T5W#329-Top 5 Live Action Rurouni Kenshin Films

While 2021 would prove to be a bad year for the crew of the Bebop (save for Netflix making the Anime available for everyone to watch), it was the opposite for Kenshin Himura.  After a year long delay due to the Pandemic, the Live Action Rurouini Kenshin film series ended its run in a highly successful fashion, met with positive response by critics and fans alike.  The RuroKen movies have done the impossible and stood the test of a long running curse: Live Action Anime Movies suck.  Thanks to game changing fight choreography, stellar production design and an actual understanding of the source material, each chapter of Kenshin’s live action tale has done everything but suck, though some movies are better than others.  I probably should’ve done this list back in August when I reviewed The Final and The Beginning but as much as I wanted to rag on Cowboy Bebop’s failures some more…I’d rather talk about something more positive this week.  So, while not necisarrily saying this is from Worst to Best (wouldn’t call any of these movies bad in any sense), these are the Top 5 Live Action Rurouni Kenshin Films.

 
#5-Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno

Kyoto Inferno came with a lot of hype and expectation behind it.  After the runaway success of it’s predecessor, there was a lot of pressure to adapt an arc many still think of as the best in the Manga and the Anime.  Splitting up the Kyoto Arc into two films might notve been the best idea though and it kind of shows in Kyoto Inferno.  There are some story elements that could’ve been omitted or trimmed down as the movie tries to throw in a lot of new story and characters…and it’s only Part 1 of 2.  Still, the scale is bigger than ever with an olden day Kyoto looking even better than olden day Tokyo.  And we get Live Action Anime legend Tatsuya Fujiwara (Death Note, Battle Royale) as Shishio and man does he look terrifying.  This could’ve used some fine tuning but the new villain and the action more than pick up any slack.
 

#4-Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends

Picking up from my thoughts on Kyoto Inferno, I think The Legend Ends drags on a bit longer than necessary in it’s first half.  You have to tie up all the plot threads and some pointless new character arcs that aren’t necessary and we never in the original Manga to begin with.  However, what makes it stand out from Kyoto Inferno is the payoff.  The last 30-45 minutes is a non stop thrill ride of action with the fight choregephors bringing every trick in the book to deliver never level action in what was once thought to be the last film in the series.  Kenshin and Shishio’s final battle is long, bloody and brutal and every bit the way it was in the Anime and Manga.  But the real bonus that puts The Legend Ends above Kyoto Inferno?  The actual 4v1 showdown we never got in the Anime.  Instead of fighting him one at a time, we get Kenshin, Sanosuke, Saito and Aoshi all fighting Shishio at the same freaking time.  I am so glad we only saw the initial charge in the trailer, they had saved the very best for what could’ve been the very last.
 

#3-Rurouni Kenshin: The Final

For fans of the Rurouni Kenshin Anime, never getting a proper telling of the final Jinchu Arc of the Manga will always be its biggest crime.  The closest we ever got was the terrible Rurouni Kenshin: Reflection OVA.  The Final is the first time Kenshin’s final story has been told properly and surprisingly condenses events into a well paced and properly executed 2.5 hour movie, which is why I think splitting the Kyoto Arc into two flicks wasn’t a good idea in hindsight.  While everything about the previous films looks better than ever from the stunts to the production design, it’s Mackenyu Arata’s performance as Yukishiro Enishi that rules The Final.  Mackenyu brings a lot of emotional resonance to the deeply tortured soul that is Enishi and physically he is a freaking bad ass.  If nothing else, The Final is worth it just for the big fight between Enishi and Kenshin with only the clash of swords and tortured cries of agony and battle for their soundtrack.
 

#2-Rurouni Kenshin

I still remember seeing this movie at Otakon 2013 to a packed house and a good friend of mine likening the screening to an Avengers level event.  She wasn’t wrong and this film is still a gold standard for Live Action Anime storytelling.   This first RuroKen movie condenses several opening story arcs into one cohesive and well executed action flick.  The movie is well cast, has so many amazing sets straight out of the history books, replicates the looks and persona of the main Kenshin characters flawlessly.  Then of course there’s the action, which is game changing to say the least.  Very little of Rurouni Kenshin relies on CGI for its fight scenes, relying instead on choreography that probably took several weeks to rehearsal and you can tell they all worked their asses off on this one.  I’d never seen an Anime brought to life like this before and as a life long fan of the Kenshin Manga (the Anime is fine but lacks the complete story as I said before), this was a dream come true. 
 

#1-Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning

Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal, which details Kenshin’s bloody past, is one of my favorite OVAs and Kenshin stories.  The second I heard it was being adapted alongside the Jinchu Arc in The Final…I wasn’t sure how to feel or what to expect but I really wanted it to be good.  The Beginning wasn’t just good, it surpassed all of my expectations and did the impossible: dethroned the first Rurouni Kenshin as my Favorite Live Action Anime Movie of All Time.  The brutal tone is perfect.  The Kenshin of the past, spot on.  Yukishiro Tomoe, easily one of the most beautiful women you’d ever meet and totally the girl who would steal Kenshin’s heart and break it.  The action, damn does this push an R Rating to its limit with the bloody swordplay.  Best yet, The Beginning may act as a companion piece to The Final (with The Final even showing some scenes in what’s basically a sneak peak of what would come a few months later), but you can watch The Beginning independent of any Kenshin movie and not miss out on anything.  This is as stand alone as they come and is both an excellent Live Action Anime and old school Samurai flick.  The Beginning might’ve been the last movie in the franchise, but it was Rurouni Kenshin’s finest onscreen hour and Holy Freaking Crap I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!