I thought it was a little weird that the Live Action Kenshin series seemed to want to stop after the Kyoto Arc. Heck, the third film title “The Legend Ends” hinted that was the end point. It’s weird because the arc that followed in the Manga, The Jinchu Arc, is a pretty important part of Kenshin’s story and arguably even more emotionally charged and action packed than the much beloved Kyoto Arc. Well, it took them a while but the filmmakers finally decided to give Kenshin fans their due. We’ve gotten two more films to close out Kenshins incredibly successful live action adventures and The Final rises to the challenge set before it. In a way, I think it actually surpasses the two part Kyoto films: Kyoto Inferno and The Legend Ends. It’s not without flaws but I can say that as an adaptation of an Arc several volumes long, The Final succeeds more often than not.
I’m happy to report that while The Final is the first of two final films, it isn’t Part One of Two. The Final works as a stand alone film while also laying some of the groundwork for the film to follow. In the Manga, Kenshins entire backstory is detailed after the opening of the Jinchu Arc before returning to the story proper. Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning will handle that tale but there are still teases abound in The Final and they’re good ones too. If anything, they make me more excited for The Beginning itself. But back to The Final, the use of flashbacks is great and the scene where Kenshin shares his history with Kaoru and the others features a well done montage that both teases what’s to come film wise while also giving us exactly what we need to know for the film we’re watching at the moment. The Beginning may be an awesome feature, we’ll see, but you don’t need to watch it in order to enjoy The Final. Both seem set for a stand alone experience either way and I gotta commend the filmmakers for that as I was wondering just how they’d split this final story arc into two films.
But yeah, The Final itself. The second Enishi shows up onscreen, I knew we were in good hands. Actor Mackenyu, son of Japanese acting legend Sonny Chiba, brings the menace as Kenshins most physically imposing threat to date. His combination of swordplay and martial arts are more than a match for Kenshin and ever blow he lands feels dangerous, like he could kill you with one hit. Mackenyu isn’t just bringing physical prowess to the role. Enishi is a tortured soul behind those cool sunglasses and fancy fighting techniques and Mackenyu shines when that pain leaks out in some very emotional scenes. You cant help but feel bad for the poor guy who lost his sister, though he is still trying to kill Kenshin and the others so he’s a pretty good bad guy in that regard. Likewise, Takeru Satoh brings his A game back to Kenshin, showing us a side of him we’ve never seen before. We’ve seen Kenshin go through his share of rough times but Enishi’s return drains the life out of him and Satoh does a great job showing with facial expressions alone just how chaotic Kenshin’s mind must be throughout this entire film. Barring the Kenshin of old in The Beginning, The Final just might be Satoh’s best performance as Kenshin in the series, particularly when he’s sharing the screen with Mackenyu, locking swords and philosophies.
It should come as no surprise that years between The Legend Ends and The Final have not dulled this series excellent fight scenes. While some feel like a retread of the previous two films, The Final still goes big on scale with Kenshin fighting several dozen men at once multiple times. The one on one battles are still staggeringly intense and just plain awesome. I cant imagine how many days or even months of prep work went into the final showdown between Kenshin and Enishi specifically. Just watching everyone move around the way that they do, there’s a reason the Rurouni Kenshin films have become the new gold standard not just for Japanese Action Films but Action Filmmaking in general. In that regard, Rurouni Kenshin’s action sequences have only gotten better and better with each movie and The Final offers some of the best in the films thus far. And here I thought the 4v1 battle with Kenshin, Saitoh, Aoshi and Sanosuke vs. Shishio couldn’t be topped…I was happily wrong.
However, there are some downsides to The Final and some of them are the same problems I had with Kyoto Inferno and The Legend Ends. I think that when the movie slows down, it slows down hard, pacing could have been a bit better. We get the return of several characters including Misao and Aoshi and while Aoshi gets some better moments here, his final fate is something left a little unclear to me. There’s also a sort of surprise cameo that honestly doesn’t need to be in the movie even if it leads to a very entertaining action scene. Still, the character could have either been omitted or been replaced by someone else and you wouldn’t lose much, especially since there’s no real resolution to it. While I can chalk most of this up to cramming multiple Manga volumes into a just under 2.5 hour feature, one thing that bugs me is the central relationship between Kenshin and Kaoru. Maybe it was just me but I feel like the movie didn’t do as much with their relationship as needed. Kaoru herself feels like she doesn’t get nearly as much screentime as everyone else in the cast. She and Kenshin have a few moments together but they don’t like theyre getting the same amount of love and attention as Kenshin’s rivalry with Enishi. In a film where the plot is supposed to partly hinge on Kenshin finding love when he thought he couldn’t anymore, it feels like they could have repurposed some screentime to building Kenshin’s romance with Kaoru, even at the cost of omitting an action scene or character or two.
For a guy who has waited a really long time to see a proper adaptation of Kenshin’s final chapter (again, the Rurouni Kenshin: Reflection OVA DOES NOT COUNT, IT’S CRAP!!!) I was quite happy with Rurouni Kenshin: The Final. Enishi was everything I hopped he would be and his scenes with Kenshin were excellent. While some characters didn’t get their due, or didn’t need to be around at all, the central feud between Kenshin and Enishi and the ever evolving action sequences did a lot of the heavy lifting and kept the film engaging and fun. Yes, I cannot wait for the final film in the series, The Beginning, to do a proper and hopefully good adaptation of the Trust and Betrayal arc (aka Kenshin’s backstory). The Final though, works better as a stand alone adventure and didn’t even need to be split into two films like the Kyoto Arc. For Kenshin’s final battle, I cant help but smile knowing this attempt to bring it to life more or less succeeded despite some hiccups. Sheath your sword Mr. Himura, you did good dude.
8.5/10
Now then, speaking of Trust and Betrayal, my review of Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning, should be up right about…now, and you can read it right here: http://gundamanimeblog.blogspot.com/2021/08/rurouni-kenshin-beginning_9.html
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