So, back in 2012; I showed the trailer to the Japanese Rurouni Kenshin movie.
Recently, I was able to see the movie with a group of friends. Remember my Review for The Room? Well, I met up with a few of them and hung out. While hanging out, my hatred for the Bastardization of Dragon Ball came up and we ended up watching this as a cure.
Before I start, I want to do a little personal story. Back when I was in college, local stations showed some anime on weekends. Shows like Ranma 1/2 or Slam Dunk! were shown around 8-9... On Sundays I had to rely on Mr. VCR to record them for me while Church. Samurai X (Rurouni Kenshin) on the other hand was shown around 6 or 6:30 AM. So, I had to wake up SUPER EARLY on weekends (I woke up on weekdays at 5:30 AM to get ready for college... (Some days I started at 1:00 PM, but I still woke up at 5:30 AM) Weekends were meant to sleep in, but this cool show about a Samurai during the Meiji Restoration was pretty interesting. Sadly, the episodes were shown out of order... So piecing the story together had me scouring geocities on a 56kbps connection to read summaries of what was going on... (I feel old... 56kbps, geocities. The moment I start doing pre-internet flashbacks that's when I should stop.)
Many times I was greeted with this... Translation: Woke up too late and missed out on Samurai X... When I was greeted with this, on the other hand; it meant that I was going to drool...
Now, while I still have to see the series in the correct order... (First I need to get it, then get enough time to sit through it and enjoy.) I have the Live action Adaptation. Based on the Trailer it closely follows the earlier arcs of the series. I cannot confirm how faithful it is since, again; I've not seen the entire series IN ORDER.
Without further ado, here are my thoughts on the movie.
Unlike the He-Man/She-Ra christmas Special, I will not do a step by step commentary. Mostly because I don't have the movie with me at the moment and I need to see the movie with at least English, Spanish or Italian Subtitles to fully grasp what's going on... with the dialogue. I don't speak or understand Japanese... aside a few words here and there. So, that's out of the way.
I am pleasantly surprised at the efforts made to have the cast look as humanly possible to their 2D counterparts...
Visually, it reminded me of the anime. I've not read the manga, so I can't be certain of the elements that are different from the manga in the anime.
I recall Sanosuke doing more in the anime than the movie. I could say the same thing about Kaoru. In all fairness, putting a bunch of 22 minute episodes into a 2 hour movie required some TIME KOMPRESSION!!
It's not perfect, but it works. Seems faithful enough (aside a possible change of bad guys and small plot elements... I can't recall with precision.)
I just wish that this movie was officially released on the West so I can see it again with English subtitles or dubbed. This also goes for the sequels. There's two more movies planned. Something something Shishio... Something something, HOLY CRAP! There's two more coming!?
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