[Thoughts] Rurouni Kenshin – The bad end so subtle, it hurts deeply.
I have obtained a copy of Rurouni Kenshin recently, and re-watched several episodes. As I continue to watch, it sparked off a need to express on how great this anime is, even by today’s standards of anime. The pacing, the different media that joins with each other’s plot (with the exception of the future arc in the last movie).
I have come to empathize with Himura Kenshin’s life as a whole, and his character ended with a very bitter end, in a sense. It was a bad end for him, that I have to agree with Nobuhiro Watsuki, Kenshin’s author and illustrator.
There is this certain part that I couldn’t stomach, and that is this particular action of his:
“Then the remainder of it involves Kenshin, who becomes tortured anew by the guilt of leading a happy life after such a destructive past. He makes the decision to wander again, and Kaoru strongly supports him, promising to welcome him home with a smile and their child. For fifteen years, he wanders, returning every once in a while.”
As much as I want to say “You have done enough already; ultimately, your wife and child needs your presence”, but I have a theory on why he did just that.
- Samurai Pride, I suppose. And that he feels that he hasn’t done enough, and will never be enough, to atone for his sins. In a way, he feels that by wandering, he is able to help people in need in a greater scale as compared to if he stays at a certain place for the rest of his life.
- Era is different from modern times, and males do often are much more headstrong as compared to current men.
This segment made me tear, even up to this day.
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After the war’s end, Sanosuke discovers a very ill Kenshin sometime after he had fallen overboard on a ship. Sanosuke arranges Kenshin’s return to Tokyo by boat. Upon arriving, a bed-ridden Kaoru, almost on instinct, gets up to walk outside the dojo on the cherry blossom path, seeing her husband struggling with each step to meet her.
The two finally meet, and Kenshin collapses into her arms as he clutches her to him. Kenshin tells Kaoru that he returned for her, and Kaoru quietly greets him with his old name, Shinta, for he had asked it before he left the last time. Soon, they end up beneath a cherry blossom tree, where Kaoru tells him that they will invite everyone for a cherry blossom viewing, and continue to gather in the years to come. With the silence growing stronger, Kaoru realizes that Kenshin has died quietly in her arms. Upon brushing his hair off his left cheek, Kaoru notices Kenshin’s scar has faded away, signifying an end to his life of pain and bloodshed and commencement to a life of peace. In the final scene before the credits, she holds his head in her arms and weeps.
My thoughts are with the paragraph below:
Although Samurai X: Reflection was not written by Watsuki, Watsuki said that he “checked in on the script” he said that “Kenshin went through so much crap and deserved a happy ending.”
In a sense, I feel that by focusing on atoning his sins, he has wasted his life, of which he could have spent more time with his family. The ending was so ‘bad’, it was good, much like Gurren Lagann’s ending turn out to be. I wouldn’t know how to react on a good ending if it suddenly changed.
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But I’m sure he could only find solace in his atonement, etc.
Yes, bittersweet is the word that comes to mind.
Yeah, and Kaoru is such a strong woman. I really admire her.
I’m a stickler to origins so I’m all with the manga’s ending though.
Not wanting to say anything bad about the anime (FUTAE NO KIWAMI, AAAAAHHH—-!!!) but it happened to deviate so much from the manga it was kinda like two worlds apart.
Then again the OVAs are awesome in their own right so no issues there.
I’m happy with the manga ending myself.
Reflections? What the hell is that? Never heard of it.
What XXX said. The manga came first, the Manga had a happy ending, Kenshin had a happy ending, end of story. :)
I guess that I need to finish up the manga eventually; I had no idea on its happy ending plot for it.
I guess that the OVA had its ending more melodrama, while the manga did the typical shounen ending.
@XXX
Reflections is the 2nd OVA that’s based on what comes after when the series ended, and eventually Kenshin’s death.
I wouldn’t say that the ending in the manga was a ‘more typical shounen ending’ It was just staying true to what was presented in the manga. The Ova just decides and makes the charaters out of chatracter and screws with the themes of the show that had been present throughout the whole show/manga.
Reflections.. Totally crap.
When you read Watsuki’s statement of the OVA’s ending, and read between the line, you can tell he doesn’t like it. It goes against everything he wanted for his series’ ending. But in the end, only the manga is Watsuki’s original story, so the OVA holds no relevance for me personally.
@Smile
I agree on that, in that Watsuki didn’t consider the OVA as ‘canon’, so to speak. And ultimately, hardcore kenshin fans as well.
But I like to view it as another way to tell kenshin’s story, which to me, the OVA brings about an alternate emotional turmoil for me… because while the series’ had its own way, the OVAs invoke it… ‘better’, in a sense, although it doesn’t hold true for Watsuki’s intentions on how he would want Rurouni Kenshin to be told.
OVA is sh1t to milk dumb fans – I go with the manga end.