SAMURAI X (Rurouni Kenshin)

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story (るろうに剣心 明治剣客浪漫譚, Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan?)[1] is a manga and anime series created by mangaka Nobuhiro Watsuki. The story is set during the early Meiji period in Japan. The English versions of the OVAs as well as the movie are released as Samurai X, although the original title was included in the DVD releases. The series tells the story of an assassin named Himura Kenshin, who was known as the Hitokiri Battōsai ("Man killer - Master of Battōjutsu"). Kenshin later grieves for all the lives he has taken, and vows that he will never kill again.

The manga originally appeared in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump from September 2, 1994 to November 4, 1999, and the completed work consists of 28 tankōbon volumes. The United States release of the manga has been completed by VIZ Media. Rurouni Kenshin is subtitled "Wandering Samurai" in some English releases, as a rough translation of "Rurouni."

Writer Kaoru Shizuka has written an official Rurouni Kenshin novel titled Voyage to the Moon World. The novel has been translated by VIZ Media and distributed in the United States and Canada.

Characters
See also: Rurouni Kenshin minor characters
Usage note: Character names are given in Japanese order with the given name after the family name. The English anime dub uses the Western order (family name after the given name) while the English manga uses the Japanese order. See: Wikipedia Manual of style, Japan for more info on usage.

Nobuhiro Watsuki, in each tankōbon, details the creation of the characters, as well as the influences he had for the characters' personality and design. Influences include historical figures (prominently seen with members of the Shinsengumi) and fictional sources including X-Men and Marvel characters, and SNK video games characters, mainly Samurai Shodown and Last Blade ones.

Rurouni Kenshin main characters:

• Himura Kenshin (Kenshin Himura)
• Kamiya Kaoru (Kaoru Kamiya)
• Sagara Sanosuke (Sanosuke Sagara)
• Myōjin Yahiko (Yahiko Myojin)
• Takani Megumi (Megumi Takani)
• Saito Hajime (Hajime Saito)

Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story
A prototype series titled Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story[2] first appeared as a pair of separate short stories published in 1992 and 1993 in the manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump Special.

The story released in the first manga features an earlier version of Himura Kenshin helping a wealthy girl named Raikōji Chizuru. Chizuru would later be the prototype for Rurouni Kenshin's heroine, Kamiya Kaoru. Chizuru also makes a cameo in the Seishouhen OVA with Kenji in the final scene.

The second story, which though released second in the manga format was indeed the first 'Rurouni' one-shot, has Kenshin saving the Kamiya family's dojo from a corrupt crime lord who seeks to marry the family's oldest daughter, Megumi (later to become Takani Megumi), with the aid of her younger siblings, Kaoru and Yahiko (the heir to the Kamiya dojo, later to become Myojin Yahiko). While Kaoru and Yahiko's characters are similar to their incarnations in Rurouni Kenshin, Megumi's personality is distinctly different as she is more timid and submissive than her eventual incarnation in the series, and Watsuki has noted her personality from that part has been transferred to the character of Sekihara Tae.

Rurouni Kenshin
In 1994, Watsuki created an ongoing version that was published in Shonen Jump until its conclusion in 1999. The manga consists of 28 tankōbon volumes. The storyline of Kenshin is divided into three storyline arcs: Tokyo, Kyoto, and the Jinchū (人誅編, Jinchū-ban?). The Jinchū arc (also known as the "Ending Arc", "Revenge Arc", and sometimes spelled "Jinchuu Arc") was not animated, except for the parts about Kenshin's background which formed one of the OVAs released.

The Jinchū arc contains a large amount of Himura Kenshin's backstory including the meeting of his first wife, (Yukishiro Tomoe), and the events that resulted in his infamous cross-shaped scar. The story arc is primarily focused on characters from Kenshin's years spent as the Hitokiri Battōsai, who seek revenge against him for his past actions. The Jinchū arc also has a stronger romantic theme to it.

Yahiko no Sakabatō
In 2000, it was followed up by Yahiko no Sakabatō (弥彦の逆刃刀, ("Yahiko's Reversed-Edge Sword")?), which VIZ Media released in the September 2006 edition of Shonen Jump. The story follows the character of Myojin Yahiko, who reluctantly accepts an assignment to teach at the Kikuhara Kasshin Shintō style dojo. At the dojo, Yahiko finds that Midori, the daughter of the dojo's master, and three students are being held hostage by a criminal, Mutō Kaname, and his followers. Yahiko quickly defeats Mutō and a police officer, Lieutenant Kitaki, who attacks Mutō with the blind belief that all criminals must be executed for the sake of the Meiji era. Yahiko returns to the students and subjects them to harsh training for the rest of his duration at the dojo.

He returns to Tokyo at the end of the month and then takes off to Akabeko to visit Sanjō Tsubame, not knowing the whole trip was planned by Kenshin for Yahiko to become stronger.

Kenshin Kaden
An encyclopedia (164 pages), including Haru ni Sakura, detailing the fates of all of the Rurouni Kenshin characters.

Haru ni Sakura is six pages long and in full color. The story takes place years after the manga's conclusion, when Kenshin and Kaoru have married and have a young son, Kenji. Many of the series' major characters who have befriended Kenshin reunite (or otherwise reveal their current whereabouts) with him in a spring picnic.

Rurouni Kenshin Kanzenban
Starting in July of 2006, the Japanese publishers of Rurouni Kenshin released the long-awaited kanzenban edition. Each Rurouni Kenshin kanzenban volume features a new cover, and there's also a color panel inside the book that is new art as well. The Rurouni Kenshin kanzenban is slated to run 22 volumes (as opposed to the original 28 Tankōbon each book will contain more chapters than the basic editions), with two coming out monthly. As a bonus, the Rurouni Kenshin kanzenban will include "Yahiko no Sakabato", an extra story that ran in Shonen Jump and was never collected into a book.