150-581: Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story ( Japanese : るろうに剣心 -明治剣客浪漫譚- , Hepburn : Rurōni Kenshin -Meiji Kenkaku Roman Tan- ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki . The story begins in 1878, the 11th year of the Meiji era in Japan, and follows a former assassin of the Bakumatsu , known as Hitokiri Battosai. After his work against the bakufu , he becomes Himura Kenshin ,
300-496: A chanbara manga since Weekly Shōnen Jump had not published a title from that genre. However, during his years of college, Kishimoto started reading Hiroaki Samura 's Blade of the Immortal and Rurouni Kenshin , which used the said genre. Kishimoto recalls having never been surprised by manga ever since reading Akira and finding that he was still not able to compete against them. Hideaki Sorachi cited Rurouni Kenshin as
450-516: A "Hokkaido episode, a sequel," but wanted to start a new manga, so he ended Rurouni Kenshin with the last arc he made. Due to the dark nature of Kenshin's life, Watsuki ended the manga in the Jinchu arc, afraid that if he continued writing, the series would not fit the shōnen manga demography. In 2012, Watsuki revealed that when he clashed with the editorial staff at the end of the series, his editor, Hisashi Sasaki, understood his intentions, saw that he
600-699: A "side story." The design model for Hiko Seijuro, Kenshin's master, in Rurouni Kenshin is the character of the same name from his one-shot manga "Crescent Moon of the Warring States," but Watsuki also added some influences from Hiken Majin Hajerun in Takeshi Obata 's Arabian Lamp-Lamp . At the time, Watsuki said that he was fascinated by images of "manliness" and that Hiko was one of the first characters to reflect this fascination. Since Watsuki's debut work contained
750-624: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down
900-568: A contemporary setting. An editor approached Watsuki and asked him to make a new historical story. With the historical concept, Watsuki intended to use the Bakumatsu period from Moeyo Ken ( Burn, O Sword ) with a story akin to Sanshiro Sugata . Watsuki experimented with various titles, including Nishin ( Two-Hearts ) Kenshin , Yorozuya ( Jack-of-All-Trades ) Kenshin , and variations of "Rurouni" and "Kenshin" with different kanji in that order. The second Rurouni story, published in April 1993 in
1050-533: A darker tone as most of the characters believed Kaoru was killed by Yukishiro Enishi , which made Kenshin question his own way of living and escape to a village of wanderers. Watsuki did not enjoy the angst in Kenshin, so his friend Myōjin Yahiko took over as the series' protagonist until Kenshin recovered. Even though the plot for the "remembrance episodes" of Kenshin's past was already set before serialization started, which
1200-624: A different younger Gein. Both are Ishin members of Enishi's team in the Jinchu/Tenchu (Judgment of Earth/Heaven) portions of the Enishi saga in the main plot manga series. There have been five Rurouni Kenshin video games released for the PlayStation series of consoles. The first, Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Ishin Gekitōhen ( るろうに剣心 -明治剣客浪漫譚- 維新激闘編 ) , was released on November 29, 1996. It
1350-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )
1500-507: A female audience; Surat stated that in such series, character designs are "pretty" for female audiences but not too "girly" for male audiences. Surat cited Shinomori Aoshi and Seta Sōjirō , characters who ranked highly in popularity polls even though, in Surat's view, Aoshi does not engage in "meaningful" battles and Sōjirō is a "kid". Surat explained that Aoshi appears "like a Clamp character wearing Gambit 's coat and Sōjirō always smiles despite
1650-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as
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#17329638888991800-412: A good nor evil character. Since volume 7, Watsuki mentioned the series took on a more adult tone due to the various conflicts in the story, but commented it was influenced by the shōjo manga he read. Through the series' development, Watsuki was deciding if Kamiya Kaoru 's character was going to die before the end. However, he later decided to keep Kaoru alive as he came to the conclusion that he wanted
1950-468: A happy ending and that the manga was aimed at young readers. In The Oxford Handbook of American Folklore and Folklife Studies , Kenshin is regarded as a "far cry" from American superheroes due to his androgynous look and self-deprecating personality. However, the character is said to be relatable to the Eastern audience through Kenshin's quest for redemption, which is called the main theme of the manga. The manga
2100-476: A hard task by Watsuki. Due to problems with the characterization of Sagara Sōzō , Watsuki decided to illustrate Saitō Hajime in his own style, avoiding the historical figure. He felt very good about Saitō's character, having noted that he fit very well in the manga. However, Watsuki mentioned that many Japanese fans of the Shinsengumi complained about the personality of Saitō, as he was made sadistic. Additionally,
2250-479: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it
2400-622: A lot of Rurouni Kenshin merchandise released for the Japanese market. He recommended that buyers consider quality before paying for merchandise items and that they consult their wallets and buy stuff that they feel is "worth it". Watsuki added that he liked the prototype for a stuffed Kenshin doll for the UFO catcher devices. Rurouni Kenshin has been highly popular, having sold over 55 million copies in Japan alone up until February 2012, making it one of Shueisha's top ten best-selling manga series. In 2014, it
2550-427: A major source of inspiration for his manga series, Gintama . He also said numerous other historical manga were influenced by Rurouni Kenshin , stating that the "reason why historical stories are being dealt with in all sorts of manga and game media today, and why they are being supported by the younger generation, is undoubtedly because of " Ruroken " and that they "are all children of the " Ruroken " bloodline." For
