Rurouni Kenshin: Wandering Samurai

Without any doubt this is one of the best animated series ever done and my favored of all times.

The way they combine fiction and real facts of Japanese history occurred during the Mei Ji era make it more interesting.

What make it different from other Japanese series is that in this case the main character, Kenshin Himura, has a real purpose to fight for in order to mend all those terrible things he did in the past.

Another point about it is the way they combine drama, action, romance and comedy. The backgrounds and the music are just brilliant and exquisite. There's no doubt these series has one of the best soundtracks.

This is a truly fantastic series... dramatic characters, a hero that is capable of huge mood swings (from goofy, to romantic, to blood thirsty), and female characters that you would swear your life to protect or swear..well... I must be civil.

Great sword-fighting actions scenes, a drop of history (it takes place in the 1870s), and some philosophizing about living a life of violence versus peace make this series cover the gamut of emotions a viewer wants from any series, not just anime.

I hope everyone can take notice of this story, it is not for everyone, but it hits so many points relevant to our current world order: from terrorism (bad guys attacking the fragile government), to being able to look at the world as something other than a battlefield (Kenshin vowing not to kill after so many years as an assassin).

Ruroni Kenshin (Known in Samurai X in the US) is one of the greatest animes of all time. Ruroni Kenshin has everything an anime fan could want: a compelling story, interesting characters, and equal amounts of bloodshed and character development. I have seen a few episodes of the subtitled version and the first two OAV's "Trust" and "Betrayal.

I recommend both of them, but the subtitled version is much better.

If you haven't seen it before, then buy it (don't rent) and add it to your anime collection. It is an essential anime title for the anime fan I also recommend Ghost in the shell, Ninja scroll, the Dragonball Z and Gundam series

If you're looking for a great samurai story it doesn't get much better that Ruroni Kenshin.

Kenshin is just about the best samurai to ever pick up a blade, but now that Japan has settled into the peaceful Meiji period guys like him are no long needed. In fact, ex-samurai are scorned by the public in general. So Kenshin sets out to try and find a normal life for himself. In time Kenshin finds a home and friends in a Tokyo dojo but ghosts from his past keep popping up as do people out to destroy the new government. Kenshin, who has vowed never to kill again, isn't about to let anyone disrupt the new life he's built for himself. So such times come he reluctantly heads out to knock some heads.

I really just can't get over how great this show is. Richly draw characters, great action, compelling stories, romance, humor and more all set against a very real felling backdrop of late 1870's Japan. RK works not only as a good anime, but historical show as well.

One other thing I like about the show is the villains. RK's creator (whose name escapes me at the moment) is an admitted fan of American comics and you can see that in some of the villains. Psycho killer Jin-E bears an (pardon the expression) uncanny resemblence to Gambit from the X-Men. I've also seem elements of characters like Spawn, Wolverine, Omega Red, the Absorbing Man, the Incredible Hulk and Daredevil in some bad guys. Really cool.

In short, Kenshin is a show that belongs on the shelf of anyone who calls themself an anime fan.

This is one of the most memorable and most recognizable anime I know, with a cast of great characters and story lines and funny sub-plots, it's everything you'd want to see in an anime. It starts out as Kenshin Himura a wanderer in the Meiji era, ends with a kendo teacher Kaoru Kamiya, and he starts living with her, and eventually she finds out this is no ordinary traveler, this is Battousai, the slasher! An infamous samurai who killed a lot of people in his past. But finds him to be a sweet gentle man who is kind towards children, who wants to restore peace, and end his days as a slasher. Later more characters appear, Yahiko, and then Sanosuke, then Megumi. A great cast with very dark and dramatic backgrounds filled with tragedies. Every episode seems to give each character some background and info and their dark secrets. The soundtracks are also great, I love the one by L~Arc~Ciel in the latter episodes. The sword fighting is also cool, and unforgettable. But wait, a few characters portrayed or based on actual people, like Saitou Hajime and Aritomo Yamagata, oh my, I wonder if they were really like that in real life, I mean their personalities as seen here. Anyways recommended to all anime fans, and to non-anime fans who are not familiar with anime yet, forget Dragon Ball or Pokemon, watch this.