Rurouni Kenshin (るろうに剣心), is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The story takes place during the early Meiji period and follows a former assassin from the Bakumatsu (the last years of the Edo period). This war assassin known as Hitokiri Battōsai (literally “Human Slayer”) driven by the idea of a better new world of peace (The Meiji Restoration) would become a wanderer whose name is fact Kenshin Himura. And becomes a wanderer traveling through Japan offering protection and help to those in need as a way of redemption for the murders he once committed.
Using a reverse blade katana and with a vow to never kill again, 11 years after the Meiji period began, Kenshin arrives to Tokyo and meets a young woman called Kaoru Kamiya, teacher in a swordsmanship school.
The manga and anime tells the experiences and adventures of Kenshin and his new friends in Tokyo have to live. Those experiences always make Kenshin fight against his own duality, the old Battōsai versus the new Kenshin, that tries to create a new world of peace where killing is no longer an option.
Would he be able to protect his loved ones, without breaking his oath?
The complete work consists of:
The Rurouni Kenshin manga: 255 episodes in 28 books published between 1994 and 1999
The anime: Aired between 1996 and 1998, 95 episodes tells the story of the first 18 books of the manga.
Anime movies and OVA’s:
Rurouni Kenshin: The Motion Picture: Movie that tells a story where Kenshin meets a samurai who was very close to a man Battōsai murdered in the war. The samurai is trying to start a revolution to overthrow the Meiji government.
Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal: Four episodes that told the past of Kenshin when he was Hitokiri Battosai.
Rurouni Kenshin: Reflection: Two episodes and tells of Kenshin and Kaoru’s later days, much of which is not derived from the Rurouni Kenshin manga
Live-action films:
Rurouni Kenshin (2012)
Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (2014)
The Rurouni Kenshin manga has sold over 70 million and the anime was ranked among the 100 most watched series in Japan multiple times.
