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Samurai X - The Motion Picture (Rurouni Kenshin) Actor: Samurai X Number of Items: 1 Format: Color, Animated Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Running Time: 90 minutes Studio: A.D. Vision Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2001-03-27 Buy from Amazon

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 80 Average rating: 4.0 "A good story placed in the middle of the series...." I've owned this movie for a while and it is a very good one to pick up. Basically Kenshin has to stop a revolution plot started by a clan member from one of his victims during the Meiji revolution. I don't want to tell too much of the story, but the animation is excellent and the story is gripping. If possible rent it if you're not too sure of the Samurai X series, but if you're a fan you'll enjoy it. "You must understand the series to understand this movie." Samurai X: The Motion Picture follows the journeys of Kenshin Himura, the wandering samurai, as he, Sanosuke Sagara, Miss Kaoru, and Yahigo travel to Kyoto. After rescuing a woman from a band of British Sailors, Kenshin is haunted by visions of his past as a man slayer. He even comes against an old adversary who is bent on exacting revenge on the Meiji government for crimes against him and his soldiers. Kenshin must now fight to maintain the peace, and keep a promise. This movie is well done, but requires knowledge of the Kenshin series. If you have never seen Kenshin before, the various references to characters will make no sense at all. There are even moves used by Sanosuke that make absolutely no sense, unless you had prior knowledge of his character and how he was trained. I could not decipher where this movie fits into the whole Kenshin universe. Samurai X: The Motion Picture features techniques learned after the second season as well as inexperienced fighting from before the second season. This unbalance hurts the movie for those who have not been watching the Rurouni Kenshin series from the beginning. Fights are definitely well drawn. They do suffer from the preverbal announcing your attack syndrome as seen in most fighting video games. This can get annoying the first few times you watch the movie, but once you get past this, Samurai X will be just like any other anime. I recommend this movie for Kenshin fans. If you are new to the series, it still is a good anime, but there are some parts that may be difficult to understand. See a few episodes of Rurouni Kenshin before seeing Samurai X, otherwise you will find yourself at a lost for some of the important characters. "Good DVD" I don't know much about anime, but I loved this movie so much as I bought it. Though the plot is a little confusing at first, I rated it a four. It has vivid samurai fight scenes (where the blood is bright red, it's like fireworks) and likeable characters. It really shows the honor of fighting at the time. This is good for teenagers accustomed to violence but still sensitive to a nice storyline. Watch it in the dark. "pretty good" This movie, if you buy it, you should watch the TV series up until the beginning of the Shishio saga, at least. If you watch this movie before that you'll just end up confused, saying who is that Cop Dude and so forth. It was just meant to be a quick episode that probably didnt fit into the timing of the regular series.....still worth getting tho if your a BIG fan like me >^.^< as for the Trust/Betrayl OVA's YOUR BETTER OFF NOT GETTING THEM OR WATCHING TILL YOU FINISH THE ENTIRE SERIES.....trust me it'll just be better than. It answers some of the questions you might have had during the series....if you watch them first than you'll just spoil the entire series for yourself. IN CONCLUSION: TV SERIES FIRST, KENSHIN MOVIE SECOND, AND OVA'S LAST is the order in which you should watch them. ~TenKen~ "Misleading Packaging AND Reviewers" To get it out of the way first, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie--I am huge fan of the Rurouni Kenshin series, and the movie, while not quite as good as the series' best parts, succeeded in giving me more of the same stuff I love so much (as long as you don't watch the horrific English dub--even compared to the series' English dub it's horrible). Now on to the important part--the confusion that has been steeped upon this release. Here's what everyone should know, but seems to ignore (at least in reviews): "Samurai X" is the American title used to replace the Japanese title, "Rurouni Kenshin," when this movie and the OVA's were released by ADV. The original series (it came first, only after the comic) is being released under its original title by Anime Works. The Kenshin OVA's (under the American titles "Samurai X: Trust" and "Samurai X: Betrayal") were made later as a prequel to the series, chronicling the early days of Battousai the Manslayer/Hitokiri. By the time the series begins, 10 years later, the main character Kenshin has given up his past role of Battousai in order to somehow make up for his evils, so he lives as a wandering swordsman (note: not a samurai by any means, ever!) who refuses to kill. The Rurouni Kenshin movie takes place around the time of the series--as in, the same supporting cast appears, and Kenshin is currently a wanderer. Not only does the movie's story occur within the context of the series, but stylistically it fits as well. Comparing the RK movie to the OVA series, in terms of story or style, is useless. They are two completely different works based on the same series, one made to portray the dark and violent aspects of Kenshin's early life, and the other meant to act as a direct companion to the material in the series. One reviewer relates the series and OVA's as being two seperate universes, and the movie an amalgamation of the two. Well, that is just flat-out wrong. All three works have been created along a timeline in terms of story, and in the case of style, have been created to reflect the period of Kenshin's that is being chronicled. The only reason the name "Samurai X" was given to the OVA's and movie was to make them look "cooler" for an American audience by Sony & ADV after they acquired the rights. The American name says nothing about the contents.