1.1
Introduction
Samurai X or Rurounin Kenshin is a well-known story in Japan
preferably for it close resemblance of a real life historical events during the
Meiji-era (1878). The plot of the story goes as, during the early days of the
Meiji era, Himura Kenshin participated in the Bakumatsu war as an assassin with
the name of “Hitokiri Battousai” and is feared by samurais and shoguns alike.
After the war in won and the revolution is ended, Hitokiri Battousai dropped
his sword and disappeared for 10 years. He then was found and joined a young
girl named Kaoru Kamiya an owner of a dojo and settles down after an incident
with her, along the way he finds himself befriending more and more people
ranging from Sanosuke Sagara a mercenary, Myojin Yahiko a descendant of a
former samurai line and a doctor Megumi Tanaka. As they live through live they
fought together multiple times and go through many resistance together
including a former assassin Jinnei Udoh and also leader of the Oniwaban
Shinobi, Shinomori Aoshi. Several months after Kenshin discovered that a
samurai named Shishio Makoto who worked in the shadows as the successor of
Kenshin is trying to create a revolution in Kyoto through a rival samurai known
as Saito Hajime, now known as Fujita Goro. As he was requested to “assassinate”
Shishio Makoto to save the current government even when he vowed to never kill
again, he accepts and went to Kyoto alone. Along his journey he met Makimachi
Misao, a ninja of the Oniwaban and helped him to find his way in Kyoto and
finally encounter Shishio Makoto and fight him to the death only to have
Shishio engulfed in flames due to his body heat.
Samurai X
In the anime version of the story, it is 94 episodes long
and it consist of 3 different arcs/storyline namely “The Wandering Samurai”,
“Kyoto Inferno” and “Tales of Meiji”. This version of the story is very
detailed and long stretched in terms of the narrative. Released in 1996 – 1998,
the Samurai X franchise is mainly focused on the anime side of the story with
comedy and unrelated fillers in between to break tension between main plots. In
the “Wandering Samurai” arc, it tells the story where Kenshin first meet with
Kaoru and the rest of the members in the story, Myojin Yahiko, Sanosuke Sagara
and Megumi Tanaka. The main plot here is the part where Kenshin meets with
Shinomori Aoshi and he will contribute later in the other arcs.
“Kyoto Inferno” is the main plot of the whole story as it
relates with Shishio Makoto the shadow assassin who is the successor of
Hitokiri Battousai. Here Kenshin is teamed up with Saito Hajime to defeat the
powerful samurai who people think its immortal and also he has collected 10
warriors known as Juppongatana “the 10” which is very powerful each and Kenshin
will have to defeat them to get to Shishio and defeat him.
“Tales of Meiji” arc is the part where all of these are just
filler stories that tells his story what happened after the Kyoto Inferno arc.
Fig.1: Samurai X
Rurounin Kenshin
This is the live action version of the story, where it is
split into 3 movies long Rurounin Kenshin, Rurounin Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno and
Rurounin Kenshin: The Legend Ends. The live action has a more serious tone to
its plot and characters and less comedic in its narrative. The live action
version only focuses on mainly the “Kyoto Inferno” part where Kenshin is
probably his most difficult task, defeating Shishio Makoto. Rurounin Kenshin:
Kyoto Inferno and Rurounin Kenshin: The Legend Ends are actually 1 movie split
into 2 different parts and Rurounin Kenshin the first movie, is basically “The
Wandering Samurai” arc from the anime cut short. In this movie, the action,
dramatization and expression are all more realistic and less cartoony feel.
Fig. 2: Rurounin Kenshin
1.1
Character
Design
Samurai X
Character List
·
Kenshin Hiruma
·
Kaoru Kamiya
·
Sanosuke Sagara
·
Yahiko Myojin
·
Saito Hajime
·
Shishio Makoto
·
Seta Soujiro
·
Dr. Gensai
·
Megumi Tanaka
·
Misao Makimachi
·
Shinomori Aoshi
In Samurai X, character design are hand drawn and animated
even so the characters are based on a real life person in history. They are
being drawn and created with perks and characteristics of a real person in
history based on books. The characters are drawn with the generic anime style
Fig.3: Rurounin Kenshin characters
Even
despite they mostly look the same there are also details that makes them
different from one another like hairstyle for example each character has their
own hairstyle that differs from other and also the clothing that they wear.
