Kenshin Himura (a.k.a. Hitokiri Battosai)) is like the A-Team of the Meiji Restoration.
His reverse-blade allows him to lay a beatdown on opponents without killing
them. As Battosai, he was once the most feared “Killsword” assassin of the
Bakumatsu revolt, but he has since renounced all forms of violence. Of course
his peaceful retirement will not last long in the middle film of a trilogy. The
facially-scarred swordsman will inevitably rejoin the fray in Keishi Ohtomo’s
live-action Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto
Inferno (trailer
here), which
starts a special three-day engagement in select theaters this Monday.
For
the sake of the public good, Himura has already picked up his sword Rurouni Kenshin: Origins, but he still
scrupulously avoided killing, in large measure due to the influence of Kaoru Kamiya, at whose kendo dojo he now resides. Even when it was his duty, Himura never enjoyed killing, unlike his sadist successor, Makoto Shishio. Recognizing
they had bred a rabid dog, Shishio’s masters tried to kill him after the
decisive Battle of Toba-Fushimi, but they merely left him severely burned and
thoroughly hacked-off.
Himura already feels some responsibility for leaving the vacuum that created Shishio,
so when he witnesses the aftermath of the super-villain’s handiwork up-close-and-personal,
he reluctantly agrees to take up his sword once again. Along the way, he forges
an alliance with an Oniwabanshuu cell once loyal to the Shogun, who have
accepted the peace and stability of the new order. The one exception would be
their long missing champion Aoshi Shinomori. Things will come to a head during
a massive conflagration intended to parallel a key battle against the Shogunate.
Kyoto Inferno could easily be
dubbed the Empire Strikes Back of the
Rurouni Kenshin trilogy. It ends on a
decidedly dark cliffhanger, but of course you need it to follow third
installment, which Funimation is releasing in relatively short succession. (In contrast,
Inferno is quite accessible for those
who have not seen part one.) Yet, the second Rurouni is still a satisfying feature that offers some mature meditations
on personal responsibility, modernization, and the costs and benefits of social
stability, in between some spectacular swordplay. Frankly, Kenshin probably
doesn’t even factor in the most cinematic duel. That features Yusuke Iseya and
Min Tanaka as Shinomori and Nenji Kashiwazaki, the steely old leader of the
Oniwabanshuu.
Takeru
Satoh can certainly wield a sword as Himur and he continues to develop some
pleasingly ambiguous chemistry with Emi Takei’s Kamiya. Yosuke Eguchi adds
plenty of hardnosed flintiness as Hajime Saito, Shishio’s driven government
nemesis, while Ryunosuke Kamiki brings plenty of evil flamboyance as his chief
henchman, Soujiro Seta