2700-461: A prequel to the first anime television series, was released in 1999. A two-episode OVA titled Rurouni Kenshin: Reflection , which served as a sequel to the first anime television series, was released from 2001 to 2002. A two-episode OVA, Rurouni Kenshin: New Kyoto Arc , which remade the series' Kyoto arc, was released from 2011 to 2012. Five live-action films have been released theatrically. The live-action film adaptation of Rurouni Kenshin
2850-510: A prologue to Rurouni Kenshin: The Hokkaido Arc , which began in September 2017 as a sequel to the original manga series. In 2021, Watsuki created the manga "Sakabatō Shogeki" ( 逆刃刀 初撃 , "Reverse-Blade Katana: First Bout") that was exclusively shown at an exhibition celebrating the 25th anniversary of Rurouni Kenshin . It serves as an epilogue to chapter 81 of the original manga and shows the first time Kenshin used his sakabatō. Rurouni Kenshin
3000-557: A prologue to Restoration and included in its first volume. In 2014, Watsuki wrote a two-chapter spin-off titled Rurouni Kenshin: Master of Flame for Jump SQ. , which tells how Shishio met Yumi and formed the Juppongatana. Watsuki and his wife, Kaworu Kurosaki, collaborated on a two-chapter spin-off titled Rurouni Kenshin Side Story: The Ex-Con Ashitaro for the ninth anniversary of Jump SQ. in 2016. It acts as
3150-411: A related term, kamidana refers to the shrine itself. Other artifacts may be displayed throughout the dōjō , such as kanban (看板; signboard) that authorize the school in a style or strategy, and items such as taiko drums or armor ( Ō-yoroi ). It is not uncommon to find the name of the dōjō and the dōjō kun (roughly " dōjō rules") displayed prominently at shomen as well. Visitors may have
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#17329638888993300-504: A school has a Dojo to train inside of, the training may sometimes be conducted outside, often in parks. Many traditional dōjō follow a prescribed pattern with shomen (正面; "front") and various entrances that are used based on student and instructor rank laid out precisely. The Shomen is designated as a wall, usually in the North of the Dojo and facing the entrance. Typically students will enter in
3450-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),
3600-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate
3750-431: A special place reserved, depending on their rank and station. Weapons and other training gear will normally be found on the back wall. A honbu dōjō (本部道場) is the central training facility and administrative headquarters of a particular martial arts style. Some well-known dōjō located in Japan are: In Japan and other countries, there are additional names for training halls, that are equivalent to "dōjō". These include
3900-690: A story in which Yahiko and Tsubame would have a son, Myōjin Shin'ya, who would become a skilled swordsman. The series' main theme is responsibility, as seen through Kenshin's actions, as he wants to atone for all the people he killed during the Bakumatsu by aiding innocent people by wielding a non-lethal sword. Marco Olivier from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University said that the sakabatō symbolizes Kenshin's oath not to kill again, which has been found challenging by other warriors appearing in
4050-458: A stronger characterization during the Kyoto arc, which surprised his readers. When questioned about the series' theme being Kenshin's self-redemption, Watsuki mentioned that when he was young, he used to read shōjo manga and that it influenced his writing of Rurouni Kenshin . He added that he wanted to make the story different from other comics as he considers the main character, Kenshin, neither
4200-542: A superior enemy if he had kept back his original killer persona. Critics expressed mixed opinions in regards to the final arc. Zac Bertschy from Anime News Network (ANN) praised the story from the manga but noted that by volume 18 of the series, Watsuki started to repeat the same type of villains who were united to kill Kenshin, similar to Trigun . Although he praised Watsuki's characters, he commented that some of them needed some consistency due to various "bizarre" antagonists. Due to Kaoru, Kenshin, and Sanosuke missing from
4350-557: A tall, black-haired man in "showy" armor, he wanted to make a character "completely opposite" to the debut character; the new character ended up "coming out like a girl". According to Watsuki, he used "no real motif" when creating Kenshin and placed a cross-shaped scar on his face "not knowing what else to do". Like several characters, Kenshin was influenced by the Shinsengumi, with Kenshin being affected by Okita Sōji and Saitō Hajime in order to give him an air of mystery. During his childhood, Watsuki used to practice kendo, which influenced
4500-606: A tie-in to the live-action film. The series began in the June 2012 issue of Jump Square , which was released on May 2, 2012, and ended in the July 2013 issue on June 4, 2013. The reboot depicts the battles that were featured in the first live-action film. Another special, titled Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story: Chapter 0 , was published in Weekly Shōnen Jump in August 2012 as
4650-470: A village to hide along with his missing father. Four years later, Kenshin has married Kaoru and has a son named Himura Kenji . Now at peace with himself, Kenshin gives his reverse-blade sword to Yahiko as a ceremonial gift . A prototype series titled Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story appeared as a pair of separate short stories published in 1992 and 1993. The first story, published in December 1992 in
Rurouni Kenshin - Misplaced Pages Continue
