Rurouni Kenshin first debuted as an anime series in 1996. A lot of things have changed since it appeared on television, both in the world at large and in anime itself.
While the series is considered a classic, and for many, was one of the first anime we remember watching on Toonami as kids. Now that the show is almost 25 years old, it’s understandable that there are elements of the series that don’t read as well today as they did when the show originally debuted. Here at 10 things about Rurouni Kenshin that haven’t aged well.
10 Kaoru Was Useless
Kaoru is the main female character of the series, and she and Kenshin meet because Kenshin is a master swordsman and Kaoru runs a dojo that teaches swordsmanship. Despite the fact that Kaoru is the master of her own dojo, she is regularly unable to defend herself. More often than not, Kaoru has to rely on Kenshin to save the day. It begs the question of whether or not her teachings are actually valuable and whether anyone who is learning from her might actually walk away with working knowledge of how to use a sword.
9 Shoddy Animation
Anime from the 90s can often go one of two ways with regard to the quality of the animation. It was either made carefully, with lots of thought going into what each frame was going to look like, or as cheaply as possible.
Rurouni Kenshin falls in the latter category, with lots of reused animation frames and shortcuts to avoid having to animate difficult fight scenes. It’s unfortunate for a series that focuses on a main character whose entire identity is built on the fact that he’s an excellent swordsman. Very rarely do we actually get to see that swordsmanship in practice.
8 Filler Story Arcs
Like many shonen anime of the 90s and 00s, Rurouni Kenshin began as a manga being written in weekly Shonen Jump as the anime was beginning to air. This meant that, because the anime covered story ground much faster than the weekly manga, the show often caught up to the manga, leaving the series without more storytelling ground to cover. So the later seasons of the show are almost entirely filler arcs. These stories have a real tonal shift from the early episodes, where Kenshin is trying to live a life without violence with the new family he’s built. Instead, they focus on epic adventure stories that feel like they’re from another show entirely.
7 Ultra-90s Hair
Anime or not, most fashions from the 90s have not aged well, and the hair in Rurouni Kenshin is no different. It was a stylistic trend in 90s anime for all of the characters to have giant bangs, which almost every character in Kenshin does, but there are also a number of flat-top mullets, huge feathered ’dos, and sleek ponytails that are almost a cliché for yakuza type characters now.
This tendency somehow manages to both age the series and make it feel anachronistic since none of the characters actually look like they would be living in Meiji era Japan.
6 The Dub is Bad
It’s hard not to judge Kenshin based on its dub since it was airing on American television at a time when it was much harder to watch anime with subtitles. There are two main dubs, and neither of them particularly holds up. Beyond the acting being pretty poor, they each have their own issues. In one, all of the characters' names are pronounced incorrectly. For example, Sanosuke was pronounced San-oh-soo-kee. The other dub featured a strange speech pattern for Kenshin, in which he finished his sentences with a phrase like “that I am,” or “that they were,” in an effort to replicate a speech pattern from Japanese that didn’t quite translate. But the effect ended up being strange and distracting.
5 All the Characters Have Similar Personalities
Part of the charm of Kenshin is his ability to win over aggressive or unfriendly people with his sweet personality and kindness, sometimes after beating them in a sword fight. The problem is that, after a while, if the writing isn’t careful, all of the characters he befriends start to seem the same. Kaoru, Sanosuke, and Yahiko are all prone to shouting at each other (and at Kenshin), don’t particularly get along with anyone, and are kind of self-absorbed.
It does a lot to highlight how patient and good-tempered Kenshin is, but it also does a lot to show how irritating his friends are, making us wonder why he’d bother hanging out with them.
4 Megumi’s Character Motivations Don’t Make Sense
Megumi is a character who joins the cast during the second season. A physician who is forced by a yakuza group to manufacture opium, she is rescued by Kenshin and his friends, who defeat her captors. In the time it takes to free her from their clutches, Megumi often talks about how she would like to return to Aizu to find what’s left of her family once she’s able to do so. But once she is freed, she doesn’t leave Tokyo and instead remains a main member of the cast, helping out Kenshin and his friends with her medical expertise. The fact that her devotion to her family was such a large part of her character is confusing when she seems to forget about her plans to find them almost as soon as she’s free.
3 Democracy vs Imperialism?
The Meiji era restored imperial power in Japan and disbanded the previous feudal system, and the series deals pretty directly with what that meant for Japanese citizens. But the actual stance of the show on politics can be wishy-washy.
Kenshin clearly feels remorse for his part in the war but also seems to believe that imperialism is the best thing for the country. But he also often fights law enforcers because he feels they’re abusing their power. Sanosuke fought in the imperial army, in a unit that was executed as scapegoats when the imperials didn’t want to keep a promise to cut taxes for citizens. But democracy activists are aggressive drunks who can’t even agree with each other and are general troublemakers. The series seems to be trying to say something about politics and war, but also refuses to take a stance.
2 Is Kenshin's Swordsmanship Magic?
Rurouni Kenshin doesn’t seem to be a series where the characters use magic, and yet, there are some things that seem like they might be magic. In all anime, there’s a bit of room for suspension of disbelief. Characters do incredible things with their bodies that people can’t do in real life. But there’s also something that’s left unexplained about how Kenshin’s skills work. Sometimes, before he does a move, he announces it, the way a magical girl might, and then there seems to be an otherworldly force behind his blows on top of the actual strike he’s made with his sword. Other characters have similar skills, and it’s never quite clear enough whether there’s something more to there swordsmanship than just physical skill.
1 Nobuhiro Watsuki
Nobuhiro Watsuki is the creator of Rurouni Kenshin and has been writing and drawing the manga on and off for over 25 years. In 2017, Watsuki was charged with and prosecuted for the possession of child pornography, and the manga serialization was briefly put on hold while he dealt with the charges. While the manga has since begun production again, the fact that Watsuki was convicted for this kind of crime colors rewatchings of the series. It’s difficult, when this kind of information comes out about a creator. It's hard not to think about these facts when revisiting things we’ve enjoyed and to wonder if maybe it’s time to put away a series when someone harmful has made it.