These are the miss-en-scene that defines the character for who they are and
what type of personality they have within them. Himura Kenshin is a samurai and
like all samurais in Japan they have a ponytail so does Kenshin as well to
signify his position and character as a samurai but he has a cross-scar on his
left cheek indicating a battle wound or a story behind the cause of the wound,
a back story of his life, a past that he holds with him.
Fig.4: Kenshin Himura face
Another
example of this is Saito Hajime, a rival samurai of Kenshin during the
Bakumatsu war. He is also an assassin known as the Shinsengumi and was wildly
known as the Wolf, his character is a cold-looking, calm and heartless person.
The anime character of him are drawn and characterized the same way.
Fig.5: Saito Hajime face
Along
with his character, his eyes are filled with the looks of a killer as the
character is, and a sharp shaped face to give a villainy feel to it as well
unlike the other of Kenshin friends who are more friendly in that manner. His
hair is all combed into place and in gentle manner to show a calm side of him
as his character does not freaky out or easily taunted, a cool guy personality.
For a next character would be Sanosuke Sagara, this
character is a very hot tempered and feisty character that is easily taunted
and acts very rashly without thinking. Some could say he thinks with his fists,
Sanosuke goes through obstacles by punching instead of talking. His character
design focuses on upper body strength.
Fig.6: Sanosuke Sagara
Along
with his body physique his hairstyle is spiky portraying a fiery character that
acts with impulse. Character wise in the movie it shows lots of diversity in
looks and personality.
Rurounin
Kenshin
Character
List
·
Kenshin Himura
·
Kaoru Kamiya
·
Sanosuke Sagara
·
Yahiko Myojin
·
Megumi Tanaka
·
Saito Hajime
·
Shishio Makoto
·
Seta Soujiro
·
Shinomori Aoshi
·
Misao Makimachi
Now in Rurounin Kenshin, it is the live action version of the anime
therefore the characters must have some resemblance to the original anime
version but with the real life look. One of the reason why Rurounin Kenshin is
considered to be one of the best Manga/Anime to live action version is the
adaptation. The characters in Rurounin Kenshin is almost 99% completely
followed the anime version as Kotaku, a website dedicated to Japan, Korea and Gaming
reviewed the movie and said “The Live Action Rurouni Kenshin Movie
is a Nearly Perfect Film Adaptation” (Kotaku,
2012). Reason behind this is that they use and followed the source material
closely.
Fig.7: Rurounin Kenshin Actor
The
actor for Kenshin Himura, Takeru Sato portrayed the character nicely and
accurately although he cannot give the exact same look as the anime version he
does give that exact feel. Kenshin despite being an assassin in his past, here
in the story he wants to repent for his sins and acts as a protector of the
weak, being kind, helpful and cheerful to those around him. In the live action
movie he does the same, being humble and kind to those around kind of
contradict the way Hitokiri Battousai is described as a cold-blooded killer.
The rest of the characters are also spot on, on their
personality though a bit rushed due to the time constraint they have in the
live action movie rather than the 94 episodic anime. The next character is
Sanosuke Sagara, in the anime he is displayed as a person who acts rashly
without thinking, loud and rude, here in the movie he is exactly the same.
Fig.8: Rurounin Kenshin Sano Live
Action
From
his thuggish look to the way he move, you can see the similarities between the
character in the live action movie and the character in the anime.
1.1
Narrative
Samurai
X
Narration
in the anime version does make the experience much more engaging as they have
enough time to tell events in details but also runs the risk of having too much
time and unnecessary fillers. Samurai X has 3 different arcs and each arc has
their own main plot and fillers to prolong and break the tension between main
plots. This is because of the anime genre itself, the narration is this series
is very detailed as the character does flashbacks to explain the events that
are happening or have thought hearing session for the audience to see and hear
what is going on in the character’s head at the moment.
Fig.9: Samurai X Episode 10
In
the picture above shows a scene in episode 10 where the character is doing
something without saying anything while the other characters who are in the
scene explains what is he doing.