4800-551: A wandering swordsman who protects the people of Japan with a vow never to take another life. Watsuki wrote the series based on his desire to make a shōnen manga different from others being published at the time, with Kenshin being a former assassin and the story taking a more serious tone as it progressed. The manga was serialized in Shueisha 's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from April 1994 to September 1999. The complete series originally consisted of 28 tankōbon volumes, and
4950-409: A weak point. Watsuki commented that his artistic skills were honed with this arc, as he could draw everything he wanted to. The last arc from the manga was meant to be much shorter, but it turned out to be a fairly long one as he could not present it simplistically. Watsuki originally made this arc prior to the series' start, having already thought about how Kenshin's scar would have been made. Because of
5100-456: A young Oniwabanshū named Makimachi Misao , whom he meets during his travels, decide to help him in his fight. After his first meeting with him, Kenshin realizes that he must become stronger to defeat Shishio without becoming the cold assassin he was in the past and returns to the man who taught him kenjutsu , Hiko Seijūrō , to learn the school's final technique. Finally accepting the help of his friends, he defeats Shishio, who dies after exceeding
5250-624: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of
5400-421: Is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of
5550-701: Is a hall or place for immersive learning , experiential learning , or meditation . This is traditionally in the field of martial arts . The term literally means "place of the Way " in Japanese . The word dōjō originates from Buddhism . Initially, dōjō were adjunct to temples and were formal training places for any of the Japanese arts ending in " -dō ", from the Chinese Dao , meaning "way" or "path". Sometimes meditation halls where Zen Buddhists practice zazen meditation were called dōjō . The alternative term zen-do
5700-445: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,
5850-519: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing
6000-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number
6150-684: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider
Rurouni Kenshin - Misplaced Pages Continue
6300-462: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto
6450-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to
6600-475: Is further noted to have a balance between individualism and community. Watsuki said he was an "infatuated" type of person rather than a "passionate" kind of person; therefore, Rurouni Kenshin is a "Meiji Swordsman Story" as opposed to a "Meiji Love Story". According to the book Bringing Forth a World: Engaged Pedagogy in the Japanese University , the manga reflects the confusion of Japanese society after
6750-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through
6900-722: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey
7050-553: Is more specific, and more widely used. European Sōtō Zen groups affiliated with the International Zen Association prefer to use dōjō instead of zendo to describe their meditation halls as did their founding master, Taisen Deshimaru . In Japan , any facility for physical training, including professional wrestling , may be called a dōjō . In the Western world , the term dōjō (when related to physical activity)
7200-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of
7350-489: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and
7500-596: Is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan , the only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as
7650-504: Is the true Hitokiri Battōsai , Kaoru offers him a place to stay at her dojo , noting that he is peace-loving and not cold-hearted, as his reputation had implied. Kenshin accepts and begins to form lifelong relationships with others, including Sagara Sanosuke , a former member of the Sekihō Army ; Myōjin Yahiko , an orphan from a samurai family who also lives with Kaoru as her student; and doctor Takani Megumi , who has become involved in
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#17329638888997800-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and
7950-408: Is used exclusively for Japanese martial arts such as aikidō , jūdō , karate-dō , etc. A proper Japanese martial arts dōjō is considered special and is well cared for by its users. Shoes are not worn in a dōjō , which is in line with the Japanese custom to keep the premises clean and respectable. In many styles it is traditional to conduct a ritual cleaning ( sōji ; 掃除) of the dōjō at
8100-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have
8250-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns
8400-555: The Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered
8550-455: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in
8700-504: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than
8850-501: The PlayStation , PlayStation 2 , and PlayStation Portable . Several art and guidebooks have been published, and writer Kaoru Shizuka has written three official light novels , which were published by Shueisha. The manga, as well as the first light novel and guidebook, have received a complete North American release by Viz Media , being subtitled " Wandering Samurai " in some English versions. The Rurouni Kenshin manga has over 72 million copies in circulation as of 2019, making it one of
9000-455: The Rurouni Kenshin manga were released. They feature different voice actors than those that later worked on the anime adaptation. In Volume 5 of the manga, Watsuki stated that he was anticipating the third installment, which would adapt the Udō Jin-e arc. He expected it to be "pretty close" to his original, but with additional lines for Sanosuke and Yahiko. Watsuki commented that there had been
