Rurouni Kenshin struggles with one of the most
cliched and
unimaginative plots ever. I recently watched it at my schools
anime club (of which I am a member) where to my great dismay I found people
appreciating it for all the wrong reasons. To put it
bluntly it's a great action flick with a weak story line. Before I start some stort of
flame war with the other anime fans on
E2 lemme explain myself.
First of the
symbolism used in rurouni kenshin is very weak. The bleeding cut on his face is entirely too
obvious a
symbol and doesn't provide much
depth to the
story. If such a symbol were used in any literary work, like a book, it'd be regarded as
stupid and overly
obvious. The show goes entirely out of its way to stress this symbol, as if they think that this makes more something with a
profound meaning. It doesn't, and ends up being everything but profound.
Second is the
plot line, it's decent, but not wonderfull. It's a generally
entertaining story to watch develop, but doesn't warrant the
rave reviews everyone gives it.
The
characters also lack dimension. They are not truly
human and have one deciding mindset and are highly
predictable. One is reminded of early
European Theatre where characters were defined by one defining
trait (
love,
loyalty,
virtue, etc).
Now, on to why it's a good
anime. The
art and
fight scenes are terrific, if only that were the whole show. But still these make a mediocre plot into a great experience. I highly recommend watching this anime, but, don't expect the amazing
plot that others have built up. It's not on the same level as published
literature as some would compare it to.
NOTE: This node was made regarding the OAV not the series, which I havn't seen