Fig.10: Samurai X Episode 10
In
this scene the character Kenshin poses in a stance that he normally won’t use
and surprised everyone, Kaoru who is a sword-fighting instructor explains the
stance to the characters and what is it about. This narration is detailed and
well-paced as the audience will understand the happenings in the scene but a
little less realistic due to the timing, some of these scenes are very long and
the action part of it is very short making audiences wondering “How did she
managed to say all that in just a few seconds?”
Fig.11: Samurai X Episode 18
Fig.11: Samurai X Episode 18
Fig.12: Samurai X Episode 18
In
the series of picture above, the scene goes as the boy is holding a sword which
is quite a distance between him and Kenshin, just as that scene passes by
Kenshin is attacked by thugs who are infront of him at the same the Yahiko
threw the sword at Kenshin and the sword still manages to reach Kenshin before
the thug did.
Fig.13: Samurai X Episode 18
Despite
all that the way it is told and paced, the experience is not affected and the
enjoyment is still visible.
Rurounin
Kenshin
In
this live action movie the narration is cut down short and precise due to time
constraint, but not confusing to audiences. The one thing about the live action
movie is that the story somewhat starts weak as not much narration is done, the
starting sequence is a battle between two force during the Bakumatsu war and
Kenshin is seen battling Saito Hajime on a battlefield with lots of other
armies soldiers. Then the sequence ends with Kenshin moving away from the
battlefield after he stuck his sword into the ground.
Fig.14: Rurounin Kenshin, 2012
Fig.15: Rurounin Kenshin, 2012
Audience
that never watched the anime, or do not have the knowledge about the story will
somewhat be lost in parts of the movie as the story moves at quite fast pace. Even
so the narrative of the movie is also well sequenced and character development
is short but acceptable. Character introduction is very much skipped as there
are not much of introduction done other than the name is shown.
Skipping
most of the funny and comedic moments from the anime, this movie has a heavy
feeling of seriousness due to its life and death scenarios even so the movie
still manages to put in funny moments that breaks way from the seriousness
(Kotaku, 2012).
Fig.16: Rurounin Kenshin, 2012
For
example during a fight scene, Kenshin evaded Sano’s attack making him running
towards the river and Kenshin grabs his clothing to save him from dropping into
the river.
The
first movie was well paced, but however the second and third movie is brought up
to speed as it contains more action than the first. Even so the entire 3 movies
does not feel like 3 different movie but the same movie split into 3 different
parts, Rurounin Kenshin (2012), Rurounin Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (August, 2014),
Rurounin Kenshin (September, 2014).
1.1
Miss-En-Scene
Miss-en-scene
helps to set the mood and settings of the movie, it consist of the clothing,
background, music, lighting and etc. This makes the movie more believable to
the audience.
Samurai
X
Set
in Feudal Japan in the 1800’s, the series focuses on the story in Japan
therefore there are many Japan culture reference in the series. The series has
the setting of Feudal Japan from the clothing that they wear to the
architectural design on the buildings.
Fig.17: Samurai X, Episode 36
Fig.18: Japanese Building
Fig.19: Japanese Interior Building
Samurai
X has everything about the background to the environment accurate about the
1800’s Japan era. The clothing of the character also give the olden Japanese
era where everyone wears this long dress like clothing also known as kimono.
Fig.20:
Kimono Dress
Fig.21:
Samurai X, Episode 2
Most
of the characters in the series wore this kind of clothing rather than the
modernize clothing that Japanese people wear now. The kimono is a cultural
clothing that Japanese people wear for festivities even in modern times as it
is a type of cultural practice to them. However in 1800’s is also where the
western forces starts to influence the Japanese culture, guns and gunpowder
have been introduce to the Japanese people and also western clothing the series
also has characters that shows that influence especially the government
officials in the series.
Fig.22:
Samurai X, Episode 29
Saito
Hajime is the series is a police official working for the government to deal
with its problem with the former Imperialist samurais therefore he is mostly
seen in westernized clothing like a suit rather than the Japanese kimono that
the samurais wear even he is a samurai himself.