9150-659: The Rurouni Kenshin manga were released; the first one, Rurouni Kenshin Profiles ( 原典 ) , was released first in Japan on July 4, 1996, by Shueisha and in the United States by Viz Media on November 1, 2005. Kenshin Kaden ( 剣心華伝 ) , released on December 15, 1999, includes the story Haru no Sakura ( 春の桜 , lit. "Cherry Blossoms in Spring") , which details the fates of all of the Rurouni Kenshin characters. The story takes place years after
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#17329638888999300-716: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of
9450-518: The Weekly Shōnen Jump 21–22 double issue of that year, featured Kenshin helping a wealthy girl named Raikōji Chizuru. Watsuki recalled experiencing difficulty when condensing "everything" into 31 pages for that story. He said that he "put all [his] soul into it," but sighs when looking at it from his perspective after the publication of the first Rurouni Kenshin volume. Watsuki said that the second Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story received mediocre reviews and about 200 letters. He referred to it as
9600-597: The Weekly Shōnen Jump Winter Special issue of 1993, featured an earlier version of Kenshin stopping a crime lord from taking over the Kamiya family dojo. Watsuki described the first Rurouni story, echoing the "Megumi Arc," as a "pilot" for Rurouni Kenshin . According to Watsuki, the final Rurouni Kenshin series was not composed entirely of his free will. Describing the creation of historical stories as "hard," Watsuki initially wanted to make his next series in
9750-591: The best-selling manga series of all time. The series has received praise from various publications for manga, anime, and other media, particularly for the characters' designs and historical setting. The series takes place in 1878, eleven years after the beginning of the Meiji era . After participating in the Boshin War as the assassin Hitokiri Battōsai , Himura Kenshin wanders the countryside of Japan, offering protection and aid to those in need as atonement for
9900-794: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to
10050-675: The opium trade. However, he also deals with old and new enemies, including the former leader of the Oniwabanshū , Shinomori Aoshi . After several months living in the dojo, Kenshin faces Saitō Hajime , a rival from Bakumatsu who is now a police officer. This challenge turns out to be a test to face his successor, Shishio Makoto , who plans to conquer Japan by destroying the Meiji Government, starting with Kyoto . Feeling that Shishio's faction may attack his friends, Kenshin meets Shishio alone to defeat him. However, many of his friends, including
10200-518: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),
10350-458: The 2005 and 2006 Nintendo DS games Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars as the sole battle character representing his series, while others are support characters and help characters. Kenshin and Shishio appeared as playable characters in the 2014 PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita game J-Stars Victory VS and in the 2019 game Jump Force for Windows , PlayStation 4 , and Xbox One . Several drama CDs that adapt stories from
10500-482: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,
10650-615: The Kyoto arc of the manga. In April 2019, it was announced that two new live-action films would adapt the Remembrance/Tenchu and Jinchu arcs; the films, titled Rurouni Kenshin: The Final and Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning , premiered in 2021. In 2016, the Takarazuka Revue performed a musical adaptation of the manga called Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story . The show ran from February to March and starred Seina Sagiri as Kenshin and Miyu Sakihi as Kaoru. The musical
10800-724: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently
10950-481: The PlayStation The Best lineup on November 5, 1998. The game is a role-playing video game with an original story unrelated to either the manga or anime. Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Enjō! Kyōto Rinne ( るろうに剣心 -明治剣客浪漫譚- 炎上!京都輪廻 ) is the only video game for the PlayStation 2 console. Its Japanese release was slated for September 13, 2006. The game has sold over 130,000 copies in Japan. The game
11100-488: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand
11250-419: The abuse inflicted upon him. Surat said that the character designs for the anime television series were "toughened up a bit". He added that the budget for animation and music was "top-notch" because Sony produced the budget. Watsuki's writing involving romance and Kenshin's psychological hidden weakpoints also earned positive responses from other sites, with AnimeNation also comparing it to Clamp's X based on
11400-416: The actual ordering of Japanese names , with the family name or surname before the given name, within the series to reduce confusion and because Rurouni Kenshin is a historical series. An anime television series adaptation of Rurouni Kenshin , produced by SPE Visual Works and Fuji TV , animated by Studio Gallop (episodes 1–66) and Studio Deen (episodes 67–95), and directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi ,
11550-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which
11700-635: The anime. Others are adaptations of manga and anime stories. The very first novel, Rurouni Kenshin: Voyage to the Moon World , which was published in Japan on October 10, 1996, and in North America on October 17, 2006, details another adventure involving the return of Tales of the Meiji Season 3's Beni-Aoi Arc characters like Kaishu Katsu and the Kamiya Dojo's third pupil, Daigoro. The second, Yahiko's Battle ,
11850-419: The beginning and/or end of each training session. Besides the obvious hygienic benefits of regular cleaning it also serves to reinforce the fact that dōjō are supposed to be supported and managed by the student body (or by special students, e.g., uchi-deshi ). In some cases, the instructional staff may choose to help the students clean, as a sign of modesty, setting a personal example. In Modern Times, even when
