Anime 11441 Rurouni Kenshin Meiji Kenkaku Romantan - Shin Kyoto-hen

A remake of the Kyoto arc with better animation, some good music tracks and some really bad changes to the plot. The studio have wasted all their efforts on this one.

why?

The Kyoto arc of the main series was good. So they could have done better with this one with some good plot changes. But had to ruin that with some bad changes. Unlike the main's Kyoto arc which was really long in this one they rushed the whole thing even the fight scenes which I found better than the main series.

The animation is fine. But some things are off about the character design ... (like nose and mouth). As I said above I liked the fight scenes, every fight scene lasts for short time.
Also there are some good background musics.

Personalities of some characters are changed noticeably.

***Warning: The English dub is horrible, choice of voice actors are poor, this effects the character personalities (especially if you're attached to the original one)
Also note: I'm not counting the Dub in rating.***

I couldn't just watch without comparing.

Overall, I liked some changes like the fight scenes, some other plot changes, animation and the music.

I’m not going to use any arbitrary numbers because that won’t provide an accurate representation of what I just watched. One thing I’d advise before ever picking this title up is be sure you watched the original Rurouni Kenshin series prior. If you don’t you might be completely undone before you get to some of the juicier bits of this two part series. For everyone whose unaware of the story surrounding the New Kyoto Arc in Kenshin these films(?) are hard to follow and don’t convey enough of what made the original run of the arc so satisfying.

Now I’m not going to waste time arguing ... what was done better in the original versus this adaptation, I’ll just get straight to it, it’s fast. The beginning of this series plunges you into the action of the story (with exposition, oh boy) and doesn’t really take its time to explain why the characters are all jumbled around, why Kenshin abandoned his friends, whose dead, whose not and that’s because it had to sum up the 30+ episodes that made up Rurouni Kenshin’s major arc in (give or take) 90 minutes. The soundtrack captures our wandering spirit (with a tinge of that sweet violin) just like the good ol’ Kenshin and Studio Deen’s fight choreography is great when Shishio and Kenshin finally get to have it out in [undisclosed location to avoid spoilers this time], so watch it for that even if it’s brief (the other fights are good too). Like any good fight scene though, context is necessary to drive emotions home and these films(?) don’t have time to provide context. Or at least not enough to make everything that’s happening feel justified.

Who am I recommending this to? People who watched (and/or loved) Rurouni Kenshin, because they’re the only ones who’ll get the whole picture. It’d be a pretty confusing watch otherwise.

Rurouni Kenshin New Kyoto Arc is quite disappointing and not something I can recommend.

Cramming a 30 episode arc into 90 minutes isn’t the best idea and did not work out. They drastically rewrote key elements and set pieces, as well as omitting characters and taking severe creative liberty to condense it for time. The OVA took a darker turn which ended up contradicting many of the characters and forgoing their development. The most egregious example of which is the main protagonist himself, Kenshin. He is way more brutal in this appearance, for some reason. Nearly all the fights are inferior compared to the original ... series. They do not have the proper pacing nor emotional buildup. Sure it has better animation. If this is your first experience of the Kyoto Arc do not let it be your first. Watch the anime or read the manga instead. The way it was meant to be experienced.