Rurounin
Kenshin
Similar
to the anime series the miss-en-scene here is also strong and follow very
closely to the anime series in almost every way from the clothing to the
character design as well. It has the feudal Japan feel right in the movie in
its background, environment and people. The feel is just right as the
characters and the actors/actresses does make the whole setting believable. Reason
behind this is that Japanese people are strong in culture and honor, they
favors family name to their own this is shown in the beginning of the movie as
Kaoru Kamiya is trying to find the person using her father’s sword fighting
style to commit crime and tarnish the name even though she would not be able to
defeat him.
Fig.23:
Rurounin Kenshin, 2012
This
kind of act would not happen in the modern age due to the changes in time and
education along with cultural advancement.
In
the way the characters are portrayed they did not move too far in visuals of
the characters. The clothing of the characters are closely accurate and also
their characteristics. Kenshin Himura although used to be a cold-blooded killer
than is feared by all, after the revolution he give up killing and turned into
a wandering samurai that helps people along the way in his travels he shows a
helpless and clumsy person to the people around making him a harmless person.
Fig.24:
Samurai X, Episode 2
Fig.25:
Rurounin Kenshin, 2012
In
the live action movie version the story uses a more serious weight in the
narration as it is a movie about life and death, the lighting is the movie is
fairly dark most of the times. It helps to set the mood that everything said
and happens in the scene is very serious and are not something that the
characters can take lightly.
Fig.26:
Rurounin Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno, 2014
As
we can see here even indoors in broad daylight the lighting is still damp and
low. The entire movie trilogy is very moody and uses a lot of cool colours
Fig.27:
Rurounin Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno, 2014
Fig.28:
Rurounin Kenshin: The Legend Ends, 2014
Environment
wise the movie gives a very good Feudal Japan settings where the town and
cities has the Japanese wooden houses with crowds of people on the streets
walking around, restaurants with cloths at the entrance with Japanese wording.
Fig.29:
Rurounin Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno, 2014
1.1
Cinematography
Cinematography
is the method of how the film is being shot from the camera, the angle and
lighting effect all gives the mood and precise frame or shot for that excellent
feel when watched.
Samurai
X
Given
its 94 episode long period, the series has a lot of time to show details and
narrate the story. This makes fight scenes much longer than it should by
slowing down movements to give exact movement details, character-in-head
thought scene and also long exposition segments.
Fig.30:
Samurai X, Episode 2
This
shot is an example of cinematography whereby the character talks about peace
and relaxing, the camera pans backwards from the character to expand the view
from a tight scene where the whole character fits the whole screen and slowly
becomes small in a big empty room while drinking tea giving out that relaxing
and peaceful expression.
Fig.31:
Samurai X, Episode 5
Here
is scene where the character Sanosuke charge at Kenshin with a large sword in
the next few seconds the scene changes to a different perspective from another
2 character on the hills giving a different take on the scene.
Fig.32:
Samurai X, Episode 5
Fig.33:
Samurai X, Episode 5
Then
the scene changes to a part where both of the fighting characters faces to give
a serious settings from the comedic parts of the episode.
Shots
wise the anime series has a lot of close up shots due to its focus on
characters reactions to certain scenes. And the series also has a lot of
fighting scenes each with different way of showing it to the audiences.
Fig.34:
Samurai X, Episode 5
Close
up shots are used to zoom in to the character face where their expression is
seen clearly while they talking or explain certain plot or give out information
to audience as to what is going on screen, this way audience have a clear point
as to who is talking instead of showing 2 characters at the same time in a long
wide shot where audience can’t even see their mouths. Showing the expression
while the character talks on a certain subject, the effect is much better than
just listening to the dialogue.
Fig.35:
Samurai X, Episode 9
Here
the character is shouting angrily at another character by closing up to his
face, we can see he is angry along with the sound level in the voice acting it
gives out the perfect anger feel.
Fighting
scene in this series is mostly exaggerated due to its anime genre to give out a
dramatic feel and enjoyment. Here is an example of a fight scene that is simple
yet acceptable, first the scene is set up with tension and anticipation that
something is about to happen while a character is speaking, at the time of the
action the shot is cut away from the focus point to another scene (the flying
sword) making audience to wonder what is happening then at the final shot the
scene goes back to the characters showing what happens.