12000-441: The big economy disenchantment in the early 1990s. It confronts visualizations of Japanese education in a manner that contrasts school books, especially because of the series' young demography. Since the manga focuses on realism but is aimed at young readers, the series is notable for changing the portrayals of samurais in order to create a more optimistic take in comparison to real-life events. The unique take on Kenshin's handling gave
12150-479: The dark style of the Kyoto arc, Watsuki created the comical Mikimachi Misao in order to contrast Kenshin's serious side. Being fascinated by the Shinsengumi , Watsuki designed the characters by basing their characteristics on those of the real Shinsengumi members and also using fictional representations of them and other historical characters from the Bakumatsu period of Japan. The historical characters were considered
12300-491: The development of the series. He planned to finish the story in approximately 30 chapters, ending with Kenshin's departure from Tokyo similarly to the one from volume 7. Kenshin's enemies would have been people from Kyoto who would send an assassin to kill Kenshin. When the Oniwabanshū were introduced during the serialization, Watsuki noted that the series could be longer as he had created various main characters. At that time, there
12450-492: The director and the script writer of the play. In 2020, a stage musical adaptation of the manga's Kyoto arc was scheduled to be held from November to December 2020 at IHI Stage Around Tokyo. Starring Teppei Koike as Himura Kenshin and Mario Kuroba as the antagonist Makoto Shishio, Shūichirō Koike returned as director and script writer of the play. This stage musical was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Two encyclopedias of
12600-564: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there
12750-442: The event, Oda told Watsuki that Rurouni Kenshin is popular due to his loyalty to his fans. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba ' s protagonist, Tanjiro Kamado , was influenced by Kenshin's design, as the author combined the character's androgynous design with a scar similar to Kenshin's in order to balance it properly for the audience. Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] )
12900-434: The final arc during the Jinchu arc, Manga News described Aoshi as the star of the series' 24th volume due to how he explores the mysteries behind Enishi's revenge and his subsequent actions that made him stand out, most notably because he had been absent for multiple chapters. IGN reviewer A.E. Sparrow liked the manga's ending, praising how the storylines are resolved and how most of the supporting cast ends up. He also praised
13050-436: The final arc when Yukishiro Enishi believes he succeeded in getting his revenge on Kenshin but starts having hallucinations of his late sister with a sad expression on her face. As an "outlet" for Watsuki's kendo emotions, Yahiko "knows a pain that hero-types like Himura Kenshin and Sagara Sanosuke can never know". As a result, Yahiko was made a stronger character little by little to relate to the demography. eventually giving him
13200-420: The final shot of Kenshin returning to Kaoru's dojo was inspired by the final shot of the Rurouni Kenshin anime's first opening theme, "Sobakasu", by Judy and Mary . In the final arc of the manga, Watsuki wanted to make the five comrades in this storyline as "scum-like" as possible. But because he created villains with no ideals or beliefs, it was difficult to portray them as an enjoyable read. The story took on
13350-423: The first volume released on September 9, 1994, and the last on November 4, 1999. They re-released the series in a 22-volume kanzenban edition between July 4, 2006, and May 2, 2007. Shueisha published a 14-volume bunkoban edition between January 18 and July 18, 2012. A single-chapter follow-up to the series that follows the character of Yahiko Myōjin , Yahiko no Sakabato ( 弥彦の逆刃刀 , Yahiko's Sakabatō) ,
13500-455: The flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics , a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure
13650-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had
13800-430: The language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853,
13950-453: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system
14100-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of
14250-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,
14400-476: The limits of his abnormal body condition, after which a reformed Shinomori stays in Kyoto with the surviving Oniwabanshū. When Kenshin and his friends return to Tokyo, he finds Yukishiro Enishi , who plans to take revenge. At this point, it is revealed that, during the Bakumatsu, Kenshin was to be married to Yukishiro Tomoe , who sought to avenge the death of her first fiancé, whom he had assassinated, but instead they fell in love and he proposed to her. Because she
14550-412: The lower-left corner of the dōjō (in reference to the shomen) with instructors in the upper right corner. Shomen typically has a shelf attached to it. On the shelf would traditionally be presented a miniature Shintō shrine with a sculpture, flower arrangement, or other artifacts. Pictures of past Masters are generally found aside the shrine, and not on it. The term kamiza means " place of honor " and
14700-512: The making of the series. Although Watsuki developed various one-shots before the official serialization of the series, while naming the characters, he based some of their names on places he used to live, such as Makimachi Misaos's "Makimachi" and Sanjō Tsubame, who are named after places in Niigata. When the manga series started to be published in Weekly Shōnen Jump , Watsuki had little hope in
