This week, instead of talking about seasonal shows I am watching, I wanted to get a bit of a rant off my chest about a show from last year, the Kenshin remake. Be forewarned, as rants go, this is pretty ranty.
I finished watching the first season together with my wife recently. For context, we have both watched the previous show and she has read the manga in the past. Overall, I liked seeing the characters again, but I do think that the story drags. The story structure gets repetitive with a new bad guy showing up and wanting to challenge Kenshin every couple episodes to kick off another mini arc. I feel like several of these rotating bad guys just don't really have any narrative importance to the overall story, so having such a slow pace through them just causes the whole show to drag. Alright, next three paragraphs will be behind a spoiler tag, so be warned.
Kenshin (2023) Season 1 Spoilers
In my view, there are four main things that need to happen in Kenshin's story before moving on to the Shishio arc (a future season 2). First, the initial confrontation with the fake battosai causing him to decide to stay with Kaoru. Second, episodes introducing Yahiko and Sanosuke and their joining the party. Third, the arc to rescue Megumi which leads to a conflict with the oniwabanshu and lingering bad blood with Aoshi (a future very important character). Finally, the introduction of Saito and his vetting of Kenshin as a prelude to the Shishio arc.
All the other villains that show up beyond these just feel like a bit of a waste of time. First, there was Jine (episodes 6-7), then Raijuta (episodes 15-17), Tsunan (episodes 18-19), and finally some OVA-feeling flashback episodes (episodes 20-21). That means 9/24 episodes really just don't propel the main story along. I can't remember how many of these were adapted in the original series, but watching it this time was a slog. I also think this was made worse because a huge contiguous block of episodes (15-21) fall into this category, rather than being interspersed more evenly through the show.
The most egregious example of this in my opinion is the flashback episodes (20-21) that were pulled from the Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration manga, published in 2012. It just feels like they wanted to fit the story setting up the Shishio arc into 24 episodes, came up 2 episodes short, so decided to pull some other content in to make up the shortfall.
Look, I love Kenshin. It holds a warm place in my heart as one of the formative anime in my journey into this hobby. However, I haven't really been able to connect with this series the way I had with the first series. Part of that is down to the adaptation choices I ranted about above, but certainly no small part of that is how much I have changed in the past 28(!) years since the first series came out. As a ~~middle-aged~~ working adult, I just don't have as much time or patience to sit through shows like this that don't keep the story moving.
I also think I wouldn't find the pacing issues as frustrating if there wasn't an absolutely excellent live-action adaptation that has come out in the intervening years as well. The story changes they made in the live action movies really trimmed the narrative fat and paired a quick moving story with probably the best live-action swordfighting choreography I have seen in a long time. Seriously, the live-action movies are excellent and worth a watch for fans and non-fans alike.
Anyway, rant over. I expect that my opinion on this series might not be widely shared among the fanbase, but I am fine with that. The other adaptations and the original manga still exist. I will probably continue with the second season when it comes out because the Shishio arc is my favorite part of the story (Misao is my wife's favorite character and mine is Hiko Seijuro).
