime. It enhance each scene, and none sounds like out of place. Since it is a tie, I add 0 to the final score of this movie.

2) Takeda Kanryu

Holy hell, how come they turn the uninteresting drug dealer from the manga and anime to this fascinating character? In the movie, he is definitely the comic relief AND one of the Big Bad. Sounds like an oxymoron? Not for him. Really. He is so over-the-top, that I enjoy every single moment of his appearance! Heck, he even has 3 entourages that comically always follow him! Add 25 point for this superb change!

3) Sagara Sannosuke

The opposite is the movie version of Sagara Sannosuke. Whenever I saw Zanza in the manga or anime, I instantly think "Wow, what a brash, impulsive, and explosive person!" Not with this version. He looks trying SOOO hard to looks cool. Zzzz ... minus 10 points for this disappointing modification.

4) Saito Hajime/Goro Fujita

Saito here is a badass. Just like the manga and anime version, he looks cool even when he didn't do anything. The problem is, he really didn't do anything. Really. The writer made him do an action near the end, but frankly, Kenshin and Zanza can do just find without Saito there. Argh, how come you mess him like that? I am A BIG Saito fan, but now I am in the opinion that the movie will be better if he didn't show up in it. Minus 10 points for under-utilization of the best characther in the franchise.

5) Hittokiri Battousai/Himura Kenshin

For me, the movie version of Kenshin is superior to the anime & manga version. The manga version is a little bit too ... bipolar for me. One second he is the stupid, clumsy bum, another second he suddenly become a badass, then in the next scene he become a melancholic-emo. WTH? Yes, I know he SUPPOSED to mask his skill and his pain, but that is still too much. In my opinion, the movie version of Kenshin capture that conflict far more subtle and natural. Add 10 point for this improvement.

6) Kamiya Kaoru, Myojin Yahiko & Takani Megumi

I don't like Kaoru because she is the very definition of "Damsel in distress." She screams with tears ("KEEENNSHIIIIN!!"), and it almost always pissed me off. Yahiko & Megumi are OK. As characters, they are not annoying, but not really special. That said, the movie version of them is exactly the same with the anime & manga version. Not really special, but not bad either. In the end, they add/substract 0 points.

7) The action scenes

Is it just me or the movie sometimes has difficulty to decide whether they want to have a super-human fighting scene or a realistic one? Jin-E, and Sannosuke, move realistically, but it looks like Kenshin and Saito have mastered the art of defying gravity and inertia ... it is minor, but it is still disturbing. Substract 5 points for this inconsistency.

Final Verdict: 80 out of 100. It is a very good adaptation. If you are a big Rurouni Kenshin fan, it won't disappoint you. If you don't have any clue about it, this is a good summary & re-telling of the 1st season.