14850-615: The manga that were not featured in the anime, and Rurouni Kenshin: Reflection , a sequel to the manga. In 2017, Watsuki began publishing a direct sequel, Rurouni Kenshin: The Hokkaido Arc , in Jump Square . A second anime television series adaptation by Liden Films premiered in July 2023. In addition, other media based on the franchise has been produced, including a series of five live-action theatrical film adaptations, beginning with Rurouni Kenshin in 2012 and ending with Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning in 2021, and video games for
15000-409: The manga the concept of "neo shonen" due to how different it was from previous Weekly Shonen Jump series. Written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki , Rurouni Kenshin was serialized in Shueisha 's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from April 12, 1994, to September 21, 1999. The 255 individual chapters were collected and published in 28 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha , with
15150-510: The manga's conclusion, when Kenshin and Kaoru have married and have a young son, Kenji. Many of the series' major characters who have befriended Kenshin reunite with him or otherwise reveal their current whereabouts at a spring picnic. For the anime, three Kenshin Soushi artbooks were published from 1997 to 1998. While the first two were based on the TV series, the third one was based on the film. The film one
15300-562: The multiple elements of the series. In general, Mania found Watsuki's art appealing as well as its evolution across the twenty-eight volumes, as it made female characters more attractive while the male characters seemed simpler while retaining the early handsome looks. As a result of the series taking a darker tone in later story arcs with Kenshin facing new threats and at the same time his Battosai self, Kat Kan from Voice of Youth Advocates recommended it to older teens. Kan also found that anime viewers will also enjoy Watsuki's drawings due to
15450-516: The murders he once committed. Having vowed to never kill again, he now wields a reverse-bladed katana . Upon arriving in Tokyo , he meets a young woman named Kamiya Kaoru , who is fighting a murderer who claims to be the Hitokiri Battōsai and is tarnishing the name of the swordsmanship school that she teaches. Kenshin decides to help her and defeats the fake Battōsai . After discovering that Kenshin
15600-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by
15750-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with
15900-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,
16050-477: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as
16200-473: The protagonist of a possible series sequel. He said this goal influenced his design of Yahiko with Kenshin's physical appearance as well as Sanosuke's personality. He added Sanosuke's kanji for "evil" ( 惡 , aku ) to the back of his clothes and was pleased that various readers recognized it. Although he suggested he was not going to make a sequel, he said the main characters would be Yahiko, Sanjō Tsubame , and Tsukayama Yutarō . Watsuki thought about writing
16350-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning
16500-675: The series 25th anniversary in January 2021, 15 manga authors sent congratulatory messages: three of Watsuki's former assistants, Eiichiro Oda ( One Piece ), Hiroyuki Takei ( Shaman King ), and Shinya Suzuki ( Mr. Fullswing ); Nobuyuki Anzai ( Flame of Recca ); Riichiro Inagaki ( Eyeshield 21 ); Takeshi Obata ( Death Note ); Masashi Kishimoto ( Naruto ); Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro ( Toriko ); Hideaki Sorachi ( Gintama ); Yasuhiro Nightow ( Trigun ); Kazuhiro Fujita ( Ushio & Tora ); Yūsei Matsui ( Assassination Classroom ); and Kentaro Yabuki ( Black Cat ). In an interview for
16650-445: The series' characters, remarking that Kenshin "belongs in any top ten of manga heroes." Otaku USA reviewer Daryl Surat said that the manga's quality was good until the "Revenge Arc", where he criticized the storyline and the new characters. Carlo Santos from the same site praised Enishi and Kenshin's final fight despite finding the ending predictable. While also liking their final showdown, Megan Lavey from Mania Entertainment felt that
16800-490: The series' ending, Watsuki conceived new designs with the potential for a sequel in the future. Initially, Watsuki had planned to make Kenshin's hair shorter before the end; however, he found this to be similar to the character Multi in To Heart . Additionally, Himura Kenji was introduced in the finale as the son of Kenshin and Kaoru; even though the character was " cliché ", Watsuki felt that Kenji had to appear. An elder Sanosuke
16950-428: The series. This theme also encourages former drug dealer Takani Megumi to become a doctor upon learning of Kenshin's past and actions. Another theme is power, which is mostly seen by Sagara Sanosuke and Myojin Yahiko. However, like Megumi, these two characters are also influenced by the main character, as they wish to become stronger to assist Kenshin across the plot. Additionally, the series discourages revenge, as seen in
17100-439: The speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )
17250-797: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this
17400-476: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This
17550-467: The style by bringing more comical interactions with the protagonist. Although the site Manga News enjoyed Seta Sojiro's fight and how it connected with Shishio's past, they said the sixteenth manga's best part was Kenshin's fight against Shishio due to the buildup and symbolism the two characters have. The eventual climax led to further praise based on how menacing Shishio is shown in the battle against his predecessor, although he questioned if Kenshin had been
