Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014)

Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014)

 

7/10

Starring

Takeru Satoh

Emi Takei

Tatsuya Fujiwara

Yosuke Eguchi

Munetaka Aoki

Yūsuke Iseya

Directed by Keishi Ōtomo

This is the end of the main arc in the Samurai X anime. This popular anime builds you up to this final showdown which has been long overdue, the one between Kenshin Himura and Makoto Shishio. When watching the anime you can understand the build up, the whole journey of Kenshin trying to be a person who no longer kills or wants to be involved in a fight. We get to see his friendships take shape and in the final set of battles before Shishio, we get to see everyone in his circle reach their full potential. From Sanosuke to Saito all taking on the challenge ahead and overcoming their battles.

This movie was shot back to back with the previous one Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno in this trilogy of the main villain Shishio. This live action adaptation since it is supposed to be the long awaited main fight between the protagonist and the antagonist, the cinematography and fight scenes were just on another level. With the speed of both men, best matching what you would have expected when you envisioned the battle happening before your eyes.

The movie continues from where Kenshin discovers Shishio's ship about to set sail with the kidnapped Kaoru onboard. He gets on the ship with what looked like the main battle between the men set to take place, but when Kaoru is thrown over board Kenshin jumps into the sea to try and save her.

He did not succeed in finding her and the sea dealt with him and we find our hero's unconscious body on the beach and a man carries him away. We discover that the man who saved Kenshin was his master Hiko, who had trained Kenshin in the Hiten Mitsurugi style. Kenshin begs his master to complete his training so he can learn the Hiten Mitsurugi technique, "Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki" so he can stop Shishio. Kenshin at this point accepted the faith that Kaoru is dead as her body did not wash up on shore like his.

Shishio on the other side of things has seized the prime minister and holds the country hostage asking for Battousai to be brought to him. Kenshin on the other side is struggling to level up his Hiten Mitsurugi training, learning that when he picked up the name Battousai he lost his will to live. Hiko his master then reveals the secret to Kenshin on how to master the Hiten Mitsurugi technique, "Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki."

After his training he returns home and surrenders to the police. From here on, anything said will be spoilers. If you have seen the anime, you can definitely piece it all together by now, if not I don’t know why.

Again Takeru Satoh picks up the reversed edge sword as Rurouni Kenshin and his portrayal will be remembered for time to come. His face will be stamped on our minds as Kenshin in the flesh. I was surprised to learn later that a two parter continuation to this will be released on Netflix in 2021.