What Are You Reading?

[Foggle]

That was fucking amazing.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Its 4 AM over here, and I basically woke up the whole house when I burst out laughing uncontrollably as I was reading that article. Man, tears are still streaming down my face. That may just be the funniest thing that I've ever read.

[Avaitor]

I want this book so bad.

Cracked's article is also great.

[gunswordfist]

Over the last two days I read Rurouni Kenshin v. 10 and 11. I think Aoshi telling Shishio to have his men go after and torture the Oniwabanshu made no kind of sense. He basically goes crazy because his men died and his goal wouldn't make sense since his clan can't be the strongest if Makoto wipes them out. I thought he may have just said that because he knew the Owls would lose up until I started typing this but then he shows up his damn self and threatens to attack them.

I swear Sano's role in this arc seems so pointless. When the story goes to him, it seems too much like a distraction from the important stuff.

Did some comic book I recently read...hmmm, I think it was Criminal v. 2 that also talked about how having two cuts simultaneously from two put together blades makes wounds hard to sew up. I knew Cho was going to say that right after he pulled out those blades. Maybe I just remember it from the anime?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Sanosuke really had no purpose in the Kyoto arc. As a matter of fact, neither did Kaoru and Yahiko. Its just that all 3 of them had become staple characters, and Sanosuke in particular was pretty popular, so including him in the arc fighting alongside Kenshin and Saito was done to please the readers rather than it really making much sense. Well, it does make sense for Sanosuke himself to want to join, but it felt out of character to Saito to just so easily allow him to join along when he had earlier gone out of his way to make sure that Sanosuke didn't bother slowing him and Kenshin down by coming along with them. Sanosuke himself is the hot-head who wants to prove that he can fight with the big boys, and because he sees Kenshin and Saito as his rivals, but of course he's WAY, WAY below their skill level (and Aoshi's as well), and that shows in this arc.

Still, I have to admit that while his inclusion was done for the sake of popularity among readers rather than if it made sense or not, I'd probably be one of those readers who would've demanded for it to happen because Sanosuke to me is an integral part of the series. Sure, he's not really necessary in the Kyoto arc or even the Revenge arc, but he's a fun character that really contributes his own element to the manga. Without him, the whole series would feel completely different and, IMO, it might have become too uptight for its own good. So, for what its worth, I think his inclusion still helps the manga in a way, or at least it helps it become a bit more entertaining for me.

[Rynnec]

Sanosuke (and Yahiko) are also more closer to the typical shounen hero, so having them around provides a good foil for Kenshin I think.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Sanosuke, Yahiko, and Kaoru were more important as reminders to Kenshin that this war and his past life were no longer who he was. They were there only to remind him of who he became since leaving his past behind. They weren't important on a plot level, but without them Kenshin might have lost himself to his past.

And yeah, Aoshi was an idiot. He gets called out on it a bunch.

[gunswordfist]

Oh yeah, I definitely want Sano around too. I wish he somehow had a better role in the plot but there realistically isn't much for him to do.

And yeah Aoshi, why you so stupid?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Sanosuke, Yahiko, and Kaoru were more important as reminders to Kenshin that this war and his past life were no longer who he was. They were there only to remind him of who he became since leaving his past behind. They weren't important on a plot level, but without them Kenshin might have lost himself to his past.

Well, I wouldn't say that none of them were important on a plot level. Kaoru was VERY integral to the plot of the Revenge arc, as well as a bunch of the mini-arcs in the beginning in Tokyo. Sanosuke did have his moments as well. Yahiko, though, was pretty much never a necessary character to have in the series. His inclusion and overall existence in the manga was purely there to please the younger readers, as Watsuki and his editor most likely thought that they'd need some sort of child-figure to keep the attention of the little kids, since as I said having adult protagonists usually wasn't a very popular move for most shonen. Rurouni Kenshin, Fist of the North Star, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and of course the 2nd half of Dragon Ball are among the few Shonen Jump titles that got away with it, but with Dragon Ball Goku started out as a child and even when he was an adult, the manga still had Gohan for the child element, and later Goten and Trunks. With Fist of the North Star, Kenshiro always had those 2 little brats following him around, as well

Having said all of that, though, I never minded Yahiko much as a character. He could have been a really annoying character that dragged down the series, but Watsuki wisely limited his usage and when he did use him he typically had Yahiko act at least a bit more mature that you would expect. So, IMO, he handled him fairly well for a child character.

[Spark Of Spirit]

They were all important to the Revenge arc, but I meant in the Kyoto arc their drive was to get Kenshin to remember that he was not a killer anymore. they were more important thematically, but they did have their place in the story. They weren't crammed in the story like the non-Saiyan characters post-Namek.

Yahiko was a good character because every time he got too cocky he was usually immediately humbled by someone better, IMO. Also, by the end, he wasn't really obnoxious anymore.

[Grave]

I actually like Aoshi despite him falling off his path. If there was one character that I didn't care for in RK it would be Sanosuke. He's a badass in his own right, but he's also one of those that need to shut-up. I think his character might've been handled better in the manga, but I know for sure he annoyed me in the anime, especially when we got to the Kyoto arc.

[gunswordfist]

I like Aoshi as well. I almost had a heart attack when he first appeared in the Kyoto arc in the anime. Big comeback

[Dr. Insomniac]

I am not worried at all about Batman's future.

[gunswordfist]

Read Rurouni Kenshin V. 12 yesterday. Here's the 2nd thing the anime improved on: instead of Kenshin's freaking hand shaking when his master is about to lethally attack him like Kenshin does in the manga, from what I remember from the anime, Kenshin showed he was scared by taking a step back.

Side note: The first thing the anime did better was Kenshin vs Saito. In the manga, they just charged at each other and then one attack or counterattack lands. Rinse, wash, repeat. The anime fight had the smoothest anime in the entire show and attack wise, much more went on. Also, I love the part where Saito easily came in the dojo via asking while the camera is at their feet and he just waltzes right in.

Back to the subject, I like how Hiko pointed out probably everything wrong with Kenshin and made him value his life so much. I like how the training turned out. Kenshin gets two new moves AND becomes a better person.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

In general, I've always said that I actually think that the anime adaptation of the Kyoto arc is a great adaptation of the manga, and generally even improves on in in some way, like in the scenes that you mentioned. I know that Avaitor and Desensitized have a strange distaste for the anime (I mean the entire thing, rather than just the crappy filler episodes), but I have read the manga and while I prefer that over the anime because it tells a completely story and obviously isn't bogged down by a terrible 3rd season of filler, I do love watching the Kyoto arc in the anime, and I'll be honest and say that I consider it to be the very best version of that arc. There's a lot of smooth animation in the fight scenes, the music in that arc is superb and its used to great effect in some of the most memorable scenes of the arc, and in general it keeps all of the substance of the manga while adding in its own stylistic touch in key scenes that make them stand out even better, IMO.

Its worth nothing that Kazuhiro Furuhashi had a key role in directing various episodes of Rurouni Kenshin, and if I'm not mistaken that he directed the whole fight scene between Kenshin and Saito, as well as a lot of the most memorable scenes of the Kyoto arc. He was also the main director of the Hunter X Hunter 1999 TV series, and his stylistic flair shows in that as well (he also helped to clean up a lot of the crappy parts in Togashi's writing, making for some more consistently good story-telling). Now, I don't really know how much influence he has really had in the anime adaptations of either of those series, but I often seen anime fans credit him as making some genuinely good anime adaptations of those particular classic shonen series, so if that's the case then I agree that he did a damn good job when it came to the non-filler material of RK that he directed as well as all of the HXH TV series as a whole.