Rurouni Kenshin by Watsuki Nobuhiro

[Gold Knight]

This is the Rurouni Kenshin manga / anime discussion thread.

This is the one manga I consider to be better than Naruto... ... believe it or not. The writing is superb, the art is highly engaging, and the characters are just plain awesome.

To say nothing of how fast-paced the story is, and how it always keeps you on the edge of your seat.

I'm talking about the manga, which I just recently completed. I haven't watched the anime. I read up to volume 22 with Viz's translations, which are superb, and then finished the rest on-line (the series is 28 volumes long). It's a magnificent story.

If you are a Rurouni Kenshin fan or reader or watcher, this is the place to come to discuss it.

Remember, if you are talking about story details that may be considered spoilers to newer readers, please place them between spoiler tags to keep from spoiling the story for anybody. Thanks!

Oh, by the way if you ARE new to the story, you can download the entire manga at #lurk on irc in the Neverwhere packlists.

If you can't use irc, PM or e-mail ShgnLW if you want to see more of the manga, he's willing to help out.

EDIT: ShgnLW has uploaded the following RK volumes to rapidshare for your convenience:

Edit2: Seems like all the links have died. If you're looking for any volumes or chapters, just post which ones you want. Somebody here will help you get them.

Okay, let's discuss!

1. Where are you in the story? How did you get into RK?
2. Favorite character?
3. Favorite point in the story? (Spoiler-tags)
4. Favorite battle? (Spoiler-tags)
5. Your overall opinion of RK?
6. (If you have watched the anime and read the manga both) Which is better, the manga or anime?

[ShgnLW]

YES YES YES!!! This is my favorite manga!! Yes yes!! Read 1-6 and 18-28 PLUS watched the anime until episode 61

DOWNLOAD IT, READ IT, BUY IT AND READ IR AGAIN!!!

1. Where are you in the story? How did you get into RK?
I like samurai and shit like that, before I went into this manga thing I heard something about a wandering samurai with a sword that can't kill. I got interested in it and after a year (yeah, a year, you heard me right) I started to watch the anime. than. when it became boring I started to read the super cool and awesome manga. Damn the quotes!! If you like quotes and shit like that READ IT!!!

2. Favorite character?
Saitoh Hajime, All the way

3. Favorite point in the story? (Spoiler-tags)

Volume 27: Saitoh vs the one from the 4-stars who is an expert at countering every technique. The quote Saitoh uses when he is at the point of killing/defeating his opponent: What's this? A small variation like this?. Before, he says another wonderfull thing: No matter if you can see through my technique it is no use, if you can't avoid it... That last quote, wonderfull...

4. Favorite battle? (Spoiler-tags)

Fight between Kenshin and Enishi, but I think almost everyone agrees with me

5. Your overall opinion of RK?
OVA: FANTASTIC!!!
MANGA: FANTASTIC!!!
ANIME: AVERAGE...

6. (If you have watched the anime and read the manga both) Which is better, the manga or anime?
Manga, absolutely sure. If you want the manga (volume 1-6, 18-28) you can e-mail me and I'll post it on my forum.

[Otome]

Yea!! RuroKen is one of the best manga I've read. Love it still, even though I finished reading and watching it years ago. :]

1. Where are you in the story? How did you get into RK?
~*Let just say that I've already finished RuroKen. But on my RuroKen collection from Viz is up to v22. Borders takes forever to get v23 up. And I got all 3 seasons of RuroKen anime boxseted. X] And how I got into RK, I can't remember. It's a long time ago. I think I saw an ep or so of RuroKen fansubbed. And then, I did a couple research into the storyline and such and then, I just got so into it that I don't remember what I did after that... ^^;

2. Favorite character?
~*Himura Kenshin of course. And Hajime Saito

3. Favorite point in the story? (Spoiler-tags)

~*Kyoto Arc. It's filled with action pack battles and struggles. And seeing flashback of the Shinsengumi and Kenshin's past is the best.

4. Favorite battle? (Spoiler-tags)

~*The battle between Kenshin and Saito. ^o^ Coolest battle of all.

5. Your overall opinion of RK?
~*Love it still. The storyline is superb. OVA & ANIME & MANGA = AWESOME!!

6. (If you have watched the anime and read the manga both) Which is better, the manga or anime?
~*Well, the manga is more precise and it is the original story on how the author intended how to tell the story. But the anime is good to watch too. It's like watching the picture comes to life with motions and stuff like that. And the battle couldn't be more intense. And to which is better, I really don't know. Depend of the person's preference. For me I like both. Whenever I feel like I want to heard sounds I watch the anime. If I want peace and quite and follow the org storyline I read the manga. They add a few things in the anime that aren't in the manga so don't go looking for them in the manga. And yeah, they do have fillers and such. All anime does, I think. But still it's good to watch and have both for your collections. X)

[venicia777]

are we supposed to answer every question above. hmm!!

Rurouni Kenshin is more the best- it is a classic. the best samurai based anime ever- i think most people will agree. i have watched all the anime episodes (up to eps 96), movies, and OVAs from Tsukiyomi to Seisshouhen. what is left is I have to finish the manga.

[ShgnLW]

Hahahah, yeah, that fight you mentioned sure is a good one. I just recently got the missing manga chapters (and thnx to GoldKnight I have them now Rep's for u ). To watch the fight in the anime is definitely the best one I ever saw in any anime/movie. But the read, though I thought the fight was a bit underrated (read the fight today).