Fig.36:
Samurai X, Episode 11
The
scenes are disjointed but somehow works as the series lets your imagination to
fill in the empty slots sort of like showing you bit and pieces of a picture
while your brain imagine the full picture an interactive way of watching a
movie/film.
Rurounin
Kenshin
Fig.37:
Kotaku review, Rurounin Kenshin, 2012
“Right
from the start Rurounin Kenshin shows
its excellent direction and fight choreography. The fights are very fast and
exciting, with both changing choreography and camera techniques used to keep
the action consistently fresh and interesting.
Moreover,
everything is done with practical effects-meaning there is no CG (except for
the blood spray) in the entire movie. There is some amount of wirework, but
unlike that in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it is used for making the
character more incredibly fast or slide across the ground instead of making
them fly-adding a bit of spectacle without looking fake. This makes everything
in the film seem far more real and entertaining than many recent CG fests.” (–
Kotaku, 2012)
A
website named Kotaku, an admin wrote this for the third movie “The Third Movie
has Action Scene that will Leave You Awestruck” (Eisenbeis, R. 2014). One of
the reason why the live action adaptation of the anime series is so good it’s
the fighting scenes, while most of our modern fighting movies are all done with
a partial of CGI in play, Rurounin Kenshin does everything is practical like
what it is said at the section above.
As
a live action film, the movie cannot use the effects of the anime version to
act its fighting scene as it would be completely unrealistic destroying the
live action part. To compensate it’s less dramatic and exaggerating fights, the
fight scenes in the movie are done with real swordplay and good camera shot
angles.
Fig.38: Kotaku
review, Rurounin Kenshin: The Legend Ends, 2014
“In
both of the reviews of the two previous
Kenshin films, I raved about how good
their practical (i.e., not CG) fighting effects were. But this film blew the
previous ones right out of the water. While the film starts out slow-very slow,
truth be told-the film’s entire final third (about 40 minutes) is one long
unbroken action scene.” (– Kotaku, 2014)
In
my opinion, Rurounin Kenshin is actually the BEST practical action movies I’ve
seen the reason to this is that the fighting choreography is excellent along
with some wires to help the characters fly around after being kicked the way
the movie is shot makes the scenes so much enjoyable and fun.
Fig.38:
Rurounin Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno, 2014
In
the movie fighting scenes are shot with distance that is not too far where we
can’t see what is happening or too close where we also don’t know what is
happening. The shots are made at the right distance and throughout the entire 3
movies there are not one moment where the audience would say “what just
happened?”
In
addition to the great shots, the movie also slows down frames at the right time
and not over use slow down time shots.
Fig.39:
Rurounin Kenshin: The Legend Ends, 2014
In
this particular scene, Kenshin uses an attack called Kuzu Ryu Sen (9 Flashing
Dragon) which is a 9 hit slash attack that is executed in a very fast speed.
After the first 3 hits, the movie is then slow down for the remaining 6 hits
giving out that effect that how damaging each hit is.
2.0
Conclusion
In
a conclusion to the Rurounin Kenshin/Samurai X movie, both movies has its very
own good and bad points to consider however because one is an anime series the
other is a 2 hour length movie, there will be people that likes one and dislike
the other.
For
a beginning thought, the anime version is much longer and has a lot of extra
story and humor to laugh at and the narration of the story touches all
characters in the story as each character gets a time to shine but the anime
version also is very childish in nature as the progression is very predictable.
The
live action on the other hand is much shorter and the story is mainly focused
on Kenshin himself, the other characters are just supporting characters
althought Sanosuke did get a focused fight in the third movie but in the end
the movie still feels like it is focusing on Kenshin but the live action also
has a very good action scene and will be loved by people who like to watch
fighting scenes.
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Rurounin Kenshin:
Kyoto Inferno. 2014. [Film] Directed
by Keishi Otomo. Japan: s.n.
Rurounin Kenshin:
The Legend Ends. 2014. [Film]
Directed by Keishi Otomo. Japan: s.n.
Rurounin Kenshin. 2012. [Film] Directed by Keishi Otomo. Japan: s.n.
Samurai X. 1996-1998. [Film] Directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi.
Japan: Studio Gallop, Studio Deen.