17700-485: The sword which also affected Kaoru, Yahiko's and Sanosuke's values upon their meetings. In doing so, Rurouni Kenshin laid" more than twenty years ago the foundation of a fresh paradigm of humanity based on tenderness and mutual acceptance as a counter-movement to the individualism, competition and efficiency that characterize the project of modernity". Before becoming an official manga author, Naruto ' s author, Masashi Kishimoto , decided that he should try creating
17850-441: The thirteenth Weekly Shōnen Jump ' s greatest manga series of all time. On TV Asahi 's Manga Sōsenkyo 2021 poll, in which 150,000 people voted for their top 100 manga series, Rurouni Kenshin ranked 31st. The manga has received praise and criticism from various publications. Mania Entertainment writer Megan Lavey found that the manga had a good balance between character development, comedy, and action scenes. Watsuki's artwork
18000-599: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は？ ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". Dojo A dōjō ( 道場 , Japanese pronunciation: [doꜜː(d)ʑoː] )
18150-462: The twist that happens shortly after the battle is over serves to show Enishi's long-life trauma and, at the same time, Kenshin's compassion towards others. In Bringing Forth a World: Engaged Pedagogy in the Japanese University ' s seventh chapter, "The Renegotiation of Modernity", by media studies professor Maria Grajdian, Kenshin's heroic nature as a wanderer was compared to both Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter due to how he wishes to protect
18300-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,
18450-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of
18600-472: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It
18750-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending
18900-411: The way he illustrates battles. This is mostly noted in the "Kyoto arc", where Mania Entertainment writer Megan Lavey applauded the fight between Himura Kenshin and anti-hero Saito Hajime, which acts as the prologue of such a narrative. Mania remarks on the buildup Aoshi, Saito, and other characters bring to the story due to how they share similar goals in the same arc, with newcomer Misao helping to balance
19050-434: The weak people, seeing nothing wrong with such trait. This is heavily explored in the series when confronting the young Seta who had opposite values in terms how should the strong men act. This soft masculinity is exemplified as a result. There is also a balance between Kenshin's supernatural strength and small design, led a major impact in the audience due to how likable the protagonist is. His introduction marks his values with
19200-480: The week ending February 26, 2006. During the third quarter of 2003, Rurouni Kenshin ranked at the top of ICv2 's Top 50 Manga Properties. In the same poll from 2005, it was featured at the top once again based on sales from English volumes during 2004. In the Top Ten Manga Properties from 2006 from the same site, it ranked ninth. In November 2014, readers of Da Vinci magazine voted Rurouni Kenshin as
19350-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or
19500-427: Was a survey, and the series had become very popular. For its seventh volume, Watsuki's boss suggested to him that it was time to make a longer story arc, which resulted in the creation of the fights between Kenshin and Shishio Makoto. The arc was only meant to be serialized for one year, but it ended up being one year and a half long. This arc was also done to develop Kenshin's character, as he considered him not to have
19650-486: Was also published in English in Shonen Jump during 2006. Between January 29, 2008, and March 16, 2010, Viz re-released the manga in a nine-volume omnibus format called "Viz Big Edition", which collects three volumes in one. The ninth and final volume includes Yahiko no Sakabato and Cherry Blossoms in Spring . They released a similar "3-in-1 Edition" across nine volumes between January 3, 2017, and January 1, 2019. Viz uses
19800-546: Was announced on June 28, 2011. Produced by Warner Bros. , with actual film production done by Studio Swan, the films were directed by Keishi Ōtomo and starred Takeru Satoh (of Kamen Rider Den-O fame) as Kenshin, Munetaka Aoki as Sanosuke Sagara, and Emi Takei as Kaoru. The first film, titled Rurouni Kenshin , was released on August 25, 2012. In August 2013, it was announced that two sequels were being filmed simultaneously for release in 2014. Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno and Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends adapt
19950-452: Was at his physical limit, and backed him up. He said it was out of respect and appreciation for the readers that he ended the popular series while it was still popular. Nevertheless, Watsuki was happy with how he ended Rurouni Kenshin . He felt it was a good place to end the narrative. In contrast, most series keep being pushed and pushed until they lose popularity and are cancelled. Watsuki was glad Rurouni Kenshin did not end like this. For
20100-535: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular
20250-1014: Was broadcast on Fuji TV from January 1996 to September 1998. A second anime television series adaptation by Liden Films was announced at Jump Festa '22 in December 2021. The series' first season was broadcast from July to December 2023 on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block. A second season, subtitled Kyoto Disturbance , premiered in October 2024. An anime film with an original story, titled Rurouni Kenshin: The Motion Picture ( るろうに剣心 -明治剣客浪漫譚- 維新志士への鎮魂歌 , Rurouni Kenshin: Ishin Shishi e no Chinkonka , lit. Rurouni Kenshin: Requiem for Isshin Patriots ) , also known as Rurouni Kenshin: Requiem for Patriots , originally released in North America as Samurai X: The Motion Picture , premiered in December 1997. A 4-episode original video animation (OVA), titled Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal , which served as
