My objection to the Jinchuu arc is based on the supporting characters. Clearly the arc couldn't get rid of them, clearly they couldn't just be ignored, but at the same time the arc was about Kenshin almost entirely. The result seemed to me that a lot of the arc was taken up with everyone else running around for no good reason, ending up in the traditional Shounen "everyone gets their own personal fight" dance. Also I found crazy nerves guy to have a stupid superpower gimmick, and to be a much less threatening villain than Shishio, who felt like he was motivating the arc.
I agree with you on Reflections, Kenshin does not need a disease unless it's there for some other reason, the effects of years of continual combat is destructive enough that you don't need to add to it. I think that was pointless, and it's entire purpose seemed to be to keep Kenshin from just coming home.
In the manga I'm somewhat more satisfied because it fits the manga, it's happier. Even with Sano's very strange disappearance, Kenshin retires into a life of happiness, or close enough, Yahiko becomes his successor, and eventually Kenji, and everything is mostly wrapped up. In terms of the first OVA, I'm disappointed, because whereas the OVA and several parts of the manga are very historically centered, and explore the issues of historic Japan, it doesn't quite end on that note.
I suppose I'm hung up on the history somewhere; I know that what Kenshin did was futile, that the Meiji era is the last gasp of sunlight before the long plunge into night. I don't quite begrudge Kenshin his happy ending in the manga, but with the first OVA being so spectacular in both the brutality and the tragedy, I felt that it deserved a mirror echo from the other end of the story. Where the first one was the tragedy of Kenshin's idealism and the consequences of his actions, the second would have been the echo of his guilt and the failure of his idealism, and his final acceptance that he really can only protect those "within reach of his sword". And then it did not deliver.
I guess I'm looking at the manga's darker parts as related to the OVA and not the standard series, and I don't know why. I understand why the manga picked a lighter ending, and why the anime followed suit. I just felt that Reflections should have lived up to its darker promise.
As to the manga, I feel sometimes that there are two mangas struggling to get out of Ruroken. One is a much lighter Shounen/Shojo combination piece, where love conquers and Kenshin discovers his answer, and generally we expect happy endings. The other is a much darker and more mature manga, which sometimes pokes through the seams, becoming visible. They follow the same plot trajectory, but one of them is much more brutal, much more realistic (a lot less with the superpower gimmicks), and a lot more tied into the context. The first OVA comes out of the darker tradition, and I was hoping that there would be an end to the story of the same tradition. But there wasn't, so I was sad.
Also some people keep trying to tell me that the anime continued after the Kyoto arc, but these people are obviously insane, so I ignore them.
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I agree with you on Reflections, Kenshin does not need a disease unless it's there for some other reason, the effects of years of continual combat is destructive enough that you don't need to add to it. I think that was pointless, and it's entire purpose seemed to be to keep Kenshin from just coming home.
In the manga I'm somewhat more satisfied because it fits the manga, it's happier. Even with Sano's very strange disappearance, Kenshin retires into a life of happiness, or close enough, Yahiko becomes his successor, and eventually Kenji, and everything is mostly wrapped up. In terms of the first OVA, I'm disappointed, because whereas the OVA and several parts of the manga are very historically centered, and explore the issues of historic Japan, it doesn't quite end on that note.
I suppose I'm hung up on the history somewhere; I know that what Kenshin did was futile, that the Meiji era is the last gasp of sunlight before the long plunge into night. I don't quite begrudge Kenshin his happy ending in the manga, but with the first OVA being so spectacular in both the brutality and the tragedy, I felt that it deserved a mirror echo from the other end of the story. Where the first one was the tragedy of Kenshin's idealism and the consequences of his actions, the second would have been the echo of his guilt and the failure of his idealism, and his final acceptance that he really can only protect those "within reach of his sword". And then it did not deliver.
I guess I'm looking at the manga's darker parts as related to the OVA and not the standard series, and I don't know why. I understand why the manga picked a lighter ending, and why the anime followed suit. I just felt that Reflections should have lived up to its darker promise.
As to the manga, I feel sometimes that there are two mangas struggling to get out of Ruroken. One is a much lighter Shounen/Shojo combination piece, where love conquers and Kenshin discovers his answer, and generally we expect happy endings. The other is a much darker and more mature manga, which sometimes pokes through the seams, becoming visible. They follow the same plot trajectory, but one of them is much more brutal, much more realistic (a lot less with the superpower gimmicks), and a lot more tied into the context. The first OVA comes out of the darker tradition, and I was hoping that there would be an end to the story of the same tradition. But there wasn't, so I was sad.
Also some people keep trying to tell me that the anime continued after the Kyoto arc, but these people are obviously insane, so I ignore them.