Change Your Image
bloodredx
Reviews
Rurôni Kenshin: Meiji kenkaku romantan - Tsuioku-hen (1999)
Beautiful!!!
This is the best anime I have ever seen, and I will not hear any arguments otherwise. The style is different than the main series, and Kenshin's personality is also different, but this takes nothing away, since he is amazing in both.
This movie pretty much takes the story told in volumes 19-21 in the manga, adds more details, changes a few details and the result of this is a fantastic movie that I feel is unrivaled.
As the prologue of the Rurouni Kenshin series, naturally this is the story of Kenshin's days as the Hitokiri Battosai, before the founding of the Meiji era. This tells the story of Kenshin and his first wife, Tomoe, who was also the person who saved him from himself. (by the way, in the dubbed version they call her Tomo, but you are supposed to pronounce a long e at the end. Darn people who don't know anything about Japanese names. Makes me want to cry...)
There are some points where you think the animation has paused some how, since they stay on the same shot for a long time, but this is just the story going slowly. The creators managed to balance these slow scenes with the action perfectly. It slowly eases you from the violence in the streets of Kyoto, to the slow action that takes place in other settings.
But a word to the wise: This series is practically covered in blood!!!! Kenshin is a very vicious assassin, who is not afraid of how much blood falls when he kills someone, and we see many images of him brutally murdering people. The +17 rating on this is not an understatement.
So, now that I have to wrap this up, I will close with the soundtrack, which is fantastic. Many of the songs make you want to cry they are so beautiful and sad, especially the song they play in the credits (called "The Sound of Falling Snow"), which is made even sadder since we just saw Kenshin mourning Tomoe.
An anime that is missing nothing. A beautiful story, beautiful people, beautiful animation and beautiful music. These things make up for all of the blood, which is a part of the story, so it couldn't be removed.
Ayashi no Ceres (2000)
This story might not appeal to everyone
I originally started this series by reading the manga (japanese graphic novels), which were written by he very talented Yuu Watase. Now, as I said before, this story might not appeal to everyone, but I throughly enjoyed it. When I first watched it, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed at how they seemed to skip around in the story. Most of the beginning is the same, but it order to shorten it, they combined a few scenes. Even so, most of the details are covered.
As a music fan, I must comment on the soundtrack, which is fantastic, to say the least. Each song is different, and none are better than the rest. The music is also something that really brings the story to life.
I can't speak on the voices, since I haven't watched the dubbed version.
Animation: I have seen much better animation than this, but I have also seen worse. There are times when characters will become deformed, which I feel that they do not only to lighten the mood but also to make drawing it easier, but I was upset at the lack of super-deformed chibis, which were abundent in the comics.
Even so, I have to give this series a 4.5 out of 5 rating. Because it was a good anime all things considered.