Samurai X

Another anime that has finally been given to us, Samurai X is really just Rorouni Kenshin(Yet again American idiocy has messed things up again...). It stars a small boy named Shinta who is renamed Kenshin by the great swordsman Hiko. Who inturn trains Kenshin in the way of Hiten Mitsuruki, one of the greatest sword styles in the Japan and the most feared. Kenshin soon becomes, quite possibly the greatest swordsman that ever lived and is determined to do something with his skills. But in this quest he decides to help the peasents of his country by destroying the old rule. Seeing the suffering of the peasents and tyranny of the leaders angers Kenshin as he determines that the old rules must perish and joins a rebel army in Kyoto.
But he must murder men over and over, loosing himself after each kill. This is when the story dives into the right of people to kill one another and becomes a very interesting story. As Kenshin kills more and more he begins to loose sight of his meaning, or why he began this in the first place. All the blood he has spilt begans to overflow the need for a new rule. His master notices this and asks a young girl named Tomoe to be his "sheath," or rather to care for him so Kenshin doesn't become a mindless killer. Tomoe agrees to do so and begins to become closer to Kenshin. But the dark secret that intertwines them both soon rises and becomes their fatal flaw.

As for the animation quality, the art is amazing. The style and the way each fight flows is different than any other anime out there. The only surprise came when I saw that people can actually bleed that much. A story worth checking out, plus the ending is a big shock.

"Murder is the only art a swordsman can practice"-Hiko

Samurai X is indeed Rurouni Kenshin, but X is a different series than the one involving the Meiji Era. It is in fact a prequel, in which the origins of Kenshin's skills in the Hiten Mitsurugi style, and his efforts to dethrone the Tokugawa Shogunate are explored.

As the show is an OAV (or OVA), the quality of the animation is much better than the original anime series. As the animation in the original series is excellent, this is saying a great deal. The OAV series is regrettably only 4 episodes long.

The events in X are of a very serious nature, with a historically accurate bent. The levity of the original Kenshin series is nowhere to be found in X. Blood, death, and the hard choices Kenshin must make on a day to day basis are the main focus of this series.

Samurai X is also the name of a Kenshin movie, based in the Rurouni Kenshin timeframe. It is being released in the United States this year.

Samurai X is the name Sony Visual originally gave to a chopped up version of the Rurouni Kenshin TV series.

Reports from those who have seen "Samurai X," a heavily edited version of the TV show, (it aired in Hong Kong and the Phillipines as test markets) say that it lost almost all of the original story, and that all of the violence had been toned down sharply. Those who have seen the TV show know that the violence plays a critical role in many episodes, which tells you what they did to it.

Fans saw this as well, and as a result the Samurai X version of the TV show died off. After failing to get a broadcast licensor in the states (they were offering up "Samurai X"), Sony licensed Rurouni Kenshin TV to Media Blasters, and the movie and OAVs to AD Vision. Media Blasters kept the Rurouni Kenshin title, but ADV, in their continuous efforts to be different, chose the Samurai X title for both the movie and the OAVs (but graciously provided beautiful double-sided covers that had a "Rurouni Kenshin" in hiragana+kanji opposite the Samurai X side for both the OAVs and the movie).

In Japan, both the OAVs and Movie were known under the Rurouni Kenshin name.