20400-528: Was developed by Eighting and published by Banpresto . A 2D fighting game titled Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Saisen ( るろうに剣心 -明治剣客浪漫譚- 再閃 ) was released for the PlayStation Portable on March 10, 2011. On August 30, 2012, a sequel, Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Kansei ( るろうに剣心 -明治剣客浪漫譚- 完醒 ) , was released. Both games were developed by Natsume Co., Ltd. and published by Bandai Namco Games . Himura Kenshin also appears in
20550-399: Was developed by ZOOM Inc. and published by Sony Computer Entertainment . The game is a 3D fighting game with nine playable characters, with the plot being based on the first seven volumes of the manga. The second one, Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Jūyūshi Inbō Hen ( るろうに剣心 -明治剣客浪漫譚- 十勇士陰謀編 - The Ten Warrior Conspiracy ) , was released on December 18, 1997, and was re-released in
20700-484: Was drafted by Watsuki to appear in the manga's finale, but this idea was scrapped. In the manga's final story arc, the design was used for Sanosuke's father, Higashidani Kamishimoemon. The author added that he felt attachment towards Enishi and that he would someday like to use Enishi in a future work. Another idea explored for a sequel was the handling of Yahiko as a teenager. Watsuki had redesigned his appearance. He wanted Yahiko to impress manga readers so that he could be
20850-718: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,
21000-433: Was later republished in 22 kanzenban volumes. It was adapted into an anime television series by Studio Gallop , Studio Deen , and SPE Visual Works , which aired from January 1996 to September 1998. In addition to an animated feature film, Rurouni Kenshin: The Motion Picture , two series of original video animations (OVAs) were also produced; Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal , which adapted stories from
21150-422: Was licensed for an English-language release in North America by Viz Media . The first volume of the series was released on October 7, 2003. Although the first volumes were published on an irregular basis, since volume 7, Viz has established a monthly basis due to good sales and consumer demands. Therefore, the following volumes were published until July 5, 2006, when the final volume was released. Yahiko no Sakabatō
21300-465: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )
21450-539: Was named Ishin Shishi no Requiem Art Book and was released along with the movie. Also released was the Rurouni-Art Book , which contained images from the OVAs. A guidebook from the kanzenban imprint of the series was published on June 4, 2007. The Rurouni Kenshin light novels were published by Shueisha's Jump J-Books line and co-written by Kaoru Shizuka. Most of them are original stories that were later adapted into
21600-408: Was originally published in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 2000 after the conclusion of the series. Left out of the original volumes, it was added as an extra to the final kanzenban release. In December 2011, Shueisha announced Watsuki would be putting his series, Embalming -The Another Tale of Frankenstein- , on hold to begin a "reboot" of Rurouni Kenshin , called Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration , as
21750-491: Was related to the Edo guards who sought to kill Kenshin, they realized her deception and captured her to use as bait. In the final fight against the group's leader, Kenshin accidentally killed Tomoe after she took a blow meant for him. Seeking revenge for the death of his sister, Enishi kidnaps Kaoru and Kenshin and his friends set out to rescue her. A final battle between Kenshin and Enishi ensues, with Kenshin emerging victorious. Misao brings Tomoe's diary to Enishi, who keeps it in
21900-549: Was released on October 3, 1997. It retells various stories featured in the manga and anime series. The third novel, TV Anime Shimabara Arc , was published on February 4, 1999. A novel adaptation of Rurouni Kenshin Cinema-ban , titled Rurouni Kenshin -Ginmaku Sōshihen- ( るろうに剣心 ―銀幕草紙変― ) and written by Watsuki's wife Kaoru Kurosaki, which was released on September 4, 2012, is a Japanese light novel version of America's Restoration's New Kurogasa (Jin-E) Arc mangas featuring Banshin and
22050-574: Was reported that the series had 70 million tankōbon copies in circulation. By December 2019, the manga had over 72 million copies in circulation, including digital releases. Volume 27 of the manga ranked second in the Viz Bookscan Top Ten during June 2006, while volumes 21 and 20 ranked second and tenth, respectively, in the Top 10 Graphic Novels of Viz of 2005. Rurouni Kenshin volume 24 ranked 116th on USA Today ' s best-selling book list for
22200-420: Was said to have improved as the series continued, noting that characters also had reactions during fights. Steve Raiteri from Library Journal praised the series for its characters and battles. However, he noted that some fights were too violent, so he recommended the series to older teenagers as well as adults. Surat described the series as an example of a "neo-shōnen" series, where a shōnen series also appeals to
22350-493: Was three and a half years before her debut, Watsuki was filled with regrets about how he portrayed Yukishiro Tomoe for unspecified reasons. The final villains, the Sū-shin, had no personality models and were created simply to "fill out the numbers". As the story advanced towards Kenshin's final battle, Watsuki realized that the other characters would have no "glamour" and created the Sū-shin on the spot. Watsuki also had ideas to create
22500-556: Was written and directed by Shūichirō Koike. In 2018, a stage play adaptation was performed in the Shinbashi Enbujō theater in Tokyo and Shōchikuza theater in Osaka. Seina Sagiri returned to play Kenshin, while Moka Kamishiraishi played Kaoru. Kanō Sōzaburō, an original character introduced in the previous musical, made a return appearance, played by Mitsuru Matsuoka. Shūichirō Koike returned as
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