Kyoto arc (last arc of kenshin, not animated for the people who are new to this) is definitely the BEST ARC OF KENSHIN. That's why you all: go and grab manga volumes 18-28. PM me or e-mail me and I'll put them up my forum. Maybe MANGAHELPERS wants to host them, but if not I'll gladly put up some links to a place where you can download them Just e-mail or PM me. If nobody does, I'll not do it

BTW> Goldknight, that ftp adress is secured now I think. Could just download the chapters I need (I'm very thankfull for that) however I wanted to d/l more kenshin (not all my Kenshin manga is of high quality) but it didn't work... oh well

[Gold Knight]

Hmm, yeah, the ftp address was where I was able to get the entire Vol. 1-28 package, but it looks as though the folder doesn't exist anymore.

Well, you can still also download them at irc on #lurk in the Neverwhere packlists. Thanks for helping out ShgnLW.

And yeah, venicia777, you gotta answer the questions ...ok, nah, you don't have to, it's just there to start some conversation.

As for myself...

1. Where are you in the story? How did you get into RK?
Finished the manga. I got into it through the preview in Shonen Jump 2 years ago. It hooked me almost immediately.

2. Favorite character?
my favorite characters are Saito Hajime and Kenshin as well, kinda surprised so many people here agree with me.

3. Favorite point in the story?

The fight between Kenshin and Shishio. Most dramatic battle I've read about in all of manga.

4. Favorite battle?

Kenshin and Shishio.

5. Your overall opinion of RK?
I think I've already made it pretty clear I love RK in starting this thread It's the first manga I've ever read from beginning to end and I've loved every part of it.

6. (If you have watched the anime and read the manga both) Which is better, the manga or anime?
Only read the manga so far.

[icecoldsoul18]

i installed mIRC and typed in #lurk but yeah i'm just confused on what I need to do to download the manga. i used to have it but my computer's hard drive erased itself so now i need to get it again. could anyone possibly tell me what to do on this mIRC thing to get the manga?

[Gold Knight]

ice, type irc://irc.irchighway.net/udanraws in your Firefox. It should take you to that channel in mirc. Open a new connection.

You're gonna have to register so type /msg nickserv register *password* *e-mail* - you'll have to enter a true e-mail so you can get the confirmation e-mail. Remember this password. Once you get your confirmation e-mail, you can now /j lurk

You should be taken to the #lurk channel. Once there you will immediately see at the top of the chat a 04: Packlist: http://gotlurk.net/ - click on that, or either open it in Firefox, you'll be taken to the lurk website and you can then go to the correct packlist, find out the number of the volumes/chapters you want, enter that in mirc ( example: /msg Mirrors xdcc send #*number* ). It should then start downloading the volumes for you.

[icecoldsoul18]

ok for some reason it said #udanraws unable to join channel (address is banned) after i hit open a new connection

and when i type in /msg nickserv register *password* *e-mail* and change the password and email a message comes up -NickServ- Guest51357 may not be registered.

[Meijin no Kori]

and when i type in /msg nickserv register *password* *e-mail* and change the password and email a message comes up -NickServ- Guest51357 may not be registered.

Guest usernames (usernames that contain the word "Guest") cannot be registered.
First type, /nick *newnic* to change your screename (inserting the screenname you want where *newnic* is). Then, do the nick registration stuff. However, be careful. Some nicks may already be registered. And if your's is registered, then try again until you find one that's not.

[icecoldsoul18]

thanks a ton gk and meijin, i can finally reclaim my lost kenshin archive :-D

[Tentaku]

I absolutely love Rurouni Kenshin! I finished reading and watching it years ago, but I go back and read/watch it over and over again. It's one of those animes that never gets old for me, no matter how manny times I see it!

1. Where are you in the story? How did you get into RK?
I have the entire anime and OVA, as well as all the entire Japanese manga, and up to 22 of the Viz translation. I bought the first DVD on a whim when it first came out, and I got the subsequent onesimmediately after their releases.

2. Favorite character?
I love Soujiro. He's been my favorite since the first time they showed him, not to mention I love his battlestyle.

3. Favorite point in the story?

Picking my favorite part of Kenshin is tough, but I'd say the Kyoto arc in general, because it had to most interesting characters.

4. Favorite battle?

Of course it'd be the battle between Kenshin and Soujiro (the second time) for me!

5. Your overall opinion of RK?
Kenshin is my favorite anime, the only one that I hold over Naruto!

6. (If you have watched the anime and read the manga both) Which is better, the manga or anime?
The manga is definitely better because it doesn't have the filler stuff the anime sometimes threw in, like the horrible third season in general. However, I prefer the anime of the Kyoto arc because it was done so loyally to the manga, and drawn beautifully.

[ShgnLW]

I uploaded it to rapidshare. Here is the link for volumes 1,2,3 and 4, all in one .rar file.

http://rapidshare.de/files/12758368/...l_1-4.rar.html

Have fun I'll post the rest ASAP
________________________________
http://rapidshare.de/files/12761093/...l_5-7.rar.html

For the volumes 5-7 Both links are also posted on my forum.

Merged the posts. - MnK

[venicia777]

can you kindly upload volumes 17-28- pretty please!!!

i have all the others though. Now with your description of how awesome these volumes were i am more than interested to get them.

[Orochimaru-chan]

I love RK!

1. Where are you in the story? How did you get into RK?
I finished the manga when I was in highschool. It was the anime that got me into it.
2. Favorite character?
Soujiro Seta
3. Favorite point in the story?

Kyoto Arc and the Jinchuu Arc. I liked most especially the part about Kenshins past life, the flashback about him being a hitokiri.

4. Favorite battle?

Soujiro vs. Kenshin and Shishio vs. Kenshin..I love them both because the results could have gone either way IMO, especially in the Soujiro match.

5. Your overall opinion of RK?
Loved it, the very manga responsible for my starting to become fascinated with Japanese culture.
6. (If you have watched the anime and read the manga both) Which is better, the manga or anime?
Manga, the anime was horrendous. Fillers and the Shogo Amakusa arc onwards sucked.